NOVEMBER 2012
Wednesday 2012.11.28
Savory/Sweet
It always surprises me when an ingredient I typically use in savory recipes shows up in a recipe for something sweet.
For many years I've bought ricotta cheese to use in my Chicken and Spinach Pie and Cannelloni Florentine. I even use it in my Italian Meatballs. I was therefore surprised several years ago when I found a recipe for Roma Cheesecake that used sweetened ricotta cheese in the filling. I had always thought of cheesecake as the American version we see made with cream cheese.
In an Italian cooking course I took a few years ago we made polenta as a savory side dish. I'm not fond of polenta, and therefore I didn't make it again until I needed it for my Seared Scallops with Chorizo Ragù, a recipe I recently published. It is the only recipe on this web site, so far, that uses polenta.
That changed earlier this week. I experimented with a recipe that uses polenta sweetened with white chocolate. The dessert looks very much like flan and I make it very similar to my Almond Praline Flan. When I first found the recipe nearly a year ago, I set it aside as a curiosity. It had two strikes against it. It came from a source that I do not trust. Sadly, some cookbook or food magazine authors do not test their recipes before they publish them. I used one recipe from this source and I had to make corrections on camera in the middle of the video because the flavor was so bad. The second strike was that it used chestnuts, which are only available fresh in the store around the Christmas holiday. That is why I experimented with the recipe this week; the store had fresh chestnuts in stock. I didn't want to use canned.
Chestnuts are nasty little things, if you buy them fresh in the shell. Down through the eons they evolved devious protections to avoid being eaten. So have lobsters, but they are worth the effort. During the weekend I roasted and shelled a few dozen chestnuts to collect enough good ones to test in the recipe. Only two were moldy inside, which in itself was a surprise. It is not unusual to discard almost a quarter of the batch because they are spoiled when opened. I've used them for stuffed goose. Another problem is that they sometimes break up when you try to remove the inner skin. Therefore, to get about 18 whole roasted chestnuts that would look pretty in a recipe, I roasted about three dozen, expecting to discard many of them.
My fingers are still store from shelling them. At one point I resorted to a pair of pliers and a sharp knife. It helped, but I had already done the damage to the tender flesh under my fingernails. Here's a trick: We know that it is easier to shell them while they are still warm from the oven. It is even easier when they are too hot to handle. Use a rubber kitchen glove, one thick enough to protect your fingers from the heat, to hold them while tearing off the shell.
The roasted chestnuts are still in the refrigerator, unused. Along the way I had a better idea. Use a banana. They peel easier. And so my budini are made by first arranging three thin slices of ripe banana in the bottom of each ramekin before pouring in the hot caramelized sugar, which helps cook the banana slices a little. As an extra benefit—something I had not planned for but which turned out to work better than I imagined—the banana slices yield a syrup after the caramelized sugar is added and this helps dissolve the sugar, providing the syrup for which flan is so well known and loved.
As for the flavor: Delicious. I had never imagined polenta could taste so good when sweetened with white chocolate. The recipe and video will be published here and on YouTube in coming weeks.
Sunday 2012.11.25
Post Thanksgiving Reflection
This Thanksgiving holiday was one of the easiest and most pleasant that I've enjoyed in many years. I made no plans, other than to cook a turkey for my Minute Meals. More on this in a moment. So at 4:15 that afternoon it was a surprise to receive a phone call from some friends who invited me to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with them. I wasn't even showered and shaved, having set aside the day to enjoy some slovenly relaxation. However, I put myself together quickly enough to fly out the door and arrive at their home by 5:00. Being a guy is easy.
The meal was excellent. The turkey had been brined before roasting and my friend learned to use a digital thermometer when roasting meats. He removed the bird from the oven at about 160°F (71°C) internal temperature and the let it rest. The heat along the outside continues to migrate inwards to even out the overall temperature, bringing the breast meat up to the safe temperature of 170°F (77°C) recommended for turkey and other fowl.
One pleasant surprise was Brussels sprouts. I've loved them for decades, but I haven't cooked them in years. One of their family members sautéed them in butter and olive oil until tender and slightly browned. They were delicious. Someday I'll work that into one of my recipes for this web site, as I don't do enough vegetables. The meal also included mashed potatoes and some homemade cranberry relish. My mom always bought the cranberry jelly that came in a can. I hated it. More and more people are learning to make their own cranberry sauce and, made right, it is quite good.
