A Caesar Salad Worth Sharing

Flavor reigns supreme in this surprisingly simple salad with multiple layers of well-balanced flavors. My friend Max got this recipe from his friend Justin, who got it from his father, showing that there are several stamps of approval that brought it to my plate. With a few adaptations, this recipe is all about mincing finely and mixing well – resulting in every bite having the same balance of flavors.

This salad is also a great example of how simple, whole foods made fresh at home are within reach of anyone looking to live a healthier lifestyle, or can round out a fitness plan no matter what your goals might be.

Ingredients for one medium-sized salad:
2 cloves of garlic 
1/3 cup of olive oil
 ½ teaspoon of dry mustard
 ¼ teaspoon of pepper
 ½ teaspoon of salt
 ½ teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
1.5 ounces of anchovy fillets
1 lemon – juiced
 2 ounces of parmesan cheese
1 head of romaine lettuce
 Croutons to taste

Preparation:

• Infuse the oil with garlic – begin by finely mincing the garlic and then heat the oil-garlic mixture in the microwave for 10 seconds.
• Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
• Add the infused olive oil and the Worcestershire sauce and mix well with a rubber spatula.
• Mince the anchovies as finely as you’re able and add those to the mix, making sure all ingredients
  
  are as evenly spread about as possible.
• Grate the parmesan cheese with a fine-gauge microplane and add it to the mixture – again, mixing well so it’s evenly distributed.
• Just before serving, add the lemon juice and once again, mix it well so as much of the juice stays emulsified in the oil-heavy mixture.
• Dice the lettuce in mouth-sized pieces so as many pieces as possible
  
  get both crunchy spine and soft leaf and there’s plenty of surface area for dressing without needing to cut the pieces to eat them.
• Pour the dressing over the lettuce, and (yes) – mix it vigorously. You want to be sure every piece of lettuce in the bowl gets some of this delicious dressing on it.
• Add croutons last (so they don’t get soggy) and serve it up.

.
Serves two.

Note: other Caesar salad dressings include egg. Max is not a big fan of eggs, so he just leaves them out. That simple omission doesn’t compromise the flavor, and it shows how being willing to “go off script” with recipes occasionally leads to great results.

Sometimes you simply don’t have an ingredient, or you simply don’t like it – in either case, it’s no big deal and you’ll soon discover how important (or not) that ingredient is to getting the result you want. In this case, leaving the egg out does not affect the flavor one iota, and it also gives this dressing a shelf-life in case there’s any leftover.

Enjoy!

Hungarian Garlic Soup

Known as Foghagymás Leves, this recipe is an old favorite of mine because it’s warm and flavorful, and most of all because it reminds me of my grandmother. Like much of home cooking, I am not sure you could ever order this in a Hungarian restaurant, so here is the recipe for you to enjoy.

                                                      Ingredients

2 whole heads of garlic

1 large onion

¼ cup of olive oil

1 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp paprika

1 gallon of Swanson’s chicken stock or broth

½ package of linguine

Start by peeling the garlic – it needs to be fresh garlic or the taste will not come through. Once peeled, mince them finely and set them aside.

Next, make the “rántás” – the basis for all Hungarian stews and savory soups.  Rántás” is finely minced onion, slowly sautéed on a low flame with 3 – 4 tbsp of olive oil. The French and foodies know this as "roux." 

Once the onions are ready, raise the flame, sprinkle in the paprika and mix it up so that the paprika gets toasted to bring out the flavor. Then, sprinkle in the flour (hand sifting with a wire mesh strainer works great) and mix it very well with the spatula. It comes out better if you first mix the flour into a runny paste with a little water and a hand blender and then pour that mixture into the sauteed onions and paprika to finish the rántás. The correct consistency of rántás is thick and pasty, and it should be reddish-orange in color.

At that point, add the minced garlic and lower the flame, stirring occasionally as it cooks slowly for about 10 – 15 minutes.  Once the garlic is soft and transparent, then add in the chicken broth and bring it to a boil.

Once boiling, break the linguine into thirds (so each piece is about 2 inches long) and add them to the pot. Lower the flame and cover the pot – let it slowly boil for 10 minutes or so until the linguine is cooked through. The finished soup has a bisque-like pinkish color.

Serve hot to warm up even the coldest nights.  Jó étvágyat!  Enjoy!

Restaurant Spotlight - The Waverly Inn

I recently was treated to a nice surprise on a business trip to New York City – dinner at The Waverly Inn.

This cozy restaurant is located on a side street in The West Village and occupies the ground floor of two adjacent brownstones and a garden area in the rear area.

The restaurant is owned by Graydon Carter, Editor of Vanity Fair magazine and I confirmed the hard way that they don’t allow photographs inside the restaurant. Huh? Yes – that’s right. It’s an establishment that is frequented by celebrities and others whose pictures are sought out, so NO PICTURES is a house rule of this restaurant.

When I asked my waiter if I could just take a picture of my plate (thinking it was understood that I was not a paparazzo), he politely but firmly informed me that pictures were not allowed in the restaurant.

As you might imagine, the photograph prohibition became a discussion topic at our table that inevitably led to (you guessed it) picture taking. Well, I forgot to turn the flash off on my iPhone, so taking a picture of my plate caught the attention of the maitre d' and his response was swift and sure. So, I responded with an apology and told him I'd delete the pictures, which I proceeded to do.

I can’t even remember anymore what was on the plate,

but I do remember getting my hand slapped for taking a picture of my food.

From there, we continued to enjoy the good food and wine, and one discussion theme became the way I immediately deleted the photos.  I joked that the dim lights and picture phobia surely meant the restaurant barely passed the latest restaurant inspection.  Comments around the table varied between “you shouldn’t have deleted the picture - who are THEY to tell you that you can’t have a picture of your food” to “Wow – that was admirable. It really says a lot about you, John.”

On that last comment, I just have to publicly admit right now that I am an incurable and unabashed rule-bender. So my deleting the picture was not so much due to my being “a man of honor” per se, it’s that I was being respectful of my hosts and a well-known author who was also at the table with us. And yes, it just so happens that the VP of my division was also at the table and I like (and need) my job.

