A Carnivore's Delight: Grill-Braised Short Ribs

For your reading (and eating) pleasure, a guest post from my partner-in-cookery....

Looking good enough to eat!

As The Picky Eater's Daddy, it is my place to encourage the carnivore in us, even if vegetables do occasionally pass my lips.  As such, I am particularly keen on short ribs, which have risen from relative obscurity as restaurants have discovered that they can take what used to be trash meat and present it as a $28 entrée in many of the restaurants around here.  This same thing happened to Osso Bucco in the 1990’s and flank steak in the 1960’s.

I do enjoy beef short ribs, however, and the restaurant versions are usually very good.  This is due, I think, to their initially roasting the ribs (and perhaps the veggies) in a hot convection oven to really get them very well browned, then using very rich red wine with many added spices, with significant reduction of the braising liquid for service.  At home I have never been too happy with the usual oven versions.

The usual short rib recipe is to brown the ribs in a casserole (I use cast iron) on the stove top, brown some onions, carrots and the like on the stove top, then pour in the red wine and stock and braise in the oven.  This process does take ~3 hrs total, and, in the summer tends to heat up the house (no air conditioning in the homestead) and makes the place smell like braised beef for a couple of days (not such a bad thing, perhaps).

I have converted a roast pork recipe (a variation on Mark Bittman’s Pernil) and a roast turkey breast for the grill to be able to reasonably cook these during the summer.  I took it on myself to try the same thing with short ribs.  The impetus for this was a recent America’s Test Kitchen (Cook’s Country) recipe for grill-braised pork, where pork shoulder “steaks” were grilled first, then braised on the grill in a BBQ sauce concoction, then grilled briefly at the end of the cooking to put on a bit of glaze.  It occurred to me that the same treatment could be used for short ribs.  There is little about this on the web, a couple of recipes using stout or beer, but no traditional red-wine based braise that I could find quickly, but there are some precedents, see for example sausage maker Bruce Aidel's Fine Cooking Magazine article on Barbeque-Braising.

The key to these recipes is that the grill does a much better (and less messy) job of browning the meat than frying in oil on the stove top.  This is probably due to the moisture in the meat being quickly evaporated on the grill, allowing higher surface temperatures on the meat, resulting in better browning.  Additionally, some added flavor is likely imparted to the meat during this grilling.

As browned vegetables are usually used in the braising, I also grilled these after the meat, again generating better flavor in the vegetables (onions, carrots, chili, and celery) than is easily accomplished on the stove.

To get more flavor in the meat, it is marinated in a mixture of red wine and spices, in fact in the same braising liquid that is to be used later.  This helps flavor the meat and also combines with the meat juices during the browning on the grill.  I don’t think the exact measures of the following ingredients are very important, in fact, none of this was measured at the time, so use your best judgment.  Be a bit careful with the salt, however, as eventually the reduced braising liquid will be used for the sauce, and much of the salt will remain in this concentrated liquid.

I balked at the initial price of $6/lb for the short ribs at one mid-range market, but found them in a local Chinese grocery for $4/lb.  God knows what Whole Foods charges.
Thus we have:

Grill-Braised Short Ribs

5-8 lbs beef short ribs as desired
1 disposable aluminum roasting pan, to fit ribs and veggies snugly in a single layer
1 bottle red wine, something robust, I used a cheap (but drinkable) zin-cab-syrah blend out of a box (Target Vintner’s Blend, 2011 as if it really matters)
1 large onion, sliced or quartered
2 large carrots, cut in half the long way
2 large celery stalks, cut in 6” lengths
1 mild chili pepper, such as poblano, seeded and cut in two lengthwise
2+ cloves garlic
2+ tsp black pepper
1 Tb salt
1+ tsp garlic powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp chili powder or cayenne or both, as desired

Put the ribs and all of the spices in either a large heavy plastic bag or container, and add enough red wine to just cover the meat and massage briefly to mix.  Let sit in the refrigerator as convenient, say 3-6 hrs.

I use a large covered charcoal grill, so light up a chimney of charcoal, or run a propane grill relatively high until ready for action.   Place the coals on one side of the grill to leave room for the braising off direct heat. Remove the meat from the marinade and start to grill, letting each side (or, well, most of the sides) brown very well, a few minutes per side depending on the heat level.  No reason to hurry here.  Occasional fat flare-ups seem to enhance the flavor. While doing this, transfer all of the marinade to the disposable pan and start to heat it on the grill towards boiling.

When finished grilling the meat, transfer the meat to the pan in a single layer, and grill the vegetables over the coals until also quite browned, a few minutes per side.  Add the vegetables to the pan and make sure the liquid comes up at least 2/3 of the way over the meat, as the liquid will cook down some during the braising.  If more liquid is needed, add more red wine or chicken stock (never water).

Place the pan over the hottest part of the grill and heat until boiling, then either turn down the grill or move the pan off direct heat.  Cover the pan with heavy aluminum foil to reasonably seal the pan.  The heat should be regulated to have the liquid bubbling slowly, for about 2-2.5 hrs.  You can peek after an hour or so to make sure the liquid has not evaporated.  If so, turn down the heat some or add some additional wine or stock.  Once you think it is going well, leave it alone with the cover closed.  With a charcoal grill, the heat will naturally reduce over time, which is not really a problem with this sort of recipe.  The picture shows the ribs at the end of the 2.5 hr braising.  This is what you are looking for.

When done, transfer the ribs to another covered pan and strain and de-fat the braising liquid into a sauce pan.  Reduce the liquid by around half, tasting for salt, which can be added at this point if necessary.  This liquid should be strong and very flavorful.   Serve the ribs with some reduced sauce, perhaps over garlic mashed potatoes or polenta.  A young syrah is a good match for this sort of thing, but pretty much any good, rich red wine will do.  You went to all this trouble to cook the meat; have something worth drinking.  I had a 2009 Provenance Cabernet Franc, which was very nice, thank you.

I simultaneously cooked a ~2” thick boneless chuck the same way, which turned out pretty well, but without the maximum flavor of the short ribs.

Summer's Bounty: Fruit (& Vegetable) Desserts

We were gifted last week with the bounty from a friend's garden. Happily, it sent me into a frenzy of recipe experimentation, with some nods & some nays (mostly nods). As the intelligent individual that I am, it only makes sense to me to start with dessert. Here's what we've got to work with- strawberries, rhubarb, peaches and zucchini. And here's what we got-
Strawberry Cake
(adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
A Martha Stewart recipe via Smitten Kitchen which I "improved" with the addition of some almond extract and ground toasted almonds that I had laying around (festering as the Daddy would say.) They added a pleasing texture and taste complexity to the cake. I found the strawberries on top to be visually unappealing, but the baking melted them into a jammy consistency which was a quite nice finale for the top of the cake. I am tempted to try it with blueberries, which might look a little more attractive after baking.This is one of those desserts that is good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner- if you have any left.

