Con-Fusion

Dinner is served

"Fusion" - in culinary terms - is the blending or combining of different cultures and styles of food.  Tonight, our dinner was definitely fusion.  CONfusion...

I started off with Chimichurri Rice.  Chimichurri is a sauce or marinade originally from Argentina, but popular in parts of South and Central America.  On our last trip to San Francisco, we stopped off at Cost Plus and picked up some chimichurri spice mixture.  The directions say to make it into a marinade.  I thought rice was a better idea.

I first sauteed onions, bell pepper, the chimichurri spice in olive oil and then added canned diced tomatoes.  One cup of rice went in next, along with beef broth.  Cover, simmer 20 minutes.

I took boneless pork steaks and covered them liberally with ancho, pasillo, birdseye, and arbol chili powders, and a bit of salt.  Onto the grill they went.

Spicy Pork

The confusion part comes with the serving - in pitas!

Lettuce and chopped heirloom tomatoes and a Greek yogurt, cucumber, dill, and lemon sauce.  The yogurt abd cucumber sauce was really necessary - the pork was s-p-i-c-y!  It was yumlicious.


Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni and Cheese

Spring sprung a bit yesterday.  That, and I had a craving for cheese.  Macaroni and Cheese was the answer...

My mother made the best mac and cheese.  She would save the odds and ends of her various cheeses and one night when my father was at the firehouse, she would whip up and incredible baked dish.  It was never quite the same because the various cheeses would always change - but it was always fantastic.  Thick, gooey, and covered in toasty, buttery crumbs.

Her recipe is pretty easy to replicate - a simple white sauce with a bit of garlic, cayenne, worcestershire, and S&P.  Stir in shredded cheeses of choice, mix with cooked macaroni, top with buttered bread crumbs and bake at 350 until nuclear hot.

I purposely bought cheddar with caramalized onions and sheeps milk cheese to make this with, but when I got home, there was still a hunk of new Zealand grass-fed cheddar and some cheddar curds in the fridge, so I used them with the sheeps milk cheese and will save the other cheddar for something this weekend - maybe cheddar and mushroom sandwiches...

Pear Tart

Victor made dessert while I was working!  Pear Tart with an oatmeal crumb topping.  I don't have a recipe (he didn't either, just threw it together.  But dayum, it was good!

Pear Tart


Simple Spring Salads

A Simple Spring Salad

We're seasonal eaters in our house.  I know that I can buy just about anything semi-fresh from some country around the world, but I don't want to eat fresh raspberries in January.  I also don't want to eat acorn squash in July.  I like the flavors of the seasons...  And by the end of March I want big salads, again.

I know it's pushing the envelope just a bit, but... that big plate of greens topped with whatever happens to be handy was calling my name last night.

I had some thin-sliced pork chops thawing, so I made a marinade of chipotle powder, a homemade raspberry sauce left over from Easter, and some olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper.

Onto the plates went my bed of greens, hard cooked eggs (also from Easter) some chow-chow, dried raspberries, and lots of tomatoes...  I also had some cheddar cheese curds that were perfect.

I grilled the pork chops and made a quick dressing of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, more raspberry sauce, a smidge of chipotle powder, and S&P.

Topped the salads with the pork, topped the pork with the dressing, and dinner was served.  I had a bit of the Easter bread left over and that went along with it.

Dinner took 15 minutes to get on the table.

I can't wait to be doing this every night - with fresh berries!


Italian Easter Bread (Pinza)

Having never made something before has never stopped me from 1) making it, and 2) serving it to a large gathering of people.  My thought process is the worst thing that can happen is it's inedible and I throw it away.  Since that really hasn't happened in 30 or so years, I don't worry about it.

And on that note, I started making Lidia's Easter Bread.  Her Pinza.

I love Lidia's cooking.  For the most part it is simple mixing of simple flavors to get anything-but-simple results. But every once in awhile she throws a curve-ball.  And the Pinza is one...

Reading through the recipe, I realize that this is going to be a process.  I didn't have the probably 12 hour stretch the bread needs to make, so I figured I'd break it up over a couple of days.  It worked, more or less (actually, the flavor of the bread came out fantastic!) but I do think that I 1) needed more yeast, and 2) really should have let it rise more.

The recipe calls for 4 ea 3/5 oz cakes of fresh yeast or 4 ea 1 oz packages of dry yeast.  Basic dry yeast comes in 1/4 oz packages and I haven't used fresh yeast in 45 years - since I worked at The Donut Center.  Having done a considerable amount of baking in my time, I thought that even using 4 packages of yeast for three loaves of bread was a lot.  I figured the 1 oz was a typo.  But I put in 4 packages, nonetheless.

