Foods with memories

Today I was wolfing down a blood orange at my kitchen counter, and was reminded of the first time that I ever saw or ate a blood orange- February 1973 in Florence, Italy. Almost swooned, fell in love and  have remained faithful to this day. None of those pathetic pink "Cara caras" for me! And could it get any better than when, in the last decade, growers in California started producing them and they now are available throughout the winter in my local grocery store and farmers market. Sheer bliss for a woman who is willing to pay (don't tell my husband) $7. for a quart of imported Italian blood orange juice.

Moving on from the blood orange, my musing veered to tortellini- one of the other delights of living for four months in a pension on the Lungarno Guiccardini, in a tiny room with a rooftop view of nearby Basilica Santo Spirito, and 5 plump tortellini floating in our dinner brodo just one special night a week. Maybe Thursdays? Seems possible.

Then my thoughts drifted to other amazing foods that are indelibly printed on my memory...
- the pain au chocolat I ate every morning on my way to the metro during my first stay in Paris- blissfully unaware that eating in transit was considered a Gallic faux pas.
- the peach ice cream at Fauchon that flooded my olfactory senses and then faded just as quickly.
- My first gougere, a 5 inch glob of gooey cheesy pate de choux (cream puff dough) in Beaune circa 1979.

David Lebovitz's authentic "giant"Burgundian gougeres. Find his recipe at David Lebovitz.com 

Gougères
For modern palates, these work best if made as small appetizer puffs.

1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. butter
1 1/3 c. flour
salt
Tabasco
pinch nutmeg
6 eggs
1 Tb Dijon mustard
2 1/2 c. coarsely grated Swiss cheese

Preheat the oven to 425°.

Heat the milk and butter together until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once. Cook for about 2 minutes – until the mixture forms a ball and comes away from the sides of the pan.

Off the heat, beat in the salt, a few drops of Tabasco and the nutmeg. Beat in the eggs 2 at a time, making sure each 2 are completely blended before added the next ones. Stir in 2 cups of the cheese and the mustard.

Butter a cookie sheet and form heaping teaspoonsful about 3 inches apart. Brush the tops with milk and put a bit of grated cheese on top.

Bake about 20 minutes, do not open the oven door during this time. They are done when they look puffed and golden brown.  Serve warm. Makes about 30 puffs.

- This amazing Julia Child & Company "Gateau Victoire au Chocolat, Mousseline"  cake that I made for a Sunday lunch in Modesto in 1978 that required me to race back and forth across town while the cake baked in the oven at my catering business and I was simultaneously cooking at home. (Recipe on p. 187 of the "white" volume.)

Earlier this week while watering my front yard, I took a moment to eat a handful of wild strawberries from our volunteer strawberry patch. Sweet and raspberry-ish, I recalled my first taste- a tiny but very pricey dish of fragoline di bosco for Easter lunch dessert at Ristorante Cammillo on the Borgo San Jacapo. (Quite impressed that I managed to unearth that little factoid!)

What is interesting to me is that the foods that I remember best aren't from any of the elaborate restaurant meals that I have been lucky enough to have eaten; they are simpler foods that cross my path every day, (well, maybe not the pain au chocolate or gougeres!)

Of course, most of anyone's food memories are associated with one's family, and most likely are holiday related. Not so much in my case, as our family's faulty dynamics made many holidays more of an ordeal than an occasion. But, I do have my dear sweet mother to thank for my love of fried matzoh, her grandmother's nut strudels, and shish kebab.

My father frequently held late night gin rummy and poker parties at our dining room table. When I was a little girl I would wake up, sneak into the room, sit quietly in a corner and watch them play (and eat). My mother always prepared amazing food for them, including this shish kebab.

Shish Kebab
The first time I made shish kebab myself was in college; actually, it was for my inaugural dinner party. I vaguely remember making a cheesecake for dessert, and that I thought mushrooms were extravagantly expensive at $1.00 a pound.

5-6 lb. leg of lamb, boned

Marinade
1 t. each salt & pepper
1/2 t. thyme
3 Tb parsley, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 t. oregano
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 c. olive oil
red wine to cover

2 onions, quartered
2-3 bell peppers, cut in chunks
25-20 mushroom caps, stems trimmed

Cut the lamb into large chunks. Whisk marinade ingredients together. Put the lamb in a bowl and coat with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate 6-8 hours or overnight.

Arrange the lamb on metal skewers, alternating with pieces of onion, pepper, and mushroom.
Grill over hot coals, turning frequently, and brushing with the marinade.  Serves 10.
(From The Gourmet Cookbook, Vol. 2 [1957].)

