Marcella Hazan Narrowly Avoids The Trolls

by A.J. Coltrane

Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking is an excellent book. It’s a good thing though, that she wrote it before the internet existed. The trolls would have torn this humblebrag to pieces:

Pan-Roasted Breast of Veal

Although this had long been one of my favorite meat dishes, it was so simple and straightforward that I took it for granted, and it escaped my notice as a recipe to record. The late James Beard had it with me at Bologna’s Diana restaurant when he came, in the mid-1970’s, to observe the course I was then teaching. It was he who was so taken with it that he urged me to set the recipe down.

Seriously?

Breaking it down:

“Although this had long been one of my favorite meat dishes, it was so simple and straightforward that I took it for granted, and it escaped my notice as a recipe to record.”

“Twas but a piffle. I considered the recipe below my attention as anything of exception.”

“The late James Beard had it with me at Bologna’s Diana restaurant when he came, in the mid-1970’s, to observe the course I was then teaching.”

Where do I start? I didn’t go to see James Beard, he came to see ME! In Italy! To observe my cooking “course”. (Maybe it really was a “course” and not a “class”… *maybe*.)

“It was he who was so taken with it that he urged me to set the recipe down.”

He really liked it! ….no….. He loved it! ….no…. [In Master Thespian Voice] It was HE who was so TAKEN with it that he URGED me….

Sheesh.

—

I’m giving it a “tag” for Favorite Cookbooks anyway. So there’s that.

I’m reminded of this scene from the Big Lebowski, set at rich Lebowski’s mansion.

                                     YOUNG MAN
                         And this is the study.  You can see
                         the various commendations, honorary
                         degrees, et cetera.

                                     DUDE
                         Yes, uh, very impressive.

                                     YOUNG MAN
                         Please, feel free to inspect them.

                                     DUDE
                         I'm not really, uh.

                                     YOUNG MAN
                         Please!  Please!

                                     DUDE
                         Uh-huh.

                                     YOUNG MAN
                         That's the key to the city of
                         Pasadena, which Mr. Lebowski was
                         given two years ago in recognition
                         of his various civic, uh.

                                     DUDE
                         Uh-huh.

                                     YOUNG MAN
                         That's a Los Angeles Chamber of
                         Commerce Business Achiever award,
                         which is given--not necessarily given
                         every year!  Given only when there's
                         a worthy, somebody especially--

                                     DUDE
                         Hey, is this him with Nancy?

                                     YOUNG MAN
                         That is indeed Mr. Lebowski with the
                         first lady, yes, taken when--

                                     DUDE
                         Lebowski on the right?

                                     YOUNG MAN
                         Of course, Mr. Lebowski on the right,
                         Mrs.  Reagan on the left, taken when--

                                     DUDE
                         He's handicapped, huh?

                                     YOUNG MAN
                         Mr. Lebowski is disabled, yes.  And
                         this picture was taken when Mrs.
                         Reagan was first lady of the nation,
                         yes, yes? Not of California.

                                     DUDE
                         Far out.

                                     YOUNG MAN
                         And in fact he met privately with
                         the President, though unfortunately
                         there wasn't time for a photo
                         opportunity...

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup – Iron Chef Leftovers Style

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A happy grilled cheese with some gazpacho on the side. The green in the middle of the gazpacho is some minced green zebra tomatoes.

With an overabundance of tomatoes right now, I have to get creative in what I do with them; frankly, I am a little tired of eating tomatoes right now, no matter how good they are. Being in summer, I don’t know that I really want a hot meal all of the time and during one recent stretch of hot weather, I decided it was gazpacho time, and what pairs better than a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup. I figured that since I had some great tomatoes, I would take the sandwich up a few notches too. You can get the gazpacho recipe that I used here.

The Software

4 slices of brioche sandwich loaf, ¼ to ½ inch thick.

3 oz. of cheese of your choice

2 slices of prosciutto

The Recipe

In a 275 degree oven, put the brioche on a baking sheet and bake until just slightly dry (the consistency of barely toasted bread), about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Prepare the bread by putting ¼ of the cheese on each slice of bread. In a griddle pan large enough to hold the 4 slices of bread, cook the prosciutto until crispy on both sides over medium heat, about 2-3 minutes a side. Raise the heat to medium high and add the butter to the pan. When the butter stops foaming and beings to brown slightly, add the bread with the cheese side facing you and reduce heat to medium. When the cheese begins to melt, add the prosciutto and make a 2 sandwiches, pressing the bread together. Reduce heat to medium low and put a heavy, flat pot lid on the sandwiches. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side, checking to make sure the bread is not burning, or until the cheese is completely melted. Remove from heat, cut and server immediately with the gazpacho.

Notes

I really like doing this with brioche as it adds a really deep flavor to the grilled cheese. I would recommend buying cheese in a block and shredding it yourself, shredding the cheese, rather than using slices, causes the cheese to melt faster. I used a combination of Manchego, Aged Cheddar, Emmenteller and Beecher’s Flagship, but you can use whatever cheese you would like.

