Foraging for Food In Pittsburgh, Part 1

We all wondered how the Picky Eater would fare in the land of pierogi, Steelers, and pastrami; and the answer is, just fine, thank you very much! She spends most Saturdays taking public transit around Pittsburgh to her favorite exotic foodie haunts. On a recent so-called "Parents Weekend" visit, her dear old mom played chauffeur and ferried her east side, west side, and generally all around the town.

First stop was the Strip District, the city's food center, teeming with ethnic markets- Pennsylvania Macaroni Co., Lotus Grocery, Reyna Foods, and more. And, a newly minted "Public Market," fairly quiet on a Friday afternoon but demonstrating plenty of potential- heritage legumes, local dairy cheeses, and fresh olive oils at Olio Fresca (natch!) But, the Picky Eater's favorite stall is The Berry Patch, where she can't decide between the myriad of yummy flavors and has to try them all.

The Picky Eater is partial to weird Asian condiments at the Lotus. For some reason the sales clerk decided that we shouldn't take pictures of the vegetables, but here's the P.E. posing with the tofu.

Next it was ancho chiles at Reyna-

Doesn't she look happy? Who would have thought ....

After a few more stops to browse- the cheese counter at Penn Mac Co.,

the biscotti at Enrico's, and sniff the chocolates at Mon Aimee Chocolat, we were off to .... you'll never guess where!

An afterword: Somewhere on the strip there is a mythical (to me) restaurant named Primanti Brothers, where all sandwiches are topped with french fries, cole slaw & tomatoes, and onions by request. (See photo)                                         And, the Fresh Cut Fried Potato menu lists Primanti Fries, Cheese fries,  Chili Fries, Chili Cheese Fries, and Smallman Street Fries (chili, cheese, bacon & sour cream) 

Somehow I don't think that I will be dining there any time ever with the Picky Eater. Although I must confess that I did sneak away for a yummy corned beef sandwich at the Smallman Street Deli, and it was worth every inch of the 10 block trek!                       

Enrico Biscotti Company

2022 Penn Ave.

Pittsburgh, PA

Mon - Sat: 6 am - 4 pm; Sun 9 am - 2 pm

412-281-2602  http://www.enricobiscotti.com/biscotti2/

Lotus Foods                                                                                                                                              1649 Penn Ave.

Pittsburgh, PA

412-281-3050

Mon Aimee Chocolat

2101 Penn Avenue 

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Mon-Fri 8:30 am–5 pm; Sat 7:30 am–5 pm; Sun 10 am–3:30 pm   

412-395-0022  www.monaimeechocolat.com/       

                                                                                              

Pennsylvania Macaroni Company

2010-2012 Penn Ave.

Pittsburgh, PA

Sundays 9:00 am- 2:30 pm

Monday thru Saturday 6:30 am - 4:30 pm   

412-471-8330  http://www.pennmac.com/   

                       

Pittsburgh Public Market

Produce Terminal Building

Smallman Street Entrance opposite 17th Street                                                                                   Fridays 10 am - 4 pm; Saturdays 9 am - 5 pm; Sundays 10 am - 4 pm  http://pittsburghpublicmarket.org/

Primanti Brothers

46 18th Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

(412) 263-2142   http://primantibros.com/home.html  24 Hours, 7 Days A Week!                                  

Reyna Foods

2023 Penn Ave.

Pittsburgh, PA

412-261-2606

Smallman Street Deli

2840 Smallman Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

412-434-5800  http://smallmanstreetdeli.com/

Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 a.m.  Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Birthday Polenta Cake

Celebrating after Champagne & two bottles of Rhone wine. (Don't tell the Picky Eater!)

I was forced to celebrate another birthday yesterday. But, with my history, every birthday is one more to the good. Did some of my favorite things - shopping, swimming, dinner at Enoteca Donato. Made my own birthday cake- that way you always get what you want.
This year it was-

The remains of the cake

Polenta Cake with Olive Oil, Chocolate and Dried Fruit

adapted from Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz

1/2 c unsalted butter (or substitute), softened, plus more to grease the cake pan
3/4 c polenta or cornmeal,
1 c flour plus 4 Tb for pan and fruit mixture
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 c mild olive oil
5 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 c sugar
1 c chopped good quality chocolate
2/3 c dried cherries
2/3 c golden raisins
Optional: 1 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)

Chocolate glaze choices-
Traditional
6 oz. semisweet chocolate
1/3 c. whipping cream
1 Tb sugar 1 1/2 Tb butter

(For non-dairy eaters):
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/3 cup sugar
3 ounces semi- or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 10 cup bundt or kugelhopf pan with a tablespoon or so of butter and dust with flour.  Combine the chocolate, cherries, and raisins in a bowl and toss with 2 Tb of flour.

