Food
& Other Important Things
Mise en Place - Don
Curto
I recently had a knee replaced
because the original was old, worn, painful and almost useless as
knees go. I mention this knee matter here because I was looking forward
to some free time at home, at least two weeks, without daily grind
work to get in the way of my thinking. Anyone who passes the fifty
year mark needs time to ruminate, to look at the past and try to guess
if one could have lived the years to better advantage. The answer,
of course, is almost always "yes," so the question becomes,
how poorly did one do?
Well, that interesting project is still waiting to be
tackled thoroughly. Pat, functioning as the good social worker that
she is, set up the lower level of our place as the recovery apartment.
Here, in addition to the great view of the pond (heavy with ducks,
geese and three marauding but protected cormorants) and artwork on
the walls, I had a large work table, a wheel chair (serving primarily
as a very comfortable seat), a walker (soon discarded), a set of crutches,
(one quickly discarded), a cane, a telephone, a television set, a
computer, a dictionary, several reference books, a good li-brary,
a nearby coffee pot, an accessible sauna for showering, and a set
of severe exercises provided by MGH and enforced by a visiting nurse
and a beautiful but insistent physical therapist. Most importantly,
I had the regular company of Kate, our black Labrador, whom without
any formal training proved herself to be a sterling counselor—undemanding,
sympathetic to every early ouch, vigilant to any intruder, real or
imagined. At night she rested on the floor beside my bed, nose toward
the door, sleeping with one eye open, protecting me from dark-of-night
prowling Evil Spirits. Kate is a professional at this important work
and not once was I bothered by an Evil Spirit, though several times,
in the mists rising from the pond in the dark I clearly saw whole
crews of evil spirits, some of monstrous mien looking my way but undoubtedly
wary because of Kate. Who can contemplate or think about describing
what might have happened to me without Kate's protection?
What really got in the way of my planned project was Cable
Channel 27, the Food Channel. A friend had told me about this channel
and I had read a review in the N.Y. Times of the Emeril Lagasse show.
I suppose you should have known from the beginning of this column
that sooner or later I would get into food matters.
About a decade ago I had, for several years, a monthly
half-hour cooking show on Marquette's Channel 6. I have just reviewed
some of the tapes of that show in light of what I now see on the cooking
channel, where New York professionals are available. My old TV6 shows
hold up pretty well, I think. I recall that about twenty hours of
work went into every half-hour on the air. Most of that advance work
was preparing for all contingencies, observing the French kitchen
rule of "mise en place." This means having everything at
hand that one will need for whatever cooking is planned—that
includes not only ingredients, but also all utensils, pots and pans,
etc.
Cooks ignore the mise en place rule at considerable peril to themselves,
to their products and to their reputation. Despite this, it is a rare
cook in my years of observation who really follows this rule, even
experienced chefs who should know better play chance with recipe preparation.
The mise en place rule, if one thinks a little about it, also applies
to life. If one sets goals, either long- or short-term, it is a little
like laying out a recipe. There are ingredients involved and one must
know where they are. Life and cooking are not harmed by a lot of education.
It takes a certain kind of mind and personality to adequately
follow the details of this rule: It can be called having "the
management scan" in one's brain. The artist personality, interior
concerned as it seems to be, looks only inward; the manager's personality
doesn't do much in the way of art, but a good manager has eyes everywhere,
and the eyes see and judge and balance, all at once. A good management
scan looks over a situation very quickly and notes almost automatically
if anything is missing or that something is out of place, and at the
same time this mind not only notes an absence, but makes two important
judgments: Is the absence of something important to the mission? And
if so, where is the nearest ingredient to replace what is missing?
It is clear that the artist personality needs a companion management
personality.
TV cooking shows prepare recipes that always turn out
perfectly, of course. Often I think this is more a reflection of the
skill of the staff that observes the mise en place than it is the
cook who ostensibly is the show's hero. If you watch these shows,
and several of them are quite acceptable and one is particularly good
(more later) you will note that never is anything missing. Nothing.
These shows are carefully timed, to fit the period, usually a half
hour, to fit in the commercials, etc. There isn't any room for a missing
ingredient or utensil. Everything must be in place. In addition to
mise en place, there is the matter of choosing what to cook in the
time permitted. This is a management skill. It is a skill useful to
the home cook and to the commercial cook. Cooking in a restaurant
is not a great deal different than cooking for a TV show; perhaps
the timing is not so critical, but it is certainly very important.
In a restaurant milieu it is easy sometimes to look like a damn fool
because of ignorance of the mise en place rule.