6 Tb butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate

1 1/2 c  all-purpose flour 

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp table salt

1 c plus 2 Tb granulated sugar

1/2 t almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1/2 c milk

1 c ground toasted almonds

1 lb. strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter and flour a  9- or 10-inch springform or cake pan.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat the butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. (The butter & sugar may get stuck repeatedly on the sides of your bowl. If this occurs- it's very annoying! - move on to adding the egg mixture, and beat until fluffy then.) Mix in the egg, almond extract, and vanilla, beat well. Add the dry mixture alternately with the milk, mixing until just smooth. Fold in the ground almonds.

Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan. Arrange the strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar over the berries.

Bake the cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake the cake until it is golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. (Gooey strawberries on the tester are a given.) If the cake hasn't browned much on top but is baked through, brown it under the broiler, watching like a hawk to make sure that it doesn't burn!

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes on a rack. Unlatch the sides of the springform pan and unmold the cake. Cool completely on the rack, then use a cake spatula to loosen it from the pan bottom and slide onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges to serve. Serves 6-8.

Stewed Rhubarb & Berries

Trust me, for better or worse,
I don't look like her!

(adapted from Barefoot Contessa Foolproof by Ina Garten- she uses a combination of strawberries & raspberries; I went for 100% strawberries and skipped the addition of Grand Marnier.)

This is an Ina Garten recipe.  I have scrupulously ignored her cookbooks, which I realize are idolized by millions of fans, for two silly reasons- one, when I was in the hospital after surgery in 2006 the old lady who was my roommate told me that I looked like her; and two, because her recipes always looked too simple! But, as a novice rhubarb cooker, in this case simplicity was a good idea. I love the contrast between the citrus and berry flavors, but I'm not quite sure what happened to the rhubarb. I enjoyed this for breakfast topped with a spoonful of labneh, thickened yogurt cheese.

2 lbs fresh rhubarb, cut into 3/4" pieces
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2/3 c water
2 pints strawberries, hulled and cut in thick slices
1/3 c freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/3 c freshly squeezed orange juice (2 oranges)

Put the rhubarb in a 2 quart saucepan, along with the salt, sugar, and the 2/3 cup water. bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rhubarb is tender and starts to fall apart. Remove from the heat and stir in the strawberries and citrus juices. Serve warm or cold with some sort of white dairy accompaniment (yogurt, whipped cream, ice cream, etc.)

My rhubarb was a little green- but it tastes better than it looks.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake (adapted from the King Arthur's Flour.com recipe)
Our number one zucchini cake is the Zucchini Orange Cake with a fresh oj glaze, but I was in the mood for chocolate...... Using cocoa instead of bar chocolate means that the chocolate flavor here is not as intense as in my brownies, chocolate chunk cookies, etc, so I recommend a higher proportion of nuts and chocolate chips to guarantee lots of melted chocolate and crunchy nut goodness in every bite!

1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter, plus more to grease your pans
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream, buttermilk, or yogurt (I used nonfat Greek yogurt)
2 1/2 cups flour, plus a little more for dusitng the pans
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons espresso powder, optional but it deepens the chocolate flavor (you can use finely ground coffee beans)
3 cups shredded zucchini
1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Generously butter and flour either a 9" x 13" pan, two 9" round cake pans or three 8"x4" loaf pans.

Cocoa can be lumpy,
so it's a good idea to take the time to sift the dry ingredients.

In a medium size bowl sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, use a mixer to beat the butter, oil, and sugar, until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, ground coffee, and the eggs (one at a time).

Stir in the sour cream, buttermilk, or yogurt alternately with the flour mixture. (I did this part by hand.)
Fold in the zucchini, nuts, and chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan(s). if using more than one pan, fill them about 2/3 - 3/4 full.

Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes, for a rectangular pan, 45-50 minutes (at least) for loaf pans; until the top springs back lightly when touched, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out coated with crumbs, not gooey batter. Because of the varying dampness of the zucchini, be patient and bake the cakes until they are absolutely done (but not overbaked.) Mine took 75 minutes(!) in loaf pans.

Let the cakes cool in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes, and then turn out of the pans onto the rack to  cool completely.

Roasted Peaches with Amaretti Crumble 

(adapted from a recipe by Cindy Mushet in Bon Appetit, August 2009) I have wanted to try a recipe like this for decades. I seemed to recall seeing it in one of the Marcella Hazan tomes, but a cursory search was unsuccessful, so I resorted to you-know-where.

These got mixed reviews. While quick and easy to throw together, they seemed a little blah, striking too few flavor notes and had a low crumble to fruit ratio for my in-house unbiased taste tester. (Not the Picky Eater, but sometimes just as picky.) I liked them with my new favorite dairy product, (again) full-fat labneh, but decided that they really did need a third contrasting dairy flavor, albeit nothing too sweet. In my researches, I discovered that David Lebovitz has a recipe for Peach & Amaretti Crisp both on Epicurious.com and in his cookbook Ready for Dessert, which I will try as soon as some dessert storage opens up and we each lose five pounds.

 

6 amaretti cookies (Italian macaroons)
3 Tb whole almonds
2 Tb unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 Tb sugar
4 Tb chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, plus more to butter the baking dish
3 firm but ripe large peaches, rinsed, wiped clean of fuzz, halved, pitted (make sure they are a freestone variety- no one tells you that!)
Vanilla ice cream or another white dairy accompaniment (see Rhubarb above)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 11x7x2-inch glass baking dish. Combine the cookies, almonds, flour, and sugar in a food processor. Using on/off turns, process until the cookies and almonds are coarsely chopped. Add  the chilled butter to processor. Using on/off turns, process the topping mixture until moist clumps form.

You could just stop here and snack on the topping.

My grandmother's (vintage) melon baller.

Use a melon baller to gently deepen and enlarge the pit cavity in each peach half. Place them, cut side up, in the prepared dish. Push a generous amount of the topping into the pit cavity of each peach half. Spread more over the surface (about 2 generous tablespoons for each), mounding the topping and pressing lightly to adhere it to the surface of the peach, leaving a 1/4-inch plain border.

Bake the peaches until tender when pierced with knife and the topping is golden brown, about 35 minutes. Cool slightly. Serve with scoop of vanilla ice cream or dairy accompaniment of choice alongside.

The Picky Eater’s Picks: Favorite Cookbooks (In no particular order)

Blogger's note: Recommended recipes will be added as they are approved in our test kitchen.

Nature by Alain Ducasse

Why?  Beautiful, fresh, Mediterranean recipes, mostly vegetable based.  Slightly more intricate and fancy French than most of my other favorites.  Also a fan of the interspersed ingredient format—the colors are beautiful, and the ingredient list in the recipe saves you from constantly having to look up the amounts of things.

The Picky Eater’s Picks: Summer Vegetable Gratin with Basil, Pan-Fried Chanterelles with Almonds and Lemon, Socca with Nicoise Style Vegetables

Japanese Farm Food, by Nancy Singleton Hachisu

Why? “Naneth (the Picky Eater's obscure term of affection for her mother), this book is awesome!  I want to eat the whole vegetable section”
There’s also a chart that explains what Japanese cooking methods can use for what vegetables, so if you have something lying around and don’t know what to do with it—look there.

