Archive for the ‘General Articles’ Category
bauernwurst, bratwurst, Crystal Brook Mountain Brauhaus, knockwurst, Oktoberfest, Roast Loin of Pork, Schlachtfest, weisswurst
In General Articles on November 10, 2011 at 3:52 PM
With the dirge of Chopin’s Funeral March playing in the background, the men filed into the big room bearing ‘him’ on a board resting upon their shoulders. They were dressed in traditional Oktoberfest regalia: lederhosen hunting pants, loden green vests and green Bavarian hats with white feathers. He was adorned in the finest funereal style, an apple stuffed into his lipsticked mouth and a laurel wreath crowning his porcine head.
To the cheers and laughter of the ‘mourners’ the deceased was paraded around the room then returned to the kitchen, at which point the band switched to more upbeat music and the dancing began. We could have been someplace in the Bavarian Alps, but it was a Schlachtfest at the Crystal Brook Mountain Brauhaus Resort in the Catskill Mountains of New York State.
Our friends, she born in Germany and he in England, invited us and another couple to join them for this memorable October weekend a number of years ago. The three couples having been friends for years, and having traveled frequently together to Alaska, The Canal du Midi in France and Tuscany, as well as other less exotic destinations, always enjoyed each other’s company. So this promised to be a laughter-filled weekend, and it certainly was. It was also a pork and beer filled weekend.
The pork-fest began after about a ½ hour of athletic German dancing, which was fueled by steins of frothy German beer. So when the food began to arrive, the appetites were ready. First there was the traditional soup, followed by platters of knockwurst, bratwurst, bauernwurst and weisswurst, accompanied by bowls of sauerkraut and red cabbage.
The neophytes among us, thinking that this was the extent of the meal, foolishly gorged ourselves on this course, only to be surprised by the arrival of platters of roast pork with gravy, roasted potatoes and more sauerkraut and red cabbage. Despite the fullness of our stomachs, we dutifully managed to devour all, as it would have been an insult to the dearly departed not to have done so.
After dinner, there was a raffle. The guest of honor, having been expertly butchered while we dined on the remains of one of his cousins, was the prize. Ribs, chops, hocks and other assorted parts, neatly tied up in butcher’s paper, were handed out to the winning ticket holders. Unfortunately, none of us were among the winners. But, when it came to the grand prize, the pig’s head, we fervently hoped that we did not hold the winning ticket. Thankfully, we did not!
The rest of that weekend was a haze of more beer and more pork: bacon and sausages with breakfast, ham hocks and sausages for lunch, etc. Suffice it to say that after this pork-fest weekend, we abstained from anything swinish for quite some time.
However, each year, as the chilly nights of autumn become more frequent and the body begins to prepare for the long siege of winter, the atavistic urge for pork returns. So last week my wife prepared her splendid Roast Loin of Pork, with all of the traditional accompaniments: roasted potatoes, red cabbage and apple sauce, which we washed down with thirst-quenching beer. Let old man winter come! We are prepared!
firehouse meatloaf, heinz chili sauce, Meatloaf, mushroom gravy, the perfect meatloaf
In General Articles on November 4, 2011 at 12:36 PM
Meatloaf was a staple meal growing up. We were subjected to it at least 2 or 3 times a month in my family. I guess it was cheap and easy to make. However, it was always dry and tasteless. To compensate for that, prior to being baked, it was smothered in ketchup and draped with bacon. This didn’t help or do much to enhance the flavor or even make the meatloaf palatable. As a result, I avoided meatloaf for many years.
My rediscovery began in a diner, when a friend of mine ordered it and I laughed at him while pantomiming sticking my finger down my throat and making false gagging sounds. He just knowingly smiled, as he enjoyed his dinner and I behaved like a jerk. Before he devoured it entirely, along with fluffy mashed potatoes and obviously canned string beans, he offered me a morsel smothered in mushroom gravy. Eureka! This was unlike any meatloaf I had ever tasted previously.
A few years later another friend, a New York City Firefighter, introduced me to his special firehouse meatloaf, which was made with applesauce. Amazingly, it was not dried out and it was delicious. Thus began my hunt for how to make the perfect meatloaf.
The first thing I discovered was that ground beef, the classic ingredient in all of the meatloaf I had growing up, was too dry and its dryness was compounded by the addition of too many breadcrumbs, which are needed to bind it together. So step number one, reduce the quantity of breadcrumbs and supplement the ground beef with other ground meats that retain their moisture upon being baked; ground veal and ground pork together fit the bill.
Next for even more moisture I did use ketchup (later replaced by Chili Sauce), but rather than pouring it over the top, where it basically dried up in the oven, I added it to the mixture. This was supplemented by a bit of sour cream and the overall flavor was enhanced by the addition of Worcestershire Sauce. Finally, I figured that some fresh chopped herbs, particularly sage and thyme would certainly help in the flavor department as well.
The end result is: Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf. For the ultimate comfort food meal, serve it with mashed potatoes and a green vegetable of your choice. Wouldn’t mother be surprised?
