"It's the Berries!" - Chicken with Strawberry Vinegar and Honey

Date I made this recipe:  August 26, 2012

It’s the Berries!  - Exotic &Common Recipes by Liz Anton & Beth Dooley

Published by:  A Garden Way Publishing Book; Storey Communications, Inc.

© 1988

Recipe:  Chicken with Strawberry Vinegar and Honey – p. 39; Strawberry Vinegar recipe p. 142

If last week’s problem with blog posting was procrastination (i.e. having too much time on my hands), this week’s problem was a concerted lack of time.  I could not carve out even a second or two to write this thing and that was frustrating because this dish is delicious and I couldn’t wait to tell you all about it. And it’s also redemption for the sad meal I made the week before.

I’d love to say that summer is the period where I stock up on fresh (and seasonal) fruit and vegetables but alas, I do not.  I have yet to visit a farmer’s market, operating under my own, personal premise that “You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” and I basically ignore everything in my grocery store that screams “Seasonal!”  It’s not that I don’t love fruits and veggies, I do, but it’s just not something that comes to my first thing in the morning.  Coffee comes to mind first thing in the morning, followed by nap, followed by….

Until this past week, that is.  I recently purchased this book, It’s the Berries!, from Arc’s Value Village Thrift Store and while putting it away in my stack, I thought “Huh, maybe this would be a good time to make something from this book.”  I was not wrong.

But I will say that finding the right recipe was a challenge.  Several recipes contained cranberries and it is way too early in the season for that.  I don’t like fruit soups (personal preference) and dessert seemed so clichéd.  But then I spotted it.  Strawberry chicken!  With honey! Strawberry chicken AND honey!  Sweet!  (Pun intended).

And so I made it and so it was good and so I was happy.  I served this up with couscous and asparagus and my oh my, what a fun meal I had. (Well, I overcooked the asparagus but these are the things we must deal with in life.  I ate it anyway.)

BUT.  Let me be clear that should you make this dish (and you should), do not, I repeat, do not use those craptastic things in the grocery store that masquerade as strawberries.  To do so is an insult to the real deal and your dish won’t be as flavorful.  Because folks, the way strawberries are genetically engineered these days robs them of their flavor.  Bite into one and it’s like biting into colored Styrofoam but that is just this gal’s opinion.

I say this to you because people, I’ve had the “Real Deal.”  My parents had a fruit and vegetable garden and all summer long, we feasted on earthly delights such as raspberries and strawberries.  Compared to today’s gigonzo strawberries, our little garden ones seemed so anemic yet they were loaded with flavor.  We had strawberry jam, strawberry compote and frozen strawberries to last us a lifetime.  Ah, such sweet memories!

At any rate, I bought my strawberries at Trader Joe’s and while larger than I liked, they were close enough to the “Real Deal” for me to buy them.  Plus, they were reasonably priced and so that made me feel all the better about skipping out on a farmer’s market excursion to find something comparable to what I had as a child.  So there!

So the order of appearance in this recipe is that you make the strawberry vinegar first and then…uh oh…let it steep for a month, and then use the vinegar in the recipe.  Well I can assure you that didn’t happen!  But I am happy to report that this was no big deal.  In fact, instead of straining the vinegar, I threw some of the mashed strawberries from the vinegar mixture into the skillet and the result was yummy.

As to the authors, Minnesota cook book collectors might recognize Beth Dooley’s name from a couple cookbook s as well as a byline in the Mpls St. Paul Magazine.  Beth’s newest cookbook, The Northern Heartland Kitchen, focuses on seasonal cuisine in this neck of the woods but I first knew Beth when she teamed up with local chef and restaurant owner (and my hero), Lucia Watson, to write one of my favorite books in my entire collection (1,463 and growing) – Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland.   This book also focuses on local cuisine and features the same type of food that is regularly featured as Lucia’s restaurant called, appropriately, Lucia’s in the Uptown area of Minneapolis. (Go.there.now.)  Beth wrote this cookbook, It’s the Berries, with her mother, Liz Anton and I think it is very cool that mother and daughter got along well enough to put pen to paper to create this cookbook; my sister-in-law loves a photo of me and my mother arguing in the kitchen at Christmastime, 1996.  So there you have it.

As we are now on the doorstep of Labor Day, I urge you to get going and make this recipe!  And get “Real Deal” strawberries and don’t think I’m kidding.  You will thank me later.

Chicken with Strawberry Vinegar and Honey – serves 8

4 pounds of chicken, quartered

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons clarified butter *see notes below

2 tablespoons peanut oil, plus some to sauté shallots

4 shallots, minced

½ cup strawberry vinegar

1/3 cup honey

1 cup strawberries, hulled and rinsed or if frozen drained and thawed, sliced

For the strawberry vinegar – makes 5 cups

2 cups strawberries

1 cup of champagne and 1 cup for later (optional)

2 cups white wine vinegar

8 whole black peppercorns

1 ½ teaspoon sugar

To make the vinegar:

Mash strawberries.  Heat the champagne, wine vinegar, peppercorns and sugar together.  Pour over strawberries in sterile jar.  Cool, cover and place in a dark place for a 1 month.  Stir occasionally.  Press out strawberry flesh between double cheesecloth, discard the fruit.  Add the second cup of champagne to the vinegar mixture.  Stir to release the carbonation.  Allow to rest in a dark place for 1 month.

Ann’s Note:  I pretty much ignored everything above, some of it intentionally, some of it not.  I mashed the berries, skipped the vinegar and skipped the cheesecloth portion of our program and for sure did NOT let it sit for a month but it was still tasty.  I also cut down the portion size to equal one cup (or so) and it worked fine although I added a little bit more sugar than was called for but that was to satisfy my own personal taste.

To make the dish:

Rinse and dry chicken.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.  Combine butter and oil in large skillet, add chicken and brown.  (Do not crowd pieces.)  When chicken has been browned, remove to a warm platter with pan juices.  Skim fat.  Sauté shallots in a small amount of oil until translucent.  Add strawberry vinegar and honey to pan and simmer.  Return chicken, cook until partially covered for about 20 minutes.  Baste often to glaze chicken.  Toss in strawberries just before serving.

Ann’s Note:  I used boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in half, so there wasn’t any fat to skim.  I also added a bit more oil to the pan as well as more honey and more strawberry vinegar (with mashed strawberries) as the sauce was looking like it might stick and burn.  And then I tossed in the strawberries with about 5 minutes left just because I like to go rogue.  The result was phenomenal!

                                                                                                                               

"Good Things to Eat - As Suggested by Rufus (Rufus Estes -former slave)" & "Clambakes & Fish Fries" - Corn Fritters and Oyster Pan Roast

Date I made these recipes:  August 19, 2012

Good Things to Eat as Suggested by Rufus by Rufus Estes – Published by Rufus in 1911; edited by D. J. Frienz

Facsimile of this book Published by Howling at the Moon Press

ISBN: 9-9654333-1-5

Recipe:  Corn Fritters – p. 61-62

Clambakes & Fish Fries by Susan Herrmann Loomis

Published by:  Workman Publishing, New York

© 1994

Recipe:  Oyster Pan Roast – p. 133-134

People, I am not a procrastinator by nature but I have been putting off posting this blog forever, probably, in part, because the meal wasn’t my best effort.  Although I rarely have clunkers, this definitely landed in that category and that makes me sad.  Food should be pleasing, no?

