What will.i.eat?

Saucer – Why Hoppin’ John on New Years Day? - Blue-eyed eater

Hoppin’ John a dish made of a combination of beans, rice, greens and/or pork, depending on whom you consult. Eating the dish at the start of the calendar year is supposed to bring good luck and good fortune in the subsequent 12 months.

Beans are said to represent coins and the greens represent dollars (the optional corn bread = gold). Apparently the belief you are what you eat, even allegorically, inspired this custom. Historically, a dime was buried in the dish and whoever unearthed it was supposed receive extra goodwill and fortune during the year. Avoiding symbolism, some believe that black-eyed peas are good fortune because during the waning days of the Civil War the Union Army ignored the beans in the field, either uninterested in them as food or mistaking them for fodder, leaving fortunate southerners with something to eat as the calendar changed to 1866.

Except that bit of folklore would require the belief that all the Union forces led by different commanders in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Louisiana left one particular crop untouched for the same reason. I also excluded the words invading, raiding and occupying that were imbedded in source materials because that little piece of Americana would imply the War of Northern Aggression was somehow begun by Northern Armies crossing the Potomac out of boredom or spite to take away states rights (but never for reasons that had anything to do with slavery) - Rather than an armed conflict begun when a federal garrison stationed by a duly elected government was bombarded at Fort Sumter by Confederate forces. Just sayin’

Frequently, historical materials offhandedly proclaim Vigna unguiculata was brought to the colonial US by slaves, without ever explaining how people who physically had nothing carried, planted and harvested seeds under a fearful, watchful and suspicious eye. A better way of stating the emergence of the plant on a new continent is to say the legume was brought to the colonial US with the slave trade. Originally harvested in Africa, which still produces about 90% of the world’s crop, trade and migration moved black-eyed peas north, east and west over time. Ancient Greeks (and people on the sub-content) were growing and consuming the plant centuries before the new world was discovered by Europeans.

Eating Hoppin’ John, like many of our food traditions, is distinctly Southern in origin. Largely thought of as soul food, black-eyed peas were consumed by both blacks and whites. Black-eyed peas were grown at Monticello and according to obsessively detailed records were served at Jefferson’s table. A popular version of the story actually credits Jefferson himself as the inventor of Hoppin’ John. After having tasted the bean and pork favorite, cassoulet during his time spent as an Ambassador in France, Jefferson recreated the dish using American food. The tale seems to be a bit of whitewashing – for what slaves, who did most of the plantation cooking, lacked in material possessions they still had memories and customs to draw on - giving a humble dish regal heritage. Jefferson himself proves that race is far more complicated than it first appears to be.

Besides anyone from either South or North state will tell you a Virginian could have never invented the regional dish of the Carolinas. Whatever the origin of Hoppin’ John, there does seem to be a great deal of celebration associated with eating something by choice rather than necessity.

Happy 2009

Change I might eventually come to believe in

Saucyman – How do you think food policy will change in the Obama Administration?

Michael Pollan will not be taking to NPR airwaves to decree a ban on corn syrup and announce a tax credit for people who go to farmer’s markets (1). Nor will other sensible ideas, like consolidating all relevant agencies into a Department of Food, be seriously proposed let alone enacted. Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture designate, is no reformer rather the former Governor of Iowa - a commodity crop state. While radical change isn’t in the air, the fact that people who care about food, jobs, the environment, clean water, small communities, wasteful government spending and other issues in the matrix of farming policy care and keep informed offers the hope for change.

Whatever change in policy happens won’t take place in a big dramatic showdown between the forces of Monsanto and Greenpeace testifying at the next farm bill. It will be something far more subtle but downright subversive - returning farmers to the land. The US needs a new generation of farmers. Roughly a half a century ago the population of the US lived on 10% of its land. After more than doubling its population in those 50 years, anyone want to guess how much of the land we are taking up now?

