Remembered holiday stories and simple gifts

MY MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER GREW UP ON A FARM IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS, one of twelve children. Big families on farms were common then, even necessary. You needed enough hands to make sure everything got done, and death was always a real possibility. My grandmother’s family was no different—only six of the twelve children made it past young adulthood.

Still, my grandmother loved farm life. As a young woman, she was shipped off to St. Louis to make her way in the big city. And she did, becoming a union seamstress in the city’s then bustling garment district along Washington Avenue. But whenever she started telling stories, they were invariably about life on the farm. Continue reading “Remembered holiday stories and simple gifts” →

Champagne tastes on a cava budget: More bubbly bang for your buck

Stories of the invention of champagne are many and contradictory. Some credit a French Benedictine monk, Dom Pierre Pérignon, with discovering the method of trapping carbon dioxide bubbles in wine, the méthode champenoise, around the end of the 17th century. Others say that while he developed a number of advances in champagne production, it was actually invented by the English. Having traveled the length of the UK with my brother one summer without finding a single decent glass of wine [although in all fairness, the establishments we frequented would not be called posh by any stretch of the imagination], I find this rather hard to swallow.

Dom Pérignon is also credited [apparently falsely so] with announcing his discovery by saying, “Come quickly, I am drinking the stars!” [I think I’m going to go on believing he said it—it’s too good a story not to embrace it.]

Whoever invented sparkling wine, there is just something festive about it, an effervescence that elevates any moment into an event. No wonder it sees so much action during the holiday season. We drink it year ’round, with the flimsiest of excuses for an occasion. Continue reading “Champagne tastes on a cava budget: More bubbly bang for your buck” →

Duck with Raspberries: Festive, elegant and easy for the holidays

Duck breasts, fresh raspberries and demi-glace add a luxe touch to intimate holiday dinners with little effort. Duck with Raspberries recipe below.

Last week was all about taking humble ingredients and dressing them up—braising short ribs in wine and serving them atop puréed cauliflower. This week, I’m starting with fancypants ingredients to make a simple, elegant main course perfect for an intimate dinner for friends over the holidays.

December is rife with occasions for food. At one end are the big holiday dinners with their attendant traditional dishes. At the other are cocktail parties with finger foods that run the gamut, from elegant little appetizers to chips still in their ripped open bags. In the middle are nice little dinner parties, sometimes with just another couple, a chance to take advantage of time off and catch up with friends we don’t see enough.

Duck is perfect for just such occasions. It’s splurgy enough to feel like a celebration, and in this dish, simple enough to pull together without spending the day in the kitchen. Duck breasts can be cooked quickly, and the sturdy flesh carves easily without shredding for beautiful presentation. The flavor is richer, meatier and more intense than chicken. While considered “white meat,” duck breasts are darker than chicken or turkey. According to the USDA, it’s because they are birds of flight, and “more oxygen is needed by muscles doing work, and the oxygen is delivered to those muscles by the red cells in the blood.”

Ducks are also notoriously fatty, particularly in the skin. This increases their bouyancy when swimming and insulates them against cold water and weather. It also makes them delicious. As I began casting about for ideas for cooking duck, I came across one recipe that began “Take duck and remove all skin and fat.” Um, no. But you do need to remove some of the fat as the duck cooks. Doing so is easy; the recipe will explain. Continue reading “Duck with Raspberries: Festive, elegant and easy for the holidays” →

From the archives: More ideas to liven up the holiday table

’Tis the season for parties and celebrations. Here are a few ideas from the Blue Kitchen archives for easy, delicious entertaining.

Let’s get this pâté started. This easy make-ahead pâté makes for an elegant first course or party appetizer. It is also a noble use for the reserved duck fat from the Duck with Raspberries recipe above.

A great salad remembered. This Endive Salad with Blue Cheese and Walnuts always reminds me of one of my favorite little New York bistros. It’s a great first course—or a nice complement to a bottle of wine shared with friends.

Mascarpone: Italian for easy, elegant desserts. The culinary equivalent of the little black dress, versatile delicate, creamy mascarpone Continue reading “From the archives: More ideas to liven up the holiday table” →

Humble ingredients made restaurant-ready: Braised beef short ribs, puréed cauliflower

Buttery-flavored braised short ribs are complemented by the mild tang of puréed cauliflower for a restaurant-worthy meal. Recipes below.