Initially, I planned to celebrate the end of the Olympics by preparing this meal.  But if you are like me, I was too exhausted to cook anything to celebrate the end of the world’s greatest sporting event.  And besides, the closing ceremony started early in the evening and who wanted to be in the kitchen (never mind that I have a TV there) during the closing ceremonies? (That said, NBC – please don’t announce the The Kinks and The Who are “coming up” if you don’t plan to show them.  Did we really need to see the pilot to Animal Planet/Animal Practice/Animal Whatever?)

Now, I am not normally glued to my set 24-7 during the Olympics, but this time was different.  Certain events have always grabbed my attention like swimming and track and yet there I was all fist to my mouth watching the equestrian Individual Jumping competition with the horses (and riders, natch) clearing (or not) all those bars and water hazards and whatnot.  And although I can often take or leave gymnastics (I know – heresy) I often find myself watching through my fingers as the gals do the balance beam.  I’m sorry, there’s just nothing on this planet that will make me do back flips on a 4” piece of wood - nothing.

At any rate and any who, one of the bright stars of the Olympics was of course Gabriel (Gabby) Douglas, the first African-American to win gold in the All-Around (Gymnastics) Competition.  I wish I had that gal’s enthusiasm and bubbly personality.  She was just a joy to watch, and I think we can all agree, not half bad in her events, right?!

So as I was watching her tumble and flip and twirl her way to a gold medal (and let’s not forget the team gold, either), I started pondering what cookbooks I could use to celebrate her breakthrough stardom.  And then it hit me – years ago, I acquired a cookbook written by a man who was born a slave but went on to have a career as a Pullman (train) chef and thought that would be perfect – a breakthrough star doing an unheard of “professional” job  in the early 1900’s.

Rufus Estes was born a slave in Tennessee in 1857 and was given his name by his slave master, D.J. Ester.  D.J. owned Rufus’ mother’s family:  does that not give you chills?  After the Civil War ended, he did odd jobs around his grandmother’s house before finally getting a job in a Nashville restaurant at age 16.  In 1883, he started working for Pullman and remained there until 1897; during that time he waited on everyone from African explorers to two Presidents of the United States - Grover Cleveland and William Henry Harrison.  Eventually, he became a chef for one of U.S. Steel’s subsidiary companies in Chicago and shortly thereafter wrote this cookbook.  He also penned the biography found in the front of the book. In 1999, a facsimile of his original book was published and the cookbook literary world took note – a cookbook penned by a former slave?  In 1911?  What?!

Not only did he write this cookbook but in terms of recipes it’s pretty comprehensive.  There’s a recipe in this book for homemade English Muffins and yet another for candied violets.  Well color me impressed because I am!

I decided to make his recipe for corn fritters as it was fairly easy and it is sweet corn time right now so I had a hankering.  But corn fritters alone didn’t seem like much of a meal and so I decided to make a seafood dish in homage to Gabby Douglas’ home town of Virginia Beach, Virginia thus the pan-roast oysters.  I’ve been to Virginia Beach many times in the past and had some delicious oysters there and so thought “Why not?”  Now hard could that be, anyway?  Answer:  harder than you think!

Clambakes & Fish Fries, my source for the pan-roast oysters, includes fish and seafood recipes from all over and since both Rufus and Gabby traveled all over in pursuit of their dreams, I thought a recipe from this book would be good.  Plus, truth be told, I’m not sure I have a Virginia seafood cookbook – yet.

Okay, so corn fritters and pan-roast oysters it was and so a week after the Olympics (now that I had time), I set about to get ‘er done.  Well.  I don’t know what I was expecting with the fitters but they came out like pancakes and let me tell you, flipping a pancake loaded with corn kernels is challenging.  The recipe said to let them cook for 4-5 minutes on each side but had I done that, we would be having charred corn—and this is not necessarily a good thing.

But the worst disaster was the oyster pan-roast.  This recipe said to fry for 1-2 minutes on each side and this was just wrong on so many levels.  I went longer than that but still ended up with kind of a mushy, warm oyster that was neither raw nor roasted.  But if I went too long, I worried that I would end up with erasers (trust me, this happens) and didn’t fancy eating erasers for dinner. 

So, what we ended up with was a corn pancake that needed way more salt and pepper than the recipe required and some mushy, warm oysters without much flavor to recommend them.  Can I just tell you that this is why keeping microwave popcorn on hand is a good idea?

Despite the culinary “failure,” I would attempt both dishes again but this time with variations:  maybe a pinch of cayenne pepper added to the fritters? How about maple syrup on top since they resemble pancakes? Or maybe a bit of white wine or vermouth added to the oysters?  The sky is the limit.

I do not regret though, having made recipes from these books, especially Rufus’ because it gave me a chance to re-read his crowning achievement and put it in perspective next to his modern-day “breakthrough” equivalent – Gabby Douglas’ gold medal.  While I am happy and proud of Gabby’s accomplishments, doesn’t it seem a little unreal that it took until 2012 for this to happen?  And yet- world events from the Civil War to the Olympics reminds us every time that life is a constant cycle of triumph over tragedy.  For Rufus, it was breaking out of his slave beginnings to carve out a life as a chef and to publish a cookbook.  For Gabby, it was leaving home and family behind in Virginia to train in West Des Moines, Iowa and then prevail over all the other gymnastic Olympic hopefuls to win a spot on a team.  I tell you what, just to make the Olympic team is an accomplishment in and of itself and something this aspiring couch potato does not take lightly!!

As a final thought, I was thinking that in some ways the failure of these recipes mirrors the efforts that fell short by most 2012 Olympic athletes including Gabby in some of her individual events. As my father always said “Many are called, few are chosen,” and so despite making the Olympic team, most athletes walked away without a medal. Watching the “agony of defeat” (thank you ABC’s Wild World of Sports!) is heartbreaking and yet it’s something that most of us experience – painfully – in our own lives every day. The moral of that life story is classic: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”  I can assure you that I will live to cook another day!

So here’s to our breakthrough stars and their breakthrough moments. 

Corn Fritters – serving size not listed (I made half a recipe)

4 ears corn

¼ pound (sifted) flour

Two eggs

½ pint cold milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Butter for the pan

Prepare four ears of fresh corn by removing the outer husks and silks; boil and then drain well.  Cut the grains from the cobs and place in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, add one-fourth pound of sifted flour, two eggs and a half pint of cold milk.  Stir vigorously, but do not beat, with a wooden spoon for five minutes, when it will be sufficiently firm; butter a frying-pan, place it on a fire, and with a ladle holding one gill put the mixture on the pan in twelve parts, being careful that they do not touch each other, and fry till [until] of a good golden brown color, cooking four or five minutes on each side.  Dress them on a folded napkin and serve.

Ann’s Note:  a “gill” is one-half cup.

Oyster Pan Roast – 8 appetizer servings (4 main-course servings) – I made half the recipe

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ pounds (about 48) freshly shucked oysters

*I bought my oysters at Coastal Seafood in St. Paul

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Stir in the garlic, and cook until the butter foams and the garlic begins to turn slightly translucent, 1 to 2 minutes.  Then add the oysters and cook, stirring constantly or shaking the pan, until they are plump and beginning to curl at the edges, 1 to 2 minutes.  (Ann’s Note:  1-2 minutes does not seem like sufficient time.  After 4 to 5 minutes, I still had quite the gloppy mess on my hands.)

