cooking @ home

Archive for October, 2007

Tired of going for that second half of a sandwich the next day in the fridge and finding it soggy and unappealing? How about opening up that bacon and wondering is that just moisture and condensation or has it turned bad? With one easy tip, you’ll find all of that a thing of the past. You’ll be able to keep bread and pasty items, sloppy sandwiches and breakfast meats fresher and longer in ice box. And all with everyday items in your kitchen, just put together in a slightly different way.

People food shop differently. That said, they can be placed in groups. Some folks shop daily and what they pick up from the market on the way home from work is what they’ll be eating in a couple of hours. No need to worry about freezing fish or putting it in the refrigerator with special care for them. Others buy in weekly jaunts. Some, like me, make the “big food run” every six to eight weeks, and supplement the smaller items — milk, eggs, fresh veggies — with a trip to the convenience store or local produce place. For the latter two groups (probably the majority) keeping things as fresh as possible is required.

Now, if you’re reading thinking either, hey, is he going to sell me something, the answer is no. And if you are instead reading this and saying, you gotta be kidding me, an article on how to wrap things up? What’s he think, we’re morons or something? The answer to that is no as well.

No product, and no one is stupid (and I’m no genius) but … I think, no, make that I know for certain I have by trial and error found a way of keeping things fresher and longer than before that is not so commonly known.

What Microwaving Taught Me

Alton Brown is famous for looking at food and at cooking with scientific eye. (There’s even a T-shirt available on his site that says “Science … It’s what’s for dinner.”) And while I’m in no way as geeky as him (that’s a positive compliment in case you weren’t sure). There is some science that comes involved here. Especially with something as “space aged” as the mysterious microwave.

What’s this have to do with keeping foods? Be patient, grasshopper. Put a bowl of something in the microwave, let’s say, a bowl of string beans from the night before. (Forget lids, they melt). So you’re going to put it in without a lid or with a covering of plastic wrap. Without, and too long, they dry up. With the plastic wrap, they keep their moisture, in fact they steam.

Next, a big bowl of stew to defrost. It won’t get dry either way, but you find after two minutes of nuking (microwaving, that is) it’s still relatively cold throughout. Yet two minutes with plastic wrap and it’s done it’s job. Are you noting these things? You should be. Let’s continue.

If you put a roll in the machine for 20 seconds, it’s hot, but it’s also soggy, on the point of going wet. If I had put the roll in wrapped in plastic it would have been a soaked wet thing you throw out in the trash. If you put the same roll in while wrapped loosely with a paper towel, nuke one side 10 seconds, flip and then another 8-10 seconds on that side, you have a perfectly delightful warmed up roll. In fact it almost feels as fresh as though it were taken out of the oven.

Noticing a pattern yet? Eventually, I did. And applied these to wrapping up food that would go in the refrigerator, and found some wonderful results.

Perfect Marriage of Paper and Aluminum

Let’s go to basics. A sandwich. Not even tomato on it. Ham on cheese with mustard on rye. You eat half of it and decide that’s enough, you’ll wrap it up and eat the other half later. Very common household thing. You take out the plastic wrap, put it away, take it out a day or two later and it’s all mushy. For some reason though you keep doing this, cause hey, that’s what plastic wrap is for, right?

Maybe one day you decide ok, aluminum foil, maybe that will give you a better result. Two days later, you open it up. It’s better in some ways. Maybe. It’s a little mushy, but not as mushy. But the bread is now somehow mushy and hard/stale at the same time.

So we take a lesson from microwaving. Breads and pasty have water in them. Paper towels absorb. Plastic wrap holds in and even brings out moisture. Add one more thing in (since you can’t use this in a microwave), aluminum foil will hold comparatively less moisture than plactic wrap does.

So, breads, sandwiches, even “runny” sandwiches (with lots of oil or mayo and tomatoes, onions, etc) wrap first in a paper towel and then in aluminum foil. And you know what you get? Two even three days later a sandwich that tastes like it was JUST made. I kid you not! The roll is not stale, nor is it soggy. The contents of the sandwich hasn’t bothered it either.

Bacon and also ham breakfast slices. You see them in the plastic they came in, or you put them in new plastic wrap, and you look at them and they often look at first slimy, because moisture has mixed with oil in the case of the bacon, or the ham which already has a great deal of oil exudes more. These are usually fine, but they don’t look good. Be sure. Again, the paper towel and aluminium foil method of wrapping these and storing these in the fridge is just amazing. Good bacon and ham, you open it up and it appears totally fresh as it should. And if either of these are going, there’s no more guessing is it the water from plastic or not.

Simple, right? Totally. And yet, this combination took me a while to figure out, and there’s good chance you’ve never tried it before. Please, do yourself a favor, try this. It sounds like a silly tip probably, but when you see the results — which cost you nothing — you will be so flipped by it, you’ll think — like I did — that you just discovered something seemingly momentous.

No sense delving into the difference between a trifle and a parfait as I have already done that previously when I made the Pear Parfait. Another thing, these really are pretty easy to make and can come in such a variety of combinations.

Since the last time when I did the Pear Parfait, I did go out and get an actual trifle bowl with several small desert dishes. I knew I had a big party coming up and in an effort to make it a bit easier with all the dishes I was making, I figured, correctly, a trifle would make for a low-effort but big-wow-factor ending to the meal.

Quick aside: When your having a party, you know you want to pull out all the stops. At the same time, you keep hoping or planning to make things so that you can enjoy your party yourself a bit. So making a trifle is a nice way to take some of the difficulty out of it

I did glean a tip or two from this though which, natch, I’ll share with you. First, you want to make sure things don’t “fall” as much as possible between the layers, so I definitely let the pudding set as opposed to making it and putting it right in. Next, things will fall. Whipped cream especially, both inside from the weight atop it, and even on the top of the trifle, just because that’s the nature of whipped cream. Don’t feel bad is the tip. It happens. When, as with the pudding, you can do something toward controlling it, do so. And when you can’t control it, as with the whipped cream, don’t fluster over it.

The other tip here I can offer is. Well, I made a mistake in not realizing just how big this bowl was. I had never used it before, it was new, and I hadn’t had anything like this previously, so when it came to things I badly misjudged at times. I had plenty of pound cake. I had plenty of whipped cream. I might have, had I known the pudding would fill up a single layer, in retrospect purchased a second one and been able to make another layer. Though it worked fine with the one.

It was with the berries that I had woefully under estimated. Even when I “stole” more from a second package, I basically ended up with half of what I truly needed. So what’s a cook to do? Creative “fudging”. For the middle layer, I placed the berries on the outside so folks could see them through the trifle dish, and on the inside “core” of maybe a six inch circle I added more pound cake and whipped cream to the middle.

To account for the shortage, on the top of the trifle I did the opposite, putting the rest all in the middle, and then surrounding the outside “ring” of the cake with tons of whipped cream. In short, it looked like two full layers of berries, but if you had x-ray vision, you would have seen and outer ring in the middle, and the short center on top. hehe Yes, I’m evil I guess. Naw, seriously, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. Now that I know, next time I’ll definitely buy double and do it right. In the recipe below I take account those two errors and give the “better” recipe.

