Herbal Essence

Poor HIF’s Table has been sadly neglected for way too long. With Thankgsiving and all the holiday cooking fast on the horizon though, be watching for more posts.

The great thing about an herb garden is that, for the most part, you can almost neglect it. I don’t have good luck with fussy flowers, but even someone with a black thumb like me can grow herbs. The herb garden I have today is not nearly as nice as the one at my other house, but I do have good supply of  the quartet of herbs Simon and Garfunkle made famous–parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

If you’ve never tried cooking with fresh herbs, please give it a try. They are readily available in almost every grocery store now are a far superior to the dusty, dried versions in jars.Thanksgiving is a medley of savory, traditional flavors and everything you make (except dessert) will be better with fresh herbs.

This is rosemary. It’s probably the easiest herb to grow. My two bushes are prolific and only get bigger year after year. Rosemary and poultry are natural companions. Try this: carefully insert your fingers between the skin and breast of your turkey. Slowly work your fingers to loosen the skin, going back as far as you can. Now insert a few tender sprigs of rosemary under loosened skin. Not only is it pretty, it infuses the meat with a wonderful flavor.

This is thyme. Thyme doesn’t flourish in my present garden like it did in my old one. You’ll see this wonderful ancient herb spilling out of beds and around rock walls all over Europe. Hold the stem and just scrape the tiny leaves off with your fingers. Stir it into your gravy or throw some into the cavity of your turkey along with a couple of lemon quarters.

Sage is a flavor that many of you may associate with sausage. For me, that’s what makes it a perfect addition to dressing, because I use sausage in my dressing as well. Sage has a great earthy flavor. When you’re using sage, start with a little and taste as you go. It can get overpowering.

The last herb in the quartet is parsely. If you just think of parsely as a tasteless garnish, I hope you’ll give it another chance. This Italian flat leaf parsely adds a bright flavor to any of your savory dishes. You can use it in almost any of your Thanksgiving favorites.

I know that the little packets of fresh herbs in the grocery are expensive and don’t last long. But try splurging a little for the holidays. Or find a friend with an herb garden. If they have as much as I do, they’ll be happy to share.

Creamy Yummy Luscious Risotto.

That’s a lot of adjectives, but that’s how much I love this dish from Jamie’s Italy by Jamie Oliver (sometimes known as the Naked Chef).

This is one of those dishes that never enters my mind during the warm months. Even now in September a tropical system is sitting on top of us making the air thick with moisture. I won’t be making this any time soon, but I can think about its goodness…especially with roast chicken.

Risotto takes a little patience and preplanning…you’ll want to have all your ingredients measured and chopped before you begin. If you’ve never made risotto before, read the recipe all the way through a couple of times so you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Equipment you’ll need: 2 large pots, 1 ladle

Ingredients you’ll need:

2 pints chicken stock (the better the stock, the better the risotto)

2 T olive oil

2 T butter

3/4 C white or yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped 

3/4 C celery, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 cups Aborio rice

2 C dry white wine or dry vermouth

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

3 T butter

4 oz freshly grated Parmesean cheese

Heat the stock in one pot to a simmer, turn heat down, but keep warm

1.Put the butter and oil in the other pot. Melt the butter and add the onion, garlic, and celery and cook slowly for about 15 minutes, or until the veggies are soft. Add the rice and turn up the heat.

2. The rice will start to lightly fry, so keep stirring it. After a minute or two, it will start to look slightly transparent. Add the wine and keep stirring…notice the fabulous smell.

3. After the rice has absorbed the wine, add your first ladle full of stock and a pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to a simmer–you don’t want the rice to cook too quickly. Keep stirring. Everytime the liquid is absorbed, add another ladle full of stock. After about 15 minutes, taste the rice…it should be almost (but not completely) soft. Keep adding stock and stirring. If you run out of stock, add boiling water.

