Melissa Cooks Gourmet

Homemade Sausage Patties

2012-01-22T11:10:00.000-05:00

Take that, Jimmy Dean

I've finally learned how they make the sausage.

Okay, not in the sense that they use it at work, when engineers start talking about code (I'll never learn how to make THAT sausage), but in the full-on breakfast kind of way, with eggs and bacon and maybe some sliced tomatoes on the side.

Why don't more people make their own sausage? Maybe it's because there seems to be some technical stuff involved (grinders, sausage casing, and a big hand crank maybe?) and I suppose that's true if you want to make that kind of sausage...but Homemade Sausage Patties are just as simple as making mix-in hamburgers.

What's involved? It's the same idea as a good meatloaf--some breadcrumbs soaked in milk, some chopped onion, some egg yolks. What makes it sausage is the spice profile--salt, white pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, cayenne, cloves, thyme and sage.

Mix it up, fry it in a pan, and you've got a breakfast to be proud of.

Sausages have been around FOREVER. They show up in pretty much every country, in various guises--fresh, smoked, cured, canned. And if you've ever been to a farmer's market or butchery where they sell their own, you know they lend themselves to flavor experimentation.

In a parallel universe, I'm a food diva extraordinaire, having mastered all artisan food and beverage groups: chocolate, cheese, wine, beer, smoked and cured meats, even salt. Sausage falls into this fantasy. But since I'm here (and not in the parallel universe...at least I don't think), I'll settle for this fairly simple hack.

Crossing this recipe off the list brings another gratification--Homemade Sausage Patties is a recipe from the Yellow Book, The Gourmet Cookbook. That means I've been flipping past it for about five years now. It's sort of like a neglected child that FINALLY got some attention for once.

Oh, and let me give some love to Tendercrop Farm, where I got the ground pork! This place raises grass-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free animals, bakes a lot of good food, and grows fabulous veggies. They have a store that's open year-round and sells everything an aspiring locavore might be looking for. If you're in or around Newbury, MA, check them out.

Thanks to Yesterday on Tuesday: Field Trip for the great sausage pic.

Apricot Chicken with Almonds

2012-01-02T10:17:00.000-05:00

Gone in 60 seconds

One of those days when you're feeling uninspired and don't want to go to the store for dinner food? Cheer up, you probably have the ingredients for Apricot Chicken with Almonds kicking around in your kitchen.

Continuing with my theme of quick and easy dinners for lazy but slightly ambitious people (a theme, by the way, that Gourmet Today champions), here's how to put this meal together. Start with the breast meat (thaw it out first, if frozen). Rinse tenderly, pat dry, and snuggle into a baking dish after salting and peppering both sides. Put in a preheated 400 oven for 10 minutes.

The recipe tells you at the same time to bake sliced almonds in this same 400 oven for about 8 minutes, stirring a few times. Ha! This is a recipe for burnt almonds in about 6, which is exactly what I did. Ironically, I was standing right over the stove reading a book called The Gift of Fear, which is all about how you should trust your intuition when it's telling you something bad is happening. And while I was reading this book, I was smelling the almonds burning (remember, I was standing RIGHT OVER THE STOVE) thinking, Geez, something's burning off in there. Does this mean I have to clean the oven? I hate cleaning the oven.

So much for intuition. I can only hope I never get attacked by a tray of burning almonds.

Assuming YOU don't burn your almonds, forge onward, but if you do--hey, really any kind of nut will be tasty with this dish! I went for a Plan B of whole almonds and chopped hazelnuts.

At the same time (maybe you should put the book down at this point) in a small saucepan combine about half a cup of apricot preserves (I used peach), a tablespoon of whole grain mustard (I scraped out the tail end of a jar of brown deli mustard), one and a half tablespoons of soy sauce, and a tablespoon of butter. Let it all simmer for a bit in the pan, and when the chicken has cooked for its 10 minutes, pour the glaze over it and throw back in for another 10.

At this point I looked ahead in the recipe and saw that these little 6 oz chicken breasts were cooking for 20 minutes in a 400 oven and then another 3 minutes under the broiler. I was a little worried, I confess. But, you know, I do have a category in this blog called Stupid Recipes--if this one qualified I could always file it there.

Worry, that useless emotion! All for naught--this chicken was just fine--tasty and a smash hit with the guys. If I were doing it again, I might pay a little more attention to the broiler part--I didn't baste anything or try to get a nice browned glaze--we were too hungry and wanted to eat.

And I think I would make this again--we always seem to have chicken breasts in the freezer, and lord knows we always have mustard (we're like collectors) and odds and ends of jellies and jams. Cherry preserves would work just as well, so would red currant jelly. And don't worry this will be too sweet--the mustard provides a nice balance.

*********************************************************************************

I don't know why I waited so long to read this book. For the five years I trained at the Mahaney's Karate Academy, Deb Mahaney recommended it at every women's self defense seminar. And Sensei Quimby has it on his list of recommended reading at the Authentic Karate Training Center. Gavin de Becker survived a violent and tumultuous childhood to create a firm dedicated to helping people recognize the signs and signals of the violent and potentially violent--predators, stalkers, workplace time bombs, spouses and lovers, even children.

Learn common techniques of would-be attackers: forced teaming ("We're in a tight fix, aren't we?"), loan sharking (insisting on helping or giving when nothing was wanted or requested), too many details (because their words sound false to them, they add extraneous info).

Assess the potential for a persistant lunatic to actually turn to violence: justification (they feel this is right and just); alternatives (they've exhausted all other means); consequences (violence is seen as bringing about positive consequences--love, fame, attention); ability (they've purchased or have a weapon and feel they can use it effectively).

And most importantly, learn about your tools, highly tuned after centuries of species survival. The messengers of intuition:

Nagging feelings
Persistant thoughts
Humor
Wonder
Anxiety
Curiousity
Hunches
Gut Feelings
Doubt
Hesitation
Suspicion
Apprehension
Fear

This book is packed with practical advice and anecdotes from de Becker's firm. He was called in to testify at the O.J. Simpson trial, and has helped protect countless celebrities and even presidents. They fund a battered women's shelter and hotline in Los Angeles, and advise employers on HR issues.

And here's the second gift inside this book--it helps you understand the difference between fear, anxiety and worry, what's real and what isn't.

Get this book, read it, and pass it on.

Veal Scallops with Lemons and Capers

2011-12-31T09:50:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure, but I think this picture is in 3-D

Hi folks, and Happy New Year from Rockport, MA, where it's raining. Very strange for 12/31 in New England! But I'll take it over snow.

I've decided to take a vow of internet moderation when I'm at home, which hopefully means I'll be doing more things like cooking, blogging about cooking, writing, reading, and maybe even a little housework from time to time. Kind of crazy!! And doing less things like swimming in the river of Facebook, shopping on ideeli and Fab, reading the news on the NYT and Slate (and Google Reader and popurls) and downloading porn. KIDDING. Just checking to see if you were still paying attention.

Anyway, I actually cooked a dinner last night, which involved planning and stuff. Well done me! Since I had some veal scallopine in the freezer, I settled on Veal Scallops with Lemons and Capers, which since it also involves butter and white wine makes it pretty much the perfect flavor combo. Why don't they have gum with these flavors? Or at least popcorn? COME ON AMERICA GET IT RIGHT.

If you're feeling kind of ambitious but are really actually sort of lazy at heart this is the perfect dinner for you! Here's how you do it. Melt butter in a pan with some olive oil, and fry two or three pieces of veal scallopine that you've dredged in flour. Don't wander off to watch TV--these cook fast. Cook on both sides, and put them on a plate or something in a warm oven. Warm means like 135 degrees.

When you've cooked all the veal and it's staying warm in the oven, pour the white wine and chicken broth in the pan to deglaze and let it reduce for a bit, to about 1/3 cup. Then add butter, 3 tbsp, and let it melt. MMM BUTTER. Then throw in some drained capers, sliced lemons, and chopped parsley and swirl it all around together, and admire your mad mad culinary skillz.

Time to eat! Pour the sauce on top of the veal! Add some salt and even pepper! Glory in the deliciousness that you've created! By the way, the lemons are actually not really edible unless you're super drunk or stoned. If you are, go for it! Don thought they were yellow summer squash and nibbled at one, but since he wasn't drunk or stoned, he figured it out pretty quick.

Hey, what's up with the possibly 3-D picture above? Well, I got a new camera for Christmas (thanks Maddi and Don!!) and IT TAKES PICTURES IN 3-D. Now I just have to figure out how to view them in 3-D! Do I need special glasses? A new computer? Will it make me want to lick my monitor?

Stay tuned, dear and lovely readers! And have a great effing year!

The Songs of 2011: music to cook (and do other things) by

2011-12-04T20:23:00.000-05:00

I will be eternally grateful for my brother-in-law, John Waters, for introducing me to Radio Paradise. This internet radio station is lovingly curated by a California couple, and I've found some great stuff through their eclectic sets.

So in the spirit of "Best of 2011" as we slouch towards the end of the year, here are some of my musical favorites from the past 11 months, discovered on Radio Paradise. And (as you'll discover)--this music wasn't necessarily released in 2011, but 2011 is when I found it. So now, in no particular order, 28 of my faves of the songs I've sung, danced, worked, cooked, driven and memorized the words to this year.

1. Tropicalia by Beck
I know, it came out in 1998 but it counts (to me anyway). Fun, upbeat and quirky.

2. That Man by Caro Emerald
Sexy and so stylish, this neo-forties tune is totally danceable.

3. Ride by Liz Phair
I used to say this prayer when I was a kid and it scared the hell out of me. Of course, I didn't say it exactly like this, but maybe I should have.

4. Sticks and Stones by The Pierces
All I can say is: Girl Power.

5. Days Go On by Greg Laswell
This song is perfect for driving at night, on a dark highway.

6. Fishies by Cat Empire
Stand-up bass, castenets, piano, horn section and a reference to Homer's Odyssey, all wrapped around a song about a beautiful woman on a dance floor. Seriously, what's not to love here?

7. Mixed Bizness by Beck
Beck, where have you been all my life? How did I miss you? This retro-70s tune could not be more perfectly crafted for the dance floor.

8. Oh My My by Jill Barber
For some reason this reminds me of The Lime and The Coconut song, but 10K times better. Catchy.

9. Senegal Fast Food by Amadou and Mariam
I like to listen to songs in French even though I can only understand random phrases and words. But it makes me optimistic that I'll actually be fluent someday if I can sing along.

10. The Devil's Paintbrush Road by The Wailin' Jennys
Mandolin? Uke? Not sure exactly, but this song is easy to sing along to. Okay, it's not the cheeriest song, but who cares?

11. Unsquare Dance by Dave Brubeck
Brilliantly mesmerizing in 7/8 time, whatever that is. Well, I guess it's this song. YOU figure it out.

12. Gone Man by The Eels
A lot of these songs are linked in my mind to moving to a new dojo. This song was how I felt after my first real sparring lesson.

13. Build a Wall by Burlap to Cashmere
Some songs I like for their dance or kissing potential, some I like for workout potential. This is one of the latter.

14. Long Time Traveler by The Wailin Jennies
I can carry a tune, but it's one of my fantasies to be able to sing tight harmony like this performance, which is hauntingly beautiful.

15. Supermassive Black Hole by Muse
I was crushed when I found out this was in the credits somewhere in the Twilight movie series (I feel so cheap!) but this is still a kick-ass song.

16. Shooby Shooby Do Ya by Mocean Worker
Another fun workout song with a retro feel.

17. Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz
I liked this tune until I saw the official video (linked here) and then I loved it. Need a little upbeat dystopia with a hip-hop groove? You got it.

18. Seven Nation Army by Ben L'oncle Soul
Great beat, fun retro album cover (I think this is a trend) and apparently a cover of something by the White Stripes?

19. Destiny by Zero 7
Mellow groove--this is the second song of theirs from this album that I've really liked (In the Waiting Line is the other one). It's a decade old, but new to me.

20. Painting Pictures by Adele
She's got kind of an Amy Winehouse thing going on. Great voice.

21. Machu Picchu by The Strokes
This guy sounds just like the lead singer of Franz Ferdinand. Is he? Somebody tell me.

22. Starlight by Rachael Yamagata
Catchy. Sexy.

23. The Sea by Morcheeba
For chilling. Nice and mellow.

24. Everybody Knows by Leonard Cohen
This is an old one but it fits our times so precisely that it raises the hair on the back of my neck. If you're feeling bitter and disillusioned, you're in good company with Leonard.

25. Once Around the Block by Badly Drawn Boy
Ten years old but new to me. Such a great tune!

26. In Amsterdam by Katzenjammer
I have no idea how to categorize this song with the manic trumpet riff. Sort of half carnival, half calvary. It elevates my heart rate just listening to it (in a good way).

27. Options by Gomez
You've probably heard this on the radio. Did they steal the chorus from Dr. Seuss? Love the bari sax.

28. Without You by Eddie Vedder
And to finish, a love song on the uke by Eddie Vedder. Sweet and beautiful.

Roast Pumpkin with Cheese "Fondue"

2011-11-25T08:12:00.007-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving, people! I hope your day was filled with excellent food, lively conversations and lots of hugs from people you love. Mine was!

I've had my eye on this whole roast pumpkin for a while now--it's one of Ruth Reichl's favorite party dishes. What an extravagance! Shredded Gruyere and Emmantal, layered with toasted baguette rounds and soaked in nutmeg-scented heavy cream and chicken stock, baked inside a scooped-out pumpkin for an hour and a half until it's all melted together.

It sounds glorious, and well, it is. My only problem making this pumpkin dish was actually procuring the pumpkin--I went from store to store--even tried a landscaper--only to be told that the hurricane had devastated the New England pumpkin crop and even before Halloween markets were importing them from other parts of the country.

Oh no! It never occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to find a pumpkin. I spent a few days resigned to finding a less glorious vegetable dish to bring and wondering what I was going to do with all that Gruyere and Emmental in the fridge.

But then! I went to the annual Santa Parade party at my sister's house:

And my eagle-eyed mom said she had noticed some pumpkins at a farm stand on the way into Bradford! I guess the hurricane took a detour around the Haverhill area? On the way back home we pulled over to the unmanned but pumpkin-bedecked farmstand and I took a look. Most of the pumpkins were actually rotten, or on the way to it, but there was one that was sound, and just the right size. So I loaded it into the car and drove all around the barn and house looking for somebody to give some money to--farmstand people, whoever you are, I'll give you some money next season!

Pumpkin score! Except...there were two teeny little places where the pumpkin was a little soft. That's nice language for starting to go rotten. One was on the bottom and one was on the side sort of close to the top.

Yes, I did wake up Thanksgiving morning mulling this problem over. And let me tell you how thankful I am that of all the potential problems in the world one can have that can wake you up, mine was wondering about how to maintain the integrity of a pumpkin wall so cream and cheese wouldn't leak out. Problems like this are a blessing!

Here's how I solved it. When I scooped out the pumpkin innards, I took out all of the rotten pumpkin flesh that I could from those two spots, but kept the outer skin intact. Then I crumpled up some parchment paper and stuffed it into the gaps. I thought about foil, but didn't want the metal to conduct extra heat to those areas.

I also didn't want the paper plugs to come loose and float around--or worse, to get scooped up into somebody's plate, so I pinned a small square of parchment paper over each plug with toothpicks, and since I didn't see anybody choking on a toothpick last night I can assume they stayed in place. Yay for no choking!

The only thing that was kind of a pain in the ass about this dish is that it TOTALLY hogs the oven space. And it takes a long time. With all those side dishes that needed to be heated, we ended up firing up the grill and relocating the pumpkin for the last half hour or so (oh, and let's not forget the small propane oven we tried next door that is uh leaking gas or something? And set off an alarm? I guess we should also be thankful the house didn't blow up.)

So make this dish if a) you have two or more ovens b) you have alternative cooking options c) this is the only thing you're eating. Oh, and d) you're not on a diet. This is not on any diet known to man, unless you're on the see-food diet. (Haha, get it? I see food, I eat it? I think we're all on that diet this time of year.)

Thanks to the Christian Science Monitor and Haverhill Events for pics!

Charred Tomatillo Guacamole

2011-07-31T08:52:00.006-04:00

Is there anybody in America who doesn't like guacamole? It's the perfect example of America as culinary catch-all. Hey, Mexico--we may not like your illegal immigrants and all that drug gang stuff but we damn sure like this avocado dip, and we're going to serve it at every Superbowl party from now until the end of time. Frankly, I don't even think of guac as Mexican anymore--if you'd like an example of how it's become Americanized, get a load of some of the variations The Gourmet Cookbook offers after their base Guacamole recipe:

Guacamole with Tomato

Radish and Cilantro Guacamole

Fall-Winter Fruit Guacamole (with Fuji apple, red grapes and pomegranate seeds)

Summer Fruit Guacamole (with green grapes and ripe peach or red raspberry)

Fruit in Guacamole! I don't know about you but to me that sounds completely disgusting, like a toddler's kitchen experiment that I would pretend to eat and make encouraging sounds about.

But I've been wrong before (once I think) so I'm willing to suspend judgement almost completely until I try it.

ANYWAY. This recipe here has no fruit in it--it features tomatillos. What are tomatillos, you cry? They look like this:

Don't be afraid! They're like sort of sweet-tart tomatoes. More tart than sweet. Once you peel the husks off and rinse them (they're kind of sticky for some reason) you spread them on a baking sheet and throw them in the oven.

I forgot to take a post-charring-in-the-broiler pic but they get kind of soft and smooshy and cooked. Then you stir together onions, chilies, cilantro, salt and pepper with the charred tomatillos, and here's problem number one: skins of the tomatillos don't really mush, do they? I had to do a lot of tomatillo-skin extracting.

Then you peel and chunk the avocados, throw them in the mix, and mira! Charred Tomatillo Guacamole.

