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Sunday, June 26, 2005 -- Twelve Small Plates

I wanted to get back to the pleasure of cooking rather than the work of cooking – which, for me, is cooking for people I care about; cooking for people who enjoy food; cooking old favorites that I know are good; and trying out new things with adventurous yet honest souls who will give their frank opinions. Hence, Friday night, Pat came over for dinner along with my friends Robin (a nurse I worked with at the northeast mental health clinic) and her partner Monica (a lawyer with the Environmental Protection Agency.)

Dinner was a series of twelve small plates – each plated sequentially, then served, then sampled, then commented upon before assembling the next one to be plated, served, sampled and commented upon as we sat around our small kitchen table. Most of the dishes were prepared ahead of time, just requiring plating, but a few required last minute cooking. Each dish was small consisting of a couple of bites. It was a slow and convivial process and I think we all had a great time with great company. Here’s then menu:

• Smashed Radishes – a simple Chinese dish that Steve discovered that involves smashing radishes with a cleaver (splitting them open but not breaking in two) and marinating them in soy sauce, peanut oil, rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt. It’s a delightful little hors-deuvres. We served these on individual asian soup spoons.
  
  
• Smoked salmon mousse on red pepper squares (or triangles, or trapezoids)
  
  
• Ahi cigarillos (A new adventure for us. This is a sushi or sashimi type thing. (I’m not sure of the difference between sushi and sashimi – does anyone know this?) Anyway, it involved using Nori sheets which are dried seaweed sheets that turned out to be a very fun thing to work with and I plan to play around with some more. You cut little squares of this, what looks to be, a thin brittle green sheet – maybe 4 inches by 4 inches. Lay some sticky rice seasoned with rice vinegar, mirin, sugar, pickled ginger, and wasabi paste along one end. Lay some diced sashimi-grade tuna on top of the rice. Roll it up (surprisingly flexible) into a small cigarillo type shape. Serve dipped in a sauce of soy or tamari sauce, chopped ginger, hoisin sauce, plum sauce, honey and lime juice.
  
  
• Sugar snap peas tossed with a little balsamic vinegar, sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds
  
  
• Chinese noodle salad with fresh herbs served rolled up on separate forks on small plates
  
  
• Grilled garlic tops served with individual roasted garlic flans
  
  
• Halibut cheeks with Moroccan spices in individual parchment envelopes
  
  
• Chard Two Ways: Chard greens sautéed with garlic and currants; then chard stems in a gratin with gruyere cheese. Each little small servings served side by side.
  
  
• Spiced pork meatballs with guacamole
  
  
• Curried chicken rolled in toasted coconut
  
  
• Lychee Granita with sliced Kiwi
  
  
• Chocolate dipped Bing cherries

When I showed Steve the recipe for the curried chicken in toasted coconut, he raised his eyebrows expressing some doubt in the use of coconut. They turned out to be a quite delightful, retro-style small-bite kind of thing that is rather unusual these days. So I share that recipe below.

The two small desserts were highly raved about and I offer those recipes below as well. I have seen chocolate dipped strawberries before, but had never tried to make them. The key, I think, is really good chocolate. I used Scharffen Berger Semisweet chocolate and I liked this with the bing cherries. For the granita, I bought the Lychee fruit on impulse at the Asian market just because they looked so weird. They have a sweet herby flavor that worked well with the icy granita. You see recipes for this type of granita with all kinds of fruit. The only change I made was using quite a bit less sugar than is typically called for which I thought worked out great.

So, just a sideline, yesterday afternoon, my neighbor Shirley calls me and says "I picked up some Oregon strawberries at a stand and can you meet me at the back fence because I have too much." So I meet her and accept a couple of cartons on the condition that I make something of them for her and Frank. (We are always negotiating this or that.) So this morning, I picked out the best of the strawberries and dipped them in melted chocolate. They are now resting in the fridge. And I took the rest of them and made a strawberry granita that is now in our freezer freezing up. And later today, I plan to deliver some shaved icy strawberry granita in martini glasses topped with chocolate dipped strawberries to our friends next door.

Curried Chicken Rolled in Toasted Coconut

• 2 cups chicken stock
• 8 ounces boneless chicken (I used thigh, the recipe called for breast)
• 3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 Tbs mayonnaise
• 2 Tbs minced onion
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 cup lightly toasted walnuts, chopped medium fine
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup shreedded sweetened coconut, toasted on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for 5-7 minutes until golden (You have to watch this closely, stirring frequently and rearranging them.)

1. Put the stock and chicken in a small saucepan and simmer until done. Cool and chop medium fine
2. In a bowl, beat the cream cheese with the mayonnaise until smooth. Add the chicken, onion, curry, walnuts and salt; mix together gently. You can refrigerate for a couple of hours here (which, allegedly make them easier to roll) or just precede with making balls like I did which I then refrigerated.
3. Roll balls into about ¾ inch size. Roll them on toasted coconut creating a layer. Serve within an hour so coconut will stay crunchy.

Any-Type Fruit Granita

• 1 cup water
• ¼ cup sugar
• a little lemon juice
• About 2 cps fruit

1. Boil the water and sugar until dissolved, then add lemon juice and cool
2. Puree fruit. In the case of lychees, I then pushed the pureed fruit through a sieve to get rid of tough little pieces. In the case of strawberries, which, I admit, I have not yet tried the end product, I just used straight from the blender.
3. Mix fruit with syrup. Pour into shallow ceramic dish. Freeze. Every 30 minutes or so, take a spatula and mix it up separating into sugar crystals. Takes 2-3 hours.
4. Serve slivered ice crystals topped with nothing or a leaf of mint or a slice of fruit.

