RoobiFood

This summer has been more mild than most, but the 4th of July was hot–so hot, that we needed a great drink to cool down with at our BBQ. I knew that watermelon is a good compliment for any BBQ, but I didn’t know what to make. So I turned this great new book: Mix Shake Stir: Cocktails for the Home Bar.

In the book there are dozens of recipes for great drinks from Danny Meyer’s restaurants in New York City: Blue Smoke, Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, etc. I jumped right to the recipe for the Watermelon Margarita.

Here’s what the book says, and then I’ll tell you how I changed it up:

Fill a rocks glass and a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the tequila [2 oz], lime juice [1 1/2 oz], watermelon puree [1 oz], elderflower liqueur [1/2 oz], and simple syrup [1/2 oz] to the shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into the glass, garnish with charred lemon, if desired, and serve.

We didn’t have tequila (or St. Germain elderflower liqueur), so we made the watermelon puree by combing cubes of watermelon, simple syrup, and lemon in a blender, and then added ice and vodka for the frozen version of the Mix Shake Stir drink. Add as much vodka as you need for the party, but be careful because the watermelon sucks it right up. The drink is so good that’s it really easy to have too many too fast, just to warn you! But it’s a great compliment to a BBQ and a nice way to cool down in the summer!!

I sing the praise of tomato!

Oh, how I love thee, ripe red fruit of my garden! Your skin trembles at my touch, bursting with tantalizing juice…

Ahem. Sorry. I love tomatoes. I love cooking with tomatoes. I love growing tomatoes, slicing, picking, squeezing, and thinking about them. Something about the color, taste, texture and sight of them invokes an almost reverent response from my soul. Seeing them waiting for me on my windowsill causes my heart to jump with glee.

I even like tomato stories. When I was a small girl, my mom told me about Grandpa Rossi-an immigrant from Italy, working the Chisholm Trail as a young cowboy in the late 19th century. Apparently after a dusty ride along the cattle trail, the exhausted cowboys would enjoy a rare spa treatment when coming back to town. Their skin would get cracked and dry by the wind and sun, and the only remedy to this condition was to acquire a good sized jar of canned tomatoes from your nearest general store or kind lady friend, open the jar, and proceed to smear its contents all over your aching face. I don’t know if this is a true story or just the stuff of family legend and myth, but it sounds great!

Tomatoes are good for you, inside and out, and tomatoes are tasty. Instinctually, when I pick up a fresh, ripe tomato, I want to immediately crush it in my grip. My fist longs to wrap itself around the tomato and watch the juice flow down my wrist. Admittedly my heart always tells me to turn them into sauce.

Now, a word about sauce. I know that many foodies may eschew the red sauce in favor of something more sophisticated, but with practice, great ingredients and some time, red sauce can become palatable again. It is an essential in my kitchen-whenever a pack of hungry pre-teens run through my house asking what’s for dinner, (that happens a lot these days!) I always set them to work making pizza or we have some pasta with guess what-red sauce. My daughter and her friends have come to enjoy the ritual of making their own eats. The bottled ‘spaghetti sauce’ that is readily available in grocery stores nation-wide are loaded with sugar, salt, and things I can’t pronounce. (I’m convinced the poor quality of these pseudo-sauces have given red sauce a bad name.) What you can make at home with a few simple ingredients is so superior to pre-made sauce. Once you try it, you won’t want to go back!

Here’s how:

Find the ripest red Roma tomatoes you can buy. Or grow them. Imagine the size of your sauce-pot. When I make sauce, I use a medium sized stock-pot, so I purchase a compatible quantity. I always manage to use all the tomatoes I purchase-they either end up in the sauce, or on the off-chance that a few stragglers are left over, I slice them up and eat them with a nice mixture of sea-salt and basil on top. Or you could put them in salad. Or just do as my husband does, and eat them like apples. Whatever floats your boat! The point is, don’t worry about the exact quantity-we’re cooking like great-grandma here, and we are going to trust ourselves to buy just the amount we need!

Once you have acquired the tomatoes, wash them, cut off the stems/tops and slice them into fourths. If seeds are an issue for you, then by all means pick them out. Personally, I always leave them in. (The same goes for the skin-I know you can buy them peeled, but I’m fond of the skin. Peel away if you wish.) Throw the sliced tomatoes into your pot along with a few tablespoons of good olive oil, smashed garlic cloves and some chopped onion. I suppose if you have a dislike to onion texture, you could use onion extract or onion powder. The same with garlic-just don’t use onion or garlic salt-that will cause a salty overloaded taste. Cover the pot and let it simmer on a low flame for a good while-check it often, because you don’t want this to burn. When the skins are all droopy, and the whole affair looks rather limp, then it’s time to grind!!!

