Jack is home from India! (green pepper bean cakes, tomato and fennel stew)

Jack is home from India! 

Jack is home from India!!!!!!!

His mother is very happy!!!!!!!!!!!

My son has been teaching in Dhrangadhra in Gujarat for the past six months.  We picked him up this morning at EWR and drove down the turnpike home in complete joy.  We are very proud of the kid.  He went to the other side of the world to do a job that he had never done before and apparently did it well.  We got some stories out of him, but mostly we’ll have to wait until the jet lag wears off and he is a little more coherent.  So now, he has taken a shower and is resting.  For how long, dunno, he was pretty jangled before he stumbled upstairs. 

Readjusting to Pennsylvania in winter will be a challenge.  He said that it was awful cute that his students would show up for class wearing sweaters and gloves whenever the temperature in Dhrangadhra dropped below 65°.  Today was 20° and windy, with a covering from yesterday’s snowfall.  The bigger adjustment will be with food.  That part of India is populated by Hindus and some Muslims.  The diet is largely vegetarian with the occasional chicken, no pork and certainly no beef.  Jack lost 30 pounds.  And this is a kid that didn’t have 30 pounds to lose to begin with.  Someone asked me what his “re-entry” plan is.  I don’t think he has one, other than loading up on kielbasa from Czerw’s http://www.kielbasyboys.com/, Banh Mi sandwiches and strombolis from Romano’s http://www.romanostromboli.com/.  We’ll have a processed meat theme for the next few weeks, I’m sure.

Jack said that he learned some of his favorite recipes before he left by hanging out with the women in the kitchen.  He has to formally write up what they taught him and that might be tricky since they were teaching in Hindi or Gujarati and he was learning in English.  In spite of that, I expect some good meals. 

I don’t know Indian cooking; however I did spend almost a year solely cooking vegetables in a French place in Philly.  Vegetables are difficult to cook properly, less forgiving than say, a pot roast.  It takes surprising skills to make a vegetable preparation that has real depth of character.  There’s technique involved.  You can’t simply throw everything in a pot and stew it for an hour.  Following is a recipe for bean cakes with a tomato and fennel stew.  The absolute best thing about this dish is that you can make it ahead of time and reheat the thing in about 10 minutes.  Really!  And it is better reheated!  Resist the urge to use canned beans.  The texture will never be right.

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Green Pepper Bean Cakes

1# dried white beans

1 green pepper, seeded, roughly chopped

1 cup spanish onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled

3 tbs olive oil

3 qts. water

salt and pepper

In a large stockpot, put the beans in water, season with salt and pepper and put on a low heat.  When it comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, the beans will have begun to swell and soften.  Add the green pepper, onion and garlic.  Continue to simmer the beans for a further 30 minutes.  By that time, they will have completely softened and started to break down.  The water will have almost evaporated.  The bean cake mixture will be the consistency of thin mashed potatoes.

Remove from the heat and add the olive oil.  The olive oil is added last to preserve its delicate, aromatic  flavor.  With a spoon or a hand potato masher, smash the bean mix until it has a consistent, lumpy texture.  It should resemble thick mashed potatoes.  Transfer the bean cake mixture to a plastic container and refrigerate until cold, overnight is best.

When it is time to serve the bean cakes, heat a large sauté pan or electric griddle.  Coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil and fry patties of the bean cake mix that are about the size of small, thick pancakes.  When one side has browned, after about 5 minutes, flip the cakes and brown the other side for a further five minutes.  Transfer to a platter for serving and top with the tomato and fennel stew.

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Tomato and Fennel Stew

1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes

1 head fennel, sliced, about 1 ½ cups

1 cup finely diced onions

1 tbs. sugar

2 tbs. olive oil

salt and pepper

In a large sauté pan on low heat, fry the onions and fennel in olive oil.  Season with sugar, salt and pepper.  The sugar will help moderate the acidity of the tomatoes.

When the onions and fennel have cooked, becoming transparent, add the tomatoes, increase the heat and simmer the stew until it has cooked down to sauce consistency, similar to a chunky tomato gravy.  Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.  Serve immediately over top of the green pepper bean cakes or refrigerate to be reheated later.

Leftovers?  This will make a serious stuffing for a morning omelette.