There was, of course, the ubiquitous pumpkin pie that makes the rest of the world wonder if we Americans have lost all sense of style and taste. Evidently most people outside the USA cook pumpkin like a squash, mashed and served as a savory side dish. The American story says that early Colonists were surprised to see Native Americans cultivating and using pumpkins. The new Americans quickly adopted it for their own enjoyment. One year I tried baking it like squash and eating it with butter and herbs. It didn't have much flavor. I prefer other varieties of squash, such as butternut squash, which also makes an excellent Butternut Soup.
As mentioned above, I did cook a turkey for myself. It has become a tradition to buy a fresh turkey each year at the warehouse store. I debone the bird and roast the boneless meat from the drumstick, thigh, and breast. Meanwhile, the bones and most of the trim go into a stock pot with water and a mirapoix of chopped carrots, onions, celery, and herbs. The roasted meat was portioned and sealed in little single-serving packs, which were then put in the freezer for my Minute Meals. I put 32 servings of Turkey in the freezer. The stock yielded 18 cups of rich stock for soups and sauces during the winter months. I get a lot of food out of a single turkey. Depending on how much room I have in the freezer, I might do it again when the warehouse store stocks turkeys again for Christmas. It's a lot of work, but that's the point of Minute Meals—you work hard one day to do a lot of cooking, then you don't need to cook for weeks afterwards. Just heat and eat.
I said "most of the trim" goes into the stock pot. I set aside the wing drumette and wingette pieces. These and slowly sautéed in butter and olive oil with the liver and giblets, to be enjoyed as the Chef's Reward, the little meal I make for myself after deboning chickens or turkeys.
Wednesday 2012.11.21
After the Ball
Sunday's Stone Soup went as planned; actually, better than planned. Evidently an explanation of the story circulated in the trailer park and the residents got the idea. We had two large stock pots of chicken broth (no stones) boiling over a really nice camp stove someone had brought. There were potatoes, carrots, parsnips, onions, green beans, cannellini beans and red beans, corn, chicken, Italian sausage meat, plenty of herbs, rice, several types of pasta. Some people purchased fresh ingredients to add to the soup, others went through their cupboards or freezer to find something to share.
One pot was vegan, the other had meat. There was even a third pot of soup that someone had made. Someone suggested cream might work well in the soup. I had a quart of heavy cream at home; so I brought that and we poured it into the meat pot. Seasoning was left to me. I used a palm full each of pepper, oregano, and basil. I went a little light on the salt, as I usually do, and the soup was fine. There was so much flavor, it didn't need a lot of salt.
Besides the soups there was plenty of bread. Dessert was there as well—apple pie and pumpkin pie. I had suggested that someone bring extra bowls with lids so people could take left over soup home with them. We still had several gallons of soup left in the pots. So they brought them to my house and I used my heat sealer and poly tubing (explained on my Minute Meals page) to package the soup into two-cup portions. We then brought these to some of our neighbors—the ones who were unable to join us for the afternoon.
Needless to say, it was a delightful afternoon. A few of us celebrated our success at my house, with my homemade Bailey's Irish Cream and a bottle of champagne. A fun afternoon turned into a fun evening. It was a very satisfying day.
Looking forward, we have a cookie exchange planned for December. We will each bring some cookies, either homemade or purchased, enough to enjoy at the gathering and for people to take home with them. I will be making my Mom's Italian Christmas Cookies. So far, we chose December 21st because that is the day the world will end, depending on how you view the Mayan calendar. We are tentatively calling our gathering an Apocalyptic Cookie Exchange. We figure, if we're going to go out with a bang, why not do it eating cookies? (Those who are married or have a significant other might want to find something better to do, wink wink.)
Sunday 2012.11.18
Stone Soup
Have you heard the story of Stone Soup? I remember hearing it as a child. I think I was in second grade because the classroom comes to mind. The most famous version was published in book form, with illustrations, in 1947 by Marcia Brown.
The story, as I remember it, was about three soldiers entering a small European town. They had a large cooking pot with them, but no food. The townspeople immediately went indoors, shutting up their doors and windows. Soldiers were known for being poor and begging food from people.
