Columns from the Star News:
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     April 30, 2008 - Kitchen Comedy
    April 16, 2008 - Horseradish
    April 2, 2008 - Scallops
    March 12, 2008 - Empty Bowls
     February 20, 2008 - Immigrantion Can Be Delicious
     February 6, 2008 - Barley Hops to the Rescue
     January 23, 2008 - Bringing Barbeque Inside
     January 9, 2008 - Beat the Winter Blues
     December 26, 2007 - New Year's Traditions and Rationalizations
     December 12, 2007 - I Left My Artichoke Hearts in San Francisco
     November 14, 2007 - Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes
    October 28, 2007 - The Beet Goes On
    October 3, 2007 -  Kosher Salt
    September 19, 2007 - Food Fixations
    September 5, 2007 - Kitchen Safety
    August 22, 2007 - Catering Disasters
                                    Recipe:  Foolproof Chocolate-Coconut Fondue
     August 8, 2007 - Taking the Moroccan Challenge
                                Recipes include Chicken with Lemon and Olives, Preserved Lemons
     July 25, 2007 - Vegas, Baby: Celebrity Chefs
                               Recipes include Ahi Tuna Tartare
     July 11, 2007 - Chillin' and Grilling -
                               Recipes include Killer Burgers, Asian Noodle Slaw and Tabbouleh
     June 27, 2007 - It Takes a Village to Make a Sandwich -
                                Recipes include Turkey Avocado Wrap
     June 13, 2007 - Seeing Meatballs in a New Light -
                                Recipes include Larry's Turkey Meatballs
     May 16, 2007 - A Good Cup of Tea is Hard to Find -
                                Recipes includeTea-Smoked Duck Breast with Blackberry Demi Glace
     May 2, 2007 - Bits about Bacon -
                             Recipes include Marinated Bacon-Wrapped Grouper Bites and Spaghetti Carbonara
     April 18, 2007 -  Veggie Sweepstakes:  Asparagus -
                                 Recipes include Crispy Asparagus and Asparagus Flan
     April 4, 2007 - Pack Up Your Knives!  -
                              Recipes include French Onion Soup
     March 21, 2007 - Eggrolls:  Not Just for Take-Out Anymore -
                                   Recipes include Chicken and Jack Cheese Eggrolls, Shrimp and Crab Rolls with
                                   Raspberry Mustard
     March 7, 2007 - Parsley for President -
                                Recipes include Gremolata, BLT Dip, Herbed Goat Cheese
     February 21, 2007 - Black Beans:  Rock Stars of the Legume World -
                                       Recipes include Black Bean Soup, Seared Tuna with Black Beans, Pico de Gallo
     February 14, 2007 - Spice Up Your Life with Red Curry Paste -
                                       Recipes include Thai Butternut Squash Soup, Salmon with Red Curry Sauce
     February 7, 2007 - Aphrodisiacs:  Foods of Love -
                                     Recipes include Baked Champagne Oysters, Arugula Salad with Blood Oranges

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Column – Kitchen Sit-Com

 I love my job.  This isn’t news to any of you who have been reading this column for any amount of time, but it bears repeating.  I would love it even more if it wasn’t for the obligatory paperwork, maintenance chores and the other scut work that is involved in keeping a business afloat, but overall I’ve got a pretty good deal. 

 That might sound like an odd thing to say about a vocation that by definition includes unpredictable hours, unlimited stress, plenty of heavy lifting and room temperatures that are often uncomfortable – and don’t even get me started on the ugly footwear thing again – but the fact is that I probably spend more time in the average day laughing than most of the people I know.

 Cooking isn’t brain surgery.  Sure, there’s a certain attention to detail that is necessary if you’re going to do it right, but a great deal of what we do in the kitchen is routine, and doesn’t require a lot of concentration once you’ve done it a few hundred times.  And the people who are attracted to this profession tend to be, how do I say this – a little off-beat.  Strange, even.  Anyway, we’re all just a teensy bit odd.  Hmm.  Maybe it is a bit more like brain surgery that I’d thought.  Anyway . . .

 So in any kitchen on a given day you’ve got a cast of characters with busy hands, definable goals and minds that are free to roam.  In an unbalanced kitchen, this combination can lead to a work environment that is fraught with bad temper, mind games and power plays (and if you don’t believe me, just watch Top Chef for, oh, thirty seconds – then please change the channel or go back to leading a productive life).  In a good kitchen, however, this same environment lays the groundwork for moments of comic genius.

 I’ve always been amazed that the powers-that-be at the television networks have never managed to put together a successful sit-com that is based in a restaurant kitchen.  I know they’ve tried.  A few years back, even I was feeling sorry for Emeril after his disastrous attempt at comic acting – and I’m much more likely to be annoyed by the ubiquitous Food Network star than to feel any sympathy for him. 

 It’s possible that the spontaneous kitchen humor that gets me through the day isn’t reproducible, and I’d believe that  if it wasn’t for the fact that I know that when I go to work tomorrow I’ll have at least two episodes of that full belly laughter that just makes you glad to be human.  And that’s on a slow day.

 Hey, I’m not trying to leave you guys out, but even in an open kitchen with customers walking in and out, the best moments are just ours.  Mostly, when you walk into the store we try to be on our best behavior – and it’s not easy for kitchen geeks to be charming.  We do our best, but there’s a good reason why 95 percent of the people in foodservice are hidden behind kitchen doors.   My people are the most competent, irreverent, and silly people I’ve ever known, but even on our best days we’re the Not-Quite-Ready-For-Prime-Time cooks. 

To answer the question that you haven’t quite formulated in your head yet:  Yes.  I’ve often thought of installing a camera in the kitchen so that I can catch our most amusing moments on film, reproduce them word for word and become the most amazingly successful comedy writer in Hollywood.  But that would mean giving up the day-to-day comedy show that is my life.  Besides, I just like Being There. 

 So … A man walks into a restaurant . . .

 Does a double twirl with an enthusiastic hands-out flourish while saying something like “What’s hot today, kids”, to which we all answer, “YOU ARE!”  At which point he winces and puts his hand to his hip and says, “I think I might have hurt myself with that entrance.”  And we all clapped and cheered..  See, it’s not just the employees who are funny.

 Good Mojo Spicy Garlic Chicken Pizza

 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons golden brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 pound skinless boneless chicken breat, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
2 tablespoons sriracha (Thai hot chili garlic) sauce
6 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 Boboli bread shells
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded provolone cheese
3 large plum tomatoes, seeded, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)

 Heat 1/4 cup oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Add onions and sauté 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and sauté until onions are dark brown and caramelized, about 25 minutes. Add sugar, vinegar and 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic; stir until liquid evaporates, about 2 minutes longer. Cool to room temperature.  (Can be done up to two days before and stored in an airtight container in the fridge)

Sprinkle chicken cubes with salt. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in another heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and sauté 2 minutes. Add remaining 1 tablespoon garlic and sauté 2 minutes. Add chili sauce and sauté 1 minute. Remove chicken from heat. Stir in 3 tablespoons cilantro.  (Can be done up to two days before and stored in an airtight container in the fridge)

To assemble and bake:  Preheat oven to 425°F. Mix mozzarella, Swiss and provolone cheeses in large bowl. Sprinkle cheese mixture, tomatoes, onions, chicken and remaining 3 tablespoons cilantro over pizzas, dividing equally. Bake pizzas until cheese melts, about 8 minutes.

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Column – Horseradish

I never knew my great grandfather other than through stories that were told to me by my grandfather when I was a child.  His reputation was that of a resourceful, hardworking man who was a talented gardener and small-time entrepreneur.  He worked for a local university in the agricultural department, but he ran a number of side businesses, most of them based on products he made from the produce that he grew in his yard.  He made dandelion wine and moonshine, preserves and canned vegetables, but his claim to fame was his horseradish.

 My grandfather often told of how he and his brothers and sisters would sit on the wide front porch of his house while they grated the fresh horseradish root with a box grater.  All of his friends would be playing ball and having fun, but there sat my poor grandfather with tears streaming down his face from the fumes of the horseradish root.   Years after he grated his last piece of horseradish, my grandfather was still a bit outraged at the experience.  His horseradish story was his favorite illustration for his grandchildren of just how easy we all had it.  It was our family’s equivalent of the “walking five miles to school every day, barefoot in the snow, and uphill both ways” story.  We, of course, would accuse him of exaggeration, poetic license or outright falsehood.  “Rotten kids,” I can still hear him muttering.  Lovingly, of course.

 Flash forward to a cooking class at Coriander’s about two weeks ago.  This particular class was taught by Josh Johnson of Hampstead Wines, so I had the chance to sit in the back of the class with other the bad kids and enjoy myself.  I found myself sitting next to Jerry Johnson, Josh’s father, who is a delightful man.  In the course of one of the recipes, Josh started talking about horseradish and Jerry turned to me and said, “I hate horseradish.  I will never eat it if I can help it.”  When I asked him why, he started telling me a story about when he was a kid, sitting on the front porch of his house grating horseradish and crying his eyes out from the fumes.  The story as he told it was exactly like my grandfathers, except for the fact that Jerry used a hand-crank grater instead of a box grater.  It doesn’t sound like the advance in technology made the job any less horrible.  When I told Jerry about my grandfather’s version he assured me that, if anything, grandfather was under-exaggerating the pain and suffering that horseradish-grating can cause.

 Fortunately, kitchen grating technology has continued to evolve since Jerry was a kid, and with a food processor it is possible to make very fresh horseradish with relatively few tears.   Fresh horseradish root actually has very little odor at all – until you grate it.  When the plant cells are ruptured, they release a mustard oil which is a powerful irritant to the eyes and sinuses.

 To grate your own horseradish in a food processor, wash and peel the roots and dice it into small cubes. Place the cubes in a food processor jar. Process no more than half a container at a time. Add a small amount of cold water. Add several crushed ice cubes. Put the cover on the food processor. When the root reaches its desired consistency, add white vinegar. Use 2 or 3 tablespoons of white vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt for each cup of grated horseradish.  The time at which you add the vinegar is important. Vinegar stops the enzymatic action in the ground product and stabilizes the degree of hotness.

 When you remove the lid from the food processor, BE VERY CAREFUL not to inhale any of the fumes.  Trust me on this one.  Or trust Jerry and my grandfather.  At the very least, it is a mistake you will make only once.