Stir the flour, polenta, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Set aside. In a second bowl, whisk together the olive oil, eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla.

Use a mixer to beat the 1/2 cup butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Slowly dribble in the egg mixture and beat until completely incorporated. Hand stir in the flour and cornmeal mixture until just mixed and then stir in the chocolate, cherries and raisins.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the upper center of the oven until the cake has pulled away from the sides of the pan, is firm on top, and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes, and then invert the cake on the rack to cool completely.  Makes 10-12 servings.

Traditional Chocolate Glaze
Place all ingredients in a small heavy saucepan over moderate heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is almost melted. Remove from heat and stir until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool slightly, until it is the consistency of honey.

Non-Dairy Chocolate Glaze
When the cake is cool, drizzle on this glaze (work quickly):
In a small saucepan, bring the water, corn syrup and sugar to a simmer over low heat. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and add the chocolate, swirling pan to submerge it in hot syrup. Whisk the mixture until smooth.

Pour the warm glaze of choice over cake and drizzle it down the sides- you will only have a couple minutes to work with it before it sets up.

Memories of Monticchiello con Risotto al Limone

Podere San Guisto

The Picky Eater's idea of heaven on earth is our friends' Ann & Pier Paolo's farmhouse in the Monteleone, about halfway between Pisa & Florence.

La Foce

Our last visit was in the summer of 2011, and one of our forays was a field trip to La Foce, the famous house and garden of the Anglo-American writer Iris Origo. (I highly recommend her autobiography, Images and Shadows: Part of a Life, which details her early years traveling the globe with her wealthy gypsy parents, her youth in Florence when her mother held court with the likes of Bernard Berenson, and the years of hard work she and her Italian husband spent reclaiming the impoverished lands and people that were La Foce.)

Montecchiello view

The daddy will be happy to tell you that any day trip with me in Spain, France or Italy always includes the obligatory two hour lunch, and this day was no different. As usual, we arrived our at destination just in time for lunch- at La Taverna di Moranda in the beautiful village of Montecchiello in the southern Tuscan region of Pienza. Not only is Montecchiello sited on a gorgeous hilltop with amazing views, it also has the best linen shop I have yet to encounter anywhere and a tiny altarpiece "Madonna con bambino" by Pietro Lorenzetti.

The Picky Eater ordered her standard pasta with tomato sauce but for some unknown reason (perhaps a desperate attempt on the chef's part to make it more interesting?) it tasted "too spicy" to her, and seeing her untouched plate, the chef's wife / hostess told us that her seven year old daughter loved it and didn't find it too spicy! Ann, a fellow vegetarian, ordered lemon risotto, which she liked very much and later tried to recreate at home using a recipe for lemon-asparagus risotto from Alice Water's The Simple Art of Food, without the asparagus, and with mixed results.

Ann & the Picky Eater trying to digest
 her spicy pasta 

Linen shop con gatto

Ann is here in Palo Alto visiting her father at the moment and last week we made another go at it. Please note that some hardy soul has to be prepared to wield a spoon and stir for almost all of the 17-20 minutes that it takes to cook the risotto to a creamy finish.

Here is the very delicious result of our experiments-

Amalgamated Lemon Risotto
(a distillation of 2 recipes- one from Patricia Wells' Trattoria 
& one from Nigella Lawson courtesy of the Food Network)

3 shallots, finely chopped
2 ribs of celery, small dice
6-7 cups of vegetable broth
3 Tb butter
2 Tb olive oil
2 cups Italian Arborio or Canaroli rice
1/2 c. white wine
1-2 Tb grated lemon zest
2-4 Tb fresh lemon juice
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, grated
Fresh ground pepper
Salt to taste

Optional:
1 egg yolk
4 Tb heavy cream
4 Tb grated Parmesan cheese

Ann stirring up a storm

In a large saucepan, heat the stock and keep it at a low simmer.

Melt 2 Tb of the butter and all the olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over moderate heat. Saute the shallots and celery until the shallots are soft and translucent, about 3 minutes, but do not let them brown. Add the rice and stir until it is well coated with the butter/oil mixture, glistening and semitranslucent, about 1-2 minutes. (Do not skip this step! It helps separate the grains of rice.)

When the rice is shiny, add a ladle of stock, and cook, stirring constantly, until the rice has absorbed most of the stock, which will take 1-2 minutes. Add additional ladlefuls of stock one at a time, stirring constantly, as each ladleful is absorbed. Adjust the heat if necessary to maintain a gentle simmer. Continue adding stock, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan. Taste the risotto regularly until the rice is almost tender but firm to the bite, about 17 minutes. The risotto should have a creamy, porridge-like consistency.

The delicious results!

Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the remaining tablespoon of butter, half of the lemon zest and half the lemon juice, and the Parmesan. Taste and increase the lemon zest and juice to the desired level of "lemony-ness," and add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve immediately.  Serves 4 to 6.