Wrong direction, it is 2%. Or as Robert Bruegmann posits in his book, Sprawl, all 300 million plus people in the US could reside in the state of Wisconsin. That isn’t a nightmare 3rd world scenario of overcrowding either, that is using the current population density. Well it is nightmarish in the sense Milwaukee would be the cultural center of the country, but its not Blade Runner/outskirts of Istanbul/Mexico City type of thing. The problem of the last 50 years has not been suburbanization, it has been the deruralization of the country. Once healthy communities based on farming no longer exist. Those who are able flee as soon as they can and this brain drain in communities coupled with the death of vocational family farming makes impossible for a rural economy to support non-farming professionals like doctors, accountants or even schoolteachers. That and the dangerous implications of having an increasingly smaller, aging, hired work force trying to increase yields on megafarms owned by corporations is frightening.

Nearly two generations of centralized farm policy designed to grow cheap food based on cheap petroleum (both fertilizers and binging the food to market) will decline. It won’t be dramatic like a casino implosion, but if you listen closely you can hear the sound of gradual change taking place. As state and federal administrators who have been inspired by Pollan, Wes Jackson and others begin to ascend into policy positions there will be sexy conversations about tax credits for land stewardship projects, no interest loans for purchasing land in places like western Kansas, free tuition at Ag and land grant universities – all of which will lay the groundwork for Future Farmers of America – so much so FFA jackets won’t just be for skinny urban hipsters anymore.

The importance of younger, newly trained farmers in the field is an opportunity for the bottom up management of food production. Peak oil, water scarcity, and climate change – incremental or sudden are all going to fundamentally change the way food is produced. Having 10s of thousands of new farmers - essentially conducting workshops, sharing information and figuring out what works is the best is an opportunity to address the new demands of food production, create new green jobs and grow both sustainable food and communities.


(1) I respect and admire Michael Pollan – he is a journalist in the most complementary sense of the word – his research, knowledge and synthesis of food policy has help inform a larger group of citizens who would have never otherwise cared about how food arrived at the table. Just as reading Team of Rivals doesn’t make you a Lincolnologist any more than reading Undaunted Courage on a plane mean that you have read the source materials of the Lewis and Clark expedition. These are all popular works that should either inspire a person to do deeper research on the subject or leave the reader better informed. Reading a Pollan book does certify you as a policy expert, at least grow a garden before spouting off.

Outliers in the Kitchen

Malcolm Gladwell might cook, possibly he is a stinky cheese lovin’ gourmand but that isn’t why he is the referenced in this post. It is because he writes readable, knowledgeable and succinct books. In The Tipping Point, Blink, and now Outliers, Gladwell publishes books like you might find in the New Yorker, where he is a staff writer. Chapters of 5,000 – 8,000 words - both self-contained and part of a larger thesis - A synthesis of ideas, explanations and opinions offered to answer a single question all laid out in a rapid fire narrative. In Outliers, Gladwell takes a look at why successful people have become successful. This is a popular work that so hyper-readable the message doesn’t need to be distilled further, but the short(er) answer of success is opportunity, advantage and drive.

One part of being an outlier, a success in your vocational field, is what Gladwell descries as the 10,000 Hour Rule - people who practice a task for 10,000 hours will possess a mastery of that discipline. In High School, Bill Gates had the opportunity to program a computer at the dawn of the digital age, the advantage or having parents to afford access to an elite high school with a computer and the drive young Mr. Gates showed in putting the time in working on programming.

After reading that chapter of the 10,000 hour rule, I had to ask myself, what are the things that I have put the time into and would consider that I have mastered: Being funny – possibly, depending on who you asked and what your definition of funny is. Time in the retail/restaurant/service industry? That is a double-triple mastery. Hosting/preparing for events/parties both in catering professionally and inviting people over for dinner? Pretty close but I am not sure I could be certified on that – but I have put the time in for both cooking and baking.

10,000 hours is about 5 years of full time work. About half-way through my apprenticeship in the kitchen, I moved from large scale catering to a tiny café. By running a 180 sq ft. kitchen, I came to a deeper knowledge of what food was about and how to use ingredients. But it wasn’t just the hours that I logged in the kitchen; I lived and breathed food: read about it, talked about food with friends, co-workers and vendors. I made food at home, I experimented with techniques and ingredients. Opposed to catering days, a café that offered soup, sandwiches, salads and desserts gave me a chance to cook something more than chicken breasts and green beans. I went home at night and worried about how to use two cases of Roma tomatoes that were getting a little too ripe. I thought about how to make lentil soup, vegetarian (for the clientele and for profitability), taste good. I doubt too many people my age worried about what to do with orzo once a week, which olive oil could hold up best in a Caesar dressing or where to get the good mustard. The constant drive to be creative with very austere and quotidian ingredients led to a mastery of cooking in a way that I would have never been afforded working in a more traditional and financially stable restaurant.