Turn the oysters out into a warmed serving bowl or individual bowls, and serve with plenty of crusty bread. 

*PS--I purchased this book, Clambakes & Fish Fries at Arc's Value Village in Richfield, MN for mere pennies on the dollar.  

                                                                        

"Three Generations of Chilean Cuisine" & "The Spirit of Puerto Rican Rum" - Avocado Soup & Tangerine Loin of Pork

Date I made these recipes:  August 5, 2012

Three Generations of Chilean Cuisine by Mirtha Umana-Murray

Published by Lowell House

ISBN:  1-56565-817-5

Recipe:  Avocado Soup (Crema Quillotana) – p. 69

The Spirit of Puerto Rican Rum – Recipes and Recollections by Blanche Gelabert; Photography by William Gelabert

Published by:  Discovery Press, San Juan, Puerto Rico

ISBN: 0-9633216-1-7PBK

Recipe:  Tangerine Loin of Pork – p. 105

But first, a rant:  a couple weeks back, I reported a hog-stealing incident in nearby Wisconsin to some women lawyer friends of mine, the “G’s.”  One of the G’s, Jen (nicknamed “Jenja”) replied “If I thought I could get away with it, I’d steal the swine as well.  Have you seen the price of bacon lately?”  I confessed that I had not and then shortly thereafter, had to buy some bacon for a recipe and was surprised that a pack of bacon cost around $7.50.

But nothing prepared me for the astonishing price of $11.99 a pound for pork tenderloin.  Granted, this was a Whole Foods price but still – what??!!  So while I am not a betting person, I am willing to put some serious money down that most of you will NOT be making the entire recipe for Tangerine Loin of Pork because it calls for 5-6 pounds.  Ca-ching!  Ca-ching!

When I informed the G’s of latest thoughts on pork futures (something I will now be watching very carefully), I accidentally typed that I bought a pork “loan” instead of pork “loin,” and then promptly dissolved into fits of laughter.  Because even two pounds of pork, my compromise “bill,” cost a fortune and I almost needed a personal loan at the checkout counter.  “Yes, that’s right, a loan to buy pork.  Yes, a pork loan. Okay, then, we’ll call it a loin loan.  Duh….”

Okay, back on track.  I intended to make these recipes in late June but we were experiencing scorching temperatures at the time and my husband imposed a “No Oven” rule and so that was that (at least for the pork recipe).  Plus I had the Tour de France and the Olympics to write about.  But now the weather has cooled off to a balmy 85 and so it was time.

I’ve mentioned in other blog posts that I watch ABC’s The Chew, a talk show/food show/craft show that airs at noon locally.  I typically tape the show and then watch it later in the evening, although these days with the Olympics on, I am thrown off my usual schedule.  The other day, I was about ten taped programs behind and had to dedicate some serious non-cooking time to get caught up.  Anyway…

The Chew always has a topic of the day and back on June 22nd, the topic was three-generational meals. Each of the hosts talked about their favorite generational meals they had as kids and then some of the audience members showed off their own.  And then their special food “correspondent,” Evette Rios and her mother cooked one of their Puerto Rican favorites.

Well, besides being mouthwatering, this show triggered my memory banks as I knew, somewhere in this vast collection, I had a cookbook about generational meals (and really, who doesn’t?) and there it was – Three Generations of Chilean Cuisine.  Ta da!  Of course, finding it in my stacks and stacks of books proved to be challenging as apparently, I moved it from where it had always been to another stack that was more hidden than the other spot.  But find it I did and so the hunt for recipes began.

Now I will disclose to you that while I studied Latin American history in college (as part of my Spanish minor requirements and yes, it was all in Spanish, not English – books and all), we didn’t even come close to touching on the culinary history of Latin America and so revisiting this cookbook, purchased early on in my collecting career, proved to be enlightening.  I mean call me una estupida Americana but I was floored when I saw duck with oranges and goose with spicy mushrooms and cranberry sauce included in the offerings.  It just never occurred to me that Chileans would eat this stuff, perhaps because I hate those two fowls with a passion and wouldn’t eat them on a bet.  Besides, my Latin American history classes focused on the Spanish influence in Latin America (huh, go figure) and I’ve never thought of Spaniards eating a lot of duck or goose, either.  So clearly, some refresher classes are needed (along with a slap upside my own head).

On the other hand, I was not at all surprised to see a recipe for Chilean Bass but that is only because after this cookbook was published (1997), Chilean Bass became an off-the-chart popular item in as many restaurants as could get their hands on it.  This run on bass caused the fish to be overused and overfished and it now borders on being endangered.  Just goes to show that sometimes, it does not pay to be popular

So I was doing my usual hem and haw on what to make and then I went back to the beginning and when I got to soups (sopa) (in Latin America, apparently “crema” is the word we are looking for) and saw this recipe for Avocado Soup, I was in love.  And then when I made it, I was well, besotted?  Is besotted the right word?  I think so.  I was besotted. 

The thing about this recipe is that it is ridiculously easy:  onion, flour, chicken broth and pureed avocado and that’s it.  Four ingredients, five if you count the olive oil used to sautee the onions, six if you include lemon juice to keep the avocado green and there you go.  I could not quit eating it and finally had to force myself to stop already!  And now I’m damned mad that I only made a half a batch as I didn’t want to get too full with the pork.  Estupido!

The cookbook’s author said that she’s eaten this soup at the Pehun Inn in the wild Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia.  And again I have to wonder “was I taking a siesta in history class” because my first thought regarding Patagonia was “snow,” not “avocados.”  But silly me, while that region does include the famous Andes mountains, it is also as topographically varied as any other section of the world—oceans, mountains, valleys –you name it, they have it.  So yes, avocados!

Turning our attention to Puerto Rico, another country we barely touched on in Latin American history class (but at least I’ve been there), we have the pork loin with tangerines…and rum.  Oh yum, that rum!!  I thought this would be a good match with my avocado soup and I was right.  Both dishes were so tasty that it was a run for the roses with my husband to see who finished first.  He won, but only by a half a piece of pork loin.  By the way, when I asked him why he didn’t sample the soup, he said “Oh was I supposed to put that in a separate bowl?”  Apparently, he thought the soup was a type of gravy for the rice.  Well, in the end, they all end up in the same place, right, so it was a cute moment with no harm, no foul (or is that “fowl?”).

While this recipe calls for Puerto Rican rum – and why wouldn’t it? – I have a sizeable stash of Jamaican rum on hand and so used that instead.  I was matron of honor for a good friend at her wedding in Jamaica and let’s just say Andy and I took advantage of duty-free shopping before getting on the plane.  In the end, booze is booze and so I’m not going to start a riot by preferring one over the other but I will say that rum makes this dish.  It’s just enough so that you taste it along with the other ingredients (garlic, tangerine peel, ginger and cloves) but not overpowering.  Nobody likes a drunk, sloppy (but well-fed) cook, do they?