How was it? Well, it has avocados in it so of course it was freakin AWESOME, but aside from that it was a bit watery from the tomatillos. My suggestion, if you're going to branch out from good old Guac into tomatillo territory is to peel the skins after charring and before smooshing (they should slip off easily), and then to drain the tomatillos in a fine mesh sieve before adding them in. Easy fixes, but I'm surprised they didn't get caught before the recipe was included in the book.

Gracias to Mexican Foodie for tomatillo pic!

Jicama and Cucumber Chile Spears

2011-07-17T08:45:00.003-04:00

If you're looking for a summer appetizer that is refreshing, dead simple and will fit into anybody's diet, here it is. The only problem you might potentially have is locating jicama, but that will only be if you're like at a campground or something, at the mercy of one of those campground stores. Well, the other problem might be that you've never HAD jicama and you're a naturally suspicious person, but if you haven't and you are, don't be afraid! Jicama is cool and crunchy and little bit sweet. It's DELICIOUS and you'll love it. It's even white, so there's no off-putting vegetabley color to deal with, like green or orange! Go on, give it a try.

Jicama and Cucumber Chili Spears take a mere 10 minutes--just toss your vegetable spears in a bowl with fresh lime juice, chili powder, a pinch of cayenne and salt. Done! It takes even LESS time if you can get somebody else to cut up the spears and mix them for you, like one of those college or high school students hanging around the house doing hardly anything productive. Just make sure they take off the peel on the jicama.

Helpful hint! I'm willing to bet, unless you live in Texas, that your chili powder is WAY PAST its freshness window. Do yourself a flavor favor--toss it and replace with a fresh bottle. Come on, don't be cheap--would you eat stale crackers just because you want to get your money's worth? Well, maybe you would and in that case just hang on to your stale chili powder too--everybody else, get a new bottle and ENJOY.

Limoncello and Mint Sparkler from Gourmet Today

2011-06-19T07:31:00.007-04:00

Summer is here, really here this time! Now is the moment to enjoy the summery foods and drinks you've been waiting for all year. Cold soups! Awesome salads! Grilled stuff! And of course--summery cocktails!

My friend Ben has more wonderful attributes than I can count. He loves to bake sourdough. He has a beautiful tenor voice. He's a genius. Also, he makes limoncello that he shares with his friend Melissa.

Ben makes limoncello because it's a family thing. His grandmother (lucky grandmother!) has a lemon tree in her back yard. Her limoncello is of course superior to all others, but Ben tries to replicate it--and since I've never had his grandmother's limoncello, I can't tell the difference and think his is awesome.

What is limoncello? How do you make it? It's one of those delayed gratification things--the best limoncello takes the better part of a year. Simply put, it's vodka + lemon peels + sugar + time.

What can you do with this lovely nectar? Here's one idea: Limoncello and Mint Sparklers!

Take 2 cups of fresh mint leaves and two cups of limoncello

and put them together

Encourage their relationship by mooshing them around a bit with a wooden spoon and leave them in peace for an hour.

Then strain out the mint leaves and add a cup of fresh lemon juice. At this point you can put the whole thing in a pitcher and add soda water (for these proportions, 6 cups) or you can do what I did and pack up the limoncello/mint/lemon juice concoction and take it to work to share with friends.

Wait! Before you think I'm one of those people who drink at work I will say actually you're right but only on Beer Friday, which is a company-sanctioned party every Friday at 4:30! What a clever way to keep your employees from leaving at noon on Friday, no?

So I served Limoncello and Mint Sparklers at my desk, complete with lemon and mint garnishes. They did not look like that pretty picture up top because all we had was paper coffee cups.

They were delicious! A note: if you are one of those folks who likes to taste and feel the alcohol you're drinking, you will be suspicious of this drink. It's a stealth cocktail, but trust me, the booze is in there. If you're at work I don't suggest drinking more than one, unless you are doing something with the potential for amusement, like giving a powerpoint presentation.

Thanks to Grey Goose Vodka for the image grab.

Flank Steak Pinwheels with Arugula Salad, and Melissa Spreads Some Happiness

2011-05-26T18:00:00.012-04:00

Summer is here (kind of) and that means it's GRILLING WEATHER! Yes, I know you can grill year-round. Yes, I know that my dad especially grills year-round. But I! I like to be warm and carefree when I grill, and even though that sounds like I grill with hardly no clothes on, what it really means is that I wait until it's in the 70's!

Flank Steak Pinwheels with Arugula Salad is a fine, fine way to open the grilling season.

1) Flank steak is cheap! Yay!

2) The whole thing tastes great!

BUT--this recipe requires a little bit of finesse with a sharp knife so don't drink too much Memorial Day beer before you try this at your home. Unless you're better with a knife when you're drunk? Maybe you are, what do I know. Undoubtedly you THINK you are.

This recipe requires you to butterfly a flank steak, which is really just opening it up like a book (if you had to cut a book open with a knife to read it) except that it's not really like a book because flank steak is thinner and more like the September issue of Vogue. About that thick. Pretend you need to use your knife to get to the feature about pearls and fur.

Jimmy Choo, where are you?

Once you're opened it up, lay thinly sliced provolone and proscuitto on top. It's kind of like layering a lasagne, except you leave a little room at the edges.

Not my flank steak.

After you roll it up, you secure it with strings or toothpicks

Then cut it into rounds and throw it on the grill!

Not me. Also not flank steak.

This is the second grilled stuffed flank steak recipe the Gourmet team has presented--the other is in the yellow book. To tell you the truth, I liked the other one a little better--the spinach and carrots make for a prettier cross-cut, and the veggies round out the cheese-meat thing. Also, the recipe in the yellow book asks you to grill the stuffed flank steak BEFORE cutting it--and although it takes longer to cook, it's not quite as messy on the grill.

Still--this is a worthy way to cook an inexpensive cut of meat (check out Cook-Italian for an even better way, if you ask my husband.) And as with many recipes, this one should be considered a primer. Stuff it with whatever floats your boat!

****************************************************************************

Hey, Rob Vlack!

I want to say hi to my Salem readers, foremost among them Rob and Angie Vlack. Rob used to work with me at Eliza, and one day (for reasons I can't remember, probably because I was attempting to bribe the IT department) I made Inside-Out German Chocolate Cake.

Folks, this is a good cake. And it made a deep impression on Rob, who left Eliza shortly thereafter for reasons unrelated to cake.

So I wasn't entirely surprised, when he emailed me last month to say hi, to read that he wondered if I could make him an Inside-Out German Chocolate Cake sometime (anytime!) before September--he would come pick it up and he wanted to give it to his brother to celebrate his birthday, because his brother's a great guy and deserves a great cake.

Awwww!

SUPER NICE, and how could I say no to that?

Also, out of the whole entire universe, my largest readership is in Salem, MA! (Do you hear that, Mom (who lives in Gloucester?))

Yay Salem! In my totally biased opinion, you guys are the best!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Rob Vlack's brother!! As Rob said, that cake is richer than Bill Gates, and I hope you loved it. Rock on!

Thanks to Cook-Italian, Family Circle, The Primalist, pennlive, Jewel Catering, and Maze for image grabs.

Melissa Solves the Mystery and Gets Indexy

2011-05-18T15:01:00.017-04:00

Setting the Stage

Readers, unless you've been living in a cave (without wireless) you know that obesity in America is on the rise. And if you've been paying attention even a little, you also know that obesity is connected with serious, complicated medical conditions-- like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

It's a problem, and it makes people bonkers. Health insurance companies are freaked out, diet books fly off the shelves, and pundits expound--but nobody seems to be able to solve this mystery.

Why? Why are Westerners fat and getting fatter?

More alarming--why, when our diet is introduced to other cultures, do they start exhibiting our diseases--like obesity, diabetes and cancer?

Is it chemicals? Fat? Corn syrup? White bread? Sugar? All of it all together, like....Twinkies? Is it a slothful lifestyle, too much screen time and not enough exercise?

Most desperate perhaps are the overweight and obese, who are flooded with conflicting information on an almost daily basis. Look at our very own food pyramid--at first ballasted with "healthy grains" like pasta, bread and cereal, and recently revised. Our own government can't quite get it straight, nobody can, and meanwhile different ingredients are demonized with clockwork regularity--butter or margarine? Sugar or high-fructose corn syrup? What can you abstain from that will give you the magic solution?

Setting the Scene

My own history with diets, dieting and dieters has been life-long. My mother has been deeply involved with food (partaking or abstaining) all my life. Various family members, close and far, have gained and lost weight (or sometimes just gained) and agonized over it. And once I hit my 4th decade of life it became a concern for me as well--my weight at the top of "healthy" began to creep undeniably into "overweight" territory. This, even though I am active and always have been--give me a class, activity, sport and I fall in love with it. My current and most passionate love: karate. Which is some serious calorie burn.

For the record, this is my lifelong food philosophy, up til now:

Veggies--good

fruit--good

bread--good if multigrain

what about white bread?--bad

oh? what about artisan bread?--(sigh) delicious but in moderation

soda--evil

juice--bad

cheese/butter--ok in moderation

dairy--good if lowfat

nuts--good in moderation

candy--bad unless chocolate

chocolate--if dark, both delicious and healthy

coffee--good if black

beer--ok occasionally

wine--good in moderation

booze--good without caloric mixers

ok, straight booze--good in moderation

meat--good if lean

fish--good

tofu etc--good though mysterious

grains--good but a pain in the ass

what about white rice?--bad

fast food--evil

really? All fast food?--ok maybe not pizza

desserts--not good but so delicious

salty snacks--ok if lowfat. Or, lower in fat. And in moderation.

So, that's it in a nutshell--how I've eaten for decades. I don't eat for emotional reasons, and if I'm hungry in the middle of the night, I drink water. Lots of it. How did I land in the food industry? Why keep a cook-through gourmet blog? Because I have a restless mind that loves adventure and loves to be delighted.

The Mystery

Because I have a restless mind, I'm constantly trying new food philosophies on for size, but in the dieting department I've tended to stick with Weight Watchers. It always made sense to me--a balanced diet in moderation. I like their online tracker, and their mysterious Points (now Points Plus) system.

But I'm impressionable, and something I read by Mark Bittman convinced me to try his system of "vegan until 6". It's pretty easy--veggies, fruits, nuts and grains until dinner time, when you eat what you want (for me usually protein, veggies and a cocktail or two).

This was a challenge! This was fun! Did you know that you can get vegan sushi? You can!

For five weeks my day typically went like this:

breakfast:

oatmeal with fruit or

cooked squash with a little honey

lunch:

steamed veggies, alone or with brown rice or

salad with grains/beans or

miso soup

snacks, usually about 3 or 4 of the following during a workday. Less on weekends:

nuts

carrots

radishes

celery

baked sweet potato

boca burger

multigrain thins with a little honey

pickle

dark chocolate

instant oatmeal

multigrain crackers

frozen fruit

banana

orange

apple

grapefruit

grapes

dinner:

lean protein

veggies

alcohol (2 drinks, no mixers)

That's it. Pretty healthy, right? No gigantic portions--I'm not a volume eater. I was tracking all this on the WW points tracker, and my life was pretty much the same--except due to a light travel schedule, more karate classes than usual--and that's three classes a week, 1.5 hours each. Yes, the occasional special food event--a family gathering or meetings with the various groups I belong to--but my life is remarkably consistent. For WW folks, I'll add that in no week did I ever "eat" all my points. Even if I ate the extra ones, I never got close to touching the ones that karate burned.

Readers, I gained weight. For me, a lot--so much that I was scared to step on the scale. But I was keeping track of my waist measurement and couldn't believe my eyes when 31.5 inches turned into 34.

Worse, I was growing out of my wardrobe. For me, this is bad news because I put a lot of thought into getting dressed in the morning.

This is me going to work on a normal work day.

To say I was upset is an understatement. I freaked out. I actually spent a day or two researching liposuction and that weird new treatment that "melts fat" by aiming heat lamps at you (don't waste your money... and bad news, lipo folks--that fat's coming back.) In addition to karate, I started getting up earlier and walking two miles. Every morning.

Then the penny dropped.

Enter Gary Taubes, and his 4/13/11 New York Times Magazine article, Is Sugar Toxic?

The Culprit

I urge you to read the Taubes article, then read it again. There's a lot of stuff in there and it takes a while to absorb it.

But here are the essentials.

Sugar = Liver Fat

Liver Fat = Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic Syndrome = Diabetes/Heart Disease/High Cholesterol/ Body Fat

Sugar = Insulin

Insulin = Food for Tumors

In other words, our sugar-heavy diet is not only making us fat, it's making us sick and then it's killing us. Thin, young people, you are not immune.

During the Korean War, pathologists doing autopsies on American soldiers killed in battle noticed that many had significant plaques in their arteries, even those who were still teenagers, while the Koreans killed in battle did not. The atherosclerotic plaques in the Americans were attributed to the fact that they ate high-fat diets and the Koreans ate low-fat. But the Americans were also eating high-sugar diets, while the Koreans, like the Japanese, were not.

It's also worth noting that carbs = sugar. And that's where I had my "aha!" moment. My vegan diet of five weeks had been carb heavy--brown rice, beans, multi-grain bread, "sweet" vegetables, fruit.

The Recovery

I tried the South Beach Diet once for a few weeks (in a moment of post-holiday desperation) and had great results with it--4.5 lbs lost in one week, 7 lbs in two. That was Phase One of the diet, which is zero carbs--no sweet veggies, no beans, no fruits, no booze and certainly no grain products. Lean meats, low fat dairy. This diet has you eventually re-introduce wine, fruits, multigrain carbs and the forbidden veggies--the idea is to keep it low fat and to break you of a carb-heavy habit.

I've also watched the waistlines of others (all men) expand and contract according to how many carbs they were eating. My darling husband, Don (who is emotionally attached to all kinds of carbs) exercises more than I do--he takes a 1.5 hour Bikram yoga class (that's hot yoga) at least four times a week. Low carbs? Slender. High carbs? Love handles. And he can go from one to the other--and back--in two weeks or less. My brother-in-law and my friend Pat have both lost significant amounts of weight on low-carb diets.

I did a little more exploring and found Gary Taubes' blog. It's more personal and his most recent post featured his blood work lab results (a challenge from Dr. Oz). His blood work is a doctor's dream--pretty near perfect, and this from a guy who subsists mainly on meat, cheese, nuts and eggs. The comments from his readers are perhaps predictable but illuminating.

The sum total of this is I've changed my eating philosophy--completely. This is what I eat now:

Meat

Fish/Seafood

Low-fat dairy

All veggies except winter squashes, sweet/white potatoes, corn, peas, carrots

Eggs

Nuts

Low-carb protein drinks

dark chocolate

For alcohol: dry vermouth (8 carbs/oz) or wine

No:

grains

beans

above-mentioned veggies

fruit (except tomatoes)

gluten products

sugar

products/recipes with added sugar (except for dark chocolate)

I've been eating like this for 4 weeks, and please note I've been eating the same amount of food (still tracking on WW--still not eating those activity points).

I can't tell you how many pounds I've lost because I never stepped on the scale at my peak. But when I measured my waist this morning it was 30.5 inches.

That's right, in four weeks I took 3.5 inches off my waistline. I didn't change how much I was eating calorically, I changed what I was eating.

Here's a typical food day:

Breakfast:

2 eggs on top of

3 strips center cut bacon on top of

big pile of fresh arugula

2 cups black coffee

Lunch/snacks:

steamed sliced zucchini (from freezer aisle) with

leftover sliced lamb

nuts pack from Trader Joes

1/2 cup part-skim ricotta

square of dark chocolate

low sodium V-8

mini light babybel cheese

dill pickle

black coffee until noon. Herbal tea after.

water

Dinner:

roasted chicken

steamed broccoli with lemon mayo

celery sticks

sliced cukes

2 drinks--dry vermouth or wine

Am I a rigorous Nazi about this? Nope. I've made gluten-free fruit-based desserts for my meditation group, and I had a beer last week (it gave me a stomach ache.) I've eaten a few veggie mixes that have carrots in them. And some of the nut packs Don brings back from Trader Joe's have dried cranberries in them. And yes, I'm well aware that dark chocolate has sugar in it.

But my angle is to make carbs and sugar the exception to the rule. Now that I understand what's going on inside...and with such a dramatic example of what amping up carbs can do to my own body...I'm calling this mystery solved.

Your mileage may vary. But I dare you--I double dog dare you--to try this way of eating for a few weeks or a month and see where it gets you. Read the Taubes article. Post your results here.

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In the spirit of eating well while eating well, I've gone back and indexed these posts to include labels you might be looking for when you're thinking about your diet. I'm about halfway through and expect to fully index within a week or so. Still to come--in my posts where I combine a lot of recipes, I'll add a note at the bottom indicating which recipes go with which labels.

New labels:

Gluten-free

Low-Carb

Low-Fat

Paleolithic

That last one might give you pause. Paleolithic is a recently popular eating trend, and it is what it sounds like--eating the way our cave-dwelling ancestors most likely did, to the end of avoiding our modern-day ailments. That means, basically, meats, fish and veggies. Very little fruit, no sugar, no dairy, nothing fermented. Certainly no processed foods, and nothing that requires grains. And believe it or not, some recipes here qualify, or at least the way I understand it (if cavemen could use spices.) I know some karate folks who eat this way and hey, even karate folks throw fancy dinner parties every once in a while (I know I do.)

EDIT 5/25/11: I've removed some incorrect stats (like WW points) about dry vermouth that appeared in the original post. Dry vermouth is slightly higher in alcohol than white wine and has a similar points count.

Thanks to Polls Boutique, Fitness Guru Sam and Beaumont Holidays for image grabs.

Pho (Vietnamese-Style Beef Noodle Soup)

2011-05-16T06:48:00.003-04:00

I've only had pho in a restaurant once, but it was a memorable experience. Our party was seated at a table that had a hole in the middle--a hole, it turns out, that was for a basin of hot, rich, beefy broth. We were given platters of soup ingredients--fragrant mint, cilantro and basil, thinly sliced raw beef, piles of bean sprouts and other veggies, wedges of lime. The mission? Construct your own pho by cooking (or not cooking) veggies and meat to your satisfaction, and creating your very own individualized soup.

