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Under a Doctor’s Care

Due to what threatens to become a chronic condition, I’ve been under a doctor’s care recently.  Fortunately for me, I’ve found it quite easy to schedule appointments with him, and he’s exceptionally attentive.  He even made me dinner this past weekend!

After a rather long and trying week, I somewhat miraculously found myself hanging out on a couch with a book, sipping a glass of Lagavulin and nibbling on Chimay and olives, while this good doctor toiled away, quite happily, in the kitchen.  Sounds of sautéing and scents of garlic and onion drifted into the living room.  A table was set, candles were lit, and a pinot noir was poured.  I was called to dinner.

When he’s not waging war against Alzheimer’s disease, this doctor can sometimes be found putting in a little time at a local farm, in exchange for a share of the harvest.   He thus found himself with a few pumpkins in his pantry and decided to prepare “Sicilian Spicy Pumpkin” as an accompaniment to the seared tuna and spinach with pine nuts and raisins.   It was an inspired choice.  The pumpkin was not so much spicy as it was sweet and sour, and played nicely against simple white rice.  For the seared tuna, my host encouraged a dollop of saffron and shallot butter.

And with this meal, though I did indeed find myself restored from the work week, the above-referenced condition was far from improved.  Turns out a home-cooked Friday night dinner serves merely to exacerbate the symptoms. . .


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"Raisins Ruin a Good Dessert"

So says my best friend Kathleen and her husband, Gary, stands firmly by her side in this opinion.  And now, as I sit and type this in their living room, I have just overheard her whispering in the kitchen to her 6-year old son, “What do we do with this terrible dessert?”

Yes, I’m afraid this was the verdict on the “Caramel-Covered Semolina Cake” from Dori Greenspan’s Around My French Table.  I prepared it this afternoon at my home in New Jersey and transported it, still warm, to Westchester County.  It sat in Kathleen’s kitchen, quietly waiting, for our return from a hockey game and group dinner, and I had high hopes for it, as an accompaniment to our wine and conversation.  Alas, my hopes were quickly dashed as both Gary and Kathleen pronounced the golden raisins problematic.

“I need to try a bite without raisins,” said Kathleen.  “Hmmm…is it supposed to be served cold?”

“Warm or room temperature,” I replied.

“Let me stick a non-raisin bit in the microwave.”  By now, Gary had entered the kitchen.

“Here – try this,”  Kathleen said while passing a forkful to him.

Gary made a bit of a face.  “Raisins really don’t belong in dessert. I don’t even like them in a noodle kugel.”

“Well, Dori says you can substitute any dried fruit, or even a bit of apple or pear sauteed in butter.  She also recommends serving it with a bit of creme fraiche.”

“Now THAT sounds like a good idea – but skip the fruit entirely, ” came Kathleen’s response.

And so ends my report of this week’s French [Saturday] with Dori.

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French Fridays with Dorie

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group dedicated to cooking all the recipes in Dorie Greenspan’s latest book, Around My French Table. Participants are encouraged to blog about their cooking experiences each Friday.  Yes, I know it’s Sunday, but rules are made to be broken, or at least bent from time to time!

I had originally planned to make only the pumpkin-gorgonzola flans last night, with the intention of serving them with an arugula salad as a late-night supper upon my return from a school fundraiser, at which would be served only hors d’oeurves.

As it gradually became clear, however,  that NYC and NJ Turnpike traffic was going to significantly delay my date’s arrival, I turned to Plan B – a complete Dorie Greenspan dinner and movie at home.

Into the oven went the Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux (Lazy People!), and out came my mandoline for preparation of pommes dauphinois.

When my date finally arrived, nearly an hour and a half later than he anticipated, he entered an apartment smelling most welcomingly of roasting chicken, garlic, thyme, and potatoes (and proof that I had not been trying to avoid cooking a meal for him . . .)  These dishes were truly a snap to prepare, requiring very few ingredients, and I don’t think a homier meal exists. (Here I would very much like to insert a photo of how this lovely meal looked on my candle-lit table, but I’m afraid preoccupation with my hostessing duties caused me to forget the small detail of photo-taking.)

We both agreed that the arugula and endive salad was a critical counterpoint to the pumpkin flan, which bordered on bland, once you got past the gorgonzola/walnut crust.  Halfway through our first course I remembered Dori’s suggestion to serve with a dollop of creme fraiche, and I ran to the kitchen for sour cream.  A good idea.  Similarly, the potato gratin was an excellent companion to the roast chicken, but no news there.  We drank a young Cotes du Rhone, and broke out some dark chocolate for dessert.  With a wee bit more notice, I may well have added Dori’s caramel-topped semolina cake to the menu, but we’ll just have to save that for next Friday.

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Clam Sauce

I grew up eating linguine with clam sauce with regularity.  My mom’s version originated in one of those Junior League-type cookbooks, but over the years it became more her own.  When I had my first apartment, the recipe came with me to Boston’s North End, where I prepared it often for my roommate and friends.  It was budget-friendly and made for a great left-over lunch.  Later, it was one of my (now former) husband’s favorite dinners, and I could whip it up in a flash on a work night.   But here’s the thing.  This clam sauce is made with canned clams.

