"Untangling My Chopsticks" & "Japanese Cooking" - Japanese Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl and Japanese Fried Pork

Date I made these recipes: August 3, 2008

Untangling my Chopsticks – A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto by Victoria Abbott Riccardi (this is an essay with recipes)
Published by: Broadway Books
ISBN: 0-7679-0851-1 © 2003
Recipe: Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl (Oyako Donburi) – p. 31-32

Japanese Cooking by Gail Weinshel Katz
Published by: Weathervane Books (This book is part of a Creative Cooking Series that published cookbooks of food from several countries)
ISBN: 0-517-244861 © 1978
Recipe: Fried Pork – p. 35

“Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so…” (lyrics from Turning Japanese by The Vapors, 1980).

Okay, perhaps that is a slight exaggeration and yet for one moment in the kitchen, I did turn Japanese in order to make these recipes.

I was inspired to take out these two books after meeting with a Japanese friend who used to play clarinet with me in my community band when she and her husband lived here while he was going to graduate school. Now, ten years later, she and her husband returned for a brief visit along with her two sons, now ten and eight and I met up with them for a very American dinner. She wanted someplace kid friendly and so we met up at Yum, a very fun restaurant by Minneapolis’ Lake Calhoun. (I highly recommend the macaroni and cheese)

No sooner had they caught the plane back to Tokyo then I made a grocery list and went shopping at an Asian market, United Noodles, in Minneapolis.

Even if you don’t intend to buy anything, United Noodles is a fun store. They carry grocery items for every Asian food imaginable along with house wares and even Chinese herbs. I was soon overwhelmed in the Japanese aisles, mostly because I didn’t know what I was looking for, but quickly sought help and all was well. Well, actually, all was almost well; I was so excited to have the dashi I needed for a recipe that I didn’t stop to consider that the jar I bought contained a half a cup and not the cup I needed for the recipe. Oh well, oh well. It still turned out just fine.

I do apologize to those of you who are not near an Asian market because you will likely not find the two main ingredients, mirin (Japanese cooking wine) and dashi (Japanese cooking stock, similar to bouillon) , in a regular grocery store. But you might be able to substitute by using another type of cooking wine and regular granulated bouillon. Let me know if you try it. If all else fails, it looks like you can mail order some ingredients; check out United Noodle’s website for more details: (By the way, dashi is listed under the full product name of AJINOMOTO hondashi. Make sure you buy two bottles!)
http://www.unitednoodles.com/catalog2/index.php

Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl (Oyako Donburi) – makes 4 servings
4 cups hot cooked rice
1 cup dashi
¼ cup soy sauce
1 ½ tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon mirin
4 large eggs
½ pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into ½-inch nuggets
1 bunch of scallions (about 6), trimmed and cut into 1-inch batons

Prepare the rice

Pour the dashi into a medium heavy-bottom saucepan, along with the soy sauce, sugar and mirin. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 2 minutes.

Break the eggs into a bowl and stir with chopsticks until the yokes and whites are mixed but not totally blended.

Add the chicken to the dashi mixture and then gently pour in the egg. Sprinkle the scallions over the egg. When the egg starts to become firm, after about 3 minutes of cooking, gently stir it with your chopsticks. (The chicken and scallions will have finished cooking in the hot liquid). NOTE: That’s not quite what happened. The egg was firming up way before the chicken got done and since nobody likes raw chicken, I threw the whole thing in the microwave for a minute or so. The egg got a little bit more done than I would have liked but the flavor was still there.).

Lay out four deep soup bowls. Spoon even portions of the rice into each bowl and top with the soupy chicken and egg mixture.

Fried Pork – Makes 4 servings
1 medium red pepper
2 tablespoons chopped scallions
2 tablespoons ground sesame seeds (Note: forget that noise—I threw them in whole!)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine or sherry (Not to be confused with rice wine vinegar)
1 pound sliced pork, ¼ inch thick
2 tablespoons oil
2 ounces transparent noodles or very thin spaghetti
1 medium cucumber, cut into thin strips
1 medium tomato, cut into thin strips

Sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar

Remove seeds from pepper; dice it fine. Mix with scallions, sesame seeds, soy sauce, and rice win or sherry. Marinate pork in this mixture for at least an hour.

Heat oil in frying pan. Drain pork; brown well on both sides in hot oil. Cut into smaller pieces, if desired.

