Caesar the Day

Last week I had a craving for Caesar salad. It's funny, we have salad for dinner at least once a week, and I never think to make Caesar. I don't like most supermarket Caesar dressings. so that's probably why. Well, that, and the fact that romaine lettuce gets recalled about every 3 months for contamination. Don't get me started on that.

But anyway, I really wanted Caesar. So I made my own dressing. I posted a picture of the salad on Instagram and Facebook, and people started asking for the recipe. I'm sharing happily.

This recipe is one that I created way back when I had my restaurant. It uses raw egg yolks. I use very fresh eggs, (locally purchased when possible), so I never have worried about salmonella. If that freaks you out, I will give you a mayo based way to make it.

Caesar Dressing

1 or 2 anchovies (you can leave them out if they gross you out; I love them)
2 TB Dijon mustard
2 egg yolks
1 cup vegetable or blended oil (all olive oil will make it too rich)
1 TB lemon juice
1 TB red wine vinegar
3 shakes Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 TB minced fresh garlic
1/4 cup warm water
ground black pepper

This is best done in a food processor. A blender will make it too thick.

In your food processor, puree together the anchovy, garlic, mustard, egg yolks and Worcestershire. While the machine is running, slowly stream in the oil, then add the lemon juice, vinegar and cheese.
Season with the black pepper. Add water to get your desired consistency. I like a little bit thinner dressing, but if you like it thicker, you can leave the water out entirely.

 You can do it by hand, but you'll get quite a workout. You have to finely chop the garlic and anchovy into a paste, then put into a bowl with the mustard, egg yolks and Worcestershire. Whisk until the egg starts to get thick, then stream the oil in slowly, whisking constantly. Add the rest of the ingredients.

If raw egg gives you the heebie jeebies, then start with mayonnaise. Puree the garlic and anchovy, and whisk that, along with the mustard, lemon juice, Worcestershire and cheese. You don't need vinegar, because most mayo has enough in it already.

As for the salad, well, beyond using either romaine or kale, you can add whatever you want. Remember my friends,
FOOD HAPPENS

A Risotto for Living

YES, I know it's supposed to be soup week, but I posted a picture on Instagram of my dinner the other night, and I promised that I'd post the recipe. For those of you who missed it, here you go:

Asparagus and Sundried Tomato Risotto topped with Scampi. Oh yummmmm...

Yes, it was as good as it looked. 

It's really easy to make, but you do need some patience. Risotto requires attention. To make a really creamy risotto, without turning it to mush, you need to add the hot broth in batches, and stir almost constantly to release the gluten and give it that wonderful consistency. As for the shrimp, well, that was just a quick sauté, then put over top the riso. 

Risotto for 2:

2 TB olive oil

about 1/3 cup finely diced onion or shallot

1/4 c. diced sun dried tomatoes

1 c. arborio rice

1/3 c. sliced asparagus

1/3 c. white wine 

4 c. vegetable, seafood or chicken stock, kept warm

salt and fresh black pepper

a big old handful of fresh grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan, then add onion. Cook over low to medium heat, until onions are soft, but not brown, then add the sundried tomatoes. Add rice and stir to coat the grains with oil. When you hear it start to sizzle, add the wine, and stir until the wine has been absorbed. Add enough warm stock just to cover the rice, then stir almost constantly, allowing the rice to fully absorb the liquid before adding more. When the rice is just starting to get tender, add the asparagus pieces and keep stirring. 

I wish I could tell you exactly how long it takes, but it's different for everyone, depending on the temperature of their burner, type of pan, etc. Just keep going until the rice is almost fully cooked through. 

When finished, season with salt and pepper, add the cheese and stir.

Scampi:

6-8 shrimp per person, depending on the size you get

2 TB olive oil

1 tsp. minced garlic

salt and pepper

fresh or dried thyme

fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 lemon

If you have bought shrimp with shells still on, peel and devein. You can use the shells to add flavor to your stock for the risotto. 

Heat the oil in a pan, then add garlic, and swirl the pan constantly until the garlic just starts to brown. Add the shrimp and the dried thyme. Stir around until the shrimp are cooked through, then squeeze the lemon over the shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Add the parsley at the very end. 

Place the risotto in the center of a plate or shallow bowl, then put the shrimp on top, and pour any pan juices over the shrimp. 

Voila!

Ok, gang, back to soup tomorrow. 

Loveyoumeanitbyenow

It's Soup Week!

