Archive for July, 2007

The Meal of a Lifetime

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In the current issue of The Oxford American Magazine, Beth Ann Fennelly talks about eating the meal of a lifetime while New Orleans was in the midst of destruction from Hurricane Katrina. “I ate wasabi-pea-encrusted tuna, quail with figs and chanterelles, duck with port glaze, and truffled potatoes,” Fennelly said. “The lobster mac and cheese had not yet given up the ghost when the cornmeal-dusted Apalachicola oysters with tasso elbowed their way onto the table. Then the crabmeat wontons…And then they brought out the filet mignon…”And all the while, the magnificent city of New Orleans was flooding. “I suppose that’s a big part of my shame and guilt concerning that August 29th,” Fennelly writes. “Not just that I was dining while others suffered and died, but that the dinner was excessive, approaching grotesquery.”

Fennelly then goes on to discuss the rise in hedonism and the burgeoning food culture, and compares the “gourmet nation” of the prosperous to the “garbage nation” of the poor—those who rely on heavily processed, fattening food to sustain them because they no longer have access to fresh food, and/or can’t afford to obtain it. They are divorced from the land and reliant on the fast food industry. This, she points out, is creating a strange link between poverty and obesity in America.

Her goal, through this exploration, is to eat well and contribute to a sustainable environment. She ends the article by saying:

“My role as a good citizen of our ‘gourmet nation’ is to examine food-table connectivity. I’m encouraged to think about how my meal affects the food chain and the cost to the world’s energy sources, and I’m encouraged to take pride in making wise decisions. But now I’m beginning to notice other kinds of connectivity, some of which are less gratifying. I’m haunted by a simple coincidence—a lavish meal and a natural disaster. And haunted by the fact that perhaps it’s less of a coincidence than I’d like to believe…”

Have you given much thought to the “cost” of what you eat? Not just the money cost, but the social, the moral? Analyze the meal you eat tonight. Where did your groceries come from? How were they grown? Do you know? Don’t you think you should?

Skinny Hot Brown

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Sunday night my husband and I watched Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network channel. For this throwdown, he and his team took on two brothers from Kentucky, making Hot Browns. Being a Colorado (a half an hour from the border of New Mexico) girl, and now a Pacific Northwest transplant, Southern cooking has never entered my repertoire. You can talk to me about green chilies or berries all day long, but Hot Browns and Mint Juleps? Never heard of them. I learned, however, that a Hot Brown is an open-faced sandwich traditionally made with turkey, bacon, tomatoes and mornay sauce. It was created at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky.

And WOW did those Hot Browns ever look tasty! My husband was drooling at the TV. It was 8:30 PM and he decided he had to have one. NOW. We don’t have any turkey, I said. No bacon, either. We have to go to the store then, he said. I was telling him how crazy he was when Ace of Cakes came on, and then I was craving cake, so I said: Fine. We’ll go get the stuff, but you have to make it, and I get cake. Five minutes later he was asleep in the living room chair. I had to settle for Frosted Mini Wheats for dessert.

The next morning I woke craving cake AND Hot Browns. Swell. So I decided to surprise my husband and make them both. I made, and ate, hot fudge chocolate cake, at two in the afternoon, and made the Hot Browns for dinner. Except I still didn’t have anything to make true Hot Browns, and they seemed a bit too rich for my style anyway, so I decided to make a skinny version with whatever I could scrounge out of the fridge and freezer. The results were mighty tasty, and I can see endless variations of this dish. So, pardon me, Kentucky, for butchering your recipe. I always cringe when people do that… but here we go… clear your dishwasher, and be ready to multi-task!

The Skinny Hot Brown is made skinny by:

whole grain bread
Lite soy milk
part skim mozzarella cheese

I also used chicken breasts instead of turkey, ham ends in lieu of bacon, and added caramelized onions. Mmmmhmmmm. Caramelized onions. I can’t imagine this dish without them.

