I hate what has happened to the word "awesome!" Awsome is for volcanic eruption! Tornado! Angel Falls in Venezuela! The Sumela Monastary in Trabzon! Glory is a word that I'm glad will never fall into common and frequent use. I want that word to be reserved for those moments of giddy, incomparable joy! Those sweet big and little things...hitting a home run in Jr. High P.E....landing a great job...being honored with "happy birthday"---getting IN..and OUT of medical school...watching, every hour, as your tomatoes turn red!...gazing into your newborn's face, your groom's face, the face of your Mom as she bites into a favored something you've cooked just for her!
My glory today has been two side dishes I've been meaning to try. Bianca pulled the recipes out, and planned the Sunday brunch menu with Russian Bierocks (bread buns filled with potato, scrambled egg, and cheddar)...I'll get to that recipe later. These two side dishes, sweet potato gratin and shaved brussel sprouts sauteed with bacon, served together, are absolutely glory. Our dining room has been in an uproar all day, and our copy machine has been as hot as the kitchen!
If you weren't one of the lucky ones who got to taste this glorious brunch today, I want to herald the recipes at the top of my lungs! Delicious! Easy! Pure glory!
Sweet Potato Gratin
Sunset Magazine, December 2006
Serves 8-10
3 Tbsp butter
4 lbs Red sweet potatoes (these usually weigh about 1 lb each)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Butter a 9 x 13 inch pan with 1 tbsp butter
Slice sweet potatoes very thin (use the long slot blade side of a grater or a mandoline if you have one...be SO careful!)
Arrange one-third of the potatoes on the bottom of the pan
Sprinkle one third of parmesan cheese on top.
Repeat a second and third lay, ending with cheese.
Combine cream, salt, pepper and cayenne in a measuring cup or small bowl
Pour over potatoes and dot with remaining 2 Tbsp butter.
Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes
Remove foil and continue baking 20-25 minutes, till top is golden and potatoes are tender.
Shaved Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta
Sunset Magazine, December 2006
Serves 8 to 10
2 lbs Brussel Sprouts
1 Tbsp olive oil
8 oz pancetta (or bacon) sliced in very thin strips
Salt and pepper
Thinly slice the sprouts crosswise, discarding the root end
Heat oil in a large pot over high heat and cook pancetta/bacon until crisp (5 minutes)
Reduce heat and add shredded brussel sprouts. Cook until bright green and tender, about 3-5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Valentines Dinner---Poulet en Foillette
I have always loved to plan fancy food---I realize now that it was a bit odd, as I relate to the jokes of Martha Stewart polishing silver as a small child...she and I are kindred spirits! When I was about 10 years old, my mother let me plan a party for my sister...maybe a birthday... that likely surprised her scruffy little friends. I made a pretentious lunch of finger sandwiches, petit fours, fruit juice-laced sun tea...with an instrumental "Ebb Tide" playing in the background! I fussed with the flowers, I fussed with the table setting! The idea of "catering" a party for my sister, never entered my mind. It was all about the party! I had a burning desire to stage THIS party and her birthday was simply the vehicle. I know that Martha was out there somewhere, doing the same thing.
Now everyday, I stage a party. Some are much fancier than others. Mothers Day is big for me. I want mothers and grandmothers to just FEEL good! I want every bite to feel light and airy, like that mom is sitting out in breezy blue sunshine...in that rare attitude---sitting down...with her feet up...on something that is just that right height and distance away! No laundry! Someone else cooking! Ahhh! See, fantasy! Other holidays follow in a similar way, I am driven to choose food that somehow sparkles and becomes an instant, unconscious memory. Christmas food! Easter food! Fourth of July food! Thanksgiving! Valentines Day!