So...  Friday after work I started the bread.  It doesn't take much work, but there is a lot of wait time.  At $3.50 a gallon for heating oil, our house is not exactly a baker's paradise.  It easily took 2 1/2 hours for the first risings.  I completed the next step - the 5 cups of flour, and then placed it in the fridge.  (It was late and I didn't want to leave it out overnight.  I probably should have...)

When I got home from work on Saturday, I took it out and started where I had left off.  Again, not the warmest place in town.  It took forever just to reach room temperature.  It sat out while we all colored eggs.

I finally got it formed into the three balls and late Saturday night and it went back into the fridge.  Early Sunday morning, it was back out, again.

I made the traditional cuts along the top and set it out to warm and rise.  I turned on the heat, I turned on the oven.  I set them in the sun. S-L-O-W-L-Y they were rising.  Very slowly.  They had not completely doubled in size when I had to get them in the oven.  We had to be at Steve and Marie's at 2.  It was 12:30pm.  The bread had been out for almost 6 hours.

They came out delicious!  Having never made them before, I still don't know exactly how they should have turned out, but I do think they should have been a bit lighter.  They were absolutely wonderful the way they were, but... I don't think they were quite right.  Folks raved about it and everyone was going back for more so I know it wasn't folks just taking a 'polite' piece - they really did like it!

I'm going to make it again one of these days - when I have the time to complete them start-to-finish in one day.

I'll let ya know how they come out!

Easter Bread

Lidia Matticchio Bastianich

  • 1 1/2 cups golden raisins
  • 1/2 cup dark rum
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup granulated sugar plus 2 tablespoons
  • Four 3/5-ounce cakes fresh yeast, crumbled (1/3 cup), or four 1-ounce packages instant dry yeast
  • 9 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, or as needed, sifted
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 6 large eggs yolks, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for the bowl of dough
  • 1/2 cup Vin Santo, Verduzzo, or other sweet white wine
  • Grated zest (yellow part only, without the underlying white pith) of 2 large lemons
  • Grated zest (orange part only, without the white pith) of 1 orange
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons water

Combine the raisins with the rum in a small bowl and toss to mix. Let soak, tossing occasionally, while preparing the bread.

In a medium-size saucepan, heat the milk over medium heat to lukewarm, about 100°F.

Pour the warmed milk into a large bowl and add 1/2 cup of the sugar and the yeast. Stir until they are dissolved. Add 1 cup of the flour and stir until the mixture is smooth.

Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm, draft-free place (such as on top of the refrigerator or in a gas oven with the pilot light on) until frothy. (If it doesn’t get frothy, that means the yeast is no longer active and you will have to start again with fresh yeast.)

Stir the dough with a fork to deflate it, then let it rise and froth two more times, stirring it down thoroughly and covering it again after each time. Depending on the environment, these three risings can take from 20 minutes to 45 minutes each.

In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip 2 of the whole eggs, 2 of the yolks, and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar together at medium speed until foamy and pale yellow.

Add 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of the butter, the wine, zests, salt, and vanilla. Beat until only small pieces of butter remain. Scrape the yeast mixture into the mixer bowl and beat until blended.  Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and reduce the speed to low.

Add 5 cups of the remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, beating until the mixture forms a sticky dough. Wait for each cup of flour to be incorporated before adding the next and stop the machine occasionally to scrape any unmixed ingredients from the sides and bottom of the bowl into the dough. The dough will be quite sticky; form it into a rough ball, clean the sides of the bowl, and cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.

Return the bowl of dough to the mixer fitted with the dough hook.

Mix the dough at medium-low speed until deflated. Add the remaining 4 egg yolks and 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter and beat until incorporated. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour — about 2 cups — to form a firm but slightly sticky dough, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape any unmixed ingredients from the bottom of the bowl into the dough. Add the raisins and rum and mix until incorporated. Dough will be quite wet and sticky at this point.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface.

Knead the dough, adding as much of the remaining 1 cup flour as necessary to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands and to the table, until the dough is smooth, soft, and only very slightly sticky if left to rest a minute.

Place the dough in a large lightly buttered bowl and turn the dough to butter all sides of it.

Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and set the dough to rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, 1/2 to 2 hours, depending on the environment.

Turn the risen dough out onto the floured work surface and knead until deflated.