The full list of ingredients:

2 slices whole grain bread
2 pre-cooked chicken breasts (or turkey, which, I bet has more flavor), thinly sliced
1 tomato
1 onion
¼ to ½ lb. bacon strips or ham ends
olive oil
salt

Sauce:

1 ¼ cup Lite soy milk (substitute other dairy at your discretion)
¼ onion
2 bay leaves
pinch of nutmeg
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
1/3 cup mozzarella cheese, or other cheese of your choice, such as white cheddar
2 tbsp. Parmesan cheese
fresh ground pepper

Directions:

Since caramelizing onions takes so long, start those first. Cut the onion in half, peel, then slice thinly. Warm a couple tablespoons of olive oil over low heat. Add onions and sprinkle with salt. Toss in the pan to coat evenly with salt and olive oil. Cook over medium-low heat until onions brown, stirring frequently, about 20 minutes. Once they begin to brown, lower heat and continue to cook until they reach a deep brown color, continuing to stir frequently, for another twenty minutes or so.

At this point, you can preheat your broiler. You will need it in a minute.

When the onions are mostly caramelized, cook the bacon strips or ham ends.

To make the sauce, heat the milk in a small saucepan. Cut a quarter from an onion, peel, and then stuff two bay leaves between the layers. Add to milk in saucepan, along with a pinch of nutmeg. Simmer for 15 minutes, then remove onion and bay leaves.

While milk is simmering, melt two tablespoons of butter over low heat. Once melted, add two tablespoons of flour and stir until combined and slightly browned, about three minutes. Slowly whisk in milk. Continue to stir the milk into the flour/butter mixture until slightly thickened and free of lumps, about three minutes. Add 1/3 cup mozzarella or other cheese, along with the two tablespoons of Parmesan. Stir until cheese is thoroughly melted. Add fresh ground black pepper. Keep sauce warm while you finish the onions, bacon, tomatoes, heat the chicken and toast the bread.

Tired yet? I know. There’s a lot going on. But it tastes soooo good! Just perfect for a rainy afternoon.

Slice the tomato in thick slices. Place in a pan, sprinkle with pepper, and cook until warmed through.

For the bread, spread a thin layer of butter over the top (or skip, if you want an even skinnier version) and either toast in a toaster-oven, or in a pan over medium heat. Place bread in a baking dish large enough to accommodate the size of your slices.

Heat your precooked chicken or turkey, then place the thin slices on top of your bread. Top with sauce. Place in broiler and broil until the top of the sauce is bubbly and tinged brown. Remove from heat and place on individual plates. Top with tomatoes, bacon or ham ends, and caramelized onions.

And that is my Skinny Hot Brown. Version one anyway.

Sweet Sausage and Broccoli Pizza

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It was a recipe for sausage and broccoli penne that inspired this pizza. I prepared the pasta dish first, and though good, I didn’t care for the heavy cream in the sauce or the texture it created when tossed with the pasta. I’m a lightweight that way. The sausage and broccoli, however, made an excellent combination, so I thought: why not try it on pizza? With a crisp crust and a simple garlic and Parmesan cream sauce. A light garlic and Parmesan cream sauce.

I also played around with the crust a bit. Dough made with white flour felt too, well, white. It was almost tasteless when put up against the toppings. One hundred percent whole wheat dough is too dense and doesn’t roll well, so I made a dough using both wheat and white flour, and it came out just right. You can taste the nuttiness of the wheat, but it’s not like eating a rock.

So, here’s what you do.

Ingredients:

1 lb. sweet Italian sausage, ground (if you can’t find sweet sausage, buy mild, and mix it, by hand, with about ½ cup brown sugar)
2 cups broccoli
red pepper flakes (optional)
1 recipe Whole Wheat dough
1 recipe Creamy Garlic Parmesan sauce

You’ll need to prepare the pizza dough first as it takes time to rise and rest. Once it’s done, make the sauce. Afterwards, cook sausage in a large skillet until done, and, in a separate pan, sauté broccoli until warmed, but still bright green. (I like to add red pepper flakes to my broccoli.) When all ingredients are prepared, roll your dough into desired size. At this point, you can also prebake your crust for about 5 minutes, to give it an extra crispness. Then spread the sauce evenly across the dough, and top with broccoli and sausage. You can, if you wish, sprinkle Parmesan over the top of the pizzas, but it really isn’t needed. Bake in a 350º oven for 10-12 minutes.

