cooking @ home

©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.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Sometimes food is delicious to the tastebuds, but not so delcious to the eyes. Meat loaf comes to mind. So does split pea soup, among others. Veal piccata must unfortunately be counted among these. The photos here this time, do not do it justice. (And a quick look around the Net showed me for good or bad, none of the other images I saw taken by others did it that much justice either.) And the fact this recipe falls right after the brilliant colors of salmon no doubt makes it seem duller still, image-wise.

But enough. Not every meal can spark all the senses. What this one lacks in being picturesque it more than makes up for in taste as well as in aroma. Picatta means “sharp” in Italian and it has come to mean a variety of dishes that use thin cuts of meat, cut thinly and/or pounded thinly, cooked in a pan and served with a sharp sauce, provided by the lemon and capers.

And in this dish also added to by the dry sherry. Some dishes say use dry white wine. Fan that I am of that, three reasons for doing with the dry sherry this time. The first time I made this dish was a couple decades ago from The Frug’s recipes (Jeff Smith). Next, how often outside of Asian cooking do you get to use a nice sherry? And most importantly, third, it adds more of that piccata “bite” that we’re looking for here, where as the wine might soften that too much, take some of that away. And that’s not desired.

Before I go into the nutritional and health elements of eating veal, let’s quickly get past the talk of eating veal at all. In other words, the whole “veal bad” animal rights thing. Suffice to say conditions in veal farming and the veal industry have improved dramatically in the past two decades thanks to the activists. Some say it’s enough, some say it isn’t. You wouldn’t be reading this — nor I writing it — if this issue was of great concern. As for myself, I take a practical Native American perspective when it comes to animals and food. Hunting to put an animal on a wall or make a fur coat is (among other things) a horrible waste and soley for ego. Whereas food raised to be food is to be eaten. And as humans we eat food. And this is the natural way of life. Period.

Now on to the postive assessment of veal as food. In terms of nutrition, low-fat and cost … Veal is lean; it has very little fat. This also means there is little waste when compared to other animal meat. Because of this a pound of veal can often vield three or four servings. Some have suggested when comparision shopping to evaluate the cost per serving instead of the cost per pound when thinking about veal.

Veal is an excellent source of protein with “balanced amino acid profile containing proteins of a high quality”. Also it is a superior source of B-complex vitamins, especially niacin, zinc B12 and B6. It is also a good source of iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus. A trimmed, cooked three oz. serving of veal contains on average 166 calories and only 5.6 grams of fat.

Back to this specific dish, surprisingly one does not find too many veal piccata recipes around. And those that I’ve stumbled across, not sure, they seem to have lost something in translation. Beside the advice of using wine instead of the sherry, many advocate using chicken broth. Are they crazy? That even further deadens the sharp taste that is the entire reason for this dish in the first place. Why even make this dish — I want to ask these other cooks and their recipes — if you want to deaden the inherent sharpness and pleasant bite that what makes this dish?

No idea. Maybe, because many folks are more used to seeing chicken piccata something got mixed in along the way (like adding chicken broth, yuck) which was never supposed to be in the dish in the first place. Obviously chicken piccata — which I love too of course — is more prevelent as the poultry is more widely found and is viewed as a less costly an alternative. That said though, piccata was foremost and originally made as a veal dish; it’s the others that have become variants off the master.

If you have never had veal (other than as part of your meatloaf or meatball dishes), this recipe is an excellent one to introduce yourself to this lean, nutritious and delicious meat.

Veal Piccata
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 lb veal scallops (or veal cutlets pounded to 1/4-1/8 inch thickness)
flour for dredging
salt
pepper
3 tbsps lemon juice
2 tbsps capers, diced
1 1/3 cups dry sherry
olive oil
butter
parsley (fresh or dried flakes)

Take the precut veal scallops or the pounded veal slices and dredge in a mixture of salt, pepper and flour. Place into medium heat frying pan with hot olive oil. Roughly two minutes per side. Take out and reserve.

Pour in dry sherry and scrape up all the bits left in the pan and mix well. Add lemon juice and capers. Mix and reduce to half. (If not thick enough, sprinkle one teaspoon of extra flour in and mix well.) After reduction add some butter to make richer.

