I love a quotation I found in a cookbook from the early 1800s: Every cook must learn what every wife knows -- how to make the best of the cold remains!
Leftover beef brisket is easily transformed into barbecue, and it's different enough that it doesn't really seem like "leftovers"! I know, I know...boiled beef brisket hardly qualifies as "barbecue" -- barbecue should be smoked for hours with special spices, etc. But shredded and with a good sauce, it's pretty good and a lot easier. The side dishes really make a completely new meal, even if you use the same potatoes and green beans.
I use a slow cooker for the barbecue, because I have one and it's easy. You can use a lidded casserole in the oven: "Low" on the slow cooker is 172 and "High" is 212, but I don't think the exact temperature or time is that important. The main thing is to cook on low heat long enough for the meat to really absorb the sauce, but not over-cook.
You can use your favorite barbecue sauce. I like the Stubb's Barbecue Sauce (from Stubb's Barbecue in Austin -- they carry a bottled version at my local Tom Thumb), and I add a little cider vinegar.
If you really are cooking for one, you might have enough left over beef to make beef hash tomorrow -- it's delicious with a poached egg and Hollandaise on top (hmmmI need to post my recipe for skillet Hollandaise...later!). Use as much or as little as you like for the barbecue. Maybe you can find someone to share!
Barbecue Beef
Place the meat on a large cutting board and shred. Place beef in slow cooker. Pour sauce over the beef and mix well (the amount of sauce is up to personal taste, but don't get it too soupy). Cover and cook on Low for about 6 hours.
The beef can be served directly from the slow cooker or casserole onto toasted buns, or just as is onto the plate...and now for the fun part!
The "Sides"
There are so many good side dishes for barbecue! Of course you want some good pickles and rings of sliced onion. It's nice to offer some of the heated barbecue sauce so those who like a lot can spoon on extra. One or more hot sauces, for those who like it spicy. But then there is so much more to choose from! I have never really found a recipe for cole slaw that I like, although I've eaten good cole slaw (I love the cole slaw at Vincent's Seafood Resteraunt in Dallas, for instance, and Big Pine Lodge on Caddo Lake), and so I don't offer a cole slaw recipe. If you have leftover potatoes and green beans, you can use them to make potato salad and green bean salad. A stuffed baked potato casserole a la Sammy's Barbecue (scoop out the insides of baked potatoes, add the ingredients of a stuffed potato, mix, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes) is great if you have left over baked potato. Fried okra is traditional and I do love it. And, really, it's hardly Texas barbecue without beans!
Potato Salad
You probably have a favorite recipe for potato salad. There are many variations: mayonnaise, mustard, vinaigrette. As you probably have deduced, I am a big fan of vinaigrette. Here is my favorite:
Warm boiled potatoes in microwave if they have been in the refrigerator. Add chopped celery and marinate in vinaigrette for about an hour. Before serving add some chopped chives or green onion. Serve at room temperature.
For a mayonnaise version, follow directions above but add mayonnaise, chopped boiled eggs, and chopped pickles. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.
For a mustard version, add mustard to the mayonnaise recipe.
Green Bean Salad
I do the green bean salad pretty much the same as a potato salad, though without the celery or green onion (a little grated onion instead). If you do the vinaigrette for the potatoes, you might want to do the mayonnaise for the green beans -- or vice versa.
Fried Okra
Fresh or frozen okra
Corn meal
salt & pepper
cooking oil
Cut okra into rounds. Salt and pepper. Shake in a sack with corn meal until okra is completely covered.
Heat 1/3 cup oil to very hot in a skillet. Fry okra until golden brown -- about 12 minutes. Drain on paper towels.
"Fort Worth Beans"
My mother's family were from East Texas and were raised on Southern cooking. When my mother's older sister married and moved to Fort Worth, she was surprised to see that a staple of the diet there was baked barbecue beans. Every house had beans on the stove, and people expected it when they came to call. So she set out to learn how to make "Fort Worth Beans"!
This is my version of her recipe, with a huge shortcut thanks to Bush's Baked Beans. You could use any of their many varieties of baked beans. I happen to like the maple and bacon.
Bush's Maple & Bacon Baked Beans
chopped onion
French's mustard
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine beans, onion, and a generous dollop of mustard in a greased casserole. Bake for 30 minues covered.