Mashed Potatoes and The Rolling Stones (mashed potatoes)

Yesterday, I heard Jack Bishop and Bridget Lancaster of America's Test Kitchen being interviewed by Terry Gross.  http://www.npr.org/2013/11/26/247336038/dont-stuff-the-turkey-and-other-tips-from-americas-test-kitchen  You should listen to their discussion.  These are folks with whom I generally agree.  They are willing to throw out a cooking myth if reality, food science, gets in the way of what yer Mom did in the kitchen.  They think at the stove, something I’m going to encourage all of you to do.

When discussing mashed potatoes, Bishop mentioned that people appreciate homemade mashed so much that they give the cook a little room to play.  He offered a recipe for paprika and garlic mashed that really sounds interesting, but would get my head handed to me by everyone at the table.  At our house, mashed potatoes are sacred.  Once, about 20 years ago, I put garlic in the mashed and I’m still hearing about it.  So, much like the “expanded, reimagined” version of Exile on Main Street that the Stones put out a few years back, altered, adulterated, messed with mashed potatoes are something that we just do not do at the Farrell house.  You don't screw with something that is already perfect.  The risks are too great.  That’s too bad, because Bishop’s recipe looked good.  Maybe I’ll make it some evening when Cathy is out of town and I know that the kids won’t be dropping by.  It will have to be a dark, long night.  If I should get caught with anything other than the standard mashed…I don’t even want to think of the penalty.

There’s good reason for the kids love of my mashed potatoes and it has to do with the selection of the ingredients and the method used to make the stuff.  What we do is suspend as much butter and cream in the potatoes as is possible.  First, use peeled white potatoes and peeled russets.  The combination gives a fluffy finished product with enough body to make that lake of gravy that we all want.  Additionally, they fry up better the next morning as potato pancakes, if by chance you have any leftovers.  We never do, in spite of the vat of taters that I make.  No Yukon golds, too waxy and no boiling in their skins, too much waste when you try peel them hot.  Learn to drain them properly.   

Secondly, you shouldn’t worry about heating the butter and cream.  Potatoes have an atomic number above Plutonium, so they hold heat like nothing else.  Pouring hot liquid into a mixer is something you see in a workplace safety movie as a “don’t.”   Lastly, whip the potatoes in small batches in a mixer, I have one of those Kitchen Aid counter models.  Yeah, they cost $200, but we bought ours 20 years ago and I haven’t been able to kill it.  Mix all the batches together in a large pot and keep it warm in a double boiler.  A crockpot on low would also work.  You can prepare the mashed 2 hours before serving, making your life easier on Thanksgiving, continuing our theme of promoting sanity on a day that is inherently loony.

So, the following is the best mashed potato recipe that you will ever see, hands down, don’t argue.  Ask the Farrell children and all the people who have dropped by for dinner over the years.  (You should see what the Franklin and Marshall football team did to a 20 pound batch!)  We’ll be making a big batch in the foolish hope of leftovers.  If you think that it is too caloric, and you’d be correct, simply back off on the butter and follow Julia Child’s advice to “Just add more cream.” 

One last tip, don’t eat sticky buns while you are typing up your blog!  Thank you, Ann.

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Mashed Potatoes

4# white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

2# russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

12 tbs. unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch slices

1 pint heavy cream

salt and white pepper

Heat a large stockpot filled with 1.5 gallons of salted water to boiling.  Add the white and russet potatoes.  Cook about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and a knife goes through them evenly.  Drain in a colander until dry, about 5 minutes. 

It is important to work quickly so that the potatoes do not cool too much.  Put 1/3 of the potatoes and 1/3 of the butter in a mixing bowl.  Season lightly with salt and white pepper, then whip on a medium setting, breaking up the large chunks into a smooth puree.  Take care not to over whip the puree or the potatoes will get gummy, resembling taffy, instead of creamy. 

Transfer the puree with a rubber spatula into a large pot that can serve as a double boiler, keeping the potatoes hot until serving.  Repeat this process until all the potatoes have been pureed.  Adjust the seasoning with salt and white pepper before serving.

Happy Thanksgiving gang!  Thank you for following the Fresh Fun Food Blog.