Bing Cherries or Other Fruit dipped in Chocolate

• Good semisweet chocolate
• Cherries or other fruit, washed and allowed to dry. Leave the stems on the cherries and the leaves on the strawberries to allow for easier dipping

1. Melt chocolate over a double boiler or bowl placed over a pan of simmering water.
2. Stir carefully, not letting it burned.
3. Let cool a little bit.
4. Dip fruit in molten chocolate up to about ¾ of the fruit. Lay out on a baking sheet covered with waxed paper. Freeze until just firm then transfer to the refrigerator.

Eat well and enjoy the small things!

Saturday, July 30, 2005 -- A Moveable Feast

They converged upon Cashiers – a surprisingly homogenous collection of mini-vans along with a few extended-cab pick-up trucks spicing up the mix. The event: the annual Young Family Reunion (a.k.a. "The Hayseeds" for reasons that have eluded me.) This year, the Youngs, and their various related sorts, arrived with the great joy that Ruth and Bob (Mom & Dad Young) had, indeed, decided that they were able to join the group after all. And, despite our great numbers and loud clamor, the Sapphire Management staff, displaying their typical "adroit skills" and "superior judgment", STILL wouldn’t let us in before 4:00 p.m. even though their lives would have been a lot easier if they had.

After the usual controlled chaos and parking lot hugs-and-kisses of the first night, and after the delayed arrival of the Diana-Dennis-Pat group the next morning, there followed a week's worth of a jumble of activities and great evening feasts - delivered to moving locations with a moving selection of large bowls. I’d have to say that, this year, this great group of cooks outdid themselves. The food was simply great! These are some of my memories:

• Fried Florida Ocean Fish – not once but TWICE – that was caught and expertly prepared by Paul.
• Grilled Pineapple with Nutella and Hazelnuts – a cunningly delicious combo done by Cathy (and we like seeing these hazelnut products because Oregon is the largest producer of hazelnuts in the U.S.)
• Chocolate covered cherries by Pat (take notice that she carried the chocolate all the way from Oregon for her first rendition of these delectable tidbits. This took some foresight for an otherwise very busy woman.) As well as a wonderful basmati rice salad (thanks, Susan, for that rice) with crunchy vegetables, goat cheese and spices.
• Local warm potatoes with mountain butter and parsley done by Margie. Perfect – Simple- Local – Scrumptious.
• A pillow-ey Peach Cobbler (with blueberries?) done by Diana. (At my first look at this, I asked, "Can I lay my head down on this?" Later, I knew, it was better to eat it.)
• Fresh green salads and flavored turkey breasts by Susan – who has a better head about nutrition than many of us.
• And I was also happy with the tropical fruit salsa (using the mango and papaya from Mom & Dad’s garden); the heirloom tomato salsa (the two salsas accompanied the fried fish tacos); as well as the Asian rice noodle salad with caramelized pork that emerged from our house.

There are many more memories, including the non-food related ones, I could speak to. Of course, the annual sing-alongs are a standout as well as Lexi’s dance performance. Alas, there was no gorilla this year.

This year was a rainy year for North Carolina - which made a difference in the local flora as well as available local produce. The wild rhododendrons were all abloom – something not usually seen during this week of the year. At the farmer’s market, ears of corn were expensive - assumably because they were in short supply. Much of the produce at the market was from South Carolina or other surrounding states.

But, one could still find the fresh butter beans and field peas that I always greet with great anticipation. Plus big, heavy, heirloom tomatoes – that we await the arrival of in our own garden. And, not-to-forget, the packets of country ham that can be chopped up, sautéed, and added to "just about anything" to make it better. (Do you know that the Ingles Market has, in fact, a "Country Ham Center" where you can find just about any size and cut of country ham? You can’t find country ham like this in a supermarket out here.)

This year, one’s food purchasing options were expanded by the addition of a little cheese and "small bites" store in Cashiers offering an extraordinary array of cheeses and other items. Pat’s great rice salad included a goat’s cheese from there. I also visited, for the first time, the book store at the Ingles shopping center which has a small but well-selected collection of cookbooks including one by Portland author Diane Morgan titled Salmon. For those of you fond of salmon, this is a very well researched and creative addition to your cookbook collection.

The week drew to a close and the convoys started trundling out of the parking lot with the repeated controlled chaos and parking lot hugs-and-kisses. Along with our more ephemeral memories, Steve and I carried back with us some concrete renditions of our North Carolina experience. Nestled in our carry-ons, that we carefully ferried, were the remains of the "Carolina Rainbow Trout Caviar" on an ice-pack (that had been one of the evening hors-deuvres offerings); a hefty just-ripe mango from Dad; two huge plump mottled-red heirloom tomatoes from the market; a packet of savory country ham pieces; and a container each of fresh butter beans and field peas.

On Sunday morning after our arrival home, we eagerly ventured out into our vegetable garden to view the progress. We gathered the last of the sugar snap peas – some of which were so big that the peas had to be de-podded for eating; the first green beans; and the first cherry tomatoes. We are, once again, awash in greens – turnip greens with baby turnips, swiss chard, kale, and collards. Steve, once again, makes his annual urgent announcement, "We must eat greens!"