This year, for Valentines Day, I made a "fancy food" from my young-mother days. The recipe is on the back of a tattered, yellowed, stained flyer that I stuck in my purse. The flyer ad was, coincidentally, for a ladies spa, opening on Valentines Day in 1978. I saw the recipe in a magazine at the pediatrician's office and jotted it on the flyer. The recipe seemed complicated, the first time I made it (toddlers in the kitchen enhanced this perspective...), but the dinner was so uncommonly delicious that I have remembered it when I want to make a really special meal. This Valentines Day, I actually HEARD our customers take their first bites, all the way off in the noisy kitchen! I knew what that sound was, without even taking a look! They all had had their first bite of Poulet en Foillette and their reactions of joy were my best valentine! Here, for Nancy, is the recipe:
Poulet en Foilette
Glad to be committing this to something more permanent than a stray flyer ad in my purse!
Serves 6
Six boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder
Oregano
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup water
Paprika
2Tbsp Italian seasoning (basil, rosemary, marjoram, thyme_
1/2 cup dry vermouth
12 sheets of phyllo dough (freezer section by the pie crusts)
3/4 cup butter, melted (may need more)
Fine dry bread crumbs
6 slices of prosciutto (or deli ham)
1/2 pound of shredded Mozzarella
Place chicken in a oven proof pan, and season with all spices (I sprinkle it all in, and stir it up with my hands---it should feel nicely crunchy)
Pour in water and lemon juice, cover, and bake at 375 degrees for one hour
Add vermouth and continue baking UNCOVERED, for 1/2 hour more. Cool before proceeding.
Stack 2 sheets of phyllo on a clean uncluttered work surface. Brush with melted butter and place a slice of ham long-ways on the short end of the sheet. Place a piece of chicken, again long-ways, sprinkle liberally with cheese and top with a portion scrape of the good juicy stuff from the bottom of the baking pan
Start to roll the phyllo up over the chicken, and fold the long sides in as you go---like a burrito. Be careful, because the dry phyllo sheet on the bottom is delicate and may tear--just slip another sheet under the whole mess if this happens. Place in a baking pan, seam side down, and continue with the other five servings
Brush all of the tops with melted butter and sprinkle paprika on top. You can make this ahead, to this point, and refrigerate for baking later. After refrigerating though, allow to rest for 15 to 20 minutes before baking.
Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes, until the phyllo is golden and flaky. Serve warm or at room temperature.
This recipe is actually quite easy, if you're toddler-less. These travel well, are appropriate for picnics (messy, so you want to be among good friends!)...or fancy dinners (instrumental "Ebb Tide" in the background), and have the beautiful quality of showing how much you love your eating audience! Have fun!
Now everyday, I stage a party. Some are much fancier than others. Mothers Day is big for me. I want mothers and grandmothers to just FEEL good! I want every bite to feel light and airy, like that mom is sitting out in breezy blue sunshine...in that rare attitude---sitting down...with her feet up...on something that is just that right height and distance away! No laundry! Someone else cooking! Ahhh! See, fantasy! Other holidays follow in a similar way, I am driven to choose food that somehow sparkles and becomes an instant, unconscious memory. Christmas food! Easter food! Fourth of July food! Thanksgiving! Valentines Day!
This year, for Valentines Day, I made a "fancy food" from my young-mother days. The recipe is on the back of a tattered, yellowed, stained flyer that I stuck in my purse. The flyer ad was, coincidentally, for a ladies spa, opening on Valentines Day in 1978. I saw the recipe in a magazine at the pediatrician's office and jotted it on the flyer. The recipe seemed complicated, the first time I made it (toddlers in the kitchen enhanced this perspective...), but the dinner was so uncommonly delicious that I have remembered it when I want to make a really special meal. This Valentines Day, I actually HEARD our customers take their first bites, all the way off in the noisy kitchen! I knew what that sound was, without even taking a look! They all had had their first bite of Poulet en Foillette and their reactions of joy were my best valentine! Here, for Nancy, is the recipe:
Poulet en Foilette
Glad to be committing this to something more permanent than a stray flyer ad in my purse!