As an alternate finish, you can beat the egg yolk with the cream and Parmesan, and stir it into the risotto along with the lemon zest and juice. This makes for an even creamier and richer tasting risotto.

Zucchini Pancakes- No Maple Syrup Needed!

A perfect crispy zucchini pancake

I bought some exotic "Roman" zucchini at the farmer's market on Sunday, and last night I whipped up some zucchini pancake batter based on a Mark Bittman recipe in How To Cook Everything Vegetarian. It was one of his variations listed under "Vegetable Pancakes." I haven't been a big fan of his recipes in the past, but these were pretty yummy. Dr. Hal refused anything that might be goopy and veggie, so I just made 3/4 of a recipe with two zucchini, and had batter left for two more meals.

The nice thing about this recipe is that you only add enough milk to make the batter spoonable, so you can use the whole egg used for a whole recipe and just add less milk. (I hate having to beat up an egg and try to divide in half or worse, as in this case, 3/4ths!) Last night I cooked the pancakes on medium heat and they were still a little damp inside, so today for lunch I cooked them on a lower heat for longer. I also hand grated the vegetables which helped  preserve their structure. My onion grating experiences usually result in a mess of onion juice and slop, but the onion I used last night grated up into nice little slivers.

Zucchini Pancakes a la Mark Bittman
Makes about twelve 3-1/2" pancakes
1 lb. zucchini
1/2 onion, grated
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup flour
salt and pepper
Milk, as needed
2 Tb olive oil
1/2-3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Butter or olive oil for the pan

Grate the vegetables by hand into a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the onion, cheese, and flour, andthen the egg. Season with salt and pepper. (You can go easy on the salt because the Parmesan is salty.) Add just enough milk so that the mixture drops easily from a large spoon. Stir in the 2 Tb of olive oil.

Melt a small pat of butter in a large skillet over medium low heat. When the butter is melted and bubbly, drop in spoonfuls of the batter, flattening slightly with your spoon. Cook, turning once, until brown and crispy on both sides, which will take about 15 minutes total.

Partially cooked- it's hard to wait!

You can scarf these up plain, like I did, or serve them with a soupcon of yogurt, sour cream, tomato sauce or pesto. If everyone wants to eat at the same time, you can keep the pancakes warm in a 275 degree oven.

So the $64,000 question is would the Picky Eater eat one?

Further Escapades with Julia

The Picky Eater makes Pate A Choux.

A day spent cooking with Julia is loaded with memories for me, and leafing through the cookbooks brings so many of them flooding back. So, I decided to make a list of all the Julia recipes that I can remember ever cooking, evidenced by the rumples and food dribbles on the cookbook pages.

The recipes are Picky Eater star rated:
*** Fabulous and worth the trouble
** Good relative to the effort
* Worth a try
No Star - Never, ever, ever again!

From Mastering the Art of French Cooking vol. 1 (1961)
**Potage Parmentier (Leek & Potato Soup)
*Soupe A L'Oignon- requires slicing several pounds of onions; guaranteed to make you weep
**Soupe Au Pistou (Provencal Vegetable Soup with Garlic, Basil & Herbs)- one of my earliest attempts, circa 1973 & my first introduction to the French version of pesto, made with dried basil, naturellement!
***Sauce Bechamel & its cousins- Veloute and Mornay
*Sauce Aioli (Garlic Mayonnaise)- guaranteed to spoil after three days
**Piperade (Basque Onion, Pepper, Tomato Ragout)
**Pate Brisee (Pie Crust)- don't forget the fraisage! So much easier made in a food processor.
**Quiche Lorraine
*Pissaladiere Nicoise (Onion Tart with Olives)- Used to make jelly roll pan size for catering. Another onion eye killer.
***Pate A Choux (Cream Puff Paste)
***Petits Choux au Fromage aka Gougeres- the yummiest cheese puffs! I like to add a spoonful of Dijon mustard for contrast.
**Crepes- once made 1000 crepes for....
***Gateau de Crepes a la Florentine- made fifty of these for a backyard wedding with 500 guests in my catering days. My brother ferried the hot crepe gateaux from a rented industrial kitchen to the house for serving.

