BROWNIES (not too sweet!)

                                        

                                                Prep time: 20 minutes

                                                Cook time:30 to 40 minutes

           

            This was my mother’s recipe. I grew up on these brownies. To think of them makes my mouth water.

            I don’t do desserts (my wife makes the desserts), but I must include this recipe because in my opinion, 99% of brownies are MUCH TOO SWEET. This recipe melds the bitterness of chocolate with just the right amount of sugar. And once you try it with raisins instead of nuts, you’ll likely never go back.

MUSIC: This calls for either The Rolling Stones LET IT BLEED or GET YER YA YAS OUT, or the Beatles REVOLVER album. If you don’t do the Stones or Beatles, try Ray Charles Hit The Road, Jack, or, if you can handle intense beautiful jazz, one of the great Weather Report tunes Birdland or Mr. Gone. 

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED:

1. 1 Cup sugar
2. 2 eggs, unbeaten
3. 2 to 4 squares, 2 ounces each, of unsweetened cooking chocolate, melted (try it with 2 squares first, and get bold later as you wish).
4. ½ Cup flour
5. 1 Cup English walnuts, broken, OR raisins, OR a mix of the two (I like them with raisins best)
6. 1 teaspoon real vanilla
7. ½ Cup melted butter
8. ½ teaspoon salt (heaping teaspoon if using unsalted butter)

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

• Combine ingredients in order named.
• Beat thoroughly by hand.
• Bake in a greased shallow 8 inch pan, 25 minutes to 35 minutes in a slow oven (275 to 325 degrees).

CADENZA:  The goal is to have a soft-ish, intense chocolate flavor brownie. On occasion we have undercooked them, and ended up scooping them out like a mousse. Delicious. The raisins hold moisture well, so if you use raisins, you may need to cook longer, like 35-40 minutes instead of 25 minutes.

WINE: What? Yes, depending on the meal, a small glass of ruby Port accompanies this brownie well, because the brownie is not overly sweet.

Chanterelle soup

                        

                                                Prep time: 10 minutes

                                                Cook time: 12 minutes

                                                Serves: 4 to 6

            I used to live in Portland, Oregon, where, along the coastal range that overlooks the Pacific Ocean, chanterelles are indigenous. One time when friends visited in September from Paris, they returned, astounded, from a hike in those mountains, holding a shirt full of the light-tan mushrooms (one of them had removed his shirt so they could use it as a bag), and proceeded to make an omelet that was more mushrooms than eggs. It was delicious.

            If you have never eaten chanterelles, you are in for a treat. They are my favorite mushroom, but they have a delicate flavor that can be overpowered easily. That is why this soup works well. It captures, full-on, the unique nutty flavor of chanterelles. If served as a separate course, there are no competing flavors. A handful of mushrooms is enough for six servings of soup as a starter.

            The inspiration for this recipe came from one of my favorite restaurants in Portland when I lived there, called Bread and Ink. It still has this soup on the menu. The chef came out and gave me the basics, but it was never written down so I don’t think there are copyright infringements here. In essence, the soup consists of chanterelles sautéed in butter and garlic, with chicken broth, some Marsala, and a bit of cream for richness.

MUSIC: Put on something French, anything from Satie, Debussy, or Ravel, to French Rap/hip-hop by MC Solar (there’s no “explicit” lyrics to worry about because you can’t understand the words, and there is always some melody in the background of French hip-hop).

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED:

1. Chanterelles¹: about 1 to 1½ Cup of coarsely chopped mushrooms that have been brushed off or gently rinsed.
2. Butter, unsalted, 2 Tablespoons
3. Garlic, 1 small to medium clove, chopped (don’t overdo the garlic!)
4. Marsala, about ¼ Cup
5. Chicken broth,  1½ to 2 Cups
6. Cream: half and half ½  Cup, or table cream 1/3 Cup, or heavy cream ¼ Cup. These are approximates. Just don’t put too much cream or it tastes too fatty.
7. Black pepper
8. Italian parsley (or crinkly), chopped, for garnish.

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

• Sauté chanterelles in butter and garlic for about 3 minutes until softened. they don’t need much cooking, but you won’t hurt them by cooking longer.
• Season with plenty of ground black pepper.
• Add Marsala.
• Add chicken broth.
• Salt to taste.
• Add cream and reheat.
• Serve with parsley garnish.

WINE: A nice white, either dry or a little fruity, goes very well with this soup: Pinot Gris (same as Pinot Grigio), Chablis, Pouilly Fusse. Red wine also can go very well, if you choose something in the Burgundy realm, like Beaujolais or Pinot noir. 

¹About chanterelles: They are expensive, but if you seek out the ones that have dried more and avoid the water logged larger ones, you’ll spend less for more ‘shrooms.