The Picky Eater’s Picks: Salt-massaged Cucumber with Miso and Sesame, Spinach with Walnuts and Miso, Simmered Kabocha and Kombu, Sake-braised Shimeji Mushrooms (and the rest of the vegetable section).  White Peach Ice Cream brings back memories of Rome.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison, AKA The Bible, AKA Awesome

Why?  Do I really need to explain this one?  It has everything.  Everything works, and is wonderful, unlike another “Everyone/thing” book I could name……

The Picky Eater’s Picks: Provencal Winter Squash Gratin, Sauteed Mushrooms with Spinach and Pepper, Chard Stems with Saffron and Tomato, Winter Greens with Fennel and Mushrooms

The Art of Simple Food  by Alice Waters

Why?  The ULTIMATE first cookbook.  Beautiful, simple, classic, everything I miss about cooking at home when stuck in the produce black hole that is Pittsburgh.  Read this cookbook, don’t just flip through it.  You can learn so much.

The Picky Eater’s Picks: Ratatouille of Grilled Vegetables, Wilted Chard with Onion, Green Pea and Asparagus Ragout, Angel Food Cake

Ta-Da!! The Perfect Hard-boiled Egg

Undeniably perfect!!

While my immediate family members may scoff, managing to consistently boil the perfect egg, pristine in its bright white & yellow purity counts as quite an achievement in my book, especially after decades of trials and tribulations in the hard boiled egg department. Any egg boiler, experienced professional or neophyte knows the signs of a badly boiled egg- the bumpy exterior from challenges while peeling and the dull lemon colored yolk with a dark grey-green shadow rim, both of which make an egg unacceptable for stuffing and beg to be chopped for egg salad with a smidgen of curry as a color brightener.

May I speak of egg boiling disasters? The worst in my personal experience took place in my early catering days, three dozen of the ugliest stuffed eggs I've ever seen, two frantic cooks, and one very dissatisfied customer. A bomb all around that put me off hard-boiled eggs for years. (And my husband, less than enamored of stuffed eggs, wishes that the attitude had been permanent!) Then there are the Passover seders with bowls of peeled eggs in salted water, naked and looking like they had been birthed through barbed wire. Double yuck.

And do what or whom do I owe my new found success? None other than the goddess of compulsive cooks everywhere, Mme. Julia Child, whose instructions I had passed over for many a year because they included suggestions like pricking each egg before boiling (sure to crack open for me), boiling them a 2nd time for precisely 10 seconds, and chilling them in ice twice- first for 2 minutes and then again for 20 minutes. Sounds like way too much work for me! But, I finally caught on to her basic cooking method, and that, plus another truc, are the secrets to my success-

Brown eggs! they always speak to me of Old MacDonald and all things fresh and wholesome,
no matter how long they have been in the refrigerator.

#1- Sorry to say it, but you cannot in my experience successfully boil fresh eggs. According to internet experts(?) they must be at least two weeks old to avoid peeling problems. Another reason to always have a dozen extra eggs stashed in the back of the refrigerator!

#2- My official recipe
Place your eggs in a saucepan and cover them with 1" of cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. As soon as the water is at a rolling boil, cover the pan and pull it off the heat. Let the eggs sit covered for exactly 17 minutes (better set your timer!) After the 17 minutes is up, immediately drain off the hot water and run cold water over the eggs for several minutes. You can even drop a few ice cubes into the pan as well. While the cold water is running, crack the eggs in several places, which allows the water to somewhat permeate the infamous "inner membrane," source of many an egg peeling woe. After about 10 minutes in ice water, peel and use your eggs. If you need to store them for later use, cover them in cold water and refrigerate, peeled or unpeeled.

Now that you have these perfectly delightful hard-boiled eggs, it's time to do something with them. My choice is always a creamy salad with crunchy veggies, some mayo and yogurt, and a bit of tang. Tang? Where do you get the tang? How about a batch of Smitten kitchen's pickled celery (no cooking required) and some pickled carrots, courtesy of David Lebovitz.

Pickled Celery
This is my new secret weapon to perk up any and all of the various kitchen sink salads I concoct for the odd lunch or dinner from whatever is festering in the fridge.

1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
4 teaspoons Kosher salt (you can go up to 1 tablespoon if using the lighter weight Diamond brand; here’s why)
1 Tb teaspoons granulated sugar
4 stalks celery, trimmed, diced tiny

Combine the vinegar, water, Kosher salt and sugar in a jar and shake it until the salt and sugar dissolve. Add the diced celery to the jar, cover it and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, ideally one hour and up to one week.
Makes about one cup.

Pickled Carrots 
Makes one pint

1 pound (450 g) carrots, peeled
1 1/4 cups (310 ml) water
1 cup (280 ml) cider vinegar
1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
2 garlic cloves, lightly-crushed
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel, dill, or anise seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons coarse salt
2 bay leaves

Cut the carrots into sticks approximately the size of your fourth finger. Bring a medium-sized pot of lightly-salted water to a boil. (Use a non-reactive pot.)

When the water boils, drop the carrots in and simmer for one minute. Pour into a colander and rinse under cold water. Drain thoroughly.

In the same pot, heat the remaining ingredients. Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for two minutes.

Remove from heat and add the carrot sticks. Cool until room temperature, then put into jars and chill.

Carrot sticks should be made at least one day in advance, and will keep for up to four weeks in the refrigerator.

Delicious Egg Salad

Egg salad on toast with pickled carrots. What a lunch!

4 large eggs
1 heaped teaspoon Dijon
2 teaspoons minced shallot, scallion or red onion
2 Tb pickled celery (or more, to taste)
2 tablespoons mayonnaise or  plain yogurt
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Optional additions: Chopped parsley, minced olives, 1/2 tsp. curry powder, fresh chopped celery

Peel the eggs, chop them, and place in a medium bowl. Add the pickled celery, Dijon mustard, shallot, mayo or yogurt, salt and pepper, and any of the optional additions. Mix gently.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve on toasted whole grain bread, if you have it.

Pickled celery and eggs also make excellent additions to potato salad, whether of the American or French variety. Here are two of my favorite recipes-

Family Potato Salad
This recipe is from my Great Aunt Margaret, graduate of UCSF Medical School Class of 1924. My mother lived Aunt Margaret and Uncle Maurice Zeff, while she went to school at UC Berkeley during WWII. Aunt Margaret taught her to marinate the potatoes while they were still warm. (That’s the secret to the recipe!)

5 lbs. boiling potatoes
olive oil to taste
wine vinegar to taste
1 red onion, minced (or 1 bunch scallions)
4 stalks celery, diced
8 eggs, hardboiled, peeled & diced
1/4 c. parsley, minced
2 Tb Dijon mustard
1 c. mayonnaise (Best Foods)
salt & pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes until tender. Let cool slightly and peel, if desired. Roughly slice or cube into a large bowl. Sprinkle generously with olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Toss gently to distribute seasonings. Cool completely

Add the remaining ingredients and toss to mix. Correct the seasoning and add more mayonnaise if desired.
Refrigerate before serving.  Serves 12-16.