Bell & Evans Chickens, Cremant de Loire, Fingerling Potatoes, free-range chickens, Loire Valley, Roast Chicken, Sunday Dinner, yukon gold potatoes
In General Articles on October 31, 2011 at 6:55 AM
Last weekend, one of our daughters and her family came for a visit. As working parents with a toddler and an infant, she and her husband do not have a lot of time to prepare big meals. So when she expressed a desire for a Sunday chicken dinner, we willingly and lovingly headed off to the market to get the fixings: large roasting chicken, vegetables, potatoes and, of course, dessert.
We settled on a seven pound Bell & Evans organic chicken and a colorful medley of fresh vegetables, which we decided to roast in keeping with the autumn season. Fingerling Potatoes, which are easy to prepare and have a great taste, were in stock so we chose them over Yukon Gold, which we frequently use, and Idaho and russet. Several herbs to enhance the chicken, vegetables and potatoes were obligatory, and for their healthful aspect, fresh berries for dessert. Preparing berries is quick and easy and seemed like a good counterpoint to all of the cooking required for the other dishes.
To accompany this autumnal feast we chilled a bottle of sparkling Crémant de Loire from the Loire Valley region of France, and to enrich the berries, a pint of heavy cream. We were so focused on cooking and eating this feast that I only remembered to take a photograph as we were clearing the table.
Here it is – No Leftovers!
No Leftovers!
The recipes for these delicious dishes can be found at:
• Roasted Chicken with Tarragon & Lemon Zest
• Roasted Herbed Vegetables
• Fingerling Potatoes Roasted with Rosemary
• Berry Compote
The beauty of this meal is that the vegetables and potatoes can both be cooked at the same, during the last hour that the chicken is roasting. and the prep for these two dishes can be done while the chicken is in the early roasting stage.
Beef Stew, Burgundy, Dutch Oven, French Oven, Le Creuset, Moms on the Go, Sous Chef, Stew
In General Articles on October 27, 2011 at 11:09 AM
As the leafs cascade onto the lawn in a profusion of yellow, red and brown and the outdoor thermometer dips below 60 degrees, it is time to resurrect the cast iron Le Creuset Oval French Oven from the basement and cook up a batch of stew. We invested in our 8 quart French Oven a number of years ago and it has served us very well over many years of stew making.
Although there are smaller French and Dutch ovens, we find that this size is right because if you are expending the time and effort to prepare a stew, you might as well make a big one. That way you can break it down into small portions, freeze them and have dinner made in advance for several wintry nights. This should appeal to ‘Moms on the Go’, as well as working singles and couples. Also, for some unfathomable reason, stews always seem to taste better after being re-heated. So go for the big French or Dutch oven.
Making a stew requires a fair amount of preparation time, as well as cooking time, so obviously should not be attempted for that evening’s meal. When my wife and I were both working outside of the home and raising our two daughters, we made our stews on a fall or winter weekend afternoon. Now that we both work from home, we can create one practically any day of the week.
There are a number of steps involved in preparing a stew, so it is a good idea to perform these up front, in order to keep the process moving right along. Of course if you have a sous chef nearby, dividing the labor will be even more expeditious. Steps such as: chopping the garlic and herbs, washing and quartering the potatoes, cleaning the mushrooms, and par-boiling and peeling the onions in advance, will serve to ease the job of making a stew.
Another labor saving step would be to buy the meat already cubed, but that usually is more expensive and you may not get the freshest and best cut of meat, which is we why we prefer to buy the whole piece and cut it ourselves. As the season progresses, we will be adding more stews to the recipe list. In the meantime, good cooking and good eating with Papa’s Hearty Beef Stew a la Burgundy.
brussel sprouts, brussels sprouts, cruciferous vegetables, Del Monte, hazelnuts, healthful vegetables, healthy eating
In General Articles on October 25, 2011 at 10:20 AM
Let’s face it, Brussel sprouts are good for you, but getting past the gag-inducing, cabbage smell is tough going. As with all cruciferous vegetables, such as cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and kale, Brussel sprouts are known to contain significant health benefits. But to obtain those benefits you have to eat them, as well as cook them properly beforehand.
My mother, being very health conscious, periodically tried to get us to eat Brussel sprouts. She would boil them and serve them with butter (ugh!), or boil them and serve them with onions and smothered in Del Monte tomato sauce (nice try, but it didn’t work!). Either way, the gag effect took hold for me as soon as she started boiling them. As a result, I could never get past the first taste. Poor Mom, she had good intentions, but didn’t know that boiling Brussel sprouts is probably the best way to destroy their nutritional value.
After reading several articles, skimming through various cookbooks, trying several techniques and listening to my daughter extol the virtues of roasted vegetables, I decided to try roasting Brussel sprouts with hazelnuts. The result proved to be delicious and, based on my readings, healthful. Please try Brussel Sprouts Roasted with Hazelnuts to see for yourself.
ceci, ceci beans, chianti, chick peas, garbanzo bean soup, garbanzos, grandma, indian road cafe, insalata de ceci, Inwood, Manhattan, pesto, tuscany, Vagliagli
In General Articles on October 23, 2011 at 6:09 PM
Grandma, who crossed the Atlantic 101 years ago on the Principe di Piemonte, with three children aged 7 and younger, loved ceci beans (chech-ee), which are also known as chick peas and garbanzo beans. As a callow youth with an unsophisticated palate, I hated them. To me, they were mealy and dry and I never tasted them again until about 10 years ago, when I had a ceci-based soup at a restaurant in Vagliagli, in the Chianti district of Tuscany. After that, I began to appreciate their texture, flavor and adaptability to a variety of uses. One such use is in Garbanzo Bean Soup.
