From the ashes: Potato cakes with Parmesan and parsley

I recenly finished Michael Ruhlman's Making of a Chef and have made it about half-way through part I in Soul of a Chef. One point Ruhlman returns to over and over is a cook's ability to fix something ruined (all the way until it's burnt, from which there is no return)--on the fly, under pressure. According to many instructors at the Culinary Institute of America, according to Ruhlman, it is this ability that is crucial to a professional cook's success.

I am not a professional cook, not by any stretch of the imagination. This is probably why it took me over 12 hours to figure out how to rescue some abysmal mashed potatoes, but rescue them I did. I fixed it and came away with a dish not just edible, but delicious, hearty and something I would be proud to feed my family. And all you need to start with is ruined mashed potatoes.

I ruined my mashed potatoes before I even began the cooking process. After peeling the potatoes, I failed to cut them into even pieces, so they didn't cook evenly when I boiled them. Some were perfectly done (the small ones), but several were woefully undercooked. I probably could have found the undercooked pieces, microwaved them briefly and then continued mashing, but I was being stubborn, and dinner had to be served. Unfortunately, the potatoes were heavy--gluey--and were contaminated with small pebbles of undercooked potato. However, those same undercooked bits become a wonderful texture enhancer when the mashed potatoes are flattened to cakes and baked. And the preparation couldn't be easier:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
• While the over heats, form the mashed potatoes into disks about a quarter-inch thick (using golf-ball-sized rounds)
• Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top of each round
• Dust a sheet pan with corn meal (mashed potatoes can be surprisingly sticky!) and place the discs on the sheet pan
• Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, then switch on the broiler
• Move the discs to the top oven rack and broil for about 2 - 3 minutes or until they get nice and golden brown on top
• Plate and sprinkle with parsley flakes. You can also garnish with a dollop of fresh sour cream (which is an awesome touch, by the way)

So what saved me? Critical thinking and a passing familiarity with some cooking fundamentals. I knew I had to figure out a way to finish cooking the undercooked potato bits without ruining or overcooking the remaining bits. I also knew I had to change the texture of the mashed potatoes. The easiest way to do this was by crisping them. I probably could have pan fried the cakes and come away with something that tasted good, and might have gone that route if I was in the restaurant business. It certainly would have been faster and might have made for a more savory cake. But I wanted to try for a healthier outcome usual. For once, at least. So I had to go the baking route. The problem? Baking to golden brown meant a terrible inside--heated to mush. That's why I finished up in the broiler.

Cooking isn't rocket science. Organic chemistry, sure. Thermodynamics....all right. Yes. But it's not difficult organic chemistry, and you can do wonders when you begin to understand and internalize some basic cooking principles and allow yourself to think critically about the things you put on plates.

USDA issues massive beef recall

The USDA has issued the nation's largest beef recall.

A slaughterhouse that has been accused of mistreating cows agreed Sunday to recall 143 million pounds of beef in what federal officials called the largest beef recall in U.S. history. Keith Williams, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman, said investigators have found no cases of illness related to the recalled meat. But Dick Raymond, the undersecretary of agriculture for food safety, said there was a "remote probability" that the meat from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company in Chino, California, could cause illness in humans. The amount of beef -- 143 million pounds -- is roughly enough for two hamburgers for each man, woman and child in the United States. The largest U.S. meat recall before Sunday came in 1999, when about 35 million pounds of product possibly contaminated with listeria were ordered off shelves. USDA officials said that was Class I recall, involving a known risk to human health. more...

The slaughterhouse has also been accused of abusing cows and slaughtering the lame and infirm. It doesn't have to be like this. While we may argue long into the night about "humane" slaughter, I don't think there's any doubt things can be better than they are now.

Puff Pastry with Milk Chocolate Sauce

February food column as it appeared in Satellite Magazine

Let's assume for a moment that Valentine's day wasn't created by card makers to get them through the lean period from Christmas to mother's day.  Let's assume you're not going to spend Valentine's day in a bleak, cramped apartment listening over and over to "If You Don't Cry" by The Magnetic Fields.  Let's assume you want to establish a dash of romance in your life and do something nice for your Valentine.  Take her to dinner.  Treat him to a day at the spa or a nice massage.  Let's assume you've decided to forego the cellophaned box of chocolates in favor of puff pastries drizzled with a milk chocolate sauce.

