Another Quick Lunch

I returned home from a delightful interview with Cynthia Walls from Mississippi Digital Daily and a great visit with my friend Josh Hailey (who just returned from eating his way across Argentina) and I found Stuart sprawled out on the sofa, watching Law & Order with his injured leg elevated. He was hungry and looked far too sad to eat take-out so I did the next best thing...I made fast food Tijuana style. 

All across Mexico, you can find little trailers and carts with a flat-top griddle, a tortilla press and a couple of folks slinging out great eats for very little money. What they offer is simple, tasty meals of tortillas, some type of meat cooked with aromatic spices, and perhaps some onions and peppers sautéed alongside the meat.  They take your order, assemble what you asked for and hand it to you, unceremoniously and without a plate. When you eat at a place like this, you don't bother with a table and instead just stand there on the street corner and stuff your face before returning to whatever it was you were doing before you got hungry. 


One red onion, one chicken breast and several tortillas later, Stuart was full and I got to play Matamoros short-order cook for a little while. Everyone was happy.


Bon Appetit!
~Tom

Self Administered Comfort Food

After some bitterly disappointing news on Friday, I figured I needed some comfort food, and nothing takes my mind off of misery more than spending the day in the kitchen working on huge batches of food that must be prepared lovingly and from scratch. Since I thought the Karma Police might descend on my house for having a pitty-party/anger-fest, I figured the first comfort food to make would need to be for someone else. Earlier in the week, I learned that a new friend of mine had undergone bypass surgery. The surgery didn't kill him so I wasn't about to let a diet of hospital food take him out either. If there is one singular truth borne of the kitchen it is that sick people need soup. Luckily, there were a bunch of chicken carcases in the freezer and with the help of some angry chopping and Zen-like stirring, four hours later they were transformed into Chicken and Wild Rice Soup. My friend was appreciative and the black cloud over my heart lifted a bit seeing him smile at the thought of enjoying something made with care and full of chickeny goodness. It turns out that now-a-days, getting your chest bone sawed in half and your heart literally taken out of your chest only rates a four day stay in the hospital. My friend was heading home on Saturday and his soup would make the journey with him.

On Saturday, our friends Rose and Peter were in the mood for some slow cooked food, good wine and great company. Peter picked me up around noon and we trekked over to McDade's for beef short ribs. When we got there, we found that they didn't have quite enough ribs for eight people, but they did have ox tails. We filled the basket with cheap cuts of meat, aromatic vegetables, potatoes and the ingredients for one of our favorite desserts, Root Beer Floats.

The prep time took about twenty minutes and after browning off the ribs and tails, tossing in the vegetables and filling the massive iron skillets with a bottle of wine each, Peter and I had the rest of the day to lounge around, or so we thought. Rose had a Purple Martin house that needed to be relocated to Laurel Park, Kitty had a job interview (leaving me in charge of Zak) and the boys had numerous adventures in mind. At least the food was on autopilot for the next six hours.

Erecting the birdhouse presented its own particular set of challenges that we were able to overcome. If you want to see out handiwork, it is proudly on display towards the back of the big open field in Laurel Park. Because of a break in the pole and a longer than expected pole that fit into the original shaft, Rose's Purple Martin house in Laurel Park is probably one of the tallest structures in Belhaven.

Back at the house with all of the kids in tow, Peter and I watched curiously as the guys tried their hand at "Free Running." Obviously, this clambering over obstacles and jumping over furniture is now an internet-video-fueled "extreme" sport. When I was a boy we just called it "running around." My first thought of "This will certainly end poorly." was confirmed when I heard a thud like a wooden bat hitting a cantaloupe. From the corner of my eye, I saw Stuart fall into a crumpled heap behind a stone wall and walked over to investigate. I fully expected to see a massive head wound or a bit of bone sticking out of some limb. I was relieved to see that the injury, though serious, would not require a spatula, a helicopter or an MRI. Stuart had managed to whack his shin so hard that he smashed a dime-sized hole in the skin and through it, you could see the sinewy covering of his shin bone. The force of the blow was so hard that he wasn't bleeding since the skin was both cut and sealed by the impact. Peter's reaction was, "C'mon Stuart. We need to stitch that up. Let's get you up to the kitchen."

"Is it really gonna hurt?" Stuart asked.

"You bet." Peter confidently replied.

A few minutes later, Stuart was disinfected, numbed and closed and Peter and I still had a few hours of downtime before the girls arrived to eat supper. (Click here if you really must see pictures of the stitches. I'd rather not put them on the same page with braised ox tail.)

