Fresh Fruit and the Art of Food

One great gift of being human and having a cerebral cortex is that food  (and anything else for that matter) does not just simply need to serve the function of keeping us physically alive.  It can function on other planes at the same time.  Like, metaphor and beauty.  

We can use food and all of the language around food to serve as image and not just reality.  We can transfer onto the image all sorts of emotional and psychic content.  We can love food not just because it tastes so darned good and keeps us alive, but because of its beauty and its processes connected to who we are.  Processes like planting, nurturing, harvesting, preparing.

So, how we use food is as important to the human being as is what it contains to keep us living and moving on this earth.  So, how we plate and present food is important.  How do you take food and add some of the complexity of the relationship that we share with it?  What do you do to enhance the meaning and value of food in your life - beyond its role to keep us from dying?  What touches the edges of your philosophy of food - like beauty, elegance, art, desire?

What makes up the world of food for you?  How do you honor it, use it, define it, relate to it, and become ennobled by it?  Simple pears and strawberries are anything but simple.  They can evoke so much - like desire, wonder, and beauty.  Take time to incorporate this element of your relationship with food.

Spaghetti Squash

Summertime can support a broader range of fresh veggies. #workhardplayhard

Get #creativeinthekitchen

Tonight we are having baked spaghetti squash, olive oil, sautéd chicken breast with asparagus, onions and peppers. Mmm. Topped with grated parm.  Mmm.  Enjoy.

Ciao!

More Great Beets

I was pleasantly satisfied with this new venture and taste. I baked the beets the day before in the oven like I was baking a baked potato - pricking it with a fork several times.  About six medium to large beets.  Then I braised a fennel bulb. I cut it in half and then again, painting the quarters with olive oil and flash cooking it in the oven.  About 450 for a total of 15 minutes - flipping once in the middle.  I let them cool in the fridge over night.

Dice them up the next day and put them in pan with olive oil and 6 or 8 chopped scallions and quickly sauté for ten minutes and then let sit coiling on the off burner for two hours.  Mix together and serve up with some feta cheese.

Waldorf Salad

I love that we are getting a ton of veggies and fruits delivered to our home weekly from Misfit Market.  It has caused me to try new things.  Last week we got a bunch of apples and I already had some in the fridge.  So, what to do.  I made a Waldorf Salad.  We have plenty of celery from our deliveries, so that helps.  I added semi-sweet dark chocolate morsels that were in the freezer, and some freshly crushed walnuts - also in the freezer.  I used olive oil mayo and mixed it all up.  What a delight for lunch!!!  Mmm,  mmm, good.

Salad fixin’s

Who doesn’t love a great big salad with lots of Fixin’s. What are your go to salad items?  For me it is tomatoes, spring mix lettuce, cucumbers, onions, basil, oregano, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, stop light-colored peppers, and a honey crisp apples.  I do love anchovies on a salad as well. But not every time. As far as dressings are concerned, I love balsamic vinegairette  a full range of Greek salad dressings made with Greek yogurt or olive oil, and homemade Caesar salad dressing.

What are your favorite go to Fixin’s?   How about salad dressings?

Crustless Quiche to Breakfast Pizza

Depending on how much Bisquick you add, you can build a great crustless quiche or, if you add more bisquick it can function like a breakfast pizza.  Be sure to use fresh ingredients.  Today I have Cabot Sharps (2x), Natrel Lactose Free Whole, garlic, olive oil, mushrooms, onions, green and red peppers. I use 10 eggs, two lbs of cheese, 1/2 cup of milk and 3/4 cup of bisquick.  Spray Pam Olive oil into a 9 x 12 glassware pan.  Add egg/bisquick, milk mix first.  Then mix cheeses, veggies, cheeses, veggies and cook about 50 minutes at 350.  Garlic and Montreal steak seasoning to taste.

Mmmm.

What Are Your GO TO FILLINGS

When it comes to scrambled eggs or omelettes, what are your GO TO FILLING ingredients.  For me it is the following list:

1. Thick cut applewood smoked bacon.
2. Onions.
3. Red and green peppers.
4. Mushrooms.
5. Cabot sharp/extra sharp cheese (variety changes).

How about you?

COVID - 19

It is not often that we run across an illness that captures the whole of the planet with its embrace.  Not only it’s potential reach to all our shores and bodies, but it’s subtle hold on our hearts and minds.

Now is the time to start asking yourself the social questions of import.  How many hands have touched my food?  How do I ensure that my food is not a carrier agent?  When do I limit my eating in restaurants or while out of control of the chain of custody of the foods you consume?

Already we see the reaction to the virus in large gatherings being analyzed for safety.  The Geneva Motor Show has been cancelled - altering the lives of its 600,000 participants for safety sake.

How and when will you question the safety of the varied “tables” in your life?

Combination is KING

There are a lot of very simple ingredients all around us. The key is to try and combine simple ingredients to create marvelous layers and dimensions on the palate and in the soul.

One of the simple combinations that we have been experimenting with lately, has been the exquisite jams of Stonewall Kitchen.  Combining their fresh fruit jams and or their hot pepper jams with either cream cheese or a splendid sharp cheddar or asiago is simply astounding. Play with the variety of crackers you use and you can take this handful of ingredients and create masterpieces of delight.