That was at a Vietnamese restaurant perched on the edge of Boston's Chinatown in 1998 , and I've been longing for those particular flavors ever since.

Why then, why did it take me so long to turn my attention to Pho?

Readers, this recipe isn't online but because it's so delicious and so easy I'm going to replicate it here. Don't be intimidated by the long-ish list of ingredients--the pay-off is worth it!

6 oz rice stick noodles (vermicelli, I used some other rice noodle thing I had kicking around)

1/4 lb snow peas, cut diagonally into 1/4-inch wide strips

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 cup sliced shallots (three large)

3 (1/8 inch thick) slices fresh ginger, smashed

1 teaspoon minced Serrano chili (including seeds, I used a jalapeno)

3 1/2 cups beef stock or store-bought broth

1 3/4 cups water

1/2 lb thinly sliced rare roast beef, torn into pieces

6 oz fresh bean sprouts (mung) rinsed

1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro

1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil

1/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint

3 tablespoons Asian fish sauce

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Salt

lime wedges

Cook noodles in boiling water for 4 minutes--add snow peas and cook for 1 minute longer. Drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking, and drain again. Divide noodles/snowpeas into 4 large soup bowls.

Dry noodle pan, add oil and turn on moderate heat. Add shallots, ginger and chile, and cook (stirring) until shallots are brown (7-8 mins.) Add stock and water, bring to a simmer and simmer for 10 mins.

Meanwhile, divide beef, sprouts and herbs among soup bowls.

Remove ginger from broth and stir in fish sauce, lime juice and salt to taste. Ladle broth into bowls and serve immediately with lime wedges.

This recipe is killer, and it would be a perfect week to make it, what with the INCESSANT RAIN. Of course it's the fresh herbs that make it so intoxicating--if you're one of those folks who can't stand fresh herbs, what's wrong with you? Go eat a Lean Cuisine, I guess.

What makes this a quick/easy version of pho is that you're using store-bought broth instead of slaving over your own (real beef broth ain't that quick/easy), and rare deli roast beef instead of carpaccio, which is thinly sliced raw beef. The Gourmet staff amp up the broth by simmering it with goodies--ginger, shallots and chile.

And--with summer (kind of) here, or at least spring, fresh herbs should be cheap and in abundance. We do container gardening on our deck and I'll confess I went a little bananas at the plant nursery on Mother's Day and got 4 kinds of mint, among other things. 4 kinds of mint! I bet you didn't know 4 kinds of mint existed--they do and more. Chocolate, orange, spearmint and what they were labeling Mojito Mint. Yeah baby! Watch this space for mojitos and more.

Ambrosia from Gourmet Today

2011-05-14T07:40:00.012-04:00

Mention Ambrosia to anybody from Down South and you'll conjure up images of a sweet treat--a Cool-Whip based dessert that has some fruit and coconut thrown in. Oranges (canned mandarin orange slices), pineapple (canned, crushed), cherries (maraschino)--oh, and mini marshmallows are all necessary ingredients. And coconut. Here are some pics from an image search for Ambrosia Salad:

My mom's spin on this regional fave was to add pistashio pudding powder to the Cool-Whip. You get what I'm talking about, right? Buy a box of Jell-O pistashio-flavored pudding, and instead of making pudding with it, just mix the powder into the Cool-Whip.

As kids, we adored this dessert. And the irony that it's called Ambrosia Salad will not be lost on anybody who has visited the South or the Heartland. My friend Elizabeth likes to tell the story about one of her first visits to her husband's Pennsylvania kin--at a mid-day outdoor picnic she was asked to go inside and get the salad. She wandered around the kitchen, mystefied by the lack of anything involving lettuce...turns out she was supposed to fetch something like this:

Gourmet Today has updated Ambrosia by stripping it down to the flavor essentials of citrus and coconut. On the face of it this looks easy, except it involves a real coconut--not a bag of the shredded, sweetened stuff.

Coconuts are not always around in the markets here, but I had recently seen coconuts in a display case when I was lunching at Rawbert's Organic Garden Cafe and figured I could buy one there. These coconuts are prepped by (I guess) somebody hacking away the outer green shell but leaving some of the husk that protects the brown shell and good stuff inside. This somebody with a machete also cuts a star pattern in the top which helps you get inside. I'm speculating, but it helped me.

Once I drained the water (and drank it--yummy!) I was at a loss as to how to best open this thing--the recipe has you bake the coconut and then crack it with a hammer, but they were talking about the brown coconut you'd buy in a market. I had a slightly different and better protected beast on my hands.

Finally I just went with the hammer approach and used the claw end to pry my way in.

I'm not sure if you can tell from the pic, but this coconut was soft and pliable--totally different from any coconut product I'd ever seen. It reminded me of a floppy latex mold. The recipe asks you to shred the coconut but that would be impossible unless I put some effort into dehydrating it first. I decided to julienne it as thinly as I could.

The rest is easy, a little sugar and some cream sherry (because everything is better with booze.) I made this dessert for my meditation group--we have a lunchtime potluck afterwards and one of the members is gluten-sensitive. It could have been the post-meditation high, but I thought it was delicious.

Thanks to Top 50 States, Wizard Recipes, All Occassion Catering, ifood.tv and Paris Hotel Boutique Journal for image grabs.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Mojo Sauce

2011-05-07T05:32:00.005-04:00

If you've never heard of mojo sauce, we're in the same boat. And although readers of a certain era will never be able to make or even read about this sauce without a certain Doors song refraining in their minds, it has nothing to do with L.A. women, at least not in the way you're thinking of.

In fact, mojo sauce hails from points south (Canary Islands, Cuba, Puerto Rico) and at base is olive oil, garlic and citrus juice. According to Wikipedia, the most popular use of mojo sauce seems to be pepping up cooked potatoes and other tubers though it appears to be making inroads in BBQ land.

Grilled pork tenderloin is not a tuber, but why not throw these two together--a nice lean grilled meat and some peppy sauce. Sounds like a good idea, right?

I guess the answer is, it depends. Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Mojo Sauce is quick, yes--easy to prepare, yes. Also extremely garlicky, because the body of this sauce is essentially garlic (4 cloves garlic, a little oregano, orange juice and olive oil)

And for me this might not normally be a problem except I was traveling the next day to a day-long karate workshop--and transporting my sensei and two other karate students.

That's right. Sweat, close quarters and guests in an unfamiliar place. Add garlic and you've got fun.

I scraped most of the garlic off my pork--which leads me to my one critique of the recipe. The sauce would have been better pureed in a microblender--chunky bits of raw garlic (no matter how well smooshed) are unpalatable, at least to me. An image search of mojo sauce shows a smooth puree, so I'm not the first one to come up with this idea.

However--had it been a puree, I wouldn't have been able to negotiate around it. So there's that.

The workshop was anything but a social disaster (you'll be happy to hear), and if the car ride was unpleasant my karateka comrades were too polite to mention it.

But when I got home? My husband said, "Wow, you smell like you've been working out!"

Yup, something like that!

P.S. Observant readers will wonder why the mojo sauce in the picture is reddish--the oranges I had in the house were blood oranges, which have beautiful, ruby-colored juice.

Scallops with Mushrooms and Sherry from Gourmet Today

2011-05-04T06:10:00.004-04:00

My husband and I hosted my parents for Easter dinner and we had Scallops with Mushrooms and Sherry (along with some of the other foods you've been reading about here lately.) Scallops certainly aren't a traditional Easter offering, but we're not really a traditional kind of family. Don't believe me? My father, who served as an officer in the US Army for 21 years, used to play the guitar and sing The Draft Dodger Rag at every extended family gathering.

This is a pretty easy recipe that falls into the sear protein/make pan sauce/finish protein category, and the only hurdle really is having all your ingredients at hand so you can make the pan sauce quickly. Sometimes this can be challenging if you're hosting a dinner party--I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to cook and talk (and drink) at the same time. In spite of my friend Moira's dedicated belief that I should be the next Food Network superstar, I'm pretty sure I would be terrible at cooking while on camera. Although in Julia Child's case, her blunders made for great TV so what do I know?

Anyway, don't look for me on TV anytime soon--and check out this recipe for a quick-yet-fancy dinner.

Roasted Asparagus with Shallots and Sesame Seeds

2011-05-04T05:40:00.004-04:00

It's spring! That means it really truly is asparagus season, which is flooding the markets from points south. And while it's not popping out of the ground quite yet here in New England, there's no reason you shouldn't start enjoying the bounty now.

Roasted Asparagus with Shallots and Sesame Seeds is one of three asparagus recipes in Vegetable chapter of The Gourmet Cookbook (the yellow one), and it's a perfectly respectable way to prepare this vegetable. If you understand all the words in the recipe title, you've got the gist--asparagus is roasted in the oven and tossed with its friends minced shallots and (lightly toasted) sesame seeds. A little more roasting, a little squeeze of lemon juice and you've got yourself a side dish.

Happy Spring!

Pistachio Schadenfreude, or Melissa Learns a New Vocabulary Word

2011-04-27T06:34:00.005-04:00

There's a handful of foreign-born words in use by the literati that's a little...hazy. In my own mind, that is. It took me decades to finally remember what sturm und drang means (and I only remember now because "sturm" is much like "storm")--I saw it in use so rarely that it took a while to stick.

So I was a little suspicious of Pistachio Semifreddo, at least of the name. But the head notes in Gourmet Today are reassuring--semifreddo means "half-cold"--that seems easy enough, right? Like semisweet chocolate. (Though it must be noted that I've told everybody since I made this dish that semifreddo means "half-soft". WHATEVA, foreign-born words! I really am trying!)

This is a delicious dessert. Man is it easy, and if I were a dedicated ice cream eater I would throw away my ice cream maker (pain in the tuckus) because this technique rocks.

Here it is--grind pistachios with sugar. Whip egg whites with sugar. Whip heavy cream with almond extract. Fold all three together. Freeze. The result is creamy and light at the same time and of course pistachios are awesome.

If you've never heard of semifreddo, you might be wondering if you could make it with something besides pistachios--and the answer is yes! Epicurious has three pages of recipes --everything from grappa semifreddo to banana-peanut.

You might be wondering now about the title of this blog post, which is neither sturm und drang OR semifreddo. Well, it's because I was in a conversation that went like this:

My husband: What's the name of that dessert? It means something like "world weariness, right?"

Me: O_o

My husband: Shu...Sha...

Me: Do you mean shadenfreude?

My husband: Yes.

Me: No. The name of the dessert is "semifreddo". It means half-soft, not world weariness.

My husband: Are you sure?

Me: Of course I'm sure! Why would somebody name a dessert Pistachio World Weariness?

My husband: I don't know...maybe you eat it when you're weary?

Then I looked up Shadenfreude because I didn't know exactly what it meant but I see it slung around from time to time when people are trying to look smart (talking to you, book critics)

Hey, guess what? Shadenfreude does NOT mean world weariness, it means "pleasure derived from the misfortune of others". For some reason, the idea of hanging this concept on a dessert makes me laugh, probably because I'm immature enough to enjoy the idea of somebody getting their just desserts.

Artichokes with Garlic Pimiento Vinaigrette

2011-04-25T17:50:00.006-04:00

As I have (probably) mentioned elsewhere on this blog when the subject of artichokes comes up, I was raised eating artichokes one way, and one way only: steamed, with a ramekin on the side of melted butter liberally salted and lemoned.

Eating artichokes this way is one of the purest pleasures on earth--a slow scraping of each individual leaf, then freeing the heart from its prickly mantle and devouring it in quarters in the last dredges of milky, lemony butter.

It's inconceivable to me that anybody would want to eat artichokes any other way, but apparently they do. Here's one of those other ways--Artichokes with Garlic Pimiento Vinaigrette.

This recipe has you steam artichokes in the usual way, but only after you trim them and extricate the choke with a melon baller. This is, my lambs, easier said than done--depending on how farm-fresh your artichoke is, you might have a struggle getting those inner leaves pried open enough to scrape out the choke. I did and was none too happy about it. BUT it's always good to have an opportunity to trot out your most creative swear words.

While they're steaming you'll make the vinaigrette--a pleasant garlic/oil/vinegar brightened up with chopped pimientos and parsley. It makes for pretty plate! I couldn't bring myself to serve the artichokes cold (for me cold food requires 80 degree days) so mine were warm-ish, and although my dinner companions ate these up (and so did I) frankly I like them better served hot with lemon butter. Sorry.

Exciting late-breaking Artichoke News: while exchanging tales of Easter dinners in the break room at work, one of my co-workers mentioned his mother's stuffed artichoke recipe--bready and garlicky and buttery. That sounds like something I can get behind--Mike, please ask your mom for the recipe!

Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops from Gourmet Today

2011-04-22T09:03:00.004-04:00

I've always been on the fence about pork chops. Center-cut chops especially are so lean and finely textured that even when NOT overcooked they seem dry and bland.

Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops is a pretty good remedy for this situation, and it's quick enough to be a weeknight dinner. I'm a fan of any meal that can be cooked in one vessel--in this case it's a big ole frying pan, stovetop.

What was different about this dish for me was the treatment of the shallots (or in my case white boiling onions since shallots were unfindable at the market last night)--you peel but leave the root end intact--then quarter. Those go in the pan with the chops and the time it takes to sear both sides of the meat is also about the time it takes to get some carmelizing action on the onions.

2/3 cup balsamic vinegar + a little sugar serves to deglaze the pan, and in just a few minutes you've got a nice thick glaze to coat your chops as you finish them.

My favorite part of this was the onions--they were tangy and jammy. Balsamic vinegar is really pretty amazing for the flavors you can get out of it. I'm still not completely sold on pork chops, but I enjoyed this preparation.

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If you've been enjoying my journey cooking through The Gourmet Cookbook and Gourmet Today, you'll also like The Gourmet Projec t, where Teena has been doing the same thing (minus Gourmet Today).

In fact, Teena is very close to being done! She's a mere 25 recipes or so away from having cooked through the ENTIRE Gourmet Cookbook. Considering that there are roughly 1300 recipes in that book, this is quite a feat! She thought she would be relieved to be done with such a huge undertaking, but finds that she's actually kind of sad. She's mulling over whether or not to be crazy some more and embark on cooking through Gourmet Today.

I say, of course! I need company in my craziness! So do a girl a favor and go over to The Gourmet Project and tell Teena she should do it.

Romaine, Radish and Cucumber Salad with Tahini Dressing from Gourmet Today

2011-04-18T09:52:00.007-04:00

Let's face it. You're not bored with salads, you're bored with the dressing you choose over and over again. Maybe you're in the balsamic vinaigrette camp. Maybe you're in the Ken's Light Italian Dressing Camp. Or maybe (horrors!) you're in raspberry or poppyseed land. Wherever you are, it ALL TASTES THE SAME. Am I right?

Throw off the shackles of your self-imposed salad dressing servitude and try something new. Romaine, Radish and Cucumber Salad with Tahini Dressing is (probably) a new flavor profile for you to try, unless you are in the habit of hanging out at falafel carts.

A little hazy on what tahini is, exactly? It's sesame seed paste, and it is to Middle Eastern cuisines what peanut butter is to American households--wildly popular and used in practically everything, though it must be said I've never heard of a tahini and jelly sandwich. Are you a fan of hummus? You've had tahini. It's in your supermarket--just head down the exotic ingredient aisle and look for the Greek/Middle Eastern section. Here's a pic:

So, forget about the salad part here--this dressing could really go on any veggies. The ones listed are fine but you could also try tomato, olives, endive, mushrooms, raw bell peppers, baby spinach, carrots, and sugar snap peas. And if you have a micro-blender (like Magic Bullet) it's ideal for blending this up quickly--and you will need a blender because of the garlic.

The recipe helpfully points out that the salad is delicious stuffed in a pita for a nice lunch. I concur!

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If you are a fan of a) cook-through blogging b) chick flicks c) Julia Child d) meta-anything and e) for the lulz...I have an absurd yet somehow completely riveting blog for you to follow. Please meet Lawrence, college student somewhere on the West Coast (I think) who has decided to watch Julie and Julia every day for one year and blog about it in The Lawrence/ Julie and Julia Project.

Why somebody would take on such a masochistic task is beyond me (the movie has infiltrated his dreams) but somehow, every day he manages to see the movie (or parts of it anyway) from a different and often very funny slant. I doubt anybody except the director and the producer of Julie and Julia has paid such close attention to the details. And although I'm pretty sure Lawrence will never become a chef (or cook-through blogger) himself, he surely has the makings of a great project manager, as in tenacious, detail-oriented and a glutton for punishment. Alternatively, maybe he has a future in Hollywood. Who knows?

P.S. Readers with delicate sensibilities please be advised: Lawrence is a college-aged male. That means he refers to porn, has tried his hand at erotica featuring Julia and Paul Child, and swears a lot. There is also, inexplicably, a photo of him making out with a giant bag of chopped onions. Nope, not kidding.

Negroni from Gourmet Today

2011-04-17T09:37:00.006-04:00

Since I (now) work as a copywriter, I have an especial fondness for copy written well. Both of the Gourmet cookbooks satisfy on this count, and the head notes for Negroni are a perfect example.

As Italian as a Vespa but with more bracing zip, the Negroni is not for the faint of heart.

This is a perfect sentence. In only 19 words it gives you the pedigree of the drink, a little frisson of danger--AND it manages to be snarky (but only if you're experienced enough with scooters to get the joke.)

Anonymous Gourmet copywriters, wherever you now are--thank you. You've added an extra layer of pleasure to this awesome, self-appointed cook-through task of mine.

A Negroni is made up of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth in equal parts--which makes it super easy to remember and scale up or down as your needs dictate. If you are in the cocktail-drinking set, you're probably familiar with gin and possibly sweet vermouth (read an excellent article on vermouth here), but not too many folks seem to know exactly what Campari is, or what you might use it for.