About 30 seconds later reintroduce the veal into the pan. One minute on each side. Add parsley in now or on plate before serving, your choice. Take out of pan. Pour sauce on top. Serve. Makes four servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

I love salmon. I try to have it at least once every month. What can you say about something that is healthy and fresh and yet something about it’s texture, it’s thickness reminds one of a steak in so many ways. Yes, silly as it sounds, in many ways I think of it as a “steak of the seas”.

Often I prepare it in the most simple and pure of ways: salt, pepper, little oil to help it cook, and maybe a twist of fresh lemon. Period. Sometimes, like now, I like to vary it with a sweet and tangy glaze. No matter what ingredients I add though, there’s only one way to cook salmon, in my opinion: Grilled.

I know, Oven isn’t bad, broiler with a fish this oily is a fire hazard, alas. And poaching? Well, poaching is probably fine but — truely, I’m more of a crunchy crust person I have to admit and not a big poaching fan at all. In the end, there’s nothing like grilled. Outdoor especially over hot charcoal; that’s the best. But when that’s not to be had, especially here in the Northeast part of the US in January, there’s always the trusty stand-by. The two-burner cast iron grill.

If you don’t have one. Get one. Now seriously how often have you heard me say that about anything? Correct. I don’t think I ever have. There’s just some things that are indispensible and not substituable. Wait you say, what about those frying pans that have the raised grill bar thingys in them? Nope. They don’t go high enough. There is no where for the fat to drain, so you are still going to be frying things in their own oils, not true grilling at all.

What about those electric grills? How about those George Forman grills? Although I haven’t actually tried them, from what I can see they probably work alright. I guess if I had a choice between the frying pan and an electric grill I would go with the latter. But a choice between a grill over the fire and a grill running alternating electrical current, gimme the stove and the cast iron anyday. Call me caveman. Call me purist. But it I can’t have my outdoor brikets, it’s indoor stove grill.

Now I have to give a big doff of the hat here to master grillsman and Iron Chef, Bobby Flay. First, this glaze definitely originates from his delicious brown sugar and mustard glaze. Hey, if I borrow or heavily base something on some else’s I tell you! Natch, I had to mess with it some and made significant changes and additions that while you could compare and no doubt tell his glaze was the “parent”, this is related yet different enough to be it’s “child”.

Another thing I about this recipe is I followed something else Bobby said on one of his shows about his personal preference when grilling salmon, that sometimes he eats the skin, and sometimes he takes it off. It depends on if he is able to get it to a certain level of crispiness. When he does, he eats it, when it’s for whatever reason not happening for him, he takes it off.

Now, I’ve always taken it off. Or to be more precise, when I’ve bought it before it was (not sure which one, but) a different type of salmon, cut into thick rectangular “steaks” and without skin. This time, I ended up getting CoHo Salmon, and instead of a steak it was the long filet. And it came with skin. Thick black and silver skin. My first thought was, ugg, take the skin off. But then I thought of what Chef Flay said, and thought, hell, I will definitely give that a try and proceed similarily, if it worked, awesome, if it didn’t work, I’ll take the skin off.

And as someone who’s been doing his best to perfect crispy skin on poultry, I managed to my delight to pull this one off as well. Yummy, crispy skin attached to a light, delicate, moist fish. You’re definitely going to enjoy this one.

Usually my photos speak for themselves, so other than the mouse-over little notes that pop up, I don’t have captions, and I rarely ever any special “notes”, but this time is an exception, so …

Important notes about the photos. The first photo of the raw fish, skin side up shows (at least it shows on the one on the right) the cross-hatched scoring I did to both. This is necessary to help achieve the crunch and crispness. Also, in the second photo of the cooking fish with the skin side up there are two notes. First, the black you see is not burn; it is the color of the skin of the coho which is silver in places and black in others. The second important note is this is the first turn of the fish, not the second, so this is only stage one of the crispy skin. And look how good it looks already.