Throw on a fresh blueberry, or small piece of apple or pear and KABOOM.  Look up Stonewall Kitchen today.  We love the local Amish Country Store variety of local aged (2 years) cheddar or Asiago.  We also LAUD Cabot sharps and their reserve sharps.

“Give me chicken salad or give me death.”

While this oft’ quoted line is erroneously attributed to Patrick Henry, it is not.  It is just from me.  And, loving chicken salad as much as I do, it is clear that I also love to switch it up a bit for taking this comfort food into new alleys of my gastronomic journey.

There are key essentials for me that don’t come and go.  Only breast meat.  Always garlic.  Always sea salt or kosher salt.  Always fresh ground pepper.  From there, all is negotiable.

Tonight there will be celery, onions, cucumbers and avocado oil mayonnaise.  But it’s as possible to have been apples, celery, and raisins.  Or, pears and craisins.  Some days fresh cilantro and others fresh basil.  Curry powder.  Then, cayenne.

All in all - while I love the steady - I say, innovate now and again.  Take your palate out for a rendezvous with adventure.  Take your comfort for an amble in the fields of change.  Not too much, just a bit.  A handful of ingredients.  That’s all.  And, viola!  Something new.

PS, I just love eating it without bread or a roll and with a favorite pile of chips.  It all blends so well in the chewing.  Mmmm.

Gigantes Plaki

GIGANTES PLAKI - giant Lima Bean’s slow cooked all day.  Add three cups of diced or chopped tomatoes, sea salt and black pepper to taste and 1/4 cup home made pesto (extra virgin olive oil, garlic and fresh basil).

One of my favorite Greek dishes.  Fresh basil, oil, garlic, and tomatoes push this over the top.

Ten Years Later - An Ode to the Chefs

I published this 10+ years ago and it stands now as then.  These are my FOUR GO TO CHEFS that gave me a culinary base and added layers to my ability.  Thank you, VINCE, MOLLIE, PETER, and JACOB!

*****

This blog is a blend of some very unique personal flavors that have influenced me over time.

My first introduction to professional cooking came to me while at Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts and was fostered in the summers by my dear friend Vincent Waugh.  Vince gave me a job in his restaurants, helping me to learn every aspect of the industry...including having a PASSION for food and the kitchen.  Vince is gone now, but there is not a week that goes by that I don't remember some fun line he said, or some craft of the trade he imparted.

Feeding that PASSION over time landed with three additional, extremely capable and nourishing CHEFS.

First is CHEF Mollie Katzen the iconic birth giver of THE MOOSEWOOD style and art of food.  All things natural, wholesome, unusually creative (especially compared to “American Cuisine” at the time, and sumptuous.  http://molliekatzen.com/  Mollie broke open the landscape and fashioned a niche in food culture and counterculture which lives on today.  Mollie has done more - single handedly - to convert our palates toward the good than any other American Chef.  She is an exceptional artist as well.  Her art has attended her recipes from the start.  That really helped birth this movement.  As of 2020:

bit.ly/37ZTd0O

bit.ly/37ZTd0O

Second is CHEF Peter Reinhart - http://peterreinhart.typepad.com/ - of what used to be known as Brother Juniper's Cafe.  Peter's love of breads and soups is one that I instantly connected with.  His work still moves through time and space challenging our original ideas about simple and basic meals and ingredients. As of 2020: 

bit.ly/2t160kR

bit.ly/2t160kR

Third is CHEF Jacob Burton - http://fredricksbistro.com/ - from Fredrick's Fusion Bistro.  Jacob's attention to educating other chefs and cooks alike was able to reignite my PASSION for food as I moved back into the arts and sciences of food.  His webcasts - http://freeculinaryschool.com/ - are jammed with all sorts of vocabulary and techniques that remind chefs not only of the lay of the land but also trip us out into the joy of why we love to do this thing called FOOD.  As of 2020: https://stellaculinary.com/content/chef-jacob-burton

Thanks to all four: Vince, Mollie, Peter, and Jacob.   It is in their names that I begin this blog.

Ciao!

+Tom

Image used with permission of Mollie Katzen

Ode to Wooden Utensils

Keeping a balance between metal, and wooden kitchen cooking and serving utensils is a must.  Plastic should be no where found save in the handle of a soft spatula for clearing bowls of batter and such.  The pans you use and the service ware can narrow down your choices.

I prefer wooden to metal most often.  Much more sensual is a wooden utensil in the hand.  Of course wood itself always fairs more sensual against metal.  They are great at keeping you from burns when left against a pans edge.  They display their scars better.

It is good to periodically wipe them all down with olive oil to feed them and let them glow.  I think the look better in the kitchen, too.  Using them for tasting also avoids utensil burns on the lips.  The crafting of them is also a great winter diversion to take up.  Carving tools or dremmels can be relaxing obsessions when given a fine piece of wood.  Variety abounds with them as well.  You can find great utensil craftspeople at many a fair.

Most people don’t think about it too much, but they should.  Give it some thought today.

I started using wooden utensils in the 80’s WOK CRAZE that swept the nation.  I have had them at my side ever since.