Labor Day In Lexington

I made a trip to my hometown in Virginia for Labor Day weekend to visit my family. What made the trip special was that Lou came along and that he met my sister, my niece and a number of my friends for the first time. He had met my parents once before when they came to visit me in San Francisco, but this was the first time he'd stayed with my family and seen where I grew up. It was a wonderful weekend. We shared some delicious meals together, and he and I found a way to do some cooking-- actually, we found a way to do some grilling.

The first night my mom threw a "picnic" for us and for most of my friends who still live in or around Lexington. The rain from the remanents of hurricane Ernesto forced us inside, so it wasn't as much of a picnic as she had hoped. She fed seventeen of us in all--twelve adults and five kids--and she served pulled pork barbecue from a local barbecue pit. The barbecue was good, though not spectacular, and she treated us to a variety of traditional barbecue side dishes--baked beans, cole slaw, pasta salad, chips and brownies for dessert. We all had fun eating and catching up. Here's a picture of the kids' table:



On our second night, Lou and I decided to make use of my parents charcoal grill. We trekked off to the grocery store (it's such a small town that I ran into three people I knew and introduced them to Lou) to buy some steaks, corn and greens for salad. I coated the meat in olive oil, salt and pepper and threw them on the fire. For most of you this may not sound so special, but I was excited about cooking over the open fire because we use normally use a stovetop grill, which does not expose the items on the grill to the flame. I was curious about how different the steaks would taste over the fire. The steaks, and the corn for that matter, turned out well. They tasted smoky (we used mesquite charcoals, so that helped) and I pulled most of them off in time to keep them medium rare. We served a simple salad with tomatoes and avocado on the side. Here's a picture of us toasting each other before we dug in:



The third night there, Lou announced that he was craving ribs and suggested buying some baby backs, making our own barbecue sauce and grilling them over the fire. His plan sounded good to me, so we headed to the store to find some ribs. We ended up buying about two and half pounds worth of ribs, some more corn and the ingredients for a simple barbecue sauce.

Lou made up the sauce, and neither one of us paid close attention to the exact ingredients and proportions. He tweaked the sauce several times while making it, so it's hard to give an exact recipe. Here is our best guess at the sauce he made for us:

Lou's Impromtu Barbecue Sauce

1 bottle of Guinness Ale
about 5 medium tomatoes
1/2 cup of vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
about 3 tablespoons molasses
1 lime, juiced
1/2 cup of jalepeno peppers
1/2 an onion, or several small shallots

Combine all ingredients, except lime, in sauce pan over medium low heat. Let simmer for at least 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add brown sugar or molasses as necessary. Once sauce has thickened, add lime juice and either serve or use to marinate meat.

Ideally, I think we would have let the sauce simmer for at least an hour to reduce and thicken, but because my parents, sister and niece were hungry we rushed the sauce and basically barely combined it before pouring it over the ribs. It did the job, however.







We dressed the ribs with lime juice before basting them with the sauce, and then I threw them on the grill. Flipping them only twice, I let them cook covered for about twenty minutes in all. I deliberately used only about 20 coals, so as to keep the temperature relatively low. Not surprisingly, it turned out that twenty minutes wasn't quite long enough to cook the thickest part of one of the sections of ribs, so I had to throw that section back on the grill for another five minutes or so. Other than that, the ribs turned out perfectly. A hard brown and crispy crust formed on the outside, which sealed in the moisture and juices, so the meat came off the grill tender and soft. And, best of all, the ribs tasted both of smoke and the dark, vinegary sauce.





We served the ribs with the remaining sauce, which had thickened somewhat while the ribs cooked, and with some more corn. Here's a picture of the corn on the grill:



My mom asked us to make a salad we had made for her when she was visiting us in San Francisco, so we set her up so she could make it herself. It's a very simple salad of consisting of endive, sliced Asian pears, toasted pecans, roquefort and simple honey-mustard vinaigrette. Here she is crumbling roquefort:



And, here are the beautiful salads she arranged for us:



As always, we ate well, and it was a pleasure to enjoy some special meals with my family and special friends.