Puff pastry ingredients

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons butter (yes, use butter) cut into small, uniform cubes
• 3/4 tablespoon sugar (you'll want to sweeten to your own tastes)
• a pinch of kosher salt
• 2 eggs, kept separate (to be added later)

Chocolate sauce ingredients

• 1 + 1 cups Chocolate chips
• 1 cup milk or cream

Supplies

• Medium sauce pan
• wooden spoon
• large mixing bowl
• cookie sheet
• parchment paper

Add the water, sugar, salt and butter to a medium sauce pan over medium-high to high heat.  When the mixture comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and add all the flour.  Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the flour is incorporated and the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan.  It should form pretty naturally into a ball.  Dump the dough into your mixing bowl and let it cool for about five minutes.  While the dough cools, preheat the oven to 425 degrees and cut the parchment paper to fit the cookie sheet.

Once the dough has cooled, stir in one egg.  Here, you might thing you've ruined evertying.  The egg will break apart and turn the dough into a soupy mess.  But keep stirring!  The egg will incorporate and the dough will come back into a nice ball after a while.  Then add the other egg and repeat the process.

Once you have incorporated the eggs, the dough will be very soft.  Spoon it into a plastic bag (if you have a cake bag and round decorator's tip, all the better, but you can get away with a standard, zip-top sandwich bag), cut a pea-sized hole in one corner of the sandwich bag and pipe the dough out in small mounds about the size of a ping-pong ball.  Keep them about two inches apart.  Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes; then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake another 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool on the stovetop.

During those 20 minutes you can make your chocolate sauce.  Mix 1 cup milk and 1 cup choloate chips in your mixing bowl.  Microwave for approximately 45 seconds, until the chips begin to soften.  Mix the two together vigoursly with a wire whisk.  At this point, the sauce will be pretty runny.  To thicken up the sauce and make it more chocolately, stir in small handfuls of the remaining chips--if its consistency and flavor suit your tastes, however, then you don't need to add any more chips.  .  Use the whisk to drizzle the chocolate over your bite-size pastries. 

You'll have a ton of chocolate sauce left over.  What you do with it is up to you.

Anyone can schlep out to the local pharmacy and buy a heart-shaped box of chocolates and a cheesey card (If you decide to go that route--the box of chocolates route--at least visit one of the local chocolatiers.  There's no sense in paying good money for 30 - 40 waxy little nuggets filled with fruit-flavored pastes of different consistency).  Be different.  Cook for the person you love.  Cook for the person you want to seduce (it can often get you a lot further than the heart).  Or just cook for yourself.  It's calming, and it'll make The Magnetic Fields that much better.

2004 Lavradores de Feitoria Vinhos de Quinta S.A.

Color: a deep ruby color with slight purple to lavender at the edges

Nose: Strong, jammy fruits with hints of blueberry syrup and the slightest of grassy overtones

Palate: Lithe mouth feel with excellent structure. Not heavy on the flavors and comes with the characteristic minerality of many old-world wines. Good, dark-fruit flavors.

Finish: Excellent finish. Rich smokiness and a hint of licorice on the tongue. High tannins sweep the mouth the clean.

Another definite food wine, and a great find from Portugal.

The Holidays are Over

January food column, as it appeared in Satellite Magazine:

The holidays are over. For you, maybe it started with the errant Tootsie Roll around Halloween. Maybe you went with a Krackle bar, or maybe you decided to go high-end and demolished a pyramid of Roche ganaches. Chances are, it didn't stop there. The leftover Skittles and Snickers got you through to Thanksgiving. You sat at some familiar table and gorged on turkey, ham (two proteins!), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes made with marshmallows, and that cranberry sauce shaped like the can from which it was dumped, unceremoniously. Then you celebrated the end of football season, Hanukah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa, and those latkes aren't exactly low calorie. And now here we are in January, the month of resolutions. That singular time of year when we vow to ourselves that we'll quit bad habits, call our relatives, and be better people. We'll eat salad.