 Horseradish root is normally harvested in the spring and the fall.  Fall horseradish is supposed to be more pungent, and the fresh the root is, the hotter it will be. 

 Prepared horseradish will loose its power over time, and if it darkens in color it should be thrown out.  Store prepared horseradish in glass jars with a tight-fitting lid in the refrigerator.

 Horseradish is a great condiment for cured or roasted meats, deli sandwiches and is a versatile seasoning that can be added to pasta salads, dips, spreads and soups. 

 Seared Salmon with Sautéed Apples and Horseradish Chantilly
Serves 2
This is one of my favorite ways to eat salmon.  The horseradish Chantilly is a simple sauce that is easy to make and very versatile.

 ½ cup whipping cream
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup prepared horseradish or to taste
3 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tablespoons butter
pinch of kosher salt
2 6-8-ounce fillets of salmon, skin off

 Whip cream until stiff peaks form.  Fold in sour cream and prepared horseradish.  Season with salt and pepper.  Set aside, chilled, until ready to use.

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

 In a sauté pan, melt butter until foaming.  Add apples and pinch of kosher salt and sauté apples until they are cooked through.  Set aside and keep warm.

 Season salmon fillets with salt and pepper and spray top thoroughly with cooking spray.  Heat a heavy ovenproof sauté pan over high heat and add salmon to the pan, sprayed side down.  Sear salmon for about two minutes.  Remove pan from heat and spray the exposed side of the fish thoroughly.  Return pan to heat, and flip salmon over and put pan in the oven until fish is done to your liking.

 To serve, put warm apples on a plate, and top with the fish.  Put a dollop of the Chantilly sauce on the fish and pass the rest of the sauce on the side.

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Column – Scallops

 This week I’ve got a taste for scallops.  Like most seafood, the quality of the scallops that you buy will have more impact on the taste of your dinner than anything I can teach you to do in a kitchen. 

 Truth is, shopping for seafood requires a rather unique frame of mind.  You may have an idea that you want salmon for dinner, but you must still be prepared to be critical when you look at the seafood display case.  If the salmon looks old, you’ve got to be flexible enough to move on and check out the grouper.  If the grouper is dried out or spotty, examine the tuna.  If the tuna has a rainbow sheen, keep moving (and start considering a trip to another fishmonger!)  But when you start to look at the scallops, you might have some questions about what, exactly, you are looking for. 

 Although there are dozens of species of scallops in the world, American cooks are likely to run across only three species:  sea scallops, bay scallops and calico scallops. 

 Calico scallops are sometimes sold as bay scallops, even though they are smaller,  have less flavor, and are thoroughly cooked during processing.  They look like pencil eracers and have a similar flavor.  This is all you need to know about calico scallops:  Avoid these.

 Bay scallops are smaller than sea scallops, are harvested from October through March.  They’re very expensive and hard to find around in this area, so let’s not worry about learning about bay scallops today, either. 

 So that just leaves us with sea scallops.  Sea scallops are almost always shucked at sea and usually on boats that stay out for up to 10 days, so they are rarely perfectly fresh.  It is common practice to soak them for several hours in a tripolyphosphate solution to plump them up and help preserve them.  This is disastrous if you sautee scallops, because that liquid  runs out when the scallop gets hot, making it impossible for the scallop to brown – instead, they steam in the runoff.  These scallops are called “wetpack” scallops.  They have a shiny appearance and are significantly cheaper than “drypack” scallops.  They also have a somewhat metallic flavor that I find unpleasant.

 “Drypack” scallops have not been soaked and can vary in color from white to ivory to pinkish orange.  They are more expensive and have a shorter shelf life, but the flavor and texture are far superior to the wetpack scallops.  These are my scallops of choice.

 Quick-frozen scallops are frozen immediately after being shucked instead of being kept in a refrigerated ship’s hold for up to 10 days.  Their flavor is superior to wetpack scallops.  If you decide to use frozen scallops, you must defrost them completely before cooking and store them in a pan lined with a kitchen towel to absorb the moisture that they will “sweat” as they defrost.  Dry again with paper towels before cooking.

 A word about frozen scallops:  I usually ask my fishmonger when they defrosted the scallops in the display case, and the answer I get is always “This morning.”  While it’s possible that I just have phenomenal luck and timing, chances are that the person answering the questions isn’t quite sure when the scallops were taken out of the freezer, but they’re pretty sure they know what I want to hear.  If I have to use frozen scallops, I always ask for the ones that are still frozen so that I know for sure that they will be fresh when I want to use them.

 So how do you tell the difference between wetpack, drypack and previously frozen scallops?  The person who sells it to you will know – and if you’re smart enough to ask the question, they’ll probably give you a straight answer.  Also, look at the price.  Chances are pretty good that if the price is low, you’re looking at wetpack.  Move on. 

Scallops size is designated by the number per pound.  U-10 (under 10 per pound) scallops are huge, and one or two scallops per person are usually enough for a large appetizer portion.  For an entrée portion, use three or four U-10’s or six to seven 10/20’s (10 to 20 scallops per pound).

 Sea scallops usually come with a small, hard muscle attached to the side which should be removed before cooking.

 The biggest problem with scallops is overcooking.  These little bivalves dry out and toughen quickly if overexposed to heat.

This is a recipe that we prepared in my most recent cooking class.  The salsa can be made up to three days ahead of time, so it’s just a matter of searing the scallops at the last minute to make a sophisticated and lovely meal.  I usually serve this with tricolor orzo that has been tossed with a little browned butter and lemon juice and some fresh haricot vert or asparagus.

 Seared Scallops with Mediterranean Salsa and White Truffle Oil
Salsa:
            6 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
            3/4 cup pitted kalamata or niciose olives, chopped
            1 tablespoon capers
            1/2 cup yellow pepper, small dice
            1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
            ¼ cup chopped red onion
            1 clove garlic, minced
            2 tablespoons olive oil
Combine thoroughly.  Can be made a day ahead.

 Scallops:
           12 U-10 scallops
            cooking spray
            kosher salt and pepper to taste
            White truffle oil
Make sure scallops are thoroughly dried.  Season scallops with salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne.  Spray top of scallop thoroughly with cooking spray.

 Heat a 14-inch sauté pan over high heat.  When pan is very hot, add scallops sprayed side down.  Let scallops sear for about 2-4 minutes.  Remove pan from direct heat for a moment so that you can spray the exposed side of the scallop with cooking spray, then return the pan to the heat, flip scallops and sear the other side for about a minute.

 To serve, plate scallops, top with Mediterranean Salsa, and drizzle with truffle oil.

 

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Column – Empty Bowls

A few weeks ago I found myself at a gathering of local chefs.  This is a much more unusual event than it might sound.  While all of you folks are out socializing on Friday and Saturday nights, people in the restaurant business tend to be chained to their stoves.  Unless we have worked together in the past or find ourselves in adjoining booths for a charity event, chefs in competing restaurants often don’t get much of a chance to meet.  And the fact that this particular meeting was at nine o’clock on a Wednesday morning just made it that much more odd.  Restaurant people tend to be night owls – so most of us were a bit punchy at that hour.  While I tend to be an early riser, I normally try to avoid any contact with people until closer to ten, and it was pretty obvious that I wasn’t the only one there with that philosophy. 

 I was standing just in front of the door (plotting to slip away as soon as possible) so when Anne Steketee from Port Land Grille walked through the door there was no way she could miss me.  I took one look at the file folder in her hand, and knew instinctively why she was there.  “This is going to cost me money,” I thought as I smiled hello at her.

 Like most business owners, I get hit up for money by so many worthy causes that I have a hard time keeping track.  And like most business owners, I wouldn’t have a business to run if I gave my time and money to every charity out there.  But it was nine o’clock in the morning, people, and I was weak.  I saw that determined look in Anne’s eyes.  I knew I was a goner.

 And I’m glad I was.  Turns out, Anne was looking for donations of soup – and making soup is one of my favorite things to do!  And when the soup is for a worthy cause that is near and dear to my chef’s heart, it doesn’t get much better than that.

 So now I’d like all of you to mark the date of this Friday, March 7 on your calendar for the Empty Bowls Project at St. James Episcopal Church, Perry Hall, at Fourth and Dock Streets in Wilmington to benefit the international project to fight hunger.  For a fifteen dollar donation (higher donations are accepted as well) you will receive a bowl made by a local artisan and soup that is made by a local restaurant.  It’s a great deal for a great cause.  Tickets are available at a number of locations in Wilmington and you can call Good Shepherd Center at (910) 763-4424 for more details.    

 Go ahead, now, buy your tickets!  Don’t make me show up at your house first thing in the morning to convince you. 

 Chicken Gumbo – Gumbo is normally served with white rice, but this soup is so hearty that I usually skip it.  And for those purists who believe that gumbo just isn’t gumbo without okra and file powder, go ahead and add it if you’d like.  For that matter, you can add crawfish, shrimp, crab or any other thing you’d like to it.  Lessez les bon temps rollez!
Makes about 6 quarts

3 sticks butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into ¾-inch cubes
2 red bell peppers, diced
2 medium yellow onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
5 quarts chicken stock, heated
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 bay leaves
Kosher salt to taste
1 pound andouille sausage, sliced 1/2-inch thick (optional)
First you make a roux. Don’t be intimidated, but you don’t want to leave the pot unattended.  Once you start a roux, it can burn in a heartbeat, so once you get all of your ingredients ready to cook and you’re going to start your roux, go ahead and call that chatty friend of yours that you’ve been meaning to catch up with. 

Melt the butter in a 12-quart stockpot. Whisk in the flour and cook until foaming. Cook, stirring often, until the roux is the color of peanut butter, even a little darker if you’d like.  This will take you 20-40 minutes, depending on the BTU’s your stove puts out.

Add the chicken to the roux and cook until it’s lost its raw color on the outside.  Add the peppers, onion, and celery. Cook until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the chicken stock (make sure it’s hot), and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer. Stir in paprika, black pepper, cayenne, thyme, chopped garlic, bay leaves, and kosher salt. Cook an additional 45 minutes.  If your gumbo is too thick, add a little water to it.

