A Better Cooking Post

This last weekend I was filled with the spirit...the need to cook. I had an idea that was oddly enough born from one of my low calorie dinners. I had used a particular flavor combination to season our veggie based dinner. But my creative mind was saying, "if you used a lot more of this, it would be a great base for a pasta sauce."

We had been wanting to get together with Gaius Derf and Agent W for some time as our mutual travel schedules had not allowed it. It was our turn to go to Derfsholm but I wanted to cook. So I pretty much said, we would come over but I was going to cook dinner.

Agent W is a lady of strong values and in her world you don't have someone over to your house and not cook for THEM. But then again she does know her de-I...as in knows the kind of mess is going to result in her kitchen if I come and cook

What does this face say to you?
To me it says,
"Cook in my house? OMG that means I have to clean his @&$#%$ mess up!"

I want to point out this is a very simple meal. It is something anyone can do. We had:

• Shrimp Cocktail
• Pasta with (I don't know what to call it) Sauce

Shrimp Cocktail

OK grasshoppers, it you want to really shine understand that you have to make things yourself. Don't buy pre-cooked shrimp. Make your own. By the way the "fresh shrimp" in the stores is 90% of the time shrimp that has been defrosted because shrimp is raised or caught way to far from where you live. So just use a bag of frozen shrimp. Bring A LOT of water to a full boil. Put your shrimp in and cook for two minutes EXACTLY. Then drain and IMMEDIATELY put into a bath of ice water.

Now make your cocktail sauce. That's right I said make it. You have much more control over the end product and it is too simple. Use ketchup (you don't have to make that), horseradish (you can buy that too), some lemon juice, lime juice or both. I like to add some chile powder or Tabasco sauce as well. Because you are putting in the hot and sour elements you can vary the sauce to taste which you can't do with a prepared sauce. I like to use a lot of horseradish. People have a tendency to think it is too hot but inevitably they heat tons of it.




By the way, I wanted to make sure that I was going to have pictures all the way through this process for a proper post. So I delegated the picture taking to Gaius Derf. I was well into the shrimp making process when I realized Senator Derf was talking to Wife and drinking wine with not pictures being taken! So I had to take over the task myself.

"What. Take Pictures"

The Sauce

The key to this sauce is the flavor base. But first I prepped some meat for it. I was using boneless chicken thighs.

Brown the chicken first and set it aside.

Now on to our flavor base. You want:

• 3/4 cup of olive oil
• 3/4 of a can of anchovies with their oil (eat the rest or give them to your cat)
• 2/3 of a small can of tomato paste
• 3 garlic cloves sliced
• 3 tablespoons of harissa (Moroccan chile paste) or a tablespoon of crushed red peppers
• One medium onion
• One can chicken stock or beef stock if you are using beef or pork
  
• Your meat (you can use any kind you like)

I know. I know. You're saying, "Anchovies, ewwwww, I hate anchovies." Grasshoppers, trust me, you never, never taste or even see them. They dissolve and just provide this depth and richness that you can't describe or explain.

The technique is simplicity itself. Put the olive oil in the pan. Add all the ingredients other than the onions, stock, and meat. Turn the heat on and let everything saute for about five minutes.

Sorry about the blurry shot.

"What. I'm supposed to be taking pictures?"

Then add the onions and saute until soft.

Add the stock and the chicken. Salt to taste. Cook for about fifteen minutes while making the pasta. Add more stock if necessary.

Finish by cooking the pasta in the sauce for the last couple of minutes.

Beautiful shrimp cocktail awaiting the sauce

Our wonderful pasta with the flavors having soaked into both pasta and meat.
Hey, that plate has already been partially eaten!

"What! Was I supposed to be taking pictures?"

Let The Gardening Begin

It is that time of year. After snow just a week ago, it has been up in the 70's and we have trees blooming and leaves coming out all over the place. As part of my personal long-term transition plan, I'm trying to work less and have more time to do other things like enlist in Wife's Foothills Gardening Regiment. As private in the Regiment, that means mostly that I do a lot of menial stuff. But that's OK because if feeds the produce factory which in turn feeds my culinary fantasies.-

Field Marshal Wife-issimo
Planning the Early Spring Vegetable Offensive

On Saturday we planted:

• Collard Greens
• Turnip Greens
• Kale
• Napa Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Brussels Sprouts
• Mustard Greens

And a crap load of onions.

