The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pepin

I actually read The Apprentice last year, after picking up the book at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) in Napa Valley while on vacation.  Both Roy and I read it, and both loved it. I have always liked Jacque Pepin’s TV shows (most memorable moment was when he was fixing some giblet dish, and for the liver, he said in his French accent “this, you feed to the dog”).  He is one of those people who has had an amazing talent, and has picked his course in life, not just going the direction that tradition would take him.  I recommended this for our book club for this month, with the incentive that I would cook some of the recipes.  So, I picked up the book, and had a hard time picking recipes because I would start reading the book again, completely derailing plans for choosing a recipe or two.  But, I have finally picked recipes, and will do the Egg’s Jeanette, Mussels Ravigote, and Roast Leg of Lamb Provincial as well as a Tomato and Zucchini Salad and an Apple Tart from other Jacque Pepin recipe books (yes, I have several).   And in honor of my recent trip to Italy, we will start with Bellini's!   So – Pagerturners – please come hungry on Wednesday!

Grilling: Chicken

One of the things I am doing while I have some time off is teaching my father-in-law how to grill.  They have recently purchased a home in the Phoenix area, and put in an awesome grill in the backyard. I got to start breaking it in!    We started with grilling some shrimp on rosemary skewers ( just a coating of olive oil and chopped rosemary) to honor the grill, and give us substance to move on to grilling chicken.  We made up a marinade I have done for many years, a spiced onion paste, which was combined with chunks of chicken for  kabobs.  Salads are handy to do with a grilled meat, since they can be done ahead.  I would usually do a pasta salad (who me, more pasta?) but for a nice change did a rice salad with farmer’s market vegetables and lemon juice / olive oil dressing.   My other grilling tricks: Use a zip-loc baggie for marinating (in addition to reducing dirty dishes, by pressing out the air, you get better contact between meat and marinade),  spray the hot grill with Pam, and let the meat cook about 4-5 minutes before turning.  The hard part is learning when its done, that’s just takes some practice!

Here are the recipes:

Cajun Chicken Brochettes

This marinade (done in a food processor) is a nice thick consistency.  It’s always better to marinate longer, but even a couple of hours is OK.

6 SERVINGS

½  small onion
1 medium garlic clove
¼  cup olive oil
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
¼  teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
½ teaspoon salt
Several grinds of pepper

4 boned chicken breast halves, skinned, cut into 1 ½ inch squares

1 large onion, cut into 1 ½ inch squares
12 medium mushrooms (about 6 ounces), trimmed
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1 ½ inch squares
Lime Quarters (optional)

In food processor fitted with steel knife, and machine running, drop 1/2 small onion and garlic through feed tube and mince, stopping to scrape down sides of work bowl if necessary.  Add oil, lime juice, spices, and mix.  Transfer marinade to ziplock bag, add chicken pieces; seal bag and turn several times to coat with marinade.  Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, turning bag occasionally.

Thread chicken and vegetables on ~6 skewers in following order. (Can be prepared 3 hours ahead, covered and refrigerated.)

Grill over medium heat until chicken is just opaque, ~ 10 minutes, turning once.  Serve hot or at room temperature.

Homework recipe:

Grilled Savory Chicken

This chicken always comes out nice and moist -- a good one to fix for company (especially since you have to think ahead a little bit to marinate the chicken).  Of course, you don't have to marinate overnight, 20 minutes works.  It comes out best if you use at least half fresh herbs.

Serves 4

4 half chicken breasts
1 tablespoon fresh minced thyme (or 1 teaspoon dry)
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh minced sage (or 1/2 teaspoon dry)
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh minced rosemary (or 1/2 teaspoon dry)
3/4 teaspoon fresh minced marjoram (or 1/4 teaspoon dry)
3 tablespoons fresh minced parsley
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon, cut into wedges (garnish)

Skin, bone and flatten chicken breasts to 1/4-inch thickness.  Combine all herbs, spices, lemon rind, and oil.  Rub cutlets with mixture.  Place in Zip-lock baggie.  Cover and chill overnight.  Sprinkle cutlets with salt and pepper to taste.  Grill 3-5 minutes on each side.  Optional:  Serve with lemon wedges.

Vegetable Rice Salad

This salad goes great with chicken or grilled fish.  Fine to use leftover rice. 

