After a bountiful year of farmers’ market and CSA fruit and vegetable mother lodes, what’s a salad-craving, vegetable-loving low-carbon footprint locavore to do in February? Stick your head in the supermarket freezer and say hey to Clarence Birdseye, that’s what. And let Frozen Freshness Month begin.
More than just a brand name, the real Mr. Birdseye actually developed the method for flash freezing perishable foods to allow them to retain their fresh taste, texture, and appearance. We have old Clarence to thank every time we cook up a pot of delicate, delicious petite peas anytime of the year. Once a delicacy, peas are now a kitchen freezer staple thanks to flash freezing.
And that’s just the beginning. While you’re poking around in there, check out the collard and turnip greens, broccoli florets, sugar snap peas, crowder peas, snow peas, Fordhook lima beans, Italian pole beans, cut okra, black eyed peas, shoepeg corn, speckled butter beans and spinach, all picked and frozen right at their peak. There is nothing wrong with frozen vegetables. They’re good for you and they’re easy to fix, so give yourself permission to enjoy this tried and true modern convenience. Spring will be here soon enough.
Unfortunately, today’s supermarket freezer section carries its share of baggage. Cluttered and over-marketed as the rest of the store, it’s easy to pass by the plain old vitamin-rich, low calorie vegetables hidden among the bagel bites, lean cuisine, cheesy garlic bread, and tater tots. If the idea of a bowl of hot peas isn’t doing it for you, how about a green salad for February?
The Cheater Chef Winter Green Salad starts with a big family-size bag of baby lima beans. To cook beans for a salad, you’ll want the beans to retain their shape, not turn to mush like a pot of white beans. Think al dente. It’s easy to do, but don’t leave your post at the stove when cooking. The beans should take about 20 minutes, but check them often. Once cooked, drain them and let them cool. Now toss in the other vegetables and dressing ingredients.
Just like lettuce salads, color is important. For this winter green salad we’re sticking with green and purple.
Winter Green Salad
1 bag (28 ounces) baby lima beans, cooked according to package directions, but not until too soft
1 cup chopped parsley, flat or curly
¼ cup diced red onion, or to taste
1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage
1 cup thinly sliced celery
¼ cup olive oil
Kosher salt, to taste
Juice of one lemon, about 2 tablespoons
4 ounces feta cheese, optional
Cook the beans according to the package directions, until soft, but not mushy. Cool them in a large bowl. Stir in the remaining ingredients except the feta cheese. Toss well. Add additional salt and lemon juice as you like. Chill until serving time. Sprinkle with feta cheese just before serving. Makes about 12 servings.
Every once in a while, I’ll read a story about how chefs prefer to use certain regular home ingredients in their cooking.
Like it’s a big revelation. The ingredient list is usually accompanied by an intellectual food science-meets-superior taste buds explanation for how these home pantry staples provide exceptional results in certain applications. Just what the dish needed to push it to the next taste stratosphere.
Like how ketchup enlivens and slightly thickens a rich sauce reduction. Like how soft crumbs made from cheap white bread make an oh-so delicate crust on pan fried crab cakes. Like how crushed potato chips, sweetened cereal, and pretzels add sophisticated salty sweetness to cutting edge desserts.
(I once took a tour through the kitchen of the famed Four Seasons Restaurant in New York with the wonderful Chef Hitch Albin and spied a few cans of Campbell’s tomato soup on the shelves. Hmmm.)
Here’s one of my favorites. Plain dry bread crumbs. Yes, I do make fancy crumbs from stale Tuscan loaves that we just couldn’t finish. I’ve got two bags in the freezer, one laced with olive oil to quickly crisp up a gratin and one plain. These crumbs are more substantial, livelier, more three-dimensional than their canister counterpart. They turn a mushy country squash casserole into a dressy squash gratin.
Ah, but different textures for different applications.
I prefer the plain old kind of bread crumbs for pan frying chicken breasts–ala Chicken Milanese. You’ll get a superior crisp coating that’s perfectly even, providing the perfect ratio of crust to meat. I like the evenness. I like how they take to a squeeze of lemon. I like how boring, dry chicken breasts are delicious and fancy enough for a dinner party and delicious and regular enough for a family weeknight supper.
Plain, Plain, Plain. The ones with dried herbs are too in-your-face herby for me.
Crisp Pan-Fried Chicken Breasts
4 chicken breast halves, pounded to about 1/4-inch thick
Egg dip (a couple of eggs beaten in a shallow bowl with a splash of water is plenty for 4 breast halves)
About 1 cup all-purpose or with about 1 teaspoon salt stirred in
About 1 to 1 1/2 cups plain dry bread crumbs
Oil for frying
Coat each breast with flour, dip into egg and coat evenly with bread crumbs.
Pan fry in batches, without crowding the pan too much, in hot shallow oil, about 1/2 cup. Add oil as necessary. Fry each side until golden brown and the chicken is cooked through. It shouldn’t take more than 5 to 7 minute total. Check the meat doneness with the tip of a knife. The meat should look white and the juices running clear. Serve with lemon slices. Makes 4 servings.
I just have to keep writing about the J.T. Moore Middle School trip I recently took to China with a group of 7th and 8th graders, a few teachers, and parents.
Please bear with my vacation pictures.
These are all about breakfast.
Actual Chinese guy's breakfast from the hotel buffet in Shanghai. He got himself a big bowl of congee as well as a plate of salad, some dumplings, stir-fried celery (I have a new appreciation for celery) and toast. A variety of pickled vegetables and cubes of salty miso-like paste were available to doctor up the congee.
We were able to keep up the grueling pace each day through Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai thanks to a fortifying trip each morning to the hotel breakfast buffet.
I loved it. I love Chinese breakfast. I love a big Chinese buffet.
Now I’m completely rethinking breakfast at home. Who needs waffles and syrup, when you can have piles of noodles, rice, dumplings, yams, congee, and tons of bok choy?
Here’s the big difference between Chinese eating and American eating–no dairy, not much bread, little meat, little sugar, lots of tea, lots of rice, lots of noodles, lots of cabbages. We all ate piles of food and lost weight.
Rats, my picture of the breakfast steamed tripe turned out blurry!
All the buffets had a rice porridge congee station with pickled vegetable toppings. One of those pots was filled with a thin cornmeal mush as well. And sometimes the congee had beans in it. Hadn't seen congee since an Alaskan cruise. We blogged about it a while back. That version contain chicken broth and chunks, the Chinese ones were always meatless.
How do you like your eggs? Plain or marinated in soy?
I couldn't get enough noodles and rice. In Xian the noodles were laced with hot peppers. W also had traditional Mongolian hot pot in Xian. I'll write about that later.
Cabbage and bok choy were always simply prepared, not gooped up with too much sauce. We had it at every single meal. I miss it.
No these steamed dumplings were not sweet. We did have some that were filled with a slightly sweet bean paste. One day we had them filled with carrots, one day vegetables, and lots of pork.
The hotels tried hard to include (and spell) western foods for the Americans. I passed on the pizzaz and went back for more bok choy.
Excellent white sweet potatoes and corn on the cob. Kind of looks like typical Tennessee country vegetables.
Elsa and I came home with a new appreciation for chilled canned mandarin orange segments and lychee fruit. Got some in my fridge right now.
I had lots of noodles, dumplings, and celery that morning. Must have already finished my bok choy. That little sesame fried dumpling sure was good.
A quick Chinese breakfast at home. Eggs scrambled with brown rice and side of cabbage. Not bad, but I've got to get some bok choy!
Whew! She almost dropped it. The salad mirrors the colors in the painting.
I wondered what my daughter Elsa and I would crave once home from our recent school trip through China.
Over there we shied away from the raw salads because of the “don’t drink the water” issue. Though I sneaked a few bites of some delicious pickle-y, cabbagy greens and couldn’t resist the sliced cucumber. Never got sick either.
So, yes, good old ice-cold iceberg salad sounded really good back in Nashville. No seaweed or cabbage in it please, at least for a little while. Plus, the ice-cold part is essential after a week of warmish beer and cokes.
I’ve got a big lightweight cheap enamel over steel bowl and platter that when chilled keep salads extra cold. Boy, they’re handy.
Here’s an even better tip. A sales person for Le Creuset once told me that you can keep a salad well-chilled by serving it in one of their heavy enamel-coated cast iron pots. It never occurred to me that those pots hold cold as well as heat. Of course, they do (slap your forehead now)! Chill the salad in that and it will keep cold for a good long while. Fantastic for a hot summer day.
At home, Elsa and I piled up every regular American ingredient we could think of on our cold platter and it really hit the spot. Lots of crunch and chew. Not much thinking required. Iceberg, celery, green bell pepper, red onion, and radishes topped with chunks of smoky ham, cheddar, cherry tomatoes, and chopped hard-cooked egg. Could this be a Cheater Chef Salad? That’s funny.
Creamy dressings work better than vinaigrette in this application. Stir up the a buttermilk ranch and quick Thousand Island. The directions are below. A fresh sleeve of saltines really makes a difference.
Happy Family Cheater Chef Salad
Iceberg lettuce, cut into bite sized pieces
Chopped tomato
Sliced celery
Chopped green bell pepper
Diced red onion
Chopped or sliced radishes
Diced baked ham
Diced sliced cheddar/Jack whatever cheese you like
Saltine crackers
Your choice Stir-It-Up Dressings:
Thousand Island
2 parts mayonnaise
1 part chili sauce or ketchup
Big spoonful diced dill or sweet pickle relish and some of the juice
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Dash of hot pepper sauce
Combine all the ingredients. Taste it and adjust to your liking. Cover and refrigerate until serving time.
Peppery Buttermilk Ranch
Here’s where you can play with the proportions–more buttermilk means less fat.
2 parts buttermilk
1 or 2 parts mayonnaise
Clove of fresh garlic mashed into a paste with salt
Generous amount of coarsely cracked black pepper
Some kind of herb dried or fresh minced such as parsley, chives, oregano, whatever
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Dash of hot pepper sauce
Combine all the ingredients. Taste it and adjust to your liking. Cover and refrigerate until serving time.
Lemon Chess tart slices. Fancy and homey at the same time.
We love making pie and R.B. especially loves making the crust. In fact, when he did a career analysis in college “pastry chef” nearly topped the list.
During the busy holiday pie season, we had to endure pages of food mag instructional articles for decorating pie crusts with the fancy braided edge, the cutesy holly leaf and apple cut outs, and the little dough circles decorating the rim. Truth is, making even the “simple” homey crimp takes practice. The glossy tricks are too much and only kept us away from the kitchen. With all the fantastic fall and seasonal ingredients we should have put them to better use.
And we did, although a little late, with the rediscovery of the tart pan. Better late than never. If you don’t have one, get a tart pan. Ten-inch with a removable bottom.
No crimping or fancy edges necessary.
Here’s why: You will look like a pastry chef. And guess what, the tart pan is easier to operate than the regular pie pan. It is flat, shallow, no crimping or decorating necessary. The removable bottom makes cutting and serving perfect slices a cinch because there are no sides to the pan. The tart looks drop-dead-go-to-hell sophisticated on a nice platter. Besides, “tart” just sounds fancy and people will think that you really put out for them.