EarthBox Update — September 1, 2013

by A.J. Coltrane

Wow! It’s September already! The tomatoes and peppers are still in full swing. The cucumbers and basil are hanging in there. Everything else is at varying stages of calling it a year.

Previous post here.

An overview from the deck. (Clockwise from bottom left: cucumbers, peppers, basil, (top row) brussels sprouts, lemon cucumbers, tomatillos, three boxes of tomatoes. In the center it’s marigolds and bunch onions.) That light colored blob on the top right is a Brandywine tomato:

The raspberries are now established. Hopefully that’ll be some no-work goodness next year:

Continue reading “EarthBox Update — September 1, 2013” →

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Russian Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Reuben’s recently released their Bourbon Barrel Russian Imperial Stout for their first anniversary. I went it to taste it and compare notes from the first time I had it and realized that, for some reason, I never got around to posting about that beer. So you are in for a treat – you get a review of both versions of the beer in one post! Aren’t you all just lucky readers?

Batch #1 – 11% ABV, 64 IBU. Jet black with no head. Light notes of bourbon and vanilla with hints of wood on the nose. The beer starts off with slightly sweet roasted malt before it quickly transitions to wood with a strong but not overpowering bourbon finish which is coupled with a slight sweetness. As the beer warms at coats the palate, the vanilla and roasted components begin to take over, balancing out the wood and bourbon notes. The beer opens up the further into it you get. The beer is an alcohol bomb and there is definitely a slight alcohol burn associated with it (not nearly as much as I expected), but it dissipates/becomes less noticeable the further into the beer you get. This beer is definitely something you need to be in the mood for because of the heavy wood and bourbon components, and is probably something that you are not going to drink more than one of, just because it is such a big beer and is something that you are going to be sipping over quite a long time. I really liked this big, heavy, malty, boozy beer. Batch #1 dances in with 4 Cossacks out of 5.

Batch #2 – They reused the barrels from batch #1 and, from what I was told, the second use of the barrel tends to produce better results. The beer seemed more integrated than the first batch – there was less single flavor transitioning as you were drinking it. Each stage seemed to have multiple layers of flavors. The nose was more complex, yielding notes of chocolate, coffee, bourbon and vanilla. A slight sweetness once again starts you off followed by heavy malt and bourbon notes with hints of oak, vanilla, coffee and cherries. The oak and bourbon are much more supporting cast members in this version with then adding a pleasant background to the stout flavors without overpowering them. With the same alcohol as the first batch, there was no astringency, making this an incredibly smooth and well integrated wood aged beer. Batch #2 storms the Kremlin and takes over singing an amazing 5 International’s out of 5.

The good news is that Reuben’s is planning on making this beer again and bottling it sometime in the near future, so you will be able to take this home and enjoy it. I already am making room in the beer cellar for this one.

Beer of the Week: Reuben's Brews Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Russian Stout

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Eldorado Pale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

One of the things that you can usually count on from NW Peaks, in addition to some fine beers, is that one, if not both of their house beers will be on tap. I have previously reviewed Redoubt Red here, so it is time for a review of Eldorado Pale.

From the NW Peaks Website:

The name. The mountain. Eldorado is a majestic mountain and stands at8,869′, the 25th tallest peak in the state. Many hikers will be intimately familiar with cascade pass trail at the end of the Cascade River road. The commonly used climbers path leaves the road about 4 miles short of the cascade pass trail head. The relative burly trail climbs several thousand feet through forest, talus, and rock leading to the Eldorado glacier with great views of the summit and the rest of the cascade river basin. While these views are excellent the real treats come at the top of the eldorado glacier where you get views of the Klawatti-Inspiration-Mcallister icecap and is knife-edge summit ridge. While I have done the standard approach/route, the second time I climbed Eldorado we took the “alternative approach” from Pyramid Lake trailhead. On this trip, Eldorado’s mountainBeer partner was the first peak we climbed, Eldorado was the last peak 5 days later, ending one of my favorite trips to the backcountry.

The Beer. In this part of the country, pale ales and IPAs don’t need any introduction. There are so many examples of the style, which run the gamut from being nicely balanced to overly hop forward. We made a pale ale with a light malt backbone and nice bitterness that would support and balance an unmistakably emphasized hop aroma and flavor. We used a few more common varieties of hops so that none would dominate and would blend together to give a nice citrusy and floral aroma.

Malts: Pale, ESB, Wheat. Hops: Apollo, cascade, chinook, centennial ABV: ~5.25%

The beer pours golden/straw in color. There is plenty of grain and malt on the nose with hints of hops hiding in the background, leaving a very clean and light impression. There is an extremely pleasant palate on this beer – a slight malty sweetness followed by the grain. The finish is surprisingly long, with light notes of bitterness and a slightly floral character. The finish is also very crisp with notes of light apple interspersed with the hops.