The soldiers started a fire in the town square, filled their cooking pot with water from the public pump, put stones in the bottom of the pot, and placed it over the fire. Looking satisfied and happy with themselves, they stood around the pot in anticipation. The people were curious. After a while a few approached the soldiers. "What are you making?"
"Stone soup," was the answer.
This drew more curiosity. "What is stone soup?"
"Oh, it's a deliciously wonderful soup," the soldiers explained. "Of course, it won't be as good as it might be. It could use a little something. Maybe a potato or two, a turnip, some herbs. Nonetheless, we will be very satisfied with it."
Wanting to taste this fantastic soup, the few curious people asked if they might sample it when it was done and, of course, they would be willing to contribute something in exchange. They brought out a few meager provisions to add to the pot. This increased the curiosity among the town's residents and as word spread, more and more of the people came out with contributions for the soup.
Soon the soldiers announced that the soup was indeed ready and everyone who supplied something was welcome to enjoy it with them. A great feast ensued, with an abundance of satisfaction as everyone exclaimed how delicious the soup was indeed!
The moral, of course, is that generosity brings its own rewards whereas miserliness gains us nothing. There are other versions of the story and if you look it up on Wikipedia you'll see that the story has early origins.
I mention this story because this afternoon we are supposed to enjoy stone soup here in the trailer park. Evidently, not many of the residents know the story. Some have declined to attend, saying that stones might damage their digestive system. So far a carrot and a potato are promised. I am not a big fan of chicken breast, but I needed to buy some for a recipe video. I still have six in the freezer, at about 1½ pounds each, so I will bring those. We expect attendance to be sparse.
The moral of the story: If you're going to do something unknown to most people, it is better to educate them first. I think printing the Stone Soup story, along with its moral, on the back of the invitation would have been a good idea.
Wednesday 2012.11.14
Soup Weather
Finally, after a few more weeks in which there were daytime temperatures up in the 80s (and at least one day in the low 90s), soup weather finally arrived. Daytime temperatures are in the mid-60s, with nighttimes getting down into the 50s and 40s.
On Sunday evening I put dried beans in cold water to soak overnight. The next day I made a big pot of Pasta Fagioli. It is my all time favorite soup because when I was a little boy I used to eat it with my grandfather. His wasn't as healthy as healthy. He would chop a large block of hard pork fat until it was reduced to the texture of corn meal and then dump it all in the pot. My recipe is much more healthy.
This week I also started working on my next set of 25 projects to cook for this web site. I made a Tuscan version of Chicken Cacciatore. It doesn't use the vegetables (mushrooms, celery, etc.) that we see in the Italian-American versions served here in the USA. As usual, I did make some variations. I used boneless chicken, saving the bones and trim for making stock. And I served it over homemade pasta noodles. The recipe PDF and video will be uploaded to this web site and to YouTube in coming weeks.
Other than the above, there hasn't been much else happening. However, the warehouse store started stocking their fresh, not frozen, turkeys for the coming Thanksgiving holiday. Last year I bought two and deboned them. Then I roasted the meat and made stock with the trim. If I remember correctly, I had put more than 40 servings in the freezer for my Minute Meals.
Speaking of the coming holidays, I've been trying to decide on a recipe to feature for the week of Christmas. I don't have any projects planned that might be holiday fare, but I do have an Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon recipe and video "in the vault." That might work well as something to feature for a pleasant holiday breakfast, especially for those who have distant family members visiting. My mom used to make pancakes for those special breakfasts, which were great for the kids (and cheap), but eggs benedict seems better for the adults.
And speaking of "the vault," I now have enough finished projects to cover all my updates through the last week of January.
For the week of Thanksgiving, next week, I am filling a request. Someone wanted me to come up with a recipe for Chicken Riggies, a chicken and rigatoni dish that is popular in Utica, New York. Having never eaten it, I had no ideas. I did some research on the Internet. There were many suggested recipes, with many variations, but none seemed to nail it down. For example, there is one recipe for classic tiramisu. Variations are minimal. This is not the case with Chicken Riggies. Maybe the different restaurants in Utica each offer their own version of the dish. Nonetheless, I came up with a recipe that tasted good. Okay, I might have gone a little overboard, grilling bell pepper strips and extra chicken breast pieces for added presentation value. I will say that most of the recipes I found on the Internet used foods from cans and jars—shortcut methods to reproduce the dish. I used only fresh ingredients. It makes a difference. If you're going to do it, do it right. Look for Chicken Riggies on Sunday.
