Recent Foodsville Recipes by Pinckney

Chicken with Forty - or more -cloves of Garlic

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:59:23

This is a variation on the Classic printed in the 1967 Gourmet Magazine brought to my attention by foodist Seamus Muldoon and elaborated on under the original posting. The priciple differences are the addition of carrots and Vermouth and the omission of browing the chicken before cooking. THE COOKING TIME IS APPROXIMATE. The color of the sauce will make most people think you made it tomatoes, but none are involved.

Borscht - Beet Soup - I think

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:35:28

This is how I remember the recipe in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" You might want to look it up if you have the book. It is very simply and VERY satisfying. I like it cold, although I understand it is sometimes served hot. I think of Borsct as nothing but beets and onions, but I read it is sometimes made with beef. I always serve sour cream and chives or chopped green onions with it, but it does no harm if you don't have those. I like Bittman's use of hot baked/boiled/roasted small potatoes on the side. Bread is nice too, but the potatoes are sort of special.

You can add some ginger and garlic if you like. It doesn't do it any harm and some like it. You can use plain water or chicken stiock, vegetable stock or beef stock. The neat thing is, it doesn't need a lot done to it to be a wonderful soup.

Many recipes use carots, celery, tomatoes and potatoes in the soup. Ehhh! maybe, but this is hard to beet and has the ring of autheticity about it.

Serves 4 - 6.

Counter intuitive Salmon with Duxelles jacket

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:13:10

Since Salmon has become ubiquitous and is acknowledged as good for us we all probably eat lots of it. It's a fish that's hard to screw up, probably environmentally friendly enough in the farm raised version, but when you have it often and it's broiled, baked and poached in the usual ways, it can get to be old hat. I love the stuff just about anyway it's made, but the other day thought to try a variation on my usual method.

Bake/broil being easy and relatively odor free is one of my favorite methods and usually I butter saute finely chooped vegetables - a carrot, a half an onion, a rib of celery and some herbs - whatever I have really - and coat the fillet with that, a little fresh squeezed lemon juice and maybe a bit of butter, bake it Canadian Method (ten minutes to the inch or less- never more) and then flash broil it for a moment to brown up the coating.

This method is foolproof, but I wanted to do something else and I had a box of mushrooms and so ... did the following. I sauteed finely chopped mushrooms, finely chopped shallots, a little chopped celery, salt and pepper in butter and oil until everything softened and the mushrooms had given up their water and dried out. This is pretty much just a duxelles. I let that mixture cool and mixed in some Helman's Mayo and pasted the fillet with this, squeezed on the lemon juice, a few pats of butter and baked it with a flash broil (about one minute) at the end.

It makes an elegant and unexpected nice piece o' fish.

Musical Fruit, Modified and eaten on a cold winter night

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:29:09

This is from Fergus Henderson's "The Whole Beast, Nose to Tail Eating" and is somewhat modified. By modified, I mean I left out the pig foot and the stock made therewith. He also uses two pounds of Navy beans to feed four. I love beans, but a half pound per person is just a bit over the top for me. The bacon/pork in this recipe will turn into a meltingly tender piece of flesh. The squemish, fat avoiders might try to separate the fat from the meat and push it aside. There is no help for them; they know not what they are missing.

In truth, if you are avoiding fats or feeding people who are, you should probably avoid this dish all together. It's loaded and while it could be made without the fats, it would be something else entirely. This is where I think naturally raised pigs come into their own with healthier - and way tastier - fat than factory pork. It's a relative thing, I guess. I have, heart attack and all, pretty much given up on avoiding all fat and try to eat healthier ones and that includes animal fats from pastured, corn denied animals.

This isn't a side dish. It's dinner. If a green vegetable is required, make a salad. Bread would make for a carb overload. It requires no salt whatsoever.

Mama's SC Oyster Pie/Dressing

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:20:27

I do not know where this comes from. Because my mother made it for Christmas and Thanksgiving I usually think it is found in The Charleston Receipts Cookbook put out by the Junior League of Charleston, SC, but it isn't. It is very simple and if you have good ingredients, unbeatable. There are many much more involved and elaborate versions of this dish, but I don't know that they add anything to the basic recipe. Some include celery, eggs, onions, anise, milk, cream, potatoes, bacon and various liquors. Use them if you want, but this is the basic, close to the ground real good thing.

Using a two and a half pints of largish Western oysters and the crumbs from an Eli's Tuscan loaf, this served eleven with not a single crumb left . Everyone got a bit.

