cooking @ home

Archive for January, 2008

©2008 Harry Kenney

This recipe is so cut and dry that for once I’m not sure what even to write about. Of course, that’s not usually the case and this blog is set up to show the first two paragraphs and then “divide” so I have to write something here. I guess I’ll just say how nice it is to wander the earth from my desktop computer and from my kitchen and to see — and to taste — how different people’s do the same thing — like a salad — but do it their own way.

Californians, parts of Mexico and Spain all have salads that contain avacado, for instance. In Greece, it’s olives and feta that helps make it uniquely theirs, their “stamp” on things, or their contribution. You’ll notice two ingredients I say are option, I myself didn’t put into this salad, anchovies and hard-boiled eggs. Again two ingredients that make it more distinctly Mediterranean in nature. So, try it with one of the two Greek salad dressings I posted here yesterday if you want to keep it authentically Greek — or feel free to use your own favorite salad dressing. Your choice. Enjoy.

  

Greek Salad
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 medium green pepper, devaned, deseeded, small dice
Two dozen Kamala olives, halved
2 cucumbers, peeled and deseeded, diced
1 large red onion, diced
12-16 Roma (plum) tomatoes diced
10 oz romaine lettuce
2 oz radicchio
2 oz endive
anchovies, sliced (optional)

to taste:
organo
parsley
salt
pepper
garlic powder

toppings:

crumbled feta cheese
hard-boiled egg, sliced or diced (optional)

Greek salad dressing of your choice

Mix the above ingredients together in a bowl. Toss the seasonings thoroughly. I then like to put the salad bowl into refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes, both to give it all a chill and to let all the ingredients and seasonings marry together. Remember to never put feta or egg into the actual salad in terms of storage. Store them seperately. Only add toppings and dressing to a salad immediately before serving. Salad makes 6-8 servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Seems lately I’ve been doing some pairings. First the pesto then the pasta. Another day, a side and then a soup to go with it. Today, something similiar. I’ve made two Greek salad dressings and tomorrow or the next day I’ll put up the Greek salad that goes with it.

I told you I got into a bit of a “rut” doing a lot of Italian and Italian-American food. Well, rut is a negative word and I’m not pinning that in any way on the food, just the lack of variety. So you’ll also notice that I’m taking a more global walk on the wild side. Why? Pretty simple. I love all kinds of food. And fortunately seemingly every country, and often smaller regions of countries, have contributed major food items or at least nuances to the overall food tapestry of what we eat.

In this case, take the simple salad dressing. From my previous article on vinaigrettes we already know that a basic salad dressing consists of oil and then something acidic, either vinegar, alcohol or citrus acid and seasonings. In the case of the first dressing here it’s the lemon and honey where the Greeks have given us a twist.

When it comes to the second recipe, Greek cuisine has given us a complete flip from the norm with the introduction of yogurt as well as the infusion of mint to give a very different and intrinsically Greek flavor to the ordinary salad. As to the salad, well, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

One more thing. This is odd. Now four of us had both dressings, two of each. I fully expected to like the creamy one better. To my surprise I liked the vinaigrette better. The creamier one tasted better prior to putting it on the salad, more body. And yet the other one tasted better to me on the salad. That said, one other person agreed and the other two liked the creamy. So, what it comes down to is you might like one of these or both; either way there’s at the very least one here you’ll enjoy, and hopefully two.

Lemon-Honey Vinaigrette
©2008 Harry Kenney

1/3 cup red wine vinager
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
juice from 1/2 a lemon (roughly 2 tbsps)
1/2 tsp parsley flakes
2 tsps dried oregano
4 tbsps honey

Place all the ingredients in a bowl except for the olive oil. Pour in the olive oil while whisking the bowl. You could do this in a blender also. Done. Makes enough for about 4-6 salads.

Mint Yogurt Salad Dressing
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 cup drained plain yogurt
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsp mint flakes
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp lemon juice
salt
pepper

Mix everything together. Vary seasonings or proportions to taste. Ta-da. Enough for 8-10 salads.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Here’s the second homemade cookie recipe I promised I’d get up to the site that I did over the holidays. Applesauce cookies. Yum! And while this is a good one to eat all year round, it definitely has those fall – winter spices we’ve come to associate with the Holidays. Moms take note: with fruit, nuts and raisins in this it’s no doubt a higher than average nutritional cookie too.

There is one important baking item I want to touch on though, and I should have done this with the butter cookie recipe probably, and that is the whole discussion or school of thought about salted versus unsalted butter in baking and especially cooking recipes. Salted butter, even though most of us don’t taste the salt, is the most commonly found one at markets and convenience stores. And against popular thought, it’s the one I use.

Yes, I’m such a rebel. LMAO! Truth is I often do what’s eaisest. I usually grab the first butter I see in the market and the only butter sold at my convenience store, and that’s the common salted butter. I know, I know, all the chefs and cookbooks say use unsalted butter in baking recipes. Who’s right?

Believe it or not, I’m willing to admit I might be wrong. (Gasp!) Ok, remember I said “might”. Here’s the thing. No one who tasted my apple sauce cookies tasted salt. I also made some rugelah cookies — sorry, you will not see that recipe here any time soon. While they were tasty, something I did wrong with the recipe that I’m still figuring out, they did not come out exactly as rugelah is supposed to be, tasty as they were. When I do figure it out, I’ll put the recipe up then. As the Orson Wells wine commercial of the 70s said “no wine before it’s time”; same with my recipes.

However, of the seven people who had my butter cookies, one out of those seven tasted the salt. Interesting. Not enough to be a perfect survey or accurate barometer by any means, but it does show that some folks, especially in a more “bland” recipe (compared to this one) can taste the salt. Should one use unsalted butter then? Well here’s the opposite thing, upon researching this I’ve found discussions where people (adults and children both) who are so used to the “normal” salted butter they noticed the absense of the salt. Either they realized it was salt that was missing, or — most of them — realized something they couldn’t put their finger on was not present and didn’t like the cookies as much as those with salted butter in them.

Yeah, I know. Can’t please every palette. That’s life.

