Latkes

One set of fond memories growing up revolves around potato latkes.  Being Jewish means being a little outside the mainstream for holidays, but I can live with that -- especially when it comes to the food.  Almost every Jewish holiday revolves around some specific foods or abstaining from foods, and for Chanukah that means fried foods.  Yes, doughnuts are proper eating during Chanukah.  It gets better, we can eat ice cream to celebrate Shavuot.

Anyways, latkes are not always easy to make.  We used pre-made mixes a few times, which were convenient, but they weren't the same as homemade.  We hand-grated potatoes and onions when I was young, and I am glad I have a food processor now because I am lazy.  My latkes this year were made of shredded potatoes, chopped onions, chopped apples, eggs, matzah meal, dried chives, ground pepper, and salt.  I do have a few tips:

• After you've shredded your potatoes, squeeze them a handful at a time over the sink to get rid of excess moisture.
• If you use your food processor to chop your onions, squeeze them out over the sink as well.
• Do not turn the apples you are putting into your latkes into apple paste or apple sauce.

The final ingredient to add should be the salt.  Don't add it until you see that you have no liquid pooling at the bottom of your bowl.  The salt will draw liquid out from your latke mix after you mix it in, which is expected.  Just don't give the liquid at the bottom of your bowl a head start.

If you want to, you can squeeze your shredded potatoes out over a bowl.  I didn't do this step this year, but I have in prior years.  When you're done with squeezing potatoes, pour off the liquid carefully.  If you make baked goods, some recipes call for potato water for bread.  Leaving that aside, under the liquid should be some potato starch.  It can be helpful to add this back into your latke mix.

When frying latkes, use hot oil or fat, somewhere in the medium-high setting on your stove.  It will make them crispier and, paradoxically, they will absorb less oil.  Oh, and be ready to add more oil to your pan between each pan-ful of latkes, as even at high heat they absorb a lot of oil.  Letting finished latkes cool off on wire racks, preferably a rack placed over a half-sheet pan, can help wick away some of the oil.  If you don't have a wire rack, don't panic.  A dinner plate lines with paper towels works nicely too.

Happy new year to all!

Gnocchi

Slightly over a decade ago I worked in Marlborough, Massachusetts and had an actual hour for my lunch hour.  There was an excellent little Italian place near my workplace named Linguine's, which had only opened up a year or two before.  You wouldn't know it from the crowd that packed the place at lunch.  It's still there, still serving excellent food at generally reasonable prices, and still a place I think of any time I pass within ten miles of the place.

Though they make a very good Boston thin-crust pizza, the dish I loved most was their gnocchi -- I would always get the dish in their tomato sauce with fresh mozzarella and basil.  I tried to recreate it a few times at home, but never successfully.  Either I used an overly sweetened jarred sauce, or I didn't melt the mozzarella enough, or I didn't have fresh basil or fresh mozzarella on hand, or some combination.  A few years ago I had to cut down my gnocchi consumption, as these lovely miniature pasta-and-potato dumplings are usually heavily loaded with salt.

A couple of months ago I picked up a four-pack of De Cecco gnocchi at Costco.  I felt that with this gnocchi I stood a chance of making it properly at home.  The sauce I made earlier this week -- I did end up using a stick blender to smooth it out -- combined with the leftover fresh basil I didn't use in the sauce, made me ready to give the dish a whirl.  I figured that the low salt content of the sauce would help balance out the high content in the gnocchi and the moderate amount in the mozzarella.

I started heating the sauce and the mozzarella around the same time I put the water for the gnocchi in the pot.  It's a good thing I did, as I finally got the mozzarella to melt.  I tossed the cooked gnocchi with the mozzarella-laden sauce and fresh basil leaves, and enjoyed.

Now this said, the subtleties of the sauce were not properly brought out in this dish.  If I do this again anytime soon, a simpler red sauce or a vodka cream sauce will work fine.

If you want to try making this at home, here are my tips:

• Give the mozzarella at least 10 minutes to cook in the sauce, preferably closer to 15, and put the fresh basil on top about the same time you put in the mozzarella
• Get or make a relatively smooth red sauce, but avoid sweetened sauces
•  use an appropriately-sized skillet for the sauce, not a saucepot
• Use 4-6 oz. of fresh mozzarella and a about pint of sauce per 16-17.6 oz. package of gnocchi
• If you have good parmesan, romano or grana pradano cheese, anywhere from 1/4 to 1 oz. of it will add some good flavor, but it is not required
• Do not overcook or undercook your gnocchi
• If your gnocchi says to salt the water before cooking but you have a low-sodium diet, don't put the salt in the water.  They suggest that for taste purposes

This isn't a dish I recommend for every day, not that I have many I do suggest for daily consumption, but it is mighty tasty.

Homemade spaghetti sauce

When I make spaghetti sauce at home I usually use canned tomatoes.  They are convenient, they are fast, they are economical, and the right kind of canned tomatoes can be tasty.  In some cases they can be tastier than fresh tomatoes, because usually fresh tomatoes are picked before they are fully ripe and allowed to ripen on the way to your grocery store.

However, a couple of days ago I was shopping in my local farm-stand market, Rosebud in Malden MA, and I saw both plum tomatoes and some yellow tomatoes.  I decided I wanted to make my own sauce with fresh ingredients, so I got the tomatoes and a bunch of fresh basil -- all very reasonably priced, I should add.  They don't sell organic vegetables and herbs, but they have what my British friends would call "good fresh veg."

Tonight I got my chance.  I took my tomatoes and skinned them, using a short boil followed by an ice bath.  I had some caramelized onions ready to go.  I chopped up four washed crimini mushroom caps, cooked in extra virgin olive oil.  The fresh basil leaves were put in whole if they were small, chopped in a chiffonade for the bigger leaves.  I put in some roasted garlic and chopped up a couple of ready roasted peppers.  A sprinkle of Kosher salt and some grinds of fresh black pepper were the final touches.  Right now the kit and caboodle is simmering in my medium skillet, covered, on low heat.  I'm giving it a stir every so often, and it smells very very nice.

I am unsure if I'll use a stick blender to make it less chunky later.  Time will tell.

Sundae Driver

I don't make them often at home, but I love a good sundae.  When I was out shopping yesterday at Trader Joe's, I decided a sundae in the very near future would be ideal.  Living near Boston, the ice cream consumption capitol of the world, it seems natural to eat ice cream on a cold day.  Among the items I picked up were some coffee ice cream, their house-brand peppermint sandwich cookie and cream ice cream, and their caramel fleur de sel sauce.  I plan on a scoop of each ice cream, some caramel sauce, some heated hot fudge, a few drops of Byfar Coffee Syrup, and a dollop of homemade maple whipped cream.

If the only whipped cream you've ever eaten is the stuff from a can, I recommend experimenting with making your own sometime.  Not only is the flavor generally richer than the stuff from a can, but you can add extra flavors and modify the sugar content.  The store-bought stuff is highly sweetened.  Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the canned stuff every now and again; but if I can make my own, I do it.

While it is possibly to make whipped cream by standing around for 15-20 minutes whisking with a fork or a wire whisk, I am a big fan of electrical methods.  An electric hand-mixer is very useful for this, as it cuts down the time required by a lot.

I do have an important tip regarding adding liquid flavorings to whipped cream: stir those flavors in before you start mixing with a hand mixer or stand mixer.  If you don't, you may find yourself with whipped cream floating atop your maple syrup or your grenadine.  About 30 seconds with a fork or a wire whisk should be enough.

Whipped cream generally takes a couple of minutes with a hand-mixer.  After your cream is able to form soft peaks that don't just fall down, you have whipped cream.  You can continue for longer if you want firmer whipped cream, but be careful.  If you whip it for too long, you'll end up with butter and buttermilk.  This is not what most people want on top of their ice cream.  However, if you like it a little buttery, you might want to whip it for longer than needed.

Sure, it's still fine to eat store-made stuff from an aerosol can.  If you have the time, though, try the homemade sometime.

A long-lost food - unfortunately, still lost

When I first went to college, back in the late 1980s, I was introduced to a candy I had never tried before, named  Laekrits.  Each piece was a small chocolate lentil, meaning it was the same size and shape of an M&M, but it was different for three reasons: one, the chocolate was a fine milk chocolate, akin to putting a Swiss or Belgian chocolate inside a candy shell instead of the relatively grainy and unbalanced chocolate of an M&M; two, the shell was black; and 3) the shell was licorice-flavored.

I adored these little lentils, but they were not easy to find and pricy to boot.  A package half the size of an M&M package usually cost twice as much.  Still, I enjoyed it when I could.  Then the manufacturer stopped making them.

I have eaten other candies in the meantime, but earlier this year I was excited to find a supplier of what looked to be a recreation of Laekrits.  I ordered a five pound bag and waited for it to arrive.

