"Cooking with Love by Carla Hall (Top Chef/The Chew) and "The Big Chocolate Book" - Valentine's Day 2015

Date I made these recipes:  February 14, 2015 – Valentine's Day!

Cooking with Love – Comfort Food that Hugs You by Carla Hall with Genevieve Ko

Published by:  Free Press

ISBN:  978-1-4516-6220-7

Recipe:  Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Root Vegetable Ragout – p. 196-170 for the pork and 99 for the ragout

The Big Chocolate Cookbook by Gertrude Parke

Published by:  Funk & Wagnalls

© 1968

Purchased at Talk Story Book Store, Hanapepe, (Kauai) Hawaii  (Talk Story is "The Western-Most Bookstore in the United States)

Recipe:  Cocoa Cream Cake – p. 56-57

And now time for a quiz:  When I say "Hootie Hoo!" you say:

a)     Did you just swear at me?

b)     Is this a new secret ingredient on Chopped?

c)      Carla Hall

If you chose c) Carla Hall, give yourself a pat on the back.

Those of you who are fans of Top Chef should remember Season 5 when Carla Hall competed as a cheftestant on that show.  She won me over with her sunny personality and southern-based comfort foods and came "this close" to winning Season 5 only to be beat out by that year's Top Chef, Hosea Rosenberg.  Poor Carla—had she stuck to cooking what she knew instead of going off in a different direction, she would have nailed it.

Not to be deterred, Carla came back for more kitchen fun and frolic on Season 8 – All Stars – but was eliminated in episode 13 of 16.  Dammit!  Seems to me though that she won "Fan Favorite" somewhere along the line and although it's not the same as winning the big show, it will do. She was certainly one of my favorites from both seasons.

It was on Season 5 that we learned that Carla's catchphrase, Hootie Hoo!, was created as a way that Carla and her husband could locate each other more easily when out in public.  It probably beats the heck out of yelling "Matthew!  Hey Matthew" (her husband's name) in a store filled most likely with several other Matthews.  I may have to try that with my husband, Andy.

And perhaps capitalizing on her newfound popularity, she became one of five co-hosts on ABC's TV show, The Chew, that premiered in 2011.  Carla, along with fellow chefs Mario Batali and Michael Symon, natural food foodist and author Daphne Oz and host Clinton Kelly (he of What Not To Wear Fame), chat about food and entertaining and decorating and everything in between, Monday through Friday, much to the delight of their collective fans. 

No doubt these same fans – like me – were giddy when Carla published her first cookbook, Cooking with Love (how appropriate for our theme, right?) and then her follow up, Carla's Comfort Foods:  Favorite Dishes from Around the World.  I must confess that I do not yet own the comfort food book, but no worries, I will undoubtedly acquire it soon.  Maybe as early as this afternoon? 

So many of Carla's recipes sounded so good that it was hard to settle but ultimately, I decided on Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Root Vegetable Ragout.  What Andy and I both loved about this dish is that it tasted great plus made us feel somewhat heart-healthy.  The pork was marinated in orange juice and you can't go wrong with roasted root vegetables tossed with healthy herbs.  The fact that I also made a chocolate cake for dessert from another cookbook is beside the point.  It's Valentine's Day people.  Time to indulge!

Compared to selecting Carla's pork and vegetable ragout, selecting just the right chocolate dessert for Valentine's Day was an exercise in torture.  I have several chocolate books and went through each of them very carefully but my eyes started to glaze over and I was in danger of becoming overwhelmed.  I mean, one recipe was for a Sachertorte and damn, while this is one good dessert (made famous in Austria), the assembly made this a no go.  Same with a few other recipes.

At then at long last, I came across this easy but delicious recipe for Cocoa Cream Cake from the cookbook The Big Chocolate Cookbook, published in 1968.  Baked in a loaf pan, this cake is similar to a pound cake except it contains cream instead of butter making it much lighter and therefore healthier, right?  Exactly.

And so after slicing and dicing and sifting and folding, Andy and I ended up with one lovely dinner for our Valentine's Day repast.  And the bonus is that we have leftovers.  Yum!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Root Vegetable Ragout – Serves 6

Note:  You will need to marinate the pork for at least 2 hours.

For the pork:

*2 whole pork tenderloins (each about ¾ pound)

½ cup fresh orange juice

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard

1 tablespoon honey

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil

For the ragout:

2 medium carrots

2 medium parsnips

1 small rutabaga

1 medium turnip

1 medium Yukon gold potato

2 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

1 small yellow onion cut into ¼-inch dice

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

½ cup Chicken Stock (page 54) or store-bought unsalted chicken broth

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped

Freshly grated zest of 1 lemon

*And now a word from Ann about the pork tenderloins:  I am not a fan of pre-wrapped tenderloins that are injected with up to 12% saline solution.  Sure, it makes the pork last longer but in my opinion, it screws with the flavor.  Unfortunately, the number of grocery stores that carry non-treated pork products (even chops) is shrinking.  Luckily, Target carries "au naturel" pork and I used that and you should too, if you have the chance.

Back to our directions, start by marinating the pork for at least two hours.  If the pork still has silverskin (the thin silvery white membrane on the meat), trim it off.  Rinse the pork well, then pat dry with paper towels.  Cut each tenderloin crosswise into 2-inch-thick medallions.

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the juice, garlic, mustard, honey and Worcestershire. Add the pork, seal the bag, and turn to coat well.  Seal and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Remove the pork from the marinade and wipe off any excess; discard the marinade.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Heat half of the oil.  Add half the pork and cook, turning once, until well browned, about 2 minutes per side.  Transfer to a half sheet pan.  Repeat with the remaining oil and pork.

Transfer the pan to the oven and bake until the pork is medium in the center, 140F, about 13 minutes.  Serve over the Root Vegetable Ragout and drizzle with the pan juices.

Ann's Notes:  I could have sworn that we had a jar of Gulden's (spicy mustard) in the fridge but we did not.  Gulden's was my dad's favorite mustard but when I was growing up, we could only get it when we visited my grandma in New Jersey.  Naturally, we stocked up on that and everything else my hometown grocery stores didn't carry.  I tell you what, I still chuckle every time I think about how low to the ground the back of that car was on the way home!  Anyway, without Gulden's, I was forced to use Grey Poupon which was fine even if it wasn't quite correct.

Also, in the perfect culinary world, I would have either roasted the vegetables first at 425F before turning down the oven to 350F to make the cake and the tenderloins or vice versa.  Note that I said "perfect world."  In reality, I wanted to get the cake out of the way first so I did and then turned the oven up to 425F to roast the veggies since they took a while and then turned down the oven to make the tenderloins.  And this is why Carla Hall is on TV and I am not!

As to the vegetables, leave ample time to slice and dice your way to a ½-inch dice, making them as even as possible to ensure consistent roasting. 