A Salade Nicoise with sugar snap peas. I know, you're asking
"Where did she get those tomatoes so early in the season?" Oh, the joys of living in California!

French Potato Salad
5 lbs. boiling potatoes
olive oil to taste
wine vinegar to taste
salt & pepper
1 bunch scallions, minced
1/2 c. chopped parsley

Mustard Vinaigrette
2 Tb Dijon mustard
1 t. salt
1/3 c. lemon juice
1 1/2 c. olive oil

Boil the potatoes until tender. Let cool slightly and peel, if desired. Roughly slice or cube into a large bowl. Sprinkle generously with olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Toss gently to distribute seasonings. Cool completely

Make the vinaigrette: Whisk mustard, salt, and lemon juice together; then gradually whisk in the olive oil, until thoroughly combined.

Gently mix the parsley and chopped scallions with the potatoes, then drizzle on the vinaigrette and gently mix again with a spatula. Correct the seasoning.

Use this potato salad as the base for Salade Niçoise: arrange it on a lettuce-lined platter with steamed green beans, tomatoes, hardboiled eggs, olives, tuna, and, if you like, capers and anchovies.
From The Way to Cook by Julia Child

Les Madeleines a la Marie Claire idees

For almost twenty years I have subscribed to a French craft magazine-
Marie Claire idees, an offshoot of the original French Marie Claire fashion magazine. It is an amazing magazine with enough projects displayed like so much glorious eye candyin each issue  to keep a dozen crafty people busy for weeks. Add to that the natural savoir faire of French style and you've got the craft publication of my dreams.

Interestingly, lo these many years I have virtually ignored the recipe section that appears in each issue. Weird, n'est pas? This omission has been corrected in the last few weeks as I have combed my back issues selecting recipes that seemed plausible for translation and production. Now, don't get all impressed with the idea of me "translating" the recipes. Over the years my French skills have dwindled to the level of a two year old native speaker, but I do know recipes and French food vocabulary and with my trusty Larousse Dictionnaire Compact Francais-Anglais translating the occasional recipe has become one of my favorite nocturnal activities.

I started with a lentil & sausage soup recipe, and except for the fact that the type of sausage called for in the recipe was "la saucisse de Morteau" and, of course, quite unobtainable for me.

To quote Wikipedia-
"The saucisse de Morteau, also known as the Belle de Morteau, is a traditional smoked sausage from the Morteau region of France (in the department of Doubs in Franche-Comté). It is smoked in traditional pyramidal chimneys, called tuyés. It is a very strongly flavoured and very dense uncooked sausage.
It is produced on the plateau and in the mountains of the Jura mountains in the Doubs at an altitude greater than 600 metres. The city of Morteau is at the centre of this artisanal industry.
Morteau sausage is produced using only pork from the Franche-Comté, because in this mountainous region the animals are fattened traditionally. In addition, to be permitted to use the label "Saucisse de Morteau", the sausages must be smoked for at least 48 h with sawdust from conifer and juniper within the tuyé."
And, it (the sausage) even has its own website! After comparing the recipe with one from Ina Garten, I executed it quite handily with chicken-herb sausage from Trader Joe's and happily had leftovers for days afterward.

Late night translation

Then it occurred to me that there really wasn't much sport in doing a soup or stew or meat or vegetable dish, because you can fudge on the quantities all you want and still end up with a delicious product. It was baking where the challenge really lies- juggling measurements weighed in grams against cups and tablespoons as well as the difference in flours, sugars, baking chemicals, etc.

So last night I translated a madeleine recipe from Septembre 1997, sought council From Julia Child's Kitchen, and an Epicurious recipe referred to in a comment on Smitten Kitchen, and I was off to the proverbial races. I dragged out my quasi antique (c. 1976) madeleine molds, plucked a Meyer lemon off a low hanging branch and started beating those eggs and melting that butter. While I tried to be as true to the Marie Claire recipe as I could; it, like many recipes from non-foodie magazines, left a lot up to the baker and the imagination. I weighed everything and then poured it into cups for English measurements which had to be rounded off, and purloined the amounts of vanilla and baking powder from the American recipes. Julia, of course, would not think of adulterating her genoise (spongecake) based madeleines with chemical leavening, but for me, at least, a little baking powder is a much needed ace in the hole, and Marie Claire obviously felt the same way. I also used cake flour to ensure a tender result.

My new best friend

Here are the results-
Les Madeleines a la Marie Claire Plus
Makes 36 madeleine mini-cakes

Make sure that all your ingredients are at room temperature to prevent the butter from solidifying too soon. The batter needs to be refrigerated for at least an hour before baking.

3/4 cup butter + 3 Tb for the pans
1 cup cake flour (unsifted)
1 cup unbleached white flour (unsifted)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 (large) eggs at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 tsp grated lemon zest (about what you get from one lemon)
2 tb flour for the pans
Optional: powdered sugar

1 or 2 madeleine pans- the fewer you have, the more batches you have to bake

My non-traditional scallop shaped mold

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just starts to brown. (This could take 10-15 minutes.) Pour it into a small glass measuring cup to cool to lukewarm while you mix the rest of the batter. Stir together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

Beat the eggs at high speed in an electric mixer until light and foamy- about 30 seconds, then beat in the vanilla and lemon zest. With the mixer still at high speed, gradually add the sugar and continue beating about three minutes, until the mixture is tripled in volume and looks thick and creamy. Stop the mixer to fold in the flour by hand. Sift the flour in three or four batches over the eggs and fold in each batch until just combined. (But, gently break up any lumps that form.) Then fold in the butter.

Cover the batter and refrigerate for one hour or more.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Stir the additional 3 Tb of melted butter and 2 Tb of flour together and use a pastry brush to apply it to the madeleine molds, picking up any excess that settles in the molds. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of batter into each mold. In order to achieve the classic "hump" in the center, do not spread or smooth.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes (check after 10 minutes) until they are golden around the edges and firm in the center. Let cool for a minute or two in the pans and then use a table knife to gently dislodge each madeleine for final cooling on a rack.

Store airtight and serve as soon as possible or freeze. May be dusted with a little powdered sugar.

Ta Dah!!

Now, these still aren't quite as tender as the madeleines of my dreams, so next time its beat the eggs & sugar longer and bake at 375 degrees. We'll see what results.

The "Blind" Brownie Mix Tasting

Purpose:
"Blind" tasting of nine commercial brownie mixes and four homemade brownie recipes to rate and rank said brownies.
Hypothesis: At least one of the homemade recipes will wipe the floor with the box mixes.

Tasters:
Seven men, eight women, one boy, one girl, and one stuffed monkey on weekend leave from kindergarten.

