Surprises Can Be Good

As a financial advisor, I visit networking groups now and then. On occaision, to illustrate the difference between me and advisors who are not me, I provide this analogy:

"You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a financial advisor in this town. But like a great cook, a great advisor is a rare and precious find. So what separates a good cook from a great cook? The ingredients available to one are there for the other. I think it's patience and creativity. A great cook knows that some ingredients need to be added at different times to develop the flavors. It can't be rushed. And finding new ways of combining the same old ingredients may yield plesantly shocking surprises."

And I am a great cook.

That's a fun (and dare I say accurate!) analogy, but it reminds me of the problem with many restaurants. Specifically, this is why I don't eat at any of the large chain restaurants. It's not that these places are bad. Many have found great ways of giving back to the communities in which they are a part. It's not that the food is bad. Each chain I'm picking on today uses high quality ingredients and increasingly often, fresh rather than frozen or canned. No, the reason for my distain begins with the corporate training for their cooks. (Yes. I said "cooks" not "chefs.") The masses who frequent these chain restaurants have lauded the two elements which are the enemy to any artist: low cost and consistency. (Think Rembrandt vs Bob Ross.)




The food prepared at one point of sale in a chain is expected to be identical to any other point in that chain. An order of eggs over easy, a slice of ham, hashbrowns and 2 pancakes will not only have the same flavor from store to store, but will even be arranged on the plate to look identical. And to keep the prices as consistent and competitive as possible, they order the same ingredients for every location knowing exactly how much of each ingredient goes into each serving. Henry Ford's principles applied to the kitchen.

It's easy to get up on my soapbox. We demand that there be no accidents that could spoil an otherwise consistent dinner. We are willing to sacrifice surprise. But let me phrase this another way: "It's easy for ME to get up on MY soapbox." I don't have kids. No growing teenagers who need an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet. When one has the luxury of time, then one has the ability to hunt for locally owned establishments. I get to know the waitstaff and chef. I can stay late and talk during the off-peak hours. I try to tip well and say thank you and tell the manager how much we enjoyed ourselves. I don't mind paying $10 more for a tab at a Mom-and-Pop restaurant if it's high quality and they are working to offer something unique.

Instead of The Olive Garden, I go to Stellas. Instead of Applebees, I go to the OLI.

Go to the chains if you have to, but I encourage you, when you have the time, take it. Follow the road less traveled. Make friends with people who take care of you. Search out people and restaurants who have a a passion for food. In short, reward yourself with a few of the finer things in life. You deserve it.

For some pleasantly shocking surprises try:

Homemade Pizza

for the Dough:
4 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour + more for kneading
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 tablespoons dry Yeast
2 tablespoons Agave Nectar (or honey)
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 cup of warm Water (+ more if needed)

In a stand mixer (preferably) or a mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Stir to combine. In another bowl combine the nectar, oil and water. At a low mixing speed with a dough hook, add the wet into the dry ingredients. Continue to mix until the dough comes together in a rough shaggy mass. turn out onto a floured counter. and knead, adding flour as necessary until the dough is smooth.

Return to the bowl and cover with a warm damp towel. Let rise for 45 minutes. Punch down, turn and let rise for another 45 minutes.

Make your sauces:

Tomato
1 clove of Garlic sliced very thin (think of the scene in Goodfellas) or pressed
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (yes, the good stuff--it matters here)
1 can Tomato Sauce
2 tablespoons Sugar
1 can Tomato Paste
1 tablespoon each of dried Basil, Oregano

Heat the oil in the pan on medium high heat. Add the garilc until it nearly dissolves. Reduce the heat and stir in the sauce, sugar and paste. Stir until smooth. Add the herbs. Add a pinch of salt if needed.

Preheat the oven to 45 degrees for a thin crust pizza or 425 for a thick crust. After the dough has risen a 2nd time, divide into 3 equal parts for thin crust or 2 parts for thick crust. I like rolling the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper. It makes transferring and clean-up MUCH easier. Prick it all over with a fork to keep it from getting bubbles. Coat with a thin layer of olive oil, then sauce. Add toppings. Bake it in the oven until the edges are golden brown and the cheese in the center is bubbly but not crusty (about 10 minutes thin crust, 15 min thick crust).