Grilled Salmon Fillets with Crispy Skin and Asian-Fusion Glaze
©2008 Harry Kenney

2 coho salmon filets, 6-8 ounces each
olive oil
salt
pepper

glaze:

4 tbsps dijon
3 tbsps soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp finely ground ginger or ginger powder
1/4 tsp sesame seed oil
2 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsps light brown sugar
2 tbsps honey
salt
pepper

First, put all the ingredients together mentioned and create your glaze. Next, get your grill (outdoor preferably, or indoor preferably a cast-iron double burner grill or an electric one) ready and turn on to high heat.

Take your filets, score the skin on back both horizontally and vertically to make squares or a cross-hatch pattern. Rub olive oil on both sides. Season the front flesh part as you normally would with salt and pepper. When seasoning the skin side, use two to three times more salt than normally.

Put oil over your hot grill and immediately slap down your fillets skin side down. Leave about a minute more than you normally would, checking the underside occasionally to ensure cooking and browning but not burning. After about four or five minutes and right before you are ready to turn, liberally brush on the glaze all over the flesh side, then turn that over so it faces the grill.

You should see some very nice crispness on the now skin top side. Leave the flesh part down for another two-to-three minutes. Do not over cook this. Give a light brush of the glaze on the skin and turn over again. Now with the topside up, again liberally brush the glaze all over the flesh. After a minute or so more, take off of grill and serve.

Depending on how hungry your guests are this can serve two. But I found the pieces rather large and was able to feed four and still considered these nice sized servings. Myself I served this with steamed Italian flat green beans with minced onions and a helping of wild rice on the side.

©2008 Harry Kenney

It’s definitely not my intent to in any way hide things. Very much the opposite. It’s that sometimes something comes to me and I say, I will make an article out of this. (For my articles just click the category link or the one I just provided for a list of those.) At other times, most times in fact, the topic comes out of doing the specific recipe.

Let me give you a for instance, talking about cooking oils is a big topic in and of itself, so I wrote an article on that. How to get the crispiest skin on poultry while using an oven, that topic however becomes a part of my writing the a recipe on BBQing Chicken Legs in the Oven. It’s not that I am trying to purposely “hide” how to make crispy skin in that recipe, it just went together naturally. And so that’s where the information came out, there where it was the most pertinent.

This does however mean they can be a smidge hidden, a bit “below the obvious surface” even if unintential. Despite the fact that this website has a great search feature on it in and of itself that can find things. Or that Google and the other “true” monster engines do a good job of indexing items on this site. But it dawned on me, maybe it would be helpful to put together a post like this every so often and list some of the “hiddren treasures”, histories or tutorials that lay somewhat obscured in the back story or forewads to my recipes. And as I just hit 51 recipes the other day, now seems as good a time to do this.

Oven BBQing & Crsipy Skin

Besides scoring skin, when trying to emulate a BBQ style in the oven, avoid a deep casserole dish, instead you want it completlly “out there” getting heat hitting all around it. Do this by putting it on a baking sheet with a grill on it. See the photo of this (and of scoring skin) at my recipe for Roasted Orange-BBQ Chicken Leg Quarters

Fruit Sauces

Working with fruit sauces especially those with made from or with jelly or preserves. If you wait too long it will thicken back to a gelatin state. What to use with jelly and what to do when it thickens back up can be found at Ricotta Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce

Giving Tortillas More Authentic Flavor

Ever scorch a totilla on the burner? On purpsose? Give it a try while making my Steak Quesadilla.

Making a Stuffing Pocket

Making a pocket in a piece of meat or poultry is pretty simple. Unless you haven’t done it before. When making Harry’s Stuffed Chicken Florentine I touched upon this complete with a photograph. I also demonstrate how to take a stuffing and turn it into a creamy light sauce as well.

Health Benefits of Fish

Not only do I list a lot of them, I also supply a link to more good info at my recipe for Grilled Rainbow Trout with Dill and Lemon.

Tips on Using Pizza Dough at Home

You can find those tips when I made Pepperoni Pizza & Ham and Pineapple Pizza.