Serves 6
Six boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder
Oregano
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup water
Paprika
2Tbsp Italian seasoning (basil, rosemary, marjoram, thyme_
1/2 cup dry vermouth
12 sheets of phyllo dough (freezer section by the pie crusts)
3/4 cup butter, melted (may need more)
Fine dry bread crumbs
6 slices of prosciutto (or deli ham)
1/2 pound of shredded Mozzarella
Place chicken in a oven proof pan, and season with all spices (I sprinkle it all in, and stir it up with my hands---it should feel nicely crunchy)
Pour in water and lemon juice, cover, and bake at 375 degrees for one hour
Add vermouth and continue baking UNCOVERED, for 1/2 hour more. Cool before proceeding.
Stack 2 sheets of phyllo on a clean uncluttered work surface. Brush with melted butter and place a slice of ham long-ways on the short end of the sheet. Place a piece of chicken, again long-ways, sprinkle liberally with cheese and top with a portion scrape of the good juicy stuff from the bottom of the baking pan
Start to roll the phyllo up over the chicken, and fold the long sides in as you go---like a burrito. Be careful, because the dry phyllo sheet on the bottom is delicate and may tear--just slip another sheet under the whole mess if this happens. Place in a baking pan, seam side down, and continue with the other five servings
Brush all of the tops with melted butter and sprinkle paprika on top. You can make this ahead, to this point, and refrigerate for baking later. After refrigerating though, allow to rest for 15 to 20 minutes before baking.
Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes, until the phyllo is golden and flaky. Serve warm or at room temperature.
This recipe is actually quite easy, if you're toddler-less. These travel well, are appropriate for picnics (messy, so you want to be among good friends!)...or fancy dinners (instrumental "Ebb Tide" in the background), and have the beautiful quality of showing how much you love your eating audience! Have fun!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies!
We're always busy on the run-up to Valentine's Day, so for brunch, I wanted to include something playful...a child-like Valentine. We had our usual gangs of snowboarders wrapping their fun weekend with lunch on their ways home to the bay area, we had a large family celebrating their matriarch's birthday, and we had lovers two-by-two, holding hands. My Valentine for brunch today, was a red velvet Whoopie Pie and since several people asked for the recipe, here it is. XOXO
Red Velvet Whoopie Pie
Food by Yahoo! Shine!
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Line baking sheets with parchment
In medium bowl, combine 2 cups flour, 2 Tbsp cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt. Set aside.
In mixing bowl, beat 1/2 cup softened butter on high for 30 seconds. Beat in 1 cup packed brown sugar until fluffy. Add 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla.
Add 1/2 of flour mixture, alternating with 1/2 cup of buttermilk, and then the other 1/2 of flour mixture. Beat just until blended and add 1 oz (2 Tbsp) of red food coloring.
Spoon batter in 2-inch diameter rounds, about 1/2-inch thick on parchment lined cookie sheets, allowing 1-inch between cookies.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until tops are set. Cool sheets on rack and remove cookies when cooled completely.
Assemble "pies" with a dollop of filling between two cookies. Makes 42 2-inch cookies.
Filling:
Beat 1/4 cup softened butter and 4 ounces of softened cream cheese.
Fold in one 7-ounce jar of marshmallow creme.
To store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.
Red Velvet Whoopie Pie
Food by Yahoo! Shine!
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Line baking sheets with parchment
In medium bowl, combine 2 cups flour, 2 Tbsp cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt. Set aside.
In mixing bowl, beat 1/2 cup softened butter on high for 30 seconds. Beat in 1 cup packed brown sugar until fluffy. Add 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla.
Add 1/2 of flour mixture, alternating with 1/2 cup of buttermilk, and then the other 1/2 of flour mixture. Beat just until blended and add 1 oz (2 Tbsp) of red food coloring.
Spoon batter in 2-inch diameter rounds, about 1/2-inch thick on parchment lined cookie sheets, allowing 1-inch between cookies.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until tops are set. Cool sheets on rack and remove cookies when cooled completely.
Assemble "pies" with a dollop of filling between two cookies. Makes 42 2-inch cookies.
Filling:
Beat 1/4 cup softened butter and 4 ounces of softened cream cheese.
Fold in one 7-ounce jar of marshmallow creme.
To store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Trout for Breakfast...Lunch and Dinner.