Eldorado Pale is light enough to please a pilsner drinker, but with enough complexity to keep the beer geek happy.

NW Peaks Eldorado Pale discovers itself with 3 lost cities out of 5.

EarthBox Mini Update — August 29, 2013

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

64 pounds of stuff this month, including a little over 24 pounds in the last seven days.

August 27:

August 29:

and

Here comes the thunderstorm. I’m guessing it’ll be total carnage outside tomorrow.

— Late edit, maybe 10 minutes later. Here comes the rain. It’s raining *hard*.

Beer of the Week: American Brewing Stupid Sexy Flanders

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I while back, January to be exact, I posted about my excitement about the Belgian Beer Festival and American Brewing’s entry, Stupid Sexy Flanders. In the perfect example of why I needed to increase the frequency of my beer posts, I am finally getting around to reviewing the beer – only 6 months after I had it.

Here is what we know of the beer from the festival guide:

A Brown Ale fermented with our Sour Yeast on locally grown raspberries and aged to perfection in red wine barrels. 8% ABV

I am usually hesitant about drinking barrel aged beers because too often they taste like the barrel they are aged in and nothing else. If I wanted whiskey, I would drink whiskey. If you are going to age a beer in a whiskey barrel, I better taste the beer with notes of whiskey. So with a slight trepidation, I told my pourer “Stupid Sexy Flanders, Please.”

Hi-dily, ho-dily, frienderinos! A different stupid, sexy Flanders.

The beer pours dark brown, almost black in color. There are tons of wood and roast malt on the nose with hints of fruit hiding in between. The beer starts out surprisingly subtle – tangy, but not lip puckeringly so, followed by a hint of wood before a long dried fruit finish. I was expecting this beer to be over the top sour and so woody that it would be like chewing on a log, (considering American’s festival beers tend to be over the top, it is not a bad assumption) but, to my surprise, the sour was nicely restrained and it balances the wood extremely well; I knew this was a wood-aged beer, but not so much so that it was all I tasted. Don’t get me wrong, this beer was sour and, if you don’t love sour beers, this is definitely not the one for you, but it was pleasant and acted as a wonderful counterbalance to the wood. My only complaint about this beer, and it is a personal preference rather than a flaw, is that I would love this beer to have a little more fruit flavor to bring it more to the front rather than being a supporting cast member at the end.

All in all this was a great beer and I would never hesitate to drink this one when I am in the mood for something sour.

American Brewing’s Stupid Sexy Flanders comes in for a landing at a spectacular 5 Brussel-Zaventem out of 5. What? You expected a Simpsons joke here, didn’t you neighborino?

Farfalle with Cherry Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Since it is tomato season and I am currently pulling more tomatoes than I can eat, I needed to do something creative with them that allows me to highlight their sweetness without completely overpowering the flavor. I also wanted something that was easy and I could pull most of the ingredients from the garden or what I usually have on hand. Here is what I came up with:

The Software
8 oz. pasta, preferably farfalle
8 oz. cherry tomatoes, halved
1 oz. goat cheese
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup dry vermouth
1/3 cup sweet onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
5 basil leaves, chiffonade
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup pasta water, reserved
Salt and pepper

The Recipe
Cook the pasta until al dente, reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta water when done. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onions and a pinch of salt and cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the vermouth and cook for 1 minute. Add the cream and cook until the sauce coats the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Add the pasta and goat cheese and toss until the pasta is coated and the cheese is melted, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes are warmed through, about 3-4 minutes. If the sauce is too thick at this point, add a bit of the pasta water to thin it out (There shouldn’t be big puddles of it in the pot, you are really just creating enough sauce to coat everything). Check seasonings, remove from heat, add the basil and serve.

Notes
The recipe should serve 4 easily but can be easily scaled. I used Sun Gold tomatoes since that is what I had in the garden, but just about any tomato would work – just cut them small enough to be one bite. Some chives would also be a nice finish to this if you don’t have any basil and this could also work with the addition of some hot pepper flakes – just add them in when you put the vermouth in. If you don’t have vermouth, you can use any white wine that you would like.

EarthBox Update — August 25, 2013

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

Both zucchini plants dropped below the Vickie Mendoza Diagonal this week. The fruits have been molding on the vine, or in the case in the patty pans, falling off before they’re fully grown. I’d give the zucchini a “season grade” of “C” or “C-“, more on that in another post.

I cut out about 15% of the basil today as well — I figure it’s got a maximum of about three weeks before it’s done for the year. For the remaining tomatoes and peppers it’s now a race to ripen before the first frost.

Today was a good day for tomatoes. Pictured below is about six pounds, bringing the total for the week to ten pounds of them:

The Sun Golds “before”:

And “after”. I thinned out the leaves, especially in the interior, at least partly so I could see the fruits:

Continue reading “EarthBox Update — August 25, 2013” →