NEVER go more than two layers of oysters. It won't cook evenly.

If you shuck your own oysters, be careful to remove any shell fragments. This applies to oysters you buy from the store as well. Almost inevitably you will find a fragment of shell in even the most expensive, processed oysters. It is incredibly uncomfortable to grind teeth on a shell shard.

Duck Rillettes from "fat - AN APPRECIATION OF A MISUNDERSTOOD INGREDIENT, WITH RECIPES"

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:18:30

The following is as close a copy of the recipe as I can produce with limited typing skills. The book has a recipe for Spanish Style Pork Rillettes, too. The recipe page says that this recipe/technique works as well for goose and rabbit. "For rabbit use about a pound/450 g of pork belly for every 1 1/2 lb /700g of rabbit, add thyme and marjoram for flavoring and omit the orange."
A couple of pages further on there is a recipe for "Duck Fat Biscuits with Cracklings". That's right before the "Duck Comfit" Oh. My.

Not your everyday tuna fish

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:15:25

This is straight from Marcela Hazen's, Marcella's Kitchen.

Tuna spread with capers.
"A painter friend who is as gifted a cook as he is an artist asked me to have tea with him at a smart new Italian place on Madison Ave. With tea we had little soft rolls with a buttery spread. My friend marveled over the spread, asked what it was and could I get him the recipe. 'But it's so simple,' I said. 'It's just good canned tuna beaten with butter and capers.' 'Why have you never put it in a book?' he asked. 'It's so simple that I paid no attention to it.' I explained, 'but if you like it that well, I'll put it in my next book.' This is that book. The recipe is for Hector"

I make this somewhat regularly these days for small gatherings, when asked to do something as a house guest and sometimes just to have around. Marcela says if you put it in the refrigerator, bring it back to room temeprature before serving it. She likes to serve it already spread on crackers or bread. That's fine, but I usually let people help themselves. They start out light, like it, go to a heavy dollop and realize that's it's pretty rich and come back to a self regulated reasonable amount until it runs out. She allows as how it makes "a memorable tuna spread for sandwiches." It does, indeed, do that.

Fruit Cobbler EASY and the time is right

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:48:29

    This recipe is straight from the Food Network and can be found here.
    However, if you don't do links it is reproduced below. With fruit being so available right now there won't be as better time to make this although we sometimes make it with frozen fruit in the winter.
    A niece made it on Edisto Island and it was great. I messed with the recipe in NY and I shouldn't have. I substituted maple syrup for one of the cups of sugar and that made it too runny and I didn't have self rising flour so used King Arthur White Whole Wheat. The cobbler part was a bit dense and heavy as a result. I did add some blue berries to the peaches at the last moment and that was a happy addition as were the few remaining fresh figs. I did NOT peel the peaches and everything was good with that.

Deer Tenderloin

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:53:27

Not everyone has access to venison and for those who don't, this could be done with beef. I am fortunate to have a ready supply of deer meat. Many people find venison dry and tough and sometimes gamey. If it's gamey, it probably wasn't handled right and something was cut that shouldn't have been, but there is really no excuse for it to be dry or tough. Venison is beyond lean so attention must paid and the cooking time carefully monitored. Cooking just a little too long will flash the meat over to well done and a few seconds longer and you have tough.

The deer we get in SC are small by most standards. The tenderlons are really small. A small deer might give you a pair of tenderloins that weigh - between the two - a little less than a pound. It goes without saying that tenderloins are not loins. Loins are bigger and a bit tougher in a relative sense. If you have the bigger loins, this would work nicely, too; just pay attention to the internal temperature.

Farmer's Market Tomato Salad

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:44:01

This is a sort of universal Tomato Salad. You can modify it with whatever you happen to have at hand, herb wise, but it is only really worth making when the tomatoes are local, vine ripened and taste like tomato fresh fruits. You can use cubed mozzarella cheese or not. It can sometimes make for a bulkier, more filling dish and it doesn't detract from the salad; you might not always want to use it, though. Certainly the salad is lighter without it. In keeping with the premium quality of the tomatoes, use your best oil, garlic and what not.

The garlic will get stronger the longer it sits so you don't want to make this very far ahead of time unless you are going to use it the next day in a bread salad. If you are -DON'T ADD THE BASIL until the next day when you are going to make the bread salad because the basil will turn black.