Naturally, the next thing that happened was more picture-taking and giggling about it, but with our flashes off. Having to snap the pictures surreptitiously, only a few of them came out clearly. But we had a good time being reckless. So I’m pleased to share a few of the purloined pictures in this post.

My name doesn't figure anywhere in the world of food writing. I am just a guy in North Carolina who likes food and enjoys a good restaurant experience.  So I share my recipes and food experiences with my friends on this little blog.


And aside from the whole picture taking thing, dinner at The Waverly Inn was really nice. It has a cozy, clubby atmosphere with low ceilings and dim lights, attentive waiters and good food. I had a nice roasted chicken with perfectly cooked green beans. Some of the shared appetizers included a truly delicious truffled mac and cheese. Other folks ordered salmon or a steak and everyone was very pleased with their meal.

For a special occasion, I’d recommend the Waverly Inn. It’s fun and different. I think part of their cachet is that they’re even secretive about their menu, so don’t expect to find the full menu online anywhere.

 

The Waverly Inn website is unexpected for a restaurant’s site because it’s basic and informative but there’s no evidence that they’re trying to entice you to stop by or make a reservation - for instance, the site has no photographs and the “reserve now” button doesn’t actually let you make a resevation (I’m more amused than offended by that). Zagat’s publishes a Waverly Inn menu on their site, but notably missing from the menu is that amazing truffled mac and cheese. 

So come to this place intent on having a good meal and a nice time and you will - but do your best to follow the rules. And then on the way out, please do me a HUGE favor:

Shout "SAY CHEESE!" at the maitre d'.

Then snap a picture of him and run like hell.

It will be an unforgettable evening for all involved.

My experience at The Waverly Inn was unforgettable because I particularly remember thoroughly enjoying myself. And for that I thank my gracious hosts, Gail, Angelia, Maria and MaryAlice at Harvard Business Review.

Restaurant Spotlight - Superdawg

The northwest side of Chicago has a classic 1950's style "hot dog joint" known as Superdawg. It's actually been around since 1948 and probably has not been updated since then.  It has a vintage atmosphere, with the drive-up stalls that you can pull your car into and order off the menu from your car.

The menu is straight-up diner fare with a heavy emphasis on Chicago-style hot dogs, polish sausage and similar items.  Their french fries are crinkle-cut and touted as being "never frozen," in fact you can hear a recording of one of the founders of Superdawg on their website FAQs tell you about their fries.  Whatever the case, they're delicious and you get a bunch of them with your order.

Their items are served in individual boxes that fall right in line with the whole 1950's theme of the place.  What's most noticeable, however, is the cult-like devotion that its patrons have to the place.  My good friend Barry has been a fanatic for Superdawg since he was 9 years old and he says he's never ordered anything but the Superdawg.

The original Superdawg is tantalizingly close to O'Hare airport about 1 mile north of the Kennedy Expressway off the Nagle Av. exit. They've now branched out and have a second location further out in the Northwest suburban Wheeling.  Both locations have the same vintage atmosphere and the same menus.

It's definitely worth a visit when you're in Chicago!

Spicy kebabs skewer the old dinner routine

I found myself working from home one day last week and it occurred to me at the last minute that if I wanted a fighting chance of everyone eating dinner at the same time, I'd have to hop to it.  So at 4:30, I found myself faced with the prospect of either taking the easy route with some prepackaged something or other, or trying a traditional meat-vegetables-starch dinner from scratch.  I opted for the latter.

So I quickly grabbed some chicken breasts and plunged them into a sink full of warm water, which I find defrosts meat quicker and more evenly than our microwave.  And then I drew a blank. I had an utter void of any inspiration for what I could realistically do with these chicken breasts.  So once they thawed out, I patted them dry and laid them out on the cutting board.  And still had no ideas.

I tried closing my eyes and imagining something we'd not had before at home and that would also fall within the acceptable range of our picky eaters at home, and I still came up with nothing. Then I decided to simply focus on what might simply be tasty, and the next thing I know I was dusting the chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, celery salt, cumin and then cayenne pepper for a good kick.  I turned them over and did the same thing and suddenly it hit me - I should put them on skewers!

I started to dice the chicken, and I sprinkled a little more cayenne to be sure they had a kick, and then I skewered them.  I heated the grill so it would sear the meat at first, and then I quickly put the flames on the lowest setting so the chicken cooked slowly.  I rounded out the meal with steamed broccoli and rice, but any other green vegetable would also do nicely, along with couscous or quinoa.


When I put it all on the table at 5:45, the broccoli and rice sparked no reaction. But then when I went to the grill and brought in the kebabs, everyone perked up at the novelty of it.  And then we took our first bites - yum!  It's amazing how delicious the simple and straightforward can be!

So it turns out I found a way to skewer the old routine.  Lauren's out of town, Lilly is at a friend's house tonight and I have two of Alex's friends spending the weekend with us, so I plan to skewer dinner for them all tonight.  I expect I'll get the same reaction to the novelty. I'll just have to keep the boys from turning the skewers into weapons and playing at the table. That's a whole different challenge, but I think I'm up to that one, too...

Swiss Cheese Fondue

This is the best cheese fondue I've ever tasted and it is absolutely perfect cold weather food. Before we had kids, Lauren and I went to visit Michelle while she was studying in Switzerland and we actually went to the town of Gruyere. While there, we tried fondue at "the best restaurant for fondue," and also at Zermatt and a few other towns. We always found it disappointing because we were already used to this phenomenal recipe.

So please take that as a warning that this recipe may make eating fondue anywhere else than at your table always a little disappointing. As a positive, though - it's actually easy to make. Lauren's mom Nancy added this to their family cookbook after she got it during the 1970's from "The Cheese Shop" in Georgetown, Washington, DC (which has long since closed).