Recently, I had occasion to have lunch with some friends at the Indian Road Café, in my old neighborhood of Inwood in northern Manhattan. I ordered a delicious shrimp sandwich, which came with a side salad of chick peas dressed with pesto. Having some pesto sauce remaining from the batch of Uncle Fred’s Homemade Pesto Sauce that I had made several weeks ago, as well as several cans of garbanzos in the pantry, I had an epiphany and headed out to the market to pick up a red onion, cucumber and lemon. The first of two of those items were visible in the salad as well as the chick peas and pesto, but I had no idea about the lemon, it just seemed the right addition.
The serendipitous result was Insalata de Ceci, named in honor of Grandma, who I believe would have loved this dish. The moral of this tale is ‘Listen to your grandma, as she is always right!’
basil, cinque terre, genoa, italian riviera, liguria, pesto, portofino, san remo
In General Articles on October 23, 2011 at 6:05 PM
As summer winds down into the first full month of autumn, the last of the basil has been picked. The memory of summer has long since faded as the leaves begin their whirling descent to blanket the lawn with brown, red and gold. While the outside air smells of autumn, the kitchen air is redolent with the vestiges of summer, freshly picked basil.
The aroma of basil has always meant summer to me; summer on the Jersey Shore, and summer vacations on Cape Cod, where our first stop was to see Uncle Fred and Aunt Jo. On those latter occasions, not only did Fred provide us with our first night’s dinner, but also with a basil plant that he had carefully tended, and which lasted for the entire month of our vacation.
So with October in the wind a few weeks ago, we picked the leaves from the last of our basil plants and decided to extend summer for a few weeks more by making pesto with a recipe from Uncle Fred. For a brief history of pesto and its ancient method of preparation, before the invention of blenders and food processors, check out the article in this link to the foods of Liguria. Liguria is one of the western-most regions of Italy, it borders on the French Riviera and encompasses Genoa, San Remo, Portofino, and Cinque Terre.
Crabmeat, Fillet of Sole, Shrimp
In General Articles on October 2, 2011 at 4:20 PM
Family, business and charitable work have been occupying our focus for the past two months, but now it is time to get back to cooking, writing and posting. The other night, to kick off the fall season,we decided to cook some fish inside the house, rather than on the grill. With no preconceived idea, other than indoor cooking, I visited our local fishmonger to see what was in that day’s catch. The grey sole was fresh and looked good, so I bought four small fillets, each weighing about 1/4 pound.
Now, how to prepare it? Sole lends itself to many preparations, but I noted some Maine crab-meat in the case and thought that would make a good base for stuffing, and to add a little variety, maybe some shrimp. Since I did not feel like cleaning, deveining and cooking the shrimp myself, I ordered a 1/4 pound of the cooked shrimp.
Having made a decision on the fish and the base for the stuffing, the next step was to see what was in the pantry that could finish the dish. I knew that we had breadcrumbs, as well as wine in which to poach the fish, and that the refrigerator held the staples of lemon, butter, parsley and garlic, so after picking up a bunch of asparagus at the fruit and vegetable market I headed home.
The parsley in the refrigerator proved to be limp and flavorless, but all of the other ingredients were there. Looking around the garden, I saw that there was still some fresh oregano and thought that could substitute for the parsley. The spice rack revealed hot Hungarian paprika, which not only adds spice but color, and…celery seeds! I had never used celery seeds and have no idea why I had bought them in the first place, but I thought that they could nicely round out the stuffing and they did, as you will see after you have tried the quick and easy Fillet of Sole Stuffed with Crabmeat and Shrimp.
Agence France-Presse, Cape Cod, CCC, DeKalb Avenue, Falmouth MA, Gun Hill Road, Italian Harlem, kale, parkchester, Principe di Piemonte, Yorkville
In General Articles on August 30, 2011 at 6:23 PM
Big Mike‘s older brother Fred was my godfather and favorite uncle. Fred was born in Italy and at the age of 7 emigrated to the U.S. aboard the Principe di Piemonte, accompanied by his mother and two younger sisters. They were met in New York by my grandfather, who had arrived in the U.S. a few years earlier in order to get established. Big Mike was born three years later in what was then known as Italian Harlem. Grandpa later moved the family to Yorkville, where he had a shoemaker business and where Big Mike grew up before he left for service with the CCC. Later grandpa and grandma moved to DeKalb Avenue off of Gun Hill Road in The Bronx, where, I believe, this photo was taken.
Dapper Fred with Grandpa
Fred was a consummate New Yorker whose sartorial elegance can be attested to in the above photo. He raised his family in Parkchester, the Bronx, while working for the Agence France-Presse in Midtown Manhattan. When Fred retired in the 1960s, he and his wife moved to Falmouth on Cape Cod. My wife and I, along with our two daughters, spent many summers on the Cape during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, before establishing residency there ourselves, a few years ago. During those summers we always stopped in to see Uncle Fred and Aunt Jo and bring them a supply of provisions from New York, which were unattainable on The Cape.