Your favorite pastry recipe will work fine in a tart application, as will as refrigerated pie crust. Be sure to roll it out to a 12-inch circle for a 10-inch tart. Your favorite pie fillings will work, too. You just may have to bake the thinner tart a little less.
And here’s our other little secret that Mindy learned years ago from making all those biscuits in the Martha White test kitchen. Get a pastry cloth. It’s just a big square of canvas and it’s cheap. Sprinkle the cloth with flour, the dough won’t stick, and the kitchen counter stays clean.
Yep, just a big piece of canvas.
Fold it up when you’re finished and put it in a sealable plastic bag and store it in the freezer.
Ready when you are stored in the freezer.
A pastry cloth is useful for biscuits, cut-out cookies, bread dough, pastry…anytime to have to spread flour on the counter and make a mess.
For your winter entertaining, this Cheater Chef Lemon Chess Tart is a winner. The filling is not much different than a lemon chess pie with a little more lemon in it, but still with the characteristic chess touch of corn meal. You get the best of both worlds. All you do is stir it up and pour it into the shell. Your friends will wonder when you found the time for those pastry classes with R.B.
Lemon Chess Tart
Pie crust for a one crust pie
1½ cups sugar
4 eggs
Zest of one lemon (zest a lemon before you squeeze the juice)
½ cup strained fresh lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
¼ cup melted butter, slightly cooled
2 tablespoons self-rising corn meal mix
¼ teaspoon salt
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the pie dough into a 12-inch circle and lay it comfortably into a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom without stretching the dough. Press the top around the edge to cut off any extra dough.
Combine the sugar, eggs, zest, juice, and butter until well blended. Stir in the corn meal mix and salt. Pour it into the tart shell. Place the tart shell on a baking sheet for easier handling. Bake about 35 minutes or until set and the top is lightly browned. Cool before serving. Refrigerate. Makes 8 to 10 servings.
Secondary colors rule! Everyone needs a green bowl like this.
We’ve been known to break the savvy party host golden rule by cooking stuff we’ve never tried before, even at a holiday meal. It hasn’t always been the best idea. Looking back, our most successful celebratory dinners lean toward the traditional. Sometimes the safest route is the best, especially when our tables are set for the widest variety of ages and tastes, and getting along is even more important than eating well.
It’s what most of us really want anyway, especially after a tiring decade of fusion cuisine and chasing exotic ingredients. Who wants to think too hard during the family fun?
To get things rolling, launch the holiday dinner with a big ta-da first course before all the usual fixings are passed around. One of our favorite starters is a showy Shrimp Cocktail Salad, a combination of old school continental shrimp cocktail with crisp salad greens and a creamy nose-tingling cocktail dressing. Serve it family-style on a giant cold platter and let everyone dig in.
Shrimp Cocktail Salad works nicely for a family gathering or a business dinner because it is a familiar complementary opposite to all the traditional meats and poultry. It’s cold and crisp (unlike all those mushy holiday casseroles), it’s a foolproof way to include seafood in a meaty menu (Americans love shrimp to the tune of a billion pounds annually), it’s fancy (who doesn’t bee-line it to the office party shrimp table after hitting the chardonnay bar?), and it’s easy. Thaw a bag of frozen precooked shrimp or get a ready-to-go party platter at the seafood counter.
The classic salad ingredients—romaine, red cabbage, celery, and slivers of red onion are super simple so you can scale it up or down according to the size of your crowd. Same with the creamy dressing, a delicious mix of mayo, chili sauce, and horseradish. Scatter about four good-size shrimp per person over the greens.
There’s still plenty of room for creativity. You may feel like ratcheting up the red cabbage to radicchio or the celery to shaved fennel. Go for it. You may want to go retro with a big silver bowl of fresh saltines or opt for a couple of tall cups holding bouquets of salty breadsticks. The only rule is serve the salad icy cold. Everyone will love it and no one will miss the crushed ice.
Shrimp Cocktail Salad
1 medium head romaine lettuce, cut into bite size pieces
2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 cup very thin red onion slivers
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup chili sauce
½ cup prepared horseradish, or to taste
Two lemons cut into 8 wedges
32 large chilled cooked and peeled shrimp
Arrange the lettuce blended with the red cabbage on a large rimmed platter or large shallow bowl. Combine the mayonnaise, chili sauce and horseradish in a small bowl. Dollop the dressing over the greens (use as much as you like and pass additional dressing at the table). Scatter the celery, onions and shrimp over the dressed greens. Garnish the platter with the lemon wedges. Chill. Makes 8 servings. You can also easily plate individual servings.
My September big plan for fried Thanksgiving turkeys this year was just that. So with 14 to feed our hoMINeconomist came up with an actual plan — cut three small birds in half and roast them like big chickens. Brilliant.
Look for the smallest turkeys you can find–nine pounds each for us. They must be fresh, not frozen, for the meat counter to run them through the saw, only takes a minute. Let them do the work, they’ve got the good equipment.
At home lay the turkey halves out on half sheets. After that, just think chicken. Keep it simple. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, rub with oil or butter, or whatever fancy baste you like. We started them in a hot 450 degree oven and immediately turned down the heat to 325. They were ready in about 2 hours, not the usual 3 or 4 or 5. Let them rest before carving.
Of course, bake the dressing in a pan. We do that anyway because we like the crust and it’s just easier and safer.
Three halves per sheet fit nicely. A bit unattractive, the wings were clipped to make broth for the gravy the night before in the crock-pot.
Twenty-seven pounds, one medium-sized oven, no problem. They look like little chicken halves.
Baking a pie not your thing? Who cares. Make fresh applesauce in about 10 minutes, pair it with a good cookie and a scoop of ice cream.
There’s this restaurant menu trend to “deconstruct” dishes. What it means is that the chef has prepared and artfully arranged separately on the plate all the components of a dish usually cooked together.
I’ve seen deconstructed ratatouille with segregated piles of zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes; deconstructed stews with the baby carrots, leeks, and turnips dancing around a center of braised beef cheeks; and lots of deconstructed desserts. Pies are popular to deconstruct and construct anew because the components are so easy to work with. You can do it at home.
Take a classic apple pie ala mode for example. It’s just pastry, cooked apples and ice cream. In the deconstructed format, make a quick homemade applesauce, serve it with a good cookie, and a scoop of ice cream. Put it in a little bowl and call it an apple pie sundae. Line up everything on a rectangular plate and you could charge at least 10 bucks for it.
Sounds simpler than pie doesn’t it? Hmmm…deconstructing a dessert means it’s easier to make. Wonder what the profit margin is on that.
What got me thinking about this was a spoonful of cold homemade applesauce straight from the fridge. The wonderful fresh flavor has nothing in common with those little lunchbox cups. Nothing. Why don’t I make it more often, and why do I relegate it to the kids instead of whipping up quick dinner party desserts? It’s that good.
Tart-sweet apples that fall apart easily under heat make great sauce. Combine a few varieties. I can never remember which ones are good for what and have to google it every fall. And it all depends where you live and what you can get. Empire, Jonathan, Jonagold, Winesap, McIntosh are some of the fall apples I look for.
When deconstructing your latest applesauce creation, remember there are so many flavors that complement apples–toasted nuts, oats, granola, cinnamon, raisins, caramel, ginger, cranberries. The list is long. You can easily add a little value-added smear of an ingredient on that rectangular plate.
Homemade Applesauce
6 medium apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup water
Sugar to taste–start with 1/4 cup more or less
Combine the apples, water and sugar in a saucepan. Cook stirring, occasionally, until the apples are tender, about 10 minutes. Mash with a potato masher or fork. Serve warm or chilled. You can still adjust the sweetness after cooking.
Other things you can add for the holidays: Fresh orange zest, 1/2 cup fresh cranberries (you’ll need more sugar), 1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger.
An easy choice to replace the pastry are snickerdoodles laced with cinnamon. Other good choices are shortbread and anything simple and buttery and with nuts.
Snickerdoodles
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour (3 1/2 cups, if you don’t want them really flat)
2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Heat the oven to 400 F. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs and blend well. Add the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Blend well. Chill if you like for an hour. Combine the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Shape the dough into about 1-inch balls. I use a heaping teaspoonful. Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar. Place a on a cookie sheet about 2-inches apart. Bake about 10 minutes. Makes 3 to 4 dozen.
I have a short attention span. My mind wanders while I’m cooking. I often burn things. I know. It surprises people. Someone like me who develops recipes, writes about food, and cooks all the time. Well, much of it is overcooked. Burnt.
This is a lifelong pattern. As a young teenager, I’d yell upstairs to my sister…”Hey Marge, want to try a piece of this banana bread (insert any recipe here) that I just made?”
She’d yell back down to me, “Did you burn it?”
Happened all the time.
R.B. usually cooks the bacon for this very reason. I turn up the heat on the skillet way too much and have no patience for slow cooking. (Cheater BBQ makes perfect sense, now doesn’t it.) With all his low and slow barbecue experience, he’s got no problem hanging over a couple of skillets on the stove delicately turning the gently spattering bacon slices every so often until perfectly crisp. He loves his splatter screen.
Not me. I leave my post. Start on something else like the biscuits. That’s when things get smoky.
Oven bacon is great for impatient folks with a short attention span.
When R. B. is too busy practicing the guitar, and the bacon is up to me, I do it in the oven. Changed my life. A whole pound cooked at once on baking sheets in about 15 minutes. The slices are perfectly even. Almost too perfect looking, like microwave bacon. You can still save the grease, too. Just pour it from the sheet into you drippings jar.
Turn up the oven heat to 400 F. Lay the bacon slices out on a rimmed baking sheet. Put it in the oven. Set the timer for 10 or 15 minutes (you’ll have to figure out the exact timing for your bacon depending on the thickness and how crisp you like it). Be sure to set a timer. Get lost in your thoughts and your hands in the biscuit dough.
Or make a pile of great BLTs. The bacon is ready to go for a crowd. Freeze it and pull out a few pieces as needed on a busy school morning. You never know when a little cooked and crumbled bacon can make the meal. Heat them back up in the toaster oven or microwave and you’re set to go.
Here we are smoking ourselves probably talking about liquid smoke.
Listen to us on Eat Drink & Be Merry Big Blend Radio. The hosts Nancy and Lisa are tons of fun. They really like slow cookers, cocktails and all kinds of smoke.
Need a break from the traditional pumpkin pie this holiday season? Maybe something trendy?
Cheater Chef does trendy.
Just cupcakes? Not hardly, it's easy to complicate the simple with a pile of food trends.
Let us spin some trends for you with this one little recipe called Cuppacakes di Zucca.
One, fancy restaurant-y name. Zucca means squash and pumpkin in Italian.
Two, cupcakes. This dessert trend may be peaking so jump in on it now or never.
Three, baking with olive oil. Italian olive oil cakes are big right now (the only thing we’ve left out is the rosemary), but as all oils work the same, use what you like. A well-flavored olive oil will only change the flavor a bit.
Four, expensive imported ingredient to replace a pantry stand-by. Our Italian icing features triple cream Mascarpone instead of regular cream cheese (which tastes great, too, and for about seven bucks less).
Five, farmer’s market pumpkin. Ride the locavore train and cook your own pumpkin. Or, cheat and use Libby’s excellent canned pumpkin puree.