Lemon Berry Trifle
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

2 pkgs instant lemon pudding
2 pkgs frozen mixed berries
1 spray can extra-creamy whipped cream
1 pound cake, cubed
triple sec
mint sprigs for garnish
sugar

Make the lemon pudding per directions and place in refrigerator for at least one hour to set up more firmly. Take a package of mixed berries — usually strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries — defrost. Taste; these are usually tart, but taste first. Mascerate with sugar as needed to achieve the level of sweetness desired.

Place 1/2 the pound cake cubes and place at bottom of trifle bowl. Add some triple sec on top lightly. Add half the pudding. Then half the berries. Then a third to a half of the whipped cream. Repeat. At this point you’re at the top of your trifle, and mix up as needed to decorate it. Use your imagination.

You might make this immediately before serving. Chances are you’ll make this a few hours ahead and serve it after folks have eaten the main meal, so yes, place in refrigerate and cover top lightly with plastic wrap. When you take it out, the layers will have settled downward. Don’t let fret over it. Save extra whipped cream to add to top immediately before serving. Maybe add some fresh mint sprigs for garnish. Again, your imagination. This can make anywhere from 18 to 24 servings.

You know how you can tell I’m a home cook and not a chef? Cause if I get a very good result from something pre-prepared, I’ll often enough be lazy and I’ll take it. For instance, I’ve never made from-scratch pancakes. Yeah, I know, lazy-lazy. It wouldn’t be that much of a bother, it’s just that a box of Bisquick, eggs and milk does it so fine and in less time. Btw, just because I don’t make from-scratch pancakes does not mean I don’t “juice them up.” Blueberry pancakes, banana pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes ….

When it comes to waffles, it’s FSO: From-scratch only, baby! But why, you ask? Waffles are much more difficult than pancakes. True. But the answer is the pre-packaged stuff does not cut it. Doesn’t come close. If it did, then yeah, I’d probably be lazy again. But it is soooo far away from what a “real” waffle is. No way.

What is one of my rules of thumb? If the difference in taste is worth the time, I’ll go the extra mile. Pancakes from scratch compared to prepackaged? Little difference, I go fast. Waffles, it’s an Everest-sized difference.

The secret is the separated frothy whites folded gently into the batter. You see waffles are supposed to be light and airy; think heavenly clouds, a thin coating of crispness outside and fluffy goodness inside. They are not meant to be bricks. They are not meant to be square pancakes with “pockets” in them. They are certainly not meant to be pre-frozen “things” that spew forth from a toaster.

I caught an old episode of “Good Eats” the other day, and I have to say: Alton, for once, you’ve failed me, you fell down like a caved-in souffle. No whites separation with gentle folding?! I’m in a state of amazement. Hang your head low, Mr. Brown, for you finally got one wrong — and you did it Big Time.

Some quick thoughts on the subject. Bigger is better. If you’re buying a waffle maker, get Belgian style.

No, I have no idea how to clean the son of a gun. I recall many years ago the Frugal Gourmet complained about the same thing: non-stick but it sticks, and being non-stick, you can’t clean it with anything strong. He suggested maybe finding an old pre-Teflon one, be it electric or even stove-top. I looked and there are many available for good prices on eBay. I’ve been tempted but haven’t made the leap yet. As far as I can figure, the so-called “non-stick” waffle irons of today are an example of planned obsolescence: “the decision on the part of a manufacturer to produce a consumer product that will become obsolete and/or non-functional in a defined time frame.”

Anyhow not afraid to admit I don’t know things. So, dear readers, if any of you know either of the following, give me a comment and let me know. First, as mentioned above, what’s the best way to get a non-stick waffle maker the cleanest?

And second, as you see in my photos, I can never seem to judge how to get my batter perfect. Either I get them to the corners and overflowing all over the countertop, or — the way I’ve come to do them — aim for the middle, try to get it out towards the sides, and if it doesn’t get there, not worry so much about the shape. But if you know a way to get it there on the money — is it even possible? — let me know!

Best-Ever Homemade Waffles
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

2 eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
1 tblsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat waffle iron, lightly coating it, preferably with cooking spray. Beat separated egg whites until stiff. In another bowl beat yolks by themselves until thick. Add milk and oil and continue beating. Add dry ingredients and beat until everything is smooth. Add vanilla and fold in the egg whites.

Cook per waffle iron instructions or until waffle iron alerts you (usually with a light) they are done. If you’d doing it the old-fashioned waffle iron way, roughly 3 to 4 minutes or until waffle iron stops steaming. If you are doing a bunch, place each new bunch onto cookie sheet in oven at lowest setting 150-200F until ready to serve.

Every waffle maker is different, in my large Belgian waffle one, the above makes two sessions. Eight waffles, or “squares”, all together (if you cut down the lines) or two giant waffles (if you consider each session and large circle to be a single waffle).

Butter while hot. Top with pancake syrup definitely, and maybe add some whipped cream as well. Don’t forget some bacon or sausage on the side. Serves 2-4.

I have one major variation on this that will send these out of this world.

Cinnamon Waffles with Golden Raisins

Same above and also …. add 1-2 tsps (from lighter to robust) cinnamon and a 1/2 cup of golden raisins. (Yes you can use regular raisins, but the golden one’s give a lighter taste that goes better with the lightness of the waffle.) Add both of these to the dry ingredients (prior to adding those to the wet). The flour helps coat and lift the raisins so they don’t sink in the waffle.

I love this town. I love it for so many reasons, too many, I won’t even get into cause I might not be able to stop. But one of the reasons is food, baby. Philly is hometown to so many foods, it’s just crazy. Probably first that comes up on everyone’s list is the Philly Cheesesteak. If not that, it’s the Hoagie. Whats a hoagie? Ever have something called a “sub” or submarine? Ever have something called a “hero” or hero sandwhich? Well, if so, they are just pale, lack-luster imitations of a hoagie.

What else? There’s the Philly pretzel. Much superior to those things they burn in NYC and call pretzels. There’s scrapple, a mysterious and wonderful substance — sorta like haggis, not in taste, in mystery — that is a wonderful alternative to bacon, ham and sausage as a breakfast meat to go along with your eggs. And then, to my surprise, there’s the stromboli.

To my surprise? Well I’ve known strombolis ever since I was little. The local pizza shop or steak shop always had them along with the calzones. Wasn’t actually until just a few days ago when I looked up in various food encyclopedias on the web — Epicurious’s is my favorite by the way. And I was wondering just what was technically considered the difference between a calzone and a stromboli.

According to the Epicurious-Barron’s database: “Originating in Naples, calzone is a stuffed pizza that resembles a large turnover. It is usually made as an individual serving. The fillings can be various meats, vegetables or cheese; mozzarella is the cheese used most frequently. Calzones can be deep-fried or brushed with olive oil and baked.” Whereas a stromboli is “a specialty of Philadelphia, a stromboli is a calzone-like enclosed sandwich of cheese (usually mozzarella) and pepperoni (or other meat) wrapped in pizza dough.”

So, a stromboli, yet another food originating here in Philly, is something akin to (but not) an inside-out pizza, a loaf of Italian bread that’s stuffed, a giant non-fried calzone, the world’s biggest “hot pocket” (except it tastes 100 times better). Let’s face it, these are just comparisions. A stromboli is what it is — a stromboli. And it’s delicious!