This week, you’ll find a pair of cooking posts here again. Individually, they’re quite good—together, they’re stellar. Also, Blue Kitchen has made the big time! Last week’s Hazelnut Rosemary Jam Cookies are featured in Bon Appétit’s Blog Envy holiday showcase. Go to the website and you’ll find nearly two dozen holiday recipes in all, all from bloggers—including me. Woohoo!

We watched the utterly charming film Ratatouille again this weekend [in case you’ve not seen it, I’ve included a clip at the end of the post—and even if you have seen it, you’ll enjoy it just as much the second time around]. As the lead rat-turned-chef Remy produced his beautifully architectural take on the title peasant dish, I suddenly remembered short ribs.

Increasingly, celebrity chefs everywhere are rethinking humble ingredients and dishes—reinventing them, elevating them to starring roles on elegant menus. Indeed, the ratatouille in question was actually created by Thomas Keller and served in his legendary California restaurant, the French Laundry. Pixar Animation Studios hired Keller as a consultant on the film and, according to an article in New York magazine, Remy is the embodiment of the famously fastidious, focused chef.

Short ribs are one surprising ingredient getting the star treatment these days. Layered with meat, fat, bone and connective tissue, they are as big on flavor as they are inexpensive [well, used to be before they hit the big time—but at four bucks or so a pound, they’re still reasonable]. As such, they have long been a popular ingredient for soups and stocks. Because of the long cooking times usually demanded by those chewy connective tissues, short ribs have also been a cut of choice for the traditional French boiled dinner pot-au-feu [“pot on the fire”]. Interestingly, Korean cooks take an opposite tack, butterflying short ribs almost to the bone, then marinating and grilling them. Continue reading “Humble ingredients made restaurant-ready: Braised beef short ribs, puréed cauliflower” →

Fast, healthy, delicious: Puréed cauliflower

Puréed Cauliflower’s lively flavor makes for a great substitute for mashed potatoes. Marion’s recipe below.

Why isn’t cauliflower more popular? It is so wonderful—subtle, but not bland, so easy to prepare and so complementary to strong flavors. The part about it also being so healthy (a crucifer packed with vitamin C, Vitamin K, folate, and fiber, plus cancer fighting compounds) and even so low-carb is a great big bonus.

This cauliflower purée is so simple that it ranks among our not-exactly-a-recipe recipes. And it’s the perfect complement for Wine-braised Short Ribs.

Puréed Cauliflower
Serves two

1 small head cauliflower
water for steaming
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon butter
salt

Discard any leaves that may cling to the stem, then break up the cauliflower head. You want to use everything except the cone-like core and the stem. Break the florets into pieces all about the same size, so that they will finish cooking simultaneously.

Put the cauliflower in a flat-bottomed skillet and pour about 3/4 cup of water around the florets. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover tightly and steam until it is barely fork tender. Most recipes say this will take around 15 minutes, but I find that it actually tends more toward 10 or 11 minutes. Don’t let the cauliflower become too soft. A fork should go in easily, but it shouldn’t be mushy and collapsible. When in doubt, err on the side of less cooked rather than more.

Once the cauliflower is cooked, turn off the heat. Don’t discard the cooking water! Put about half the cauliflower in the bowl of a processor; add a bit of the cooking water—I recommend around 1/4 cup of cooking liquid for each cup of cauliflower, if you want to make a purée that still mounds nicely and doesn’t run all over the plate. Process quickly in short bursts of five or ten seconds. Scrape down the sides of the processor bowl in between so everything s uniformly pureed.

Once the cauliflower starts looking like mashed potatoes (just a few seconds) add the remaining cauliflower. Test it at this point—if it is very wet, don’t add any more cooking liquid yet. Add the butter and the rest of the oil. Process, keeping an eye on it. If the cauliflower looks too grainy and solid, add a judicious amount of cooking liquid. You want it to be smooth in texture, not grainy but not liquid either–visually like mashed potatoes. When the texture is to your liking, carefully add salt. Now it’s ready to serve.

Options:

Substitute milk or, if you are feeling lavish, cream for some or all of the cooking water.

You can also add a flock of different things to alter this basic recipe:

During the steaming process, add a clove of garlic [but discard it before puréeing]
Instead of a mix of olive oil and butter, use all butter
After it has been puréed, return it to a saucepan, heat slightly, and stir in cheese—Parmesan, or extra sharp cheddar; serve it with sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onions for a vegetarian-friendly entrée

I recently ran across a version of this using blue cheese to which I can only say OMDG we are so trying that soon. And we also want to try the Pan-Seared Salmon over Cauliflower Fennel over at Mike’s Table.