Now like most cooks, I wanted to time everything just right so that I could serve everything at once.  I started my rice cooker going with a side of rice for the pork put the timer on for the pork (30 minutes per pound and I had just over two pounds) and prepared the items for the soup, the soup to be the final thing I made.  Well, sister, I mistimed the pork and it was done way earlier than it should have been and so I scrambled to start the soup while my husband put together the paste that should have been on the pork 40 minutes before finishing.  I told him that at $11.99 a pound, we would eat that pork even if it was rendered to charcoal but in the end, it came out perfectly.  To steady our nerves, we had a sampling of rum while we were on our final steps and this helped a lot.

And so with the Olympic games on the TV, and with bowls (or in Andy’s case, bowl) of soup and pork and rice, we were in for one mighty fine evening.  If I have any regrets, it is that the husband of the same friend whose wedding I was in is not fond of pork.  Bummer, that.  But I’m thinking that maybe this could be adapted to chicken and so I might play around with that because Sheesh was this an excellent “Three-Generational” meal, or what!

Avocado Soup (Crema Quillotana) – serves 6

1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons flour

4 cups chicken broth (the author includes a recipe for Chicken Stock – Consome de Ave – on page 64)

2 large avocados

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Salt, to taste

1 pinch fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Sauté the onion in oil, add the flour, and stir to cook the flour.  Add the chicken broth.  In a glass or ceramic container, peel and puree the avocados and immediately add the lemon juice to avoid oxidation and browning. (Ann’s note:  I used my Cuisinart for this and it worked just fine.) At the last minute add the avocado puree to the soup and stir well; do not boil. (Boiling causes the avocados to turn dark and lose their taste.)  Add salt to taste and serve hot, garnished with cilantro.

Tangerine Loin of Pork - 8-10 servings

(Ann’s Note:  unless you want to go to the poorhouse on this one, exercise restraint at the grocery store!  And by the way, you might be tempted to use one of those pre-wrapped and ridiculously salty preserved pork tenderloins that cost far less than fresh—but don’t!)

1 4-5 lb loin of pork (Ann’s note:  I used two)

3 cloves garlic

½ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons grated tangerine peel

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

2 tablespoons fresh ginger root, grated

1/3 cup amber rum

Sprinkle loin with salt and pepper.  Roast in oven at 350 until 40 minutes before done.  (Allow 30 minutes per lb. or until internal temperature is 175F.)  Mash garlic with sugar, tangerine peel, ground cloves and ginger.  Add rum to paste.  Rub all over loin, return to oven and continue roasting until done. 

Ann’s Note:  This paste forms the most wonderful sugar crust on the planet. 

"1980 Olympic Games in Moscow - Cookbook and Schedule of Events" - Stir-Fried Chicken

Date I made this recipe:  July 29, 2012 (for the Olympics)

1980 Olympic Games in Moscow – Cookbook and Schedule of Events – Favorite Recipes of Prospective U.S. Participants

Published by:  Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers

© 1979

Recipe:  (Cheeseman’s) Stir-Fried Chicken – p. 62

*Note:  This is one of my longer blog posts but just like the Olympics, it will (likely) only come around every four years so hang in there!

Right then.  So the 2012 Olympics got underway in London on Friday, July 27, with a right smashing Opening Ceremony that included a hilarious James Bond spoof featuring none other than HM, The Queen of England.  That’s right, the Queen of England.  Like most viewers, I must have played that scene back 3 times utterly stunned that it was the Queen, the real Queen and nothing but the Queen.  Who knew that HM had such a sense of humor?  Oh, and Daniel Craig (as James Bond) wasn’t too bad, either. (By the way, in an uncanny coincidence, my community band played music from the James Bond movies as well as John William’s Olympic Spirit this summer.)

So OBVIOUSLY with the Olympics at hand, I needed to find myself an Olympic cookbook, right?  Quite.  Well find it I did in of all places, the charming café/bookstore in my hometown in Michigan – Falling Rock Café – last April and yes, I’ve been holding on to it ever since.  I am nothing if not prepared for the global events!

For those of you who were around in 1980, you might recall that this cookbook is a bit of a head-fake as the Olympic team did not participate in the 1980 Olympics that year.  U.S. tension against the former Soviet Union was already on red-alert when Russia invaded Afghanistan and in response, President Carter decided to cancel our appearance at the games.  (Naturally, the Soviet Union followed suit and canceled its appearance at the 1984 games in Los Angeles and so tit for tat and phooey on all that!)  Let me just say that to this day, I believe this was the wrong decision. Aspiring Olympic athletes devote their whole lives and their bank accounts to make the team and punishing them on behalf of a nation is just wrong – on both sides.

Harrumph.  Any who…so here we are at the 2012 Olympics already and some of the 1980 athletes are now providing commentary on various events, like former swimmer Rowdy Gaines and gymnast Bart Conner.  And since I was a high school swimmer I was all set to make one of Rowdy’s recipes but changed it up at the last minute.  And here’s why:  about the same time that I pulled this cookbook off my shelf as a “must use,” the U.S. observed the 40^th anniversary of Title IX, allowing for equality for women in sports. And again, I can only shake my head and marvel how time flies.  And so I decided that this blog would be better served by a recipe from a female athlete and with that, let’s go “off-road” for a bit to talk about Title IX.

Title IX, enacted in 1972 (I was in 8^th grade) is a portion of the Education Amendment that established, in part, No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.  This applied to about every level of education including, thank goodness, sports.

And to my absolute amazement, my tiny junior high/high school, jumped on the bandwagon and started women’s sports.  I mean, we are talking about class sizes of just over 100 people per class; by contrast, my husband’s high school class was over 600. We probably barely qualified for Class C sports designation but there we were, in it to win it.  So bravo, William G. Mather High School, bravo!  (And yes, I know that the law said we must comply, but there’s “compliance” and then there’s “compliance!).

Well, this prompted me to go back to my yearbooks to track our women’s sports progress.  In 1972, there weren’t any women’s teams but in 1973 (freshman year), a Girls’ Tennis Team started.  A friend of mine joined the team that year and I joined a year later.  By 1974, we added the Girls’ Swim Team although unfortunately, I was sick the day the photo was taken and so you’d never know I was on it.

So a mere year after Title IX, we had ourselves two bona-fide girls’ teams.  By 1975, we added basketball and by 1976, we had a track team.  Not too shabby!  (For the record though, there is no word that sends me flying faster than someone calling me a “girl.” But that’s another story for another day.).

Now, before you pull out your pom-poms, let me just stress to you that equal opportunity to participate in sports did not equal an equal opportunity to get funding or support.  Oh no – in fact, quite the opposite.

The first year I was on the tennis team, we carpooled to our meets.  Yes, carpooled.  We didn’t have uniforms, we didn’t have managers, we barely had a locker room and you should have seen our city tennis courts – two of them, both with blacktop surfaces and set down by Lake Superior so flyaway tennis balls soon became swim-away tennis balls.  Our second team coach (the first coach was a woman), was also the boys’ wrestling coach and never, ever ceased to compare us weakling “girlz” to his he-man boys team.  He let us borrow his team’s warm-up jackets for meets but otherwise we were on our own.  The coach who followed him was a nice guy but I don’t know: is it a good thing to advise high school athletes that if you’re going to drink, drink Scotch?!!  Mind you, I was all for that but it did crack me up. 