Now, as said this here is not your average stromboli. (Oddly, now that I’ve made the monster one, I’ll have to make a “normal” one to show you in the near future.) This is brimming with pounds of delicious meats, plus a substantial amount of savory veggies too. Some believe that where calzones were made to be eaten by hand, that strombolis were too. Personally, I have never (even with the normal ones you get from the shops) believed that. When you slice it you have two open ends, what a slop that would make eating by hand. So I’ve always used the knife and fork. And with this particular one, heavy-weighted, jam-packed “big guy”, manly-sized log, that is the only way to eat it.

Needless to say, this is one puppy you definitely want to make for a tailgating party, or bowling night, or on the big game day to feed a bunch of big hungry guys. The loaf ended up being 17 inches long, 6 to 7 inches wide and an inch to an inch and a half thick and even weighed (I’m guessing here) a good five to seven pounds. Tell me this isn’t going to be the hit of the party?! You know it!

When slicing a serving, figure rbout an inch width; perhaps an inch and a half or even up to two for a jumbo slice. This is going to make anywhere from 10 to 16 servings. If you figure in the price of the ingredients, and what the same amount of food would cost at the pizza joint, this is even a pretty sweet budget saving meal to boot. Oh, and just cause it is party food, doesn’t mean it’s not dinner or lunch. I didn’t make this for a party but for “dinner with lots of leftovers”, the kind I can reheat for a couple more dinners or as a few more hot lunches later in the week.

One last item here, before we hit the recipe. There’s also two schools of thought with those who make strombolis. (Geez, aren’t there always at least two schools of thought with food?) One is, you put some of the sauce inside; other’s say no, it leaks, it’s too messy; no sauce inside the stromboli itself, instead have some spaghetti sauce or marinara on the side for dipping. Me? I figure why does is it always have to be one way or the other — both ways together works! You need some of that inside, and hey, offer some to dip too to accomodate people’s taste.

Ok, get yourself plenty of napkins, grab a cold one to “go along” outta da fridge, dig in, and enjoy!

     

Over-Stuffed Meat Lovers Monster Stromboli
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

3/4 lb sweet Italian sausage, cut open from casing
3/4 lb hot Italian sausage, cut open from casing
1/2 lb thinly sliced pepperonis
4-5 slices of frozen sandwich steak, chopped

3 green (or red or mixed) bell peppers, cut to chunks
1-2 medium yellow onions, cut to chunks
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1/2 pound baby portebellos (or any mushrooms) chopped

one portion of pizza dough (enough to make one large pizza pie)
12 oz marinara or spaghetti sauce
6 oz shredded mozerella or mixed Italian cheeses

grated parmagena
salt
pepper
garlic powder
oregano

Take one serving of pizza dough, roll and knead out into a rough rectangle about 18 inches long and 8-10 inches wide and place inside baking sheet. Add oregano and grated parmagena to dough and press in with palm of hand. Lightly add shredded cheese all around and do same with hand again, pressing in slightly

In one very large pan, bring up to medium-high with very little oil, add half of sliced garlic, put in the pepperonis and brown. These have ton of oil. After turning constantly a few minutes, dump the oil, place pepperonis on a plate with paper towels and let sit, getting off the excess oil. Add sausage mixture into this pan and start to brown, lightly salt and pepper only as these are already well seasoned.

In a second smaller skillet, add oil, remaining sliced garlic, and put on medium-low and add the peppers. Remember you’re browning the meat, but you’re going to be sweating (not browning) the veggies. As peppers start to soften slightly add onions and mushrooms. You want all the ingredients to soften, stir constantly. Add some seasonings including some oregano.

In meat skillet, make some room in the pan and add the crumbled steak, season and brown. When everything nearly done in the meat skillet, put the pepperoni back in, mix everything up and add about 4 oz of marinara or spaghetti sauce and incorporate well.

Now to layer. Take handfuls of shredded cheese and thickly make a line down the center, about six inches or so wide. Take meat and spoon out down the middle of the dough, forming a line from near top to bottom, should end up being four to six inches wide and maybe half inch or so high. Now, do the same with the veggies, right on top, form a line top to bottom, should end up being roughly two to three inches wide. Take your sauce and add a thick bead, no more than an inch wide again down the length, atop the veggies.

Fold one side up across the top, then the other side, gently prodding as needed to make oval loaf. Fold the two ends up neatly as possible. Score slits in top of dough width-wise roughly four or five inches in length and spaced and inch-and-a-half or two down entire length. Take grated parmagena and liberally sprinkle atop the entire loaf. Now drizzle some olive oil across top. This will add flavor and aid in browning. Place the baking sheet into a preheated 400°F for about 35 minutes. When nice and brown, and you see the liquids inside boiling through some of the slits, you’re done.

Let sit on sheet at least 15 minutes before serving. Optionally take some of the sauce and add to a bowl for additonal dipping. Serve with knife and fork and plenty of napkins. Servings 10-16. Beverage of choice, beer of course, but works with anything.

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Now that we’re at the half way point of the mini — repeat, very mini — series known as the six episodes of The Next Iron Chef (NIC) … cheers and jeers. As you can expect, the cheers go to the chefs, the jeers to the judges.

First my picks. It’s so much my own fault I didn’t say this prior to episode one when their were eight contenders, or even last week; saying it now, big deal, two out of four you’ll say. Anyhow, I do say now (and this hasn’t changed since the start, really) I think it’s going to be Besh or Symon. Again, thought so before it started, but only I know I’m telling you the truth here.

Besh and Symon Shine

Why these two? Sheer talent displayed in previously as Iron Chef America contenders that has only been reinforced here in this program. It took me a while to realize Symon was previously “the guy with lots of hair when Bill Murray was in the audience”. Both he and Besh impressed me not only with their cooking in those past food combats, but that they also had things so under control that they easily talked with Alton as they cooked. So many chef challengers are under such fire, we never hear the kind of repartee we do between an Iron Chef and Alton. So those that do always stand out more in my mind.

Besh, I love his sense of humor and his confidence. I saw him in a seafood competition between states on The Food Network and not knowing who he was at the time, I instantly like the guy. Eventually I realized he and this other one was the same person and said Ah, this guy is already a foodie star, he’s going to be a food personality on TV some day. One more thing, of all the eight, these two seem to actually, even under stress, be having the most fun. Even if things are going wrong, they express confidence. So did Jill Davie, though her fare didn’t live up to it. Those three, now two, seemed more than the other’s to “be in their element”. Sanchez at first seems one could knock that he seems to be in perpetual frenzy each time — but then you realize that Bobbie Flay reacts similarly nearly every Iron Chef competition. And we love Bobby and he usually wins, so we can’t knock Aarón for it. To me for some reason Cosentino is the mystery man.

Fine, that out of the way, some more cheers. Symon making a drink (and therefore a third offering when everyone was making two) was very impressive. His doing polenta when no one else did and succeeding in the time to do it, amazing. And Besh oil frying on the grill was excellent. As was his three catfish deserts on the first episode’s challenge. And Kaysen shows he will only get better in the near future; a potential superstar come 2010. Oh, and for giving Sanchez coals … hey, no good deed goes unnoticed or unpunished on NIC, huh? Major kudos for the best sportsmanship of the competition thus far!