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Peel the carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, turnip, and potato and cut them into ½-inch dice.  Combine them on a half sheet pan, toss with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, and season with salt.  Spread the vegetables in a single layer.

Roast, stirring and rotating the pan occasionally, until tender and golden, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Heat the remaining ½ tablespoon oil.  Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the butter until it melts, then stir in the roasted vegetables.  Add the chicken stock and season with salt and pepper.  Simmer until the stock thickens and coats the vegetables, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the parsley, thyme, and lemon zest.  Serve hot or warm.

Ann's Note:  My grocery store moved a lot of the produce section around (when I wasn't looking) and so I had to work hard to find the rutabagas.  And although I am no expert, I have cooked with this vegetable enough that what I bought didn't look like a rutabaga but it was under the "Rutabaga" sign so I brought it home.  And then I cut it and was definitely puzzled as the texture was nothing like a regular rutabaga.  So I used it sparingly and that was probably best because it tasted kind of crunchy—sort of like jicama only not.  So I don't know what it was but it was actually pretty good!  Meanwhile, Carla says to use one and only one Yukon gold potato and that is one potato too few so I made up for the lack of rutabaga by adding another potato.  So sue me!

Cocoa Cream Cake – makes a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan)

1 cup heavy cream

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups sifted flour

1 cup sugar

½ cup cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Butter a loaf pan (9 x 5 x 3 inches) and dust with cocoa.

Whip the cream until it is stiff.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt together.  Sift gradually over the batter, folding as you sift.  Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake in a 350F over for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the cake is springy to the touch and shrinks from the side of the pan.  Remove to a cake rack, and after 10 minutes turn the cake out to cool. 

Serve this with sherbet or ice cream or use it as a base for any dessert, preferably one topped with chocolate sauce.

"The Ham Book" & "Insatiable" - Glazed Ham Ring with Red Devil Sauce and Macaroni and Cheese

Date I made these recipes: April 24, 2011 (Easter Sunday)

The Ham Book by Monette R. Harrel and Robert W. Harrel, Jr.
Published by: Donning Company Publishers
ISBN: 0-915442-14-0
Recipe: Glazed Ham Ring with Red Devil Sauce – p. 136-137


Insatiable – Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess by Gael Greene
Published by: Warner Books
ISBN: 0-446-57699-9
Recipe: Almost Like Mom’s Macaroni and Cheese – p. 19-20

People, you would think that having a book called The Ham Book would make Easter planning a walk in the park but you’d be wrong!

The first recipe in this book is for a traditional southern ham weighing 10-12 pounds. Let’s pause here for a moment: I do not have access to southern ham (nor do I need to one) and there are only two of us in this household so we didn’t need that big of a ham. I’m not even sure my oven could handle that puppy!! Besides, ham is expensive and we would have practically bankrupted ourselves had we gone with that recipe. So that was out.

Also out was canned ham as called for in many of the entrée recipes. Aside from chuckling over one of this season’s Mad Men episodes where Pete and Peggy have to advertise a canned ham, there’s nothing about a canned ham to recommend itself to me. If you’re going to go canned, go with SPAM. (Note to the good people at SPAM – Call me! I think I have a new jingle for you!!)

Lucky for me, I found a ham ring (i.e. loaf) recipe that was pretty easy and did not call for canned ham. And there was much rejoicing.

I have to say, though, that my husband looked less than enthusiastic when I told him we were having ham ring and even less so when I said it was topped with Red Devil Sauce. Silly rabbit – he was probably thinking that this would be spicy given the name but as we know, ketchup is not a spice…unless you live in Minnesota.

So, I got out my Cusinart, chopped the ham, added there rest of the ingredients, got out my ring (Jell-O) mold and holy cow – talk about overflow. The instructions said to gently pack but even if I would have really jammed it in there, we are talking too much meat. I could have easily have made two ham rings. And okay, sure, they said it the recipe would serve 8-10 but did they really think all that meat mixture would fit in one ring mold? Hardly! So I resorted to Plan B and plopped the mixture on a baking sheet (with the 1” sides as directed) and made a huge, and I do mean HUGE ham ring. It came out just fine.

The sauce was pretty easy to make although I must say the color was off-putting. Remember mixing your ketchup and mustard together on a plate and then dipping your meatloaf in it? (Well, at least I did!). Well, that’s the look we had going on. But it was tasty and that was all that mattered.

And so in the end, The Ham Book redeemed itself but alas, it gets put back on the shelf, never to be used for the blog again. Rules are rules. One recipe only, not exceptions unless I decide to make one; I feel I’m good as is.

In a complete about face from my usual scalloped potatoes, I decided I was in the mood for macaroni and cheese and remembered that Gael Greene’s book had a recipe that sounded yummy. (Thought for the day: Is it because I was deprived of mac and cheese as a child that I am so fixated on it?) And indeed, the recipe turned out to be fantastic. But oh my word, reading her book to get to the recipes was another story.

For those of you who don’t know, Gael Greene was a well-known food writer/critic for the New York magazine. Well, perhaps it was a stretch to say “well-known” since she tried to remain anonymous as much as possible and is famous for her many hats that hid her face from inquiring restaurant servers. Gael also spent two seasons as a judge on Top Chef Masters, a show I far prefer to the original, Top Chef (although careful readers will note that I watch the original show all the same). This year they changed the format and so Gael will only guest star. Bummer, that. (P.S. - Gael still writes about food - check out her Insatiable Critic blog - www.insatiable-critic.com)

Anyway, back to her book. It’s been a while since I read it but back in her youth she was known more for… well…shall we say sexual exploits than her culinary skills (thus the title)? Not that I’m a prude but I’m not always comfortable with books like this because I feel like a peeping Tom (or rather a peeping Ann). My best advice to Gael and to Paula Dean (who also wrote a similar book) is “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” I’ll forgive Gael though since the mac and cheese was exactly what I wanted.

And there you have it, Easter 2011. Questions?

Glazed Ham Ring with Red Devil Sauce – 8-10 servings
Ham ring
About 1 pound ground cooked ham
1 pound ground beef
½ cup chopped onion
¾ cup fine cracker crumbs
1 egg, slightly beaten
½ ten-ounce can tomato soup
Glaze
½ ten-ounce can tomato soup
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the ingredients for the ham ring and mix well. Pack lightly into a ring mold or form in a ring on an inch deep baking sheet or pack lightly into a 9 ½ x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Brush with Red Devil sauce before and during backing. Bake for about 1 hour. Pour off excess fat and let stand 5 minutes, then turn out on a platter. Fill the center of the ring with warm potato salad, whipped potatoes or green peas with small potatoes. Serve with Red Devil Sauce. (But caution: if you plan to serve the sauce on the side, make sure to put it in a separate bowl, otherwise you will cross-contaminate your food!)

To make the sauce, combine all ingredients and cook, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. I used medium heat.

