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 Website for food phobics or wellness hypochondriacs

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.

An Old Orchid

This is one of TLW's orchids, from George, Virginia, that is now blooming for the third time.

How nice.

The photo was taken with my new Canon G1X, which replaced my Canon G11. The G1X has a much larger sensor, is better in natural light and gives sharper results overall. The market is moving away from Point and Shoot cameras as smartphone cameras are everywhere and getting quite good. This compact camera leaves Point and Shoot far behind. It's a new breed.

Awards for Modernist Cuisine --Oops, I spoke too hastily . . .

Last month I wrote:

For whatever reasons, Nathan Myhrvold and company's Modernist Cuisine is getting stiffed by the 2012 James Beard Foundation
Awards. It is only nominated for the Cooking From the Professional Point of View Award. Nothin else. And it may not win that . . .

Outrageous!

The 34th Annual IACP Awards recognized Modernist Cuisine with The Design Award, The Professional Kitchen Award and The Visual Achievements Award.

There is hidden meaning in this, somewhere

Sigh . . .

Well, the James Beard Foundation Awards redeemed itself. It awarded Modernist Cuisine Cookbook of the Year and the Cooking From a Professional Point of View Award. I don't believe that there are nominees for best cookbook, so I missed that possibility. Good on em: Five awards for this landmark achieivement.

A Cucumber-Orange Salsa

Here is another "bed" recipe. As in "serve as a bed for sauteed fish" or, as in the article below, ratatouille as a bed for soft shell crabs. I saw this salsa recipe in the Washington Post and tried it out only to find it a bit bland. So I changed it. This is a nice fresh salsa. Great as a side with pork or as a bed for fish. Making this salsa requires some knife skills and, as such, would a be a fine recipe to start off a grandchild in the kitchen by learning when to dice and when to chop a product. This salsa needs to rest for about 8 hours in the fridge to mellow out the ingredients.

Cucumber-Orange Salsa

1 ------ large cucumber, peeled, cored, quartered lengthwise and then small diced (about 8 ounces)
2 ------ large oranges, peeled, segmented with white parts removed then small diced
3T ---- spring onion, scallions or shallots, finely diced
30 ---- leaves fresh mint, washed-dried then finely chopped
1.5T-- EVOO, your best in house
1 ------ pinch of salt
2 ------ pinches of cayenne pepper

Combine all the ingredients and toss thoroughly. Taste for salt and pepper. Chill for about 8 hours to mellow out the ingredients.

At Last : Ratatouille!

I have not posted this dish, which is a favorite of mine, because it is a bit of a chore to make it right. But its time has come. The occasion was dinner for four. I served soft shell crabs on a bed of ratatouille.

Ratatouille is a vegetable stew always comprised of equal portions of these five veggies: tomato, onions, egg plant, zucchini and bell peppers. If not, it ain't ratatouille, it's something else.

1. All the veggies are to be diced, not chopped carelessly.

2. Start with the tomatoes (about one per serving): Prepare a small pot of boiling water and another of ice water. Cut a shallow X through the skin in the bottom of each tomato and gently drop them into the boiling water. After fifteen seconds, scoop them out with a slotted spoon and transfer them to the ice bath. When cool enough to handle, peel off the skins. Then cut and dice the tomatoes, bite sized and save the juice. Set aside. (If tomatoes are out of season or otherwise look awful, good canned tomatoes--such as Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes work great, juice and all.)

3. Gather up a bouquet of thyme and parsley (stems too), bay leaves and pepper corns and stuff them all into a sachet (bag) or onto a square of cheese cloth then tied off into a bag. Set aside for next step.

4. Peel and dice the onions. Then in a large heavy pot, sweat the onions to translucent in a generous amount of EVOO. Then add the tomatoes and juice. Add the sachet of spices and simmer the whole mess until the tomatoes soften and look tender. 15 minutes, or so.

5. Peel the egg plant, cut off the ends, stand it upright and cut away about a half inch of rounded side to make a flat surface. Then cut away 1/2 inch thick flat slabs. Dice each slab into cubes 1/2 x 1/2 inch. (Don't bother to salt the egg plant, beforehand.) Set aside for step 8.

6. Cut the zucchini lengthwise and then cut crosswise pieces about 3/4 inch think. Set aside for step 8.

7. Core and seed the bell peppers (green or red or both) and cut into squares about 3/4 inch in size. Set aside for step 8.

8. Using one or two saute pans and generous amounts of EVOO, saute the egg plant cubes, the zucchini pieces and the bell pepper squares SEPERATELY until each is softened and tender. Season each with a little salt and pepper. (The egg plant will suck up a lot of EVOO.)

9. When each veggie is ready, transfer it to the onion/tomato mixture leaving its EVOO behind.

10. Simmer the ratatouille for about 40 minutes until all is very tender. Add a little water or chicken broth if it gets too dry.

11. Taste frequently along the way and add salt and pepper, as needed.

Note: Ratatouille can be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated. Serve heated or ambient.

