an ode......

Two hands together
committed...eternally
opening love's gate












Ponzu Sauce - yields approx. 2 cups
1/4-cup bonito flakes
1 ounce kombu
1-cup soy sauce
1/4-cup fresh lemon juice
2-tablespoons fresh orange juice
1/4-cup rice vinegar
1/4-cup water

Combine the bonito flakes, kombu and soy sauce together and let marinate for 24 hours. Pour through a fine sieve and add the lemon juice, vinegar and water to the soy. This sauce gets better over time. Keep it refrigerated.


This sauce is excellent as an alternative to cocktail sauce for freshly shucked oysters, or as a finishing agent to a stir fry.

Munchies

It happened on a mild autumn day, as the late afternoon’s light was just starting to disappear, in a thicket of bushes on the side of the junior high school. My slide into juvenile delinquency and the self-prescribed medication that put a tolerable haze over adolescence – I got stoned. It was a just few years back, at sleep-away-camp, I was sitting amongst a group of counselors, who were barely my senior, hand rolling a “cigarette.” I was awestruck by the paper they used – a rainbow colored sheet that they said they were filling with tobacco, and I believed them. But in the long shadows of that cooling afternoon I realized they were lying to me, and my innocence was forever shattered. I knew with that first toke I was doing the first really bad thing with repercussions beyond my parent’s potential wrath. Of course, the paranoia that smoking pot created only intensified this concern. Still, I naughtily, giddily puffed away.

I glided home concerned that I be there on time for dinner – it was both a requirement and the pot was working its hunger producing magic. I was so grateful that my father was working late and would not to be home for the evening meal for I was sure he would sniff me out – he has the nose of a bloodhound. My mother was a much easier mark, and concealing my altered state from her was a tad easier. Even though my eyes were beet red, and I thought very word I spoke at the dinner table was being scrutinized I managed to get through the meal undetected. I eventually got turned on to Visine to help dilute the devilish glare this not particularly performance enhancing drug. The one activity pot surely abets is one’s ability and desire to eat. That meal that night glowed, and yet it was the usual salad; my mother made a mixed salad nightly accompanied with an array of dressings, hamburgers and canned French cut green beans. I inhaled five hamburgers before I started to slow down with my sixth. My mother didn’t comment on my unusually large sum consumed that night, for her, I was still an innocent, growing, little boy.






Bread Salad - serves 6 to 8
3 cups of cubed bread - such as crusty Italian peasant loaf or baguette
1 pint yellow cherry tomatoes - halved
1 hot house cucumber - 3/4” diced
1 small red onion - sliced thinly
3 celery stalks - 3/4” diced
5 scallions - diced
2 bunchs arugula - washed and roughly chopped
1/4 cup torn mint leaves
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves – crushed to a pasted
1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground pepper and salt to taste
2 tablespoons pine nuts - toasted

Spread the bread cubes on a baking tray and dry out in a 250-degree for 5 to 10 minutes. Do not allow the bread cubes to develop too much color.

Place the vinegar, garlic, mustard, salt, pepper in a food processor and pulse. Pour in the oil and process till smooth.

Toss all ingredients together making sure to distribute the dressing thoroughly. Serve within a half hour. If you want you can assemble the components of the salad up to 24 hours in advance. Keep the bread and dressing separate until you are ready to serve.

Bowl-full of Hope

Layered, bundled, and wrapped up against the assault of the polar express it is difficult to find hope and see a future splayed with tender, fragrant and abundant petals. Though the activities of our nation’s capitol over the last few week has given us a welcoming thawing in this otherwise frigid season.

A visual and psychological paradigm shift has occurred, and we will no longer be a land of inevitability – possible is the belief to hold onto. The spill is universal for everyone person. My plate is now the true representative of the tapestry of this country, and is clear that we have been informed by every culture on the earth. Freedom is a wonderful opportunity and it can foster a creative edge if you allow yourself to peek over the precipice.

So, here is to a chicken in every pot and pot being as simple or complex as one’s whim.