A Feast for Friends from LA

Well, faithful readers, it's been some time since I lasted posted on foodphiles, but this past weekend some dear friends came up from LA for a quick visit and I promised them I would post about our dinner. Actually, I promised this would be the beginning of regular posting, so here goes...

All summer long we've been making the most of our stovetop grill by charring, searing and otherwise grilling fresh vegetables and meats. The method of preparation is basically the same: coat the meats or vegetables in olive oil, add salt and pepper, and throw them on the grill. I like the simple flavors of vegetables and meats mixed with the flavor of the grill itself. And there's no easier way to cook.

On Saturday, we began the evening by serving a collection of cheeses--soft and hard--along with almonds and honey:



Here we all are around the table enjoying some Patty Green Pinot Noir with the cheese:



For dinner, I grilled flank steak and green onions (these were some of the largest green onions I've ever seen!). I also threw together some mixed greens with cherry and plum tomatoes, and we microwaved some corn. Here's a picture of the green onions on the grill:



The highlight of the evening, however, was the flourless chocolate cake that I made for dessert. Several years ago I came across a recipe in Bon Appetit that captivated me. The recipe was created by Jacques Torres, who was the executive pastry chef at Le Cirque in New York. The recipe could not be easier--the only ingredients are chocolate, sugar, water, eggs and butter. It's moist and rich, and it's been a hit every time I've made it.

Here's a photo of the cake after it had cooled but before we decorated it:



Greg and Michele made vanilla ice cream to top off the cake.



Lou made marzipan leaves, mushrooms and acorns to decorate the cake and help us envision the upcoming fall:







All in all, it was a wonderful evening of food, conversation and friendship. I'm glad they came for dinner.

Maple Scones

I made maple scones on Sunday morning from a recipe I noticed in The New York Times last week. They came out soft, light and airy, as opposed to dense and thick, and I thought they were perfect. I loved the color of them too (they really turned golden brown), though Lou said he thought he could taste a little too much baking powder. We ate them immediately after I pulled them out of the oven with hot coffee.

Here's the recipe:

MAPLE SCONES
Adapted from the Samuel Sewall Inn, Brookline, Mass.
Time: 30 minutes

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour (more as needed)
2 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound (1 stick) chilled butter
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts or cooked wheat berries
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 large egg
2 tablespoons milk, or as needed
Vegetable oil or nonstick spray for greasing baking sheet.

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, combine whole wheat flour, 1 cup white flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry blender, or two knives scissors-fashion, cut butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
2. Add nuts or wheat berries. Stir in the maple syrup and egg and just enough milk so that dough leaves side of bowl and forms a ball. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; gently roll in flour to coat. Knead lightly; if dough is very soft, roll in flour again. Transfer to a lightly greased baking sheet. Pat or roll into an 8-inch disk; cut into 8 wedges, but do not separate.
3. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Immediately remove from baking sheet, and carefully separate. Serve warm.

Yield: 8 servings.

(from The New York Times)

And here are a few more pics:

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Apples, Fennel and Spices

Well, faithful foodphiles readers, I'm finally getting around to posting again after a few weeks away. Don't fear, I've been cooking these last few weeks. I just haven't managed to set aside the time to post on here. Please forgive me.

Last Sunday night I prepared a fantastic recipe for slow roasted pork shoulder from the current issue of Bon Appetit. I adapted the recipe slightly to use a pork tenderloin--basically I altered the cooking time so as to not completely overcook the meat--and it worked out well. The combined flavors of the fennel, coriander seeds and garlic, along with the hint of apple, were magnificent. I'll have to post the recipe later because I could not find it on epicurious. I suspect that they do not post the recipes published in RSVP on the web because they did not create the recipes. I'll post it on here and give full credit to the chefs.