4. When the rice is done, remove from the heat and add the remaining butter and cheese…stir well. Put a tight lid on the pan and let sit for two minutes. Enjoy as soon as possible.

This is not really a do-ahead type of dish, but if you want to make it for guests, just invite them into the kitchen while you’re cooking.

I promise that the effort for this dish is worth it.

Caesar Salad and A New Favorite Product

The first time I ever had a Caesar Salad was on a business trip to Minneapolis. It was made tableside with great fanfare and I loved it.

I’ve been making Caesars ever since, but something just wasn’t right. It took a trip to Cafe Nonna in Nashville for me to figure it out–I was trying to do too much. I was using too much garlic, too much cheese and too much oil.

I came home, scaled back and started over.

Like any salad dressing recipe, the amounts are iffy, so taste as you go.

Dressing ingredients:

1 clove garlic, finely minced

1 lemon

olive oil

kosher salt

dijon mustard

1 egg boiled for 3 minutes

Salad ingredients

Romaine lettuce

sundried tomatoes (I know–it’s not what the purists would include but I think they’re great)

pine nuts (again, not traditional, but a good addition)

croutons

finely grated parmesean

anchovy fillets (up to you)

In the bottom of the same bowl you’ll be mixing the salad in, add garlic, juice of half a lemon and a pinch of salt. Let that stand a few minutes so the garlic will soften.

Whisk in about twice as much olive oil as there is lemon juice. The dressing should thicken up a bit.

Add in about a half tablespoon of mustard.

Taste everything. Is there too much acid? Too much oil? Play with the flavors until they suit you.

Now bring a small pan of water to a boil and drop the egg in. Cook for three minutes. Rinse the egg in cold water for a bit so you can handle it. Break it open and add the yolk to the dressing. Whisk everything together and give a final taste. Adjust with more lemon, oil or salt if necessary.

Add the lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, pine nuts and croutons and toss.

Serve in chilled bowls. Add anchovy filets last–lay on top.

FAVORITE NEW PRODUCT

I found these in the produce section at Publix a few months ago and have been using them ever since. They’re perfect for sprinking on salads and resealable containers are, in my opinion, just about the best invention ever.

 

Kiss My Grits

Next time you have a dinner party try this. Cook up a pot full of ground corn meal. Mix in some butter, salt and cheese. When your guests ask what it is, tell them it’s polenta. They’ll ooh and aah and compliment you on your international palate.

Then, a few weeks later, do it again. Only this time tell them that it’s grits. If you live outside of the South, you risk their derision. They’ll laugh at you behind your back. Question your pedigree. And quite possibly drop you from the gourmet dinner group.

But polenta and grits are essentially the same thing. Only one has cache. The other doesn’t.

For some reason, grits, more than any other food I know of, carries with it a taint of uneducated, backwoods, redneck miasma. Something the Beverly Hillbillies would’ve served as a side dish to possum friccasse.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I’ve washed down grits with Cristal champagne. I’ve served them with my finest linen, china and sterling silver.

Around here, grits are the rule, not the exception.

Like pasta, rice and boneless, skinless chicken breasts, grits are a palate. Begging for butter, cheese, herbs and savory goodness.

The most common way you see grits served in Middle Tennessee is in a casserole. Every cook worth her Henkel knives has her own recipe.

Here’s mine, before they are cooked:

 And here’s the recipe:

3 c water

1 c quick cooking grits (not instant)

1 stick butter

1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can diced Rotel tomatos

handful snipped fresh chives or tablespoon dried

2 eggs

1 cup milk (any will do)

salt

paprika, chili powder, cayenne

Bring water to a boil and stir in grits. Cover and cook over very low heat for two minutes. Stir grits and cover, move off heat.

After a couple of minutes, stir grits until smooth.

Add butter and cheese.

Cover and let stand for 10 minutes.

Blend grits, cheese and butter.

Add garlic, Rotel and chives… stir

blend eggs into milk

Add to grits

Add salt to taste

Dust top with paprika, chili powder, cayenne

Bake at 350 for approx. 1 hour, or until middle is set.