And this week, we have had a melded variety of meals that have included both our special "carry-on’s" from North Carolina and our local bounty. We enjoyed Carolina Trout Caviar on egg salad and crackers while watching a movie; a pea, carolina butter bean, sugar snap pea, green bean, cherry tomato and country ham risotto for dinner; Bugulama – a Turkish steamed dish that included our turnip greens, Carolina field peas, and bulgur along with spices; several meals with sliced heirloom tomatoes with mayonnaise; and, with Dad's gift of a mango, Steve prepared a spicy chicken, avocado and florida mango salad served with pita bread. This latter recipe, from June, 2004 Food and Wine magazine, I offer below. If you have the privilege of having a mango from Mom & Dad (or elsewhere), this is a good use of it for a main dish salad. Take note that, according to Steve, this recipe produces about twice the dressing that you actually need. We used the remainder on some sautéed greens in a subsequent meal. Or you can half the dressing recipe if you prefer.

Remember to eat well, and enjoy the small things.

Spicy Chicken, Avocado and Mango Salad

(Serves 4)

• 3 Tbs light brown sugar
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup plus 2 Tbs fresh lime juice
• 1 Tbs chili-garlic sauce (available in Asian sections of supermarkets)
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• salt and pepper
• One 3 lb roast chicken, skin removed, meat shredded (3 cups) (He used a whole roasted chicken from the supermarket that he deboned.)
• 1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into ½ inch chunks
• 1 ripe Hass avocado, peeled and cut into ½ inch chunks
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• 5 ounces or 6 cups mesclun

In a small saucepan, bring the brown sugar and water to a boil. Transfer to a large bowl. Whisk in the lime juice and chili-garlic sauce; let cool. Whisk in the oil and season with salt and pepper. Add the chicken, mango, avocado and scallions and toss thoroughly with the dressing. Add the mesclun and gently toss.

Friday, October 14, 2005 -- The Mayonnaise Challenge

It’s been a long spell of no “food-doing” entries, but fall has arrived and it’s time to begin again. Let me catch you up on some of the going-ons in our neck of the woods since I last wrote.

Our garden flourished with delicate salad greens, heartier greens, green cucumbers, and green beans. It’s a wonder that we haven’t turned green! I don’t think we have purchased a green vegetable at the store for more than four months, at least, up until recently (more on that later.) Plus we had a good harvest of potatoes, tomatoes and garlic as well. Of course, having all these fresh vegetables was wonderful. But, on the other hand, you do get tied to a certain number of limited ingredients to plan your menus around. We have now tried turnip greens, Swiss chard, kale, and collard greens in innumerable ways across a variety of cuisines. And have been quite inventive with green beans as well. It’s a little tougher to get inventive with cucumbers – although, I was able to come up with some creations later in the season (more on THAT later as well.)

We’ve cooked for a couple of social events as well. This year, along with our friend Joanne Fuller, we sponsored our first “Portland Marathoff” – which, I believe, will become an annual affair. Here’s the background on that. Jo and I have walked the Portland Marathon four times, the last one being 2004. It takes us about six hours. We like the fact that it provides us with a goal to train for. The T-shirts are cool. And, last year, we returned to a fabulous champagne brunch prepared by Steve which we also liked a whole lot. But last year, what we did emphatically determine, was that walking six hours gets REALLY boring and adequately training for walking those six hours is very time-consuming. Hence, the idea for our very own Portland Marathoff was devised.

We thought, why don’t we invite a bunch of people we know over (along with their kids) and people can walk, bike, roller-blade, run or whatever - any distance they want to go (or not) - and then have a champagne brunch after all that. We put together maps for one-hour, two-hour, and three-hour walks that people could use if they chose. JO and I, in the meantime, resolved to train for and do a three-hour walk. Steve designed T-shirts that, unless you look closely, look a lot like the Portland Marathon tee-shirts, and we had these made up. It was all great fun.

We duplicated the menu for last year’s brunch which included broiled open-faced Black Forest ham sandwiches with cheddar cheese, Julia Child’s “American-Style Potato Salad,” and watermelon slices. This potato salad recipe calls for homemade mayonnaise, which I had successfully made before perhaps a half dozen times. Unfortunately, the last time I had attempted mayonnaise, I failed miserably. And, without properly researching it at the time, I ended up throwing away SIX cups of un-emulsified oil and egg mixture. Now that was THREE back-to-back attempts at mayonnaise with TWO cups of oil apiece that FAILED one after another. Needless to say, this experience put a dent in my confidence.

So I did a little more research before trying this time. Both Julia Child and Jacques Pepin offer remedies for fixing “broken” mayonnaise in their cookbook Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home – (a great book, by the way.) Their remedies vary slightly, but, both assure the reader that this can, in fact, be done and, seemingly, easily. In fact, Julia writes, “To build your confidence, I actually suggest that you let it happen to you [my italics and underline] – halfway through the new sauce you are making....then go to work reconstituting it, and you will feel a sense of mastery. You will never be afraid of a big bad mayonnaise sauce again.” Hah!

Well, I thought I could just as well skip that part about “letting it happen to you” but I did decide to try only ONE cup at a time JUST IN CASE. (Read this as “you idiot!”) I needed a total of four cups. I assembled my ingredients and off I went. Everything at room temperature. A slow approach, using the electric blender. I started with confidence. I finished slowly dribbling the oil in for the first batch and eagerly opened the top of the blender. It was total liquid. So, with trepidation, I followed their directions for fixing a broken mayonnaise. Amazingly, it worked. On to my next batch. I altered my technique a little. Eagerly opened the top of the blender...well, not only did this second batch fail to emulsify, so did my third batch and my fourth batch. So, I ended this experience with serious qualms about making mayonnaise (at least, on the first go-through) but SUPREME CONFIDENCE about fixing a broken mayonnaise cuz I successfully fixed every one of those suckers. So I will make mayonnaise again, although I might have to do it twice. (Actually, I have concluded, at least hypothetically, that the problem is with our blender - but that will have to wait for the next big mayonnaise experiment.)

