Cinco de Mayo

Learned a couple of things: I thought Cinco de Mayo was Mexican Independence Day. Turns out not. It commemorates a later battle against the French. Also, CdM is not that major a holiday in Mexico.

But in the US, it's not only big among those of Mexican heritage, but is becoming totally mainstream. In that spirit, I made a successful CdM dinner for the family.

Black Bean Soup with Chicken & Chorizo recipe

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 canned chipotle, seeded and chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
2 15 oz. cans, black beans, drained
3 cups chicken stock or broth
1/2 lb. fresh chorizo, sliced thinly
1/2 lb. chicken breast meat, 1/2" dice
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp chopped cilantro (optional)

In a medium saucepan, heat oil. Add onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, chipotle, cumin and oregano. Cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Add the beans and stock and simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes. Coarsely crush some of the beans with a potato masher.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet. Add the sausage and cook 3 minutes. Add the chicken and cook until chicken and sausage are cooked through (about 3 minutes). Add the meats, lime juice and cilantro to the soup. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for a few more minutes.

Serve in bowls with sour cream for optional topping.

Quesadillas recipe

1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 lb. poblano chiles, seeded and thinly sliced
3/4 lb. chicken breast meat, 1/2" dice
1/2 lb. fresh chorizo, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
10 9-inch flour tortillas
1-1/4 lb grated Monterey Jack cheese
3 tbsp. ranchero sauce (optional)
salsa and sour cream

Chile filling: Heat 3 tbsp. oil in large skillet over medium heat. All chiles and cook until soft, stirring occasionally and adding a few tsp. water along the way if needed. Add garlic and saute 1 minute If you can't find poblanos, use cubanelles or regular green bell peppers.

Chorizo filling: Heat large skillet and add chorizo. Cook until done.

Chicken filling: Heat 1 tsp oil, add chicken and the ranchero sauce (or salsa). Cook until done.

These fillings will make 2 each chile and chicken quesadillas and one chorizo. You can mix fillings or make some cheese only quesadillas; however you prefer. My family prefers the chicken, so you can choose to make just that by increasing the amount prepared and skipping the chiles and sausage, and so on.

Heat 2 tsp. oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add one tortilla. Top with 1/4 lb. cheese, spread across the tortilla. Add filling and top with another tortilla. Cook until bottom is brown, 2-3 minutes. Turn quesadilla over. Cook until bottom is brown and cheese melts, 2-3 minutes. Watch carefully to make sure you don't burn.

Transfer to cutting board and cut into 4-6 wedges. Transfer to platter. Serve with sour cream and salsa. I use two skillets to make 2 at a time.

May 5 was also my father's birthday. He was a public relations practitioner and founder of Press Agents Shining Hour, which takes place every May 5 from 3:15 - 4:15 pm local time.

Toasted Ravioli

This is a St. Louis specialty that is said to have originated at Charlie Gitto's restaurant there. I'd never had it, but decided to make it for a party. The recipe I found on the web said to just defrost frozen ravioli, bread and fry, but my testing showed that I had to partially cook the ravioli first. As this is labor intensive, I prepared it a couple of hours ahead and then reheated. I was afraid the ravioli would be chewy, but they were fine. Reviews of the final product were very positive.

Toasted Ravioli

1 pound frozen cheese ravioli
2 tablespoons milk
1 egg
1 cup fine bread crumbs, seasoned to taste with dried oregano, parsely and garlic powder
vegetable oil
1 cup marinara sauce
grated parmesan or romano

Boil ravioli for about half the time called for on the package. Drain and spread out on cookie sheets to cool. Pat dry with paper towels.

Beat together milk and egg in a shallow bowl. Season breadcrumbs and place in a shallow bowl. Dip each ravioli into egg mixture and coat with crumbs.

In a heavy 3-quart saucepan or deep frying pan, heat 2 inches of oil to 350 degrees.

Fry ravioli, about 6 at a time, in hot oil for 1 minute per side or until golden. Drain on paper towels. Arrange on cookie sheets and keep warm in a 300 degree oven while frying the rest, or cover with foil and reheat a little later.

Heat sauce. Serve as a starter: place 4-5 ravioli on a small plate with a dollop of sauce in the middle for dipping. Sprinkle cheese on top.

Abruzzo

I used to be married into a wonderful Italian family. My mother-in-law, Maria, was from a town in Abruzzo called Capestrano, among the Appennine mountains about 70 miles northeast of Rome. I left the marriage as friends with all, and my ex happily provided some of her mom's recipes.

The following two make a good combination for dinner, but we used to have the soup alone as a main dish. I often make the lasagna for company or parties, and it's always a winner. This past weekend I made a caesar style salad from Alton Brown's recipe, and it was a perfect accompaniment. I skipped the croutons as we had more than enough starches, so there was some puddling in the salad bowl, but nobody minded. I also found it needed more of the kosher salt than he calls for.