Slow-Roasted Pork with Apple-Fennel Jus (from The Kitchen in Boulder, Colorado, Chef Hugo Metheson)

2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
6 garlic cloves, corsely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 6 1/2 to 6 3/4 pound boneless pork butt (shoulder) roast (I used the tenderloin)

1 750 ml bottle dry white wine
3 Fuji apples (about 1 3/4 pounds), peeled and chopped
2 cups coarsely chopped fennel tops and fronds (bulbs reserved for another use)
1 large onion, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using spice mill or coffee grinder, process coriander seeds, fennel seeds, salt and peppercorns until coarsely ground. Add garlic and grind until paste forms. Transfer mixture to small bowl. Whisk in olive oil. Rub spice paste all over pork.

Boil wine in heavy medium saucepan 3 minute. Place chopped apples, fennel and onion in large roasting pan, spreading evenly. Pour boiled wine into pan. Place pork atop apple mixture. Cover roasting pan tightly with foil (or lid). Roast pork until tender, 3 hours (or 20 minutes per pound for tenderloin).

Carefully remove foil from pan. Transfer pork shoulder to platter; tent with foil to keep warm. Strain liquid from roasting pan into large saucepan, pressing on solids to release any liguid. Discard solids in strainer. Spoon off fat from surface of pan juices. Boil juices until reduced to 3 cups, about 25 minutes.

Slice pork. Serve, passing apple-fennel jus alongside.

Finally, since it's so easy to post photos of me cooking, here are a few of me and my loin:

Lamb, Gnocchi and Eggs Rolls

Well, despite the fact that it may look like it's been a slow weeek for this blogger, I've actually been cooking up a storm.

Last Sunday night, Lou and I hosted six other folks for dinner before playing bridge. We made a gruyere and fontina fondue (with french bread, asparagus and cherry tomatoes for dipping), rack of lamb with a preserved lemon gremolata crust served over a bed of spicy chili nodles, and for dessert, our friend Joey, baked a delicious chocolate espresso cake.







The lamb recipe came from Donna Hay's "New Fast Food," and she lived up to our expectations of her spectacular recipes. We modified the recipe slightly by matching the lamb with the spicy noodles (basically we exchanged noodles for potatoes), and it turned out well.

Here's the modified recipe for the lamb:

Ingredients:

for the lamb:
sea salt
olive oil
1 lamb rack of 12 cutlets, trimmed of fat

for the preserved lemon gremolata:
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped preserved lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Place a frying pan over high heat. Add the lamb and cook for 3 minutes or until the meat is sealed. Remove from the pan and set aside.

To make the preserved lemon gremolata, combine the garlic, parslep, preserved lemon and oil. Spread the gremolata over the lamb and place in a baking dish. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the lamb is cooked to your liking.

To serve, slice the rack into cutlets.



Hay suggests shielding the gremolata from the heat with tin foil, but I thought the gremolata might have looked better a little browned. Next time I may put the lamb under the broiler for a minute or two. I also wonder if browning the gremolata might help it better adhere to the lamb.

On Valentine's Day, Lou and I made spinach gnocchi. Here's the recipe:



Making gnocchi is a four step process in which you prepare the basic ingridients, combine them with flour to form a dough, drop the dough in boiling water and then bake it in butter and cheese.

I was thrilled about how they turned out. They were softer than I expected, and they tasted delicious.

Here you can see us mixing the dough and preparing them for the boiling water:






And lastly, on Friday night we cooked some beets (you can see the beets in the pot just before we pulled them out) and made egg rolls. Donna Hay again supplied us with the idea for egg rolls. It could not have been easier:

Egg Rolls

2 tablespoons sesame oil
4 green onions, chopped (we used part of a larger onion because we didn't have any green onions)
4 eggs (we used up the remaining quail eggs--about 12 in all)
fillings (Hay suggests smoked salmon, spinach ot tomatoes, but we used prosciutto)
thick, sweet soy sauce

Heat the seame oil in a large, non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 2 minutes. Remove half the onions and set aside.

