Category: Misc.

An Ending And A Beginning

The past week for me had me saying goodbye to an old friend and hello to a new one. Mama Roxy’s two funerals were held on Thursday and Friday. I got to see some other long lost acquaintances. Why is that when people usually catch up its at funerals? We all had a nice lunch at Dixie Kitchen after the service. Since the repast would be on Friday out of the city, everyone and Roxanne’s family ended up there for lunch before they hit the road. It couldn’t have been orchestrated better. A nice laid back informal lunch.
On Saturday I was a guest at a Chinese Banquet to celebrate the birth of Baby K . I represented both Marc and I at this new experience for me. I tried not to over indulge that day to make room for the feast.The above symbol I was told means long life. On my way to the event I found a great kitchen store in China town. My eyes were drawn to the vegetable cutters. How fun is this! I cut the above out of a potato. I cant wait to play some more with this. I can even see me using it on cake designs.I need to revisit and get the Double Happiness symbol. I’m going to apologise for the pictures on today’s post. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Certain Someone has reclaimed his camera and I reduced to an antique digital and my Blackberry camera with flash. I cant figure out how to deactivate the flash on it. I photo shopped some pictures to make a tad better, but its still doesn’t the food justice.

These shots show 9 out of the 12 courses we had that evening. I was seated at the American table unfortunately . Because we weren’t Chinese, they felt one course of braised Pigeon would be to exotic for us. I could have ate the Pigeon. But the other people at the table were not so keen as they passed on it before at the older child’s banquet years ago. Here is a menu of what we were served:

Tea Dyed Eggs and Pickle
Assorted Chinese Cold Cuts( pork belly, beef, bean curds,
jelly fish,pork with crispy rinds,etc.)
Peking Duck ( Braised Pigeons for the other guests)
Shrimp Puffs( The best!!!!)
Chinese vegetables (mushrooms, bamboo, etc.)
Scallops and Chinese Broccoli
Steamed Lobster
Shark Fin Soup
Crispy Chicken
Noddles
Steamed Whole Fish
‘Fried Rice'( More like steamed rice with 2 types of toppings, very saucy)
Did I mention they had cake too? I could barely stand and walk after this.And there were so many kids running around and rolling about under the table I was getting antsy. But it was a joyous time . I’m not a preachy person but I think this verse sums up my week and life best.

To everything there is a season,a time for every purpose under the sun.A time to be born and a time to die;a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;a time to kill and a time to heal …a time to weep and a time to laugh;a time to mourn and a time to dance …a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;a time to lose and a time to seek;a time to rend and a time to sew;a time to keep silent and a time to speak;a time to love and a time to hate;a time for war and a time for peace.
ecclesiastes 3:1-8

What Do I Look Like…Chopped Liver?

I have been meaning to do this post for a while. Maybe its to heavy for the season, but as long as the air conditioning works, why not? Also my Certain Someone is away for 2 weeks( to work on the Swedish house and then Florida for work) and he’s not a fan of chicken livers. Funny because doesn’t sausage contain all sorts of offal? However all my female family and friends love this stuff. I get countless requests for it. Mama Roxy loved it too.I don’t know if we were all iron deprived or what. I have tweaked and “glamahed” this recipe up so it doesn’t even resemble or taste like what you find in most delis. If Im lucky , I substitute goose or duck fat for chicken fat. I also cream the mixture more so than chop. And finally I drizzle some aromatic black truffle oil on top. Is it kosher , no, but its damn good!My recipe base comes from one of my favorite cookbooks. Once way before Certain Someone, I was involved on and off, with a Jewish guy. So I became fascinated with the foods and customs. Not like that vegetarian would eat what I honed in on.Anyway this book remains a favorite, The Book of Jewish Food…An Odyssey From Samakand To New York, by Claudia Roden. The book has great historical tidbits and chronicles all the different types of Jewish foods based on tribes/regions. One of my favorites are the Italian Jewish dishes. Once in New York City I was lucky to taste some old Italian Jewish recipes and it was fantastic. My dining companions who were laughing at me at first couldn’t stop reaching over to taste mine. So back to the liver. The author, Roden , Points out that that delicacy we all love ( well most of us) pate de foie gras may have Jewish origins. Come to find out,it was the Jews in the Rhineland community of Alsace that developed the way of breeding and fattening the geese by force feeding, became their trade. Force fed geese is a whole other controversy that I wont get into today. Today’s chopped liver just uses humble chicken livers, the left over garlic infused duck fat from my confit before,onions, eggs, and black truffle oil. Open your mind, mouth, and enjoy.
Chopped Liver adapted from The Book Of Jewish Food, by Claudia Roden
1 large onion chopped
3 tablespoons duck fat ( I used my leftover garlic infused confit fat, the book recommends chicken fat, and that’s more standard)
1/2 lb chicken livers
1-2 hard boiled eggs
salt
pepper
Black truffle oil

Fry the onion in the duck fat in a large pan with lid on until soft and golden. Be sure to stir occasionally.Rinse the livers and sprinkle with salt. Place the livers on a a sheet of aluminum foil and grill/cook until they change color. Turn once. Let cool.
Cut the hard boiled egg up. You can use a food processor. Add the liver and onions to the processor as well to create a coarse paste. Mix with the eggs. Salt and pepper to taste. Smooth the surface and drizzle some black truffle oil (my addition).Note I also use a immersion blender to chop all the ingredients. It works and makes a nice paste.Traditionally this is served with some chopped egg on top and with hallah or rye bread.

