If you have some of the above attributes but are not a geezer nor even approaching pre-geezerhood, thank God for that, press on regardless, and welcome.

                         This is not a Web site for food phobics or wellness hypochondriacs

Last Night's Repast

Last half of a 1.3 lb halibut filet, bought yesterday from Costco. What to do with it?

Slice a medium shallot and, in a medium evaseé, saute it in EVOO to translucent. Add three generous shakes of medium hot chipotle powder (dried and ground chile jalapeno)--for heat and smoke. Top that with a two shakes of mild ancho power (dried and ground chile poblano)--for depth. Then add a 14.5 oz can of Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes (Muir Glen has been canning great tomatoes for years and they're widely available). Add a pinch of salt and simmer for awhile.

Select a medium skillet, drizzle in some EVOO and fire it to medium low heat. Place the dried, unsalted, unpeppered halibut filet in the pan and then transfer the tomato sauce from the evaseé to the skillet. Move contents around to cover the fish and then simmer the whole mess for about 18 minutes, turning the fish and re-covering it with sauce midway. Test for flaky doneness with a fork. Serve in a heated dish and with a slice of good bread to mop up.

The shallots and pepper powders make this a very nice Latin dish.

The Annual Cookbook Awards Are Out

Modernist Cuisine at Home won the Pro Kitchen and Design awards at the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). This gives recognition two years in a row for these remarkable cookbooks, which have been praised here effusively. A biggest winner this year was Maricel Presilla's Gran Cocina Latina, which was awarded Cookbook of the Year by the James Beard Foundation and the General Award by the IACP. So, with those credentials, I thought I should have a look. It arrived this afternoon and is going to take some time to profile it, but any Latin cookbook with 22 cebiche and 18 cilantro entries and four flan recipes holds real promise. At 900 pages and 500 recipes, this is a definitive work, likely to stand the test of time. My kind of book. Stay tuned . . .

The Old Dogwood

Fifteen years ago, this Dogwood, located hard by the balcony, started to die from the top. Perforce, I sawed off a foot or two each year for six years, at least. Then it settled into its reduced form a little worse for wear, as the saying goes. It appears now to be comfortable and doing well in its old age. Maybe there's some hidden meaning in that . . .

Amana Meatloaf?

I make a meatloaf about every two months. Each time it's a variation of the old standard Pleasant Groove Meatloaf Pate, based on what's in my Amana fridge. This time, I found a long link of frozen merguez sausage (very spicy and aromatic lamb) from the local butcher, chopped Peppadews, chopped hot and sweet jalapenos (both from bottles), some baked pearl onions from the deli and fresh cilantro. A meatloaf goes a long way--two dinners, at least three sandwiches, nibbles and portions for the poodle.

Last Night's Repast

Salmon fillet poached in beer, dressed with sauteed onions and Peppadews in EVOO, with creamed spinach side (frozen source). Salmon fillet was too large to finish, so Pepper the Poodle had a fine lunch of it the next day.

Raspberry Gazpacho

Raspberry Gazpacho is one of the more popular recipes in Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine at Home. This version is adopted from the book, which in turn comes from a fruit gazpacho by Chef David Kinch of Los Gatos, California. Fresh raspberries are pricey even in season, so frozen raspberries are OK, but buy sugarless if you can find them. This is an easy to make spicy raspberry soup.

Yield: about 2 cups or about 8 mini-soup servings

3 C Raspberries (or frozen with juice, buy the sugarless variety)
½ C Cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
½ C Piquant peppers drained, Peppadews are best (see below), or other canned
3 medium shallots, diced
2 T EVOO, your best quality, light
2 t White wine vinegar
3 t Balsamic vinegar
1 Garlic clove, pureed
S/P to taste
Lime juice to taste
½ t Cayenne to taste

1. In your blender bowl, combine all the ingredients and puree well until smooth
2. Taste for salt and pepper. Add a little lime juice if it is too sweet
3. Gazpachos should have a bite to them. If the piquant peppers are not mildly hot like Peppadews, blend in a dusting of cayenne
4. Chill and serve as a mini-soup or soup shot of about 3 ounces
5. Garnish with cilantro and/or a few fresh raspberries