You will need a fondue pot, so if you don't have one, then see if you can borrow one. If you can't do either, then make do with what you have and think about how you're going to keep the mixture heated. One option is to put the pot on your table on top of a trivet, and then take it back to the stove to reheat when needed. Another option is to use a pyrex or a stoneware bowl that can be popped into the microwave when the cheese gets cold. I don't recommend either option and would suggest you just get a fondue pot because fondue is a social occasion that's fun and you don't want to interrupt it every few minutes.

Ingredients:
3/4 lb. Gruyere cheese
3/4 lb. Emmenthaler cheese
1/3 lb. Appenzeller cheese
2 cups Chardonnay wine
1/2 cup Kirschwasser (cherry brandy)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
3 Tbsp. flour
1 clove garlic
2 french baguettes (day-old if possible)

More about the ingredients: this is a very easy recipe, but you need to be precise. There are very few opportunities for substitutions because each ingredient has a specific flavor and/or function, so make sure you have all the exact ingredients and the exact proportions. Believe me, it's really worth getting it right.

• The flour helps bind the ingredients as the cheese melts so the oils in the cheese do not separate. Do not leave the flour out or the whole pot will be a separated mess of cheese solids, oils and heated white wine.
• The kirschwasser has to be cherry brandy and cannot be "cherry flavored brandy" because the latter tastes like cough syrup and will ruin the whole pot.
• The wine must be chardonnay because it needs to be very dry - a fruity white wine like a riesling or even a pinot grigio will make the whole pot sweet and not fit for eating.
• Even the lemon juice and the garlic add flavors that are noticeably missing if you leave them out.
• Each of the cheeses have their own wonderful flavor and this is one place you might use substitutions. While Appenzeller is harder to find, it's worth searching for. If you cannot get Gruyere, you can consider using Comte but try that substitution after first having made it with Gruyere. If you cannot find Emmenthaler (also known as "Swiss Cheese" - the kind with the holes), try Jarlsberg. But again, it's worth making the exact recipe the first time so you know how the substitution changes the fondue.
• The baguettes should be crusty and the reason why day-old bread is better is because it's firmer and can be cut more quickly and precisely into quarters. For variety's sake you can try boiled new potatoes, apples, broccoli or anything else that's chunky and can be dipped. In my opinion, there is nothing better than the crusty baguette because of the texture and the way it holds onto the melted cheese.

Once you have all the ingredients, see if you can sweet-talk someone nearby into doing the tedious task of cutting the baguettes into bite-sized chunks. If nobody is around to delegate to, do it yourself in advance and consider pre-testing the wine for quality assurance purposes while you do that. Depending on the girth of the bread, you can cut it into half-inch slices that are then cut into either thirds or fourths.
Then, pour the wine into a pot and let it slowly heat it to just shy of boiling. While the wine heats, peel the garlic clove and slice it in half. Rub the garlic clove all around the inside of the fondue pot. Then, shred the cheese into a big bowl. Sift the flour onto the shredded cheese and dredge it thoroughly by mixing it all together by hand.
Once all that is done, turn back to the pot and add the lemon juice. Slowly add handfuls of cheese while constantly stirring, making sure the cheese is melting. Once all the cheese had been added, keep stirring until it has a uniform off-white color and consistency that's not runny and not lumpy (a little thicker than split-pea soup). Transfer the mixture to the fondue pot and call everyone to the table to enjoy.
I strongly recommend serving this foundue with a salad chaser for roughage. As you can imagine, all this cheese is a sure-fire way to slow down your digestive system and following up with a nice, leafy salad is a great way to help move things along, if you know what I mean.
Give this a try and let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Southern Chicken & Dumplings

Here is another recipe to make when the weather is cold, or for whatever reason you want comfort food. It's basically a big pot of hot, steamy lovin' that's nutritious and fits the bill for this blog - it's easy to make. It's a staple of southern cookin' just as sure as grits and black eyed peas & greens on new year's.

Think of this dish as chicken pot pie without all the fussy crust. The dumplings are actually big, flat noodles without any filling, which I suppose technically means the crust is actually mixed in with the rest of it. But this is not a dish for analyzin' and thinkin' too much about - you eat it. And trust me - you will enjoy eating this.

Ingredients:

36 oz of chicken broth (3 cans of Swanson’s)
1 – 2 boneless chicken breasts½ package of Annie’s Frozen Dumplings (or any similar brand)
½ cup sliced carrots
½ cup of sliced celery
1 chopped onion (1 pkg frozen pre-diced)
1 tsp Herbes de Provence
Salt & Pepper to taste
Begin by boiling the chicken, and once its cooked, either dice it or shred it with a fork. Then, slice the carrots and celery while you bring a pot of chicken broth to boil. As the ingredients are diced & sliced, add them to the boiling pot. Break the frozen dumplings by hand (they come all lined up and fused together like a sheet) and add them to the pot as well. Let it simmer just above boiling for about an hour or so, stirring occasionally. It needs that long to get the flavor and consistency you want - something thicker than soup. One other thing - it needs to be tasted frequently along the way to make sure it tastes right ("wink-wink").
If you're like us and everyone is scattered hither & yon, arriving home at different times, you can leave this on the stove simmering and it's ready whenever you want to eat. While it's cooking it fills the house with warmth and good smells. Yes - it's really that easy.


Enjoy!

Hungarian Lentil Stew

The Hungarian name for this dish is Rántott Lencse Fözelék (say THAT three times fast!)

Anyway, you don't have to speak Hungarian to enjoy this dish. It is one of the all-time family favorites in my family. The scents and flavors take me right back to my grandmother's table - where everyone was welcome and had no doubt that she showed her love with food. This is good comfort food that's also perfect for cold weather because this is stick-to-your-ribs stuff that warms you up. The best part is that it is very easy to make (see below for a tip on how to make it vegan). Here's how:

Ingredients:
1 12oz. package of dried lentils
1 large onions
1 package of Healthy Choice Smoked Turkey Sausage (or any kind of smoked meat)
3 – 4 packets of MBT low sodium beef boullion
2 – 3 tablespoons of flour
2 – 3 tablespoons of paprika
Bay leaves (I often forget and it still tastes good anyway)
Olive Oil
salt to taste
6 – 8 cups of water

Lentils:
Set the pot to boil with the boullion, while you hand-sort the lentils (sometimes rocks or twigs end up being harvested with the lentils). Rinse the lentils in the sink and then put them right in the pot. Bring the pot to a boil and then lower the heat and cover the pot so the lentils cook on a low boil when you prepare the other ingredients.