Blackened Chicken Sandwich

                           

                                                Prep time: 15 minutes

                                                Cook time: 10 minutes                                                 

                                                Serves: 2 to 4

            This recipe produces clouds of smoke. The first time I tried to make blackened chicken was after installing a powerful exhaust fan over a high-BTU gas range. I was wondering, “Just how good is this new fan?” Fortunately, it worked beautifully, but if you are not cooking outdoors, you must have a large, powerful fan.

            The history of ‘blackened’ food began as an off-shoot of Cajun cuisine developed in the 1980s by Chef Paul Prudhomme. You can make your own spice mix, but I use Prudhomme’s blackening seasoning mixes in this recipe. On the back of each container of Magic seasoning, the basic ingredients are spelled out. My version utilizes thin filets of chicken breast.

MUSIC: LYLE LOVETT AND HIS BIG BAND, the whole album, accompanies well.  For higher energy, John Coltrane’s   Blue Train; for higher energy still (not for the weak of heart), try Miles Davis’s Fast Track, off the WE WANT MILES album.

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED:

1. Chicken breasts, two, skinned, deboned
2. Unsalted butter, 2 or 3 Tablespoons, melted
3. Blackening spices, either Prudhomme’s blackened redfish magic spice mix, OR make your own by grinding together: 

·        paprika 1 Tablespoon

·        oregano 1 teaspoon

·        thyme 1 teaspoon

·        ground black pepper ½ teaspoon

·        ground white pepper ½ teaspoon

·        cayenne pepper ¼ teaspoon

·        garlic powder ½ teaspoon

·        onion powder ½ teaspoon

·        salt ½ teaspoon.

4. Cast iron skillet, or other non-coated pan

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

• Heat the cast iron skillet on high heat until very, very hot. Cooking outside is best if you can get a fire or grill hot enough.
• Slice breasts horizontally into thin scaloppini filets. Use a long sharp knife, cut sideways with the palm of your hand resting on top of the breast. Usually three thin pieces per breast. Pound thinner if you wish.
• Coat both sides of chicken pieces with the melted butter
• Coat generously with spice mix, both sides. Easiest to hold the buttered breast in the palm of your hand and sprinkle liberally both sides.
• Place in heated pan and cook, turning once, to produce a crispy brown crust on both sides. Usually takes no more than about one minute on each side.

CADENZA: Serve in a sandwich (like a BLT), with mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato on toasted country white bread or a Kaiser roll or hamburger bun. Great with a chilled artichoke on the side with lemon-mayo dipping sauce.

Alternative: serve as main dinner dish with black bean soup, cornbread, or green vegetable.

WINE: A big California Cabernet Sauvignon or French Bordeaux is probably best. Or try a crisp, dry white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc or Chablis.

Introduction

KITCHEN JAM is a series of fifty-two recipes, one per week for a year, but there is more than food. In addition to easy-to-follow instructions, you get opinions, food science, more opinions, music recommendations, wine pairings, and occasional brief stories of how we arrived at certain recipes.

Our primary emphasis is simplicity. No formal training in cooking is needed to make these recipes. Another emphasis is cooking without measuring: eyeballing, palm of the hand measurements, pinches of things, splashes of things, dollops, getting your hands on the food. Measuring takes all the fun out of cooking. You can learn concepts and approximations, and have great success with flavors even if the dish is slightly different every time. For the sake of convention, we provide measurements in each recipe, but we encourage you to learn quantities without measuring.

           

My co-contributor and dear friend Sybil, of Portland, Oregon, has been an inspiration to me for years when it comes to food. Her flair for extemporaneous food preparation has taught me a great deal, and this collection would not have been possible without her valuable contribution.

About the wine suggestions: In my view, dining is, above all, an excuse to drink wine, but some flavor pairings are unbeatable. There are, however, no rules. Drink wines you like. If they pair well with the food, all the better.

About the music recommendations: I fully appreciate that tastes in music are extremely personal. But just as some of the dishes may expose you to tastes you haven’t experienced, so it is with my music selections. My emphasis frequently moves away from the beaten path of Pop music, into contemporary jazz and classical mainly. Most individual songs can be purchased these days online for $0.99. Try some while you are cooking!

About the Cadenza at the end of each recipe: A cadenza is defined loosely as a flourish of virtuosity performed by a soloist at the end of a musical piece. In keeping with the music theme, I have made some rough suggestions for flourishes on how you can serve up, or dress up, many of the dishes, plus variations on themes.

It took more than 25 years to collect these recipes. That’s a lot of pleasurable eating. I hope you can experience some of the same pleasure, not only with the eating but with the preparation and cooking. So, let's get started with the next posting!