My father introduced us to Nasi Goreng, which he ate when he was a surgeon on a troop hospital ship in the south Pacific during World War II. The Indonesian cooks on board taught him how to make it. I developed a version similar to my mother's, based on a Sunset magazine recipe. It is decidedly unauthentic, as access to Indonesian bottled sauces was non-existent in Modesto circa 1958.  The last time that I made Nasi Goreng was for the Picky Eater's first birthday, yeah these many decades ago. But, a request for it has recently come from my niece, and in the near future the kitchen will once again be redolent with fried rice, egg, shrimp and pork.

Dr. Sam's Nasi Goreng

There are many components to this recipe, so they are best prepared the day before and assembled before serving. The rice, in particular, must be cold when "fried," and is best chilled overnight.

Meatballs

2 lb. ground sirloin

4 scallions

4 Tb cilantro

3/4” chunk fresh ginger

1 Tb soy sauce

1 Tb sherry

1 Tb sesame oil

1 t. salt

black pepper

2 eggs

peanut oil

Process all ingredients, except the peanut oil, together in 2 batches. Form into 3/4” meatballs. Chill. Sauté in peanut oil over medium-high heat until just brown. (Don’t overcook.)

Chicken

4 whole chicken breasts, boned and cut in narrow strips

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 c. peanut oil

1 Tb curry powder

sprinkle of cayenne pepper

Marinate the chicken in the other ingredients for 1 hour. Stir fry in a medium-high pan until just cooked.

BBQ Pork

Use 1 quart purchased from your favorite Chinese take-out place. (Trust me, it's better that way.)

Shrimp

1 1/2 lb. fresh bay shrimp

3 Tb. butter

Rinse and drain shrimp in a colander. Briefly sauté in the butter.

Egg Pancakes

8 eggs

salt

1/4 c. water

peanut oil

Cook thin egg omelettes in peanut oil over medium-high heat. Turn out on a foil-lined cookie sheet. When cool, cut into small strips.

Rice

3 cups raw long grain  rice (9 cups cooked)

Cook half the rice at a time. Put dry rice in a large bowl, cover with cold water, and stir with your hand for 10-15 seconds, until the water turns milky white. Drain the rice in a colander, return it to the bowl, and repeat the rinsing process 5-6 times, until the water is nearly clear. Drain for the last time in the colander.

Put the 1 1/2 cups of rice in a 4-41/2 quart lidded pot, and add 3 cups water. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat, cover pot and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes, then move pot off the heat and let it sit 15-20 minutes. Do not lift the pot lid at any time. When finished, spread the rice on a baking sheet and refrigerate until cold and dry.

 

Assembling the Nasi Goreng

All ingredients

2 onions, chopped

peanut oil

soy sauce

1 bunch cilantro

3 bunches green onions

Stir fry the rice in 4 batches with peanut oil, adding 1/2 a chopped onion to each batch, tossing it to heat through – try to avoid "stirring" as much as possible so that the rice won't clump. Stir fry each batch 5-10 minutes. Then add 1/4 the chicken and pork. Sprinkle with soy sauce and stir fry 5 minutes more. Stir in the meatballs, shrimp and egg. Continue cooking until they are heated through. Garnish with sliced green onions and cilantro leaves.

May be made ahead and reheated in a 350° oven. If making ahead, add the shrimp and egg just before reheating.  Serves 12-20.

The Picky Eater insists that I also include one of my food nightmares. Near the top of the list is the fateful evening I sat alone in a Nazare (Portugal) restaurant with a fishbone caught in my throat. After about fifteen minutes as I sat there trying to compose an explanation and ask for help in my limited French, miracle of miracles, I swallowed it! That night I had a second brush with mortality, when vibrations emanating from the discotheque on the floor above caused my hotel room ceiling to partially collapse, sending a chandelier crashing onto the foot of the bed- with me in it. The incredulous hotel night clerk took some convincing to give me another room. I certainly lost two of my nine lives that night!

The Mystique of the Flourless Chocolate Cake

For better or worse, occasionally a concept gets stuck in my brain, and like a puppy with a new chew toy, I can't seem to let go of it until I have almost shaken the life out of it. This is the case at the moment with that most chic of French cakes, Le Chocolat sans farine. These cakes contain elements guaranteed to terrorize the novice baker- chocolate to melt without seizing, no leavening except beaten eggs, and huge self-doubt about when the cake is baked enough. With three strikes like that, as well as a long personal history of pancake flat unleavened cakes of all persuasions, venturing down the flourless cake path seemed pretty foolhardy, especially when you factor in the cost of messing up two-thirds of a pound of chocolate.