Almost Like Mom’s Macaroni and Cheese – serves 2 as a main course, 4 as a side dish…or just me!

Olive oil spray or ½ tbsp mild-flavored olive oil, plus 1 tbsp for tossing later
½ lb small elbow macaroni
1 tbsp salt
2 ½ cups shredded or chopped firm cheese (Gael notes “Needless to say, my mother used Velveeta, but I make this with sharp cheddar and Emmentaler, half and half. Once I threw in some leftover Brie, a triple crème from France, and a half cup of crème fraiche and the result was celestial.”)
Optional: ½ cup chopped baked ham or snipped crisp bacon
1 cup whole milk
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
4 tbsp fine dry bread crumbs
¼ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray the bottom and sides of a shallow 6-cup metal baking dish with olive oil spray. Bring several quarts of water to a rolling boil. Add tablespoon salt. Boil macaroni until just tender: Drain well. Immediately turn macaroni into baking dish (a flat baking pan gives more crispiness than a loaf pan). Use a pan that can go under the broiler later. Toss macaroni with tablespoon of olive oil. Then add (cheddar) cheese, optional ham or bacon, milk, salt and freshly ground pepper and mix well.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then remove from oven, close oven door, and stir. Taste for seasoning. Sprinkle fresh bread crumbs and grated Parmigiano on top. Bake another 15 minutes. If there is still some milk in the bottom, return to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes. If topping has not browned and crisped like Mom’s used to, stick it under the broiler (three or four inches away from heat) and brown, watching so it doesn’t burn.

"How to Eat Better for Less Money" by Janes Beard - Old-Fashioned Beach Meat Loaf

Date I made this recipe: September 20, 2010

How to Eat Better for Less Money by James Beard and Sam Aaron
Published by: Simon and Schuster
© 1954, 1970
Recipe: Old-Fashioned Beach Meat Loaf – p. 100

When I was in my hometown visiting my dad in August of this year, one of the things I found was a fee statement from my undergraduate alma mater. The year was 1977, my sophomore year. The fee per credit hour was (brace yourselves parents of current college students) - $25.00. That’s right - twenty five dollars a credit hour. By my calculations, my dad (who paid for my education with U.S. Savings Bonds) was out a whopping $3,200 and change for my four-year degree. But of course that was a lot of money back then.

Well talk about how times have changed. By contrast, my law school education cost a lot more…and I mean a LOT more. I don’t think $25.00 even touched the cost of one of my books. I mean, I know it’s been a while but really—does it cost that much more to teach students today than it did 33 years ago?

So speaking of today, let’s do some fast forwarding. I toyed with getting either an MBA or a law degree and finally decided on law because I wouldn’t have to take statistics or the GMAT that contained math—I hate math and it hates me. (And for the record – calculating billable hours is “law math” and I stink at that as well). I was what was known as a “second career student”—someone who had a career and was looking to change it up. Yes, well, all I can say is I wish I would have read the fine print about how unemployable an older female law graduate would be. (But that’s another story best told over cocktails to other older female law school graduates who are in the same boat. We p&m and order more drinks and suddenly things look brighter…unless we’re in a dimly-lit bar to begin with, of course!).

Since graduating, I have pretty much been forced to become a legal contractor (some would say “whore”), going where the job is for as long as the jobs last. And in a “who would have thought” moment, contract jobs in corporations are generally more stable than jobs at a law firm where litigation support (for those in the know—“document review”) jobs can last for three days or three minutes...and you never know which until you get there. (I swear to you the drill goes like this: They say “The project will last 3 months.” And then two minutes after you’re in it to win it, it changes to: “Did we say 3 months? We meant 3 weeks. Did we say 3 weeks? We meant 3 days. Did we say 3 days? We meant 3 hours…”)

The current job I’m on (back at a corporation I worked for last summer) was supposed to come to an end this past Friday but at the last minute I got a stay of execution. So instead of hearing “One day you’re in...but please pack your knives and go” I heard: “We’re thinking three more weeks.”

By this time, of course, the loin-girding had already started as I performed a mental lockdown on our checking account. I’ve gotten over the stigma of going on and off unemployment but haven’t quite come to grips with the fact that my “hourly” on unemployment is equivalent to a salary last seen by me somewhere around the year 1977! Well, even for that time period, that was a little much so let’s go with
1987. Final answer.

Anyway...feeling the need to cook something on a budget, I pulled out James
Beard’s How to Eat Better for Less Money book. And then promptly cracked up laughing because many of the recipes called for cuts of meat that I consider to be expensive—like saddle of lamb, or even the veal used in my meatloaf (one package was priced at a whopping $8.50—for meatloaf?!) Had I not found a cheaper package of veal, I would have just gone with pork and ground beef although even that would also have been expensive; my recipe called for four pounds of meat. (Well mooo-oooo!) Instead, I made a half recipe and that was more within my budget.

This recipe was good and flavorful and somewhat cheap but you know what, it wasn’t my mom’s. Talk about economical—my mom used oatmeal as filler and that’s the taste I wanted. This one was close, but no cigar. And I didn’t use the amount of bacon called for because I considered that overkill and more expensive (I can buy my bacon by the slice at Whole Foods). But this was fine and we have leftovers and that is the whole point of meatloaf, am I right?

So kids, for three more weeks, I get to earn enough money to sweeten the pot to perhaps make something a little more expensive next week…or not. We’ll see where the recipe wind takes me. But for now I’m safe…and I didn’t even need to cook the meal of my life or channel Jackie Kennedy to do so. (And for those of you lost in America, I reference Top Chef and Project Runway; same with the “one day you’re in…” quote above).

In the words of Tim Gunn from Project Runway - “Make it work…”

Old-Fashioned Beach Meat Loaf (“Beach meatloaf?” As opposed to your “alley” meatloaf or your “swamp meat loaf”???!!) (This is the full recipe but I don’t know how many it is intended to feed. My guess is a lot!)
2 pounds chopped beef, ground twice
1 pound chopped pork, ground twice
1 pound chopped veal, ground twice
1 large onion, chopped or grated
1 carrot, grated
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon rosemary leaves, crushed
½ bay leaf, crushed
2/3 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 eggs
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Bacon or salt pork strips

Mix all ingredients but bacon or salt pork together and knead thoroughly. Press down. Form into a tight loaf and place on strips of bacon or salt pork in a shallow baking pan. Cover with more strips of bacon and bake in 350 oven, basting frequently for 1 ½ to 2 hours, according to the size of the loaf. (Beard’s note: “This is delicious hot, but even better cold, when it resembles a good pate de campagne of the French provinces. It must not be baked in a loaf pan and it must be well pressed together with the hands before baking).