When my bag arrived I tried a piece of the candy secreted inside.  The chocolate was grainy and insipid, the mark of an American mid-grade dark chocolate.  The shell wasn't very strongly licorice.  When I looked at the ingredients list I knew why it tasted so wrong: high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oil, two ingredients never present in the old lentils.  I gave them away, sad that I had not found the candy I'd missed.

Earlier today, when visiting an office, I saw two candy dishes.  One had Hershey's Kisses while the other had Jelly Belly jelly beans, including some licorice-flavored beans.  On a whim, I combined one licorice bean with a Kiss.  It wasn't the same as my beloved missing Laekrits, but it was a lot closer than anything else I've had in the last decade.

I still miss those little licorice lentils.

Cooking while sleepy

One of the problems with cooking while sleepy is grabbing the wrong size pan.  If it's too big it's usually just a headache to clean.  Unfortunately, this evening I grabbed my small frying pan instead of my medium one.

Results?

It took twice as long to caramelize my onion, and several of my green beans ended up falling on the stove instead of cooking.  Further, because the green beans were not cooking the way I would have liked, I did not get to make the sauce for them I'd hoped to make, with tamari, mirin, ginger, garlic, mustard and sesame seeds.

No, this is not as bad a problem as accidentally cutting yourself, but it is frustrating.

Restaurant Review: Ruyi in Lexington

One of my occasional problems is buying too many online deals for dining out.  I do not plan my time for these as well as I would like, and I end up with vouchers that I can't really use.  I was facing this problem with my second voucher for Ruyi, so last week I went there for lunch during one of my less busy days.

I was able to park on the street quite close to the restaurant.  Parking, by the way, is considerably cheaper than street parking in Boston, Cambridge or Somerville, though not quite as cheap as in Medford.  I walked into the establishment and found it mostly empty.  This is more likely in places outside of easy train reach, but it was still disheartening as I like the place.

I sat at the grill for some Japanese steakhouse food.  I started with the onion soup (tasty) and a green salad with ginger dressing (also tasty).  The show after the introduction was short but sweet, with the chef displaying considerable knife skills.  Lunch does not include shrimp, but as I don't eat shrimp I didn't miss it.  It does include grilled vegetables, rice and some sort of animal-based protein.  I paid a bit extra ($2) to have vegetable fried rice and a little more (another $2) to have two sources of protein: sirloin steak and tuna steak.  The vegetables went very well with the rice, and both the sirloin and the tuna were quite enjoyable even if a little saltier than my diet would strictly allow for.

Ruyi serves a variety of styles, from sushi bar to Japanese steakhouse to Chinese Cantonese-style cuisine.  Prices are reasonable, with most steakhouse suppers coming in under $25 and Cantonese entrees generally in the $8-$12 range.  It's a fine place for lunch or supper, and there's some excellent ice cream right down the street.  If you have a car, or you have the time to ride the bus there and back, I suggest heading over there some day for a nice supper.  It's closer to "nice date" range than "regular eats" range, but it is well worth it.

The Gashleycrumb Dishes

With apologies to Edward Gorey and his Gashlycrumb Tinies, which I adore.

A is for Apple that fell down the stairs

B is for Basil devoured by bears

C is for Cookie just eaten today

D is for Dumpling thrown out of a sleigh

E is for Eclair deglazed by a peach

F is for Fruitcake sucked dry by a leech

G is for Gazpacho spilled on a rug

H is for Herring done in by a thug

I is for Ice Cream that drowned in a lake

J is for Jimmies on ribs by mistake

K is for Knishes struck down by an axe

L is for Lutefisk left by the tracks

M is for Mutton that swept out to sea

N is for Nachos thrown at the T V

O is for Olive run through with an awl

P is for Pasta served dead in the mall

Q is for Quinces smashed flat by a tire

R is for Rhubarb consumed by a fire

S is for Shwarma expired in kits

T is for Turkey that flew into bits

U is for Udon that slipped down a drain

V is for Venison squished by a train

W is for Wings imbedded in ice

X is for Xiphias eaten by mice

Y is for Yarrow dissolved in some gin

And Z is for Zeppole tossed in the bin

I wrote this today, aside from the two original lines that I was able to leave untouched but with changed meaning.

Stuffing solutions

One of my favorite parts of a Thanksgiving dinner is the stuffing, which, since I cook it outside the bird, should technically be called the dressing.  The issue with a lot of dressings is the flavor: how do you spice them?  Plus, if you need to add liquid, what kind do you use?

Normally, when I make a stuffing, the liquid I add for flavor is some sort of chicken stock or chicken broth.  However, for Thanksgiving, one of the things I like to do is substitute some of that liquid, no more than a third, with apple cider.  It adds some extra sweetness and flavor reminiscent of autumn in New England, especially autumn near an apple orchard, and I get to drink the spare cider.  I do use some oil as part of my liquid for texture purposes, typically a light oil like grapeseed, rapeseed (canola) or extra light olive oil.

The tricky part for many people is the spicing.  This is one time when I am willing to take a shortcut and buy a mix of spices colloquially referred to as "poultry seasoning."  If you live near a megamart, you will probably find some Bell's poultry seasoning in the spice section.  Even in my modern chowhound state I still consider this an acceptable blend, a flavor from my childhood that still works.  Right now I have some poultry seasoning from Penzeys in my house, which is a fine blend as well.  If you don't have any poultry seasoning in your home but you plan on making a stuffing/dressing, Don't Panic.  If you are near a Penzeys outlet, they should be well stocked.  Even if you aren't, your local megamart and even some little general markets should have plenty of the Bell's for your needs.  One box will handle multiple batches of stuffing unless you're cooking for sixty, in which case you're probably too busy cooking right now to read this.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Simple orange-maple glazed carrots

One of the problems with carrots is getting the flavor balance right.  When you roast them, they get small and dry; when you boil them, they stay large but lose flavor.  Steaming would take hours.  Frying them is another post.  So how do you get carrots with a nice glaze?

The trick to a good glaze is this: start with already-reduced ingredients.  What do I mean by reduced?  I mean ingredients that have already had some of their liquid content removed.  Standard maple syrup has had a fair amount of liquid boiled off.  So has frozen concentrated orange juice.

Get your carrots and boil them.  You may have bought pre-cut skinned carrots, you may have bought whole carrots, skinned them and cut them up.  That doesn't matter.  Boil them until they're slightly soft, soft enough that you can stick a fork in it without worrying about rolling your carrot.  Drain them, then add two parts frozen concentrated orange juice to one part maple syrup, enough to have a glaze.  The orange juice doesn't need to still be frozen, but it should still be a concentrate.  I suggest adding some ground cinnamon and either some good fresh grated ginger or some powdered ginger as well, to add some extra flavor.  Put this in the oven you're using to reheat your food for Thanksgiving, which is probably at 325-350ºF for some 10-20 minutes.  Add some butter if you want, but you don't have to if you don't want to.

Serve them up hot.  If your guests marvel at how exotic a dish it is and how difficult it must have been to glaze the carrots, just smile and say, "It was simple, really."

Pasta with Chicken and Mushrooms in a Balsamic Sauce

If you go to Davis Square in Somerville, you will find the Boston Burger Company located between the two Davis Square T stations.  Some one to two restaurants ago, in that very spot, was an Italian restaurant that served linguini in a balsamic sauce with sauteed chicken and mushrooms.  I adored that dish tremendously and tried to make it at home, but I had limited success.  If I tried using chicken stock or gelatinized chicken drippings, it muddied the balsamic flavor.  I made balsamic reductions but they still didn't impart enough balsamic flavor.  I gave up the dish for several years.

After the experiment a few weeks back where I got wine flavor into pasta, I have been playing with my pasta considerably more.  Tonight I realized I could use the technique there and combine it with a balsamic reduction, which had previously been my closest to success.  I had the chicken, I had the mushrooms, I had the pasta, and I could make the reduction.  This was a three pot dish, something I normally try to avoid.

Equipment:
cutting board and sharp knife, for cutting mushrooms and possibly other items and finally the chicken
One good 3-4 quart sauce-pot
One medium-size frying pan
One small frying pan
Two large cooking spoons
One metal spatula
One regular-sized bowl

Ingredients:
One 8-10 oz. container of mushrooms - even white button mushrooms are OK in this
about 1 lb boneless chicken - I use breasts but thighs are fine too
2/3 lb. dry pasta - any shape you want, but I used a short twirly pasta for this dish
balsamic vinegar
sherry, preferably dry
extra virgin olive oil
salt
other spices to taste

Put your small frying pan on the back burner of your stove, and turn it to medium high.  Add about 3/4 of a cup of balsamic vinegar and a splash or two of sherry.  As soon as it starts to bubble, turn down the heat to medium low and let it continue to simmer.  Check it occasionally.  If it starts to get too thick, ass either a glug of balsamic vinegar or a glug of sherry.  This is where you can add some spices.  Keep it light on black pepper, if you use it at all, and stick with less pungent flavors like garlic powder or a little paprika.  If you want basil in this dish, get fresh basil leaves and toss them in this at about the same time you drain your pasta.

