America's Five Greatest Foodie Presidents

Who are America's most "foodie" presidents? The Village Voice rates them...but the jury is still out on President Obama!

Easy Tasty Salmon

We are getting down to the wire on moving to our new house. I've been sorting through all kinds of interesting "stuff." It’s amazing how much you can accumulate when you’ve been in a house for 25 years and have lots of spare closet and attic space.

So I’ve been working on dinners that don’t make a mess, or at least not much of one. Today’s recipe was serendipity: salmon filets that looked good at the market, with no real recipe in mind. To me, salmon and asparagus together seem to make a very spring-ish combination, so I picked up a bundle. Adding steamed and buttered new potatoes enhances the seasonal feel to the meal.

I cooked the salmon "en papillote," a French technique. I used the traditional parchment paper for the packets, but you can quite nicely use foil, sealed well around the edges.
Add a salad of your choosing and you have a great dinner....and all you have to wash are the dishes.

SALMON AND ASPARAGUS EN PAPILLOTE

2 6- to 8-ounce salmon filets, skin on
1/3 cup thick creamy Caesar dressing
8 stalks asparagus
A few sprigs fresh thyme (see note)
2 slices of lemon
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut two 12" square pieces of foil. Spray the dull side with cooking spray, or brush with oil. To one side of the center, put one filet on each, skin side down. Brush the tops with half the Caesar dressing. Trim the asparagus spears to about the same length as the salmon filets and arrange four on top of each. Brush with remaining dressing, top with lemon and thyme sprigs and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Fold the foil over and crimp the edges to seal all the way around. Place on a baking sheet. At this point you can put into the fridge for a few hours if you like. Take them out about 20 minutes before cooking.

Bake for 20 minutes. You can cut the packages open and move the salmon to a plate if you like, but I really like the burst of aromatic steam when you leave it in the packet to open at the table. Use a spatula to transfer to the plate. Serves two but can easily be multiplied to serve as many as you like.

Today is National Donut Day!

The donut is most certainly an American institution.  In my younger days, it was always a high point of the weekend when we would get donuts on Saturday mornings from our local bakery.  I'm not much of a sweet-eater, but there's something about the cream-filled ones with the glazed outside....  In honor of today's National Donut Day, MSN has posted Brett Stelka's list of the ten best donut shops in the country.   Alas, most are way off my beaten path, but if you're anywhere close to one of these, you  may want to give them a try!

Tunisian Inspired Pizza

Still working on emptying my freezer, I had taken a pound of ground lamb out, thinking we’d have grilled lamb-burgers for dinner. But we were out and about during the day and had burgers for lunch, so I needed to come up with something else.

Thinking of Tunisia, the country honored by this year’s Memphis in May Festival, I first thought I’d make some sort of pasta sauce, with North African flavors. I wound up, however, using another freezer find, a precooked pizza crust. And the results were delicious.

The recipe makes enough topping for two 12" crusts. If you only want to make one, the leftovers would freeze nicely for another time. Or you could do what I did: I used it to fill rounds of pie crust to make turnovers. I made little ones for appetizers, put them on a cookie sheet and froze them, then put them into plastic freezer bags. They bake quite nicely from frozen. Bigger ones would make an easy supper with a green salad.

TUNISIAN LAMB PIZZA

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1 lb. ground lamb
1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes (I prefer the fire roasted variety)
¼ cup golden raisins
1 tbsp. sugar
Finely grated zest and juice of one lemon
2 12" pre-baked pizza crusts
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 tbsp. fresh mint, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft, about five minutes. Add spices and stir a couple of times. Add the lamb and cook until no pink remains, breaking up clumps with a wooden spoon. Add the tomatoes, raisins and sugar, and simmer until thickened, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and zest. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spread half the mixture on each pizza crust. Sprinkle each with half the feta, then the mozzarella, then the pine nuts. Place on a baking sheet and bake until the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with the fresh mint and serve at once.

A trip down Memory Lane

One of the best parts of owning a food market was going to the Fancy Food Show in New York every summer. It was an opportunity to see new trends, sample new products and find new lines to carry. And to eat meals in restaurants offering cuisines not available in Memphis.

One of my favorites was Chez Jacqueline, just north of Houston (in New York pronounced "how-ston"), above the fashionable area known as Soho (South of Houston). Jacqueline was a charming and extremely outgoing French woman from Provence. I made a point of eating there each trip.

Last spring I went back to New York. It was my first time in several years, and Chez Jacqueline was on my must-do list. Unfortunately, Jacqueline had sold her restaurant, and it seemed to lack the warmth, charm and especially the crowded tables of the one I remembered.