Brownie tasting grid

Method: 
All brownies with one exception were baked in buttered and floured 8"x8"disposable foil pans on the same day. To insure even baking the foil pans were doubled and all pans were baked sitting on a cookie sheet. The exception was baked in the aluminum disposable pan included with the mix. Nuts or chocolate chips were added to the brownie batters when suggested in the mix or recipe instructions. Three and one half pounds of butter & thirty eggs were used in the baking of these study subjects. Each pan of brownies was cut into thirty-six pieces. Mixes and homemade recipes were labeled from "A" to  "M," and their identities were kept secret until the taster had submitted their completed scoring and ranking sheet.

Brownies were rated from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) on these qualities:
1) Taste   2) Texture   3) Chocolate flavor  
Points were totaled and brownies were ranked from 1 to 13 based mostly on point scores. Comments were also occasionally noted.
Brownies were tasted in two "flights" - of six and seven brownies respectively.

Brownie tasting table "before."

Tasters quaffed their beverage of choice from this selection: milk, water, tea, coffee or these spirits selected by the house sommelier for their compatibility with chocolate:

Brownie "wines"

Vina Eguia Tempranillo, Reserva 2007 (Rioja)
Domaine La Tour Vieille Banyuls, Rimage 2011- a sweet dessert wine
Malvasia Old Reserve Barbeito Madeira (labeled "10 years old")
Smith Woodhouse "Lodge Reserve" Porto (n.d.)
The port was the clear favorite among the alcoholic beverages.
Results:
Surprising and disappointing to homemade advocates!  The hypothesis was handily proven incorrect. Only the house sommelier cum lab assistant selected homemade recipes as his two top choices. Amazingly, some mixes were as much or more work to make than a homemade recipe.
With a comparable  batch of homemade America's Test Kitchen recipe brownies using best quality chocolate and one cup of walnuts prices out at $4.00, it seems that mixes are best suited to brownie bakers who ...
Are still up at midnight and just starting the treats for school or sports practice the next day
Don't normally stock flour, baking powder, butter, etc. in their pantry and prefer to reach for one box off the grocery shelf  (although all recipes require at least one egg and butter or oil)
Don't feel like washing more than one bowl and one baking pan
Prefer spending 10 minutes making a box brownie to 30 minutes (tops!) melting chocolate, measuring flour, chopping nuts, etc.
Aren't confident about their baking skills

The rating worksheet

                                                                                                                 

Enough said. Here are the winners and losers in rank order: 

1) "F" – Stonewall Kitchen Triple Fudge Brownie Mix  ($12.95)

    Comment: Good quality relative to effort- requires melted butter and eggs. Baker also has to melt the enclosed packet of chocolate chips on the stove or by microwave. Our ten year old buddy Frank's favorite. He swept up all the residuals from his other family members' sample trays. Did it make a difference that they were labeled "F" as in Frank? His dad was hoping for a more affordable price point, but no such luck!

2) "A" – Ghirardelli Double Chocolate  Brownie Mix ($4.75)

    Comment: "I've had these before- They taste like a soccer mom snack."      
 3) "B" – Betty Crocker Fudge Brownies  ($4.99) 
     Comments: Study investigators believe that mix "B" skewed the results due to the fact that when multiple tasters were children this was their mothers' brownie of choice.
4) "G" – America’s Test Kitchen Classic Brownies recipe
     Comments: A recipe worth knowing (and baking) despite its tendency to anal retentiveness. Our  modifications are the use of unbleached flour and inclusion of our chopped nuts of choice in the brownies rather than on top. (See complete recipe below.)
5) "K" – Barefoot Contessa Outrageous Brownie Mix  ($11.95)
    Comments: Highest rating from Consumer Reports in 2011. Have a strong coffee undertone to the flavor.
6) "I"  – Trader Joe’s Brownie Truffle Baking Mix  ($2.99)
     Comments: The other Consumer Reports top rated mix. Tastes too fake-y to me.

7) "H" – Duncan Hines Double Fudge Decadent Brownie Mix  ($3.99)

     Comments: Tasters generally ranked this one 

8) "L" – America’s Test Kitchen Cream Cheese Brownies recipe (recipe written below)

    Comments: Termed "revolting" by two participants; enjoyed by lovers of Black Bottom Cupcakes which they strongly resembled. The investigator's personal favorite- a tender, rich chocolate crumb; its sweetness balanced by the tangy cream cheese. **Marley the stuffed monkey's favorite too!

9) "J" – Vosges Caramel Toffee Chocolate Chunk Brownie Mix  ($16.95)
    Comments: Not only the most expensive mix of the bunch; these were actually more work to make than a batch of homemade brownies, requiring you to stir constantly 3/4 cup melted butter (your own) together with a "sugar bag" over medium heat for 5 minute, and then let that mixture cool before adding your 3 eggs, 2 tsp of vanilla, and two "brownie mix bags" to make your batter. After baking 20 minutes   one is required to pull the brownies out of the oven, scatter the contents of the "toffee bag" on top and bake another 25 minutes.

10) "C" – Smitten Kitchen Bittersweet Cocoa Brownie recipe (click to view)

      Comment: Some possible baker error during production. These had been successfully made the previous weekend and had scored a "5" for taste with the in-house reviewer.

11) "E" – Rick Bayless Frontera Chocoholic Chile Brownie recipe (click to view)
       Comments: "Spicy" This recipe called for 2 TB of ancho chile powder. Contained four types of chocolate, and a larger quantity than any other recipe. (The baker made the mistake of adding 1 tsp. of cinnamon, which was judged unacceptable in brownies.)
12) "D" – King’s Cupboard Organics Double Chocolate Brownie Mix  ($6.99)
      Comments: The organic whole wheat flour is a deal breaker from the get go. Beating softened butter into dry brownie mix is no picnic. Rated "NSG" (not so good).
13) "M" – Manischewitz Fudgey Gooey Brownie Mix ($3.99)
     Comments: How good can anything be that uses matzo meal flour and tells you to beat it for 4 minutes? Shades of my kvetchy grandmother! Neither fudgey or gooey.

The remains

Published Brownie Mix Ratings
Both Consumer Reports (August 2011) & Cook's Illustrated (aka America's Test Kitchen, March 2004) have rated brownie mixes. Consumer Reports states that they baked more than 100 batches for their testing! And, here are the results from these two august bodies:
Consumer Reports ranks Trader Joe's Brownie Truffle Mix and Barefoot Contessa Outrageous Brownie Mix as "excellent." Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge, Betty Crocker Fudge, and Market Pantry (Target) are rated "very good" and designated as "best buys."
Cook's Illustrated was definitely in picky eater mode when they did their evaluation! They deemed the
Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix "passable in a pinch," but specifically "did not recommend" Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, or Duncan Hines mixes.