Com' on, You Can Make a Casserole! (Penne Casserole, Potato Soup)

­­If there was anyone out there doing the work of God, it is Tommie Wilkins, Christina Siglin and the people of Laurel House in Norristown, PA. http://laurel-house.org/  Go to their site.  Usually, it is annoying to see all those “donate” buttons all over the interwebs, but in this case, you should click on every single one and empty your paypal.   

Here’s Laurel House’s mission. “…to provide safe haven for abused women and their children, to raise public awareness about domestic violence and to advocate for social change against domestic violence.” Sounds like something we can all get behind? 

Tommie laid out a table in the sanctuary of our church with “empty place” settings for six local women who had died from domestic abuse.  From the stories that she told, Tommie could have set up a banquet table stretching to the street. In every community, rich or poor, black, white, brown or purple there is domestic abuse.  People are suffering.  This is unacceptable.   

How can we help?  Well, there are always the previously mentioned donations.  That’ll go a long way to providing for the 28 women and their children that they house each day.  You can shop at their thrift stores, Laurel’s Loft in Lansdale and Marian's Attic in King of Prussia.  Good stuff for cheap!  You can volunteer at these shops.  Even a few hours a month is a help.  You can attend their events listed on the calendar.  How about donating your old cell phone or picking up some new clothing or hygiene­­­­ items on their wish list, something that is needed, but for which there is no budget.  Or, here’s a crazy idea, keep them in mind when you are doing your estate planning. 

Also, we have to stand up. 

If you aren’t in Montgomery County, PA, search out a local shelter and give them food.  It is necessary and appreciated.  Talk with the people running the shelter and help them get the kind of food that they need.  Secondly, deliver the food frozen and labeled with the contents and date it was made.  That helps the provider with planning for when donations are slack, normally the times after the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays and at the end of the summer. Lastly, talk to your neighbors and kids.  Listen to learn of need in your community.  Act to change the culture of violence that is America today.

…and you thought that this was a food blog?

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This dish freezes well and provides a nutritious meal for about 8 people.  Later we’ll have a discussion about making your own tomato sauce, I mean gravy, no sauce, gravy, sauce…

Penne Casserole

2# penne pasta, cooked al dente

6 cups tomato sauce

24 oz. grated mozzarella cheese

1# sliced provolone cheese

8 oz. grated parmesan cheese

5 cloves chopped garlic

1 aluminum hotel pan with lid

Preheat your oven to 375°.  Ladle enough sauce into the bottom of the hotel pan to cover it one inch deep.  Add ½ of the penne and mozzarella.  Sprinkle the garlic over the pasta, then add the remainder of the sauce.  Layer the remainder of the pasta on top of the sauce.  Spread the rest of the mozzarella evenly over the pasta, cover the mozzarella evenly with the sliced provolone then sprinkle the grated parm over the casserole.  Bake for one hour or until browned.

Allow to cool for 20 minutes, cover, label with the contents and date and freeze solidly before delivering the casserole to Laurel House.

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This is a master recipe which can be changed by using different herbs or vegetables.  You’ll get a different soup if you add a cup of celery, carrots, mushrooms or cooked Italian sausage.  Either way, it is filling, making a complete meal if it is served with crusty bread and a big salad.

Potato Soup

3 large chef’s potatoes, peeled and diced

1 spanish onion, diced

3 tbs. chopped fresh herbs, parsley, thyme, chives, tarragon

1 tbs. butter

½ gallon milk

½ galloon water

In a heavy stockpot, melt the butter over low heat, add the onions.  Sauteé the onions for 5 minutes, until transparent.  Add the potatoes, season with salt and pepper, cover the pot and sweat the potatoes until they have begun to cook through, but have not browned.

Remove the lid and add the water and milk.  Increase the heat and bring the soup to a boil.  Skim any scum that rises to the top, lower the heat and simmer uncovered for one hour. 

At the end of the hour cooking time, the potatoes will have broken down and the soup will have thickened.  At this point, you can simply mix the soup with a whisk to further break up the potatoes or pass it through a food mill to give it a finer texture.  Stir in the herbs and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Package the soup in plastic one quart containers and freeze.  Those leftover soup containers that you get take-out wonton soup in are perfect.  It is easier to deliver frozen food to a shelter, less mess, and they will be able to thaw and reheat your soup whenever they need it.