Fred invariably reciprocated with something from his freezer, which would serve as our first night’s dinner in our rental house. He also was generous in sharing his recipes, one of which was ‘Kale with Black Olives’. Kale, a dark leafy vegetable that serves as an excellent source of vitamins A and C, calcium and fiber, was one of his favorite vegetables and he used it both as a side dish and in soups. More of his recipes will be published in the future, but for now, I begin my tribute to Uncle Fred with Kale Steamed with Black Olives.
Also see: Uncle Fred’s Lentil Soup
Couscous, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, Greek Yogurt, Kirby Cucumbers, Lamb Chops, Lemon Juice, Mint, oregano, Provence, Roman Empire, Rosé, rosemary, sauteed broccoli, Sicily, The Levant
In General Articles on August 16, 2011 at 10:57 AM
Marinated Lamb Chops with Minted-Cucumber Yogurt Sauce
We are continually admonished to eat a nutritionally balanced meal consisting of protein, vegetable, grain and dairy. Such meals do not have to be boring. With some imagination and with the aid of spices and herbs you can whip one up that is both balanced and delicious.
The ancient Romans referred to the Mediterranean Sea as Mare Nostrum, our sea; and indeed it was, as for centuries, they controlled all of the land that surrounds it. At the height of the Roman Empire, its colonies stretched east from Spain along the southern coast of Europe to modern day Turkey and south along The Levant and then west again along the north coast of Africa.
Most of the cultures that occupy those lands share a commonality in food. In an Italian home, lamb is usually the main course for Easter dinner. In Greek cuisine, as it is in Middle Eastern and North African cultures, lamb is very much prevalent. Herbs, such as rosemary and oregano, cross cultural lines as well, as do garlic and olive oil.
Grains too are a staple food in these cuisines. Rice is prevalent in most of them, while couscous is more prevalent in Middle Eastern and North African diets, although it also shows up in Sicilian meals, as it does in French cooking, particularly in Provence.
Broccoli, which is very common in Italian cooking, is readily available in practically every market, as are cucumbers, which are the fourth most widely cultivated vegetable in the world. Yogurt, especially the low fat kind, is an excellent nutritional food and can be adapted to many dishes. It is prevalent in several Mediterranean cuisines, particularly that of Greece.
Last night, we put this all together and came up with a meal comprised of Marinated Lamb Chops, accompanied by a yogurt-based sauce consisting of low-fat Greek yogurt, cucumbers and mint. And for side dishes, we prepared broccoli sautéed in garlic and olive oil and packaged couscous, which is quick and easy to prepare.
To round out the meal, we served a chilled lovely Rosé, from the Côtes de Provence.
apricots, Boneless Center Cut Pork Chops, chutney, cognac, ginger, mangoes, Pork, the other white meat
In General Articles on August 9, 2011 at 6:37 PM
In 1987, pork producers in the USA along with their industry association, The National Pork Board, and their advertising/public relations firm, conceived of a brilliant marketing strategy designed to increase consumer acceptance of their product. Pork® The Other White Meat® was the brand that they developed and introduced in a nationwide PR campaign.
Historically, pork had been looked upon as being a fat-laden product, as compared to chicken, particularly skinless breast meat. Although pork consumption appears to have remained fairly steady since the start of the campaign, at least through 2004, beef consumption has declined, while chicken consumption continues to rise.
Besides having a lower fat content than most cuts of beef, processed pork (primarily boneless chops) and processed chicken (primarily boneless, skinless breasts) have another aspect in common, in my opinion. Both are basically bland and boring. Their redeeming feature is that they benefit from a variety of sauces, herbs and spices to make them enjoyable. See our recipe for Pork Chops Braised in Calvados, Caramelized Apples and Raisins.
Pork marries very well with many different fruits. Thinking about this and finding fresh, ripe mangoes in the market the other day, we remembered that we still had some boneless, center-cut, pork chops in the freezer. An inspection of the pantry revealed a jar of apricot preserve and a bottle of cognac, fresh ginger is usually on hand as well. So thinking about all of this, we came up with the idea of Broiled Pork Chops with Apricot-Mango Chutney. Grilled pork chops, which surely would have been just as delicious, were not possible that evening due to a torrential rain storm. So check out the recipe and let us know what you think.
Anchorage, Chinook Salmon, Coho Salmon, Cook Inlet, Denali National Park, Fairbanks, Falmouth Fish Market, Kenai Peninsula, King Salmon, Kustitan River, Prince William Sound, Salmon Roe, Silver Salmon, Susitna River, Valdez, Whittier
In General Articles on August 7, 2011 at 7:10 PM
About 20 years ago, my wife and I along with two other couples, the Nearys and the Matteys, all friends for more than 20 years prior to then, spent a week touring the Kenai Peninsula in an RV camper.
Our Home on the Road
We had such a great time that we repeated the trip the following year but with a different route; that time we went north to Denali National Park and Fairbanks, then turned south to Valdez and took the ferry across Prince William Sound to Whittier, from which we returned to Anchorage to fly home.