And now here are my notes: Get out a Cuisinart. Dump in your onion and your carrots and pulse until the vegetables are finely chopped. Add all ingredients, including the meat, turn the thing on and walk away for a minute. Blend the ingredients, turn it back on, walk away for another minute, come back and dump the mixture in a shallow pan. You will not believe how finely ground your ingredients are. Shape with hands then cover with some strips of bacon (as opposed to practically wrapping the thing in bacon like a snuggi), and bake for 1 hour or until the internal temp reaches 165. Serve. Eat the leftovers for several days until the meatloaf is gone or you can’t take it any more!

"Family Circle Great Ground-Beef Recipes," "John Michael Lerma's Garden Country," "Cool Entertaining"

Date I made these recipes: July 5, 2010

Family Circle Great Ground-Beef Recipes by the Family Circle Food Staff
Published by: A New York Times Company Publication
© 1965, 1966, 1971
Recipe: Double onion burgers – p. 24

John Michael Lerma’s Garden County by John Michael Lerma
Published by: Syren Book Company
ISBN: 0-929636-50-3
Recipe: Cherry Tomato Pie – p. 171-172

Cool Entertaining by Irma Rhode
Published by: Atheneum
© 1976
Recipe: (My Grandmother’s) Apple Cake – p. 151

Well, there’s no time like the 4th of July to break out the All-American items—with variations of course!

Burgers were kind of a given but I’m not exactly stocked with burger books (even fewer hot dog books). After a careful shelf by shelf search, I pulled this one out at Memorial Day and kept it on my dining room table so I didn’t forget that I had it. (Because trust me, out of sight, out of mind!)

Next, I felt that something fresh from the garden was in order and so I pulled John Michael Lerma’s Garden County book off the shelf. I was almost set to make a pasta salad using tomatoes and corn but the recipe for the pie (and of course, pie is usually a given on the 4th of July) sounded more interesting.

Finally, I also yanked out Cool Entertaining a few month’s back in anticipation of the summer holidays but sheesh, people, finding a recipe I liked was a challenge and a half. Practically everything in the book required that the meat or vegetables be encased in clear gelatin and while I’m not opposed to it, I wanted something a little less wobbly for the day and so went with apples…but not in a pie.

So back to the pie…John Michael Lerma can often be seen on the Food Network in pie-making competitions. He also wrote another cookbook about pies, one that I have yet to bake from, but will soon. Actually, I mean that my husband will bake a pie fairly soon seeing as how he’s the “pie guy” in our family. I conscripted him into action this afternoon, pleading with him to make the crust so that I could concentrate on the filling. When I make a crust, it’s okay. When he makes one, it’s divine! And so he cracked open a beer and got to work—love that about him!

And before I beat the pie topic to death…I have a love/hate relationship going with Top Chef (not to be confused with Top Chef Masters that I love!) and last week, everybody had to make a pie. And people, to my amazement, this year’s contestants who claim to be chefs copped to never having made a pie at all or maybe making it once.

What the ???!! How can you be a “chef” without ever having made a pie? This is just inconceivable.

Now I know, I know—in chef-land there are those who are pastry chefs and those who are not and usually the twain never meet. But honestly, folks, how many of us non-chefs starting baking and cooking when we were youngsters? My guess is a lot. So if you then go on to cook for people for a living, it seems like a no-brainer that you should know how to make all kinds of food. The fact that some of these contestants didn’t know how just seems odd to me.

And speaking of odd…every year on Top Chef, there’s one contestant who stands out as being the biggest a-hole of the season. (Having an ego is one thing but displaying it for all to see on cable TV is another!) This year, it’s Angelo, who is one of the aforementioned “non pie guys.” The dude never made a pie before—ever. So of course, it stands to reason that the first time out of the chute, he manages to make a respectable pie. Hate.him.

Previous year’s villains have been Mike Isabella (season 6), (make that Ickabella—or, if you are a true Minnesotan, make it Ishabella!) whose misogynist thinking was a total turnoff to me and thousands of viewers and Illan Hall, winner of season 2. Just the image of his smug mug makes me want to change the channel. So of course, who shows up as guest judges at the Judge’s Table on this week’s show? Mike and Illan. Lord help me, Jesus!

CORRECTION: I could have sworn Illan was shown in the previews but when I watched the show last night, he wasn't there. My bad...but I still don't like the guy. And I still can't figure out why, out of all the former contestants, Mike Isabella was there. But to make up for that snafu, the judges did include cutie pie Bryan Voltaggio, last season's runner up. That I can live with!

Well, anyway, as I am wont to do, I digress. So here’s my selection of 4th of July recipes guaranteed to make you feel patriotic.

By the way, the following lyrics from a song that I sang in childhood, kept running through my head as I put the pie together:

Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Can she bake a cherry pie, Charming Billy?
She can bake a cherry pie, quick as a cat can wink her eye
But she's a young thing and cannot leave her mother

Catchy, right?!!

Double Onion Burgers – makes 6 servings
1 large Bermuda (purple) onion, peeled (I used a Vandalia onion and it was glorious)
¼ cup salad oil
1 ½ pounds ground beef
1 small onion, chopped (1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
¾ cup soft bread crumbs (1 ½ slices) (I used a hamburger bun)
1 egg
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
¼ cup catsup
6 slices bacon, halved

Cut Bermuda onion into 6 slices; arrange in a single layer in a shallow baking pan; pour salad oil over top. Bake in a moderate oven (350) for 20 minutes.

While onion cooks, mix ground beef lightly with chopped onion, parsley, bread crumbs, egg, salt, and pepper until well-blended; shape into 6 patties about 1 inch thick.

Place one each on a baked onion slice; spread with catsup; top each with 2 half slices of bacon.

Bake 30 minutes longer, or until bacon is crisp and meat is done as you like it.

Ann’s Note: dang, these burgers were yummy. I was thinking about grilling the stuff but the weather was bad so I went with the oven instead and am glad I did.

Cherry Tomato Pie – serves 6 to 8
Note: plan on allotting at least 1 hour to chill the dough.
For the crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher or Hawaiian salt
½ cup cold all-vegetable shortening, cut into small pieces
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
½ cup cold water
1 large egg yolk and 1 teaspoon water for egg wash
For the filling:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon ground mustard
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ pounds assorted cherry tomatoes, sliced
1 ½ cups cheddar cheese, shredded
Kosher or Hawaiian salt

Make the dough by first combining all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add shortening and butter (these should be cold as directed). Using a pastry blender cut in the shortening and butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Drop by drop, add the cold water. Mix in with the fingertips; do not use your hands as the palms will warm the dough. Continue mixing water in until the dough begins to hold together without being sticky but not crumbly.

Divide dough into two pieces and place each in plastic wrap. Fold over plastic wrap and press down to form a disk. This will make rolling out easier after chilling. Finish wrapping in plastic and place in the refrigerator for at last 1 hour.

Lightly spray a 9-inch pie plate with butter or vegetable cooking spray. Roll out dough and place in pie plate. Return to the refrigerator until the filling is ready. Roll out top crust.