One dish I loved in the old days there was a scallop dish, and I was able to come very close to reproducing it. Recently I had friends coming for dinner and I decided to make it again. It was just as good as I remembered. I used "U-10 dry" sea scallops, which you should be able to order from your market seafood department. Any size sea scallops will do but make sure they are dry, in other words, not processed, injected with a liquid preservative.

The smoky flavor of the chipotle Tabasco is important. Don’t use regular Tabasco. It won’t have that flavor, and is much much hotter than the chipotle variety.

I keep prepared pesto, either purchased or home-made, in the fridge all the time, but you can use 1/4 cup tightly packed fresh basil, pureed with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, to replace it.

I served it with rice pilaf and roasted asparagus. If you make the sauce and rice dish ahead, you can roast the asparagus while finishing the scalllops, so it’s a perfect dish for entertaining. Just don’t forget plenty of crusty bread to soak up the last of the sauce.

SCALLOPS JACQUELINE

Sauce:
¼ cup olive oil
1 large onion, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced
2 tbsp. garlic, finely minced
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes, with juices
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tbsp. chipotle Tabasco sauce
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup basil pesto
1/4 cup golden raisins

To finish:
1 lb. sea scallops
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
Chopped parsley for garnish

Make the sauce: in a large skillet, heat the oil and add the garlic, stirring for about 30 seconds. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until just starting to turn golden. Stir in the tomato and cook another minute or two. Add the orange and lime juices, chipotle Tabasco, cinnamon, basil pesto and raisins. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

When ready to serve, heat a skillet large enough to hold the scallops in one layer. Brush lightly with vegetable oil and add the scallops. Brown quickly, being careful not to overcook.

Reheat the sauce gently and put a pool of it on the plate. Top wit scallops and sprinkle with minced parsley.

Basque Shrimp: A Swimming Success!

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I went to visit his mother in Philadelphia, PA.  When we are up there, we try to find restaurants with cuisines not available in Memphis.  One evening we googled "tapas restaurant Philadelphia," and at random picked the closest to our hotel, Tinto.  As it turns out, it is owned by the newest American Iron Chef, Jose Garces.  What luck!

We had a wonderful meal of Spanish Basque area small plates.  One of the dishes we most enjoyed was "Lobster with Grapefruit-Vanilla Nage."   Garnished with Spanish smoked paprika croutons (called, in Spanish, "migas"),  it was delicious.

The French culinary term à la nage means "in the swim."  It refers to food, usually seafood, poached in a quickly simmered vegetable broth. called court bouillon, which means "short boil."   It is usually acidulated with vinegar, but at Tinto, grapefruit juice was used instead.  I didn’t think we’d all want to cook up a lobster, but I was pretty sure it would work with shrimp.

 Often in French cuisine the vegetables are served with the broth.  Although it wasn’t done at Tinto, when I served up my third and most successful attempt to my wine dinner group, I did serve the vegetables.

At the wine dinner we had it as a seated first course, but with addition of side dishes of rice pilaf and a salad it would make a light but tasty dinner.

Although it doesn’t take long to do, you can make the broth ahead of time and refrigerate for several days.  Bring up to a simmer for a few minutes before you poach the shrimp.

SHRIMP IN GRAPEFRUIT-VANILLA NAGE

Stock:
2 quarts vegetable stock (see note)
½ head of celery, including leafy greens, cut into 1" pieces, about 2 cups
1 bulb fennel, white and light green parts, sliced ¼" thick, reserving green lacy top for garnish
8 oz baby carrots (half a 1 lb. bag)
2 cups fresh grapefruit juice (must be fresh, not frozen or canned—trust me on this)
1 cup dry white wine
1 tsp. fennel seed, crushed
4 or 5 sprigs fresh thyme
4 bay leaves
1 tbsp. mixed whole peppercorns

To finish:

½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 lb. peeled and deveined shrimp (I used 16-20 per pound size)
4 oz. butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp. heavy cream
1 cup ready made large garlic croutons
1 tbsp. Spanish smoked paprika

Place all the stock ingredients in a non-reactive pan and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.  Remove bay leaves and thyme stems.
    When ready to serve, add the vanilla and bring to a simmer.  Add the shrimp and simmer until just barely done, depending on the size of the shrimp.
    With a slotted spoon divide the shrimp and vegetables among 8 warm flat soup plates.  To the broth, add the butter and cream.  For best results, use an immersion blender to emulsify the broth with the butter and cream.  If you don’t have an immersion blender, whisk vigorously until well blended.  Even if it doesn’t emulsify totally, it will still be delicious.
In a small bowl, toss the croutons with the smoked paprika.  Ladle hot broth over the shrimp and vegetables, garnish with the croutons and reserved fennel fronds and serve immediately. Serves 8 as a first course, or 4 to 6 as a main course with side dishes.

