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& Other Important Things
Recipe
Exploration
by Don Curto
On a recent morning, I went exploring in my refrigerator and discovered
a container of greens with a mixture not usually seen prepared
for the customer—fresh baby spinach and arugula. In the past,
I have had to buy them separately and hand mix for a salad combination
I like very much. I was not interested in a salad, but had hoped
to find something that would make a sauce of some kind for pasta
easily. So, I decided to make one. (Sometimes I am a Decider,
too.)
Hook up food processor, commandeer about twelve peeled whole cloves
of garlic, a couple of chopped up almonds, about a tablespoon
of capers with a very little of the vinegar from their jar, stuff
the machine full of the greens, pour olive oil over them and process
on high.
Add olive oil as needed to make a paste; continue with oil and
a good bit of salt until the “sauce” is a desired thickness
and well blended. With a rubber spatula, clean sides of processor
so that everything gets mixed properly. If you added just a little
too much vinegar from the caper jar, fix it with some sugar, but
go very easy. Sugar smoothes out the taste in any case.
This is going to look a bit like pesto sauce but don’t even
think of calling it that. I am aware that the word “pesto”
derives from an Italian word meaning “mashed” so sauces
using greens other than basil conceivably could be called pesto,
but not in this household.
Move the sauce from the processor to a proper size bowl. Taste
again. Now stir in some grated Parmesan cheese for flavor and
to make a sauce of the proper consistency for use with pasta.
Adjust with good olive oil. I cooked some spaghetti and used the
sauce with warm pasta. I tried it later with cold pasta, as a
“salad.” Good in both instances. Make your own; it’s
fun. Be imaginative with the spices.
The Journey Continues
Back in 1965, which may seem a very long time ago to some of you,
Vincent Price and his then-wife Mary published a quite elegant
book of recipes from many of the world’s great restaurants
where they had dined, A Treasury of Great Recipes. Price was a
very accomplished man: stage actor, movie star, art collector
and art expert, cook and food expert. He died at age eighty-two
in 1993.
From time to time, I return to this book and find new recipes
to try and some recipes that can be modified to fit today’s
foods. You might find a copy of this book on the Internet or possibly
at the library. I have a 1974 gift edition of the book and I prize
it.
Here are a couple of recipes from that book, modified for cost
and ease of production.
From Belle Terrasse in the Tivoli area of Copenhagen comes Steak
Mutarde Flambe.
In the real restaurant, the steak is fillet of beef sautéed
in butter with crumbled sage leaves and dried rosemary. When the
tenderloins are done, they are flamed with a good pouring of brandy,
then moved to a warm plate while the sauce is made.
For four fillets, the sauce is made in the cooking pan with four
teaspoons of Dijon mustard, four teaspoons of a mild brown or
other herb flavored mustard and a 1/4 teaspoon of paprika. Mixed
together is two tablespoons of commercial sour cream and a 1/2
cup of heavy cream. The cream blend is poured into the pan with
the mustards already there, cooked for a minute or two and poured
over the steaks.
In 1965 or before, I think one could get, at some expense, quite
good and tender fillets. Today, what is on the market is pretty
tasteless, and quite tough in many cases. So, the answer is to
use some very good ground chuck (forget the ground round) and
shape them into steaks.
Follow the rest of the recipe and I guarantee you will know the
meat is not tenderloin, but you won’t care. I suspect this
recipe also would be very good with choice New York strip steaks.
It’s different, low cost and quite simple. That’s a
good recipe.
Here is another French recipe from the Hotel de la Poste in the
wine-growing region of Burgundy. It is Steak Chevillot, named
for the chef of that time. Once again, this is a fillet of beef
recipe, but is fine with ground chuck “steaks” or better
with a good New York strip steak.
The French like their steaks pan-cooked rather than broiled as
we do. So take the meat and sauté it to your taste. Remove
the meat to a platter and keep warm.
Drain the fat from the pan and return it to moderate heat. Add
a 1/2 tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of minced shallots,
now readily available in most supermarkets or at the co-op. Cook
for about thirty seconds.
Add 1/2 cup red Burgundy and cook until wine is reduced by half.
Stir in one teaspoon flour mixed to a smooth paste with one teaspoon
butter and cook, stirring for about thirty seconds.
Swirl in one tablespoon butter, and when butter is melted, add
two tablespoons red Burgundy. Spoon sauce over the meat and serve.
Dropping from the sublime
Elbow Macaroni and Feta Cheese doesn’t look like much, but
you will be surprised at how good it is and how simple to make.
This, of course, is a variety of mac and cheese, but much more
simple and you know the ingredients.
This dish has pasta, feta cheese and butter. Pick up a package
of macaroni and cheese in the supermarket and read the ingredient
list. There is a surprise for you.
Cook a box of elbow macaroni. Buy the good stuff, usually from
Italy. Read the ingredient list on that package, too. Put the
macaroni in a warm serving bowl and sprinkle one cup of good feta
cheese (either Greek or French, if you can find it), which has
been crumbled over the pasta and toss until well mixed and the
cheese begins to melt. Have 1/4-pound of butter melted and lightly
browned. Quickly sprinkle the brown butter over, toss again and
serve. Salt and pepper as desired. Not bad.
Here’s one that will fool you, I bet. It is from a Northern
Italian cookbook given to me many years ago by Terry Tikkanen,
my wife’s mother. It is rich and very good.
Riso all’uovo translates very unromantically to Rice with
Egg Yolks.
Unromantic it may sound, but the dish is rich and filling. This
recipe serves two to four and can be increased easily.
2 cups of medium rich chicken broth.
1/4 cup long grain rice
2 tablespoons butter at room temperature
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Heat liquid to boiling, add rice, lower heat, cook rice to done,
ten to fourteen minutes. Drain if necessary.
Transfer to heated serving bowl, add butter and stir well.
Add one egg yolk at a time, stirring constantly; stir in cheese.
Serve immediately.
If you wish to add some color to this dish, I suggest some strips
of roasted red pepper.
While we are dealing with eggs, why not try this Cucumber-Dill
Soup, with egg?
1 medium cucumber
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons flour
2/3 cup rich chicken broth
1 tablespoon finely chopped dill
salt and pepper
1/4 cup whipping cream
2 hard cooked eggs
Peel cucumber, chop coarsely. Melt butter in saucepan and stew
cucumber gently for four to five minutes. Sprinkle the flour over
cucumber; add warm stock.
Simmer for eight to ten minutes; add dill, salt and pepper to
taste and stir in cream.
Place a half-hard cooked egg in each of four soup plates and spoon
the soup over them. Can garnish with more dill.
Enough already. Have fun.
—Don Curto
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