Six, seasonal ingredients—pumpkin, orange, almonds—sounds like fall to us.
Seven, regional southern ingredient. Use Nashville’s iconic Martha White self-rising flour with “Hot Rize,” perfectly premixed with salt and leavening. But, you must know all about that since Martha White’s been an Opry sponsor forever and you make biscuits with it all the time.
These cupcakes should pretty much take care of your trendy food needs this holiday season.
Now back to choosing between the canned pumpkin puree and fresh cooked pumpkin. Is it worth the extra step? Well, our goal is to keep you in the kitchen so if cooking your own pumpkin has you turning this page, use canned. We love canned pumpkin. With no added ingredients, it’s pure, convenient, consistent, and delicious. Get some for your cupboard.
Fresh cooked pumpkin on the left. Libby's on the right. Both good.
We tested the cupcakes both ways and the biggest difference was color—the canned is darker, the fresh brighter, more like butternut squash. We couldn’t tell a difference in flavor for this application. Both versions are winners.
To cook your own pumpkin—it’s very simple and no different than any other winter squash. Pick up a pie pumpkin at your local farmer’s market or in the winter squash section of the supermarket. Cut it in half and remove the seeds. Leave the stringy stuff in there and the skin on, both of which are easier to remove after cooking. Cut the pumpkin into smallish chunks and pack it into a casserole with a lid. Add a splash of water. Cover and microwave for 15 minutes. Let stand a few minutes. Check for doneness. The squash should feel soft when pierced with a knife. If not, microwave it a few more minutes. Let cool.
Scrape the stringy parts away from the flesh and remove the skin with a knife or your fingers. For a nice puree, you’ll have to use a food processor. Otherwise, if you don’t mind more texture, you can mash it up with a fork (probably too stringy for a pie, but okay for breads and cupcakes). One smallish pumpkin will make one batch of cupcakes or a pie. The pumpkin freezes well so you can make a few, measure out the puree into one pie amounts. Store in freezer bags and it’s ready to go when you need it.
Cuppacakes di Zucca
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
¾ cup olive oil
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree or about 1 ½ to 1 ¾ cup pumpkin puree
½ teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon fresh orange zest
2 cups self-rising flour
Mascarpone Orange Buttercream
Toasted sliced almonds
Heat he oven to 350° F. Place paper liners in 24 muffin cups. Wisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend in the sugar, oil and pumpkin. Stir in the almond extract, cinnamon, and flour until well blended. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake until the tops spring back when lightly touched, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Ice when cool. Makes 24 cupcakes.
Mascarpone Orange Buttercream
8 ounces Mascarpone cheese
4ounces (1 stick) butter, softened
1 tablespoons fresh orange zest
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
Cream the butter and cheese with an electric mixer in a medium bowl. Add the orange zest. Blend in the sugar. Makes a generous amount for 24 cupcakes.
Mix the lettuce with the dressing and have some extra in a bowl to add as you eat. I threw in our leftover tomato slices, too.
What makes a good Italian sub? The crusty bread, nice paper-thin sliced deli meats and cheeses, and the most important thing of all, a healthy squirt of oily tangy Italian dressing loaded with oregano. It makes the sandwich.
Again, it’s the simple things. Become one with your inner deli guy. For better blended flavor and no soggy bread, toss the shredded iceberg with the grinder dressing. Kind of like iceberg grinder slaw. And it’s got to be iceberg. No droopy baby weeds, please. Good sandwiches are worth it.
Grinder Lettuce
Crisp shredded iceberg lettuce
olive oil
wine vinegar
salt and black pepper
dried oregano
Place the lettuce in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil until lightly coated. Toss. Sprinkle lightly with the vinegar. Add a generous pinch of oregan0–don’t be shy here. Sprinkle to taste with salt and pepper. Load it on a good sandwich.
Nuke Braising–The Cheater Chef technical term for quickly cooking vegetables in the microwave in a little water or broth. The microwave is the home cook’s best friend for cooking vegetables. Give it a fancy name and it’s as cool as sous-vide.
Leeks, underused in most American homes, are perfect for nuke-braising. We especially like these beautiful silky pieces with delicate fish and pureed root vegetables in the fall.
These nuke-braised leeks are ready to chef up so many dishes.
Close your eyes and imagine grilled wild caught salmon on wilted spinach, leeks and a puree of rutabagas. Sounds seasonal checkered pants for sure. Sounds simple.
Any Cheater Chef can do this at home!
Nuke Braised Leeks
Use only the white and light green end of the leek. Discard the coarse green leaves. Cut the leeks into quarters. Wash well. Place them in a microwave safe casserole with a lid. Add a shot of water or broth. Cover and nuke about 8 minutes. Of course, the timing all depends on how many leeks you are cooking and the power of your microwave oven.
Corn dogs at home. Ouch, watch out for the skewer when you take a bite.
When R.B. showed me how easy it is to change my car oil, I remember thinking that’s all there is to it? I paid the dealer how much to do that?
Corn dogs are the same situation. You may be asking yourself what sort of high tech equipment does it take to get a hot dog so perfectly encased in cornbread. What, they’re just hot dogs dipped in cornbread batter and fried? That’s all there is to it? You mean anyone can make them at home?
Yes, and it’s unbelievably easy with self-rising cornmeal mix and self-rising flour. I shake my head as a write this, since I never did make that Martha White corn dog recipe during my Martha White years. In those days, we were big on developing easy one-dish family meals blanketed with a hearty layer of cornbread–like that outrageous chili dog pie. I love that recipe.
Now years later, my son Louis gets a corn dog at school and starts begging for boxes of the frozen ones. What, you want corn dogs?
We finally did it. All it took was a relaxing October fall break in Rhode Island and those fantastic local Saugy hot dogs sitting there in the fridge. Yes, if you are wondering, they sell little bags of Martha White Self-Rising Corn Meal Mix at the Wyoming Stop & Shop. It’s the craziest thing. Southern cornmeal in Rhodie Johnny cake country. I love that both Tennessee and Rhode Island have a thing for white corn meal. It provides the most ironic and unexpected continuity in my cooking. Next time, I’ll try making corn dogs with Rhode Island’s Kenyons Johnny Cake Corn Meal.
I cut the Saugys in half for easier frying. The natural casing gives them the greatest snappy bite.
See how the batter nicely coats the hot dog. It's not too thick or thin, adheres beautifully. Unlike my usual Martha White cornbread, this batter has more flour making a more pliable bread. You can add a spoonful or two of sugar if you like it sweeter.
Three at a time worked great in the Fry Daddy. They look absolutely perfect.
Corn Saugs relaxing in a sunny kitchen window. Can you imagine your friends' faces when you bring out a platter of these? Oh, Dude.
Corn Dogs or Corn Saugs–when you make them with Rhode Island Saugys
Oil for deep-fat frying
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup self-rising cornmeal mix
1/2 cup self-rising flour
6 to 8 good quality hot dogs, cut in half
Wooden skewers, optional
Beat the egg in a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the milk and dry ingredients. The batter should be thick-ish, not as pourable as your regular cornbread batter, but not too thick. It should easily coat a hot dog with a nice even layer. You’ll get the hang of it. Add a little shot of water if your batter becomes too thick. Coat a hot dog with an even layer of batter. Fry in hot oil (365 F) for about 5 minutes. We used R.B.’s old Fry Daddy and fried three at a time. Serve hot with mustard and ketchup. Makes 6 servings.
A platter of fork chops. No steak knife required. Grilled lemons and a sprinkling of capers give them the checkered pants treatment.
Just when we thought we were having some fun, we’d biggied ourselves to near doom. Biggie houses, biggie mortgages, biggie cars, biggie stores, biggie portions, biggie divorces, biggie waistlines. We got huge! The crash came not an ounce too soon. Let’s revaluate the portions of life.
Consider the pork chop. This reasonable weeknight dinner regular got biggied into a bionic double thick steakhouse chop. Here’s the problem. Reaching a safe temperature near the bone without overcooking the meaty middle is a challenge even when you brine it. Thick, bland slabs of lean boneless loin are no better. They look fancy, but get ready to chew.
It’s time for the Prius of pork. We call them fork chops.
Sensible thin-cut pork chops and loin cutlets don’t seem so common anymore. In fact, they’re spectacular for cooking and eating. Ready in minutes on a hot grill, you’ll have great smoky flavor and moist, tender meat without fretting over the internal temperature. Pile them on a platter so everyone can enjoy only what they want. No one gets overwhelmed by the biggie chop.
There are two easy ways to go. Grab a pack of thin cut pork chops (usually about ½ inch thick) or opt for the already thinly sliced boneless pork loin cutlets. The pork chop you can leave as is. The loin cutlets you can pound out even thinner a la scaloppini. Either way, we usually find it cheaper and easier to buy already cut pieces than the pricier whole pork tenderloin that requires cutting and pounding. But, you can do that too.
These pork chops are cut nice and thin. No pounding required. The platter shows the pork cutlets right from the package. They're nice and thin, too. You can pound them down a little if you want them extra thin.
Pork is the perfect transition meat for October. The bugs are gone, the evenings cool, and we’re all still enjoying the backyard grill. Summer pork chops tasted great with corn on the cob, baked beans and potato salad. This month and into the late fall they take to winter squash and all the roasted root vegetables. Swap your fresh tomato mozzarella salad for greens with crumbled blue cheese, toasted pecans and apples. Everything goes with pork.
Salt and pepper are all you really need when grilling the pork, but it’s certainly acceptable practice to experiment with dry rubs and your “secret” seasoning blends. Pass your own little special sauce at the table, too.
Plus, thin pork cuts offer the double bonus of both grill-ahead convenience and make a killer breakfast or brunch the next day. Gently reheat them in foil in a low oven or pop a couple cutlets in the toaster oven and eat them with crusty bread or toast. Believe us, they’re just as good later as the minute they came off the grill.
Grilled Fork Chops
About 3 pounds thin cut pork chops or thin pork loin cutlets.
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
To flatten the loin into paillards, place slices one at a time on a large cutting board and cover with a layer of plastic wrap. Pound with a flat meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy saucepan until the paillards are about 1/4-inch thick. Season with salt and pepper and an optional drizzle of olive oil. Grill the meat over high heat about a couple minutes per side. Pile on a warm platter and serve. These may be grilled in advance. To re-warm, wrap in foil and place in a low oven.
Here’s a little Cheater Chef sauce to take your pork into classic Italian territory.
Piccata Sauce and Grilled Lemon Slices
2 lemons, thinly sliced
Olive oil
Salt to taste
After grilling the pork chops, drizzle the lemon slices with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Grill about 1 minute per side or until lightly charred. Scatter over the platter of pork chops. They’re great over chicken, too.
1/4 cup butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 chicken bouillon cube, crushed
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Chopped fresh parsley, optional
Capers, optional
Melt butter in a small skillet. Stir in garlic and cook over medium heat until softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in bouillon cube, water, wine, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and reduce by half. Drizzle over the warm meat and grilled lemons. Garnish with parsley and/or capers.
It may be impossible to explore the entire world of eggplant during one’s lifetime. We’re trying. This time it’s back to the basics with a deconstructed look at Eggplant Parmesan.