Chicken Soup – yields approx. 12 servings
1 capon – cut into 12 pieces and rinsed under cold water
4 quarts chicken stock
3 carrots – peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
4 celery stalks – washed and cut into 1 inch pieces
2 large onion – cut into 1 inched pieces
5 garlic cloves – peeled and chopped
1/2 Italian parsley leaves – roughly chopped
1 pound cassava (yucca) – peeled and cut into about 2 inch pieces
2 green plantains - peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
1/8 cup cilantro – roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 limes cut into 12 pieces for garnish

In an eight quart bring the capon and stock to the boil, and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes skimming the fat and impurities off that float to the top. After a half hour add the carrots, celery, onion, garlic, parsley, cassava and plantains. Bring the soup back to the boil, and continue cooking for an 1-1/2 hour. Carefully, remove the capon from the pot, and place in a bowl. Pull the chicken meat from the bone returning the meat back to the soup pot. Simmer the soup another 1 hour with a lid slightly askew. Add the cilantro and season with salt and pepper. Serve hot in a large bowl with each serving getting a piece of chicken, and garnish with a lime wedge.

A Spicy Winter's Tale

Darn that polar express that rips through the northern half of this country during these months. A high temperature of 10-degrees Fahrenheit leaves nothing on my doorstep that is fresh, green and vibrant. And, while I can go and find fresh herbs locally that have been shipped from lands south and west of the Mason/Dixon Line they offer precious little in the way of flavor. So, in order to get my fix of aromatic pleasure I tend to play heavily with spices during the winter. Yes, I have a couple different pestos squirreled away in my freezer that I have been dipping into that I try to parcel out over the depressing winter – they are in part anti-depressants so full of summer for me.

I keep at any given time a dozen or so different spices. It is my tendency to buy them whole, and grind to order so as to get the maximum fragrance into my dish. To that end, I would advise to store spices in a cool, dark place, like the freezer, and that way their potency will last years. Buy a spice or two that pushes the culinary envelope – right now I am a bit obsessed with black cardamom (the north Indian relative to its more floral scented, celadon hued cousin), smoked paprika (both Spanish and Cuban), and turmeric (it is believed to be a highly prized medicinal spice). Like the alchemist of yore I fiddle in my kitchen laboratory in search of a golden combination.





Spiced Red Lentils and Vegetables – serves 6 to 8
1 cup red lentils – soaked in water for 2 hours
2-teaspoons butter
1 tablespoon grated ginger
3 garlic cloves – finely minced
1 tablespoon powdered tamarind
2 teaspoons powder turmeric
1/4-teaspoon clove
3 whole black cardamom
1-teaspoon coriander seed
1-teaspoon cumin
1/4-teaspoon whole black pepper
1 to 2 dried red Thai chilies
1 cup chopped canned tomato
1 onion – roughly chopped
3 celery ribs – cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 medium carrot – cut into 1/4-inch pieces
3/4-pound fresh or frozen cut pumpkin
1 chayote squash – cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1-teaspoon salt

Drain the lentils.

Grind all the spices.

In a three-quart saucepan melt the butter over a medium heat, and add the ginger. Cook the ginger for a few minutes – you will smell the aromatic release. Then add in the garlic, and all the ground spices into the pot; cooking the mixture for a few minutes longer. Mix the tomato, onion, celery, carrot and soaked lentils. Sir in 4 cups of water, and bring everything to the boil. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for one hour. After an hour add in the pumpkin and salt, and simmer for another hour.

Then add the chayote. Cook for another 15 minutes. Correct the seasoning and serve with a garnish of orange if desired.

Creamy Naughtiness

I would be considered a nightmare of a sweet’s person. It is well known I do not eat chocolate; find fruit tarts too messy and my patriotism has been questioned due to my refusal to eat pie. However, give me a white cake simply frosted with an Italian buttercream or carrot cake with my Mom’s secret gook, and I am inhaling fork loads.

I have discovered that I am rather fond of the sweets of a people it did not meet until well into my adult-life. I find myself drawn to Indian sweet shops sampling the milky, nutty and incredibly sugary confections they produce. There is not a chocolate coated-anything to disrupt my selection or glazed fruit desperately trying to maintain a sense of freshness. Then I started to try and make my own – it began with my need for an elusive concoction called ras malai, which is a sweetened cheese ball that is poached in milk. I could, and should have started with something simpler. It took two days to achieve satisfaction.