Substituting Chocolates
It's inevitable at the Picky Eater's house that the pantry never seems to provide the type of chocolate specified in the recipe we want to make. Usually what happens here is that bittersweet chocolate stands in for unsweetened, which probably means that the results are a tad sweeter than the recipe anticipates, but there have never been any complaints! Just in case any readers get stuck in a similar situation, here are some "official chocolate substitution guidelines":
Substitute for unsweetened chocolate:
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter or margarine or shortening or vegetable oil for each ounce of unsweetened chocolate.
Substitute for bittersweet chocolate:
2/3 ounce of unsweetened chocolate + 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar OR
1 ounce semisweet chocolate + 1/4 teaspoon cocoa powder for every ounce of bittersweet chocolate.
Substitute for semi-sweet chocolate:
3 tablespoons chocolate chips OR
1-ounce bittersweet baking chocolate OR
1-ounce unsweetened baking chocolate and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar OR
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon butter, margarine or shortening for every ounce of semi-sweet baking chocolate.
Substitute for semi-sweet chocolate chips:
1 ounce semi-sweet baking chocolate (can be chopped & used like chips) OR
1-ounce unsweetened chocolate plus 1 tablespoons sugar (used when chips are to be melted) for every 1-ounce of chocolate chips

Recipes (homemade only!)
Baking Chocolates
Brownies are only as good as the chocolate that you use to make them. While the price point of quality chocolate is usually about 50% more than the pedestrian stuff, why waste your time and effort for a disappointing product? One unforgettable example for me was the time when an acquaintance made my best chocolate cookie with Trader Joe's generic chocolate, and it didn't even taste like the same cookie! We have several preferred brands that are readily available at the supermarket as well as at Target or Cost Plus, where you can sometimes get a bargain. Our favorites are-
Lindt Bittersweet
Ghirardelli 
Guittard
Callebaut
We find Valrhona & Scharffen Berger a little too dear for baking, but splurge if you want!

If you want easy internet access to the world of exotic chocolates, click on over to Chocosphere, a mail order operation in Oregon that offers it all! They even carry our favorite obscure chocolate- Ocumare from Chocovic in Spain. Years ago it won Dr. Hal's blind chocolate and red wine tasting. Trader Joe's got us addicted to it, and then, as is their wont, discontinued to stock it.

America's Test Kitchen Brownies (adapted from The New Best Recipe)
The Picky Eater's cousin Anthony's favorite- always part of his Chanukah/Xmas goody haul. He likes them without nuts.

1 1/4 c.  flour (they recommend cake flour, but unbleached all purpose works for me)
3/4 t. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
12 Tb butter
2 1⁄4 c. sugar
1 Tb vanilla
4 large eggs

1 c. pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325°.

Butter a 9” x 13” pan. Cut two pieces of parchment paper or foil large enough to fit in the pan, one lengthwise and one crosswise, with a 2” overhang on each edge. Fit them in the pan and butter them. (if these seems like way too much trouble and you don't mind a little unsightly flour on the brownies along the edge, just heavily butter and flour your pan.)
If using the nuts, toast them in the oven for 5-8 minutes, until fragrant.
Stir the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a medium bowl.
Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler over simmering water, stirring occasionally, until smooth.
Beat the eggs and sugar together until mixed. Stir in the melted chocolate mixture and the vanilla. Add the flour in 3 additions, stir just until mixed. Add the optional nuts.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, using a spatula to spread it into the corners and smooth the top.
Bake 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.
Place on a wire rack for about 2 hours, until they cool to room temperature; then remove the brownies from the pan by lifting them out using the foil/paper overhang. Cut into 2” squares and serve.
Makes 24

Marley the monkey liked the cream cheese brownies the best.

America's Test Kitchen Cream Cheese Brownies (also adapted from The New Best Recipe)
To be honest, in a recipe like this I am totally comfortable using all bittersweet chocolate rather than worrying about mixing semi-sweet, unsweetened, etc.)

Brownie part
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, broken up into chunks
4 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, broken up into chunks
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, quartered
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs

Cream cheese filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg yolk

Preheat the oven to 325°.
Butter a 8” square baking pan. Cut two pieces of parchment paper or foil large enough to fit in the pan, one lengthwise and one crosswise, with a 2” overhang on each edge. Fit them in the pan and butter them. (if these seems like way too much trouble and you don't mind a little unsightly flour on the brownies along the edge, just heavily butter and flour your pan.)

Stir the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a medium bowl.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl set over almost simmering water, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove the mixture from the heat, whisk in the sugar and vanilla, and  and allow the batter to cool a minute or two.

Whisk in the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next, and stir until smooth. Add the flour mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

Make the cream cheese filling:

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese with the sugar, vanilla, and egg until evenly blended.

Pour half the brownie mixture into the prepared pan and use a rubber spatula to distribute it evenly in the pan. Spoon glops of about 1/2 the cream cheese filling onto the brownie layer, then add a layer of  the remaining brownie mixture followed by the rest of the cream cheese filling. Use a table knife to swirl the layers a tiny bit, so the top of the batter looks marbled. (Don't overswirl!)

Bake about 50-60 minutes, until the sides have moved away from the pan, the brownies feel almost firm in the center when lightly touched, and a toothpick combs out holding a few errant crumbs when inserted into the center.

Cool completely in the pan on a rack. Do not cut until just before serving. They will keep for about 5 days if they aren't eaten first.

Makes 16-24 brownies, depending on the size that you cut.

Forgot to mention- Dr. Hal asked me when was the last time that I made brownies with a mix. Thinking back, I could not recall ever having used a mix- not even as a child! And, having tasted the results, probably never again!

Salad Days

"...My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood..."
                            Cleopatra,  Antony & Cleopatra Act One by WIlliam Shakespeare (1606)

While The Picky Eater is happy to inform me fairly frequently that my "salad days" are over, and I might have to reluctantly admit that is true, recently it seems like my days of eating salad have just begun. For many years I had a hardcore aversion to lettuce for several reasons- as a caterer many aeons ago I had to wash pounds and pounds of it, tedious even for someone  who loves splashing around in the water and ranked scrubbing the kitchen sink as one of her favorite childhood activities, right after washing her hands, and because lettuce tastes pretty blah when it isn't swathed in a yummy fat based dressing, which guilt induced me to avoid. Recently it seems that I have come to grips with both these objections and am eating salad on a regular basis. I quite like the mixed green melanges now widely available, albeit swathed in mustardy vinaigrette and garnished with nuts and goat cheese, which more than compensates for lettuce's (to me) lackluster flavor.

While I am only a recent convert to the delights of lettuce, I have always been a big fan of main course salads that employ other vehicles for salad dressing. Without lettuce, they last for days, and make a quick leftover lunch or dinner.

I prefer a high ratio of veggie additives to base greens, but feel free to add more as desired. And here, without further ado, are several of my favorites: **

Hard to make even a delicious salad look attractive!

Ramen Chinese Chicken Salad
Serves 4-6
A tried and true recipe that multiplies easily to feed a crowd. My friend Julie and I have made this in bulk for up to sixty people.

3 c. shredded cooked chicken (leftover or 2-3 poached chicken breasts, see poaching directions below)
5 green onions, trimmed and thinly sliced, including some of the green tops
1 cucumber
1/2 head Napa cabbage (save the other half for the Mexican Cabbage Salad)
2 packages Ramen soup mix, any flavor
1 1/2 c. raw almonds
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Optional additions of choice, use 1-2 cups total: diced celery, shredded carrots, sliced mushrooms, radishes or water chestnuts

Those noodles much beloved by hungry college students put to a higher use.