(You can add two strips of bacon on top of the beans, and cook for 30 more minutes uncovered, for a more authentic touch)
Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Scalloped Tomatoes
This recipe comes from Helene Randolph Moore, a friend of my former mother-in-law Lenora Love. Helene says it was a favorite supper dish during the Depression. It's good with steak and potatoes, and it would be good with the Boiled Brisket if you decide to serve that with the beef juices instead of the gravy -- I think it would be too rich with the beef & gravy. It's something different and super easy. I've even used the canned diced tomatoes with basil if I'm really feeling lazy!
4 slices toast, coarsely crumbled
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1-pound can of tomatoes, broken up, with juice
6 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
Preheat oven to 425.
In a 9-inch pie plate pour the butter over the toast, stirring to coat. Heat the tomatoes, sugar, salt, and basil until sugar dissolves. Stir into buttered toast. Press down bread until it is submerged. Bake about 25 minutes, or until brown around the edges.
4 slices toast, coarsely crumbled
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1-pound can of tomatoes, broken up, with juice
6 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
Preheat oven to 425.
In a 9-inch pie plate pour the butter over the toast, stirring to coat. Heat the tomatoes, sugar, salt, and basil until sugar dissolves. Stir into buttered toast. Press down bread until it is submerged. Bake about 25 minutes, or until brown around the edges.
Beef Brisket with Gravy
This is a very simple way to prepare brisket, and it produces a tender and tasty dish. It is my adaptation of my mother's adaptation of the Joy of Cooking recipe. If you have an electric knife, it will be easier to prevent the meat from falling apart when you slice it -- it is that tender! Cut against the grain. But, if it does fall apart, who cares? It still tastes just as good!
Any potato dish and a green vegetable are good with this. I usually do boiled new potatoes (tossed in butter, parsley, and salt & pepper) and boiled or steamed green beans (tossed in butter, salt, white pepper, and a tiny bit of grated onion or onion juice -- just enough to balance the sharp flavor of the beans). You can also add boiled new potatoes to the beef for the final cooking stage (see below). But a baked potato, scalloped potatoes, or mashed potatoes would be good. And any vegetable or vegetable combination could round it out. Or sliced tomatoes...If you decide to serve the beef with its own juices instead of gravy, scalloped tomatoes would be good (see following post), and the scalloped tomatoes provide a starch as well as a vegetable if you would like to leave out the potato.
6 cups water
3 lbs lean boneless brisket
dash of celery salt
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400.
Bring water to a boil. Place meat in a large pot and cover with boiling water. Add celery salt and garlic. Cover tightly and simmer for about 3 hours, or until tender. Remove meat and place in a shallow pan, skin side up. Score several times across the top, and season with salt and pepper. Place in oven and cook for 20 minutes, or until browned (at this point you can also add cooked potatoes to roast with the juices).
You can serve the sliced beef with its own juices or any gravy. The recipe below is from Joy of Cooking :
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish, or dollop of prepared horseradish to taste
salt
vinegar or lemon juice
(sugar)
chopped parsley
Degrease 2 cups of the cooking liquid from the beef.
Melt the butter and lightly brown the onions. Stir in flour until blended, then slowly stir in the degreased stock. Season with horseradish, salt, vinegar or lemon juice. Taste to adjust the seasonings, and add a little sugar if the flavor is too harsh. Ladle gravy onto each serving of beef and top with a little parsley, or sprinkle the parsley onto the gravy in a gravy boat to be passed at the table.
Any potato dish and a green vegetable are good with this. I usually do boiled new potatoes (tossed in butter, parsley, and salt & pepper) and boiled or steamed green beans (tossed in butter, salt, white pepper, and a tiny bit of grated onion or onion juice -- just enough to balance the sharp flavor of the beans). You can also add boiled new potatoes to the beef for the final cooking stage (see below). But a baked potato, scalloped potatoes, or mashed potatoes would be good. And any vegetable or vegetable combination could round it out. Or sliced tomatoes...If you decide to serve the beef with its own juices instead of gravy, scalloped tomatoes would be good (see following post), and the scalloped tomatoes provide a starch as well as a vegetable if you would like to leave out the potato.
6 cups water
3 lbs lean boneless brisket
dash of celery salt
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400.
Bring water to a boil. Place meat in a large pot and cover with boiling water. Add celery salt and garlic. Cover tightly and simmer for about 3 hours, or until tender. Remove meat and place in a shallow pan, skin side up. Score several times across the top, and season with salt and pepper. Place in oven and cook for 20 minutes, or until browned (at this point you can also add cooked potatoes to roast with the juices).