Using a food processor is easiest. A blender will work, too. Simply grind the tomato-onion-garlic mixture until liquefied. Pour it back into your pot. That is your base. Now it’s time to have fun.

At this point, while the sauce is simmering over a low heat, I begin my hunt. Rooting around in my crisper, pantry, and spice rack, I look for the perfect combination of flavors and ingredients to complement my beautiful base. Here are some possible combinations, and of course, with instinctual-type cooking, anything goes, so feel free to mix-and-match.

1. Base sauce plus fresh chopped basil, ground black pepper, bay leaf, dash of oregano, pinch of sea salt, chopped garlic, flat leaf parsley. This produces a nice, clean, classic sauce. Simmer on a low flame until thickened slightly. You want to keep it slightly uncovered so the steam will escape, reducing the high water content of the tomatoes, producing a richer flavor. Once it is thickened to your satisfaction, discard the bay leaf and enjoy this sauce over the lightest of pasta, or keep it in your freezer to add to soups and stews. This one works well in recipes calling for tomato juice.

2. Base sauce, plus herbs and spices plus one chopped green pepper, handful of sliced mushrooms, and any other vegetable you like. I find chopped zucchini to be an interesting addition, as well as a bit of sliced chopped eggplant. Veggies give an earthy quality to sauce. Add a few splashes of chicken stock to round out the flavor. We enjoy this sauce on just about anything, and it’s nice to make pizza and calzones out of it, too. You can spoon it on little slices of ciabatta bread, and make crostini. Add lots of cheese! Grill or bake them till cheese is melted.

3. Base sauce, plus herbs and spices, plus veggies, plus a cup or two of cooked meat. This can be anything from sliced Italian sausage, to finely ground pruscuitto, to chopped leftover glazed pork chops or just plain ol’ humble ground beef, if you must. Just keep in mind, you can grind a perfectly seasoned steak in that food processor, too. No need to go out and buy a Styrofoam-encased lump of ground chuck. Meat makes a sauce heavy, and adds fat content. (It makes me sleepy!) It is best served over thick pasta that can stand the weight of the meat. Fusili bucati with a nice heavy meat sauce sprinkled with pecorino and a glass of red wine and my feet up and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

When I wake up, I’ll tell you about bread.

I did not recognize the simple genius of Bi Bim Bop until later in life. The year before college, I worked in a family-owned Korean restaurant that offered a Bi Bim Bop lunch buffet during the week. It was $6 per person, all-you-can-eat, and probably the worst shift a wait-person could imagine; a lot of running, drinks and bussing, the whole time knowing a 20% tip of $1.20 was a high average. At this time, the thought of Bi Bim Bop produced a negative reaction in me.  Today, I often dream of finding a place that would offer such a buffet.

Bi Bim Bop is a traditional Korean meal.  It’s comprised of a bed of rice and a variety of panchan: watercress, cucumber, mung bean sprouts, dorachi (bellflower root), sometimes mushrooms and julienned carrots.  Bulgogi style beef or tofu, fried egg and kochu jang (red pepper paste) top it off.  Mix it all up and compose perfect bites of sticky rice, earthy vegetables, silky egg yolk, and sweet/salty meat at your level of spice.

It was in college, perhaps due to lack of budget and tools, I began creating my own, poor woman’s version of Bi Bim Bop at home – rice with fried egg and hot sauce.  It sounds very unfortunate but it was, and still is, great comfort food to me.  It also was a great hangover meal and revived me many a morning past college.  Throughout the years I have added some elements so it truly resembles Bi Bim Bop.  Although I cannot say it is authentic Korean, it is balanced, flavorful, easy and inexpensive – my homage to Bi Bim Bop.

Hola! Let me tell you a little bit about myself -

My name is Laura and live in Austin, Texas with my 14 year old son. I’m a single mom that has been unemployed for about two months and the jobs are just not out there. It’s not for a lack of trying or lack of ability, just the state of the economy. So, how can I make this work for me? I obviously have time on my hands and want to do something productive, to make me feel better if nothing else. I had been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out what I can do. How can I capitalize on what I love to do and try to carve out a living eventually? I had a huge epiphany! Combine my love of food and cooking with writing – voila! OK, so I had decided what to write about, next I needed to determine the best avenue to use and how to make that happen. After doing some research, it looked like blogging was the way to go – all the cool kids are doing it, right?

