STIR THE POTS

I'm on a rampage!

Nothing like spring feeling like winter. It's April I know, but....puleeeeeeeez! The only positive thing out of all this lousy weather is the fact that ramps, those lucious, odoriferous jewels from the woods all up and down this glorious Eastern sea coast are here at last! I got some slightly battered specimens at work the other day, then married them with some morels and fish. Simple tasty and not one bit sexy!

But tonight I had to pull out my own stash which I picked up Saturday at the Union Square Farmer's Market. These were some perfect clean and fresh picked ramps. I almost sacrificed them in a bread formula, aptly called Münchener Bierkipf, a savory bread moistened with beer, flecked with leeks, (or ramps if you're me), along with barley and wheat. Hardy! This batch were going with a pan roasted rib eye steak, potatoes and a salad. The season for this delicacy is short, but as many times as possible I will endeavor to devour them with relish and total abandon!

Shock of the new,(Understanding Ferran Adria)

The other night I caught this interesting Charlie Rose interview with Ferran Adria, who sometimes is misunderstood for his approach to cooking. In this interview, he makes quite clear his passion for food and interest in asking  the quintessential question, why!  Note: This video captures the entire Charlie Rose episode, which includes several other interviews. Ferran comes at the end, although the discussion about Picasso is interesting, as well.

Roast beast samwich!

Back in elementary school, I had a job bagging groceries at Peter's Bridge market in Westport Ct. Next to a dock where some of the last commercial fishing boats near New York City unloaded catch, it was a small local market selling steaks, beer, some lettuces, basically the products of a family run grocery store.

Among the folks shopping for steak there was sportscaster Jim McCay, whose Mercedes convertible caused me some envy, as well as the thought the thought that he was awfully short. Anyway, they also had a deli counter for custom made sandwiches. That's where I first learned about the American sandwich repertoire, BLT, Ham and cheese and, of course, one of my favorites, roast beef served with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise.

 

Now sandwiches are a favorite palette for me to paint on, so to speak. What I mean is there are so many combination's. Anything between two slice of bread or a roll. Heck why not a pretzel too! It's all good! 

 
So tonight rather than cook dinner, I made my nostalgic favorite from Peter's Bridge Market. Roast Beast Samwich! Okay, the spelling's wrong but you get the emotion. Pure kid delight.  Mind you I have grown up and my tastes have graduated from the kaiser rolls, iceberg lettuce and Hellmans mayo. No this baby was a knock out of flavors, slices of juicy roasted ribeye steak, on homemade sourdough bread, organic mayonnaise, dijon mustard, mache, sliced tomatoes and the coups de grace, some sliced cornichon's! Heaven on earth!

Turkey! (no Not the country, the bird.)

 

Thanksgiving...again!

Thanksgiving has always been a trying feat, when mixed with long shifts and prepping my own meal at home, not like in the old days when I was working in restaurants or hotels serving other people. This year has been somewhat less hectic as far as business. Effects of the recession (or is it a depression?) I suppose.

Yesterday I brined and schlepped my Turkey on the subway, all 24 pounds of it!  This is my favorite holiday; it's a virtual food harvest, family,friends and just that, no symbols or trees. Great leftovers to eat the next day. Or next week, if you cook enough. So last night I started roasting chestnuts, peeling pearl onions,  salted and confited what few gizzards I could find. There must be shortage or something, as the gizzards weren't all that visible. Turkeys impacted by the economy, too? Who knows!

Whatever, today I'm baking pies and cakes, seasoning the bird, then finish off the stuffing for my wife to "stir", she always say's that she prepared it. Well I guess it's the thought that counts. Our meal is standard; stuffed bird, vegetables and some pies.This year I will make a persimmon cake from Jean-Louis Paladin rather than the Saveur magazine version, which was a disaster last year. I won't name the person who screwed up the recipe, as it's family. And this, after all, is Thanksgiving. Soooo.... happy and healthy one to all!

Au revoir mon petit Suçuk

Since returning from Istanbul on a whirlwind five day cooking vacation, I have been devouring my favorite Turkish delicacy, suçuk or soujouk; a spiced sausage that is insatiably imbued with spiced laden lipids a taste that's indescribable, but once sampled can be a staple in ones repertoire of exotic dishes....

But what do you do when your supply runs short, as a matter of fact when you only have a nib left? Go back to Istanbul? Make your own? Buy it from a local Turkish market, if your fortunate to have one? My guess is I will go back to Istanbul if invited, but most likely I will have to go to my local Turkish market and buy an imported one and see if it stands up to the quality of the one my friend Dilara  kindly put in an abundant care package for me when I came home!

