CHERRIES

                                   cooking time: 30 to 45 minutes

            There is a tiny restaurant in Paris near St. Germain des Pres that is always jamb-packed with Parisian locals. That’s always a good sign when you are looking for a reasonably priced restaurant. The name is Machon d’Henri. The kitchen is so small, I think they can only ‘finish’ each order.

            On the first night I ate there, I saw a large jar of what looked like cherries high up on a counter top, and I ordered them for dessert. I was completely floored. They were the best sugared sour cherries in alcohol that I had ever tasted. This recipe is inspired by that dessert. I’ve made a few changes to accommodate what is available in North America. Where the Parisian restaurant used small fresh sour cherries, I used dried cherries, either sour or the black Bing variety. I also added the Port.

            This is a great recipe to make in a large quantity and keep on hand (needs no refrigeration) or transfer into small jars for gifts.

MUSIC: Piano music works well. For the classically minded, Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, or J.S. Bach: Well tempered Clavier. For jazz lovers, try the SOLO MONK album.

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED:

1. Dried whole cherries, two cups. Any dried cherries will work, but the bigger, the better, and black cherries are exquisite. Taste them to determine how much sugar you will add. The black/Bing cherries are quite sweet.
2. Port wine, 1 bottle. This must be Ruby Port, not Tawny Port. We’re talking cooking Port. The cheapest you can find is perfect.
3. Sugar, not usually more than ½ Cup
4. Vodka (optional), about ½ Cup
5. Glass jars, either quart size or jam jars (8 ounces).

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

• In a large pot, reconstitute the cherries and sugar in Port wine. Use the whole bottle. I usually bring to boil with the sugar and then let sit, covered until cool.
• Transfer to either large or small glass jars.
• Optional: add a splash or more of vodka to each container.
• Store indefinitely- they get better and better over time.
• Add more alcohol (port or vodka or both) if some evaporates over time.

CADENZA: Serve over vanilla ice cream as an easy, ready-to-go dessert. Also good plain in a bowl or with heavy cream. No need to worry about spoilage. There’s enough sugar and alcohol in this recipe to prevent any kind of spoilage. No refrigeration is needed.

WINE:          A dessert wine will do nicely. Sauterne, Ice wine, Port. If your liver is healthy, move to brandy or cognac.

LAMB CHOPS FOR STOVE TOPS

                         

                                    Prep time: 1 hour dry marinade

                                    Cook time: 6 minutes, approx.

                                    Serves: 2 or 4

            A good lamb chop is a carnivore’s delight. There are a million ways to deal with lamb. This recipe is based on simplicity, but with huge up-side potential in flavor.

            For those of you who favor racks of lamb, I have news for you. A rack of lamb is more about presentation than good eating. The reason is that racks are cut so the tenderloin piece is removed. The only meat on a rack of lamb is the piece of strip loin which is not as tender as the tenderloin. Much better are the “loin lamb chops” that have a piece of tenderloin and a piece of strip loin, analogous to a beef T-bone or Porterhouse steak. Also, this dry marinade works best when all sides of the chops are covered. In a rack of lamb, the inner meat doesn’t get exposed to the great flavorings. This marinade, however, enhances any lamb cut. The thickness of the chops is not crucial, although it influences cooking time.

MUSIC: I Left My Heart in San Francisco, or I Wanna Be Around by Tony Bennett, or anything with Sting (solo albums, or The Police). If you prefer classical, try Shostakovich or Prokofiev string quartets. They are challenging but beautiful!

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED:

1. Lamb loin chops (4)
2. olive oil, high grade extra virgin, about 2 or 3 tablespoons
3. garlic, 1 clove, minced
4. thyme, fresh or dried, 1 heaping tablespoon at least
5. rosemary, fresh or dried, 1 heaping tablespoon at least
6. kosher salt
7. pepper

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

• Crush the herbs quickly in a mortar and pestle to bring out their flavor.
• Place chops in a bowl and add olive oil, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper.
• Leave at room temperature for up to 3 hours. Thirty minutes is the minimum if you are in a hurry. Stir occasionally. Cover the bowl if you don’t want to be enticed by the lovely aromas.
• Cook chops on medium high heat (skillet, broiler or outdoor grill—I prefer a skillet on the stove top). Cook to desired degree of doneness and give some direct heat to all sides, including the bone. I like mine rare, but medium rare is acceptable. Any more gets tough and dry. For rare, usually about 4 to 5 minutes, assuming you have room temperature chops to start with. Doneness is largely by feel, i.e. how firm the meat is becoming. Cooking tongs work beautifully to test doneness and to move the chops around.

CADENZA: serve with carrots rosemary (see blog), roasted parsnips and red peppers, or pasta with a creamy sauce.

ALTERNATIVE: Use herbs de Provence instead of thyme and rosemary.