Three Giant Cheers to Marou

Now a major, three-Michelin star shout out to Marou — which leads directly into the judges jeers. To Marou for standing his ground and basically saying (my words, not his) “Hey, this is me. You’re trying to change me. I’m not going for it.” He is the only chef so far who by basically chosen himself to leave. They even said his venison dish was the best of the competition, but because he doesn’t listen to them for presentation they got rid of him?

What is this? Grammar school? The judges have now set them up as teachers and best chefs in America if they don’t pay attention to them are expelled? Worse, the judges are themselves acting like children. We love every meal you did, you won this competition by taste, but we hate your plating, you won’t change so see ya. Insanity?!

Btw, do you judges even know plating is 5 points, taste is 20? Or didn’t you get the score card yet on how the show actually works? It seems you didn’t by your actions. Seems you’re going contrary to the spirit of the show for … reasons unknown. But being “true”, nope. You’re failing, judges. Miserably.

Listen to Us or You’re Outta Here

Worse, the judges egos balloon each week. I don’t know if they will be able to fit their heads through the doors next week. Why? Same thing. Now they are telling the chefs who they should be. Not just how they should plate. For Marou who wisely left — again, you so very much have my admiration for doing that, chef!! For Marou his plating was “him”. And they wanted to change that and he didn’t. Now the judges want to change the personalities I didn’t catch or write down this exactly, but this is a very close paraphrase: “The judges feel the aw shucks Southern thing is getting tired. We know it’s who you are, but you should break out of it.”

When did NIC turn into “Queer Eye”? When did someone say this a show where we change who you are and turn you into someone else? I’m getting the feeling these same three judges would be telling Batali to cook something “other than just the same boring Italian crap” and to stop wearing clogs — break out of it, Mario! They would no doubt instruct Paula Deen to work on getting rid of her accent, darken her hair to appeal to a younger audience or she’ll fail, and to just “break out of it”.

Yes, each week the chefs continue to be impressive, and each week I think the judges are going more control freak insane. If Besh gets axed because his food is outstanding but that he’s giving them too much “southern boy”, I swear I am going to give Anthony Bourdain a gun and force the judges to accompany him on his next world tour. Yes, the judges really should “break out of” their boring haute cuisine cycle and explore. Have some pregnant weevils, maybe some monkey brains, mmm-mmm snake venom and OJ — keep them out there a long while, Anthony; show them a good time mosquito-net style.

For some time now I’ve been wanting to try my hand at baking. Ok, let me go back a bit. I don’t mean baking from scratch. I’m also not talking the other extreme of baking from a 100% premade box of Pillsbury or Duncan Hines or whatever. Somewhere in between.

You see, I already know from making cakes from a mix, that I’m bad at it. They taste good, but they look homemade. Ok, they look worse than homemade. Maybe it’s the frosting part that I don’t have down. I just know my cakes of the past tend to look something like that Salvador Dali painting where the watches are melted on tree limbs. When it comes to cookies from scratch things get weirder still. The easiest recipe I will botch totally. The more difficult cookie recipes come out fantastic. But I digress.

I wanted to “play” with doughs, that’s what I’ve been trying to say. Phillo, and puff, and pizza dough, and make my own raviolis (from premade sheets) and likewise my own fried dumplings or potstickers. For some reason, where I live, the supermarkets here don’t carry much of this. After going to five different markets I finally found one that carries pizza dough — as you saw in my recipe here — and another that carries puff pastry. Looks like the ravioli and wonton wrappers I’ll be making myself from scratch, and the philo dough is going to have to await my next trip into Center City Philly when I can get to a higher-scale food store.

In any event, after much searching I found frozen premade puff pastry. And, as usual — after a look at the basic directions and a couple of example recipes on the box — I proceed to totally ignore everything and went at it my own way. I always like a “get the lay of the land then walk somewhere” approach to my cooking. Especially if I’ve never done anything like it before. Let me understand the basics and a nuance or two, now dive in, get my hands into it and see what happens. If things go badly wrong, I’ll stop and do more basic research; if things go slightly wrong, that’s part of the game. And natch if things go great, that’s part of the game too — you just end up getting a high score for a newbie.

With that in mind, some jelly and some cream cheese in the fridge I went to work. In the next recipe you’ll see the progression. Meanwhile enjoy this one.

Fruit and Cream Cheese Triangles
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

One puffed pastry sheet
Strawberry preserves
Apricot preserves
Cream cheese
Egg and water for wash
Confectioners (powdered) sugar

Toss some flour on the cutting board or surface you’re using very lightly. Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough into nine squares, and then slice each square diagonally so you end up with 18 triangles.

Give two triangles a little egg wash. In one triangle place a teaspoon of preserves, atop it, a teaspoon of cream cheese. Take the second triangle, slightly pull it on all sides so it becomes wider than the first one, place atop to form the second side. Press down on the edges and with a fork crimp (notch) down all the sides. Put the fork lightly though the top of each mintart to create a hole for steam to escape from.

In an oven preheated to 350°F put the nine triangles on a cookie sheet preferably covered with parchment paper. Bake for 16-18 minutes until golden brown. Cover with confectioner’s sugar while still warm.

I’ve made brisket of beef before several times and each time it was made the same basic way, maybe a bit more “American” standard roast a few times, maybe a bit more “Italian” flavoring once or twice, but I was definitely in the mood for something more robust and different. Only one way to go then, BBQ-style, and when it comes to beef and BBQ, that means Texan. Actually, not, it seems.

I thought Texan, but I missed by a few states. Seems Texas does love it’s brisket big-time, but a little research turns out they’re not much into the sauce masking the meat taste. Seems when it comes to sauce as well as ingredients like cinnamon, brown sugar and a tomato base, and beef instead of pork, we’re talking more towards Missouri.

Hey I may be a Northerner, and I might get the flavor of my states wrong once in a blue moon, but baby, whatever it is and wherever it comes from I can still cook. So I might not be the Alton Brown of cooking — which is cool, cause we got one of those already and he does a fine job — and I might not get my facts about the origins correct 100 percent of the time, but I still say you’ll be back for seconds and maybe even thirds!

My occasionally confused geography knowledge out of the way, you know I’ve discovered something. That as I do more and more cooking, I am surprised to find I never do a single rub or one (only) BBQ sauce. I guess that’s good, but it’s very surprising. You see, after I made one that I considered “my master” sauce (as well as the rub) I figured at the time “Great, this is the one I will stick with”. And it turns out, I don’t.

Again, that’s probably a good thing. Not only am I constantly making variants according to, what may just be my whim of the moment, but perhaps I am also altering the sauce and the rub each time to go better with the component ingredient at hand. In this particular case, especially with the rub, I went a bit sweeter … we’re talking lots of brown sugar and some cinnamon. To counterbalance that I also went a tad hotter than normal with the other ingredients (it still balanced at the end, that’s what always counts)

And in the case of the sauce, very tomato-y (I was using up some bruschetta and some extra cherry tomatoes I had left over instead of using ketchup as my base.) I often add some lemon or lime towards the end for acidity, thing is I was over acidity this time, didn’t need it. Also, since I had diced tomatoes and cherry ones I used a blender for the first time, instead of just mixing with a spoon. Again, a bit diff than usual, but worked out nicely

I sometimes like looking at other folks recipes before doing my own. It gives me a direction, and sometimes a side influence. See what others do, what I like and don’t like. Then no printing of their recipes (do print and use mine though!) … just something to keep in mind before I start and go on my own trek, my own way. And I’ll tell you something, what I consider a big tip. Looking about for different recipes I kept seeing people putting in BBQ sauce and water, or BBQ sauce and either chicken or beef stock. And this is my advice.