I don’t think I have 10,000 hours at restaurant workstations. If I put checked pants on and started today, I’d make a bad line cook. It would take some time to get in the rhythm of cooking to order, finishing my part of the entrée within seconds of someone 25 feet away finishing theirs, working on 8 separate orders from 3 different tables simultaneously, those skills I have not mastered. Fortunately, my aspiration isn’t to be a line cook. What about something more ascertainable like being a good boyfriend – that is going to take some work too. Or more likely, something I can do by myself, something I have ambitions of doing successfully? Something like writing. Including the time I have spent in class, workshop, working on a manuscript to a discarded (and rightfully so) cookbook, the nominal amount of professional work I have done and the time I have spent on Saucyman? I am about half way to mastering my new craft. This realization is made all the more difficult by the fact most of this time hasn’t been spent writing well, just writing. I have a long way to go for my 10,000 hours of producing grammatically correct, concise and coherent work.

Even if I don’t produce readable, knowledgeable and succinct passages every time I write a draft or hit the publish button, I have some comfort when I think about how far I am from a Gladwell-certified defined level of mastery…More than clocking 10,000 hours while learning how to cook, I mastered my craft in a hyper focused 30 month period. By the end I knew how to use ingredients, develop complex flavors, observe how ingredients react and even with preferences being personal, know, really know what people enjoy to eat. I just need to practice explaining it better.

Something to Trifle With

No trees, very few presents, no singing/ipoding of sentimental carols but if Christmas does have some appeal in the Saucyhouse it is the ideal Holiday dinner: Prime Rib, Yorkshire Pudding, Cauliflower Gratin and for dessert, a trifle of course.

Trifle has a long history in English cookery – the source of most American holiday food customs – but as a dessert staple, trifle has never gained a foothold at the Christmas table, like pie has achieved at the Thanksgiving dinner. Trifle is so far removed from regular diet and holiday customs it isn’t a stretch to say that Americans might be more familiar with the Italian variation of trifle. Italians do a straight interpretation of trifle called Zuppa Inglese but people are probably more familiar with the combination of coffee soaked cake topped with zabaglione - a custard made with the fortified wine Marsala and topped with mascarpone. A little something dessert aficionados refer to as tiramisu.

Like the English themselves, trifle is a tad more restrained than its Italian counterpart. Made of pieces of cake, ladyfingers or biscuit (The English cake/cookie. Not the baking powder and hopefully butter version) that have been soaked in rum, sherry, port or wine. The drunken cake is covered with custard and either jelly or macerated fruit. The process is repeated for 2 or 3 layers and finally topped with whipped cream. Assembled in a glass bowls, unlike the dessert itself, the bowls can be quite fancy made from molded glass or occasionally cut crystal. Trifle bowls are understandably fancy showing off the different layers of dessert strata because once the trifle is spooned out into a bowl, the dessert makes for a less than a regal presentation.

Like pie, trifle is relatively humble and like many humble dishes the worst thing you can do it is try to fancy it up. The most fancified, lipstick-on-a-pig thing I have done to a trifle is to use frozen blueberries and lemon curd. The juice from the berries soaks into the cake and tang of lemon curd contrasts both the whip cream and cake. But there are chocolate trifles – chocolate cake and chocolate custard because more chocolate is always better. Pound cake trifles, almonds, panettone, trifles made with really expensive brandy or ones that use ‘fresh’ hothouse berries canceling out the purpose of the dessert – which traditionally would have been a special treat made from common, familiar and seasonal foods – all without the encouragement of Michael Pollan.

The culinary belief that making something more indulgent or more expensive makes food better is untrue but it takes a lot of confidence to put something out on a table without bells and whistles and the official stamp of culinary trendiness. Trifle, like Yorkshire Pudding is never going to be fashionable but when done with care all can be amazingly good.