Beat the eggs lightly to combine them. Add half the egg to the pan and swirl to evenly coat the base. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until almost set. Slide the egg from the pan and place the fillings of your choice down one side. Roll up and serve with thick soy sauce. Return the remaining onions to the pan and make a second egg roll. Serves 2.

It had been years since I'd seen an egg rolls like these. My aunt and uncle lived in Japan for a year when I was a kid, and I remember my aunt making them for us when they got back to the US. I've grown accustom to the crispy egg rolls served in most chinese restaurants, and I had honestly forgotten that you can make an egg roll like thin omlette and roll it up with tasty fillings to your own liking. I thought ours turned out slightly too thick, so the next time I make them I want to try to make the egg layer as thin as possible. Here's a photo sequence of me rolling them up.

Chocolate Bar

Well, for those of you who know me, I usually swim somewhere between 3,000 and 4,500 yards at least three nights a week. That's a lot of time in the pool, and spending so much time swimming makes me generally ravenous.

Don't worry, faithful readers, I won't eat just anything as a result of my intense hunger and need to fuel the body. I only eat good food, and this is the story of the discovery a new good, and essential, food:

Tonight, after finishing off the leftover chili from Sunday, I was overcome by an intense craving for chocolate. Unlike some people I know, I do not horde chocolate for such occasions, so there was no chocolate in the house. I was forced to walk down the street to Bi-Rite to find some chocolate to satisfy the craving. Well, I found some chocolate made by a local chocolatier: Charles Chocolates of San Francisco . I had heard of Charles, but I had never before tasted any of their chocolates. After looking over the selection, I bought the bar with mocha java pieces in bittersweet chocolate. In the interest of full disclosure, there was little debate in my head about what flavor to choose--I am a fanatic about the combination of coffee and chocolate. Actually, almost any combination of those two flavors would qualify as dream dessert for me (for example, I am obsessed with the profiteroles with espresso gelato, chocolate sauce and candied almonds at Delfina (next to Bi-rite)). Anyway, this chocolate bar jumped out at me:



It was good--dark, bitter chocolate with the chopped coffee beans blended into the bar. The chocolate and coffee combination was well balanced, and I liked the crunch of the coffee bean.



All in all, Charles was a good find, and I can assure you that I'll buy another one some time soon. Try one yourself--you'll like it.

Lemons?

I pulled about fifty lemons off the tree in our back yard last week, and I've been stumped trying to figure out what to do with all of them. I've been putting lemon juice in and on everything I cook - vinaigrette, the Chicken Stew for Jackie and Beth and on vegetables - but I can't find a recipe that calls for using a lot of lemons. They look pretty in the bowl, but there must be something more I can do with them other than make lots of lemonade.



Anyone have any ideas? Please write with suggestions.

Leftover Cornbread

So, what do you do when Superbowl Sunday comes along and you just so happen to have some leftover cornbread from the day before?

Why, you make chili, of course!

Yes, I succumbed to a timeless tradition of making chili on Superbowl Sunday, even though I didn't watch the game and could have cared less how it turned out.

A few years ago someone - I think it may have been my roommate - gave me some chili mix that I stashed away for the right time. Well, that time was yesterday.

The recipe was really easy: 2 lbs of lean ground beef, one 28 oz. can of tomato sauce, 1 can each of black beans, kidney beans and pinto beans, and that's it; brown the beef, add the sauce and the powder from the packet (it's made up of chili pepper, salt, garlic, onion, paprika, cumin, oregano and "spices") and let it simmer for a half an hour, stirring occasionally; then add the beans and let it simmer for another half hour, stirring from time to time. That's it.

I couldn't believe it - the chili was delicious. It was both thick and surprisingly spicy. The paprika was the key ingredient in the mix.