So what’s the answer? Well, I think it’s fairly obvious. If doing a simple cookie, butter cookie, sugar cookie, with a more “bland” or neutral taste it’s probably wiser to go the extra step and get the unsalted. And what about the rest? Well, I leave that up to you. (You’ll notice in my recipes I usually just say “butter”. In non-baked recipes that leaves it up to you to use margarine. In baking recipes I leave it up to you whether to make it salted or unsalted.)

As for me, I’m probably going to remain “lazy” for now and do what’s convenient — as long as no one complains or if the recipe is not so “blandish”. How much salt is in butter, you might be wondering? It varies from brand to brand, however a supposed average I’ve found repeated in my research indicates about 3/8 of a teaspoon of salt per stick, just under a half teaspoon in other words. Why is it in there in the first place? Apparently as a natural preservative.

That’s it. Class dismissed. It’s time for milk and apple sauce cookies!

Harry’s Applesauce Cookies
©2008 Harry Kenney

1-1/2 sticks butter (12 tbsps)
2-1/2 cups flour (all purpose)
1 cup, packed, brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt (unless using salted butter)
1-1/2 cups applesauce (suggest chunky, natural)
1 cup dark raisins
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cloves
pinch, ground ginger
3/4 cup shaved almonds (you could use walnuts or other nuts)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Use parchment paper lined cookie sheets (if you don’t have that, then definitely grease them instead.)

In a mixer cream together butter and brown sugar. Add egg. Add applesauce. Add trest of the dry powedered ingredients. Add nuts and raisins at the end.

Place on parchment-lined sheets in one to two tablespoon sized drops. (See photos) Space about two inches apart from each other. Depending upon your oven it should take 10-14 minutes. Look for the slighest browning on the edge and do not hesitate to gingerly lift one cookie up with a metal spatula and check underneath. Makes about four dozen.

I said previously that I had made some cookies during the Christmas holidays but had forgotten to get them up here. Well here’s the first of two cookie recipes. This is one of those classic, basic cookies. The butter cookie.

Now there’s a variety of things you can do with butter cookie dough. This particular recipe is (mainly — you’ll see what I mean at the end) for use with a cookie press or cookie “gun”. If you’re a woman you probably say press. If you’re a guy, you probably call it a gun.

A versatile batter, you can also make butter cookies by rolling them out then using cookie cutters, forming them into logs, cutting them into slices and shaping them into balls (hint, keep reading). In the past I’ve had weird success with cookies, burning the easy ones, and making excellent complicated cookies (such as biscotti).

I can’t candidly tell you why because I’m not certain what I did wrong exactly. I can tell you that my four years of cooking experience since has either given me the experience or the intuition or the “something” that I had only one or two miscalulations this time. Which is actually good because I can warn you what to be aware of as well as share a tip or two.

My first tip is avoid the bottom rack. You see, we all think our oven is even. We’ve cooked roasts and casseroles and maybe even pies and cakes, and it seems even. Until you get to the cookie. Cookie batter is hyper-sensitive. Where you think there’s no difference between front and back, left and right, top or bottom of the oven, you will learn quickly there is.

The bottom rack will always mess up your cookies. Now, some people subscribe to the notion — and I know Alton Brown is one of them — that you do a “Chinese firedrill” (my words, not his) by at the half way point, taking the bottom cookie sheets and moving them to the top, any pointing right and front to turn left and back and that this assures heating. This one I don’t seem to be capable of mastering — hey if it works for you, awesome! Since it doesn’t for me, I’m confined to the two sheets at a time insted of four method.

Which reminds me of my one mistake this year and my big tip. Oddly the first batch in I used both racks. I also forgot to try the fire drill thing. I caught the bottom in time though, and took them out only slightly overly browned. Good enough for me not to serve to guests but I could eat them fine. The second batch on the top actually did burn. This purplexed me how the ones that came out fine the first time burned the second time. I realized the cookie sheet I had had in the bottom helped deflect the burn. So the third batch I put two sheets on the top and one large empty baking sheet on the bottom rack. Perfect cookies.

Another thing, I’ve seen a lot of recipes that say make the shapes and chill them. I’m sorry. I’m a normal person. More than that, I’m a person who not only cooks but cooks a lot. My refrigerator is in an almost constant state of being too full to keep sheet after cookie sheet inside them to chill. To make it worse, I have a side-by-side refrigerator. (Hey it’s the one I have and it works, I’m not about to spring for a new one to fit in cooking sheets.) I’m betting most of you have the exact same problem. So, chilling shapes? Nice idea in a perfect world. But that’s not my world so it’s not done by me.

Ah one more thing. After a bunch of cookies, it seemed my cookie gun got tired. In other words, it got clogged, I couldn’t unclog it without having to take it a part. I got inpatient and I had only a bit of batter left. So the last batch I spread out, put some dried cranberries on top, mushed them in, made them into balls and cooked two minutes longer than the rest for a totally different treat. (Told you if you read to the end you’d get rewarded. There, two recipes in one.)

One final thing. This isn’t my recipe. That is, I got it off the Internet from a location that had general recipes and no one’s name attached to this. Mind you, I did make a modification or two from the original and the Great Law of Cooking says I could therefore call these mine. But since this recipe is generally so basic and generic, and my modifications so small, let’s just leave it that way. So I’m leaving my copyright off this puppy.

Butterflies or butter cookies … let them be free!

Homemade Butter Cookies

1 cup and three tbsps (19 tbsps) butter
2-1/2 cups flour (all purpose)
1-1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsps cream of tartar
salt, a pinch (unless using salted butter)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat to 375°F. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix wet ingredients seperately in the mixing bowl. Turn on mixer to beat or medium for a few minutes. Turn mixer to low. Slowly add dry ingredients a bit at a time. Mix a few more minutes. Take the bowl to the counter and start filling up your cooking press or gun and go to work.

This batter works nicely on ungreased cookie sheets. I suggest doing two at a time on the top rack and placing an empty cookie sheet on the bottom rack. Depending upon your oven it should take 6-9 minutes. Look for the slighest browning on the edge and do not hesitate to gingerly lift one cookie up with a metal spatula and check underneath. Makes roughly 100 cookies.