As to the swim team, hahahahaha….well, we tried.  The good news was that our school had one of the very first school pools in the Upper Peninsula.  The bad news was that our school’s pool was not regulation and there were always weird drain problems that caused the pool water to turn various shades of green.  And I am not exaggerating at all.  In fact, when I think about swimming in that pool back then for gym class and swim team and lifesaving classes, I about turn green myself.

So anyway, for every one lap we did at a meet in a regulation pool, we had to do double or triple the laps in our pool.  We could not do a flip turn in our pool because the shallow end was truly shallow but we were allowed at meets to do kind of a half turn above water.  (So dorky and embarrassing but there it is!).  Although we got team swimsuits, for some inexplicable reason, we chose green and gold suits (Go Pack Go) even though our school colors were orange and black.  We did not get to use the wrestler’s warm-up jackets and so had a collection of various and sundry sweat shirts at our disposal.

We did not lift weights or do anything that modern athletes do to build strength and endurance and didn’t care.  In fact, and I say this with fondness, our attitude was pretty much cavalier then entire time we were swimming because we always knew we were outnumbered:  all the other schools had bigger pools, bigger staffs, and bigger athletes.  So we swam for fun and in some ways that made the experience all the more enjoyable.

As to funding, well, my first response is “What funding?” All the boys’ sports (football, basketball, etc.) got $10 a day for food; we got $5.  All the boys were properly attired, we were not.  All the boys went to meets by bus – the big kid’s kind – while we were eventually allowed to use a smaller half-bus to go to meets.  There was no booster club, no parental support (seeing as how our meets were during the day so parents could not attend) and very little interest.  I will however, give props to most of the male athletes in our school as they ended up embracing us in their own way and found many of our antics and experiences hilarious.  In fact, and it’s a long story, but my swim team nicknamed me “French Fries” and when the guys found out about that, they called me that as well.  I was never as popular in high school as I was that year.

And so, back we go to the budget-busting Olympics and my, my how times have changed.  While today’s athletes have their own financial struggles, I think they are nothing compared to what we went through.  Olympic teams nowadays have sponsors and endorsements and even, in many cases, professional athletes.  Can you imagine telling any female swimmer today that she gets $5 bucks for food?  No. 

And so I must confess that the times that I’ve heard women whining about being treated as second-class citizens compared to the men’s team, my blood boils.  In fact, I still recall the whining done by several high school girls’ hockey teams a few years back when they weren’t allowed to use the Xcel Energy Center where our professional hockey team plays for their games like the boys’ teams were.  WHAT?!!!  This is where my age is showing:  “In my day young lady, girls weren’t even allowed to play hockey.  We had to drive to our meets in the SNOW and then walk five miles to the arena….” (Actually true story:  my swim team was on its way to a regional meet in a nearby town that required us to drive along Lake Superior in blizzard conditions.  The famous “lake effect” was such that everything was just a sea of white including the white semi that was jackknifed across the highway.  Our bus driver swerved to avoid hitting it at the last second and we ended up in the ditch and had to wait for a bus tow-truck.  So much for that swim meet.  You want to talk about hardship, I’ll talk about hardship!)

So all this brings me back to why I decided to make a recipe from this book for this blog submitted by a female athlete instead of a male athlete, not only to kill two stones (the Olympics and Title IX) at the same time but also to talk about a subject that is near and dear to me.  And so today’s recipe is all about Gwen W. Cheeseman, a 1980 Olympic field hockey player, and her recipe for (Cheeseman’s) Stir-Fried Chicken.  And to really tie it to this year’s London events, the former Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge was a field hockey player back in the day AND the last Olympics were held in Beijing, China and so it’s all good.  Women then, women now – hooray! (I am also happy to report that Gwen made the 1984 Olympic team and her field hockey crew won the bronze that year.  Well done!)

Despite my rants about the early years, I was quite “chuffed,” as the Brits would say to be a part of those high school teams and am glued to the set this year as I am every Olympics (save for the 1980 Olympics), reliving my almost-glory days!  I swam the backstroke for my team (first one in the water at every meet) both in the individual event and the 400 Individual Medley Relay (back, breast, butterfly, freestyle) and also swam the 400 Freestyle Relay, my absolute favorite event and sometimes anchored it.  They were fun times and the thrill of that competition never goes away even though the younger generation is now having all the fun in the pool.  And seeing all these young ladies on the podium?  Well…pass the Kleenex.

  

(Cheeseman’s) Stir-Fried Chicken – serves 4

2 large, whole broiler-fryer chicken breasts, skinned, halved, boned and sliced diagnolly into ¼-inch thick strips

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1 cup thinly sliced celery

1 medium green pepper, cut into think strips

¼ teaspoon ginger

1 pound fresh bean sprouts

1 5-ounce can water chestnuts, drained and sliced

½ pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/3 cup raw cashews, halved

1 chicken bouillon cube, or 1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon

½ cup water

2 teaspoons cornstarch

¼ cup soy sauce

3 cups hot cooked rice

In a wok over high heat, heat peanut oil.  Stir-fry celery, pepper, onion and ginger in oil until tender-crisp, about three minutes.  With slotted spoon, slide vegetables up onto side of wok to keep warm.  To remaining oil, add chicken and stir-fry until meat turns white, about three to five minutes.  Slide vegetables back down and add bean sprouts, water, chestnuts, mushrooms, cashews, bouillon and water.  Blend cornstarch with soy sauce; gradually stir into wok and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is heated through and thickened.  Serve over hot rice.  Serves 4.

Ann’s Note:  for some inexplicable reason, my grocery store was out of bean sprouts and so I used canned.  Do not do this at home!  I might as well have opened a can of La Choy Chop Suey, the taste was that bland.  Live and learn, people, live and learn.

"Cooking in a Castle" - [Tour de France Ride] Ratatouille

Date I made this recipe:  July 22, 2012 (The end of the Tour de France)

Cooking in a Castle – The Royal Recipes of France by William I. Kaufman

Published by:  Bonanza Books

© 1965

Recipe:  [Ride] Ratatouille – p. 118

Well, today marks the end of Le Tour de France 2012 and thank goodness for that!  Even my husband, the most avid fan there is, was breathing a sigh of relief.  A three-week bicycle race is just a little much—I mean all the spills, chills and excitement lead to exhaustion and we’re just arm-chair spectators!  Can you imagine actually biking the thing?  I cannot.

Biking, and well, actually, most outdoor sports are not my thing.  When I was a kid, my bike was a one-speed (me!) Schwinn.  But my hubby has taken to bike riding like a duck takes to water and so every year, without fail, we watch…and watch…and watch.

This year’s Tour winner was Bradley Wiggins from Britain.  I feel like I’m a game show announcer when I say that “this is Bradley’s first tour win and Britain’s’ first win since the dawn of time”…or the first year of Le Tour – whichever comes first.  But poor Bradley—every time the British announcers talked about “Bradley Wiggins,” I couldn’t help but have myself an Eliza Doolittle moment from My Fair Lady and sing “Just you wait, Bradley Wiggins, just you wait.”  I’m glad I have a patient husband.