1 cup of rice (raw), cooked per package directions

Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
6 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt, more to taste
Freshly ground pepper

Vegetables:  Need about 2 cups of vegetables, finely diced (4-6 kinds). 
Possible options:  Bell Pepper, cucumber, carrots, celery, green onions, sweet onions, sugar or snap peas, or thawed frozen peas, broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes

Herbs:
1/4 cup minced parsley or other mild herb

Cook rice and cool to room temperature in a large bowl.   Mix dressing ingredients in a small bowl.  Mix vegetables together the rice, then add enough dressing to moisten.  Taste and add more salt or lemon juice if needed.

Serve room temperature or chilled.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael

Yes, another food book!  The Omnivores Dilemma is that as omnivores, we can eat most anything, and today's  huge selection of food makes it difficult to pick what to eat.  And in the US, where we don't have strong traditions of what to eat (and when to eat it), the result is a very dysfunctional relationship with our food, which has in turn led to high levels of obesity and other food-related illness.   The premise of this book is to follow supply lines of food - "industrial corn" which is responsible for the bulk of the calories eaten today in America, small sustainable farms as well as organic farms (which are mostly not small), and "forest" for hunting and gathering.  For each one he starts at the source (the first is a corn farm in Iowa, later is hunting pigs in Northern CA) and follows through to a meal (the corn resulting in a McDonald's meal, from the beef raised on corn to the soda made with high fructose corn syrup, later the forest resulting in a gourmet dinner with friends that helped with the hunt).  

Pollan contrasts the four systems:  the industrial corn is scalable, but not sustainable (not only is it killing the land, its likely to kill us), industrial organic (think Whole Foods) is some better, but still relies on mono-culture and lots of petrochemicals, small farms (grass) are sustainable but not scalable, and hunter / gather is neither sustainable or scaleable, but does get people much more in touch with their food.

His message is similar to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, but I found it much easier to digest ... yes he ranted about oil companies and high fructose corn syrup, but started with facts and put them together into a story.  Ultimately, the industrial corn and the resulting industrial beef, chicken and pork industries are portrayed as evil, but he provides a lot of data to support the conspiracy theory (how does that saying go, just because your paranoid it doesn't mean people aren't out to get you?).   He explains the government policies and history that made the industrial corn what it is today, where corn is sold for less than the production cost.  He goes through the calculation of how it takes more energy (calories) from petrochemicals to produce corn than calories of energy in the corn (which really makes ethanol production from corn a head scratcher).  But he also doesn't proscribe any easy answers or fixes.

The story of looking at food from the source to the final meal is also similar to  The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy by Sasha Issenberg, which I have been reading (for months now... it really more than you ever wanted to know about sushi), but is much more readable.  Sushi Economy gives insight into how airfreight became an acceptable means for moving our food around the world, as well as how food traditions change over time (before WWII, Bluefin tuna was not even a delicacy in Japan!)

The message is that we should care about our food: its important and a source of great enjoyment, and should not be reduced to filling and cheap.  We should care about where the food comes from, how the land and animals are treated, and enjoy the seasonality of the food.

Italy

We had a fabulous trip to Italy.  Lots of good food, lucky on the weather,  and lots of arts and interesting sites.  I have put our pictures and a bit of a narrative up on the photo web site, please take a look (best in filmstrip or slideshow mode).

There is lots written and on TV about traveling to Italy, so I won’t bore you with the expected (the churches and art like David, Gelato on every corner, etc.)  Here is what we found unexpected (good and bad):

The food…  lots and lots of seafood, especially Venice, but even in Florence.  In addition to the expected cheese (Parmesan), we had lots of pecorino -- sheep’s milk -- cheese which ranged from young to well aged, with and without truffles.  All of it was good.   And Prosciutto ham is not saved for special occasions.

The crowds…  Both Venice and Florence had hoards of tourists, streets and squares around major sites are mobbed.    We watched a Rick Steve’s show on TV about Florence that TiVO caught while we were gone… not sure when they went, but there weren’t so many people. 

The weather..  Overall, it was wonderful (and we were a bit lucky on not getting much rain).  Daytime was short sleeves, evenings, maybe a sweater.  A nice break from the 100+ that we left in Phoenix.   It seems most of the country gets some ocean effect to modulate the extremes.  Not sure what the cause was, but my allergies were just terrible in Florence.

So,  “would we go back”?   Definitely would like to go back to Italy, but probably not to Venice or Florence.   There are some other very interesting places (Cinque Terre, beaches in southern Italy, the Alps) I would like to see – and hopefully without such big crowds. 