For a variation: Skip the cookie gun, instead take some dough, add some dried cranberries — sweetened ones are the best — and mix into dough and form tablespoon-sized balls or ovals. For these add two minutes cooking time but even more careful of not over-browning the bottoms.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Before I publish my recipes I like to do research. Especially those recipes that feature ingredients that are considered more unusual or less-known to the American palette. And definitely those that require a different technique of preparation and/or cooking. Regular visitors here already know that I want to present you with more than just a recipe but also with some knowledge and background to go with it.

I look around not only to compare the different styles of various recipes but also to determine what are the variations folks have come with as well as what are the classical, traditional components of a dish. For instance, for this vegetable tian, every recipe but one talked about slicing the veggies such that you had 1/4-inch thick disks of roughly the same size (as much as possible) laid out on it’s side and forming a single layer atop of a bed of onions.

Where as dozens and dozens conformed to the manner I just described only one, Emeril’s recipe, differed. As such it was more confusing and it stood out from the crowd as being very different, and so it seemed that must be his special variation. Then, however, after I actually made this dish (and obviously before publishing it here) I discovered a second totally different version, different from both the “norm” as well as from Emeril’s, so a third variation. The “troubling” thing is I found this at Epicurious, and it was from Bon Appétit magazine, and it was by a three-star French chef known for his Provencal dishes, Roger Verge. And so yes, he makes it a third way. So that’s Emeril’s way, Verge’s way, and the most proliferated way which is the very one I did here as well.

So which is the original? I’m in doubt, thrown off balance from that last discovery. Ok, so does this even matter you might wonder? In a big sense: no, it’s the taste that matters in the end. But as said, I like to usually establish the norm, and then figure out the variants off it. Why? Just so that I have a centering, a balance. You see I am neither a “classist” nor a “fusionist”. I’m whatever I want to be at the time I make something. But I do like a “compass” when I’m cooking — to know if I’m heading in the right direction, going a totally different direction or just going around in circles. And now my compass needle is spinning around quite haphazardly.

So much for what I can’t say definitely. Let’s brush that past and now the question becomes: What can I definitely say about this dish? Well, it’s worth the trouble, that’s number one. It will taste rather different than you are used to — and I mean that in a very good way; that’s two. Vegetarians rejoice for even though, omnivore that I am, I treated this as a side dish at my home — I had it with ham and pineapple in case you were wondering — this tian can very very much be an entree for certain. I don’t think any real vegan is going to say this is dish is just another veggie side. It’s a meal.

What else can I say? That tian is not only the name of the dish, but it’s named for the shallow casserole of the same name — buy just try finding one either to buy or just to see what it looks like, and I couldn’t. Also, Epicurious’ Food Dictionary says “a tian can be any of various dishes, but originally referred to a Provençal dish of gratineed mixed vegetables.” Now it’s time to define what a gratin is. While most famously (in America) referring to au Gratin potatoes, a gratin is “any dish that is topped with cheese or bread crumbs (this one has cheese) mixed with bits of butter (nope, I used olive oil) then heated in the oven or under the broiler (oven for this dish) until brown and crispy.” However before all of that, a tian is braised (lid on) and then it is roasted (no lid).

You’ll find my “faithful” rendition here contains, because of the “need” to keep things all about the same diameter (back to the often-made disk version): zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes and potatoes. And since I now know there are other versions where the size doesn’t matter and others where one makes two or more layers, I’m already looking forward to sometime in the future trying out one of Verge’s tians which involves eggplant, bell peppers, tomatoes, olives and anchovies.

A final thought: Recall I mentioned I had this as a side with ham? If you are not having this as your main course and you are likewise having some kind of meat with it, I suggest that to get the most out of this dish you should serve it with a more neutral or understated protein. That is, while it might go fine with steak or beef or pork, I think they might be too overpowering. And so you will likely find that ham or chicken or fish would make a better pairing. But, paired or solo, you will find this a delicious and very different way to have the same old vegetables, and I think once you’ve had this you’ll have it again and again. Bon appetite!

Vegetable Tian Provencal
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin (into strips)
1 large zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch disks
1 yellow squash (of similar diameter), sliced into 1/4 inch disks
2 tomatoes (of similar diameter), sliced into 1/4 inch disks
2-3 Red Bliss potatoes (of similar diameter), sliced into 1/4 inch disks
1 glove of garlic, smashed and thinly sliced
olive oil
1/4 cup grated Gruyere (or grated Parmesan)
thyme, fresh preferred, dried otherwise, lots of it
herbes de Provence, light sprinkling (optional)
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 375°F. In small frying pan, medium heat olive oil, put in the garlic and add the onion. Do not brown, you want translucent medium-soft onions. When these are done place them into large area shallow-to-medium height casserole dish.

Now alternating, take a slice of yellow squash, tomato, potato, zucchini and place them in the dish in whatever four-set order you began with and make this a tight fit. If you have a circular dish you can try to make a circle and then an inner area. Or you can make rows. See photograph above for best visual of this. When completed, give a heavy drizzle of olive oil atop all the vegetables, salt and pepper, then a heavy dose of dried thyme or a medium (but still heavy for fresh) dose of fresh thyme on top, you can even leave the sprigs on at this stage if you wish. If you have herbs de Provence a light sprinkling of that too works out nicely.

Place in oven for 40 minutes either with a lid or covered in aluminium foil. Take out after this amount of time. If you used fresh thyme remove any sprigs (if you did dried, nothing to do here.) Sprinkle again liberally with the oil. Now cover with the cheese on top. Back in the oven, now uncovered for 30 minutes until cheese melts and gets a brown on it.

Take out. Leave cool for five minutes or so and serve. Depending on if this is your entree or a side and how much you portion out, this can serve anywhere from 2-3 (as an entree) to 4-6 (as a side).

©2008 Harry Kenney

Have you ever gone to the market, brought something home and said now what am going to do with this? I’m sure we’ve all done that. I certainly have. I’d love to say I always shop with a plan. I would have to say I partly do. I often buy food with some recipe or some idea at least vaguely in my mind. But not for the entire shopping experience; the rest of the shopping goes by what I see, what’s on sale, what looks fresh, what looks not so fresh, and what just generally grabs my attention. And this time it was the on-sale bag of frozen bay scallops.