 

These grits are especially good with grilled meat, like my shish kabobs…

The moral of the story is this…grits are good. Really, they are. Give them a try.

I Really Like Dirty Books

No…not that kind of dirty book.

I mean books that are physically dirty–spashed with olive oil. Smeared with whole grain dijon mustard. Dappled with red wine.

What I’m talking about are cookbooks. Here are a few of mine:

I have to admit that there are a couple on the shelves that have barely been opened. They’re mostly on the bottom. Some were well meaning gifts. Some were mistakes of my own. They’re the clean cookbooks. The ones that I imagine saying “pick me, pick me” everytime I cast my eye their way.

Look carefully and you’ll see the trends I fell for.

I went through the blackened phase created by cajun chef Paul Prudhomme. I have a couple of his books. Once glance and it’s easy to see why he weighs a few hundred pounds more than he should–every recipe has AT LEAST 2 sticks of butter in it.

I went through the Silver Palate era in the 80s when formerly unheard of ingredients finally made their way to Little Rock where we were living at the time.

I’m still in the Barefoot Contessa’s orbit…mostly because her recipes are really, really good. But she’s another one with a liberal hand when it comes to butter and cream.

Those trends come and go…but some recipes are constant, like these two for grilled chicken.

 

 And here’s one I’ve been making for 20 years. It’s from an old Junior League cookbook called Southern Sideboards. Say what you will about the League, but they sure know how to cook. Or at least their kitchen help does.

 If you spill something on your favorite recipe, don’t worry about it. It’s a badge of honor–a sure sign that whatever’s under those splashes and splotches is sure to be good.

Italian food? What’s that?

My mother is a very good cook, but 40 years ago this small town didn’t have a lot in the way of exotic ingredients. Most spice cabinets then consisted of paprika (for sprinkling over deviled eggs), onion salt (for tomato sandwiches) and garlic powder.

Don’t get me wrong–we ate very well, and very healthily with lots of green vegetables and not too many processed, packaged foods. But a  look in my pantry and refrigerator today shows lots of items that probably weren’t sold within 20 miles of here when I was growing up–basalmic vinegar, curry paste, pesto and Maldon salt. Italian, Mexican and Chinese foods were things you found in Nashville, but not here.

Today we use those ingredients without thinking twice–picking them up at any area grocery store.

Today’s recipe is not one that includes a lot of fancy ingredients–it’s a simple marinara sauce that takes full advantage of the late summer glut of tomatoes. The recipe comes from this book which I bought in Napa Valley several years ago. The sauce freezes well and gives you a taste of summer in the middle of winter. I use half the amout of oil called for here, but you can decide if you want to cut it.

1 1/2 c extra virgin olive oil

1 c diced onions

1 c diced celery

1 c diced carrot

(this mixture of onion, carrot and celery is known as mirepoix and is the basis for many sauces, soups and stews)

2 T chopped garlic

2 lbs ripe tomatoes, quartered

1/4  c fresh basil, chopped

salt/pepper

Heat the oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add the mirepoix and garlic and cook for 15 minutes. Don’t let them brown. Add tomatoes and stir and cook for another 30 minutes or so–until the tomatoes are all melty and the carrots are soft.

Remove from heat and let cool. Stir in basil.

If you don’t have an immersion blender, now would be a good time to go get one. The sauce can wait while you run to Wal-Mart or K-Mart or whichever mart is closest. You can get a perfectly good one for under $20 and you won’t believe how much you’ll use it.

Now, take your immersion blender and let it go on that sauce. You’ll be amazed at the color and the texture. Taste for seasoning and enjoy.

This recipe doubles easily, and you might as well go on and make extra.

So…the next time you’re in Bourgogne…

In 2007 we had the great  fortune of traveling with some good friends through Belgium and France. It would be our friends first time in France, and our first time exploring the French countryside without a business agenda to tend to.