I’ll write about our second social occasion on my next entry. I’m including below the recipes for Julia Child’s “American-Style Potato Salad,” Steve’s own rendition of “Drunken Noodles with Chicken and Green Beans,” a wonderful “Roasted Green Beans with Red Onions,” plus directions for fixing broken mayonnaise. All three of these recipes get high ratings around here. And if you want to get a sense of mayonnaise mastery, go let a “bad mayonnaise” happen to you and follow the directions for fixing it.

In the meantime, autumn is in the air and the leaves are turning color. Pretty soon, the leaves will begin to fall. In our neighborhood, there are so many trees that, in the pre-dawn hours, you can venture outside and all you hear is the sound of leaves dropping. It’s serene.

Eat well and enjoy the small stuff.

Julia Child’s American-Style Potato Salad
Yield: About 6 cups, serving 4-6

• 2 LB Yukon Gold potatoes, or other waxy, boiling potatoes
• 2 Tbs. Cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup chicken stock or potato cooking water
• 2/3 cup finely chopped onion
• ½ cup finely chopped celery
• 3 or 4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
• 2-3 Tbs finely chopped dill pickle
• 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped roughly
• 3 Tbs or so finely chopped chives or scallions, including a bit of their tender green
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup or so mayonnaise, homemade if possible

Peel the potatoes and slice each one lengthwise in half, or in quarters if very large; then cut crosswise into half-round or quarter-round slices, about ½ inch thick.

Put the slices in a sauce pan with water just to cover and 1 ½ tsp sat per quart of water. Heat to a simmer and cook the potatoes for 5-6 minutes, or until just cooked through. It is essential that they be just cooked through. Bite into a slice or two to be very sure. [Note: we were using fresh potatoes from our garden and they were done in four minutes.] Remove from heat and drain potatoes into a colander, saving a cup of the cooking liquid for dressing the potatoes. Transfer the potatoes to a large bowl. Stir the cider vinegar with 1/3 cup of the potato water or chicken stock and drizzle this over the potato pieces, turning them gently to distribute it evenly. Let sit 10 minutes to absorb the liquid.

Add the prepared onion, celery, bacon, pickle, hard-boiled eggs, and chives, and season carefully to taste. Top with 2/3 cup mayonnaise and, with a large rubber spatula, gently fold everything together until well blended. Taste the salad and add more salt, pepper or mayonnaise as needed.

Cover the salad and set aside in the refrigerator for at least an hour or so before serving. If it is refrigerated longer, let it come back to room temperature before serving. Taste and adjust the seasoning again.

Steve’s Drunken Noodles with Chicken and Green Beans

• 1 14- or 16-oz package of wide dry rice noodles
• 1 lb. boneless chicken (we prefer thighs), cut into ¼” slices and marinated with a few shakes of fish sauce
• 5 Tbsp vegetable oil, preferably peanut oil.
• 3/4lb green beans, cut into 1” pieces (you could also use red or green pepper, peas, snow or sugar peas, bok choy, or whatever you have handy that you think might work)
• 1 Tbsp chopped garlic
• 4 Thai chilies, finely chopped (don’t worry about the seeds). If you can’t find Thai chilies, you can substitute another hot pepper, such as serrano, and use an amount that will make things quite hot – at least 2 serranos.
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 6 Tbsp water
• An entire package of fresh basil, thai or holy basil preferred, but Italian basil will also work. The more leaves the better – as many as 40 – torn into large pieces.
• (Optional) a handful of cherry tomatoes halved, or a medium tomato cut into 8 or so wedges
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 2 Tbsp water

Soak the rice noodles in cold water for approximately 1 hour. When you get ready to assemble the dish, have another pot of boiling water available for cooking the noodles.
Combine the soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, oyster sauce, and the 6T of water and stir to dissolve sugar.

Using wok or large frying pan, heat 2 T of oil over high heat. Stir fry the chicken until barely done (no pink). Using slotted spoon, remove chicken and reserve.

Add the remaining oil to the wok. When hot, add the garlic and chili and stir fry briefly until you smell the garlic cooking (30 seconds or less)

Add the soy sauce mixture and the green beans, cover the pan, and reduce heat and simmer until the beans are just cooked through (five minutes or less). Remove cover.

Dissolve cornstarch and 1tsp water, and add to wok. Simmer for 1 minute until sauce thickens slightly. Remove wok from heat or keep on very low just to keep things warm.

Remove noodles from cold water and add to boiling water. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes. (The water doesn’t have to return to a boil, just don’t keep the noodles in the hot water for more than 3 minutes). Drain quickly and add hot noodles to wok.

Add chicken, basil, and optional tomato to wok and incorporate all ingredients together so all noodles are covered with sauce.

Roasted Green Beans with Red Onions
From Cook’s Illustrated, 11/05
Yield: 4 Servings

• 1 LB green beans, stem ends snapped off
• ½ medium red onion, cut into ½ inch wedges
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves
• 2 medium thin-sliced garlic cloves
• 1/3 cup toasted chopped walnuts (optional)

Adjust oven rack to middle position, heat to 450 degrees

Combine vinegar, honey, thyme and garlic in small bowl; set aside.

Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil; spread beans and red onions on baking sheet; spread beans on baking sheet. Drizzle with oil; using hands, toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle with salt, toss to coat, and distribute in even layer. Roast 10 minutes.

Remove baking sheet from oven. Drizzle vinegar-honey mixture over beans and onions and stir to coat evenly.

Redistribute evenly on sheet and continue roasting until onions and beans are dark golden brown in spots and beans started to shrivel, 10-12 minutes longer.

Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Transfer to serving dish and, optionally, sprinkle toasted walnuts on top.

Julia Child’s “Bringing Back the Mayo”

When your homemade mayo refuses to become Mayo-like, it becomes what is officially known as a “turned” sauce. Pull out your handheld electric beater. Whisk up all of the turned sauce to blend it well. Then put a Tbs of it in a second bowl along with ½ Tbs Dijon mustard. Start beating it until creamed and thickened with the electric beater, maybe 10-15 seconds. Add another tsp of the turned sauce and mix that in until it is absorbed and thickened. Keep adding teaspoon by teaspoon, beating between each one until it is absorbed. Once you get a good ½ cup sauce, you can start adding the rest of the sauce faster. Bingo, bango, bongo!

Wednesday, October 19, 2005 -- Jelling Out

As promised, let me describe the second significant social event we've been involved with over the last few months. This one was a real humdinger! Here's the background. My friend Shelley is a psychologist and a long term member of my bridge foursome. This is a tight-knit group of women who have supported and played cards with each other for more than a decade of life events. (Talking does tend to compete with the bridge-playing.)

Shelley is married to Jiggs - a social worker and one of the nicest guys I know. They are aligned with a whole group of artistic, creative, energetic people - most of whom Steve and I don't typically socialize with, but we know some of them peripherally. Jiggs turned fifty this year and he chose, for the event, to have a formal sit-down dinner for a core group of friends. He wanted a dinner that, in his words, "would last a long time" with "wines to match each course." So I offered to cater this event, and off we went.

First came the menu planning. This was to be a multi-course event for 25 people. With menu in hand, our wine guy, Bruce, and friend, Joanne, helped Shelley & Jiggs with the wine selections to match each course. Jiggs and Shelley hired one person to help Steve and me in the kitchen. The event started across the street from Shelley & Jiggs' at a friend's house for the stand-up cocktail party with hors d'oeuvres. Shelley & Jiggs' kids, along with some of their friends, were the servers for this part of the event. They circulated with little trays explaining the choices (and succeeded in eating a fair amount themselves.) They were really great, - taking to their server roles with enthusiasm. Then the group traipsed across the street to Shelley & Jiggs', who had removed all the furniture in their living room and dining room and replaced them with rented tables gloriously decorated and lighted. We proceeded to serve the courses along with the wines. Jiggs was thoroughly and deservedly honored throughout the event with various presentations. We recovered creatively and successfully from various minor kitchen mishaps and, in the end, it was a success. Steve & I left at 12:30, exhausted, done with all the courses. I heard the party went on to about 3 a.m. This was the menu we finally served.

Jiggs' 50th Birthday Bash
October 8, 2005

Hors d'Oeuvres: Roquefort Grapes
Tarragon Chicken Salad on Toasted
Walnut Bread
Almond Stuffed Dates with Bacon
Parmesan Walnut Salad on Endive Leaves
Baked Cheddar Olives
Foamed Yellow Cheese on Crispy Diskettes
DRINK PAIRING: 1999 ARGYLE BRUT

First Course: Green Herbed Gazpacho
DRINK PAIRING: 2004 J. CHRISTOPHER RIESLING

Second Course: Trenette with Pesto di Basilico
DRINK PAIRING: 2004 GIOVANNI PUIATTI PINOT GRIS

Third Course: Neo-MidCentury Cucumber "Jello" with Gin-Cured
Wild Salmon Gravlax
DRINK PAIRING: 2004 COMMANDERIE DE LA BARGEMON ROSE'

Break - Move around, do whatever

Fourth Course: Tuscan-Style Pork Roast
Mashed Potato Cake stuffed with Sautéed Wild
Mushrooms
Roasted Green Beans with Red Onions
DRINK PAIRING: 2002 WESTREY WINE CO. PINOT NOIR "WILLAMETTE VALLEY"
2002 SOLARIA ROSSO DI MONTALCINO

Fifth Course: Heirloom Tomato Tart with Olive Tapanade, Mixed
Field Greens and Balsamic Vinaigrette
DRINK PAIRING: 2003 ANDRE BRUNEL COTES DU RHONE VILLAGES "CUVEE SABRINE"

Sixth Course: Lemon Sorbet with Lime Zest Sugar Cookies
Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate Sambucca Cookies
DRINK PAIRING: 2004 VIETTI MOSCATO D'ASTI

Last Course: A Medley of Cheeses
DRINK PAIRING: 1998 DOW "LATE BOTTLED VINTAGE" PORT

The "Foamed Yellow Cheese on Crispy Diskettes" was actually Cheese Whiz on Ritz crackers - an intended humorous reference to fifties-era cuisine. As was the "Neo-midcentury Cucumber Jello" - although, according to the food magazines, creative "jello" is all the rage these days among self-professed "foodies."

Now, typically, when I have friends for dinner, I often choose to prepare something I have never done before. It gives me the opportunity to try something new, and we don't have people over who would actually care if the dinner was not perfect. It's more about being together and having fun and experimenting. But, for something like this event, I thought it prudent to test things out ahead of time and make sure we actually knew what we were doing. Hence, Mike's opportune visit to Oregon was very timely in helping us test out some of these menu items.