Cut the dough into three equal pieces and knead each into a ball, gathering and pinching the seam side of the dough together to form as smooth a ball as possible. (These formed loaves can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated overnight.  Allow extra time for refrigerated loaves to rise in the following step.)

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place two loaves on one of the baking sheets, leaving as much space between them and the edges of the pan as possible. Place the third loaf in the center of the other baking sheet. With a pair of kitchen scissors, make three 1 1/2-inch-deep, 3-inch long intersecting cuts that meet at the center to form a six-pointed star pattern on the rounded top of each loaf. The cuts should be quite deep — at least halfway through the loaf — to allow the dough to rise up from the center and form the traditional crests on the loaf.

Cover the loaves lightly with kitchen towels and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Bake the bread for 35 minutes. Whisk the remaining whole egg with the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and the water until very smooth and the sugar is dissolved. Brush the pinze with this egg mixture, return them to the oven, and continue baking until very deep golden brown and a knife inserted into the center of the loaves comes out clean, about another 20 minutes.

Cool the pinze completely on a wire rack before slicing.


7th Annual Easter Egg Coloring and Pizza Party

Easter Egg Coloring

Another Gala Time was had by all - all of the adults!  The reality is we use the two kids as an excuse to get together and play like - kids.  Every year we seem to delve deeper and deeper into our inner creative child.  This year we went even further - glitter glue and hats, stickers and 3-D stuff I never knew existed (and now have a basket-full-of in the basement for next year!)

Way too much fun - and other than some seriously stained fingers, clean-up is a snap! :)

Easter Egg Coloring

Easter Egg Coloring


Pasta in 15 Minutes

Ravioli

Dinner tonight was a snap.  I had picked up some port0bello ravioli at work the other day and decided tonight was the night for 'em.  It's a bit wet and chilly outside.  Definitely a pasta night!

Set the water on to boil and chopped up 2 shallots, half a green pepper, a handful of mushrooms, and tossed them into a skillet with a bit of garlic and olive oil.  Cooked them down for a few minutes and then added 4 fairly small  yellow and orange tomatoes I had on the counter.  A bit of salt and pepper and a bit of Italian seasoning, and the sauce was ready.

I put the cooked ravioli into the pan with the sauce for a few minutes to finish them off and then onto the plate.  A shredding of fresh parmesan cheese finished it off.

Fresh food in 15 minutes, start to finish.  It doesn't get any better...


Beef Braised in Guinness

St Patrick's Day...  I have a few vague memories of the last time I actually went out on St Patrick's Day.  Well over 20 years ago, I was in San Francisco, had just opened up a Westin Hotel, and we had a banquet captain named Sean Hennigan who had just transferred there from Chicago.  I showed him how San Francisco celebrates the day - and night...  Somehow, we survived...

Fast forward to this weekend...

My cousin, Tom and his lovely wife Barb were in town from Omaha for a conference.  They had limited time because of 2 functions they had to attend.  After almost 6 years, my schedule had just changed a few weeks ago and I was now working Saturday. I did a quick “I need to leave early on Saturday” plea with work (no problem!!) and made plans to meet at 3:30 at an Irish Pub a few blocks from their hotel.

What we didn’t plan for was it being March 15th - 2 days before St Patrick’s Day.  Every college kid and their Italian roommate had put on their green and were packing the city’s three Irish bars.  So much for a quiet cocktail and conversation.  We ended up at the Bellevue (Park Hyatt) and spent a lot of money for quieter surroundings.  It was worth it!

St Paddy's Day was a fun one in my youth, but - let's face it - I ain't no youth, anymore.  Today, I'm more apt to want to enjoy a nice dinner than a noisy, crowded bar with beer being spilled on me.  Growing older is a good think...

So... we invited Victor's mom over and I made Beef Braised in Guinness.

Beef Braised in Guinness

We came up with this recipe years ago.  It's a great dish for parties, because it can be doubled, tripled, or quintupled with ease. It was definitely a huge hit when we had Pop's cousin's from Omaha over for St. Paddy's dinner years ago. They still talk about it!   I also brought it in to UCSF one year and it became a staple on the Moffitt Cafe menu for St Paddy's Day.  It's a refreshing change from Corned Beef and Cabbage!