I think that planning a trip is almost as much fun as getting on the plane and actually leaving, and for this particular journey, we planned for several months. Food and wine played a large role in our wish list and, given all logistics, the Burgundy region of France seemed like a good area to explore. I was responsible for lodging and spent many happy hours perusing hotel web sites. Finally though, I struck gold with www.innsoffrance.com. This site is a great resource if you’re looking for small, out of the way inns. The one we chose, Auberge La Beursaudiere, seemed too good to be true…it’s a few centuries old and the rooms are around a courtyard.

There are only 11 rooms, each uniquely decorated. This was the view from our bathroom…you had to open the wooden shutters to see it:

 

And this is the little terrace outside our friends’ room. In the early evening we would ask the staff to bring us a bottle of local wine…they always added a little amuse bouche to go with it.

 

So, aside from the price, the charm, the wine and the scenery, this inn also had a wonderful restaurant. The little town of Nitry was pretty dull, but this place was packed every night. They served regional fare…think sophisticated country food. My favorite dish was ouefs en meurette–eggs baked in red wine. Here’s a recipe from a cookbook my friends bought for me in Burgundy:

8 eggs

1/4 lb bacon, minced

1/2 bottle red wine

1 1/2 tsp butter

1 onion, minced

3 shallots, minced

1 bouquet garni

1 baguette

garlic

salt and pepper

Make a roux of the butter and flour. Add the bacon, bouquet garni, wine, 1/3 cup water, onion and shallot, salt and pepper to taste.

Cook for 30-40 minutes.

Remove bouquet garni and strain sauce.

Fill four individual ovenproof baking dishes 2/3 full of sauce. Break 2 eggs into each. Bake at 375 until whites are cooks and yolks are still liquid. (check after 15 minutes).

Serve with sliced baguette rubbed with garlic

Comfort Food

I have a friend who could really use a break. In the year before I met him, he lost three family members. Since then, one other has died, another was just diagnosed with a debilitating–and terminal–illness and then, I kid you not, his dog died. What on earth can you do to help someone in that situation?

Hugs and prayers are great, but sometimes they’re not all that fulfilling. So I decided to cook.

My friend enjoys his food, but he’s not a cook. I thought about what to make, consulted with someone else who knows him better than I, and decided to cook him meat loaf and mashed potatoes.

You just can’t get more basic than that. In long run, it’s hard to get much better than that either. Besides, it’s easy to transport and easy to fix, even for a noncook. I gave him the meatloaf in an aluminum tin so it only had to be put in the oven. The potatoes were mashed by hand and could be reheated in the microwave.

My meatloaf is little out of the ordinary and is chameleon-like in its makeup. Generally speaking though, the ingredients are:

1 lb ground beef

1/4 lb ground pork

half a chopped onion

3 cloves chopped garlic

1 can chopped tomatoes, drained

1/2 cup or so roasted red pepper (from a jar is fine), chopped

handful each chopped fresh basil and Italian parsely

1/2 cup or so grated parmesean

2 eggs, beaten

bread crumbs if it seems too juicy/catsup if it seem too dry

salt/pepper

mix up everything but the eggs. Just roll up your sleeves and use your hands. Then mix in the eggs and decide if you think it’s too juicy or not. If it won’t hold a shape–like a ball–it probably needs some bread crumbs, but don’t overdo it.

Put into loaf pan and bake at 350 for an hour.

Hope you like it…it really is one of those recipes that you can add or subtract to according to your taste.

My friend loved it. Food can’t make everything better, not by a long shot. But cooking for someone has got to be one of the nicest–most comforting–things you can do.

Guacomole–less is more

I firmly believe that everyone has one little thing that they do better than almost anyone else. It might be playing the piano. Or folding towels. It can be anything.

For me, that one thing I do better than almost anyone else is make guacomole. Husband has a cousin in Texas who might be better, but she’s a few hundred miles away.