The highlight of both trips was Salmon Fishing. On both occasions we three guys went with a pilot/guide, by the name of Merrill, in his floatplane. The first time was southwest from Anchorage across Cook Inlet to the Kustatan River for Silver Salmon. Silvers are also known as Coho Salmon, which is how you will see them usually displayed in a fish market.
Merrill’s Floatplane on the Kustatan River
Silvers
The fishing trip the following year was for King Salmon, also known as Chinooks, which run considerably larger than the Silvers. That year we flew with Merrill north from Anchorage to the Susitna River.
To Catch a King
Someone else has a taste for Kings
Merrill was not only an excellent pilot, but a skilled guide as well. On both occasions he guided us to his well-scoped out fishing grounds, and as one can see from the photos, we were duly rewarded with a large catch of both Silvers and Kings. For bait, Merrill preferred salmon roe; because, as he explained it, salmon are very jealous and will go after another fish’s roe to destroy them and prevent any competition for their own spawn. Alaskan guides are prone to tall tales, so I don’t know whether or not this explanation is true, but it sure worked for us on both trips.
A Pair of Kings
Merrill did the cleaning and gutting for us. Upon returning to Anchorage we had the fish flash frozen and shipped home. Feasting on wild salmon was a treat that lasted for several months after our return and was a reminder of two great trips spent touring and having fun with good friends.
The recipes linked to this article were developed over the past 20 years with both the wild fish caught in Alaska and the less adventurous ones purchased from our local fish market.
Cedar Plank-Grilled Glazed Wild Salmon
chef scar, Moms and Dads on the Go, quick and easy meals, the literate chef
In For Moms on the Go, General Articles on August 7, 2011 at 1:00 PM
Our niece, who loves Chef Scar’s blog, is the busy mother of a 7 and a 9 year-old, each of whom are involved in multiple after-school activities. As a harried stay-at-home mom with serial joiners for children, she made a recent request, ‘how about some quick and easy recipes for moms on the go?’
To help her and other busy moms (and dads) with some tasty and interesting, but easy and quick to prepare one dish meals, we are adding a new category…For Moms on the Go.
From time to time we will be adding new recipes to this section, so if there are any mom and dad subscribers out there who think they have an idea for a quick, tasty and nutritious dish, or meal, that they would like to share with others, please send it to us and we will be happy to add it to For Moms on the Go and give them credit.
City Island, linguine, Little Italy, Roberto Restaurant, Shrimp Fra Diavolo, The Bronx
In General Articles on July 27, 2011 at 4:27 PM
The first time I had Shrimp Fra Diavolo was about 45 years ago at a now defunct Italian restaurant on City Island, The Bronx. Fra Diavolo was not on the menu in our household, which is surprising, given that my mother loved hot spicy food, as exemplified by her homemade hot sauce. As pointed out by her granddaughters, she loved it so, that much to my embarrassment, she even carried a little jar of her hot sauce in her silver-metallic purse.
We took her to dinner once at Roberto, perhaps the best Italian restaurant in NYC, and she ordered a special homemade pasta dish for which Roberto is deservedly famous. Mom tasted it, said it was delicious and then proceeded to whip out her little jar and spoon some of its contents onto her pasta. Thankfully, no one other than my wife and I noticed this cardinal sin and when I commented that if Roberto had wanted it to be eaten spicy, he would have added the hot pepper himself. Mom completely unabashed merely smiled and said that’s the way she likes it and since she’s paying for it, what should he care! I didn’t bother pointing out that I was paying for dinner.
Fra Diavolo (Brother Devil) is the name given to a spicy hot tomato-based sauce that is usually married with some form of seafood: lobster, shrimp, calamari, scungilli, mussels or a combination thereof. It is also frequently served with a side of pasta, or over pasta, such as linguine. Purists will try telling you that you never add cheese to seafood pasta dishes. I was lectured about that once by a South American waiter in an Italian restaurant in Little Italy, NYC. I told him thanks for the advice, but I always eat my macaroni with cheese, even if it has seafood it in, so please bring some.
For Linguine with Shrimp, Fra Diavolo, I tried making it several ways. First I made a hot sauce similar to an Arrabiata and merely added the raw shrimp to the sauce to cook them. The shrimp were lost in the sauce. Then I tried sautéing the shrimp in garlic and oil and adding them to the sauce at the last minute. That was preferable to my palate. Finally, I tried making a basic marinara sauce and then sautéing the shrimp as before, but adding hot pepper and white wine to the sautéing process, this proved to be the best approach in that the shrimp stood out against the sauce. This technique has the added benefit that if one of your family or guests is not a seafood lover, you can merely serve them linguine with marinara sauce and avoid having to make two meals.
In my recipe connected with this article, you can prepare it either way, by adding hot pepper to the sauce and the shrimp, or just to the shrimp; however the circumstances dictate. Buon appetito!
Continuing on with seafood, since it is summer and the grilling season is well under way, please see: Catching Wild Salmon in Alaska and Cooking Wild Salmon at Home.
atlantic highlands, jersey central rr, madeleines, marcel proust, monmouth park, raritan bay, sandy hook, steamships, tomato salad
In General Articles on July 24, 2011 at 5:13 PM
I was 7 years old in the winter of 1950 when my maternal grandfather disappeared from my life. In my childhood memories, he was big and loud, gregarious and full of laughter, and when he died I missed him greatly and still do, all of these years later.