Sausage:
Slice it in 1/4 inch rounds, and then cut those in quarters to there are many small pieces. This is only necessary to keep any one person from fishing out all the sausage (not that would happen in our house, but just in case...). As soon as the sausage is diced, you can put it into the pot.

Rántás:
The basis for all Hungarian stews begins with “rántás” - finely minced onion, slowly sautéed on a low flame until they are agreeable and pliant like a beautiful woman on a moonlit night after a few glasses of wine. In other words, when they are transparent and nice and soft (the onions that is). Use about 2 – 3 tbsp of olive oil. The French and foodies know this as "roux."

Once the onions are ready, raise the flame, sprinkle in the paprika and mix it up so that the paprika gets toasted to bring out the flavor. Then, sprinkle in the flour (hand sifting with a wire mesh strainer works great) and mix it very well with the spatula. It comes out better if you first mix the flour into a runny paste with a little water and a hand blender and then pour that mixture into the sauteed onions and paprika to finish the rántás. The correct consistency of rántás is thick and pasty, and it should be reddish-orange in color.

Bring it all Together:
Stir the rántás into the lentil soup. Put a few spoonfuls of the liquid from the soup into the saucepan to get whatever is stuck to the pan. Keep stirring the pot until it is well blended and there are no lumps. Bring the heat back down to a low simmer and let it all cook together for another 30 minutes or so. Serve it on a bed of rice (see the post on Feijoada for a tip on how to make good rice).

How to make this dish vegan:

Sausage plays an important role in the flavor of this dish because it adds a smoky flavor. If you use a smoked paprika when preparing the rántás, that will add the smoky flavor and you can forgo the sausage altogether. There is a smoked paprika on the market from Spain called "pimentón," and to my knowledge there is no smoked paprika from Hungary. The brand I buy is called "El Rey de la Vera" (see picture to the left). For this dish, be careful to select the sweet variety ("dulce") because the spicy variety ("picante") as shown is very spicy. Locally, you can find this at A Southern Season in Chapel Hill.

Jó étvágyatt! (That's "bon appetit" in Hungarian.)

Serves appx. 8 adults.

###

A Thanksgiving Feast

One of the reasons we moved to North Carolina was to be near family, so it has been a real treat for us to host Thanksgiving dinners for much of our extended family at our house in Raleigh. And, like many folks we know, Lauren and I lead hectic lives, so we try to approach Thanksgiving with an eye to making it as easy as possible, while still trying to make it special.

We have a wide range of food preferences in our family, so trying to cook for this group is a tall order, and the key is to find a favorite of everyone’s and then go from there. Of course, some of the best dishes are those carb-laden comfort food favorites, and inevitably we’ll end up with more than one. One year, instead of green beans we blanched some brussels sprouts, cut then in half and roasted them with an Italian dressing drizzle. Delicious!

Anyway, enough about the context, here’s what we made for our first Thanksgiving in Raleigh, which was declared “the best Thanksgiving ever” by many at the table. Try one or all of these recipes and mix and match with your own.

Here’s what’s on the menu:

• Brined Grilled Turkey
• Red wine-reduction Cranberry Sauce
• Lauren’s Mashed potatoes
• Nancy’s Southern Belle Corn Puddin’
• Mum-mum’s Turkey Dressing (stuffing)
• Szechuan green beans
• Olivier’s salad
• Dessert

Brined-Grilled Turkey
My Thanksgiving turkey is first brined and then grilled. The brining is a process that permeates the meat with flavor and moisture through osmosis and takes at least 24 hours. If your turkey is frozen, thaw it first and then brine it. The result will be succulent and juicy enough so that even non Turkey eaters will ask for seconds.

In order to serve dinner at mid-afternoon on Thursday, I began the brining very late on Tuesday. I took the Good Eats Roast Turkey recipe on Foodnetwork.com and then modified it based on the ingredients we had at hand and anything I thought would taste good. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

12-14 lb turkey (make sure it fits in your biggest pot and can be immersed)
1 gallon Swanson’s chicken broth
1 cup Kosher salt
½ gallon water
½ gallon apple juice
1 tbsp whole black peppercorns
5 cloves of minced garlic
4 sprigs of rosemary
1 bag frozen chopped onion
1 big pot to hold all of the liquid and immerse the turkey

• Sauté the onions and garlic with a little olive oil until transparent, then add the rosemary sprigs and peppercorns and heat them for about 4-5 minutes.
• Transfer the onion-garlic-herb mixture to the bottom of the brining pot and add the salt with a cup each of the chicken stock and apple juice and swish it around to dissolve the salt.
• Then put the turkey into the pot and then pour the rest of the apple juice, chicken stock and water to the pot.
• Put it in your fridge and leave it there overnight.
• Allow about 3 hours to cook, so take the Turkey out of the brine right before you put it on the grill.
• I did not put the turkey directly on the grill, but instead in a roasting pan with a V-shaped rack on top of the grill.
• Place the bird breast-down on the rack and then cover it with aluminum foil until 1 hour before taking off the grill (in other words, let the skin get crispy brown but not burnt).
• In order to be sure it was cooked, but not overcooked, I used a meat thermometer that sits outside the cooking area with a probe stuck directly into the thickest part of the breast. ($6.99 at IKEA: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80100406)
• Once the breast temperature hit 153°, I turned off the heat and took the Turkey inside and let it sit undisturbed for 10 minutes or so.
• To serve, I carved the turkey in the kitchen and arranged the meat by dark vs. white on a platter.