This is where I get to talk about "jello." And this is where I confess to one of the silliest things I have ever done as a cook. And this is also where I say "Thank goodness, I decided to try these recipes out ahead of time." You see, the only "jello" I have ever made was in boxes marked "Jello" brand. (And that was a long time ago.) Bear with me here, but I've never actually made jelly either - it's not something I typically eat. BUT, if someone had actually ASKED me whether one uses powdered gelatin or pectin for making jello, I WOULD have correctly identified gelatinize. BUT, no one did ask me this, and this is autumn and the prime of jelly-making season. SO, every grocery store you walk into has large displays of pectin as you walk in and, well, I just mindlessly grabbed one to make my "jello." Well, in case you wondered, pectin does not, in fact, produce anything resembling "jello." STILL not questioning my ingredients, I tried making "jello" AGAIN using pectin. Well, you can guess the outcome. FINALLY, I think, "Oh, wait a minute..." and went out and got me some gelatinize instead.

I had two recipes I was considering for this "jello." One was a "Bloody Mary" jello and one was a cucumber and dill jello. I liked the idea of the brilliant red of the Bloody Mary version so I tried that out first. You know how you really want something to taste great, but it just doesn't. Well, I tasted this now perfectly jelled "jello" - which was a lively red - and, I thought, "Oh, I don't know...maybe." Here's where Mike clarified my thinking on this one. I tried this "Bloody Mary" jello out on Pat and Mike - willing testers for the grander cause. And that lively red "jello" was practically ejected from Mike's mouth. (I hear later from Pat that Mike says to her on the drive home, "Did you LIKE that stuff????")

SO, using that helpful, clarifying response, I moved on to the cucumber and dill version. This rendition called for pureeing cucumbers, then passing the puree through sieves to produce this lovely light neonish-green clear liquid. After combining this liquid with the gelatinize and pouring it into the pan to set, you layer small dill fronds across the top pressing them in slightly to create this feathery lattice look. After jelling, it really did look terrific. So we moved on to the taste test. We (now Steve & I) serve ourselves a perfect square of "jello" and, using our forks, cut ourselves bites to taste. Well, as it turns out, a fork doesn't really cut through a sprig of dill when layered in "jello." Instead, the bite of "jello" goes with the fork leaving the sprig of dill behind - some dill still enmeshed in the remaining cube of "jello" and the rest of the sprig sticking out of the jello mass looking, well, like green hair. We determined that hairy "jello" just was NOT going to make it through the final cut.

So, after four attempts at making "jello", we finally came to the choice of making a simple cucumber "jello" and pairing it with home-made salmon gravlox. It was a hit and no one was the wiser about how many tries it actually took for us to come up with this seemingly simple course. Every time I think about this experience, I am just SO GLAD I decided to try everything out ahead of time.

So for your enjoyment, I have included recipes for some of the items we served including:

• " Almond Stuffed Dates with Bacon - another come-back from the fifties era that is simple and delicious. The server of this one was hailed with "Hey, Bacon-Boy, bring me some more of those!"
• " Baked Cheddar Olives - also a tribute to the fifties that was a great favorite.
• " Green-Herbed Gazpacho - a refreshing, vibrant cold soup redolent with various herbs.
• " Salmon Gravlox -. it's amazing what happens to fish with this simple curing process. I've seen recipes for gravlox that used Char instead of salmon so presumably this works with other fish as well. You can also omit the gin.

The recipes for the Lime Zest Sugar Cookies and Chocolate Sambucca cookies can be found on the Food-Doings edition titled "A Weak Moment." The Green Bean recipe can be found on the edition titled "The Mayonnaise Challenge."

So Eat Well, Enjoy the Small Stuff.....and, remember, if you're going to cater a fancy sit-down dinner for 25 people, try your recipes out first!

Almond-Stuffed Dates with Bacon
From Martha Stewart's Entertaining
Yield: About 60 Hors D'oeuvres

• " 1 LB pitted dates
• " 1 4 ounce package blanched whole almonds
• " 1 ¼ lbs sliced lean bacon

Stuff each date with one whole almond. Cut bacon strips into thirds and wrap a piece around each date. Secure with a round wooden toothpick.

Put the dates on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven until bacon is crisp (12-15 minutes.) Drain on a rack or a paper towel. Serve warm.

Note: Prepared dates can be frozen in advance and baked unthawed in a preheated 400 degree oven until crisp.

Baked Cheddar Olives
From Ruth Reichl's The Gourmet Cookbook
Yield: About 20 Hors D'oeuvres

• " 1 cup coarsely grated sharp Cheddar (about 4 ounces)
• " ½ cup all-purpose flour
• " 1/8 tsp cayenne
• " 2 Tbs unsalted butter, softened
• " 20 small pimiento-stuffed green olives, drained and patted dry

Put a rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Stir together cheese, flour, and cayenne in a bowl. Blend in butter with your fingertips until a dough forms.

Take tablespoons of dough and, with floured hands, wrap dough around olives, enclosing each one completely. Transfer olives to a baking sheet with sides and bake until pastry is golden, about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Note: The dough-wrapped olives can be prepared up to 2 hours ahead and refrigerated on the baking sheet, covered with plastic wrap. Bring to room temperature before baking.