If you're like me these days, you're not going to the store all that often, which means that you are buying a whole lot of whatever is actually available that day. And, possibly, not being able to use it up before it starts to smell a bit funky. The last thing you need right now is for your precious food stash to go bad. I'm here today with a way to solve some of that. 

Make soup. 

I know it's getting warmer out, but there is never a bad time for soup. Especially today. I'm looking out at the wind and the rain, and even though it's not cold, I want to make and eat soup. 

In these uncertain times, soup can be a comfort. So here's my plan. I'm going to start with some basics; recipes for stocks, and a simple soup. Then, every day for the rest of the week, I will post another soup recipe. All of them can be made with what you probably have on hand, or you may have to get one or two ingredients. 

Let's get started, shall we?

Chicken Stock

Yes, I know you can buy it in a box, a can, a concentrate, or whatever, but homemade chicken stock when done correctly, is a wonderful thing. And it makes your house smell fantastic. It's great to have some bones from the grocery store (backs or necks) because they have more collagen, which gives you that nice body. But, if you just get a whole chicken from the store (or have parts) when you are finished, you can pull the chicken meat off the bone and use for soup, salad, or your give to your fur baby who will then love you forever. 

2 pounds of chicken bones, or 1 frying chicken

2 onions, peeled and quartered

2 carrots, washed and cut into chunks

2 celery stalks, washed and cut into chunks (leaves and all)

1 bay leaf

a couple of whole black peppercorns

a splash of lemon juice or white wine or vinegar (this helps the collagen in the bones break down)

COLD water to cover by 4 inches or so

Put all of the ingredients into a stock pot and bring to a boil This is where you have to keep an eye (or nose) out. When you see or smell the stock come to a boil, reduce the heat immediately to a simmer, and skim the brown funky stuff that forms on the top. (The technical name for this is scum. Seriously. The French even have an actual verb for this action: Ecumer-to skim the scum)

Let the pot simmer for about an hour or so. The reason you don't want it to boil too long is that if it does, the fat will distribute into the water, rather than rising to the top, and you will have cloudy, fatty stock. Blech. 

Strain the stock, and allow to cool. Remove any fat that rises and hardens. 

Vegetable Stock

There really is no recipe for vegetable stock. It depends on what you have on hand, which flavor you would like to be predominant, whether you roast the veggies before you simmer them...it all tastes great. I always start with the basics: onion, carrot and celery, then add whatever else I have around- zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms, asparagus stems, etc. If I happen to have been doing a good bit of cooking, I save the ends of things in a bucket in the fridge to use for stock. 

There is only one rule. Don't use peelings from carrots or potatoes. They tend to make stock bitter. The French have a saying which basically translates into: "Garbage in your stock makes your stock taste like garbage."

Vegetable stock is a great, cheap and vegetarian way to make just about anything requiring cooking liquid. It has no fat, no added salt and is so good, you can even drink a mug of it like tea!

Now, as promised, a nice easy soup recipe. This particular gem is called "Cream of Green"

Why, you may ask, do I call this soup Cream of Green? Well, it saves time and space. Rather than trying to give you a recipe for broccoli soup, spinach soup, zucchini soup etc. I give you the basic formula and let you pick the green. And it doesn't always have to be green. You can use cauliflower or carrots, or squash.

You just have to adjust the cooking time to how fibrous the vegetable is. For example, broccoli stems will take a lot longer to soften than spinach, which will just wilt in. You'll understand in a minute. The other nice thing about this soup is that if you don't want to add the cream or milk, you can use nut milk, or just leave it out altogether. You can also adjust the amount of flour. Broccoli, cauliflower or carrot soup doesn't really need flour, but spinach soup does, or it will be too watery. If you are gluten intolerant, you can use a corn starch slurry at the end.

Cream of Green

1 large onion, peeled and diced

4 oz. butter

4 oz. flour (or gluten free flour)

1 gallon vegetable stock, or chicken stock, or even tap stock (that's water, lol) COLD

2 heads of broccoli

salt and pepper to taste

pinch of nutmeg

cream, or unsweetened, unflavored nut milk

Separate broccoli florets from stems and set aside. Lightly peel stems with a paring knife or veg peeler, and cut into 1 inch chunks.

In a heavy bottom pot, melt the butter and add onion. Cook over low/medium heat until the onion is soft, then add flour and stir until well combined. Slowly add the COLD liquid, stirring to keep chunks from forming. Add broccoli stems and bring to a boil. Keep at a low boil, stirring often, until the stems begin to soften. Add florets and cook until they are just getting soft. 