Wash your mushrooms, remove the stems, and slice them up.  If you want to use a little shallot with the mushrooms, cut that up too.  Put the mushrooms (and shallot) off to one side and cut up the chicken.  Try to keep each side of the chicken to about 1.5" as a maximum.  Smaller is fine.  Just do your best to have a uniform size.

Next, fill your pot with water and put it on high heat.

While waiting for the water to boil, take your medium frying pan, put it on the stove, and turn the heat to medium high.  After about a minute, test the pan with a mushroom.  If it sizzles, put in as many mushrooms as you can while keeping them to a single layer in the pan.  If you need to do this in more than one fry, that is fine.  Cook them until they are nicely (and gently) browned, then decamp to your bowl.  If you have shallot, put it in with whichever batch of sliced mushroom is going last.

Your water should be boiling now.  Put your pasta in the water and set the timer for about 2 minutes short of the recommended cooking time.

Go back to the medium frying pan and cook your chicken pieces, again one layer at a time, but don't crowd your chicken too much.  A few millimeters between pieces is fine.  If it takes multiple times in your frying pan, again, so be it.

When the timer goes off for your pasta, drain is well.  Return your pot to the stove, on medium high, and add about 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar.  Put your pasta back in the pot and cook for two more minutes, stirring constantly or nearly so.  Add in your chicken, your mushrooms, and your balsamic reduction.  Mix well and serve.

Since I had a bone-in chicken breast with the skin still on instead of already-deboned, already-skinned chicken, I took off the skin and fat from my chicken, cutting it up into small pieces no more than 1.5" on the long side.  I rendered it in the frying pan on medium heat for part of the time that the pasta cooked, until it was all nicely browned and much of the fat had rendered out.  I took out the remaining solids and added them into my pasta dish.  It is much like adding bacon bits to a dish - and if you like bacon and have good bacon but no chicken skin, feel free to brown a slice and crumble it up on your finished dish.

I made what I thought would be enough for my wife and me to have dinner and put away a couple of luncheon-sized containers of leftovers.  I had two servings, my wife one, and our roommate the rest.

Yeah, I get to make this one again.

I still miss the little Italian place that was there before Boston Burger Company, but now I can finally make the dish they made that I adored, at home.

Roasting peppers

If you have a gas stove, you have one big advantage over people who only have electric or magnetic induction stoves: you can play with fire in your kitchen.  Now, it's always a very good idea to be careful with fire.  If you are unsure about doing so, then buy a kitchen fire extinguisher and keep it handy.  Now that you've done that, let me tell you about my usual fire application: fire-roasted peppers.

Sure, you can buy pre-cooked roasted peppers in a jar at the store.  Heck, I buy pre-made roasted peppers when I have a time crunch or don't have the wherewithal to cook.  However, most jars have calcium chloride and other preservatives to keep the peppers in shape for months at room temperature in a jar on your shelf until you open the container.  This can keep them too firm.  However, if you have a gas stove, you can roast peppers inside of 30 minutes.

Items you'll need:
gas stove
fireproof tongs, preferably long tongs
bowl with a proper lid

Buy your fresh peppers from the store.  I avoid green peppers, as they are simply under-ripe red peppers.  Yellow, orange, red and purple peppers are all good non-spicy peppers.  Turn a burner onto high and place your pepper on the grate above the flame.  Move it around with the tongs to let all parts cook.  For me this takes 5-10 minutes as a rule, but it takes as long as it takes.  If it looks like it will take longer, keep the peppers on the stove until they are done.

You want the skin of the pepper to char and blacken.  Once a section chars, keep it away from the flame.  When you have charred as much of the outside of your pepper as you can manage, put your pepper in your bowl and cover the bowl with a tight lid, something that will stop steam from getting out.  I usually use a Corelle bowl and a saucer from the same set for the bowl and lid, as they fit together nicely.  You can use whatever you want that will work.  Once you have put the pepper in the bowl and properly covered it, such that steam will not easily escape, you should walk away for a minimum of ten minutes, although 15-20 is better.  This will steam the skin of the pepper to make it easier to peel it off.

At the end of that time, bring your pepper over to the sink.  Run the coldest water you can personally manage from the tap, because your hands will get wet for a minute or two.  Put the pepper under the water and start scrubbing away the skin with your hands.  If it is properly charred, it will come away easily.

If you are not using your roasted pepper immediately, put it away in a sealed container in your refrigerator for no more than two weeks.  It might last longer; but as with all freshly prepared foods stored for later, the sooner you eat it, the better it will taste.

You can use your roasted peppers in omelets, soups, spaghetti sauce, in meatloaf, on burgers, in stuffing - in short, in most anything where you might use a regular pepper.  I'll be using one or two in my potato-mushroom dressing for next week's Thanksgiving dinner.  Even my wife, who does not care for most prepared peppers, likes roasted peppers when it isn't an overwhelming part of the dish.

If you lack a gas stove but you want to do this yourself, ask a friend who has one if you can come over to cook.  If you are new to roasting peppers, bring your fire extinguisher for safety.

If you have long hair, or hair on your arms, be extra careful around open flame.  Even somebody experienced can end up with singed hair, such as some of the hair on my right wrist.  This is not a recommended way to remove your hair.  Also, burnt hair does not smell like good cooking.

Cook -- carefully! -- and enjoy!

Song: Brunch

I wrote this a few hours ago so the lyrics are copyright to me.  So long as you aren't singing it commercially, go wild!  If anybody wants to use it commercially, just send me an email and we'll talk.


TTTO Joy To The World


Joy to the house, the brunch is come
Enjoy what we could bring
Let every hand hold knife fork or spoon
While stomachs are growling
While stomachs are growling
While stomachs, while stomachs are growling

Joy to the house, the food looks good
Let all their napkins use
We butter our rolls, our glasses are full
The smells are savory
The smells are savory
The smells, the smells are savory

Look at the meal, now join the feast
The salmon has been smoked
Cream cheese bagels and capers all sitting on the platter
Tomatoes and onions sliced
Tomatoes and onions sliced
Tomatoes, tomatoes and onions sliced

Rest in the house, relax in grace
Your belches have been heard
The food has been enjoyed, leftovers have been stored
We all enjoyed our brunch
We all enjoyed our brunch
We all, we all enjoyed our brunch

Let's Talk Turkey

One of my favorite US holidays is coming in two weeks: Thanksgiving.  I am all about food on holidays, and this holiday is focused more on food than anything else.  Lots of big businesses try to commercialize the day, but so far they haven't succeeded.   Farms that grow turkeys, sweet potatoes and cranberries, they're the ones who capitalize on the day the most; I can live with that.  It is the least inherently commercialized American holiday I can think of off the top of my head, as every other holiday is more about sales, or giving and receiving gifts.  The most important part of the day is sharing food and company with friends and family.  There's no stress about giving or getting gifts, no stress about a sale that day, and the football games on the TV are optional.  The most stressful part is the cooking, and if you plan it well it's more labor than stress.

I shopped one of my local Trader Joe's today in search of a small turkey I could bring home for tomorrow's supper.  None of the turkeys were small enough, but that is where I plan to get my turkey.  If you are in charge of roasting a bird for your home, I have a few tips for you.

If you have the opportunity to buy a pre-brined fresh turkey, I suggest doing so.  Lots of people look for the biggest, least expensive birds they can find, which means frozen.  If your budget is really tight, then I do not blame you for bargain shopping to find a turkey that's under $1 a pound.  However, if you do have the spare money in your budget, fresh turkeys will have a better texture and flavor.  Unless you have a really good butcher shop nearby, this is the only time of the year you have the chance to buy a fresh whole turkey.  Fresh birds that you want to use on a Thursday you should pick up no earlier than the Sunday before.  By the way, the bigger the bird, the tougher it will be.  If you have a lot of guests, I suggest two smaller turkeys instead of one enormous one.

If you do not have the chance to buy a pre-brined bird, you can still brine it yourself so long as it is thawed.  I bought a lobster pot some years ago specifically to have something big enough to brine a turkey.  There are plenty of recipes for a basic brine on the net, but I have a couple of twists: have a lot of ice nearby, a 5-10 pound bag, and use only about 2/3 the water you need for your brine.  When you are done boiling your brine, add enough ice to make up the difference.  The ice will cool down the brine quickly.  Do Not put your turkey in your brine unless the brine is under 40ºF, preferably closer to 32ºF.  In addition to the usual brine materials of salt and perhaps a little sugar, you can add a few bay leaves as well as whole spice berries, like black peppercorns, yellow mustard seeds and an allspice berry or two.  Don't use any clove spices.