Last night the girlfriends met at Lime, at trendy new nightspot in Nashville. It’s all open patios and cool breezes and a Caribbean sort of vibe. Upscale Caribbean, not funky. They offer all sorts of ‘tinis and the appetizers were two for one.

We started out with some guacomole and chips. Guacomole is one of those things where less is more. There are some dishes out there that require an entire grocery cart to put together. Guacomole isn’t one of them.

Unfortunately, the guac maker at Lime doesn’t agree with me. Not only does this concoction have green bell pepper in it, our server proudly told us that it had been made at 1 a.m. so the flavors would have time to “marry.”

Please, the flavors in good guacomole have no interest in marrying. In fact, they should barely know one another because guac should go from kitchen to table as soon as it’s made. In fact, if you can just stand around the kitchen counter and eat it straight from the mixing bowl, all the better.

Also, guac should not have the appearance of green French onion dip. It should be chunky. If you ever run across soupy guac, you can be sure that it was either a) made from a mix or b) stretched with sour cream.

Here’s how I make it–with a nod to the Barefoot Contessa.

4 ripe Haas (black, bumpy skin) advocados. They should give slightly when squeezed, but not be mushy.

2-3 lemons

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

kosher salt

2-3 T chopped purple onion (optional)

2-3 T chopped tomato (optional)

Slice advocados lenghtwise around seed. Hold the half with the seed and whack it with a sharp knife so that the knife sticks in the seed. Gently twist and remove seed. With knife, score the flesh into cubes, scoop out with large spoon.

Start adding the other ingredients remembering that it’s almost impossible to have too much lemon juice. The lemons not only add flavor, they also keep the fruit from discoloring. Don’t stir too much, it needs to stay chunky. Just add and taste.

I promise, if you like avocado, you’ll like this version.

A Story About Cheese

One thing that husband and I always knew was that we wanted to travel.  We wanted to see the places we’d learned about in school and explore the places we hadn’t.

In 1990 we made our first trip to Scotland and England. In 1992 we went again. These first two trips were sort of shake-down journeys for us…learning the ropes of international travel. Each time, we went with a small group from Little Rock.

Yes…we went with a group. It was a good introduction to travel and we have fond memories from those excursions.

On our second trip to England, in 1992, I was just learning about food. You have to know that even though this was only 17 years ago, things like fresh herbs, salmon and exotic cheese were rare in Arkansas–despite being the home of the newly elected president.

So off we went to England. One thing I quickly learned whilst lunching in British pubs was to order the Ploughman’s Lunch–typically this consists of bread, good English cheese, maybe a pate and some pickle. No baked beans poured cold from the can…no sausage roll.

One night in London, most of our group went to an upscale restaurant named after a famous degenerate, Thomas de Quincey. I don’t remember that much about the main courses, but I do remember the cheese.

Allow me to digress here momentarily…growing up, cheese was not something I loved. Cheese in Franklin in the 60’s mainly consisted on Kraft Singles. But as I got older, I discovered things like Roquefort Dressing and a whole cheesey world opened up.

When the waiter came by to take our dessert orders, I opted for the cheese trolley. He wheeled it over and lifted the cover. Immediately, a foul smelling stench surrounded our table. Think amonia mixed with week-old garbage that’s been left in the July sun. The rest of our table recoiled. Except for me. Hmmm…I said, perusing my options. I queried the waitier and he was only too happy to answer any questions. (Never underestimate the power of a Southern accent.) I finally choose three…I wish I could remember what they were, but I can’t.

A couple of snooty older women at the table took me to task for making them smell the unpleasant cheese. I had had enough of their carping.

“Listen,” I said. “I’m in England and I’m going to eat the cheese. Y’all can just go back to Little Rock and have your Velveeta.”

They were a little stunned. But I looked across the table and saw our tour guide, a bon vivant if there ever was one.

“Oh bravo Cindy…bravo.”