You can use it to turn into a fairy:

A modern-day Ethel Merman:

A clown:

or a lover:

Doesn't it make you want to run right out and buy a bottle of the stuff? All well and good but be warned: our anonymous copywriter was correct--this stuff is NOT for the faint of heart. It's unbelievably bitter (maybe more so for me since I'm a SUPERTASTER) and needs moderating agents.

What's in it? According to Wikipedia it's an infusion of herbs and fruit--the red color comes (or used to come) from carmine, a dye made from crushed cochineal insects. Another tidbit from the interwebs--the inventor of this strange brew, Gaspare Campari, was a master drink maker at a bar in Turin by the age of 14. Take that, MCAS.

Why drink it? Well, why black coffee, hoppy beer, or 80% dark chocolate? A little bit of torture and even more pleasure.

This is the only recipe in the book that uses campari (though there's a recipe for Campari and grapefruit granita in the yellow book) but rest assured there are plenty more if you spring for a bottle--everything from a Malaria Killer to Fancy Nancy.

How is the Negroni? Well, it's bitter! But not unbearably so--I like these and have added them to my cocktail repertoire.

Asian Pears with Vanilla-Poached Kumquats

2011-04-16T06:46:00.005-04:00

Looking for a dairy- and gluten-free dessert? Like orange marmalade? Then you can't go wrong with Asian Pears with Vanilla-Poached Kumquats. The ingredients may be hard to track down--depends on how adventuresome your market is--but if you can find the two main ingredients (Asian pears and kumquats) the rest is cake.

The kumquats are poached in lime syrup (1/4 cup lime juice, water, sugar) along with half a vanilla bean. Pour that over thinly sliced Asian pears, let it sit for a while, and you're done. Easy!

Apprehensive about these unusual fruits? Don't be--Asian Pears are kind of new to the country but they're picking up steam in America--I see on the interwebs that they're trying to cultivate them in Texas. They look like apples (with a similar bite-feel) but have the texture and flavor of pears.

They also hold up well, at least in this dish. Apple pie bakers, you know how using Golden Delicious guarantees you'll have cohesive apple pieces that even have a little bit of firmness? Same deal here.

Kumquats are like the teeniest tiniest little oranges you ever saw--you could serve them at your dolly's tea party as a snack.

The funny thing about these citrus fruits is that the rind is sweet(ish) and the inside is the bitter part. I just eat them whole. In this recipe you slice them into rounds and de-seed--there's usually one one seed. Poached, you get an experience that's very much like a fine orange marmalade--sweet with just an edge of bitterness.

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Hey, you--Busy Person. Person who loves Top Chef but can't seem to find the time to watch it. Allow me to introduce you to Karen Carlson and her blog, A Just Recompense.

Karen recaps the Top Chef shows as they appear, and her commentary is both passionate and funny. This is not the main order of business on her blog--she also reviews stories that appear in Tin House, The New Yorker, and other lit mags--additionally, she's working her way through BASS.

Check her out--you'll appreciate her. I do. And keep an eye out for her guest blogger, Zin Kenter, who is a hoot. They're both published authors (Zin most recently in Smokelong)--you can see their bona fides in the right-hand column.

Winter Vegetables with Horseradish Dill Butter

2011-04-10T11:49:00.003-04:00

I don't know about you, but when the seasons are on the cusp of change, I have moments of culinary regret about the seasonal dishes I could have made, but didn't. Nectarine Mousse Cake, Mango-Spacho, Pecan Pumpkin Pie, Gingerbread Snowflakes--I'm looking at you.

So it was in that spirit that I decided to cook up some Winter Vegetables with Horseradish Dill Butter before the winter was completely gone. It might officially be spring here in New England but it still feels cold to me. Spring will be here in my opinion when I can leave the house without gloves.

I wasn't too far into making this vegetable dish when I had some serious deja vu. Yes, it all seemed so very familiar, the horseradish, the butter, the steamed veggies, as if I had just cooked this very meal. But of course, I hadn't--had I?

I paged back through my blog posts, and silly me--there it was: Midwest Boiled Dinner from Gourmet Today, featuring--you guessed it--steamed vegetables with brown-butter horseradish sauce. Different cookbook, same idea and done better--the veggies in the Gourmet Today recipe are steamed with staggered cooking times so they are done perfectly and the butter is browned which gives greater depth of flavor.

It's a better recipe. I can't in good conscience recommend the one from The Gourmet Cookbook over it, though Gourmet Today leaves out the chopped dill. So if you too want to celebrate the end of winter by indulging in some yummy steamed root vegetables, go with Midwest Boiled Dinner and leave out the smoked pork (or not, up to you) It's not a bad way to say GOODBYE WINTER (don't go away mad, just go away!)

Prune and Walnut Turnovers

2011-04-09T08:36:00.003-04:00

When most people think of tasty fillings for pastries, prune probably isn't very high on the list, but I don't understand that. Why are prunes so different from raisins, or any other dried fruit? They're dried plums! Plums are awesome! I think it's because, in our minds, prunes = old people and if you're eating prunes it's to get a little locomotion going in, uh, the digestive regions.

Well, guess what. All Prune and Walnut Turnovers will do is make you fat, and that's a serious risk because they're so delicious you'll want to eat as many as you can. So make them for a group--otherwise don't blame me if you gain 5 lbs.

What makes them so delicious? Let's start with the crust, which is made with butter AND cream cheese...which makes for moist, flaky and ever-so-slightly tangy crust.

The filling is delicious because a) the walnuts are toasted b) there's cinnamon sugar in it c) there's sherry in it. Win-win-win.

It's not a quick recipe--there's chilling of dough and rolling it out (and filling and sealing) but if you're in the mood for a baking project this is a gratifying one. A food processor is key--if you don't have one, why don't you? Ask the Easter Bunny to bring you one.

I made these for my book group and one of the guys thought it was blueberry filling (mmm so delicious) and almost spit it out when I said it was prune. I'm glad you didn't tell me that BEFORE I ate them, he said. I never would have tried it!

Come on, it's not like I ground up OLD PEOPLE and put them in there (would that make it mincemeat?) OK, gross, time to stop.

Seriously, these are good. I am 5 lbs. fatter. Nobody to blame but myself.

French Kisses from Gourmet Today!

2011-04-06T17:29:00.005-04:00

It's hard to say what's more delightful, a French Kiss or a French kiss. I suppose it depends on the hour and the company--and we must also note that they are not necessarily mutually exclusive!

A French Kiss (the cocktail, that is) is a 50/50 mix of sweet and dry vermouth with a twist of lemon. Slightly sweet, slightly herbal, even a touch of bitterness (for all you Moxie fans out there). What makes it special? The lemonade ice cubes, of course, which melt ever so slowly while you're drinking, assuming that is that you drink slowly. Not all of us do, but you'd be missing the point--French Kisses that linger are the best kind.

Tomato, Cucumber and Pineapple Salad with Asian Dressing from Gourmet Today, and ALSO! Melissa is a SUPERTASTER!

2011-03-20T09:29:00.009-04:00

You don't get a lot of call (at least in my experience) for salad involving fruit that also involves fish sauce. That could possibly be because I've never been to Southeast Asia, where fish sauce--or Nam Pla--is used as a condiment for anything from curries to casseroles.

Here's some fish sauce:

Don't ask me what the shrimp and the chef are doing here--it looks a little fishy to me:

According to wikipedia, fish sauce is made by layering single or multiple species of fish/shellfish with salt, and pressing for liquid. Some countries have longer or shorter fermenting times for the sauce, others add herbs and spices. Thai fish sauce (which is what I happen to have in my kitchen) is made exclusively from anchovies and salt.

So how does this figure into Tomato, Cucumber and Pineapple Salad? Fish sauce is in the dressing, which also contains garlic paste, lime juice, sugar, vegetable oil and serrano chili. Toss with tomatoes, cucumbers, pineapple, fresh mint and fresh cilantro, and you have an unusual and delicious salad.

I brought this to a family gathering, and everybody loved it. I did too, but I still just couldn't help noticing that it smelled like fish, which just seemed weird to me. It didn't taste like fish, it smelled like it. Did I feel like I was in a very sophisticated cafe somewhere in Vietnam, as the notes for the recipe predicted? Nope. I felt like I was at my mother's birthday party at my sister's house in Bradford, MA. But it was interesting to make and eat anyway.

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So, what's this Supertaster business, you ask?

1. Confirmation that if I were ever a superhero, my powers would involve food, as I have ALWAYS SUSPECTED

2. A name bestowed upon people with lots and lots of fungiform papillae on their tongues (that's taste buds to you lesser mortals)

How did I find this out? My sister's young neighbor Lily is doing a science fair project and dyed our tongues blue during the birthday party so she could gather data. Then, using her doctor daddy's high-powered magnifying specs

she counted how many taste buds we had inside an area the size of a hole-punch. She did not punch holes in our tongues, however.

The lowest count was 17, average was in the low 20's, supertasters (like me, my dad and my niece Savannah) had 30.

Unfortunately, my dad and I blow Lily's theory that supertasters = picky eaters. Savannah certainly qualifies, but my dad and I are adventuresome eaters, always have been. Supertasters are supposed to be especially sensitive to spicy heat and bitterness, however, and I will admit that broccoli rabe (my husband's all-time favorite vegetable) is dead last on the list of vegetables I'd like to eat.

As for what biological purpose supertasters might serve, it's speculated that it's an advanced foraging skill, as in if something is bitter it's probably not good to eat and might even be poisonous. So if the end of the world comes and you can't get Apocalypse Alec to show you what to eat, we can browse around in the woods for dinner and I'll keep you from poisoning yourself.

Midwest Boiled Dinner from Gourmet Today

2011-03-13T11:50:00.005-04:00

This could be a better picture, but when you're hungry and a table full of people are waiting on you to hurry up and get there so they can start eating...well, food art goes out the window. But you get the idea--Midwest Boiled Dinner (any boiled dinner) is a miracle of cooking efficiency: meat and four veggies that are cooked in the same pot and still retain their unique characters.

The secret is a staggered cooking time, with the potatoes jumping in first, then turnips, followed by carrots and last, cabbage. I had never made a boiled dinner with smoked pork butt--only corned beef, and I will forever more make it with smoked pork--if you're gearing up for St. Paddy's Day and want to try this, look for a 2 lb. piece of smoked pork butt, also called smoked pork shoulder butt, and also sometimes (from what I read) called a Boston butt. Hey, I don't do the naming, I'm just your humble reporter.

And since this recipe isn't on Epicurious, I'll give you the rundown--bring your pork butt to a boil in water to cover, along with 2 bay leaves and 10 peppercorns. Simmer for an hour. (If there's netting, let it cook in the netting for 5 mins, then cut it off). Add 1.25 lbs or so of peeled small yellow potatoes (like Yukon Gold), and simmer for 8 mins; add 3/4 lbs peeled and 1-inch-wedged turnips and simmer for 5 mins (fyi I used radishes which are like little bitty turnips); add peeled carrots that have been cut into 3" lengths and simmer for 10 mins; then finally add 1.5 lbs cabbage (1 small or half large) that's been cut into 6 wedges and simmer for 7-10 mins.

Then take it all out and put it on a platter that you've been keeping in a warming oven (like at 175)--cover with foil. Oh, slice the pork first. And artfully arrange your veggies. Keep the boiling water, you'll want a little bit.

To make the sauce (what? I didn't tell you about the sauce??? It's Brown Butter-Horseradish Sauce!!) melt 6 tbsp butter in a pan and let the milk solids brown (if you've never done this, watch this useful video:)

Please note that I see her sort of jostling the pan around IF YOU HAVE A GAS STOVE DON'T DO THIS because at best you'll get butter on your clothes (which sucks) and at worst you'll have a butter bonfire. Use a wooden spoon (or something) to stir and see what's going on under the foam.

After the butter has browned, take it off the heat and stir in 2 tbsp bottled horseradish, 1 tbsp reserved cooking liquid, 2 tsp white vinegar and 1/4 tsp salt. And there's your sauce! Serve brown mustard on the side and voila--dinner is served.

And hey! The fact that this is called Midwest Boiled Dinner makes me think of my new friends in MN who actually all seem to prefer French Bistro and/or Mexican food. See you guys next week!

Coconut Tuile Cones, because Lady Writers Deserve Fancy Desserts

2011-03-09T17:56:00.003-05:00

You heard me right--being a Lady Writer confers certain privileges, and all I can say is if you're a Lady Writer and you're NOT getting a fancy dessert every once in a while, agitate for change. Even if all you have to do is change your mind.

Coconut Tuile Cones is the second to last recipe in the Cookies, Bars and Confections chapter of The Gourmet Cookbook, but I won't be closing it out any time soon since the LAST recipe is Gingerbread Snowflakes. Can't really rush that one, sorry!

Tuiles (French for "tiles"--meant to resemble curved roof tiles) are fun to bake and shape--if you have the right equipment. I'm not sure this recipe gives enough guidance to the uninitiated, so allow me to say a few things: these cookies can be sticky (so use a Sil-Pat--forget buttering your baking sheet) and it's almost impossible to quickly shape two cookies right out of the oven so you might as well resign yourself to baking these one at a time. Come on, you can check FB compulsively in between, like you know you do anyway.

Another modification I made--I didn't wait for the batter to cool--it was much easier to shape when warm. And I flattened it with a measuring cup sprayed w/ non-stick cooking spray (any light layer of oil would do).

These are minor points though--the batter spreads and melts so it really flattens itself during baking.

You'll have to fiddle around with the timing, because the grace period of Perfectly Cooked is really short and speeds towards Burnt with every 5 second interval beyond. I settled on 5:40 minutes, and let my tuiles cool for 1:40 instead of 2 mins for slightly more pliability. Your oven will be different--the first tuile out will tell you how to proceed (kind of like the First Pancake Off the Griddle).

And then there's the shaping part! Don't worry, this is fun and you'll screw at least one up but you can eat it so really it's a win-win. You drape them around a crumpled foil cone. Yes, you'll feel like an elementary school student. Yes, you'll get the hang of it.

And then! The eating with ice cream part! These are not cones you can walk down the street with, admiring the shrubbery, licking your ice cream with confidence you won't drip any on your shirt. Nope, these are filled with holes, totally leaky and best eaten with your favorite ice cream on a plate. I take NO RESPONSIBILITY for your dry cleaning bills.

Lady Writers seem to love these! At least mine did--try them out on yours.

Celery, Sesame and Tofu Salad from Gourmet Today

2011-03-05T06:44:00.003-05:00

This is me, learning to love tofu. Okay, if not love, at least learning how versatile it is. Celery, Sesame and Tofu Salad is pretty quick to prepare and as long as you have the celery and tofu chances are you have the rest of the ingredients in your cupboard.

The celery and pressed tofu are tossed with a dressing of rice vinegar, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds and a little soy sauce. And, that's it! Here are some things to love about this salad:

1. It's sturdy. Unlike other salads that wilt overnight, this one holds up--for me, over the course of 5 days in the fridge.

2. It's a nice alternative to salad with beans. If you're trying to cut back on meat but are bored with beans, here's a different way to add some protein to the mix. The downside is that this salad isn't especially filling, but oh well.

I'm not sure this salad has the oomph to be a main course (if you were so inclined), but it certainly makes a respectable component to a meal. It would be great with salmon!

The First Annual Parker River Foraged Foods Dinner, or Melissa Gets Wild

2011-02-26T08:32:00.028-05:00

You have to feel sorry for my friends sometimes. Why? Because I impose my wacky ideas on them, as much as I try to restrain myself.

My friend Alec Maxon is a wonderful chef and resourceful to the max. He's good at cooking EVERYTHING. His specialty, though, is bringing local foods into the mix, and I don't mean he trots down the street to Tendercrop Farm to buy their chicken.

I mean he digs clams, forages mushrooms, gathers wild ramps...that kind of thing. So when he asked me last summer for help marketing himself, of course I had a brilliant idea, of course!

APOCALYPSE ALEC!

That should be his name, and he should have a website, and this should be his pitch: "When the end of the world comes (not IF but WHEN)--will you be able to feed yourself? Will you be able to feed your family?"

And then he would have private foraging and cooking lessons for people who have bug-out-bags and gold buried in their back yard.

Well, I thought it was a brilliant idea but it turns out that Alec actually doesn't think civilization as we know it is going to come to an end. Still, if it does he would be a superb guy to hang around and not just because he's converted his truck to run on fryalator oil.

What he really wanted help with was getting the word out that he caters small parties. You will want him for that purpose, I promise. He's in Newburyport (or Newbury?)--anyway, north of Rowley on the Parker River, and THAT, my friends, is where he held his First Annual Wild and Foraged Foods Dinner.

(But wait! before I launch into this fabulous meal, here is Alec's contact info. Email him at amaxon100@gmail.com! He will cook tasty food for you and your friends and deliver it right to your door!)

OK, onwards--here's the menu:

welcome friends for foraged and wild foods feasting

Libations:

Elderberry kir royale

Oregon white truffle vodka martini

Iced oregon black truffle vodka

Cold:

Razor clam ceviche

Oysters on the half shell with red grapefruit mignonette, breakfast sausage bites

Edemame and white mountain matsutake mushroom salad

Hot:

oysters Rockafeller

Milkweed and chevre eggrolls

Venison stew

Wild mushroom soup

Hake chowder

Venison satay

giant bean and fish fillet cassoulet, rampy crumbs

Sweet:

Elderflower pot de crème, elderberry and strawberry

Brown butter and white truffle macaroons

Mmmm. Let us begin.

Here's the Parker River and the view from Alec's little house.

Alec takes his skiff from here to dig clams on the mudflats. With these:

First things first, people--how about a drink?

This white truffle infused vodka was an experiment for Alec--I thought it tasted pretty good when it was ice cold (sort of piney and woodsy) but as it got warmer, it was a little strong. I moved on to an Elderberry Kir Royale, made with homemade elderberry "cassis" syrup. Which was so good I had two. (Curious about Kir Royales? Look here.)