The new eggplant parm is lighter feeling and easier. The eggplant is even recognizable. Nicely fried chunks of eggplant, topped with a simple tomato sauce, not too much, and Parmesan cheese. Now this classic dish is no longer a mysterious, thick, doughy, gloppy, tinny tasting casserole. Light, Fresh, Very Good Looking.
Here are the Eggplant Parmesan irritants egging me on for a round of problem-solving.
1. Frying, Breading? Should I bread and fry the eggplant before topping it with tomato sauce and cheese? No, just don’t want to. Every time I do, it’s an utter mess. The flour burns, the eggplant is oily. This time we cheaters are frying it naked in a deeper vat (about 2 inches in my old chicken fryer) of hot oil. Yes, this makes the eggplant less greasy because the hot oil envelopes and seals the eggplant sponge.
2. Salt it? I can never get a straight answer on this. I tend to salt big round eggplant and not the other small varieties. Sprinkle the slices/pieces with kosher salt and let them drain in a colander for about 30 minutes. Rinse them off and squeeze pat them dry.
3. Sauce? Not too much. Make it simple so that you get a nice bite of eggplant that you can recognize with a bit of tomato and salty, savory cheese.
4. Cheese? Get a good Parmesan Reggiano or substitute another good Italian hard cheese, Romano, Pecorino, Asiago, and that other one I can’t think of right now, will all work fine. It just needs good strong flavor. Bake it on the casserole near the end of cooking and pass some around the table.
Why do we always think we have to have big slices in eggplant parm? After salting this batch, we thought better and chopped it up.
Using plenty of oil keeps the eggplant from being too greasy. You won't miss the breading.
Can't face the oil? Boil the eggplant in water. It just won't taste quite as rich, but it works. And there's always the grill and the broiler.
You can tell which one is fried? Still the boiled eggplant--on the right--tasted pretty great, too.
Deconstructed Eggplant Parmesan
Go easy on the proportions. You’ll just have to wing it.
Fried, grilled or boiled eggplant chunks (two medium for a 9 x 13 baking dish)
Grated Parmesan cheese, probably a cup-ish, and some to pass at the table.
Place the eggplant in a gratin or casserole. Lightly spoon on the tomato sauce so that it’s not drenched, but will make a nice bite. Cook in a 400 F oven for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with some cheese. Return to the oven for about 5 to 10 minutes. You can fry the eggplant ahead and hold it in the casserole. Add the tomato sauce just before baking. Makes about 8 to 10 servings.
What luck! I happened to be wearing my Gila Cliff Dwellings shirt that I got on our last trip to New Mexico when we drove through Hatch, the Green Chile capitol of the universe. Those are our home roasted Hatch chiles.
My Aunt Mary used to Fed Ex bags of frozen roasted and chopped New Mexico Chiles to us in the fall to keep us going through the winter. No more! Harris Teeter orders a supply for a small handful of transpants in Nashville that know what to do with them. Apparently, the few of us buy up the whole lot. Who are you other people?
The chiles are named after Hatch, the little town in Southwestern New Mexico that’s the buckle of the chile belt running down through Las Cruses. In August/September you’ll see roasting chiles in giant spinning baskets over flames everywhere.
We roasted our chiles on the gas grill, peeled them, chopped them, and packed them neatly in easy-to-use zipper freezer bags. We’re set for green chile stew, posole, enchiladas, rellenos, Aunt Jan’s green chile green beans and throwing a chunk in pretty much anything–especially cornbread. Check it out.
The Hatch chiles blistering on the grill nicely. Aren't they gorgeous?
R.B. is always at the ready for a Hatch project.
It makes for great two person teamwork. R.B. grills, I peel. Takes much less time than you think.
It's a good idea to wear rubber gloves. I learned this the hard way. My fingers tingled for hours after peeling last time.
We kept some whole for chile rellenos. The rest we chopped for easy freezing and throwing into recipes later.
You gotta love technology. The chiles were perfectly chopped in seconds. We did them in smallish batches.
The most important picture of all. The bags are thin and not too full. It's easy to break some off for a recipe. They thaw quickly and store easily in the freezer. Be sure to label the freezer bags.
Stay tuned for our Hatch Chile Rellenos post! Lots of places besides my generous and kind Auntie Mary will ship roasted Hatch chiles to you. Google it.
It’s coming–a huge funk music resurgence. You heard it here first.
The world is hip-hopped and short-ied out, we’re aching for the next Curtis Mayfield. Aching for real guitar. Aching for melody. People get ready, a change is coming!
I feel the same way about pimiento cheese. Old School is New School.
All this stuff piled on a sandwich is a perfect meal or a perfect salad.
Hold that puck of warm goat cheese, the scattering of toasted candied pecans, the too sweet balsamic vinaigrette. Real summer tomatoes are aching for real pimiento cheese, a sandwich classic that makes a great salad.
2009 Tomato Study continues.
Forget the goat cheese. Lightly broil the homemade pimiento cheese on thick tomato slices. Don't leave your post. You want the top very slightly bubbly. Not drippy--and believe me that happens fast. Is that Alton Brown in there?
Pimiento Cheese
1/2 pound sharp white cheddar, grated
1/2 pound medium yellow cheddar, grated
1 small jar pimientos, somewhat drained
Dash Worcestershire sauce
Dash hot pepper sauce
Pinch of sugar, optional
Enough mayonnaise to moisten it all up and create a nice spread
Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Blend well.
Make a salad–you can either broil the pimiento cheese on thick tomato slices or plop some on a tomato salad that’s lightly dressed with vinaigrette. You’ll definitely need lots of black pepper. Crusty bread on the side will complete your deconstructed pimiento cheese sandwich.
Pico Gelee--or fresh salsa jell-o. See aspic doesn't have to be cut into cubes or put into a mold. Here it's served free-form in soft lumps with watercress, olive oil and sea salt.
We’re still not sick of the permanent side of ripe Tennessee tomatoes that have been on the table since July. And September is looking mighty strong for the Cheater Chef 2009 Tomato Study. We’re consumed with ideas over here just letting our minds wander…
Tomato nostalgia. Why not get right into it and put steakhouse-size slabs with some crisp bacon, thin red onion, and homemade, salad bar-style dressings mixed with good mayo. For your ranch and blue cheese, use half mayo to half buttermilk. For the 1000 Island, spoon in some chili sauce and pickle relish. That’s all.
Yin-yang tomato. A Cheater Chef summer tomato platter is a foodie cred must. On your favorite round dish do a yin-yang pattern with half yellow tomatoes and half any variety of red. Sprinkle fresh purple basil over yellows and green basil over reds. And do take a picture because if it’s not on Facebook, it didn’t happen.
Tomato and watercress (the new arugula). No doubt this classic combination is ready for some attention. Peppery, crunchy cress sitting beneath or tossed with tomato slices is a sophisticated combo alone or as the base for summer chilled tuna, chicken or egg salad. Double up on the peppery bite by tossing in thin rounds of radishes.
Cherry tomato. And if things weren’t good enough already, how about the selection of cherry tomatoes we get — striped ones, greenish red ones, orange ones, pear-shaped ones, and even cherry Bradleys. A few little orbs scattered over cut tomato slices in various colors is so Alice Waters. You know the drill on the dressing.
Raw ratatouille. Pretty much everything else is in season now, too. Toss chopped tomatoes with cheap mandolin, paper thin zucchini discs, bell pepper strips, and red onion slices. Now, shape this raw salad’s persona to echo your inner chef – use choice olive oils and vinegars and fancy salts. Or, use regular ones. That’s the great thing about the kitchen. It’s all about you.
Caprese update. Tomatoes, fresh mootz, basil. We like what you’re thinking. But, switch out the cheese and herb once in a while with salty feta, creamy goat, or dollops of homemade sharp cheddar pimiento cheese. Fresh chives, oregano, marjoram, mint – it all works.
Yet another “easy” salad. Toss chopped tomato, onion, cucumber, and herbs with warm brown rice. Another reason for keeping a brown rice routine. You can keep a batch cooked in the fridge Again, the best dressing is olive oil, salt, fresh ground pepper, and vinegar. Serve the salad in big bowls, especially when topping with sliced grilled chicken breast or salmon.
The over-rip tomato. Since it is September, bet you periodically have a tomato that’s too soft to eat lying on the counter or one that split on the vine. If you do, check out our Over-Ripe Tomato Vinaigrette recipe. Always a favorite.
Tuesday night tacos. Suddenly not so plain now that we’re mixing up vats of fresh pico de gallo. No matter the meal, Mexican, whatever, juicy tomato pico balances out and picks up everything from grilled meats to a cornbread and beans vegetable supper.
The pico. Combine chopped fresh tomatoes—mix up every variety and color—chopped white or green onion, chopped cilantro, lime juice, chopped jalapeno peppers, and a good sprinkling of salt. Pico really benefits from some time in the refrigerator – cold, nice, and juicy.
But, wait. There’s more. Go a short step further and make Pico de Gallo Gelee. Combine fresh ripe tomato pico with some extra pico juice and a packet of unflavored gelatin. Just strain your pico and you’ll get plenty of juice. You’ll need two cups of each, pico and pico juice. Put that ancient tomato aspic made from lemon Jell-O and tomato juice from a can out of your head. This is way cool.
Pico Gelee
Two cups pico de gallo.
Two cups juice from the pico de gallo (add additional fresh lemon or lime and tomato juice or even a little water to make two cups)
1 packet unflavored gelatin
Fresh Bibb lettuce, watercress or other tender lettuces.
Pour ½ cup of the pico juice into a small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Heat slowly to a simmer, stirring until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Pour the hot mixture into the pico de gallo with the remaining 1 ½ cups of pico juice. Blend well. Pour the mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 to 4 hours or until firm. Serve free-form spooned over the greens. Drizzle with olive oil and coarse salt. Sure, add a dollop of good mayonnaise. Makes about 6 servings.
Or maybe we should call it Egg Plantaroo. We are in Tennessee after all.
What is everyone doing with all this eggplant? Do other people like it as much as we do?
“I’m the eggplant guru of Middle Tennessee,” Troy Smiley said with a grin. Every summer his downtown Nashville Farmer’s Market stand is loaded with big beautiful black-purple globes and and other crazy varieties that he’s playing around with.
A few years back the guru’s artistic vision produced a surprise abundance of lavender-tinted neon eggplants. “You should have seen the field,” he said, “It looked like a Christo landscape installation.”
I mean lots and lots of eggplant.
Now this looks like an "egg" plant.
The mild eggplant is a chameleon, quick to adopt surrounding flavors. Of course, I prefer mine to look and taste like my grill. Smoky eggplant is drop-dead delicious on grilled bread/bruschetta. Spread the garlic-rubbed toast with a creamy herbed cheese spread from the deli (like Boursin), top with cut pieces of eggplant and pull it all together with a cool slice of ripe Tennessee tomato. All varieties are great grilled, but this time we used the slim Asian kind for its creamy texture and tender skin.
The eggplant doesn’t have to be served hot so grill it first and set aside while you make the toast.
