Amy's Food Adventures

Cooking for One

My husband passed away in November, after a long illness.  He was my constant companion in my cooking and easting adventures, my cheerleader and sous chef, so figuring out how to cook for one isn't easy.

I have strategies.

• Some days I eat a big late lunch out and don't much bother with dinner.
• Some days I make a real dinner, just as if I were cooking for two, with smaller portions.  This works if I pick something I really feel llike eating and it isn't too complicated to cook -- like grilled lamb chops and a baked sweet potato with a salad.
• Some days I make a big pot of something, planning to eat it off and on for a while.  This seems to work reallly well for my favorite vegetarian pasta sauce, not so well with soups which I quickly tire of.  I think I'll try freezing them in one-meal portions.
• Sometimes I eat junk food.  My favorite is Stouffer's Pizza Breads.  They're not really bad for you, except that they have so many calories.  I think I'm going to learn how to make my own pizzas witih less cheese and healthier toppings -- I like things like anchovies and garlic which aren't mainstream enough to turn up in the supermarket freezer but are much better for you.

And sometimes I give in and invite someone over for "dinner."  This works really well when I have plenty of time for shopping and planning and cooking so I can do it in stages -- no helper on hand.  So far I've found several meals that suit my new style and my guests.  No doubt I'll find more.

Tea Party - Don't let anyone tell you this is only for ladies.  Remember that serving wine (or champagne) is entirely appropriate, along with the tea.  I usually provide lots of tea sandwiches, incluiding things like smoked salmon and Boursin cheese on dark bread and sweet onion rounds on white bread with mayonnaise, dipped in chopped parsley, both filling and suitable for gentlemen callers.  We also offer scones with jam or lemon curd and butter and/or clotted cream and some kind of cakes or cookies.  By the time everyone has enjoyed all this, dinner is out of the question.  Soon I think I'll add someothing a bit more substantial -- perhaps a casserole of some sort like the fancy macaroni and cheese with ham bits that we used to get in Vienna.

Roast of Something - This is lots of impressive food for not much work.  I serve a salad first -- usually Caesar or Mixed greens with goat cheese croutons -- and then a roasted leg of lamb (boned) or a pork loin roast or a beef delmonico (boneless rib roast), cooked as rare as I can get away with (so the leftovers are good cold), with either a pommes gratin or roasted veggies (potatoes, parsnips, carrots, garlic), and something green (asparagus, green beans, broccolli . . .).  Fruit (usually mimxed berries) or something from the bakery for dessert.  If I'm very ambitious I might make an apple or pear crisp.

I'm new at this so I know I need to get better.  No one with 5,000 cookbooks is going to stick to such a limited routine for long!

Time for Latkes

Friday is Channukah so it's time for everyone to dust off their potato latke recipes for the annual celebration of the Feast of Lights.

I have two recipes.  One is a classic potato latke, just like my grandmother made, which we always serve on Channukah (and during the year, often with scrambled eggs with Lox and onions, for brunch or supper).  Ther other is a fancier version, which we usually make up in mini form, to serve as a first course or cocktail party hors d'ouerve, topped with creme fraiche or sour cream and a bit of caviar (anything from the real thing to the much cheaper salmon eggs from the little jar in the supermarket).

Classic Potato Latkes (just like Granny's)

Peel 3 large Russet Potatoes, cut into eighths, and drop into a bowl of cold water
Peel and cut a medium onion into chunks

Put the onion into a blender with 3 eggs (we use the Eggbeater equivalent).  Buzz to puree the onion.

Add the potatoes, in batches, pureeing each batch.

Place the mixture in a bowl and add 1/4 cup matzoh meal or flour, salt, and pepper, and mix well.

Heat 1/2" of vegetable oil in a large, deep frying pan.

When a drop of water sizzles in the oil, drop in the latkes by large spoonfuls (I use my smallest cooking spoon, which is about 1.5 tablespoons; you're looking for a 3" latke.)

Cook until crisp on the first side (don't bother them while this is happening), turn and cook the second side (this doesn't take as long).

Drain on paper towels and keep warm in a low oven until all are ready.

For Channukah, we'd serve these as part of a dinner that includes a brisket in onion and carrot gravy, cooked with red wine.