Then on Sunday the weather turned. The winds came up as they do so often and the temperature is going to drop around 40+ degrees. So we were out again in the wind putting on frost coverings, securing them with every heavy object (stones, pavers, bricks) in our yard.

This is when I miss us having grandchildren living close by.

Can You Have Negative Humidity?

I was listening to our local weather today and they announced that our humidity for the day was 5%. I know we live in a desert but that seems pretty low. Just how low can humidity get? Can it get to a point where when you walk out all your moisture is automatically sucked out of you????

Half of a Great Cooking Post

With the extreme time required on the East Coast for Dad for the moment not required, I've been able to get back to something close to a normal schedule again. This means plenty of work but also getting into entertaining like we love to.

Our friends B and M who spend most of their time in Mexico were in town. B I may have mentioned in the past was a soldier in Europe about the same time that I was studying there so we share a love of French food (especially cheese!) and wine. Wife and I decided to do a real classic old school French meal. The traditional old school meal has five course. These are:

First course - usually a soup, a non-lettuce/greens salad or charcutrie (cured meat)
Main course - meat or fish with side
Salad - salad in this case is simple greens only (think a palette cleanser)
Cheese - always have to have cheese
Dessert

My plan was to do the full photo journalism blog post with pictures covering each step from beginning to end. And I started real well. Unfortunately sometime around the time of the midpoint of making the main course, I totally stop taking pictures! Can you believe that. I say fire the bum. Accept who else could I get to take pictures of me for free :(

So I'll put out what I have. Our first course we as a warm cream of potato and leek soup. Potato leek soup is one of the easiest...I mean easiest...dishes to make. It is the backbone of the French potage which is the plain old soup that I use to get one I was a student way back when. But with a little effort it becomes Cinderella at the ball.

Our stars - Leeks (grown by none other than Wife and harvested the day of cooking them - they stay in the ground during the winter) and potatoes

Clean the leeks well.
Put them and the potatoes in chicken stock (you can use water actually but the stock adds richness)
Cook for around 45 minutes at a medium simmer.
It is important to cook the leeks well if you are gussying this dish up or they might be stringy.
Flavor with salt and pepper to taste (I used white pepper to avoid black specks).

When done get out the trusty immersion blender and puree it.

Now the part that takes this to another level (Bwahahahahaha)
Strain it through a fine sieve.
This is a bit of labor because you need to force the solids through with rubber spatula.
The blender never gets the soup super smooth and it is that silky texture that takes if from everyday to high class.
Add a little cream at the end and finish with some fresh chives or as I did the finely chopped tops of onions wintering over in the garden.

Sorry no picture of end result :(
(You're fired de-I!!)

The next dish that I got pretty well is Wife's fabulous Schaum Torte. This is a lemon curd in a meringue shell. This is another of these dishes that is so incredibly simple yet fantastic.

First make meringue shells
That is done by whipping egg whites with cream of tartar until they are stiff peaks then cooking in a low oven until they get cooked through and are crisp and firm.
(Tell your husband that this may take hours ahead of time so he doesn't freak out when he can't get at the oven!)

Now make a simple egg lemon custard with the yolks from the eggs, the juice of three lemons and the zest from the lemons and sugar.
Let the custard cool.

Put custard in shells.

Put on dollop of fresh whipped cream (no canned stuff slackers!)
True story - We had a guest once who on being served this dessert took one bite, stood up, went over to Wife and planted a big ole kiss on her proclaiming it the best dish he'd ever eaten.
I kid you not.

The great Carbonade a la Flamande pictorial that never came to be :(

B was stationed in Brussels so this particular dish is a French Belgian specialty - a beef braised in beer. You would never know beer was used if you just tasted it. I got this recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking I by Julia Child. Please, if there is one book you are going to get that will take your cooking to whole new plane, this is it. It dates back to the 1960's. I still go to it again and again and again whenever I want to do something nice. It is the book that shows beyond all doubt that it is not the number of ingredients you thrown in, it is the technique you use. That's why I'm so pissed I failed with the last series of pictures.

