Out of the Frying Pan

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The range having at last arrived today, the kitchen's Inaugural Dinner has been served. I do things a little differently from Alton Brown, but his recipe is good for the gist of it.

Hello, October

After dinner I asked DC, "Don't you wish you were you?" He's glad he is, he said. Me, too.

Saying "adieu" to September "à deux"

My kitchen: two hits and a miss

Starting the day with Br Lawrence and my Tiffany mug

This might happen if one bakes pizza without setting the timer and then decides to go into one's office.

But then again, a tortilleria in the neighborhood can rescue almost any dinner plan: quesadillas made with the still-warm corn tortillas, Rocky Ford cantaloupe, and Whole Foods cabbage crunch.

Christopher Kimball's blog

There are a couple of deletions to the Sundry sidebar (for instance, in what appears to be a permanent fbfw retrospective, I understand why I liked it when it launched almost 30 years ago).

But there's a notable addition: a link to Christopher Kimball's blog. The entries are relatively infrequent, but for me the photos and recipes make this one to follow. (Don't know who this guy is? Check out a Slate article.)

A day in Denver

Actuaries who write coverage for Jay Cutler might want to put together that the Bears play preseason in Denver on the 30th and that Cutler felt led yesterday to deliver himself of this wisdom: Denver's on like a 6 and Chicago's on like a 9. The boy sounds like he thinks Broncos defense hasn't improved under the Patriots West regime. They might feel provoked to show him otherwise.

My new go-to to-go burger is Good Times. Perfectly cooked 100% natural beef and fantastic toppings. I've seen the storefronts for years, but it took a personal recommendation to propel me through the drive-through. I love it and I think Mr Plain Cheeseburger, Mustard Only will like it, too. He won't go for the toppings, of course, but my guess is that he'll agree this is the tastiest ever fast-food burger. I'd link to their site, but it's all Flash.

Annual eye exam today, which is less of a pain than it used to be. For those who remember the weapon-like surgical steel with which eye docs used to approach in order to measure eye pressure (glaucoma test), that little puff of air is a wonder. I forgo the opportunity to look at photos of the inside of my eye, but will pass on for folks in the Denver area that Dr Liz Erley comes recommended not only by my highly recommended internist, but also by me. She's just great. I'm having the lenses done again at Europtics, a great store in Cherry Creek.

Usually the car radio is set to 104.3, KKFN. Jim Rome is usually entertaining and often has great guests and most of the local on-air personalities are knowledgeable and likable. But today I finally made the drive-time switch to 850AM because Dave Logan goes down a lot more smoothly than the increasingly shrill Sandy Clough.

Clough is hacked off at Josh McDaniels' management style, especially McDaniels' refusing to be more "open" with the press and even at the distance the press is kept from training camp sidelines. He snivels and whines that Josh "owes" more than that. Guess what, Sandy? Josh doesn't owe the press, i.e. you, or "the fans" (whom you constantly invoke and whom -- guess what? -- you do NOT represent) a thing. What's it gunna take to get you off a dead horse, buddy? KKFN, what's it gunna take for you to take care of the dead horse jockey?

Clough doesn't like McDaniels for what sound increasingly like personal reasons. It sounds like Old Fart bleating about Young Upstart and it grates. If I want to listen to bellyaching and carping, there are political talk shows that do it more amusingly than Screechy Sandy.

Is it worth it to cook from scratch?

Just how effective is it? Money-wise? Taste-wise? HT, Jordana

Taking the chill out of tomatoes

Tonight DC said, "I know enough never, ever to refrigerate a tomato -- but I don't know why." In summary, refrigeration makes the texture mushy, messes with some of the chemicals important to the smell and taste of tomatoes, and brings to a screeching halt further ripening of tomatoes that arrive kind of greenish red at the supermarkets in our little sector of paradise. Robert Wolke at the Wash Post discussed this matter in his column.

Clara the cook

This series of videos features Clara Cannucciari, who demonstrates some recipes her family used during the Depression. I'm impressed by the fact that the production doesn't encourage the viewer to condescend to this woman.

The movies were produced by her great-grandson, according to this article at the St Petersburg Times (the link will probably degrade two seconds from now).

Crabby

Today I found some Dungeness crab at the store, dear but not like jewelry or furs. There was just enough to make up a simple recipe we used to have every year on Christmas Eve: James Beard's deviled crab.