Last Night's Repast III

Beef short ribs without streaks of fat in them will turn out tough no matter what you do to them, so look before you buy. This dish is a variant of Pot Roast Tagine and Glazed Beef Short Ribs. Dry the beef short ribs (3), season them with S/P, brown them in EVOO in the tagine bottom, if made of cast iron. Then open the veggie bin and toss into the tagine whatever meets the eye. Here we have some old carrots and bell peppers that had to be prepared or thrown out, a chunky sliced shallot and an potato from Idaho. On top of that, a generous sprinkling of herbes de Provence and chicken broth, poured to half way up the side of the tagine. Bring to boil, lower the fire to simmer, put on the conical cover and braise on the stove top until the beef is fork tender, about two hours.

Last Night's Repast

Foraging at Costco last week, I came upon an 8 rib, bone-in, center cut, chine bone off, 'frenched' pork loin. This is the prime cut of bone-in pork--nothin better. (Two of these tied together make a crown roast.) I took it home, cut off 6 chops and left 2 together. Seasoned variously with salt, pepper, Jamaican jerky and/or herbes de provence and a pad of butter, they were each vacuum sealed and frozen--ready to be thawed and prepared sous vide or sauteed/baked.

I thawed one out last night and browned it over medium heat in EVOO in an Iwachu cast iron skillet (see below). Not hurried, maybe ten minutes, or so in the skillet. I then added a little more EVOO and glazed it with Mrs. H.S. Ball's Hot Chutney from South Africa. Then into a 350F oven for a set time of 20 minutes. At the ten minute mark, I added poached asparagus and took a meat temperature. Surprise-surprise: the chop was done already! In fact at 155F it was more than done. That's a mere 20 minutes of cooking time for an inch thick pork chop. Beautiful, tender and moist.

Happiness is an Orchid Two-fer

Just a humble orchid that bloomed, shed, rested and came back anew.

All in its own time.

There's some hidden meaning in that . . .

If You Were Brung up On Winter Veggies, Cabbage, Meat and Game Stews While Living Closer to Canada then Cuba . . .

Or If You're Polish . . .

You Might Like This Cookbook

Two local Washington DC political writers and home cooks, with ties to Poland and Eastern Europe, put together ninety recipes of classic Polish cuisine for the modern kitchen. All the usual suspects have been rounded up here: lots of cabbage, beets, veggie soups and salads; a nice collection of braised and potted chicken, pork, wild boar and venison dishes; an enticing chapter on Pierogi (Polish dumplings) and fillers; and desserts including five infused vodka recipes. All well edited with great photos on fine paper.

It's pretty good! It might even make the James Beard Foundation contender list for regional cookbook award.

I am looking for something in a pot to cook for Super Bowl Sunday. Since this has been an annual affair for years, another go at Roasted Game Hens, Cioppino, Pork Spare Ribs, Paella, Coq au Vin, or Chili is not getting me excited for the 2013 classic. So here we have Hunter's Stew with kraut, venison, beef, veal, kielbasa sausage, more cabbage, prunes and red wine. Kind of a Spanish paella with cabbage instead of bamba rice. I'll do it soon for a small test group and then for the big day--maybe.

A Beautiful Non-stick Iron Skillet From Japan

I've hesitated to write about this skillet since getting one is a bit of a hassle. While the pan costs $75US, shipping adds another $50US. That puts it in the price range of All Clad and Le Crueset, which is fine since it's as good if not better than what they offer. The skillet is made by Iwachu, a company in Japan well known, worldwide, for their cast iron tea pots and kettles. Iwachu has been casting iron for centuries. I read about their "omelet pan" about a year ago, lost the reference, then saw it again and decided to get it. There is an Amazon like (huge) company in Japan called Rakuten Global Market that has a vendor that carries the skillet. They can be found at https://global.rakuten.co.jp.