Shopping the Deli Counter For Ideas

Balducci's is a high end grocer located five minutes from home. They carry top quality produce, meats, fish and cheese, with prices to match. Still I go there--convenience is everything--for fish, produce and cheese. They have a nice deli counter too. Now and then I buy something there, but more often I scan the presentation for ideas. Last week they had a fancy bowl full of spinach and shallots.

"That might work," sez I to me . . .

So, that evening I wilted some spinach in a pot with a couple tablespoons of chicken broth, sauteed some finely sliced shallots in butter and EVOO and tossed them together with salt and pepper. It worked! They got along fine. I then beer-poached a salmon fillet, from yesterday's fresh fish buy, and placed it atop the spinach and shallots. Good so far, but it portended blandness. So, I warmed together some Raspberry Wasabi Mustard (made by the Robert Rothschild Farm people), EVOO, rice wine vinegar and pepper as a spicy sauce for the salmon.

It's a nice dish. Try it, you'll like it.

OK, too many pots for a simple dinner and what a mess, but I can explain . . .

First of all, the teapot on the right back burner lives there so it doesn't count. The copper pot of water and the sous vide thermal circulator were used to cook a nice two bone seasoned lamb chop (at 144F for 55 minutes). When done (rare-medium), the lamb-in-the-bag was transferred to the hot black iron skillet for browning. The pot, center back, was filled with water and topped with a fitted steamer filled with Brussel sprouts. When tender, they were chill shocked and then transferred to the non stick skillet to brown in a little bacon fat. And dinner's ready!

Many earlier explanations, such as this one, never seemed to placate The Little Woman.

I don't know why.

Fennel Pollen Update

The Wall Street Journal had an article about this stuff. So I got some from The Spice House in Milwaukee--my reliable Internet go-to supplier. Lift the lid and one can smell and almost see the power of this aromatic spice. It is described as a flavor booster. Not many of them around: MSM, garam masala and demi glace come to mind. A library search comes up empty, so fennel pollen is quite new. According to the WSJ, the stuff first came to market as a digestive then into professional kitchens where chefs discovered that it amped up umami flavors--the subtle but deep savory notes. Its flavor combines the licorice of fennel with notes of lemon and honey, according to the WSJ.

The Italians have used fennel pollen for years, in and on all things pork. Veal too, as well as chicken and salmon. Pastry chefs have added it to cookies and breads. Another spice vender says it pairs with lavender and works in yogurt.

Magic? Fairy Dust? Stay tuned as I give it go.

I just put a teaspoon of fennel pollen in a batch of pantry cookies, made this time with raisins, unsalted peanuts and unsweetened coconut. I've given a few to friends telling them that I put an "exotic aromatic" in the cookies and to see if they can taste and identify it. For me: the bouquet of anise is very present as well as a faint taste of anise or licorice. It works. Not at all off putting.

James Beard's Cole Slaw

This recipe appears in Beard's Treasury of Outdoor Cooking. This is a beautiful, artsy book with wonderful photographs of food art and scenery. The 1960 first edition is recognized by book collectors. This recipe calls for the use of a double boiler to make a roux. Not many references to double boilers these days. But if you have one use it. Otherwise make the roux over low heat. It also calls for eggs. With stick and standing blenders at the ready today, a lumpy roux or a slightly cuddled egg mixture can be corrected without the emotion that attended such problems 50 years ago. This is a good vinegar cole slaw in a thickened tasty base.

See Abbreviations, if needed
• 2 heads white and ½ head purple cabbage, shredded (2 lbs) (See note)
• 4T butter
• 2T AP flour
• ½ C water
• 2 eggs
• 6T sugar
• 1t+ Coleman’s dry mustard
• 1t salt
• 2t white pepper powder
• ½ C white wine vinegar
-----------------------------------------------------------
1. Melt butter in double boiler, add flour and make a white roux
2. Add the water, then stir, cook smooth and remove from heat
3. In a bowl: whisk eggs, sugar, mustard, S/P
4. Pour into the hot roux mixture over this, stir and smooth
5. Empty bowl into the double boiler, stir and cook to thicken
6. At the moment it is thick, remove from heat and add the vinegar
7. Blends smooth with a stick blender
8. Pour cooled dressing over cabbage and toss

Note: Cabbage is cheap. Buy two heads and discard the hard and white centers in favor of the green and more tender leaves. A food processor with a 1 mm blade cuts the cabbage nicely.

Oven Braised Pork Spare Ribs

This is a family recipe, much modified. It originally called for finishing the ribs on the grill while brushing them with sauce. That doesn't work since the ribs are falling-off-the-bone-tender when done and can't be moved from pan to grill without making a wretched mess of it all. Forget the grill. These are braised ribs! Serve a sauce of choice in a heated gravy boat. (Don't be surprised if quite a few diners won't want sauce on their braised ribs.)

