A Very Happy Whit

If you've ever spent enough time around me, you've heard me tell the story about my kids having food tastes that match their personalities. Our middle son, Whit, is the one who craves comfort foods. To him, pot roast is like a big warm hug. So last night, he got a very special hug...six-hour pot roast and boiled potatoes. The roast recipe is quite simple. Carrots, onion, celery, garlic and mushrooms, all roughly chopped and cooked with a slab of meat over low heat. You can make it faster, but you just don't get the same result. If you would like to be as happy as Whit in this picture, send me an email and I'll send you the recipe.
Bon Appetit!
~Tom

Hello Blog. I missed you, but now I'm back.

My last post was on tax day and those chicken thighs were great. Since then, life has been a wild ride. The radio show started last week and it has been a blast. We shot the teaser/pilot for the TV show. I threw Kitty and Kim a great birthday party. I got to put on cooking demonstrations at Sante South and Persnickety Kitchens and I've made new friends. On top off all that, I've managed to cook some terrific food. Here are some photos. If you want the recipes, just send me an email and ask.

Kitty's Birthday "Cake" (Honey & Gingered Fruit with Cilantro Whipped Cream)
Since my lovely wife has a gluten sensitivity, I made her a big 'ol bowl of fresh fruit, soaked it with a honey and ginger sauce and topped it with cilantro whipped cream. The candles worked nicely with the cream.

Keeping with the gluten free menu idea, those are crackers made of rice and nuts served with caramelized onions over cream cheese. These onions were caramelized for so long that they were actually sweet.

These pork skewers were marinated with wine and soy and grilled. The sauce is a hot curry peanut sauce.

These are chicken skewers with a Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce.

When we finished shooting at Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans, I noticed that the receptionists/hostesses were enjoying some fine Popeye's Chicken. Even at one of the finest restaurants in the world, nobody can resist Popeye's!

I was in a hurry...Kitty was hungry. Tortillas, a little meat, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and Voila! There you have a quick and fresh lunch.

As a "Thank You" to Pamela, out hair and makeup maven for the TV show, I whipped up some rosemary and sea salt crusted lamb chops with a cream pan sauce.

Stuart, rocking the smoking jacket and enjoying a tasty strawberry milk.

And finally, tonight's dinner with Kitty. Flatiron steak with sautéed spinach, asparagus and a lovely reduction sauce.

Now, we're pretty much caught up. I'll do a whole new post on the TV pilot soon.

Bon Appetit!
~Tom

The Lowly Chicken Thigh in a Starring Role

Chicken thighs are the Fred Ward of the culinary world. You've seen 'em in everything but they never get to be the star. If they were in 5th grade P.E. they would be the effeminate, chubby kid with asthma and never get picked first. But why? Dark meat is more flavorful. The thighs have that massive hunk of skin that get crispier than anything else in a Popeye's Bonafide Family Meal and yet...they are passed over for the breast almost universally. What is this obsession with breasts that has grabbed hold of our nation. Has the trend for bigger breasts on everything from models to mommys really gone so far as to skew the popularity of chicken parts? I think so. Turkeys have been bred over time to have such large breasts that they can no longer mate naturally. The physics and the geometry don't work anymore.

To help turn the tide back to thigh-appreciation (and to save some serious money) I love to use chicken thighs in almost every recipe that calls for chicken. I remove the bones and use them as fillets and I love to cook them whole on the grill or in stews, soups and ragouts. Tonight, they went into a big pot of red sauce with some veggie and herb pals and ended up in a bowl over toasted polenta. If you want the recipe, just send me an email (info@ivyanddevine.com)

Bon Appetit!
~Tom

Playing Catch-up

Things have been so busy with the radio and TV stuff that I've neglected my blog. Sorry 'bout that. to help catch up, here are some photos of great food that I shared with great people. If you want recipes, just comment below with your request or shoot me an email at tom@tomramsey.com. Enjoy the photos and captions, I hope to get back in the regular habit of posting daily-ish soon.
Bon Appetit!
~Tom

An awesome steak with lobster whipped potatoes and sautéed mushrooms that Kitty and I enjoyed with Mandy and Anders Ferrington.