Prepare noodles or thin spaghetti. Combine with cucumber and tomato strips. Place on platter along with the pork.

Prepare sauce by blending the vinegar, black pepper and sugar.

"American Pie - My Search for the Perfect Pizza" - Pizza Margherita

Date I made this recipe: July 27, 2008

American Pie – My Search for the Perfect Pizza by Peter Reinhart
Published by: 10 Speed Press
ISBN: 1-58008-422-2 © 2003
Recipe: Pizza Margherita – p. 171-172; sauce recipe - p. 142; dough recipe – p. 107

Sometimes a recipe gets made because of a need to use up an ingredient, in this case, mozzarella. My mozzarella was left over from the Italian Corn Salad recipe I made the week before. It took me about a second to settle on pizza as the recipe de giorno and a couple more seconds to find this cookbook, American Pie.

Pizza Margherita is a classic pizza recipe and one that my grandmother made countless times when I visited her and it was so delicious my cousins and I often ate it cold for breakfast. The reason we could do that is that my grandmother, unlike any other pizza-maker I’ve ever known, put the mozzarella on top of the dough and then put the sauce on top of the cheese. This allowed the cheese to stay moist rather than turn into that awful hard crust the way most leftover pizzas do. I must confess that old habits die hard and so my version of this pizza is really my grandmother’s, save for the anchovies that she usually put on half of the pizza (although I actually like anchovies, I didn’t think to add them!).

Now I have to admit that I cheated when it came to the pizza dough and went to an Italian deli where I used to work, Broder’s Cucina Italiana, in south Minneapolis to get my pizza dough (they carry both small and large dough, freshly-made and oh-so-yummy. In fact their dough is close to the hot roll mix my grandma always used for her pizza). Cheating is a good thing as it saved me time and effort. Since I didn’t use the recipe our author included, and since it is rather long, I’ll let you track down the book should you feel that you want to do it from scratch.

As to the sauce, it was close to what grandma made and was very robust. I made one large pie instead of two small ones, put most of the sauce on it and it was fine—not too soggy and not too strong on the tomato flavor.

When you’re done with the pizza(s), do like my grandmother did and yell “A mangia!” (Basically “let’s eat!”) in order to get your crew to the table. Eat and enjoy!

Pizza Margherita – Makes two 9-inch pizzas
2 Napoletana Pizza Dough balls, 6 ounces each (page 107) – or – any other pizza dough mix – or – pizza dough from a pizzeria (if available)
Unbleached all-purpose flour, cornmeal, or semolina flour, or a combination, for dusting peel
½ cup Crushed Tomato Sauce (page 142)
16 fresh basil leaves
¼ pound fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced into rounds, coarsely shredded, or cut into small chunks
2 T freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, pecorino Romano, Asiago, or other dry aged cheese (optional)

To make the sauce: (yield 4 cups)
1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil or 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil (optional)
1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 tablespoon minced fresh basil (optional)
1 tablespoon granulated garlic powder, or 5 cloves fresh garlic, minced or pressed
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon juice, or a combination
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

In a bowl, stir together all the ingredients, starting with ½ teaspoon salt and adding more to taste. Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to a week. (Note, the beauty of this recipe is that it doesn’t require cooking!!)

Now then, as to baking instructions, I’m going to take a sharp turn away from what’s in the book because there are many variations available depending on whether or not you have a baking stone (I don’t). In general, preheat the oven to 500 degrees for at least an hour. Make sure you have the lowest shelf available for baking. If you are using a baking stone, place it first on the middle shelf of the oven and preheat on the highest setting for at least an hour. If you do not have a pizza stone, use a sheet pan but still warm up the oven at the highest setting for an hour.

If you are using a sheet pan, the author recommends brushing it with oil first. I was way ahead of him on this one as my grandma always did that. Then spread out your dough on whatever surface you are using.

Next and this is my personal preference for pizza, lightly oil the crust of the pizza and then place your mozzarella cheese on top. The author directs you to spread ¼ cup of the tomato sauce over the surface of the dough, leaving a ¼-inch border uncovered. It’s up to you, but I like cheese first, then the sauce. Place 4 basil leaves on top of the cheese (or sauce) one in each quadrant. If you make it my way, you will spread the sauce over the cheese, add the remaining basil and then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the grated cheese. If you do it the author’s way, you will arrange half of the mozzarella over the top of the sauce and basil and then sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Carefully slide the pizza from the peel onto the baking stone. It should take 7 to 9 minutes to bake. When it is done, the crust should be puffy and slightly charred on the edge ad thinner in the center, and the cheese should be fully melted and just beginning to brown in spots. The underside of the crust should be brown and crisp, not white and soft. If the underside is not ready when the top is finished, lower the shelf for the next pizza.