Add the andouille and cook for approximately 15 minutes. Taste, and adjust for seasoning.

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Column - Immigration Can Be Delicious

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Column – Barley – Not just for beer anymore.

 In a prior column I expressed my undying love for mashed potatoes.  There probably isn’t a potato preparation on the planet that I wouldn’t have some tender feelings for.  Fry ‘em, bake ‘em, roast ‘em, sauté ‘em – I just love ‘em.  I’ve even had potatoes on pizza (sliced cooked red potatoes with pesto and mozzarella) and it was tres yummy. 

 However, even potatoes will get boring if you eat them every day.  So let’s say that you decide you want a little more variety on your plate.  What are the other options for a starch?  Rice, pasta, bread?  BORING!  Not to mention processed and nutritionally sub par.  So what’s left?  What?  What?  WAIT!

 What about whole grains?  Wild rice, oats, quinoa, bulger wheat, or my favorite, barley.  The nutrition gurus keep telling us that we out to eat more of them.  Now is your chance!

 Barley has a nutty flavor and a satisfying chewiness and, since it has a much lower glycemic index than potatoes or processed starches, it will make you feel full for a longer period of time. 

 Barley’s biggest public relations problem is that it is perceived as a one-dimensional ingredient.  Most people have had barley only in soups or stews, but barley is much better at mutli-tasking than you may have suspected.  It can be added to salads or casseroles for some added depth of flavor, or served as a pilaf or side dish.

 The most common brand of barley that is available locally is Quaker Quick Barley, and I don’t recommend it at all.  It will cook faster than “pearled” barley, but the end result is rather flat in flavor and has a puffy texture that I don’t enjoy.  The next time you make a trip to Harris Teeter or a natural food store, pick up a bag of Arrowhead Mills Organic Pearled Barley.  I’ve got a bag of it sitting in front of me, and as I read over the cooking directions, I’ve noticed that the recipes call for simmering 1 cup of barley in 3 cups of water for 1 ¼ hours.  Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever cooked barley for more than 40 minutes but I prefer it with more of an al dente texture.

 Barley Vegetable Risotto – Serves 4
This delicious and satisfying dish is a great accompaniment to any grilled or roasted meat, especially lamb.

 For the barley:
1 tablespoon butter
¼ cup finely diced onion
1 cup dry white wine
1 ½ cups pearled barley (NOT instant)
4 cups hot chicken stock, plus more as needed

For the vegetables:
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup chopped shallots
½ cup cleaned and chopped leeks
½ cup finely diced carrot

For finishing:
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
kosher salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
1 tablespoon butter

 Cooking the barley:  Place chicken broth in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Heat another saucepan over high heat.  Add butter.  When butter melts, add onion and sauté for about 5 minutes or until nicely browned.  Add the wine to deglaze the pan and loosen any browned bits of onion.  Simmer until it is reduced by about half, then add the barley and continue stirring for about 2 minutes.  Add hot chicken broth to cover the barley and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 30-40 minutes uncovered until the barley is tender and fully cooked.  Add more hot stock as needed.

 For the vegetables:  Melt butter in a sauté pan and stir in the shallots, leeks and carrots.  Saute over moderately high heat for a minute or two, until just cooked through, then stir them into the barley and let them simmer together for a moment.

 (This recipe may be cooked to this point up to a day before serving.  When cool, cover and refrigerate.  To reheat, add a little more stock or water and bring up over low heat.)

 Remove the pan from heat and add Parmesan cheese, butter, parsley and salt and pepper to taste. 

 Note to the time-impaired cooks out there:  If you want to make this recipe in one pot, start with sautéing all of the vegetables, including the onion, in the saucepan, then add wine, barley and broth and continue as directed.  Your vegetables won’t have the snap that they will if you do it the long way, but you will still end up with a great meal.

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Column –  Bringing Barbecue Inside

 Okay, folks, it looks like we’ve got January just about beat, so I promise to stop complaining about winter weather.  Soon.  As is it, we’re a month past the winter solstice and the days are getting ever so slightly longer and I’m sensing that there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.  So I’m already thinking about barbecue.

 We’re still a few weeks away from thinking about firing up the outdoor smoker, and I’m still too much of a weenie to even think about lighting up the charcoal grill, but there are ways to bring some of that barbecue flavor and feeling inside to warm up the chilly nights.

 Pork is the meat of choice for Q-ers in this part of the world, and rightly so.  And when you’re trying to get dinner on the table in a timely fashion, I recommend that you invest in some pork tenderloin.  They’re lean, they’re easy to cook, and they’re not terribly pricey.  They also don’t have a whole lot of flavor right out of the package, which is why they’re so often sold already marinated:  barbecue, black pepper and lemon or teriyaki.  Those pre-packaged marinades will do alright in a pinch, but they’re overloaded with sodium and, dare I say it, not very imaginative. 

 Pork tenderloin is one of those meats that get better the longer you marinate it and I’ve marinated it as long as three days and as little as two hours.  Now, I’m normally suspicious of recipes that call for you to reserve the marinade and use it as a sauce, but as long as you bring this sauce to a boil for at least a minute, you’ll be just fine – and you’ll be thrilled with the flavor.

 During the colder months, I like to use a ridged grill pan for this recipe.  It’s not often that I’ll come right out and state that you need a certain piece of equipment in your kitchen, but if you haven’t already gone out and invested in a grill pan, I strongly recommend that you do so.  But be careful.  There are a lot of grill pans out there, and some are a waste of money.  And buying the most expensive one on the market just isn’t necessarily the way to go.  So here’s my list of What to Look For in A Grill Pan (And Why):

 1.                   An Ovenproof Handle:  For meat, you don’t necessary use a grill pan like you would a grill.  You want to get the grill pan very hot on the surface of your stove, grill-mark the meat over direct heat, and then transfer the pan with the meat to an indirect heat source – your oven.  If you try to cook a steak, for instance, all of the way through on the stove, you will dry it out.  By going from stove top to oven, you get the best of both cooking methods and a pretty, juicy piece of meat.  But if you buy a grill pan with one of those fancy wood or plastic handles, you’ll have to transfer the meat to another pan before putting it in the oven, which will tempt you to take a short cut and keep it on the stove. 

2.                   Pointy Ridges:   It’s easier to get good grill marks when the ridges in the pan are more narrow and sharp, and the higher the ridges, the less likely that there will be contact between the meat and any fat or liquid that drips into the pan.  The more rounded ridges just don’t seem to mark as well.  Besides, pointy ridges can come in handy in case you ever have to use your grill pan as a defensive weapon – make contact with the ridged side of the pan and you’ll be able to pick out your attacker out of any police lineup with relative ease.

3.                   Not Too Heavy:  This point is particularly important if you have a ceramic cooktop.  When using a grill pan, you want to get the pan very, very hot before adding the meat (again, all those lovely marks) and a cast iron pan is almost overkill in this department.  You can get cast iron much hotter than most other cooking materials, and there is some risk that you can crack a ceramic top if the heat gets trapped between the pan and the burner.  Besides they tend to be a lot more expensive than other grill pans, and, well, heavier.

 The recipe I’m featuring this week is one that was given to me many years ago by Amy Matthews, and it’s been a staple in my repertoire ever since.  It’s easy to make, uses ingredients that I pretty much always keep in my pantry or refrigerator, and it’s a hit every time.

 Sesame Barbeque Pork Tenderloin
2 pork tenderloins, silver skin and excess fat removed
1/2 cup picante sauce
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon lime juice
2-3 drops dark sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced

 Mix all ingredients together and marinate tenderloins for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator.  Remove meat from marinate.  Reserve marinade. 

 Set your oven temperature to 400 degrees.  Heat a grill pan over high heat until very hot, then lay pork on the diagonal across the grill pan ridges until you get a good sear.  Turn pork and sear on each side.  When each piece is thoroughly marked, move pan to the preheated oven and cook until the internal temperature reads between 140 and 150 degrees.  Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before slicing.   

 Put marinade in a small saucepan and bring to a full boil for three to five minutes.  Serve sauce with pork.

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Column:  Chase Away the Winter Blues

 Brrrr.  There’s no denying its winter again.  It was a nice long autumn and right up until New Year’s day we got pretty lucky with the weather, but now it’s gotten to the point where even hard-core former Yankees like myself have to admit that it’s time to put the flip-flops away and dig out those wool socks.  I know, here I go complaining again, but I can’t help but feel that unless you’re actually sitting in front of a crackling fire with a bottle of red wine and someone to snuggle with, cold weather constitutes unnecessary cruelty.

 January is right up there on my list of Least Favorite Months, and it’s not just because it’s chilly outside.  It is also Resolution Month.  You remember on New Year’s Eve, sitting at the bar or around the dining room table with your friends when you were running your mouth about how THIS was going to be THE YEAR?  Well, now it’s time to put your money where your mouth is.  If one of your resolutions was to eat healthier or lose weight, then I mean that in a literal sense.

 That means that you must say good-bye to all of those delicious comfort foods that you would normally be reaching for when the temperatures plummet.  Drop the Paula Dean cookbook and back away quickly.  So long mashed potatoes and gravy, arrivederci fettucine alfredo,  au revoir French fries, ciao chocolate, and say ‘night y’all to the Krispy Kremes.   Adios, sayonara, bye bye.  At least for now.

 To brighten up this bleak culinary outlook, I turn to soups and stews.  They’re easy to prepare, easy on the pocketbook and easy on the waistline.  Again, the legume family comes to my rescue with their stellar reputation for low fat, high fiber, and cholesterol-busting properties.   While black beans are my favorite all-around bean (I wrote a column last year in which I called them the rock stars of the bean world), I also have a great deal of affection for white beans, whether cannelini beans or great northerns.  If black beans are rock stars, white beans are part-time classical musicians.  They’re a little more sophisticated, almost as versatile and definitely as delicious.

 This dish was served to me at a casual dinner get-together, and I fell in love with it.  It’s hearty enough to satisfy, full of great flavor, and yet healthy enough so that you’ll never feel guilty about it.  Sarah served this with a variety of fresh salsas, sour cream, grated cheese, some fresh jalapenos, chopped red onion and tortilla chips.  Just add some great conversation, and you’ll be chasing the winter blues away in no time.