Whole Wheat Dough:

1 cup lukewarm water
1 tbsp. honey
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 ½ cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 tbsp. butter or oil

Combine first three ingredients in a large bowl and let sit for five minutes. Stir in salt, then gradually add flours, mixing in as much as you can with a stiff spoon. Then, turn onto a floured surface and kneed in the rest until you have a smooth, yet stiff, ball. With melted butter, or oil, brush surface of dough. Place in a large bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until double, about one hour. Divide dough in two equal portions and roll into desired shape. Makes 2 medium, thin crust pizzas, or one extra large.

Creamy Garlic Parmesan Sauce:

1 cup milk
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
½ cup fresh (please, not out of the green can) shaved or shredded Parmesan cheese
4 cloves garlic, diced
pepper

Sauté garlic in a small amount of butter until golden. Add remaining butter. Allow to melt, then add flour, stirring until well incorporated. Add milk and Parmesan cheese. Stir until slightly thickened. Add pepper to taste.

Penfold’s Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet

koonunga-shircab.jpgThis one’s a bargain. Good ratings. Budget priced. Buy it by the case. I pay about $10.99/bottle for this best buy.

The 2004 Penfolds Koonunga Hills Shiraz Cabernet (Australia) is a dense purple color and hints of spice, chocolate and pepper on the nose. Plenty of berry and a hint of chocolate on the palate with a distinct earthy quality. It finishes rich and smooth. At times, this wine has a definite cab character, but at other times the shiraz definitely comes through. In the end, it is a well done blend and I think the taste profile is really dependent upon the food pairing. Currently, I am only finding the 2005 where I do most of my wine shopping - not as complex or smooth but it remains well worth the price.

Some of my favorite pairings are a buffalo ribeye, grilled lamb chops or any game meat - or - you may want to try roasted duck. With the steak or lamb try escargot, sauteed in olive oil and a little garlic and served with a bleu cheese sauce and wilted spinach (you may even want to try this right on top of your steak). The combination of red meat, earthy bleu cheese, spinach, and cream no less, will either blow you away or send you home from my house early with whatever excuse you can create on short notice. For the less adventuresome, substitute portabello mushrooms for the escargot.

Given its modest price, this is a great choice for a dinner party —plenty of wine, without breaking the budget. I have purchased various Penfolds wines for a good many years now, and I have never been dissappointed.

Two Poems and a Recipe by GC Smith

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Photo by GC Smith

A Seafood Boil
first published by Southern Hum, September 2005

You, my frien,’ you got straw hat fo’ to keep da sun away. Dat ain’ too dumb. ‘Specially you gonna sit out in dat little boat all the day. I’s a waitin’ back here on da shore for you to come in wit the fish and da crab. Den we pluck fresh onions and corn and ‘taters from da garden and we cook us a boil. I can smell dem spices a roilin’ in da pot already. An’ dat slice smoke sausage. Mouth waterin’ tinkin’ ’bout them crabs and dat string o’ fish you gonna bring back from da sea. Sun getting low in da sky now and shadow grow long. It now time for you to get on back here, pull da boat up on the sand, and drink a cold beer or three wit me while we wait for the cookin’ to be done. Crank up yo liddle outboard ‘n get on back here now. We have us a party.

A Frogmore Stew

I can make a Frogmore stew,
o’ course, ’cause I know what ta do.

I gets me a new clean garbage can,
fill him half up with water an’
put him on da cooker for to boil.

I trow in six-eight cuppa Old Bay spice, tree pound
a creamy butta, an’ five pound smoked sausage.

Gotta get that boil to a roil, then toss in
ten pound of yellar onion an’
fifteen pound of redskin tater.

When dat water boil one more time,
I toss in two dozen ear o’ new picked corn.

Now I bring stew water to a boil again
an’ twenty pounds of headed shrimp goes in
the garbage can wit all dat other stuff.

Soon as da mess boil one more time
I pour off da liquid and serve da stew.

Course, I gotta trow steamed blue crab on top
and get dem long neck Bud offa da ice.
Now smack yer lips; doan tink twice.

Dig in. Enjoy.
bon appitit!