Now, I grew up outside of Boston and shellfish are not difficult to come by.   But the clam sauce we made at home never, ever involved live clams, and I never thought one whit about it.  Sure, I’d eaten linguine with real clams in restaurants, but, in my mind, clam sauce made at home was made with canned clams, end of story.   However, I’ve shared this recipe with acquaintances on several occasions, and I observed a certain reaction when I mentioned the canned clams.  It wasn’t much – perhaps just a “canned clams?” sort of thing – but after a few of these reactions, I began to wonder if it might be worth rethinking the whole canned clam idea.  And so I found myself buying a bag of New Jersey little necks at Whole Foods, in advance of my parents’ visit one recent evening.

If my mom’s recipe was quick, this one is like a lightning flash.  After scrubbing the clams, there just isn’t much else to do.  Mash a few garlic cloves, chop some parsley, cook the pasta.   The experience of eating this version is also more pleasing – nudging the clams out of their shells, the satisfying clinking the empty shells make when you drop them in another bowl, the ocean-like taste that is simply missing from the canned version.

My mom’s recipe, however, will remain in my repertoire.  It’s economical ($2.60 for two cans of clams vs. $20 for the Whole Food bag) and the ingredients are easily at the ready in the pantry.  But perhaps most important, it reminds me of home, my mom, and some of my first cooking experiences.

Mom’s Linguine with Clam Sauce

2 cloves of garlic (or much more)
1/4 c. olive oil
4 Tbsp. butter
2 cans of clams (minced or chopped)
1/2 c. white wine
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1/4 tsp. rosemary, chopped
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/4 – 1/2 c. clam juice (optional)

Saute garlic in oil and butter.  Drain clams (reserving liquid) and add reserved liquid, wine, and herbs to pan. (You may add additional clam juice to increase amount of sauce.)  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cover.  Simmer approximately 5 minutes or so.  Add clams and cook until heated through – do not overcook or clams will be tough.  Pepper to taste.  Serve over linguine.  Serves 4 to 6.

Spaghetti with Little Necks

50 little neck clams, scrubbed
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 large cloves of garlic, mashed
1 c. white wine
Pepper
1/4 c. chopped parsley
Juice of half a lemon

While spaghetti is cooking, heat oil in bottom of a large pot, add garlic and sweat until soft.  Add clams, wine, and few grindings of pepper and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cover.  Stir occasionally and cook until clams have opened, approximately 8-10 minutes.  Add parsley and lemon juice.  Discard any unopened clams.  Spoon sauce over spaghetti.

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Half-day Lunch

The town we live in, and I believe most of the state as well, has a delightful tradition of scheduling 3 half-days followed by two days off from school in the first week of November.  Both working and non-working moms can appreciate the small bit of chaos this can wreak in an otherwise orderly schedule.  But as my Nana liked to say, it’s an ill wind that blows no good, and this particular wind means a break from school lunch preparation, which I must admit is not among my favorite activities.  Though my children have fairly experimental palates in general, when it comes to school lunch, we’re in a bit of rut, from which, try as I may, we seem unable to break free.

And so it is that these 3 half days provide an opportunity to prepare a hot lunch!  Yes, I know some of you are saying, “this girl needs to get a life if this is what excites her,” but I do love having a morning free of peanut butter sandwich-making, and a lunchtime seated at the table with my daughters.

Yesterday my fridge contained the last-of-the-season green beans from the farmers’ market, and my head contained a vague recollection of a recipe I had recently encountered that called for green beans, bread crumbs and garlic.  Here’s the result:

Roughly chop a clove or two of garlic and two handfuls of green beans.  Warm two slugs of olive oil in the bottom of a skillet.  Add garlic and saute over medium-low heat until soft, raise heat to medium-high and add green beans.  Sprinkle with juice of half a lemon and cook about two minutes, stirring frequently.  Stir in a handful of breadcrumbs, salt and pepper to taste.  When beans are cooked to your liking, add pasta (which you should have been cooking during the preceding process) and toss to coat, adding a little more olive oil, if necessary.   Serve with parmesan.
Your children will eat their green beans today.
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Fast Food Dinner

Arriving home later than usual tonight, due to last-minute meeting with my boss, which resulted in a missed train, and with only moments to spare before the opening bars of “Glee” (my daughters’ favorite program, for which I must be seated beside them from start to finish else their enjoyment be apparently diminished), I made the rapid and happy decision that it would be a cheese, bread, and wine dinner for me this evening.  (Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that my daughters had already dined at their father’s home this night.)

Thanks to a cheese, bread, and salad dinner suggested by my beau a week ago, my refrigerator was the protector of a lovely wedge of Piave, a small piece of Pere Joseph, and rounding things off, a chunk of Bayley Hazen Blue (he knows his cheese, I’ve discovered…)  My vegetable, carrots dipped in Moroccan-spiced yellow pepper hummus I picked up at the Sunday farmer’s market.

With a dinner as pleasing and companionable as that, it barely mattered that “Glee” was a repeat.

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