Vegetable Latkes with Sour Cream and Caviar

Shred a red onion, a big handful of parsley, a carrot, and a zuchini with the shredding blade of the food processor.

Peel two Russet potatoes and cut into chunks.  Puree in the blender with 2 eggs.

Mix the potato mixture and the shredded vegetables and season with salt and pepper.  Add 1/4 cup Matzoh Meal or flour and mix well.

Heat 1/2" of vegetable oil in a large, deep frying pan.  When a drop of water sizzles in the oil, put in the mixture by small spoonfuls (you're looking for a 1.5" to 2" latke) and cook until crisp on the first side.  Turn and cook on the second side.

Drain on paper towels and keep warm in a low oven until all the latkes are ready.

For a first course, we'd serve three vegetables latkes, each dolloped with creme fraiche or sour cream and topped with a tiny spoonful of caviar.  You can substitute a twirl of smoked salmon.

For hors d'ouerves, arrange the latkes on serving platters and top with sour cream and caviar or smoked salmon.

And have a happy Channukah!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

I haven't cooked for Thanksgiving in about ten years, since my daughter graciously took over the chore and transported the festivities to her house.

I usually draw the job of concocting a kind of post-Thanksgiving dinner for Friday -- something that will include nothing of Thanksgiving at all -- no poultry, no cranberries, no pumplin pie.  Usually I take the easy way out and serve a rib roast with roasted veggies (potatoes, parsnips, carrots and garlic), a big salad and a chocolate cake.

THis year everything will be different.  My husband is too ill for a trip, even a short one, so Thanksgiving is coming to him.  My daughter will bring her ingredients here (the turkey is already in my refrigerator) and cook everything right here.  More about our traditional menu later.

Instead of a post-Thanksfiving dinner (although we'll probably have one of those, too), we're having a pre-Thanksgiving get-together.  So on Tuesday night I'm making a very American beef stew, the kind where the base has chopped up carrots and onions and celery and garlic, cooked into the drippings from browning the beef and then everything gently cooked for a long time in red wine and stock, seasoned with thyme and rosemary.  Chunks of carrots and potatoes will be added about 45 minutes before we're ready to serve.  We'll cook button mushrooms separately and add them with some frozen (!) green peas just five minutes before serving, when we taste and reseason.

The beef stew goes with a salad (I'm torn between our over-the-top Caesar Salad and a refreshing tangle of shaved fennel, sliced Navel oranges, and arugula) and crusty bread.  A pear crisp for dessert, I think.

As to Thanksgiving Dinner itself, we stick with tradition.  We serve a whole turkey (albeit a small one this year) and giblet gravy made with turkey stock.   We must have mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts (so we can make Bubble and Squeak the next day to go with cold sliced turkey) and, of course, some candied yams and two or three kinds of cranberry sauce.  We always end with pumpkin pie served with unsweetened whipped cream.

A word about our brussel sprouts.  Long before it became chic, we discovered the Ur-recipe for brussel spourts with bacon.  It's a lot simpler than they make it sound.  You need to either cut the brussels into quarters or (more ambitiously) shred them.  (A food processor is good here.)  Cut a pound of bacon into strips and brown them, saving the bacon fat and draining the bacon onto paper towels.  Toast about one-quarter pound of pine nuts in the bacon fat.  Remove them and drain them with the bacon bits.  Now, get rid of any bacon fat beyond about an 1/8" coating in the pan (you need a very big saute pan for this).  Add the brussels, stirring to coat with the bacon fat and cook until wilted. Pile them into a giant bowl and top with the bacon bits and pine nuts.  This is divine.  Ouor quantities of bacon and pine nuts assume you're doing five pounds of brussel sprouts.  FOr lesser quantities, you'll need to do kitchen arithmetic.

This year we might begin with some nibbles (I'm always ambivalent about whether to serve anything before a meal like Thanksgiving, but it's good to have something around.)  I'm thinking of puff paste savories, filled with a dried tomato or basil pesto (or maybe some of each?), some prosciutto, and maybe a few slices of canteloupe or halved fresh figs.  Oh dear, I'm detting carried away again.