This dish literally only has beef, onions, fat, garlic, stock, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, beer, vinegar, and a thickening agent (corn starch). But the method that is used is what takes it over the top.

Beef, chuck, boneless, cut into chunks.
Do not...I repeat DO NOT... use very lean meat for a braise. There is a chemical reaction that takes place when the fat and connective tissue breakdown via a long slow cooking that results in very tender meat with a great mouth feel. The fat all renders out and you can skim it off.

Tie your flavorings (just the parsley, thyme and bay leaf) in cheese cloth - a bouquet garni it's called if you want to impress your friends.

Brown your meat well in batches

Next take a good amount of onions ( about 1/2 pound per pound of meat)

(Sorry end of pictures)

Slice them and brown them in the pan the meat was cooked in for about 10 minutes. Take them out, add salt and pepper and crushed garlic (notice no sauteing of the garlic - one of those little technical things)

Put your stock in the pan and scrape off the browned stuff on the bottom from the meat and onions (its called the fond). Put that aside. Now layer half the meat, half the onions and repeat, salting and peppering between the layers. Add the stock. Add beer until the meat is just covered. Add a little bit of brown sugar to offset the bitterness of the beer.

Bring to a simmer. Cook in a 325 degree oven until fork tender about 2.5 hours at sea level, a good hour more for where I live at 6000 feet. Remove the meat from the broth, skim the fat off, thicken with corn starch dissolved in a little vinegar (for a slightly sharp note). Simmer the sauce for 4 minutes. Add the meat again. The whole thing can be made in advance at this point and warmed up just before serving - great so you're not away from your guests. I served it with buttered egg noodles.

This is comfort food taken to a different level just by some relatively simple techniques. B & M raved.

One More Snow Hiking

Even though I'm not in the best of shape because of all the travel to the East Coast, Gaius Derf really wanted to hike so I agreed to go today. The hiking gods were smiling. We had an unexpected couple of inches of snow! With the change to daylight savings time, even at 8:30 AM we were the first ones out. The snow wasn't too deep and was nice and powdery. While it was around 30 degrees when we left, there was no wind, blue skies and bright sunshine.

Even the cacti were in winter wonderland.

The snow puts a whole different view on the mountain,
Especially with the bright sunlight.

A couple of happy hikers!

Reflections on Old Love

I'm not talking about an old love - like someone you use to be in love with. I'm talking about the love relationship that develops over decades and decades of being with someone. Of having gone through all the crises, and traumas, and challenges with the resulting deep relationship.

All the long trips back and forth to Connecticut and the emotions invoked have brought on a lot of reflection. On one recent flight, it seemed that all the on board video entertainment related to young love, the move, the TV reruns. I thought back to those days.

Certainly when you are young (or even not young) and have yet to experience love or have not have a love relationship in your life, there is that lack. And when you find it, there's all the excitement, and drama that goes along with it. Our culture just wallows in that experience. It dominates. It is followed in frequency by the breakup - when the love relationship sours because the parties just couldn't make it work - because no matter how passionate initial love is there is this long hard process of transforming that into a sustainable, mutually nurturing relationship.

If you are fortunate enough to have gotten over that challenge, what you end up with is old love. Love that is deep. Love that you can count on. Love the supports you and that you provide support for. Love that is assured and unconditional. It's a different animal. You don't need the extremes of passion because you substitute it for the foundation of depth. You appreciate every day, every moment you have it because it took so much to get.

We need more movies about that.

Back to Connecticut

On the business plan this year was trying to reduce the amount of travel in order to focus more time on my home market. Of course the Father crisis has turned that upside down. On the plus side there are all those frequent flyer miles for visiting children in far off places. We're no longer in the crisis phase. More in the waiting stage. But my brothers and I still feel a fairly frequent degree of physical presence is important. So I'm off tomorrow and back on Wed. Wife is going with me this time which is nice.