©2008 Harry Kenney

Well, I’m back after my “hiatus”. My initial thought was to put up one of the maybe dozen new dishes I’ve made over the past several months. Instead, I’m starting back up with my most very recent meal. I got a bit more adventurous the other night, making something competely new for me and it turned out so well I’m going to share that one first.

But before doing that I want to talk about taste or maybe it would be more accurate to call this the “conveyance of taste”. Now I consider myself as having a pretty good palate. Mind you, I haven’t yet taken any blind food tests — although to sate my own curiosity I have a friend who promises when she gets a chance that we’ll do one. I always watch Hell’s Kitchen and each season it’s amazing to see how trained chefs can’t tell the difference between an apple and a piece of potato when blindfolded. Ok, I’m on a bit of a tangent; let me get back to the heart of the matter here, which is, in this case arugula.

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©2008 Harry Kenney

What can I say about mushrooms? Ok, first off, they’re obviously delicious! Eating-wise they can add another dimension to a steak. Or to chicken as well. They give that extra “something” when added to soups, a rice mixture or pasta. They can serve as a tasty vessel for stuffing.

In many ways they are “meaty” for both the vegetarian and the carnivore in us alike. I recall the oft-quoted here Frugal Gourmet, Jeff Smith, saying something to the effect of mushrooms being a sign of a generous God that from horse manure could such amazing things as mushrooms spring. Or something to that effect. He said it partly in jest and partly serious. Anyway, we get the idea of what he meant.

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©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?

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©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.

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What’s a great any-time appetizer and definitely a crowd pleaser? Stuffed mushrooms. Especially now, the “holidays” between Christmas and New Years when family and friends are more apt to come visit.

Want not one but two items that will not only impress guests but both are simple to make, taste delicious and can be done rather quickly? The first is Pancetta Wrapped Shrimp which can be done in under 20 minutes. And (bet you saw this one coming) the second one is stuffed mushrooms which can be made within 30 to 45 minutes.

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Ok, this is a super easy recipe and a great one for turning that holiday turkey into a delicious leftover dish. The recipe is simple, and there isn’t much to say even as a preamble, believe it or not. I have maybe two items to mention. First, this is one of those recipes where it’s difficult to separate the sauce from the rest of the dish as they basically come together as one. Therefore I’m just following the natural flow and present them together as one.

Second, at this very moment in time I’m just so very tired of turkey … I even want to just get this recipe published and out of the way so I don’t have to think about or even look at turkey for a few weeks. That is just me in the wake of Thanksgiving. In a few weeks I’ll actually be debating do I want ham or turkey again for Christmas. And if it turns out to be the latter, I’ll definitely be looking up — I do that, you know — my own recipe here to make it again.

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There are so many combinations of meatloaf in the world. Use 100 percent beef. No, use beef and pork. No, has to be the tri-meat combination of beef, pork and veal. No, it’s lamb as the third, not veal. You can use milk-soaked bread, big crouton things purchased or made yourself. You can use breadcrumbs. Nope, use the oats in oatmeal. With and without eggs. Mayonnaise as an extra binder; no way, hold the mayo. Gotta have some gravy. Gravy has to be brown. No, it’s gotta be tomato. No gravy anywhere; that ruins it. … And the list goes on and on.

And then, like myself, many cooks have more than one meatloaf. Why? Same as above. There’s so many ways to do it and there’s no one right way. In fact, it’s pretty tough to mess up. Hope all you newbie cooks are listening up. Meatloaf is many things: The perfect comfort food being one. And an excellent dish to start on if you’ve never or rarely cooked before.

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

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

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This is somewhat like a ratatouille, sorta like a cacciatore, in a sense like a stew, and apparently is a ragout (though it seems a million things could be a ragout). It appears from spending a great deal of time researching on the Web trying to find what was the most appropriate way to label this recipe, that in the end, it’s very much my own concoction. That should make me happy. And yes, it does — but, it’s one of those rare times when thinking of the name of dish was a ton more difficult then actually coming up with or even cooking the dish!

Ok, let’s explore what it’s similar to and yet not: Cacciatore which is usually definied as a hunter-style preparation with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, herbs, and bell peppers. Now while all of those elements are indeed main ingredients, the real deal almost always contains red wine and capers, whereas mine doesn’t. Moreover, yes, cacciatore is most often found with chicken seems like it’s a shoe-in, but no, for it is not made with bonesless chicken breast but legs and theighs and the bones intact, the idea being to made a flavorful “stew” of darker meats “hunter” (as in just caught) style. This is close though.

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If I say I’m making some homemade Chinese food tonight and I’m using yellow onion and button mushrooms, is your first thought “that’s not authentic Chinese food”?

Good chance you might think that. Sometimes I stop and think that myself. Which gets me to even more thinking. Namely: what is Chinese food as compared to what is Chinese-American food?

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