Nuttin' In the House (Garlic Chili Potato Wedges)

Here’s a quick one for when you have almost nothing around the house, yet folks are hungry.  Potatoes always fill the belly.  The garlic and chili powder will make sure that there are no leftovers.  Preheat the oven to 375°F and go for it.

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Garlic Chili Potato Wedges

1# white potatoes, washed, cut into wedges

3 tbs. olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. salt

and a couple of grinds of black pepper

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients.  Mix to evenly coat the potato wedges.  Turn the seasoned potatoes out onto a baking sheet.  Arrange the wedges so that they do not touch.

Bake for 15 minutes.  With a metal spatula, turn the wedges, so that they brown on the other side.  Bake for an additional 15 minutes.  After 30 minutes in the oven, the potato wedges will be evenly browned and crispy.  Serve immediately. 

On the off chance that there are any leftovers, Garlic Chili Potatoes are great for breakfast, chopped up and sautéed with onions and green peppers.  Fry an egg  or two and drop 'em on top.

Why You Must Know the Escoffier Classics (Mac and Cheese)

There’s a little book, only 239 pages, which all French chefs have secreted in their tool boxes.  It is a guide, kind of a cheat sheet, to the great Escoffier cook book.  Escoffier was the chef who codified French classical cuisine.  He also was the first to can tomatoes, but that’s another story.  Say what you will about old school French cooking, yeah it was heavy and far too elaborately garnished, but it was an expression of the people and place where it was born.  Le Répertoire de la Cuisine is a distillation of Escoffier’s book.  In those 239 pages are the outlines for the 7,000 recipes which defined the Golden Age of Gastronomy.

A Le Répertoire recipe is brief.  In just a few words, a reader with skills would be able to make even the most complicated preparation.  Here’s a good example.  To make Mornay Sauce, the only guidance given is “Béchamel Sauce mixed with butter, grated Gruyère and Parmesan.”  That’s pretty spare, consequently, a cook must know in his DNA how to make a Béchamel, how to enrich it with butter without breaking the thing and how much of each cheese to blend in.  Waverly Root’s The Food of France is a similar resource.  Recipes in the text are noted where a good cook should be able to reproduce the dish just from the description.

The Chefs knew Le Répertoire inside and out, so they would just bark out what was to be on the menu and an apprentice would be expected to make it, flawlessly and in the expected time.  Here’s where Le Répertoire becomes essential.  The apprentice would respond, “Yes, Chef!” then sneak a look at the book to figure out what the Chef had just demanded.  He would review the recipe, check out the kitchen’s inventory and equipment.  Only then would the apprentice carefully, fearfully approach the Chef to see what sort of personal spin he wants on the classic version.  Normally, the garnish would be adjusted and plating would be finalized.  This sounds more organized that it would be in actuality.  There would be lots of swearing, plenty of talk about parentage.  Farm animals would be mentioned, however if the apprentice knew the recipe and had completely remembered the psychotic outburst that was the chef’s final instructions, everything would be just fine.

The rigorous understanding of historical recipes still has value.  Let’s go back to the Mornay Sauce.  When they were growing up, my kids would often be horrified when mac and cheese was offered at their friend’s house.  Most of the time that evil stuff outta a box would be served.  My kids came up on mac and cheese made with a proper Mornay Sauce.  They were raised on the fringe and that is my fault.  But here’s the thing, when they have been away for a while, the first thing they want when they come home is mac and cheese with that Mornay Sauce.  And my cidre, the boys always drink up the cidre.   Maggie skips the booze and digs in the fridge looking for smoked salmon. 

So here’s the recipe for what is probably the most popular meal at our house.  It does make some changes in the outline in Le Répertoire, but that’s not a bad thing, since Mac and Cheese doesn’t need the butter enrichment and cheddar melts up smoother than Parmesan.  You’ll notice that I do not recommend baking the dish after assembling it.  This recipe is for sauced pasta.  If you want to bake it, you’ll have to make the sauce thinner by adding another cup of milk.  If you don’t, it will bake up dry.  One other thing, make large batches.  There won’t be leftovers.  Although this one makes a vat prefect for a church supper or when the kids bring a gang over on short notice, you can easily cut the recipe in half. If you want to get a little crazy, add 1 pound of diced ham to the sauce.  That's always a hit at our house.

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Macaroni and Cheese

2# elbow macaroni

3 qt. whole milk

1# cheddar cheese

1 stick unsalted butter

1 c. flour

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tbs. white pepper

1/4 tbs. nutmeg, freshly grated

pinch cayenne pepper

Boil a large pot of salted water. 