Last year, we discovered that the N.C. State University Food Sciences department sold smoked turkey breasts, which we enjoyed quite a bit so we decided to do it again this year. And while it’s certainly delicious, I do have a hankering for my brined-grilled turkey. I’ll have to find a way to fit that in this year…

Winey Cranberry Sauce.

12 ounce bag of fresh cranberries
1 cup of sugar (or 24 packets of Splenda sweetener)
1 cup of red wine (any kind)

• Pour the wine into a pot over medium heat. 
• As the wine warms, add sugar and stir until it dissolves.
• Rinse the cranberries and add them to the warming wine-sugar mixture.
• Bring it to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer and let them cook on a low boil for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally while letting the cranberries pop while cooking.
• Turn the heat off and let the sauce cool on the stovetop. It thickens while it cools.
• NOTE: You can make this cranberry sauce the night before and then heat it up on Thanksgiving day.

This is my own creation and it was so well received I’ve decided to make this a regular on our Thanksgiving table. I used to make it with canned cranberry sauce and a much more elaborate reduction process, and then I realized that making the sauce from scratch is no harder to do than boiling hot dogs. And I am always in favor of doing it the easy way!

Mashed Potatoes
This is Lauren’s favorite and she does it so well that I give her wide berth in the kitchen and don’t get in her way. Part of the key to a great Thanksgiving is to apply economic theory about division of labor and let anyone make part of the meal if that’s what they do best and/or enjoy doing it. There’s plenty of work to go around.

While the turkey is baking, you can make the mashed potatoes first and then keep it heating as described below.

3 pounds of potatoes
1 stick of butter
1% milk
Salt & pepper to taste

• Take 3 pounds of potatoes, peel them and then chop them into cubes.
• Boil them in salted water until they fall apart with a fork (10 minutes or so).
• Drain and then transfer the pieces in large spoonfuls to a potato ricer.
• Rice the potatoes into a large ceramic bowl.
• Slice a whole stick of butter into pats and spread around the bowl so it melts into the potatoes.
• Add salt and pepper to taste (lots of pepper, easy on the salt).
• Get a hand-held mixer and mix 1% milk into the potatoes until the consistency is light & fluffy.
• Suspend the ceramic bowl over a pot of hot water, cover with aluminum foil and stir occasionally to keep warm while you work on the other parts of the meal.

Southern Belle Corn Puddin’
That is not a typo - this dish does not have a “g” at the end because it is truly as southern as magolias or civil war re-enactments. Whatever your sentiments, corn puddin’ is a delicious dish so make it part of your Thanksgiving. This comes directly from Lauren’s family cookbook and is attributed to her mother, Nancy.

2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup milk
3 Tbsp. butter
1 can Green Giant Niblets Corn
1 Tbsp. flour
Pinch of salt

• Pre-heat the oven to 350°
• Beat the first three ingredients together, then add the butter to make the custard.
• Mix gently.
• Drain the corn and dredge it with the flour and salt.
• Fold the corn into the custard.
• Pour into a buttered baking dish.
• Put the buttered baking dish into a pan with a little bit of water in it and all into the oven.
• Bake for 35 – 40 minutes along with the turkey dressing (below) or until the top of the puddin’ is golden brown.
• This can keep warming in the oven covered in foil if your timing is off.

Mum-Mum’s Turkey Dressing (stuffing)

Lauren’s grandmother on her mother’s side is Kitty Edwards, but all her grandkids (and great-grandkids) call her Mum-mum. She grew up in Suffolk, Virginia and last year we celebrated her 100th birthday. Needless to say, she’s a big part of the family and one of her dishes at the Thanksgiving table is the turkey dressing.

5 cups of bread cubes toasted and brushed with melted butter (or go buy 5 cups of Pepperidge Farm unseasoned stuffing mix)
½ cup of celery sliced thin and chopped
¼ cup of onion diced (or a half-bag of frozen chopped onions)
1 egg beaten
10 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp of salt
1 tube of Jimmy Dean “Pork Light” sausage (50% reduced fat) http://jimmydean.com/products/premium-pork-light-sausage.aspx
5 cups of Swanson chicken stock

• Preheat the oven to 350º
• Mix the sausage, bread crumbs and other ingredients in a large bowl.
• Grease a 9 x 13 lasagna pan (or any pan that goes in the oven)
• Press the sausage-bread-etc. mixture into the pan
• Pour the chicken stock slowly over all of it so it moistens everything.
• Bake along with the corn puddin’ for 20-30 minutes until the top is brown.

Szechuan Green Beans

1 big package of frozen Green beans (Trader Joe's french green beans are awesome)
1 tsp Ginger – grated
2-3 cloves of Garlic – minced or pressed
drizzle of Sesame oil
1.5 Tbsp Olive oil
sprinkle of Sesame seeds
Salt to taste

• Lightly steam the green beans in the microwave with a little bit of water and a covered dish (3 min. on our microwave).
• They should still be crisp at this stage.
• Put about 1 Tbsp. olive oil in the bottom of a pan and then drizzle a little bit of sesame oil for flavor.
• Heat the garlic and ginger together to bring out their flavors but not so much that they turn brown.
• Add the steamed green beans and stir so that they are coated.
• Let it cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add salt to taste and then the sesame seeds.
• Mix it all up and serve hot.

Olivier’s Salad

Like me, my brother-in-law knows his way around the kitchen, and he enjoys entertaining and eating. Well, it so happens that he is French, and considering how serious the French are about gastronomy, Olivier does his heritage proud with the most amazing salad dressing. I never tire of eating his salad because the dressing is so flavorful and savory, so we’re always happy when Olivier makes his salad.

The lettuce he uses is romaine, and he adds tomatoes, cucumber slices, carrots and sometimes avocado. This dressing is so good, you can even use it with a bag salad from the grocery store and I guarantee you will have no leftovers. This amount of dressing is enough for a big salad for 10-12 people and there still may be some leftover. It keeps well in the fridge in tupperware, so go ahead and make the whole thing - you won't be disappointed.