And then I got home and thought “now what?” You see, I know what to do with the larger scallops. You know the one’s I mean that are the size and shape of big marshmellows. Pretty much you sear them on one side, then the other, bang, they’re done. Well, you’re certainly not going to do the same with what amounts to 60 or 70 miniature marshmellow-sized scallops. We’re talking just slightly larger than pencil erasers after all. So, what to do?

Eventually I recalled a dish I had served in a restaurant awhile back. Funny thing, can’t recall where I was. Could have been here in Center City Philly, but my recollection is that it was somewhere while traveling, either on business or a vacation. But I can’t put my finger on where. In any case, it was scallops in pasta with a fresh pesto sauce and some veggies. Which I began to reconstruct here and eventually got so far and did my usual, namely used that as the basis or the spring board and then went on my own from there. And what I ended up with was very delicious. (Or you wouldn’t be reading it now.)

You know I like to know about what I’m eating. And since I’m thinking you’re thinking the same way, here’s some things you should know about scallops when it comes to cooking. It’s a shellfish. Technically a marine bivalve mollusc. It’s found in cuisine everywhere, that is in Eastern and in Western cooking. You’ll find it on plates in Nagasaki to New York, from Dover to Buenos Aries, you name it. In the United States only the adductor muscles is used; elsewhere the entire scallop is often used. As to size, those large ones mentioned before, the one’s I know I’m most used to are called sea scallops and you can often get those as 20-40 per pound and are often an inch-and-a-half in diameter. Sea scallops are available fresh year-round, peaking from late spring to early fall.

Then there’s the one’s used in this particular dish, the bay scallop, which as the name implies they reside in bays. Historically these tended to come from New England. Nowadays much of the bay scallops consumed in the US are farmed in China. Bay scallops are often in the 50-90 of them in a single pound; these are usually half-an-inch in diameter. The one’s I got at the market (bad me for not looking) said on the bag, 150-200 per pound and were slightly less than a half inch in diameter, so I definitely got the super minis. In terms of season, bay scallops are available frozen purchased year-round.

Nutrition info: Scallops contain a variety of nutrients that can promote your cardiovascular health, plus provide protection against colon cancer. Scallops are actually a very good source of a very important nutrient for cardiovascular health, vitamin B12. Four ounces of scallops contains 33.3% of the daily value for vitamin B12. As with fish, scallops are a rich source of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. A four-ounce of serving of scallops alone contains roughly 24 grams of protein and about 152 calories.

Healthy and delicious. What more do you want? Use the recipe I put up just the other day for Classic Basil Pesto Sauce. Enjoy.

Bay Scallops in Linguine with Pesto
©2008 Harry Kenney

8 oz bay scallops
1/2 red bell pepper, julliene then cut in half
3 oz portobellos (or other mushrooms), cut into chunks
1/2 zucchini, diced
1/2 box linguine
1 clove garlic, slightly crushed and sliced
olive oil
homemade pesto sauce

Put linguine in pot of boiling water and cook until al dente. Reserve.

Olive oil into large, deep pan at medium heat. Add garlic. After a minute add red pepper, zucchini, mushrooms. Sweat well, do not brown. After several minutes, take out of pan into bowl and hold.

Place well-drained bay scallops into pan. Add little oil, turn up heat as needed. These will start extruding water. You want the water out but you don’t want to burn or even brown much the scallops at all. Toss constantly. Empty water out in sink as necessary. Add oil as necessary.

Toss veggies back from bowl into pan and mix. Remove from heat. Toss pasta into pan and mix. Add pesto sauce and mix well. Serve. Makes about 4 servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

When you think of pesto you think of — I’m willing to bet — three things. In no particular order they are: Basil, Italian and green sauce. Ok, seemingly not a revelation right? More like something that comes outta the mouth of “Captain Obvious”. Generally I agree with you. That’s exactly how it seems.

… Until you discover that while sure, pesto is usually made from basil, it doesn’t have to be. Or that when you think of pesto as “green sauce” turns out there’s another totally different sauce known as salsa verde that is actually Italian green sauce. Or that here in America when you say salsa verde, we think of Mexican, not Italian. Aha! Suddenly not everything seems so black and white — or rather, green — now, does it?

Yes this recipe here is the “original”, the traditional Italian, green, basil one. But did you know you could make a tomato pesto? A sun-dried tomato pesto? Or a red bell pepper pesto? How about one with the main ingredient being arugula or parsley or even olives? Now you get the idea.

Then there’s the whole “green sauce” thing. Yes, I would have to say pesto is the most famous “green sauce” in many ways. But — a big but — it is salsa verde that is the actual, true “green sauce” when people speak of a green sauce. The Italian version, which supposedly has been around since the days of the Roman Empire, is according to it’s Wikipedia listing made with “parsley, vinegar, capers, garlic, onion, anchovies, olive oil, and possibly mustard”. (Mind you, this is one of those Wikipedia listings that cites no references to back up the listing. But it seems logical.)

One thing for certain, here in America when we hear the term “salsa verde” we first think of Mexico, not the country shaped like a boot. And that salsa verde is made with ingredients that include tomatillos, either serrano or jalapeno chiles, cillantro, garlic and onion. Finally, on our trip around the world of green sauces, there is chimichurri from way south of the border; this sauce originally an Argentinian staple that can be found in mostly all of the other South American countries as well, is made with ingredients including oregano, parsley and jalapenos.

And one of these days, I will get around to making something with all of these. They are just too good not to do so. For today though, enjoy this classic pesto, and tomorrow, we’ll make a delicious pasta dish with it.