Dr. Hal's Coq au Vin

**Coq au Vin (Chicken in Red Wine)- a Dr. Hal favorite. He made it just two weekends ago, telling me "I know that you don't like it, but it's really good."
***Poulets Grilles A La Diable (Chicken Broiled with Mustard And Herbs)- relatively easy for Julia
***Boeuf Bourguignon- another all time Dr. Hal favorite
Paupiettes de Boeuf- very 1950's dinner party style

***Tomates A La Provencale (Tomatoes Stuffed with Bread Crumbs, Herbs, and Garlic)

***Champignons Farcis (Stuffed Mushrooms)

**Souffle Au Fromage- our feeble attempt to interest the Picky Eater in eggs & cheese.

A glorious Cheese Souffle 

Gratin Dauphinois (Scalloped Potatoes)- still working on getting the potatoes to soften up! One of my guaranteed ongoing disasters, along with chemically unleavened French cakes.
*Legumes A La Grecque (Vegetables Cooked in Aromatic Broth)- have made a slew of these in my day.
*Celeri-Rave Remoulade (Celery Root in Mustard Sauce)
**Pommes De Terre A L'Huile (French Potato Salad)- still embarrassed about the first time I made this and didn't cook the potatoes all the way through.
***Salade Nicoise- one of my all time favorites!
*Mousse De Foies De Volaille (Chicken Liver Mousse)- chopped chicken liver gone elegante.
**Creme Anglaise (Custard sauce)

The French Chef Cookbook (1968)
Sorry to say that I have never used FCC- no need with access to the other books. Love the still photos of Julia sniffing vanilla beans, tasting for seasoning, and preparing to poach a salmon in a washtub!

The Beef Box- never again!

Mastering the Art of French Cooking vol. II (1970)
***Potage Magali (Mediterranean Tomato Soup with Rice)- Yummy & never fail!
La Paupiette De Gargantua (Giant Stuffed Beef Roll)
Boeuf en Caisse, Surprise (Stuffed, Braised Pot Roast of Beef- Beef Case) aka as "Beef in a Box"- The night I made this recipe as a donation luncheon, Dr. Hal made me swear at least 30 times "Never, never, never again" to  any outside catering! he had to cut a 7 lb. piece of top round beef into a box shape and cut out the inside, while I made a roux based sauce. The "surprise" had to be braise for hours (until 2 am in this case) and then I was up at 3 to rip off its cheesecloth cover, worried that it would stick as the meat cooled.
La Tentation De Bramafan (Eggplant Caviar with Walnuts)
*Tuiles Aux Amandes (Lacy Curved Almond Wafers)- guaranteed to singe your fingers!


Julia Child & Company (1978)
***Los Gatos Gateau Cake- rum flavored buttercream and apricot filling sandwiched between layers of almond meringue and iced with more buttercream and sliced almonds. Thank god for parchment paper!
Poulet De Charente A La Melonaise (Chicken Melon)- only fools rush in ...
**Skewered Vegetable Salad- good summer veggie dish
**Apple Turnover- gargantuan size to serve 6. The dessert cousin of the "pantins" listed below.
Chicken Bouillabaisse with Rouille (Garlic & Pimento Sauce)- part of the Lo-Cal Banquet, too lo-cal for me
*Aspargus Tips in Puff Pastry with Lemon Butter Sauce- And this she considers part of an "informal" dinner? Who makes puff pastry for a casual appetizer?
An American Paella In A Chinese-Style Electric Wok- beware of uncooked rice
**Ham Pithiviers (Puff Pastry Tart with Hidden Ham Filling)- worth making puff pastry for this one. Like the Almond Pithiviers, it will have you licking your plate
*Gravlaks (Dilled Fresh Salmon)- be sure to plan ahead, it takes 5 days to cure
***Minimeatballs- yummy mix of ground beef and pork pork sausage in a tangy sauce. One of the best of the genre.
*Bourbon-soaked Chocolate Truffles- too alcoholic and bitter for me
**Homemade Noodles- my first noodle manufacturing experience. Ok, as long as you don't try to jam the dough through the pasta machine (I bent ours).
***Le Gateau Victoire Au Chocolate Mousseline- a chocolate mousse cake of epic proportions. I have only made it once and it was amazing! Requires focus and serving right from the oven- do it for a dinner party when someone else is sharing the cooking duities with you.
**Homemade Pita Bread Pizzas- yummy, but, like all pizzas, very high carb/fat.
Chocolate-Chip Spice & Pound Cake

The Chocolate Bombe- how we love you so!

Julia Child & More Company (1979)
**Buttermilk-Herb Baking Powder Biscuits
**Celery Root Remoulade - I like to use the sour cream-mustard dressing on other cruciferous vegetables like cabbage.
*******Bombe Aux Trois Chocolats (A Chocolate Mousse Hidden Under a Mold of Chcolate Fudge Cake, Topped with Chocolate Sauce) - we have a bowl and pattern cutouts devoted just to this dessert, our go-to tradition for Christmas. Rich and amazing. Never, ever, ever make this recipe with anything but the best quality chocolate.
*Cobb Salad - hearkens back to Julia's Southern California roots
*French Onion Soup Gratinee - a little over the top to make your own beef stock (I never do)
Gateau of Crepes Layered with Vegetables and Cheese - I once made this for a catering client who cold called me and asked me to make it for her after she had watched Julia make it on tv.