Grandpa Tom
Grandpa Tom owned the Maple Grove, a hotel/boarding house in Atlantic Highlands, NJ. We used to visit him every summer and sometimes at Christmas, from what I can recall. On the summer trips my parents would usually stay for a week and then return to NYC, while I would stay on for several more weeks with my cousins. Getting to Atlantic Highlands from the Inwood neighborhood of Northern Manhattan, without a car, was quite an adventure during the 1940’s, and to my 5 and 6 year old mind, seemed to consume most of the day.
Those summer excursions involved several modes of transportation: subway, taxi, boat and car. My mother, father and I took the A train from 207th Street to 42nd Street, then a cab from 8th Avenue to 12th Avenue, where we boarded a Hudson River Day Line steamboat such as the Chauncey M. Depew, the Peter Stuyvesant, or the Robert Fulton. These excursion steamships took us down the Hudson River, past the Statue of Liberty and Staten Island, out into Lower New York Bay, and then, with Sandy Hook off to the port side, into Raritan Bay. The boats docked at the pier, a long, rickety (to a 5 or 6 year old boy) wooden pier that jutted out into Sandy Hook Bay, where Grandpa would meet us on the pier with his big black car and drive us to his hotel. The pier is long gone and has been replaced by a new marina which offers fast ferry service to NYC.
Besides bringing me to see Grandpa, the excursion boats brought vacationers to the Jersey Shore and gamblers to Monmouth Park Racetrack. In addition to Grandpa’s car waiting for us on the pier, there were numerous buses to take the gamblers to the Racetrack, and Jersey Central trains to take the vacationers farther down The Shore.
Each summer, as the calendar inexorably moves from July into August and fresh, locally grown, tomatoes begin to make their appearance at farm stands and markets, and the scent of fresh grown basil fills the air of our kitchen, I return in my mind to those idyllic summer days in Atlantic Highlands with Grandpa Tom. The combined perfume of tomatoes and basil acts upon me as did the taste of a madeleine act upon Proust, bringing me back to the kitchen of the hotel, where Grandpa has just picked the tomatoes from his garden, shred the basil picked from his plants, and mixed the two together with garlic, olive oil and salt to make his tomato salad. For further reading on memories triggered by certain foods see How to Cook Like an Italian Grandmother.
My mother continued the tradition of making this summer delight and I carry it on from her. Our family and friends now enjoy Grandpa Tom’s Tomato Salad and all agree that the best part is sopping up the juice with crusty Italian bread after the tomatoes have been devoured. I hope that you enjoy it as well and it causes you to think about some of your own childhood food memories.
Another reader recently asked about shrimp and what to do with it. Shrimp to my mind has practically no flavor at all, just texture. Brother Devil, the next article, will show how to compensate for the lack of flavor in shrimp!
Biloxi, Dixie beer, Fish, Keesler AFB, Leghorn, Livorno, Red Snapper, Red Snapper alla Livornese, tuscany
In General Articles on July 11, 2011 at 10:01 PM
Growing up Catholic in the 1940s and 50s, meatless Fridays were obligatory. As a result, fish in some form or another, was invariably on the menu. Because fish usually meant some type of fried or frozen denizen of the sea, which when defrosted and ‘cooked’ tasted more like cardboard, meatless Fridays truly were a sacrifice. That is unless it was my father’s turn in the kitchen and he would cook his specialties, either Spaghetti with Del Monte Sauce or Linguine with Cauliflower Sauce, neither of which engendered much of a sacrifice on the part of me or my sister.
It wasn’t until I was on active duty in the Air Force and stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi Mississippi, that I realized that fish could be caught and served fresh, did not have to stink, and actually could be delicious. The first such discovery was at a restaurant on the bayou that specialized in freshly caught, fried catfish, French fries and Dixie beer. It was an epiphany for this New York City born and bred boy and I loved every meal there.
Eventually, I worked up the courage to try other species of fish and other styles of preparation. Today, I will eat pretty much any type of fish and enjoy it baked, blackened, broiled, fried, poached, smoked, or raw in sushi and sashimi. Both the French and the Italians have ways of preparing fish that will soon make you forget that it was ever a sacrifice to abstain from meat. Today, on those rare occasions such as Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all other Lenten Fridays, when most Catholics must abstain from meat, which my wife will insist that we do, I readily agree and prepare a fish-based meal that when being consumed makes me smile at the ‘sacrifice.’
One poaching method for fish that is particularly delicious, is ‘alla Livornese,’ i.e., in the style of Livorno, Italy. Livorno, also known as Leghorn, is a seacoast city in Tuscany. The term, alla Livornese, usually means that it is cooked with tomatoes and is spiced up with garlic, onion, capers and olives. For Red Snapper alla Livornese I use a combination of fish stock or clam broth and white wine as the poaching liquid. If you cannot find Red Snapper, any firm fish such as Striped Bass or Swordfish will work just as well; simply adjust the cooking time, depending upon the thickness of the fish. I usually figure 8 to 10 minutes for Red Snapper, 12 or so minutes for Striped Bass and up to 15 minutes for Swordfish Steaks.