What’s so Funny About Accuracy in the Kitchen?

Saucy, Is there anything I can get for my love, who loves to cook? Last minute shopper

A thermometer and if your love loves baking, he or she should own a good scale before owning anything like fancy silicon cupcake molds.

How do you know when something is done/When is it done? There are folksy answers to this question – For cakes it is when you can stick a skewer in it comes out clean, for puddings when only the center is jiggly, for chicken it is when the juices run clear or that a steak is medium rare when it is the same tension as the space between your thumb and finger when you make a fist. While all these answers are true enough, the single most accurate way of determining when something is done is by taking its temperature with a thermometer.

Thermometers come in all shapes and sizes from a nearly useless dial with the words “rare/well/poultry” on it costing around $10 to the more accurate instant read thermometer – about $15. There are candy thermometers that double for all your deep-frying needs, for $100 or so dollars there is a CSI like probe thermometer, chocolate and candy have their own measuring devices and one can still find mercury thermometers -used mostly to determine if wine is at the proper temp for serving.

For all the bells and whistles available, I like this relatively simple fella – a combo timer and thermometer. Soft ball candy - set the alarm to go off 235ºƒ. Making a roast - leave the probe in the meat and mount the display on the oven so you can keep an eye on when your dinner is ready, no guessing, no more repeatedly opening the oven door and letting the heat our and extending cooking times. All that accuracy for $24.95…it is a Christmas miracle.

The Fannie Farmer is famous for being the first cookbook to standardize measurements. A large cup? Farmer dictated that a cup of flour was a level measure from an 8oz measure. The problem is a cup of flour may fill an 8 oz cup but it is 4.25 oz by weight. Unless you really pack it in there then you can get 5 oz in that cup. Which means you could have 15% more flour than a recipe needs, this could explain why some cakes are so heavy.

Some cookbooks recommend you sift then measure for greater accuracy, Saucyman recommends avoiding painstaking work that doesn’t really solve problems. Get a scale. This is how you would measure if you were baking professionally and there is no reason why you shouldn’t prepare your baked goods with the same degree of precision at home. A set of measuring cups – fancy ones with ergonomic handles and stainless bodies cost between $15-20. A digital scale form a big box store is going to cost $50. Here is an important point to be made about buying kitchen tools for your sweetie – you get repaid 10 fold in food. So the question – Is $30 difference between the two items worth replacing the leaden, heavy, dense baked items with airy sweet goodness? I think yes.

Saucyman returns next week with a comparative lit thesis – Outliers in the kitchen and we will give a brief history of the single best Christmas Dessert – The Trifle.

Tinker, Baker, BBQer, Reheater

It is easy to find a book for your specific kitchen interest. There are cookbooks instructing a cook in the ways of French, Italian, Californian, Crockpots, Chinese, Thai, Indian, vegetarian, baking, baking galore – cookies, pies, cakes, muffins. There are books about 30 minute meals or if time isn’t a constraint but shopping lists are you can consult books on how to make meals with 5 or fewer ingredients. The fire builders can purchase textbooks from BBQ-U, while at the other end of the spectrum vegans can get instructions from their own kind. There are endless titles for cooking from farmers markets or for those more brand specific: Both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have branded titles to help you cook after shopping, fortunately the Safeway cookbook is still a ways away.

The hard part isn’t finding instruction and advice for your specific interests, the trouble comes finding one title for all the bits of cooking that you do infrequently. What cookbook is going to reliably walk you through the biannual cookie baking, the occasional lasagna and offer practical advice on artichokes, trout or vinaigrette? For everyone who grew up in a house with a kitchen there was THAT cookbook – Fannie Farmer, Betty Crocker, Joy of Cooking or growing up in the Saucyhome it was Better Homes and Gardens in the convenient 3 ring binder that answered all or your questions reasonably if not spectacularly.

Now in the age of hyper-specialization, it is a little bit harder to find a title that guides a cook through the basics – both recipes and techniques. It is like the library only checking out books on Frank Geary when you need to know how to build a foundation. So what is the best basic cookbook for the modern cook?

Before endorsing the primary culinary reference for the neophyte cook, there are two upstarts worth looking at - The Best Recipe from the editors of Cook’s Illustrated and Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.