Classic Basil Pesto Sauce
©2008 Harry Kenney

1/4 cup pine nuts, toast them in small frying pan
2/3 – 1 cup fresh basil leaves
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup grated Parmegan
salt
pepper
1/4-1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice (optional)

In food processor put in basil leaves (wash and dry then as you wuld lettuce, frist) along with a dash of salt and pepper. Give a quick couple of pulses to chop only. Then add pine nuts, garlic, cheese. Pulse sevel times til fine. Put switch to on, open feed tube or lid and add olive oil slowly to emulsify. Not too much. You want a thick paste like sauce. Taste. Leave alone or add a teaspoon of lemon juice and mix in if needed. That’s it. Doesn’t look like a lot but it’s concentrated a lot; in a pasta dish that’s enough to serve 4 to 6.

Just added a new section here called Menus which you can find the link to at the top left under “Pages”. Click on the general Menus link for a quick explanation. As for the three menus added, no doubt you’ll find the one on Super Bowl Party Food to be of most current interest.

Also, I’m always shopping around the web for something, and at this point I either get so many newsletters or just end up on enough sites that I stumble once in a while across great deals. For instance I was not going to buy an ice cream machine. But then four months ago I found one that was normally $160 for $40, not a refurbished just a close-out. Would that have been of any interest to anyone? I’m thinking such items might be so that could be another section in the future too.

©2008 Harry Kenney

This recipe was actually going to go in two different directions from where it ended up. Recipes happen that way sometime. It was originally going to be pure vegetarian. Visits to two supermarkets and failing to find vegetable stock at either (as well my being too “lazy” or not that interested in making it myself) meant I ended up using the more traditional chicken broth as base. Also, once I got past that, I decided bacon would definitely give this a more interesting taste.

So, for those of you looking for vegetarian dishes that are robust and stand-alone and not merely “sides”, you can oh so easily alter this recipe and make it so. To make it vegetarian (as mentioned above) simply substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock. Don’t use bacon. Then either leave the rest of the recipe exactly as is, or you add still more vegetables in the form of finely diced zucchini and/or yellow squash. Also black and/or white cabbage would be nice and is often used in some parts of Italy in one of the many variants of this recipe.

Seems like a lot of ingredients maybe, but they are all pretty basic. We start of with basically a mirepoix. Then add garlic and take it out. Then to get some “meaty” flavor going, we sweat bacon and then mushrooms in with the bacon. Then the chicken broth goes in on top, the mirepoix goes back in, then the white beans and spinach. Along the way comes wine and heavy cream, and a side trip to the food processor to puree part of the mixture, giving it a creamy thick feel while still leaving the rest of the soup chunky. Add some grated parm and you have an absolutely delicious, rich, full-bodied soup for a cold winter’s day. And you have to serve this with the Toasted Polenta Cheese Rounds. That’s specifically why I did that recipe yesterday in preparation for this one today.

You probably know from my (at the moment only other soup recipe) Butternut Squash Soup with Chorizo and Rice. I like my soups a mix of creamy and chunky. Rarely all creamy. I enjoy that mixed texture much more. Speaking of things I’ve done before. You could if you wish puree the part of this soup in a blender. However, big warning … as I said in a past article called “But I Saw the TV Cook Do It” you can only do this in one of the newer, powerful blenders that come with the newer, stronger containers.

If you use an old kitchen blender, glass or plastic, the heat could crack or smash the container, causing not only a big mess but possible personal injury, so either use a food processor or one of the new blenders. And even then, still be careful. Be sure you take the feeder tube or top cap off, because of the heat, and then place a folded kitchen towel or potholder over the top when doing this. Taste is nice, but hey, safety is number one.

Oh, right I said at the start this recipe was going two ways. At first, as mentioned I was going to make this vegetarian. The second thing was, the Tuscan white beans were going to be the star of this recipe. But hey, when I added the spinach for extra taste, well, I forgot myself how much spinach colors everything. I know better, after all that’s how you get green pasta such as spinach fettucine. Now the fact this soup turned out green instead of beige with green flecks, hey, I can live with it. It’s still a very pretty looking soup, and more importantly you will love the taste of this. Every component comes out when your eating it. It’s really a nice complex taste as all these different yet very compatible tastes just burst on the taste buds.

Creamy Cannelloni-Spinach Tuscan Soup
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 small onion, diced fine
1 medium carrot, diced fine
1 celery stalk, diced fine
3 gloves garlic, smashed and sliced thin
4 slices of thick sliced bacon, sliced 1/3-1/2 inch pieces (leave out for vegetarian version)
3-4 oz of portobello mushrooms, 1/2 dices
1 quart chicken (or vegetable stock)
19 oz can cannelloni white beans, washed and drained
8-10 oz chopped frozen spinach, partially thawed (don’t drain)
1 cup dry white wine
1 half pint heavy cream
1 small or 1/2 a medium-sized bay leaf
1 tbsp dried oregano
salt
pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Olive oil in the bottom of a large soup pot on medium heat. Put in the onion, carrot and celery and sweat in pan, keep stirring and don’t brown. After about five minutes, add the garlic and continue to sweat. After another two or three minutes, take this out and reserve in a dish on the side.

Turn heat up to medium-high. Bacon in, sweat, again do not brown, get it to where it’s softened and going translucent. About three minutes. Lower heat add then mushrooms add in a bit more olive oil. Keep stirring. As you don’t want the bacon to brown, nor the mushrooms to start sticking, after about two minutes add the chicken broth on top. This will also help to get the browning bits that are starting at the bottom and stop all browning.

Along with the broth, add back in the reserved diced veggies, the drained white beans and the spinach. After a couple minutes this is where to season. Add herbs, salt, pepper. Cover with lid and give it a simmer on medium for 20 minutes. Take lid off every five minutes or so, give it all a good stir and replace lid.

After the 20 minutes, take out no less than 1/3 and no more than 1/2 of the hot soup, place in a food processor and puree carefully. Take off the top tube or cap and place a towel or pot holder on top for the puree. Return this mixture completely back into the soup..

Add white wine. After three to five minutes add cream. Mix, simmer another three to five minutes then add Parmesan. Lower the heat and stir more often as the added cheese can stick and start burning on the bottom if you’re not careful. After two or three more minutes, it’s done.