Note: if you are using ready-made pizza dough or a pizza dough mix like I did, you will not get the puffy, slightly-charred look the author is going for. You’ll still get a wonderful pizza crust but it will be more like a bread crust than a cracker crust.

Remove the finished pizza from the oven and immediately lay 4 additional basil leaves on top, placing one in each quadrant but not directly on top of the previous basil leaves. Serve the pizza whole (usually 1 pizza per person), or let it cool for about 2 minutes before slicing and serving. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make the second pizza.

For Minneapolis residents, Broders’ Cucina Italiana is a great source for all items Italian, including pizza dough. Check it out at http://www.broders.com/

If you want to enjoy authentic Neapolitan pizza without having to make it yourself, head to Punch Pizza (several locations). Check it out at http://www.punchpizza.com/

"The Saturday Evening Post All American Cookbook" & "Blueberry Hill Cookbook" & "Food in Good Season" - shrimp, salad & dessert

Date I made these recipes: Saturday and Sunday, July 12th and 13th 2008

The Saturday Evening Post All American Cookbook by Charlotte Turgeon and Frederick A. Birmingham
Published by: Thomas Nelson Inc. & Curtis Publishing Company
© 1976
Recipe: Blueberry Buckle – p. 222

Blueberry Hill Cookbook by Elsie Masterton
Published by: Thomas Y. Crowell Company
© 1959
Recipe: Shrimps Steamed in Beer – p. 84-85

Food in Good Season – A Month-by-Month Harvest of Country Recipes for Cooks Everywhere by Betty Fussell
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN 0-394-57117-7
© 1988
Recipe: Italian Corn Salad – p. 153

So here’s how this went down: I mentioned in my last blog that I didn’t have time to make one of the recipes from one of my “All-American” cookbooks so I scheduled it for this weekend. And since I was making Blueberry Buckle, I thought I should see if I could find something from the Blueberry Hill Cookbook. And then, for whatever reason, after I found the shrimp recipe, I started to salivate for some sweet corn and that lead me to Betty Fussell who wrote The Story of Corn as well as Crazy for Corn (sad to say, neither are in my collection right now). And sure enough, Betty had this nice recipe for Italian Corn Salad to bring the menu full circle.

Now some of you might be a little young to remember artist Norman Rockwell, but he became famous for his wonderful drawings of everyday people and everyday life in The Saturday Evening Post. This cookbook is fun because it contains reprints of many of his culinary-related drawings. The recipe is fun as well and I was lucky enough to find some enormous blueberries for the buckle. They sure didn’t resemble anything I picked as a child!

Even though the Blueberry Hill Cookbook had blueberry recipes, I was really after something more main dish and the steamed shrimp seemed perfect. This cookbook was one of the first in my collection, purchased at The Strand in New York and I remember that it seemed to be in every used bookstore I went to on that trip. Blueberry Hill is an inn in Vermont and although I’ve never been, I certainly could make reservations and visit: http://www.blueberryhillinn.com/index.htm Sounds like ski season might be the perfect time.

Last, but not least, is the Italian Corn Salad. It was the perfect accompaniment to the shrimp and the blueberry buckle. If that menu didn’t scream “summer” I don’t know what did! Eat, enjoy and stock up on the napkins because you’ll need them for the shrimp!


Blueberry Buckle
¼ pound soft margarine (I used butter)\
½ cup sugar
1 egg, well beaten
2 cups sifted all-purpose unbleached flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ cup milk
1 pint fresh blueberries

Topping
4 tablespoons white sugar
4 tablespoons light brown sugar
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease well an 8-by-8-inch baking/serving dish.

Beat the margarine (butter) together until light and fluffy. Add the beaten egg and when well mixed, add the flour sifted with the baking powder alternately with the milk. Place in the dish and cover with the blueberries.

Note: the sentence above “flour sifted with the baking powder” really threw me. The recipe called for “2 cups sifted flour” but didn’t say to sift in the baking powder until further down. Now I’m no baker but I’ve certainly read that sifting or not sifting properly can make a difference; luckily things worked out fine. But oh how I longed for clearer instructions!