The Best Recipe offers 700 recipes for $35. Chris Kimball et al's. painstaking, exhaustive approach produces nearly foolproof recipes maybe at the cost of being pedantic but do you want charisma from a plumber or car mechanic? Nope, you want accuracy. Cook’s Illustrated Consumer Reports mentality to testing and recommending equipment, recipes and products isn’t going to ever be the trendiest method but it does make for trustworthy endorsements.

Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, also $35. In the second expanded and revised edition of Everything Bittman offers 2000 recipes and 400 illustrations for people who want to cook in the modern world not recreate questionable dishes their parents and grandparents made. The recipes are straightforward, reductionist, user-friendly and bolster people with the confidence to get up and do it. Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is the book for people who abstain from meat: Please no Katzen – Broccoli Forests are not enchanted and Moosewood doesn’t teach people how to cook, only how to cover food in feta cheese or yogurt.

Either of the above titles is a good solid kitchen reference but the Joy of Cooking wins the Saucyman gift endorsement. I have a love/hate relationship with the Joy but it is a book I can always find a traditional recipe and sound advice. It is a culinary resource The NY Times calls “The Swiss Army Knife of cookbooks”, but when has anyone ever used a Swiss Army knife when they can use the real version of the tool instead? The volume is like a pair of sensible shoes unfussy, practical and will undoubtedly get you from point a to point b. The problem with the Joy is it is like a pair of sensible shoes, occasionally you want to look nice and have people notice.

Also listed at $35, Joy is a solid albeit unspectacular gift choice - the book/gift equivalent of socks and underwear but eventually everyone needs both.

Keeping in the seasonal spirit, Saucyman closes out the week with two gift recommendations that every cook or part time baker needs.

Cook this Book

Saucyman – Which cookbook should I give to give to my husband for Christmas?

Well if he is anything like me, he will love to unwrap Thomas Keller’s newest tome, Under Pressure. Keller’s two previous works Bouchon and The French Laundry Cookbook, feature beautiful photographs, precise instructions and both are well written -always a bonus (and the exception) in a cookbook. Under Pressure is stunningly beautiful - again photographed by French Laundry collaborator Deborah Jones. In this volume Keller takes on the number one problem facing home cooks across the US, high temperatures.

Under Pressure introduces the theory and practice of Sous vide – a cooking technique based on using low temperatures to achieve superior results. Harold McGee, of On Food and Cooking fame (also a great gift for the thinking cook) introduces the book, explaining the science behind the theory. The importance of one of the world’s leading chefs encourage cooks to turn it down cannot be underestimated. More flames is not more macho – well, maybe it is for a campfire but not when you are working to extract the most flavor out of fish, veg and meats.

Pretty to look at, fundamentally sound and motivates a cook to get in the kitchen and try new things – adds up to a great combo. If it weren’t for the $75 price tag I would recommend the title to all.

If Thomas Keller seems too practical, this season in particular is the season for Molecular Gastronomists. Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame has a gorgeous new title out called A Day at El Bulli, rival gastronomist Grant Achatz released a sharp looking book named after Chicago restaurant Alinea and co-founder of the molecular gastronomy movement, Herve This’ new book Kitchen Mysteries are all on the shelves this season. At its best Molecular Gastronomy looks to use science and understanding to improve the flavor, taste and texture of food. At its worst gastronomy is boys with toys - technology and trickery are used to enhance foods – not unlike the manipulation of industrial processed foods, only on a smaller, more expensive scale. The Adria brothers, Achatz and This are the best of the best, unfortunately they all released books into a slumping economy. It isn’t so much the price tags of these books but the current zeitgeist dictates most cooks are going to look for more austere recipes and meals to cook at home for the upcoming year.

For a title that uses fact-based-cooking without all the fussiness is Shirley Corriher’s Bakewise. Possibly better known as the pitch perfect straight woman next to Alton Brown’s clowning on Good Eats, Corriher explains why things work or don’t work in the kitchen. Her book, Cookwise, is one of the more consulted volumes in the Saucyman collection and despite owning about a dozen really good books on baking, I look forward to adding Bakewise to the collection – I know it is a book problem not a reading opportunity and I have learned to live with it.