 Sarah’s White Chicken Chili

 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 to 1 ¼ cups onion, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 (4-ounce) can chopped mild green chile peppers
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ to ½ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
2-3 cups chicken broth
3-5 cups cooked shredded chicken breast
3 (15-ounce) cans white beans, drained
2 tablespoons cilantro

 In a blender or food processor, puree one can of beans with about a cup of chicken broth, or if you prefer a low-tech approach, mash then in a bowl with a fork.  Set aside.

 Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Slowly cook the onions and yellow pepper until tender.  Mix in the garlic, green chiles, cumin, oregano and cayenne.  Continue to cook and stir the mixture until tender, about 3 minutes.  Mix in the bean puree, the remaining cans of white beans and shredded chicken.  Add enough chicken broth to just cover.  Simmer about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add cilantro just before serving.

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Column – New Year’s Traditions and Rationalizations

 New Year’s Eve is one of those holidays I’m a little bit ambiguous about.  I love the fact that it brings a celebratory close to a holiday season that seems to be starting earlier and earlier every year.  By the time December 31 rolls around I am eager for a new start in a new year.  I’m also more in the mood to put my feet up and let my hair down than to get dressed up and party.

 Forgive me for sounding a little grumpy about New Year’s but I do have just cause.  Here’s the real reason:  It’s the herring.  You heard me right.  Herring.  Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve had to choke it down as my first food of the year.  Family tradition.  “Just a little bite,” I can still hear Mom-Mom saying.  With tears in my eyes I would do my best – but my best often let to me spitting out a half-chewed wad of pickled fish.  Gross, I know.  Imagine how I feel.

 Eating the herring is supposed to ensure that you have money in your pockets for the entire coming year, which I think we will all agree is a good thing.  I’m rather fond of money and enjoy the things you can do with it.  However, every New Year’s Eve of my life, at 11:59, I have to stop grazing from what is usually a delicious and well-prepared buffet of fabulous hors d’oeuvres, tempting savories and beautifully presented desserts, so that I can ask myself “How long can you put it off?”

 I’m a pretty adventuresome eater and I won’t turn my nose up at something without trying it, but that’s not the case here.  For those of you who love it, please don’t take offense.  Everyone has their preferred foods and foods they can’t stand.  To me, herring is a vile substance; fishy, oily, slightly hairy, yuk. 

 It seems unfair to me that this tradition is so strict that you have to eat the herring before you get to eat anything else.  There was one year when I tried to bribe myself by putting out a slice of chocolate cake and a slug of Gran Marnier and told myself that I could NOT have the cake until I ate the herring.  That year I managed to totally outsmart myself and skipped the herring completely. 

 The rest of my family, of course, adores herring and can’t understand why I have such a problem with it.  Every New Year’s Day I get the calls, “Well, didja eat it?”  Most years I have to admit that once again I will be poor and it is my own fault because I was too weak to overcome the herring.

 As a chef, you would think that I could find a way to make herring edible, if not appetizing, but I’m afraid it is a culinary challenge that I am not up to.  It simply isn’t an ingredient I’m capable of working with.  And I would be lying if I told you I gave it my best shot. 

 As this New Year’s Eve approaches, I did some research as to the background of other traditional New Year’s foods and was bewildered to find out that my family had been practicing a tradition that was Scandanavian!  I had always assumed that this was a legacy passed down from the Hungarian side of the family, then discovered in my research that, for the Hungarians what you don’t eat is actually more important than what you do eat.  After years of feeling that I had betrayed my family’s custom, a great weight was lifted from my shoulders.

 Feeling somewhat confused and a little triumphant, I called my Mom and explained to her that the herring thing wasn’t a Hungarian tradition after all.  “Oh no, honey,” she replied, “It’s a Scandanavian thing your great-grandparents picked up from some neighbors of theirs back in New Jersey.”  I was aghast.  “So all these years you watched me try to gag down some herring with tears in my eyes you knew it wasn’t a family tradition?”  “Well, what’s a family tradition, after all?  Your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents.  I think three generations is pretty good.”  “But what about the Hungarian thing?”  I asked. 

 As I mentioned earlier, there are two types of food are to be avoided on New Year’s Day,  but it turns out Mom only knew half of the story. “You can’t eat chicken on New Year’s Day,” Mom told me today, “or you’ll be scratching for money all year round.”  I would swear I’d never heard that before.  “And if you eat fish, you’re money will swim away,” I told her.  Silence on the other end of the phone (very rare with my mom, by the way).  “Well.  I never heard that part.”  “Mom, you know what herring is?  It’s a FISH!” 

 So all this time I have been practicing a Hungarian tradition by NOT eating the herring!

 And thus, another great rationalization was born.

 This year, for the first time in my life, I will be guiltlessly herring-free and prepared to embrace any tradition I feel like.

 This year, I’m thinking Italian.  The Italians eat lentils on New Year’s Day (anytime during the day!) because lentils look like little coins. 

 Lentil Soup with Lamb and Mint
Makes 10-12 cups 

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound lamb — ground lamb or lamb leg cubes
3 large celery stalks, chopped
2 large parsnips, peeled & chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoons chopped fresh garlic
1 pound lentils
9 cups beef or chicken broth
3.5 cups canned diced tomatoes in juice (or 1 28-ounce can)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint, divided

 Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium high heat.  Add lamb, celery, parsnips, onion and garlic.  Sauté until vegetables are almost tender and lamb is cooked through and beginning to brown, about 15 minutes.  Add lentils and stir one minute.  Add 7 cups broth, tomatoes and cumin.  Bring soup to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low.  Cover and simmer until lentils are tender, about 40 minutes.

 Transfer 2 cups soup to blender, add 1/4 cup mint and puree until smooth; return to same pot.  Season soup with salt and pepper and add broth to thin if desired.  Ladle into bowls.  Sprinkle with remaining mint.

 

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Column - I Left My Artichoke Hearts in San Francisco

I took a quick mid-week trip out to the west coast recently and visited San Francisco.  It’s always been one of my favorite cities to hang out in, but I hadn’t found an excuse to do so in years.  An old friend who is now living out there called me up and enticed me with a Bruce Springsteen ticket, which is something you should never do to a girl from New Jersey unless you mean it.  Three days later I was on a plane.

 I still know quite a few people who live out in that area, but all of them work during the day, so I was left to my own devices.  That suited me just fine.  I love being on my own in a big city.  I walked for miles, poked my head into little shops, reading restaurant menus in the windows of sophisticated bistros and rediscovering neighborhoods I hadn’t even thought about in years.  I had no map, no guidebooks, no schedule. 

 If you have the right attitude, you can’t get lost in even the most unfamiliar of cities.  You might not have any idea where you are or how to get back to your hotel, but as long as you can catch a cab somewhere you’ll be okay.  I wandered down Market Street towards the waterfront for a while until I came to a beautiful open-air market where you could buy art directly from the person who had created it.  This isn’t a special event – it was just a random Thursday morning.  I left the market considerably poorer, but with a spring in my step.

 That’s when I came to the Ferry Building.  The last time I’d been in the area was long before the building renovation had been completed four years ago.  I thought it would be kind of fun to watch the ferries, so I opened the door and walked in, not knowing that my life was about to change.

 The Ferry Building is a foodies’ paradise.  The first stall I came to was the Far West Fungi booth (www.farwestfungi.com) where they had the largest variety of fresh mushrooms I’d ever seen in one place, and both domestic and imported dried mushrooms.  I picked up a two-pound bag of Italian porcini mushrooms which I just couldn’t leave behind.  I moved on to the Cowgirl Creamery, which was started by two very highly regarded female chefs and features some fantastic cheeses made in Point Reyes Station.  The Prather Ranch Meat Company (www.prmeatco.com) was offering a great selection of its dry-aged beef, pork, lamb, buffalo and vitellone (sometimes known as “red veal”).  All of the meats are free range and antibiotic and hormone-free.  Their motto is “Organic, Sustainable, Humane.”   The San Francisco Fish Company (www.sanfranfishco.com) had a beautiful display of local fish, oysters, crabs and shrimp and I like their “Get Wild Manifesto.”  Everywhere I looked in this building were thriving businesses dedicated to keeping their products organic, sustainable and delicious.   I had to go out and watch the ferries just to get my composure back! 

 The only dark cloud on my personal horizon at that moment was that I was three-thousand miles from my stove, and I was pretty sure the airline wasn’t going to let me bring a peck of oysters back in my suitcase.  However, pretty much all of these places will ship their products, and my holiday plans do include shipping some treats to myself for entertaining purposes. 

 And I’ve got all of those lovely porcinis to play with!

  Porcini Mushroom and Goat Cheese Pizza

You can’t beat this recipe for quick and easy entertaining.  I’ve usually got all of the ingredients on hand to make this in case folks stop by unexpectedly.  Make sure you stop by the Farmer’s Market at Porter’s Neck on Wednesdays to pick up some Nature’s Way Goat Cheese.

1 Boboli bread shell, or prepared, cooked pizza dough
¼ cup dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
2-3 tablespoons marsala wine
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
4 ounces goat cheese

 Heat over to 400 degrees.

 Pour boiling water over porcini mushrooms and let set 10-15 minutes.  Remove mushrooms from soaking liquid and rinse under cold water.  Be sure to remove any sediment from the ‘shrooms.  Chop mushrooms roughly and set aside.  Pour soaking liquid through a coffee filter to remove any grit from the liquid.  Set liquid aside.

 Heat oil in a medium sauté pan and add shallot.  When shallot turns translucent, add chopped mushrooms and sauté for two or three minutes.  Add wine to deglaze the pan.  Simmer for a few minutes, adding some of the soaking liquid if the mixture gets too dry.  Remove from heat and add basil.

 Spread mixture on the bread shell and top with crumbled goat cheese.  Put in the pre-heated oven and heat for about 8 minutes.  Remove from oven, slice it up and serve warm.  

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Column – Mashed Potatoes

 Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  While other holidays may have some emphasis on food, no other festivity has eating as its central focus.  There is no need to buy gifts or decorate the house, no eggs to hide or candy to give out.  Sure, there are sports and parades, but you don’t really have to pay attention to them if you don’t want to. Thanksgiving is all about making a big meal and gathering those you love around to help you eat it.  The only way you could improve on that scenario, in my opinion, is to add fourth of July’s fireworks after dessert.   And by then I would probably be too sleepy to enjoy them.