It's not food to make anyone's cardiologist happy, but once in a while for two people (this is about a quarter of Beard's recipe for "4 to 6"!) it seems all right to:

• pre-heat the oven to 350F
• chop very fine 1/4 cup each: celery, green pepper, green onion
• chop very fine about 2 tablespoons parsley
• crush enough Saltines to make about 3/4 cup fine crumbs (getting the "fine" thing here? it really does make a difference)
• pick over about 1/2 pound Dungeness crab meat to remove cartilage and any other nasty bits
• melt 1/4 cup butter
• set aside about half of the crumbs
• mix everything together (except for the set aside crumbs), adding 2 tablespoons of heavy cream, 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard, and a little Tabasco for zip, but not to burn

Put the whole business into a baking dish, top with the set-aside crumbs, and slide it into pre-heated oven to bake for 25 minutes or so.

Here's the wicked part. You really do have to add more butter to make the thing appropriately unctuous. How much depends on your cooking sensibilities and your conscience, I suppose.

When we were younger, probably this was served with bread and hot vegetables. Tonight it went on the table with some fruit and peppery radishes, to cut the richness of the casserole.

You might be thinking, But this is Lent! Just so. But every Sunday is a Feast Day, even in Lent -- a fact I did not take on board when I was young. But now I am not young and I refuse to miss any opportunity to celebrate a feast.

One of my many vices

Bottled water. There's a snarky piece about comparing carbon footprints of water and orange juice, but no need to go into that.

What not to eat

What the Fat has the sorry facts about fat, fiber, carbs, and calories for foods from a number of popular US restaurant chains. The only one I frequent on their list is Pei Wei, and after looking at the numbers, I'm glad we don't really "frequent" it.

More about making pizza for two

Tasty, tasty

It is one of life's little sorrows, when one stops making a dish so much enjoyed by one's spouse. So Friday, with considerable trepidation, I decided to continue the pizza experiments which had been such a success in Oregon but which had been suspended some eight years back.

Yesterday's experiment, the second in a week (and in eight years), was not a great success. The crust was too thick and the oven was either too fast or not fast enough -- I haven't decided.

But I was fired up by my husband's loyal appreciation of a dinner that wasn't even as good as mediocre, and he was game for another round of home pizza tonight. It worked! We're back in the business of pizza at home for two.

Once in a while I notice that a bit of my life has quietly slipped away. And sometimes, with a little patience, those small slipped away pieces can be retrieved.

More...

Christmas lessons

It has been a lovely day here on the Front Range: blue, blue skies and temperature that nudged at last above freezing. We welcome the sound of snow-melt running in the gutters.

Tonight we ended up not having pot stickers. For many years we were notorious for having a scandalously simple dinner on Christmas Day: tacos! But recently, maybe because the pre-Christmas merry-go-round of children's programs and parties has ended, we have moved on. This year's plan was pot stickers.

Anyway, a technical glitch about the ground pork -- we're not naming names here -- sent us into the entertaining world of Plan B. Some ground beef that had been properly wrapped and stowed by the same party whose name we are not mentioning was retrieved from the freezer. I gazed at it thoughtfully (well, I didn't, but speaking of thoughtful gazing improves the idea of almost anything in the kitchen) and decided on a festive, though ordinary, course of pasta with meat sauce.

I didn't realize it was going to cause a problem for me. No, it was a simple, careless thought: rather than my usual method of splattering the contents of an 8 ounce tin over the meat, it might be tasty to make up the tomato sauce I use for the ravioli casserole and add it to well-seasoned, mostly cooked ground beef.

It was very tasty, indeed.

Which is exactly the problem. Tonight the entirely adequate pasta, the ordinary main dish we have been eating for thirty years, somehow wandered far afield into fresh territory of "delicious". I can no longer plead ignorance to the difference between an actual tomato sauce and what comes out of those stout little cans. Stunningly little extra effort lifts a familiar dinner formula from the pedestrian to the positively pleasurable.

Most days are not feast days. Most days, I would not be able to spare a moment to pose as having gazed thoughtfully at something in the kitchen. But this evening the possibilities shifted for a small province of cooking that I had thought long, if unimaginatively, conquered. Turning back to a faster, less satisfying result would be a willful repudiation of sense (of taste) and sensibility (knowing that achieving mediocrity saves very little effort and costs a lot in flavor).

Maybe this is the kind of problem that Christmas is meant to cause. Every valley shall be exalted... but first you have to realize that the sauce for your pasta was in a valley.

Yes, I know. It was a very humble meal, hardly a banquet and certainly not a mystical repast, as I might be making it out. But it enriched my palate. Gave me a taste of finer things. Whispered to me, "There are possibilities, even for pasta."

Merry Christmas.

Stopping by the stove on a snowy evening

Snowy and colder here: weather for hearty food. Baked ravioli is simple casserole, based on Martha Stewart recipe, and it goes together quickly with ingredients we usually have on hand.