Green Herbed Gazpacho
From Jerry Traunfeld's The Herbfarm Cookbook
Yield: 6-8 Servings

• " 4 slices white sandwich bread, crusts removed (about 4 ounces)
• " 2 large cucumbers, peeled and seeded
• " 1 large green bell pepper, cut in half and seeded
• " 2 cloves garlic
• " ¾ tsp salt
• " Several dashes Tabasco sauce
• " 3 Tbs sherry vinegar or tarragon white wine vinegar (we actually used champagne vinegar.)
• " ¼ cup fruity extra-virgin olive oil
• " ¼ cup fresh spearmint leaves
• " ¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
• " ¼ cup coarsely chopped cilantro
• " ½ cup ice water
• " Freshly ground black pepper

" NOTE: we actually added basil leaves as well and you could omit the cilantro if this is not something you like. Any kind of redolent combination of fresh herbs would work including chopped dill. I don't think the proportions matter that much but you might need to add extra ice water to get the right liquidity in the end.

In a large bowl, pour cold water over the bread to cover and let it soak for 5 minutes. Drain the bread in a colander and lightly press out the extra water.

Put the bread in a blender container. Coarsely chop one of the cucumbers and half the green pepper and add them to the blender along with the garlic, salt, Tabasco, vinegar, oil and herbs. Puree on a high speed until the mixture is very smooth and uniformly green (you can use a food processor but the texture will not be as smooth.) Blend in the ice water. Pour the soup into a medium bowl or plastic container.

Finely chop the remaining cucumber and green pepper and stir them into the soup. Taste and season with pepper and additional salt if needed. Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Serve the soup in chilled small bowls or cups and, optionally, garnish with additional chopped herbs.

Salmon Gravlax
From Diane Morgan's Salmon
Yield: About about 10 as a First Course or 20 as an Appetizer

• " ½ cup coarse sea salt or kosher salt
• " ½ cup sugar
• " 1 salmon fillet (3 - 4 pounds) skin on and scaled, pin bones removed
• " 10 sprigs fresh dill, coarsely chopped
• " ¼ cup gin

Select a 2 inch deep glass or ceramic baking dish that fits the length of the fish as closely as possible.

In a small bowl, combine the salt and sugar and spread half of this mixture on the bottom of the baking dish. Lay the salmon, skin side down, in the dish. Gently rub the remaining salt mixture over the flesh side of the fillet. Spread the dill over the fillet. Slowly drizzle the gin over the fish, being careful not to rinse off the salt cure.

Place a large sheet of plastic wrap directly on top of the fish. Select a slightly smaller baking dish, or some other large flat object that can rest on top of the fish to weigh the entire fillet down. Place something that weighs several pounds in the top of the dish. (She suggests full beer bottles set on their sides.) Place the weighted salmon in the refrigerator for at least 2 days or up to 5 days. Turn the salmon once a day, being sure to weight the salmon after each turn.

To serve, skin the fillet, then cut the fillet into 1/8 inch thick crosswise slices.

Gravlax keeps for up to 1 week in the refrigerator. To freeze for up to 3 months, wrap the gravlax completely in plastic wrap and then in a double layer of aluminum foil.

Monday, October 24, 2005 -- Chicken Livers

Like most kids, I didn’t like liver as a child. Of course, this was the era when cooking meats until they were REALLY GOOD AND DONE was more “the rule” rather than today’s more gentler cooking standards. But, like good moms everywhere, my mom insisted on serving us liver periodically because it was “good for us” and, presumably, a relatively lower-cost cut of meat. And, like many families during those days, we had to eat what was on our plate. So, liver we ate, like it or not.

Now, I don’t know whether most moms served their rather dry liver cutlets with luscious caramelized onions, but my mom did. Caramelized onions are one of the most heavenly things in the world. During that day and age, mom caramelized her onions with margarine, which was the butter substitute used in our house, and I remember she made it with a fair amount of margarine. Today, I use extra-virgin olive oil although sometimes throw in some butter as well. But I learned, as a kid at our family dinner table, that if you pile a whole big bunch of those golden, melted onions on that dry slab of liver, it makes it A WHOLE LOT better! And the caramelized onion lesson was a lesson that followed me into adulthood. In my opinion, there are certain foods, like, say, bacon, (or for that matter, any pork product,) that, when included into a food rendition, can GREATLY improve almost anything.

As a young adult, I continued to avoid calf’s liver, (now that I didn’t HAVE to eat it.) When I started becoming more adventuresome about food, I noticed that I did like chicken liver pate; and I did like foie gras (goose liver); and (even more later) I tried sweet breads (another organ meat) and liked them quite a bit. So, I reasoned, why not retry calf’s liver. And, in fact, I found that, when liver is lightly and quickly cooked leaving some pink in the center, I liked it pretty well – particularly with caramelized onions.

As adults, we tend to vary with how much we stick with our childhood-learned food preferences and how much we move on and expand. This summer, when Steve and I visited his parents in Fairmont, Minnesota, Steve’s father willingly tried a piece of roasted red pepper that I had prepared. I didn’t encourage him in this, as I know that his food preference range is much more limited than my own. I was surprised he even wanted to try it. But he did, if only for a microsecond, before it was ejected from his mouth with the cry, “I need coffee!!!” Then he brought his cup of weak decaffeinated cup of coffee to his mouth to wash out the flavor. (I’m not making fun of him here. I was impressed with his courage and willing spirit!)

Here we get to Steve. Steve came from a family of not very adventuresome eaters. Steve, though, has evolved beyond his early-formed choices significantly. We love to go out and try new things. He is my favorite cooking partner (which is good since we are married to each other.) Like me, Steve also did not like liver as a child. But, try as I might, he continued to be unwilling to retry liver as an adult even though, I would have to say, he likes chicken liver pate and foie Gras even more than me. He just wouldn’t sway from his stance with this argument.