Remove from the heat, and process in a blender or use an immersion blender, until smooth. If you are using the blender, don't overfill it, or hot liquid will fly out and burn you. Trust me on this.

Place all the blended soup in a container, then season. Add desired creamy product here. 

OH, THIS IS ALSO THE POINT WHERE YOU CAN ADD A BIG OL' HANDFUL OF CHEDDAR CHEESE, FOR BROCCOLI CHEDDAR SOUP. Just sayin.

Note:

Why did we cook the stems and florets separately? Well, the stems take longer to cook, give the soup most of the body and flavor, but will turn a little grey. By adding the quicker cooking florets at the end, you guarantee you will have a nice, bright green soup. 

So ends today's lesson. I'm going to go see what's lurking in the crisper drawer now and make some soup. Hope you make some, too. 

Let's make every day Stop Food Waste Day. Especially now. 

See you tomorrow.

The Cauliflower is in Bloom

Have you been wondering where I've been for the past week or so? No? Wow, I thought you loved me. 

The thing is, I got furloughed from my job. I took a week of PTO, which gave me lots of time to cook and then talk about it. I really did intend on doing something every day. But then, I got picked up in the corporate labor pool. I'm working, which is a good thing. Pays the bills and all that. But it drastically cuts into my cooking and blogging time. By the time I get home, work out, shower, change, make dinner, and watch the obligatory one hour of M*A*S*H reruns, I'm beat. 

But no more. I made a commitment to keep posting, so I will. 

I've realized that I need to stop going shopping for a couple of weeks, since this is supposed to be the worst time for the virus where I live, so I'm going to work with what I have in the house. And when I get to go back out to the store again, I'm going to start being a little more frugal about what I buy. Times is hard and all that. 

So, it's time to eat cauliflower again. Last time, when I made the Buffalo cauli, my friend Nikki asked me for an Asian version. I'm basically treating the cauliflower like chicken wings, so I will most likely do pretty much every flavor you would find at your local BWW. 

I used the same batter as last time, except I added a tiny little bit of sesame oil, and cut out the smoked paprika. 

I found a recipe in my old binder, from when I had State Street Cafe, that I made up for chicken wings, and used it.

1/4 c. soy sauce

1 TB honey

1 TB sweet chili sauce

1/4 c. hoisin sauce

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 tsp. minced ginger (full disclosure: there was no ginger at my local market, so I got the stuff in a tube and it worked great)

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp. chili oil

toasted sesame seeds

Combine all ingredients, except sesame seeds, in a bowl. When cauliflower is finished in the oven, place in bowl and toss to coat. Plate and garnish with sesame seeds. 

That is a soba noodle salad with cucumbers, scallion, peppers and ginger-apple dressing. 

It was all yummy. 

Tune in again soon. There will be more. I promise. Meantime, hang in there. And try to eat healthy, at least until dessert!

Cod Help Us

First of all, let me say how inconvenient it is that my local fish store can't be open, so I have to resort to the fish sold at the supermarket. I realize this is a total first world problem, but what can I say? I am fortunate enough to be able to pay the price for fresh, line caught fish, or high quality farmed fish. For those of you who don't have this opportunity, I want to explain the two reasons why I, whenever possible, buy non-farmed (or at least not from certain countries' farms) fish. Both reasons actually overlap. Because many farmed fish are kept in tight quarters and are fed mostly a corn based diet, they have very little taste, and much less nutritive value (having been fed corn). For example, you could probably eat a piece of cardboard and get about the same nutrients as if you ate a piece of farmed tilapia. Uh oh, I'm digressing. Moving on now.

Anyway, there I was with my piece of shrink-wrapped, previously frozen, supermarket cod.
I had bought some tasty cherry tomatoes, and a ball of fresh mozzarella, so was planning on some sort of Caprese thing. But I had no basil. So I thought, well hell, I'll add some baby arugula (I always seem to have this in my fridge). I was planning on putting this over some black beans with pickled onions. (I'm trying to not eat too much pasta, or it would have been orzo or something like that)
But wait. I had an avocado that was going funky. Better use that, too. So in it went. Well, at this point, why not just combine the whole thing? So I did.
Well now, we have somehow gone from Italian to Southwest, so I added some cumin, sea salt, pepper, olive oil and lime juice. Looked like this:

 Ok, now I had to season the fish. I have this chili-lime stuff that I bought from Aldi. I will not start talking about the virtues of Aldi at this point, or we will never get done. What I will say, is that this stuff has no artificial ingredients.