WINE: This calls for your biggest red. California Cabernet sauvignon; Australian Shiraz; or, best of all, a big French Bordeaux.

KYOTO SALMON SOUP

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

            During a trip to Kyoto, we learned valuable cooking secrets from our host, Yoko. She made this fish soup for us when we arrived, jet lagged and tired. She made it in a boiler pot, right on the table, adding ingredients to cook as she removed the cooked items into our bowls, and it was an ongoing sampling feast.

            I have modified the dish for a western kitchen. This soup is intended to be an entire meal, and once you have the correct ingredients lined up, you can’t go wrong. Play around with different fish (although shrimp doesn’t work well). I prefer Atlantic salmon because of its rich flavor and amount of fat. In Japan, Yoko even used blowfish (that’s the one that kills you if you get any contamination from the poison sac). Basically, any fish firm enough to withstand poaching will be fine, but I focused on salmon.

MUSIC: Let’s see: twenty minutes. Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto no. 1 is gorgeous. Or, the Japanese composer Toru Takamitsu is important and beautiful, worth listening to. Or forget about all those, and put on Tenderly, by Buddy DeFranco, and then the version by Chet Baker, as you are cutting the fish.

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED:

1. Salmon, 1 pound, warmed to room temperature. (You can use any other fleshy white fish instead of, or along with the salmon).
2. Bok choy, one large or three baby, chopped coarsely
3. Tofu (soft, silken variety), one container
4. Ginger root, cut in thin strips, total about 1 heaping Tablespoon
5. Green onions, one or two, chopped coarsely
6. Mushrooms, quartered into small bite size pieces. (button, Cremona, Enoki, oyster, shiitake are fine), total up to 2 Cups max.
7. Soy sauce, 2 Tablespoons
8. Rice vinegar (NOT low calorie/low sodium), 2 Tablespoons
9. Garnish: soy sauce, rice vinegar, spiced soy (eg Ponzu).
10. Rice: about 1 Cup Japanese sushi rice, cooked in a rice cooker is best, but any rice is fine.

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

• Cook rice.
• While rice is cooking, cut tofu into cubes, and fish into large bite-sized pieces
• In a 4 quart 10 inch sauce pan or wok or boiler pot, place enough water to accommodate the ingredients (2 inches in the sauce pan, or about 1 ½ to 2 quarts).
• Add onions and ginger and heat to near boil.
• Add soy sauce and rice vinegar.
• Add mushrooms and boil gently for 1-2 minutes.
• Add bok choy.
• Add fish and tofu and adjust heat down so there is no active boiling.
• Cook until fish is done, about 5 minutes (with salmon, just done, or a little underdone is better for texture than over done.

CADENZA: Serve soup over rice in a bowl. Splash with additional flavorings: soy sauce, rice vinegar, flavored soy such as Ponzu or other Japanese equivalent. Black or mixed ground pepper is also good. Don’t burn your mouth!

WINE: Tea is best. Beer is second best. Sauvignon blanc third. I often go with the third. Why is that?

Carrots Rosemary

                                                Prep time: 10 minutes

                                                Cook time: 30 minutes

                                                Serves 2

            We all cook carrots. The are hard to ruin unless you overcook them in plain water and they lose their flavor.

            This recipe I picked up from my mother because it looked so easy and fool-proof, and the carrot flavor is enhanced through the cooking. And the rosemary, well, it is the perfect herb to use with carrots.

IN ESSENCE: The carrots are combined with just the right amount of water so that when the water is boiled off, they continue to cook and brown slowly on one side until ready to serve, without any need for turning, stirring, etc.

MUSIC: Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue. This, sadly, became the United Airlines theme music, but the whole piece is beautiful and worth knowing. Leonard Bernstein’s recording is my favorite (he conducts and plays the piano).

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED:

1. 3 medium carrots, peeled
2. Butter: 1 tablespoon minimum, up to 2 tablespoons
3. Rosemary: dry or fresh, 1 teaspoon
4. Kosher salt
5. Pepper, a few twists of a pepper grinder
6. Sugar, small pinch

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

• Cut the peeled carrots into pieces 2 inches long, ½ inch wide
• Place in a shallow sauce pan (I use an 8 inch, 2 quart pan)
• Add water enough to just cover carrots
• Add butter, salt, pepper, sugar, rosemary
• Bring to a boil on high heat, uncovered
• As water level gets lower, turn down heat gradually until heat is at lowish when the water is totally evaporated
• Keep on low heat to medium-low until ready to serve
• You shouldn’t have to stir or turn the carrots at all, they will brown lightly on one side. If they are getting too hot and look like they will burn, turn with a spatula and reduce the heat.

CADENZA:

            Carrots are fantastic with lamb. Good also with pork, chicken, beef, or fish. For a vegetarian treat, serve with soft polenta and grilled mushrooms.

WINE: Either red or white go well with these carrots. I favor a red Bordeaux.

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.