Some of the toppings to try:

Pepperoni
Ham
Ground Beef
Chicken
Anchovies
Sausages
Shrimp
Pork
Bacon

Mushrooms
Asparagus
Artichoke
Bell Pepper
Chili Peppers
Onions
Rosted Garlic
Pineapple
Mandarin Oranges
Apples
Tomato Slices

Spinach
Basil
Rosemary


Pesto
Alfredo
Sweet and Sour
Tomato
Olive Oil (with a little Balsamic Vinegar)



Anything else you want to try--it's yours to experiment




Banana Chicken Tacos


1 tablespoon Olive Oil
2 boneless skinless Chicken Breasts
Salt
2 tablespoons Chimayo Chili Powder
1/4 teaspoon Cardamom Powder
1/8 teaspoon Cumin Powder
1 Banana sliced
6-8 Corn or Flour Tortillas


Slice the chicken into 1/4 slices and saute in hot olive oil. When it starts getting brown on all sides, reduce the heat to medium or medium low. Add the spices and continue to stir until evenly coated. Add the banana. If the banana is ripe enough, it'll become a sticky sugary sauce.


Serve it up in the tortillas with grated cheese, chopped tomato, shredded lettuce, salsa, sour cream, etc.

Food and Illness

I have a cold. Or a sinus infection. Or probably more accurately, sinusitis. Lovingly, happily, zealously, friends have come to the rescue offering (or insisting on) home remedies for getting rid of whatever bug ails me.

Knowing that even a Nobel Prize winning scientist like Linus Pauling could get overwhelmed by enthusiastic attachment to misapplied theories, improper research, and incorrectly extrapolated conclusions, what can the average Joe (or Jane) on the street believe?

While growing up, my Grandfather prescribed Blackberry Brandy for nearly every internal disease my Mom or her siblings could face. (My Dad's Dad, by contrast would use Kerosene. "Cut off your finger? Let me dunk that stump into my cure-all jar of Kerosene." No, it wouldn't make the finger grow back but it would certainly re-focus the attention from whining about your finger. My wife's Grandfather carried the same zeal for enemas!)

Several people recommended echinacea. Not at all surprising is that the conclusions are inconclusive. Well, nearly inconclusive. Tests aimed at preventing a cold all came back negative. Echinacea will not prevent a cold, but it MAY reduce the effects and duration. It seems that researchers are having difficulty determining what part of the echinacea plant is effective, and how it should be produced. Note: according to the research I read, there is a 58% chance of showing reduced symptoms by 1-3 days versus those taking a placebo. Modest improvement, yes, but hardly a silver bullet.

Some of my dearest friends insisted on garlic, two of them vehemently. (If you're reading this, you're not one of the vehement ones.) I know of some of the research done on garlic for cardiovascular diseases and cancer. It has conclusively been shown to fight off bacteria, viruses and other little beasties in a test tube. (I imagine the Sharks and the Jets fighting on neutral turf, snapping their little molecular fingers, dancing their little microscopic dance.) Unfortunately, garlic as a prevention for a cold looks bleak. IF you take garlic everyday for 3 months before being exposed to the viruses most associated with a cold, you may have a slightly better chance of staying healthy. There is so far no evidence for garlic treating a cold once you have one. Garlic still rocks, and I cook with it often. But I'll rely more on its flavor than medicinal qualities.

I love Chicken Soup. No, it doesn't really cure a cold, but warm broth and a multitude of basic nutrients provide immediate comfort. Oh wait--research DOES show that chicken soup can help, at least in vitro. (The Jets and the Sharks have someone else to rumble with.) And usually someone else is making it for you, which means you're being pampered. While most naturopathic remedies feature a product that can be sold in capsules, drops or other refined form, anyone can make chicken soup and even in can form, the competition keeps the price low. Just make sure you have good chicken and lots of good veggies.

As to treating the symptoms, I recommend a Hot Toddy or the Virgin Hot Toddy: Lemon and Honey. Warm liquids and honey both soothe a scratchy throat, and lemon provides a modest mucus-clearing ability. To add bourbon or not is a matter of preference, although alcohol in moderation does promote a good night's sleep.