Strawberries and puffed pastry from the same meal with Mandy and Anders.

A quick Sunday salad for Kitty this past weekend. I stuffed all of this in some focaccia and made a panini for myself. I ate it before I remembered to take a picture. Maybe next time.

Messy, burgery goodness from Lucy and Al Sabin's cookout on Saturday. It was the perfect way for Kitty and I to celebrate her return home from Muncie.

Ham and veggies from Easter Sunday. I got a big kick out of a friend of mine asking me after Easter Sunday church, "So what are you cooking for Easter dinner?" When I replied, "I have no idea, I guess I figure it out when I get to McDade's and see what is on sale." I thought they were going to faint right there in the Nave of St. Andrew's. Can you guess what was on sale?

For no apparent reason, other than I had defrosted two chickens, Kitty and I had a little dinner party last week. I made a lemon and mushroom risotto to go with my standard roasted chickens with compound butter. It was one of those great nights when everyone lingered over the dirty dishes and the conversations were lively long after the dessert was all gone. We had just the right mix of people and the evening will remain a fond memory for quite some time.

Cookin' on the Radio

Starting on the 19th of April, I will be hosting a new radio show called At the Cook's Table, with Tom Ramsey. The show will be all about food...the cooking, the eating, recipes and food traditions. Each week I'll have guests who like to cook and guests who like to eat. We'll take calls and emails and answer your food-related questions on the air. The show will at at noon on WLEZ 100.1 FM. If you don't live in the Jackson, Mississippi area, you can listen in online at www.wlezfm.com. The shows will also be available by podcast on my website and on itunes (as soon as I can figure out how to do that itunes thing).

If you would like to be on the show, go to www.atthecookstable.com and click on the "contact us" link and tell our producer, Kim Brown, why you want to sit in a small room with me and talk about food.

Bon Appetit!
~Tom

I Love this Kind of Work

To prepare for a new "thing" that I'm currently working on, I spent an evening working on a couple of new dishes with my friend and mega-chef, Dan Blumenthal. My good friend and new partner in a business venture, Kim Brown, came along for the learning experience and entertainment value. Dan and I worked out the kinks in a chipotle/lime/ginger shrimp dish. The original version was a marinated shrimp, cooked on a grill pan. It morphed and evolved into a dish cooked in the same way as New Orleans Bar-B-Que Shrimp, made famous by Pascal's Manale Restaurant. We blended a bunch of chipotle peppers with lime juice, melted butter, cilantro, ginger, honey, and sunflower oil, then cooked the shrimp in this concoction for a short time and served them over soft polenta. Don's call this "Shrimp and Grits" or I'll stop writing about it. EVERYBODY now does a shrimp and grits dish. I swear we'll see it on the menu at Red Lobster within the next year.

To go with this searing hot delight, we made a cold soup of cucumbers and avocado with an island of whipped cream and buttermilk floating on top alongside a dollop of salsa fresca and some baked tortilla strips. It was great. Kim cleaned her plate and was only mildly disturbed by Dan's and my behavior.

Bon Appetit!
~Tom

Incredible Chinese Food

On the way to a business meeting this past week. Kim Brown and I stopped at the new Ding How Asian Bistro on Highway 51, near Rice Road. This was not your ordinary Chinese, all-you-can-eat, slop trough. This was great Chinese food, the way it should be prepared and enjoyed. We both ordered a special. Mine was the Shrimp with Five Mushrooms. Kim had the Special Eggplant with Pork. Both were outstanding. I wish we had thought to get pictures before we finished devastating the plates, but we were too busy eating. I will go back again soon and I will get pre-eating photos. Here are the "after" shots.

Tom's Plate "After"

Kim's Plate "After"