NOTE:  I use Better Than Bouillon stock pastes, available at most supermarkets, for my vegetable stock.  You can use vegetable bouillon cubes or packaged vegetable stock.  But the BTB will be far better!

Pot Roast for St Patrick's day...

I love pot roast. I know some think of it as only winter comfort food. But my mom made it frequently all year round, so I am not bound to that way of thinking. Recently a friend and I were talking about pot roasts and she said her mom made one with coffee, that it was an old "country" dish.

I got to thinking about it and decided to give it a try myself, but I wanted to add some sort of twist to it. Looking through my spirits cabinet, I spied a bottle of Bushmill’s Irish Whiskey. Aha! With St. Patrick’s Day coming, what better than an Irish coffee pot roast?

I used instant espresso for the coffee, because I like the darker roast flavor, but any instant coffee will do.

You might remember that I love those bags of prepared mirepoix you can now buy frozen: carrots, celery and onion, all chopped and ready to use. You can also get the same sized bag of little pearl onions.

You could, if you like, cook potatoes in with the pot roast, but I quite liked the mashed potatoes we had. I added zucchini (I mean really, you must have something green for St. Patrick’s Day!) brushed with balsamic vinaigrette and grilled on a stovetop grill pan. It made a delicious dinner for any kind of weather.

IRISH COFFEE POT ROAST

3 ½ to 4 lbs. boneless chuck or rump roast
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 bag (12 oz.) frozen mirepoix mix (see note)
½ cup Irish whiskey plus 2 tbsp. to finish
2 tbsp. all purpose flour
2 tbsp. instant espresso or instant coffee
2 cups beef stock
1 tsp. each ground black pepper and salt
2 bay leaves
1 large pinch ground cinnamon
1 bag (12 oz) frozen pearl onions
¼ cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350o. Pat the roast dry with paper towels. In a Dutch oven, over medium heat, brown the roast very well on all sides in the oil. Remove the roast to a plate.

Lower the heat a little. Add the mirepoix mix and cook, stirring frequently, until tender and just starting to turn golden brown. Add the whiskey. If you’re brave enough, stand back a bit and light with a match and shake the pan until the flames burn out. Otherwise, let it simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Whisk in the flour and stir for a minute or two. Whisk in the stock, bay leaves, salt, pepper and cinnamon. Return the roast to the pan, cover and bake for an hour. Add the pearl onions, and bake for 45 minutes to an hour more, or until the roast is fork tender.

Remove the pot roast to a carving board. Whisk in the sour cream and remaining two tablespoons of Irish whiskey. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Remove the bay leaves, Carve the roast into serving sized portions and put on a warmed platter with as many of the pearl onions as you can easily fish out with a slotted spoon. Drizzle with some of the gravy, passing the remaining gravy at the table. Serves 8.

NOTE: You can replace the frozen mirepoix mix with ¾ cup chopped onion, and ½ cup each chopped celery and carrot.

Carolyn's Shrimp Salad

If you’re a loyal reader of this blog you may remember a couple of recipes I’ve gleaned from the files of my dear friends Lewis and Carolynn Clark. One of the most popular was the gumbo recipe from Lewis’ mother a couple of years ago.

We were invited to a post-holiday gathering at their home and one of the appetizers was the best shrimp salad I’ve ever had. Carolynn said it was a Clark family favorite, but with a little cajoling, I got the recipe. If you’re a shrimp lover, I predict this will be one of your favorites.

ROYALE SHRIMP SALAD

3 lb raw shell-on shrimp
2 tbsp. Old Bay Seasoning
5 eggs, hard-cooked and peeled
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 ribs celery, minced
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 small shallots, peeled and minced
¼ cup sweet pickle, chopped
1 tbsp. juice from pickle jar
Juice and zest of half a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

In a Dutch oven, bring enough water to boil to cover the shrimp. Add the Old Bay seasoning. Drop in the shrimp and cook for 3 to 5 minutes (depending on the size) until just cooked through. Drain and let cool. Peel the shrimp and put into a food processor. Pulse two or three times. (Or chop finely by hand.)

In a large bowl, mash the egg yolks with the mayonnaise. Dice the egg whites and add with the shrimp and remaining ingredients and mix well. Add more mayonnaise if you like a looser shrimp salad. Cover and chill well.

For an appetizer, serve in tablespoons on crisp crackers or endive leaves. For a lovely luncheon dish or first course salad, serve scoops on a bed of lettuce, garnished with tomato slices and lemon wedges.  Makes appetizers for about 10, or salads for 6 to 8.