Beef Braised in Guinness

  • 2 pounds beef steak, cut in pieces
  • 3 medium onions, sliced
  • 1 pound carrots, sliced into sticks
  • all-purpose flour
  • Salt and pepper
  • Garlic powder
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1 tbsp fresh basil, minced
  • 1 bottle Guinness
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 cup beef broth

Cut the meat into serving sizes. Pound them to tenderize and for a uniform thickness. Peel the onions and slice. Peel the carrots and slice them into sticks. Place the flour in a dish and mix in 1 tsp of salt, pepper, and a bit of garlic powder. Heat the butter in a sautè pan, add the onions and cook until soft. Transfer them to a large, shallow, greased ovenproof dish.

Dredge the pieces of meat in the seasoned flour and brown. Remove as they are cooked and place on top of the onions in a single layer. Arrange the carrots around them. Add a little more butter to the pan and stir in the seasoned flour to make a roux.

Cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly and scraping up all the browned bits then add the Guinness. Allow to boil for a minute or two, then add the basil, honey and the broth. Return to a boil and pour over the meat. Cover the dish and bake at 325° for 90 minutes.

I made up a pot of mashed potatoes and dinner was served.

Light-years away from those noisy bars, but somehow, even more satisfying...


Atlantic Spice Company

Atlantic Spice Company

My latest order just arrived!  YEAH!  I think I've said this before, but I've been dealing with Atlantic Spice since we moved back east in 2001.  Prior to that, I lived at their sister-store, San Francisco Herb Company.  I've been shopping there since the 1970's.  When we moved back here, I had to replenish all of our spices and went to the SF Herb website only to find a link for their "East Coast Customers."  I've never been disappointed.  Everything arrives within a few days, fresh,  and flavorful.

The Spice Cabinet Half the fun of cooking is mixing fabulous flavors, and my fabulous flavors start in our three-tiered spice cabinet.  A corner cabinet with three lazy susans all filled with herbs and spices, extracts and the like.  The picture doesn't even begin to give justice to it - it's chock full of stuff! Over 50 different herbs and spices.  The nice thing is I can look at just about any recipe at any time and know I have what I need to make it.  It's a great feeling!

The impetus for this particular order was Coconut.  They have great unsweetened coconut for a mere $2.65/lb.  (I bought 3 pounds!) And I was out of Turmeric ($3.15/lb.)  And Cinnamon...  I bought Vietnamese Cinnamon at $4.80/lb.  It is soooooo flavorful!  The stuff is like magic.  You'll never use McCormick's again!  And more Ancho chile powder, a pint of vanilla extract and a pound of their Ambrosia Tea blend.  It makes THE BEST Iced Tea!!!

Their spices are always fresh and inexpensive and the service great.  On my last order a couple of months ago, I forgot to order whole nutmegs and a simple email to them had the nutmeg included.  No muss, no fuss.

I highly recommend them.  Highly!


Potage Français D'Oignon

French Onion Soup

J'aime le potage!  Thin soups, thick soups, as a side, as a meal.  Serve me a bowl of homemade soup and I'm a happy boy.

I especially like soups because they're so easy to make and (depending upon the soup) use up all the bits and pieces of whatever I have left over or lying around the fridge or kitchen.  Just about anything goes.

Late this morning I was at the grocery store and saw a huge display of onions.  Big onions.  2 lbs for $3.00.  (Who would have ever thought THAT was inexpensive?!?)  So I bought about 8 pounds...

Onions for soup

I sliced them up, put a half pound of butter into the pot, added the onions, and let them slowly start cooking.  Slowly.  Slow is key to properly caramelized onions. I came back into the kitchen every 15 minutes or so, stirred the pot a bit and then went away.  They can't be rushed.

Onions caramalizing

After several hours, they started looking like this.  Almost there.   They had cooked down to about a third of their former volume.   Rich caramelized color, and the scent wafting through the house had me going crazy!  I knew it was going to be a good batch!

Soup’s On!

And I was right.  It was GREAT!


A Simple Sandwich

A Simple Sandwich

I can't believe how maligned bread has become.  I love bread in all its many guises - from crusty baguettes to focaccia, beer bread to soda bread, flat bread to Italian pane. Even squishy white bread has its place for a Thanksgiving turkey sandwich.

But... it seems folks just don't appreciate bread anymore.  Bread has somehow become evil.  It is responsible for weight-gain everywhere.  It is to be avoided at all cost - and then eaten only if it is whole wheat.  Then it's okay.  Granted, whole wheat bread has more nutrients, but if you're going to make a sandwich, your nutrients can come from your filling, and the bread can be something to compliment - not compete.  Bread itself is not evil.  And breads made with white flour can be extremely good.

Which brings me to tonight's dinner...