So Bradley won and there was much British rejoicing…in that most understated way they have.  Ahem.  There were also loud cheers for the man known as “The Manx Missile” – Mark Cavendish, another Brit who charged ahead in the last seconds of the last stage of the Tour – Le Champs-Elysees, - to win that stage.  A few days earlier, Mark came up out of no where to sprint to the finish line, causing one of the front runners to wave a hand in disgust with an expression of “Aw, crap, not HIM again!” on his face. I think that was my favorite moment of Le Tour.

Any who, as always I do learn a lot of things about the Tour from watching the stages and talking to Andy, my personal guide to all things “Tour.”  So to start, there are 20 stages to the tour, some of which go through the mountains, some of which are flat (and suited for sprinters) and some of which are time trials.  The last stage, stage 20, is a circle tour of Le Champs-Elysees in Paris.  Since this is the last stage, most riders are taking it easy, hoping not to crash and many of them drink champagne on their final laps out on the road, although once they cross the Champs, it’s all business, all the time and the champagne goes away. .  I could be all about biking if I could sip champagne while riding.

So, bear with me as I try to explain the complexities of this sport:  each stage has a winner in the sprinter category (green jersey) and, if applicable, the King of the Mountain (white and red polka dot jersey).  The “best” young rider jersey (white) is awarded to a rider under 26 years old based on the lowest combined times for all stages.  This year’s white jersey went to American Tejay van Garderen.  The coveted yellow jersey, signifying the tour’s overall leader is also awarded to the person with the lowest combined times regardless of age.  This year’s winner of the yellow jersey and therefore the Tour was the aforementioned Bradley Wiggins.

Now then – complicating things just a bit is a group of riders called the “peloton.”   The peloton is a group of riders who all end up crossing the finish line more or less together.  Sometimes the overall tour leader (yellow jersey) rides with the peloton, sometimes not.  But anyway, the most important thing you should know is that the riders in the peloton are all awarded the same finish time.  So if Bradley Wiggins, for example, didn’t speed across the finish line first but ended up in the peloton (usually less than a minute behind the stage winner), then he and everyone else gets awarded the same finish time and therefore the same number of points.  So—clear as French mud, right?  It has only taken me I don’t know how many Tours to figure this all out – barely.  I’m now at the point where I can identify some of the riders so I consider myself quite the expert! 

Besides watching the cyclists, the high entertainment of this three-week event is watching and listening to race announcer, Phil Ligett.  Phil is from England and like most English residents their pronunciation of different words has me in stitches.  Phil, for example, absolutely butchered one of the riders first names, Luis (pronounced lew-eeees) by calling him Louis (Lew-is).  No.  No in whatever language you want – no.  But time and time again, there was Phil with his “Lewis.”  There was also a Swiss rider with an Italian last name that he mauled each and every time he said it.  But still in all, I love Phil.  There’s just something about him that’s just adorable.  By the way, the one year he talked about foods bikers eat and used the British pronunciation of “banan-er” for banana had me doubled over laughing. I mean, I’m sorry, but does anyone see an “er” in that word?

Okay, so the riders were off and running first through Belgium and then hither and yon through France and as you might expect, they rode by (in a burning hurry) many French castles.  And this, children, is how I tied everything in this blog together!

Cooking in a Castle – The Royal Recipes of France – is a new acquisition for me.  I bought it for pennies on the dollar at the Bloomington Crime Prevention Association mega book sale in June.  I just like books that seem interesting and of course, are inexpensive as well.

The first part of this book consists of French recipes that were French royalty favorites while the second part of this book includes chateau photos and even has a map showing where they all are with a bit of history about each one.  Add a bit about French wines (well, bien sur!) and notes for tourists about each castle and voila, you are ready to roll. (That said, my husband and I are jaded travelers and to us, if you’ve seen one chateau, you’ve seen them all.  But don’t let us stop you.)

Recipes in this book ranged from lobster (tres, tres cher) to ragout of duck to simple strawberries (with liqueur, naturellement!).  Since it is still hotter than Hades in Minneapolis, I went with a very simple but delicious ratatouille. 

I was first introduced to ratatouille by my French friend, Edith (pronounced “Ay-deet”).  She and her grandmother made it for me and some friends when they visited me many years ago, and then when I went to Provence to visit them, I just had to have some more.  I’ve seen various and sundry vegetables used in ratatouille, like zucchini and mushrooms but I stuck to the book’s recipe with one exception:  I cut the vegetables into cubes instead of slicing them as directed as that is what I am used to.  Flavor-wise, I doubt it made one bit of difference.

As the recipe says, ratatouille is one of those great dishes that can be eaten hot or cold and I’ve had it both ways.  This was super-simple to make and great to eat.  The next day, I got creative and used it as a pasta sauce and it was tres bon!  (As an aside, I can’t help but think of a Steve Martin comedy routine from years ago – “You Naïve Americans” - where he talked about visiting Paris and it went something like this:  “[The French word for] eggs is ouefs.  Butter is buerre.  It’s like those French have a word for everything!”)

And that concludes Le Tour de France 2012:  coming up in mere days – the 2012 Olympics.  So move over honey, and hand me the remote because there’s swimming to watch!

A bientot, France!!

Ratatouille – yields 12 servings

Olive oil

2 pounds eggplant, peeled and sliced

1 pound squash, peeled and sliced

1 pound green pepper, sliced

2 pounds tomatoes, quartered but not peeled

4 or 5 garlic cloves, crushed

2 onions, sliced

1 large bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, tarragon, celery, bay leaf)

1 teaspoon tarragon, chopped

Salt and pepper

Saute lightly in olive oil the eggplant, squash, and green pepper in deep saucepan.  Add tomatoes, garlic, bouquet garni, and tarragon.  Cover.  Simmer over low heat for one hour.  Serve hot.  In the summer it can be served cold.

Ann’s Note:  I didn’t make a bouquet garni (i.e. all spices tied up in cheesecloth) but threw in a handful of parsley, thyme, tarragon and two small bay leafs; I was also out of celery so no celery.  The flavors were fine and actually enhanced the ratatouille.

"Alice's Restaurant Cookbook" - Braised [Orange Almond] Chicken

Date I made this recipe:  July 15, 2012

Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook by Alice May Brock with a recorded introduction by Arlo Guthrie

Published by:  Random House

© 1969

Recipe:  Braised [Orange Almond] Chicken – p. 69-70

Think of today’s cookbook discussion as a Jeopardy category selection:  “Famous American Folk singers for 100, Alex.”  Because today, we’re going to focus on Woody Guthrie, son Arlo Guthrie and Alice May Brock, inspiration for the song, Alice’s Restaurant.

But first, it’s quiz time! (Hint:  some of the answers are in the text below!)