So what's the best? I recommend cuddling up with someone who will put up with you, eat some chicken soup, drink a hot toddy, and get lots of rest. As Leonard told Joel Fleischman in the "Heal Thy Self" episode of Northern Exposure: "The doctor's job is to make the patient feel more comfortable until the body can heal itself." There is some wisdom to that. If a hot toddy and chicken soup work like that for you, great. If it's a garlic enema with a vitamin C chaser, great. Just don't tell me about it.


Chicken Soup
1 whole Chicken, skin removed
Water
Salt and Pepper
1 Onion
4 Carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks Celery, chopped
10 medium Button Mushrooms, washed and sliced
2 cloves of Garlic, minced
2 California Bay Leaves
Noodles (1 1/2 cups, uncooked), Rice (1 cup, uncooked) or Potatoes (4, peel left on, washed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes)

Remove the giblets, and throw the chicken (with the neck) into a large stock pot. Add enough water to cover by 2 inches. Salt and pepper to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon each, maybe a little less pepper). Add the bay leaves. I like to keep the onion peel and carrot peel and put them into a cheesecloth satchel and add to the pot at this point. If you want to, it adds to a more complex broth.

Bring to a boil and reduce to a low simmer. Let it bubble for 2 hours. The gelatin from the bones begins to break down and the meat gets very tender. Remove the chicken (and the cheesecloth satchel) from the broth, but don't take it off the heat. Let the broth continue to simmer. Using forks, seperate the large pieces of meat from the bones. Let it cool enough to use your hands on the carcass.

Take as much meat off the bones as you can. Shred it or chop it. Put it back in the pot with the veggies. If you're using rice or potatoes, add them now. Let simmer for an hour. (If you're using noodles, add them about 20 minutes before you're ready to serve.)

Left overs are great.

Saint Valentine's Day Means Duck!

Duck is an exotic dish that, when prepared well, fills the senses with joy, but when prepared poorly, is a greasy, gamy disappointment. I've never made duck before, so what better day to try it than Valentine's Day?

First, the duck itself. 2 kinds: Muscovy (richer, fattier and a little gamy) and Pekin (milder, a little less fat). I went to the local King Soopers and got a 5.95 pound duck. I looked everywhere on the label and sure enough, it says "Duck," but that and "with Orange Glaze" were the only descriptors. On the back I found "Maple Leaf Farms" so I went to their website. No other description. OK, so I don't know what I'm making, but since King Soopers only carries on kind of duck, it doesn't matter. That's one factor I can't control.

(Note: I wrote Maple Leaf Farms and they were kind enough to answer: They only raise and produce White Pekins.)

THE hallmark of good duck is a crispy skin. And to get a good crisp, the skin has to be perfectly dry. I took the thawed duck out of its packaging at 1:00 pm and removed the giblets, clipped the wings, removed any excess fat and skin and rinsed it thoroughly (inside and out). I then patted it dry and seasoned it. I put it on a wire cooling rack but needed to elevate it to get good airflow all the way around the skin. And inside too, if possible. I don't have a vertical cooking rack for a chicken (or any other poultry, for that matter) so i made one out of chicken wire.

After a couple of hours, the skin was good and dry. Martha Stewart and others recommend scoring the skin and piercing it immediately. One recipe I saw recommended pouring boiling water over it, then piercing it. That seems dumb, because it completely defeats the dry-skin method of delicious crispiness! The Maple Leaf Farms website recommends cooking first for 20 minutes, then piercing or scoring the skin. That actually made good sense.

The cooking is pretty straight forward. Preheat oven and cook. Turn it, drain it, baste it, keep cooking.

But the sauce . . . . What to do for the sauce? I refuse to use prepackaged sauce. It may be delicious and the best thing I've ever tried, but I can NOT bring myself to use it when I'm such a megalomaniac about my own cooking. But Maple Leaf Farms got the theme right: Sweets and sours play well together. And some spices should really enhance the richness of duck. (See what I tried, below.)

Now, what about the appetizer? Sides? Dessert? How about stuffed baby portabella mushrooms, fingerling heirloom potatoes, parsnips and sweet potatoes oven-fried in duck fat, and roasted asparagus with bacon? And maybe baked custard with a little something extra?