In any case, a happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Fall is Here

It's gray and raining -- the perfect weather to consider fall menus.  I've been on the road for half of the past month so I'm really ready to cook something and the weather says it's time for cozy comfort food -- to say nothing of the fact that Domestic Godess Nigella Lawson is now on FoodTV and her whole act is about cooking in that cozy, laidback style.

So -- what to cook.  My style is always to collect a few baskets of supplies at the farmers' market and the supermarket (and our neighborhood Trader Joe's) and then settle iin to cook at least two or three things at the same time.  It's like a party!

Last week I made the first pot of Split Pea Soup of the season.  We make a very simple almost vegetarian recipe.  (You could easily make it vegetarian by substituting water or vegetable broth for the chicken stock I use.)  I simply peel and chop in the food processor a large onion, 2 cloves of garlic, a few ribs of celery (with their leaves), and a pound of little carrots plus a handful of parsley.  Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in an 8-quart stock pot and soften the vegetables.  Then add the split peas (you could do this withi lentils, too; we'll do that this week), a quart of chicken stock, two quarts of cold water, 1 teaspoon of sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon of coarsely ground pepper, 1 teaspoon of dried thyme (2-3 teaspoons of fresh if you have it), and a few bay leaves.  Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until the peas are tender and the soup thickened.  Usually takes about 90 minutes, depending on how old your split peas might be.  We serve this with croutons (home-made are best, of course) and/or 1/4" slices of garlicky Kosher-style hot dogs, sizzled in a small frying pan.  You could also skip those toppings and use a dollop of sour cream or cream fraiche and a dusting of chopped chives.

At the same time, we cooked our favorite meatloaf -- we only eat this in cooler wether so we haven't had it since the spring and it is eagerly awaited.  It's an easy mixture of lots of sauteed onions and garlic and the juice from a large can of tomatoes plus four pounds of lean ground beef and some salt and pepper.  We make a loaf in a big (lasagna-style) pan, then spread the meat with a mixture of the canned tomatoes, mashed, a can of tomato sauce, more sauteed onions and garlic, and seasoning.  Cover it all with foil and bake at 350 for two hours.  For perfection, take off the foil at the two-hour mark, scrape off all the sauce into a small pot, and bake the uncovered meatloaf for another 20-30 minutes so it gets a crusty brown.  The sauce can be simmered in an open pot to cook it down a bit and checked for seasoning.  It is wonderful with mashed potatoes and makes decadent sandwiches (slice it thin and serve it on white bread with its own tomato sauce).

At the same time we were cooking dinner -- a pork loin roast rubbed with some Cajun spices, olive oil, and garlic and then roasted for 20 minutes per pound.  We also tried a new recipe for roasted Acorn Squash inspired by Gourmet which we turned into a salad.  It's easy -- just cut the squash into wedges (leave the skin on) and toss it with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Spread it out in a single layer on a foil lined cookie sheet or two (we made two squashes for four people) and roast until tender and browned -- about  40 minutes.  While it's warm, place it on a bed of arugula and drizzle it with a Balsamic Vinaigrette, full of slivered garlic and chopped parsley.  It's divine.  You can cook another starch or vegetable, but I think some bread to sop up the balsamic vinaigrette would be much better.

My sister (a New York Artist) is coming this weekend so I'm thinking up more things to cook.  Something sophisticated, I think. I'll report back soon.

Last Crab of Summer

I know there is really no such thing as out-of-season food any more, but we still try to eat some things in their seasons, especially things that really only taste good when the time is right like softshell crabs, tomatoes, and corn on the cob.

So we had a traditional kind of dinner this weekend, sauteed softshell crabs and corn on the cob. 

The tomatoes are always a source of controversary this time of year.  We're eating them pretty much every day, hoping to store up as much tomatoeness as possible against the January days when it looks like we'll never see a real tomato again.  I always vote for a tomato salad (some variation of sliced or chopped tomatoes with something tart (onion, shallot, arugula) and perhaps something mild (cucumber, avocado, goat cheese) in a vinaigrette (anything goes, but balsamic is the house favorite). 

My husband always wants a very tomatoey gazpacho, with lots of onion, garlic, and cucumber, no green pepper at all, and lots of hot sauce added withi the olive oil and vinegar.  This time the gazpacho won.

