Sunday, March 21, 2010 Healing Food

Mum has been down with pneumonia for the past 10 days or so.  The poor dear ended up in the hospital for a few days.  Everyone knows what a dangerous place the hospital is for the elderly.  We were so relieved when she was released to go home. 

Her appetite is nil, except for dessert of course.  So she’s been having fruits and other sweets.  I say calories are calories when you’re sick, so have whatever you can get down.  For this past Sunday, I decided to make my Healing Stew for her.  It is a french stew packed with nutritious vegetables, fresh herbs, white beans and chicken, all braised in white wine and chicken stock.  Sometimes I make it with lamb and it is divine.  I like to serve it over wide, buttered egg noodles for a soothing comfort food feel.

Chicken Stew Packed with Vegetables and Fresh Herbs over Buttered Extra Wide Egg Noodles

David and I took it to Mum’s apartment and we all dined there.  Mum sort of squinched up her nose at it, had one tiny little bite and declared she couldn’t eat another thing.  David and I finished our meals and then I served the Blue Bell mint chocolate chip ice cream.  Mum’s appetite returned!  She enjoyed her ice cream and we enjoyed her.

Friday, March 12, 2010 Tati’s Cocktail Party

Tati Enjoying a Peach Sangria

I hosted an all girls cocktail party/wedding shower for my friend Tatiana on Friday night.  She has found her true love and we couldn’t be happier for her.  Her knight in shining armour is Juan Manuel, a handsome Spaniard who works in the tennis business.  He is crazy about Tati (who wouldn’t be?) and she is crazy about him.  He is taking her to Spain with him where they will be married and live.  They will live in a beautiful seaside town in south-east Spain.  

Since she being whisked off to Spain, I thought I would give her a “tapas” party.  Tapas means “small bites” in Spanish.  I searched for tapas recipes and came up with the following menu:  

• White Peach Sangria
• Peach Spritzers (no alcohol)
• Titaina (warm tomato relish with tuna)
• Empanadas, beef & pork and shrimp
• Tortilla Espanola (Spanish Frittata)
• Calamari
• Cheese and Fig Tray   
• Olive Tray
• Flan

Five Varieties of Olives

Spanish Cheeses with Crackers Figs and Fig Jam

Warm Tomato and Tuna Relish

Tortilla Espanola with Potato and Ham

Creamy Sweet Flan

Sunday, March 7, 2010 – Julia’s Pot Roast

I received Julia Child’s “Mastering The Art Of French Cooking” for Christmas from my darling husband.  I’ve been savoring all the wonderful recipes, but this is the first time I have tried to make one.

Boeuf Braisee with Oignons Glaces a Brun (brown braised onions) and Carottes EtuVees au Beurre (carrots braised in butter)

Just look at the picture, I should say no more and just sign off, right?

I made Julia’s pot roast, “Piece de Boeuf Braisee” (beef braised in red wine) tonight and it was so good I almost cried.  Preparing, serving and eating this meal made me feel like everything else I cook is unimportant.  This recipe is so perfect I can’t see why I would prepare a chuck roast any other way.  Honestly, I feel so small after eating this.  I don’t think I have ever tasted anything so delicious.

With her recipe for pot roast, Julia recommends a few side dishes.  I chose the carrots braised in butter, “Carottes Etuvees au Beurre” and the onions, brown-braised in stock, “Oignons Glaces a Brun”.  At her suggestion, I also prepared buttered noodles for which no recipe was needed.

The beef just fell apart when a fork was put to it.  It melted in our mouths with all its depth and layers of flavors.  After marinating in red wine, garlic, onions, carrots and celery, the meat was dried and seared in pork fat before adding back the marinade.  The marinade was quickly cooked down and beef stock was added along with a veal knuckle, a calf’s foot and a pork rind.  Ok, I couldn’t find any of those things at the grocery store, so I settled for a thin slice of veal shank, a beef marrow bone and I skipped the pork rind.  Adding these elements to the braising pot added the depth and complexity that contributed to the success of this dish.

The onions were gorgeous to look at and had the flavors of caramelized onions, but with more complexity and a wonderful firmness due to the pearl variety used.  I used frozen pearl onions that I thawed, drained and dried thoroughly.  That way, no par-boiling and no peeling required.  The carrots?  You can see them, right?  They are all glossy and aromatic but not too sweet.  They were boiled in water, sugar, butter and a dash of white wine.  They were perfect.

It was nice that I could make the vegetables while the meat was in the oven.  Julia says when they are finished, turn the burners off and let them sit until you are ready for them.  Reheat them gently and serve.  That was very convenient for a meal made for company.  When the meat was done, I pulled it out and covered it, loosely with tin foil and let it rest.  I removed the veal and marrow bones and set them aside (for my doggie, Ginger).  I strained all the vegetables out of the braising liquid and discarded them.  They aren’t good for anything, honestly, trust me.  They have served their magnificent purpose.  I strained out all the fat using a fat strainer and returned the remaining elixir to the braising pan.  I added a little Madeira wine and cooked the liquid down to a nice glazing consistency.  I added a tablespoon of butter to the sauce and it was ready for its debut.

The meat sliced easily.  It didn’t shred or break apart.  I plated it along with the onions, carrots and noodles and drizzled a little of the sauce on the noodles and the meat.  I don’t mean to go on so, but we were all bowled over by this meal.