NOTE: With a considerable sacrifice of flavor you could use frozen pre-cooked shrimp. However, many supermarket seafood departments will steam shrimp for you now, in the seasoning of your choice. This would make this a really quick fix!

A Nostalgic Recipe...

 

My sister is a hopeless addict to garage sales. A few weeks ago we were both at home in Louisville at the same time, and she convinced me to go along with her to several. At one of them, there was a stack of old menus. Among them was one from the Fig Tree Restaurant, one of my favorite places to eat in the 70's in Louisville. Long gone now, it was an early innovator in both menu style and individual dishes. It had a set menu that changed each night. You could substitute a steak for the main course, but otherwise, you got what they were serving that night. Knowing what I know now about the food business, it was an incredibly ambitious undertaking.

One of my favorite dishes at the Fig Tree was a shrimp dish. I don't recall their name for it, and it wasn't on the menu I brought home, but I've made my version of this many times over the years. Recently I made it again for friends, who all pronounced it a worthy recipe to share with you.

The reduction is similar to that for béarnaise sauce, and includes chervil. This isn't the most common of herbs. In my opinion, it is under-rated and under-used. It makes a good addition to salad dressings, and is particularly nice in almost any potato salad recipe. Added to butter with lemon, it can be drizzled over grilled fish or chicken.

A suggestion: for herbs and spices you're not sure you're going to want to use over and over, go to Penzey's, on Poplar near Kirby Parkway. They sell almost everything in small packages. If you don't have chervil, you can leave it out of this recipe and it will still be very good.

I make it in individual baking dishes, but you can just as easily make it in one shallow casserole. I like to serve it on a bed of rice with mushrooms, with tomatoes topped with garlic breadcrumbs and baked. If you serve it with rice, you might want to double the sauce ingredients so you will have some to pass at the table.

FIG TREE SHRIMP

To start:
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon dried chervil
2 cloves garlic, very finely minced
1 shallot, very finely minced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

To finish:
1/4 cup butter
1 clove garlic, smashed
2 pounds raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
Minced parsley for garnish

Combine all the "to start" ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer until reduced by about half. In another pan, melt the butter with the clove of garlic in it. Remove the smashed garlic clove and add the wine reduction.

Preheat the oven to 350. Place the shrimp in one layer in a shallow baking dish. Pour the butter-herb mixture over the top and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the shrimp is just done.

A really good, tasty and economical soup!

When someone says "bouillabaisse," what come to most folks’ minds is the traditional fish soup of Marseilles with lots of fish and shellfish involved. But in traditional Provençal (Southern French) cooking, there are several varieties: eel, cod, snail, even chicken, or as in today’s recipe, poached egg.

This is a delicious, fast, easy and economical recipe. This is often known as "poor man’s bouillabaisse." According to Cuisine et Vins de France, a French culinary magazine, it is also known familiarly as "one-eyed bouillabaisse."

You shouldn’t be afraid of poaching the eggs in the soup as long as they are very fresh and you've kept the liquid to a bare simmer. If you are, use oven-proof bowls, put the hot soup in them on a baking sheet. Heat in a 350-degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until the soup has tiny bubbles around the edges. Break the eggs in the soup and by the time you get it to the table, the eggs will be poached to a soft-yolk stage. If you like your egg yolks firm, just leave the bowls in the oven until they’re done to your liking.

In the summer, you would use red-ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced. But this time of year, I use a can of diced tomatoes, well drained, for an excellent result. Keep the juices and add to another soup or to pasta sauce

You can make the soup ahead of time and reheat before adding the eggs, so it would be a perfect dish for a winter brunch or supper.

POACHED EGG BOUILLABAISSE

2 leeks (or one small onion)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 bulb fennel, quartered, cored and very thinly sliced
1 can (14-ounce) diced tomatoes, well drained
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
½ tsp. (loosely packed) saffron (optional)
1 lb waxy potatoes, preferable Yukon gold, peeled and diced
Finely grated zest and juice of one small orange
6 eggs
Fennel fronds, for garnish

Cut off the upper dark green leaves of the leeks and discard. Cut the bulb (including the light green) in half lengthwise, then slice about ¼" thick. (Or peel and dice the onion). Cook with the garlic in the olive oil, in a heavy Dutch oven over medium heat, about 5 minutes. Add the fennel and cook until the onion is soft and translucent, but not browned.
Add the tomatoes, stock, saffron, potatoes, and orange zest and juice. Simmer about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are done. Reduce the heat so the soup is just barely simmering. One by one, break an egg into a cup and slide into the soup. Cook another 4-5 minutes, or until yolks are done to your liking. Serve immediately, garnished with some of the fennel fronda. Serves 6.