All-in-all, it turned out very well. And a very messy kitchen. And a little smoke. Most things turned out well but I can always use more practise. You buy the duck and I'll cook it for you. At your house. In your kitchen.

Stuffed Baby Portabellas

6 Portabella Mushrooms, 3 inch caps
2 tablespoons Bacon Fat
1 tablespoon diced Onions
1 teaspoon diced Garlic
1 tablespoon crushed Gingersnaps
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan Cheese (or other dry white cheese)

Rinse and dry the mushrooms. (There is NO PROBLEM with giving mushrooms a quick rinse. If anyone ever tells you to never rinse mushrooms, have them do the science.) Remove the stems, and dice the stems only. Leave the caps whole.

Melt the fat in a skillet, medium heat. Add onion, garlic, gingersnap powder, and mushroom stems. Saute. Give it some love--it's Valentine's Day.

Spoon the mixture into the caps of the shrooms. Top with the cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes to cool and return the juices.


Cranberry Glaze with Balsamic Vinegar

3/4 cup reserved Cranberry Jelly with Cardamom
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar (I use 12 year Elsa Balsamic)

A few weeks ago I made a basic cranberry sauce from whole cranberries. Basic recipe, but I added 7 or 8 Cardamom pods. With time the cranberries became so delicious that they disappeared, but I could not bring myself to discard the liquid. This became its last hurrah!

Put all ingredients into a pot on medium heat and stir until sugar is melted. reduce heat and let simmer until the sauce is reduced to 1/3 of original volume.

The sauce will also go great on ice cream!

Potato, Parsnips, Sweet Potatoes

6 each of Yukon, Red and Purple fingerling Potatoes
1 medium Ruby Sweet Potato, peeled
1 medium Parsnip, peeled
reserved Duck Fat

Chop all root veggies to about 1 inch diameter and 2-3 inches long. Put onto a microwave safe plate and microwave on high for 3-5 minutes. Place into a baking dish and season with salt and pepper. Ladle duck fat over everything. Put into 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. Stir and return to oven for another 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Asparagus with Bacon

1 bunch of Asparagus
3 strips of Bacon, cooked until chewy, chopped

Remove the woody ends from the asparagus. Put the good parts on a lined baking sheet. Cover with bacon bits. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Lightly season with salt and/or pepper.


Oven-roasted Duck

1 5-6 pound Duck

Kosher Salt

8 sprigs of Thyme

6 Allspice Berries, 10 Black Pepper Corns, 6 Whole Cloves, crushed

Remove the duck from its packaging, and take out the giblets and whatever other nonsense the producers stick inside the bird. Keep the neck and giblets, throw the rest away. (Unless you want to keep it. Free country, do what you want.) Clip the wing tips off. Remove any excess fat and skin, e.g., the tail, the fat around the belly, etc. Rinse the bird thoroughly under cold water and pat it dry with paper towels. (For health reasons, use paper towels. Something reusable can spread germs, so screw you environment. I need to be sustained, too.) Season inside and out with salt and spices. Let it dry completely for a couple of hours. (I actually took a hair drier to the crevasses of the skin that was still tacky to the touch.)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Stuff the thyme into the cavity, and tie the legs. Put the bird on a baking rack, breast-side up. Cook for 20 minutes. Remove the bird and using a sharp knife or very sharp fork, pierce the skin everywhere. Don't go all the way into the meat, but do get into the nooks and crannies around the thighs and legs. Turn it over and get the back, too. Put the bird back into the oven for 45 minutes, breast down. Then, using more paper towels, tilt the bird, draining the juices into the baking pan. Flip the duck breast-side up and cook for 30 - 45 minutes more, or until the thigh temperature reads 160 degrees.

Cover the back with your glazing of choice (Cranberry and Balsamic was AMAZING!) and cook for another 5 minutes. (Watch that it doesn't burn. Lots of sugar can over-caramelize in a hurry.)

Let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.

Slice and serve!

