Comin’ ’round th’ mountain: Corned Beef Sandwich, Sea Bass, Show Dogs, Faux Pomodoro, Sloppy Joes, Oven Dried Tomatoes, Pasta Pompeii, Veal Marsala, Brunch at Marlowe, Thanksgiving, Pork Braciola.

So we rocketed through November and I had stuff like film festivals and the El Bulli film and new “Oscar worthy” films like My Week with Marilyn and I didn’t get stuff into eats. So in this first week of December, I’m going to blast all of November onto eats, hopefully, in an entertaining and informative way.

Corned Beef Sandwich
We start at the Tuesday Market with a corned beef sandwich from Wise and Sons Jewish Deli. I brought it home to eat, took out about half the meat for a snack later with cheese on AkMak cracker. Yummy.

Next up Sea Bass poached in a spicy soy sauce and served over rice. I did what I often do and am trying to get over doing — served this dinner on a plate too small for it. In any case, my fillet went from more than one-inch thick to the thinnest end, and all was moist and tender with this poaching method. Carol said, “Great.” Served with Romano beans.

Combine 1/2C of your best soy sauce, 1/2 cup water, sugar and chili in a skillet just large enough to hold the fish. Turn the heat to medium high, and bring to a boil.
Add the fish, flesh side down. If necessary, add a little more water, so that the liquid comes almost all the way up the sides of the fish. Add about a dozen scallions and adjust the heat so the mixture bubbles but not furiously. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, turning as the liquid thickens, to coat the fish with a brown glaze. Serve with white rice, spooning the sauce over all and garnishing with the onions. [I used quartered spring onions instead of scallions]
How does one tell when it’s done? A knife will go through with no effort.

Show Dogs
The Broadway Musical HAIR came to San Francisco. How could we resist? We had seen it when it opened in Boston in 1969. We went Opening Night. WOW.
But this is about dinner before at Show Dogs, just across the street from the Golden Gate Theater.

Faux Pappa al Pomodoro
From “show” to “faux.” You know about the tomato bread soup “Pappa al Pomodoro.” Here’s my quickie lunch version with croutons cut from 2 or 3 or 4 day old Acme bread, a few cubes of leftover pork cutlet, and Amy’s Chunky Tomato Bisque. Takes longer to write about it that it does to cook it. All I did was add a little olive oil and garlic. Yum.

White Chicken Chili, using a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated was next on the horizon. That’s a little more involved that the other stuff this month, so I’ll give it its own entry. Look for it.

Carol’s Sloppy Joes – or more properly, Martha’s Sloppy Joes (my mother) as adapted by Carol into Sloppy Sliders.
Take a can of Hunts Manwich and a can of Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Gumbo Soup, put it together with about 1 1/2 pounds of ground meat — turkey, beef, pork — add some tomato sauce, ketchup, yellow mustard, onions and garlic and cook it for at least 45 minutes until it is reduced to the exact — sloppy but not soupy — texture. Serve on those new Sara Lee mini burger buns, alongside some Romano beans and baked sweet potato fries. Down home goodness.

Oven Dried Tomatoes
At the Farmers Market on November 12, I snapped up a dozen of what are probably the last San Marzano tomatoes of the season. Last chance to make oven dried tomatoes. I discovered these first in the Union Square Cafe Cookbook by Danny Meyers and Michael Romano (1994). They were used in Artichoke and Potato Ragout. I like to make them to use instead of Sun Dried Tomatoes in recipes that call for them, or in any dish where you want a concentrated tomato zing. With these, I know what they are and am sure of the quality. With Sun Dried Tomatoes, there are many kinds coming from who knows where and they can be frighteningly expensive. Oven dried are easy. Here’s what you do:

Pasta Pompeii
I already wrote about this stuff. Don’t think I’ve made it since then, summer of 2007.
Geez, can’t have the same meal every week! Anyway, here’s how it goes:

Veal Marsala
Hey, another night off! During football season, Carol is kind enough to cook on Sunday and Monday evenings when games are going on. I still do the Market shopping and make suggestions, but otherwise, it’s all hers. On this Sunday, it’s Veal Marsala, carrots on the side.

Black Cod with Miso
Here’s what Mark Bittman had to say in his 25th year celebration essay with recipes:

“If you broil black cod with nothing but salt, you already have a winning dish. If you broil it with miso — the intensely salty paste made from fermented soybeans — along with some mirin and quite a bit of sugar, you create something stunningly delicious. And no long marination is necessary.”