Sunday 2012.11.11
Time Off
As I've already mentioned in previous blogs, I'm taking some time off from cooking for this web site and from doing videos. I have enough recipes and videos "in the vault" to cover my updates through the end of the year and into January. I'll probably start up again in earnest at the end of this month. In the meantime, there is seasonal cooking to do.
I think it was last month when I blogged about returning to my routine of baking bread every other weekend. That is continuing.
Every year at this season the warehouse store stocks boxes of Chex cereal—rice, wheat, and corn Chex all in the same box. Those are for making Chex Mix snacks. The boxes will disappear in January. So I always make up some Chex Mix during this time of year. I make mine a little different. I don't like pretzels because they're too salty. The original recipe calls for seasoned salt and regular salt. I use only the seasoned salt; otherwise, the snacks are too salty. I also use fewer nuts. I substitute with small crackers, such as Goldfish and Cheez-Its.
This is also the time of year when I like to stock Irish Cream in the refrigerator. I make a double batch, enough to fill a large bottle (1.75 liters or nearly 2 quarts), and keep it chilled for when friends might visit. It's almost routine to sit and chat while drinking Irish Cream. The recipe comes from one of the books by Todd Wilbur, in which he attempts to reverse engineer many famous and popular foods for those who might want to reproduce them at home in their own kitchen. I do my Irish Cream a little differently. I use less whiskey (I don't like a strong drink) and I use heavy cream. Wilbur cautions against using heavy cream, warning that it tends to separate when the whiskey is added. I never have problems because I assemble my formula in a different order. Adding the whiskey at the end, after all the other ingredients are blended, manages to keep the cream from breaking.
Then there are the trailer park gatherings. Next weekend we have a Stone Soup gathering planned. If you don't know the fable, the European version has it as a few soldiers entering a small town and the people hide indoors, closing their doors and windows, knowing that soldiers are poor and they are always looking for handouts of free food. The soldiers have a cooking pot, which they set over a fire in the town. Using water from the public pump and stones found nearby, they begin making "stone soup." Curiosity makes a few people ask questions. The soldiers explain their delicious soup, which might be improved with a few carrots or potatoes, herbs, etc. Before long the townspeople are bringing ingredients, anxious to taste this marvelous soup. A good time is had by all. Moral: Miserliness gains us nothing.
In December we have a cookie gathering planned. We'll each bring a couple dozen cookies, some to share at the event and some for others to take home to their family. I'm not a big cookie fan, like some of the people I know, but I'll bring a batch of my mother's Italian Christmas Cookies, a recipe I worked on last year to correct my mother's recipe. She used water rather than butter or oil. They would turn into rocks after a few days. I joked about them, saying we weren't allowed to throw them in the house. I was amused when my twin brother wrote to me from Florida. "Remember how we weren't allowed to throw them in the house?" He remembered them as well as I did. I use butter in mine. They stay soft and tender for weeks, if they last that long.
Wednesday 2012.11.7
Post-Election Reflection
I watched the news almost all day yesterday, starting long before any of the polls closed. (I also watched a couple movies—I didn't waste the entire day.) Although I would probably describe myself as more liberal than conservative, I certainly have elements of both. I know Obama is not an excellent president. He certainly made some major errors in the first two years of his presidency, as the book Confidence Men by Ron Suskind clearly detailed. Nonetheless, I enjoyed watching the election results come in.
Many months ago I blogged something about my belief that the Republican party wasn't putting their best candidate forward this time around, knowing that an Obama win was a forgone conclusion, but that they were likely saving their real blue-chipper for 2016. I took some flack for that. One person wrote to say, "Stick to what you know—cooking." I had to wait many months, but yesterday's election results help make me feel I know more than just cooking. (I do read the books; I've read perhaps 20 books on U.S. politics. I am trying to finish Mann and Ornstein's book, It's Even Worse That It Looks, so that I can begin reading Bob Woodward's newest book, The Price of Politics.)
The Republican party not conceding Ohio, even though all networks gave the state to Obama, was fascinating news. The vote was extremely close; so I couldn't blame them for wanting to wait until more votes were reported. With about 75% of the votes counted, the difference was only around 1,500. Some of the later numbers showed Romney ahead, but I understood the projection. Most of the uncounted votes were in strongly Democratic districts. The Ohio issue seemed moot, however, as Obama was ahead in three of the four states that were still too close to call—Virginia, Florida, Nevada, and Colorado. (In Alaska the polls were still open.) Obama didn't really need Ohio.