My family members are Thanksgiving traditionalists, so we have eaten basically the same food for Thanksgiving that we did when I was five.  My mother and I have learned the hard way that any changes to the menu have to be made very carefully and with great sneakiness.  There was one year when Mom decided to introduce a soup course to the meal.  She made a delicious butternut squash soup and presented it beautifully at the table in a soup tureen she’d gotten for the occasion;  but my brothers and father had their eye on the turkey, stuffing and side dishes that were ready and waiting.  They couldn’t understand why they had to wait even one more minute for the meal they’d waited all year for.  I don’t believe anyone at that table was under twenty, but they immediately turned into a pack of whiny little boys and their rallying call was “DON’T MESS WITH THANKSGIVING, MOM!” Mom stood her ground long enough to make sure everyone at least tasted the soup, then graciously brought on the main event.  She’s my hero.

 A typical Thanksgiving menu for my family includes the turkey, of course, with a sausage stuffing, gravy, creamed onions, fresh cranberry sauce, whipped turnips, green bean casserole (yes, the one made with the canned onions on top and cream of mushroom soup – it’s a little embarrassing, but there’s not a thing I can do about it), and mashed potatoes.  Before the meal is served, we nibble at a relish tray with stuffed celery and olives.  Dessert, of course, includes a choice or combination of apple pie, pumpkin pie and chocolate bourbon pecan pie.  Mom and I have figured out by trial and error that we can add almost anything to the menu, as long as we don’t try to delay the meal or replace anything on this somewhat sacred list.  Any blatant delay or replacement attempt will end in an uprising.

 The stuffing recipe is my grandmother’s, and the year I replaced it with a cornbread and sausage stuffing with pecans I heard rumbles of discontent at the table.  The only way I averted a full-blown revolution was by insisting that I must have remembered the recipe wrong.  My family is pretty fair-minded in that respect.  If they thought I’d done it deliberately, there would have been hell to pay, but since I’d just made a little mistake they let me get away with it.  It helped that my grandmother’s written recipes are notoriously vague.  Of course, I’ve been making the stuffing my way ever since, and I haven’t heard another word about it.

 The only menu item I actively dislike are the turnips.  I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to delete or change them ever since I can remember.  It doesn’t help that it’s always been my job to make them.  I tried “forgetting” to buy them one year, but one of my brothers volunteered to make a last minute run to the only open supermarket, and I was stuck.  That’s what I get for trying to use the same trick more than once.

 Out of everything on the table, the one I’m most thankful for are the mashed potatoes.  I know -- it’s not like you can’t get mashed potatoes on any of the other 364 days of the year, but to me, Thanksgiving mashed potatoes are the best ones.  Over the years, I’ve become a bit of a mashed potato purist and have honed my technique for perfect, fluffy, buttery mashed potatoes every time instead of getting the occasional pot of gluey mess. 

 My mother brought me up to use a hand-mixer to mash the drained potatoes.  Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.  In order to make perfect mashed potatoes it is imperative that you have either a food mill or a potato ricer, and that you leave the potatoes in the hot water until just before you process them.  It’s a lot more time-consuming and messy, but it’s so worth it if you’re a mashed potato aficionado.

 At Coriander’s, we typically go through about 100-150 pounds of mashed potatoes for our Thanksgiving pick-up menu.  And yes, we take the time and trouble to make them this way because they are Perfect. Every.  Time.

 As for the mashed potatoes ever being replaced on my family Thanksgiving menu – no way!  DON’T MESS WITH MY MASHED POTATOES, MOM! 

 Perfect Mashed Potatoes
Serves 4

 3 pounds russet potatoes
¼ stick of butter, or to taste
splash of heavy cream
kosher salt to taste
black pepper to taste

 Special equipment:
               Food mill or potato ricer
                Skimmer or large slotted spoon

 Peel the potatoes and cut into 2- to 3-inch cubes.  Place in a heavy-bottomed pot.  Cover with cold water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Remove from heat, but do not drain.

 Place food mill over a bowl.  Cut butter into 4-6 pieces and put in bowl.  Using a skimmer or slotted spoon, lift potatoes out of water and place in food mill or ricer.  (You will want to let the potatoes drain slightly before placing them in the mill so that your mashed potatoes aren’t soupy.)

Mill the hot potatoes over the butter, then stir in a splash of cream, salt and pepper.  Serve hot, or chill and reheat on the stove or in the microwave just before serving.

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October 28, 2007 - The Beet Goes On

I was sitting around the dinner table with some friends the other night when the subject of beets came up.  The consensus was that beets are an inedible food substance which no one at the table had any fondness for.  Mike even went so far as to say that beets were what you would have to eat for all eternity should you be so unfortunate as to land in hell in the afterlife.  No one else was willing to go quite that far, but no one contradicted him either.

 There wasn’t a soul at that dinner party who had voluntarily eaten a beet within the last twenty years, and I don’t believe anyone had ever been offered a beet that wasn’t pickled or jarred. 

 For most of my life, I would have joined these friends of mine in excoriating the lowly beet, but I’ve recently had my mind and palate challenged by a young and very talented friend of mine who teaches the Food and Wine Pairing Classes for me at Coriander’s.  Josh is the proprietor of Hampstead Wines and is a graduate of the CIA (that’s the world-renowned Culinary Institute of America, not the notorious spy agency, of course.).  For a recent class, he had decided to cook a dish that included roasted beets.  Although I have a great deal of respect for Josh’s creativity, I was more than just a little bit skeptical.  Our conversation went something like this:

 Me:  But Josh, beets are gross.  (Please note the use of complicated culinary terms here.)

 Josh:  No they’re not. 

 Me:  Yes they are.

 Josh:  I’m using them anyway.

 Me:  (Pause)  Okay.

 I’ve included that exchange because I know how much you all enjoy kitchen drama.  As you can see, Gordon Ramsey has nothing on me when it comes to terrorizing the kitchen help. 

 To prepare the beets, Josh cut off the stem end and washed the beets thoroughly.  He tossed the beets with some olive oil, kosher salt and cracked black pepper, then wrapped them in aluminum foil and roasted them in a 350 degree oven until they were tender.  To ascertain the degree of tenderness he simply poked the beets with a paring knife.  It took about an hour to an hour and a half.  Now this part is genius:  After letting the beets cool enough so that they were easily handled, he took a kitchen towel and rubbed the skin off of the beets.  The skin came off so easily that it took an effort of will for me not to look impressed. 

 The dish Josh prepared was a seared lamb rack with fresh creamed corn, roasted beets and basil oil.  The earthiness of the beets was the perfect contrast to the sweet corn, and I was looking at beets in a completely different new light by the time I finished my portion. I even snuck a few more forkfuls while carrying the pots back to the dish room.  I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on some more beets and see what I could do with them.

 I’ve started sneaking beets into tasting menus that I do for clients, and I am completely stunned that I have not yet had a plate returned to me that still had a beet on it.   So Mike better be careful the next time I’m invited over for dinner. 

 My favorite beet creation so far is a tribute to Jitterbug Perfume, a novel by Tom Robbins which has been on my Top 100 Books list for years.  In it, Robbins waxes poetic about beets (yes, beets!) and it was that book which inspired me to add a citrus note to the following recipe.

 Roasted Beets with Caramelized Onion Vinaigrette and Feta Cheese
This is a great side dish for just about any roasted meat, but I am particularly fond of it with lamb or duck.  (Of course that may be because I am particularly fond of lamb and duck.)

2 pounds fresh beets, prepared as explained above
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon coarse Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon orange zest
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb onions (2 medium), quartered lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
3 oz crumbled feta (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup pine nuts (1 oz), toasted

Whisk together vinegar, mustard, pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large bowl, then add 3 tablespoons oil in a slow stream, whisking until combined well.  Set aside.

October 3, 2007 - Kosher Salt

I get a lot of repeat customers (or repeat students?) who attend my cooking classes.  I’ve been teaching the classes for eight years at my store in Hampstead so by now my classes include a good mix of new people and the more experienced students who have heard some of my rants before.  Invariably one of these students will set me up to launch into another tirade about one of my pet peeves.  These include parsley, cooking spray, scallops and salt. 

Almost every time you hear me say or write the word salt, I am referring to kosher salt.    I’ve gone so far as to tell my students to stop at the grocery store on the way home to by kosher salt.   Then I tell them to throw out their iodized salt over a bridge as soon as they get home.  I don't like iodized salt at all (I can detect a slight metallic tang to it which is unpleasant) and, although I've done a number of salt tasting, I've never been overly impressed with expensive sea salts either. I also really like the texture of the kosher salt. Bigger flakes are easier to work with, and don't melt into the surface of, say a steak. They stay where I can taste'em.

Kosher salt is not a salt-shaker kind of salt.  I keep mine in a little bowl next to the stove right next to my freshly cracked black pepper.   Like most chefs, I grab a bit of salt between my thumb and my index and middle finger and sprinkle what I need into what I’m cooking. 

 There are so many uses for salt in cooking that I won’t get to all of them here.  Instead I’ll just pick some of the more controversial topics.   

Growing up, my mom never salted anything while she was cooking.  There was no problem with high blood pressure in my family, but at some point in the 70’s it just became unfashionable to admit that you added salt to anything (except maybe eggs – I don’t know why, but that was always the exception).   There was a salt shaker on the table, of course, but the house rule was that you had to taste anything before adding salt. I still think that's a great rule.

When I started cooking, I realized that Mom had made a terrible mistake in not adding salt while cooking -- really the only time I can honestly and without doubt say that the woman was wrong!

A pinch or so of salt while sweating vegetables for a sauce or stew makes a big difference by coaxing the moisture out of the veggies. Once the veggies have given up their juices, I usually add a splash of sherry or wine. The way I explain it is that I want to get the veggies thirsty, so they'll suck up the flavorful liquid.

I'm also a big fan of salting meat before cooking it. In the case of red meats, I salt just before the meat hits the hot pan or grill.  If you let the salt sit too long it will start to leach the juices out of the meat. 