The concept, which will be enough for some folks to put it together, is thick tomato sauce + fresh ravioli + cheese topping. It's really just that easy, but here are very detailed directions to serve two, with leftovers.

What you need:

• a teaspoon or two (5 - 10 ml) of olive oil
• an onion, small-ish or larger, but probably not huge
• a couple of garlic cloves, depending on how well you like garlic (this cooks thoroughly, so it won't have the strong bite of the raw stuff)
• a teaspoon, more or less, of dried oregano or dried thyme, crushed (I use a little mortar and pestle, which is kind of fun)
• whole tomatoes, 1 14 oz. (400 g.) can
• crushed tomatoes, 1 14 oz. (400 g.) can or carton
• fresh cheese ravioli, 9 oz. (250 g.) package
• 3/4 cup (185 ml) shredded mozzarella
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) shredded parmesan

On the stove:

• in a 3 or 4 qt (20 cm) saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium
• chop the onion finely and crush the garlic
• add the onion and garlic to the saucepan (add the onion first to avoid burning the garlic, which makes garlic bitter)
• after the onion and garlic have softened (about five minutes), add whole tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and the oregano or thyme
• bring the sauce almost to a boil, then back off the heat so that the sauce reduces slowly by about half; this should take about a half hour;
• break up the whole tomatoes as the sauce cooks
• in salted (tastes like the ocean), boiling water, drop in ravioli - remove with a skimmer as soon as the ravioli floats
• when the sauce has reduced, drop in the ravioli and gently fold everything together
• pour the sauce and ravioli into a wide (2 qt/2.4l) casserole
• sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top

For the oven:

• pre-heat the oven to 425F (220C or gas mark 7)
• put the casserole on a middle rack in the oven
• bake for about 25 minutes, but cook with your nose: you'll be able to tell when the cheese starts to brown

When you're happy with the browning, remove the casserole from the oven and let it settle for about ten minutes before serving; it'll become less "soupy" while it's settling.

At the end of a Budapest to Denver day, DC seemed happy enough to sit down to this simple supper.

Truc: this might not work out for you, but I don't actually bother to boil the ravs; I just throw them into the sauce for an extra minute or two on the stove, before pouring the mixture into the casserole. But you might not like the results.

In London, say: Wahaca

Today on a tip from Charles Campion's new edition, I descended into the near-bliss of a taste of home: honest Mexican cooking. Drop down from an unprepossessing storefront on Chandos Place (behind St Martin in the Fields) into the surprisingly capacious dining room of Wahaca, which is a fine phonetic approach to a place quite unknown here, I think. (They also have a Flash-ier site than the one I've linked to.)

It's a pretty long menu, heavy on burritos and burritos: only two kinds of enchiladas, neither being my beloved cheese and onion. This isn't the kind of place to ask for any tweaking, but do you know that somehow the elegant waitress sweet-talked the kitchen into holding the chicken. What to my wondering eyes did appear but three cheese enchiladas, lush and steamy and not overstuffed like meatier versions tend to be. Heaven.

Somehow in the middle of London, somebody figured out how to tone down (okay, turn off) the heat and yet celebrate the essential flavors of coriander, cumin, and mild chiles. Okay, the sauce is quite a lot less thick and hot than I make and two rings of raw onion on top is a different approach than I take at home, but the flavor was spot on. A person would be hard pressed to spend more than £15, especially if you swap out spendier drinks for the tasty agua fresca.

The affable young host seated me at the quietest table I've enjoyed in almost two months. It has the capacity for rowdiness, but a properly timed visit could be a refuge from the howls and shrieking common to restaurants here (this is the adults, from whom children of course take enthusiastic cue).

Yesterday at Tesco Metro I found well preserved (!) flour tortillas but, in honesty, with the ingredients and equipment available here to me they won't come to much. It'll make much more sense to ask the patient and generous Mr Out of the Frying Pan to take a dawdle with me across Hungerford (no pun intended, but still hard to ignore) Foot Bridge to a haven of hospitality and the flavors of home.

Psssssst... tortillas in London!

Tesco Metro Express on Regent Street. Top shelf, somewhat out of reach of short, fat ladies; staff available to help.

Groceries in London... and another removal notice

That was kind of a nasty note on which to end my last entry. The Tesco Metro on Regent Street, just south of Picadilly Circus, is a gem of a place. Lots of fresh produce with better prices than I've seen anywhere. Nice deli selection. Friendly, helpful staff. And on three bus lines, she crowed!

Unless we have to move. There was yet another removal notice when I returned to the apartment today. Apartment Services promised they'd take care of everything, but it doesn't seem like they have. The notices, they assure us, always come to nothing, but it's not THEIR electronics and clothing and other things in the apartment. I don't think they get that these notices are serious and intimidating.