**Pears Poached in White Wine - these days I prefer to use apple juice, you skip the wine & sugar and throw in lemon zest, cinnamon sticks, and a soupcon of vanilla.
***Caramel Sauce - the BEST!!
*Gazpacho Salad (Layers of Colorful Freshly Cut Vegetables with Bread Crumbs and Garlic Dressing) - a ton of finicky dicing but a nice result. This can take hours if you're making enough for fifty or sixty people.
Plantation Spice Cookies - never became a fixture in my repetoire
Artichoke Scoops with Shellfish - love the egg yolk vinaigrette dressing, but only tried the whole process once.
Pissaladiere Gargantua (Giant Onion and Anchovy Pizza) - used olives instead of anchovies for catering purposes. This really isn't a pizza as it has a pie dough base. Haven't made one of these in years- sort of got sick of it.

From Julia Child's Kitchen (1981)
*Soupe Au Cresson (Watercress Soup)
**Quiche Aux Brocoli
**Pantin Aux Epinards, Simone Beck (Simca's Spinach Turnover with Ham & Mushrooms) also Pantin Au Chester (Cheddar Cheese Turnover)- early adventures in freeform turnovers
***Le Gateau Omni-Omelette (Many-layered Omelette with Multiple Fillings)- I foolishy used to offer a catered "breakfast in bed." Which meant I was up at dawn making omelettes and sneaking into customers' kitchens to leave this omelette, coffeecake, and fruit salad, etc.
**Roulade Au Fromage; Souffle Au Fromage Roule (Cheese Souffle Roll)- Watch out for cracks and craters when you try to roll this baby!
**Poulet Saute Grand'mere (Chicken sauteed with Potatoes, Salt Pork, and Mushrooms)- another opportunity for under-cooked potatoes.
***Supremes De Volaille en Goujons, A La Creme et Aux Champignons (Sliced Chicken Breasts Sauteed, with Cream & Mushrooms)- Yummy, yummy, yummy (and easy once the chicken breasts are boned). My mother and I evolved into speed chicken breast boners- we could do one a minute at our peak.
***Supremes De Volaille Sautees, Andalouse (Chicken Breasts Sauteed, White Wine Sauce with Tomato Fondue & Tarragon)- one of the all time best make ahead dishes for a large crowd.
Dinde Rotie Au Four (Roast Turkey)- I am not a big time meat cooker, and it took only one Thanksgiving turkey roasting experience to happily turn the honor over to my carnivore cooking husband.
Spaghetti Marco Polo (An Unorthodox Main-Course Spaghetti Dish to be Eaten with Chopsticks)- this may be heresy, but don't bother, there are plenty of better pasta recipes out there.
*Tranches D'Aubergine A L'Italienne (Eggplant Pizzas)
Caviar D'Aubergine (Eggplant Caviar: a Puree with Garlic, Sesame, and Lemon)
**Caesar Salad- Made this version once, then switched to the simpler styled salad in Field of Greens. Who needs to deal with coddled eggs?
Pain Francais (French Bread)- almost laborious beyond belief, but I did learn how to properly form round loaves and rolls.
**La Tarte Des Demoiselles Tatin (Upside-Down Apple Tart)- Impressed my future husband with one of these, cooked in an outoor porch oven the first time that he came to lunch.
**Tarte Aux Fraises (Fresh Strawberry Tart)
Fantaisie Glacee Aux Poires (Pear & Meringue Fantasy, Ice Cream Topped with Fruit Poached in Wine)- made individual heart shaped meringue bases for one of my first catering experiments.
***Mousse Au Chocolat- An extraordinary recipe- more complicated than many chocolate mousses- but worth it.
***Gateau Saint-Honore (Ring of Cream Puffs Filled with Pastry Cream and Fruits in Season)- challenging and spectacular!
***Buche De Noel (Christmas Chocolate Log Cake)- from the meringue mushrooms to the roughed up chocolate icing bark to the spun-sugar moss, a labor of love
**Les Madeleines de Commercy- Confirmation of my love-hate relationship with sponge cake.
***Spiced Dough for Gingerbread Houses- probably the recipe I have made more than any other over the last 30 years. I routinely go through 10 pounds of flour, 4 pounds of butter, 8 pounds of powdered sugar, and dozens of eggs for our holiday gingerbread house parties.
**Le Pithiviers (Almond Cream Tart in French Puff Pastry)- one of the yummiest!