About the skillet: At 9.6 inches across, it is of medium heavy cast iron with fine design lines--beautifully shaped with a long graceful handle and sloping cavity walls about 2 inches deep at the far edge and little more shallow at the near. It is so designed to promote the flipping of an omelet, which it does nicely. The surface is treated in a manner like Le Crueset cast iron, but better, with the result that nothing sticks to it. I have two Griswold iron skillets, a half century old, that love high heat and are therefore used most often to brown steaks and chops when done sous vide. Also have a large Le Crueset iron skillet used mostly for soft shell crabs, that is very heavy but has a too short handle.

Ah, but the Iwachu is, by far, the most attractive and versatile cast iron skillet I have ever used. I plan to retire a couple of well worn seven inch restaurant skillets and use these for everything everyday. (Yeah, I have two now.) The shipping cost is steep, but the vendor must ship them First Class on JAL since they both got here about four days after order confirmation. This is an unusually attractive and good skillet that should perform well forever.

Woks, Tagines, Dutch Ovens and Skillets

To heat a product--to cook it--you must braise, fry, roast, grill, poach or bake it. To do that, you need heat and a vessel to hold the product. Many of these vessels have regional origins with attendant cultural recipes, most ancient. Still, they either braise, fry, roast, grill, poach or bake. So, in the eyes of a Westerner, it would seem that a tagine, for example, would do a great job as a small Dutch oven, which it is. And a wok will shine as a hot frying pan, which it is. Conversely, for the cook in the Meghreb, who wants to braise lamb for a state dinner, big Dutch ovens or covered sheet pans trump tagines. And for the

line cook in Hong Kong, an order for one might just as well be fired in a skillet as a huge wok. The point being that these cooking vessels work great outside their regional origins and with or without regionally favored soy sauce, cardamom, ras el hanout, herbes de provence and/or peanut oil, EVOO or ghee.

I have eight tagine recipes on the food page of this Web site, only two of them are traditional to the Maghreb--chicken and lamb shanks. The others: turkey legs, beef brisket, beef stroganoff, bison, meatloaf and osso bucco--and their spices--are Western. So too with the wok. Now that I have figured out and posted the proper sequence of how to use a wok, I cook in it quite a lot, since it's the stir fry champ in any kitchen that has a stovetop with a big gas burner. But here too, my seasoning choices are often Western even when the ingredients are more Asian. (While I use a hand made soy sauce that actually tastes quite good (but I can't find anymore), I don't really care for it all that often.)

So here we have a boneless sliced chicken thigh dredged in cornstarch and curry powder, with sliced bok choy, onions, red peppers and green machined carrots--all stir fried in a wok with EVOO, garam masala, salt and pepper. The whole mess in the hot wok is then finished with 3/4 cups of chicken broth thickened a bit with a gram of xanthan gum. Good food, diverse origins.

A Versatile Condiment

From South Africa comes a new pepper that is really good: quite spicy with some sweetness--a cross between a red pepper and a cherry tomato. This is a specialty item at a price of about $6US a bottle, if you can find them. I've gone through about four bottles--enough to decide that I want them in my pantry, so I bought a case on line at their Web site peppadewusa.com at a much better price. Also, their Web site has all kinds of ideas of how to use them. So far, I have always drained and diced them for pasta, salads, coleslaw, potato salad, deviled eggs, meatloaf, hamburgers and sauces (as shown with butter and capers over beer poached salmon). Next, I'd like to try them whole as an hors d'oeuvre filled with shrimp or crab mouse. They're all about taste and color!

Try 'em, you'll like 'em.

Another Useful KItchen Gadget

Kitchen tweezers have been around for a long time, most of them small and flimsy. Not these! Swiss made and machined well from heavy stainless steel stock, they are large, sturdy and lend a firm grip. Handy for bottom fishing in near empty jars of cocktail onions or cornichons; for moving shrimp around a hot skillet; for turning lardons of bacon that won't flip, or grabbing a single strand of fettuccini from the pot to check for doneness. With a rag in its grip, cleaning the iced tea container or the humming bird feeder is a breeze. A.G. Russell, a fine knife Web retailer, has them for about $18US at www.agrussell.com.