For 2 cups of dressing:
8 cloves of pressed garlic
2 tsp of Grey Poupon Dijon mustard
¼ cup of red wine vinegar
2-3 Tbsp of Kraft parmesan cheese (the green can)
1 Tbsp of salt
20 grinds of fresh ground pepper
2-3 Tbsp of dried dill weed
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil (or however much you need to bring it to a total of 2 cups of dressing)

• Mix all the ingredients well with a stick blender until it has a runny paste consistency.
• Add little by little to match the amount of lettuce you have and don’t worry if you have left overs.
• Do not over-dress the salad – I can’t describe how much is too much dressing (which I find unappealing), so taste it along the way and decide for yourself.

Dessert
What would Thanksgiving be without dessert? We’ve discovered that our local farmers market includes some baked-goods vendors that do an outstanding job with pies. So we usually outsource our dessert to those fine and talented folks by getting a pumpkin and a pecan pie and then serving it up with Harris-Teeter Natural vanilla ice cream.

This year, we went to the mountains to see the leaves turn colors and ended up in an apple orchard. Of course we came home with a mountain of apples, so Lauren prepared two apple pies and froze them so we can thaw and bake on Thanksgiving. If it works out well, I’ll post that so you can give it a try. In the meantime, I hope you try one of these dishes for your Thanksgiving. Let me know what you think!

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Arroz con Pollo

I’ll never forget my first business trip to Miami because I left with so many vivid memories because I was able to visit with Michelle and her family. Michelle (Mimi) is Lauren’s best friend and godmother to both of our kids, so that’s makes her like double-family to us. Anyway, Mimi is a mutt like me – she’s Cuban-Austrian-French-American and I am Hungarian-Brazilian-American. And like me, her Latin side dominates because her family's ties to Cuba are strong and recent.

So there I was in the early 1990s, living in Atlanta and Mimi was in Washington and by coincidence we both ended up in Miami at the same time. For her, that always means she gets to visit with her (very Cuban) family. Long story short – I went with her to visit her cousins René and Cristina, Renecito and Christopher and Aunt Inés (Tia Piti). And much to my delight, Cristina made the most delectable arroz con pollo (Cuban chicken with rice) I’d ever eaten.

The food had so many layers of flavor, and then to wash it down with a beer was just the perfect pairing. Cristina later confided to me that she puréed carrots and celery so the boys would not realize they were eating vegetables and her “secret ingredient” is beer. The happiest development here is that this is one of those one-pot meals that’s so easy that it has become a regular favorite here at home.

So here is another great dish that’s easy-peasy and yummy and nutritious. Give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Ingredients1.5 pounds of chicken
2 cups of rice
1 large onion diced (or 1 package of frozen diced onions)
6 celery stalks
4 carrots
1 pinch of saffron (.014 oz or appx. 20 filaments)
1 chicken boullion cube
2 cans of Swanson chicken broth
1 beer
1 tbsp olive oil

Start by dicing the chicken meat. The chicken can be either white meat or dark meat. We usually just buy boneless chicken breasts (1 package), but you can make this dish with boneless thigh meat, too. Either way, either buy it boneless or remove the bones (I just think it’s annoying to have to pick out bones from your food).

Drizzle the olive oil in the bottom of the pot and sauté the onions until they are transparent. When the onions are done, add the chicken, stir it all together and cook it on a low flame. While the chicken cooks slowly, start dicing and slicing the celery and carrots.

Once the chicken is cooked, crumble the boullion cube and stir it into the chicken-onion mixture. Then add the beer and bring it to a boil. Add the carrots and celery as a layer on top of the chicken and let the chicken stew slowly in the beer on a low flame while the carrots & celery get steamed and drip their vegetable goodness onto the chicken.

After about 10 minutes of stewing & steaming, stir the celery-carrots into the chicken so it’s all mixed together. At this point, sprinkle the saffron into the pot and stir it in. Rinse the rice and then put that into the pot and stir it all together. Add the chicken broth and then cover the pot to bring it all very slowly to a boil.

Cook it about 10 minutes or so (as long as it takes for the rice to cook), and then stir it all together. Even after the rice has cooked, there still should be a little liquid left in the pot, so cover it and let it cook a little longer and stir occasionally so that it’s not soupy but is still very moist (like the consistency of a risotto). Leave it covered and let it sit for a few minutes on the stove while all the flavors mingle.

Serve it family-style with big dollops on the plate. This is good stick-to-your-ribs food that's awesome on a chilly or rainy day. You can serve it with whatever side dish you like, but this is truly a full meal in a pot. It goes best with beer, but any white wine works fine, too.

A word about saffron:

Saffron is a rare spice that can be quite expensive because it comes from the stigmas in the little flowers of a little crocus native to Asia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron. Fortunately, you only need a little bit to make most dishes, including arroz con pollo. If you find saffron that does not seem more expensive than the other spices on the rack, it probably isn’t really saffron.

With that said, I found that the most reliable and reasonably-spiced saffron comes from a spice company in Miami called Badia. I discovered Badia when we lived in Tampa and the Publix supermarket chain started carrying their spices. All their spices are high quality and reasonably priced, but their saffron is 2-3 times cheaper than McCormick or other brands. This package is enough for a pot of arroz con pollo and it cost $4.99 at Publix. There are no Publix stores in North Carolina, so when I find one when I am traveling, I go in and stock up on saffron.

¡Buen provecho!

Lauren’s Potato-Leek Soup à la Julia

This soup is a perennial favorite with the kids, and it's very good to make on a rainy or cold day because it's so rich. There's enough substance in the bowl, so it's a meal by itself. If you'd like to pair it with other foods as a first course, try using smaller bowls, or simply serve it in smaller portions. At our house, this soup is usually the main event, so we've never actually paired this with other foods.

Ingredients
5 medium potatoes (appx. 4 cups diced)
2-3 large leeks (ends up appx. 4 cups diced)
3-4 cups of milk
1 cup of “Light” sour cream
1 package of pre-cooked bacon (15 slices)
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons of salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon ground pepper (or to taste)

Start by filling a large pot ½ full with water and getting it to boil. While that is heating, start prepping the ingredients. There is a specific way to prepare the leeks à la Julia and it's the only part of the recipe you should follow to a T. Like much of life, everything else is quite negotiable.