I sprinkled a little olive oil over this, and broiled it. So many ways I could have cooked it; pan-seared, in a foil packet, roasted-but this was the easiest at the time. Did you pick up on what I just told you?
You don't have to cook it the same way as I did. How 'bout dem apples?
Here's the finished product. If I had thought ahead, I might have made a lime crema or chipotle aioli to drizzle over it. Then, BOY, would it have looked impressive!

It was yummy, even without the drizzle.
Let's review: what began as an Italian style dish, morphed into a Southwestern dish. What happened?
FOOD. FOOD HAPPENS.
Happy eating. Stay safe, y'all.

Miso Bored

You know when you stare at everything you have in the fridge, and nothing appeals to you? You know, you're hungry, but overcome with ambivalence? Yeah, that's me today. 

So I pulled out the miso paste from the back of the fridge. When everything around you is yucky, miso soup makes you feel better. I don't know why, but it does. I wanted to make it filling, so I grabbed some stuff from the pantry and the fridge. Here's what I came up with:

Dried shiitakes, broccoli slaw, scallions, a ramen pack, miso, and kombu powder. Kombu is edible kelp, used to make a broth called dashi, which adds a little extra umami flavor to things, especially miso soup. Someone once gave me this powder. You can buy sheets of kombu at the Asian market. 

Dried shiitakes are awesome. They have a nuclear shelf life, if you keep them dry. You have to soak them in hot water, so I put them in a small pot and heated water to soften. When they got soft, I removed the mushrooms and strained the liquid into another pot through cheesecloth (if you don't have cheesecloth, use a fine strainer). The water takes on a mushroomy goodness so it became the base of the soup.

You have to remove the stems from shiitakes, whether you are using fresh or dried. They're too tough to eat. Once they were off, I cut the caps into a fine julienne. 

In another pot, I boiled water to cook the ramen noodles. Before opening the package, I broke the noodles into quarters, so they wouldn't be too long once cooked. As for the flavoring packet? The only place for that is the trash can. Ever read what's in that stuff? Sodium, monosodium glutamate, and all kinds of other scary stuff. It's like 2 days worth of salt in one little package. Bleah. 

Once the noodles were about halfway cooked, i grabbed a handful of the broccoli slaw and threw it in the pot. It only took about another minute, then I poured it into a strainer. The slaw stayed a bit crunchy, but was cooked. I put that into the bottom of a deep bowl. 

In the mushroom water, I added about 2 Tbsp. of miso paste, 1 tsp. of the kombu powder, the shiitake slivers and whisked it together. You have to adjust miso to your own taste. Sometimes, you have to add more. 

When I reached the desired flavor, I poured it all over the noodle/slaw mixture and garnished with scallions. 

And here is a great place to use that chili garlic sauce I told you about!

Voila! Lunch! Not too filling, but really satisfying. See, I told you if you keep some staples in the house, you'll always be able to make something great. 

See you tomorrow. I'm off to the Nordic Track machine to continue my climb of Mt. Fuji!

Building Blocks

As promised, here we go on our culinary adventure. I am not going to rewrite the introduction to the book word for word. What I do want to start with is to give you a list of what I consider the essential ingredients to have in your house. They are the building blocks of just about anything you could think of making. In the world without Covid-19, these would all be pretty easy to find at any grocery store.
The fact that I went to the store yesterday and couldn't find any SALT is insane. I realize we are
keeping clean, but are we supposed to be KOSHERING everything in sight? Oy vey...

I'm going to break this into a few categories. Let's start with the refrigerator.

• Butter- you can keep in the freezer if you don't use often. Two kinds: unsalted (for baking) and salted. I think I've mentioned I'm a huge fan of Kerrygold Irish butter. I can eat that stuff like brie. 
• Dijon mustard
• Grainy mustard
• Hoisin sauce
• Capers
• Olives (black, green, all kinds)
• Ketchup (Heinz)
• Lemons and Limes
• Vinaigrette type dressings and Ranch dressing 
• Mayo (I've recently discovered Duke's)
• Miso paste
• Tamarind paste
• Eggs (farm eggs if possible. Or at least free range. Cage free? Nope)
• Some kind of teriyaki marinade (I have Trader Joe's)
• Salsa
• Italian tomato paste (it comes in a tube)
• Anchovy paste (adds umami to certain things, trust me)

Here's a lovely picture of the door of my fridge. You may notice other essentials like Bloody Mary Mix, white wine and Prosecco..

I Put That S#*t On Everything!