Clafouti with Stuffed Pears- New Year's Eve 2001

The Way To Cook (1989)
This book brings Julia full circle- combining her French culinary expertise with American recipes, ingredients and traditions. What a great integration! Recipes are simplified but without the loss of quality. This tome seems sadly under appreciated or even noticed.
**Fisherman's Salad
**Chicken Breasts Meuniere - One of the Picky Eater's few attempts at eating meat. We sauteed some chicken breast, cut it up in little bits, put them on her high chair tray and were told that it "tastes too strong"
**Deviled Chicken with Mustard Coating - I prefer cut up chicken pieces to struggling with a butterflied chicken.
The Re-assembled Roast Turkey - Dr. Hal did it once for Thanksgiving, but his loyalty has since switched to Thanksgiving gone the America's Test Kitchen way.
**Boned Stuffed and Roasted Turkey Breast - a dlectable luncheon dish that can be made ahead and roasted close to serving time. I like the Mushroom Duxelles Stuffing.
**Roast Prime Ribs of Beef - Julia's guidelines for roasting a prime rib have saved many a Christmas roast from cremation.
***Stuffed Tomatoes Provencale - a summer standby with barbecued meats
**Feta Peppers (Bell or Chile Peppers Baked with Cheese)
*Wild Rice Braised with Mirepoix & Mushrooms Duxelles
***Ratatouille - my favorite version
**All-Season Bean Salad
**French Potato Salad - a standby
***Salade Nicoise
*Hot Corn Salad - a no-show at our Julia Child dinner; I made it a day or two later.
**Broccoli Quiche - prefer this to spinach
***Free-Form Fresh Apple Tart - minimum effort yields maximum success; you can use a variety of fruits
**Clafouti with Stuffed Pears - deep dish pie shell + custard + poached pears = a fun special occasion dessert

Baking with Julia (1996)
Julia was 84 years when this book was published, and her involvement was as host, coach, and cheerleader. Many of the recipes are a little hardcore at this stage in my life (especially the "Glorious Wedding Cake," in case you want to bake your own), but I have used one or two. The format is much more "coffee table" than her other books, with full page shimmering, mouthwatering color photos.
*Alsatian Onion Tart
***Cheese & Tomato Galette
**Vegetable Cream Cheese
**Salmon Spread

Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home (1999)
Still a new frontier for me!

Clearly, there are many happy but exhausting hours of cooking with Julia left for me!!

Cooking with Julia

Like thousands of other foodies, the Picky Eater and I decided to stage an all Julia dinner to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her birth on August 15. Like many cooks of my generation, I grew up with the French Chef. It was aired in Modesto on Thursday evenings, which were always quite celebratory in our single parent household circa 1960. My mother's best friend Faye, herself a former Cordon Bleu trained television cook who claimed to have replaced the test pattern on KPIX Channel 5 in San Francisco in the early 1950's, would come over for dinner. With Scotch on the rocks in hand, they would feed us early and then settle in to follow Julia's latest escapades in black and white.

Truth be told, I was extremely conflicted about Julia Child at that age, mainly because her time slot coincided with the airing of Dr. Kildare, and I had a fearsome crush on blonde pretty boy Richard Chamberlain. But, by the time I graduated from college he was long forgotten and my mother's graduation gift was the two volume boxed set of Mastering the Art .... which is a little worse for wear (comme moi) but still in serviceable condition to this day.
With the exception of some of the bizarre PBS cookbooks that were published when Julia acted for hostess in the kitchen to  up and coming young chefs - Martha Stewart(!), Jeremiah Tower, etc.- I believe that I own her complete oeuvre. And my favorite is ...... From Julia Child's Kitchen, a book that took me years to get to know and which I today consider a close personal inanimate friend. And, like a good friend, I'm still learning things from and about it.

Our Menu
While I  cannot state that I have completely cooked my way through any of Julia's books from front to back, I have made many, many of her recipes over the years. For the most part, I have to admit that they are "special occasion" recipes for me, and if you've ever used any of them you can understand why. The promise of Julia's recipes is that if you have the patience to do everything the way she tells you to that the results will be amazing, but they are also a hell of a lot of work, exhausting in fact, as the Picky Eater was about to find out.

Right off the bat I suggested that we make the Chicken Melon from Julia Child & Company, a bizarre little trompe d'oeil that we have made a time or two before - you completely bone a large chicken (Dr. Hal's forte), scrape all the meat off the skin, make a pate mixture with the meat, sew the skin into a little bag, stuff the pate into the chicken skin bag, wrap it up in cheesecloth so that it looks like a French melon, and bake until golden brown. I consider it one of her most "extreme" recipes- extremely complicated, extremely time consuming, and extremely delicious. And no, I am not including the recipe, but here are a few photos to help you, dear reader, get the idea -

The Picky Eater touches meat
for the 2nd time in her life.

"Sewing" the chicken skin bag.

The completed chicken skin "bag."

Pulling the drawstring to close the stuffed chicken skin "bag." Good thing I know how to sew!