Dry Rubs and BBQ Sauces

One thing that goes with talking about grilling and barbecuing, and that’s dry rubs and BBQ sauces. I don’t use bottled any more. In fact I never did like them. The problem is you never know what you’re going to get. I have same problem when I’m ordering out at a restaurant or a food stand … Is it going to be a BBQ sauce I like or something that’s too sweet or so tomatoey it burns my throat or so vinergary I have to pucker. At home I gave up on that junk long ago and make my own. And of course I’m usually mixing it up so it’s never exactly the same every time. Fortunately this website’s blog system uses a tag system which is another way to make additional categories and makes it a lot easier to group and to find things, so click on these if you want to get a list of my recipes of different dry rubs and different barbecue sauces I’ve done so far.

Kids Food

There’s a lot of good food on here children will enjoy. But I defnitely let my inner child run loose when I made both a Cheeseburger Pizza and a Peach Ricotta Dessert Pizza. Others that stand out in my mind are Pizza Burger Mac and Steak Quesadilla. And naturarlly, kids love deserts. Apple Turnovers with Royal Icing using puff pastry is a nice healhy homemade desert, and if you really want to light up their eyes, make yourself a trifle like Lemon Berry one my where you get to slip in fresh healthy fruit amid pudding and cake and the layers and colors will just knock them out!

Drumsticks on the Grill

With little meat on them, most of it on the outside where the fire is, and filled with bone, drumsticks aren’t the eaisest things to cook on a charcoal grill. See how to do it at Apricot-Glazed Grilled Chicken Drumsticks.

London Broil into Flank Steak

Gotta recipe for flank steak? But you can’t find it at the market or you don’t have any at home? Slice down your London broil (which is actually a type of cooking, not a peice of meat, but your supermarket doesn’t know that) and there you go. Now you can make my recipe for Braciole.

What is Gourmet?

It was when I made my Butternut Squash Soup with Chorizo and Rice that I ended up waxing on about what it gourmet and what isn’t, and how the American taste bud has evolved tremendously in the last couple of decades with people’s willingness to try new flavors and pairings

Best Meatloaf Crust Ever

Seriously, I found a major winner with my Tomato-Balsamic Glaze atop my homemade meatloaf. It’s got the tomato, it’s got just enough and not-too-much sweetness and it has a crunch. I don’t care if it’s a sweet concotion or a savory dish, from lava cake to fried chicken, one thing many dishes have in common is there’s nothing better then when you combine an inner softness with just a bit of outer crunch to it. And this has it

Squashes

Butternut Squash is a tough one to cut open as you know with my first-ever photo tutorial Peeling and Cutting a Butternut Squash I also go in there the difference between winter and summer squashes by the way. But if you have an acorn squash, it’s such a very different thing. Especially with my microwave and broiler technique. We’re talking fast and delicious so give my Broiled Ginger-Apricot Acorn Squash a try.

Turnip, Rutabaga, Swede …

What are those things? Sometimes they’re the same thing. Sometimes they’re not. It’s another fun trip through the English language shared by the US, Canada, Australia and the UK where one language doesn’t mean you know what you’re saying. There’s even a chart here at my White Turnip Mash recipe to help cut through the translations.

Dressing or Stuffing?

What’s the difference? I talk about it in my Cranberry-Chorizo Dressing post.

Brining

What is this whole brining thing about? I finally got a chance and tried it out for myself when I made my Barbecued Turkey Breast with Orange-Herb-Wine Sauce for Thanksgiving last year. In short, the brining technique turned out fantastic, especially for this! Would I use it again elsewhere? Not sure, but doubtful. Yes I became a somewhat of a convert that brining is a wonderful and effective technique for sure. But I think it’s something limited to few times. Grilling a turkey being one of them.

Marinades

I am all for the quick marinade. I really like these two guys, but … every time I watch License to Grill or Emeril Live and they talk about “or you could marinade it for 24 hours” makes me laugh my head off. This and my other thoughts on marinades can be found in my recipe for Pancetta-Wrapped Margarita Shrimp.

Alcohol Burnoff When Cooking?

You would be surprised. Very very surprised. It was when I was making another one of my essentially children’s desserts but with a deciedely adult dessert flair that I looked up and shared with you the full details on when and how much does cooking burn off liquor in a dish. The results were extremely surprising. Take a look at my Hot Apple Topping over Ice Cream recipe for all the info.