But it's not that easy. Next time you're in the grocery store, check the salad dressing’s ingredients. Not long ago I checked my fridge and found that six out of the seven salad dressings contained high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener that many believe is linked to America’s growing obesity problem. Suddenly that salad doesn't seem so healthy, does it? Not to fear. A healthier salad dressing isn't hard to construct. Not even creamy ranch. And some salads, like the seasonal recipe my sister sent all the way from North Carolina, don't require a dressing at all.

Vinaigrette
Vinegar and oil is perhaps the simplest of salad dressings. In some restaurants, you can still find two stoppered bottles on the tables. But to get a truly good vinaigrette, you have to pay attention to ratios, and it’s best if you have an emulsifier. Once that’s handled, though, you can begin adding additional ingredients to taste.

Ratio: 1 part vinegar to 2-3 parts oil
Emulsifier: A binding agent to hold the two together, however briefly. Mustard works well. As does egg white or even skim milk, though you have to worry about curdling.
Additional ingredients: Honey, lemon juice, salt, pepper, crushed garlic, or shallots.

A fine example might be 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 4 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon prepared mustard and 1 teaspoon honey. Salt and pepper to taste. Combine all ingredients in a tight-lidded container and shake to combine. Drizzle on your favorite mixed greens.

Creamy dressings
Most creamy dressings are made with mayonnaise or sour cream, but you can often substitute yogurt for a slightly healthier alternative. Begin with 1/2 cup mayonnaise. It’s just eggs and oil. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice (approximately the juice you’ll get from half a lemon), a little minced garlic, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. You now have the base for a number of different dressings.

Add some cracked black pepper and four or five tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese, and you’ve created a wonderful Parmesan peppercorn dressing.

Or, add 2 ounces of crumbled bleu cheese, and you’ve made bleu cheese dressing.

Or, begin with equal parts mayonnaise and buttermilk (1/4 cup each), add 1/4 teaspoon of dried parsley flakes, a pinch of onion powder, a pinch of garlic powder, some dried thyme, and salt and pepper to taste and you’ve got yourself some ranch dressing without ever having to tear open a foil packet.

Any of these dressing formulas will work well for your standard salad of greens, tomatoes and a little cucumber. But those can be tough to find fresh in the dead of winter. However, hearty root vegetables keep a long time, and we’re just entering the end of orange season in Florida, and it’s a perfect time to enjoy this native crop in as many ways as possible. Ann’s beet salad is just one of them.

Beet salad (yummy, yummy)
4 beets
3 oranges
2 teaspoons orange zest
1 small red onion
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
(you may also want to add sugar to the final salad, though the natural sweetness of the orange juice should be plenty)

Place the beets in a large pot and add water until the beets are covered 1 – 2 inches. Bring the beets to a boil and let them go for about 45 minutes, or until you can easily pass a fork into them. If you need to add water to keep them covered, do so. Drain the beets and shock them in a bath of ice water to stop the cooling process.

While the beets are cooking, peel and cut the oranges, saving the juice (you can probably cut them over a large bowl—perhaps the very bowl you’ll use to serve the salad. Deseed the orange wedges and cut them in half. Zest the peels. Slice the onion thinly and separate the strips.

Bring the beets out of the ice water. Peel the beets (their skins should slide off after cooking) and cut into irregular, bite-sized pieces. In a large bowl, combine the beets, halved orange sections, onion slices, vinegar, oil, and orange rind and mix to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste and sugar if necessary. Let the salad stand for half an hour so the flavors can come together. Garnish with a curled orange rind for a touch of fanciness.

Ensaios FP Tinto

Food lets us travel. From China to Vietnam, from India through Turkey and into Hungary, from Germany To France (with a detour through Italy), when we eat certain foods we know where we are. Or where we wish to be. It's no accident, either. The foods we most often associate with place are those foods that can be grown easily and are (or were) plentiful.

