Category Archives: beans rice pasta

your basic starches, other than potatoes

03.12.08
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Jambalaya

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and file’ gumbo
‘Cause tonight I’m gonna see my ma cher amio
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o
Son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on the bayou

Hank Williams

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Jambalaya; music to my ears. The mere mention takes me back to New Orleans in the spring of 1984, alone near the end of a long line waiting for a table at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen. A woman came back the line asking, “Any singles?” When I shouted and raised my hand, she took me right inside and sat me with a dentist and his wife and son. They were in town from San Diego for a dentist convention. At K Paul’s in those days, no seat was left unfilled. Christmas brought me Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen, from good friends and neighbors, Robert and Katy. It’s a cookbook I use to this day. Continue reading →

01.07.08
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SQUASH THREE TIMES

Ravioli to Noodle Soup

We got these humungous winter squash in our Mariquita Farms Mystery Box.

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Mariquita Farm was my go-to for many vegetables at the Farmers Market, but they left the market to concentrate on supplying restaurants and CSA.
Just when I was about over missing them, I got an email from Julia that she would bring vegetable boxes a couple times a month to distribute at one of their restaurants where they deliver. Just make a $25 order by email. They call these deliveries Mysterious Thursdays, as they also offer a “mystery box” made up by Andy.

The squash sat outside for a week or so until one Saturday morning Carol just hacked up one of the big ones and baked it. Now what to do? We weren’t excited about making pie or soup or gratin.

SQUASH ONCE

Well, I hadn’t made pasta for a while, how about Squash Ravioli?

For basic research I tend to consult with Cook’s Illustrated online. We’re sure of finding a basic, proven recipe and we can go from there. Their Pumpkin, Prosciutto, and Parmesan Filling for Pasta looked good, interesting and easy. Just mix your baked squash with a little minced prosciutto and fresh sage leaves, grated Parmesan cheese, an egg yolk and freshly ground nutmeg.

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The already made sheets are under the green towel. Continue reading →

09.26.07
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From Salad to Soup

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It was a few hours before the Giants’ game and I wasn’t hungry yet, but I would be when I got to the game. Ballpark food is so expensive, and truth be told, not that great. Although there’s something to be said for steamed hot dog in a warm bun with yellow mustard and chopped onion. That’s four bucks and I can’t have just one, which means going down in the fourth inning or so and standing in line for another. I have trained myself to buy only one eight dollar beer, though.

A pasta salad would be good, and good for me, but I wasn’t in the mood for the Asian noodle salad that I’ve made in the past for ball games.

I dived into my recipe archives. With the Internet, there are a gazillion recipes out there, many good, most bad. In addition to all the free sites, food company sites and blogs, I subscribe to the Cook’s Illustrated website for the tried and true. I do have a bone to pick with CI, it seems to me that if I subscribe to their magazine, and have for years, I ought to get the website for free, or at least at a healthy discount. I enjoy leafing through the magazine when it comes in the mail; it’s a pleasant experience. But NO, the website is the same price as the magazine and there are no deals to be had. The website is a different experience. Even if you “browse” the current issue on the web, it’s not like turning those pages of heavy matt stock. But the website has the archives and easily searched recipes. I gave up the magazine. Bummer. But I digress. Continue reading →

08.06.07
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Stretch

Frankfurter, Beans and Tomatoes

Even I don’t cook fresh and from scratch all the time, especially for lunch. The other day I got to lunch late from the “office” and I was hungry. There were no appealing leftovers and no emergency cans of soup, gosh; I haven’t bought a can of soup in a long time.

So, I hit the can cupboard and found a can of black beans and a can of stewed tomatoes. That’ll be good with one of my newly discovered frankfurters from Marin Sun Farms. Those are good, rich, beefy flavor and natural casings that snap when you bite into them.

I browned the frank in a skillet, put it on a plate and stuck it in the toaster-oven to keep warm while warming the plate.

The beans went in the same skillet, along with drained and chopped tomatoes. I mixed that up and let it bubble gently for a few minutes to thicken.

Once plated, I sprinkled the mess with raw, chopped sweet spring onion for a nice crunch and sparkling flavor addition.

That made a yummy lunch, and there were about two cups (one POM jar) of bean tomato mixture left over.

Stretch,
The next day I got out:

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Continue reading →

06.27.07
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Pittsburgh Eats Part 2

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We spent five days in the Pittsburgh environs while Carol attended her NAEYC conference June 9 — 13, 2007. Due to the fact that it was the week of the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, we were obliged to stay in the sticks at the Pittsburgh Radisson Green Tree, in Pittsburgh’s Borough of Green Tree, about four miles from Downtown. This is about the eats Tuesday and Wednesday, our last two days.

Tuesday Breakfast
Radisson River Restaurant Buffet
In the Radisson Green Tree, without a car, there are no choices. You do what’s in the hotel, or do without. I didn’t bother with the morning bus into Pittsburgh, nothing much to do there, and I wanted to write My US Open. But I did want breakfast, so I chanced their Breakfast Buffet. I perused the layout and, whoa! The scrambled eggs were fresh and hot, properly cooked, and had some cheese in them. The hash brown potatoes were little wedges fried with onions, hot and brown, the breakfast sausages saw a skillet and were browned, the pineapple and melon were fresh and hand cut and there were grapes, strawberries, blueberries and cottage cheese. Coffee and juice come with the buffet and they even had V8! And there was dry cereal and granola and yogurt and milk and cream for those who are into that. What’s got into them?