Put all the ingredients for the topping in a bowl and work them together with your fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle over the top. Bake 1 hour.

Shrimps Steamed in Beer – Serves 4

To be honest with you, the beer/spice combination that the shrimps were boiled in was okay but the butter sauce? Now that’s another story! Just be sure to have extra napkins ready!

1 can beer
1 ½ pounds shrimps in their shells
½ teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon dry mustard
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic, chopped
½ tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon chopped chives or onions

Dunk Sauce for Shrimps in Beer
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 teaspoon salt

To make the shrimp, in a large saucepan, combine and bring to a boil the beer, unshelled shrimps, thyme, dry mustard, bay leaf, chopped garlic, salt, chopped parsley, pepper and chopped chives or onion. As soon as the liquid comes to a boil, reduce heat and start timing. Let shrimp simmer 3 minutes. They should get pink, no more.

Serve at once, with the following sauce, prepared while you are preparing the shrimps.

To make the sauce, melt the butter, add all other ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Italian Corn Salad – Serves 4
2 cups fresh corn kernels
3 large tomatoes, sliced thin
¼ pound mozzarella, cut in strips
1 small bunch basil
1/3 cup olive oil
1 ½ tablespoons vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Heap uncooked corn kernels in center of a salad platter. Encircle with overlapping slices of tomato. Arrange mozzarella strips like spokes of a wheel radiating from the corn. Make an outside border of basil leaves. (Or just dump all the ingredients in a bowl like I did and call it a day!). Beat oil, vinegar, and seasoning together, and pour over the whole.

"It's All American Food" & "The American Regional Cookbook" & "The Best in American Cooking" (Paddleford) - 4th of July dishes

Date I made these recipes: 4th of July weekend 2008

It’s All American Food by David Rosengarten
Published by: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0-316-05315-5 © 2003
Recipe: New York City Pushcart Onions for Hot Dogs – p. 265

The American Regional Cookbook – Recipes from Yesterday and Today for the Modern Cook by Nancy & Arthur Hawkins
Published by: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
© 1976
Recipe: Hamburgers – p. 58

I Hear America Cooking by Betty Fussell
Published by: Elisabeth Sifton Books VIKING
ISBN: 0-670-81241-2 © 1986
Recipe: Bean Town Beans – p. 287-288

The Best In American Cooking – recipes collected by Clementine Paddleford
Published by: Charles Scribner’s Sons
© 1970; originally published as part of How America Eats © 1960
Recipe: Donna’s Potato Salad – p. 190


People, I had a very relaxing 4th of July weekend, the first in years, and had plenty of time to make all these recipes celebrating American cooking but finding time this week to write up my review was a challenge. So here it is, a week after the fact, and I’m just now getting going.

Now I’m sure many of you are like me and grew up in a very “traditional” family when it came to holiday picnic food. Mine was a mustard and ketchup (hot dogs and burgers) and Miracle Whip family (never Hellmann’s—that was what the east-coast cousins used) and potato salad was made with potatoes and celery (never relish) and Miracle Whip with sliced eggs as garnish.

Picnics were held down at the lake (as in Lake Superior, back in the day when beach bonfires were still allowed) and all the food was brought down in a newspaper-lined wooden bushel basket that my parents got at the local farmer’s market (yes, my small town had a small farmer’s market when I was growing up). To this day, there’s something about the smell of the newspaper and wood that brings me right back to the beach. Dad usually brought our little hibachi grill (we never had a big kettle grill in our family, likely because dad got used to using a hibachi during WWII). We grilled our hot dogs until the skins popped open (or roasted them in a bonfire), slathered them with mustard and ketchup and washed it all down with lemonade from the thermos. After waiting a suitable time after eating (an old-wife’s tale but we usually adhered to it, we took a plunge into the frosty waters – even in July – of Lake Superior and stayed in until our lips were blue and our teeth chattered. Those were the days.

On the 4th of July, my home town had a big parade followed by a pet parade for the kids and then around 4:30 or so, the fire department staged a water fight on the main street of down, dousing all of us excited children who deliberately came in bathing suits, hoping to get wet. Down at the boat docks, the Lions club had pie-eating contests and other assorted kiddie fun events going on and then at dusk, the fire works exploded over Munising Bay.