September Firing..

Here’s the latest from the kiln (this link should now be fixed... sorry to the subscribers getting a duplicate email).    My favorite of the bunch was done by my niece, it’s a platter with a drawing of her dog Chester.   The favorite of my work is the face with red eyes…  a self portrait before vacation and sabbatical!

Let me know what you like… I need to make room for more stuff.

Risotto

We are back from Italy, we really had a wonderful trip.  Will have some pictures, along with a short synopsis of the trip posted soon.  But I thought I would start with this recipe, since our trip was book-ended with Risotto, first at an outside café in Venice (where it was simply done with shrimp and zucchini), and last as one course of the final dinner for our cooking school (where it was elegantly done with squash blossoms and pecorino cheese).  I’m now pretty confident my risotto is authentic, and adjustable as desired for what is fresh and in season.. and great as we start to get a little cooler weather for fall.

Risotto

This does call for very good chicken broth, I usually use homemade.  If not, make sure to use a high quality, low salt broth, such as Pacific Organic (use 1 quart, and dilute with a bit of water to get the extra ½ cup).

In Italy, we had once with Shrimp (small pieces) and zucchini (which was cut very small), the other had zucchini squash blossoms with pecorino cheese (sheep’s milk) instead of parmesan. 

Serves 4

4 ½ cups chicken broth
1 cup minced onion
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 ½ cups Arborio rice
½ cup white wine
2 cups vegetable  (asparagus, winter squash, mushrooms, etc)
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
¼ cup parmesan cheese
Fresh herbs

In small saucepan, heat broth to just below a simmer.  In medium heavy saucepan, sauté the onions in the oil for about 5 minutes, until softened but not browned. 

Using a wooden spoon to avoid breaking the grains, add the rice and stir until it is well coated with oil.  Add the wine. When it is absorbed (it won’t take long) ladle in the ½ cup of the hot stock stirring frequently until the rice has absorbed the liquid. The heat should be at a low boil.  Continue to add ½ cup at a time, for 2 –3 minutes between each addition, until a about half the broth has been used.

Add the vegetables. Continue adding ½ cup of broth every few minutes for about 10 minutes, stirring often, until the rice is tender but firm (most all of the stock will be used). The consistency should be creamy, not dry or soupy.   Remove from heat, stir in the nutmeg and cheese.  Add salt and pepper to taste (it might not need any salt, depends on the broth, also the cheese is salty) and serve.  If desired, finish with some finely chopped fresh herbs, such as thyme, parsley, and / or chives.

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell

With this, I will be caught up on my book blogs… only to be hopelessly behind after our trip to Italy.

I had heard of the Julie / Julia project and the book, but never got around to reading it, thinking it was just another obsessed, foul-mouthed New-Yorker writer.  Fortunately Vy loaned it to me. 

The book is written by Julie Powell, about her 1 year self-imposed challenge to cook everything in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of Fine Cooking.  The project was motivated by feeling stuck in her job (a low level drone in a government office) as well as rebellion towards the whole Alice Waters, locovore, trendy foodie things.  I instantly connected with the author – she was a Buffy the Vampire fan (the blog was going on during the last season), found the act of preparing food very sensual, and was trying to figure out what to do next with her life.  The book is very entertaining, mixing stories about Julie Child and stories of her own family in with the trials of cooking the recipes (including treks to find bone marrow, brains and other offal).  Her husband Eric is portrayed as a saint, her friends are nuts.  Its fun to read.  

But what really struck me was not the challenge of cooking, but the blogging.  In addition to cooking every recipe, she blogged about everything she cooked. I went on-line and looked at some of the blogs. She blogged almost every day, and not just “I checked Filets to Poisson en Souffle off the list, didn’t puff but tasted good”… no, she went into details about procuring the ingredients, the moods of her husband, her cats, occasional Buffy references, how the food was prepared, what worked, what tasted good, and what didn’t.  And it was entertaining… she had a huge following (after a while, she set up a way people could donate money to help buy lamb and more butter to keep the project going – and they did).   She never talks about the challenges of blogging in the book.. things I find really hard, like making it witty (but not contrived), not offending others (however, that New York thing probably helps here), how personal to get, making a good story but not going on and on, punctuation and grammar good enough to make it readable.  It has a happy ending, she found her real calling as a writer.