Ribs: (allow five ribs per person, that is: 2 racks = 26 ribs= dinner for 5)
Two racks of baby back pork ribs

Dry Rub:
1T salt
2T brown sugar
2t dry mustard
2t thyme
1t ginger, fresh grated
½ t cinnamon, fresh grated
1t cayenne

Pan Braising Mixture:
1 large onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick, broken
1T ginger, freshly grated
2C apple cider or apple juice (enough to cover the pan bottom about ¼ inch deep)

Optional Barbecue Sauce: (If you don't have your own favorite)
½ C brown sugar
1 oz butter, melted
¼ C bourbon
¼ C rice wine or white wine vinegar
2T Dijon mustard

1. Remove silver skin from back of ribs, trim off excess fat and set aside
2. Prepare dry rub by mixing all ingredients together in a small bowl
3. Hand rub the meat side with the dry rub, salt and pepper the skin side of the ribs. Cover and chill for an hour or more
4. Spray or rub sheet pan or roasting pan surface with EVOO
5. Place braising pan mixture (less apple cider) in pan
6. Lay ribs in pan meat side up and then add apple cider (see photo)
7. Cover pan with foil and place in preheated 325F oven
8. Braise ribs for about 2 hours covered and another half hour uncovered, until meat is pulling away from the bones (Allow 2½ hours for this)
9. When ready, cut racks with a sharp knife into two or three bone servings
10. Serve the ribs right out of the braising pan along with a little spooned-on braising liquid and braised onions
11. Serve with a sauce of choice, heated

Salmon Filet in Beer

Fresh farm raised salmon filets are not all that expensive, especially if you find them in a big box grocery outlet. Whenever I go to Costco, I get a nice small salmon filet for about $12US. Eating alone, I saute half of it in EVOO and serve it with clarified butter infused with a few washed capors, maybe. The next morning, I smoke the rest with the stove top smoker and eat it with crackers as an appetizer or put it together with salsa as a salad. This time around however, the sauteed salmon was so good I decided not to smoke the rest but make another dinner out of it.

But how not to reprise yesterday's repast? Easy! Poach it in beer. Fill a saute pan with two bottles of a good hearty beer and poach the salmon filet until done--about two minutes a side. (Carbonated beer wants to foam up and boil over, so watch for that.) Then remove it to a heated plate and season it with salt and pepper. I had the fish with French fried sweet potatoes, made by the Alexis people and a ginger wasabi sauce out of a bottle from somewhere in the fridge. Quick, simple, delicious.

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.
• 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.

Coconut Clouds (rev)

I've always been fond of coconut macaroon snowballs. We bought some at the Williamsburg farmers' market awhile back but I couldn't finish a whole one. It was just too sweet and heavy. Maybe they were made with sweetened coconut (since the unsweetened variety is hard to find). Whatever. . .

So here we have something lighter made with Italian meringue:

Coconut Clouds (rev 3)

Yield:  about 30 cookies
See Abbreviations, if needed

1.25 C sugar
3/4 C water
3 egg whites (ambient)
7 oz unsweetened finely grated coconut (or flakes, chopped)
1 oz unsweetened coconut flakes (for garnish)

------------------------------------------------
1. Preheat oven to 325°F and prep sheet pans with super parchment paper or silicone pads
2. Place sugar and water in sauce pan, heat slowly and stir gently until sugar is dissolved
3. Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites in a stand mixer until stiff peaks form
4. Once the eggs whites are ready (and not before), quickly turn up the heat on the sugar water to high and bring it as high as it will get, about 225°F.
5. Set the mixer to high rotation and then carefully pour in the hot sugar mix (don't splash it onto the rotating whisk)
6. Continue to whisk at high speed until the meringue has cooled to near-ambient
7. Slow the mixer and pour in the coconut and mix briefly
8. Use a kitchen table spoon and tap-drop batter onto the sheet pan about 2 inches apart. Insert a few flakes of coconut into the top of each cookie for texture and color
9. Bake about 14 minutes (convection) (rotate once) until the cookies appear firm enough to be lifted off the pan without breaking up . . . about 16 minutes without a fan.
10. Let cookies cool for about 5 minutes, then transfer them to a rack using a wetted spatula
Note: Thanks to Ruth Reichl and The Gourmet Cookbook for inspiration.

A New Cookie Paradigm?
When is a cookie done? 

In school we were instructed to look for a trace of browning around the edge of the cookie. Corriher says the same thing.  Reichl says 'until golden.'  I'm now convinced that waiting for evidence of browning results in an over baked cookie:  one that dries when cooled and gets hard when stored.  The 'until golden' works better for white sugar than brown sugar'd cookies. The conundrum is compounded in a convection oven, which shortens baking time by 20%, for sure, and maybe more.  Which also means that the time to take out the cookies comes sooner and passes faster.

So . . .

I just baked a batch of Pantry Cookies and a batch of my new Nut, Coconut and Health Bar Cookies.  I took them out when they appeared set.  That is, when they were fully shaped, with a dry surface top and with edges sharply defined and not clinging to the silicone pad.  No evidence of browning.  The result:  moist, chewy cookies!

This is heavy...but a change is required on all my cookie recipes.  Got to do it.