Homemade for the holidays: Hazelnut Rosemary Jam Cookies

Fresh rosemary adds a subtle, mysterious something extra to Hazelnut Rosemary Jam Cookies, perfect with a cup of tea—and when holiday guests drop by. Recipe below.

YEAH, THE GUY WHO SAYS HE NEVER BAKES BAKED. But these are cookies. No yeast, no punching dough down and letting it rise again in some mysterious warm, dark place. Or is it a cool, dark place? [On a side note, the term cool, dark place invariably makes me think of the Empty Bottle or the Green Mill or some other welcoming bar, and any thoughts of baking immediately vanish.] Continue reading “Homemade for the holidays: Hazelnut Rosemary Jam Cookies” →

Stuff we like: Thomas Light Multi-Grain English Muffins

Okay, is there anyone out there who still doesn’t know that fiber is good for you? The list of health benefits just keeps growing. But besides all that, fiber also helps you feel full longer. This is especially good at breakfast, because it helps you power through ’til lunch [and for all of you who still don’t believe in eating breakfast, that’s a whole other post].

Well, Thomas has taken its famous English muffin and fibered it up bigtime, while shaving off a few calories. A single Thomas Light Multi-Grain English Muffin provides 8 grams of fiber, about 1/3 of your daily needs. All with a mere 100 calories, 1 gram of fat [2% of your recommended daily value] and no trans fats or high fructose corn syrup. By comparison, their original English muffin—a slightly heftier 120 calories, but still only 1 gram of fat—delivers only 4% of your daily fiber needs.

And they taste great. Here are a few ideas for enjoying them. If you can think of others, join in with a comment at the end. Continue reading “Stuff we like: Thomas Light Multi-Grain English Muffins” →

Dinner Double Feature, Part 1: Cheap lamb chops made tender

Coarse kosher salt quickly tenderizes cheap cuts of lamb, and oranges and pomegranate molasses combine with roasted golden beets for a lively winter salad.

While I occasionally turn Blue Kitchen over to Marion for a post, in real life, we’re often in the kitchen together making a meal happen. That was the case recently for this quick weeknight dinner. So this week, you’ll find a pair of cooking posts. I’ll start off by telling you about the lamb; then in the second post, Marion will tell you about a beet salad with oranges and blue cheese quickly assembled using beets roasted the night before.

British music hall comedian Max Wall once said, “Show business is like sex. When it’s wonderful, it’s wonderful. But when it isn’t very good, it’s still all right.” That’s pretty much how I feel about lamb. It was love at first bite the first time I had roast leg of lamb. And lamb chops always catch my eye on restaurant menus.

But more modest cuts have their own lamby charm, especially now, with daily economic headlines making us all want to just pull the covers over our heads. One such cut is lamb shoulder arm chops. Cut from the arm portion of shoulder, these inexpensive chops are quite flavorful, but can also be on the chewy side. As Fox Fire Farms’ website puts it, “This does not mean the shoulder chop is not tender or of secondary quality. It simply means you can’t be in a hurry when cooking this delightful lamb chop.” They’re best suited for slow braising, which tenderizes them; but during the week, I have neither the time nor the patience.

Kosher salt to the rescue. Well, and Jaden over at Steamy Kitchen. I first used her technique for tenderizing steaks—by heavily coating them with coarse salt for 15 minutes or so before cooking—when I made Pan Seared Steaks with Chimichurri Sauce back in January. It worked so beautifully that I immediately had to try it on some tough but tasty lamb shoulder chops. What I discovered was a way to enjoy tender lamb without sticker shock or a long wait. Continue reading “Dinner Double Feature, Part 1: Cheap lamb chops made tender” →

Dinner Double Feature, Part 2: Roasted beets create a truly golden salad

In which Marion capitalizes on Terry’s belated revelation that beets are delicious, especially in this Roasted Beet Salad with Oranges and Blue Cheese. Recipe below.

THE CAULIFLOWER SOUP TERRY POSTED LAST WEEK BEGAN AS A TUNA SANDWICH, and this roasted beet salad began as a trip to New York City. Our friend Laura and I were traipsing around town, a few years back, on a trip that included a lot of food and a lot of conversation about food. In the course of it all, we went into Zabar’s—me to look for various gifts, and Laura to look for pomegranate molasses for a stew she wanted to try. I had never heard of pomegranate molasses before, and I filed it in my head, alongside sumac and boldo, for future reference. That event—learning about something brand new and potentially marvelous in the company of a great friend—became an emblem of that wonderful trip. Continue reading “Dinner Double Feature, Part 2: Roasted beets create a truly golden salad” →