So in sticking with the 4th of July theme, I pulled several “American” cookbooks off my shelf just for the occasion. One recipe, for blueberry buckle, didn’t get made that weekend (darn that whole butter-softening process) but I’ll be making it shortly and posting those results separately. I must say, given all the cookbooks I have, it was challenging to find something that reminded me of my childhood—nothing too fancy yet something that sounded like it would be good when I made it, and (as you’ll see) one that didn’t take days to make. After all, there was a long, holiday weekend to enjoy!

Now, the entire menu almost unraveled due to lack of a potato salad recipe, something I neglected to select during the initial selection round. Talk about a gross oversight on my part because what’s a 4th of July picnic without potato salad??! But people, finding a recipe that wasn’t too weird turned out to be a huge challenge. (Can you believe some cookbooks that include “American” in the title, didn’t even include a potato salad recipe?! That’s just wrong, wrong, wrong on so many levels!).

I found recipes using horseradish (too modern), recipes using cream (??) and a couple recipes using, of all things, beef broth. Um….no. I was all set to throw in the towel when I read through the original baked bean recipe I selected and discovered that it needed to cook for 10-12 hours and that was just too long on a hot summer day. So after mixing and matching and reselecting some recipes, the 10-12 hour baked bean was substituted for one taking 4-6 hours and a potato salad recipe was in! Whew.

All the recipes were good, all were easy to make and hit the spot on a very lovely 4th of July. The hamburgers didn’t quite stay together as I expected (and so I really ended up with a loose-meat sandwich) but the flavor was there.

Speaking of flavor, one of my favorites of the weekend was the New York Pushcart Onions for Hot Dogs. If you’ve ever been to Gray’s Papaya in New York, you’ll know the joy of using this condiment. I could have eaten the entire pot of this stuff…but I didn’t! So much for traditional mustard and ketchup!

I hope you all had a Happy 4th of July!

New York City Pushcart Onions for Hot Dogs – yields enough for 12-16 hot dogs (yeah, right!)
1 T. vegetable oil
4 firmly packed cups of thinly sliced onion (about 2 large or 4 medium onions)
2 tsp. mined garlic (about 2 medium cloves)
1 T. flour
8 ounces canned, smooth tomato sauce
1 cup water
2 T. light corn syrup
2 tsp. white vinegar
2 bay leaves
½ tsp. dry mustard
Pinch of cayenne
Pinch of ground cloves

Place the vegetable oil in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and the garlic. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 20 minutes the onion should be softened but not browned.

Add the flour and stir well to distribute evenly among the onion slices. Cook for 1 minute, stirring to make sure the flour doesn’t burn. Add the tomato sauce, water, corn syrup, vinegar, bay leaves, mustard, cayenne, and cloves. Stir well to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and cook very slowly over low heat for 45 minutes. If the mixture has become too thick, add a little water.

Hamburgers – 4 servings
1 ½ pounds chopped round steak
1 onion, chopped
1 T. chopped shallots
4 T. butter
Dash Worcestershire sauce
Dash Tabasco sauce
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 tsp. salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 T. sour cream
4 large hard rolls, buttered

Saute the onion and shallots in 2 tablespoons of the butter, add the seasonings. Mix with the chopped steak and the beaten egg, suing your hands, not a fork.

Roll loosely into 4 balls the size of tennis balls and drop onto the kitchen table to flatten. Pan-broil on both sides in a heavy skillet with 2 tablespoons butter. Transfer to a heated platter.

Heat buttered rolls. Place a hamburger on each. To the pan juices, add the sour cream, simmer a minute or two, and pour a spoonful over each hamburger.

Bean Town Beans – serves 6 to 8
2 cups dried beans (pea, navy, or soldier)
½ pound smoked slab bacon, with rind on
1 large onion, chopped
¼ cup blackstrap molasses
1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 bay leaves, crushed
½ teaspoon each salt and black pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper, or dash Tabasco
Boiling water to cover the beans before baking

Pick over beans to remove grit or stones. Cover beans with cold water, bring to a boil, and boil one minute. Remove from the heat, cover pot, and let the beans sit 1 hour. Drain.

Score the bacon in squares without cutting through the rind. Put half the beans in the pot in which you will bake them and add onion, molasses, and seasonings. Add remaining beans and bury the bacon, rind up, in the top layer. Add just enough boiling water to cover. Cover the pot tightly and bake at 300 for 4 to 6 hours or more to melt the pork fat and melt the flavors. Add boiling water from time to time if needed. Remove lid for the last 30 minutes to make a brown crust.