Here's a little party prep--Alec putting the Venison Stew into a pan for the steam table:

Alec's friend Duncan (also an amazing chef) preparing Razor Clam Ceviche:

Party time!

Venison Satay:

Not really satay, more like grilled shish-ke-babs but the venison was SO tender. A little sea salt sprinkled on top...mm.

Oysters on the half shell...there were some fried breakfast sausage bits that went with these. I never saw the mignonette but I was doing a lot of talking and could have missed it.

Milkweed and Chevre Egg Roll--these were yummy little fried packages...Alec said that he would make a tomato dipping sauce to go with these next time.

Hake chowder...

This dish wasn't on the menu but must be mentioned: a fois gras bread pudding with cherries. Good lord in heaven was this thing amazing. Duncan made it, and I don't think it falls into the foraged category unless he raises geese. But I don't think he does.

Edamame and Matsutake Mushroom Salad...

Brown Butter and White Truffle Macaroons...I missed these too!

Elderflower pot de creme, with elderberry syrup and strawberry syrup. These were quite incredible. You might see a theme that my favorites involve heavy cream, and I would like to blame that on my Aunt Lottie who gave me a bowl of Frosted Flakes with heavy cream instead of milk when I was a wee little tyke.

So much food! And I didn't even get a chance to try some of it--missed the razor clams, oysters rockafeller and the cassoulet.

The company was likewise splendid and I heard as much Spanish and Italian as I did English. Restaurant owners, former restuarant owners, gourmet food purveyors, writers, people who are or have been in the food biz--friends, foodies all.

Already I'm thinking about what I could contribute to the next one--we live right by a field filled with "onion grass" that would make great compound butter. And of course we're right next to Dogtown, which is famous for its blueberries. And if I could just catch these squirrels that are in my bird feeders all the time they'd make a FINE stew because those little bastards are FAT.

Thanks for inviting me, Alec! As for the rest of you, email this man and improve your life!

P.S. Survivalists, you too--just don't call him Apocalypse Alec.

Oatmeal Wheat Bread from Gourmet Today

2011-02-24T08:26:00.005-05:00

Got an overcast, late winter Sunday? Gray snow humped up on the curbs, ice patches everywhere underfoot? Sound like a perfect day for the comforting task of baking bread.

Oatmeal Wheat Bread was the recipe I selected from Gourmet Today, in large part because I had all the ingredients right in the kitchen (well, mostly--but more on that soon).

The recipe asks you to soak rolled oats in heated whole milk (I used vanilla soy milk), and once that was underway I fished three packs of dry active yeast out of the freezer (fyi I've almost never had bad yeast if I keep it in the freezer, even if it's way past the date). I put that in a mason jar with warm water and a little honey and shook it like the devil, which I find is an excellent way to wake a yeast starter up and get it going. While that was sitting I melted butter in the microwave and let it cool.

Once everything was cool enough to not kill the yeast (killing with heat is possible to do because I've done it), I combined the yeast starter, oat/milk mix and melted butter with more honey. Although the recipe calls for mild honey I used madly perfumed lavender honey (thanks, Tom and Alli!) with no discernable perfumey effect.

All this goes together in a mixer (well, KitchenAide) with a paddle attachment, with a combo of WW flour, white flour and salt. The recipe doesn't mention a mixer--it's a by-hand recipe, but I've been using a dough hook to make bread for years and find that breads made that way are moister (because you're not constantly folding in more flour to keep the dough from sticking).

Once the dough started to come together I switched from paddle attachment to the dough hook, then I set the timer for 10 mins and let it do its thing. It's kind of amazing to see the change in the dough--you can see when it's ready because it becomes smooth and satiny, and stops sticking to the side of the bowl--just sort of wraps around the dough hook instead.

Then, it's just the standard bowl-rise followed by a loaf-pan rise. This recipe makes two loaves.

This bread is lovely! Soft, moist, slightly sweet and slightly chewy. Makes great toast and is perfect for sandwiches.

I used a lot of tips and tricks from (hard-earned) bread-making experience, and I'm going to share them with you here:

1. Start your yeast the way I described above, by putting it in a mason jar with warm water and a little sugar or honey. Shake until the yeast is dissolved. This is the best way to start yeast I've ever found and if you don't know if the yeast is good this will tell you quickly. If you don't have a jar full of bubbles in 5-10 minutes, it's no good.

2. Forget all that baloney about how kneading bread is good for your anger issues. You'll almost invariably add too much flour because you don't want the dough to stick to your hands (which will make it too dry and dense). Use a dough hook and follow the measurements in the recipe.

3. If you don't have a KitchenAide (I'm sorry), lightly oil your hands to knead the dough--that will keep it from sticking as well.

4. Let the dough rest in between these stages, as much as your impatient self can stand. It helps the gluten to relax and fulfill its destiny.

5. If you're in a cold climate during the cold time of the year, pre-warm your rising bowl and later your loaf pans by filling them up with hot water before your dough goes in (obviously you dump the water and dry them before putting the dough in.) This will give your dough an encouraging environment.

6. I don't know about you, but my oven runs a little hot. If yours does too, undershoot either the temp or the timer. In the past I've used a digital remote thermometer to let me know EXACTLY when the bread is done (180-190 for soft breads, 200-210 for crusty breads) but this time I didn't--just relied on my sense of smell and that hollow sound you get when you rap on the bottom of the loaf.

7. Oh, and don't freak out if you don't have exactly the right ingredients. Bread is nothing if not amenable to experimentation.

As for this lingering, snowy, icy winter--keep your chin up! 24 days until spring!

Creamy Tofu Salad Sandwiches from Gourmet Today

2011-02-09T08:39:00.005-05:00

This may sound kind of odd, but even though I was a vegetarian for twelve years, I still have a mental block when it comes to tofu.

There's just something about how stark it looks, sitting in its little cold water bath. Unapologetically white, cold and watery--sort of the food version of a flourescent light. If tofu were lighting, it's wouldn't make you look good--it would be the kind of lighting where you look at yourself in the mirror and think you should put on sunscreen, go to bed earlier and get a botox injection or three.

Anyway, you can see how I might look at this recipe: Creamy Tofu Salad--and think YEAH RIGHT.

But, you know, that's my instinct talking. Fortunately, my mindchatter is very persuasive (at least to me in my own brain), and when I got to thinking about how egg whites are actually similarly tasteless and sort of rubbery and that really this was all a vehicle for mayonnaise, salt and pepper--well, I decided to give it a shot.

Hey, guess what. This tastes just like egg salad. The tumeric and dry mustard trick the eyes (the same way egg yolks do, I guess), and really it's a mayo, salt/pepper and celery experience. The only thing I would change about this recipe next time is to use a fine-mesh sieve to really let the water fully drain.

My vegetarian friends might already be hip to this switcheroo--but if you're looking for a vegan alternative for lunch, this is worth a try.

(photo by the talented Romulo Yanes, snagged from Epicurious)

Catfish with Green Olives from Gourmet Today

2011-02-06T07:46:00.005-05:00

Does your enthusiasm ever wax and wane for the things you love? Mine does--although I can be the most ardent of lovers, sometimes I just get over-saturated and need a break.

So it has been with cooking--I've apparently taken a little mental holiday where I've relinquished cooking control and responsibility to my ever-patient and charming (and handsome) husband who has seen to it that we've been well-fed.

You know how I know this spark has been rekindled? I opened Gourmet Today to a random page--and the recipe was something crazy, like Butter-Toasted Oatmeal with Brown Sugar Glaze (I made that up--blogging in a faraway and cozy upstairs bedroom). And what I felt was a combo of mmm, that sounds good/that's weird and interesting/I'm going to make that. Its not a mind thing, it's a heart/stomach thing.

So aside from cooking ambition, what has been my most recent practical cooking need? Fast, weeknight foods, and that's where Gourmet Today comes in. 30 minutes to make? Yeah, baby.

Don brought home some catfish from H-Mart (along with a lot of unmarked pastries that have no calorie count so they must have no calories, right? Right?) and Catfish with Green Olives presented itself as the obvious dinner choice.

This is a one-pan dish, and I altered it to suit my needs (as you should with quick, weeknight meals). The recipe asks you to heat oil in a pan, lay the catfish in skinned-side down, and top with your mix of chopped green olives, lemon zest and chopped parsley. Lay a round of buttered parchment paper on top to keep the moisture in while it cooks for about 8 mins.

I heated up a little chicken broth instead, and although I had olives and parsley, no lemon--so I sprinked the fish with rice vinegar instead. I skipped the buttered paper and just covered the skillet with a lid--it's the same idea.

The bonus of using broth instead of oil was that after I took the fish out and covered it, I revived leftover rice on one side of the pan and wilted some broccoli slaw on the other. Voila--quick dinner for three.

Catfish can be hard to find in New England, but if you are near an Asian market of any sort you may have better luck there. And if you live in the area but haven't been to H-Mart in Burlington yet--check it out. It's a wonder.

(photo above by Romulo Yanes, snagged from Epicurious)

Melissa Atones by Writing a List

2010-10-09T07:25:00.017-04:00

Hey folks, remember when I said my life was sort of kind of a little busy and kind of crazy? Nothing has changed! The bad news is, less time for blogging. The good news is, I'm still cooking.

That's right--these past few months I've been cooking one or two recipes a week out of Gourmet Today, and here they are.

Moscow Mule

Vodka, ginger beer and lime juice. What could go wrong? Nothing! The big revelation here was finding Goya Jamaican Style Ginger Beer, which is ten thousand times better than Cap't Eli's. I had a taste-test (of two) and declare this the winner.

Gumbo Z'Herbes

Friend with overflowing garden + craving soup = thinking this is a pretty good recipe to try. Tons-o-greens in this--we're talking turnip, cabbage, beet, mustard, spinach, parsley...all made much less healthy by a few ham hocks.

And hey, guess what? 1 pound Salt pork DOES NOT EQUAL two pounds of meaty ham hocks! A) I curse Stop n Shop for being so White and b) sadly, I ruined this soup because I was too lazy to drive to Market Basket and get the effing ham hocks.

That doesn't mean I didn't give it a shot. But salty--holy jesus.

Turkish-Style Lamb Burgers with Walnut Sauce

I have a friend, Burak. He's from Turkey, and he not only loves food in general, he loves food from his homeland. We are constantly talking about having a dinner party featuring Turkish food, or going to this or that restaurant that serves Turkish food, so it was with NO SMALL AMOUNT OF GUILT that I whipped up this recipe and didn't alert Burak (who lives two hours away in Portland) to come help us eat it.

I did tell him about it the next time I saw him, though, and carefully described the ingredients of the burgers, and the walnut sauce (which, btw, is just walnuts ground w/ a little water, lemon juice and spices).

When I mentioned cayenne, though, Burak brought me up short.

"That is not Turkish."

"It was just a little bit! Just, like, a tiny little pinch."

"No. There really is no cayenne in Turkish food."

"So putting cayenne in something makes it not Turkish?"

"That's right."

So there you go. That must be why this recipe is called Turkish-STYLE. And the bonus was I didn't have to feel guilty any more.

Lamb Chili with Masa Harina Dumplings

Hey, it's turning cold and what better to take the chill off than a little spicy chili? This is a southwestern-style lamb chili and it's not for the faint of heart what with all the New Mexico chiles and canned chipotle in adobo. Don't make this one for your granny.

How did I screw this one up? By not being able to find masa harina (not even in Market Basket) and just guessing that coarse cornmeal might be pretty much the same thing. Guess what--it's not. So the dumpling batter didn't hold together at all, and really what it ended up being was a flavorful thickener to this already pretty thick chili.

But--delicious! Plain Greek-style yogurt was awesome on top. Oh I forgot the other pain-in-the-ass moment, which was that I could only find lamb shoulder chops (bone-in). Ugh, so tedious to trim those. I hear that meat markets are coming back into style--I have to go find a few that I like because this supermarket stuff is for the birds.

Chockfull Blondies

THESE ARE THE BEST EFFING BAR COOKIES I HAVE EVER EATEN, EVER.

That's all you need to know, really. Go make them.

Chocolate Souffle Cake with Orange Caramel Sauce

Happy 17th birthday to O'Malley! As I do every year, I asked my son what he wanted for a cake. And as is his way, he was far more concerned with the tastes of his guests than what he desired for himself. It went like this:

"Zack doesn't like chocolate."

"Well, it's not Zack's birthday. It's your birthday. What do you want?"

"Aedan LOVES chocolate."

"And I'm guessing Brittany does too. What about Ben?"

"He'll eat anything."

Since O'Malley also likes chocolate, then we went through the chocolate cake options in Gourmet Today--Devil's Food Cake with Marshmallow Frosting, Double Chocolate Layer Cake, Chocolate Sour Cream Layer Cake, and so on. And O'Malley (as is his way) wanted the one that sounded the most sophisticated, which was this one.

This recipe involves making caramel (which I've done a gazillion times now, thanks to The Gourmet Cookbook)--but really the surprise in this recipe is that the orange caramel sauce is not really caramely in the way that you're thinking (like a kind of gooey ice cream topping). It's actually caramel-flavored orange juice, which you pour over the cake.

Not what I was expecting, but very good nevertheless. The kids loved it--ate it up with ice cream while they watched Harold and Maude. Isn't that a cool birthday?

Chai-Poached Apricots and Plums

It's nice to remember every once in a while that dessert doesn't have to involve flour and chocolate. This is a nice poached fruit recipe that calls for chai in the poaching liquid--this is great with vanilla ice cream or just on its own.

And that's my repentant wrap-up! Big thanks to the photographers of Epicurious-all the photos you see here are pulled from that site. I guess it's kind of a symbiotic relationship.

Happy fall, people! Go apple-picking.

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Gluten-free recipes in this post: Chai-Poached Apricots and Plums, Gumbo Z'Herbes, Moscow Mule

Low-carb recipe in this post: Gumbo Z'Herbes

Low-fat recipes in this post: Chai-Poached Apricots and Plums, Gumbo Z'Herbes, Moscow Mule

Recipe WIN in this post: Chockfull Blondies

Mint Lassi

2010-07-13T06:22:00.005-04:00

I like lassis a lot, but here's the thing. When it comes right down to it, they're essentially fruit smoothies, if you get the mango kind. Order one with dinner at an Indian restaurant, and you feel like you're having dinner and dessert at the same time. They're sweet and they're filling!

But have you ever been at an Indian place and seen the other option for lassis? Salty. You might be thinking, why the heck would I want a salty smoothie? I know it's not exactly the American Way, but believe it or not a drink that's tart and salty is incredibly refreshing. Add mint and toasted cumin and you'll feel like you're a stranger in a strange but delightful land.

Here's how you make a Mint Lassi: pulse 1/2 cup loosely packed mint leaves, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp toasted cumin seeds in a blender until the mint is pretty well chopped. Add 2 cups of yogurt (the recipe calls for whole milk; I used nonfat) and 2 cups ice (the recipe calls for crushed ice; I used cubes). Blend 'til smooth.

At this point you can refrigerate (as the recipe suggests) to let the flavors meld and then serve over ice. You can also garnish with a lemon wedge and mint leaves. As you can see from the photo above, I poured that sucker right into a glass and drank it straight. Must have been a hot day.

Athletes! This is a GREAT recovery drink after a workout. The salt helps to replace lost electrolytes, and as much as I admire pickle juice for electrolyte recovery, mint lassis taste better. And no, I am not kidding about pickle juice.

Fresh Cod Cakes from Gourmet Today

2010-07-12T09:00:00.006-04:00

Astute readers will notice that the last few recipes have been from Gourmet Today, not The Gourmet Cookbook. Why is that, you may wonder?

Well, some of it is because Gourmet Today is Shiny and New. Crisp white pages unmarred by spills or spatters, binding intact, and best of all, over a thousand new recipes that I haven't even started to explore yet (where I have paged through The Gourmet Cookbook hundreds and hundreds of times).

Part of it is that I've exhausted the possibilities for a particular ingredient (as in today's case)--so I turn to the new cookbook for a recipe. Part of it is that it has categories the first book doesn't (can anybody say Cocktails?)

But most of it is because Melissa is The Girl who is Severely Pressed for Time.

I won't be tedious and list off all my vocational and avocational distractions but the beautiful thing is, guess what? I'm the target demographic for Gourmet Today which is to say I'm the person who wants healthy gourmet food super quick because I don't have any frickin' time. In fact, this is the little mental exercises I go through when I read a recipe. If at any point I think to myself "This looks like a pain in the ass", it goes into the "Do it Later--Much Later" category. That cuts out a lot.

So what that means for you, dear reader, is that you can look forward to double the fun here at Melissa Cooks Gourmet--and I am certainly eating my words from when I protested overly much last summer that I was NOT blogging this cookbook (do you hear me?) NOT (except well maybe for Drinks, Grilled Food and Vegetarian Entrees) NOT no matter how flattered I was to get a personal note from Ms. Reichl.

I take it all back, as I so often do.

Which leads us to today's recipe, Fresh Cod Cakes.

In case you don't know, I live on Cape Ann. See where the 39 is? That's about where I live. If you can't see the 39, it's over there by where it says Rockport Harbor. Except I live on land, of course.

And living in such a spiffy location means that it's not unusual for something like this to happen: you're at a party, and a guy is late, and you call him and say WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU and he says OH I JUST GOT OFF THE BOAT I'LL BE RIGHT THERE. And at some point in the night he puts 80 lbs. of filleted fish in the host's fridge and says HEY IF ANYBODY WANTS FISH I PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE. And everybody forgets about the fish and goes home all happy and warm and fuzzy and around midnight the host sends an emergency email saying FOR PETE'S SAKE COME TAKE THIS FISH OUT OF MY FRIDGE!!!!!!! And you go and get some the next day. A lot. And you get some for your friends who live near you who were at the party and you are a fish delivery girl, spreading joy and fish.

And that leads us (again) to Fresh Cod Cakes!

The head notes tell us that traditionally cod cakes are made with dried salt cod and potatoes (and for more on this subject (including recipes) please see the excellent and highly readable book by Mr. Mark Kurlansky called Cod.)