Summer ONLY Tomato Sauce - Madelines way

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:48:03

This is a very nice fresh, easy sauce for summer time when the basil is getting tall and the tomatoes are fresh and local. If you can find local garlic, use that as well. If you live in California you can even use local olive oil. We don't have any that I am aware of on the east coast.
Ingredient amounts are impresise as this is a very casual dish and you can't hardly get it wrong - unles you substitute 10w30 for the olive oil and use canned tomatoes from the local odd lot store. EVERYTHING HAS TO BE FRESH. It isn't something you can do in December. Don't try unless you live in deepest Mexico or the like. Make it off season and you will be disappointed. Promise.

FDR's Martini

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:03:31

I know a lovely woman who says that when she lays dying she wants someone to give her a freshly lighted Marlboro. I want one of these Martinis.... and a cheese straw made with sharp cheddar and cayenne.

Somewhere I read that this is how Franklin Roosevelt made his Martinis and when he served one to Joseph Stalin, the premier didn't like it, saying it was, "Cold on the stomach". It sounds like he spilled it down his shirt front. The recipe is unusual today in that it is made from equal parts Gin and Vermouth. This is probably closer to the drink's origin, the claims to which are clouded and confused.

My venerable old mixology book recommended Martinis be made in a 7:1, Gin to Vermouth ratio, but I thought to try FDR's version and found it to be a very fine, aromatic, clean and tasty cocktail. It should be noted that cocktails mixed on ice have water in them. Water is part of the drink and while a Martini on the rocks isn't to my taste, neither is a Martini that manages to exclude ice melt in the mixing.

Cocktails have changed a great deal over the last fifty years or so. When film stars and publishing giants were knocking them back at three Martini lunches a Martini was a two to three ounce cocktail in a three and a half ounce stemmed glass; hardly worth the barman's time today. At home the smack was made by the pitcher one round at a time to be consumed very cold a little bit at a time. Watch Nick and Nora mix and drink a pitcher in a Thin Man movie and you will see what I mean. Today, a Martini is understood to be an enormous amount of straight up alcohol, usually Vodka or maybe Vodka touched with a breath of Vermouth. Todays standard SUPERSIZED Martini would have served Nick and Nora Charles for much of an evening. The idea was to have several rounds each made fresh, consumed ice cold so as not to go all drunk on the first one or have it get warm while being nursed along.

There is nothing wrong with drinking chilled Gin or Vodka, but one isn't drinking a Martini even if it has an olive. It isn't a cocktail at all; it's a glass of cold alcohol with a piece of fruit. There's a place for this, for sure; just, please, don't call it a MARTINI.

A twist of lemon peel adds much to the finished drink.

Now's the time - Small (Baby Artichokes)

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:57:02

Now's the time - I think this comes mostly from the box that baby artichokes come in. The small artichokes are all over the place right now in clam shell packages and loose in bins. So - get hold of a dozen or so little-tiny-small-as-you-can-find baby artichokes. They make a nice spring treat like the fiddle head ferns.

Deviled Crabs from Charleston Receipts

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:25:50

There are four recipes for Deviled crabs in The Charleston Receipts and five more for casseroles, souffles and so on. All four are variations on the following,

"Quickly prepared and eaten.... Mix 1 pound crab meat with one cup mayonnaise (a commercial brand may be used); season with juice of 1 lemon, 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce, 1 tablespoons chopped parsley, hot sauce, salt and pepper. put in shell, cover with buttered crumbs, bake in 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Fills 6 to 8 large crab shells. Mrs R. Barnwell Rhett (Virginia Prettyman) "

Thirty minutes at 400 is a long hot time. We usually cook for less because the crab has been cooked to make picking possible. The above ingredients are in all four versions, but variations and additions include butter, some milk, prepared mustard, chopped eggs, sherry ... sometimes, crushed saltines are specified instead of bread crumbs....

Another Poulet au Vinaigre from the Hess's taste of America

pinkney@meadandmikell.com — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:41:23

This recipe is found on page 180 of The Taste of America. It isn't really poulet au vinaigre, but a variation on it as given by Fernand Point and translated by the Hesses. It has tomato concentrate in it.

"Cut up a chicken and saute' it in butter. When nicely browned and almost done, throw in a little finely chopped garlic. Deglaze with a good glass of wine vinegar, reduce, moisten with four tablespoons white wine, again allow to reduce and moisten with a little consumme' and a little tomato concentrate. Decant, skim and add fines herbs, tarragon, parsley and a good chunk of butter (and more vinegar if it is not highly enough seasoned) at the monment of serving. (Our translation)"