Cut the large bruschetta into fingers to serve with drinks. Keep them whole and you’ve got a killer sandwich. Fellow Cheater Chefs, don’t cheat on the garlic (no garlic salt please.) Use a real garlic clove to rub down the toast. Sprinkle the tops with with chopped fresh herbs like basil, thyme or chives.
Cut the eggplant like fingers. Drizzle with oil and you're ready for grilling.
Grilling may be the easiest and quickest way to cook eggplant. These Asian eggplant are particularly creamy and the skin isn't too tough. There are a million things you can do with these...we're not finished yet.
Smoky Eggplant Bruschetta
3 Asian eggplant
2 tablespoons olive oil, more for drizzling
Salt and Pepper
8 medium slices (about 5 inches across) good rustic bakery bread
2 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
Herbed cheese spread such as Alouette or Boursin
2 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced
Cut each eggplant into quarters lengthwise. Sprinkle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Grill eggplant quarters over high heat until skin chars and flesh is soft, turning occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove and set aside. Grill bread until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes per side. Rub a cut clove of garlic lightly over one side of each toast and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Spread each toast with cheese. Cut eggplant quarters into toast-sized lengths. Top toasts with eggplant and tomato slices. Makes 4 main dish or 8 appetizer servings.
Thanks to a childhood of no one wanting to eat his perfect Boy Scout pancakes, R.B. loves making Sunday brunch. Pretty much always a big pile of cheesy eggs with heaping sides of grilled meats. And Mindy says R.B. doesn’t care about sides.
A couple Sundays ago we gave R.B. the day off and went to Miro District. It was Ryan’s idea, one of our favorite bar guys, and he was on duty.
Do you share R.B.’s narrow definition of brunch? Maybe this will expand your thinking, but not too much.
Ryan is a model of hospitality, service and fun. And speed. Look at him go.
The only ordering anxiety comes from deciding what not to choose from the succinct list. Ryan is effusive about the Croque Madame Tartine with Mornay and fried eggs. A grits gal well before grits got cool, Mindy picked shrimp and grits. And a plate of heirloom Tennessee tomatoes. And Hoegarrdens on tap. Or, something else on tap.
A fine selection and something for everyone.
We shared everything and somehow the plates landed just right with plenty of inspiration for R.B.’s next foray into cheesy eggs and meat.
Why won’t he make Croque Madam at home? It’s still just eggs and meat. Grilled toast, ham and cheese, a quick cheesy white sauce topped with a runny fried egg. That’s easy. It’s an Egg McMuffin with white sauce.
The tomato salad study continues. Miro uses nice olive oil and coarse sea salt and it makes a difference. Tomatoes make a particularly great side to a big pile of eggs and an abundance of breakfast meats. R.B. you can slice a tomato once in a while can't you?
Get a pot of grits going on the stove and R.B. could easily make this at home as well. Cheese grits are great with shrimp. Quickly pan saute some shrimp with garlic and olive oil (or in bacon drippings, even better), add some chopped tomato. Pile them on a plateful of buttery and or cheesy grits. Add additional crumbled bacon or bits of country ham if there’s just not enough meat for you. We would enjoy this with a couple of runny eggs, too.
Dessert cheeses. Brunch cheeses. Why not. Pick three varieties you like and choose a nut -- toasted walnuts, pecans, or the Marcona almonds pictured here. A little blob of some kind of fancy jam is nice, or honey. This plate included fig preserves. Now add some fruit. Something bubbly? Nice brunch. Even R.B. needs a break from eggs and meat!
That particular Sunday happened to be Caleb’s birthday. Not one to miss even the most obscure celebration (and well known for inventing plenty) Ryan was prepared to serve several rounds of Monster Cello, the peculiar combination of lemoncello and Monster Energy Drink. Apparently, we don’t get out enough. Apparently, you need to be under 35 to understand this particular trend.
Despite leaving the cooked kalbi for the Channel 5 crew’s lunch (frankly, the most fun part of the experience) we still had some prop leftovers — the uncooked package of flanken ribs and the deep, rich Cheater kalbi sauce made with soy, sugar, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger that came from kalbi batch #2 which we cooked after we got home.
Also waiting at home was the prop we couldn’t use — the Lodge cast iron hibachi. Lodge names it the Sportsman’s Grill but hibachi seems cooler, retro, and therefore more likely to impress our many foodish friends. It truly is impressive.
These thin cuts need only a couple minutes over a little lump charcoal. Too fast for R.B. who always wants something more to put on the fire now that it's "just perfect."
Not yet a supermarket regular, flanken ribs are a staple at any international market.
Here's a better shot of the beef rib's cross cut -- little bone medallions in each strip. And lots of nice marbling.
While R.B. might be fine with little more than a heaping platter of these babies and a six of Tiger beer, Mindy prefers side dish balance and always something fresh and green. In fact, “crispy” is one of her favorite words. She’s right, this is really the way to enjoy grilled or Cheater BBQ kalbi anyway.
If R.B. and Mindy suddenly turned into food, here's how we would look.
Years ago, my friend Anne Byrn (the Cake Mix Doctor) shared with me a pearl of wisdom from her mother. She told Anne “you can get away with a cake mix, but always make your own frosting.” That one bit of motherly advice certainly has been good to Anne.
I feel the same way about salad dressing. Sure you can opt for a premixed bag of Euro-greens or whatever, but please, make your own dressing.
Bottled dressings taste bottled. No matter what you pay, dressing from a bottle is a dead giveaway. The flavors scream too harsh, too sour, too sweet, too dried herby, too garlic powdery, too something. The beautiful subtly of greens dressed with a balance of oil, salt, and acid is completely lost.
Learning to achieve salad dressing balance is the mark of a good cook and a great cheater chef.
Here’s our Over Ripe Tomato Vinaigrette, a fun little dressing that’s big on balance and easy to whizz up in the blender. Even better, the recipe uses one of those late summer over ripe tomatoes lying on the kitchen counter that you just can’t throw out yet.
When you make a dressing, you must taste it and adjust the balance to suit your own palate. Does it need a pinch more salt or a few drops of vinegar? This all will depend on the flavor, acidity, and sweetness of your tomato.
Just as creamy rich chocolate ganache coaxes out the devil in cake mix, a fresh tomato vinaigrette four-stars any old salad dumped out of a bag. More, it is certainly worthy of delicate greens and vegetables washed and chopped by you.
Our picture shows how a simple cross slice of romaine scattered with ripe tomato chunks dazzles with the dressing. You heirloomers will love Over Ripe Tomato Vinaigrette lightly spooned over a colorful platter of your finest–Tomato on Tomato. Now that’s cheater cheffy.
Over-Ripe Tomato Vinaigrette
1 medium over ripe tomato, cored and cut into chunks
1 small clove garlic
¾ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon wine vinegar, or maybe two if you like it tart
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Black pepper, to taste
Combine all the ingredients in a blender and whiz. The consistency will be almost like a pink tomato mayonnaise. Taste and check to see if it needs more salt or vinegar. Serve over your favorite salad greens and vegetables.
Variations:
Turn the dressing to Asian Tomato Vinaigrette—by using vegetable oil instead of olive oil, rice vinegar instead of wine vinegar, add a small knob of peeled fresh ginger, a spoonful of sugar, and a dash of sesame oil.
Throw in a few sprigs of fresh herbs—chives, basil, oregano, thyme.
Happy Birthday, Max! I prefer making Carbonara in my old chicken fryer. It's not pretty but it's big with high sides for easy pasta tossing. I love this old pan. In fact, I got it from Max!
I’m not one of those party cooks who enjoys last minute dinner prep or an audience in the kitchen. Don’t get me wrong. I love to cook for people. But, I always prefer to cook ahead…like in Cheater BBQ. Hey, I’m a party girl who wants to enjoy the party, especially my own.
There is one exception–my Dad’s birthday. Max always requests spaghetti Carbonara, the the most last minute dish of all time. It’s the kind of dish you should let the competent line cook at your favorite Italian restaurant prepare for you. At most, you might prepare it at home for no more than can be happy with one pound of pasta. That’s 4 people tops. Did I mention that Dad likes to invite his friends?
Carbonara has been burned into our souls since we lived in Naples, Italy, when I was a kid. It’s as important to us as Carlsbad, NM, flat enchiladas.
It sounds like the simplest dish–bacon and cheesy eggs with spaghetti. The trick is for the eggs to coat the noodles like a thin layer of silk–not form clumpy scrambles.
See the problem here? It’s a super-quick operation filled with last minute anxiety and dexterity. Extra hard when lots of hungry family and friends are anxiously hovering, supportive though they are. And I’m not in my own kitchen. And I want to sit down and eat with them is the thing. That’s Carbonara for ten, coming right up.
Eric and Elsa--my two favorite four-letter E's, are the best kitchen help for keeping me calm. Everyone else was outside on the patio enjoying drinks. Hey, there's 2009 Tomato Study #28 in the foreground!
It helps to have another set of hands.
My good-natured cousin Eric whisking up eggs.
Carbonara is simply freshly cooked hot spaghetti tossed with bits of pan-fried pancetta, a few beaten eggs tempered with some hot pasta water, and a handful of Parmesan cheese. Lots of black pepper and fresh parsley. It’s fantastic.
Here’s what I’ve learned after lots of batches of scrambled egg spaghetti:
Make only one pound at a time.
Do all these steps ahead:
Dice and cook the pancetta in olive oil over gentle medium heat. Use 1/4 to 1/2 pound per pound of pasta. Reheat it just before making the Carbonara.
Here's the pancetta rewarming while the pasta is reviving in boiling water for about half a minute.
Cook the spaghetti to a nice chewy al dente and pack each pound in a separate bag. Save about 1 cup of pasta water for each batch. Reheat the pasta water to boiling in a separate small saucepan just before assembling the Carbonara.
I reheat the spaghetti in a pot with a removable insert. Now I can reuse the boiling water for the next batch.
Whisk the four room temperature eggs in a small bowl with enough room to add the hot pasta water. If the eggs aren’t cold, the mixture stays hot.
Add a dash of heavy cream to the egg mixture. It’s a little insurance for a creamy texture.
Use a big flat skillet with high sides to reheat the pancetta mixture and toss the pasta with the eggs and Parmesan cheese. I use an old chicken fryer. Don’t know what I’d do without it.
Make 3 pounds of pasta for 10 people. We had plenty and some leftovers.
There it is. And I'm a nervous wreck. This shows the whole mis en place business. Cooked pasta in bags, cheese and pancetta warming. It's worth it.
Spaghetti Carbonara
1 pound spaghetti cooked al dente in nice salty water
About 1 cup spaghetti water saved from cooking the pasta
1/2 pound pancetta, diced (have the deli slice it into 1/4 inch slices) cooked in 2 tablespoons olive oil
4 room temperature eggs, beaten
Dash of heavy cream, optional (this helps keep the eggs creamy)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese (get the good stuff), plus more for passing around the table
Freshly cracked black pepper
Chopped fresh parsley
Reheat the oily cooked pancetta in a big high-sided skillet until nice and hot. Reheat the pasta in a pot of boiling water. Reheat the reserved pasta water to boiling in a small saucepan. Beat the eggs in a small bowl and whisk in the boiling pasta water and a dash of heavy cream. Pour the hot drained pasta into the pancetta pan. Mix and stir until well coated with the oil. Quickly stir in the egg mixture and 1 cup of cheese. Add a generous amount of black pepper. Serve immediately and top each serving with parsley. Keep going with the next batch!