Dr. Hal boned out the bird the night before and I woke to the sight of my hardcore vegetarian daughter up to her ears in chicken meat. Being the very model of a thrifty neophyte French cook, she proceeded to make stock from the chicken bones, which in my hands would have gone straight into the trash!

With most of the day gone, we moved on to the rest of the meal- eggplant pizzas, wild rice mirepoix with mushroom duxelles, and a peach galette. The Picky Eater had made some yummy tomato sauce the previous week, which we pulled out for the eggplant pizzas. So all that was left for that course was to slice and salt the eggplant, grate the cheese, assemble the pizzas and bake them right before serving.

Here is the recipe From Julia Child's Kitchen, as always, it is almost excruciatingly precise - 

Tranches d'aubergine a l'italienne

Eggplant pizzas, a first course, or to serve with roasts, steaks, broiled fish

1 shiny, firm, fresh eggplant, long and thin if possible

1/2 tsp salt

Olive oil

Oregano, thyme, or rosemary

About 1/2 cup excellent tomato sauce, homemade if possible

About 1/2 cup coarsely grated cheese, such as a mixture of Mozzarella, cheddar, Swiss, Parmesan

How restful to be an eggplant salting!!

Shave off cap and bud ends of eggplant but do not peel; if eggplant is fat rather than long, cut it in half lengthwise. Slice into pieces about 1/2" think and 2 by 3 inches across. To remove excess moisture and puckery quality, sprinkle both sides of each slice with salt and arrange on a double thickness of paper toweling. Let drain 20-30 minutes, and when you are ready to continue, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pat the slices dry, and arrange in one layer on an oiled baking sheet. Paint tops with oil, sprinkle with a dusting of herbs, and cover with aluminum foil. Bake in the lower-middle level of oven 15-20 minutes, just until soft when pierced with a knife, but no so long that the slices become mushy and lose their shape. Spread each with a spoonful of tomato sauce, a sprinkling of cheese, and a dribble of oil.

Set aside until shortly before serving.

Then place in a moderately hot broiler to brown 2-3 minutes. Serve.

It was the wild rice mirepoix, or rather, the mincing of the vegetables and mushrooms for it, that gave the Picky Eater a real taste of what Julia is all about- sore something- back, feet, whatever part of your body is vulnerable to being vertical too long. The recipe was from The Way to Cook, and is more contemporary than her older books, but just as exacting.

The Picky Eater's plate- eggplant pizza & wild rice mirepoix.

At this point, all that was left to me was the Peach Galette. I must confess that we fudged a little here. the actual recipe was a variation of the Nectarine Galette from the Smitten Kitchen blog, which was based on an apricot recipe from Alice Waters. We loved it when I made it earlier in the summer, and it definitely had Julia somewhere in its lineage. Here's my adaptation of  the Smitten Kitchen recipe, and some photos of our galette - 

Peach Galette

Serves 8
Freeform galettes are great because they cut down on the stress attached to rolling out a circle of dough to fit a tart pan. Inevitably my circle is lopsided and I have to cut and paste the dough- an unpleasant process- to get it to fit.

Crust
I have enjoyed using this tart dough recipe from David Lebovitz. The egg adds richness without extra fat. For sweet tarts I add a couple of spoonfuls of sugar.

1 1/2 cups (210 g) flour
4 1/2 ounces (125 g) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
2-3 tablespoons cold water


Filling
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons amaretti, pulverized — or — 4 tablespoons ground almonds plus an 1 tablespoon sugar
One recipe of tart dough, rolled into a 14-inch circle and chilled
5-6 large peaches
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted


Make the crust: Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Briefly swirl to mix. Cut the butter into 1/2' cubes, and process with the flour for about 5-10 seconds, until the dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Beat the egg in a measuring cup with 2 tablespoons of ice water and pour down the processor spout while the motor is running just until the dough starts to gather around the blade. Add one more tablespoon of water if necessary, but you run the risk of making the dough too sticky. Shape the dough into a flat disc on a large piece of plastic wrap, wrap it up, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling out.

When you are ready to roll out the dough, take it out and let it soften slightly so that it is malleable but still cold. On a lightly floured piece of parchment, roll out the disk into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the dough (still on the parchment) to a  baking sheet and refrigerate at least 1/2 hour before using.

Make the galette: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a pizza stone, if you have one, on a lower rack. Toss the flour, one tablespoon of the sugar, and pulverized amaretti (or mix of extra ground almonds and sugar) together.

Remove the prerolled dough from the refrigerator or freezer and sprinkle the almond mixture evenly over the pastry, leaving a 1 1/2 to 2-inch border uncoated. Cut peaches in half, removing pits, then each half into thirds (you’ll get six wedges per peach). Arrange the fruit, skin-side-down, in concentric circles on the dough, making a single layer of snugly touching pieces, leaving the border bare. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the sugar and the remaining almond mixture evenly over the fruit.