Here, we use fresh cod, bread, a little egg and some veggies (celery, scallions, parsely), which makes it much lighter. The recipe asks for 5 slices of bread for a pound of cod--they say white bread but all I had kicking around was some Ezekial Bread and some other multi-grain stuff and that's what I used. Everything gets pulsed in the food processor, seperately...a batch of bread crumbs, the veggies all together, and then the fish, being careful not to make fish paste.

Only a cup of the crumbs go in the fish mix--the rest are used for coating--and you mix it all up in a bowl with 1 egg and a little s&p. Then make patties and press the remaining crumbs all around the outside. Let them rest in the fridge for about ten minutes and then fry those babies up!

Hey by the way what do you think of my new frying pan? We had some of that expensive Calphalon stuff but now the nonstick whatever it is is starting to come up so we're replacing it. I like it because it's shiny.

Anyway, if you have some fish on your hands, give these a try--they're great. A totally satisfying meal with a simple green salad. Not too bready, and not dense at all.

Ladybug from Gourmet Today, or Melissa Needs a Drink

2010-07-08T07:31:00.006-04:00

Sometimes, I plan ahead. Like when I had leftover watermelon from the 4th, I thought huh--I seem to recall some spiffy recipes using watermelon in one of those cookbooks...and sure enough, one of the very first drinks in the Drinks chapter of Gourmet Today is the charmingly named Ladybug, which calls for frozen watermelon, vodka, sugar and limes.

So I lined a cookie sheet with plastic wrap, set out a single layer of watermelon chunks, and tucked them into the freezer. So far, so good! I figured I'd pick up some vodka and limes on the way home from work, since all I had kicking around was some gin...and although I had Rose's Lime Juice (which is pretty much limes+sugar), I wanted to follow the recipe as directed.

Well. You know that 100 degree, high humidity, record-breaking day we had the other day? The day where also my car's air conditioner AND our house's central cooling was broken? That day? I picked up neither vodka nor limes but by god nothing was going to stop me from making a drink with that frozen watermelon so Hello gin and Rose's Lime Juice, the able substitutes.

I dumped it all in the blender, ignoring the directions to let the frozen watermelon thaw for fifteen-twenty minutes, and fired it up.

Nothing.

Well, actually I got a little frothy gin, but the watermelon? Immovable and unblendable.

I tried again, and again, and again until my son pointed out that the motor was starting to smell funny, and finally I set the EFFING timer on the microwave for EFFING fifteen minutes, and stormed off to do something hot and sticky like fold the EFFING laundry. Isn't it weird how hot weather makes you swear?

When I tried it again I got a lot more gin froth, but finally, finally and ever so finally the watermelon started to move and blend and I got:

Spiffy!

Don't ask me why my blender makes short work of ice cubes but is a wussy blender with frozen watermelon chunks. That's a big mystery that probably won't get solved here. But I'm here to report that the Ladybug is DELICIOUS and should you too be practically perishing from the heat give this one a try--use vodka to be authentic but I can attest that gin works just fine, thanks! As for sugar + lime vs. Rose's Lime Juice, that's your call.

Garam-Masala Rubbed Flank Steak from Gourmet Today

2010-07-05T08:44:00.005-04:00

Garam Masala is a spice mix whose time has come. Remember curry powder? Ah, curried chicken salad with grapes--what's a luncheon from the past 30 years without you? And chili powder--how could we get through Superbowl Sunday without chili con carne courtesy of you?

And like all things that can be made from scratch (also bread, cookies, ice cream, and beer, just to name a very few) Garam Masala can also now be found pre-mixed for your convenience, and THAT'S how I know its time has come--McCormick Spices sells a blend AND there's a recipe featuring it in Gourmet Today.

Like many recipes in both Gourmet cookbooks, Garam Masala-Rubbed Flank Steak gives you a helpful recipe for making your own mix but since I had some on my shelf I thought I'd use it up because like all spices the aroma fades in time and better to move it out.

So, this isn't rocket science folks. Steak + salt&pepper + garam masala. Rub it all together in a loving fashion. Fire up grill and commence with the summertime pleasure of charring meat.

If you're not quite sold on a new and strange spice mix, at least not enough invest 4 bucks or so at your grocery, I'll tell you that it's kind of like curry powder but with cinnamon and clove much more prominent. So there's a warming, almost sweet undertone to it. Yesterday I mixed garam masala with salt, pepper and brown sugar, rolled whole carrots around in it and grilled...home run with my guests at our 4th of July bbq.

So keep your eyes open at the luncheons you attend for oh, the next 30 years or so...garam masala chicken salad with pecans and pineapple, garam masala deviled eggs...you read it here first!

Chinese-Style Steamed Shrimp with Garlic and Scallions

2010-06-17T08:29:00.006-04:00

Looking for a nice, light, low-diet-impact summer dish? Here it is.

I've been skirting around Chinese-Style Steamed Shrimp with Garlic and Scallions because it required a piece of kitchen equipment I didn't have--two actually: a bamboo steamer and a wok. I'm going to not get distracted by how stupid I think it is to use woks on a western-style stove (I'm sure I mention it elsewhere) and just say that I figured one day I'd pick up a bamboo steamer which might be kind of cool and useful.

Then I actually read the directions for this recipe which ask you to put the marinated shrimp on a plate or in a bowl and put THAT inside the steamer and commence with steaming. So really, the wok and the bamboo steamer are just container/platform for the true essential ingredients here: shrimp, and steam.

Containers I got; steamers I got--plenty. So I rigged up the above arrangement, a bowl of shrimp inside a steamer inset inside a soup pot. Guess what? It worked great. It didn't look as authentic while I was doing it as a bamboo steamer inside a wok would have, but let's face it--my people are from northern Europe, not China and there's no way that scene ever really would have been authentic anyway.

Comments on the recipe--if you make this, please note that you steam this long enough to cook the shrimp, but not really long enough to cook the garlic and the ginger--so mince those suckers up if you're in the habit of sloppy chopping (like I am). The flavors were delicious and I ate the leftovers with scrambled eggs for two days in a row.

Halibut with Grapefruit Beurre Blanc

2010-05-23T18:53:00.007-04:00

I am so happy to have finally made Halibut with Grapefruit Beurre Blanc. Why? Because this recipe starts with my favorite sentence in the entire Gourmet Cookbook: Halibut is not a strongly flavored fish and can benefit from intrigue.

Who ever wrote that sentence, I would like to kiss you.

Beurre blanc is one of those fancy French sauces that probably intimidates you, if you've ever heard of it. But really, it's pretty simple if you just watch the heat. The idea is to reduce liquid (usually some combo of citrus juice, white wine, vinegar and shallots) until you've got something thick and jammy. Then add cold butter by the tablespoon until you've got heaven in a saucepan. Here's my mis en place:

The recipe instructs you to place the sauce in a metal bowl over a saucepan of hot water to keep warm...but I've had sauce break in that scenario so I just left it on the counter, counting on the hot food to warm it back up.

The fish is simply pan-cooked with salt and pepper, then set aside in a warm oven while you saute sliced shitake caps and chopped endive and stir in reserved grapefruit segments.

I love grapefruit (and I love butter) so I wasn't surprised that this dinner hit all the right buttons for me. The citrus was a nice counterpoint to the umame of the mushrooms and the bitterness of the endive and the sauce gave the fish a nice silky coat. If you're on the fence about trying meals like this, I say go for it--learn how easy it really is to make a good sauce. Besides, haven't you already read one of those books about how French women are doing it better than we are? Make this and feel superior.

As for the intrigue--since you can see that I scarcely even mentioned the fish, I suppose it worked! It was kind of like throwing a dinner party and inviting a bunch of interesting, outspoken people to balance out your shy, sweet sister-in-law. Okay, I'm stretching here but you get the picture.

Passover Sponge Cake with Apples

2010-04-18T08:51:00.004-04:00

With this post, I present to you the fifth-to-last cake in the cake chapter. I'm closing in on it!

Passover, as you may or may not know, poses a certain challenge to cooks since there are strict dietary rules around, well, everything. But especially baked goods since leavening is not allowed, nor are certain grains. So what's an intrepid baker to do?

Fortunately all that really needs to be done is to find a few good recipes and hit your local market for items you might have otherwise overlooked, like matzo cake meal and potato starch. There are many recipes in The Gourmet Cookbook that are appropriate for Jewish holidays, and Passover Sponge Cake with Apples is one of them.

The loft in this cake is provided by egg whites beaten to stiff peaks and folded into a base of yolks, sugar, lemon juice, matzo-meal and potato starch. You get a layered effect by alternating the cake batter with apple slices and cinnamon sugar.

This is a very pleasant cake but a little on the dry side so it's improved greatly by something to make it juicier, like whipped cream, ice cream or macerated fruit. Are those things kosher for Passover? I'm not exactly sure, but since I'm not Jewish I won't worry about it too much.

But since we're on the subject, I have a few things to report from friends who are--my neighbor Don who scoffed at this recipe and said that nothing can beat his flourless chocolate torte (I'm inclined to believe him) and our local rabbi, who told me while we were working out (he takes karate too) that a week of eating matzo is enough to wring the evil out of anybody.

So, if you're feeling evil but want to get right AND if you hate chocolate, give this recipe a shot. Otherwise let me know and I'll see if I can get the recipe for Don's flourless chocolate torte.

9 Winter Recipes

2010-03-21T08:31:00.023-04:00

The quandary of cook-through food blogging: what is more important, cooking the recipes, or blogging about them? When I have to choose one or the other due to time constraints, cooking always wins. Not the best scenario for you, dear reader, but luckily I don't have any scruples about combining many dishes into one post.

So here for your reading pleasure is a catch-up post on what's been happening in the Palladino kitchen over the last few months.

Herbed Lima Bean Hummus

When I was a kid, if you asked me if I hated any foods I would have promptly said "hot dogs and lima beans". But now I see that it's all in the preparation (although I'm sorry to say the only thing you can do to improve hot dogs is drown out their taste with the spiciest chili imaginable).

After you've cooked limas with an onion and some garlic, you whiz them up in a food processor with herbs, spices, lemon juice and olive oil. If you're squeamish about spending the bucks for all those fresh herbs in the market (because this calls for fresh cilantro, parsley, dill AND mint) wait for summer when they're abundant and free if you know the right gardeners.

This recipe is a win. I could eat it every day.

Ham and Black-Eyed Pea Soup with Collard Greens

Of the many bean-based soups in the book, this one has got to be the fastest. A few cans of black-eyed peas, a slab of ham, diced, a little chicken broth and some collards and hey presto--you've got soup. Very satisfying and if you sweat your onions instead of sauteing them you've got a good spring dieting soup too. Please note that's not my photo--thanks to iamglutenfree.blogspot.com for the swipe (at least I think that's what the script says).

Chicory Salad with Orange and Red Onion

I'm always a little nervous about using bitter greens in salad but I guess they have their place in the universe. One place they occupy nicely is as a counterpoint to a rich entree, like the Shrimp in Coconut Milk, seen here all snuggled up on the same plate.

This salad was pretty good though it called for vast and amazing amounts of chicory to be trimmed away (the dark green outer leaves--good for soups, says the book). If your chicory is like my chicory you can't wash it enough--it must be grown primarily in sand so take heed and wash wash wash. The best way to do it I think is to put the leaves in a big pot or bowl of cold water and let the sand sink to the bottom.

Would I make this salad again? Maybe!

Red Lentil and Tofu Dal

Again, not my photo, and not fully accurate--imagine cubes of creamy white tofu mixed in. Thanks to Recipes for a Postmodern Planet for the swipe.

This recipe was beyond fantastic because of the spices. If you like Indian food in general, you'll swoon over this. It calls for Garam Masala which you can make but also now (thanks to McCormick's ever-adventuresome spice offerings) buy pre-mixed in the supermarket. Vegetarians, this one's for you.

Cauliflower with Ginger and Mustard Seeds

Cauliflower is not the first vegetable I turn to in the produce section when I'm grabbing stuff for dinner. It's not even the second one, and actually not the third one. In fact it might be somewhere down the list with broccoli rabe. Why? It's a perfectly innocuous vegetable but it seems sort of boring and also it's white which makes it seem somehow less healthy than green and orange things which of course is nonsense.

If you too feel uninspired by cauliflower look no further than this dish to create a little excitement with flavors that really pop and an ingredient that actually literally pops--mustard seeds, when heated in a skillet, will pop right out of the pan. So be careful. And enjoy this one--it's a nice way to mix up your weekday veggie repertoire.

Swiss Chard and Chickpeas

Trying to eat less meat? This is a quick week-day supper that will give you veggies, protein and fiber all in one fell swoop and it's also super fast and great for lunch the next day. Sometimes that's all you really need so if this is one of those times, go for it.

Sweet Potato Pie with Bourbon Cream

Aw, just when you thought I was getting all healthy on you with all these veggies and beans--no way, brothers and sisters. My dedication to butterfat remains as constant as ever. I am also pretty close to finishing the Pie chapter so I took the opportunity at our last book group (Serena by Ron Rash in case you're wondering) to make this pie.

What's different about this pie? Frankly I was amazed at how many of my fellow book groupies had never had sweet potato pie so that's different--might be a new experience for your diners. Two, the sweets potatoes are roasted, not boiled. Pretty subtle. Other than that it's just a good old sweet potato pie made with bourbon, and topped with heavy cream flavored with more bourbon. Can you really go wrong here? I think not.

Lemon Pound Cake

With this cake done, I can now count the remaining cake recipes on one hand. Five left, people!!

I made this for my writer's group and it was pretty easy to put together (if you don't mind zesting a gazillion lemons)--my only problem with it was that it just wouldn't finish baking in the middle. See that crack up there? I baked this pound cake for well over an hour and that one spot just wouldn't bake. Weird and vexing but it was still delicious (if slightly, er, moist in that center part). The book suggests serving with strawberries and I did.

Hmm, maybe I'll make that Passover Sponge Cake for my writer's group tonight.....

Coeurs a la Creme with Blackberries

This is one of the recipes I thought I would never get around to making. For one thing it calls for a special mold and for another it seems fantastically complicated. But, somewhere around Valentine's Day I found myself having a dinner party and since we inherited some heart-shaped molds from our neighbor Marjorie

it seemed like the obvious dessert choice.

Make no mistake--this dessert is kind of a pain. Anything that asks you to force a solid through a fine sieve is going to be irritating. Ditto for lining the little molds--individually--with damp cheesecloth. But what a pay-off! A sweet little dessert that will melt the hearts of your friends and loved ones, and the portion size is just right for a tasty but not too filling treat. Anybody local who wants to try this I'm happy to lend you these molds.

So that's the wrap-up, folks! Thanks for being patient, and I'll see you back here soon.

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Gluten-Free recipes in this post: Herbed Lima Bean Hummus, Ham and Black-Eyed Pea Soup with Collard Greens, Chicory Salad with Orange and Red Onion, Red Lentil and Tofu Dal, Swiss Chard and Chickpeas, Cauliflower with Ginger and Mustard Seeds, Coeurs a la Creme with Blackberries

Low-Carb recipes in this post: Chicory Salad with Orange and Red Onion, Red Lentil and Tofu Dal, Cauliflower with Ginger and Mustard Seeds, Swiss Chard and Chickpeas

Low-Fat recipes in this post: Swiss Chard and Chickpeas, Red Lentil and Tofu Dal, Cauliflower with Ginger and Mustard Seeds

Paleolithic recipes in this post: Cauliflower with Ginger and Mustard Seeds

Recipe WINs in this post: Herbed Lima Bean Hummus, Red Lentil and Tofu Dal

Glazed Duck with Clementine Sauce

2010-02-13T08:21:00.008-05:00

I was at work the other day when this guy, Otis, flagged me down.

"Hey Melissa," he said, "any tips for cooking duck? Whenever I've tried it, it doesn't really work out that well."

Turns out he was roasting it like a chicken--just throwing it in a 375 oven and letting the heat do its work. Problem was he was getting tough, stringy meat, and was kind of turned off by all that fatty skin.

How DO you cook duck? There are a few recipes for it in the book--one is the fantastic Duck Legs and Carrots, where you submerge the legs halfway in broth (and carrots), leaving the skin cresting above to get nice and crispy. Another is Duck Breasts with Orange-Ancho Chili Sauce, which I loved so much I decided to marry. (You think I'm kidding, don't you? I'm not.)

And then of course there's the not-yet-embarked-upon Fragrant Crispy Duck, a day-long, multi-step procedure that includes the use of an electric fan. Stay tuned for that, but not today.

So here's the thing with duck. One troublesome area is the ginormous layer of fat on top of the very lean breast meat. The other is that the breast meat and the legs take to different cooking types of cooking--the legs like to be well cooked, while the breast meat is pretty awesome when it's seared on the outside and cooked to medium rare, just like your favorite steak.

I was curious to see how Glazed Duck with Clementine Sauce would tackle this situation, and here's how they do it--using a Chinese technique called "twice-cooked".

And what does that mean, exactly? Well, it goes in the oven twice, but the first time is covered in a medium oven for a long time--2 hours--and then a high-heat finishing at 500 for 30 minutes or so to crisp up the skin.

This is how the first part goes: you loosen up the fat layer on the breast by sliding your fingers around in between the meat and the skin and prick it with a fork, the better to help the fat escape. Rub salt all over the duck, put quartered onions and celery ribs in the cavity, and sprinkle a little sugar around the sides. Then pour boiling water OVER the ducks (the skin tightens right up--it's kind of amazing) and fill the pan halfway. Then cover it up and throw it in the oven for two hours, pulling it out halfway to flip it over.

I have to say, my duck didn't look very promising when I took it out after this step:

It goes into the fridge after this for four hours to "firm up", and all of the cooking liquid goes in too--so the fat solidifies on top and you can get rid of it. And although this is a scary looking duck up there, take a look at the skin--looks like normal, right? No half-inch layer of fat. That's because the braising melted it all away.

When you've returned to this project after, say, doing your taxes or catching up on a season's worth of The Fringe, you start on the sauce.