Elsa gets the table ready. The quiet before the storm.
2009 Tomato Study #28 explores color and shape contrast--August Tennessee tomatoes co-mingling with cooked and chilled green beans and fresh spinach. Definitely high marks on the oohs and aahs scale.
Here’s a big Cheater Chef idea to keep in your back pocket–salads with weighty ingredients, tomatoes and green beans for instance, do much better scattered and layered over a large shallow platter than piled messily in a deep bowl. The deep wooden salad bowl is out and the platter is in.
It’s official. Platter salads are now their own category.
Tossed salads don’t fret–we’ll get back to you later.
The shapes and colors of the tomatoes are the most important aspect of 2009 Tomato Study #28 (Note: I just made up this recipe name and number so you would take my tomato designs seriously. I swear, we’ve had a tomato salad every night for the last 28 days–you just have to right now). Combining sliced tomatoes with whole cherry tomatoes is very modern indeed.
2009 Tomato Study #28
Fresh spinach leaves
Green beans, cooked until crisp-tender in boiling salted water, chilled
Red and yellow sliced tomatoes
Red and orange cherry tomatoes
Mustard-Mayo Vinaigrette (see below)
Spread a thin layer of spinach leaves on a large rimmed platter. Scatter with green beans. Scatter with sliced tomatoes. Scatter with cherry tomatoes. Drizzle with dressing.
Mustard-Mayo Vinaigrette
(This dressings has a heftier consistency than regular vinaigrette that’s ideal for drizzling.)
1 clove garlic, sprinkled with kosher salt and mashed into a paste
1/2 cup olive oil
1 generous teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 generous teaspoon mayonnaise
2 tablespoons wine vinegar (or to taste)
Salt and black pepper, be generous
Whisk together all the ingredients in a small bowl. Drizzle over the salad.
I’m a sucker for high-end design in low-end retail.
I still have a vintage Phillipe Starke tissue holder and tape dispenser from the 2002 Starke Reality collection from Target. In fact, Target has introduced me to all kinds of interesting designers that I never would have known about (albeit the materials are CHEAP).
Sure, I was right there when Kohl’s announced a partnership with Vera Wang (nice for brunettes, but blondes don’t look so good in too much gray). And isn’t it great that Isaac Mizrahi is now kicking Liz Claiborne up a notch?
So I certainly couldn’t pass up a Lilly Pulitzer designed carton of grapefruit juice supporting Breast Cancer Awareness…cool!
Palm Beach Salty Dog
Lilly’s ruby red grapefruit juice
Vodka, gin or tequila
Kosher salt
Moisten then salt the rim of a tall glass. Fill it with ice. Add your favorite liquor and top with chilled grapefruit juice.
Looks like I consulted my Porter paint chip booklet for the perfect combination of lima greens and tomato yellows in this Lima Tabouli. I highly recommend lima salads to any home cook looking for a signature dish.
I can’t stop making lima bean salads. In fact, any number of variations are my go-to dish for a potluck. They’ve certainly helped secure my reputation as a “sensible creative.”
You see, with a bag of limas in the freezer and pretty much anything else in your crisper drawer, you can make a great salad. The dressing is often the same–olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. Now play with the colors. Limas have a way of making everything look more beautiful. Sort of like a rose colored room.
But those frozen limas can stay where they are for now because right now–mid July and August–is the only time we can play around with the freshly shelled beans.
It’s quite a sight at the farmers market. In Nashville we can get a nice assortment of fresh beans and peas–purple hull, crowders, black eyes, white crowders, lady peas, limas. For easy shucking, they put the bean pods in a long round basket that looks like it should be filled with giant bingo numbers. Somehow the prongs on the inside pull off the pods and free the little beans as the basket rotates.
Those are all the empty beans pods that fall out of the bottom. They're really soft and they smell earthy and good.
Somehow those prongs agitate the pods right off.
Over in the fresh bean stand, there wasn’t an heirloomer in sight. Instead the line was long with women who clearly have generations of home canners and freezers in their families. Most of the gals were buying more than one of those giant bags. Wish I had.
Big bags of fresh peas headed for pots and freezers across Middle Tennessee.
Those are fresh limas on the left and a bag of fresh purple hull peas on the right.
Lima Tabouli
1 pound fresh (or frozen) lima beans cooked in salted simmering water just until tender and not mushy, drained and cooled
3 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
About 1 cup chopped fresh parsley (use as much as you like)
Olive oil
Fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 medium tomatoes, diced (any variety, even a handful of cherry tomatoes are nice)
Combine the beans, celery, onions, and parsley in a large bowl. Dress with olive oil and stir until the beans look nice and glossy, but not drowning in oil. Add the juice of one lemon and season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasonings. You may like it tangier with more lemon or it may need a tad more salt. Gently stir in the tomatoes. Chill before serving. Makes about 8 servings.
Bacon drippings in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. Just waiting for the corn. If you need to season your skillet, just fry a lot of bacon in it. Keep your drippings in an old jar in the fridge and use them.
If America is to follow Michael Pollan’s advice to “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” bacon drippings may be the key to increasing our plant consumption.
Southerners have always known this. I know I sound like a broken record when it comes to the importance of pork products in the South–country ham, sausage and bacon. But it’s true. Pork fat has been sustaining the rural poor for generations. Did you ever read Cold Mountain? Remember how dearly the main character Inman treated his dwindling supply of lard? The lard added much needed flavor and energy to his bland, sparse diet.
Our friend Lynne Tolley, the great-grandniece of Jack Daniel and her mother Miss Margaret of Lynchburg, Tenn., are terrific vegetable cooks thanks to drippings (and their other secret to most everything is a pinch of sugar). R.B. and I worked with them on Cooking with Jack, The New Jack Daniel’s Cookbook a few years back and we came from the project with the utmost respect for Southern vegetables.
Southern vegetables are always well-seasoned and that’s what makes them appealing. Vegetables need a little fat and salt. There’s nothing wrong with that when the cook is the consumer and fully aware of what’s in the food. It’s when meals are prepared by a mystery chef or a company profiting from our food consumption do we get into trouble. A couple tablespoons of drippings divided into four to six servings really isn’t much. If vegetables taste great, more folks will eat more of them more often.
It’s corn season so get out your iron skillet and fry up some sweet corn with bacon drippings and a pinch of sugar.
Six ears of corn make about eight cups of kernels. Think corn-off-the-cob with a hint of bacon.
Fried corn isn't really fried. It's cooked in a skillet with drippings and water. As it cooks, the juices become milky and thick. A pinch of sugar never hurts. Lots of black pepper and salt make it perfect.
Country Fried Corn
6 ears of sweet corn (8 cups kernels)
2 tablespoons bacon drippings (or you can use butter)
Water, about a cup. Add more as needed
Pinch of sugar
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Remove the corn kernels from the cobs with a sharp knife. Melt the drippings in a large skillet. Add the corn, water, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook over medium-high heat about 15 minutes. Add a little more water as necessary. Makes about 6 servings.
The whole “from the earth to the table” thing is a nice mantra and a worthy goal, but let’s not get hung up with symbolism when putting together a nice meal. We’re all just trying to make some thoughtful choices.
This turned out to be a good choice — Tennessee tomatoes from Min’s garden and the farmer’s market and just-picked corn on the same plate with juicy, grilled bone-in pork chops from Walmart, a side of potato salad (potato origin unknown) and skillet cornbread made with Martha White self-rising cornmeal mix and some fancy organic barely pasteurized buttermilk.
Now that’s some easy home cooking. It took a little time and effort, and that’s a lot of stuff from lots of different sources. How interesting that we’re thinking about this lately. What we’re eating, where it comes from.
Did you read Michael Pollan’s story in the New York Times Magazine (August 2, 2009) Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. Get cooking and stop just looking.
Summer tomatoes sure make food photography easy. They don't need much more than a drizzle of olive oil and good salt.
R.B. loves the geometry of somewhat random grill marks. We brined the chops in a quart of cold water and 1/4 cup kosher salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar for about 45 minutes in the fridge. Much longer and they'd be a bit salty. Pull the chops off the grill at about 150 F and let them rest.
That's not a centerpiece we slid aside to make room for the pork chops. It's Mom's secret to crisp corn on the cob--saran wrap and the microwave oven. Nothing wrong with a little high test technology.
Who cares about rain when you've got a golf umbrella and a 600 degree Broilmaster on a natural gas line. Besides, it's a dry heat.
Not a 60s era airline mag ad, just us finishing up some lamb pops on the heirloom aluminum charcoal portable kitchen. Bring on the chimichurri.
We never considered grilling swords of monster kabobs of unidentifiable meat cuts until R.B. spotted those churrascaria ads in an airline magazine a few years ago. Like any guy with an eye for big cuts of meat and an expense account (remember that perk?), the ads grabbed R.B. hook, line, and sinker. And those kabobs look especially good when you’re strapped in a chair at 35,000 feet with a tiny bag of peanuts.
Nashville briefly enjoyed that themed restaurant concept in Green Hills at a place called Fires of Brazil. The churrasco (shoo-RAS-koo) was carved table side by an endless parade of costumed gauchos. It may still be a conventioneers’ hot spot, just not in Nashville anymore. No small wonder. After recovering from the prix fixe sticker shock on our first trip we made a conscious effort not to fill up on the distracting salad “barge” that rivaled any cruise ship lido deck buffet. Then, after the fourth or fifth visit by the generous chicken kebob guy we finally wised up and demanded to see the steak gaucho, the Texas beef rib gaucho, any other gaucho.
The best thing we took home from that experience was the idea for chimichurri, the spicy mix of fresh cilantro and parsley, onions, garlic, vinegar, and olive oil. It’s a breeze to whip up in a food processor and is a dynamite condiment to go with most any grilled red meat, chicken, pork, or fish. Late in the summer we could all benefit from a little Brazilian punch to sauce up the standard “simply grilled meats” portion of the backyard dinner.
You guys don't want some fresh chimichurri to go with any of this stuff, do ya?
R.B. doesn’t have his childhood sword collection anymore, just a kitchen drawer full of mismatched skewers and chopsticks. But, over-sized spits, high-water bell bottoms and pirate shirts aren’t really what make churrasco. Instead, a good sirloin, pork tenderloin, or piece of swordfish with a little salt and a good sear becomes Cheater Chef Brazilian with a side of traditional chimichurri, black beans, rice and some kind of salad with hearts of palm thrown in.
Ocean fresh Rhode Island swordfish, about a twice-a-year treat, doesn't need chimichurri, but we'd have loved some anyway.
For a real Carnivale atmosphere, start with a round of pre-dinner caipirinhas, the potent Brazilian cocktail of muddled lime, sugar, and cachaca distilled from sugar cane. For a weekend brunch stir a couple spoonfuls of chimichurri into scrambled eggs and serve with grilled steak. While Tennessee tomatoes are at their peak, don’t forget to spoon a little of that same chimichurri over thick tomato slices.