While rotating the tart, fold the border of exposed dough up and over itself at regular intervals, crimping and pushing it up against the fruit. Pinch or trim off any excess dough. (Make sure there are no breaks that will let juices leak.) Brush the border with melted butter, and sprinkle it with two tablespoons sugar.

Bake in the lower third of the oven (preferably on a pizza stone) for about 45 to 50 minutes, until the crust is well browned and its edges are slightly caramelized. IAs soon as the galette is out of the oven, use a large metal spatula to slide it onto a cooling rack, to keep it from getting soggy. Let cool for 20 minutes.  Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream or with plain yogurt.

Do ahead: This galette keeps at room temperature for at least two days, and even longer in the fridge. The unbaked dough, wrapped in plastic, will keep in the freezer for a few weeks, the fridge for a day or more. Rolled-out dough may be frozen and used the next day.

Our work done we settled back to enjoy our repast. (Truth to tell, I was so whipped, that I partook of a brandy and soda, which is unheard of for me!) And, the Picky Eater now knew what cooking with Julia was like! The question is, will she ever do it again?

Along the Connecticut Shore

Knapps' lobster roll

We recently spent a long weekend attending the wedding of one of the Picky Eater's paternal cousins at the Connecticut shore. We will skip discussing the Picky Eater's usual food challenges when out of her element (suffice to say that we were glad that she stowed a bag of dried fruit & nuts in her carryon), and move right along to the main event- LOBSTER!!

After a quick visit to the Long Hill Cemetery in Trumball to pay our respects to a few ancestral graves, we headed off for our first lobster encounter.

The last fired full belly clam

We Californians are can almost never adequately indulge our taste for fresh lobster. Taking advantage of this year's lobster glut, we tried to pack in as much as possible over a 4 day stint. Friday lunch led off with lobster "rolls" on hamburger buns at
Knapps Landing Restaurant , sited on the Housatonic River in Stratford, CT. With an unshakable aversion to mayonnaise, my better half loved the Connecticut style butter drenched chunks of lobster on a grilled bun with a side of fries. I was sorry that we didn't order two starters of fried full belly clams, which were equally yummy!

The MOG enjoying her boiled lobster.

Our next lobster opportunity was at the rehearsal dinner that evening at the Clinton Country Club - in addition to a buffet that included steamed clams and mussels with drawn butter, each diner was served their own fair sized lobster. This was a crowd of dedicated dancers, who were out on the dance floor shaking it up in full lobster bib regalia.
Saturday lunch found me in the cafe at the back of a wonderful bookstore, R.J. Julia Booksellers, just off the Madison town green, slurping up some tasty lobster bisque.

Father, daughter, and Long Island Sound.

The bride and groom.

After a beautiful traditional late afternoon wedding ceremony at Christ Episcopal Church on Guilford green, we returned to our weekend wedding headquarters, the Madison Beach Hotel, for family photos, the reception, and lobster roll "sliders!"


At Sunday breakfast I was momentarily tempted by the Lobster Benedict, but after a weekend of intense eating, opted for eggs Benedict sans Hollandaise sauce instead.

Little did I know that that was my last lobster opportunity - our evening dining spot in Providence, RI, Mills Tavern, which was in all other respects fabulous, had not had their Sunday lobster delivery! So, lobster risotto was off the menu. We had to "make do" with these delicious starters -

Summer Melon Salad with Narragansett Feta and Duck Proscuitto, Blue-crusted Calamari, and Terrine of Roasted Summer Vegetables with Bruleed Mozzarella and Aged Balsamic Foam.

                                                                           

Our main courses were-
Champagne and Stone Fruit Braised Rabbit over Crimson Lentils and Sauteed Rainbow Chard,

Grilled Black Angus Short Rib Braised in Ale, and Wood-Roasted Asparagus with Lemon, Pecorino and Extra Virgin Olive Oil (the Picky Eater's idea of a main dish). 

For dessert she had Peach Shortcake with Peach Butter, Bourbon Caramel, and Cinnamon Creme Fraiche Ice Cream, and I enjoyed Orange Blossom Ricotta Cheesecake with

Bing Cherry Compote, and Apricot Sorbet.



Then it was back to the Airport Holiday Inn Express to some of the Olympics closing ceremony, a little sleep before the 4:30 am wake up call for the 6:30 flight, and into San Jose by 11 am. Unfortunately, we had been up since the equivalent of 1:30 am West coast time with nothing to eat but Southwest Airlines cookies!

Knapps Landing Restaurant
520 Sniffens Lane
Stratford, CT
203.378.5999

R.J. Julia Booksellers
768 Boston Post Road
Madison, CT
203-245-3959

Mills Tavern
101 North Main Street
Providence, RI
401.272.3331