1. Which of these had a birthday on July 10, 2012?

1. Woody Guthrie
2. Arlo Guthrie

2. Which of these had a birthday on July 14, 2012?

1. Woody Guthrie
2. Arlo Guthrie

3. The most famous folk singer this country has ever had is:

1. Woody Guthrie
2. Arlo Guthrie

4. Who wrote and sang Alice’s Restaurant? (also known as Alice’s Restaurant Massacree?)

1. Woody Guthrie
2. Arlo Guthrie

5. Who wrote and sang This Land is Your Land?

1. Woody Guthrie
2. Arlo Guthrie

6. Who sang Hobo’s Lullaby?

1. Woody Guthrie
2. Arlo Guthrie

Answers will be at the end of this quiz but first, a “gimme:” Arlo Guthrie sang the song Alice’s Restaurant something this gal remembers hearing as a child.  The one lyric I remembered out of them all was “You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant.”  And apparently you could!  Sad to say, and to the chagrin of my parents on long car trips, I never did learn the rest of the lyrics.  Nothing like hours and hours of turnpike time spent repeating the same phrase over and over…and over!  (“You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant…You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant…You can get…”)

When I read that both Arlo and Woody celebrated July birthdays, I just knew that I had to make something out of my newly-acquired (last year in NYC at Bonnie Slotnick’s Cookbooks) copy of Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook. (And I tell you what I seem to have a knack for having just the right cookbook on hand for every occasion!)

Alice May Brock, Arlo Guthrie’s inspiration for his famous Vietnam War protest song, Alice’s Restaurant (full title: Alice’s Restaurant Masacree), a song that played for 18 minutes (!), came to be a restaurant owner by happenstance. (By the way, I had no idea that song was a war protest song until I Googled it.  I tell you, the things you learn….) As it says in her biography on the cookbook’s back cover page: 

“Worked as a librarian at the Stockbridge School…Bought a church…Sang Songs…Fooled around…Cooked good good food with a smile and other expressions…Bought a crummy diner…Turned it into a crazy-yummy-cozy restaurant…Got tired…Got divorced…Got famed by Alro Guthrie, an old friend who wrote the song “Alice’s Restaurant,” which inspired Arthur Penn to direct the movie Alice’s Restaurant – about Alice and Ray (ex-husband) and Arlo and the Scene…”

Ah yes, the “Scene.”  Although it’s not quite clear from that comment what the “Scene” was, I think we can chalk it up to the vibe, the energy or just the lifestyle of the 60’s.  Arlo and Alice were definitely an embodiment of the “Scene.” The “Scene” was pretty wild as were the times as the Vietnam War was anything but popular. But let’s not forget the other scene – the folksong scene – with Woody at the helm writing and singing his own brand of protest songs.  According to Wikipedia, one of Woody’s famous songs early on in his career was “This Machine Kills Fascists.”  I love that title – it’s so…succinct!

But the most famous song of all, and I think we can agree on this is “This Land Is Your Land.”  As a singer, I can tell you that this song is in the perfect range for everyone and the words aren’t hard to remember, unlike the Star Spangled (Mangled) Banner!  And every once in a while, there’s a push on to replace the SSB with this song but it always falls flat and that’s too bad.  This song was one of the favorites of my Girl Scout years and was approved by every troop leader under the sun; I’m guessing though, that the “fascist” song would not be popular.

So okay, Woody was a folk singer, Arlo became a folk singer and in July, Arlo turned 65.  Wow!  And days later, it was noted that had he lived, Woody Guthrie would have been 100.  Hopefully years from now, kids will still be singing these songs in remembrance.

And as to Alice, well, in her spare time, she put together this cookbook with a little bit of this and a little bit of that in between.  I love her photos and artwork—so retro!  I was all set to make “Alice’s Famous Chili” but that darned heat spell of ours just kept going and so I switched it up to Braised Chicken cooked in orange juice, almonds, raisins and cinnamon and it was yummy and so easy, too!

The thing that I liked about this cookbook is that Alice often gives you variations for example: Basic Braised Chicken or Braised Chicken Paprikash or Braised Chicken with Wine or Braised Chicken with Bacon and Cream or “orange” chicken like I made - so easy, so good. 

By the way, note that this cookbook comes with a recorded introduction by Arlo Guthrie…and by “recorded” I mean that there’s vinyl cutout to be played on a record player (yes, that old thing) that includes two “songs” – Italian-Type Meatballs and My Granma’s Beet Jam.  I’d listen to it except I’d have to remove it from the book and that ain’t happening.  Well plus, I’d have to invest in a turntable and mine are all long gone (and I mean long gone!). 

For those of you scratching your head about what I mean by “vinyl cutout” let me just say that it in the 60’s, it was very popular for companies, especially kids’ cereal companies, to press these vinyl 45’s on the back of boxes.  You’d then cut out the record, put in on your turntable and voila!  I know I am not alone when I say that one of my favorite “cut-outs” was Bobby Sherman singing “Julie, Do Ya Love Me?”  Good times, people, good times.

And that concludes our trip down memory lane with the Guthries and Alice!  Now let’s not all run at once to YouTube to check out some of these songs, okay?

Braised [Orange Almond] Chicken – serves 6 to 8

2 cut-up broilers or fryers (Ann’s Note:  I bought two packs of chicken breasts, about a pound each and that was plenty)

1 stick of butter

Salt and pepper

1 cup orange juice

Grated orange rind (from one orange)

Almonds

½ cup seedless grapes (if desired)

Shot of cinnamon

In a heavy skillet, melt the butter; brown the chicken on both sides.  Season with salt and pepper, cover and simmer over a low flame for 30 to 45 minutes, until the chicken is almost falling from the bones.

Add the orange juice, grated rind of one orange and top with almonds browned in butter.  You can add up to ½ cup of seedless raisins and a shot of cinnamon, too.

Ann’s Note:  I served this with rice and green beans and it was very refreshing on a hot summer’s day.

  

Quiz question answers:

1. b – Arlo Guthrie turned 65 on July 10, 2012.
2. a – Woody Guthrie would have turned 100 on July 14, 2012
3. a – Woody Guthrie is probably the world’s most famous folk singer. 
4. b – Arlo Guthrie sang Alice’s Restaurant
5. a – Woody Guthrie wrote This Land Is Your Land, considered by many to be the embodiment of the American spirit.

a and b - Trick question!  Both Woody and Arlo sang this piece along with other folk greats, Pete Seger, Emmylou Harris and the Kingston Trio

"Tastes of Liberty" & Summer Feasts - (4th of July) Hot Potato Salad w/Bacon & Watermelon Granita

Date I made these recipes:  July 8, 2012

Tastes of Liberty:  A Celebration of Our Great Ethnic Cooking, Bob Betz, editor

Published by:  Chateau Ste. Michelle (Washington state wine producer)

ISBN:  0-941434-75-3

Recipe:  Hot Potato Salad with Bacon (Warmer Kartoffelsalat Mit Speck) – p. 56-58

Summer Feasts by Molly Finn

Published by:  A Fireside Book, published by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

ISBN:  0-671-55453-0

Recipe:  Watermelon Granita – p. 265-266

I had something very pithy to say about these recipes and about the Fourth of July but given the extremely hot weather we’ve been having, I think that my brain just incinerated.  Really.

On the 4^th of July, Minneapolis set a new record temperature of 101 degrees.  Or was it 102?  Whatever it was, it was damned hot - as in “Feelin’ hot, hot, hot,” a popular 80’s song by Buster Poindexter.  And because it was so damned hot, and because we had party plans that day, I didn’t make a 4^th of July recipe on the 4^th.  So sue me.

