On the 12th Day of Christmas

…My true love gave to meeeeeee, something comparable to my youthful memoriiiieeees!

That the holidays are upon us, I find myself reminiscing and fascinate at how the best memories of my youth have much to do with food; finding it, creating it and over indulging in it. What better way to share my joy, Christmas and culinary alike, than to share 12 favorite food memories of my youth.

1. My sisters, cousin and I, would walk barefoot through the corn field with Dad. He’d show us how to clean the silk from the corn and right there, we’d devour its sweet starchy goodness, envious of the many insects that partook daily.

2. Mom’s homemade ice cream. Watching the ice and rock salt move counterclockwise would only last a bit. I’d head outside and up a tree to get my mind away from the anticipation. A method that never worked. For I’d return every ten minutes to check on its progress soon to be yelled at by Mom to “stop running in and out of the house”. I can remember the taste of fresh vanilla and strawberries as if it were yesterday.

3. Mom’s homemade teacakes. To this day, I’ve no idea what went into the mouthfuls of deliciousness but the rare treat left an indelible impression. They were simple, sweet and best of all quick! Mom would whip up a batch on rare occasion as we took in a weekend viewing of Creature Feature.

4. Chicago hotdogs. I can’t find one Chicagoan who’s familiar with this manner of hotdog, though my Mom swore by its title! All the same it was one of my favorite feasts. Sausages from Penn Dutch commonly replaced the hotdog. The bun, an oversized Italian hoagie roll, would then be stuffed with a sautéed combination of potatoes, onions, green and red bell peppers. I’d slather mine with both mayonnaise and ketchup. Delish!

5. Riding along the dirt paths of Statesboro, Georgia, Dad would steer the car to roads’ edge. We’d rediscover a plum tree or blackberry bush and pick wild strawberries or raspberries. Just amongst the brush Dad would share related food stories or family folklore. We’d laugh and nibble, but careful to catch the juice journeying down our wrists with our tongues.

6. Grandmother made preserves with almost everything. Peaches, plums, berries and even water melon rinds. It was one of my breakfast favorites.

7. What good are breakfast preserves without Grandmother’s homemade biscuits. While Mom’s biscuits were as good there were always traces of her efforts to be found powdering the countertops. But Grandmother: I’d scan the length of the kitchen, buttermilk biscuits melting in my mouth. There was in no way a trace of flour to be found. I was convinced that the biscuits were from a local market and once asked Mom as much. She gave me the worst ‘how dare you’ look and said nothing. In our family, the mere implications of short cuts were the equivalent of cursing and adult. You didn’t!

8. Caramel cake and jelly cake. Both were holiday treats and each of my Grandmother’s daughters (with the exception of one) could make them uniformly delectable. Watching Mom stir the sugar combination until it caramelized made my taste buds chorus! Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner are never the same without them.

9. Aunt Julia’s macaroni and cheese. Her cheese was plentiful, creamy and sharp! The flavor was the most intense of any macaroni and cheese that I’ve had since. I learned later that the crème de la crème was the added spoonfuls of cayenne pepper. Divine perfection on a plate.

10. Dad was as good in the kitchen as Mom was. Though well defined gender roles only permitted his presence there on rare occasion, he delighted in cooking up creations the most. The one up side of the divorce was the opportunity to indulge more frequently. One of my favorite things was his banana cake. The attention was in the bananas aptly ripened. A large slice and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream were a party in my mouth.

11. Every year around the fourth of July, my family would converge onto my Grandmother’s home in Statesboro, Georgia for the Graham or Dutton family reunion. Before our arrival, a trench had been carefully constructed and prepped for the pig. Special was the child chosen to accompany the elders to the farm beyond the great Georgia Pine trees to hand select a hog. His fate was a slow roast above a flamed pit, rotated patiently until the meat was falling away from the bone. Though I’ve since stopped eating all things pork, I can vividly recall the combination of the tender pork and pan fried cornbread.

12. Whenever we came to visit our grandparents in the country, life was full of chores dissimilar to city life. Then, we thought them fun and exciting for the most part. There was corn cleaning, pea snapping, canning, clear out and harvesting. My favorite of them was time spent at the peach or blueberry orchard. We’d pay for baskets full by the pound. To keep cost down, I devoured my share beneath the shade of the trees or bush. Once I became ill after consuming as many blueberries that the very site of them made me gag. My mother laughed hysterically as she placed before me slice of blueberry pie for dessert. Though disgusted with her tactics, I overcame and ate greedily.