Next, make the filling. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a heavy-bottom skillet over medium, heat oil. Add onion and garlic. Cook until translucent. Do not brown the garlic as it will become bitter. (Ann’s Note: And so will you if you end up with ruined garlic!)
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, mustard, and pepper. Blend in the cooked onions and cherry tomatoes. Stir to mix well.

Remove bottom pie crust from refrigerator and layer with half the cheese. Cover with tomato and onion mixture. Spread remaining cheese evenly over the mixture. Brush edges of pie crust with egg wash. Attach top crust, fold edges together, and crimp. Create a decorative edge. Brush top crust with egg wash and sprinkle with kosher or Hawaiian salt.

Bake for 30 minutes. (Ann’s Note: plan on allotting more time for this. After 30 minutes, the crust was still soft and the cheese wasn’t melted. I put it back in the oven for another 30 and that seemed to do the trick. But everyone’s oven is different so check the pie after 15 minutes to make sure you don’t overbake it.)

Let pie cool on a rack for 20 minutes before serving.


My Grandmother's Apple Cake – 8 servings (that would be the author's grandmother, not mine)
NOTE: This dish is supposed to cool overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
2 large apples (I found one was sufficient but buy 2 just in case)
Strawberry jam
½ cup sugar
9 medium egg yolks (NOTE: medium egg yolks are required. If you only have large, you should be fine using them in this recipe. If you only have extra-large, I’d check on the internet for conversions)
9 medium egg whites
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 9-inch springmold

Heat oven to 325. butter the springmold, then place a round of aluminum foil over the bottom and butter again. This is to prevent discoloration of apple slices. Peel and core apples. Cut them into rings and place into mold in one layer. Fill center of apple rings with strawberry jam.

Beat together sugar and egg yolks until thick and lemon colored. Add flour and mix. Beat egg whites until stiff, gradually adding cream of tartar. First fold in 1/3 of egg whites into egg yolk mixture, then reverse and fold into egg whites. Pour dough over apples and bake for 45-50 minutes. Cool in the mold overnight. Place on a coffee tin, push rim down and turn cake upside down on a service plate. Take off bottom part, then peel off aluminum foil.

"The French Laundry Cookbook" - Eric's Staff Lasagna

Date I made this recipe: November 25, 2009

The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller
Published by: Artisan
ISBN: 1-57965-126-7

Recipe: Eric’s Staff Lasagna – p. 116

Thomas Keller was a guest judge on last week’s Top Chef episode. I don’t know whether to be impressed or depressed by the fact that this great chef is judging a cooking contest on a reality TV channel.

Thomas Keller owns and operates The French Laundry restaurant in California; it is considered a Mecca to many. Thomas Keller is a hero to many culinary aspirants. Sadly, Thomas Keller is unknown to likely three-quarters (if not more) of the population. That is not a good thing.

Thomas Keller should know that although I admire all the recipes made with lobster and fish and whatnot, I did not make them. I don’t really like fish, Thomas Keller, and lobster is out of my budget. The fact that there are several recipes for these ingredients in this book cracks me up, Thomas Keller, seeing as how your restaurant is in Napa Valley—emphasis on “valley.”

And so I did not aspire to recreate a Thomas Keller original because that would be way too hard; rather, I made the lasagna recipe made for a staff meal by Eric (no last name given).

Now lasagna is something I have a handle on and this recipe is close to but in no way compares with the master chef in my family, my Aunt Rose. And so whereas I am no Thomas Keller in the making, neither is Eric (no last name) my Aunt Rose. My Aunt Rose could cook the pants off these guys in a New York minute (never mind that she lives in New Jersey).

This lasagna recipe was okay – neither good nor bad – and I can’t believe I am saying this because I’m not a fan of salt but it could have used more salt. And some sugar in the sauce (although I added some myself).

Why sugar, you ask? Because tomatoes are tart and unless you add something to cut the acidity, you will be mightily puckered up by the end of dinner. I always start off small, adding a quarter teaspoon at a time until my taste buds are satisfied. I could have gone with a little more here but it still worked out fine.

The other thing that Eric (no last name) did that didn’t really dawn on me until the very end was that he only used the mozzarella on top of the lasagna. While it certainly created a cleaner flavor, let’s be honest here: is there anything more fun that pulling on goopy strings of melted mozzarella cheese? I think not!

Here’s what else I think: this dish is probably best made in the summertime when tomatoes are at their peak but hey, what are you going to do? The man was on TV in November and so one thing led to another and voila – here we are! I can’t control the timing of these things.

So eat and enjoy your lasagna but do add some salt and sugar to the sauce as you go along. It’ll make my Aunt Rose happy!

Eric’s Staff Lasagna – makes about 9 servings
Sauce
½ cup olive oil (I’d recommend a little less—you don’t want this to be oily)
1 ½ cups minced yellow onion
2 tablespoons minced garlic
½ cup tomato paste
8 cups cut-up peeled tomatoes (about 12 to 14 medium tomatoes, cut into rough 1-inch pieces)
¼ cup chopped oregano or ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped basil)
As well as some sugar (a couple teaspoons or to taste) and definitely some salt!

Filling
1 ½ pounds whole-milk ricotta (Note: I bought a 2 pound contained and used it all. There is no such thing as too much ricotta)
3 large eggs
½ cup chopped parsley
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pound lasagna noodles
½ pound mozzarella, grated
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce: Heat the oil in a large heavy pot. Add the onions and garlic and cook gently for 4 to 5 minutes, or until translucent. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes (the tomato paste will separate from the oil and the oil will turn a vivid orange). Add the tomatoes and stir to combine.

The sauce can be completed on the stove top or in the oven. The oven method requires less attention but a longer cooking time. For the stove top, simmer the sauce gently for 1 ½ to 2 hours, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot every 10 minutes to prevent scorching. (Ann’s note: Yeah, right, like I’m going to bound into my kitchen every 10 minutes! I am a busy gal and you probably are too so take it from me when I say that you can put this on the lowest setting and leave it alone for at least a half hour, if not more, without stirring and scraping and the sauce will be fine. If not, a little charcoal never hurt anyone!)

For the oven method, preheat the oven to 325. Bring the tomatoes to a simmer on top of the stove, cover the pot with a parchment lid, and place the pot in the oven for 3 to 4 hours.

When the sauce is done, it should be thick, slightly chunky, and reduced to about 1 quart. Add the oregano (or basil) and let cool to room temperature (about 1 hour) before assembling the lasagna.

Meanwhile, for the filling: In a large bowl, whisk together the ricotta and eggs until completely blended. Add the parsley and salt and pepper to taste and mix until well combined. Refrigerate until you are ready to assemble the lasagna.

Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water according to the package directions. Drain the n oodles and allow them to cool slightly.

Preheat the oven to 350.