Soy Sauce Dressing (adapted from Barbara Tropp's The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking)

3 1/2 Tb sesame oil
3 1/2 Tb soy sauce
1 1/2 Tb balsamic vinegar
2 Tb sugar
2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. hot chili oil

If using uncooked chicken breasts, poach them using my variant on a Chinese technique from Barbara Tropp:
Poached Chicken Breasts
2-3 chicken breast halves (boned, skinned, boneless, skinless, whatever)
14 oz can chicken stock
quarter size piece of fresh ginger, peeled
1 whole green onion, trimmed and cut into three pieces

Place the chicken breasts  in a small, heavy pot and add the broth and enough water to cover them by 2 inches. Make sure that the chicken is completely submerged. Smash the ginger and green onion pieces with the side of a cleaver or chef's knife and add to the pot. Bring the broth to a boil over high heat. Turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let the chicken sit in the poaching liquid for 2 hours. Remove the chicken breasts, refrigerate, and shred when needed to use.

Making the salad

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spread the nuts on a rimmed cookies sheet and toast in the oven until nicely browned and crunchy, about 6-8 minutes. Do not over bake or they will burn and taste nasty. Coarsely chop the nuts and put them in a large salad bowl. Add the shredded chicken and green onions.

Quarter the cucumber and cut it into thin slices, and shred the cabbage by cutting the head in half vertically down the middle, making horizontal and vertical cuts about 2" apart in it like dicing an onion, then lay it flat on the cutting board and thinly slice it. Add both vegetables to the salad bowl. Crumble the Ramen noodles into the salad bowl and discard the seasoning packets. Add the cilantro and any of the optional additions that you are using. Toss everything together.

Make the dressing in a 1 or 2 cup measuring cup and whisk diligently until it is homogeneous. Pour the dressing over the salad, being sure to scrape out the residual sugar crystals, and toss well. The noodles will soften as the salad sits after dressing. A nice balance of crunchy and soggy is met if you tossed the salad about one hour before serving it.

Mexican Cabbage Salad
Serves 4-6

Our favorite Mexican restaurant in Modesto, La Morenita, serves a dish of cabbage slaw as a condiment with your chips and salsa which I can't eat enough of. Recently I started poking around to see if I could find an equivalent recipe on the web. A little judicious surfing produced three recipes, including one from Jamie Oliver and one from Mark Bittman, that I amalgamated into one super scrumptious, spicy, and tangy coleslaw. Not a meal in and of itself unless you have sworn off carbs and most proteins, like one anonymous Picky Eater of my acquaintance, who actually would find this recipe "too spicy."

There is something very satisfying about the process
of shredding cabbage, especially for these salads.

1/2  head of cabbage, thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled & coarsely grated
1 small bunch of radishes (about 10), trimmed and thinly sliced
1 colorful bell pepper- red, yellow or orange, diced
1 small red onion, quartered & thinly sliced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely diced
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes or 2-3 plum tomatoes, finely diced
1/4 c. chopped cilantro

Dressing:
2 heaping tsp. of Dijon mustard
zest of one lime
2 Tb fresh lime juice (about what you get from 1 juicy lime)
1 clove garlic put through a press or finely chopped
1/3 c. olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Optional: Crispy Tortilla Strips
These are a delicious topping for Mexican salads and chilis. Quick, easy, and low fat.
4 fresh corn tortillas
Preheat the oven to 350F. Cut the tortillas into thin strips and place on a cookie sheet. Toast the tortilla strips in the oven until they are crisp- about 5 minutes.

Gently combine all the prepared vegetables together in a large salad bowl. Mix all the dressing ingredients except the olive oil together, then whisk in the oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the salad and gently stir with a rubber spatula to coat all the vegetables. Eat as a side dish with crispy tortilla strips. Would be good with grilled or roasted meats, spicy beans, quesadillas, etc.

Last, but not least, an Italian style white bean & tuna salad, an amalgamation of three (!) recipes from the cookbook Trattoria by Patricia Wells. The Daddy gave me an unexpected compliment on this salad's "distinct oil profile without the usual strong acidic viniagrette aspect," and then proceeded to tell me that he probably liked it because he was hungry while waiting for the roast to finish cooking. That's the sort of feedback that I just live for.

Italian Bean Salad with (or without) Tuna
Serves 4-6

For the beans
12 oz dried cannellini (white) beans

1 rib celery, broken in 1/2
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 bay leaf
or, if pressed for time, use 2 14 oz. cans of cooked Italian cannellini beans.. (but the flavor won't be as good!)

For the salad
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tb balsamic vinegar
3 stalks of celery, diced
1 cup stuffed olives (I like them stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes), cut in rounds
1/4 cup green onions, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup Italian parsley, chopped
1 can Italian tuna packed in olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Preparing & cooking the beans


You can use the "quick soak" method to pre-soak the beans. Put the beans in a large pot and cover with at least 2 inches of water. Bring the beans to a boil over medium heat. Turn the heat off and let the pot sit until the water cools down, about one hour.

Strain the beans from the soaking water. Put the beans in a large pot and cover generously with water. Add the onion, celery, garlic, and bay leaf. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until all the beans are soft, about 1 hour. Add more water if it reduces too much.

Drain the beans, and place in a large bowl while still warm. Toss with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar and some salt. Cool to room temperature.

Gently add all the remaining ingredients except the tuna to the beans. Taste for additional salt, pepper, and a tad more olive oil and vinegar to taste. Turn into a low, flattish serving dish, like a gratin dish.

Drain the olive oil and crumble on top of the beans. Serve & enjoy!

While researching (if you can call it that) this post, I came across a newish book by Patricia Wells- Salad As a Meal: Healthy Main-Dish Salads for Every Season. I look forward to reporting on the contents, although while I am a big fan (the polenta croutons look very enticing!), I do despair that she has lived in Paris/Provence too long when she asks for trout eggs, halibut cheeks, and ultra-fresh eggs for her recipes.

** Quoting Shakespeare appears to have brought out my most pompous voice. Sorry!!

Tis the Season- for Gingerbread Houses!!

The Picky Eater- already a skilled decorator at age 4.

The Picky Eater has been building gingerbread houses since she was old enough to eat a jelly bean. Her many wonderful handcrafted edifices include the Ballet Studio, Science Building 194 at UC Davis, a Redwall castle, and the variation on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling River. Her mother is no slouch in the gingerbread house department either- there have been the Japanese farmhouse, the Marc Chagall hovel, Three Bears at the Beach, the Hot Pepper Taco Stand, Don Quixote’s Windmill, and various other oddities over the years. We even featured a collection of our houses on our holiday card in 2008 (with apologies to Vincent VanGogh!)

