VALENTINES DAY

I'd like to talk about several things this morning.

The other day I was at Whole Foods (it's closer than the Buford Farmers Market) and I was picking up ciabata bread, which they bake very well at a reasonable price.  I was also checking to see if I could afford any of the fish they sell, when I saw a tray piled with pieces of different kinds of fish.  Among the pile were several beautiful pieces of Ahi tuna.  These pieces were selling for $3.95 whereas the bigger portions of the same fish were $19.95...5 times as much, for essentially the same thing.  I could make skewers for the grill but it was raining and not supposed to stop in the foreseeable future.  I could make poisson cru or some sort of ceviche.  I decided upon tuna burgers.  I had not tried out my meat grinder for the Kitchenaid yet, so why not.

I put my chunks of tuna through the grinder, threw in some chopped scallions, a little tamari, a bit of rice vinegar, a dab of sesame oil, a twist of black pepper and the juice of a lime.
While the burgers were cooking (I stopped at rare), I made some wasabi and mixed it into a combo of mayo and yogurt for smearing on top of the tuna burgers.

As a side, I made sauteed kale.  Since I learned that kale is maybe THE most nutritious food one can eat, I've been doing my best  figuring ways to get more of it into our diets.  A recipe which I learned in 1976 while visiting Barcelona is sauteed spinach in extra virgin olive oil with sliced garlic, raisins and pinola nuts.  I've been making this dish over the years as often as Charlotte could stand it (fortunately, it's one of her favorite dishes) so just replace spinach for kale and voila.  Kale is not as delicate and refined, if you will, as spinach but there is the satisfaction of knowing how good it is for you.

I must close now and head out into the world, (off to the Buford Farmers Market).  When I return I want to talk about how I used kale last night.  Cheerio

PASTA AND SORBET

I haven't been posting lately do to the trouble my laptop has been experiencing.  My genius engineer, Brandon put a new operating system, hard drive and RAM into the old comp and it's now humming again!

Yesterday I made pasta again with my Kitchenaid mixer but was distracted by a visitor and mixed the wrong amounts of ingredients.  I was supposed to mix one and a half cups of AP unbleached flour with a quarter cup of semolina.  I instead measured a half cup of semolina.  I made my volcano shape with the flour mixture and placed two eggs and a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil into the middle.  I then gently broke and mixed the eggs with a fork and slowly incorporated the flour into the egg and oil until I had formed a ball of dough.  Next the dough was kneaded for a good ten minutes.  It was after this was done that I realized my mistake with the proportions.  I went ahead and cut the dough into spaghetti and dried it anyway.

I prepared my old standby tomato sauce and added mushrooms and fresh basil instead of meat.
 While the sauce was simmering away I took about 2.5 cups of strawberries and threw them into my food processor.  I added a little less than a cup of water and 3 tablespoons of vodka to the berries.  I chopped a handful of fresh mint very fine and chucked that in.  Now all the recipes for sorbet that I've read up till yesterday call for superfine sugar or simple syrup (liquid sugar).  I don't really want to used refined sugar so I substituted raw honey and not really knowing how much honey it takes to produce the sweetness of X amount of sugar, I started with two tablespoons and blended and tasted.  Two was a little dull so I added another.  It tasted good so when the mixture was blended well I poured it through a sieve to remove some of the the little seeds (I don't think it's really necessary for strawberries but I did it anyway).
Just so you know, the vodka is added not for taste but to keep the sorbet from getting rock hard.  The scooping is so much easier!
Charlotte loved the finished sorbet and she really knows her sweets...being from Sweeeeden.

Now, back to the pasta.  I learned that again, recipes don't have to always be precise.  You can look at what you're making and figure out what needs to be added many times and it's all good.   This was the case with the extra semolina.  It did make the mixture a bit drier and when I saw that, I added another egg and voila!  It was perfect.