Some important words — and my philosophy — when it comes to thinning something out, or adding more liquid … If you need to add something too thin or because your reduction is going to fast (and you can’t alter the heat setting), here is how it works with me. If something says water, well … that’s it, it is water, as in watering down. Most of the time, adding water means “taking away from”. Unless the sauce or whatever is super thick (and well-spiced). So if you have to add something, at the very least add stock instead — this will give something to the dish, albeit subtle it is still adding not subtracting. So if the choice is between water and stock, go with stock.

However, there is one much better way to go, the next order of magnitude, if the choice is water or stock, don’t go with either of them — go with wine. A totally new, deeper level will be added, naturally more so if it’s a red wine, and something a bit more subtler (though not as subtle as stock) if it’s a white wine. When do you add which? You should know by feeling. If it’s light and delicate, let’s say a spinach and cheese sauce, white wine. If it’s a hearty, spiced out, beefy, tomato-y BBQ sauce — red wine, baby.

Oven-Roasted BBQ Beef Brisket
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

2 1/2 lb – 4 lb brisket of beef

dry rub:

3 tblsps light brown sugar
1 tblsp cinnamon
3 tblsp chilli powder
1 tblsp red cayenne
2 tsps cilantro
1 tbsp dry mustard
1 tblsp cumin
2 tsps garlic powder
2 tsps onion powder
salt
pepper

sweet and hot BBQ sauce:

to taste:

16 oz. diced tomatoes (or crushed or ketchup)
vegetable oil
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes (I had these on hand)
lots of soy
lots of worchestershire
honey
molasses
minced garlic
dijon
cumin
cayenne
salt
pepper

1 1/2 cups of a full bodied red wine (I used Chianti)

Make many light scores with knife through the fatty bottom side. Mix rub ingredients together well and now “rub” onto all sides of your brisket. Place in either in large gallon-sized zipper bag or on plate covered well with both plastic and aluminum foil. Let sit in refrigerator as long as possible. An hour at the least, or even overnight.

When ready to cook, get a pan hot, then add oil and brown and sear brisket on all sides. I find tongs help do this best without letting out the blood that forks would. This takes two to five minutes. Now either you have done this in a pan or pot that is able to be put into the oven, or if you hadn’t, now place in dish or other oven vessel, fat side upward.

Place in preheated oven at 375 degrees. No lid nor covering. Meanwhile combine ingredients to make the sauce, using blender or food processor to mix and get tomatoes down to a finer pulp. After the brisket has been in the oven for 45 minutes, place entire sauce over and on the sides of the brisket along with the wine. Now cover. About every 30-45 minutes mix sauce around sides and take some and baste over the brisket. On at least one of the there intervals, actually turn the brisket over so the fat side is on the bottom, remember next time to turn it again fat side up and leave it that way for rest of cooking. For a 2.5 pound brisket this is going to take roughly 2 to 2-1/2 hours. For a 4 pound brisket about 3 to 3-1/2. hours.

Sauce you have reduced down into a thick blackish red after about 2.5 hours. You do not want this to burn or it will give a bitter and burnt taste to your brisket. If necessary, add some more wine or some water and mix. This is especially true for if you have the larger and weightier slab. When temperature gets to 160°F and looks like part of it is flaking, the brisket is done. 2 1/2 lb brisket will get you 4-5 servings, a 4 lb one will make you about 7-10, depending how you slice it.

… or “The Continued Unreality of Reality Television”

Reality television and behind the scenes manipulation by a program’s production staff has become a more common thing as time goes on. British television audiences in particular have been hit hard by this, in degrees from simple “staging” such as Nigella Lawson’s kitchen not being in her own house, all the way up to the “Blue Peter” double-whammy scandals.

Here in the US, the worse that we know of in recent times would be the “Man vs Wild” major fakes from adding smoke machines to a not-so-active volcano summit to the host actually sleeping in motels overnight — instead of in the wild. And that brings us to the latest manipulation. Although not a fake and not a fix in any sense — and therefore seeming at first glance to be a “lesser sin” — these particular production manipulations instead actually influenced and most likely altered the results of an on-air competition, as well as discredited a highly-held institution, and worse of all sent one contestant to the hospital.

I’m speaking of the until now hidden fiasco behind the first episode (which first aired on October 7) of the limited series “The Next Iron Chef” (NIC) shown on Sunday’s at 9pm EST on the Food Network. Anyone who watched the show saw machines repeatedly breaking down, foods that would not behave normally because of the severe heat and chefs (known for working under hot conditions) looked worse than usual, some looked sick.

Break down after break down

In one NIC scene we saw an ice cream machine pretty much break down completely, with milk dripping down the sides on to the floor, thus taking care of that chef’s dish. We also heard one chef yell out to his companions during the competition to forget the freezer as it was over 52 degrees.

Viewers watched as one chef demonstrated saying “when’s the last time you were able to pour honey out of a jar like this.” At another point one chef’s crème fraîche couldn’t establish integrity let alone achieving the necessary peaks because of the severity of the heat. And all of them, especially the second team in there, looked as though they went swimming with their tunics on. Ok, why did it suddenly seem like all these expensive appliances in a world-class kitchen had actually been made by Fisher-Price?

The question plagued me. How is this happening at the CIA? No, not that one, the prestigious Culinary Institute of America. You see, this was like booking a five-star hotel room only to have no television, ripped sheets and the toilet overflowing. This made no sense. Surely if the Food Network has instead gone and rented out the kitchen at Toothless Joe’s Chilli Barn one might expect these kind of disasters. But at the CIA? Nope, this required an explanation because I wasn’t buying it. And it turned out the answer was indeed a simple one: The Food Network production team turned the fans off. It seems they were interrupting the audio too much and that would make for not as good television.

Yes, that’s right. Take eight of the best chefs, place them in the best of all conditions possible to work in, then turn the production in to a nightmare, all for better TV. For anyone who’s a non-foodie reading this, but let’s say a rabid sports fan, imagine the Super Bowl game. Once there, the TV network, the league itself, anyone who has put anything into the production: has the field ripped up, turns on the lawn sprinklers, takes the air out of the footballs and finally confiscates the player’s shoe laces. Make any sense? And yet that’s precisely what the Food Network production crew did to it’s own show; gave the competitors a perfect “kitchen stadium” then made sure it collapsed around them. And nearly collapsing the competitors themselves in the process.

Food Network ignored CIA’s requests

According to Stephan Hengst, Senior Communications Manager at the college and who oversaw the taping this summer of the program: “It was 100 degrees outside on the day that they taped this episode, with 90% humidity, The Food Network turned off the ventilation hoods in the kitchens for taping. This is something that the CIA made them well-aware that they could not do, yet, their audio engineer went against our requests, and turned them off after all CIA staff had left the kitchen.”

