November Cook Book Club- James Beard

We have had over a year of Cook Book Club and I am so proud. Covering everything from Southern to Thai food, we have done brunch and dinner and next year there will be a guys night. The theme for this one was mid-century standard American fare a la James Beard. On the menu: baked clams with bacon, garlic soup,beef stroganoff, stuffed bell peppers, and chocolate souffle.

Foundation of the garlic soup - vampire insurance.

We have so many James Beard cookbooks. YOINK! Robby here. Cook Book Club is good when there's leftovers for the menfolk. I'll finish this post up right.

Baked clams with bacon. Coralie made these I think, and they were really good. Duh, there's bacon on it.

The ladies of Cook Book Club. They look sweet in this picture, but they are a rowdy bunch. Don't be fooled by the optic trickery. I was upstairs watching the kid and the ladies were shrieking, laughing and dropping the F-bomb. Sounded like fun, but you know, I tried to remain in the background.

Upper Fells Point Tortilleria & Wild Mushroom Enchiladas with Ancho Chili-Cream Sauce

I am very lucky to live where I do. I am only blocks from the harbor and downtown but I live in a quiet part of the city right near Patterson Park. I love to walk to restaurants, Whole Foods, and the Farmer's Market. One thing that is very special to me and my family is the Tortilleria on Eastern Ave in Upper Fells Point. Every Day they make a massive amount of fresh corn tortillas mostly for the large Hispanic population who lives in the neighborhood, but also for us lucky neighbors who have discovered the irreplaceable freshness and authenticity of their tortillas and chips.

They come wrapped in paper and are weighed by the kilo with one kilo costing about $2.00. I use them for everything including just a snack. Most recently I made a unique memorable enchilada dish from Epicurious. It sounds a little unconventional, which it is, but after you make it you will see that is easy and will soon become a staple in you repertoire. Enjoy!

Wild Mushroom Enchiladas with Ancho Chili-Cream Sauce

Bon Appétit | June 1997

• 2 cups water
• 2 dried ancho chilies
• 4 large garlic cloves, peeled

• 2 cups whipping cream
• 4 teaspoons fresh lime juice

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 12 ounces fresh wild mushrooms (such as oyster and/or stemmed and sliced shiitake and portobello)
• 5 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
• 6 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 medium tomatoes, seeded, chopped
• 1 small avocado, pitted, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

• 8 6-inch-diameter corn tortillas

Preparation

Bring 2 cups water to boil in small saucepan. Remove saucepan from heat, add chilies and soak 30 minutes. Drain chilies, reserving 6 tablespoons soaking liquid. Cut stems off chilies. Cut chilies open. Scrape out seeds and discard. Combine chilies, 6 tablespoons reserved soaking liquid and garlic in blender and puree until smooth.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine cream and chili puree in heavy large skillet. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer 3 minutes. Whisk in lime juice. Season with salt. Strain sauce; return to skillet. (Sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

Melt butter in another heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and mushrooms and sauté until onion is translucent and mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Add cheese, cilantro, tomatoes and 3 tablespoons cream sauce. Simmer until just heated through, about 4 minutes. Stir in avocado. Season filling with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Bring remaining cream sauce to simmer over low heat. Cook 1 tortilla in cream mixture until softened, turning to coat, about 15 seconds. Carefully transfer tortilla to baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Cover remaining sauce and keep warm. Spoon generous 1/3 cup filling down center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas, enclosing filling completely. Arrange seam side down on same baking sheet. Cover enchiladas with foil.

Bake enchiladas until heated through, about 10 minutes. Transfer to plates. Spoon some sauce atop each. Serve, passing any remaining sauce separately.

Penne with Green Beans and Goat Cheese

So I have a pasta problem. I love it. It is important that I try new things including potatoes, and rice as far a starch goes, but I have a hard time passing up pasta. I also have a small obsession with Gordon Ramsey, although I only own one of his books, I have seen all the TV shows including the ones from the UK. In this case I had green beans in the fridge that had to be used so of course this pasta recipe was perfect. It is best eaten freshly made so the the cheese and butter don't separate when you reheat it. But it is so tasty that you and a few friends will have no trouble finding the bottom of the bowl.