(Ode to a suçuk)
Since I first sliced you, fried you and tasted your special spice.I've adorned you on my pide, laid you in a pan to fry with my onion, tomato and eggs. When thinking about where we met, I dream about the shores of the Bosporus the sunny heat and the scents and smells of the magic kitchen...but alas your at the end of your link, what shall I do? So for now mon petit suçuk au revoir!

Home alone, dinner and a Mets' game...priceless!

It's only the first week of my vacation and my wife is away in Ecuador. I am home alone. After two days of slumming on pate and cheese, and following some motivated gym time, I decided to make a nice dinner for myself. A Mets' game was about to be televised, so I whipped up this dinner in one pan and... well it was good!

Menu for the Mets

Salad:
Arugula, pear, goat cheese salad with almonds and mustard vinaigrette.
( Got this from my friends at Quaint, nice taste!)

Main course:
Roasted wild striped bass, tomatoes, pencil asparagus, portabella mushroom  onions cooked in pancetta, drizzled with Castelas extra virgin olive oil.

Wine:
Bastianich Viticoltori
Tokai Friuliano
(A present from my friends Leo and Roberto!)

Dessert: I wanted something rich in chocolate, but who wants to do all that work? I would have gone for watermelon or a peach, except I had none at home and it was too hot to go buy some. What would have been your choice?

Oh, the Mets lost!

My pêche, your Melba!

It being summer, the season for fresh fruit, my wife requested another of her favorites, poached peaches. Off season, she will get a yearning and buy the glass-jar variety from Trader Joe's. Her pleasure is my happiness, especially since it is a  simple  preparation to make this dessert that reminds me of childhood. Its pedigree can be dated back to the 1890's when Auguste Escoffier, the designer of modern French cuisine simplified the codified style from its elaborate state as designed by its originator Antoine Carême.

One of Escoffiers signature dishes was named after an Australian diva named Nellie Melba. After watching her perform on stage, he wanted to dedicate a dish in her honor. It was said that she liked ice cream but was afraid of its cooling effect on her vocal chords. So Escoffier decided to put in some other elements, including peaches, raspberries, red currant jelly  and, of course, ice cream. I have not picked up either of my two copies of Escoffier's recipe books for some time. They are really wonderful tools, like references that read like testaments, not in a religious sense, but a kitchen primer of the highest order.

Thinking about Escoffier reminds me of having once seen a French chef prepare peaches for a dessert. He poached and peeled them, and then with surgical precision carefully pushed a pairing knife into the fruit, magically removing the  pit through a tiny opening that he made on the top of the fruit. He then  filled the cavity with lavender-flavored ice cream. Sublime!  Forgetting how he did that, tonight I just cut my peaches in half,  made a light syrup, and poached them untill pushing a knife into the flesh showed that they were tender. I let them cool and without garnish we had them for a refreshing dessert after dinner; maybe not your Melba but my pêche all the same!

Julio quattro

Today my mother and I spent a July the fourth cooking what most would consider a Bastille day meal, hell it's only a tend day difference that separates the two revolutions. So wishing you the best at 1:14 am on the 5th of July, keep on cooking!

Summertime in the kitchen...hot

No chef in his or her right mind will tell you that it is nice to work in the kitchen when the summer approaches, why? It's hot, hot, hot! Another problem, especially for my line of work as a private club chef, is the tedium and waiting between services if I can't manage to get out for a break. So what pray tell do I do? Bake bread amongst other things. Kind of like Dante's inferno, why not just get a little hotter and just enjoy it.

Yesterday was case in point, I rustled up a loaf of Jim Lahey's infamous no-knead pot bread, with various borrowed sources. Dan Leaders levain formula from his first book, Bread Alone. From Pim of Chez Pim, who got bit by the baking bug on one her recent posts, I followed her formula. I didn't have any special flour except all purpose white, my boss smirks when I make a loaf, the fact is I don't think he has a liking for crusty loaves of sourdough, whatever?

This whole week after memorial day has been deliriously boring, though it gave me time to play with the new summer menu which I try to snap photo's of when I am not sautéing or filleting leaving me helpless to focus and snap!

So here are a few pictures to show you I am not having blogger block or something, I actually do work for a living! Not that I wouldn't like to be traveling and eating in temples of the food gods instead.

So until I write a cook book or end up on food network, well I guess I will just keep cooking for the hell of it, even when it is hot!