The meal was rich. The wine was plentiful. The conversation was lively. And now Stuart will have a cool new scar to show off to teenage girls. I can't imagine a better way to heal my damaged heart.

Bon Appetit!
~Tom

Whit Food

In a recent interview, I described my kids by the types of food they crave. Whit, our 13-year-old boy, loves comfort foods. He will take chicken pot pie or potroast over steak or salmon every time. To him comfort foods are like a hug. Whit is the cuddliest of all the boys and will frequently come stand next to you and refuse to leave until he gets his back scratched, his head patted and his shoulders rubbed. What makes this even more amusing is the fact that he is so tall, so strong and so aggressive on the football field. This teen-aged brute who loves nothing more than playing on defensive line and hunting down quarterbacks like a lion hunts gazelle, is really a softy at heart.

That's Whit snuggling with me at a reception for 94-year-old Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards. Isn't he cute! Now that I have embarrassed him enough, I'll move on to the food. Tonight's potroast was a 4 lb. bottom round roast cooked low and slow. I would have let it cook longer, but the family was starting to resemble a pack of wolves ready to turn on their leader and have him for supper. Sometimes, I cook this with beer, sometimes with wine. Tonight I made it with beef stock and left out the celery...mainly because we were out of celery.
Bon Appetit!
~Tom

Whit's Pot Roast (Hug on a Plate)

1 5 lb. pot roast

1 large yellow onion

2 carrots

2 Yukon gold potatoes

2 stalks celery

6 cloves garlic

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. thyme

1 32 oz. container beef stock*

1 Tbsp. olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Prep

Roughly chop onion, carrots, celery, potatoes and garlic. Season roast with salt and pepper.

Cook

Pre-heat oven to 350°. Heat a large iron skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and continue heating until oil smokes. Add seasoned pot roast and brown on all sides. Add chopped vegetables and transfer to oven. With the oven open and the skillet on the middle rack, add herbs and ½ tsp. black pepper. Add beef stock until liquid is almost to the rim of the skillet. Top loosely with foil and cook for 1 hour. Slide out the oven rack, turn the meat and stir the vegetables. Reduce heat to 275° and add more liquid to cover vegetables if needed. Cook for an additional 4-6 hours or until the meat tears apart with a fork.

Plate

Serve meat over vegetables and top with the cooking liquid.

Why I Love "Poor People Food"

In any part of the world you can find some of the best dishes in the poorest of kitchens. Food writers like to dress it up and call it "Rustic" or "Country" cooking. What they mean is "Poor People Food." Usually there are some common threads that include a cheap cut of meat, a few aromatic vegetables, lots of spices and herbs and some form of inexpensive starch. The ingredients are usually cooked in a single pot over low heat for a long time. This allows all of the ingredients to do their magic and turn that cheap cut of meat into a soft flavorful thing of beauty. One of my favorites is White Beans with Pork. 
Bon Appetit!
~Tom

White Beans with Pork

1 lb. bag navy beans

1 lb. bag great northern beans

1 lb. cooked pork (ham, shoulder, tenderloin etc.)

4 stalks celery

1 bunch green onions

1 bunch parsley

4 carrots

2 medium yellow onions

1 whole garlic pod

3 qt. ham stock*

1 Tbsp. ground thyme

1 Tbsp. oregano

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. bacon grease

Salt

Pepper

Prep

Soak beans overnight in cold water. Chop celery, carrots and onions. Finely chop green onions and parsley. Slice ¼ inch through the top of the garlic pod, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and wrap tightly in foil. Chop cooked pork into small cubes, no larger than ½ inch. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook

Place foil wrapped garlic in the hot oven and roast for at least 20 minutes. Heat a large stock pot over medium heat. Put olive oil and bacon grease in hot pot until bacon grease is fully dissolved and sizzling. Add chopped yellow onions and cook until translucent. Add celery, carrots thyme and oregano. Cook until celery begins to soften. Add cooked pork and cook until meat is hot, stirring constantly. Drain and add beans and enough ham stock to cover all ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Remove roasted garlic from oven and squeeze pods into simmering liquid. Stir frequently and add liquid as it reduces. Cook for at least 2 hours. Stir aggressively and taste broth. Add salt and pepper as required. About ten minutes before serving, add chopped green onions and stir.

Plate

Serve with hot bread in a shallow bowl. Garnish with chopped parsley.

(Serves 10)

* there are several good commercial brands. I use Better than Bouillon.