Depending on size of serving, makes 4-6. Serve with toasted polenta cheese rounds on the side.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Chefs are funny people. Normally they’re drawn to foods that are inherently flavorful. Sometimes, as a challenge I think, they are also drawn to things not so flavorful, but which if cooked a certain way can be made tasty and tender. Meats that are very lean such as rabbit or venison which need long time cooking and often a fat added to them come to mind.

Then there are these foods such as couscous and polenta which basically are, well, by themselves quite bland — and in recent years top chefs go nuts over it. Apparently because they can infuse taste to them. I sorta get it and I sorta don’t …. depends upon the food, the technique, the time it takes and my mood for that day. All of that said, of course this polenta is indeed tasty. For me the taste infusion comes from the long roast, browning and carmalization, and adding cheese that does it.

A quicky lesson on what polenta is and where it comes from. Yes, it’s definitely Italian. But not solely. It’s often referred to as Italian grits, and I’ve seen on television where cooks have taken either a southern grits recipe and “Italianized” it, and vica versa. Both are made from cornmeal, polenta from boiled cornmeal and is often classified as a “maize-based porridge”. According to Wikipedia, polenta under various other names is popular in many cuisines of many countries including such diverse and far-flung (from each other) countries as Cuba, Hungary, Georgia, Corsica, Peru, Mexico, Switzerland.

When it can be found in American supermarkets (which more often it can), it is either as stone-ground or coarse cornmeal which you can make into polenta, or a prepackaged “instant” polenta or the way I found it, as a premade tube or log infused with herbs. The tube I picked up was basil and garlic polenta. Of all the cooks out there, this seems to most often be found in Rachel Ray recipes. (Giada sometimes does instant and Mario of course has to make it from scratch).

Alright, enough history of this former “peasant food” now turned “premium product” and darling of cooks everywhere. Give this a whirl. Do I like it? Yes. Is it a bit of work when someone else might as easily suffice? Yes. But as said before, same can be said of couscous. Maybe it’s me, but when plain white rice with a little butter, salt and pepper tastes just great, and you either jazz it up or not, I’m not sure if these other bland-tasting grain products are necessarily worth the extra effort.

Does that mean polenta “whelms” me? Not necessarily. It tastes good. Especially when you go through the necessary motions and techniques and add tomato sauces or cheese or whatever. Anyway it is different and I do welcome a change from the “same old same old”. And yes, I’m betting you will indeed find this a very tasty and easy way to enjoy polenta, a nice and different side dish, especially to something else Italian. Bon appetito.

Toasted Polenta Cheese Rounds
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 lb prepackaged tube of polenta (or herbed polenta)
olive oil
salt
pepper
grated parmegan

Preheat oven to 375°F. Slice polenta log into 1/4 inch pieces. Put olive oil on both sides and season. Place on baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Place on top shelf of oven for 45-50 minutes until it starts to brown. Take out, liberally top each with grated parmegan. Place back in oven 10-15 minutes until cheese starts to brown. Makes 12-16 quarter-inch thick by roughly two-inch diameter rounds. About 3-4 servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Alright I know what I said before. And I’ve changed my mind. I’m allowed to do that. I said when it came to making waffles it has to be from scratch — and that still holds true. But for pancakes I said get lazy and usually just grab the pre-made mix with the big “B” on the yellow box. Well, I’ve changed my mind.

You see, here I am baking cookies around the Holidays time — rats, I’ll have to remember to get those recipes up here. Where was I? Ah, the cookies and cakes like the lava cake, cave-in cake and the banana Boston cream pie and puffed pastries too … after that how can I justify saving myself a mere 3.5 seconds by grabbing a premade mix instead of just making my hotcakes from scratch? So I played around a bit then came up with the mixture I like best.

Now there’s one thing about pancakes that I have always done, be it from scratch or box, and that is “have fun with them”. What mean by that is … why ever go with just plain pancakes? There’s just no reason for it. So I like to try different things. Make some “IHOP” at home, if you know what I mean. That’s one thing I have always done, said why go out for something because they make it special when you can do the same thing at home.

I remember 10-15 years ago my folks must have gone out of the house twice a day to McDonalds or wherever to pick up two cups of coffee. It was their “treat”. I bought them their first automatic drip coffee-make and said, “Here, have a treat everyday — all day long. Oh yeah, and save that money you’re spending at McDonalds.” Ok, so Ronald the clown did put a contract out on me, but then again Mr. Coffee became my best friend. (No I haven’t lost it. Just having a bit of silly fun.)

Here’s my tips or observations for making pancakes. First, no matter what you do, the second (and third, etc) batch you make will always get done very quickly compared to your first batch. I don’t care how hot you make the pan or the griddle or what you do, your first batch will take x amount of time, and the next ones you must –repeat, must — start checking the bottom of them no longer 10-15 seconds after you’ve put it down. Doesn’t matter how many times I do these, it still surprises me. Though it no longer catches me off guard.

Next tip, in between batches, stir the mix you have in your bowl with your big pouring spoon as it will have settled during the time you cooked that previous batch. Finally, this a tip you may or may not want to use. At my house, each batch I make gets placed on a “holding” plate and then I give each finished pancake a buttering. Some folks get really weird and territorial about their food and even though you are the cook they don’t want you to touch or butter their pancakes for you. LOL. Odd but true. I find they taste better when buttered (or margarine I should say) right as they come off the pan or the griddle and let that just sink right in. Again though in my house no one minds. Your mileage may vary.

Last but not least, a normal pan is going to take forever and you’ll only be able to do two or three normal-sized pancakes at a time (and that means four to six batches). I either do my pancakes on the two-burner cast iron griddle that is the flip side of my grill or I do them in my large 13″ non-stick frying pan. Seriously both of these are must-haves in your kitchen. The first is obvious, the second you can make four pancakes at a time, you can do 7-10 full strips of bacon, you can make a paella in it. If you don’t have one of these, get one and you will wonder how you ever got along without having one. Same goes for the cast-iron grill-and-griddle where you can make 6-8 pancakes at one time easily and 10 if you force it. They are major time savers so think about getting yourself them.

