Sick/Well Day

My kids can smell a mental health day from a mile off. I’ve been really busy lately and thought, “I don’t have anything that HAS to be done tomorrow; think I’ll give myself a break and take it off, maybe take the dog for a long walk around the lake, practice my dancing, do something creative…” These are the kind of thoughts that arc through the air like lightening and bring on instant illness in my children. So yesterday afternoon was spent at the Dr.’s office instead, followed by the required trip to the pharmacy for antibiotics. At least this time didn’t involve vomiting. I guess it's not much fun for the sick-ee either to be schlepped around when all you want is to be home on the couch snuggled up with your cat and endless episodes of Mythbusters.

At least I had the time to be all nurturing and junk, too bad this was the child that will not eat anything. Otherwise, I might have made her this Italian Wedding Soup, which I had at a restaurant many many years ago, loved, and scribbled down notes on what was in there so I could copy it at home. It's good for a cold in body or spirit, and a nice variation from the usual chicken soup.

My original scribble in the restaurant.

Brown a pound of sweet Italian sausage (or spicy if you want it hot!).

Brown a chopped onion in the above fat.

Add chicken stock, and when boiling, chopped carrot and barley. Cook until tender.

Add chopped spinach.

If I want something hearty, I’ll add biscuit dumplings or cheese raviolis to this.

Sounds perfect for the night of our first hard fall freeze. I may have decided what’s for dinner tonight.

Polenta, Pane, and Perfection

Here's my competing bread recipes. First from Italy, the basic pane, which I made for dinner tonight, followed by the French entry: brioche, which doesn't look too hard but I would have had to start it yesterday and I didn't think about it then.

Pane (Italian Bread)

Soften 1 pkg active dry yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand 5-10 minutes.
Meanwhile put 1 3/4 cups warm water and 1 T salt in a large bowl.
Blend in 3 cups flour. Stir softened yeast and add to flour-water mixture, mixing well.
Measure 2-2 1/2 cups flour. Add half to the yeast mixture and beat until very smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn mixture onto a lightly floured surface. Allow to rest 5-10 minutes. Knead.

Select a deep bowl just large enough to allow dough to double. Shape dough into a ball and place in greased bowl. Turn dough to bring greased surface to the top. Cover bowl with wzxed paper and towel and let stand in a warm place until doubled, (1 1/2-2 hours).
Punch down. Knead on a lightly floured surface 2 minutes. Divide into 2 balls. Let stand covered 10 minutes.

Roll each ball into a  14x8 inch rectangle. Roll up tightly in a long slender loaf, pinch ends to seal.
Place loaves on lightly greased baking sheet. Cover loosely with a towel ans set aside until doubled. Bake at 450 10 minutes, reduce temerature to 350 and bake 1 hour or until golden brown. To increase crustiness, place a flat pan on bottom of oven and fill with boiling water at beginning of baking period.

This turned out to be one of the best yeast breads I've ever made. The crust was wonderfully crunchy. Definitely a keeper. Definitely. Can you say bread overdose?


Petites Brioches

Soften 1 pkg active dry yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand 5-10 minutes.
Scald 1/4 cup milk.
Meanwhile put into a large bowl:
3/4 cup soft butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 t salt
Pour scalded milk over and allow to stand until lukewarm.
Mix in 1/2 cup flour thoroughly. Stir softened yeast and add, mixing well.
Beat 1 1/2 cups flour.
Add 3 eggs and 4 egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add about 2 cups flour, beating in, to form soft dough. Beat thoroughly at least 5 minutes. Turn into a deep buttered bowl just large enough to allow dough to double. Brush top surface with melted butter. Cover with waxed paper and a towel. Set aside in a warm place to rise. When doubled, punch down, butter surface, and let rise again. Set in refrigerator 12 hours or overnight. Punch down occasionally as it rises.
Remove from fridge, place dough on lightly floured surface. Shape two thirds into 2 inch balls. Place in buttered muffin pan wells. Form an equal number of small balls from remaining dough. Gently roll into cone shape. Make an impression in center of larger balls, insert tips of cones. These form the "hats". Cover loosely with towel and set aside in warm place until doubled.
Brush lightly with mixture of 1 egg yolk and 1 T milk. Bake 425 for 15-20 minutes.


Since we need something appropriate to mop up with the bread, I flipped thru the book for something to go with and found this recipe. I'm not huge on mushrooms and didn't have any on hand, so I subbed some celery, onion, and red pepper, and added some garlic, pepper, and oregano. I've never made homemade polenta, nor have I ever had any besides those tubes you buy at the store and slice, so I have no idea if this turned out "right." But it did turn out so tasty as a base for this sauce that I have a completely different opinion of polenta now. And a belly so stuffed I need a nap. Four thumbs up for tonight's dinner--France, you have a big challenge ahead of you to match this.