Leeks
Cut off the tops of the leeks right below where they start to fan out in its stalk-like leaves. Be sure to leave the roots on the leeks until after you wash them. What will be left is primarily the white part of the leek, along with some of the tender light-green part. Cut them in quarters, but not all the way down to the roots so they stay together while you fan them out to wash out the dirt. Do not skip this step because the dirt is a guarantee, but trust me – it is worth this little bit of extra work. No need to dry the leeks, so just chop off the roots at this point. Slice the quarters into half-inch pieces and drop them into the boiling water.

Potatoes
These are certainly much easier than the leeks, but still some work to peel them. Once peeled, chop and dice into 1-inch chunks and boil them with the leeks until the potatoes break apart with a fork (like making mashed potatoes). It usually takes them about 10-12 minutes to reach that point.

Here is where Lauren departs from Julia’s original recipe. Julia drains the leeks and potatoes and keeps the liquid and adds it back in to make the soup. Lauren simply drains them, puts them in a blender in batches with sour cream and milk and purees it until a rich, creamy consistency. Then pour each batch into the original pan until all of the leeks and potatoes have been pureed. Generally, it takes 2-3 batches with our standard-issue 6-cup blender.

Once the pureed soup is back on the stove, stir occasionally as it warms up and add salt & pepper to taste.

Serve it in bowls and crumple the bacon bits onto the soup, finishing with some shredded cheddar on top. Serve with warm bread and your favorite beverage.


Give this one a try and let me know what you think, especially if you think of a new way to prepare or serve it.

Bon appétit!

Feijoada: Brazilian Party-in-a-Pot

Feijoada (fay-ZHOO-ah-dah) is the national dish of Brazil – a country whose people are known far and wide as fun-loving and free-wheeling. Feijoada is delicious and nutritious and, when done right, it can take some time to prepare. It is associated with good times and having friends come over for lunch and go home at midnight, so for those two reasons, it’s almost always eaten on Saturdays.

[Side note: I lived off-and-on in São Paulo for a little over 2 years and I discovered that Paulistas eat feijoada on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I never got a good explanation for that oddity. Since most other Brazilians don’t understand Paulistas anyway, I’ll leave that one open for you all to share your theories about that one.]

So here is my attempt to share my short-cut ways to make a feijoada as quickly and easily as possible, while retaining the flavor (and having enough energy myself to join the party). Even this way, it’s a fair bit of work so plan on dedicating your Saturday morning to cooking and the rest of the day & evening to enjoying yourself.

Feijoada as a meal has 5 main components:
1. Feijoada - the bean and meat stew itself,
2. Rice
3. Couve (KOE-vee)
4. Farofa (FAH-raw-fah)
5. Fruit

1. Feijoada – work on this first so it slow-cooks while you work on the other dishes.

Ingredients:
1 big pot.
2 bags of dried black beans
1 smoked ham hock (it must be smoked or don’t bother)
1 ring of low-fat turkey sausage or low-fat polska kielbasa - Hillshire Farms or equivalent.
1.5 pounds of well-marbled beef (chuck steak is fine)
1 packet of frozen chopped onions (I LOVE this – no tears)
5 bay leaves
2 garlic cloves – minced or pressed
½ bunch of parsley – finely chopped

** The day before the feijoada (Friday night), hand-sort the beans to be sure there are no rocks or twigs in the bag. Then rinse them in a colander. Soak them overnight in 6 quarts of water. Make sure your pot can hold at least 8 quarts and if not, you might cut this recipe in half and simply have a smaller meal/party, but that would be sad so borrow a pot and do it right. And remember to invite the person who lent you the pot.

Start by slowly heating the pot to a slow boil. Put the bay leaves, the ham hock and chopped parsley into pot. While the big pot heats, cut the beef into small bite-sized pieces and remove all big pieces of fat. Brown the beef in a skillet and remove any liquid from the pan with a turkey baster so the meat gets a nice browning on all sides. Use cooking spray so it does not add any grease. Put the meat into the pot and add water so it covers everything.

In the same skillet, sauté the onions slowly until they are transparent. While the onions are doing their thing, slice the sausage into ¼ inch medallions, and then cut each piece again into fourths. Put the sausage pieces into the skillet and let them hear up with the onions. Then put the whole mixture into the pot.

Cover the pot and let it simmer slowly over several hours while you work on the other dishes. After a few hours, slowly take the ham hock out of the pot so that it does not fall apart in the pot. Put the ham hock to the side and when it cools down you can discard it.

2. Rice – use any kind of rice you like, but authentic Feijoada is eaten with long-grain white rice.

Ingredients:2 cups long-grain white rice
½ bag of frozen onions (save the other half for the couve)
1 Tbsp Olive oil
Salt to taste

I usually take the rice and rinse it with a strainer. Then I take the frozen onions and sauté it with a little olive oil them until transparent in a small pot. When the onions are ready, I put the rinsed rice grains into the pot and mix them around for a minute or two with the onion and oil so the flavors infuse the grains. When the sizzling sound dies down, add a few pinches of salt to taste and 4 cups of water, then bring it all to a boil.

When it reaches a boil, cover and reduce the heat until it stays at a gentle boil. Leave it covered about 15 minutes or so until the water is gone. Stir it with a fork so the onions get well mixed into the rice, cover it again and leave it alone until it’s time to serve.

3. Couve – That’s the Portuguese word for collard greens (KOE-vee), but it’s more fun to say than “collards” isn’t it?

Ladies who walk around saying “couve” can be mistaken for Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, and guys can be mistaken for WorldCup Soccer Star KaKá, so why not add it to your vocabulary?

Ingredients:1 8-oz bag of frozen collard greens
1 ½ bag of frozen chopped onions
1 Tbsp olive oil
½ bunch of fresh parsley
There is a way to prepare couve from fresh collard greens so they do not become bitter, and my mom has told me several times how to do it and I can never remember, so do what I do – use frozen collard greens! The frozen collards have never gone bitter on me, so it works.