The next day, the 5^th of July, my community band played a concert in south Minneapolis at a park without a band shell and without any shade.  My section, the clarinet section, was facing west and the lower the sun got, the hotter I got (“hot, hot, hot”) and I nearly had myself a Wizard of Oz “I’m melting, I’m melting” moment.  The more we played, the more I listed like a ship taking on water.  At one point, one of our jazz ensembles played, providing a brief interlude, and I exited, stage left, to go sit with the audience and pull myself together.  It was so tempting to pack up and go home before I got really ill (not that I wasn’t having visions of ambulances anyway) but that would involve me putting away my clarinet and my stand and my chair (BYOC is required for many venues) and that would have likely interrupted the performance (ya think!) and so there I sat.

Given that the concert started at 7 p.m., I really didn’t have time to cook dinner on Thursday nor would I:  the temperature only dropped to a balmy 94 degrees instead of a scorching 101…or 102 depending on who you ask.  In other words, we got a break in the weather! Party time!!

Friday came and went as did Saturday and the temperature was still on “scald” but by Sunday, I decided that I could risk using the stovetop and made the German potato salad and the watermelon granita (Let’s hear it for FREEZER recipes!).  We also used the stovetop to cook some burgers, it being too hot to even pull out the grill.  Hey, sacrifices must be made and so we made them.  It’s the American way.

By the way, about a week or so ago, when the weather started warming up, I selected a few recipes to make, one of which was a pork loin that required oven cooking.  I mentioned this to my husband, Andy, who gave me the look a mother gives a child when he or she is just being dumber than dirt (or like Ricky Ricardo’s famous comments to Lucy “You crazy or sumpin’?”) and said “NO oven.”  And so that was that.  I am very happy to report though, that the temperatures are now in the mid 80’s and that’s good enough for me to fire up the oven should I decide to make the recipe.

Given that I intended to make something to celebrate the 4^th of July, I went through the shelves and found this book, Tastes of Liberty: A Celebration of Our Great Ethnic Cooking.  This book showcases foods “brought” to the Unites States by different immigrant populations when they came over to the United States, passing by the Statute of Liberty on their way to Ellis Island.  So there you go—liberty, 4^th of July – it all works.

Out of all the food choices, the recipe for the German Potato Salad caught my eye because it triggered fond memories of family picnics by the shores of Lake Superior when I was growing up.  As previously mentioned in one of my blogs, my parents used to pack up various foodstuffs in an old, wooden apple (or peach) basket with wire handles and off we’d go down the hill, round to the corner to the beach to have a picnic.  If we didn’t bring a classic American potato salad, we brought along a can of German Potato Salad.  Dad would open the can with a can opener, along with a can of pork and beans then plop the two cans in the bonfire we made from Lake Superior driftwood along with some burgers or hot dogs and we would have ourselves a feast.  (By the way, if you try this at home, be sure to open the cans before putting them on the fire or you will have one hell of an explosion on your hands.  And it may put someone’s eye out.  Just sayin’…)

Since Andy is not fond of American potato salad (nor is he fond of putting an eye out), I made this recipe to go along with burgers and then the watermelon granita.  It may seem a little un-American or un-picnic-y for your tastes but it works for me and that’s all you need to know.  Plus, stovetop time was minimal and would have been less had I microwaved the potatoes but I was fine with using the stovetop and just upped the air-conditioning while I was cooking.  Yes, the 4^th of July is about celebrating that “pioneer” spirit that built our country and so while yes, I could have toughed it out by not ramping up the air,  there’s no need to get ridiculous about things in a time of severe weather crisis.

So hot potato salad it was, now I just needed to find something to go with it for a true 4^th of July post-celebration and found the recipe for the watermelon granita. Watermelon is the perfect summer food and just screams “4^th of July!!” And wouldn’t you know I had just purchased a package of sliced watermelon a few days earlier.  But while the potato salad rocked my world, the granita left me disappointed by its very flat taste.  And the damned thing is the recipe was so easy so how did it derail?

Well, I was warned:  the recipe said that the flavor would be much less intense when it was frozen and so be generous with the lemon juice and salt.  But when it comes to recipes, I am often a Scrooge in thinking “less is more” rather than “distribute the riches.” And given that I made half a batch, I used only a ¼ teaspoon of salt and it still tasted like a salt lick (to me, anyway)!  Bleh.  But oh well, we had our watermelon (cue the sparklers) plus, if you add a bit of vodka, I’m thinking you would have one sensational slushie!  (And by the way, and speaking of slushies, Andy and I stopped by a Dairy Queen not long ago and can someone tell me what the hell happened to Mr. Misty??  Because I want answers, people!  Oh sure, they have something called an Arctic Rush but it’s not the same, damit!)

So anyway, here you go, better late then never.

Hot Potato Salad with Bacon (Warmer Kartoffelsalat Mit Speck) – 6 to 8 servings

2 pounds medium boiling potatoes

½ pound sliced bacon, diced

1 medium onion, finely chopped

½ cup cider vinegar

½ cup rich homemade beef broth

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped (for garnish)

Place potatoes in 3- or 4-quart saucepan and add water to cover by 1 inch.  Heat to boiling over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until potatoes are tender, 30 to 35 minutes.  Drain and let stand 10 minutes.  Pare potatoes, cut into 1/8-inch slices and place in large serving bowl.  Cover to keep hot.

Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes.  Remove from skillet with slotted spoon and sprinkle over potatoes.  Discard all but 3 tablespoons bacon drippings from skillet.  Add onion to drippings and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 5 minutes.  Stir in vinegar, broth, sugar, salt and pepper and heat to boiling.  Blend about ¼ cup hot vinegar mixture with egg yolk in small bowl and blend yolk mixture into vinegar mixture in skillet.  Cook 1 minute and remove from heat.

Pour hot vinegar mixture over potatoes and toss lightly until thoroughly mixed.  Serve hot or cool to room temperature.  Sprinkle with parsley before serving.

Watermelon Granita – serves 6-8

4 pounds watermelon

Juice of 1 large lemon (3-4 tablespoons or more)

2 tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon salt

Make this ice only with delicious, ripe melon.  Cut the melon from the rind and remove the seeds.  Cut into 1-inch chunks and puree it in the food processor or blender.  If you are using a blender, before turning it on, press the watermelon down in the container with your fingers to make enough juice to puree the melon.  Put the puree in a metal bowl and season it to taste with lemon juice, sugar and salt.  Remember that its flavor will be much less intense when it is frozen, so don’t be afraid to use plenty of lemon juice and salt. (Ann’s note:  I made half a batch of this and only used ¼ teaspoon salt and it was still too salty for my taste.)

Freeze the mixture using one of these two methods:

1)      To make the granita by hand - Put the puree in a metal bowl in the coldest part of the freezer.  After about an hour, when the granita starts to solidify, stir it with a large fork, scraping the frozen puree from the bottom and sides of the bowl and mashing it in well.  Repeat this every half-hour or so, using a fork or potato masher, until the granita has completely crystallized.  There should be no large lumps – only crystals.  –OR-

2)      To make granita in the food processor – Freeze the fruit puree, using 2 ice-cube trays.  When it is frozen solid, just before serving, process as many cubes as you need.  Put the cubes in the processor (not more than one ice tray at a time) and, using the metal blade, process the ice until it is fine, smooth and free of lumps.  You will have to turn the motor on and off a number of times – do this rapidly or you will soon have a liquid puree again.  Serve the ice immediately and store the unused cubes in plastic bags.