For a variation, try baking your fish oreganata style, see: Striped Bass Oreganata for the basic oreganata preparation. Another excellent method of cooking fish is grilling it, especially on a cedar plank, see: Cedar Plank-Grilled Glazed Wild Salmon. Swordfish steaks also lend themselves to great summer grilling and Pineapple Mango Salsa goes great with Grilled Swordfish. Poaching also works particularly well with stuffed fish like sole, Fillet of Sole Stuffed with Crabmeat and Shrimp. With summer in full swing and fresh local tomatoes becoming available, I think that you should continue your reading with: Memories of Summer at The Shore.
Apple Brandy, Apples, Cafe, Calvados, Ernest Hemingway, Midnight in Paris, Montmartre, Normandy, Paris, Pork Chops, Woody Allen
In General Articles on July 6, 2011 at 3:07 PM
It wasn’t until 1991, on my first visit to Paris, that I tasted Calvados. I had read about the famous apple brandy from Normandy in Hemingway’s books and had seen it being drunk by characters in the French films to which I was addicted in the 1950s and 60s. But I never had the occasion to order it, until actually sitting in a Parisian café in Montmartre, where it was the natural thing to do.
Montmartre, December 2, 2005
I had it again on subsequent visits to France, in 1992 when we visited our older daughter who was doing a semester abroad in Aix en Provence, where I sipped it watching the pedestrian parade along the Cours Mirabeau and again in 1999, on a trip to the Languedoc-Roussillon region and the Canal du Midi. The most recent occasion had been in 2005 in Paris where we celebrated our wedding anniversary. That time I brought a bottle of it back home with me. That bottle had been sitting unopened on my liquor shelf ever since, that is until last week.
Recently my wife and I saw the latest Woody Allen film, Midnight in Paris and, as was the case with the French films of the 50s and 60s, the characters were drinking Calvados. That’s when it hit me that I still had that imported bottle of Calvados, and it might be interesting to use it for cooking. So I began thinking…what goes well with apples, the essence of Calvados? Pork immediately came to mind, pork chops or roast pork is usually accompanied by applesauce, so voilà, pork chops and Calvados!
Okay, well then maybe I should also add apples to give the dish some substance, that way I can skip the side dish of applesauce. Next, I thought, caramelized apples would make it even sweeter. My wife joined the production by suggesting that I add raisins as well, since they frequently appear as a sweetener in gravy for baked ham.
This was beginning to come together; all it needed now was some herbs to further enhance the dish. That part was easy, sage and rosemary each have a natural affinity to pork, thus, emerged my plan. Now it was just a matter of executing that plan and putting it all together.
I hope that you enjoy the result, Pork Chops Braised in Calvados, Caramelized Apples and Raisins, we certainly did! One of our readers recently asked for some fish recipes. Lest I be accused of having ichthyophobia please continue reading at: Fish is not Just for Fridays, Anymore.
Anna Maria Volpi, Artusi, Gino's Cafe Restaurant, Pellegrino, Pellegrino Artusi
In General Articles on June 18, 2011 at 10:46 AM
One of the interesting things that I have discovered about Italian cooking is that unlike French cooking, and notwithstanding the opus of Pellegrino Artusi, The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well, there does not appear to be a codification of recipes for Italian cuisine. This is explained very succinctly by Anna Marie Volpi on her website.
The first time I had Chicken Scarpiello was at a now defunct neighborhood restaurant on Allerton Avenue and Boston Post Road in the Bronx. During the 1970s and 80s, we used to visit Gino’s regularly, it had good food, a decent wine list, reasonable prices, a lively crowd and valet parking. What more could one ask for? Maybe the food wasn’t particularly adventurous and perhaps the chef wasn’t a celebrity, but the place was reliable. I never had a bad meal at Gino’s, R.I.P.!
Their Chicken Scarpiello was served, with its skin, on the bone, making it very moist, but difficult to eat and a bit too greasy for my arteries. But they served it with sausage and that, in my opinion made it special…as a matter of fact, anything with sausage is special (be sure to check out my Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage.)
The next time I saw Chicken Scarpiello on a menu, I ordered it fully expecting to see it come out like Gino’s. This time there was no sausage, and I, in my naiveté, inquired of the waiter as to what happened to the sausage. His haughtily delivered reply was that Chicken Scarpiello was NEVER served with sausage; my first lesson in the vagaries of Italian cucina.
After several more restaurant disappointments with Chicken Scarpiello, I developed my own recipe, Chicken Scarpiello alla Chef Scar,and now I will share it here. This recipe went through several iterations with the chicken, as I struggled to find the right combination. I started with chicken breasts and wanting to reduce the grease level, I first removed the skin and quartered the breasts, but that still left the little bone particles. Next I tried skinless, boneless, chicken breasts, also known as chicken cutlets, but upon cooking they dried out too soon. Realizing that chicken thighs might retain their moisture longer, I substituted skinless thighs in the next development stage. This was a great improvement and since the thighs only had a large bone, this solved the splintered bone issue. Then I discovered skinless, boneless, chick thighs and found the right combination.