We did introduce one new (and worth keeping) note.  I am not a big fan of my husband's softshells, because he likes to cook them soft-sauteed and I like them crisp fried.  Crisp frying one softshell is just too much trouble, but we've found a good solution.  Our seafood store also offers freshly made (uncooked) crabcakes, made with fresh lump crab meat and no bread crumbs.  One of those, popped into the oven to cook to a golden brown while the corn cooks and the softshells saute is a perfect compromise.

We'll have to wait til next summer to repeat this meal.

P.S.  This turns out to be our new stove's debut performance.  I give it an A, but we didn't really stress it very much!

Kitchen Renovations

After "making do" for 14 years, we finally decided to buy a new stove.  Everyone has always marveled that I put up with an old stove to do my "gourmet" cooking, but I liked the fact that it was gas and that it had two ovens, both requirements for me.

After the usual false starts and disappointments (our condo is out of electrical lines -- until they run some more -- so I couldn't but the sexy JenAir gas top with electric double oven model I lusted for because it needed a new 220 line).  I settled for a brother, an all gas Maytag (Maytag owns JenAir) with all the same features. 

One thing, of course, leads to another, so we decided to replace the very old and ugly kitchen floor.  I love the look of tile, but it's impractical if you do a lot of cooking (and standing) -- and if you own lots of expensive pottery that you might drop.  We bought high-end vinyl in a don't show the dirt shade.

Of course, now we're looking at our cabinets and shelves with a jaded eye and trying to figure out a way to rejigger them so we'd get at least as much storage and more counter space.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, our old stove just departed since it can't be here when the flooring men arrive tomorrow.  Next I have to prepare our two refrigerators to be dismantled and removed tomorrow morning.  We've already moved boxes of pots and bowls and appliances and spices to the dining room -- discovering in the process that we have enough frying pans for three families and enough dead spices for any cafeteria for life.

Putting things back is obviously going to take time as we try to get rid of what we should never have kept!

But then if our lifestyle were not cooking-centric we would not have thousands of cookbooks to find spaces for -- or friends and family who are always eager to find out what's cooking when we ask them to join us at the table.

And what do you eat without a stove?  Today we'll make do with lunch and dinner out (it's Labor Day and we're going to a barbecue).  Tomorrow night we'll have the brisket I cooked on Saturday, delicious reheated in the Microwave.

I haven't decided what meal I'm planning to treat the stove to for its debut cruise.

Cooking from the Garden

Our good friends Ned and Ray arrived for tea (a real tea party, complete with home-made lemonade, tea sandwiches, and cookies), bearing a basket of produce from their garden.  They live out in the country, on 11 acres, so it's quite a garden.

I decided that much of this bounty should reach the table in a single tribute to the season -- which I made up as I went along.  It turned out as a kind of Chicken Gumbo.

First I chopped or cut up everything.  Ned and Ray's zucchini got sliced; their green and hot peppers got seeded and chopped, the okra got topped and tailed, the tomatoes chopped.  I added a large chopped onion, several minced cloves of garlic, and a few stalks of chopped celery.

First the chicken (skinless and boneless thighs) were sauteed in olive oil until brown, then removed.  The onions were browned in the same pan, then joined by the garlic, celery, and peppers.  When the chopped vegetables were softened, I deglazed the pan with 1 cup of red wine, added the tomatoes, zucchini, and okra, and put the chicken back in.  Everything was seasoned with salt and pepper and thyme.  After it came up to a simmer, it was covered and cooked for 20 minutes, then sprinkled with chopped parsley and served over white rice.

Some afterthoughts:

Cajun - If I had really been making a Gumbo, I wouldl have started with a roux instead of olive oil (flour and oil, blended and slowly browned -- 15 or 20 minutes of constant stirring).  I might have browned and added some spicy sausage to go with the chicken.  I would have used Cajun spices instead of thyme -- and probably a teaspoon or more of Tabasco to heat things up. 

White wine (or chicken stock) would have left the colors of the vegetables less muddied than the red wine did -- a good idea when you're presenting a garden basket of produce in a pot.