You can serve the sliced beef with its own juices or any gravy. The recipe below is from Joy of Cooking :
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish, or dollop of prepared horseradish to taste
salt
vinegar or lemon juice
(sugar)
chopped parsley
Degrease 2 cups of the cooking liquid from the beef.
Melt the butter and lightly brown the onions. Stir in flour until blended, then slowly stir in the degreased stock. Season with horseradish, salt, vinegar or lemon juice. Taste to adjust the seasonings, and add a little sugar if the flavor is too harsh. Ladle gravy onto each serving of beef and top with a little parsley, or sprinkle the parsley onto the gravy in a gravy boat to be passed at the table.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Chicken Spaghetti
I've realized since starting this blog how many of my favorite recipes are related to fond memories. My late friend Sally Henry taught me how to make what is now my favorite vinaigrette. My friend Bill Johnson introduced me to the wonderful Palm Beach Tennis Club Salad. Craig Claiborne's Green Goddess Salad Dressing comes from a cookbook I found in the kitchen of my late cousin Mary Hobart Key.
Today's recipe is the closest I have been able to come to recreating the famous chicken spaghetti prepared by the cook (whose name unfortunately escapes me for the moment!) who worked for the Dunlap family (the late John and Peter, and sister Anne -- now Spitler). Everyone loved that chicken spaghetti, especially for parties, but she would never give out the recipe -- you had to hire her to make it! Anne says she has it somewhere, but we're still waiting...
I think this has most of the same ingredients. It's very similar to King Ranch Casserole, but milder and with spaghetti instead of tortillas. In fact, this can be a casserole, too...just place the ingredients in a greased casserole dish! But I remember it being served in a big bowl so you could serve yourself, alongside a big bowl of green salad, and a basket of French rolls or sliced baguette.
It's a good dish for leftover roasted chicken, but is best with the meat from a boiled (really poached) chicken. The frozen cubed chicken is very popular for chicken salads and casseroles because it is so easy to use, but it's not nearly as good as chicken that's been cooked with the skin and the bone (which give a lot of flavor) and then shredded to absorb the sauce.
If you object to canned cream of mushroom soup, you can sautée some mushrooms in butter, add flour, whisk to combine, then slowly add milk while continuing to whisk.
1 3/4 cup raw spaghetti, broken up
1/4 green pepper, chopped
1/4 cup diced pimientoes
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 - 2 cups shredded chicken
1/2 onion, chopped
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
Combine all ingredients except spaghetti and cheese in a large pot. Heat over medium-low heat about 25 minutes, or until flavors are combined. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a separate pot. When the spaghetti is done, drain and add to the pot with the chicken. Toss gently. Add the cheese and toss again. Transfer to a serving bowl.
This is a very forgiving dish, and is delicious hot, room temperature, or even cold, so it's great for buffets.
Boiled or Poached Chicken:
1 chicken, whole or cut up
1 quart water
1 stalk celery
1 quarter of an onion
a few sprigs of parsley
1 carrot
1 tablespoon salt
Clean the chicken and place in a large kettle. Add the water, then the other ingredients. Bring to a boil, cover, then lower heat and simmer until tender -- about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. Be sure the heat is low. When done, let the chicken cool in the liquid. Then remove skin and shred -- you can use two forks, but I think it's easier to just use my fingers. The liquid left over is, of course, a nice chicken stock that can be used for soup or sauces!
Today's recipe is the closest I have been able to come to recreating the famous chicken spaghetti prepared by the cook (whose name unfortunately escapes me for the moment!) who worked for the Dunlap family (the late John and Peter, and sister Anne -- now Spitler). Everyone loved that chicken spaghetti, especially for parties, but she would never give out the recipe -- you had to hire her to make it! Anne says she has it somewhere, but we're still waiting...
I think this has most of the same ingredients. It's very similar to King Ranch Casserole, but milder and with spaghetti instead of tortillas. In fact, this can be a casserole, too...just place the ingredients in a greased casserole dish! But I remember it being served in a big bowl so you could serve yourself, alongside a big bowl of green salad, and a basket of French rolls or sliced baguette.
It's a good dish for leftover roasted chicken, but is best with the meat from a boiled (really poached) chicken. The frozen cubed chicken is very popular for chicken salads and casseroles because it is so easy to use, but it's not nearly as good as chicken that's been cooked with the skin and the bone (which give a lot of flavor) and then shredded to absorb the sauce.
If you object to canned cream of mushroom soup, you can sautée some mushrooms in butter, add flour, whisk to combine, then slowly add milk while continuing to whisk.