I had cooked a pork loin the other night and had a goodly amount left over.  I hadn't any real thought in mind when I cooked it - I just knew there would be leftovers and at least one meal I didn't have to think much about.  That was tonight.  Pork Sandwiches on Focaccia.

OMG!  I did good!

I sliced the focaccia in half and on the bottom I layered roasted red and yellow peppers and then topped with sliced pork loin.  I sauteed about 6oz of mushrooms with a small onion in roasted garlic butter that Victor had made a few days ago.  (Oven-roasted garlic cloves cooled and then mixed into slightly softened butter.  Use for everything!!)

They went onto the top half, topped with sliced yellow and orange tomatoes and then covered with sliced Iberico Cheese.  Onto a sheet pan and into the oven until everything was hot, and the cheese soft and gooey.

With the help of a big ol' spatula, I got the top half onto the bottom half, cut it into quarters, and Voila!  Dinner was served!

I had some curly fries in the freezer, and they were baked off and served on the side.

20 minutes start-to-finish.  And it was a mighty fine dinner.


Sunday Morning Breakfast

Sunday Breakfast

Breakfast is one of my most favorite meals because it can be just about anything.  It can be sweet, it can be savory...  it can be light and nutritious, it can be heavy and fat-laden.  Of course, my all-time favorite is the latter.

And the best breakfast of all is Sunday Breakfast.  There's just something about a big ol' breakfast on the day of rest that appeals to my inner-sloth.

For the past 6 years, I have worked on Sunday.  I made Sunday Breakfast at work for the crew while Victor was home.  Cooking Sunday Breakfast alone is just not as much fun.  Sunday Breakfast needs to be shared.  So imagine my delight when a schedule change happened and I found myself actually off on Sunday!  Hallelujah!  Now I get to cook Sunday Breakfast at home!

Have you ever noticed how many pans one needs to cook breakfast?  And what a huge mess it makes?  It's all coming back to me.....

The potato pan, the sausage pan, the egg pan...  The toast, the jam and jelly, the coffee...  It's unbelievable.  And timing!  It's almost as bad as trying to get Thanksgiving dinner on the table!   Totally crazy.   And I didn't even cook pancakes!

I know that we won't be able to keep up this sort of pace for long.  Once the nice weather arrives I'll be wanting lighter fare - and fresh fruits and yogurt and such on the back porch will be perfect.  But for now...   I'll indulge - and it's worth every calorie and gram of fat.

And I'm thinking that there's that recipe for Danish Pastry I haven't made in forever...


Fearless Flyer Dinner

Hors d’oeuvres

A hot plate and an easy bake oven.  That's what we have to work with. But with those primative tools, we pulled off a dinner for 68 people in the store!

What a blast!

A  little background...

Four or five times a year, the company sends out the Fearless Flyer loaded with scores of fun products being highlighted.  And four or five times a year we have put together a "Flyer Tasting" for the crew.  We take 40 or so items from the flyer, cook them up and have them available for the crew to taste.  It gives them an idea of what the products are so they can (hopefully, anyway) offer an intelligent opinion when asked by a customer.

The down-side to tasting so many items at once is they tend to blur after a while.   Which sauce did I like a lot?!? Do I even remember tasting that chicken?!?   It can get overwhelming, sometimes.

But not this time.  This time, we did a bit of a sit-down dinner.  Tables of 8, cloth napkins, china, and glassware.  Hors d'oeuvres passed by full-time staff...  A real dinner.  Cooked on a hot plate.

Getting it together

We started off with assorted cheeses, salmon pinwheels, curried chicken satays, crudite with dips, breads with tapenades... Silver trays, crystal bowls...

Dinner

On the table were bottles of S Pellegrino, Blu Italy, and red and white Ariel wines, garlic flatbreads and olive tapenade.  The guests were served salad - organic "A Salad to Remember" - a spring mix with pine nuts, feta, dried cherries and figs, and a pomegranate dressing.

The buffet tables were set up with  Beef Bourguignon, Scallops and Mushrooms in a white wine butter sauce, and vegetarian Beef Strip Stirfry with a Black Pepper Sauce,  Sweet Potato Frittes, Rice Pilaf, and White and Green Asparagus with Pistachios.

Dinner is served!

The dessert table included Chocolate Lava Cakes and Coffee and Chocolate Mousse.

Did I mention we did this with a hot plate and an easy-bake oven?!?

What a great time we had - and proof that you don't need a $100,000.00 kitchen to put out a great meal.  A hot plate and a good attitude will work just fine.  (Although i really wouldn't mind a real stove and a real oven.....)