In doing so, the chefs got put into a hell’s kitchen they hadn’t signed up for. “When the battle was over, the kitchen was 132 degrees, and one of the chefs ended up needing to be hospitalized for dehydration,” Hengst informed me. In fact, three more degrees and the sprinklers would have shot on. “We were all lucky that the Ansul system did not go off, as we were only a few degrees away from the 135 it would have taken to trigger the fire retardant system,” he said.

So, thanks to the purposeful behind-the-scenes manipulation by yet another production team on a television reality show, what did we get? Oddly, we did not get the fraud that has been plaguing many a television reality show of late, we got something I think is worse: the entire competition was altered majorly, though not in a way anyone can know exactly how it may have changed the outcome, and it got someone a ride in an ambulance. Sources suggest it was chef Aarón Sanchez though I could not 100% confirm this, there’s enough strong suggestion that I mention the name.

The excessive heat altered the competition

First the food. According to Hengst when it comes to CIA’s kitchen equipment failure “It all comes down to the heat as a result of Food Network turning off the hoods in the first episode. The compressor in the freezer shut down as a result of the blistering heat around it. This caused the temperature to rise.Same with the ice cream machine.” Machines breaking down, food not behaving normally. Here in lies the rub. It’s obvious that recipes and chefs were affected. Viewers can see that themselves watching the final cut that’s broadcasted/ What is nearly impossible to say is to exactly what degree did it affect things? Was it so little as to not have changed the results, or was it more than enough to have caused one or more different changes in judgments? Remember, in NIC the difference of who might have come in first during a challenge gives that chef an edge in the next challenge.

In the end then, we can all agree things and people were not only minorly but majorly affected by the production team’s tampering, but we’ll never know to what extent. It certainly did not make the Culinary Institute of America look good at all. And no one on the show mentioned any of this on the air, brushing it all under the rug. One would have thought they’d redo the challenge. Or mention various handicaps and said they had been taken under consideration during judgement. Or at the very least said something of an apology to the CIA, their host, redeeming an image that they had tarnished. But, nothing. Silence. At least until now when, via this blog and Mr. Hengst, the CIA has explained their side of the story and cleared their name.

Worse than all of this though, and it cannot be overlooked, this is first time I know of that production team shanigans created an environment that sent a contestant to a hospital. At this point, it’s not so long a stretch as it might once have been to ponder when does Paddy Chayefsky’s Howard Beale actually show up on one of these reality shows — all for the sake of good television.

The Brits have been getting stung all year

Ironically, in Britain of late, it’s been the cooking shows there that have gotten the most heat from fuming audiences. Mind you, television in general has been letting them down, but recently it’s the cooks who are feeling the heat.

In July it was Gordon Ramsey’s fish. Here in America, Ramsey is known for his newest show “Kitchen Nightmares” and for “Hell’s Kitchen” which will return in May for it’s fourth season. The controversy centered around a segment in his latest program there, “The F Word” in which Ramsey was shown to go out to catch a fish, and then later came back with one in hand. While he never said he’d caught it, that was the obvious implication and the desired effect the show wanted viewers to believe. It turns out he was given a fish and pretended to catch it.

Then, in the past month, chef Nigella Lawson, a cult-favorite in Britain, has been hit not once, but three times for “fakery”. First, the show opens showing her going into her home, putting her kids to bed then going to “her” kitchen and starting the show. When it was revealed the first part was real and the kitchen part was a studio set, fans went nuts. Since then the show’s been flamed for both showing Nigella on a bus on her way to shopping — it was a rented bus with riders being actors — as well as “her friends” coming over for dinner on the show, some of whom she’s never met.

Personally, I dunno. To me, this is called “television” or the “theater of television”. This doesn’t upset me personally at all. As a child of television (born in the Sixties) this seems normal. Production heads for both Ramsey’s and Lawson’s show have likewise called this “staging”. Now, while not trying to trivialize these things, I have to admit they are to me trivial. Why? None of these in any way impact on the integrity of the television show. It changes nothing. The recipes do not get altered in any way. It’s theater, window-dressing, “staging”. But to others, these are out and out lies and fans are majorly upset.

Now mind you, compared to America, these things are only the latest of a full year of “television lying”, and so they now have more of a zero-tolerance mentality than us in the States. I mean look at the saying “twice bitten twice shy”; no wonder after a dozen different bites, Brits are scrutinizing everything on the boob tube. If it happened here to that degree, we would no doubt be doing the same. (And maybe we should.)

There was the whole thing with the movie and the Queen last year which ended up only two weeks ago with the firing — ahem, “stepping down” — of the head of the BBC1. And there were the two scandals with the popular children’s program “Blue Peter”, one last November when a fake contestant won a major contest and a second over the summer where a contest to name a new puppet character ended up being ignored in favor for the name the staff had come up with.

I even came across in my research this article which details even more “tv fraud” events in the UK then I was initially aware. To put it another way, after thousands of searches and digging, the number of events listed here were so many that even I was very much surprised and taken back.

Fakes, frauds and mere “stagings”

Both the US and the UK get the Bear Gryll’s program. Here it’s known as “Man vs Wild” and is shown on the Discovery Channel. In the UK it’s called “Born Survivor” and shown on Channel 4. It’s also shown in Canada on the Outdoor Life Network. So this particular controversy straddles both sides of the Atlantic. (It may appear in Australia as well.)

Grylls and film crew so far have been cited for the host sleeping in a motel, faking a volcano to make it appear more active, and in one episode a raft made out of leaves and tree limbs and presented as having been constructed by Grylls was made by professionals then given to him right before taping. The Discovery Channel has not dumped the show but has said they’re keeping a closer look this season to make sure things are up and up.

Little wonder then why such comparatively smaller sins as Ramsey’s fish and Lawson’s sets are receiving major flames in England where as here such things would be probably be greeted with cold embers. After all, speaking of the Iron Chef, how long has it been that Wikipedia has been telling of the fake Iron Chef America chairman? Or rather that, to quote the Wikipedia entry: “The chairman is portrayed by martial arts expert Mark Dacascos, who is introduced as the nephew of the original Japanese chairman Takeshi Kaga” and is of no relation. Again, maybe it’s me, but having grown up with television, I would have been shocked if he actually had been the nephew. An actor in a premise? Nope, that just made sense, good back story, nice “cohesion” or inventive bridge between the Japanese Iron Chef show and the American one. It’s television. So this has caused little if any waves in the US. Why? It’s theater, it’s staging. I guess here in America, our tolerance points are set a bit higher.

Writer Brian Cathcart brought up this very point in a July article in the New Statesman where he talks about fake goods and fake television. When talking about a fake building and set on “The Apprentice”, he remarks: “You may already know that, because it was pointed out in the press, and that is why I mention it: we were all told, and nobody seemed to care. This was, in other words, a socially acceptable fake – not the real thing but it looks good, and where’s the harm?” Talking about Grylls’ and Ramsey’s schticks he says “faking in the interest of entertainment is socially acceptable.”

When is it too far, too much?