And just for my Sister-in-Law:

Baked Custard

8 Strawberries
1/2 cup Sugar
3 tablespoons Water

1 cup Milk
1 cup Half and Half
1 cup Sugar
4 Eggs, beaten
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Boiling Water

In a small saucepan, combine the strawberries, sugar and water. Heat until the sugar is melted and bubbly. Crush the berries--I use a potato masher. Keep cooking at a low temperature until thick. Set aside and let cool.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a larger sauce pan, combine the milk, half and half, salt and sugar. Heat to a boil continuing to whisk the entire time. Temper the eggs. (That means to slowly add small amounts of the boiling milk to the eggs while whisking it together. Add a little more. You want to slowly bring the temperature of the eggs up, as a liquid until it nearly matches the milk. If done too quickly, your eggs are going to scramble.) Add the egg mixture to the milk mixture and whisk a little more. Remove from heat and add the vanilla. (You can also add other flavorings at this point. Citrus zest, chopped herbs, etc.)

Put a tablespoon or two of the strawberry mixture at the bottom of your custard cups. (Small, round-bottom coffee cups or ramekins also work well.) Ladle custard mixture in on top. In a deep baking dish, lay a kitchen towel, flat. Put the cups on top of the towel. Transfer the baking dish to the oven and gently pour the water into the baking dish, being careful not to splash into the custard. The water should come 1/2 way up the cups.

Bake for 35 minutes or until the custard has a loose jello consistency. Remove from the water bath and chill.

Serve in the cup.

A Super Bowl Party to Remember

It was a great game and I'm pleased as punch that the Saints won. But the real story for us was the party we joined.

We were grossly unprepared.

Our friends invited us to their aunt and uncle's home. A long way out, east of town, nearly an hour's drive by interstate. "Bring an appetizer to share," we were told. I made a kind of chicken skewer with 3 kinds of dipping sauces. Something simple and somewhat out of the ordinary.

When we arrived, the spread was already laid out. Peeled jumbo shrimp, chips and dip (a great layered dip, btw), vegetable crudites, brownies, cookies, candies, flowing wine, bottomless beer and sodas. Our chicken fit in well, but already paled in comparison to the shrimp. Oh! if we had only known!

We ate for an hour before the game. THEN we were informed that dinner was going to be served. Roasted lobster tails, king crab legs, rigatoni al pomadoro, two kinds of salads, homemade pizza . . . there was probably more, but that's all I could get to.

Now, my brothers and I have a training ritual for events like this. For a Thanksgiving feast with the family, for instance, we will start eating a few days in advance, stretching our stomachs as best we can. Each day we'll eat a little more than the last. Then the day of, we'll fast until the big meal. In this way we can maximize our caloric intake in one truly glorious bout of gluttony.

How woefully unprepared for such a Super Bowl party. Pity.

Next year will be different.

Chicken Skewers

8 large Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
Bamboo Skewers, soaked in water overnight

Marinade the chicken in the soy and olive oil for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Slice the chicken length-wise into 1/2 inch strips. Skewer the slices and lay on a cooling rack on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Buffalo Sauce

1 tablespoon unsalted Butter
1/3 cup Frank's Hot Sauce
1 tablespoon Tabasco Sauce
2 tablespoons White Vinegar
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
1 teaspoon Dark Brown Sugar

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, over medium high heat. Add the rest of the ingredients in order, stirring as you go. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 15 minutes. Best served hot and in an open area. It will sting the eyes.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 cloves of Garlic, finely minced
1/2 cup old Jellies or Jams you have laying around (I used am apricot jam and grape jelly)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon Soy Sauce

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, over medium high heat. Saute the garlic until just soft. Add the jellies, stirring quickly until they are thoroughly dissolved. Add the vinegar and soy sauce and continue to stir and simmer until reduced to a slightly thicker liquid. (You can use a little more vinegar if you like it a little more tangy.)

Serve hot or cold.

Spicy Peanut Sauce

2 tablespoons Canola Oil
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
2 tablespoons ground Chimayo Red Chili Powder
1/2 cup smooth Peanut Butter
2-3 dashes of Tabasco
1 teaspoon Soy Sauce

Heat the oil in a sauce pan over medium high heat. Stirring quickly, add the garlic and chili powders. Stir until thick and smooth. Reduce the heat to medium low. Stir in the peanut butter, Tabasco and soy. Keep stirring until smooth. Best served warm.