BUT, recent success with several chocolate mousse products encouraged me forward, as did two events just crying out for a French chocolate cake- Passover (no flour allowed!!) and a vintage wine dinner with 1970 Fonseca port to accompany the dessert and the admonition from Dr. Hal that the cake had to be chocolate, but not too sweet.

After serious study of the infinite variety of chocolate cake options- butter or cream? semi-sweet, bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate? coffee? liqueur? steamed or baked? I selected David Lebovitz's "Racines Cake" from Ready for Dessert. Mr. Lebovitz introduces this cake with what I believe is an apocryphal tale of discovering the recipe written on the wall of the mens room in Racine's, a Parisian restaurant, ordering it off the menu for dessert, and finding it so delicious that he went back to the bathroom with pen and paper to copy down the recipe.  Don't you agree that I have the right to be a little skeptical, I mean have you ever seen a recipe written on the wall of a restaurant bathroom?? Even (or especially) in Paris?

But the cake's various hurdles- making faux expresso with my drip coffee cone, beating the yolks until they are "light and creamy," folding the melted chocolate and butter into the yolks instead of the yolks into the chocolate as the recipe stated, messing up about 3 eggs trying to separate them, using an 8" pan instead of the 9" which was specified - were overcome and the results, baked just to a tender but non-collapsible firmness were truly "magnifique!" Try to locate the cocoa nibs for topping the cake- they make a really nice crunchy contrast to the cake's smooth creaminess.

Our vintage wine dinner hostess contributed a delicious cherry sorbet flavored with hints of citrus and almond that was a wonderful accompaniment, as was Dr. Hal's precious port. (He may disagree, in fact I'm sure that he does, but in my book the port accompanies the dessert, not vice-versa.)

In the coming weeks I will experiment with more cakes of this genre, building up to an attempt to overcome one of my biggest cake baking disasters, Julia Child's "Reine de Saba." Stay tuned.

Racines Cake
(adapted from Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz)

8" or 9" springform pan
Cocoa powder for dusting the pan

10 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup salted butter, plus 2 Tb to butter the cake pan
1 Tb freshly brewed expresso (I made super strong drip coffee)
1/2 tsp vanilla
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1/4 cup, plus 2 Tb sugar
2 Tb cocoa nibs (Scharffenberger makes them)
Powdered sugar, optional, for dusting the cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Adjust one rack to the upper half of the oven. Butter the bottom and sides of the springform pan and lightly dust it with cocoa, shaking out the excess.

Melt the chocolate and butter, along with the expresso in the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water. When the chocolate has melted, remove the top pan from the heat, stir to smooth out the butter and chocolate, add the vanilla, and let it cool down for a minute or two.

While the chocolate is melting, whip the egg yolks and sugar in a stand mixer bowl with the whip attachment at medium-high speed until the mixture just starts to "form the ribbon." (When it seems that the eggs might be thickened enough, with the mixer off, lift the beater out of egg mixture and see if it is thick enough to make a ribbon as it lazily drips back into the bowl- that's the ribbon.)

Gently fold the beaten egg yolks into the cooled chocolate mixture.

Egg White ALERT!! Egg whites will not "mount" properly if the bowl, beater, or spatula are anything but immaculately clean and dry. If you only have one whip beater for your mixer, be sure to wash and dry it thoroughly before beating the egg whites. If you only have one mixer bowl, make sure that it is also clean and dry after folding the egg yolks into the chocolate.

In a second clean and dry mixer bowl, use a cleaned and dried whip attachment to whip the egg whites on low speed until they begin to hold their shape. Add the remaining 2 Tb of sugar and whisk the egg whites on high speed until they hold soft peaks.

Stir one-fourth of the egg white into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold in the rest of the beaten egg whites. Fold only until there are no visible streaks of egg white. Do not overfold!

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and then sprinkle the top with the cocoa ribs. Bake the cake until it feels like it is just barely set in the center, about 25 minutes.It should not feel too firm.

Let the cake cool in the pan, covered with a clean dishtowel, on a rack, until it is completely cool.

Run a knife around the sides of the cake to loosen, then release the sides of the pan and dust the cake with powdered sugar if you like.

Serves 6-8. This cake is best served the day that it is made, but will keep for up to two days at room temperature.

To really gild the lily, add a scoop of cherry almond sorbetto to each slice of cake, and enjoy with a 1970 port if you happen to have one kicking around in your wine collection.
Cherry Almond Sorbetto
So easy, and SO GOOD!

1/2 cup  fresh orange juice (from 1 large navel orange)
1 lb  frozen pitted dark cherries (Bing)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract

Combine all the ingredients in food processor or blender and run until almost smooth, just leaving some of the fruit texture.
Transfer the mixture to a freezer container, cover & freeze for at least 4 hours or up to 4 days.