Cheater Chimichurri
1 medium bunch cilantro, washed and dried, thick stems removed
1 medium bunch fresh parsley, washed and dried, thick stems removed
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small sweet onion
¼ cup red wine vinegar
½ cup olive oil
Salt, black pepper, to taste
Red pepper flakes, to taste
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Or, finely chop cilantro, parsley, onion and garlic with a knife. Combine with remaining ingredients. Seasons with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Makes about 1 ½ cups.
Serve with grilled meats, poultry, or fish. Feel free to substitute fresh oregano, marjoram and/or more parsely for the cilantro.
Maybe the world can be separated into two kinds of home cooks. Those who fry and those who don’t.
Frying at home may be what really separates the cheater chef with the poser microwave warmer chef. Yes, cheating still means you have to cook. Cheating means knowing where to cut corners and where to put in the serious effort.
Frying is worth the effort.
A stack of stale corn tortillas proves our point. Home fried tortilla chips are so good, you’ll be inspired to expand your salsa catalog, you’ll eat more guacamole, and generally be a happier person. Just get one of those big stacks and cut them into quarters. Fry them in small batches. You’ll get the hang of it. Here are our tips for frying:
Peanut oil has a high smoke point and works great.
Get a thermometer. You want to keep the oil at a nice 375 F-ish.
Use a big heavy pot, like cast iron. It keeps the oil at a nice even heat.
Yes, a Fry Daddy is a great option.
Make sure your foods are as dry as possible. Water and ice crystals cause splattering.
You can reuse your oil if you strain it through cheese cloth. It’s not that hard really.
Take a hint from any fast food fish joint–use the cleanest oil for the fries and the dirty oil for the fish. Always fry the fish last.
Fill the pot about 1/2 full of oil. You need room for displacement when you add the foods to be fried.
Be careful!
Invite people over because if you go to the trouble of frying, you might as well fry a lot of food.
R.B. got Min this 7-qt Martha Stewart Creuset copy for Christmas and surface chips fly off. See that little chip on the handle. She’s still pissed about that. But, it still works great for frying.
Min could fry chips in a ship's galley. Frying outside really cuts down on the mess inside. And an apron helps keep the grease off Min's favorite pair of jorts.
Get them out just as the color turns even though you think it's early. They'll keep cooking and browning in the bowl. If the oil isn't hot enough and you end up cooking them too long, the chips will be almost rubbery and tough. You want CRUNCH.
And the best part? Just a tablespoon or two of oil. Three. Well, you know. You'll never go back to Tostitos.
Another great shot of my left thumb. Oh, and a rack of complainer oatmeal cookies with fewer oats, more flour, and all brown sugar.
I heard the architect Frank Gehry say in a documentary about his design process that he needs to look at a building model for a while and wait to see what irritates him about it. He’s right. We don’t fix things that don’t irritate us. Creativity and problem solving require the itch of irritation first.
Lucky me. I hit the irritation itch jackpot with the two interesting young people that live in my house. I lovingly refer to them as the complainers. Everything irritates them. Everything. Things I never imagined would ever be irritating irritate them.
Oatmeal cookies are a good example. The complainers aren’t so wild about mine–too oaty, too crunchy. Hmmmm. Okay, my new recipe has equal amounts of flour and oats (less oaty) and all brown sugar to soften them up a bit. They’re terrific.
Thank you complainers for once again providing a platform for creativity.
Complainer Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (add more, less or none if you like)
Add-in options–12 oz. bag of chocolate chips, heaping cup of raisins, heaping cup of chopped nuts (I especially like sliced almonds) or shredded coconut (Note–any add-ins can be the source of acute irritation).
Heat the oven to 375 F. Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and blend well. Add the flour, oats, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Blend well. Stir in your choice of add-ins.
Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls (use two teaspoons, one for scooping, one for scraping) onto a baking sheet about an inch a part. Bake about 12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Makes about 5 dozen.
Note: Do a test cookie if you like. If they seem too flat, add a couple more tablespoons of flour, but I’ve never had this problem.
There’s a great Mediterranean place in Nashville called Kalamatas where Maher Fawaz and his family and staff serve beautiful, delicious food. We click on his website just to hear the song because it really puts you in a Zorba dance groove and makes you crave anything stuffed into a pita.
Maher even smokes the eggplant for the baba ghanouj. Fantastic! We can’t get enough of it. And neither can Louis, the bottomless pit 15-year old with far too much restaurant experience. At least he knows the value of a good meal out.
Louis is a meat plate/meat on a stick guy. That and the yogurt “sauce” to go with.
Channeling Maher Fawaz puts a rare smile on Louis' face. Even after four of us ate, Louis happily lived on these for days.
The key to this meal was Mindy whipping things up ahead–she soaked the skewers with her morning coffee and had the 2-to-1 ground lamb-to-beef kebobs with garlic, cumin, and salt hanging in the fridge all afternoon.
Too bad we were too hungry to photograph the sauce and the big Mediterranean salad we had with greens, olives, onions, cukes and tomatoes with Feta and vinaigrette. R.B. and his flying rounds of pita warming on the grill was quite a sight as well, but again, we forgot to snap off a few pix.
Thanks for the inspiration, Maher. Now, would you think about giving Louis an after school job? Clearly, you are his mentor and there’s got to be some garbage that needs taking out.
Keep an eye on the instant read thermometer and remember that at a certain temperature, glass melts.
Cheater Kalamata Kebabs
3 or 4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt(we use about 1/2 teaspoon of salt per pound of raw meat)
2 pounds ground lamb
1 pound ground beef
2 teaspoons ground cumin
Soak about 16 to 20 bambo skewers in water for at least 30 minutes or all day. Mince the garlic with the salt and mash it into a smooth paste with the side of a knife. This way you won’t have any big clumps of garlic in the meat mixture. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend well. Take small handfuls of the meat and press in onto a soaked skewer in the shape of a hot dog. Grill the skewers over medium high heat until cooked through–internal temperature of about 160 F. Serve stuffed in a warm pita with sauce.
Cheater “Sauce”
Peeled and chopped cucumber
Chopped red onion
Greek style yogurt
Whole cumin seeds
Fresh lemon juice
Salt, to taste
Combine all the ingredients to your liking until creamy. Just wing it. Serve plopped in a pita with a Cheater Kebab.
A pair of Micheladas. They’re big, they’re cold, they’re heavy. And they’re light and refreshing and go well with chips, salsa, and all those burning hot Mexican restaurant dishes that seem like the same ingredients just gathered and plated in different orders.
Much like our cheerful south of the border dry wall crews and lawn guys, the Michedala keeps gaining traction in America. And it’s good thing, too. Cuz we love diversity, especially food diversity.
As you well know by now, the Michelada is the much more refreshing and versatile Mexican-style Bloody Mary not serving three consecutive life sentences with the mimosa on ho-hum Sunday brunch menus everywhere.
R.B.’s family may still miss the heady 1970s and 80s, but he thinks they were otherwise ahead of their time with their side burn and bell bottom-era Sunday Beer Bloodies made with Clamato. This light, clever concoction allowed the saloon-happy Quinns to ignore last night’s “family togetherness”and dive right into a “Good Thing We Went to Saturday Mass!” celebratory Sunday brunch cocktail without the strife often generated by mid-day vodka on empty stomachs.
For now we’ll leave it to the middle-aging newspaper food writer crowd dying to remain hip and relevant to research the Michelada’s intriguing past so as to pepper their writing and speaking . Your pals at Cheater Chef think that the rough translation “my frozen beer” is all that matters.
Besides, all we ever want is for you not to marvel at how cool we seem, but to grab some everyday ingredients from a regular store and get busy, no footnotes or foreign-sounding pronunciations necessary.
And Now, the Drink:
Salt the rim of a roomy glass. Add ice and about half of a Mexican lager like Tecate or Corona. Think two parts beer to 1 part tomato. Go with Clamato juice cocktail for its lighter consistency and blendability. The drink should look bubbly and light pinkish, not heavy red. Add Worcestershire sauce, a healthy squeeze of lemon or lime, and plenty of hot sauce.
Formerly The Boardwalk where R.B. got to see Leon Russell in the early 90s, Las Cazuelas has solid food, a nice feel, and great live Mexican bands.
A great summer party starts with a couple bags of bread dough.
If there is such a thing as past lives, then Mindy was surely a Dark Ages wheat farmer and R.B. hung out with the much smarter guys who figured out how to cook with fire and not just after a lightning storm set the woods on fire.
When we grill pizza, the stars align and for a time, all is well in the universe.
CRUNCH.
Damn it is good. Most of the time it is. This one sure was.
More than lots of things, pizza is a real journey, especially when you’re learning, stretching yourself as it were. That dough is alive with an agenda and a weather system all it’s own.
I (RB) can’t keep up with the Min the goddess of flour. Bread is a science I do not understand. But, Min tries everything, and when she says that she loves Superior Dough, I love Superior Dough. It’s sitting right there at Stop & Shop (ingredients are simple–flour, yeast, salt, and water–can’t argue with that.)
With practice it does really well on a grill. The key is to allow the dough to rest all day on the counter so it will really warm up and get pliable and easy to pull into shape. We remove it from the package and cut it into two or three balls. Put the balls in a greased pan. Coat them lightly with a little spray oil and cover lightly with foil. Go do something else.
Nice air pockets. It's all about the air pockets around the edges of the crust. We probably should have stretched this one out a bit more. Naan anyone?
Side One: Smoky Firepit Crust. It's so great having a balding Eagle Scout at the ready. You crazy fire purists can do this.
Min working her Superior magic. When you're having your morning coffee, pull the bags of dough out of the fridge and put them on the counter. Let them rest all day long.
Min whips up another pie for the production line while R.B.'s starving brother-in-law (who grew up on Pepe's New Haven pie) considers calling in an air strike if we don't deliver soon. Yes, we made him a clam pizza--almost as good as Pepe's
Keep it simple. Say that over and over.
Creating some top-down, cheese-melting heat without an oven is always a challenge. Find a lid.
Slightly grilled-ahead breads let you actually have fun at your own party. Jumbo Jack Daniel's Green Label candle holders really crank up the festivities.
Go easy on the grill heat when you're finishing off the topped pies so as not to over-crisp the bottom. And close the damn cover. And stop clowning around. These people are starving and crankiness is settling in.
Like bees to pollen, grilled pizza draws the most diverse crowd.
With great crust and for your own sanity, the toppings should be simple. Roast those economy pack red peppers while the grill heats for the dough. Always start a pie with a smear of olive oil and some minced fresh garlic.
Yeah, we get it. You're awesome. Everything's awesome.
At a party, strive to be a good guest, remember to mix and mingle, participate outside your comfort zone, and, like our friend and neighbor Dick Wolke, always indulge in one more piece than you should.
Better than new real estate, grilled pizza easily adds nine months to a relationship at a fraction of the cost, even at today's prices. It's really that good, no matter how you make it. It's that you made it that counts.
A couple nights later. Just as good, actually better. Always make too much.
Here's a "gourmet" stuffie from the Stop & Shop fish counter in Wyoming. Exactly the same as the Charlestown Mini-Super's. There's got to be a stuffie factory supplying the area. The shocker? They're really good and no way a cop-out for not making your own. The toaster oven hot stuffie may be the best appetizer/first course/cocktail snack of all time. The perfect match for an icy martini or a glass of cold white wine.