I do love me some Buffalo sauce. Back in my carnivore days, Buffalo Wings were one of my favorite football day snacks. But now, I don't eat meat. I mean, every ONCE in a blue moon I will have a bite of chicken or beef if it is locally farm raised, but I don't really crave meat at all anymore.

I do, however, still love Buffalo sauce. So, when the geniuses who decided cauliflower was a good substitute for absolutely ANYTHING came up with coating cauliflower in batter, baking it and tossing it in Buffalo sauce just like wings, I said, "Jen, you've got to try making this."
There are a bunch of recipes out there where you just bake the florets and then toss them in the sauce, but I really wanted some kind of coating, because, if you have ever roasted cauliflower, you know it doesn't get crispy, it gets mushy and falls apart. So I found a recipe and changed it a bit. Holy cow was it good!

I wish I had thought of photographing the entire process, but as we go on with the other recipes, I will. Meantime, this recipe is very easy to follow.

Grab a head of cauliflower and cut it into bite-sized, but not too small, florets. Mine were basically two-bite size. Preheat the oven to 450, and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

In a bowl, combine the following:

1 cup unbleached white flour
1 tsp. paprika (I used sweet smoked paprika for a little smoky goodness)
1 tsp. garlic powder or granulated garlic
1 tsp. kosher salt or sea salt
a couple grinds of fresh black pepper
1 cup unflavored oatmilk (yes, you can use moo-cow milk, but I like the consistency of oatmilk. Plus, I don't drink cow juice)

Whisk well until you get a smooth consistency. 
Add the cauliflower florets to the batter, and coat well using tongs. Place on the lined sheet pan, leaving room between pieces. Bake for 10 minutes, flip with a spatula, and then bake for 10 more.
While it's cooking, wash and dry the batter bowl.

In a glass bowl or measuring cup, combine:
1/4 cup hot sauce (Frank's. It's simply the best for this.)
1-2 Tb. butter (everything's better with butter. I am obsessed with Kerrygold)
1 Tb. honey

Microwave 30-45 seconds, then whisk to combine. Put the sauce into the clean bowl.
When the cauliflower is finished, add it to the bowl and toss to evenly coat.

I don't usually buy blue cheese dressing, so I mixed Gorgonzola crumbles into ranch dressing and used that. No regrets on that choice! It was crispy, hot, and delicious!

Make it. Take a picture. Post to Food Happens. And enjoy, even though there's no sports to watch while eating.

Quarantine Cuisine

I guess it's time for me to sit back down at the keyboard and start blogging again, huh? I mean, I really have no excuse anymore, do I?

How have you all been holding up? I have officially been "furloughed" as of today, so I will be posting pretty much everything I make. I managed to load up on as much fresh ingredients that would fit in the fridge. When that runs out, I will start digging way back into the pantry to see what's been lost back there.

Before I move on to the recipes and pictures, let me pause for a moment and say that I actually wrote an entire cookbook (never published) that would be perfect for this situation. The principle behind the book (and my whole theory of creating great food whenever you want) is to have a supply of certain things in your larder and freezer that are the building blocks. In a normal world, you would buy the fresh produce and meat/fish/poultry as needed. Or have the meats stocked up in your freezer, and just pick up the veggies. Since we are in the Upside Down these days, things are considerably more difficult. But we shall overcome.

So here's the deal. I am going to post entries from the never-seen-the-light-of-day cookbook on here every day. Then, what I'd really like is for all of you to make some of the recipes, and post pictures of them on my Food Happens Facebook page. Let's make this a family thing.

Tomater Dei

I wait all year for tomatoes. Real tomatoes. From PA, Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. Red, ripe, juicy and delicious. I feel sorry for those of you that have never experienced the glory of one of these beauties. From the fancy trappings of a Caprese salad, with fresh basil and locally made fresh mozzarella, to the simple perfection of a tomato sandwich, the bread of your choice, a light smear of mayo, big slices of tomato and salt. Ahhhh…

If you grow your own maters, you know that quite often you are faced with some big green ones. Yes, you can wait for them to ripen, but why not pick them now, and make yourself a special treat-

Fried Green Tomatoes. Yes, they are real, not just the title of a movie. And you don't have to go down south to have them. Although you can't find green tomatoes at the supermarket, you can ask for them at your local farm market or stand. (or your neighbor's garden)

Fried Green Tomatoes are easy to make, but do require some prep time. Wash them, then slice them. Not too thinly, though, or they will turn to mush when you cook them.
Then you need to set up what we in the business call the dredging station. Flour, egg, crumb. I use King Arthur Flour, but that's a story for another day, another post. I don't season my flour. I season the egg. I use sea salt, pepper and chopped basil in my egg mix. When you bite into the tomato, you get that little surprise of basil flavor. The bread crumbs are just plain. No seasoned, and no Panko crumbs here. Here's what the setup looks like:

Now here's the big secret about dredging: Use one hand for the wet, and one for the dry. So, here's how I do it. I pick up a tomato slice with my left hand and put it into the flour. With my right hand, I sprinkle some flour on the top, then flip it over so both sides are coated with flour. I pick it up with my right hand, then place it into the egg mix, being careful not to get my fingers in the egg. Using my left hand now, I flip the slice to coat it with egg, then pick it up and place it into the crumbs, again, attempting to not get crumbs onto my eggy fingers. Right hand now- put some crumbs on the top, then flip it over to get all coated with crumb, then gently put onto a waiting tray or plate. If you're lucky, you can get all of your tomatoes breaded without forgetting which hand is wet, and which is dry. Yeah, good luck with that. Most likely, you'll have goop stuck to both hands. It's all good. No judgement here. Remember, it's just food.

Now, it's time to fry. And by that, I mean pan fry, not deep fry. If you have a cast iron pan, now's the time to break that sucker out. They heat so evenly. They're wonderful. Unfortunately, mine is not big enough for this task. I would be frying for hours, so I used my super duper nothing sticks to me I got it on the internet pan. I use grapeseed oil to fry. It heats nicely, and has no taste. You can use an olive oil if you want, but not extra virgin. It will smoke if you get it too hot and turn bitter on you. Save it for drizzling over the tomatoes when they're done, if you want the flavor. As for canola oil, well, read my post about that. Blechhhh.

Let them get nice and brown and crispy. If you are making a bunch of them, you can reheat them right before you serve. But not for too long. You want them to stay a little crunchy on the inside.

As for serving them, well, there are myriad ways. You can do a mayo/aioli type sauce, a drizzle of good olive oil and aged balsamic, or pretty much anything else. I had some really nice, locally made fresh mozz in the fridge, so I sliced it and layered it between the tomatoes, then drizzled with some homemade pesto. It could have been a meal in itself, but I used them as a side for our Beyond burgers. I think I'll write about them next...

Don't let tomato season pass you by without trying Fried Green Tomatoes. Have I steered you wrong yet?

Until next time-enjoy summer. Corn, tomatoes, fresh produce. MMMMM...

Cope with This

Any of you ever seen this stuff before? My guess is no. But if you have, yay for you!

This, my friends, is Cope's Corn. It comes two ways: canned (rehydrated) or bagged (see above).

I was introduced to this corny wonder by my first boss, who, incidentally, looks a bit like the dude on the bag. (Tracey, you know who I'm talking about!)

Ok, ok, I'll explain it to you now. As the bag says, this is toasted dried sweet corn. It tastes different than any other corn you have ever eaten. This is Lancaster County, PA corn. At the moment it hits the height of its sugar content, it is picked and then immediately dried. Those sugars caramelize in the heat, and that is what gives it the unique brown color you'll see. Once you reconstitute the kernels, the corn has a nutty, sweet flavor. 

The Cope's Corn Company was founded by Martin Cope in Manheim, PA (near Lancaster) in 1900, when the first batch of corn was dried over a coal burning stove. Martin named the product for his grandson, John. For over 100 years, the company stayed in the family, but in 2006, was sold to Hanover Foods. 

Cope's Corn, for those who love it, is a family tradition for holiday meals, especially Thanksgiving. Brand loyalty is easy-they are the only game in town! Most of the traditional recipes are for corn puddings, creamed, baked and stewed corn. It can also be reconstituted and used in cornbread.

When I had my restaurant, State Street Café, back in the '90's, I knew I wanted to do something with this sweet, toasted wonder, but not the usual side dish. So I soaked it, then cooked it with vegetable stock, thyme sprigs and shallots, removed the aromatics, pureed slightly and finished with a little butter to make a sweet corn sauce. I served this under my famous (well, in certain circles they are, and that's only because YOU haven't tried them yet) Crab Cakes. 

Mmmm….I can taste it now....

You  can find Cope's Corn in most supermarkets in PA, but it's also available online from various retailers. If you are a corn lover, give it a try. I promise, it will be like no corn you've ever had. 

Enjoy, and let me know what you think. Until next time...

Penne For Your Thoughts

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between the pasta on the market shelf that costs $1.00 and the one that costs $3.00? Oh go ahead, say it, you know you want to. Duh, Jen...price.
Well, yes, my little Mensa friends, but WHY does one pasta cost significantly more than the other?
Is it the packaging? The name brand? The number of curlicues per square foot?