Tuesday Lunch
The 1889 Café, Southside Pittsburgh

By noon or so, I was thinking about lunch and thinking about Pittsburgh. Continue reading →

06.18.07
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Big Pasta

Emeril cooks with Lidia Bastianich

Carol was channel flipping as I walked through the room. “There’s Lidia,” she exclaimed. Lidia is Lidia Bastianich, an Italian cook of a certain age, who has a show on PBS. Here she was cooking with Emeril on the Food Channel. Her mantra is “keep it simple,” and indeed, the dishes she presented were simple but enticing. We learned that she had recently opened Lidia’s Pittsburgh, and we would be going there soon.

I sprung into action. First, to download the recipes from this show, and second, to make reservations at Lidia’s for the time when we’re in Pittsburgh. That’s another story, to appear in this space after our trip.

The cooking was to follow.

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mise en place: bucatini, oil packed tuna, calamata olives, tomato paste and red pepper flakes, onions and garlic, parsley. Continue reading →

06.07.07
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Arroz con Pollo

How could I resist, three chickens in a bucket, their pale red feet sticking up in the air bearing tiny cute toenails, seemingly perfectly trimmed. Fresh, free range organic chickens raised at Marin Sun Farms in Marin County.

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So I bought a chicken and Carol said, “Yuck, its got feet. It’s not very big, what are you gonna do with it?” I was thinking fried chicken; she suggested poaching. I don’t want to poach it, such a mundane fate for such a fine bird.

I read Bill Neal‘s recipe and commentary on Southern Fried Chicken. His book Southern Cooking is one of my treasures.

He’s very particular about his fried chicken. “You want chicken that tastes like chicken, with a crust that snaps and breaks with fragility — a contrast to the tender, moist meat.” He goes on, “First, the bird: only a whole, fresh chicken will do. (Frozen chicken tastes bloody and turns dark at the bone when fried. If you find yourself in the possession of one, stew it or bury it.)” Continue reading →

04.14.07
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Hungry and Tired? Go for the Pasta

Kinda Sorta Pasta Primavera
Tuesday’s Dinner

I got home late from the Film Society, hungry. Carol is off at the toney Westerbeke Ranch on a “retreat” with her cohorts, no doubt dining on a gourmet dinner.

My weekly menu says leftover something. So I do what any guy would do, open the refrigerator. (Some guys might reach for the Chinese delivery menu, and I have done that on many occasions such as this.) Here’s what I found:

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Some leftover spaghetti from last Thursday’s spaghetti with Tuscan meat sauce, A partial head of cauliflower and a partial head of broccoli from Saturday’s salmon dish. About a cup of my San Marzano tomato sauce, pretty much always on hand, stored in one of the handy POM Tea jars.

I can put together a kinda sorta pasta primavera, and add some ever-present Jimmy Dean hot sausage from the meat drawer.

This looks a lot my Saturday Brunch entry or Sunday Supper from a while back, but it just goes to show that eats for one has an enduring life, from the planned and precise to the thrown-together quickly, as long as I remember to take pictures. Continue reading →

03.28.07
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Bean Soup

Tuscan White Bean Soup for the slow cooker
Second Version

Cooking beans, for soup or on the plate, has been a subject with which I have struggled over the years. I wrote about this last September, but times have changed.

Having “discovered” the slow cooker for perfectly cooked beans, (thanks RG bean lady), I may have settled on the last, best, cooking method. Look at it this way, on top of the stove, you’re looking at six hours or more for beans (say 4-6 to soak, 1-2 to cook). Soaking is soaking, but during the cooking time, you have to pay attention once in a while, and chances are the beans won’t be perfect because you got impatient or the fire is too hot or not hot enough, whatever. With the slow cooker, throw in the beans and water and anything else   you want, turn it on, set the timer and go away. I am a believer.

Thus, I figured I could make perfectly good bean soup. With what I’d learned about the slow cooker, I adapted a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. I chose Tuscan White Bean Soup, the simplest possible bean soup (beans, water, seasonings) for my experiment. I adjusted the ingredients a bit and rewrote the instructions for the slow cooker.

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Continue reading →

03.19.07
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Slow Cookery

How I learned to live with a slow cooker.

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Bean and Seafood Stew
Slow Cooker Pollo Pulquero
New England Boiled (NOT) Dinner
Is slow cooking, cooking?

Beans
I was standing at the Rancho Gordo stand at the Farmers Market taking in the array of, gosh, 15 or more bean varieties and I asked the bean lady, “What’s the bean of the day?”

“Runner Cellini are just in, I made the best seafood stew the other day, Put the beans and a can of clams with their juice in your slow cooker, and cook them for six hours on high. You don’t even have to soak the beans. With about an hour to go, throw in a pack of Trader Joe’s seafood mix. Devine.”

“Do you always do your beans in a slow cooker?” I asked.

“I do now, it’s so easy, six hours, no soak.”

Wow.

The next day, I went to Macy’s and got me a slow cooker, an actual Crock Pot, 5 quart. Ready to go.
Continue reading →