Brining does three things for your turkey: it makes it tastier, it makes it juicier, and it makes it harder to overcook.

The USDA recommends that your turkey be cooked to a minimum of 165ºF at the thickest part of the breast.  Some turkeys come with built-in thermometers, but these are not always all that good.  If you can, get yourself a probe thermometer, something that can stay in the bird as it cooks.

My favorite way to roast a turkey, which I try to keep at or under 16 pounds, is much like how I roast a chicken, but I finish at a low heat.  Because a turkey is much bigger than a chicken, I give it more time at high heat.  I will start my turkey breast side down.  My oven starts preheated at 425ºF; the turkey gets an hour at that temperature breast side down, then I take it out of the oven and flip it to breast side up.  After another hour at 425ºF, I turn the oven down to 250-275ºF and let it cook to 163-164ºF, however long it takes to get there.  

When you take your turkey out of the oven, if you let it rest (and you should) there will be carryover cooking - the heat lingering in the outer section of the bird is still radiating its way in.  This is why I do not roast my bird all the way to 165ºF.  The amount of carryover heat depends on what the last temperature of the oven is, and how long it was at that temperature.  If it was at the final temperature for 30 minutes or more, base it off of that temperature.  When I finish my bird at the temperature above, it only goes up a maximum of couple of degrees due to carryover cooking.  If your bird finishes at higher temperatures, be prepared for more carryover cooking.  Many people finish their turkey at 350ºF, and that means 5-10º of carryover cooking.

After your turkey comes out of the oven, let it rest for 20-30 minutes if possible -- at least 10 minutes if you are really pressed for time.  Do not cut into it as soon as it leaves the oven.  Why?  Well, you want the meat to stay juicy, yes?  Well, letting the bird rest after it comes out of the oven allows those lovely turkey juices to distribute properly throughout your bird.  If you cut into it right after it leaves the oven, a lot of juices that would otherwise keep your meat juicy will instead spill onto your cutting board.  I for one do not care if my cutting board has a lovely turkey flavor.

Some people slather butter over their whole turkeys, but I have to tell you: a turkey already has a lot of fat in its skin.  If you use the method I detailed above, a lot of the fat will render out of the skin and help keep your turkey nice and moist.  Your turkey will not stay moist if you overcook it, however.

Now, if you put on butter because you like the flavor of butter, that is another story; but you don't need a lot of butter for that.  I will never do that to my turkey, but my tastes may be different than yours.

If you want to spice your turkey, go ahead.  A good way to spice would be to loosen the skin on your bird, make a spice rub, add just enough of a light-flavor oil (like grapeseed or canola) to make it a bit liquid, then rub the spices under the skin.  You can also stuff whole (large) garlic cloves, small shallot cloves, or peeled slices of a firm apple (like a MacIntosh or a Fuji).  Any spice from the rub that won't stay under because it sticks to your hands, that you can rub on the outside of the skin.  Because I am a purist when it comes to turkey, I prefer not to do this.  I want to enjoy my bird's basic flavor.

So, in short:

• Buy a fresh, pre-brined turkey, preferably not too big, or brine a plain turkey
• Buy a probe thermometer if you don't already have one
• Use high heat to brown the skin and render more of the fat, then low heat to finish to avoid overcooking
• Let it rest for 20-30 minutes before cutting it
• If you want, you can butter and/or spice your bird

If you are worried about side dishes, well, that's another post.  I hope you have the chance to have some turkey this Thanksgiving, and that it is juicy, tender and flavorful.

Restaurant Review: The Dockside, Riverside Location

I am not the hardest person in the world to please when it comes to food.  That might be my son.  However, I can be picky as well.

Recently I got an email in my inbox about prix fixe dining at the Dockside location right off Commercial St. in Malden.  The deal was an appetizer, two entrees and a dessert for $20.  When my wife said she wanted to eat out near home last night, instead of shlepping all the way to Somerville to our favorite Mexican place, I suggested we try the nearby Dockside and see if it was OK.

We went inside and were seated promptly.  Our hostess was also our server.  When I dithered between the beer-battered haddock or the 10 oz. ribeye, she suggested the fish.  My wife ordered the eggplant parmesan over linguini.  We got buffalo fingers for our appetizer and ended up with a bowl of ice cream for dessert as they were out of brownies for the sundae.  The children split an order of chicken fingers with French fries ($5.99).

The children's meal was actually quite good.  The fingers were properly cooked, the fries were crunchy, and the kids enjoyed the food.  The buffalo fingers appetizer was also good, with the chicken properly cooked and not dried out -- a common hazard of such fare.  The buffalo sauce was a little salty for me, but most people on regular diets should be fine with that level.  My wife tried the bleu cheese dressing and said it tasted more like tartar sauce, with disappointing flavor.

My wife's eggplant parmesan came out at the same time as my fish.  Her dish looked appetizing, but the pasta was nowhere near as good as what we cook at home.  The eggplant and cheese were devoured, but most of the pasta got left in the bowl.  Since Boston's North End has had its cuisine migrate around greater Boston over the past few decades, and since we're used to buying good dried pasta for personal use, we rather expect good quality pasta when we go out to eat locally.  This was low-end pizza shop quality pasta.

My fish came out looking like a plank of flat wood, which told me that the haddock was definitely frozen before hitting the fryer and the batter was probably frozen too.  The fish was acceptably crunchy on the outside and not particularly dry on the inside, but it wasn't thrilling, as it had no hint of beer flavor anywhere in the batter.  The side of green beans was properly cooked, a small bowl filled with short-cut, wide beans reminiscent of cafeteria style.  They were good with a little added butter.  I should have tried the ribeye instead.

The major disappointment for me was the dessert.  One of the choices was a brownie sundae, which we ordered, but the kitchen was out of brownies at 5:45PM on a weeknight.  Our server did her best to make sure we got a dessert we would like, in this case offering the sundae without the brownie.  Now, I admit to being a bit of a snob about high-quality ice cream --  this is greater Boston, the ice cream consumption capital of the world -- but I'll eat Hoodsie cups sometimes too.  This sundae was disappointing: chocolate ice cream with whipped cream, covered not with hot fudge but with Hershey's chocolate syrup or something that tastes very much the same.  The syrup detracted from the chocolate of the ice cream and muddied the sweetness of the whipped cream, neither of which were top quality to begin with.  A proper fudge sauce would have gone a long ways to salvage this, but scraping the drizzled sauce off the ice cream and whipped cream was an exercise in frustration.

We tipped our server decently as she had done her best to keep us happy, but she was handicapped by a kitchen working with frozen prepared food, low-grade pasta and substandard ice cream.  Hopefully their ribeye steaks are fresh, but I don't think I'm going back to find out.  The next time we want a decent meal out and don't want to spend a lot of money, we're probably shlepping to Somerville for Mexican food.

Grade A Select vs. Choice vs. Prime

I remember, in my younger years, seeing signs in my local megamart for "Grade A Select!" beef.  Most people look more at the grade of beef than the word that comes after it, but that single word can make a big difference in the meat you buy.  The difference comes in the fat in the meat, sometimes called the marbling.  Fat is where the flavor is, and is a good indicator of tenderness when cooked.  These are all classifications given by the US Department of Agriculture, so you can take it up with them.  Grading is voluntary, so not all cuts of beef will have a label.  Hamburger does not go by this grading system.

Grade A Prime is what top-notch steakhouses serve for their very expensive entrees.  A steak that is Grade A Prime has the best marbling you'll find on the market, meaning it is generally going to be tastier and juicier than any other grade.  If you hear about Kobe or Wagyu beef, those cows' muscles are marbled enough that they easily qualify as Prime; however, they are generally a step above prime grade in my experience.

Grade A Choice is the most common grade you'll see in a standard megamart.  It is generally less marbled than prime but can still be perfectly tasty.  You can still see variations in steaks and chops labeled choice, though, so look for better marbling.  When I shop at Costco, sometimes I find choice ribeye steaks that look nearly as marbled as the Grade A Prime.

Grade A Select is found at some stores.  This meat can still be tasty, but it is leaner.  If you're looking for lean beef for your diet, select is the grade to hunt for in the store.  However, the lack of fat means it will not be as inherently tasty as the other two grades listed above.  It also means it is much easier to turn into the consistency of shoe leather.  You can use it, just be more careful than usual.