What’s next you ask, how about some more pork. After all, it is ‘the other white meat’. Check it out at: Midnight (and Calvados) in Paris
Antoine's, Biloxi, Brennan's, Galatoire's, Hurricanes, Montmorency Falls, New Orleans, Pat O'Briens's, Preservation Hall, Quebec City, Steak au Poivre
In General Articles on May 23, 2011 at 7:01 AM
I don’t think I had ever tasted French cuisine until I was stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi Mississippi. No, even though the Air Force is reputed to eat better than the Army, Navy and Marines, French cooking was not in the repertoire of the mess hall sergeant and his cooks at Keesler; that treat was to be experienced in the city of New Orleans, which lies 90 miles to the west of Biloxi and was our escape destination whenever we had the money and a 48 hour pass.
New Orleans in the 1960s was divine, especially after a couple of weeks cooped up on the base. Waiting to be discovered were such renowned restaurants as Antoine’s, Brennan’s and Galatoire’s, along with Dixieland Jazz, Hurricanes at Pat O’Brien’s, Jambalaya at The Court of the Two Sisters, and Beignets at Café du Monde, which tasted particularly delicious accompanied by an espresso at four in the morning.
Steak au Poivre (with Pepper), Oysters Rockefeller and Banana’s Foster, comprised my introduction to French style cooking in New Orleans. I was used to having steak at home, cooked in the oven by Big Mike; although usually rare on the inside, it was grey on the outside, chewy and not all that interesting. Steak served with a delicious sauce was a revelation.
Several years later, I learned to prepare it myself after first following the recipe in The New York Times Cookbook, authored by Craig Claiborne. Subsequently, after many additions, deductions and consultations with other home cooks, I perfected what was then my recipe. It was a staple in our family until 1986, when I had a eureka moment.
During the summer of 1986, my wife and I took our two daughters to Quebec City for a week’s vacation. It was my fourth visit to that beautiful city and my wife’s second. Quebec City has a distinctively European atmosphere. For the girls, it was their first trip outside of the country and would serve as a foretaste of what they would later see and experience in Europe. We stayed at the Chateau Frontenac in a suite overlooking, and high above, the St. Lawrence River. After each day of sightseeing in the city, or taking side trips to Chute Montmorency, the Shrine of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré, the foothills of the Laurentian Mountains, or the Ile d’ Orleans, we strolled the streets of the city, perused the menus in the windows and chose a restaurant for dinner.
For each of the first six nights, we selected a different restaurant in which to eat. My wife, our older daughter and I ordered varied meals in each, but our younger daughter, who was 9 at the time, ordered the same thing every single night…Steak au Poivre! That was the only French dish that she knew and clearly loved, so to her way of thinking, why experiment and wind up with something yucky?
On our last night, having pretty much exhausted the restaurants that were most appealing to us, we asked the ‘Steak au Poivre girl’ which restaurant had the best. Unhesitatingly, she proudly selected one and that’s where we went. The sauce on the Steak au Poivre was different from what I had been making for the previous 18 or so years, it had cream in it! That was my epiphany. Cream was not in Craig Claiborne’s original recipe, with which I had started and from which I had adapted mine. To my palate it was what had been missing.
This recipe for Steak au Poivre has been served to family and friends for almost 25 years and I am happy to share it with you. From beef, we move on to ‘the original white meat’ chicken at: Chicken Scarpiello; Everybody Makes it Differently!
Balsamic Vinegar, Center Cut Boneless Pork Chops, Pork, Pork Chops, Roasted Peppers, Sweet Peppers, Vinegar Peppers
In General Articles on May 13, 2011 at 9:20 AM
Enough with the pasta! Now it’s time for some meat dishes – more protein and fewer carbs. Pork is promoted by its producers as ‘the other white meat‘ and like chicken, the ‘original white meat’, it is sold in many different forms: roasts, tenderloin, pork shoulder, sausages and ribs, and of course chops, either on the bone or boneless. It is also adaptable to a variety of different cooking methods: frying, roasting, broiling, braising and barbecuing.
Also like chicken it goes well in combination dishes cooked with a variety of vegetables. Different sauces and spices enhance its flavor and keep it from becoming boring. A popular Southern Italian dish is Pork Chops with Vinegar Peppers. Vinegar peppers are sweet peppers that are packed and sold in jars like roasted sweet peppers; however, they are preserved primarily in vinegar and spices. The problem is that they are not always easy to find.
As a result, we developed our version after experimenting with different types of peppers. We tried fresh peppers, both red and green, as well as jarred ones. The fresh peppers required a lot of cooking time up front and frankly added little to the finished product. Ultimately we settled on a combination of hot and sweet jarred papers. We also experimented with red wine vinegar and white wine vinegar, but found them both to be too harsh, too acidic; eventually we decided upon balsamic vinegar.
Another issue with pork, particularly pork chops, is that it tends to dry out quickly in cooking. Therefore it benefits from braising, i.e., being cooked in liquid. We chose to cook these pork chops in white wine to keep them moist and add a bit of flavor. Pork Chops with Hot and Sweet Peppers is delicious, quick and easy to make and another family favorite.
Where’s the beef? Check it out at: Steak! It’s What’s for Dinner!
The Literate Chef 