Fried Chicken, Risotto and Gingerbread

Well, it was another weekend full of cooking.

Actually, I packed in most of my cooking last Thursday night when I hosted the boys--Lou, Jesse and Joey--for dinner and for bridge. I finally made the celery root soup I was supposed to make on Thanksgiving Day (they loved it). I also served a simple salad of arugala, toasted walnuts and pears. For the main dish, I made porcini mushroom risotto, from an excellent recipe I got out of Bon Appetit a few years ago:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/108603

I made it without using the pressure cooker, so it took about twenty minutes to reach that perfect state of moist creaminess. The only problem was that I failed to put in the full amount of salt, so we each had to add some salt at the table. I forgot to take pictures.

For dessert, I served gingerbread men and boys (close up of the men above), using the recipe from my Aunt Nancy's cookbook, Emory Seasons.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
2/3 cup light corn syrup
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon each baking soda and salt
1 teaspoon each ground ginger and cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
red cinnamon candies and raisins for decoration

• Cream butter and sugars until light.
• Add molasses and corn syrup. Mix well.
• Stir in dry ingridients with heavy spoon. Work until smooth. Use hands to knead if necessary.
• Cover dough and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
• Remove portion of dough and roll on lightly floured board. Cut with desired cutters.
• Bake until lightly browned at edge. Cool 30 seconds before tranferring to rack.

That's it. Here are some pictures of me and the boys with the cookies:

On Saturday night, I reached back to my Southern roots and made friend chicken for the San Francisco Tsunami Swim Team holiday party. I love this recipe both because it's so simple and easy and because I love the cinnamon flavoring.

I got it out of The New York Times a few years ago, and it's unbeatable:

Lard and butter combined, or vegetable oil (I used the oil)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon coarse salt
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 good chicken, cut into serving pieces, or use 8 to 10 leg pieces (drumsticks and thighs), trimmed of excess fat.

• Choose a skillet or casserole at least 12 inches in diameter that can be covered. Add enough fat to come to a depth of about 1/2 inch, and turn heat to medium-high. If you are using butter, skim any foam as it rises to the surface.
• While fat heats, mix together the flour and seasonings in a plastic bag. Toss chicken in bag, 2 or 3 pieces at a time, until well coated. Put pieces on a rack as you finish.
• When oil is hot (a pinch of flour will sizzle) raise heat to high. Slowly add chicken pieces to skillet (if you add them all at once, temperature will plummet). Cover skillet, reduce heat to medium-high, and cook for 7 minutes.
• Uncover skillet, turn chicken and continue to cook, uncovered for another 7 minutes. Turn chicken again and cook for about 5 minutes more, testing as necessary to ensure that both sides are golden brown.
• Remove chicken from skillet and drain on paper towels. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 4 servings

I actually made 24 thighs, and I had plenty of the cinnamon and flour mixture left over. I cooked the tighs in three skillets on top of the stove at once.

Here's a picture of the resulting mountain of chicken:

St. Nicholas Day Cookies

My friend, Liz, gave me my first St. Nicholas Day cookie on Sunday.

St. Nicholas Day is actually today--Tuesday--but she had baked a batch of cookies over the weekend for her grandchildren, one of whom is named Nicholas, and for a few special friends like me. When she saw that I've recently launched Foodphiles, she wrote me to tell me about the cookies. Then she brought me a cookie at church on Sunday.

Liz said that she first baked the cookies twenty five years ago when her daughter was in high school. She explained that you make St. Nicholas cookies, which closely resemble soft gingerbread cookies, by pressing the dough into a mold of St. Nicholas. She told me that her first mold was made of wood and did not give enough shape to the cookies to make it through baking in the oven. She said they used to come out looking like a warped St. Nick.

Then she got a glass mold that allowed her to pack in more dough to hold their shape in the oven. The cookie Liz gave me was beautiful.



St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children, sailors and unmarried women (hmmm, what do those things have in common?), so I was going to give the cookie to two of Lou's friend who have just had a baby, but because he's been sick and we weren't able to see them tonight, I'll probably eat the cookie myself. I'll do so, however, in honor of some of the important little kids in my life: Gretchen Riffe, Nicholas Brouwer, and Emma and Kate Spencer.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Patty Green

One quick wine recommendation from my wine tasting trip to Oregon this past July:

http://www.patriciagreencellars.com/

After tasting almost all the 2005 Pinot Noirs from the barrel, I'd definitely recommend the Notorious and the Goldschmidt.

Her 2004 Sauvignon Blanc was excellent too, but it's sold out.

Thanksgiving Recipes

My new work friend, Rhian (pronounced like LeAnne), who happens to be a food maniac (a blogiac?), has encouraged me to post my recipes from the Thanksgiving Dinner I made for Lou.