When it comes to ground beef, I skip anything above 90/10.  Frankly, I'll usually skip anything above 85/15 unless I'm at the aforementioned Costco and need "a Costco" of ground beef (5-6 lbs).  The second number in ground beef is the fat content.  Remember, fat is where the flavor is.  It's also what you use to fry things, be it a burger or not.  Yes, you could get yourself some (expensive) 96/4 ground beef and cook it in a nonstick skillet to keep out as much fat as possible, but you'll end up with a very tough burger even if you don't overcook it.  Give yourself a little leeway.  If you're still concerned about high fat content, go ahead and get that (expensive) 96/4 ground beef but use some canola oil in your frying pan.  Oil from the rapeseed (that's what canola oil is; they renamed it as a successful marketing ploy) is healthier for you than beef fat.

Restaurant Review of Venetian Moon, plus Port-Infused Pasta

Last night, while escaping the house and the shrieks of an angry child who would not go to bed, I went to Venetian Moon in Reading, MA.  I had a voucher for reduced price cuisine which had an expiration date of yesterday.  Funny, that.

At any rate, I arrived all of 20 minutes before they close the doors.  I was peckish but did not need a huge entree.  I ordered three items from their appetizers and tapas menus, partly to get to near the value of my voucher: stuffed mushrooms ($9), eggplant rollatini ($10), and tortellini al forno ($10).  The mushroom caps were filled with a mushroom stuffing.  I normally don't get stuffed mushrooms because there is usually shellfish or pork hanging around in the stuffing somewhere, so I got to enjoy my first stuffed mushrooms in years.  And I did enjoy.  The eggplant rollatini was close to an entree size for me.  I did try one of the four rolled slices of eggplant.  Each was stuffed with ricotta and baked with sauce and mozzarella.  There was a nice garlic flavor in there as well.  I took home the rest.  The standout dish, though, was the tortellini.  It was served in a port wine and basil cream sauce, and some of the port had been absorbed by the pasta.  It was, I have to tell you, heavenly.  I didn't finish it there, but after I got home I polished off the rest.  As I was seated upstairs at the bar, I asked about how kid-friendly the place was.  My server informed me that adults do bring their kids earlier in the evening, so they are not wholly foreign.  Prices are a little steep without a voucher or coupon, so you might want to save it for a special occasion; but the food is worthy.

The thing was, the flavor of the tortellini got into my head.  It tasted so good!  The cream sauce, the wine, and the lovely cheese tortellini made an excellent dish that was also rare in my taste experience.  Tonight, some hours after ingesting some take-out cheese pizza from my local Costco -- which is actually reasonably tasty, though not gourmet -- I wanted to see if I could make some of my own port-infused pasta.  I was just off-balance enough at the time to actually try this.  Interestingly enough, it worked!

I did not use a huge pot to boil my pasta, just a saucepan, but you can do this with a larger pot if you want.  I had about 1/4 pound of dry De Cecco linguini fini, which I boiled for about a minute less than the directions stated.  I drained my pasta, then put somewhere around 1/4 cup of port into my now-empty saucepan, which was narrow enough so it had a small amount of depth.  I turned the heat back up to medium-high.  As soon as the wine started to show signs of some sort of bubbling I put the pasta back in the saucepan.  I occasionally stirred my pasta in the port for around 75-90 seconds, as the heat distribution was not as even as with a pot full of water.  At the end of that I added some jarred pasta sauce (Trader Joe's Arribata sauce, $2.99) and grated some fresh Romano cheese I keep in the fridge.  The port did indeed cook into the pasta, giving some lovely extra flavor.  There was a little bit of port that did not go in the pasta and mixed with the sauce instead, but I definitely tasted the port in the pasta.

I had taken home-grade ingredients, albeit good quality ones, and used them to make a dish I'd consider worthy of a good Italian restaurant.  That's a decent night's work, if I do say so myself.

A quick pizza shout-out

This evening, after a trip elsewhere, my family stopped in Emma's in Kendall Square so my son could have something he was willing to eat.  I ordered a plain slice for him.  The lady behind the slice counter saw my kids, both with their red hair, and put in an extra slice for them.  I cannot swear they'll do that for your kids, but that was extremely nice of her.

You can't get that at corporate pizza places.  Equally important, the pizza looked really good.  I don't make it to Kendall Square often, but I am definitely willing to stop there again.

Restaurant Review: Cantina la Mexicana

The first time I entered this place, it was a hole-in-the-wall affair in Union Square, Somerville, and bore the name Taqueria la Mexicana.  The last time I'd been wowed by a Mexican restaurant was in the late 1980s-early 1990s, at the late, lamented Taco Villa in Amherst and Northampton, MA, a place with chimichangas to maim for.  While this new-to-me taqueria did not have chimichangas, or taquitos in the same style, they had excellent nachos, enchiladas and stuffed poblano peppers.  I visited several times when I lived in walking distance, and have kept visiting since moving a town or two away.

A few years ago, Roberto, the owner, had a chance to absorb the space used by the Irish pub next door.  After a great deal of introspection and examining budgets, he decided to go for it.  He expanded and renamed the place Cantina la Mexicana, building a nice new dining room space and adding a good little bar to his restaurant.  Some new dishes got added as well, but the old dishes mostly remained the same.

Tonight I went there with my children, ages 6 and 3, determined to have a good meal and to keep them out of their mother's hair for a few hours.  We sat in the downstairs section, which is only a few steps below the main area near the bar, and hung our jackets on our chairs.  We're regular enough that the staff knows us, and I am thankful that they put up with my (loud, impolite, brash) children.

I debated whether to go for the vegetarian enchilada relleno combo ($7.50), which sports two enchiladas and one refried-bean-stuffed poblano pepper, each covered with cheese and your choice of mild or hot sauce; or whether to go for the grilled skirt steak with grilled avocado and chilaquiles ($16.95).  When both children declared they would only eat tortilla chips, and only drink water, I sighed and ordered the skirt steak.  I also got myself a glass of limonade ($1.75), a tasty lime beverage that they make on-site that has free refills.  They forgot to put it on my bill this time, which I will tell them the next time I go in.  Unfortunately, my children distracted me at checkout time.

The tortilla chips at the restaurant are also fried there on site.  Eating corn chips fried earlier in the day, lightly salted and served with hot salsa, really gives you an appreciation for how good they are fresh, and just what you miss when you buy store-brand chips.  My children chomped on chips quite contentedly.  I finished my chilaquiles, which are small tortilla strips covered in cheese, before attacking my steak.  I ate my beef very happily, even though it is a little salty for my current diet.

Over midway through our meal, my 3 year old daughter, who had previously insisted that she only wanted corn chips, did not want meat, and did not want to share my dish, told me she wanted meat.  After some back and forth, I sighed and told her she would have to wait while it cooked.  It was slightly steep at $8.50 for the equivalent of just the meat I'd gotten for my meal, but it was just as tasty.  She ate about half of it before declaring herself full.

While they generally only bring the supper menu at dinner, their full lunch menu is also available.  It contains some of the best roadside Mexican food I have ever tasted.  I brought a girlfriend there once, and after her first bite she told me it was the closest she'd had to her late grandfather's cooking since he passed on, tragically before passing along any of the centuries-old recipes that had been handed down through the generations.

While this is not fine dining in the gourmet sense, I consider this place fit for foodies and cheery for chowhounds.  If you find yourself wanting good, real Mexican food, and that cheap big-chain place isn't cutting the chalupas, come here instead.  The parking meters run 'til 8PM; come earlier anyways.  You can thank me later.

Making Meatloaf

Last week, when our house was looking for hamburgers for supper, I got my ground beef at Costco despite a couple of complaints.  "What are we going to do with all that meat?" they asked.  Leaving aside the immediate rude answer -- I don't always focus on food -- I replied, "Meatloaf!"

Most people are used to meatloaf that is dense, dry, and about as flavorful as the styrofoam the meat is usually sold in.  I have a few tips on keeping your meatloaf from falling into the same trap:

• Get fattier meat, like 80/20 or 85/15.  Yes, your meatloaf will melt down a bit more, but the fat is where the flavor is.  It's also a bit more tender when it is fattier.
• Use some sort of breadcrumbs.  Breadcrumbs were used in Italy to stretch meat, such as in meatballs, but is has another property: it is another way to keep meat tender.  I like panko, as it's also good for frying if you have too much.
• Fry up some chopped onions and add them to the mix.  Onions are flavorful, but if they start out raw inside the meatloaf they won't cook enough by the time the rest of the meatloaf is ready.
• Cook's Illustrated has their own secret: add a packet of gelatin to your meatloaf.  I have a different secret as I have trouble finding suitable gelatin for my Kosher-ish home: I use a can of tomato paste (I use Rienzi brand) and mix it in.  It adds a good tomato flavor and a bit of sweetness.
• Spices are essential.  I suggest garlic powder, paprika, ancho pepper, ground black pepper and a little salt.  If you have a mix for a steak rub, that would work fine.
• Eggs are important.  You don't need many, but they help keep the meatloaf from crumbling.  A good rule of thumb is one egg per pound of ground meat.
• Ketchup on top.  It makes for a tasty glaze and it also protects the meat from getting too dried out - assuming you don't cook it for too long.
• Make free-form loaves on sheet pans instead of using a loaf pan.  I suggest loaves no wider than your hand.