It's a hassle -- oh, it's a hassle, all right -- to move, but this really can't continue.

Groceries

Tesco on Regent Street is a surprisingly well stocked store with decent produce and a wider selection of meats, I think, than the Marks flagship by Marble Arch. And Presidente butter for 63p! Last night their thai chicken reheated very nicely.

If there's a rue Cler in London -- well, there isn't.

The gift of pesto

Some things, like tomato sauce, seem kind of obvious (once you get past the fear that a plant in the nightshade family is going to poison you). But pesto?

"Okay, you hold this stone flat while I pound it with a rock to smash green leaves, some little seeds that fell out of pine cones, and a couple pieces of those smelly things you dug up yesterday. And bring me some of that the gooey stuff that came out when Morris banged on the green berries -- wait, are they berries if they came from a tree? And shred some of that hard pale yellow stuff Alva's been making from the milk of their partly domesticated bovine."

Pesto is something that doesn't lend itself much to recipes imho, but if you want a formula to start with #7 on this list isn't a bad one. I'd go heavier on the garlic and NEVER swap out the pine nuts for walnuts, but we all know what I'm like.

Pesto comes to mind this morning because the thin provisions in the fridge had a little container with maybe two tablespoons left over. I boiled a quarter cup of fusilli corti and meditated with gratitude on these distant ancestors. That's a breakfast that gives a person courage to face the day. (If you don't work at home, of course you'll want to make sure the garlic doesn't bite your companions. Or maybe not.)

Mmmmmmm

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This worked out

Alton Brown's mini-burgers are not only tasty, but very easy and fast to make.

You know what I mean

Friday evening we had dinner in Loveland at a fish restaurant that I used to like.

I'll stick with Jason Sheehan

From time to time I browse the Web for a good Colorado food blog. I haven't found one,  but I did find this: CulinaryColorado, which seems to be less about Colorado food than about the charming life of the self-styled "award-winning" blog-ess. Meow ;)

Cooking joy!

Great approach to recipes -- go under "recipe file" -- at this cooking blog. HT, our Chicago relative ;)

Tasty salmon?

Didn't seem possible to me; I just don't like it even though it has earned a place on the always expanding "healthy shelf" of dining for the middle-aged.

After Shirley told me what a hit it had been even with her husband, whose dislike for this strong-flavor rivals my own, I decided to give it a try. For two people (filets of about six ounces, each), whisk together a marinade of:

2 tablespoons white miso (soybean paste; believe me, I'm surprised that it has found a place in my kitchen)
2 tablespoons mirin (a type of rice wine; its alcohol content is less than sake's)
1 tablespoon plain rice vinegar
1 - 2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced green onions
scant tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Marinate the salmon for 30 minutes; turn it once. For some reason, I don't feel comfortable using a heavy plastic bag for this marinade, which is what I do in other recipes. In this case, I use flat-bottomed glass or glazed pottery baking dish in which the filets can in a single layer.

In a hot pan, sauté the salmon skin side down for 3 to 4 minutes, depending on the thickness of filets. Let a crust form (that's why the pan has to be hot, but not too, because it's easy to blacken these, which really is not tasty and probably not healthy). Flip the filets and let cook for another 3 to 4 minutes.

To be honest, "tasty" stretches it a little for me, but this treatment moves salmon into the "almost edible" category, which is a lucky thing because the anti-inflammatory diet, to which we're paying some attention, puts salmon on the shopping list at least several times a month. I've adapted the recipe from Bobby Flay's, which Shirley's son found at the Food Network site; that version serves four, uses a grill (hey, it's Bobby FLAY), and suggests yuzu juice for drizzling (it says "yazu", but I'm pretty sure they mean yuzu).

Salmon in Parchment

Salmon is not really something I like much, but for various reasons I needed to cook some this evening. This recipe is actually pretty tasty and, even better, it goes together faster than you can believe.

The Sweet Potato Queen

That would be Blair, with fabulous instructive (and lovely) photos and a very interesting essay on sweet potatoes.

Blair might be getting further NOT following recipes than a lot of folks get following instructions to the letter. Just last night chez OotFP we had an absolutely appalling main dish that was supposed to be fish tacos. I followed that recipe all the way to the garbage can and then spent the rest of the evening making applesauce (and nukeing apple peel in a little oil, with additions of cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla bean) to try to get the fish smell out of the house.

Funny thing, that. When a fish recipe works out, as often happens, I don't mind the "aroma." But boy howdy, when a fish recipe doesn't work out, it bites hard and for a long time, especially on these sub-zero nights (it was -14F here last night) when it wouldn't work to open up the house.