Minestrone recipe

2 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 large white potato, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 – 3 stewed tomatoes (optional)
2 handfuls, elbow macaroni

Put all ingredients except macaroni in a 5-quart pot. Add 3-4 quarts water, 2 tbsp. olive oil, salt, pepper and parsley (fresh if you have it) to taste. The less water added, the thicker the soup.

Bring to boil and simmer uncovered for 1 hour. Add macaroni, bring to boil, and continue boiling until the elbows are done. If possible, let it sit for 15 minuts before serving. It's great the next day too.


Maria's Abruzzese Lasagna recipe

2 lbs ricotta
1 lb mozzerella, grated (or buy already shredded)
1 cup grated romano or parmesan
4 large eggs
1 lb lasagna noodles
4 cups tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 375º

In a large bowl, mix the three cheeses and the eggs together well.

Cook the lasagna noodles (see notes).

In a 13" x 9" pan (preferably glass), spread a little sauce on the bottom, then cover with four noodles slighly overlapped. Divide the cheese mixture into fourths, with one "fourth" a little smaller than the others.

Spoon one quarter of the mixture onto the noodles and pour one quarter of the remaining sauce on top. Mix the sauce into the cheese with your fingers and spread evenly.

Add three more layers of noodles, cheese and sauce in the same way. Thus, on top you'll have the last, smaller portion of cheese with sauce. Make sure the top layer of noodles is well covered with the mixture. On some layers, you may need an extra piece of noodle across one short end of the pan to fully fill out the layer -- just make sure not to run out of noodles.

Place lasagna in the oven and a cookie sheet on a rack below the lasagna in case of spillover.

Bake for 45 minutes, and let rest for 30 minutes before serving. Serves 10.

Notes:

I prefer whole milk ricotta and mozzerella, but you can use part-skim.

I do not care for "no-boil" noodles. The trick with regular noodles is not to overcook them -- boil until supple, about 6 minutes -- and then lay out in a single layer on cookie sheets to cool.

I've found this recipe works fine with very meaty sauces, and with marinara or chunky vegetarian sauces.

Leftovers taste great, and you can also freeze individual servings.

Coconut Shrimp

For a quiet New Year's Eve at home, I made this simple but exotic dish. The recipe comes from the Princess Kaiulani Hotel in Honolulu and appeared in a now out-of-print cookbook from Sheraton hotels.

Since we were having this as a main dish for four, I doubled the recipe. The large shrimp I bought were about 30 per pound. This is a fine size; you can go larger if you wish but I wouldn't go smaller.

I found that it takes much longer to prep the shrimp (even after peeling) than to fry them. Next time, I will do all the dredging and rolling before starting to fry. The shrimp fry very quickly. I used standard issue vegetable oil for frying. Getting the temperature just right so the shrimp brown nicely is important. I didn't use a thermometer, but heated the oil until nearly smoking and then adjusted up and down as I did the frying. I used a large cast iron pan with enough oil to just cover the shrimp, and fried batches of up to 10 shrimp. For the doubled recipe, I would definitely use two pans next time. One reason is just to get it done faster, but I also found the oil got rather funky by the last two batches and really should have been changed -- the earlier batches were crisper and more attractive.

Bella handled the cocktail sauce. The recipe calls for standard cocktail sauce with crushed pineapple added. She went for something more interesting. Using ketchup as the base, she added dollops or spoonfuls (sorry no measurements -- do it to taste and substitute at whim) of hoisin sauce, grapefruit marmalade, pineapple juice and horseradish.

The shrimp were accompanied by jasmati rice and a green salad. The doubled recipe provided generous main dish servings for four. A single recipe would make a great appetizer for 5-6.

Shrimp Ono Nui (Coconut Shrimp)
recipe
1 pound large (raw) shrimp, peeled
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups shredded coconut

Dredge shrimp in flour, then in eggs. Roll the shrimp through shredded coconut, covering them thoroughly.

Deep fry shrimp at about 375º until they are brown. Drain on paper towels, then arrange on a platter.

Serve with cocktail sauce to which crushed pineapple is added according to taste.

Chicken Enchiladas

I've made some minor adjustments to a recipe given to me by my friend Gavin. What I like about this recipe is that it's easy, not exacting, and the result is always great.

What I mean by "not exacting" is that you can play with the measurements. Also, if you have crummy tortillas as I did last night, it really doesn't matter. They would not roll up, but immediately starting splitting and breaking up. No matter, I just covered with sauce and cheese. Rather than serving up as individual enchiladas, it was more like a Mexican lasagna -- I used a spatula and cut into squares.

Chicken Enchiladasrecipe

2 dozen corn tortillas
1 chicken (3-4 lbs.)
1 pint sour cream
2 cups grated cheddar

4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
1 10 oz. can Rotele tomato and chiles
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes or puree
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt

This produces a mildly spicy sauce. For more heat add 1 small can chopped chiles.