Basic Pancake Recipe
©2008 Harry Kenney

2 cups flour
3 tbsps sugar
2 tsps baking powder
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

vegetable oil (for the pan)
margarine (or butter)
pancake syrup

Chocolate Chip Pancakes
©2008 Harry Kenney

Add to the above:

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (or semi-sweet)
2 tbsps chocolate liqueur (Creme de Cacao recommended; Godiva Chocolate if you’re feeling rich or just want to use it up)

Put dry ingredients into bowl and mix well with spoon. Add in wet ingredients, use electric beater or whisk and mix until well incorporated. For chocolate chip pancakes: add chips and liqueur into mix.

Spoon onto well-oiled medium-high large frying pan or griddle with a large spoon (so as to make similar sized pancakes), about 1/4-1/3 cup. Turn when see bubbles. Also do a visual peek of pancake bottoms with flipper to know when to turn. You should turn just once, though no problem with multiple flips. When each pancake or batch is done, place on holding platter. Butter each, optional.

Stir batter at start of each new batch before pouring into pan. Also regrease (oil) pan each time. Serve with side of bacon or sausage and pancake syrup. Makes roughly one dozen pancakes.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Wolfgang is Back!

… with his show simply called Wolfgang Puck. Now I have to admit I missed the first few of the new shows already. Because, quite candidly, not watching too much Fine Living (FL) channel, I see only a few of their commercials. In short I had no idea it existed until several days into it’s run.

Ok, wait, this isn’t a knock on the FL channel as I do watch several of their shows, it’s just fewer shows than the Food Network (FN) as FL does a variety of programming, most of which I’m not as interested in. That said, their take on food and beverage, the shows they’ve come up with often show even more innovation than FN does. Let me save this for later below and get back to “Wolfy”.

As I said I missed a few already before discovering it was even on. The one’s I’ve seen so far, one dealt with the tomato, that meant — yes baby — an excuse for Puck to show us how to make pizza! So we had pizza dough making, a four-cheese pizza, gazpacho soup and a visit to a California farm where Puck gets all his tomatoes from. Another show featured bread, and we got to see La Brea Bakery, then Wolfgang made foaccia bread (mmm, one of my favorites I’m going to have to try this now) and what to do with the bread? Why a gourmet BLT, namely barbecued shrimp BLT on foaccia. Yes my mouth is watering already. The guy is a legend, he’s still so upbeat and energetic and passionate about food, he really does get you passionate about it. Charming, magnetic, it’s great to see him do a “crowd” show (a la Emeril) which he interacts with and works with incredibly well. And hey, he’s the master. What can you not love about this show? It’s Wolfgang!

The show airs 1pm weekdays. Though with only 12 episodes so far listed on the FL website, who knows where, when and how far this is going to go. I’m thinking the response should be big and that we’ll be continuing to have a whole lot more Wolfgang around

On a related note, you might want to set your TIVO or VCR and capture his repeating episodes from Food Network’s old 2004 or 2005 show Wolfgang Puck’s Cooking Class which still sometimes (yes, it’s off and on again) air at 4am. Or you can just stay up and watch them. Hmm, I have no idea if I should kick FN for airing them so late or applaud them for having the sense to continue airing these fine shows. Guess it evens out in the end.

Jamie’s Big Return

Second new show is the return of the cook Mario Batali has called the Rolling Stones of British cooking (because of how a mob shows up any time he’s out anywhere). With nine cookbooks under his belt in less that many years, the UK sensation, the third leg of the British cooking triad (Gordon Ramsey and Nigella Lawson being the other two) the one and only mop-haired Jamie Oliver in Jamie at Home. With previous American shows The Naked Chef which made him a star, at least here, and Oliver’s Twist, in the newest venture “Jamie’s back doing what he does best – cooking at home with simple, accessible ingredients, including fruits and vegetables fresh from his backyard garden.”

His first episode tackles Pumpkin and Squash, then Pastry, followed by Peppers and Chilies, and then Mushrooms. Actually I have to say I like the way that’s done, focusing in on specific thing and then taking off on it. It’s definitely very “in” in the sense of the whole organic meets artisan feel of cooking with fresh ingredients. I was also impressed a week or so ago when, although he lost to Mario Batali on ICA, it was by a mere two points in taste and that for a secret ingredient he proclaimed he’s never tasted before. Spot on. The show airs Saturday mornings at 9:30am.

Martin Yan’s China

A new series from the “old” master of Chinese cuisine, Martin Yan’s China. With the world’s attention being focused later this year on the 2008 Olympics in Beijing so Yan has taken on a different look to that ancient country. In his new television series on PBS of course he first travels to various places in China, restaurants, kitchens, homes. Checks out the techniques first hand, then it’s back in the studio kitchen for Yan to both show the home cook how to do these themselves and how he combines authentic and traditional techniques and introduces new flavors and methods of cooking too. In the second episode of the series I caught just today, we look at Panda’s in their native habitat and then chef Yan makes his mother’s “Weekly Chicken Soup” recipe back at the kitchen. Being PBS, you’ll need to check your own local station for air times; for me it’s on Saturdays around mid-afternoon.

The show’s so new the book isn’t yet available. Here’s a tip though. On Yan’s website — which is out of the book btw — the new cookbook goes for around $25. However, you can go here and preorder it, and when it comes out at the end of April you get it about $16.50! Pre-Order “Martin Yan’s China” at a Third Off.

Rachel Does the World

The next new show is Rachel’s Vacation. Ok, Even I have to start wondering how does she do it with a major network show every day, continuing to do the 30 Minute Meals and now a second (how can you forget $40-a-day?) travelogue show to boot? The description from the website: “Rachael’s Vacation takes viewers on an international odyssey. From pubs in Dublin to markets in Bordeaux, from a fairy tale carriage ride in Lisbon to a marathon of tapas in Barcelona, Rachel charts her course for exciting finds near and far.”

I’m kind of yawning I must admit, but please Rachel fans don’t hit me. It’s not her as much as it’s just few travel shows with a food spin really do me. I’ve never been thrilled about shows like A Cook’s Tour, Feasting on Asphalt, or that show who’s name escapes me where Paula Deen’s sons hop into a car. Mind you, there is the occasional travel-meets-food show I’ll watch, Giada in Paradise because (hey, it’s paradise) who doesn’t want to watch the view from or eat the local food found at Capri or Santorinni (I don’t watch her other local travel show mind you). Also of note in this genre is Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, because it is a fresh take on an otherwise (to me) stale concept. If you however love these type of shows or are a Rachel groupie, then you’ll no doubt find her latest right up your alley. This one premieres tonight, January 12th and is shown every Saturday night at 9pm.