The two recipes below are made by us, the cake frequently
and the chutney infrequently. In the cake list of ingredients nothing
is particularly unusual, but the combination of baking powder and
baking soda in the same recipe is unusual. Most frequent mise en place
mistake: forget the soda because it was not put out before the recipe
was started.
In the chutney recipe ingredient list the most common
error is not having the ginger on hand (the right kind) and forgetting
about the jalapeno pepper, because "who would ever do anything
so stupid" as putting these ingredients together?
Torta di Arancio e Limone
(Orange & Lemon Cake)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
grated zest and juice of one orange
grated zest and juice of one lemon
3/4 cup of whole milk
8 oz unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
5 large eggs
Confectioners sugar for dusting—optional Oven to 350 F.
Evenly coat the interior of a ten-inch Bundt pan with
butter, dusting lightly with flour, shaking out the excess flour.
Set aside.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into
a large bowl. Stir in the orange and lemon zests. Combine the orange
and lemon juices and the milk and set aside to "sour" the
milk.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer at high speed,
beat the butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2
minutes. One at a time, beat in the eggs, mixing well after each addition.
The mixture will look curdled—don't worry. Alternating in thirds,
add the flour and milk mixture, beating well after each addition and
scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place in the
center of the oven. Bake until the cake is an even golden brown and
until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 55
minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for ten minutes. Turn out
onto a serving plate.
Cranberry, Ginger and Lemon Chutney
1 medium lemon
1 bag (12 oz) cranberries
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup diced crystallized ginger (about 2-1/2 oz)
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp dried mustard
1/2 tsp salt
Grate yellow zest from lemon. Cut away and discard white
pith. Cut lemon crosswise in half and pick out seeds. Dice lemon into
1/4-inch pieces.
In medium non-reactive saucepan, combine cranberries,
diced lemon and zest, sugar, ginger, onion, garlic, jalapeno, cinnamon
stick, mustard and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring
often to help dissolve the sugar. Reduce heat to low and simmer until
sauce is thick and cranberries have burst, 10 to 15 minutes.
Cool completely. Remove cinnamon stick before serving.
Serve at room temperature.
But I digress from Channel 27, which kept me from adequate
reflection during my home confinement. Two shows deserve special mention
in my opinion. One be-cause it is truly awful and the other because
it is so good. The Emeril Lagasse show is mostly misinformation, bad
cooking and poor vaudeville. He is a showman, but not a very good
one. His antics are juvenile, he rarely speaks a whole sentence of
English and occasionally his ideas about food are truly ludicrous.
Yet, the show is apparently a big hit. Who's to know?
I have a special reason to approach the other show of
note in hope that it would be as bad as Lagasse. Here's why. It's
a little involved, but try to follow. My doctor's sister who lives
or used to live in Houghton knows the wife of the owner of a renowned
Italian restaurant in Manhattan. The owner's name is Mario Batoli
and he is from Italy. So, for Easter last year we went to New York
with friends and I said that I was sure we could have dinner at this
famous restaurant (I can't recall the name now) if I phoned ahead
using, with permission, the name of the woman in Houghton. She had
made the requisite phone calls to set this up. So I did, and I got
reservations for four at 4:30 p.m., early by New York standards but
fine with hicks from the U.P. The man said to call back on Easter
morning to confirm that we were coming. So, I phoned as ordered. Well,
by now you can guess. No one there had ever heard of us. Period. So,
we found a neat, small award-winning French bistro on West 23rd Street
and had a fine meal.
So, should I be surprised that this very same Batoli is
featured on the Cooking Channel? His show is the one that got me thinking
again about mise en place and how important it is. The show is called
"Molto Mario" and is worth watching. It is the smoothest
flowing show I have seen and he knows his foods. He is a little heavy
on cute, but you can overlook this because he is so knowledgeable.
I'm a little upset because I can't say anything bad about his show.
Who's to guess!
Is This The Best Friday Night Dinner in Town?
Several of us hard-to-please older diners have been
to dinner on a couple of Friday nights for the seafood buffet at the
Landmark Inn. Decision: This is arguably the best dinner in town,
or in the U.P. possibly. For many years I have not judged restaurant
food in this column, but this buffet is so well planned, so well presented
and so tasty that it would be a shame not to note its quality. If
you have not been to the Landmark on Friday night, you cannot imagine
what a beautiful setting this is. This is "class" from beginning
to end. Do yourself a favor, save $19.95 and get there for a truly
wonderful meal. (You can spend more than this in some other spots
in town and the meal is not better.) By the way, I have no official
connection with the Landmark Inn. I just think that when near-perfection
occurs, it should be noted.
—Don Curto