The more time I spend in Rhode Island, the more common ground I find between the foods up there and the southern staples down here in Nashville (we’ll talk cornbread and Johnny cakes soon, promise). Both places have a frugal food tradition of using up what’s handy like stale, leftover bread. Up there, it’s Italian bread in clam stuffies. Down here, it’s skillet cornbread in dressing.
The clam stuffie is a bready mix of chopped clams, celery, onions, peppers, parsely, lemon, garlic, and at times, Portuguese sausage baked in a big quahog clam shell. Sounds great doesn’t it? A personal stuffie is the most perfect opener for dinner or quick toaster oven meal in itself. And the best part is that the stuffie is not confined to being a side dish to a roast chicken or for Thanksgiving. We eat stuffies all the time and between bites our conversations always start sounding like Peter Griffin and his pals at the Drunken Clam.
Down here in Nashville, cornbread dressing rules. Lots of folks in the South have grown up on Sunday chicken and dressing. The dressing is usually a nice mix of crumbled leftover cornbread softened with some white bread or leftover biscuits, celery, onion, sage, chicken broth…you get the picture.
Home cooks are most likely to cook dressing separately in a big casserole, not in the bird. I guess that’s why we call it dressing and not stuffing. I’m all for that for two reasons. One, you finally get enough dressing to eat. Two, the dressing has a nice crisp top. Believe me, I’ll never stuff again.
One Thanksgiving in Nashville, R.B. and I combined the two traditions and made stuffie dressing. It was a super hit. Instead of using individual clam shells, we baked a big pan of the clam dressing and served it with the turkey.
To make “Dressie”, use the bread you have lying around–I think we used a mixture of white and cornbread. Add the usual liberal amount of sauteed celery, onions, bell pepper, and parsley. Add a generous amount of chopped clams with their juice and a shot of lemon juice. Moisten it all with some water if it seems too dry. Put it in a big buttered casserole. Dot the top with butter and sprinkle with paprika. Bake in the oven until crispy and well browned.
Forget Thanksgiving. We should serve squares of Dressie with icy martinis.
Sad to report, like most everything else, stuffies have shrunk in the new economy.
Italian Food Culture and Fresh Seafood -- The Joys of Rhode Island (two of them, anyway)
It doesn’t matter where you do your “food shoppin” in Rhode Island. Fresh chopped clams are nearly everywhere. Our Stop & Shop in Wyoming has them for $5 a pound and they print a decent chowder recipe right on the side of the tub.
The fastest, shortest route to fresh clams for us is chopped over pasta. It’s the first thing we eat when we get to RI. A little olive oil, some garlic, parsley, grated parm, back pepper, and a really cold, crisp, minerally Italian white from Frank Gasbarro on Federal Hill. We don’t skimp on the clams. Two pounds per pound of pasta and that’s still only 50% of the wine cost. Besides, the casual flawlessness of which this scene reeks is priceless.
Working that glossy summer issue angle, complete with the Creuset in the distance. Can you tell we settled for the factory second? No? Good. The super sweet Tennessee tomatoes rode with us in a cooler and never once complained. How cool is that, Saveur?
no kidding. what is going on in that wine glass?
okay, here the wine (and the photographer) have settled down a bit.
It's just like making little sandwiches. Then you pour the egg mixture over it.
Sunday morning after a glamorous Saturday night is easy to ignore until it arrives. But, after your carriage has turned back into a pumpkin, you can continue living the dream well into Sunday afternoon—hot coffee, the New York Times crossword, morning programs, a round with Tiger. That’s where a make-ahead and ready-to-bake strata comes in handy.
A strata is simply a main dish bread pudding. While you dance the night away, the bread is busy soaking in egg/milk custard in the refrigerator. Out of the oven the next morning, it’s hot, puffy golden brown—Cinderella all over again. Flavor your strata with sweet or savory ingredients just like you would when designing an omelet.
Our two Cheater Chef stratas are spectacular and, better yet, they look fantastic in the morning. Both start with a French baguette—you need bread with some good crust and character to hold up to the custard. Then stuff the fillings between the bread slices. We used paper thin smoky salty speck ham and Jarlsberg Swiss for the savory version. The lemon ricotta filling in the other is just sweetened cheese with lemon zest. Both seem big city fancy and far better than a cold Danish. Serve either with a touch of maple syrup. The lemon ricotta benefits from sweetened fresh blueberries, blackberries or even peaches. Eat in robe and slippers.
Ham and Swiss French Toast Strata
16 slices (about 1/2-inch thick) French baguette
2 to 3 tablespoons softened butter
6 ounces Gruyere or Swiss cheese, sliced into 14 pieces
4 to 6 ounces thinly sliced ham, cut into 14 thin pieces
5 eggs
2 cups milk
Pinch of salt
Butter an 8 x 8-inch (2 quart) casserole. Lightly butter one side of the bread slices. Arrange the bread slices in two rows of 8 in the casserole, overlapping slightly. Place a slice of cheese and ham between the bread slices. Whisk together the eggs, milk and salt. Pour the mixture over the bread. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and press down on the bread to help keep it submerged. Refrigerate overnight (or at least a couple hours). Heat the oven to 350° F. Bake about 1 hour or until puffy and golden brown. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
The whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts in this Lemon Ricotta French Toast Strata. We like how the bread slices are still visible, but soft and cohesive after baking.
Lemon Ricotta French Toast Strata
1 cup ricotta cheese
Zest from one lemon
½ cup sugar, divided
16 slices (about 1/2 –inch thick) French baguette
5 eggs
2 cups milk
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Butter an 8 x 8-inch (2 quart) casserole. Combine the ricotta cheese, lemon and ¼ cup of the sugar in a small bowl and blend well. Arrange the bread slices in two rows of 8 in the casserole, overlapping slightly. Place a generous tablespoonful of the ricotta mixture between the bread slices. Whisk together the eggs, milk, remaining ¼ cup of the sugar, salt and vanilla. Pour the mixture over the bread. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and press down on the bread to help keep it submerged. Refrigerate overnight (or at least a couple hours). Heat the oven to 350° F. Bake about 1 hour or until puffy and golden brown. Serve with maple syrup or sweetened blueberries, blackberries or peaches. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
Here are Elsa and Copper enjoying exceptionally delicious hummus topped with a spoonful of Boscoli Umami.
Like everyone else, we bought our first jar of Boscoli Family Olive Salad for making New Orleans Mulfaletta sandwiches at home. For years now we’ve simply referred to it as Boscoli Umami because it adds incredible briny, tangy, oily, crunchy goodness to everything. It works like magic in so many ways–especially when you need a last minute appetizer or salad.
Here’s the actual ingredient list–olives, olive oil, celery, cauliflower, carrots, sweet peppers, capers black olives and other spices. You can’t go wrong with that.
We’ve been going through it like crazy lately…
It’s just what a bland beige bowl of hummus needs. See above.
Spoon it over a big summer sliced tomato salad. Sure, use it with fresh mootz too.
It’s fantastic in a mayonnaisy slaw for burgers or a dog.
For lunch, how about an open-faced cheese sandwich with sliced tomato and a big spoonful of the stuff. Or plop it on a regular toaster oven cheese toast.
Blend it with softened cream cheese and/or goat cheese for a quick app to serve with crackers.
A spoonful in tuna salad works like a charm.
Try it on simple grilled tuna or swordfish. It’s like an olive oily sauce.
Garbanzo bean tuna salad would kill for some of this.
Spoon it on a bagel slathered with cream cheese.
Blend it with chopped parsley and garlic to make a sort of olive chimichuri for a simple grilled steak.
See my recipe for Boscoli Umami Caponata below. It’s a real showcase for Boscoli magic.
That’s enough to ponder right now. We’ll get back to you on this with more ideas. Anyone else have any?
Caponata with the secret ingredient Boscoli Umami!
Boscoli Umami Caponata
Pick your choice of vegetables and roast them in foil pans on the grill or in the oven. The amounts are not critical, use what you’ve got handy.
Thinly sliced zucchini, a few small ones
Cherry tomatoes, about a pint
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into cubes (set in a colandar, sprinkle with salt and let it sit for about 30 minutes, rinse and squeeze out the water)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, any color, chopped
3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Boscoli Family Olive Salad
Toss the vegetables with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt on a rimmed baking sheet, roasting pan or in a foil pan.
To cook on the grill, cover the foil pan and cook in a covered hot grill until the vegetables are lightly charred and soft.
To roast in the oven, heat the oven to 400 F. Cook the vegetables until soft and lightly charred, about 30 to 40 minutes.
Cool and toss to taste with a few spoonfuls of Boscoli Family Olive Salad. Add chopped fresh herbs like parsley, oregano and chives and a dash of hot pepper sauce if you like. Serve with bruschetta.
Check out this crust and you don't have to heat an iron skillet in the oven to get it.
Here in the soft white bread South, cornbread is the traditional bread of choice for suppers filled with beans, tomatoes and summer vegetables. It makes perfect sense, before the artisinal bread craze struck, cornbread was the only bread with any structure for sopping up juices on your dinner plate. Who wants soggy white bread or a biscuit dunked in crowder pea juice?
I think the biggest deterrent to making a crispy skillet of cornbread in hot weather is not wanting to heat up the oven. So keep the kitchen cool, expand your waffle iron usage beyond breakfast, and make cornbread waffles. The big bonus is that the ratio of crust to soft interior has exponentially increased. Yes, cornbread waffles are mostly crunchy crust.
As usual, I recommend using self-rising white cornmeal mix. And as usual, I’ll tell you again to be sure the batter is pourable and not too thick. Thick batter means dry cornbread. Add whatever you like to the simple batter–shredded, cheese, crumbled cooked sausage or bacon, bits of ham, corn, green chilies or nothing.
Now think of a cornbread waffle as a sort of Southern bruschetta. Pile it high with your usual favorites or whatever you’d otherwise plop on Tuscan toast– BLT, tomatoes and basil, cheese, barbecue (cheater, of course), sliced avocado.
Check out my nice pourable batter that easily spreads (with a little help from the spoon) to the edges of the waffle maker.
Nice pourable batter, this time with cheddar cheese in it.
Cornbread Waffles
1 egg
1/4 cup oil (or a mixture of oil and bacon drippings)
1 cup of milk or buttermilk, plus a little more, if necessary
1 1/2 cups self-rising cornmeal mix
Break the egg in a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the oil and the milk until well blended. Stir in the cornmeal mix forming a nice pourable batter. Add a little more milk or water until the batter is fluid, but still thickish
Feel free to stir in other ingredients like a cup of shredded cheddar cheese, crumbled cooked bacon or sausage, chopped green chilies, corn kernels, bits of red bell pepper or some cracked black pepper.
Heat up the waffle iron and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Spoon the batter over hot waffle iron spreading it out gently. Cook until dark golden brown. Makes 8 squares in my waffle iron.
Ready when you are stored in the freezer. 
With great crust and for your own sanity, the toppings should be simple. Roast those economy pack red peppers while the grill heats for the dough. Always start a pie with a smear of olive oil and some minced fresh garlic.
Caponata with the secret ingredient Boscoli Umami!