Sauté the onions with the olive oil in a skillet slowly until transparent. At that point, add the parsley and stir. Then add the frozen collards and stir while they thaw and cook. Don’t worry if the collards are already thawed – let it cook either way. Cooking time after the collards hit the pan is probably only 5 minutes. Once cooked, turn off the flame and you can leave it in the pan covered until it’s time to serve it all.

If you need the pan, just put the couve into a serving dish – it will keep fine while you work on the farofa. Remember to go back and stir the feijoada pot gently from the bottom occasionally so the bottom doesn’t burn and be careful not to break apart the ham hock.

4. Farofa – this is a quintessentially Brazilian garnish that is often prepared and served with other dishes. It’s awesome even on its own.

Ingredients:16 oz bag of manioc flour
1 bag of frozen chopped onions
¼ cup of olive oil
2 large eggs
½ cup of peanuts (can be substituted – see below)
Farofa begins with farinha de mandioca (manioc flour), which might be hard to find outside of NJ, MA or FL, but it’s worth searching for. Ask around where you can buy Brazilian food products and you’ll find mandioca.

Take a bag of frozen chopped onions and sauté over a medium flame in a deep skillet with the olive oil until transparent. Next, crack the eggs into a measuring cup and whip it with a fork, then set the egg mixture aside until you need it in a few moments.

Add the manioc flour to the onion-oil mixture little-by-little and stir with a spatula as it all gets integrated. Stir over the medium flame while breaking up clumps and letting the whole mixture take on a “toasted” consistency.

Clear away the center of the skillet and slowly pour the egg little by little into the clearing and immediately add the flour-onion mixture into the egg. The egg should end up like thin wisps in the mixture like the egg in egg-drop soup. Repeat the process until the whole egg is gone. Keep the flame on medium and keep stirring.

The last part is to let the whole mixture get very hot (but be careful not to burn it) and then add the peanuts. Stir as needed, then transfer to a serving bowl and serve it fresh and hot.

Farofa is as individual as the maker, so peanuts are a particular favorite of Lauren’s and it was a natural for me to make it this way. Some people put chopped green olives in the farofa, and others use raisins, bacon, thin-sliced carrots, a combination – whatever strikes your fancy. Whatever you use should not be large chunks or dominate the farofa in any way, but instead it should add a subtle layer of flavor.

Again, remember to go back and stir the feijoada pot occasionally so the bottom doesn’t burn.

5. Fruit

Serve the whole meal with orange slices or banana. Some people claim the oranges “cut the grease” or “minimize the gas” from the beans. I am not sure either one is the case, but it’s a common way to eat feijoada. It also adds an interesting taste to the overall dish. The fruit is a garnish.

How to serve and eat feijoada:

Even though feijoada is also served in fine restaurants on Saturdays, it is essentially a family-and-friends dish, so serve it up family-style. Take the pots directly to the table and ladle out directly onto your dish.

It’s okay to separate the couve, farofa and fruit, but the feijoada should be served on a bed of rice and not side-by-side with the rice. Even Paulistas know enough to eat it that way.
[Note to my Paulista friends: You know that even the son of a Carioca can't resist a jab or two every once in a while. Alas, my heart has always belonged to Rio...]
Remember that feijoada is not a mere meal, so you have to invite several friends over to enjoy it with you. You will also need lots of music and cold drinks. Choose your favorite beverage, or try caipirinhas – the national drink of Brazil and the first post on this blog. Whatever it is, serve it cold and make sure you don’t run out.

As you might imagine, feijoada is a complex, savory dish with many textures that can be quite heavy. The main issue is that it’s so delicious that almost everyone overdoes it, which is how it turns into a day-long event. Inevitably, everyone moves to the room that has the comfy couches, but the music and laughter continues and the cold drinks keep getting poured and before you know, it’s already midnight.
Don’t resist having seconds and letting it all morph into an event - hosting a feijoada at your house is quite wonderful. Share your feijoada stories with a comment or two below.
Enjoy!

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Lauren's Creamy Pesto

Here is a wonderful recipe for folks who like the taste of pesto, but don't like the all the oil in it. My dear wife, Lauren, is one such person, so she set about making her own version of pesto that's less oily. It turned out that her pesto is creamier in texture and taste, and is therefore more versatile. It has now become a perennial favorite. We've had skeptics at our table - both young and old go gaga over this recipe, so I think it's worth sharing.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of fresh basil leaves gently compacted (about 40 - 50 leaves). Here's where you cannot substitute - please do not bother with dried basil. It has to be fresh leaves.
• 1/2 cup of pine nuts (yes - you can use walnuts in a pinch)
• 8 - 10 oz. parmesan cheese in a wedge (can use romano as a subsitute or half-half romano & parmesan)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 Tbsp of olive oil
• 1 cup of milk (we use 2% - just use whatever you have in the fridge)

Blend in a food processor, beginning by grating the chesse. Then add the basil leaves and olive oil, and follow with the garlic and pine nuts. Don't panic if you mix the order up, it will probably taste fine no matter what order you use, but that order works for us. No matter what order you use for the first ingredients, always end with the milk.
Add the milk directly to the food processor little by little and taste along the way. Do not add all of it if you've gotten to the desired consistency with less milk than a whole cup. Feel free to add more basil or cheese if that strikes your fancy. We've found that more than 2 cloves of garlic overpowers the other flavors and if we add more of anything, it's usually the basil leaves.
We usually serve this pesto as a sauce to go over grilled chicken breasts. It can also be used to make pesto pasta. pesto risotto and simply spread over crackers.

Useful tips:

• For storage, use saran wrap to press onto the surface of the pesto inside the tupperware. Like guacamole, this pesto will turn brown with long-term contact with air (even on the inside of a tupperware). Smothered with saran wrap, it can keep for a week in your fridge.
• Most pesto recipes provide for being made with either pine nuts or walnuts. Once we even made this with marcona almonds from Costco and it came out okay.

Let me know what you think!