Couldn't Finish Her Dessert

Mum enjoyed it so much, she couldn’t finish her dessert.  That is the first time that has ever happened!  I mean it, for you regular readers, you know she likes a little bit of dinner and lots of dessert.  But this time, she ate enough of Julia’s pot roast as to not be able to finish her dessert.  We had to photograph the evidence.  It’s hiding behind her glass.  I had made panna cotta with strawberry sauce.  She loves creamy desserts and she loves strawberries, but she couldn’t quite finish it.  If you read my story about her on the “About” page, you will see that my goal is always to get her to eat a little more than she had planned on.  I think I succeeded with this meal.

Sunday, February 28, 2010 – Crab Cakes

Oh my goodness, have I cooked enough this week to start sagging at the knees?  Hell no!  This is what I love to do.  This is what I would be doing if I had two broken legs and couldn’t raise my right hand and swear on the bible!

Carl and Razan

Tonight, my very dear friend Rozana and her adorable husband Carl came to dinner.  I refer to Rozana as “The Swiss Miss”, because she is from Switzerland, but mostly because I have two dear friends named Rosan and my other friends get confused about it.  She is so beautiful, inside and out.  She somehow touched my heart from the first moment I met her.  I love her to pieces.  Her husband is practically a native Floridian, a very rare thing.  He moved here when he was a child.  But the wonder is, he is from Michigan before Florida, just like me.  He is very smart and scientific and he loves food and he loves eating and he loves Rozana. 

The four of us had been planning on going to the opera in Palm Beach this afternoon and coming back here for dinner afterwards. Rozan loves the opera.  For me, I don’t know anything about the opera, but I was crazy about the idea of being able to say, “Ah yes, dahling, I saw that opera in Palm Beach a while back”.  Ha!  I thought it all sounded quite exhilarating!  Unfortunately, the tickets to the show were not to our satisfaction and we were unable to come up with another arty plan for the day.  So, I suggested we still plan on dinner at our place.  Oh, more pressure, fine dining without the opera, please don’t make me sing or paint or something else during dinner.

Crab Cakes with Lemon and Dill

Mixed Roast of Fingerling Potatoes, Green Beans, Cherry Tomatoes and Fresh Herbs

It all turned out to be a lovely evening.  I decided on crab cakes for dinner.  We’ve been having such wintry weather here in Florida and when I want to feel summery, I say, fix a summery meal.  So crab cakes seemed ideal.  When I fix crab cakes, I like to serve other summery inspired dishes, like; fresh tomatoes and red skin potatoes and green beans and absolutely fresh corn.  In Florida, let me tell you, there will never be good fresh tomatoes and there will never be good fresh corn.  So, my answer  to no fresh corn is to make corn pudding.  It is a great substitution.  It’s steamy and buttery and sweet and creamy with a crisp bite.  As for the lack of tasty tomatoes, I like to mix cherry tomatoes in with small red skin potatoes and roast them in the oven with olive oil and herbs. 

For the dinner tonight, I added fresh green beans and rosemary from my garden.  So we had; crab cakes, corn pudding and a mixed roast of fingerling red skin potatoes, cherry tomatoes, green beans, with olive oil and fresh rosemary.  ‘MMMM ‘MMMM good!  The whole meal felt like sunshine and warm weather.

You are not going to believe this, but I actually made dessert.  I made a pie!  I made a peach pie!  Ok, well, I bought the crust.  My mother is turning in her grave.  She was the best pie crust maker on earth.  I have her recipe.  I’ve tried it.  My sister, Paula can make it turn out.  I think I’m hexed when in comes to pie crust.  I think my grandmother sneaks in my kitchen and ruins the pie crust for me.  Just kidding, grandma, I’m just not good at dessert.  I will learn to do it one day, maybe.  I topped the peach pie with whipped cream that I had whipped a little peach jam into.  Can you stand it?  Peachy whipped cream on top of peach pie?  It was really good!  Try it the next time you are serving a fruit pie.  Whip a little matching fruit jam into your whipped cream topping.  Wowee!

Saturday, February 27, 2010 – Tuscan Chicken Stew

The kids were supposed to leave early this morning, but the flight was canceled due to the nasty snowy weather in the northeast.   What luck!  Originally, everyone had wanted the stay to be longer, but the flights on Sunday were not affordable.  I called the airline and, more good luck, they had a DIRECT flight available on Sunday leaving at noon.  Yeah!!  It was a boon for all of us.

Tuscan Chicken Stew with White Beans and Vegetables

Meanwhile more cool air blew into our Florida world today and after our extra long day yesterday, and the change of travel plans for the kids, I was feeling like some COMFORT FOOD, baby!  Hmmmm, what to fix, what to fix?  My favorite go-to elegant comfort food dish is Tuscany Stew.  Basically, it’s a stew with any meat, braised with a vegetable medley that includes; onions, garlic, celery, carrots and mushrooms.  It is braised with lots of herbs, white wine and white cannellini beans.  For the starch, you can be creative and choose from potatoes, dumplings, barley, rice, noodles, pasta or gnocchi.

My favorite version of this stew is made with lamb, but since we just had lamb last night I decided to try it with chicken.  I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs, which turned out great.  The next time I might try bone-in thighs for more flavor.  I opted for gnocchi for the starch. Gnocchi is an Italian dumpling made mostly from potatoes.  It is readily available in grocery stores.  Now, this starch choice should only be made occasionally.  You saute gnocchi in brown butter before you add it to any soup or stew.  So, you can see, right?  You only use gnocchi in your Tuscan Stew when you are in serious need of serious COMFORT FOOD.