My Dad loves to fish. We have many colorful fish stories from his childhood that include playing hookie and swearing at elder strangers he met along the shores and waterways of rural Ohio. Moving to California following his Navy years, presented the exiting opportunity to learn new fish. We spent a lot of time camping and fishing in Mexico, but the real challenge was Sierra trout.
They're wily and elusive. They thrive in icy, fast water and can see and hear you coming. I was eight years old when I first started to participate in the process of catching enough trout to make a meal for our family of seven. Through excruciating patience I don't believe I possess, Dad eventually mastered the art and understood the finicky nature of trout. By then, my siblings caught up in age and were pressed into service. We all fished and hiked and fished some more. We caught a lot of rainbow, brook, and golden trout. My younger sister Zora and I, tired of the tedium of fishing, were re-assigned...to cleaning fish. Blah!
A family with three teen and pre-teen boys will eat a lot of fish in a sitting...in the morning, we'd catch the breakfast fish. My sister and I would dangle over the icy stream, our hands in water that would burn first and then turn our hands numb. After breakfast, we'd catch the lunch fish...after lunch, we'd catch the dinner fish. We'd catch and eat our limit, every day of our Sierra vacation...and Zora and I would clean them all.
Cleaning a few hundred fish for a week out of the year was a kooky vacation activity that none of my friends could understand or match! I didn't dare share my vacation stories! But when I hear people say that they don't care for fish, I know that they've never tasted a fresh trout...
How to clean a trout (this is kind of gory)---
Cradle the topside of the fish in your hand, and slit along from the little hole by the tail, to the jaw. Put your fingers inside the mouth and pull on the lower jaw...you'll pull the jaw and all of the insides right out towards the tail. Rinse the fish (in the freezing stream...) and press your thumbnail along the bloodline that rests the length of the fish, along the spine. Rinse again. Cook and eat right away for the most delicious, delicate fish meal you've ever had.
My Mother's Trout Breakfast
Our lunches and dinners were delicious and varied. My Mother makes magical fresh salads. Her trout breakfasts though, will always remind me of violent stormy wind in the pines, the smell of thin air and campfire, and the sound of water whipping and rushing over rock.
She'd start potatoes frying in butter. As the potatoes were snapping and browning, she'd dust the trout (skin on), in flour, salt, and pepper, and quickly pan fry in oil. We'd eat everything while it was very hot...
They're wily and elusive. They thrive in icy, fast water and can see and hear you coming. I was eight years old when I first started to participate in the process of catching enough trout to make a meal for our family of seven. Through excruciating patience I don't believe I possess, Dad eventually mastered the art and understood the finicky nature of trout. By then, my siblings caught up in age and were pressed into service. We all fished and hiked and fished some more. We caught a lot of rainbow, brook, and golden trout. My younger sister Zora and I, tired of the tedium of fishing, were re-assigned...to cleaning fish. Blah!
A family with three teen and pre-teen boys will eat a lot of fish in a sitting...in the morning, we'd catch the breakfast fish. My sister and I would dangle over the icy stream, our hands in water that would burn first and then turn our hands numb. After breakfast, we'd catch the lunch fish...after lunch, we'd catch the dinner fish. We'd catch and eat our limit, every day of our Sierra vacation...and Zora and I would clean them all.
Cleaning a few hundred fish for a week out of the year was a kooky vacation activity that none of my friends could understand or match! I didn't dare share my vacation stories! But when I hear people say that they don't care for fish, I know that they've never tasted a fresh trout...
How to clean a trout (this is kind of gory)---
Cradle the topside of the fish in your hand, and slit along from the little hole by the tail, to the jaw. Put your fingers inside the mouth and pull on the lower jaw...you'll pull the jaw and all of the insides right out towards the tail. Rinse the fish (in the freezing stream...) and press your thumbnail along the bloodline that rests the length of the fish, along the spine. Rinse again. Cook and eat right away for the most delicious, delicate fish meal you've ever had.
My Mother's Trout Breakfast
Our lunches and dinners were delicious and varied. My Mother makes magical fresh salads. Her trout breakfasts though, will always remind me of violent stormy wind in the pines, the smell of thin air and campfire, and the sound of water whipping and rushing over rock.