Penne with Green Beans and Goat Cheese
Adapted from Gordon Ramsey's Fast Food

10 oz penne
Salt and pepper
6 tbls butter
1 red chili, seeded and minced
1 rosemary sprig leaves chopped
9 oz. green beans trimmed, and sliced on the diagonal to 1 inch length
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
5 oz. goat cheese
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

Boil a large pot of salted water and add pasta. Cook until al dente.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large pan, add the chili and rosemary and heat over low heat for 2 minutes. Turn up the heat and add the beans, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring until tender but not too soft.
Drain the pasta and toss with a little olive oil, then mix with the beans. Take the pasta off the heat and mix in the cheese. Season with salt and pepper and top with the pine nuts.

I Heart New York

Last weekend my brother Christopher, sister Michelle, and husband Robby and I took what I hope will be an annual trip to Manhattan to visit my other brother Donnie. And what a great time we had.

We drove up Saturday evening and met Donnie at Manhattan Motor Cars where he works. He was a few minutes late so I wasted no time in finding some good eats which happened to be one block away at a little convience store. I got coffee and samosas. One was Chicken which I had not tried before, I am used to just veggie. This is the first reason I love New York. It took me all of one block to find some cheap tasty eats. Not that everything is cheap, in fact most of it is ridiculously expensive but I will get to that later.

After an extensive and dreamy tour of the Bentley, Roles Royce, Lamborghini, etc. store we headed to the hotel to check in and change for dinner. Standing on the curb waiting for a taxi with no idea of where to go we started brainstorming. Did we want Italian, Mexican (Rosa Mexicana was great on the last trip) or maybe Sushi? Christopher chimed in for Sushi and then it was up to Donnie to pick the place. He decided on "Momo's" one of his favorites, and we were off.


When the taxi dropped us off and we walked into the restaurant I realized where we were. Morimoto's as in the Iron chef Morimoto. Now I am lucky enough to have eaten at one of his restaurants before in Philadelphia but this was even better. We went for it and ordered everything. Three appetisers, a Hugh plate of chef's sushi, and then entrees. I got the Duck Duck Duck which was perfect!

Oh, and the bathroom! I can't forget. Michelle tried to take a picture but I don't think it turned out. The toilets are those fancy $10,000 toilets with heated seat, spray, and blow dry for the down there parts. Crazy.

So we left full, "cleaned", and ready for more. Heading to the meatpacking district to do I don't know what. Donnie is always impressing me. We went to one of those fancy nightclubs I don't even know the name. There was a big line out front. We were inspected as Donnie talked to the man at the door. Then the rope opened and we were ushered in ahead of the beautiful New Yorkers waiting in the cold. I don't remember much from that part of the trip and I am definitely not sharing the pictures so lets skip ahead to the next day.


Get up, take Advil, drink lots of water, and shower. That is how the morning went. Then off to find food. Donnie the ever improving food host took us to a cheese shop where I got Speck (one of my favorite). This sounds funny for the first thing in the morning but it was followed by pastries from a shop down the street. Wonderful.

The day was spent shopping in Soho until we were hungry again and headed to The Spotted Pig for what was supposed to be one of the best hamburgers in NY. And it was. We waited for a little while but it was totally worth it. A blend of beef topped with Gorgonzola and placed on a flavorful grilled bun. It was so tender. I can't wait until there cookbook comes out so I can find the secret. (I asked the waitress they are working on it now)

Full again and getting late we left so our car would not turn back into a pumpkin and headed back to Maryland. Thank you Donnie, Robby, Christopher, and Michelle for a great night. Lets do it again soon.

Linguine with Clams it's whats for dinner.

The adult portion...

and the two year old portion.

So believe it or not I love Costco clams. They are cheap, fresh, and so tasty. They are farmed, but for a recipe like this where garlic and chilies play a big role the clams work perfectly. I got over 50little neck clams for under twenty dollar. I used half of them for this recipe and half will be for something new tomorrow night. Wash them well and check for any dead clams before starting.