Favorite Cooking Shows with New Episodes

So that’s the brand new shows this month. Meanwhile a ton of established cooking shows are already airing fresh new episodes everywhere: On PBS, America’s Test Kitchen and Everyday Food.

Take Home Chef Curtis Stone has a brand new season of shows airing on TLC. He’s charming, he can cook, his recipes are versatile and like the show’s overall theme on things. There’s a new format this season though which (from what I can tell from the site) fans aren’t sure if they like or not. I’m just happy for the brand new episodes.

An abysmal, horrible website though. Oh the flashy (literally) front page seems a good intro, but that’s it. You can’t tell what episodes are new or rerun. The recipe index goes by the name of the woman he cooked for. There’s a forum who’s script must have been written in 1994 because it’s readable but just barely, and it’s as confusing as the rest of the site is. It’s like something an 8 year old would toss up. I say eight year old because a 13 year old would have made a much better website than this. Also the new recipes are not up for the new shows either (or if they are, who can find them?) TLC really deserves to be slapped upside the head for both the very little promotion it gives this fine show and the moronic website. Curtis deserves much better and so does his fans.

On Food Network, the early Saturday lineup from 9 am to about 1:30 pm is currently 100% new with Tyler’s Ultimate, Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee, Paula’s Home Cooking, Rachel’s 30 Minute Meals, the still relatively new Simply Delicioso with Ingrid Hoffmann, Giada’s Everyday Italian, Ina’s Barefoot Contessa, and Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger.

Now some of those Saturday morning and afternoon shows are also shown during weekday afternoons. Among those on daily which have new episodes (besides those mentioned above) include the Essence of Emeril, Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller and Paula’s Home Cooking. At night, there are new episodes of Unwrapped and yes, some of the 7pm Emeril Live programs are brand new as well.

And new episodes of chef Robert Irvine’s wonderful — I really do love this show tremendously — Dinner: Impossible begin this Wednesday night at 10pm when Robert takes on making hor’s d’oeuvres for a mere 2,900 Alaskan cruise passengers in an impossibly limited amount of time. Duff is back with the Charmed City gang and Ace of Cakes in roughly a week or so.

Meanwhile it looks as though (but it’s very hard to tell as Food Network is not good at releasing schedules) Bobby Flay’s Throwdown is taking a rest as well as Iron Chef America, after both having just shown a spade of new shows at the tail end of last year.

The Food Shows of Fine Living

A nice bunch of new food shows came on the Fine Living network in the latter part of 2007, with The Martha Stewart Show naturally being the biggest. Naturally, anyone who knows Martha knows the show “covers the spectrum” from home remodeling to crafts to cooking and a billion other things. Being as my particular interests lie in only one of those areas, I don’t get to see the show that often. What I have seen either from episodes descriptions, a commercial or on occasion actually turning the dial to the show is Martha does have an excellent variety of chefs on there from all walks. That is, we get very used to the chefs we see on television that have their own shows, whether they’re from FN or PBS or elsewhere. And obviously there are hundreds of fantastic chefs, many up and comers, who we often don’t see. Well, they can be found here in Stewart’s show. So keep your eyes peeled and you can catch others out there making their stamp on the culinary world who you won’t find on TV anywhere else.

Also among the newer shows that are now a few months old are two of my new favorites I highly recommend. First up, Shopping With Chefs. Both hosts, Chef Jill Davie and Chef David Myers bring a lot of knowledge and Davie especially a lot of enthusiasm. Going through the various tools, appliances and foods as well. Mind you sometimes you have to question whether you really need a special shrimp devainer or whathaveyou. But by going through the low-end to the top-end variety of each melon baller to rice cooker, you get to see the whole variety of what’s out there, even though you know few of us will ever want the $300 roasting pan, Seriously, it’s a very good show to watch that focuses on those tools of the trade even a home cook needs and which every other show glosses over. It’s a great niche, a very important area that needed focusing on for a long time, and now it’s here and it delivers.

Great Cocktails with mixologist Stephen Phillips The show is a bit funky and tad whacky, both by nature of the content and the nature of the host. When you first watch you think, this guy isn’t totally there. After a while, no, you don’t change that initial assessment, you just realize it’s a bit endearing and that you’re happy he’s a pimento pit left of center as it makes the perfect guide. Another niche in the food and beverage area that had been long overlooked while this show isn’t for everyone, you may be surprised to find it is for you. You owe it to yourself to turn in on for say ten minutes and then decide. I’m betting most will find this a welcome addition to the viewing schedule.

I’m going to have to come back to The Heat with Mark McEwan at some other time, simply because they must have the show on during a time when I’m watching something else. One of Fine Living’s problems with their television schedules is, unlike sister channel Food Network, they don’t rerun things often. Miss it once and you can’t see it two nights from now or four days from now. The next time will be (as though it were a major network) the same time next week. So if the show you want to see clashes with something else then you (and Fine Living apparently) are out of luck. Really FL, you are not a major network, you’re cable, more than that you are speciality cable. Dot your shows around more and you’ll pick up a larger audience.

Older shows that rerun which I still enjoy, Michael Chiarello’s Napa Style, Ming Tsai’s East Meets West, Batali’s Molto Mario, The Thirsty Traveler with Kevin Brauch (who does the floor reporting / color commentary on FN’s Iron Chef America) and one of the most innovative shows ever done when you think about the logistics involved Follow That Food with host Gordon Elliot who now spends most of his time behind the camera producing Paula Deen’s cooking shows and others at the Food Network.

All in all some very engaging shows, new and old, so big kudos to Fine Living for their fine contributions to the cooking, food and beverage (as well as kitchen shopping) shows. And for bringing back Mr. Puck. Now go get more episodes of Wolfgang in the can please as we want to see more of him.