It's two things, actually: the wheat used to make the flour, and the machinery on which it is cut. Let's look at both of these factors individually.


Every heard of Durum wheat? It's what's called a "hard" wheat, which means it contains more proteins than soft wheat, especially gluten. When ground, durum wheat becomes semolina, and durum flour, the only two dry ingredients used in Italian pasta. Semolina flour helps the pasta stay firm when cooked, and is also higher in protein than all-purpose flour.

Good flour and pure, clean water. These are the first two ingredients to high quality pasta.

Now, let's talk about cutting this good quality pasta dough. Pasta is cut by machine, using "die".
Remember that Play-Doh set with the extruder? You could change the plates and make different shapes. Well, pasta machines do pretty much the same thing. Each die produces a different shape, when the pasta dough is pushed through them. As the shape comes out, a blade spins and cuts the noodle at the desired length. Long cuts, like spaghetti or linguini, are great for olive oil based sauces, or full-bodied tomato sauces. Short cuts, like penne, rotini, or farfalle, are better for chunky ragus or vegetable sauces. The last group are the soup cuts. These are the little guys, like ditalini, or acini di pepe. They go best in soup, or as a side dish.

So now, we've got the good pasta dough, and the machine with the die. But wait, there's more. There are two types of die; those that are made with a Teflon coating, and those that are made of bronze. And here, dear readers, is where the main difference in quality comes in.

Teflon, as we all know, is a nonstick surface. When die are coated with Teflon, the pasta dough slides through quickly, easily, and cleanly, which makes it ideal to produce massive amounts of macaroni in less time. However, because it slides through so easily, the surface of the noodle is smooth. Now, that looks nice, but when the pasta is cooked and tossed with sauce, the sauce won't cling to the noodle. It just slides off. (This is where you conjure up memories of the spaghetti you had in the school cafeteria when you were a kid.) Are you now saying to yourself "wow, now I know why I can't get the sauce to cling to my pasta?" Good for you!

Now, pasta that is pushed through the bronze die takes more time to produce, since it has to go through more slowly than if it was passing through the Teflon. Going through bronze leaves a rough surface on the noodle. When cooked, these little nicks on the surface hold the sauce onto the pasta.
Voila!

Oh...you thought I was finished with the story? NOPE. One more piece to the puzzle. THEN I'll stop talking.

Let's review: Quality ingredients=better pasta. Teflon=slippery noodle. Bronze=rough surface, holds sauce. Got that so far?

 The last, but not least, important factor to quality pasta is how the noodle is dried after it is produced. Most of the mass produced, Teflon extruded, lower quality pasta is dried quickly, at hotter temperatures, usually between 140-190 degrees. At 140, the starch molecules open, and you get what is called the "Maillard Reaction". This is a culinary term for the chemical reaction that happens when food begins to brown or toast. This is why the cheaper pasta often looks more yellow.  This  makes it attractive to the eye, but, when cooked. loses flavor, and because some of the original water is left in the noodle, overcooks more easily. (Again, cafeteria spaghetti)

Bronze cut pasta is more likely to be slow dried, at temperatures closer to 104 degrees. This takes much longer, up to 30 hours, but the pasta retains more of the nutty flavor and aroma of the durum wheat. It's also much lighter in color than the quick dried stuff, but it makes it much harder to overcook. If properly cooked (al dente), you will get a tiny white spot, right at the center of the noodle, which is sometimes called the "white ghost". The pasta remains firm, the sauce clings to the surface, and all is right with the world.

Let's tie this whole thing up, shall we? Seems like an awful lot of talking about macaroni!

Good pasta begins with quality ingredients, is pushed through bronze die, and is dried slowly. Ergo, it tends to cost more. Have you tried any? It's totally worth it. Give it a go sometime.

Thanks for your time. Hope you learned something useful. I mean, that's what I strive for here on these pages. I'm going to get back into posting more often. It feels good to write again.

Now go get some good pasta and get cooking!

New Beginnings

Hi. Been awhile, I know. I've been busy, ok??
Sorry. Lousy excuse. I spent a large portion of my unemployed period doing..I have no idea what I was doing. Lisa got me started walking dogs with her, and I liked it. I got a job. It was very corporate, and I didn't like that. So I tendered my resignation, and decided to become a full time employee at Animal House. I walk dogs, scoop poop, feed dogs and cats, and otherwise perform tasks that were never part of either my studies at Georgetown or my culinary training.