In our next post, I will recommend general titles: Joy of Cooking, Fannie Farmer or Better Homes and Gardens – what should your go to cookbook be for everyday cooking?

Wazz-ail

Previously on Saucyman…

An intrepid reader asked for a list of essential bar items needed to properly host a party, in this instance a holiday party. Saucyman’s response was that full bars aren’t necessary for parties, that for the reasons of simplicity, economy and quality should offer guests along with non-alcoholic choices, beer, wine and one – possibly two cocktails to choose from.

This is true for all parties but given the tradition of punches, nogs and ales at Christmas time, this feat is easier to pull off during the holidays. So what to serve, what to serve?

What evokes what many argue is the birthplace of modern Christmas traditions, Dickensian England? Tiny Tim, a plump goose, the lonely vision presented by the spirit of Christmas future – nope, the spirit of cheap juniper-scented gin. Saucyman’s stated belief is that gin is in fact the devil’s water and should be avoided.

Besides no one is clamoring for that level of authenticity. Celebrations want to be anglo- traditional, not anglo-accurate. Punches such as the classic mulled wine and only thought about at Christmas eggnog have long histories in both colonial America and the British highlands. Along with these cold weather beverages, strong ales have been a winter staple for a millennia – ish and are the base for wassails, which in turn is the base word for wassailing, as in here we come-a.

There is nothing wrong with the sentimental favorites. They are familiar and punches are low in alcohol – with the stress of the holidays and the pressure of socializing with strangers you wouldn’t want to throw pitchers of martinis down and see what happens.

Mulled wine or served in its virgin incarnation - A Hot Bishop, would be a good choice. BTW, I am not recommending an alcohol free mulled beverage, I just wanted to say Hot Bishop. There is Hot Buttered Rum that really doesn’t have butter but its cousin the Hot Buttered Cow does. While Butter and booze does actually sound like a winning combination to me, more so in bread pudding than a glass - I am not sure I would drink it and pretty sure I wouldn't try to serve something so adventurous at party.

I am not the type of man who would host a party where actual eggnog was served, Martha would and offers up a bourbon based eggnog here. If I were to host a holiday party, I would go with a calvados and cider punch. Calvados is an apple brandy – Historically made in the Normandy region of France, it is hard cider distilled (again historically) in a pot still then aged in oak for 5 or more years. Less expensive than quality brandy, calvados ranks high in affordability, quality and uniqueness, scoring extra points for seasonality.

The Warm Norman

1 Gallon unsweetened Cider – get the good stuff
Optional – cinnamon, ginger, clove to taste

Juice of 3 lemons
4 cups Calvados

Warm juice and spices slowly on stove until warm, 130-160,not hot. Add lemon juice and Calvados.

Serve in mugs.

Fully Loaded?

Saucytender – I am having a holiday party next weekend, yes holiday, not Christmas. Anyway, this will be my first party that isn’t a kegger/beer can event – you know with coasters and [stuff]. Do you have a checklist for a fully stocked bar? – All Grown Up Now

I don’t have a checklist because you don't need to offer your guests a fully stocked bar at parties you host. At this time of year, in this troubling economy, who wants to spend $300+ stocking a bar? Along with beer, wine and soft drinks (in the alcohol-free sense, not necessarily the soda pop denotation), offer your guests one or two cocktails/mixed drinks to choose from.

Not only will you avoid the outlay of cash or credit to fill a bar with rum, brandy, gin, vodka, bourbon, scotch, tequila, vermouth, triple sec, amaretto, assorted liqueurs, olives, cherries, bitters, grenadine, cranberry juice, ginger ale, club soda, tonic water and hopefully freshly squeezed fruit instead of the canned substitutes. I know it seems like a dirty word but by limiting the drink selection, you will have more control at your party.

Because freak is occasionally used in conjunction with it and the gerund version of the word has some less than pleasant connotations, the concept of control seems like a bad thing, especially at a holiday party, where you are supposed to be relaxing. My response would be twofold – If guests are able to relax and enjoy themselves - it is because someone put some work into making time/space for relaxation. Secondly, hosting a party is not an exercise in participatory democracy, where the guests get to decide when to show up, when to leave, what and how much they get to eat and drink…No, hosting is all about imposing your will and abilities on others.