Linguine with Clams

1 cup water
24 little neck clams
5-6 garlic cloves
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
3/4 pound fini linguine
1/2 cup shopped parsley
salt

Bring the cup of water to a boil and drop in the clams, cover, and steam until the clams open.

Remove the clams to a plate with tongs reserving then straining the liquid with cheese cloth into a bowl. Remove the clams from their shells and coarsely chop them.

Meanwhile heat the garlic in the olive oil over medium heat. When it starts to sizzle turn the heat down to low and cook for 15 minutes so the oil is infused with the garlic. Add the red pepper and oregano and heat on low for 4 more minutes. Add the strained clam juice and turn up to boil cooking until reduced by half.

While the sauce cooks boil water and cook the pasta one minute less than recommended. Drain pasta and return to the pot adding sauce, clams, parsley, and salt to taste cook one more minute on low. Toss and serve.

Anticipation Blog

Here is a quick note about this coming Thursday and the rest of the week for that matter. I have been invited to a food blogger's dinner at Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore by Liz and Nathan Stambaugh who write "What's to Eat Baltimore?". I am very excited about this not only because I have not eaten at Woodberry, (where I plan on ordering; Baked Stuffed Clams Roasted green chile, bacon, bread crumbs, then Brick Oven Roasted Chicken Bread salad, peaches, almonds, tuscan kale, and if there is room Buttermilk Panna Cotta Cinnamon thin, rhubarb gumdrop, blackberries,) but I am excited that my blog is helping me to make new friends. I love food people, they are fun, interesting, opinionated, and there is usually something good to eat around them.

I also have Cook Book Club on Friday. We will be using The Herbal Kitchen by by Jerry Traunfeld and John Granen. My assignment is apps, and I have chosen the warm figs stuffed with bacon and goat cheese (mouth watering yet?). My week is looking good and it might end with a tomato canning day on Sunday. I will take as many pictures as possible and report back soon. Oh, and I need a name for my Cook Book Club which has been meeting for over a year now so any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

This recipe was original published in Bon Appetit Aug 2007. For my birthday this year I received a bag of unusually spices from my brother Donnie who lives in New York City and is lucky enough to have access to all kinds of products that I can't get in Baltimore. I pulled out one of the more common items the Madras Curry and looked up this recipe. Madras Curry usually contains more chilies than a other Curry's but the combination of the spice and the cucumber raita was wonderful. Give this recipe a try it was simple and really good. I served it with Jasmine rice and Indian Poppadoms which are the chips you get when eating at Indian restaurants. I found them at Whole Foods, they added an authenticity to the meal. Sorry for not having any pictures...it was so good that we ate it before I could get the camera out.

Raita is India's signature yogurt and vegetable condiment. This one would also be good on pita or naan.

Curried Trout with Chutney and Cucumber-Melon Raita

Bon Appétit | August 2007

The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen

1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1/3 cup diced unpeeled English hothouse cucumber
1/3 cup diced peeled cantaloupe
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint, divided
2 large (8- to 9-ounce) trout fillets with skin
4 tablespoons mango-ginger chutney
2 teaspoons Madras curry powder
1/3 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter

Preparation

Mix first 3 ingredients in small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons mint; season generously with salt and pepper. Chill raita while preparing trout.

Place trout fillets, flesh side up, on platter or baking sheet. Brush each with 2 tablespoons chutney, covering top completely. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sprinkle each fillet with 1 teaspoon curry powder. Sprinkle almonds evenly over fish; press very firmly to adhere.

Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add fish, almond side down, and cook until browned on bottom, about 4 minutes. Carefully turn fish over and sauté until cooked through, replacing any dislodged almonds, about 4 minutes. Transfer fish to plates; sprinkle remaining mint over. Spoon raita alongside.