How to Make Frogmore Stew

A kitchen sized recipe uses:

A stainless steel or enamel cook pot (24 quart) filled half way with water.

About 3/4 cup of Old Bay* seasoning (or any shellfish boil seasoning) and a pound of butter. Bring to boil.

A bunch (5-7 lbs.) of redskin potatoes quartered and three lbs. of yellow onions quartered. Add three pounds of sliced smoked sausage (Hillshire Farms Brand is good, but there are many others). Let this stuff come back to a boil and cook until the potatoes are fork tender.

Six ears of sweet corn (I like Silver Queen, broken in halves). Bring back to a boil again.

Then five pounds of shrimp (in the shell) and reboil.

Pour off liquid and serve in big soup bowls.

Optional: Top each bowl with two or three steamed blue crabs.

* buy the Old Bay at Sam’s Club in the big container, it’s much cheaper that way.

About the Author:
GC Smith is a southerner. He writes novels, short stories, flash fiction, poetry. Sometimes he plays with dialect, either Cajun or Gullah-Geechee ways of speaking. Smith’s work can be found in: Gator Springs Gazette, F F Magazine, Iguanaland, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Naked Humorists, The GLUT, Flask Fiction Magazine, N.O.L.A. Spleen, NFG Magazine, Cellar Door, The Beat, Dispatches Magazine, , Beaufort Gazette, Coyote’s Den, Southern Hum, Lamoille Lamentations , Quiction, The Landing, The Haunted Poet. He has completed and is shopping a novel, WHITE LIGHTNING –Murder In the world of stock car racing.

The Champagne Mango

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It took me a long time to like mangoes. They were something I had to warm up to through cooking. I tried eating one plain, and truth be told, it disgusted me for reasons I can’t articulate. Then, because I’m not one to easily give up on things, I made a mango cheesecake. Divine! Shortly afterwards, I prepared a mango salsa, which is part of a recipe my dad makes—Chicken Wraps with Asian Slaw and Mango Salsa. This was even better than the cheesecake. And like that, I became a mango fan. I’ve since learned to eat them plain, but that’s still not my preferred method. At least it wasn’t until I met the Champagne.

The Champagne mango, also known as an Ataulfo mango, is smaller, sweeter, and less fibrous than the more common varieties. It’s like the ice cream of mangoes, with a rich, creamy, buttery texture. Delectable. I could eat them by the dozen. The one downfall? As far as I know, all Champagne’s are imported from Mexico. Though, apparently, the seed originated in Hawaii. Either way, they have a very long way to go, and consume a lot of oil to get there. Try one though, because not every part of life can be ideal and practical, and everyone must have at least one guilty pleasure.

The mango season runs March through July, so hurry up and get to the fruit stand!

One more thing: I’ve never decided whether the skin of a mango is meant to be peeled or eaten. I’ve done both, but generally prefer to have the skin removed. What’s the official “rule”?

Italian Wonton Salad

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In 2004, I went on a mission to gather as many original recipes by family members as I could. I wanted to create a family cookbook, an album of sorts, which would capture the character and diversity of the family through food. I wanted it to span generations, to be a reminder of how we live now versus how we lived then. Mostly, I wanted it to be a resource we could turn to when our grandmothers were no longer living and we wanted that stellar Thanksgiving dressing, or those crisp sugar cookies, that they respectively used to make.

I titled the compilation Family Food, and while I was putting the collection together, I noticed a strange trend in my own personal recipes—they combined ingredients in an unusual way. Take the Sweet Sausage and Broccoli Pizza, for example. The sauce is a creamy parmesan, with plenty of red pepper flakes and fresh garlic. I don’t know about you, but I would have never eaten this as a kid. It goes against the very idea of pizza! But it’s delicious, nevertheless.

Then there’s this Italian Wonton Salad. I don’t know how I came up with the idea to fry these classic Italian ingredients in a Chinese inspired wrapper. I’d never even cooked with wontons before. And let’s face it, they’re incredibly time consuming. But the results were good enough that I wanted the recipe in the cookbook, so in it went.