That's 2 cups of fresh-squeezed clementine juice and finely sliced zest from the peel, which gets blanched in boiling water. The juice is brought to a boil with vinegar and suager, and reduced to about 1/3 cup. A little bit of this is set aside for the glaze, and then the zest and 1 cup of de-fatted cooking liquid gets stirred into the rest.

And now! The transformation! The duck is roasted at 500 until the skin is crisp, and then brushed with glaze. And--voila!

I know, can you believe it? Then there's some more sauce-finishing that involves shallots and Cointreau and whatnot--and the finished plate is--ta da!

It almost doesn't matter how it tastes because it looks so good but you'll be happy to hear it tasted as good as it looks. Which is saying a lot.

Otis--here's your duck recipe. You're welcome!

Shrimp in Coconut Milk

2010-02-07T07:43:00.008-05:00

Hello, native shrimp. We've met before. Oh, you don't remember? Think back to a few summers ago to the Seafood Smackdown...

Where the mystery seafood, unveiled at the last moment, was Native Shrimp. Five pounds of it, beautifully cleaned, with which we made fancy little lettuce-wrapped shrimp bundles:

That were oh so tasty and delicious but lost by one point to the cream sauce-laden fried spaghetti bowls next door. Ah well, should we really be surprised?

You may not know that the North Atlantic has shrimp. I actually got into a big argument with my first husband once when I said that I had seen a little shrimp frolicking in the tidal waters and sea grass behind our cabin on North Haven. No shrimp around here, he said. Oh yes there are, said I.

This is what they look like, uncooked:

That's right, in their natural state, they're pink. Unlike the shrimp we buy from the supermarket, which look like this:

...and then turn pink. If you would like to read a boring paper about different types of shrimp and where they live, what they eat, where they spawn, and how they're affected by temperature, go here.

So if I didn't get these fancy shrimp in the supermarket, where did I get them? Regular readers know that I participate in a CSF, or Community Supported Fishery, where I pick up 4-6 lbs of whole fish once a week (well, every other week since I'm splitting it with my friend Elizabeth) and the winter share includes shrimp. Yay for winter!

Except, boo for winter because 4-6 pounds of shrimp turns out to be really time consuming to behead and beshell! So I'm finally getting back around to one of the points of mentioning the Seafood Smackdown up there, which is that you'll notice that I said we were given 5 lbs of beautifully cleaned shrimp, and NOW I KNOW how tedious that process is. Thank you, anonymous shrimp-cleaner, whoever you are!

So finally we come to the meal of the day here, which is Shrimp in Coconut Milk.

Mmm. You might be thinking coconut milk = southeast Asian, but you'd be wrong--this was inspired (say the headnotes) by a trip to Brazil, (where some cook there was probably inspired by a trip to southeast Asia.) How do you make it? Like so:

Make a shrimp stock by boiling your shrimp shells in water, and while you're doing that, mix up the shrimp with some lime juice and salt and throw it in the fridge. Then saute garlic, bell peppers and onions in a pan, add a little flour for thickening, then a big can of diced tomatoes, a can of coconut milk and 2 cups of shrimp stock. Let it cook until the veggies are tender, then toss in the shrimp. Sprinkle with cilantro and scallions, serve over rice, and you've got dinner!

How was it? I screwed up the rice. I combined two types of long-grain white rice and somehow half the rice was over cooked and the other half was undercooked and all I could think of was This Would Totally Get Me Kicked Off Top Chef. Fellow chefs, former chefs, would-be chefs, don't tell me you don't think exactly the same way, imagining Tom Colicchio shaking his head in sorrow and disbelief that you could have screwed up something so basic, which we all do from time to time. Piss off, Tom Colicchio, and get out of my head--I lost all respect for you when you started shilling for Diet Coke. And I'll cook the rice better next time.

Chocolate Bread Pudding and Key Lime Pie

2010-01-30T17:07:00.009-05:00

You might think, readers, that the desserts remaining to be made in The Gourmet Cookbook are overly complicated, and thus the wait.

Actually, not so! Well, not so for ALL of them--there are a few that I look over from time-to-time (like oh for example Individual Chocolate Raspberry Baked Alaskas) and I get tired just looking at them. Someday, Baked Alaskas...but not today.

But! There are some recipes I just hadn't gotten around to that are delightfully uncomplicated (with spectacular results). These are two of them.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

This is not my photo--I was too busy hostessing to snap a pic. Thank you, Nothing But Love!

Like many bread puddings, this calls for day-old bread and if you're a savvy shopper (or just too disorganized to plan ahead) you'll remember that your local supermarket sells day-old bread for next to nothing.

Bring cream and milk to a simmer, and pour it over chopped up unsweetened chocolate. You know, the stuff that's definitely in your cupboard because no matter how desperate you get for chocolate, you can't bring yourself to eat it. While that's melting, toss bread cubes with melted butter and put them in a square casserole dish. Whisk a few eggs into the milk and melted chocolate, add sugar and a little vanilla and salt, let it all soak together in a the casserole dish for an hour and then throw that baby in the oven.

That's it! 45 minutes, and done! Serve to your grateful chocolate-loving guests with some fresh whipped cream and feel the love.

Key Lime Pie

The headnotes for this recipe promise that once you make this dessert you'll understand why it's on so many restaurant menus--great dessert for very little effort. And yes, I've made key lime pie before, but technically not THIS recipe, which might not be different from whatever recipe I've used before, who can remember these things?

Anyway, couldn't be simpler. Toss graham cracker crumbs with melted butter and bake in a pie plate for 10 minutes. While it's baking, whisk together 4 egg yolks with a can of sweetened condensed milk and 6 tablespoons of lime juice. I squeezed my own limes, and not key limes either--just plain old limes from the supermarket. Pour this into the pie shell, and bake for 15 minutes. Chill for 8 hours, the recipe says, but mine was perfectly set in 2.

Top with fresh whipped cream and man, is this a good dessert! We had it after Baja-style fish tacos...perfect for a Mexican themed meal.

Beef Tenderloin with Bordelaise Sauce

2010-01-18T08:23:00.028-05:00

Behold my father-in-law.

Son of an Italian restaurateur; a Navy cook at age 18; a restaurateur himself for almost four decades--this is a man who sees life through a filter of family and food.

A lot of food. Don't believe me? Check out Christmas dinner for 9 adults and 1 toddler:

A feast! Lovingly and thoughtfully prepared and designed to ensure that nobody goes hungry. But Don Sr.'s concern for the comfort and well-being of others doesn't just end at his own table, which is why I wasn't at all surprised when he pulled me aside during our visit and told me that he had purchased two beef tenderloins and he wanted us to take them home and wine and dine my parents for a New Year's Day dinner. Love, via food, crossing state lines.

Now, you might read that--beef tenderloin, and think, oh, the steak--because that IS what we call the steak cut from the beef tenderloin. You're thinking this:

But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a whole beef tenderloin. Like this:

Two of them.

Obviously this calls for more than just a four-person dinner party, don't you think? And exploring the recipes in the Gourmet Cookbook, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to make Beef Tenderloin with Bordelaise Sauce.

So apparently Bordelaise Sauce is a French classic--a quick look at the ingredients and you can see it calls for the usual suspects in a French sauce--veal stock, dry red Bordeaux, aromatics...but it does have one unusual (and optional) ingredient--something I have never come across--beef marrow bones.

Now, my chef friends are perhaps thinking--oh, they're roasted and made into stock, or something along those lines--nope. This is what you do...

Rinse them, then put them in a bowl with warm water to soak for about ten minutes. Why? Because you're going to push the marrow out and throw the bones away. Now that you've got all these semi-soft marrow cylinders, you cut them into 1/8 inch rounds and put them in a bowl where you cover them with cold water. And then let them soak for 24 hours, changing the water twice.

Why the 24 hour cold soak? And the water change? I can honestly tell you (after doing it) that I have absolutely no idea. I couldn't see that anything significant was being poured off while I was changing the water (unlike, say, soaking salt cod). So, I just don't know. If you know, enlighten me! Also you can see those are hardly 1/8 inch wide--more like a 1/3. So sue me.

Anyway, then you make the sauce--you combine the wine, stock etc, and boil til reduced to a tiny little bit of liquid. Here's the starting pot:

...and in this case I reduced it to 2/3 a cup since I was doubling the recipe. Then you add the veal stock (in my case beef stock--sorry Thomas Keller) and bring it to a boil...strain, thicken with arrowroot and add a little Madeira. I would also like to take a moment to be grateful for the patience of liquor store owners everywhere who have to put up with people like me, who wander in asking for "dry" Madeira because a recipe calls for it.

That's it. There's your sauce. You might be wondering where the marrow comes in? Hang on...

You can make the sauce in advance, which I did. We had the dinner party at my parent's house, and I roasted the tenderloins there. I entertained the crowd by searing the tenderloins first on a heavy-duty cookie sheet laid across two burners, and then roasting them in a 350 oven.

The marrow gets prepared like this--first, poached in salted broth for about 8 minutes. Then, added to the sauce. And...what does this poached marrow add? Well, it's kind of like melty warm beefy fat globules. Which, you know, isn't bad. The headnotes for the recipe says it adds "sybaritic luxury" which I never did look up but I think has something to do with Roman feasting in togas or maybe Pan with all his red wine drinking. Oh all right, I'll look it up. Here we go, from Wikipedia--the final paragraph:

The word Sybaritic has become a byword meaning extreme luxury and a seeking for pleasure and comfort. One story has a Sybarite turning in his bed sleeplessly, because a crumpled rose petal had gotten into it. The best known anecdote of the Sybarites is of their defeat in battle. It is told that to amuse themselves the Sybarite cavalrymen trained their horses to dance to pipe music. Armed with pipes, an invading army from nearby Crotonia assailed the Sybarite cavalry with music. The attacking forces easily passed through the dancing horses and their helpless riders, and conquered the city.

OK, decadent and luxurious...I'll buy that. Or eat that. Whatever. I will not train my cat to dance to pipes, though. Think of the advantage the mice might have!

Here's the feast in progress...

If food be the music of love play on...no wait, if music be the food of love play on...HANG ON...

Music

Food

Love

That works for me.

3 Festive Winter Drinks

2010-01-16T09:15:00.006-05:00

Cold? Tired? Had long freakin' day? Step into my kitchen, friend--I have just the drink for you.

Mulled Red Wine

I made Mulled Red Wine when my friend Ben and his boyfriend Steven came over on Rockport's First Night, New Year's Eve. Ben was scheduled to sing downtown at one of the churches (he's got a gorgeous tenor) and is there anything better than a little booze to loosen up those vocal cords? I think not!

I get excited about mulled red wine, because long long ago in a country far far away, I learned how to ski on a terrifying sheet of ice high up in the Alps somewhere. So high the town below was permanently in shadow, no matter how bright and sunny the day. I'm not sure spring skiing on a sheet of ice is the best way to learn how to ski, but a high point for me was stopping halfway down the precipitous slope for lunch, where they also liberally served (even to the high school students) a magical concoction called gluhwein.

This was, essentially, mulled red wine. And let me tell you people, I'm not sure it improved my skiing but it certainly lifted my mood and made me a fan of the stuff for life.

So what's in mulled red wine? Sugar and spice and everything nice, by which I mean a little brandy for kick and some citrus peel to round out the flavor. This recipe says to put the spices in a cheesecloth square and cinch it up but you don't have to--that's just to be neat (probably a German idea, come to think of it). Anyway, good stuff and very festive if you've been outside in the elements, skiing or shoveling or just building snowmen.

Irish Coffee

I couldn't decide whether or not to serve the guys Mulled Red Wine or Irish Coffee, so as is my way, I made both. They were thrilled! And so was I--usually I'm not an evening coffee drinker but New Year's Eve is a special occasion where you WANT to stay up late. Irish Coffee is a sweet sweet way to get a caffeine injection.

This is super-simple--basically a little Irish whiskey + a little sugar in a cup, add fresh brewed coffee and top with lightly sweetened whipped cream. And then you're ready to go dance your socks off.

Kir Royale

Bubbly + creme de cassis--you're thinking New Year's Eve again, I'm sure! No, I'm not THAT schizophrenic a hostess, though this would make an excellent New Year's Eve beverage. I served this drink a few nights ago when our friends Mark and Elizabeth came for dinner--we had a bottle of Moet hanging around our house (probably since last New Year's) and what better thing than friendship to celebrate with champagne?

This is another very easy drink if you don't mind buying a largish bottle of Creme de Cassis that you may never use again--basically you pour a little creme de cassis (that's black currant, btw) into a champagne flute and pour the champagne on top. But if you want to try it, and you're at the liquor store, might as well buy a bottle of white burgundy while you're at it so you can at some future date have Kir (white wine + creme de cassis). That's what I did anyway, so keep your eyes peeled for a post on Kir at some point in the future!

Salut!

Black Bean Soup with Rum

2010-01-09T08:52:00.004-05:00

Oh black bean soup! Is there anything like you in the dead of winter? I think not.

I'm going to write all about this soup but first I was just reflecting on how probably a vegetarian would look at this and think--oh! Soup for me! But sadly no, the recipe calls for ham hocks (which is not to say it couldn't be made WITHOUT ham hocks, of course it can. But for the cook-through blogger one must follow the recipe, the first time at least!)

And this reflection had me remembering how in my old job there were three vegetarians I had to sometimes consider in meal planning, and two sort-of-partial vegetarians. I made soup from The Gourmet Cookbook so often (and was so vexed by how a soup that one might THINK would be vegetarian actually wasn't) that I actually went through the soup chapter and put a "V" next to the soups that qualified. As vegetarian.

So here I am, looking at the page that has the Black Bean Soup with Rum recipe, and the other three recipes also involve beans, and NONE of them is vegetarian. Somehow that is weird.

Anyway, vegetarians don't forget that Gourmet Today has an ENTIRE chapter dedicated to vegetarian entrees, plus other vegetarian things scattered throughout the book (with a handy index to find them). You should buy that book if you haven't already.

So, Black Bean Soup with Rum! I did the quick-soak with my dried black beans, then sauteed onions, celery, parsley and thyme sprigs with a bay leaf for a while...then added salt pork (they were out of ham hocks--guess everybody had the same idea I did) and beans and stock and water and cooked the dickens out of it for three hours.

Then I took the salt pork out (also the bay and thyme sprigs), added 1/3 cup dark rum (hello Sailor Jerry's) and some lemon juice and used my nifty immersion blender to blendify it. Then I put it through a fine-mesh sieve to get the non-blendified stuff out. By the way, this is in place of using a food mill, which, as you may have read elsewhere on this blog, I hate and will not use.

Then! Dish it up and garnish with a lemon slice, chopped hard-boiled egg, and minced parsley! Ta-da!

I would like to nominate the lemon slice garnish for this soup as Stupidest Garnish Ever. You can't eat it, and when you fish it out it is pretty much impossible to squeeze for juice (and if you tried you would get soup all over your fingers). Basically it's a visual. If I had a category for Stupid Garnishes I would put this one in it, but I only have one for Stupid Recipes (of which happily there are very few!). And this one is NOT a stupid recipe--it's good! Try it! It will make you warmer!

Migas

2010-01-04T07:29:00.003-05:00

Readers, when you're doing a project like this you are keenly attuned to certain ingredients and pieces of cooking equipment that are unusual, that sort of lodge in your brain as something to keep an eye out for. This is why, if you were in Market Basket with me not too long ago, you would have heard me gasp, "Veal Tongue!" Adam and Teena know what I'm talking about.

So I was cleaning out my fridge a few days ago and pitching some stuff when I grabbed a foil-wrapped package of something not well-wrapped at all actually--it was a bunch of corn tortillas from Mexican take-out that were kind of dried out from air exposure. I had one hand on the garbage can when I suddenly gasped "stale corn tortillas!"

I had one of the key componants of Migas right in my very hand.

You won't find migas on the breakfast menu here in New England--in fact I'm betting that most northerners have never heard of it. If you're Jewish and matzo brei is or was part of your life you'll have an inkling of what I'm about to describe--this is basically a homestyle, use-the-leftovers type of a meal that involves bacon, onion/garlic, chilies and tomatoes scrambled up with some eggs, refried tortilla pieces, and shredded cheese.

Sounds good? It is good. Really satisfying. It won't win a beauty contest, but that's not what it's for now, is it?

You start by frying some bacon and setting aside, then frying some ripped corn tortillas and setting those aside too. Then saute onions, garlic and chilies, add crumbled bacon and tomatoes and cumin. Then stir in the fried tortilla pieces and pour on the eggs and sprinkle on cheese--stir til set.

That's it! You might have these ingredients in your fridge. Why not look? Or, maybe it's time for some Mexican take-out?

3 Easy Apps

2010-01-03T10:05:00.006-05:00

When I found out that one of my co-workers would be performing during Rockport's First Night, I invited him and his partner to our house beforehand for some roasty-toasty cocktails (mmm, mulled red wine and Irish coffee) and some nibbles before we all set off on an evening of sea chanties, calypso-funk and Beatlemania. Of course I turned to our beloved Gourmet Cookbook for the nibbles (and yes, those cocktails came from Gourmet Today--more on those soon).

I was looking for easy, and I was looking for not going to the store. I won on both counts.

1. Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I happened to have a few small bags of raw pepitas in the freezer, and this recipe is so simple I'm amazed I haven't tried it yet. You put the pepitas in a dry, medium hot pan, stir them for 5-7 minutes until they're brown and lovely, drizzle a little XVO on them and sprinkle with a little fine sea salt.

That's it! So delicious.

2. Olive and Eggplant Spread and 3. Pita Toasts

We happened to have an eggplant kicking around, and my husband is a fiend for cured olives--so the ingredients for Olive and Eggplant Spread were right at hand. Sort of a cross between baba and tapenade, my friend commented, and yes, he's right!

Also hanging out in the freezer--tiny little whole wheat pitas, which I thought would make dandy pita toasts for the spread. Again, this is so easy--split the pitas, brush with XVO and sprinkle with coarse salt, then cut into wedges and toast. I had them in the oven at the same time the eggplant was roasting.