There are probably more tricks of the trade out there.  I like using roasted garlic, for example, which most people might not have on hand.  Should you have a lot of ground meat left over, though, meatloaf is a good way to use it.

Hah!

My in-laws are visiting for the weekend.  This is considerably more restful than you might think, as the children love spending time with them.  I had originally planned steak for last night's supper; instead, my in-laws said, "Let's go out to dinner."  Given how often I have ended up doing the dishes after cooking a meal, I wasn't about to say No.  We had an enjoyable meal at Not Your Average Joe's in Arlington.  Steak got pushed off by a night.

This afternoon, we all visited a festival taking place off the Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford.  On our way out, I told my father-in-law, "You have a choice of beef or beef for supper.  Would you like a steak or a burger?"

He deadpanned, "I'd like a swordfish steak."  He knew we didn't have any swordfish in the house.

I still needed to get some foodstuffs for cooking the lasagna I am bringing to a gathering after a funeral tomorrow, so I made a stop at Whole Wallet Foods to get some chopped spinach.  While I was there, I went by the fish counter.  Hmmm... fresh swordfish steaks on sale for $9.99 a pound.

Guess who got swordfish for supper?  Yup: my father-in-law, my mother-in-law, and me.  The latter two of us also had some of the ribeye steak I'd cooked too, me more than her.

Cooking fresh swordfish scares a lot of people, and sometimes it worries me too.  Fish is easy to overcook and easier to dry out.  It takes time, technique and practice.  Still, I have a few tips:

• Swordfish can be grilled, but you can also fry it in a frying pan.  More people have frying pans than grills.
• While butter can be wonderful on a swordfish steak, don't use straight butter to fry it.  Use an equal amount of canola, grapeseed, or toasted sesame oil.  The latter choice adds some nice flavor but isn't everybody's favorite.  
• Use a relatively high heat to cook your swordfish on both sides.  The thinner the steak, oddly, the higher the heat; you'll want to get a proper sear, and since you'll have less time to cook the fish before it cooks through, you need to juice it up.  Don't get too thin a steak.
• Sprinkling a little salt on your swordfish while it cooks helps the flavor.  I am fond of a particular lime-flavored salt, called "lime fresco," that I can find at Christina's Spice Shop in Cambridge.  You can marinate fresh swordfish, but you might lose some of the flavor you can only get from fresh swordfish.
• Fish steaks have considerably less fat than a good beef steak.  You can get away with a smaller amount of fish for a serving than you can with beef.
• For the love of seafood, do not put a crumb topping on swordfish.  It's fine for haddock and cod, but those kinds of fish are considerably more flaky and can use the added crunch.  Firm fish like swordfish don't need it.
• If possible, you should stick to fresh swordfish.  If it's not possible, be careful about the previously-frozen swordfish you buy.  The closer you get to pink, the better it was frozen.

I don't get to cook fish often enough in my home, and I miss it.

Cheddar Popovers

For many people, popovers are a luxury item.  They see them at fine restaurants, or the occasional excellent breakfast place with astounding cooks who make you wonder how they make them all.  Heck, there's even a restaurant in New York City named "Popovers"!

The truth is, basic popovers are even easier to make than pancakes, although they do take more time.  With pancakes, you have to get the griddle or frying pan to the right temperature, be careful not to slop batter when pouring it in, be careful flipping it -- and Heaven help you if you put in fruit or chocolate!

Popovers, by comparison, are pretty simple.  Once you've poured the batter in the pan, you don't touch them for over half an hour.  If you have a good non-stick pan, the first time you touch your popover with a knife will be to put butter or jam on it.

I do have a dedicated popover pan at home.  I do not use it as often as I'd like, but I do use it.  I have learned, from painful experience, never to let this pan go into a dishwasher.  A little soap and water serve nicely for cleaning purposes, and then I let it dry.  No muss, no fuss, and no risk of losing the non-stick properties of my popover pan.

You don't need a dedicated popover pan to make popovers.  Some people use standard muffin pans, with 12 cups for small muffins or cupcakes, but I find those make tiny popovers that are a bit too cooked for me.  If you don't have any sort of muffin pan or popover pan, and there isn't a good popover pan for sale near you, don't panic.  Look for what some places will call a Texas muffin pan, which only has six larger cups in the same space a standard muffin pan would hold twelve.  Get a non-stick one for your own peace of mind.

This recipe is adapted from "The Joy of Cooking," which is an excellent reference book for a home cook.  Newer editions aren't always as good as the old ones on some recipes, from my experience, but they still explain a lot of terms and foods.

All the hardware you need for this recipe are some good measuring implements (1 cup and 1/4 cup), a 2 quart bowl or measuring cup, a whisk or a hand-mixer, and possibly an OK knife and a cutting board.

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
pinch of salt, to taste
2 large (or bigger) eggs, preferably room temperature though not required
1 1/4 cups milk
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 oz cheddar cheese, shredded or finely sliced.  I slice my own with a knife; you might find it easier to buy pre-shredded cheese, and that is fine for this application.

Preheat your oven to 450ºF.  Melt your butter in your microwave for 20-30 seconds, or on your stovetop for however long it takes.  Beat the eggs into the butter, then the milk into the eggs.

In a separate bowl, put in your flour and salt, lightly blending them.  Add your milk, egg and butter mixture to the flour and whisk thoroughly until the mixture is smooth.  Pour the mix into each cup until it is about 1/3 full.  Add roughly an equal amount of cheddar to each cup, then pour in enough batter to cover the cheese and bring the cup to 2/3 to 3/4 full.  This will fill all 6 cups in a standard popover pan or a Texas muffin pan.

When the oven reaches 450º, put your pan in the oven for about 16 minutes.  At the end of that time, turn the oven down to 350º and reset your timer for 22-24 minutes.  At the end of this time, take out your pan and stare in wonder at the beautiful popovers sitting on your stove.

Grab your butter or your favorite jam, spread it inside or out as you prefer, and dig in!

If a friend asks you how much work they were, you could lie and tell them that it's the most complicated dish you've ever heard of.  However, I suggest that instead you tell them how easy it was to make and share the recipe, as sharing good food is one of the oldest expressions of friendship on the planet.

Restaurant Review: Neighborhood Restaurant and Bakery

Over a decade ago, I moved into an apartment in Somerville situated between Union Square in Somerville and Inman Square in Cambridge.  During the year and a half I lived there, I spent more time visiting Inman than Union.  As I found out yesterday, clearly this was a mistake.

The Neighborhood Restaurant and Bakery, located at 25 Bow Street in Somerville, has a forgettable sign above the door.  The interior is small and a bit cramped.  If you go in and look at the menu, you might think the prices are a little high for a breakfast nook, although they are certainly close to what you'd pay at Bickford's.

None of this prepares you for the food or the service.  The place was mostly packed when we arrived late Thursday morning, with only a couple of tables available.  The variety on the menu is a better than what you might expect to find in your standard local breakfast establishment, including occasional Portuguese fare alongside pancakes and waffles.

Before we properly got down to business, our server brought us each a small cup of what tastes like sweetened orange juice and a plate of lightly sugared fresh fruit.  While my dining companion left the juice to me, which I generally drank, she ate most of the fruit on her plate, as did I.  She ordered tea, which was brough to the table in a coffeepot and poured into her waiting mug.  All breakfasts come with juice, the small fruit plate, and your choice of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.  I do mean "and" - there are free refills.

My dining companion ordered whole wheat pancakes, while I ordered the steak and eggs breakfast with some extra mushrooms for the steak.  Both of our meals came with toast and homefries.  Her pancakes were dry, but they were also tasty and fluffy.  Our server initially mis-heard my stated steak request for "pink all the way through" as "cooked all the way through," which she did fix as quickly as possible when I brought it up to her, and the replacement steak was a good hunk of sirloin.  I ordered my eggs to be poached and served on my toast, like Mom used to make, and it was excellent.  The eggs were properly runny, the toast was thick and crunchy but not tough, and it was just as good as I'd hoped for.  And believe me, I hope for excellence.

The toast and the homefries deserve special mention.  The restaurant is also a bakery, so all the toast they serve is made from their own fresh-baked bread.  They serve it thick, so it's both crunchy and chewy; and the crust is not terribly tough like on French bread.  It's a real treat.  The homefries... all I can say is, I have been searching for these homefries since I first moved to the Boston area over a decade ago, and nobody else has had them like this until now.

During warm months you can sit outside in their arbor-covered outdoor space.  They even have their own grape jelly made from their own grapes.

The bill for the two of us was $20 before the tip.  I deliberately tipped far more than the standard, some 25%, because I was that impressed.  Well, also, it was only a dollar more than 20%.