1 3/4 cup raw spaghetti, broken up
1/4 green pepper, chopped
1/4 cup diced pimientoes
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 - 2 cups shredded chicken
1/2 onion, chopped
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
Combine all ingredients except spaghetti and cheese in a large pot. Heat over medium-low heat about 25 minutes, or until flavors are combined. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a separate pot. When the spaghetti is done, drain and add to the pot with the chicken. Toss gently. Add the cheese and toss again. Transfer to a serving bowl.
This is a very forgiving dish, and is delicious hot, room temperature, or even cold, so it's great for buffets.
Boiled or Poached Chicken:
1 chicken, whole or cut up
1 quart water
1 stalk celery
1 quarter of an onion
a few sprigs of parsley
1 carrot
1 tablespoon salt
Clean the chicken and place in a large kettle. Add the water, then the other ingredients. Bring to a boil, cover, then lower heat and simmer until tender -- about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. Be sure the heat is low. When done, let the chicken cool in the liquid. Then remove skin and shred -- you can use two forks, but I think it's easier to just use my fingers. The liquid left over is, of course, a nice chicken stock that can be used for soup or sauces!
Friday, March 11, 2011
Nicoise Salad & Craig Claiborne's Green Goddess Dressing
Nicoise salad, of course, is just a salad as done in Nice. The main idea is fish and vegetables, served at room temperature and "composed" -- that is, arranged on the plate rather than tossed. One can vary the ingredients, but the classic Nicoise centers on tuna and usually includes potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, Nicoise olives, haricots verts (the thin French green beans), and anchovies.
I know many people think they don't like anchovies, but if you can get really high quality anchovies instead of the mush usually found at the grocery store you might be surprised. Texture and flavor are much improved by draining the filets on a paper towel. The anchovies can be omitted or served on the side for the timid, but they are very much a classic ingredient. Anchovies are considered a great delicacy in Mediterranean countries.The best tuna for this is the canned French or Spanish tuna packed in olive oil. You can substitute any canned tuna,other types of green beans for the haricots verts, or other brined black olives for the Nicoise olives, but -- as with omitting the anchovies -- the result will be a less distinctive salad. I also sometimes have substituted poached or grilled salmon or tilapia for the tuna, and I like to add capers, red bell pepper, and green onions. The proportions of each ingredient are up to individual taste. A nice crusty French roll is all you need to accompany the salad.
This is a really great dish for entertaining, for a luncheon or a casual supper on a hot summer evening. The cooking and marinating and chopping and slicing can be done the day before. And because all the ingredients are served at room temperature, the plates can be composed and placed at each setting on the table before guests arrive. As the guests are gathering it's nice to have a chilled soup -- like tomato bouillon or cream of carrot -- served in demitasses with cheese straws, and this makes a nice and easy first course. For dessert, something creamy like a chocolate mousse.
Nicoise Salad
Bibb or Boston lettuce
haricots verts
new potatoes
eggs
red bell pepper
green onion
tuna
anchovies
capers
Nicoise olives
vinaigrette
Halve or quarter the potatoes, depending on their size, then boil the haricots verts and potatoes separately until just tender enough to cut with a fork. Place into separate bowls and toss with vinaigrette (see recipe below). Allow to marinate for about 20 minutes to one hour.
Boil the eggs, then slice (or quarter if you prefer).
Drain anchovies on a paper towel.
Slice red bell pepper into thin strips.
Cut heads and ends off of the green onions.
Arrange each plate as follows:
A leaf of lettuce in the center, on which is placed the tuna in a mound. The anchovies are then draped across the tuna, usually two anchovies in a cross. The capers then sprinkled around the mound of tuna.
In a circle around the tuna and lettuce, alternate the haricots verts and potatoes. At the top of the plate arrange the eggs, at the bottom the olives, on one side the red pepper strips, and on the other side the green onions.
The effect should be two circles surrounding the mound of tuna.
The salad may be dressed with vinaigrette before serving, but I like to pass the dressing so each person can have as much or as little as desired.
Vinaigrette:
3 parts olive oil
1 part vinegar
(garlic chopped or pressed, if desired)
(Dijon mustard, if desired)
salt, to taste
white pepper, to taste
Although a simple vinaigrette is the traditional dressing for Nicoise Salad, if you decide to used poached or grilled salmon instead of the tuna I think this Green Goddess dressing would be delicious as a sauce on the salmon. It seems a little rich for tilapia.I would stick with the vinaigrette for the vegetables, but have some of the Green Goddess on the table to drizzle on the vegetables if desired (it makes a good dip for blanched vegetables, too). I first made this when I lived in Austin in the 90s, and we all liked it so much we ate it on everything we could think of -- even sandwiches!