Happy Holiday!
Indulge.

Out of the Pantry: Peas | Prawns | Peppers

A friend from back east came to visit me for the weekend so I shamelessly pounced on the opportunity to introduce him to SWANK. I dished up my grand ideas over dinner at The Farm and carried on into the evening. My rant extended into an afternoon lunch at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. As he prattled on the phone, I shoved a stack of food pics in his paw to gander. Hey, I said shamelessly. By day three, he’d had enough and demanded a tasting or else. Baited!
Out of the Pantry, came a few interesting finds. Some, you might never unearth amidst your canned commodities and boxed victuals. But hang about and I promise I’ll guide you from beginning to end.

The Players:
Red Curry Paste
Red Bell Pepper
Snow Peas
Coconut Milk
Rice Noodles

Admit ably, I had nil in the way of protein so I hastened to the market to pick up a pound of prawns. All the same, this recipe can work with chicken breast, beef strips, calamari or scallops.

I was intent on keeping it simple but not as uncomplicated as a bucket meal. Don’t be mistaken, I adore a single pot feast. But I wanted my friend to have an authentic SWANK moment (chuckle). Consider that he’s from South Florida too. Soul food and one-dish dining are familiar occurrence.
Aligned with the Out of the Pantry premise, I wanted to offer a restaurant quality dining experience - at home. In all of my babbling, I intentionally neglected to share the OOTP series and its premise with Sedrick. I wanted authentic feedback, unedited.

I reconciled an Asian Noodle prepared with sweet soy and a dash of light soy. For added panach, I tossed in some toasted black sesame seeds and minced garlic. The pinnacle of the experience was the shrimp coconut curry.

The Recipe: Prawns, Peas and Peppers | Curried
1 lb of large prawns deveined
Red Curry Paste*
1 Red Bell Pepper - en chiffonnade
1 cp Snow Pea
½ can Coconut Milk
3 Garlic Cloves - sliced
2 whole dried cayenne peppers
1 teaspoon Minced ginger (optional)Seasalt

In a sauce pan, add a dash of olive oil. Toss in sliced garlic cloves and heat until translucent. Add ½ can of coconut milk, 1 ½ tablespoons of red curry paste and cayenne peppers. If you opt for the minced ginger, add it as well. Another option is 1 teaspoon of ginger powder. Simmer on low heat.

Over medium heat, add a dash of olive oil to a wok pan. Toss in the prawns and cook until translucent. Add peppers, snow peas and a pinch of sea salt. Once the prawns are cooked to perfection add the coconut curry sauce to the wok. Plate over noodles or rice and Indulge!

“That was a great restaurant quality dining experience! Swank was the perfect ending to the weekend.” S. Brown

*Red Curry Paste: An easy find in any local grocer. Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste is the most familiar brand. However, if there’s a Thai market in your area, go for it! My authentic curries are a mere 49 cents a can!
This product is definitely worth adding to the grocery list. It’s very versatile and can be added to any an understated meal. Slip a teaspoon into a soup base or add a bit to your cabbage and indulge.

TRASHING CHOPPED!

Ok, it’s not that I don’t enjoy this program that haphazardly highlights the talents of well versed chefs. The notion of making something from, well – nothing is a familiar refrain (Mom & Julia: swankeventsolutions.blogspot.com). The lure is success when the basket reveals a clash of secret ingredients that read like a culinary train wreck. With much anticipation of the masterful conception to come, I behold these artists, sweaty and wielding knives. They somehow manage to navigate the small kitchen quarters and the list of disconnected ingredients is skillfully transformed into a Toasted Almond and Gingko Nut Zeppole w/ Coffee Cream and Avocado Mousse.

But then begins the slow dissension and my excitement turns to angst. Something about watching the artistry of cooking rushed sours my appetite. My anxiety is further heightened in watching the furrowed brow or poker faced judges. These panels of culinary elite are mostly comprised of highly acclaimed industry professionals. But their often brutal commentary assaults if not insults you. Even the subtle looking down of the nose at the plate before them is enough to make an executive chef question his calling.