Still, the place is charming for chowhounds and children alike.  I foresee future visits, and I am looking forward to them.

Pasteurization and Your Food

One of my perennial rants has to do with over-pasteurization in our nation's food supply.  Yes, we want our food supply to be safe; yes, most of us want to have our food exactly when we want it without delay.  I am very much pro-pasteurization, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Currently there are five kinds of pasteurization on the market: gently pasteurized, pasteurized, flash pasteurized, ultra-pasteurized, and cold pasteurized.  Although each method will kill off bacteria and archaea typically found in industrial food, each of them work differently and do different things to your food and drink - usually drink.

Gently pasteurized is not commonly used nowadays.  A gently pasteurized product is simmered at about 145ºF for about 30 minutes.  Manufacturers do not like this method due to three drawbacks: it takes more energy to use this method, it takes longer to do, and it results in a shorter shelf-life even with proper refrigeration.  However, gently pasteurized apple cider is some of the best-tasting heat pasteurized cider you will ever taste.  It is very close to unpasteurized fresh cider in flavor, and it is one of my go-to levels.

Pasteurized is much more common, generally used with milk and some juices.  Your foodstuff is heated to 161ºF for at least 16 seconds before being cooled.  This is a common method used due to lower energy costs, shorter time requirements, and longer shelf-life.  While we have gotten used to the flavor of pasteurized milk in the US, fruit juices suffer more from this method.  Your standard half-gallon box of not-from-concentrate orange juice is pasteurized this way.

Flash Pasteurized has come into vogue over the past couple of decades.  Heat your food to over 180ºF -- 191ºF is common -- for somewhere around 5 seconds for the lower temperature or 1 second for the higher.  All the things that manufacturers like about regular pasteurization they like even more about flash pasteurization.  The only thing that suffers is the taste.  I have had Odwalla flash-pasteurized orange juice once.  It is far too expensive for that cooked a flavor, in my opinion.

Ultra Pasteurized is also more common nowadays.  It has a range of temperatures.  The highest temperatures make liquid milk shelf-stable for months without needing a fridge.  Even higher temperatures, even shorter time, and even lower taste.  I highly suggest avoiding drinks that are ultra-pasteurized, unless you don't have much choice in the matter or you have never had the good stuff.  It is fine for stocking your bolt-hole to survive a zombie apocalypse, but you won't impress a date or a spouse with the taste.

Cold Pasteurized is a misleading term in that it does not use cold to pasteurize your food.  No, this process uses radiation.  While it has similar refrigeration issues to gently pasteurized products, I am actually fond of this method because the flavor is the closest I have found to unpasteurized.  Hey, if you don't like irradiated food, don't use a microwave.  Or anything grown under the sun, which is a giant radiator.

Now, some people I have talked with have said, "But the food is only at those high temperatures for such a short time!  It can't make that much of a difference."  If you are of that sentiment and you are a beef eater, I have a question for you: which ribeye or tenderloin steak would you prefer, the one which took 30 minutes to reach 145ºF inside, or the one which hit 200ºF inside in a second?  It does not matter how long the steak is at that temperature; it only matters that it was that temperature.  The same principle applies to milk, cider, orange juice and more.

Don't give up on pasteurization.  It helps keep our food supply safer in the long run.  However, if you have never had gently- or cold-pasteurized drinks, I urge you to give them a try should you find them.

Always Check Your Food's Expiration Dates

This past Monday I went to my local Stop & Shop to do a little shopping.  Yes, I handle most of the shopping for my home.  I picked up one of their handheld scanners, good for their express checkout, and went through the aisles at my usual leisurely pace.  I swear I only knocked over three carts this time.  Promise.

One of my purchases was a carafe of Tropicana white grapefruit juice.  Yes, I like it.  I had my little girl with me at the time.  She was her usual self, wee, cute and distracting.  I grabbed the first carafe I could find.

I didn't open my carafe until the next day.  That's when I noticed something more than a little annoying: "FOR BEST TASTE, USE BY: SEP 26 11."

I gave it a sniff.  It smelled OK.  It tasted OK too.  Still, I really wish I had looked at the date before putting it in my cart.  This was my first freshness flub in a long time.

Restaurant Review: 111 Chophouse, Worcester MA

On Saturday, my wife and I dropped our younger child off with her grandparents, who already had our older child.  We wanted a good meal and were both very hungry.  Last year, for my wife's birthday, my Mom gave her a gift card good at the Sole Proprietor, Worcester's premiere fish restaurant -- a card also good at its sister restaurants.  So, when deciding on where to go for supper, I told her I'd prefer Sole but I wasn't wedded to it.  She said, "Let's go to the chophouse.  I want meat!"  Off we went to the Sole's sister restaurant, the 111 Chophouse, located at 111 Shrewsbury Street in Worcester.

At some point we will clearly have to try the third restaurant of the group, an Italian place just up the street from the chophouse, called Via.  You might be able to watch just one part of a trilogy, but after you get the second part you have to check out the third.

Returning to the tale: we made reservations on the phone, which was vital given how busy the place is.  We arrived a few minutes late, but they were still dealing with a line of reservations that had shown up shortly before us.  We stood near the entrance, a little cramped since one group in front of us was a party of eight and was taking up most of the foyer space.  We were seated relatively quickly, though, and got to perusing.

This is not like an Outback or a Bugaboo Creek.  There's no music running in the background, no adorably creepy talking stuffed animals, not even a trace of kitsch.  Despite the lack of music it gets a bit loud in the background, but not so loud that you can't talk with your dining companion.  There's a very classy-looking bar section, a kitchen visible behind clean plexiglass, and there are a few different dining areas.  While there are a few flat-screen TVs showing various sports, none of them had the volume on and were not in routine eye-level.  The staff dress in short, stylized butcher jackets along with their white button-down shirts and black ties.  It is, all in all, classy and comfortable.

The waitstaff work in teams for your table, with two people looking after even a table for two.  While uncommon, this system allows for extra eyes and hands to help at a table.  They initially brought over a small loaf of what looked like Italian bread or a thick baguette, cut into slim slices, wrapped in paper.

Our meal was definitely very good.  We each started out with a bowl of Vidalia French onion soup au gratin ($7.99).  It arrived very quickly but was still impeccably done, with plenty of very good cheese, some of their baguette for the crouton, and a tasty beef stock fortified with wine and properly cooked onions.  We both felt it was slightly salty for our palates, but it is one of the best French onion soups we have eaten out of the house ever.

After the soup came the salad.  My salad - comprised of a wedge of iceberg lettuce, large-chop tomatoes and (for me) Caesar dressing - was tasty, properly dressed, and came included with the cost of my entree.  Normally it comes with Stilton cheese (think good bleu) and a bleu cheese dressing, but I am not a fan of bleu.  The tomatoes were not quite as tasty as I might have liked, but it was the very first time I have ever eaten tomatoes that come with a salad so I cannot be considered a good judge for that.  My wife ordered a baby arugula salad ($4 extra), which came with goat cheese, candied walnuts and a lemon vinaigrette.  She was extremely pleased with it, remaking on how the walnuts were only lightly candied and thus still recognizably walnuts.

For our main plates we both had beef.  I got their prime rib special ($21.99), which came with oven-roasted red bliss potatoes, peas with mushrooms, and a small amount of au jus; my wife ordered the Wagyu flat iron steak ($28.99), with sauteed asparagus, roasted red bliss potatoes, oyster mushrooms and a cabernet sauce.  We also ordered a side dish of au gratin potatoes ($8.99) for the table.  My boneless prime rib was slightly grainy in a couple of bites, but it was quite tasty and aside from those couple of bites properly done.  The sides were good, but I felt the potatoes were (again) slightly salty for me.  Given that I have been cutting down my salt over the past couple of years, it is probably still in the range of good for people with normal salt counts.  My wife said the special breed of beef, Wagyu, was lost on her.  For those of you who don't know, Wagyu beef is very well marbled.  It's the US breed of Japanese Kobe beef, considered some of the best in the world and astoundingly expensive.  While she felt it was wasted on her, I could tell that this was the best flat iron steak I had ever had.  The cabernet sauce was exceptionally good, although when I dipped a piece of my prime rib in it, the sauce did not pair up properly with the beef.  She enjoyed her asparagus greatly.

For all that the place is centered around great beef, I felt the stand-out dish was the au gratin potatoes.  The potatoes themselves were cut much the same way the roasted potatoes were, in pieces rather than the traditional slices.  They were served in a gratin sauce that was, simply, the best I have ever had in my life.  My wife said that the next time we go we should just order lots of sides and appetizers, just to sample all the tasty food.