So don't be afraid to experiment and don't worry about "mistakes"...just do it!   However, if you are baking, disregard all that which I've just written and stick to the recipe. :>)

BAKED KALE CHIPS WITH RED PEPPER AND SEA SALT

This morning while perusing Food and Wine magazine, I came across a post by a comedian named Lizz Winstead.  She was talking about when she quit smoking she needed to find something to replace her former habit.  She said that she needed something she could pop into her mouth while she was writing or watching TV and she didn't want to gain weight and look like she simply went from smoking tobacco to smoking a ham.
Her discovery was oven toasted kale chips.  I decided to try them.
First I washed the kale and dried it thoroughly.  Next I ripped the spine off the leaves and discarded them.  Tearing the green leaves into roughly 2 inch pieces, I threw the kale into a large bowl.  Wearing latex gloves, I poured about two tablespoons of olive oil onto the leaves and carefully smeared the oil onto all the pieces.  I then sprinkled about a teaspoon of ground red pepper flakes and a pinch of sea salt and tossed.
Using two baking pans so that I had separation for each leaf I placed the future chips into a 275 degree oven.  15 minutes later I flipped the chips and put them back in for about 10 more minutes.

They came out as lovely crispy slightly smaller bits of kale.  I frankly was unsure as to whether they would be tasty or not...but to my surprise, they are.  So there you have it...a snack without the guilt.  Enjoy!

TANDOORI CHICKEN AND OTHER INDIAN DELIGHTS

I began my love affair with Indian cuisine in the early 80's.  I was being produced by an Englishman, John Anthony who had produced the early recordings of Queen, Genesis and had a #1 hit "How Long Has This Been Going On" with Ace.  I was living on 72nd St. and Columbus Avenue in NYC and there were no Indian restaurants around our neighborhood so we ventured downtown to the Eastside in the Village.  East 6th Street is packed with Indian restaurants and as far as I know equally wonderful.  In those early days of discovery I let John order.  His favorite was Vindaloo, which is a recipe from Goa, on the West coast of India.  It is a combination of Portuguese and Indian in it's origin, consisting of meat (chicken, goat or lamb) and potatoes in a red sauce.  Vindaloos are very hot!  I loved the simplicity and the heat.  John always said that unless you started sweating profusely, you were really enjoying the food.  Over the past 30 years I've come to appreciate many Indian dishes and enjoy preparing them for Charlotte.  I make my own version of Vindaloo and several other less hot dishes.  All Indian food uses a variety of aromatic spices so in that sense it's pretty much all spicy...not necessarily hot however.
One dish that I'd not made is Tandoori.  It's rather mild for one, and I don't have a Tandoori oven.
The other evening I decided to make it anyway.  I made my spice combination, some dried and crushed and some fresh.  This I mixed into yogurt (a few drops of red food coloring to really make the meat beautiful).  5 hours later I had the oven at 550 and placed the chicken in for about a half hour.  I didn't know how long it would take so I watched it closely.  I think I'll be making this recipe from now on when I have a yearning for chicken!  Wow, Charlotte and I loved it.
With this, I made cauliflower in a wok with aromatic spices and fresh cilantro.  Charlotte made the Basmati rice with raisins and we had a side of Indian kidney beans.
There is just something about the aroma of Indian spices that is intoxicating and romantic.  Charlotte likes beer with Indian food, I prefer Champagne.  Regardless what you choose, it's a gastronomic adventure not to be missed.

       