But you know what? I am tan, getting fit, and really, really HAPPY. Yes, there are days when we have too many dogs sleeping over (last night we had 9) and some have accidents in the house, but we realize that we are doing something that makes us, the pets, and their owners happy. So we slop up the mess and move on. It's really hard to stay angry at dogs. They are all cute and wonderful.

What's that you say? Am I still cooking at all? Well, YEAH. I am doing a couple of things to keep my cooking chops up. The first thing is that I am doing some parties with a guy I met through Facebook named Paul Cullen. He lives down near the beach in Delaware. Used to be in the band Bad Co. playing bass. Nowadays, he's got an Italian food and wine business, where he comes to you house, creates a three course meal, matches wines, and then sets up his amp and entertains with his guitar while you enjoy your wine. I get to help him in the kitchen. (he doesn't let me sing with him, which is probably a wise choice.) We work very well together, and I am really enjoying when I get to do gigs with him. Hopefully, there will be many more in my future!
Here we are, making some beautiful food:

I'm still planning on teaching at Montco in the fall, too. You all know I love to teach.

Then...Lisa and I got this great idea. What if we offer a service to our pet clients where we have meals ready for them when they get home from vacation, or the work trip? I can shop, cook, and package everything, so no one has to worry about cooking when they finally get home. Great idea, huh?

I am also going to start doing some cooking class/parties. Grab a few of your friends, a couple bottles of wine, and I will come to the house, teach you how to make some awesome grub, and provide recipes. It's a really fun way to spend time with your friends. It can be dinner, or lunch, or whenever. 

I'm working on my website, which will link this blog, my Facebook page, and the site all together. It will have all the information you need to keep up with me, book a party, order some food, or just see some beautiful food pics and find some recipes. I will make a big announcement when it's ready to go. 

Look for another post very soon. I'm going to do some cooking this week, so hopefully there will be something good to talk about. Thanks for sticking with me. Great things on the horizon!

Go buy some tomatoes, some corn, some local produce before it's too late. Shop local, eat local, kiss a farmer and all that. 

Namaste, my friends.

Using my Noodle

Big snowstorm coming. Everyone puts on a pot of chili. They also go and buy up all the bread, milk and eggs, as if these will magically disappear, and they must eat French Toast before they surely freeze to death. But I digress. Back to the chili. The chili I didn't make.

In an attempt to amuse myself while barely surviving this period of unemployment, I spent some time wandering the aisles of one of my favorite places to kill time, Assi Market. This is a Korean market that also specializes in amazing fresh produce, fresh, AFFORDABLE cut to order seafood, and about every Asian grocery item you could imagine. There is also a spot that sells small wares, in case you decide you suddenly need a set of matching chopsticks or a rice cooker. AND they have a food court, with, as you can imagine, some of the freshest food around.

Back to the snowstorm. I didn't want to make chili. I wanted to keep it lighter, and do something new.
So I bought a sixpack of ramen noodles, some dried shiitake mushrooms, a pack of fried tofu, and bean sprouts. I had miso in my fridge, and plenty of other seasonings at home. I also had some wild salmon filets in the freezer. See the plan coming together yet?

When cooking with ramen noodles, always follow this important step 1. Open the wrapper, break the noodle block into pieces before cooking, and THROW AWAY THE SEASONING PACKET. Have you ever looked at the sodium count? Yikes!

Let's see if I can remember the steps in order...
Cook the ramen in boiling water until soft, drain, rinse in cold water and set aside.

Soak the mushrooms in hot water until soft. Remove the stem and slice into strips. Or whatever other shape you fancy. Don't throw that soaking liquid away! Pour it through a coffee filter (to grab any dirt that may have been on the mushroom) into a small sauce pot. Use this as the base of the miso broth.

Miso is really easy. Since I had the mushroom liquid, I added a bit of water and whisked in some miso paste until I like the flavor.

Salmon filets have been thawing. I marinated them in a little sesame oil and soy. Then I broiled them. (heading outside the grill is not an option at this time)
I diced to tofu small, and rinsed off the bean sprouts. I blanched a couple asparagus spears I had.

Then I put it all together. The salmon was topped with a shake of my sesame/seaweed rice seasoning, and I swirled a bit of Sambal Oelek into the broth for a little heat.

No disrespect to chili, but geez, this was good. And easy. And not expensive. And pretty. And..ok I'll stop tooting my horn and post a picture.

Next time I'll show you the awesome Indian food I made last night.

Peace.