So it is with wine. The French call it terroir. They claim even subtle differences in micro-climate from one appellation to another will show themselves in the wine's character. I'd have to see some kind of spectrum chromatograph before I'd go that far, but I will agree that wines from different regions can be quite different. Australian and American wines, for instance, tend to be different than French or Italian wines. Often, European wines exhibit more mineral characteristics than their new-world counterparts. The new-world wines, from the United States, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand tend to be bolder and more fruit-forward (Chile, I'm happy to say, seems to be a notable exception. Even in the country's value-priced wines, there seems to be a complexity and structure not found in many other new-world wines at low price points).

Knowing all this, it was no surprise that I had to buy my latest find from Dorn’s, a 2005 Ensaios FP Tinto from the Beiras region in Portugal. I love Spanish wines, and while I’m not overly familiar with Portuguese wines, I assumed they would have some of the same bold structure and lively tannins as their Spanish counterparts. I wasn’t worng.

Color: A deep, inky red, nearly purple/indigo fading to ruby at the edges.
Nose: A highly complex mix of dark berries and spice with a hint of star anis.
Palate: This Is a bold wine, with strong structure and tannins. Slight berry flavors, but it’s not the kind of wine that you have while sitting around a coffee table with a few friends. This is a wine made for food.
Finish: Crisp finish. Very clean and drying. The perfect accompaniment for heavier foods ranging from braised ribs (my meal with the wine) to roast duck, and even pastas with rich, rich sauces.

I loved this wine. For quite a while now I’ve been drinking American and Australian wines, and while I’ve enjoyed them, I really missed the flinty, mineral characteristics of European wines. The Ensaios FP Tinto delivered, and the travel-inspired label didn’t hurt, either.

Make time for food

The fine folks at Lifehacker have provided a link to Michael Pollan's Twelve Commandments for Serious Eaters. Among them:

9. Eat food from animals that eat grass.
10. Cook, and if you can, grow some of your own food.
11. Eat meals and eat them only at tables.

Interesting to note that Lifehacker's Kevin Purdy bemoans (however briefly) the time it takes to cook. This is nonsense. I get home from work most days and cook for my wife and daughter. One, I love to be in the kitchen. iPod playing my favorite music (The Clash's "London Calling" is about the best vegetable chopping music there is) and fresh ingredients on the counter in front of me. It's my home, and it's comfortable, and I can get all my food from fridge to table in about 40 minutes. Couple that with a nice, sit-down meal with people you love? Who wouldn't make time for that? Two, I've learned (however slowly) to cook, to experiment, and not be afraid of food. One day I just gave myself permission to mess it up, and it worked. I became more confident in my cooking and a better cook as a result.

I think it's interesting that so many people say they don't have time for this, or they don't have time for that. You will make time for the things important to you. If you want to eat better, live better, lose weight, or whatever other weird resolution you made to yourself this year, just make it important to you. Turn off Adult Swim. You've seen those episodes of Family Guy a dozen times anyway. Cook. Eat. Enjoy.

Buying local not as easy for some

Today's Morning Edition on NPR brings us a story of local distribution. Logistics is something many people forget when they consider buying local. Many times, farmers must truck their produce to a central distribution center, run by wholesalers, where it is weighed, packaged and shipped to buyers and markets across the nation. The problem, when it comes to buying locally, is the Farmer's aren't equipped to make small deliveries, and restaurants and individuals aren't equipped to take large ones. So a farmer in Ann Arbor must still take his potatoes all the way to Detroit to a distribution center. Even if his end customer is just across the street.

One man in Michigan is serving the niche market.

Potato and Leek Soup

A quick and dirty take on Amy Finley's Leek and Potato soup found on the Food Network site.

Ingredients:

• Two tablespoons of butter
• Two medium-sized leeks (about 1 lb each)
• Four medium-sized yukon gold potatoes
• (the original recipe calls for russet, but I like the smoother finish and higher starch content of the yukons)
• Approximately 3/4 carton of chicken stock (@ 28oz)
• 1/2 pint heavy cream
• Salt
• Pepper
• Chives (for garnish)

Directions:

1. To prepare the leeks, cut off the root end (about a half-inch will do it) and cut about an inch to two inches into the pale green section. Discard the roots and stalks. Cut the leeks in half lengthways and then cut the halves into 1-inch sections. Let the sections soak in a large bowl filled with water to rinse away the dirt that will be jammed into the leeks' layers.
2. Meanwhile, Peel the potatoes and cut into 1-inch sections
3. Heat the two tablespoons of butter in a medium soup pot over medium-high heat.
4. Once the butter has melted and the pot is hot, sweat the leeks for about three minutes. Do not sautee. You're not trying to brown the leeks, you're only trying to soften them.
5. After they've had a chance to soften, add the potatoes and chicken stock.
6. Cook, uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft to the touch.
7. Stir in the cream.
8. Puree the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender.
• *If you use a normal blender, work in batches and make sure you vent the lid from time to time. Hot soup in a blender releases a lot of steam and pressure builds up quickly.
9. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with chopped chives.

Alternatives: This soup would work just as well with normal onions. To prepare, caramelize the onions in a pan before adding them to the soup pot and add the potatoes and chicken stock immediately. The caramelized onions will make a brown soup and give the soup a smokier flavor.

You could also fry some additional julienned leeks for a garnish to give the soup and heartier quality than the chives. Finally, adding a quater to half-cup Parmesan cheese would provide the soup with a deeper, slightly nutty flavor.

What to pair it with? You want something with tannins but not something that's going to blow the soup of the water. A dry Chardonnay might do the trick, or you could go with a light, drinkable pinot noir

Smoking Loon Pinot Noir Color: A deep, translucent ruby color. Nearly watery on first appearance

Nose: Berries. Lots of them, from cherries and strawberries to cranberries. Slight vegetation and a hint of vanilla's roundness

Palate: Silky mouth feel with a tart berry taste and delicate tannins. Surprisingly good structure and balance. Will hold up to a lot of different foods.

Finish: Very clean and leaves the mouth wanting more. Surprisingly good finish without a hint of flabbiness or that cloying quality most often found in value-range wines.

This is an astonishingly good wine for the price--fine structure and lithe tannins make this a great wine to enjoy slightly chilled or with a wide variety of foods, from hearty pork chops to simple pastas and everything in between.

Elements of Cooking

I just came from Michael Ruhlman's second blog, Elements of Cooking. It's based in part on his latest book, The Elements of Cooking, which I'm sure is available at your local book seller, but will also be available soon from Ruhlman's own site, Ruhlman.com.

I'm excited about the book, and the site has just made it onto my permanent links section (over there, on the right). Why? Because it's not about recipes. One of the things I've loved about my own cooking journey is not recipes--don't get me wrong. A good recipe is a wonderful thing. But what I've found most valuable is basic cooking methods. Take, for example the simple béchamel sauce. A little flour, butter and milk and you have a base on which you can build all kinds of things.

Just the other day I used this small bit of knowledge to really jazz up a lunch of leftover chicken and mashed potatoes. 6:30 in the morning, and I knew I wanted something a little more than plain chicken. I checked around the kitchen, found some mushrooms, and in about 10 minutes time, had a wonderful mushroom cream sauce. Simple comfort food that didn't come from a Campbell's can.

You can do it, too:

• Sautee mushrooms in a teaspoon of olive oil with a just a dash of garlic
• When they've given up most of their moisture (probably about 2 minutes), remove them from the pan
• Melt a tablespoon of butter in the same pan and slowly whisk in a tablespoon of flour (you've just made a roux)
• ***The flour and butter mix should be about the same. For a single serving, a teaspoon to tablespoon of each should be fine. If you need more, up the amount accordingly
• Now, slowly add milk--just a little at a time--until you come up with a sauce that's the desired consistency
• If you want, you can add some Parmesan cheese to thicken the sauce a bit
• Add in the mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste and you're done

Done! In 10 minutes I was able to take bland, boring leftovers and turn them into something delicious (and even a little impressive).

Anyway, my whole point here is that by understanding a singular fundamental (béchamel is one of the 7 mother sauces used in French cooking), I made something. And I could have just as easily gone with bacon in the sauce, swiss cheese, or any number of additional ingredients. And that's key. As I said on Ruhlman's blog, recipes are great, sure, but...it seems that fundamentals, not a recipe library, are the real key to kitchen creativity.