CHRISTMAS DINNERS

CHRISTMAS AND BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Actually, I'd like to start before Christmas with dinner Sunday evening.  I had picked a fillet of Mahi Mahi from the Buford Farmers Market a couple days before in anticipation of making a quick meal over the weekend.  I was reading about preparing fish when I came across an article on Asian fish.  It got me started thinking and I came up with a marinade of bourbon, soy sauce,  balsamic vinegar and fresh ginger.  I placed the fillet into the marinade for a couple hours before sauteing the fish.  While it was cooking I reduced the marinade to a thick sauce and poured it over the fish to finish.  With the Mahi Mahi, we sauteed French string beans in olive oil and garlic to accompany the fish.  Simple and delicious. 
Christmas Eve...was Charlotte's day to make food which she began the day before with Swedish gravlax.  She made this by smearing  two large salmon fillets with vegetable oil.  In the pan she place fresh dill (a whole bunch).  One fillet is then laid on the dill.  A mixture of salt, sugar and white pepper is poured onto the fillet.  More dill and then the other fillet on top.  The remainder of the salt, sugar and pepper is poured onto the top fillet with more dill, then weights are place on the "fish sandwich" and popped into the frig. 12 hours later the whole thing is flipped over and weighted for another 12 hours.  Before our Christmas Eve party, the salmon was very thinly sliced across the fillet.  It is eaten with a mustard, vinegar, honey, oil and dill sauce spread on Swedish crisp bread called Knackebrod and a thin slice of cured salmon placed on top.  Swedish Christmas finger food!
Christmas Day...very simple again.  We made a standing rib roast.  I picked fresh rosemary from the bush outside and made a poultice of garlic, rosemary, thyme, crushed black pepper and olive oil.  This was smeared all over the roast and then placed into a Dutch oven.  We had plenty of glogg (mulled wine) left over from the Christmas Eve party and poured about a cup of it into the Dutch oven for making gravy later on.
With the roast we had Charlotte's Swedish roasted potato wedges and more French string beans.  During the cooking process we enjoyed a bottle of Rose Champagne and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner.   

DAY TWO

Last night we had leftovers.  I made a lentil soup with hot Italian sausage and spinach a few days ago and Charlotte asked for it again.  She ate the last of the latke's I'd made with the soup for lunch yesterday...they turned out terrific...made with golden beets, carrots, potato, onion and egg.  This all reminds me of the beauty of leftovers.  I've been a musician since '69 when I dropped out of college to join a blues band and through the years I've been fortunate enough to have composed and produce several musical projects which are still paying me royalties.  I joined ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Publishers) in '77 when my band Riff Raff finished our album for Island Records.  ASCAP collects revenue for composers when the writers work is played on the radio, TV or in the movies.  We are paid quarterly.  It's always nice to get this usually unexpected check...I say unexpected because with me, I tend to forget, so it comes as a pleasant surprise every three months.
Leftovers are like royalties, you've already done the work, nothing to do but enjoy the fruits of your labor once again.

Since this project is new to me, I will be making it up as I go.  So, I realized last night I'd forgotten to mention that for anyone who likes the sound of a dish I've described or mentioned, I will be happy to share the recipe with you.  Just email me your request and I'll send it along.

Oh my, it's nearly 11 and I have to be at the golf club in an hour!
Here's a picture of the latke's.

Cheers,

Chris   

DAY ONE

Well I suppose the thing to do is just begin and find where this leads me.  

Since I realized last year that I was indeed retired I have been waiting to see what it is that I'm interested in doing to pass the time.  I play golf when I can and very much enjoy it still after 50 some years at it.  I play my instruments and paint a bit but these endeavors do not fill my days.  

Charlotte works long hours and since I have more free time I naturally used it to do more cooking.  I've always had an interest in cooking and now this interest is growing.  Each dish that I make leads me to something more to learn.  It's not the can of worms that's been opened...snails I love but not worms.  It's the vast history of mankind's quest to create and enjoy one of our most basic needs...nourishment.  In our modern world we can literally buy any ingredient from every continent and culture to make the food we eat.  This is what I propose to do.  I would like to travel the world in my kitchen.  One day I will be here in America making a steak and baked potato and next day be in Goa, India preparing goat vindaloo and stuffed nan.  

Last night I made marinated center cut boneless pork chops on the grill, apple sauce from scratch and slaw made with Napa cabbage, red onion, julienned carrots and pear and a little Italian parsley.

The dressing for the slaw was made with a combo of sugar, curry, vinegar and sour cream. 

I marinated the pork for 6 hours in bourbon, water, brown sugar, peppercorns, onion, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf and oil.  It was still tough.  The apple sauce was lovely and the slaw was one that I shall make again...very tasty and I have ideas to improve it next time.

There, I've begun...I'll try my best to keep writing about what I find out in the kitchen.  I know I'll keep cooking, eating and drinking wine, I hope I can make it interesting to read about.

Cheers,

Chris