On the other hand, the absolute best fried chicken I've ever eaten involves rubbing the chicken pieces with lots of kosher salt the day before you're going to fry it and letting it sit. I’m not sure why, but this makes a huge and delicious difference.  I’m pretty sure this technique acts like a dry brine.  Brining is the best way to ensure juicy and delicious pork, shrimp or poultry.  These are leaner meats that benefit from being immersed in a 3-6% salt solution.  The salt dissolves some of the connective tissue and the interaction of salt and proteins allows the cells to absorb more water from the brine.  When cooked, the meat will still loose a percentage of moisture, but that is offset by the water absorbed from the brine.

I am also a big fan of blanching and shocking vegetables, but you absolutely need a big pot with briny water. The vegetables do not come out salty at all (surface salt is removed when you "shock" the vegetables in unsalted ice water -- it also sets the color of green vegetables). Their flavor is incredibly enhanced, but not salty-tasting. You need to have a pot big enough so that the water comes back to a boil quickly after adding the veggies.

A big controversy on some websites concerns whether pasta water should be salted/not salted.   Well, I salt mine, but not as much as I do for vegetables. Again, you're looking for flavor enhancement here, not saltiness. As for the big pot, you want to have enough water so the pasta can move around freely and the water won't get too starchy, AND the water comes back to a boil quickly. And to tackle another pasta-based controversy, at the Italian restaurants where I did my apprenticeship, anyone putting oil in the pasta water would have been fired immediately. It adds to the gumminess of the pasta and makes the sauce slide off of it.

I would love to give ya’ll my fried chicken recipe to end this column, but I have been sworn to absolute secrecy.  As it is, by sharing the salting technique with you I may be set upon by the equivalent of the Southron-Cookin’ mob.

Grilled Shrimp with Miso Vinaigrette
The Shrimp:  1 pound 16/20 shrimp, shell on
                      ¼ cup kosher salt
                      ¼ cup light brown sugar
using scissors, cut the shrimp shells on the vein side to the base of the tail.  Use the tip of a toothpick to extract the vein.  Leave shell on, but use scissors to cut off the legs.  Put salt and sugar in a medium bowl and add about ¼ cup hot tap water.  Stir to dissolve salt and sugar.  Add about 2 cups cold water.  Add shrimp to bowl and cover the rest of the way with water.  Let shrimp sit in brine for 1-2 hours.

Drain shrimp and rinse well.  Grill over high heat until shrimp starts to curl up and get pink.  Turn over and grill until almost cooked through.  Remove from heat.  Shrimp can be served hot in the shells or you can peel them and serve them cold.

The Sauce:
½ cup rice wine vinegar, split
¼ cup water
3 tablespoons white miso (which is actually tan or light brown – available at Asian markets)
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons peanut butter
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 jalapeno chili
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil

Septmeber 19, 2007 - Food Fixations

I read in the news recently about a man who ate two bags of microwave popcorn a day for ten years.  It got me thinking about food fixations, and about how just about all of us have those foods we try to eat almost every day.  As with my vegetable survey a few months ago I found that just bugging the people who work in my kitchen just didn’t give me a big enough sample to draw any conclusions, so I fired up the computer to send the question out to those poor souls who have taken a wrong turn somewhere in their lives and ended up in my e-mail address book. 

I received about fifty responses, and I want to thank every one who took the time to get back to me with their fixation.  In retrospect, I must confess to you all that my motives for taking this poll in the first place were not pure.   Although I was very interested in finding out what kinds of foods you all really love, I was also hungry but didn’t know what I wanted to eat.

Most people seem to use their fixation food as a snack, which explains why I didn’t get any responses for pizza, breakfast cereal, steak, lobster or potatoes which are all good contenders for Favorite Food, but not for Fixation Food. 

Just for the sake of argument, I split up the responses in to Healthy Fixations (for the people who chose baby carrots, cottage cheese, yogurt  and other foods with decent nutritional value, and the Sweet and Salty category (which includes potato chips, Krispy Kremes and chocolate) and Other.  For the sake of serious argument, I went ahead and categorized ice cream as Healthy (it has calcium!). 

On the healthier side, people chose peanut butter, yogurt, cottage cheese, olives, seafood, deli ham, celery sticks stuffed with cheese spread, nuts of any kind (almonds, cashews, peanuts),  chicken salad, cheese, salsa, dill pickles, spinach, roasted chicken, sweet corn, cherry jelly on English muffins, peanut butter, asparagus, eggs, grapes and sugar-free Life Savor pops (which, since they’re sugar-free, qualifies in my book as healthy.  But then again, I also included ice cream in this category.  There are advantages to being the pollster, I’m finding). 

On the Sweet and Salty side, we had a big and very heartfelt vote for Cheetos, and others for Food Lion-brand iced oatmeal cookies, M & M’s, Smartfood popcorn, Triscuits, Terra chips, Nutella, Little Debbie oatmeal cakes, cheeseburgers big enough that it’s hard to lift’em, Utz pretzels (shipped in from elsewhere) and, of course, chocolate.  The Sweet and Salty people are very name-brand-loyal it seems. 

The Other category includes mostly beverages, such as Chardonnay, gin, diet soda and root beer.  I’m sure that I had asked for peoples’ Food and Beverage Fixation, I would have gotten a whole lot more votes for beer. 

Overall, I found is that most respondents have pretty good snacking fixations and that very few people chose the same thing.  The exceptions are peanut butter (four votes), chocolate (three votes), cheese (three votes) and grapes (two votes).   There was a split in the yogurt camp, with one respondent insisting on Dannon coffee yogurt, and the other on Yoplait.  Oddly enough, the two people who voted for grapes have worked for me in my kitchen, and both are tall red headed men who have an interest in fashion and decorating.  Hmm.  I would need a larger sample, I suppose, in order to draw the conclusion that all redheads love grapes, but I think it bears further investigation.

In the interest of keeping the peace between the Sweet and Salty group and the Healthy, Savory Group I post the following recipes. 

Eggplant and Feta Rolls
Makes 20 rolls
 2 large eggplant, each cut thinly lengthwise, into about 10 slices
4 tablespoons olive oil
8-9 ounces feta cheese
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Large bunch fresh mint, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
Black pepper
 Preheat a grill, stovetop griddle or broiler to a high heat.  Brush both sides of eggplant slices with the oil, and cook them for about 2 minutes each side until golden and tender.

 Crumble feta into a bowl and stir in the red pepper, mint, lemon juice and pepper.  Pile the end third of each warm eggplant slice with a heaping teaspoon of the feta mixture and roll each slice up as you go to form a soft, stuffed bundle. 

 Place seam-side down on a plate, and sprinkle with a little more mint.

 White Chocolate and Dried Cranberry Cookies

Makes 24 cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon brandy
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease cookie sheets, or line them with parchment.

 In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth.  Beat in egg and brandy.  Combine the flour and baking soda; stir into the sugar mixture.  Mix in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.  Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.

 Bake for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven.  For best results, take them out while they are still doughy.  Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute of the cookie sheet before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

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September 5, 2007 - Commandments of Kitchen Safety

After writing the Catering Disasters column a few weeks ago, I got to thinking about how there are any number of mishaps that can be prevented by practicing good safety habits in the kitchen.  When training a new employee, I usually break down Kitchen Safety into two categories.  The first is Things to Keep You From Getting Hurt.  The second is Things to Make Sure the Food is Safe.  So let’s go.

 Things to Keep You From Getting Hurt
Don’t Burn:  High on the list of our priorities in the kitchen is to prevent it from going up in flames.  In the interest of attaining this goal, I have tried to convey to my staff ways of putting out fires or of circumventing them altogether.

·         Know where the fire extinquishers are and know how to use them.

·         When heating a pot on the stove, never ever walk away from it.  Heating a pot of oil for deep-frying, for example, can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, but if I catch someone more than five feet away from the stove I give them some grief.  Okay, A lot of grief.  Oil is terrifyingly flammable, and a decent-sized pot with even an inch of oil in it has a lot of fuel to burn.  It burns hot and smoky and is almost impossible to put out.  If you splash any of the grease while trying to douse the fire it will spread.  Then you’re in a whole world of trouble, my friend.   You can easily end up in a situation where all you can do is grab your iPod and pull the fire alarm as you leave the building.  So don’t go there.   If you hadn’t answered the phone or checked your  e-mail you wouldn’t be watching your place go up in flames.

·         To continue the above topic:  If you end up with a small grease fire you may be able to smother it with a lid or with a liberal dousing of kosher salt.  Both methods will contain the fire and won’t spread it.  For heaven’s sake, NEVER try to put out a grease fire with water. Water will react with the grease and boil all over the place, which will spread the fire.  And never, ever use flour to try to smother a fire.  Many people, even those who have worked in kitchens for years, are unaware that flour, when airborne, is highly explosive.  The airborne particles will ignite quite easily.   Flinging flour at a fire is the kitchen equivalent of pouring gasoline on it.

·         Don’t store anything in the oven.  This is something that would never happen in a professional kitchen, but I see it in residential kitchens all the time.  The Urban Legend story involves someone who used her oven to store all of her Tupperware.  When a friend came over with a casserole and preheated the oven . . . Well, you can imagine the smoky, burning plastic, impossible-to-clean-up mess.  Before I made it a habit to actually open the oven in any house I was catering in, I did come across a client who stored old pizza boxes in their oven.  Fortunately, disaster was averted.  I have a neighbor who made fried chicken for company, then put the grease-filled pan in the oven to get it out of sight.  She would have been fine if she hadn’t decided to put the oven on the automatic clean cycle the next day with the forgotten pan in it.   The fire department was called and they saved the day, but not by much.

Don’t Get Burnt:  One of the most common injuries sustained kitchens are burns.  Sometimes in the thick of it we forget that things on the stove or in the oven are HOT!  I once sustained second degree burns on three fingers of my right hand in the middle of teaching a cooking class because I had left a metal bowl on the cook-top next to where I’d been sautéing chicken.  When I went to pick up the bowl (on the side that had been closest to the flame) OUCH!  I dropped the bowl immediately and with no grace at all, but somehow managed to keep from screaming in front of my students.  With three more recipes to get through and wobbly knees from the pain I somehow managed to get through the class with no one realizing that I was in agony. 

 o I learned a valuable lesson:  Always assume that anything which is near the stove or has been in or on the stove or oven within recent memory is hot.  Do not touch it without a folded-up kitchen towel or oven mitt.