In a deep pot, cover chicken with water and boil for about an hour. Remove from water and let cool, then strip the meat and dice it. Combine with sour cream and 1 cup grated cheddar.

While chicken is boiling, get another deep pot or dutch oven, sauté garlic and onions in olive oil until soft. Stir in Rotele, crushed and diced tomatoes (and chiles of desired), oregano and salt. Bring to boil and simmer for 45 minutes

Using a glass chafing dish, dip tortillas in sauce one at a time and place in dish. Add some chicken mixture and roll up. Fill the dish. The amount of filling per tortilla is a matter of personal preference and your ability to roll it up. The number of enchiladas will of course depend on how full you fill them. I usually end up with 18-20, and it takes one 9" x 13" and one 8" x 8" dish.

Cover the enchiladas with a layer of sauce and sprinkle the remaining cup of cheddar on top. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Serves 8 - 10.

I generally have a few cups of sauce left over. For breakfast this morning I fried a couple of eggs, warmed the sauce and poured it over the eggs for an easy huevos rancheros.

Les Bons Entonneurs Rabelaisiens

Last February our trade organization had a conference in the Loire Valley city of Tours. Our banquet was held in a cave in the town of Chinon. As opposed to most of the Loire region, in Chinon the wine is red and is straight Cabernet Franc. I don't know much about wine, but my understanding is that Cabernet Franc generally cannot stand alone. However, there is something about the soil and climate in Chinon that makes their Cab Franc different. I really enjoy it. I enjoyed a whole lot of it the night of our banquet.

I was one of ten members of our group chosen at random to join the Brotherhood of Rabelais. The Brotherhood is perhaps Chinon's local version of an Elks Club, with a mission "both to perpetuate the teaching of François Rabelais, the humanistic and lively writer of "la joie de vivre", and celebrate the virtues of the Chinon wine for which every dignitary intends to be a passionate ambassador."

The ceremony involved trumpets, robes, medallions and sworn oaths. My memory of all this is somewhat vague. This may be due in part to the other requirement of entrance to the Brotherhood, chugging all the wine from a goblet. Perspective in the photo may be misleading -- this was the better part of an entire standard bottle. And I must note that it was not the first nor the last wine I consumed that evening.

My induction was a great pleasure and honor. The local Brothers take this ceremony with some seriousness but with tongue in cheek as well. The details of the banquet dinner are also vague, but I remember it as some of the best food I've had at any meal, and amazingly so as 250 of us were served at once.

Cucumber, Tomato & Onion Salad

This is an easy-to-make salad that goes well with a variety of fun foods. It's served with falafel and kebabs at Sticks in Charlottesville, Virginia. Great with hamburgers too!

Cucumber, Tomato & Onion Saladrecipe

2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced (or one long seedless cucumber)
4 Roma tomatoes, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup light olive oil
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp white sugar
2 tsp dried oregano

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and let marinate for at least an hour at room temperature.

My First Failure

A bunch of us guys used to spend a winter weekend at George's cabin on a lake in Maine. George is a great cook and baker. The other guys all had either culinary or mixology talents. Then there was me. I decided to try and bring something I made, so I got a recipe for Bourbon Hot Dogs from Parade magazine.

When it was time to eat the dogs, we couldn't find them. George had transferred them to another pot, and left the empty pot on the floor, making it appear that his bassett hound, Chatham, had eaten all two pounds of sausages. Chatham was a bit of a sausage herself and so this turn of events was credible, but it had us really worried about what would happen to the dog.

Turns out, this was all a prank, and George eventually produced the hot dogs. Too bad for us! They were terrible, and I've never lived it down.

We put some bourbon to better use that weekend, sans frankfurters.

The Joy of Charcoal

I am a reformed gas griller. Used to hate charcoal because of the mess and the taste of lighter fluid. Then my friend Tom brought me up to date. You don't need lighter fluid because you can start the coals using a special chimney and some newpaper. And it's not so messy, as Weber has evolved the kettle grill. But what really won me back was that every time I ate at Tom's the food tasted better. And while Tom is a great cook, I knew part of the difference was the charcoal. Sometimes I miss the "instant on" of gas grills, but when I taste the food from my Weber, there's no going back.

Billy Goat Tavern, Chicago

Many times, I'd walked up Michigan Avenue just north of the Chicago River (one of my favorite spots in any city) and not noticed the sign for the Billy Goat. One time, my friend Henry spotted it and we went down the stairs to a lower level on which cross streets run, to see what it was.

Immediately on entering, we realized the import of our discovery. The Saturday Night Live sketch about a Greek burger joint - "Cheeborger, cheeborger! . . . no fries, cheeps! . . . no Pepsi, Coke!" - was a take-off on the Billy Goat!

It was a great cheeborger! I got a double, because the counterman refused to sell me a single. It is served on a piece of wax paper which you take to a fixin' station with onions, pickles, relish and condiments, and then carry to your table.

Alert the historic preservation society: the Billy Goat must always stand!