“Your presentation is sloppy.” Or, “This is way too salty.” My favorite is when the critique has more to do with personal preference than that of skill or talent. One judge suggests a specific seasoning while the others vehemently disagree, declaring that the seasoning was perfection. Another wants more fish to accompany each bite of vegetable. Why, I would have enjoyed a glass of Sauvignon Blanc to accompany the meal, one pronounces. Where’s my sauvignon Blanc!!!

OK, perhaps a bit of an exaggeration with the last assertion but each critique equally perturbs me. Understandably, a 10,000 dollar purse is nothing to shake a stick at. However the premise of ‘turning (get this) every day ingredients into a three-course meal’ is lost when out of the basket comes a combination of honeycomb and boiled gingko nuts! Even the competitors are often baffled by the contents of the basket. The obvious disconnect with what everyday people (and even restaurateurs) might consider every day ingredients, eludes the judges and their expectations lessen, not even a smidgen. One by one the chefs are chopped from the competition. One by one, each staggers away in stinging defeat.

For one unfamiliar with the competitive nature of the culinary world, the acidic attitudes of the judges may be a bit much too stomach – pun intended. But as an artist in my own right, I’m glued there, watching as it all unfolds. With a combination of delight and disdain, I’m but intrigued that in a minute’s time a basket with dandelion greens, star fruit and cherry liquor could be altered into a menu item that I’d easily spend a ½ days pay for. A desire to create something from these unlikely ingredients began to simmer in me and boil over. I want to run to the pantry and unearth the Red Current Jam and Merguez Sausage! Like the show, I’d time myself at home and get shaking! I anxiously looked forward to sharing the experience, pictures and recipes. But wait! What’s Merguez Sausage? The temporary insanity subsided.

Who of us could open the refrigerator on any given day and have there, fennel, brioche and sea urchin? Never has my grocery list include sea urchin. Nor have I ever stood before the butcher and ordered a pound of pork belly. And duck breast is not something I’d imagine is sold in the local grocer of Bedford Stuyvesant, Leimert Park, Bank Head or Dillard Holmes.

So for you and us all, I say damn chopped!

Instead I’ve calculated a better initiative that caters to the average at home cook. While we culinary snobs might stroke at a feast of roasted bone marrow, it’s likely something that your spouse or children will never partake. Money wasted.
One of my greatest pleasures is providing a restaurant style meal for everyday dining. Better still, is the notion of doing this with fresh, accessible and inexpensive ingredients. The economy as it is, our wallets cannot accommodate the exotic ingredients of the chopped basket.

Let’s scour the pantry to see what we can earth. From our finds, I'll create a culinary experience that you can easily replicate at home. Whether it’s a romantic dinner for two or a kid-friendly family meal, in using what’s accessible we’ll keep it real…simple.

Welcome to Out of the Pantry!

Our first group if ingredients: A Trader Joe’s Tuna steak, 2 Gala apples and russet potatoes. Drop in tomorrow and see what we’ve come up with.

Thanks for reading & Bone Petite!

High on 'shrooms.

Not that kind, you stoner.

My dear friend Mary brought back mushrooms from her Wyoming sabbatical. She and a local resident/ friend gathered them from the forests of Dubois. While these were not the kind you hear about (or have experienced) tripping on, she did acquire a temporary addiction to harvesting them (as is indicated in the photo). Lucky for me, they couldn't contain themselves. For weeks they would head up Bonneville pass to find new hunting ground.

They were dried and jarred and brought back to Los Angeles to share. I went to work in creating an approving recipe. I wanted a profile that would complement the earthy elements of the fungus and not mute them. I didn’t want its quality to get lost in a stew, soup or casserole.

My first creation was an epic fail. It was medley of roasted pepper, cauliflower w/ white pepper and mushroom. The flavors came through in exactly that order. Mushroom – lost.

So I decided to nix the extras and float the mushrooms in a basil sauce. I first reconstituted and sautéed them in a light olive oil – infused with garlic. I added a hint of white pepper to balance the simplicity of the mushroom. Coupled with rustic bread Crostini, it turned out to be a great starter for a rustic dinner menu.