Even more fascinating, though not surprising, was some of the post-announcement reactions, such as from Karl Rove and members of the Fox News team. It's not easy to lose. I've been there. It hurts. So I make no judgments. There is one person I still refuse to speak to after he sabotaged an employment opportunity that I really wanted.
And I was still tuned in for Romney's concession speech and Obama's victory speech. They both gave excellent speeches.
Okay, enough about all that. I have been doing videos and writing recipes for my web site, albeit at a really slow pace. When I really get going I do two or three videos per week, putting extras away for future use so that I can take a little time off. Well, I've been taking time off. Maybe I do one video per week, or maybe I skip a week. I did one for rack of lamb with mango chutney that fulfills a request made more than a year ago. The new video format is working well.
I am waiting for the stores to stock chestnuts, as they usually do during the holiday season that ends each year. I have a recipe that calls for caramelized chestnuts, which intrigues me.
Otherwise, it has been too hot to cook. On Monday the temperature climbed to 91°F (33°C). The weather is cooling again, and we are expecting rain later in the week. But it sure seems summer is refusing to concede to winter this year.
Sunday 2012.11.4
Rack of Lamb Again
Besides this week's featured recipe of Honey Glazed Lamb with Herbes de Provence, I also prepared rack of lamb for a friend, doing a video and photography for this web site as well. If there is one meat that I have yet to tire of buying and cooking, it is lamb. I love lamb. I almost always have it in my freezer, portioned for my Minute Meals. Rack of lamb is my favorite.
It wasn't always the case. I'd seen the racks in the meat case at the warehouse store, but I didn't know what to do with them. Leg of lamb is easy. I've been roasting it with various preparations for years. Rack of lamb, however, was something I hadn't tried. At a cost of $20USD or more per rack, it was too expensive for experimentation.
A friend encouraged me to look up recipes on line to get ideas for preparing the meat. There are several, but you won't find an abundance of suggestions. Basically you coat the outside with something like a spice rub and roast it, which is simpler than I thought it might be. Then, gaining experience with the cut of meat, new ideas come to mind and you've seen some of them here on my web site, such as Lamb Chops Saltimbocca or Lamb Chops Salsa Verde.
My latest cooking project with rack of lamb was to make mango chutney. I had been asked to consider this idea more than a year ago. However, some of the ingredients that go into chutney don't appeal to me. Red pepper flakes are one example. Curry powder, a lot of curry powder, is another. I don't like foods that are spicy hot. Even though I bought a relatively mild curry powder, it still had more of a kick than I enjoy.
Even worse, I followed a recipe by Alton Brown of Good Eats fame and ended up with almost a bucket of the stuff. What do you do with too much mango chutney? I prepared only one rack of lamb, enough for four servings (two if you like it as much as I and my friend do), which only calls for about a tablespoon or two of chutney on each plate. Meanwhile, I have more than six pounds of the stuff. Now what? I began visiting neighbors to give it away. That is one advantage of living in a friendly trailer park. You have plenty of neighbors with whom to share food. I can't guess what Alton Brown was thinking when he wrote that recipe. Was he cooking for a banquet? He must really love mango chutney.
This points out one of my flaws when cooking. I can often look at a recipe and detect where the proportions might be wrong, such as too little liquid when combining with dry ingredients. But I am not yet good at anticipating final volume. The recipe said "Make 4 cups." Six would have been more accurate. That should have been warning enough.
When I was purchasing four mangos, each weighing about a pound, I should have thought, "Hmm. That much? For two plates?" I haven't yet figured out how I am going to correct this issue in the video.
And one more point, unrelated to rack of lamb with mango chutney, is worth mentioning: The weather has cooled. My kitchen was only 62°F (17°C) this morning just a little after sunrise. It was 51°F (11°C) outside. That is ideal weather for baking; so I am back to making bread. I have plenty of potato water, so it should be a good bread season. Yesterday morning I baked two loaves. During the cooler months I typically bake bread every other weekend, and I've been using the same formula for years, although I use a stand mixer now. It feels good to be baking bread again.