Burgers Transformed With Rose Levy Beranbaums Golden Burger Buns

For the past few months on the blogospehere I have seen a trend in making your own hamburger buns. I immediately thought what a brilliant idea. Breads intimidate me. I have no fear of yeast, like a lot of people, but I want to perfect and master it. Breads for me are either hit or miss. This my friends was a hit. If you don’t know her, Rose Levey Beranbaum is the well known author of The Cake Bible, The Bread Bible, and some other great titles.Her approach is very scientific but she comes off as approachable and likable.She has a great blog where I got this recipe for hamburger buns made with Sweet potato. Rose calls them Golden Burger Buns.Sweet Potatoes have been popping up in my CSA box lately and other than bake them I wanted to find some more uses.I don’t like to candy and sweeten them all up. I also made a little promise to myself and Certain Someone I would bake more breads. He would much prefer that then cake. In the kitchen at the caterers I have shaped and baked some dinner rolls and its piqued my curiosity. The bad memories of the Daring Bakers making Julia Child’s french bread has faded into the distance. In my preoccupation with other matters I didn’t follow the recipe as written, but it all worked. I retarded(let dough rise in the refrigerator) the first 2 risings because I started at night, and had to go to work the next day. After work I shaped them , let rise the final time and baked. Because I didn’t have sesame seeds I used some fried garlic I got in China town to top the buns. The garlic smell as they baked was heavenly and I prayed it wouldn’t burn. I quickly fired up a burger and just adorned it with my German curry ketchup, and Dijon mustard. I didn’t even let the buns cool thoroughly in my haste. Most times its the burger and the fixing you remember. This burger was all about the bun. So soft and delicious. I will be making these again and again.

Duck Confit and Pommes Sarladaise… Good Therapy

I know I said I’m taking a brief break. And I did, kind of. But you know what makes me feel better? Cooking.I’m coming to terms with Mama Roxy’s passing and I just feel her love all around.Her children and husband are going to be OK!What a wonderful season we had with her in our lives. There is so much gloom out there lately, so I’m focusing on the the bright side of life. Thank you all for your kind words. Her daughter saw it and is most appreciative.
Last week I found some duck legs in the freezer at the local Treasure Island.Immediately I though Duck Confit. I could only afford the 2 legs and knew I had some chicken fat in the freezer( I use it for chopped liver). A little cheating, but it could work. I also purchased some duck fat for this experiment. The guys in the kitchen at the caterer talk about confiting as its part of an average day. I have never attempted such and knew Certain Someone would love this. I searched the Internet and all the recipes seemed consistent. Some even used a slow cooker.Some just called for herbs with salt in the curing and some offered spices too! I used several cloves of garlic, allspice,coriander,and rosemary( a lot of recipes called for thyme, but I only had rosemary).I ground the salt with the herbs and spices.I realized I used way to much salt at first and adjusted it before resealing in a Ziploc back to cure for 2 days in the refrigerator. Certain Someone was demanding it for Sunday late lunch after his golf. With all going on we had been doing take out all week. He wanted a nice home cooked meal before this weeks travels. He will be gone about 2 weeks( Europe,the house, work, etc). I washed the legs off, dried, and cooked in a baking dish with the garlic and fat covering the legs for 3 hours. The confiting scent nearly drove us insane as it cooked in the oven for 3 hours at 225.
Then on Sunday he called from the golf course to notify me he was on his way and hungry. I had soaked the potato cubes in water to remove some starch. And then I cooked them in the fat from the confit. It was infused with the garlic gloves. Amazing. I cooked them for about 5 minuted to soak up the fat, then with a slotted spoon arranged them on a roasting pan. A slight drizzle of Maldon Salt, pepper, and parsley and into to the oven. I then took the 2 legs and fried them up in a dry skillet until the skin was crisp. All the fat seared it nicely. The potatoes browned up with a few tosses in the oven. The meal was spartan but rich and divine. Certain Someone slowly savored his lone leg. He also loved the potatoes. I noticed how he took off the skin to savor last. When he finished he got up and gave me a big kiss. I guess he liked it! Next time I will be more adventurous and buy a whole duck from Chinatown( cheaper), render my own fat, and confit the whole thing.
I also made a rustic galette from some nectarines and plums that needed to be used ASAP. For a few hours I felt like I was in the French countryside. A nice escape.

Taking A Brief Break

Hey Guys. A lot is going on this week. I haven’t had time to visit or post.I started working nights in the kitchen at the caterer and the day job is getting tough. But most important and on my mind, is that Mama Roxy isn’t doing well and it just a matter of time.For those of you who read this blog I wrote about her once. She is my work mother and the original Glamah, if there ever was one. I had planned this day on meeting Jen at A2Eatwrite who is visiting Chicago with her family. Earlier I was informed Mama Roxy was in the hospital, but hadn’t realized she was declining so quickly. We were summoned to say our goodbyes.It was hard for me to digest and Jen was very understanding as we walked up Michigan Ave and talked. She came to the hospital with me, we had tea, and I braced myself to go up to ICU.All the memories of my mother and father dying in that’s same hospital came flooding back to me. When I saw her I just broke down. But seeing all my old team and colleagues up in the room was comforting. Her daughter started a blog this morning to work through things. It will be a lovely tribute to her.
I will be back to my old self, but just need to withdraw a bit for few days. See you soon.