 The other way to get burnt is to cook almost anything in a disposable foil pan.  These pans are great for quick clean-up purposes, but you have got to put them on a sheet pan or cookie sheet so that you don’t drop the boiling-hot contents on your bare feet when you pull it out of the oven and the pan collapses.

 Don’t Get Cut:  Cutting yourself in the kitchen is, for all intents and purposes, unavoidable, but there are things you can do to minimize the probability.

• Never try to catch a knife that is falling.  If you do manage to catch it, chances are that you’ll catch the sharp side which is no bueno.  Concentrate instead on getting your feet and legs out of the way.  Jump back, Jack.
• Don’t use a dull knife.  This may seem counter-intuitive, but if you think it out for a bit you’ll get it.  A dull knife is more likely to bounce off of the item you’re trying to cut and the next likely target is . . . the hand holding the item.  In other words, it’s easier to lose control of a dull knife, and if you do cut yourself it’s going to be a more ragged and ugly cut.   If you do happen to cut yourself with a sharp knife (and you will -- we all do) it will tend to be cleaner and heal faster.

 Things to Keep the Food Safe for Consumption

Wash Your Hands:  This is the number one rule for any food-safety class.  Your hands come into contact with all kinds of viruses, bacteria and allergens all of the time without you being aware of it and without your hands ever becoming “dirty” to the naked eye.  You should wash your hands before you cook, after you handle any meat or produce and again once you are done. 

Wash Your Ingredients:  Any time you are using fresh meats or produce it’s a good idea to wash them, even if the container that it came in promises you that it’s already clean.  Remember spinach.  ‘Nuff said.

Sanitize:  Any surface that raw food comes into contact with should be clean before the food touches it  and sanitized afterwards.   There are many authorities who promote the use of separate cutting boards for red meat, poultry and produce, but I will admit that we don’t use that system in my kitchen.  We take any soiled cutting board and scrub it with hot water and detergent, then hit it with a 100% bleach solution.  After the board sits for about five minutes, it is rinsed with hot water again and left to air-dry.  This is, I’ll admit, excessive.  According to state health standards you can wipe or rinse off a cutting board and then spray it with a bleach solution which is 50 ppm (parts per million) which is roughly one cap of bleach to three or four gallons of water.   

Stay out of the “Danger Zone”:  Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.  Cold food must be kept at a temperature below 45 degrees Fahrenheit .   Hot foods must be kept at temperatures above 145 degrees Fahrenheit.  The area between 45 and 145 is called the “danger zone” because those are the temperatures in which bacteria thrive.  And grow.  Once again, no bueno.  Any food kept in the danger zone for more than three hours should be trashed.  Which brings us to the final rule (for the purposes of this column, anyway):

When in Doubt, Throw it Out:  It’s heartbreaking, but every once in a while we leave stuff at room temperature for far longer than is good for us.  Or we leave expensive ingredients for way too long in the fridge.  If you suspect that your food hasn’t been treated properly and MIGHT make you sorry you ate it, then do yourself a favor and get rid of it.  No matter what you paid for that whole beef tenderloin you left out on the counter overnight, it won’t be worth the grief if you get sick or have to watch a loved (or liked) one go through the agony of food-borne illness. 

 I’m knocking wood furiously as I write this, but I can tell you that in the nine years I’ve been in business we haven’t had a serious injury or illness and I attribute that directly to adhering to the above rules.  I’m sure I’ve left plenty of other good points out and I’ll try to rectify that in the future, but these rules . . . no I’ll go further and call them commandments . . . they work. 

 Prosciutto-Wrapped Peaches – serves 6-8
1 ripe peach, pitted and cut into 16 pieces
½ teaspoon sherry vinegar
1/8 teaspoon cumin
4 slices of prosciutto
16 fresh mint leaves

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August 22, 2007:  Catering Disasters

 This will not come as a surprise to those of you who have done your share of entertaining, but things do not always go as planned during the course of a party.  Murphy’s Law is invoked more often than not:  If there is any possible way that things can go wrong it probably will.   The problem is that we are never sure from which direction disaster will strike.  We’ve got to be prepared for anything and we are rarely disappointed. 

 The variety of ways in which things can go wrong is astonishing.  You would think that after more than ten years of catering parties we would have seen it all by now.  Instead I find there is an infinite variety of catastrophes:  it is never the same thing twice.

 The first and most important thing that I teach my catering staff is that when disaster strikes it is of paramount importance to KEEP YOUR HEAD!  Have you ever been in a restaurant when a waitress drops a tray of glasses?  The waitress’ reaction is key in the seconds after the glass goes flying.  If she bursts into tears and runs from the room, all of the diners will feel uncomfortable and it can put a damper on their evening.  If, however, you get a waitress who starts laughing, the room will probably break into applause.  I’ve seen it happen - The atmosphere actually gets festive for a few minutes, while other servers hurry in with a broom and dustpan and everyone lightens up.  One particularly poised waitress actually took a bow. 

 The last thing a host ever wants to see is a stressed-out catering crew.  No matter how much pressure my people are under, I want them to be all smiles in the dining room while the rest of us gather in the kitchen and figure out how to fix whatever it is that’s gone haywire.

 The second lesson to be learned here is to be better prepared than any Boy Scout.  There is a large yellow tackle box that my crew brings with them for every job we do.  In it are bandages, aspirin, extra serving pieces, salt, pepper, scissors, safety pins, floral wire, tape, magic markers, sun block, bug spray, cocktail napkins, toothpicks and a number of other items that we’ve found to be useful in the past.  We added binder clips after an outdoor party during which the wind kicked up and tablecloths threatened to fly away.  It may not seem like a huge problem, but at this party the host had decorated the tables with a number of votive candles.  It was really pretty, but when the wind lifted up one corner of a cloth and deposited it on top of the lit candles, we had a bit of a problem. Tablecloths are apparently very flammable – one table went up in flames ten minutes before guests arrived!  We had the fire put out fairly quickly and re-dressed the table before the host even found out about it, this time with the tablecloth securely cinched with clips.

 A word about fires, by the way.  One of the reasons we include kosher salt in our tackle box is that salt is one of the best ways to smother small fires if you don’t happen to have a fire extinguisher on hand.  Salt works even on grease fires, which are notoriously difficult to put out and spread easily if you use the wrong method. 

 Wedding cakes seem to be magnets for disaster.   I, like any caterer I’ve ever spoken to, tend to cringe when a brides comes to me and says their cake will be made by a family member or friend.  It’s a sweet idea and all, and I’m normally for anything that brings family members into the process, but most amateur bakers have no idea about what goes into the construction of a wedding cake.  Any good wedding cake is an architectural project, and includes interior supports as well exterior decoration.  There has been more than one wedding during which I had to station one staff member to do nothing but stand behind the cake with gloved hands, ready to catch the cake before it collapsed.  And, yes, has to smile while he waits for the cake to fall apart.  We have been fortunate in that there have always seemed to be some small children around at these weddings, so the cover story for the guy standing over the cake is that he is the “cake guard” and that his job consists of keeping small fingers out of the icing until it is time to cut it.

 My sous chef and baker, Allan, is meticulous about the construction of a multi-tiered cake.  Over the years he’s become so paranoid about cakes that he went so far as to leave a note for myself and my chef de cuisine one Sunday when he knew we’d be transporting a cake with the following content:

 Cake rules.
Do not place cake in direct sun.
Keep in refrigerator until time of departure.
When transporting, make sure the cake will not slide and make sure nothing is placed above the cake that could fall on it.
Drive carefully. 

Eric and I roared with laughter at the fact that Allan apparently had so little faith in us, and responded with the following note for Allan posted on the refrigerator:

More Cake Rules:
Avoid sitting on Cake.
Do not drip things on Cake.
Keep Cake covered when not in use.
Do not leave unsupervised children with Cake.  Cake is not a toy.
In order to prevent suffocation, clear Cake from nose and mouth areas.
Before landing, bring Cake to a seated and upright position.
In the event of a crash landing, strap oxygen on Cake first.
Under no circumstances should Cake be allowed to become overly emotional.
Do not resuscitate Cake.
If Cake starts to tick, evacuate the immediate area and notify the authorities.
Wash hands before serving Cake.  When serving Cake, keep hands out of nose and mouth until finished serving Cake.

The list of the catering disasters that we’ve survived is substantial but we survived all of them with grace and tell the stories to make each other laugh now.  In most cases, the host wasn’t aware that anything out of the ordinary had happened at their event and if I was smart I’d let it stay that way.  If I had more room, I’d tell you about the time we did a party where we’d been told to expect 50 guests and 300 showed up.  Or the time I accidentally threw $200-worth of crystal wineglasses out of the back door of the shop while we were loading up to cater a wine tasting party.  Then there was the time Allan knocked down a whole wall of pipe and drape (curtains that were put up to separate the party from the kitchen area) as the first guests were walking in for a 200-person reception.  Or the time the DJ’s pants split wide open as he bent to examine a blown stereo component and was too embarrassed to tell me why he wasn’t going out to his truck to get a new one.  There was a nighttime reception in a rather dark room where the client had requested that all of the serving staff wear black pants and shirts so that we were like “ninja” caterers, coming out of the dark and scaring the guests.   Then there was the time . . .

Chocolate and Coconut Cream Fondue—Serves 10
This recipe is fool-proof and easy, but your guests will be ooohing and aaahhhing for days.  You can use a double boiler, or you can just set a heat-proof metal bowl over a pot of simmering water.  Make sure the water does not have contact with the bottom of the bowl.
1 15-ounce can sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lopez)
14 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
Assorted dippers (such as whole strawberries, banana slices, pineapple, tangerine segments, biscotti), on ten chilled plates.

 Combine chocolate and cream of coconut in top of double boiler until melted.  Whisk to combine.  Put small cups of chocolate on each fruit plate and serve immediately.

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August 8, 2007 - The Moroccan Challenge

Travel is a great way to recharge your culinary batteries, so I make it a point every year or so to escape from the kitchen and go eat food prepared by the masters.  Normally, my quest for celebrity chefs leads me to New York, but this time I decided to go into previously (for me) uncharted territory – Las Vegas.