Breakfast Johnnycakes

So I woke up this morning looked in the fridge and discovered about a cup of uncooked corn kernels left over from a recipe last week. Since it was breakfast that I was looking for I decided to incorporate them into this basic johnnycakes recipe. They are fast, simple, and a great change from pancakes and waffles made with regular flour. You could either pour syrup over them (maple please, none of that corn syrup crap) or just eat them with butter and jam. The one I ate was right out of the pan, plain, it was great. They should warm up nicely in the toaster, but my husband Robby will be the tester of that theory tomorrow before work.
Fresh Corn Johnnycakes

2 1/2 cups fine ground corn meal
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 cup fresh corn kernels cup off the cob
2 1/4 boiling water

Mix the corn meal, salt, sugar, and corn together in a bowl. Then add the boiling water and mix well. Heat about 2 tbls of butter in a skillet until light brown and then turn the skillet to meadium low. Add 1/4 cup of the batter to the skillet for each cake pressing the top down a little to flatten the them. Cook for 6-8 mins on the first side or until brown. Turn them over and cook another 2-3 mins.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

What a great idea, I just had to join in on this list of 100 things every good omnivore should try.

Here are the instructions:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

I have also added a few notes next to some items and thanks to the lead of Chocolate and Zucchini Blogger Clotilde Dusoulier, where I actually found this list, and stared some of my favorites.
I was missing 24 items. Not bad considering I have so much traveling I want to do and I have not been cooking all that long.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison*
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros- I made this a few times for Robby for breakfast
4. Steak tartare- On honeymoon in Paris, it was much better than I expected
5. Crocodile- I don't know if it was crocodile or ailgator but I have had it a few time in Florida and also unfortuantly in Scranton, PA. Don't ask why.
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue*
8. Carp
9. Borscht- After a 3 day juice fast that included beet juice I really can't stand anything with beets in it anymore. To bad.
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari* I used to only like it fried but the grilled Calamari at Kali's Court in Fells Point is amazing so now I look for it grilled everywhere.
12. Pho*
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses*- I love pretty much any cheese.
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes- I worked in the wine indrustry for almost 5 years, I have tried some pretty crazy wine.
19. Steamed pork buns- Only in America, I can't wait to get to Asia.
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries*
23. Foie gras*
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters*- I made myself like them and now it has turned to love.
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut- Another Juice from the juice fast, but I still like it with Sausages.
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar- Although I prefer Armenac
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo- Bu tnever a great one, I still have time.
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk- My daughter Aveline drinks this instead of cow's milk.
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala- really good at the Himilayan House in Locust Point
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut- fresh and hot is best
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal- not a fan of the beef at McDonald's but unfortuantly I do like the chicken nuggets. I only let myself ge them about once a year.
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini*- Robby makes a great martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine- Can't wait to get back to Montreal
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores- I just made some last weekend with Peanut butter cups instead of chocolate while camping in PA.
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu- Robby loves it at the Korean resturant
77. Hostess Fruit Pie*
78. Snail- Too many in Paris
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef- Only the American Version never the realy stuff.
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab- I eat them whenever I can.
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano*
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta- I really want to learn how to make it the right way not the intant stuff.
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Blueberry Jam Picked and Preserved by Renee

Saturday was a beautiful day in Baltimore and since my hardworking husband was putting in overtime I took my daughter Aveline to a pick your own farm. We picked blackberries, blueberries, and over 20 pounds of peaches. By Sunday morning the blackberries were gone but I was determined to make the blueberries last so I made jam out of them. What a great idea because it intensified their flavor and I have preserved them in jars so they will last. As for the peaches, if I can hold back on eating all 20 pounds minus the two I have already consumed then they also might be giving me great happiness in January in the form of jam, chutney, preserves, or maybe ice cream thanks to my friend Coralie who has lent me her ice cream maker.

The blueberry jam could not be easier. I used 5 cups of cleaned and picked over blueberries to 3 cups of cane sugar. I mashed up the berries with my potato masher and cooked it all together on low heat for about an hour or until the mixture thickened.

Then using my new canning book I followed the instructions for cleaning the jars and lids, filled them with jam and sealed them in the hot water for about 20 mins. I am planning on doing this with some of the peaches and giving them away at Christmas.