Control comes in another form; by offering a finite drink list to your guests, you can control the quality of what is served. Rather than do a bunch of mediocre things on a broad scale, you can do one thing really well. Starting with ingredients, because you aren’t buying 30-50 different things you can focus your resources, here it means better liquor, better mixers, better fruit and focused attention - all of which will make a better drink.

Instead of getting a moderately okay bottle of brandy - in case one of your guests might want a Sidecar or an Alexander. All the sudden you don’t have to have a bottle of Cointreau or creme de cacao. You can roll that savings into a good bottle of brandy and serve a hot toddy made of warmed pear brandy and pear juice flavored with fresh ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. It is unique, simple to make, seasonal and your guests will remember it more than the half dozen gin and tonics they threw down their gullet at the office party.

For more ideas, the next Saucyman post will feature some links and recipes for drinks during this, the entertaining season. Next week, we will offer cookbook recommendations and gift recommendations for the kitchen enthusiast on your list.

A Word From the Kitchen: Metaphor

Metaphor

We use many words in the kitchen. We all know metaphor from the world of books. Meta means with or among or after and phor comes from pherein meaning to bear or carry. A metaphor is the meaning of one object carried over to another object. And in the kitchen this happens whenever you cook. The action of cooking, the processes and labor involved in preparation is to bear the meaning. Espresso is a metaphor for coffee beans (which itself is a metaphor, the seed only looks like a bean.) To pull the handle down is to metaphorize the bean, to remove it from what it is into what it is you want it to be, mainly an espresso with crema that looks like froth on a good toasty porter.

The ethereal art of cooking is more important than the meal itself. To be the meaning, the life between the words is what induces addiction. The obsession of wanting that freedom, that unrestricted time is why you find yourself at the cutting board with an onion to caramelize. To cook is to be alive, is to be the philosopher or poet stoned on an idea. Every meal is new and nuanced. Cooking is the great verb. And so is life, it is the unborn being carried over and placed in the meaning of death. In an old sense, life is the water shouldered on the long walk from the well to the table.

-Carl Adamshick

The Road to Enchilada

Saucyman, Enchilada Sauce: Tell me about it. What makes for a good, authentic enchilada sauce?

I can answer the good, but authentic is always a hard classification. The nation-state of Mexico is a rather new concept dating from 1810, 1821, 1824, 1867 or 1910-1913 depending on how you want to do the math. In any case, a national cuisine wasn’t adopted along with the federal(e) constitution. Geographical diversity ranging from coastal tropics to the high dessert, distinct indigenous cultures, the lingering remnants of two separate empires and the addition of the European crops of the conquerors, all have a stake in shaping Mexican cuisine.

Even with all the anthropological caveats about what is real, the Saucykitchens enchilada is far from genuine. I actually bake my enchiladas like a casserole (You can take the person out of the Midwest but you can’t take the Midwest out of the person). And the sauce is dangerously close to Tex-Mex cuisine, sans lard* and ultimately resembles a quickie mole sauce rather than a true enchilada sauce.

For what this enchilada sauce lacks in pedigree it is much better than what comes out of a can and like Saucyman himself, it is quick and easy. Dried red chilies, onion and garlic are all orthodox enchilada ingredients – Thickening the sauce with the addition of a slice of fried bread is far from the norm.

1/3 cup oil
8 dried Ancho chilies

6-8 cloves garlic
2 small onions – diced

1 slice of bread – about an inch thick

1 diced tomato or ½ cup salsa
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 t. oregano
2 cloves of well, clove – smashed with the side of a knife.
Black pepper to taste

6 cups stock or water. 

Heat oil in a small heavy pan. Like baking, 325-350 is a good temperature for cooking. A thermometer, a properly calibrated thermometer is the best way to nail the temp. Short of using a very helpful kitchen tool – one that is way more necessary and cheaper than your olive wood gnocchi rollers or even your industrial strength zester - the oil is ready when you can drop a cube of bread in the oil and the oil bubbles excitedly around the bread. This would be an occasion where numbers are way better than adverbs. And I really like adverbs, really.