To assemble the lasagna: Spread a think layer (3/4 to 1 cup) of sauce over the bottom of a 9- by 13-inch baking pan. Place a layer of noodles (no more than one quarter of them) in the pan, slightly overlapping them. Spread half the ricotta mixture evenly over the noodles and top with another layer of noodles. Reserve 1 cup of the remaining sauce and spread the rest over the noodles, completely covering them. Arrange another layer of noodles on top and cover with the remaining ricotta mixture. Top with a final layer of noodles and spoon the reserved sauce over them. Toss the grated mozzarella with salt and pepper to taste (to give the cheese more flavor) and sprinkle it over the top.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the mozzarella is a spotted golden brown and the lasagna is hot throughout. (This line actually reads “is a spotted golden grown…” in the book. I think that is a very cosmic typo consider this recipe calls for fresh tomatoes!).

"The Cuisines of Mexico" by Diana Kennedy - Mole de Olla - Mole cooked in a pot

Date I made this recipe: March 8, 2009

The Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy, foreword by Craig Claiborne
Published by: Harper & Row, Publishers
© 1972
Recipe: Mole de Olla – Mole cooked in a pot – p. 160-161

People, I have been having some weird dreams lately and this latest one takes the cake (no pun intended).

Despite my taking Tom Colicchio of Top Chef to task a few weeks ago for having Top Chef contestants cook venison to represent Green Bay Packer food, he invited me to have dinner with him, (“in my dreams" takes on a new meaning, doesn’t it?) and of course, I accepted.

So in my dream, we ate at this very opulent restaurant with cathedral ceilings and beautiful chandeliers. To my left sat a female food writer but darned if I could tell you who she was, and to my right sat Tom.

And so there we were in this beautiful setting and the food came and it was…and I’m desperately trying to recall this…something akin to either a Monte Carlo sandwich or an egg on top of a steak covered in mushroom soup sauce.

So in my dream, Tom turned to me to ask what I thought and I said something to the effect that the meal was too casual for such an opulent setting. Tom agreed and promptly called over the owner…or a server…or the bus person, who knows, and that person invited me and Tom to another dinner (a secret dinner?). So Tom accepted and then turned to me and said something to the effect of “Oh, it’s too bad you don’t have the right credentials to go to this dinner.” I confidently and quickly replied that I did have the right credentials—I worked in the kitchen of Sacred Heart School (while failing to mention I was mostly the pot and pan gal) when I was in sixth grade. And that seemed to do it and we laughed ha ha and then I woke up! (Note to Tom: Call me!)

And so after waking up, the first thing I did was to go to The Splendid Table’s website - http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/ - to make sure Diana Kennedy, the inspiration for this week’s meal, had indeed been a guest last week and whew, she was! (Note to self: is a cocktail adjustment in order before bedtime?)

For those of you who don’t know, Diana Kennedy is an Englishwoman who has been living in Mexico and writing about its food for years and years. She’s published several books, of which the book I used, The Cuisines of Mexico, is one of them. And after listening to her talk to Lynne Rossetto Kasper I decided to make something from her book. And might I just say that I was in trouble from the get-go.

Now by trouble I mean that while I am not necessarily a health nut, I didn’t want to buy lard for one recipe only to have it sit unused in my refrigerator and folks, a vast majority of the recipes call for lard.

Not to be deterred, I thought I’d make a mole but my mole and Diana’s mole are two different moles. I was thinking of mole that contains Mexican chocolate or coco (and not for one second should you equate Mexican chocolate to American; we’re not talking Hershey Bars here) but Diana’s didn’t contain one ounce of that ingredient. Instead, it contained a puree of green tomatoes, peppers, garlic and onion and it was very good but there were still issues, the biggest one being sourcing the remaining ingredients.

I’ve mentioned before that Minneapolis and St. Paul have some very good Hispanic markets, El Burrito Mercado being one of them - http://www.elburritomercado.com/. And so we stopped there thinking (correctly) that they would have what we were looking for. And yet this “panel” of me and my husband was still stumped. We found the chayote (vegetable pear) easily enough and then we found the chiles we were looking for, anchos and pasilla, but then had to stop and re-read the recipe because the peppers we found were dried and we weren’t sure that was correct. Here’s what the recipe said:

“…toast the chilies well, turning them frequently so that they do not burn. When they are cool enough to handle, remove the seeds and veins-do not soak them-and put them in a blender.”

Read one way, it sounds as though fresh chilies are required, especially when it comes to the instruction "remove the seeds and veins” but if read another way, the “do not soak them” directive seems to indicate that the chilies would indeed be dried.

So we hemmed and hawed and hemmed and hawed and finally decided to go with comparable fresh chiles. So we used Anaheim and poblanos and the taste was just fine but I can’t help wondering if we should have used the dried.

The next problem was the requirement to use 1 cup of tomates verdes, drained—basically, green tomatoes but green tomatoes are not readily available in the winter. Let me just reiterate again how much I hate unclear instructions! In this case, we decided to go with canned tomatillos and I think that is what Diana intended us to use but who can know for sure?!

When we finally got home from our exhausting little adventure in Mexican food shopping, I looked at the copyright date on this book, 1972, and marveled at the fact that Diana must have had confidence that these ingredients would be readily available outside of Mexico. I’m no food historian, but I can declare with total confidence that NONE of this stuff was available in my hometown in 1972…or 1982…or any other year thereafter. As to the Twin Cities, I’m not a native but I’m guessing it was probably hard to source some of this stuff here as well.

And so I hope Diana approves of these little substitutions because the dish was very tasty and I had a hard time stopping myself from eating the entire pot - “6 servings” might be a tad too generous!

By the way, "mole" is pronounced "mo-lay," not mole (as in the rodent). Minnesotans of Scandanavian background might be tempted to pronounce it "mo-lee" but that's because "Ole" (pronounced O-Lee) is a common Sandanavian male name and poor Ole is usually part of a series of jokes that either being with "Sven and Ole..." or (more popular) "Ole and Lena ..." (to read Ole and Lena jokes, click on this link: http://www.surfminnesota.net/olelena.html)

Mole de Olla (Mole cooked in a pot) – 6 servings (Note: this mole is a cross between a soup and a stew)
3 pounds pork neck bones or 3 pounds boiling beef (brisket or a shoulder cut), with bone
2 quarts water
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
A comal or griddle
4 chiles anchos
4 chiles pasilla
A blender
1 cup tomates verdes, drained
½ medium onion
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 pinch of cumin seeds or dried cumin
A small frying pan
3 tablespoons peanut or safflower oil
½ pound zucchini squash (2 medium)
¼ pound green beans
1 large ear of corn (or frozen corn kernels, thawed)
1 small chayote (1/2 pound)
3 small potatoes (1/2 pound)
3 sprigs epazote for garnish
Salt as necessary

Have the butcher cut the meat and bones into serving pieces. (This is Diana’s direction; I cut the meat myself). Cover them with the water, add the salt and bring to a boil. Lower the flame and simmer the meat, uncovered, until it is tender – about 50 minutes for the pork and 1 hour and 10 minutes for the beef.