The Smoking Gun

As a useful kitchen gadget this device does not rise to the practical level of the ball whisks, described below. Not even close. But if you like smoked food, here's a tool that infuses meats, poultry, veggies, cocktails and ice cream with smoky flavors without using a Camerons Stove Top smoker, a Weber Smoky Mountain Cooker or your outdoor grill. Two or three minutes is all it takes.

Simply fill the pipe hole on top with finely chopped wood chips from PolyScience or Camerons (apple, cherry, mesquite, etc.), light it with a match, pull the trigger and stuff the hose into a pot or pan and cover it. A small battery powered fan in the tool draws the smoke from the bottom of the pipe into the hose and out the end to the pot. The tool is made by the same people that make the sous vide circulator. It first gained popularity in fancy restaurants, where chefs used it to enhance the presentation of a finished dish with a hint of smoke under a domed plate cover to amaze the diner as the waiter popped the dome at the table.

I've smoked a couple of burgers and some sauteed asparagus with it, so far. It works! Quite well, in fact. About $100US at Williams-Sonoma and other shops.

A Tomato Amuse-Bouche

After reading and reviewing Extra Virginity (see below), I ordered two bottles of Agrumato--the lemon pressed EVOO (again see below). Great stuff! Now what to do with it? Here's a suggestion:

1. Find some good tasting cherry tomatoes--no easy task but essential for this dish. 2. Have them at ambient temperature and slice each in half and arrange all on a work surface cut side up. 3. Take a pinch of sea salt and carefully, by hand, drop three or four grains on each tomato half. 4. Repeat with a few bits of freshly ground black pepper. 5. Then a few flakes of finely chopped fresh basil. 6. Then a few white bits of grated Parmigiano Reggiano. 7. With all that done, drizzle three or four drops of the Agrumato Lemon EVOO. (All in moderation: not too much of any one ingredient.) 8. Gather up portions and place in nice small bowls, as shown above. Serve with a small fork. Before seating your guests at table.

Now, quite obviously, one could add the above ingredients to a big bowl, toss in the tomato halves and be done with it. You would then have a tomato salad. Done my way you have consistent, perfectly seasoned, dressed tomato halves, specially prepared and contrived to amuse your guests and invigorate their palates. The very definition of an amuse-bouche.

This is Not an Infused or Flavored EVOO

My pantry is never without a variety of infused olive oils--made mostly for the restaurant trade by Boyajian and sold at a good price of about 75 cents/ounce. They include black pepper, lemon pepper, rosemary, garlic, dried tomato and others. I use them a lot in the saute pan, in salad dressings and as brush ons for raw fish and meats. I buy them by the mixed case on the Net.

While reading Extra Virginity (see article below), I was taken up by a few pages concerning lemon pressed EVOO. The story goes, that at the end of the season a few olive growers crush hand selected olives and lemons together in a stone mill, then press the paste and centrifuge the juice to make a lemon EVOO with pronounced in depth lemon notes unrivaled by infused or flavored olive oil. Good enough to sip by the spoon, this oil is not for cooking. It is a garnish to be drizzled or brushed, a la minute, on chicken, fish, hot or cold pasta, veggies, bread, focaccia and pizza. At $3.85 an ounce (at Zingermans.com), this is a high end fine dinning product. It is a commitment to buy and use this stuff. It is perhaps best stored under lock and key . . .

Soon, I will post a tomato amuse-bouche that features this amazing EVOO.

A Very Good Kitchen Gadget

WMF, a German food service equipment manufacturer of all things from cutlery, glassware and kitchen gadgets to coffee brewers and pressure cookers, has been in business since 1853. I don't know if they invented the "ball whisk," but they sure make a good one. Two sizes: eight and twelve inches at Sur la Table for $20 and $25, respectively--pricey but worth it if you use a whisk now and then. These whisks will do what the basket wire whisks have been doing since Julia Childs rode a tricycle, except they don't get clogged up and are easy to clean. Try these on waffle batter, risotto, egg mixtures and vinaigrettes. Since the handles are smooth, they should roll nicely between the palms to make whipped cream (though I now use a stick blender for that). Wire whisks are such a hassle to unclog and to clean that you will seek opportunities to use a ball whisk.