When I have a craving for sweet I want it satiated immediately, and so I have laid to rest the making of sweetened curds, and turned my attention to crafting creamy little squares. These little nibbles are inspired by but would never be seen in my favorite sweets shop.


Cashew-White Chocolate Squares
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
8 ounces white chocolate – chopped
1-cup cashew butter
2-teaspoons vanilla extract
1-teaspoon rose water
1/2-cup slivered almonds


In a work bowl combine the condensed milk and white chocolate. Over simmering water melt in white chocolate in the milk. Once the chocolate has melted remove from the heat, and whisk in the cashew butter, vanilla and rose water until very smooth. Then beat in the almonds.

Transfer the mixture into a 4x7 pan that has been lined with enough plastic wrap that it hangs over the sides. Make sure that the cashew mixture is evenly spread out, and you gently pat it out to remove any air bubble. Fold the excess plastic wrap over the top of the cashew, and refrigerate for 4 to 24 hours. Flip the now set cashew mixture onto a cutting board, and cut it into 1-inch squares. Store in airtight containers in the refrigerator for about a week.

Citrus Time

It has been a less than exciting few weeks for me though thanks legally prescribed narcotics I have little memory of the time that has elapsed. There has been a bright spot for me during this hiccup with my physical prowess – it is citrus season! And, not a single frost in Florida or unexpected torrent in California has caused the US crop from going a foul. Ruby grapefruits, tangerines and the Minneola have been greedily consumed during this very period for me, and the platter of Clementines made for work with their ease-to-peel coquettishness. How fortune for me that their calorie punch is right in line with a life that has been teetering between sloth-like and downright inactive with about 60 calories per.

As we look out the window in lands where the trees go bare, and everyone is buried deep in quilted down and tie-up with woolen ribbon it is a visual respite to the grayness with burst of orange, yellow and lime green. I may have spent the holiday season in the twilight zone, but I have come down totally c’ed up.




Clementine Salad

3 clementines – peeled and separated into segments
1/2 pound jicama - peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 jalapeno – seeds discarded, and minced
1 Hot-house cucumber - cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 small red onion – minced
4 scallions – washed; root trimmed and minced
2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves – chopped
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar


Toss all the ingredients together, and let sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.

a chill that needs warming

It is the first true five-layer temperature day, and it is not even winter officially. This does not bode well for the coming months unless nature’s plan is to just get this frigid weather out of the way so we can get back to gardening, or for some of us dream of it. I don’t think so. Along with my down ski jacket, four-feet wool scarf and cashmere beanie I have taken out my large pot reserved for just this kind of day. It is my 12-quart soup/stew pot that has not seen the stovetop since last March in all probability -- it needs to be washed.

A quick rinse out of a season or two is no hassle especially since I can appreciate the job is getting readied for. All things chopped, simmered for hours; filling my home with scents and radiating warmth, to finally also fill my belly. I would venture to say the only good thing about artic temperatures is the pot it generates simmering in my kitchen.





Red Kidney Beans with Fire Roasted Chili Peppers - yields 6 to 8 servings

1 jalapeno chili - roasted, peeled and seeded
2 Anaheim chilies - roasted, peeled and seeded
2 pablano chili - roasted, peeled and seeded
1 serrano chili – roasted, peeled and seeded
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 pound bacon – cut into thick strips
1 large onion - thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves – minced
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 cup red wine
32 ounces canned, chopped tomatoes
1 cup chopped pumpkin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon thyme leaves - chopped
3” by 1” strip of orange zest
3 cups cooked red kidney beans
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Roughly chop all the chilies and hold to the side.

Heat a 6 quart casserole dish and add the oil, bacon and onion. As the bacon releases its fat let the onions sauté until golden brown. Then add in the garlic and cumin seeds and continue cooking the mixture for two minutes. Pour in the red wine and reduce the liquid by more than half. Mix in the tomatoes, pumpkin, oregano, thyme, orange zest, kidney beans and reserved chopped roasted chilies. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Cook the stew, covered, for 1 hour. Correct seasoning and serve hot. If the mixture gets too dry add some water to prevent scorching.