Then, on to First Night! Here's some of the great music I heard:

Sparkle Motion Swing Trio – 20s, 30s & 40s Music

Coro Stella Maris – Medieval, Renaissance and Early Baroque Choir

Wildest Dreams - Afro Pop - Reggae - Calypso - Funky Soul

Alek Razdan and Willie "Loco" Alexander- Jazz & Punk

BeatleTracks - Beatle Tribute Band

Jah Spirit – Reggae Band

Sweet Loretta's Snake Oil Jug Band – Blues, Country, Ragtime, Folk, Magic & Humor

What a great way to ring in the new year! Thanks, Rockport!

******************************************************************************

Gluten-Free recipes in this post: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, Olive and Eggplant Spread

Low-Carb recipes in this post: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, Olive and Eggplant Spread

Paleolithic recipe in this post: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

5 1/2 Christmas Confections

2010-01-02T10:50:00.016-05:00

Readers, this was an unusual Christmas for me. Why? Because for the first time in over a decade, I wasn't working on Christmas Day! When I had my estate cooking job, that was just part of the gig--Christmas Dinner--and before that, at the Emerson Inn, I offered to cook because our family always celebrated on Christmas Eve.

And all of these years I've also been applying my considerable cooking skill and energy to Christmas cookies, fruitcakes, and confections--all on the job, to be consumed or given as gifts by my employers. Nothing wrong with that--it's what I do!

But this year, I found myself primed at the beginning of December, ready to go--and hey, guess what? This year all of that skill and energy could be channeled to making yummies for my own friends and family. Even more exciting? I had the new Gourmet cookbook in hand, Gourmet Today, to mine for new Christmas confection ideas. Woo hoo! Line up those candy boxes!

My first confection was actually a tried-and-true favorite from the Gourmet Cookbook--one that has proven wildly popular over the past three or four years--Candied Citrus Rind.

When I first made this I quickly realized that the paltry 2 grapefruit they mention (in the book, not the online recipe) would never be enough, and further, that one couldn't stop at just tossing these with sugar--they should properly also be dipped in bittersweet chocolate. So it kind of grew into a candy-making monster. Imagine a soup pot filled to the brim with grapefruit, pomelo, orange, lemon and lime peels (bring to a boil and drain off water FIVE TIMES to draw off bitterness)...make a simple syrup using a whole bag of sugar...what I end up with is many racks of candied peel drying over trays and taking up a lot of room!

This photo is pre-sugar coating/chocolate dip stage, but aren't they beautiful? Oh readers, these are so tasty. It's a very good thing I only make them once a year.

My second confection was the Truffle Fudge from Gourmet Today (the rest are all from that book). Sadly, this is not online, but happily it's so easy I can tell you in two seconds how to make it--melt a bag of bittersweet chocolate chips, 1/2 stick butter, a pinch of salt and a can of sweetened condensed milk together somehow (I used a microwave), pour into an 8" pan lined with parchment paper, and cool in the fridge.

That's it. Super easy!

The third confection was Chocolate Earl Gray Truffles. Here I had a little supermarket quandry, trying to find just the right form of Earl Grey tea. The cook's notes point out that "loose tea leaves have a fresher, more distinctive flavor than the leaves in tea bags", and though I couldn't find loose tea, I did find whole leaf tea in tea bags which seemed like an OK compromise.

If you've ever made a flavored creme brulee this is the same idea--you let the tea leaves steep in hot cream, and then use that cream to go forward and make a ganache. The recipe asks you to roll ganache balls in your hands and then dip those in cocoa powder, but since I have an aversion to goopy hands I used a mini-scoop with a release bar.

The bergamot flavor is very subtle in these truffles and although I liked them (a lot), I couldn't help comparing them with Robert Linxe's truffle recipe in The Gourmet Cookbook, which has you smear a thin layer of melted chocolate on the ganache balls before you toss them in cocoa powder--this fussy little extra step adds a thin snap when you bite into the truffle.

Speaking of Robert Linxe, Don and I visited La Maison du Chocolat while we were in NYC! I got a big box of dark chocolate just for us and I will never tell you how much I paid for it! Here's some history on this fellow for your reading pleasure.

My fourth confection was Toasted-Coconut Marshmallow Squares. My shopping quandry here was finding coconut extract--I could find only artificial extract at Market Basket, but then found real (organic) coconut extract hours later at Common Crow. Of course I went with the latter, only to find out that the 1/2 tsp. didn't add any noticable coconut flavor to the marshmallows--oh well!

I'd never made marshmallows but it's pretty easy if you have a stand mixer--they are essentially meringue + unflavored gelatin. I suppose standard marshmallows are tossed in corn or potato starch so they don't stick--here they are tossed in toasted coconut. Pretty!

The fifth confection was Pumpkin Seed Brittle. On the surface this looks like a simple recipe, requiring only sugar, water, sea salt and green, raw pepitas. But the technique is so odd I'm going to show you action photos--I was quite sure the whole thing was a wash at least twice but they came out beautifully. You start off with sugar, salt and water and bring it to a boil:

When it reaches 238 you take it off the heat and add the pepitas, stirring until the sugar recrystallizes:

Then you put it back on the heat, stirring until it becomes grainy. This is one of the places where I was sure I'd be pitching it because I stirred for a lifetime without it getting to the next stage, where the sugar "turns a deep caramel color" and at the same time, the seeds get all brown and toasty:

Finally...

Then you pour it onto parchment paper you've got taped down, throw another piece on top and roll it out super thin. I burned my hands here in my enthusiasm to work quickly.

I was in love with this gorgeous candy. Look at it!

Also so good. I think for adventure + flavor this one was my favorite.

And now we come to confection 5 1/2, which was a twice-failed recipe--Fleur de Sel Caramels. On the surface, this seems like another easy one--basically caramelized sugar plus cream. What could go wrong?

A lot, it turns out. The first batch (made by O'Malley, with my supervision) although it cooked to the proper temperature (248) set up far too hard and was essentially a lot like the middle of a Heath bar (not a bad thing, but not caramel!) The second batch, cooked to a temp I found online (236) came out too runny and turned into apple dip.

I'm not sure what exactly went wrong here but I'll try it again next Christmas and see if I can't get it right.

And fyi now-nonexistant Gourmet staffers, where the heck am I supposed to find unsweetened passion fruit puree? I had planned to also make Passion Fruit Gelees but never could find any and since I've never had passion fruit I didn't even know what to sub in. Another confection for next year!

Roasted Spiced Sweet Potatoes

2009-12-31T08:21:00.005-05:00

Gourmet Magazine is no longer published, but it is certainly not forgotten. A great example of this is the new blog "Gourmet Unbound", which seeks to keep the spirit of the magazine alive by soliciting monthly posts from cooks around the world who are going through the archives month-by-month.

My friend and fellow Gourmet blogger Adam over at Gourmet, all the way tipped us off on this (Teena and me)--should be easy for those of us blogging through the Gourmet Cookbook, no? And according to the submission guidelines, all you do is an advanced search at Epicurious with your month of choice--a quick browse and I found many recipes I had already done and many more that were in the book waiting for my attention.

A side note! I found two recipes that were apparently published in a January version of the magazine that just astonished me--I would have bet all kinds of money that they would be featured in the dog days of summer. This is why I don't go to Vegas--I suck at betting. The recipes are: Cold Buttermilk and Shrimp Soup (January 1991) and Quince, Apple and Almond Jalousie (January 1998).

It's beyond me why anybody would feature a cold soup in January (unless your readership is primarily in the tropics?) and quince, at least up here, is a seasonal summer fruit. So go figure. And by the way, that soup is awesome. Make it next time it's hot.

On to the featured recipe--Roasted Spiced Sweet Potatoes (January 2002)! I made these to go with the Cider-Braised Pork Shoulder with Caramelized Onions I talked about in my last post. If you've ever oven-roasted potatoes before this will all seem very familiar--what's unusual and most tasty about this side dish is the spice blend: coriander and fennel seeds, dried oregano and red pepper flakes ground in a spice grinder and mixed with salt. It's kind of weird but it's really good. And an excellent complement to the main course! If you've got the mid-winter blahs in the cooking dept oh and maybe you're trying to shed some of those holiday pounds, consider this one--sweet potatoes are one of those vegetables that are supposed to be super good for you.

Happy New Year!

Cider-Braised Pork Shoulder with Caramelized Onions

2009-12-30T08:52:00.008-05:00

I'm a sucker for recipes that start with this sentence: "Make this dish and forget about it..." Pre-Christmas, who doesn't want something you can slide into the oven with minimal effort and pull out hours later? Cider-Braised Pork Shoulder with Caramelized Onions, you're the one for me. I made this meal at the same time that I was making about fifty kinds of candy, all of which, dear reader, I will tell you about in due time.

But more about the pork shoulder--this recipe calls for a 3- to 4- pound bone-in fresh pork shoulder half. I could only find a whole, and was too rushed to ask the butcher to cut it for me--so here I am trying to brown the whole picnic shoulder in a pot slightly too small:

After browning the pork you set it aside and add about 5-6 sliced onions to the pot, sauteeing until they're caramelized:

Then stir in 3/4 cup cider, put the pork back in, cover, and slide the whole thing into a low oven for about 3 hours.

Ready for dinner?

We loved it. Our cat did too.

If I were making it again, though, I'd trim off the skin and most of the fat. There's a LOT of fat on pork shoulder, and it all went into those caramelized onions. Notice that didn't stop me from eating it, but I felt appropriately guilty.

Green Chili Cheesecake with Papaya Salsa

2009-12-24T15:53:00.007-05:00

When my family started Christmas planning a few weeks back (which really means "deciding about food") my mother suggested "heavy hors d'oeuvres" instead of Christmas dinner. That's the best part anyway, she said--why not just make the whole food event about the best part? Now there's the food philosophy of a true hedonist, and if you've ever wondered where my deep appreciation of both butter and chocolate comes from, look no further than Mom.

Mom is also all about "many hands make light work", and this is why pretty much every family event is potluck. My husband's Long Island family thinks this is a crazy New England tradition (ok--maybe the potluck wedding reception was a little much) but it does spread out both the work and the expense.

So--Heavy Hors D'Oeuvres Potluck! Sign me up!

Don and I picked two--the recently mentioned Clams Perce, and Green Chili Cheesecake with Papaya Salsa. Don was supposed to make the cheesecake, but with his Algebra II final looming, I stepped in and did the deed.

This is a standard cheesecake--just savory. The crust is made of crushed blue corn tortilla chips + a little butter, and the cake part is cream cheese, a bit of sour cream, eggs, and cheddar + monteray jack cheese. Roasted/peeled poblano chilies and minced dill + cilantro are folded in to the dairy base and then it's baked in a medium low oven for an hour, about.

The salsa that goes with is a fruit salsa. It's supposed to be papaya, but my husband came home with persimmons instead. No problem--they're both sweet and sort of spicy. Who can keep these fruits straight when you're wrestling with algebra?

That looks like it takes up a lot of brain space.

How was the cheesecake? "It tastes like Fire and Ice!" my sister exclaimed. Should you be wondering, this is an appetizer we were practically suckled on, down in the Deep South and back in the seventies. And do you think I can find it on the Google? I cannot. Looks like fire and ice can be applied to everything from melon soup to opera cake, but as I recall OUR Fire and Ice involved cream cheese and chilies of some kind. Help me out, Amanda! 2nd-hand algebra is taking up my brain space!

I would say this is a great choice for a party app--it can be made ahead (big bonus points for that) and feeds a lot of people. It's also unusual enough to get you some oohs and ahhs and who doesn't love that?

My one and only complaint about the dish was the crust. After about, oh, two seconds those corn chips, which absorbed moisture, were staler than stale. I'd sub in some crushed ritz crackers or something. Please note that the recipe on Epicurious calls for blue corn flour. Not sure who made the substitution, but maybe that would work better too!

Hey, and the observant amongst you might note I'm posting this the day before Christmas! That's because my mom doesn't really care what day it is--as long as the whole family can be together. Our Christmas was last Saturday. Tomorrow--another Christmas, with my husband's family--a food experience beyond your wildest imaginings. I'm going to try to get a Bearnaise sauce in there--stay tuned for that post. :-) Merry Christmas!

(Don, here's your tree!!!)

Clams Perce

2009-12-20T08:30:00.004-05:00

Making any kind of dish with fresh clams or oysters is a mixed blessing. You can't beat the taste, and canned clams just aren't the same, I'm sorry. Even the pre-shucked bivalves you can get at the fish counter usually have preservatives added. Nope, for the best you really need fresh.

BUT. Shucking clams and oysters is more easily said than done, and although I've had practice with both over the years, the idea of it still intimidates me. For one thing, it's incredibly messy, and for another, if you don't have the proper equipment it's dangerous, with a trip to the emergency room looming should your knife slip the wrong way. To make it more confusing, you don't shuck clams and oysters the same way--you pop an oyster at the hinge, and you do the opposite with clams, running your knife between the shells everywhere BUT the hinge, to loosen the muscle.

So it was with great interest and appreciation that I read the instructions for Clams Perce (pronounced "Percy")--you steam those bad boys until they open--no knives involved anywhere. I had even more appreciation for this recipe, the creation of Manhattan bar owner Perce Goodale, once I read it fully--clearly created by and intended for a busy commercial kitchen with no time to waste. So should you have no time to waste yourself this holiday season, but are looking for an app that will wow your guests, try this one on for size.

Once you get your clams out and have rinsed off the shells, lay them on a baking sheet. The recipe asks you to stablize them with kosher salt--I didn't bother with that. Put a clam in each shell, then sprinkle on top: dry stuffing mix, parmasan cheese, a strip of raw bacon, and a drop of Worcesterhire sauce. Broil for 2-3 minutes.

That's it! They're great little bites. Yum!

Veal Stew with Lemon and Creme Fraiche

2009-11-27T08:59:00.015-05:00

Oh Paris!

My friend Moira and I went to see Paris last weekend at the very worthy-of-your-time Cape Ann Community Cinema.

Oh Juliette Binoche! One of my favorite lines in the movie is when a flirtatious greengrocer asks her if she did her hair with dynamite that morning. That's French seduction for you!

I was in a Paris state of mind for days after, and when browsing through the book for our next dinner, this caught my eye:

Veal Stew with Lemon and Creme Fraiche

The particulars of this recipe came to us from the novelist Diane Johnson, who wrote a piece for the magazine on how Parisian housewives cook.

Say no more! Perhaps my brother

will never perform a choreographed modern dance number at a party in his living room

but at least I could make stew like a Parisienne!

The head notes go on to explain that this is not your ordinary, throw-everything-into-a-pot-and-cook-it type of stew--first you cook the meat and take it out...then you cook the veggies in the meat water and take them out...then you reduce the stock and make an "exquisite sauce". Don't worry!! say the head notes. Not as complicated as it sounds!!

Taking these thing on faith, as I so often do, I trotted off to the market to buy my ingredients. Bone-in veal breast? Check. Boneless veal shoulder? Nuh-uh. I made do with "veal stew", which is stew meat, which for all I know might actually be cut from the shoulder.

Everything else is standard stew-y stuff if you put it in the realm of la France--a bouquet garnis, leeks, carrots, mushrooms--and non standard stew-y stuff, like lemons and creme fraiche. And egg yolks.

First you put the meat, bones, bouquet garnis and onions in the stew pot and let it cook up for a while. I was a little baffled by the veal breast. For one it was really fatty, and for two I mulled over how to cut it off the bone. I finally went for the "mango" approach:

And I cut those cubes off the bone. See what I mean about the fat? All of this went into a pot with onions and a bouquet garnis, which if you don't know are "aromatics" ie herbs, pepper and a bay leaf. Traditionally you bind it up with cheesecloth and string but I couldn't find either of those things in my kitchen so they were footloose and fancy free in my pot. Cover your eyes, Thomas Keller!

Purists will also note that I'm using curly parsley, not flat leaf. Well, curly parsley is growing in my neighbor's pot outside and I'm a cheap bastard (though not a parsley thief--she told me to use what I wanted!)

This all simmers for about an hour and a half, after which the meat comes out and goes in a low-medium oven. I was sort of hoping the fat would magically cook away, but it didn't. I tried one of the veal breast cubes to see if the flavor trumped the fat content, but it didn't. Alas!

So I spent a good 30 minutes picking the meat from the fat while the leeks and carrots simmered in the broth. Here's the pile of fat I had left over:

Blech.

OK, next! The veggies come out and go to a serving dish, which for me meant in the oven with the meat. The broth is then supposed to be reduced to 2 1/2 cups, but mine was already there, so voilà!!

Mushrooms then get sauteed, which made me happy because I love mushrooms in soups and stews, especially if they've been sauteed first, which makes them heartier somehow. Sauteed mushroom in the oven with the leeks, carrots and meat!

To make the sauce, first one makes a roux (flour and butter, sauteed) and then whisks in the reduced stock. In a side bowl, mix 2 egg yolks with creme fraiche:

stir in a little hot broth, then whisk the tempered yolks/creme fraiche back into the big pot with the rest of the thickened stock:

Since I was making this stew at a somewhat more leisurely pace than the recipe suggests, it occurred to me just in the nick of time that the meat and veggies were probably actually COOKING in that 300 oven.

Oops! Hm. Well, the meat was a little crispy around the edges, but nothing inedible. And as with dry Thanksgiving turkey, nothing a little gravy can't cure! I mean, Lemon-Creme Fraiche Sauce.

Doesn't it look delicious? It was. But I can't really say I felt like I was eating stew, even while pretending I was Juliette Binoche, who may or may not cook her own dinners.

Would I make this exact recipe again? Perhaps not, but I certainly am interested in this technique, mostly because it makes great use of the stock to make a very sophisticated dinner out of nothing too fancy. Well, veal is pretty fancy but you could do this easily with any kind of meat or poultry. Give it a try next time you're longing for Paris!