 It may seem a strange choice to leave the hot muggy summer of North Carolina for the dessert in July, but it’s not like Manhattan is a cool drink of water this time of the year either.  And when I got to Vegas I found that it is true what they say:  It really isn’t the heat – It IS the humidity!  Walking down the strip in the middle of a 110-degree day is like being hit by a blow dryer.  Hot, yes.  Sweaty, no!  A refreshing change.

 Las Vegas is now home to the highest concentration of celebrity chef restaurants on the planet.  Chefs who have opened business include Mario Batali, the ubiquitous Emeril, Todd English, Tom Colicchio, Martin Heierling, Michael Mina, Paul Bartolotta, Nobu, Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and my personal hero (cue the choir, please!) Thomas Keller.  This list is by no means complete.  I read their cookbooks, I follow their careers and keep track of their new restaurants, but it’s a rare thing for me to eat in their places.  By dining in their restaurants I can pick up on the nuances of technique, flavor and presentation.   Some of these chefs are household names and all of them command my respect to some degree or another.  You don’t get where they are without years of hard work and dedication.

However, for the powers-that-be in Vegas to back you with their cash you pretty much have to be a sure thing.  Some of these chefs are years or decades past their most creative years in the kitchen and have instead become like the guy on Hollywood Squares who has been a celebrity for so long that you can’t really remember why he became a celebrity in the first place.  The Money in Vegas is counting on the fact that you remember the celeb’s name and want to eat at their place when you’re in town.  

 I never had a truly bad meal in the three days I was there.  Of the twelve places I ate at, nine were pretty good and one was disappointing.  The chefs at these restaurants are depending on their reputations to get you in the door and most, if not all of their menu choices that were innovative five or ten years ago are now old hat to those of us who have paid attention.  In the instance of the disappointing restaurant, the chef has spent years building his reputation on the use of seasonal ingredients, but his menu featured a butternut squash ravioli with a sage sauce.  Great choice in November, Todd.  Not so exciting in July.

 Two restaurants were quite memorable, surprising even, and I can’t wait to go back.  To go into a detailed analysis of each restaurant would take a lot more space than I have here, but I will gladly share with you my impressions of the two winners.  

Sensei at Bellagio is an absolutely gorgeous room, and I was thrilled to see two glassed-in kitchens right in the middle of the restaurant.  I love to watch the cooks work while I lounge comfortably with a chilled glass of white wine and a basket of some of the best nan bread I have ever had the pleasure to eat.  This pleasure was compounded by the fact that in the three days I was in this mecca of fine dining I was unable to score even one morsel of good bread other that this great flabread that was made in a tadoor oven right before my eyes.  It was heaven.  I was also delighted by Chef Heierling’s menu, which is heavily influenced by both Italian and Asian cuisines – not in the same dish, mind you, which I’m not sure even he is brilliant enough to pull off.  Side by side on the same menu, however, he managed to make these two styles sing together.

 Michael Mina’s eponymous restaurant is also at Bellagio, and it was the site of my other great dining experience.  Since eating at this restaurant I have read many mixed reviews, but my meal there was spectacular.  I went with the Cookbook Tasting Menu, five courses paired with appropriate wines.  I’ll admit that when the waiter brought the first course to the table I was afraid I’d made a mistake.   Cubes of raw tuna were piled on a plate with sesame oil, toasted pine nuts, garlic, mint, habanero chile, pear (really!)  and raw quail’s egg which the waiter then proceeded to mix together.  I just couldn’t see how these flavors would work together.  I also had to give myself a silent little pep talk before tasting the dish, which is something I have to do anytime I eat raw fish.  It’s something along the lines of “C’mon now, Beth, I know it looks funny, but just TRY it.  You’ve eaten raw tuna before and liked it, really!  Okay, okay, you don’t have to eat the whole thing if you don’t like it.”

 I didn’t like it – I loved it!  New flavor combinations always blow me away when they work, and this worked beautifully.  They paired this course with a Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Reisling that I would never have chosen, and it was perfect.

 Tartare of Ahi Tuna – Serves 4 as an appetizer
This is my approximation of Chef Mina’s recipe. The original recipe would use a quail egg yolk instead of chicken, but I don’t have a local source for quail egg.   The raw egg yolk can be omitted if you are nervous about Salmonella.  I normally use free-range organic eggs and then keep my fingers crossed.

1 pound of severely fresh sashimi-grade ahi tuna, cut into ¼ -inch dice
1 small habanero chile, seeded and finely minced (Please wear gloves when you do this!)
3 tablespoons dark sesame oil
2 tablespoons lightly toasted pine nuts
2 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced
2-3 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, chopped
1/8 teaspoon ancho or red chile powder
3 tablespoons finely minced ripe pear
1 egg yolk, or four quail egg yolks

Mix all ingredients together just prior to serving and serve with toast points.

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April 4, 2007 - Beware of Chefs with Bare Knives -- Except on Television

 Make sure when wrapping the rolls that you don’t wrap them too tightly.  The cold filling will expand slightly when frying so you want to leave a little bit of room, especially if the mixture contains cheese. Remember the exploding crepe episode of Seinfeld?  We don’t want that, now, do we?

 Butterfly each shrimp by cutting in half lengthwise along the underside, leaving the top side attached.  Open and flatten the shrimp.

 In a mixing bowl, mix the crab meat, onion, bell pepper, panko, five-spice and one egg.  Beat remaining egg in a small bowl.  Lay out one piece of the wrapper with the center point of the triangle pointing at you.  Brush the edges of the wrapper with the beaten egg.  Place one shrimp on the wrapper with the tail pointing away from you.  Place 1-2 teaspoons of the stuffing on top of the meaty part of the shrimp.  Fold the pointed end of the wrapper over the stuffing, then fold the right side over the point and continue to fold the wrapper to encase the shrimp with the tail exposed.  Can be make 24 hours ahead.  (If you are not going to fry them right away, sprinkle lightly with cornstarch to absorb any liquid which may “sweat” out of the eggroll wrappers.)

Then we remembered beans. 

 Black beans are the stand-out solo artist of the legume orchestra.  They have a rich distinctive flavor that stands well on its own, but like an accomplished collaborative musician they play beautifully with other strong ingredients for a dish that is more than the sum of its parts.  So when I say black beans are rock stars I’m not talking about the no-talent lead singer kind of rock star.  Black beans can sing in perfect harmony with such varied partners as citrus, spice and everything nice.  And talk about versatility, frijoles negros speak the laid-back language of the islands, as well as South America and Asia.   Besides, these seductive shiny little orbs are just so elegant on a plate.  Black beans maintain their cool, even when they’re hot.  

Black beans can be purchased dried or canned.  Dried beans will need to be rehydrated before using them in a recipe, but the method is simple.  Place a pound of beans in a soup pot and cover them with an inch or two of water.  Bring the water to a boil, then cover with a tight lid.  Turn off the heat and let the beans sit for an hour.  Drain and rinse and your beans are ready to cook.  One cup of dried beans will equal about 2 cups of cooked beans. 

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February 14, 2007 - Spice Up Your Life with Red Curry Paste

 Red curry paste is made from both wet and dry ingredients.  It is a powerful combination of chilies, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, ginger and lime leaf, along with some other flavorings and spices.  Making a true home made curry paste is a rather long and strenuous procedure involving a lot of mortar-and-pestling of ingredients which may be unfamiliar to you, but it isn’t really necessary to put yourself through all of that.  You can buy red curry paste ALREADY MADE!  That’s right – there are some great brands of this amazing seasoning blend at your supermarket, Asian grocery store or health food store.  It comes in a little jar or can, with all of that chopping, grating and blending already done for you.  And it keeps for a long time in the fridge – we’re talking months.  All that flavor.  Already done.  So what’s stopping you?

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Aphrodisiacs are defined as foods that allegedly arouse sexual desire.  So, do aphrodisiacs really exist?  Think about this for a moment.  Many of the reputed aphrodisiac foods are nutritionally valuable and high in certain vitamins and minerals.  If we agree that undernourishment creates a loss of libido and reduces fertility rates, it follows that a person who eats a highly nutritious diet, feels great and is in good health may have their thoughts turn to, well, a nice brisk game of hot pajama tag.

While experts agree that there is no one food or herb that acts on all men and women equally, there exist countless means that can fire up a libido legally, safely and cheaply.  In a broader sense than just nutritionally, any food that tantalizes the senses is an aphrodisiac of sorts.  But why stop there?  Anything that makes you more receptive to love can be considered an aphrodisiac.  So what about Barry White music?  A really great back rub?  For some, the ultimate love potion may require a black American Express card.  Others become a slave to love for a great smile or a good sense of humor.

 Baked Champagne Oysters
24 oysters on the half shell
2 shallots, finely minced
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup Champagne or Chardonnay
1 cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon yellow curry powder
Kosher salt to taste
Five-pound box rock salt
 
Drain the oysters, reserving the juices.  Keep refrigerated, covered with a damp towel. 
 
Saute the shallots in butter for a minutes to soften.  Add the wine and bring to a boil  Reduce heat and simmer for 6-8 minutes or until the liquid is reduced by half.  Add the reserved oyster juice and cook for about two more minutes.  Add cream and reduce for 10-12 minutes or until liquid is again reduced by half.  Stir in the curry and kosher salt to taste.  (Sauce can be made earlier in the same day that you are planning to cook the oysters.  Chill until ready for use.)
 
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.  Pour rock salt in the bottom of a roasting pan.  Arrange the oysters on top of the rock salt to stabilize them.  Put one tablespoon of the sauce on each oyster and bake for 3-4 minutes or until oysters are cooked and cream is beginning to brown.
 
Arugula salad with blood oranges, blue cheese, toasted almonds and a citrus vinaigrette
Serves 4
1/2 pound arugula, washed and dried
1 blood orange or regular orange, peeled and cut in sections
2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
2 ounces almonds, toasted
Citrus vinaigrette (recipe follows)
               
Put arugula in large bowl.  Toss with just enough dressing to coat lightly.  Top with blood orange sections, crumbled blue cheese and almonds.  Pass extra vinaigrette on the side.
 
Citrus vinaigrette:
                1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (preferably from blood oranges)
                1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
                1 teaspoon honey
                1 cup salad oil (or soybean oil)
                salt and pepper to taste
 
In a medium bowl, combine juice, honey and Dijon.  While whisking, drizzle in oil.