Road Food

Eating on the road is a mixed blessing.  With planning -- or even blind luck -- it can be wonderful.  Often, hungry and tired, it's pretty grim.  Our recent trip to Boston was a good example.

We started out to Boston on a Sunday, planning to arrive in time for a dinner at an old favorite -- Legal Sea Food.  Our hotel was near two of their locations and we expected to arrive in plenty of time.  Fate intervened and we left much later than intended so our dinner ended up as a 10 p.m. sandwich at a turnpike MacDonald's, further limited by the fact that their "full" menu isn't available at that hour.  Ugh!

Next day in Boston we had tickets to an American Impressionists show at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (it was wonderful) and we decided to have lunch afterwards in their cafe.  They serve a limited menu of theme "plates," assortments of foods on geographic themes.  My husband had New England -- very good clam chowder plus a mini lobster roll, some chicken salad, and a demi-dessert of walnuts and cranberries.  I had Spain -- a tapas assortment of olives and almonds, a chickpea and red pepper salad, Serrano Ham, Manchego cheese and Membrillo (guava paste -- a very tasty combination), and a few figs.  Unfortunately, our lunch was interrupted before we got to the "dessert" by a clear the museum fire drill.  I had an IBM briefing starting in less than an hour so we didn't stay to see how things turned out.

That evening we had fine dinners -- mine with the IBMers and my husband on his own -- at the Four Seasons Hotel.  Mine was in the form of a fancy buffet with lots of salads, the usual things in sauces for main courses, and an assortment of restaurant desserts.

Next day, after a full day of meetings, we drove three hours to the far northwestern corner of Massachusetts to Williamstown, site of the Clark Institute, a remote but very fine private museum with an excellent collection of Impressionist and early 20th century art.  By the time we were ready to go to dinner, we wanted something nearby (although we were in the northern end of the Berkshires and there are lots of good restaurants to pick from).  On our hosts recommendation (we were staying in a real motel, owned by a Swedish couple who were fanatic gardeners) we tried a local road house a few miles down the road.  The menu was big but we weren't sure how good the food would be.  We decided to stick with something simple and ordered the Fish and Chips.  To our amazement, huge platters of meltingly soft fish encased in crisp batter, waffle chips, and very nice cole slaw appeared.  Of course, we couldn't make a dent in it! 

Next morning we toured the Clark and dined in the museum's restaurant (we like museum restaurants) on very good gazpacho and crab cakes.  Then it was time to start toward home.

But we had one more meal planned.  This trip had been planned around an attempt to eat at the Blue Hill at Stone Barn restaurant at the Rockefeller farm in Pocantico, New York, near Tarrytown.  Built in the 20's, the farm had been brought back to life about five years ago and a gourmet restaurant added, built into one of the Norman-style barns.  Let us say it was worth the wait.  We had a tasting dinner that was based on the produce grown at Blue Hill and on its neighboring farms.  I'll try to remember it all.

Hors d'ouerves:  Patty pan squash and Corn (raw and -- we think -- marinated); Tomato water with tomato water granita and olive oil

Napoleon of Heirloom Tomatoes and Basil with Tomato Sorbet and Tomato Water Cream

Bean Salad (Haricot Vert, Wax ) with Lardo and Pistachios

Striped Bass with Corn Chowder

Oyster Mushrooms with Two Hour Poached Egg

Lamb Two Ways with Quinoa

Poached Peaches with Peach Sorbet

Much better than MacDonald's -- but you would not want this every night!

Eating Out while Eating In

Sometimes it's just too darned hot to cook.  Philadelphia's been in the grips of a heat wave and the temperature's been hovering at 100 for days, with no relief in site.

We stopped for a water ice on the way from the bank to the super market and parked right in front of a boutiquey food takeout shop that we've been meaning to try.  It looked cool and irresistible -- and all the summer items on its outdoor chalkboard lured us right in.

This shop (Cooermarket in Bala Cynwyd, PA) gets high marks for a big selection, nice presentation and friendly help.

The quality of prepared "gourmet" food is always an issue of expectations.  If you expect it to be like eating in a restaurant, it depends on which restaurant you have in mind.  It won't be a three star, but it might be an excellent bistro.  Being a gourmet cook doesn't help.  Of course, you could make it better yourself!  The point is they're letting you not cook at all.