As I have told her many times now, this blog is not intended to be about the things I cook, but since I'm just starting I will--just this once--post my recipes:

Turkey Breast

Straight from the Joy of Cooking (page 617):

I patted the breast dry, covered it with salt and pepper and generously buttered the whole thing before cooking it. My only variation was to add some celery stalks and pearl onions (at Lou's request) to the roasting pan. I learned to add celery and onions from following Julia Child's directions for roasting a chicken, and I have to admit that I love the smell of celery and onion roasting in the oven. I cooked the breast for about an hour and twenty minutes, and that was it. I couldn't have dreamed for a more moist turkey.

Easy as can be.

Cranberry Sauce

I also used the basic recipe for "Whole Cranberry Relish" from the Joy of Cooking (page 64), but I spiced it up by adding two tablespoons or so of Triple Sec instead of orange juice (I would have used Grand Marnier and orange zest instead, but I didn't have any). Consider it a poor man's cranberry sauce. It was delicious, and easy. I can't believe people buy cranberry sauce.

Mashed Potatoes with Garlic, Mascarpone and Caramelized Leeks

I got the recipe from the 2005 Thanksgiving issue of Bon Appetit. Here (I hope) is a link to the recipe on epicurious.com (search for it yourself if the link doesn't work):

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/233164

Broccoli Rabe

I more or less made it up: heat some olive oil in a skillet, add the broccoli, add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and toss until the broccoli turns bright green. Let the broccoli cook no longer than about a minute and a half, or two minutes tops.

Okay, long ago, I saw Giada de Laurentiis do something like this to Broccoli Rabe on the Food Network, and I think her suggestions stuck with me.

Here's her bio:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/giada_delaurentiis/0,1974,FOOD_10968,00.html .

She's fabulous.

Celery Root Soup with Spiced Maple Vinegar

I still haven't made the soup (it's on the menu for this weekend), but I'm planning to use a recipe I saw in The New York Times. You'll only be able to see this if you subscribe to TimesSelect, but here's a link: http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F50A1EFB3B5A0C758DDDA80994DD404482 .

Email me if you don't get the Times.

Oh, and for wine:

I drank a 2003 Tribach Riesling with the dinner, and I opened a S. Niccolo 1996 Vin Santo for the biscotti!

Actually, instead of Riesling, Lou drank from a bottle of Delas 2003 Cote-du-Rhone.

Here's to you, Rhian!

Bar Tartine

I recently met Lou, Russ and Matt for dinner at Bar Tartine, on Valencia Street at 17th Street. It had just been opened by the same owners of Tartine Bakery, and I have been hearing about its impending debut for some time now. As an admitted Tartine-addict, I have been eager to see what they'd do with an honest-to-God restaurant.

The first thing to say about it is that the space is beautiful. The walls are white and the lighting is soft (Lou hated the Antler chandelier). But the contrast of the walls is heightened by the black painted wood floors and striking "bar," which is made of bright white marble. It's like walking into a spacious, gussied up Tartine.

As with Tartine Bakery,the front part of the space is devoted to a large "open" table for walk-ins (this is the rage in San Francisco). They apparently plan to limit the number of tables available for reservations, and I suspect this will serve them well. I can imagine the hordes of people that will wait for tables inside and outside the door on the sidewalks (the same brilliant strategy they've used at Tartine where the line on Saturdays and Sundays regularly snakes out the door and down the block (as an aside, I will wait in the line as long as it's only at the door--it's worth it)). It's a brilliant way of rationing a good thing and making a table a highly coveted thing. And, as best I could tell, there is no real bar where there's any room for anyone to actually wait (there's only a high counter at which lucky diners can eat). This is also true at Delfina, Tartine's big sister.

We sat a four-top along the wall, giving me a view of the "bar" and the kitchen.

The second thing to say about Bar Tartine is that the menu was a bit of a surprise, a disappointment even. The list of starters and appetizers was much longer than the list of entrees--there were only four entrees. And I can't say that I was overly impressed by anything on the menu (except the recommended prosecco by the glass at the top of the menu--I love prosecco).

Russ and I order the celery root soup. Lou ordered the tuna tartare, and Matt skipped a starter. The soup was excellent. It was creamy and smooth and topped with small roasted chestnuts. Lou's tuna was actually prepared as both tartare and carpaccio, and it was good.

For entrees, Lou and I split both the beef tenderloin and slow cooked pork ribs and a beet and gorgonzola salad. The meat was delicate and tender, but we were given only two pieces of beef and two ribs. Russ ate the halibut, and Matt ate the duck. Both of them also complained of the small portion size.

The big let down, however, came when the waiter brought the dessert menu. Nothing appealed to any of us. I was shocked that the dessert menu wasn't better, given that they've made their names making pastries. No chocolate. No pastries. Big surprise, and big disappointment.

I'll go back and try it again. They had not even been open a week, and they need some time to work out the kinks and get feedback from folks. I am sure that in time they'll be sitting on another gold mine.

Go try it, and tell me what you think.