I, however, became convinced that if he just TRIED perfectly-cooked liver, he WOULD INDEED see the error of his ways. Thus, when seeing that the organic poultry vendor at the Farmer’s Market also sold chicken livers, I brought them home for us to try. Steve balked,....so, these livers sat in our freezer for awhile as a result. At least, up until this week, when I needed to prepare the food for the bridge get-together at our house and saw a recipe for Rumaki. Remember these? The origin is Vic Bergeron, the owner of the original Trader Vic’s restaurant in San Francisco. He claimed that this hors d’oeuvre, with Chinese roots and a Japanese name, came from Hawaii. Well, wherever they came from, they looked like a great application of my childhood lesson and could potentially convince Steve that, you know, liver is pretty good.

You see, Rumaki are bacon-wrapped pieces of chicken liver and water chestnut that have been marinated in soy sauce, ginger, brown sugar, and curry powder. Here’s the rule: flavorable item (in this case, bacon), combined with questionable item (in this case, chicken liver) creates desirable outcome. It’s the same principle used when trying to get a pill down your pet’s throat. But, in this case, I thought it could be the step towards Steve liking liver rather than just finding a way to “get it down” his throat.

Well, the Rumaki were a success – enjoyed by Steve as well as my bridge group Joanne, Kim & Shelley. And, I had leftover marinated chicken livers and water chestnuts that were not used in preparing the Rumaki, which, given their fragility, needed to be used up the next day. So, on to the next step in my strategy!

We bought fresh line-caught salmon at the Farmer’s Market that morning. We had some of the last round of green beans sitting in our refrigerator needing to be used. Using that same rule of “bacon will make this better,” and that most things “caramelized” are also better, I devised the following rough recipe:

• First, fry some bacon sliced in ½ inch pieces in a frying pan until just done, not really crisp.
• Drain bacon on paper towels. Drain off most of the bacon fat leaving some to coat the bottom of the pan. Heat the pan.
• Add a layer of green beans to the pan using the “Brown & Braise” method discussed in the 3/11/05 edition of Food-Doings. Cook the beans until nicely caramelized, then cover & braise until done using a small amount of chicken stock. Remove beans from pan and set aside.
• Using more bacon fat if needed, sauté chopped onion, ginger and garlic in the pan until soft and aromatic. At medium-high heat, quickly stir-fry the drained marinated chicken livers and water chestnuts into the pan adding the reserved bacon and green beans at the same time to warm.

This stir-fry was served over some steamed Asian red rice with sautéed onions and served as a side for Asian-marinated sautéed salmon.

I know you are sitting on the edge of your seats! Did he like it??? Well, yes, he thought it was fine. BUT, would he prefer the same dish without the livers included? Well, yes, again. In fact, he thinks he would like it a fair bit more without the livers. So, in the end, this was more a success in getting the liver “down his throat” rather than learning to “like” liver.

So, I’m giving up on my mission and have, actually, come to think of it as a foolish mission anyway. I think my premise is correct, that is, if you like chicken liver pate and foie Gras, then you are probably also going to like perfectly cooked liver. But there are some childhood remnants of food preferences that we may just be stuck with for life. I think about myself in this as well. I don’t like oatmeal. I didn’t like it as a child and I don’t like it now. But, when I honestly review the range of things I like to eat, there is no really good reason for me to not like oatmeal. AND, I am pretty sure I would not like oatmeal with caramelized onions or bacon either. SO, I’m just going to live with it and forget the whole thing about Steve and liver as well.

I’m including the recipe for Rumaki below because, even non-liver lovers like it. Plus, Steve has added his own P.S. below to my comments that clarify his point of view.

Eat well, enjoy the small stuff, and keep experimenting with things you USED to not like!

Rumaki
From Ruth Reichl’s The Gourmet Cookbook

Yield: 24 Hors D’oeuvres

• ¼ LB chicken livers, trimmed rinsed
• 1 4 cup soy sauce
• 1 Tbs finely grated peeled fresh ginger
• 2 Tbs packed light brown sugar
• ½ tsp curry powder
• 12 canned water chestnuts, rinsed, drained, and halved

Cut chicken livers into 24 (roughly ½ inch) pieces. Stir together soy sauce, ginger, brown sugar and curry powder in a small bowl. Add livers and water chestnuts and toss to coat. Marinate, covered and refrigerated, for 1 hour. (I actually marinated for several hours.)

Preheat broiler. Remove livers and chestnuts from marinate; discard marinate. Place a piece of bacon on a work surface and put a piece of liver and a chestnut half in center. Wrap bacon around liver and chestnut and secure with a wooden pick.. Make more Rumaki in same manner.

Broil Rumaki on rack of broiler pan 2 inches from heat, turning once, until bacon is crisp and livers are cooked but still slightly p[ink inside (unwrap one to check for doneness), 5-6 minutes. Serve immediately.

STEVE’S PS

1. Chicken livers are not the same as beef livers. Beef livers are much worse.
2. I would have liked the Rumaki even better if the livers were cut into smaller pieces, perhaps even ground into a paste and mixed (cut) with other ingredients. Straight chicken livers are just too “livery” for me.

DEB’s P.S.S.

1. Steve’s comments support my conclusion of it was just getting the pill down the throat.
2. I did cut my livers into bigger slices than ½ inch so, if you are going to use the Rumaki recipe and don’t like livers, try the directions for ½ inch pieces.

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© 2005, 2006 Deborah Young