So that’s what I did. Served over rice with black beans.

Broiled Radicchio
LO Pork Cutlet with spaghetti and broiled radicchio with blue cheese
The pork cutlet, which was breaded with Panko, is carefully hidden under the spaghetti. But you know what that is. What is interesting is the broiled radicchio.

Take a head of radicchio, cut in half, add a generous amount of blue cheese, crumbled or sliced, drizzle with olive oil, splash with balsamic vinegar and broil for about 3 minutes, until the radicchio starts to change to weird colors.

This is good. The bitter radicchio, the sweet balsamic, the sharp cheese. WooHoo.

MARLOWE
Carol had Thanksgiving week off, so she planned ahead to go to SF MOMA on Wednesday, and then to lunch nearby. : We took the 45 bus to 4th at Mission and walked over. CLOSED WEDNESDAYS. Dang all; we wanted to see the Richard Serra drawings. Well, the Museum shop was open, so we killed an hour there. I was hoping for inspiration for Carol’s Christmas gift, but all I saw was stuff I wanted.
After, we walked to Annabelle’s Bar and Bistro on 4th. Carol said, “If we take the 45 here on south, will it take us to Marlowe?” Yep. That’s right across from ATT Park. We’ve been wanting to go there, so we went. Nice.

Chicken Liver Mousse
This recipe came with our Bonny Doon Wine Club shipment and was meant to be served with the Bonny Doon 2008 Syrah “Bien Nacido (X Block).” Turns out there’s an identical recipe — but doubled in size — in the current Bon Appetit magazine. Coincidence? Doesn’t matter.

Soak your livers [half pound] in milk overnight. Melt a stick [1/4 pound] of butter and cook onions and garlic in it. Add the chicken livers (they have been drained and dried, of course) and cook until medium rare, about 4 minutes. (It’s OK if you cut and peek, they’re going to be moussed anyway.) Put your butter onion liver mess in a blender and blend until smooth. Force that stuff through a fine sieve, put it in a ceramic dish and chill.

First of all, the mousse is fantastic. How can it not be? I like to gather some on a bread stick and eat. And the wine is divine. Winner!

Thanksgiving Dinner
I was asked to bring a couple vegetable dishes. I can do that. I had poached carrots and some kind of Brussels sprouts in mind as I went shopping at the Tuesday Market.

Poach the carrots in orange juice with a little sugar and salt.

Here is half pound of bacon, 1 1/2 pounds of Brussels sprouts, sliced. (You can do that with the slicing attachment of your food processor. I don’t have one, so I sliced with a knife. No biggie.) 1 1/2 cups of dried figs.

Just cook the bacon until crisp, add the sprouts and figs and 3/4 cup of water and cook until the water evapoates. They should be tender. While cooking, season with salt and pepper. (This is based on a Mark Bittman deal)

Pork Braciola
Again, I’m revisiting a favorite dish from a while back.
This time I went to my new favorite butcher, Golden Gate Meats at the Ferry Building. They’re Italian, so they know exactly what a Pork Braciola is.
I showed their guy a picture of the rolled meat… said I wanted to order… guy says, “I know what a braciola is, I can make those up in 5 minutes.” He asked about stuffing… I said they weren’t stuffed. DUH. I hadn’t really re-read the recipe. So, at home, I unrolled to put cheese and parsley stuffing in and re-tied.
Otherwise, the cooking went well… used 1 Quart of my San Marzano tomato sauce made Nov 2010.
http://www.eatsforone.com/?p=2093

Real good. Served with spaghetti as usual, a nice pear and avocado salad.

Frittata
Frittatas are a sometimes thing. I had in my mind that I made them often, but in looking back over the past two years, I found I’ve made them sporadically, but often recently.

I’m going to make the frittata the subject of it’s own eats story. Look for it.

CROCK POT
Finally, just making it into the month, cabbage and chicken stew made in our slow cooker. “You bought that Crock Pot, why don’t you ever use it??” admonished Carol at the Pork Braciola dinner that she insisted I should have cooked in the Crock Pot. (Yes, we do have an actual Crock Pot.)
I’m going to make Crock Pottery the subject of it’s own eats story. Look for it.