Deep-Frying

Although I still am planning to do an article specifically on the subject, meanwhile I do get into some details about the technique of deep frying with cooking oil when I made my Homemade French Fries as well as talking about different kinds of fries, fry toppings, what’s a frite, what’s a British chip and all that other trivia associated with the cooked potato.

Prime or Choice or Select

There was no way possible I could talk about cooking Prime Rib with getting into the whole process of meat grading and selection here in the States. So for a quick lesson on cuts of meat and USDA standards, check out that recipe for some good info that will definitely help you the next time you’re shopping at the butcher or your supermarket’s meat section.

Well, that’s pretty much it. For now. I’m sure in another fifty recipes I’ll be hitting some more cooking points as they come to me. Hope this list helps you find some helpful info you might otherwise have glossed over. Thanks for reading my yakking points. Maybe I yack too much I sometimes think, but just giving a recipe and nothing else to go with it seems so lazy and average, and just not me. I think that’s the same reason we enjoy the cooking shows, we’re not just entertained, we’re educated along with it. Having a sense of history I think rounds out a meal. And learning various techniques along the way only makes us better cooks. See you next time.

©2008 Harry Kenney

If you enjoyed my very recent Chocolate-Raspberry Lava Cake recipe, then you are going to love this “makeover” or redeaux as well. Remember the original lava cake was made as a mistake. And this dish came about when I messed up my lava cake. So much for the saying two wrongs don’t make a right!

Think of it almost as a crunchy chocolate pudding “slash” cake. Obviously since it never leaves the dish it can’t “lava” out like the original. And as you see the cracking on top in the photo, you see why I had to call this chocolate cave-in cake.

I wanted to make something special for when my brother came over. And he has one of those intestinal things where you can’t eat little seeds. And I ran out of my original jar of raspberry jam and when I reached for the spare I had in the cupboard, turns out I’d mistakenly purchased preserves containing seeds (mistake one). That meant no raspberry sauce so I switched to orange, and instead of sauce, whipped cream.

Mistake two came when I forgot to grease my ramekins. Ooops! But wow what a delicious mistake! Plus, this recipe is even doubly fool-proof then the other one. Since you don’t have to take it out of the ramekin, even less chance to mess anything up. And yet, lip-smacking good. My bro’s girlfriend thought it was going to be as rich and dark and too sweet as a death by chocolate cake, and was surprised how it had just the right amount of sweetness but not that overpowering kind.

Btw, as always, when a recipe calls for an orange liqueur as this one, I say use Triple Sec instead of Grand Marnier because they’re the same taste, but the former costs about 10 times less while the second has a better marketing name and bigger price tag. Period.

By the way, did I mention this version has 2.5 to 3 times the amount of liquid chocolate inside?

Chocolate-Orange Cave-In Cake
©2008 Harry Kenney

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 oz butter
5-6 oz milk chocolate (or semisweet) chocolate chips
3 tbsps orange liqueur

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 egg yokes
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Orange Whipped Cream
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 pint heavy cream
3 tbsps sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
6 tbsps orange liqueur

Note: This recipe is based on 6 oz. ramekin size.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix eggs and yokes and sugar together and cream. Over double-boiler melt bittersweet chocolate with butter. Slowly pour into beating mixture. Add flour, sugar, salt, vanilla and orange liqueur until well mixed.

With six ramekins (not greased) placed on top of baking sheet, fill the ramekins 2/3s to 3/4s of the way with cake mixture. Place about an ounce of chocolate chips (10-15 chips) into the middle of each and let sink. Pour rest of cake mixture on top. Place in oven for 22-28 minutes until see good cracking on top and firm around the sides.

Take ingredients for whipped cream and place in mixer (or use hand beater), adding orange liqueur half way through.

When cakes are done, let cool a few minutes. Top each cake with orange whipped cream and serve in ramekin with spoon. Don’t forget since you’re serving it in the cup itself, clean the cup off first before giving it to your guests. Makes six servings.