Please know that I am by no means a professionally trained chef, but maybe someday when I grow up… I just have a desire and love for food and cooking. Along the way I have picked up tips, tricks and tidbits of knowledge along the way from watching people cook to magazine articles to cook books – and watch lots of cooking shows and segments!

My first undertaking will be to chronicle my experiences while prepare foods from different countries every week that will not be expensive or difficult to prepare and use relatively mainstream ingredients and flavors that are not too crazy or wild – just a little bit. The two biggest obstacles will be to accommodate my pocketbook and to find the balance between my adventurous eating preferences and my son’s non-adventurous palate. So, join me in my virtual global culinary adventure taking place within the confines of my own kitchen – it’ll be fun, I’m sure…

Follow me on Twitter – @globaleats

Email – myglobaleats@gmail.com

The clients have hired me. I know I’ll be cooking for 4 people. The price has been established and the date and time are set. The important business is now done. The fun now begins as I, The Personable Chef set to work on creating a delicious menu.

Hiring a personal chef allows you to really customize your dinner party experience. How much you want to spend is a deciding factor from what will be served to how the service will happen. Hiring a personal chef is a fantastic way to get to be a guest at your own event!

In this case I’ve been asked for an Italian inspired dinner.( My speciality for those of you that are not aware.) A simple casual , some-what predictable menu is what these clients are looking for. I aim to please. My first thoughts are about the local restaurants around these clients and what they might choose there. But then I decide on how I create my own family meals and that feels much more appropriate for these particular clients.

Putting together a menu for me is an exciting challenge. I take all aspects very seriously and leave no stones unturned. I think about the over-all presentation. The textures, flavors, colors and that a variety of delicious fresh ingredients are used. This particular meal will include…an appetizer,salad, main entree and dessert. They requested chicken as the main course, so that narrows the field a bit but the rest is up to me. After a conversation to find out a few more pieces to the puzzle, I learn that the hostess really loves “chicken piccata”. I’m thinking that will be a nice surprise to add to the menu.

Menu as follows: APPETIZER: cannellini bean dip on top of crostini. The beans are mostly pureed to leave a bit of texture. Olive oil, lemon, garlic, scallions, salt and pepper bring it all together. On the platter I add some grape tomatoes sprinkled with course sea salt to add a splash of color and to round out the flavors.

SALAD: Insalate caprese. My absolute favorite and how I measure an Italian restaurants quality. This salad, when done right is transcending in flavors but only if the olive oil has been treated kindly. Such a simple salad with tomatoes,basil and fresh mozzarella. I choose heirloom tomatoes that are yellow and orange . Fresh mozzarella is much easier to find in the market these days. A top quality fruity extra virgin olive oil is a given and some very course sea salt with fresh cracked pepper to add more flavor. To make the recipe my own, I add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a splash of white balsamic vinegar. Yummy. Letting the cheese sit in the oil for a few minutes also gives it some wonderful flavor. Tonight I also add some klamata olives to add some new flavor, color and texture. A few non-traditional ingredients that make my caprese salad different and requested often.

MAIN ENTREE: The chicken piccata will be the star. Lemons and the dry white wine give this simple delicious dish some extra sparkle but the capers are what make it sing! I’ve been told by many that my chicken piccata is the best. As I de-glaze the pan with the wine , that fresh lemon- garlic and tangy caper smell tickles my nose. I know they’ll be happy with this main entree choice.  Fresh  herbs are used to play up the flavor of the side dish of baby red potatoes. The herbs not only add color but a beautiful fresh flavor that dances on your tongue. This is  a great accompaniment to the chicken.

DESSERT: The best way to end such a wonderful meal is with some decadent dark chocolate. I serve a creamy ,rich but light dark chocolate mousse (with a hint of orange) that is to die for. When I make this at home everyone fights over who gets to lick the bowl. I top it with fresh raspberries for color and texture but also because they go so very well with the dark chocolate.

The evening is underway and my clients are enjoying a beautiful evening outside. The table is set and course by course I bring them out to be enjoyed.

With the dessert in the fridge and the ooh’s and ah’s of delight outside I clean up the kitchen like I’d never been there and slip out the back door. Another successful dinner party.

What’s next?…..