She'd start potatoes frying in butter. As the potatoes were snapping and browning, she'd dust the trout (skin on), in flour, salt, and pepper, and quickly pan fry in oil. We'd eat everything while it was very hot...
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Shifting Gear
I've been languishing for the 24 hours since we closed on Sunday afternoon. I've been watching hours of opiate-like international house hunters on HGTV. I ate Oreos and chili kettle corn, and lived vicariously through people who had the tough job of selecting homes in Paris, Italy, Cyprus, Maui, Buenas Aires...I read a new issue of Bon Appetit, two issues of US magazine, Martha Stewart's new Wedding---the one with the cover of shocking, dazzling diamond engagement rings! Spectacular! I cuddled a sleeping granddaughter. I ordered French bread for the cafe. And I suffered some gnawing anxiety. After four years of switching menus out almost as often as I've changed clothes, I'm going to start serving dinner...tomorrow night.
I had the idea kind of hollered at me, by a customer who brazenly pushed into the kitchen and...well, hollered at me that I was working too hard! She is in the restaurant biz, and said that my lunch food is dinner food! Hm. I guess it might be. I've thought about what she said, all this year and realized that the servings are large...and fancy. I've been serving family party food---the kind of food that we wait for, and sit down to enjoy as the centerpiece of all celebration days. I've also realized that when I prepare special dinners, I am liberated to expand my imagination and to be more creative! Ok, so I've organized a bistro sort of lunch plan and will start serving my "family party" food at dinnertime.
I can't abandon the quirky-ness altogether though---lunch for now, will include sandwiches served with lattes. I'll offer smoked gouda with pear, swiss with pickles, and brie with cranberry jam. I'll make a wrap filled with roasted winter vegetables---acorn squash, carrots, pearl onions, broccoli, tomato and white beans...served with fresh winter fruit. I'll make my grandmother's beautiful cranberry bean soup with Hungarian fry bread (Langosh) and her chicken barley soup with a tiny grilled cheddar and apple sandwich. Bending to mob-rule, I'll still offer two popular, huge, "family party" lunches---the Hungarian Chicken Paprikas and Raclette with roasted vegetables. And we'll see how it goes!
I feel the deepest gratitude to our customers, who have allowed me the freedom to explore! To evolve and create! I haven't ever felt the least bit restricted in this adventure, but instead, have been able to reach and wonder and delight in every new discovery! And so, a new chapter begins! Tomorrow night!
I had the idea kind of hollered at me, by a customer who brazenly pushed into the kitchen and...well, hollered at me that I was working too hard! She is in the restaurant biz, and said that my lunch food is dinner food! Hm. I guess it might be. I've thought about what she said, all this year and realized that the servings are large...and fancy. I've been serving family party food---the kind of food that we wait for, and sit down to enjoy as the centerpiece of all celebration days. I've also realized that when I prepare special dinners, I am liberated to expand my imagination and to be more creative! Ok, so I've organized a bistro sort of lunch plan and will start serving my "family party" food at dinnertime.
I can't abandon the quirky-ness altogether though---lunch for now, will include sandwiches served with lattes. I'll offer smoked gouda with pear, swiss with pickles, and brie with cranberry jam. I'll make a wrap filled with roasted winter vegetables---acorn squash, carrots, pearl onions, broccoli, tomato and white beans...served with fresh winter fruit. I'll make my grandmother's beautiful cranberry bean soup with Hungarian fry bread (Langosh) and her chicken barley soup with a tiny grilled cheddar and apple sandwich. Bending to mob-rule, I'll still offer two popular, huge, "family party" lunches---the Hungarian Chicken Paprikas and Raclette with roasted vegetables. And we'll see how it goes!
I feel the deepest gratitude to our customers, who have allowed me the freedom to explore! To evolve and create! I haven't ever felt the least bit restricted in this adventure, but instead, have been able to reach and wonder and delight in every new discovery! And so, a new chapter begins! Tomorrow night!
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