Frank's first house at age 5

Even before the Picky Eater was born there was annual gingerbread house making with our friends Kathy, Lindsay, and Virginia Terry. We still chuckle about our first year, when at age two, Virginia was overwhelmed by the candy, chaos, and activity, and had to go to bed. (Virginia  is now twenty-eight.) Back in those days the construction took place at the Terry's house and inevitably it would be raining by the time came for our houses to go home- have you ever tried to carry a gingerbread house through the rain? Not one of life's great pleasures. I am well known for being insistent and over zealous when it comes to gingerbread houses. Pre 9-11 Dr. Hal's East Coast niece and nephew were visiting. Learning that they had never decorated gingerbread houses, we launched in the day before they left to fly home, and I insisted that their parents carry them on the plane, each in its own cardboard box. I can only hope that they ditched them before boarding, but to this day have been afraid to ask! Since the Picky Eater went to college we have enlisted a new generation of cookie house makers- Frank (age 9), Sophia (age 6), and Isabella (age 5).

Over the years we have honed our technique for maximum efficacy. These are some tips,  gleaned from our years of experience:
Cut & bake your house pieces the day before. After cooling, cover tightly on a cookie sheet or tray with aluminum foil.
Roll out, cut, and bake the dough on a sheet of parchment paper.
Use disposable pastry tubes and have one for each decorator.
Gingerbread House Dough
This recipe makes a stiff, forgiving dough that can tolerate lots of rolling and re-rolling out and still tastes good. I usually make 1 batch of dough per person, plus one extra.

1 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
4 eggs
1/4 t. salt
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1 t. cloves
2 t. ginger
5 c. flour

A heavy-duty electric mixer is a must to make this amount of dough. If using a hand-held mixer, halve the size of your batch.

Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and seasonings, and continue beating about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in as much flour (use the mixer, not by hand!) as you can. Turn the dough out on a board and knead in any remaining flour, to make a very stiff dough. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 24 hours.

Baking the cookies:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Roll half the dough out 1/4” thick on a floured board or parchment paper. Keep remainder of dough refrigerated. Cut out cookie shapes or house pieces. Transfer to a buttered and floured cookie sheet or slide parchment paper onto a cookie sheet.

Bake 12-18 minutes, until the cookies feel dry and firm to the touch. Cool on a rack.  (recipe from From Julia Child’s Kitchen.)

If constructing a house, use this icing as your cement:

Royal Icing
4 egg whites
1/2 t. lemon juice
1/4 t. cream of tartar
8 c. powdered sugar
1 Tb vanilla

With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites, lemon juice, salt, cream of tartar, and 2 c. powdered sugar  until you have a thick white paste. Add the flavoring, and gradually the rest of the powdered sugar, beating. Continue beating until the frosting is thick, smooth, and stands in peaks. ( From Julia Child’s Kitchen.)

This icing should be stiff enough to hold your houses pieces together after just a few minutes.
Here’s a good icing for “eating” cookies:

Cookie Icing
1 c. butter, softened
pinch of salt
6 c. powdered sugar
2 Tb milk or cream
1 Tb vanilla

Cream the butter and salt together in a bowl. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar and the milk. Add the vanilla. Continue beating until the icing is very fluffy.

Icing should be smooth and stiff enough to spread. Tastes great topped with cookie sprinkles.
Makes 3 cups. (From Marion Cunningham's The Fannie Farmer Baking Book.)

House Construction

We usually do this as a 1-3 day process. Day 1: Make cookie dough, Day 2: Cut and bake pieces. Day 3: Make icing, assemble, and decorate houses. Can also be done in 2 days. THE DOUGH MUST BE MADE ONE DAY AHEAD!!
Baking the House Pieces
Supplies:
1 batch gingerbread dough (per house)
Baking parchment paper
flour
rolling pin
cookie sheets
cookie cutters
table knife
spatula

Preheat oven to 350°.
1. Form half of a  batch of dough into a thick pancake, and roll out on parchment paper until ¼” thick, using flour under and on top of dough to prevent sticking.
2. Lay as many pattern pieces as will fit on the dough. Cut out using a table knife. When cutting, make short, choppy overlapping strokes. Cutting in one smooth motion pulls on the dough. Don’t forget to cut out doors and windows – we sometimes use miniature cookie cutters.
3. When cutting and baking pattern pieces, your goal is to distort them as little as possible. The more distorted they are, the more difficult it will be to assemble your house.
4. Pull away the excess dough from around the pattern pieces, and gather it into a smooth ball. The excess dough should be refrigerated for at least 20 minutes, and can then be rolled out again for more pattern pieces or cookies.
5. Slide the parchment paper sheet holding the pattern pieces onto a cookie sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for 12-20 minutes, until the dough seems firm, dry and the edges are barely brown. Large pieces will need to bake longer; you may need to remove them from the oven as they finish baking.
6. Let pieces cool on the parchment paper for about 10 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. House pieces must be almost completely cool before they can be assembled.

Assembling Your House
Supplies:
Plate, tray or cardboard base
Pastry bags (I use disposable plastic ones; we like to have one for each person)
Simple icing tips (one for each bag)
Royal icing (about ½ batch per house)
Extra cookies for decoration
Vast array of candies & sprinkles: jelly beans, gumdrops, Necco wafers, peppermint sticks, Gummi anythings, etc. etc. The bigger variety the better!

1. Make a couple of batches of royal icing while your house pieces cool. The icing should be on the stiff side so that it will harden quickly to avoid having your house collapse. Cut the bottom of your pastry bag, and insert a tip from the inside. Use a spatula to load up the bag with icing, forcing it to the bottom of the bag. Closing the top of the bag with a rubber band keeps the icing from squeezing out.
2. Also choose a base: it can be a flat plate, tray, etc. We cover large squares of corrugated (box) cardboard with aluminum foil. This type of base allows you to add snow, icebergs, trees and animals, etc.
3. Decide where on your plate or tray you will position your house; making sure that you allow enough space on all sides.
4. It works best if people work in pairs when putting a house together – that way one pair of hands can hold while the other assembles.
5. If making a house with a cookie rectangle base, glue the base down with a bit of icing. Whether using one or not, proceed to construct your house in this manner:
a. Run a line of icing along the bottom edge of the house front and stand it up where you want it. (Attach it to the long edge of your base, if using one.) Hold in place.
b. If your house has sides, run icing along the back of the house front next to the outside edges. Run a line of icing along the bottom edge of each side, and attach them to the front, gently pressing the edges into the icing and the bottom onto your base. Hold in place for a couple of minutes, until the icing is firm.
c. Attach the back by running icing along the bottom edge and inside edges and attach to the sides. Hold in place.
d. Raising the roof is probably the most challenging aspect of this. Run generous lines of icing along each edge with the roof pieces will touch on the house front, back, and sides. Also apply a generous line of icing to the top edge of one roof piece.
e. Quickly position both roof pieces, matching front edges and pushing the roof pieces together at the crest of the roof. Hold in place until you are ABSOLUTELY sure they are secure.
f. The hard part is done!! Now, enjoy decorating your house and landscape the yard with icing, cookies, candies, and sprinkles.
g. Nibbling is inevitable. Take lots of photos, then delight in playing Hansel or Gretel and breaking off bits of your house to eat whenever it strikes your fancy.