Simple Flavor Enhancement Tricks

It's hard to pass up the olive bar at your favorite super market. The selection is too hard to resist with olives green and black, pitted, stuffed or unstuffed along with mini onions, mushrooms and maybe an artichoke heart or two. All swimming in oil. We learn from Tom Mueller, in the book profiled below, that the oil used in the olive bar selections is probably refined olive oil or, at best, low grade EVOO. So here's what to do:

Having spooned your selections at the olive bar into a deli container, bring them home and dump them all in a colander. Spray wash them thoroughly with luke warm water and put them in a fresh container. Then add a tablespoon or so of your best EVOO. Toss and enjoy. You will taste a big difference. So too, I found about a year ago with capers. I get the big jar from Costco, dump them into the colander, wash off the vinegar, place them into a cleaned jar and then add little water and some rice vinegar. Result: The capors are remarkably less salty. You can actually taste them!

So You Think You Have Been Using Quality EVOO?

Olive oil is as essential as salt. (There is a good book on salt in the biography.) This is a very good book about olive oil. And especially extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), which until reading this book, I thought was a tried and true product where difference in price equaled difference in quality. How naive.

It turns out that the olive oil industry that has been corrupt for a millennia. And still is. Doctoring good oil with cheap oil and labeling as EVOO is common practice world wide. Worse still, olive oil just north of lamp oil (lampante) is deodorized, degummed, bleached and then sold wholesale as "refined" olive oil where some of it is retailed as EVOO. So, what you see on the labels in the super market ain't what you get!

Bad oil has all but driven out good EVOO to the remarkable degree, says Mueller, that many consumers, even along the Mediterranean littoral, don't know the real stuff when they taste it, or worse, find its remarkable flavors off putting. Still, Mueller, assures us that high quality EVOO is out there and widely available. Fine EVOO is produced today not only along the littoral of the Med but in Australia, California, South Africa and Argentina by producers who are passionate about honest EVOO. Mueller takes the reader through history and describes the centrality of olive oil in the lives and commerce of human kind for two millennia. How the stuff is grown, harvested, processed and how those activities have changed through time also makes good reading. It's a good book and will surely be up for a culinary award next year.

Some Sous Vide Numbers

Over the last few months, I have put my sous vide to some use. Making good food. In all events, I have placed a product in a vacuum bag, added seasonings and butter, sealed them with the Food Saver vacuum machine and then placed them in the fridge until ready. I have kept a record of the temperatures and times, since sous vide books are fine but real cooking yields real numbers. Here is what I have so far:

• I've done a lot of lamb chops--usually two in a bag but as many as six. I am now confident that a water temp of 144°F and an immersion time of 55 minutes yields chops at a perfect pink 137°F. Every time!
• One guest wanted lamb chops well done, so 165°F for 60 minutes produced two nice moist chops well done without a trace of redness.
• A two inch thick choice sirloin at 135°F for 46 minutes yields a rare steak at 129°F.
• A 3 ounce filet mignon at 135°F for 45 minutes came out rare, about the same as the sirloin.
• Boneless veal shank (two pieces glued together) took four hours at 185°F to become tender and flaky.
• A one inch thick prime veal chop at 140°F for 50 minutes comes out rare at 126°F (Christmas day dinner).
• A 7 ounce filet of halibut was unbagged with a nice core temp of 125°F after 27 minutes at a water temp of 132°.
• Four cleaned and halved leeks, seasoned with herbes de Provence and butter, came out tender but not falling apart after 50 minutes in 185°F water.

In general, premium cuts of meat, done sous vide, need a water temp about 5% higher than the desired core temperature of the meat, when cooked for 50 minutes. Tough meats like veal or lamb shanks take a long time. Hearty veggies need a temperature of about 185°F for 50 minutes. All the meat products, when removed from their bag,were browned in a hot iron skillet with their sauces added at the last minute or heated aside.