I know, again with the anchovies! But you really can't taste them in this. They just add a certain depth of flavor, like a bay leaf does in a stew. Please don't omit them!
Craig Claiborne's Green Goddess Dressing
2 ounces flat anchovies, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
Combine ingredients in the container of an electric blender and blend for two seconds, or beat thoroughly with a rotary beater. Chill, and use on salad greens, chilled seafood, or hard-boiled eggs (or anything else that sounds good!).
I know many people think they don't like anchovies, but if you can get really high quality anchovies instead of the mush usually found at the grocery store you might be surprised. Texture and flavor are much improved by draining the filets on a paper towel. The anchovies can be omitted or served on the side for the timid, but they are very much a classic ingredient. Anchovies are considered a great delicacy in Mediterranean countries.The best tuna for this is the canned French or Spanish tuna packed in olive oil. You can substitute any canned tuna,other types of green beans for the haricots verts, or other brined black olives for the Nicoise olives, but -- as with omitting the anchovies -- the result will be a less distinctive salad. I also sometimes have substituted poached or grilled salmon or tilapia for the tuna, and I like to add capers, red bell pepper, and green onions. The proportions of each ingredient are up to individual taste. A nice crusty French roll is all you need to accompany the salad.
This is a really great dish for entertaining, for a luncheon or a casual supper on a hot summer evening. The cooking and marinating and chopping and slicing can be done the day before. And because all the ingredients are served at room temperature, the plates can be composed and placed at each setting on the table before guests arrive. As the guests are gathering it's nice to have a chilled soup -- like tomato bouillon or cream of carrot -- served in demitasses with cheese straws, and this makes a nice and easy first course. For dessert, something creamy like a chocolate mousse.
Nicoise Salad
Bibb or Boston lettuce
haricots verts
new potatoes
eggs
red bell pepper
green onion
tuna
anchovies
capers
Nicoise olives
vinaigrette
Halve or quarter the potatoes, depending on their size, then boil the haricots verts and potatoes separately until just tender enough to cut with a fork. Place into separate bowls and toss with vinaigrette (see recipe below). Allow to marinate for about 20 minutes to one hour.
Boil the eggs, then slice (or quarter if you prefer).
Drain anchovies on a paper towel.
Slice red bell pepper into thin strips.
Cut heads and ends off of the green onions.
Arrange each plate as follows:
A leaf of lettuce in the center, on which is placed the tuna in a mound. The anchovies are then draped across the tuna, usually two anchovies in a cross. The capers then sprinkled around the mound of tuna.
In a circle around the tuna and lettuce, alternate the haricots verts and potatoes. At the top of the plate arrange the eggs, at the bottom the olives, on one side the red pepper strips, and on the other side the green onions.
The effect should be two circles surrounding the mound of tuna.
The salad may be dressed with vinaigrette before serving, but I like to pass the dressing so each person can have as much or as little as desired.
Vinaigrette:
3 parts olive oil
1 part vinegar
(garlic chopped or pressed, if desired)
(Dijon mustard, if desired)
salt, to taste
white pepper, to taste
Although a simple vinaigrette is the traditional dressing for Nicoise Salad, if you decide to used poached or grilled salmon instead of the tuna I think this Green Goddess dressing would be delicious as a sauce on the salmon. It seems a little rich for tilapia.I would stick with the vinaigrette for the vegetables, but have some of the Green Goddess on the table to drizzle on the vegetables if desired (it makes a good dip for blanched vegetables, too). I first made this when I lived in Austin in the 90s, and we all liked it so much we ate it on everything we could think of -- even sandwiches!
I know, again with the anchovies! But you really can't taste them in this. They just add a certain depth of flavor, like a bay leaf does in a stew. Please don't omit them!
Craig Claiborne's Green Goddess Dressing
2 ounces flat anchovies, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
Combine ingredients in the container of an electric blender and blend for two seconds, or beat thoroughly with a rotary beater. Chill, and use on salad greens, chilled seafood, or hard-boiled eggs (or anything else that sounds good!).