Meanwhile prepare the chilies. Heat the comal (or griddle or, if using fresh chiles, roast them over a low flame) and toast the chilies well, turning them frequently so they do not burn. When they are cool enough to handle, remove the seeds and veins – do not soak them – and put them into the blender. Blend the chilies with the rest of the ingredients until smooth.

Heat the oil and fry the sauce for about 5 minutes. Add it to the meat in the pan.

Clean and trim the squash and cut them into halves, then into fours lengthwise. Trim the beans and cut them into halves. Cut the corn into 6 pieces (or thaw corn kernels and add a few handfuls to the mix). Cut the chayote open and remove the core, then cut into ¼-inch wedges. Skin the potatoes and cut them into cubes. (Note: I don’t know that the chayote added much in the way of flavor to the dish so if you can’t find it, don’t stress).

When the meat is tender, add the vegetables and cook the mole slowly, uncovered, for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked. Add the epazote about 5 minutes before the mole is ready, and add salt as necessary.

Serve in large, deep coup bowls, with hot tortillas, wedges of lime and finely chopped onion on the side.

"Three Rivers Renaissance Cookbook IV" & "Three Rivers Cookbook - 'The Good Taste of Pittsburgh'" - Tortilla Rice Soup and Tamale Ring

Date I made this recipe: February 1, 2009 (Super Bowl Sunday)

Three Rivers Renaissance Cookbook IV by the Child Health Association of Sewickley (PA)
Published by: Child Health Association of Sewickley
© 1980
Recipe: Tortilla Rice Soup submitted by Leslie S. Kelly – p. 39

Three Rivers Cookbook -“The Good Taste of Pittsburgh” by the Child Health Association of Sewickley, Inc.
© 1973
Recipe: Tamale Ring submitted by Mrs. Robinson F. Barker – p. 121

Well, today is Super Bowl Sunday and even though I didn’t really give a diddley boo as to who won (because it’s all about the commercials, right?), I wanted to acknowledge the day and like the Super Bowl, there was a clear winner in the dish department. But before I get to that, please indulge me in a teeny rant against the machine that is known as Top Chef.

For those of you who don’t know, Top Chef is a TV show on Bravo in which chefs compete on a weekly basis to be the last one standing and therefore, Top Chef. Every week they are presented a new challenge with one person emerging as the winner and advancing on, and another, the loser who is told to pack his/her knives and go.

And so it came to pass that last Wednesday, the producers (that would be you, Tom Colicchio!) decided to focus the show around the upcoming Super Bowl and brought in cheftestants from previous seasons to compete against this year’s contestants to make a signature dish representing the food of one of the NFL teams selected for this challenge.

And so it also came to pass that the Miami Dolphin contestants got seafood, the New Orleans team got crawfish, Seattle had salmon and so on and so forth, and then came Green Bay (the greatest team of all times) and my dear, darling Italian stud-muffin, Fabio, this season’s hottie contestant got….drum roll….venison.

Whaaaa?????????? Tom Colicchio, are you out of your mind? The word we are looking for, dear Thomas, is “bratwurst” (or brats). I mean, sure, venison is popular in that region but I can guarantee you, Thomas, as a lifelong member of Packer Nation, we do not run to the concession stands during a break in the action for venison. We do not tailgate, dear Thomas, for venison. We live for brats and beer…or brats soaked in beer…or beer (who the hell needs a brat, anyway?) but never, ever, ever for venison. Sheesh. Any Wisconsonite knows that.

And so it eventually came to pass that Fabio was on the chopping block for overcooking his venison and for misusing cheddar cheese in his salad although I hardly know how it is possible to misuse Wisconsin cheddar; really, these judges have antlers stuck up their…. At least he was spared for another week (and good thing, too, because je t’adore his Italian accent…and yes, I realize that phrase is French) but so is the evil, egotistical (“I love me, who do you love?”) Stefan who, sad to say, seems poised to take the contest this year (but so help me, if he wins Fan Favorite, I am outta here).

But I digress. This week is about the actual Super Bowl where men do not have to cook venison in the shape of a bratwurst (now that would have been something, huh?!) to show their mettle.

This year’s contest pitted the Pittsburg Steelers (no pun intended on the “pitted”) and the Arizona Cardinals. It was a very close game and it looked like the Cardinals just might pull it off when the Steelers scored a touchdown with 35 seconds to go to take a 4-point lead. Nuts. Although I intended to root for the Steelers, the fact that Arizona was such an underdog got to me and so I started pulling for them and they came oh-so-close; maybe next year?

So speaking of hits and misses, winners and losers, and Pittsburg and Arizona, I think I was very creative in finding foods from both camps to serve for Super Bowl Sunday. And here’s how: I have two Pittsburg cookbooks but not one specifically for Arizona, and so was momentarily stumped until I found a recipe for Tortilla Rice Soup in the Pittsburg cookbook. Ah ha! Tortilla + Rice = Southwest = Arizona = touchdown! (You see how easy that was?) And the dish was, in fact, a winner.

But then the challenge was to find another Southwest dish to go with the soup in the other Pittsburg cookbook I had and I almost threw in the towel until I came across the Tamale Ring recipe. And while it tasted okay, it didn’t turn out like I thought it would and so that dish, dear reader, was a loser.

Methinks the reason that the Tamale Ring was a loser was because it was supposed to set up more like a bread pudding or a spoon bread, especially since it was baked in a water bath, but instead didn’t have enough liquid and so ended up being more like savory bread in texture. That didn’t seem right. The other thing that didn’t seem right was the look as it was much too red from the chili powder for my satisfaction.

Part of the problem with recipes submitted by the home cook is that the instructions are sometimes lacking. With the tamale ring, I was instructed to put one can of corn through a grinder but as I did so I wondered if I was supposed to include the can liquid or not; I decided “not.” And then the tomatoes were supposed to be drained and so what this left was a glop of “dough” without any liquid and I don’t think this was supposed to happen. But seeing as how I couldn’t just call up Mrs. Robinson F. Barker who submitted the recipe, I went with what I thought was best and like the Cardinals’ efforts, it just wasn’t good enough.

The soup, on the other hand, was really good although I almost ruined it by forgetting to turn off the burner resulting in most of the liquid evaporating off the top. No doubt this happened during a commercial break seeing as how that’s the real reason I tuned in to the game in the first place. (But let’s contemplate for a minute what’s wrong with this picture: you skip watching the game so you can be in your seat for the commercials?).

So…is it too early to start chanting “Go Pack Go!” for next year’s Super Bowl?? If so, I promise you, dear reader, there will be no such silliness as venison. Stay tuned.