  Add the macaroni and stir occasionally, so that they do not stick together. 

 When the macaroni is cooked al dente, still firm, drain it in a colander.

 Return the pot to the stove.  Melt the butter over low heat.

 Add the flour.

 Stir the butter and flour together, making a roux, the sauce's thickener.  It should have the consistency of peanut butter.

 Add half the milk.  Whisk the sauce until it is smooth.  Add the remainder of the milk.  This way there will be perfectly smooth, with no lumps in the sauce.

 Season the sauce with the salt, white pepper, cayenne pepper and nutmeg.  Stir in the spices.

 Grate the cheddar cheese as you slowly heat the sauce. 

Simmer the sauce for 15 minutes, until it thickens enough that it won't run down you finger.  That means that it will coat the pasta, but will not be as thick as library paste, a common mistake.

 Add the grated cheddar.

 Stir it in until it is smooth.  Reduce the heat to low.  Never boil the sauce after the cheese has been added.  It will separate.

 Add the cooked macaroni.

 Stir the mac and cheese until it is smooth.

 Serve in LARGE bowls with more grated cheese.

Where We’ve Come From (Chicken Cynthia)

A full Fresh Fun Foods class schedule is posted.  I need your help spreading the word.  Feel free to spam all you friends with the link.

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Writing these blogs can be a trap.  I’ve been trying to document the good and the bad in my time in kitchens.  Consequently, there has to be time for reflection.  I’ve had to sort through a bunch of old bosses, recipes and bad trips, hoping to arrive at a coherent way to present my own culinary history in a way that is engaging, while also avoiding multiple statutes of limitation and never letting anyone know where all the bodies are buried.  It has not been easy.  I hope it has been fun for you.

I lived in Rochester, NY for a few years back in the early 80’s while a bunch of my friends were going to RIT.  At the time I was a competent American style cook.  I could use a knife, work a full board of checks, that kind of thing, but I really didn’t know much about real food.  I could make chili and thought that I was the man.  I got a gig working at a place called Casablanca, an odd hybrid rock and roll club/lunch spot/Greek restaurant.  It was run by three brothers, Bill, George and Chris Petsos.  Their father, Stavros cut meat and generally made himself useful.  Louis (use the French pronunciation) Bel Aire, a mean drunk, washed dishes in his Sméagol-like hole of a dish room.  His “precious” was the dregs of customer’s drinks which he would collect and swill, making him a meaner drunk.  As I hung around Casablanca, I learned their story and grew to respect them. 

Apparently their whole village in Macedonia had immigrated to Akron, OH on the promise of jobs sometime before WWII, a classic example of pull migration.  Like in The Grapes of Wrath the agent promised work never materialized, so the group packed up and moved to Rochester, where over the years, in spite of the difficulty of getting any decent fish, they pretty much took over the restaurant biz, running a few high end places on Park Avenue and dozens of bars and diners all over town.  The boys opened Casablanca in the late 70’s as a fancy place serving Mom’s recipes and stuff like flaming cheese.  Chris ran the kitchen, George the front of the house and Bill was the head guy.  They had a stipulation in their lease that they would be the only food service place in the big strip where they located, however landlords being the slime balls that they are, a TGI Fridays opened 20 yards away on a different parcel, immediately bludgeoning them with cheaper food, a shiny exterior and wall to wall advertising. 

They didn’t stand a chance.  Business dropped to zero.  Rather than pack their tents again, the Petsos brothers pivoted, opening a rock club that had surprisingly good food, considering that I was one of the folks making it.  They booked mid level acts like Johnny Winter, the Psychedelic Furs, John Hammond Jr. and the Legendary Blues Band on their tour after Muddy’s death.  Bands considered Rochester a payday between Chicago and NYC.  This is where I first heard Albert Collins, the Texas great, the “Master of the Telecaster” or “The Iceman” (because he cuts so deep into your soul), a beautiful, humble, sweet musician who toured with his wife.  She used to kiss me every time I visited backstage until Albert’s passing in 1993.  Most would have shuttered the place.  Within 6 months they were in the black.

The Chef, Christos, was demanding, however he treated me with great respect at a time when I was not as reputable as I am now.  I was not a very good cook at the time.  He went out of his way to teach me, helping me appreciate well-prepared food and by his manner demonstrating what it meant to be a cook.  I consider my time with Chris to be the beginning of my professional cooking trajectory and I’ll never forget his kindness when my closest friend died in a car wreck and I became completely unreliable for some time.  He continued to pay me, even when I didn’t show up for work.