Our total bill, including tax and tip, came out to over $100 for two people.  We didn't have any wine, cocktails or hard liquor, so those of you who enjoy such should prepare to pay more.  That said, it was thoroughly enjoyable and we will go back after we've held the charity fundraiser to afford it.  Beef of this quality would run at least 50% more in Boston, and the parking would be hard to find or outrageously pricy.  Frankly, this place is about an extra 50% more than your Outback or Bugaboo Creek and it is more than worth the price difference.

As we walked back to my car, we passed by the lot for the valet parking.  I had passed it up at the time because I figured it would be expensive - I'm used to Boston prices.  The sign said: Valet Parking, $3.  Since there was on-street parking at the time I am not sorry we skipped it, but if the street gets crowded when we return we'll pay the extra.

Easy roast chicken

Growing up, my mother routinely cooked chicken for Shabbat dinner on Friday night.  It seemed decent to start, but as I got older it got less and less acceptable.  You might be familiar with the bird I'm talking about: dry, crumbly breast meat and flabby, chewy skin coated in stale paprika were common.  I still loved eating roast chicken, but I knew something better was out there.  Mom cooked her chicken in a covered roaster pan at 325ºF.  Really, she could have done better.

Like many recipes, this one initially came about as part of an accident.  I was used to cooking my chicken at 375º, uncovered; but while the breast was good, the skin was still mediocre.  One day I started cooking the bird at too high a heat, then realized my mistake and tried to deal with it by some low heat cooking.  It turned out beautifully, actually, with perfectly done breast, thighs and skin.  However, it was still a little labor intensive.  I have tried a variety of temperatures and methods.  This isn't quite the easiest, because you have to flip your bird once, but it is still pretty darn easy.

Here's the method I use to roast my chickens, which are usually five to five and a half pounds.  When it is on the high end I may add another minute or two to the cooking time.

Preheat your oven to 425ºF and get out your proper-sized roaster pan.  Get out your fresh or properly-thawed chicken.  I prefer fresh.  Remove any giblets or other things the meat packer may have packed in the cavity of the bird, like the neck.  It's a good idea to rinse your bird with the coldest water your sink can offer, inside and out, then pat it dry, but if your bird is especially fresh and not smelly you can skip this if you are in a rush.

Place your chicken on your roaster pan, breast side down.  Put it in the oven for 45 minutes.  Use a timer if you have one, it's better for your personal wear and tear.  At the end of 45 minutes, take your chicken out of the oven and flip it to breast side up.  Now, cook it for another 30 minutes.  At the end of that time, take your chicken out of the oven, turn off your oven unless you have something else cooking in it,  and walk away for at least 5 minutes, preferably 10.  If you have a cat, be careful of where you place your chicken.  You do not want cat spit on your carefully roasted bird.  Now, cut into your chicken and serve to your hungry, hungry guests.  It won't be rotisserie chicken, but it should be even juicier.

Enjoy!

A Red Sauce Recipe in 4/4 time

Two onions chopped up very fine, a pepper finer still
A portobello mushroom, maybe sauteed maybe grilled
A handful of tomatoes, skinned and seeded sliced and chopped
And a little bit of carrot minced up fine and closely cropped

I can't cook a thing without my chopping knife
I can't cook a thing without my chopping knife
I've never used another in all my blessed life
No I can't cook a thing without my chopping knife

A little roasted garlic, two bulbs or maybe three
A scoop of roasted eggplant will make good company
Some sundried tomatoes, julienned would do the trick
And olive oil, just enough so nothing's gonna stick

I can't cook a thing without my cutting board
I can't cook a thing without my cutting board
It was here when we were packing but I don't know where it's stored
No I can't cook a thing without my cutting board

Some parsley leaves, some basil, a bay leaf for a while
A dash of cayenne pepper sauce is sure to bring a smile
Some black and white ground pepper and oregano for spice
I can smell the sauce throughout the house its come out really nice

I can't cook a thing without my gallon pot
I can't cook a thing without my gallon pot
The darn thing was in the cupboard but now I find it's not
No I can't cook a thing without my gallon pot
Oh I can't cook a thing without my gallon pot


OK, let's just call out for Chinese.




And yes, not only have I cooked this recipe, I have sung this song.

Pasta Shopping Basics and Garlic Bread

For all that I do enjoy a variety of food, one of my favorites is pasta in a red sauce. Now, people's tastes do vary when it comes to the shape of the pasta they like or the type of sauce they enjoy. I know some people who will only eat homemade sauce in their home, and I know others who just get a jar of whatever is cheapest regardless of who makes it. The same is true for pasta - some people only eat fresh pasta, others buy whatever box is least expensive at the time, and then there are the people who go out to eat for pasta and sauce, be it from their neighborhood pizza place or something a bit more upscale. While I like enjoying a good dinner out, I have a simple rule of thumb: unless I am exhausted or far away from home, never eat out what I can cook as well at home.

If your budget is really tight but you have a little bit of leeway for dining in to keep yourself from dining out, buying good pre-made pasta and sauce can keep you from paying more dining out.

When shopping for dry pasta, I have four things I look for aside from the price tag:

1. The shape of the pasta.  Texture matters to many people, and there’s a big difference between angel hair and tagliatelle, not to mention elbows and radiatorre.  Choose what works well for you.  Take it from me, getting spaghetti when you prefer linguini is a drag.  If you enjoy both equally, more power to you.
2. The pasta must be bronze die cut.  Most modern pasta manufacturers in the US try to keep their pasta as smooth as possible for easy shipping and storage.  Unfortunately, this results in very slippery pasta that doesn’t hold a sauce unless the sauce is really sticky.  Bronze dies make the pasta rougher, meaning that even linguini and spaghetti can hold onto your sauce.  
3. On occasion I want pasta made with eggs.  Not many megamarts carry dry pasta made this way.  It is more expensive, often rivaling or exceeding the price of buying fresh pasta from a corner fresh pasta store, plus it takes up more shelf space to boot.  However, it is generally richer and more toothsome than other dried pasta.  
4. On rare occasions I want a flavored pasta, commonly spinach.  Hey, I like spinach!  Only get a flavored dry pasta if you don't have a corner fresh pasta place near you, as fresh pasta will almost always have better flavor than dry.

Now, hunting for pre-made sauce means looking for different things, and unlike with pasta it’s more a list of Nots. Here are four things to avoid:

1. Lots of added of sugar unless you have problems with acid.  A few sauces will add concentrated fruit juice, which is similar in effect but at least adds a little more flavor.
2. Soybean oil.  This is the cheapest oil on the market, and it’s just not all that thrilling.  Extra virgin olive oil is the gold standard, but regular olive oil, grapeseed oil or canola oil will do in a pinch.
3. Dehydrated vegetables.  They’re probably rehydrated properly, but fresh beats freeze-dried in just about anything -- plus, sometimes they don’t rehydrate properly.
4. High sodium.  I have to avoid lots of salt for health reasons, but lots of people eat a lot more than the RDA.  More importantly, salt is a common flavor enhancer that can partly mask a lack of spices.  Generally speaking, the higher the salt count, the lower the spice count.

I generally try to keep my sauce purchases under $3 per 26 ounce jar, though I have gone slightly higher on occasion. I like several flavors of red sauce, from fra diavolo to marinara to vodka cream sauce; but for me the texture is equally as important. I don’t like sauces where vegetables weep water, nor do I like my sauces particularly chunky. Your tastes are probably different than mine, and that’s fine.

Here’s a simple recipe for roasted garlic cloves and garlic-flavored oil. Garlic oil is very good for salad dressings, cooking, and repelling vampires. Roasted garlic cloves are much milder and sweeter than raw garlic, and are good in anything you’d normally flavor with garlic. You can make an excellent garlic bread by toasting your Italian or sourdough bread, lightly buttering it, then spreading your roasted garlic cloves on top much like butter. 

The recipe is dead simple if you know where to find pre-shelled garlic cloves. Large quantities from a discount club, like Costco or BJs, come in very handy for this.  The roasted garlic should keep in your fridge for at least a month (usually several months), while the oil should stay good in the fridge for a year at least.  Do refrigerate them both!

Hardware:

Oven

oven-safe dish, such as a casserole dish

slotted spoon

two containers, one suitable for storing liquids

Ingredients:

enough pre-shelled garlic cloves to fill your dish halfway

enough oil to basically cover your garlic - olive (either regular or light, NOT extra virgin), canola, grapeseed and safflower are all suitable choices

Preheat your oven to 325ºF.  Put your garlic in your oven-safe dish and cover with the oil. Cook for about an hour, up to 10 minutes either way. Remove from the oven and test. When your garlic is golden and a fork can easily slip into a clove without any resistance, it’s done. Using your slotted spoon, put your newly-roasted garlic cloves in one container, your new garlic-infused oil in another container, and let them cool for at least an hour. When they’ve cooled down enough, put them in your fridge and take them back out whenever you want.

Have a good dinner!