Tortilla Rice Soup – serves 4
Cooking spray
1/3 cup green oinion, sliced
4 cups chicken broth
1 14 ½-ounce can diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
1 cup cooked chicken breast, cubed
2 4-oz cans chopped green chiles
Salt and pepper
1 T fresh lime juice
2 cups cooked rice
Tortilla chips for garnish
½ cup chopped tomato for garnish
½ cup cubed avocado for garnish
4 lime slices and chopped cilantro, for garnish

Coat a Dutch oven or large saucepan with cooking pray. Saute onions over m,edium high heat until tender. Add broth, tomatoes, chicken and chiles. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in salt, pepper and lime juice. Just before serving, add rice.

Pour into soup bowls and top with tortilla chips, chopped tomatoes and avocado. Garnish with lime slices and cilantro.

Tamale Ring – serves 6
½ large can of tomatoes, strained
1 can of corn put through a grinder
1 green pepper, chopped
1 pint ripe olives, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 cup white corn meal
1 large T chili powder
Salt
2 eggs beaten separately

Mix the first five ingredients; add remaining ingredients and mix well. Bake 1 hour in a buttered ring mold set in a pan of water at 350. (The author says to serve with creamed chicken or shrimp but I’m sorry, that texture combination didn’t work for me so instead I served it with my soup.).

"Puerto Rican Dishes" - Sour-Sweet Hen (Chicken)

Date I made this recipe: June 20, 2008

Puerto Rican Dishes by Berta Cabanillas and Carmen Ginorio
Published by: Editorial De La Universidad de Puerto Rico
© 1974
Recipe: Sour-Sweet Hen (Chicken) Gallina (Pollo) a lo Agridulce – p. 43

Today’s recipe is in honor of Stephanie Izzard who won Bravo TV’s Top Chef prize a few weeks back on the island of Puerto Rico. ( Let me just say that now that summer is here and it finally quit raining, it’s challenging to get dinner on the table much less do so within a reasonable time after the contest ended.)

Although one of the challenges the semi-finalists had to endure was to cook recipes using an entire pig (in Cuba and in Puerto Rico, pigs rule), I went with an interesting and tasty recipe for sour-sweet hen.

The recipe book I used is the only one I have of Puerto Rican cooking but it comes straight from the island itself, purchased by me five years ago when I was in Puerto Rico for a law school class. That’s right, a law school class.

Almost every law school offers a study abroad program and I was one of fifteen people on the first school trip to the island. Classes are taught by local professors and are geared to giving an overview of that country’s laws. And what better way to escape the January cold front (-20 when we left and -20 when we got back) then to escape to an island where the temperature was a consistent 85 degrees?

But as idyllic as it sounds, the trip was not without its problems. First, we immediately checked in and immediately checked out of the flea-bag hotel (and I mean flea-bag in the truest sense of the word—ask the women from my group who were bitten) that was manned by a drunken desk clerk (but have no fear, we found lovely accommodations at a nearby Best Western where my roommate and I negotiated a group rate for the entire stay. It’s not for nothing we were lawyer wanna-bees). After that, we had public transportation challenges to the law school but solved that by renting a car and then carpooling as well as weather challenges. In fact, it rained on our only day off on the trip. (But might I just say that the roads in Puerto Rico need work. We thought we had pothole problems in Minnesota!)

But for every problem we had, there was also a funny moment or two, the best one coming on a Saturday when we were required to be in class for a half day. Bitch, moan, bitch, moan—you never heard such kvetching—at least, that is, until the instructor for the day walked in. This man was absolutely gorgeous and suddenly every woman in the room (there were only two men on the trip) went from bitching to uttering a very interested “Well, ho-la!!” Jaws dropped open, lipstick was hurriedly applied and eyelashes fluttered. I had to laugh when, after chatting with him on break, my classmates treated me like I had just met a movie star: “Oh my god, you talked to him!! What did he say? Isn’t he gorgeous? Did you find out if he was married?” (For the record the answers are: a) We talked about where to eat b) yes, he was gorgeous and c) I didn’t talk to him long enough to find out!

So suffice it to say, people, we hung on this man’s every word. Never has Puerto Rican history been so interesting. And when he came back on Monday to teach another portion of our program, there was much rejoicing.

Now, before I go on to the recipe, you might be puzzled as to why on earth we went to Puerto Rico to study foreign law and so a brief history lesson: Puerto Rico was initially settled by the Spanish and as a Spanish territory, followed the Spanish Civil Code (also known as the Napoleonic Code since Napoleon Bonaparte took what the Romans initially developed and made it into a more formal system). Most European countries still follow this code today, at least in civil matters. It’s hard to describe the differences but things like real estate, family law and contracts are just handled a bit differently than in the US.

Puerto Rico eventually became a US territory but got to keep the Spanish Civil Code for their civil matters as well. They are finally coming around to using US law in criminal matters and that’s a good thing as the criminal code is rather barbaric, starting with the fact that you’re guilty until proven otherwise, the exact opposite of US law. And for bonus points at your next cocktail party, you can also tell people that Puerto Rico is part of the federal court system’s first district and so matters involving US law are heard in federal courts. (Bankruptcy and trademark law, for example, are governed by federal law/federal courts instead of state law/state courts). It seems a little confusing to me to have two systems but they seem to like it just fine.

The dish I made for this blog would likely fail to meet the standards of the Top Chef “court” (judges Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Padma Lakshmi, and Ted Allen), particularly since I didn’t create it, but it’s a good dish that’s easy to make. I consider it my own personal winner!

Speaking of which, I would have been happy had Richard “Kewpie Doll” Blais had won because I liked him but it was time for a woman to come out on top so congratulations, Stephanie! Ladies, let Stephanie be your inspiration—get out there and get cooking! We have contests to enter and win!

Sour-Sweet Hen (Gallina a lo Agridulce) – 6-8 servings
1-3 pounds ready to cook hen (I used the same-sized chicken)
1 tablespoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
2 chopped cloves garlic
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons fat
4 ounces chopped ham
2 Spanish sausages (I used chorizo)
4 cups water
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup vinegar

Rub chicken inside out with salt, pepper, garlic, vinegar (1 T) and olive oil and leave over night. (And by “leave over night” I’m sure they meant “in the refrigerator” but you never know).

Put the fat into a kettle (Dutch oven or other pot) and add the chicken, ham and sausages. Mix the water, sugar, vinegar together and pour over the chicken. Cover and cook over low heat turning occasionally until the chicken is tender and the gravy thick.

Notes: I hate when recipes do not get specific on cooking time. How long does it take for a chicken to get tender anyway? I cooked it for 2 hours and the chicken was very tender but the gravy wasn’t what I called thick. Also, I sliced the sausages as well because putting them in whole seemed boring. This added a lot of fat to the dish but once refrigerated, it will easily skim off. The other thing you should know is that when I refrigerated the leftovers, the gravy settled into a Jell-O/aspic consistency but that Jell-O texture will dissolve once you reheat it. Finally, I served this with rice to complete the meal.