I'd say this food was quite good. 

• We had Cold Beet Borscht mixed with Sour Cream for a first course.  Good enough that we were sorry we had bought a pint rather than a quart. 
• Then we moved on to crab cakes and a corn pudding.  The crab cakes were excellent --all crab and already cooked so just a little oven warming was required. 
• The corn pudding was a disappointment.  It was filled with fresh corn (plus) but it seemed to have no seasoning at all and barely any other ingredient (we guessed there was some egg in it).  We doctored it up with some freshly ground black pepper.  In hindsight, I should have used some cream and butter, too.
• For dessert we tried pipeces of Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.  It was pretty good -- a little too dense with a little too muh thick crust.  A little sugar sprinkled on the crust before baking would have helped a lot.  We sparked it up with small scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Would we go back?  Sure!  There are lots of other things to try and it's a lot better than raiding the freezer at the supermarket when you're too tired or too hot to cook.

What does it cost?  That's always an issue with good quality prepared food.  Let's say that it's more expensive than if you made it (no surprise) but cheaper than going to a restaurant for the same meal.  We paid $48 for the above meal for two.

We don't buy whole meals this way very often.  Usually we buy one or two prepared foods (crab cakes and rotisseried chicken are favorites, as are Italian antipasto items like roasted peppers) and then add our own pieces -- often simple things like salads, good bread, and fruit desserts.  That is, of course, more economical and more personal.  But it's fun sometimes to buy a whole meal this way -- a kind of picnic on our dining room table.

Dining Out

In the summertime, going out to lunch or dinner often seems more inviting than cooking, however well your kitchen may be air conditioned.

But we find that the summer heat definitely interferes with our interest in "fancy" food or service.  We want good food, but we want it to be unpretentiously prepared and served.  No fancy French sauces.  Nothing wintry (we have one local restaurant that never changes its menu -- it's great on a wintry day, but impossible from May through September. 

So we have a list of restaurants that are "cool."

• Physically cool -- who wants to eat in a room that's as hot as the outside.  That also means we don't eat outside very much, unless it's one of those mythical days when the temperature's in the 70's and there's no humiditiy at all.
• Cool service.  We want it to be competent -- always there but fairlly unobtrusive.
• Cool food -- lots of local produce, simple preparations and simple but beautiful presentations.  Nothing fussy.  Nothing cluttered -- I hate resturants which, on the theory they should give you a lot (presumably so they can charge a lot) crowd your plate with meaningless garnishes and inedible and unrlated side dishes.  I want everything to go together -- s grilled fish or stek whose salad is dressed with the steak's juices and its sauce, for example.

Some of our favorites for summer lunches and dinners:

• Sang Kee Asian Bistro - Asian fusiion food with great service.  It's in a strip shopping center and we can almost always park in front or nearby.
• YangMing - Very authenic Chinese food and Itlian American choices for the member of your party who just doesn't do ethnic.  Sometimes we just order all the appetizers and pretend we're having dim sum in Chinatown without the trip.
• Ruby's - (Not Ruby Tuesday's) - We go to both the Ardmore and King of Prussis ones.  Fast food glorified.  Great hamburgers and shakes.  But also grilled cheese sandwishes, fish tacos, and more.   Only iin off hours -- they usually have a line.
• Primavera Pizza Kitchen - We go to the Ardmore branch, housed in a former bank so there are soaring ceilings and a general open, airy feeling.  They have it just right -- lots of appetizers that can be lunch and half portions of pasta.  Good salads, too.

Of course we are not above eating in a Wendy's or a Taco Bell when the occasion demands something fast.  We also have a few casual Mexican restaurnts in the neighborhood which can be fun.

We seem to have developed our own pattern.  Many days we decide to delay lunch until after something -- work, appointments, errands.  By the time we have lunch it's late in the afternoon and it serves as lunch and part of dinner.  Then we just have a light snack later on (usually the house specialty -- homemade soup -- with a sandwich or desert.

We haven't abandoned going to much more elaborate restaurants for much fancier meals -- just put it away for cooler days.