Note: a big shout-out to Clancy’s Meat Market in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis for being the only place to carry a slab of bacon. A slab is just what it sounds like – a slab of bacon that has not been cut into strips. The slab of bacon is usually the very top piece to appear when you open a can of pork and beans. Several people asked me if salt pork would work but I had no idea. And the best thing was that the pork slab (I only got a quarter of a pound) only cost me $1.71. Of course, the cost of the gas it took to get there from my house was another story….


Donna’s Potato Salad, submitted by Donna Hansen, Idaho Falls, Idaho – yields 2 quarts
6 medium potatoes, boiled and diced (2 quarts diced)
6 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
½ cup minced onion
1 T. chopped parsley
¼ cup chopped dill or sweet pickle (I used sweet)
1 T. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1 T. prepared mustard
1 T. mayonnaise
1 T. French dressing
1 T. dill-pickle juice
¾ milk or light cream (about)
Paprika

Toss together lightly: potatoes, 5 of the sliced eggs, onion, parsley, pickle, salt and pepper. Combine mustard, mayonnaise, French dressing, pickle juice, and enough milk or cream to make 1 cup dressing. Toss with potato mixture. Arrange in a bowl. Place the remaining egg slices around top and sprinkle with paprika.

"Stirring Prose - Cooking with Texas Authors" - Molly Ivins's Composed Salad of Sausage and Orzo with Fresh Peas and MIxed Greens

Date I made this recipe: June 28, 2008
Stirring Prose – Cooking with Texas Authors by Deborah Douglas
Published by: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 0-089096-829-2 © 1998
Recipe: Molly Ivins’s Composed Salad of Sausage and Orzo with Fresh Peas and Mixed Greens – p. 130-131

I miss Molly Ivins.

In case you don't know who she was, she was a political writer, some might say satirist, and nobody wrote about politics, particularly the antics of the Texas Legislature (“The Lege”), like she did. To her, it was almost a sport to report on local doings in Austin, the state capital, and as to the national scene, why she was darned near an Olympian. The only thing funnier than her pen was the droll way she talked about politics on the talk show circuit. She should have been a comedienne. (To see some of Molly's finest, check out this link to her quotes: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/molly_ivins.htm)

I hate to say, but one of my favorite pieces that Molly wrote had to do with a member of “The Lege” who lobbied hard against smokestack cleanup back in the 1980's saying that there was nothing wrong with Texas air. After telling the story, Molly inserted a footnote at the bottom of the page telling us that the gentleman eventually died from lung cancer. I shouldn’t have laughed out loud at that but the way Molly wrote, you couldn’t help but see the irony of life.

It’s not for nothing that the name of one of Molly’s most popular books is Molly Ivins Can’t Say That… Can She? She has The Dallas Times Herald to thank for that one. After Molly said of Texas Representative James M. Collins “If his IQ slips any lower, we’ll have to water him twice a day.,” readers bombarded the newspaper with letters prompting The Dallas Times Herald to start a publicity campaign called “Molly Ivins Can’t Say That…Can She?” that ultimately became the book of the same name. After that, Molly was a national star.

Besides being witty as all get-out, Molly spent some time in Minneapolis as a writer for the then-named Minneapolis Tribune. You’ve got to admire a Texan for wanting to be part of the Chosen Frozen even if it was only for a short period of time.

Sadly, Molly died from breast cancer in January 2007 and it was while I was spending time this week with one of my best friends who is battling ovarian cancer that I thought of her again. I intended to make this recipe after Molly died but given that it was a summer salad, I back-burned it (pun intended) for another day. My friend with cancer has just now started eating again after months of eating through a feeding tube and so I hope she prepares this recipe and thinks of Molly (we both loved her writing) and of the hilarious antics of the Texas “Lege,” particularly as we are gunning for the finish line on this next election. Although most of us are exhausted by the year-long quest for the top job, Molly would have literally and figuratively eaten it up. She is missed.