I agree with part of what Cathcart wrote. Not about what he said regarding Grylls’ show though. Not one bit. To me, when it goes against the premise of the show, alters the entire show or interferes with a show, that is when it is not in any way “socially acceptable”. But you know, we all have different ethical barometers. While the fish and the kitchen set and the guy not really being the Iron Chef’s nephew do not upset me, they do upset other people. And I have no right to say they those people are wrong. That is where their gauges are set. And while I don’t share the same opinion, I must and do respect their opinion.

Let me take a moment to explain my position better if I can. If you take away any of the lesser problems: if Gordon says I didn’t catch this fish; if Nigella says I’m cooking in a studio and if there was no one claiming to be the “chairman’s nephew” would any of these events change their respective shows? Nope. In fact either way, the television program remains the same; the recipes, the judging, it’s the same either way. The overall integrity of the show (to me) is not lost just because a certain segment or a certain part is faked or staged or dressed or done for dramatic flair. None of these small things mentioned in any way “rewrites” the show nor rewrites the ending. Therefore to me, they are acceptable.

But when a guy is supposedly roughing it in the wild and instead he’s roughing it at a Motel Six. Or a competition is hindered in such a way that various recipes being judged go awry and a contestant gets sick enough to go the hospital — then yes, these events do fundamentally and majorly alter the entire show — and in the case of the first episode of “The Next Iron Chef” maybe it even rewrote the ending — so it is at this point, yes, that I get quite angry and cry “Foul!”

With “Man vs Wild”, it was another in a long series of cases of intentional deceit. With “The Next Iron Chef”, the intent to influence or change wasn’t done purposely, but it was done nevertheless — and it was done to make for a better production with absolutely zero regard for its effect on the food, the competition, or the well-being of the people participating. It makes one ask which is worse: fraud and deceit or ineptness and callous disregard. And in both cases the shows were altered and we the viewing audience were, for a time, left none the wiser of these actions. This is much more beyond the fish and kitchen antics, this nonsense by a program’s film crew changed the entire challenge, changed dishes, changed recipes, entire show, incorrectly tarnished the reputation of a culinary institution of education, and severely if temporarily impacted the health and welfare of at least one human being, sending a chef-contestant to the hospital!

In the name of “but it makes for good television” as the supposed justification just where does all the nonsense stop? At what point is the line drawn or does the line stop being crossed? When and how much of any of these so-called reality series can we ever again believe has anything remotely to do with reality?

If Paddy were alive today he’d be saying “Told you so.”

This was one of the items I had listed last month in my article “Food Terms You Keep Hearing About“. There I said, “In which bread is toasted, raw garlic is rubbed into it, then olive oil is drizzled on top. Now for some folks that is the complete definition, and it stops there. For myself and others it is not complete until the above is topped with a chopped tomato, garlic, basil and olive oil salsa. Mmm. (Toss some slices of very fresh mozzarella on top for the ultimate.) Until it’s got the topping, to me it’s not a true bruschetta. This is one of the best appetizer’s in the world as far as I’m concerned.”

When I went to the local supermarket the day before a recent party to pick up a freshly baked loaf of Italian bread, I found it was all old and none had been made that day. On top of which, instead of being long and having some width to it, whoever had made all the long loafs made it in my opinion way too thin, more like baguettes — which would be wonderful were I recipe-wise going to Paris, but I was aiming closer to Rome, (And this was supposedly Italian bread, remember.)

So I perused the shelves for something else, and happily came upon a shorter, fatter oval Italian bread. Not only that, it was made with sun dried tomatoes. And it was made within the last six hours, that would make it perfect for tomorrow’s party, a little body, but still what I consider to be fresh.

In fact, check out the photos of the sliced bread, big, wide pieces. That long skinny kind they had would have been about a third the size, “cocktail” cracker almost — not what you want, you want to serve the big meaty, “this is something I can dig into” slice of Italian bread you see there.

Tangent warning: Some other day I’ll figure out why day old is considered stale and why bakeries all like to keep their bread in the air to hasten the staleness, whereas I head home and wrap it up in plastic and alumninum foil and it lasts and tastes fresh for several days. Also for another day, how many ways — there seems to be about a dozen — in which people will pronounce bruschetta. (The two major ones being bru-shet-ta or bru-sket-ta. I often say the former, though there seems to be more of a conscientious as time goes on that the latter is most correct).

At the recent part, I served near it a separate plate of cut fresh mozzarella with some cherry tomaotes on the side. And next to that a plat with two different olives. As I suspected, half the guests grabbed the garlic bread, put on the tomato mixture and added a slice of the cheese on top. So there’s a tip for you. When you can offer some complimentary elements, and folks can mix and match (or not) as they want. I’ve even included a couple of photos of those here below (that I actually took for a “menu” or “meals” page section I’ll be adding in the near future.)

I have to mention, I put the food out on the table, went for my camera which was nearby, came back quickly, and already parts of the food presentation were gone. So, sorry I couldn’t get full shots of the all of the food in my photographs; hard to fault my guests for grabbing the food so fast off the plates! Anyways, this is such a delightful appetizer and so simple easy to make it’s ridiculous. Grab a glass of Chianti or Merlot or Pinot Noir with this and nosh away!

     

Bruschetta
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

garlic bread, bakery fresh (that morning up to a day old)

diced tomatoes. canned are preferred to fresh
fresh garlic, two to three cloves, sliced thin
fresh basil, chopped

salt
pepper
olive oil

Preheat the oven at 350°F. Slice the Italian bread load thickly. Assemble on baking sheet and drizzle olive oil along the tops. Place in over for 7-12 minutes. You want a golden brown. Crispy but in no way hard, just a little crunch.

Meanwhile in a bowl place tomatoes, add basil, garlic, salt, pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil, mix together.

Take out bread from oven. Once toast is cooled enough to work with (as soon as you can) rub a clove of garlic across the top of each one many times. Pretend as though you are grating something. The warm heat of the toast and the movement will get the garlic on the toast. (I did this, but then knowing my guests wouldn’t mind very garlicky bread I also got a jar of minced garlic out and put a tiny bit of that on each as well.)

Make a nice presentation and serve to your guests, garnishing with basil leaves. Later you can place it back on the cookie sheet with oven on low and serve again if it gets cold. If necessary, re-warm in oven at 170-200°F (or “warm” or “low” setting). Or make some more.

The amount of people it will serve varies greatly due to size of bread, slicing, etc. If you’ve made 10 slices, that could be five to 10 people depending. Sauce should be enough for ten people with some left over. You might want to add fresh sliced mozzarella on the side too.

I needed a side for my oven BBQ brisket. Yeah I had little baked potatoes and some fresh coleslaw, but I still wanted something warm and flavorful and that was (for lack of better words) very “veggie”. I also wanted something more “regional” … in this case, southern or western or southwestern. It just seemed like that would go right with my indoor BBQ meal.

Now last week there were quite a few things I had bought for my BBQ party that I never made it out to the table. Why is that, you may ask? A combination of my being too ambitious, wanting to make too much food than was necessary, as well as for various reasons six people, three couples basically, had to bale out because of sickness or previous commitments. So there just wasn’t the impetuous to cook twice the amount of food for half the amount of people.