Here it is:

Italian Wonton Salad

Ingredients:

4 large tomatoes
8 oz. fresh mozzarella (about 4 balls)
1 bunch fresh basil
fresh ground pepper
1 package wonton wrappers (50 count)
green leaf lettuce
vinaigrette salad dressing
canola oil

Finely chop 3 tomatoes, 4 oz. (2 balls) fresh mozzarella and basil. Stir together in a large bowl and grind fresh pepper over top. Let sit for ten minutes then pour off any excess juices.

To assemble wontons, follow package directions, placing only a small amount of the mixture on each wrapper to assure a complete seal.

Heat 2-3 cups of canola oil in a large wok and deep fry wontons until crispy. Drain on several layers of paper towels.

Wash and chop lettuce. Top individual serving plates with a bed of lettuce and sprinkle with your favorite vinaigrette salad dressing. (I like Moosewood Restaurant’s Versatile Vinaigrette, but I’m anxious to try this recipe with a Balsamic based dressing.) Place several wontons on lettuce bed and garnish with remaining tomato, mozzarella, and fresh basil.

What to drink?

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The mix of waning heat, fatigue from a long day on the water and wonder at the everchanging landscape and sunsets at Lake Powell cry out for a glass of wine to be enjoyed in the quiet and solitude of an isolated camp site while watching the sinking sun.

But what to drink?

I must admit that I, or more appropriately, Gloria and I, drink a lot more red wine than white wine - even after a hot day at Lake Powell when we lean back in our fold out camp loungers and watch another sunset of which we never tire.

During the warmer months at lake Powell, wine cannot be kept in anything other than a cooler. It is simply too hot. I would much rather have a chilled red than a hot red.

Consequently we usually take less expensive red wines that have a definite fruity character that does well if lightly chilled. We do not put our red wines on ice, but keep them to one side of the ice chest with no direct contact to any ice.

Examples of the kind of red wine we take to Lake Powell are Fusee Merlot or a Yellowtail Shiraz/Grenache blend. There are many more choices than just these two.

What would some of you recommend?

Gastronomic Geographic by GC Smith

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Gastronomic Geographic by GC Smith

Hot Dog, cheese steak, hamburg,
corn bread, Cajun shrimp, red rice,
Manhattan and New England clam chowder,
pulled pork Bar-B-Que, beef brisket, baked beans

Feta cheese, hero, spanakopia, moussaka, dolmas
falafel, couscous, sheep’s eyeball, pita bread, garbanzo beans,
curried meats, tandoorai chicken, chutney, goat stew, tiger sauce,
baguette, Kaiser roll, cinnamon bun, rye and pumpernickle, tortillas

Chop suey, chow main, egg foo yong, wonton,
Sichuan chicken, pressed duck, twice cooked pork,
egg drop soup, sweet and sour, pork fried rice, egg roll,
crispy duck, Hunan beef, kung pao chicken, Mongolian fire pot

Spaghetti, manicotti, linguine, spicy meatball,
olive oil, anti-pasta, red sauce, mussels marinara,
minestrone, pasta-fazul, roasted peppers, clam sauce,
garlic bread, fettuccine, wedding soup, oregano, Jordan almonds

Paella, bouillabaisse, picadilla, saffron rice, wine in bota,
chateaubriand, cassolette, veal Francais, pate’ de fois grace,
taco, tamale, burrito, salsa, frijoles, fajita, quesadilla, sopapilla,
wiener schnitzel, sauerkraut, bratwurst, liver sausage, sauerbraten

Lots of other yummy stuff
is found in earth’s far corners, but
never anything that has been cooked
by the Brits, or the Scots, or the Irish

Bon Appetite

About the author:

GC Smith is a southerner. He writes novels, short stories, flash fiction, poetry. Sometimes he plays with dialect, either Cajun or Gullah-Geechee ways of speaking. Smith’s work can be found in: Gator Springs Gazette, F F Magazine, Iguanaland, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Naked Humorists, The GLUT, Flask Fiction Magazine, N.O.L.A. Spleen, NFG Magazine, Cellar Door, The Beat, Dispatches Magazine, , Beaufort Gazette, Coyote’s Den, Southern Hum, Lamoille Lamentations , Quiction, The Landing, The Haunted Poet. He has completed and is shopping a novel, WHITE LIGHTNING–Murder In the world of stock car racing.