I contemplated adding onions, but I decided against it, mostly because I didn't have any and I didn't want to walk down to Bi-Rite to buy some. It would have been great with some chopped green onion and some cheese on top, but the chili tasted fine by itself, especially when combined with the leftover cornbread.

So, faithful Foodphiles readers, you might be wondering why I'm not posting a picture of this surprisingly good chili. Well, the honest truth is that even though the chili tasted great, it looked horrible, and I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea about what I cook.

Baby...ur, family food!

My friends, Jackie and Beth, had their baby last week. Caroline Freeman-Cherry was born on Friday, January 27th at 9:04 pm. She's beautiful, and she has a full head of black hair. I don't have a picture of her yet, but I'll try to post one soon.

In order to try to help them get settled in back at home, a number of their friends, mostly friends from St. John's, have been taking them meals every night. Last night was my turn, and so that's what today's posting is all about.

For some time now I've been wanting to make some kind of chicken stew. I often times get these ideas in my head and mull them over for weeks or months before every getting around to making them. What I'd actually had in my head for some time was Brunswick Stew, which is a Southern mish-mash of meats and potatoes, corn and other vegetables. In the old days, good Brunswick Stew was often made chicken and squirrel, but most of the recipes I found called for a combination of chicken and beef (I suppose squirrel does not fit into the urban palate)). I've looked at a couple of recipes for Brunswick Stew over the last few months, but none them spoke to me. So, last week when I was asked to prepare foor for Jackie and Beth, my mind immediately settled on the idea of some kind of chicken stew. I gave up on the idea of Brunswick Stew and looked around for ideas for a simple chicken stew. No squirrel for me, thank you.

I found a excellent recipe on Epicurious.com for chicken and corn stew, flavored with thyme. It was perfect--thick, creamy, rich and delicious! Here's the recipe from Gourmet:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/108728

And, here's a picture of the stew while it was still on the stove:



The best thing I could think of to accompany the stew was cornbread, so I dug out one of my favorite cornbread recipes from Edna Lewis's and Scott Peacock's The Gift of Southern Cooking. There's no sugar in this recipe, so it's not sweet. It's an old-fashioned southern cornbread, and the recipe calls for using sour milk (I used buttermilk as a substitute for the soured milk). As with all good cornbread, this recipe suggests using a cast iron pan or skillet, so I used Lou's cast iron pan.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 cup fine-ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 3/4 cup soured milk or buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat Oven to 450 degrees

Mix the cornmeal, salt and baking powder together in a bowl. Stir the milk into beaten eggs, and pour over the dry ingredients in batches, stirring vigorously to make a smooth glossy batter.

Cut the butter into pieces and put it in a 10-inch cast iron skillet or baking pan. Put the skillet in the preheated oven, and heat until the butter is melted and foaming. Remove from the oven, and swirl the butter all around the skillet to coat the bottom and sides thoroughly. Pour remaining melted butter into the cornbread batter, and stir well until the butter is absorbed into the batter. Turn the batter into the heated skillet, and put it in the oven to bake for 30-40 minutes, until cornbread is golden brown and crusty on top and pulls away from the sides of the skillet.

Remove the skillet from the oven, and turn out the cornbread onto a plate. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before cutting into wedges. Serve cornbread while it is hot.

The cornbread turned out perfectly, and it was a hit with Jackie and Beth. Here's a picture of the cornbread shortly after I took it out of the oven (I had to taste a piece!):



And, to finish off the dinner, I made a simple salad with sweet gorgonzola cheese, toasted wlnuts and homemade thyme and fresh lemon juice vinaigrette (I pulled about 50 lemons of the tree in our back yard last weekend). And for dessert, I make brownies (pictures of me stirring the batter below) which I took to Jackie and Beth to eat with Dolce de Leche ice cream.






Babies sure a good reason to cook! I'm glad you're here Caroline.