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Vincent Price's Palm Beach Tennis Club Salad
I first had this salad many years ago, when my friend Bill Johnson invited me to his dinner club. Each member of the club would bring one dish for the dinner, and Bill had been assigned to bring the salad. He found this recipe in a charity cookbook of some kind, I believe. I probably don't remember it completely accurately, but the dresssing was especially delicious.
Make sure in any salad that the greens are completely dry. This allows the dressing to coat the leaves evenly.
The salad:
Boston or Bibb lettuce: washed, dried, and torn into medium pieces
bacon, crumbled
Blue Cheese, crumbled
scallions, chopped
artichoke hearts, chopped
croutons
avocado, diced
hard-boiled egg, diced
Assemble ingredients in a large bowl and toss with dressing:
Three parts walnut oil to one part pear vinegar, salt and white pepper to taste.
My Tom Thumb has walnut oil. The pear vinegar is a little harder to find, but worth it!
More later...
Make sure in any salad that the greens are completely dry. This allows the dressing to coat the leaves evenly.
The salad:
Boston or Bibb lettuce: washed, dried, and torn into medium pieces
bacon, crumbled
Blue Cheese, crumbled
scallions, chopped
artichoke hearts, chopped
croutons
avocado, diced
hard-boiled egg, diced
Assemble ingredients in a large bowl and toss with dressing:
Three parts walnut oil to one part pear vinegar, salt and white pepper to taste.
My Tom Thumb has walnut oil. The pear vinegar is a little harder to find, but worth it!
More later...
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Well, I'm back! Inspired by my success in finding my three favorite cookbooks through Amazon's out-of-print service, I am newly inspired to cook alone!
The books have not arrived yet, but I am feeling inspired by the very anticipation! James Beard's The Theory and Practice of Good Cooking is simply the best book on cooking I have ever encountered. It is not so much a recipe book as an explanation of the principles of cooking. My good friend and mentor in many ways, the late Sally Henry, gave me this book as a wedding present. It is incomprehensible to me that it has gone out of print. He devotes a chapter to each cooking method: baking, broiling, etc., explaining the principles and advantages of each method. The many pages he devotes to baking a potato baffled me when I first read it, but after reading his explanations I followed the instructions and found that, indeed, the baked potato is much abused and ill appreciated!
My cousin Mary Hobart Key introduced me to Craig Claiborne's Cooking with Herbs and Spices. Mary Hobart was from Mississippi, as was Claiborne, and had known him. He told her that tomatoes need a lot of salt, because you need to get rid of the water to savor the flavor of the tomato. So here is Craig Claiborne's method of preparing a tomato for a salad:
core tomato
fill cavity with salt
allow to sit for 15 minutes or so
squeeze salt from tomato (which squeezes out the seeds along with the water)
You now have a rich, delicious tomato if you have started with a good one, and an acceptable one if you have started with an anemic one typical of our supermarkets. This also solves the problem James Beard has with using tomatoes in salads : that they water down the dressing and should only be served on the side.
I plan to post more regularly now (I've also recovered my password for the blog...I am trying to keep up with technology!). Tomorrow, favorite salad recipes!
The books have not arrived yet, but I am feeling inspired by the very anticipation! James Beard's The Theory and Practice of Good Cooking is simply the best book on cooking I have ever encountered. It is not so much a recipe book as an explanation of the principles of cooking. My good friend and mentor in many ways, the late Sally Henry, gave me this book as a wedding present. It is incomprehensible to me that it has gone out of print. He devotes a chapter to each cooking method: baking, broiling, etc., explaining the principles and advantages of each method. The many pages he devotes to baking a potato baffled me when I first read it, but after reading his explanations I followed the instructions and found that, indeed, the baked potato is much abused and ill appreciated!
My cousin Mary Hobart Key introduced me to Craig Claiborne's Cooking with Herbs and Spices. Mary Hobart was from Mississippi, as was Claiborne, and had known him. He told her that tomatoes need a lot of salt, because you need to get rid of the water to savor the flavor of the tomato. So here is Craig Claiborne's method of preparing a tomato for a salad:
core tomato
fill cavity with salt
allow to sit for 15 minutes or so
squeeze salt from tomato (which squeezes out the seeds along with the water)
You now have a rich, delicious tomato if you have started with a good one, and an acceptable one if you have started with an anemic one typical of our supermarkets. This also solves the problem James Beard has with using tomatoes in salads : that they water down the dressing and should only be served on the side.
I plan to post more regularly now (I've also recovered my password for the blog...I am trying to keep up with technology!). Tomorrow, favorite salad recipes!
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