Molly Ivins’s Composed Salad of Sausage and Orzo with Fresh Peas and Mixed Greens (no serving size noted but I cut this recipe in half)
2 cups orzo (about 12 ounces)
2 cups shelled fresh green peas (about 2 lbs. in the pod) (I used frozen)
1 large garlic clove, mined
½ cup pine nuts
12 sweet Italian sausages (about 2 lobs)
¼ cup dry red wine
½ cup chopped scallions
2 T. Dijon-styled mustard
1 ½ tsp salt
½ cup plus 1 ½ T olive oil
4 bunches of lamb’s lettuce (mache), about ½ lb.
8 small radicchio leaves, torn into pieces
2 T. red wine vinegar
1 T. mayonnaise
¾ tsp. freshly ground pepper
2 Belgian endives, cut into thin strips
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
Note: the author indicates that this is a flexible recipe so if you don’t like sausage, don’t use it, if you want lima beans instead of peas, go for it, and if you can’t find the lettuces listed (and I couldn’t), substitute.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Stir in the orzo and cook until the pasta is tender but still firm, about 10 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold running water; drain well.

Scatter the pine nuts over a small baking sheet and toast in the oven until golden brown, about 10 minutes. (Author’s note: 10 minutes on a heavy sheet; on a think cookie sheet they burn easily).

Steam the peas over boiling water until just tender, about 6 minutes. Rinse under cold running water; drain well.

Prick the sausages all over with a fork. In a large skillet, cook the sausages over moderately high heat (medium), turning, until browned, about 10 minutes. Pour off all of the fat. Add the garlic and wine to the skillet. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. (Ann’s note: although I cut the recipe in half, half the amount of wine would have been too little and would have simmered off too quickly so add just a touch more until your pan is coated.) Remove the sausages. Degrease the juice in the pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon of the salt, and ½ teaspoon of the pepper. Gradually whisk in 1/3 cup of the olive oil and the reserved pan juices, until well blended. Add to the orzo and stir to coat.

In a large bowl, toss together the lamb’s lettuce, Belgian endives, and radicchio. Drizzle the lemon juice and the remaining 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil over the salad. Season with the remaining ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper and toss.

Place a portion of the greens on each plate, top with a portion of the orzo mixture and arrange 2 sausages, sliced if you like, over the top of the salads.

"Sunset Favorite Recipes for Salads" - Oriental Cabbage Slaw

Date I made this recipe: June 22, 2008
Sunset Favorite Recipes for Salads by the Editors of Sunset Books and Sunset Magazine
Published by: Lane Publishing Company
© 1979
Recipe: Oriental Cabbage Slaw – p. 13

Today is my community band’s annual picnic and rather than do the usual (i.e. go out and buy something to bring), I made a dish, an oriental cabbage slaw. It helps to have a blog as incentive to cook from yet another cookbook.

Although I’m primarily a clarinet player in my band, I also sing with a smaller jazz group made up of 8 other band members and as a singer, I tend to watch what I eat before a performance. Dairy products and chocolate coat the throat and makes it hard to get notes out and coffee and alcohol do the opposite and dry it out.

Up until this year, I always moaned that I couldn’t eat half of what others brought to the picnic so this year I fought back and made something I could eat. Turns out it was tasty as well. The “payback” for my careful eating was that I blew the roof off the dump when I sang “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” So singers, take note! Pass up that chocolate brownie –you’ll thank me later.

My only issue with this recipe is that contrary to instructions you should not coarsely shred your Chinese cabbage as you will have a mess on your hands. None of the grating components of my grater did the job so I resorted to chopping the cabbage with my chef’s knife and that did the trick.

Oriental Cabbage Slaw – makes 6 to 8 servings
For the slaw:
½ pound fresh edible-pod peas, strings removed, or 1 package (10 oz) frozen edible-pod peas, thawed
1 small head (about 1 ¼ lbs) Chinese cabbage (napa), coarsely shredded
1 medium-size bunch radishes, thinly sliced
½ cup thinly sliced green onion
1 can (8 ½ oz) sliced bamboo shoots, drained
2/3 cup slivered almonds

For the dressing:
½ cup salad oil
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
¼ teaspoon sesame oil (optional)

Cut pea pods into 1-inch pieces. Place in a salad bowl with cabbage, radishes, onion and bamboo shoots (I cut these in half as well); cover and refrigerate, if made ahead.

Spread almonds in a shallow pan and toast in a 350 oven until lightly browned (about 8 minutes); set aside.

Combine the ingredients for the sweet soy dressing (salad oil, white wine vinegar, etc); blend well. Add the dressing to the cabbage mixture and toss well. Garnish with toasted almonds.

"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.

"Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book" (2 versions) - Springtime Skillet Dinner and Rhubarb Custard Pie

Date I made these recipes: June 1, 2008

Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book (three-ring binder) by General Mills
Published by: General Mills and McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
© 1950 – First Edition (Second Printing)
Recipe: Springtime Skillet Dinner p. 399

Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book (hard cover) by General Mills
Published by: General Mills and McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
© 1950 – First Edition (Second Printing)
Recipe: Rhubarb Custard Pie – crust p. 299 and filling p. 306


If this weekend’s cooking event was a baseball game, here’s how this went down: a swing and a hit and a swing and a miss.

Not that I want to tell Betty Crocker what to do, but I think she should stick to what I consider to be the cornerstone of the BC kitchens: baked goods. But casseroles? Not so much.

Two things prompted the selection of these recipes. One was that my mother-in-law had rhubarb that needed to be used up and the other was that while going through my mother’s things that she put in the attic, I discovered my Betty Crocker Junior Baking Kit. People, I almost cried. The kit originally contained 12 baking mixes (although I remember buying more) and 20 baking utensils including my favorite little red bowl. Oh how I loved to bake with this kit. Yet missing from the lineup of things we found (including my Bobbsey Twins books—remember those?) was my Easy Bake Oven. To my absolute horror, my mother informed me years ago that she “threw that out.”

Whaaaaat???? She kept the baking kit yet threw out the coolest toy ever? I almost had to be committed to the nearest mental hospital.

Moms can be funny about these things and I’ll never know exactly why she got rid of the Easy Bake but she redeemed herself by Betty’s Junior Baking Kit.

So of course after finding my bake set I had to bake something from my one of my two Big Red Cookbooks (a/k/a/ Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book) using the rhubarb and the pie I made was mighty delicious. But alas, people, the casserole was a real disappointment and for that, I take the blame.

I could have made any number of baked goods from the second BC cookbook but my eye latched on to the casserole and that was that. Besides, I really did want a main dish to round out dessert. But here’s the problem: the rice got too mushy cooking after cooking for 40 minutes (as directed) and the veggies were still too crisp even after I extended the cooking time by an extra 20 minutes.

But the bigger problem, in my humble opinion, is that the dish was bland, bland, oh-so-bland. The only “spice” was 2 teaspoons of soy sauce and that didn’t even make a dent with my taste buds. So…a swing and a miss it was.

By the way, in case you’re wondering why on earth I made a springtime casserole in June it’s because a) summer doesn’t start until June 21st and b) it’s been so cold and rainy here that it might as well be spring. (By the way, “It Might As Well Be Spring” is also the name of a song written by Rogers and Hammerstein for the movie State Fair. I will confess to liking show tunes but honestly, after watching a scene where a farmer serenades his pig with the song “Sweet Sow of Mine” I was outta there!)

Springtime Skillet Dinner – About 6 servings
2T fat
1 cut-up clove garlic
1 cup finely diced onion
½ lb. Ground beef
½ cup uncooked rice
5-6 cups water
1 cup finely diced carrots
1 cup finely diced potatoes
1 to 2 tsp soy sauce
1 T salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Brown the garlic in the fat in a 10” skillet. Remove the garlic then add the onion and ground beef. Cook until browned stirring. Add the rice and water and simmer uncovered over low heat for 40 minutes. Add the carrots and potatoes and continue simmering until tender (20 minutes—although I did 40 and the veggies still weren’t tender). Season with soy sauce, salt and pepper.


Rhubarb Custard Pie – yields 7 to 8 pieces

For the pie crust
2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
4 T water

For the pie filling
3 eggs
2 2/3 T milk
2 cups sugar
4 T flour
¾ tsp nutmeg
4 cups cut-up pink rhubarb
1 T butter

To make the pie crust:

Mix together 2 cups sifted flour and salt. Cut in the shortening and then sprinkle with the water. Gather dough together and press into a ball. Roll out on a floured surface until your dough is about an inch large than the pie plate. Trim and crimp the pie crust. (Note: the recipe said to make a lattice crust for the pie but I skipped that part).

To make the filling:

Beat slightly the three eggs then add the milk. Mix together then stir in the sugar, flour and nutmeg. Add the rhubarb and mix well. Pour into the pie pan and then dot filling with butter.

Bake until nicely browned, approximately 50 to 60 minutes in a 400 degree oven.