I’d like to present one of Chris’s sauté dishes.  Even after all this time, it holds up well.  One time I heard an interview with Son House, the primal Delta bluesman who also spent some years in Rochester.  He was asked to play the song that reached furthest back in his memory and he banged out “Stack Lee,” about a paddle wheel riverboat from the 1840’s.  This is a dish that is imprinted in my DNA.  Like “Stack’ it is probably the earliest sauté that I remember and hasn’t lost its value.  Try it.  You’ll find it has simple ingredients, straightforward technique and a bright fruit flavor.  The recipe is for one, because that’s how we cooked at the sauté station.  You can easily expand the recipe. 

And thanks to Stavros and the Petsos brothers.

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Chicken Cynthia

1 5 oz. chicken breast, skinless

2 tbs. flour, seasoned with salt and pepper

1 tsp. salad oil

3 tsp. unsalted butter

6 green grapes, cut in half

10 orange segments

1 oz. white wine

1 oz. orange juice

1 tbs. chopped parsley (everything got parsley in those days)

salt and pepper

Deeply peel an orange, removing the zest and bitter white peel.  With a paring knife, segment the orange, cutting the fruit away from the membranes.  Reserve the segments, squeeze the membranes to get the juice for the sauté.

Preheat the oven to 400°.  Heat a 10 inch sauté pan on high.  Add the oil and 1 tsp. of butter.  Dredge the chicken breast in flour, coating it completely.  Brush off any excess flour.  Season it with salt and pepper.  When the butter has melted and turns a hazelnut color, you will know that the pan is hot enough to sear the chicken properly.  Add the chicken.  Cook on one side for 2 minutes, turn and cook on the other side for 2 more minutes.  Finish in the oven for a further 8-10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the oven and keep warm while you prepare the sauce.  Dab the grease from the pan with a paper towel.  Return the pan to the stove on high heat.  Add the grapes and the orange segments and the orange juice.  Reduce the juice by half, stirring to scrape up any browned bits stuck to the pan when the chicken cooked. 

Add the white wine and again reduce by half.  Remove the pan from the heat, put the chicken and any juice that has run out of it in the pan and stir in the remaining 2 tsp. of butter, slowly incorporating it with the pan juices.  Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.  Add the parsley and serve with rice pilaf.

More Ways to Beat the GMO Game (twice-roasted Beauregard sweet potatoes)

Thanks for the big response on the last blog about GMOs.  Many of you agree with me, which suggests that I am making sense, at least on this topic.  There were however some folks who figured that since I had not decided finally and completely that GMOs are the worst thing ever thought of, I was beyond hope, worthless and really dumb to top it off.  I’ll give them the last one. 

What I do know is that while the jury is out on GMO, the best way to eat healthy is to avoid processed food and know your farmer.  In an earlier blog, I encouraged you to buy your apples by the bushel from Gary at Ray’s Greenhouse.  The apple season is winding down.  Last week, he still had some Fujis, but that’s about it for the year.  He did have some interesting small cabbages, perfectly fresh, ready for steaming and buttering or grinding up into Cole Slaw.  You could also slice the cabbage thinly and dress it with rice wine vinegar and sesame oil to make a nice salad to go under grilled chicken or squid grilled Korean style.  If anyone wants that recipe, let me know.

He also has the usual wide selection of yams and sweet potatoes.  The yams are the fatter, starchy ones.  They will be firm when cooked.  The sweet potatoes tend to be longer, thinner and have thicker skin.  A sweet potato’s skin will crisp up and the flesh will have more liquid than a yam cooked in a similar way.  Today’s recipe is a variation on old restaurant standard, twice-baked potatoes.  It is a simple preparation that will show off the best characteristics of the sweet potato.    

If you want to stay away from GMOs, shop carefully, avoid processed foods and buy what is seasonal at Ray’s Greenhouse or at one of the farms or farmer’s markets in your area.  Oh yeah, you should learn to cook and that’s where I can help.  Our class schedule goes up later this week.

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Twice-Roasted Beauregard Sweet Potatoes (serves 6)

2# Beauregard sweet potatoes

3 tbs. peanut oil

4 tbs. unsalted butter

1/2 c. bread crumbs

Pre heat the oven to 400°F.  

Wash the sweet potatoes.

Coat them with the oil and roast the sweet potatoes for 45 minutes.  They will be cooked when a knife inserted into the sweet potato does not meet any resistance. 

Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven and allow them to cool on the counter for 20 minutes.  Slice them lengthwise.   

Butter the sweet potatoes, season with salt and pepper, 

 then top with bread crumbs.  Return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, 

 until the crumbs brown.  Serve hot.