While oil is heating up remove stem end from chilies and shake out seeds. Add peppers to oil, 4 at a time. They will puff up, flip them over and when both sides are brown and leathery, shake off excess oil and set aside on a plate.

Add onions and garlic to oil. Sauté until onions start to take on brown highlights. Remove from oil – add to the plate with chilies.

Reduce heat to medium and toast bread in pan. The bread should turn a pretty golden brown on both sides.

Transfer all ingredients to a small stockpot and cook over medium heat for 30 minutes. Puree in blender/food processor, adjust seasonings and it is enchilada sauce.

Traditionally the sauce is served over fried corn tortillas filled with little goodies – cooked meat, cactus, beans, sautéed veg, rice – cheese is sprinkled over the top before it is served, occasionally with sliced radishes. But you know sometimes traditional is just that. Bring on blended margaritas, guacamole and sour cream.

*Lard is a hard sell as an ingredient. Nascent vegetarians and fatphobes are two of the usual suspects. Even if it were a little more acceptable to cook with lard, I don’t think I could go through the smallest package of lard before its expiration date. Oil works fine, although it is usually not recommended for frying, olive oil lends itself pretty well to the taste of the food.

Left Behind

Saucyman – I think I am sick of Thanksgiving food. Any ideas? Don't say hotdish, don't say hotdish, don't say hotdish...

The freezer.

I am guilty about not following my own advice. Rather than freezing the excess for a time when I crave it again, I am just plowing through the leftovers. Between work providing a traditional Thanksgiving meal on Friday and 2 people foisting - a good foisting though - leftovers on me, I have had 8 meals involving turkey & 2 of the 3: pie, potatoes, stuffing, green beans, Brussels Sprouts or cranberries since Thrusday. There has been a little variation - a delicious potpie, a few sandwiches but mostly it has been straight up microwaved. Tonight I am adding okra, shrimp and rice to turkey for a gumbo. Despite the presence of turkey, I am very excited about tonight’s dinner. Very. Excited.

This violates USDA recommendations for not using turkey more than 3 to 4 for days after it has been cooked. That is extremely cautious, I find 6 to 7 days is a good time frame for properly cooked and stored food, especially when it is going to be reheated.

Stuffing though, I am going to agree with the USDA and say after 2 days of storage, it needs to go. Gravy too gets iffy before a week is up. The shorter window for these two has more to do with how thoroughly they were cooked and how quickly they were stored, rather than some intrinsic fault. Pie is generally the first thing to go, so you don't have to worry about it lasting more than a week. Wild rice should be frozen after 5 days. Potatoes can make it for a week – also easily frozen, though the consistency is never quite right after thawing. Veg are pretty much useless after 5 days or after they have been reheated once.

Despite government advisories to the contrary, there is still time to use the meat and bones from the turkey. Slice the meat from the bones, place in your favorite storage container and freeze – it will keep 3 months. The bones can be easily turned into stock: Place in a stockpot with an onion, 2 carrots and a couple ribs of celery, bay leaf and thyme. Cover with water and simmer for 90 minutes to 2 hours. Strain and freeze. Turkey stock is a little more pronounced than chicken stock and a cook might want to avoid using it in risotto, polenta or any recipe that calls for chicken stock. While turkey stock isn’t so good in delicate dishes, it does make for good soup. Two quarts of stock, ¾ cup of wild rice, carrots and celery – maybe a few mushrooms added to a handful of the leftover turkey makes for a nice December - baby it is cold outside meal.

Everyone gets so excited about turkey dinner leading up to Thanksgiving Dinner, wondering out loud why they don’t have it more than once a year. Then 5 days of leftovers coupled with unique interpretations like tetrazzini, ala king, curry - people are so sick of turkey and its variations, it takes 11 months to forget. BTW–none of the above have to be bad things, all I’m saying is how often do you tetrazzini, ala king or curry something at home? If you want to use leftovers, they shouldn’t carry the stamp of out of the ordinary/utility, especially when you are a little tired of the ingredient going into the meal. Leftovers should be used in ordinary meals. Around the Saucyhouse that means enchiladas, soup/stew and tonight’s gumbo, which I think I mentioned, I am very excited about.