Baking Powder

My friend, Russ, after reading my comments about biscotti, pointed out that I should know a little more about baking powder, and he kindly forwarded on some information about what, exactly, baking powder does.

Here's what he sent me:

Baking powder is normally made of three different parts:

An acid
A base
A filler of some sort

All three need to be dry powders that can be mixed together. For example, baking soda (a base), cream of tartar (an acid) and corn starch (the filler) are three common ingredients.

In school, you may have done the experiment where you mix baking soda (a base) and vinegar (an acid) and get a bubbling reaction. Baking powder works the same way. When you add water to baking powder, the dry acid and base go into solution and start reacting to produce carbon dioxide bubbles.

Single-acting baking powder produces all of its bubbles when it gets wet.
Double-acting baking powder produces bubbles again when it gets hot.

If you want to prove to yourself that this is how baking powder works, simply try mixing a teaspoon of baking powder into a cup of hot water. As long as the baking powder is fresh, you will definitely see the reaction!

Thanks, Russ.

Thanksgiving Dinner--At Last!

I cooked Thanksgiving dinner on Friday night, one day late. It turned out perfectly.

I roasted the turkey with pearl onions--at Lou's request--and celery. I pasted the top of the breast with melted butter, salt and pepper and cooked it for about an hour and fifteen minutes at 350 degrees. The top of the breast lightly browned and the meat turned out to be moist and juicy. Lou and I ate two slices each (probably no more than a half a pound, and it was a 5 pound turkey).

The sides also turned out well--mashed potatoes with garlic, mascarpone, covered in butter soaked leeks and broccoli rabe lightly sauteed in olive oil with a dash of salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. It was a hit. Lou liked the dinner, and he's no easy critic.

I was most pleased with the results of my biscotti, which I had made on Wednesday afternoon and evening before getting sick. Though not darkly browned, the biscotti were soft and crumbly both on Thursday when Lou first tried them (I was still too sick to eat them) and on Friday when we finished them off with the Vin Santo. I used the Zuni Cafe cookbook recipe, and my only displeasure with them was that I found the licorice flavor overpowering to the flavor of the pistachios. I would have preferred a better balance or an outright pistachio flavor. Lou disagreed and thought they were perfect. I was just happy that they didn't turn out hard as bricks.

What I think is funny about the whole process is that unlike with most everything else--turkey for example--the trick to cooking biscotti well is not to worry about overcooking them, but to worry instead about undercooking them. Judy Rogers instructs her readers not to undercook them, so I was sure to let them stay in the oven longer than called for--about 25 minutes in all, which was at least 5 minutes more than she recommended--and even then I was afraid to pull them out because of softness of the dough. It seems that cooking them properly requires cooking them long enough for the baking powder to do its job--whatever that is--and then allowing them to cool and harden outside the oven.

Given the speed with which Lou ate up the biscotti on Thursday and Friday, I think I'll be sure to try making another batch some time soon.

Thanksgiving Postponed

Welcome to Foodphiles.

I had planned to start blogging on Thanksgiving Day yesterday, but, in a cruel twist of irony, I came down with food poisoning from a piece of pizza I ate on Wednesday night. I spent all day yesterday curled up on my couch barely able to move. No turkey for me. All I was able to drink was some Vernor's Ginger Ale and little bit of chicken broth late in the day. It was not the Thanksgiving I had hoped for. My plan had been to cook a simple, but elegant, Thanksgiving Dinner for Lou. The menu was going to consist of roast turkey breast, mascarpone and garlic mashed potatoes covered in sauteed leeks, broccoli rabe and celery root soup. I was going to serve a light German Riesling with dinner, and for dessert I was going to serve homemade pistachio biscotti--I made the biscotti on Wednesday--and Vin Santo. I was going to do all the cooking, but instead Lou ended up making his mom's spicy pork sausage stuffing for himself. He carmelized shallots in butter, added some celery and pork and mixed it all together with some more butter and stove top stuffing and then topped it off with mozzarella cheese before baking it for about 25 minutes. He was very pleased with how it turned out, saying it was as good as he remembered his mom's being. I sat on the couched and watched him eat it. Even though my plans were foiled, Lou and I managed to celebrate Thanksgiving without a traditional meal. We entered into the spirit of Thanksgiving by giving thanks for the time together, for food--foodlessness in my case--and for love.

I'm feeling much better today. I may roast the turkey tonight if I don't feel too tired. Or, I'll roast it tomorrow, and we'll eat a belated Thanksgiving dinner then. I'll write more about how it turns out then.

A word about Foodphiles. This is a blog about people who are passionate about food. My intention is to talk to as many people as possible about why they cook, what they cook and how they cook and tell their stories. Eventually,I want incoporate video and photos into this site. I may also write about some of my own cooking and some of my own experiences in restaurants, but I mostly want this to be about others. I've got a great story to tell about a day I spent making pizzas in a homemade brick wood-buring oven.