In short, I had these wonderful sweet yellow corn cobs in the freezer (Now, don’t knock frozen. When the Iron Chef makes Frozen Peas a secret ingredient, and various other frozen veggies are used by even five star chefs, frozen doesn’t deserve a bad knock, necessarily.) Ok, so here I was doing a Texas-style BBQ dish and I had corn. Only natural thing to do was stay in the same general area and go Southwestern.

Just as I had made my brisket in the oven. Here I was going to treat my frying pan more like a grill and “grill” (obviously the technical term here is actually in the title, pan roast) some corn and toss in some more regional ingredients and spices. I never tried this one before and I was happy with the success, the taste of it, this one is definitely going to be a oft-cooked dish in this house from now on!

Two thangs (yes, I said thangs), one, if you think this meal based on the ingredients is going to be hot, you’re wrong. It’s spiced but not spicy and actually a tad sweet. So no reason to be faint of heart, try it out. And secondly, considering this recipe I’ll jump right over giving any kind of “bon appetites” and just say instead: pull up a seat and chow down, amigos!

Southwestern Pan-Roasted Corn Vegetable Medley
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

4 small cobs or 2 large ones, kernels cut off
14 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup of diced tomatoes, drained (no can juice)
1/2 of a medium red onion, chunks, (or one whole small one)

season to taste:

cilantro
chilli powder
garlic powder
onion powder
salt
pepper
half-lime, juice

Roast the kernels in a pan on medium-high heat with a little vegetable or peanut oil. Don’t make it too oily as you want more of a “grill” thing than a “fry” thing going here. That said you do want a lot of movement of the food in the pan (like a stir-fry). Do though add oil now and then as needed as pan will burn it off and corn may soak some up. Add seasonings. Do want to see darkening of the yellow. A touch of brown. You do not ever want to see black or “burn” on your corn. If you do, it’s either too hot, or more than likely you are not moving the pan around enough or moving the corn with a spoon enough.

After a few minutes add the onion. And a little more oil. After another couple minutes, constantly stirring or flipping the pan, add the beans and tomatoes, more oil, a second helping of all the seasonings. Turn down to medium heat. After a few minutes, juice of half a lime. Wait another half minute for that to mix in and burn a little off. Serve. Makes enough for about four people.

Huh? Why is such a simple thing so difficult? It isn’t. However when it comes to making simple syrup, some people make it two parts sugar to one part water, others make it equal parts of sugar and water.

Why? No idea. Is there rhyme or reason? Yes and no. There’s one pattern I’ve noticed. Almost everything to do with a cocktail is almost always one-to-one. When it comes to using simple syrup in cooking, it’s often one-to-one, but it’s frequently two-to-one as well.

Why such a difference? Simply personal preference. Why does one person put more ketchup on their cheeseburger or add more salt to a seasoned meal, etc. Same here. Cooks do what they feel right doing. And that should apply to you as well.

Alright then, why does this “thing” exist? Pretty much consider it the liquid version of confectioner’s sugar (aka powered sugar.) There are times in baking you don’t want a mouthful of table sugar, or a bite of granules in your lemon meranque pie, do you? Of course not.

So would you want them in either you bar drink or even in something else that’s cooked? Pretty much you don’t. So then, how to get the sweetness required without the gritty granules? Yep, you got it. Boil the sugar in water, let it cool. Whammo, simple syrup to the rescue.

By the way, remember my article entitled Get Yourself on the Bottle? This is an excellent one to put into a squeeze bottle. Especially if you are using it to make specialty drinks at your next party, or you’re into full desert mode and preparing a few different sweet recipes.

So what do you do if the recipe doesn’t say which of the two ratios to use? (And one of the main points of this article) Then, I’d say do the 1:1 … Why? Obviously, two parts sugar is going to be sweeter than one part. You can always sweeten something up, but you can’t usually de-sweeten it. (True you could possibly cover it, or not, with something. Depends on what you’re making. Obviously a too sweet mousse just isn’t going to work by adding overpowering jalapenos to it, now is it? Unless you’re an Iron Chef I wouldn’t try it.) So, read the instructions, do what that particular recipe says, and if you’re in doubt try 1 to 1 ratio first.

A final item: what’s this called? Simple syrup. It’s the simplest form, it’s the basis. And so … Add some grated ginger and it’s now a ginger syrup. Put in some lemon zest and it’s now a lemon syrup. … It’s a foundation that you can use as is, or which you can add something to it and build upon. As my grandmother used to say, you can “really go to town” with this.

What’s to say about this meal? Other than it’s light and delicious? Dunno. It’s not that I’m in any way “tired” of writing openings — I have way too much to say, generally, for that ever to be the case. It’s just that sometimes, there is no back story, nothing that went wrong the first time to warn you about. Very little to inform you about.

Other than use fresh seasonal ingredients whenever you can and come up with something special. One can argue if this dish is a pasta primavera or not. I say it is as it’s mostly about the veggies (even though hey, who can ignore shrimp?). Other’s might debate that saying instead of blanched or raw I did a saute or pan roasting of my veggies. Still other’s say, this isn’t spring, certainly the use of a summer squash negates that. I say argue until the moon turns blue and take a chill pill. It’s all about the food, folks.

And, speaking of debates and such — yes I used cheese with seafood. And what IS the story about that? Should we? Shouldn’t we? And in actual fact that entire school of thought or debate has inspired me to write an article on the matter. But that’s for yet another day.

For today, this light and robust meal with make a great lunch, a romantic dinner or even a superb party bowl at your next get together. Buon appetito!

    

Shrimp with Sauteed Asparagus Pasta Alfredo
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

20 shrimp, medium (aka 35-41s) cut in half
1/2 lb asparagus, woody ends removed
1/2 box bow tie pasta
1 red bell pepper, diced finely
1 yellow squash, diced
1 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1/4 pt cherry tomatoes
14 oz jar Alfredo sauce (Classico makes four wonderful ones)

season to taste:

salt
pepper
oregano
basil
fresh parsley

grated parmagena (optional)

You can use precooked shrimp in this; it won’t hurt it at all, that said, uncooked is better as you can then impart even greater flavor. If the latter, take all the skin off, place the shrimp in a frying pan with olive oil, season as you like. Medium flame, about two minutes per side. Move on to plate to cool.

Meanwhile start pasta in rolling boil of water. And defrost peas (which don’t need a complete defrost) by straining and running warm water over them and place in bowl.

In same pan medium-high add oil and asparagus, salt and pepper and drizzle more oil on top. Pretend you are on a grill not a frying pan. You want to constantly move these around until you see some browning, and a lost of the stiff “rawness”, however you do not want to get them ovedone nor soggy. As some will get done before others, move them onto a plate individually until all are done.

In same pan, medium-high, add squash, season with salt, pepper, oregano, basil and garlic powder, and saute. In a few minutes add red peppers and cherry tomatoes and again add more seasoning.

In small pot warm up Alfredo sauce gently. Drain pasta and put back in large pot. Turn on to low heat.

Slice shrimps in half. Slice asparagus in half. Dump shrimp and all vegetables (peas included) into pasta. Dump in Alfredo sauce. Turn heat up to medium, season mixture, stir and let everything combine, add a touch of fresh parsley, about two minutes. Place in large bowls, optionally top with small amount grated parm.

Suggest serving with lightly buttered garlic bread and a nice Chianti. Serves 5 to 6.