Polenta con Salsiccia
Set out a large, heavy sauce pan.
Prepare 1 lb. Italian sausage. (Cut casing, remove, and crumble sausage with a fork)
Clean and slice 1 lb mushrooms.
Heat 2 T olive oil in skillet and add mushrooms and sausage. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until mushrooms and sausage are lightly browned. Slowly stir in 2 1/2 cups canned tomatoes, 1 t salt, 1/4 t pepper. Simmer 30 minutes. Meanwhile make polenta.

Polenta
Bring 3 cups water and 1 1/2 t salt to a boil in a saucepan.
Gradually stir in a mixture of 1 cup yellow corn meal and 1 cup cold water.
Boil, stirring constantly, until thickened. Cover, lower heat, and cook slowly 10 minutes or longer. Transfer to a warm platter and top with tomato mixture. Sprinkle with parmesan or romano cheese.

Soupe or zuppa?

I’m trying to remember how old I was when my Dad made his now infamous potato soup. I think my next two siblings were toddlers but the others hadn’t been born. That means it was just me alone with his cooking skills—which might have extended as far as Arabian cooking but certainly had not made the cultural leap yet—actually, based on the matazeez incident in which he tried to poison my grandparents while he was dating my mother, I don’t think they extended that far—when my mom left him in charge of making dinner. Surely she meant to simplify things by suggesting he make potato soup. Maybe she even gave him instructions. I don’t know.

What I do know is that he winged it. Potato soup has to have potatoes so he cut some up in small pieces and boiled them. And boiled them. And boiled them until they jelled. The starch in a potato is a funny thing. It can suck up a lot of water like a sponge and form long sticky ropey molecule chains. This is why it’s good to let your potatoes drain awhile, or even reheat them in the pan a little to dry them off when you are making mashed potatoes. The starch cells can also collapse if handled with any force, like mashing or whipping them really hard in hopes of creating some kind of “creamy” base for the soup. I don’t believe it crossed his mind to use milk, or if it did, it was too late. The casein in milk (and butter) interacts with the potato starch to keep the starch from swelling and forming those long chains. Just try making mashed potatoes without either and see what you get.

As my mother tells the story, when she walked in the door she found us all sitting in silence around the kitchen table. I looked up at her and said, “I hope you’re hungry!” with all the contempt for her neglectful parenting that my preadolescent body could conjure. “What’s for dinner?” she chirruped. I held out my bowl, picked up my spoon, plunged it into the center of the white shimmering mass, and let go. It stood straight upright.

But let’s go back to Italy and France for our cuisine comparison. I love soup, including potato, regardless of any past trauma. Thank goodness my mom didn't tell my dad he should make some little hat soup for dinner. 

.

Cappelletti in Brodo (Little Hat Soup)

Prepare and set aside 2 quarts chicken broth

Combine and set aside:

 ½ cup (about ¼ lb) ricotta or cottage cheese

½ cup finely chopped cooked chicken

2 T grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/8 t salt

Few grains nutmeg

Few grains pepper

Prepare half recipe of basic noodle dough. Roll about 1/16 inch thick. Cut into rounds with 2 ½ round cookie cutter. Place ½ t cheese-chicken mixture in center of each round of dough. Fold each round in half, covering the mounds of filling. Dampen edges of pasta with water and press together to seal. Bring two extreme ends together. Dampen and press together to seal.

Bring broth to a boil and add pasta. Cook about 20-25 minutes or until pasta is tender. Test by pressing a piece against side of pan with fork or spoon. Serve with broth.

Pasta (Basic Noodle Dough)

Sift into a large bowl:

4 cups flour

¼ t salt

Make a well in the center of flour.

Add 4 eggs, one at a time, mixing slightly after each addition. Gradually add 6 T cold water.

Mix well to make a stiff dough. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead (page 6). Proceed as directed in recipes.

Potage Saint-Germain (Green Pea Soup)

Put into a heavy saucepan:

1 small head lettuce, shredded

2 cups shelled fresh green peas

1 cup water

½ cup chopped green leeks (green part only)

2 T fat

2 t chopped chervil

1 t sugar

1 t salt

¼ t pepper

Bring quickly to boiling and cook until peas are tender. Reserve 3T peas for garnish. Put remaining mixture thru sieve. Return sieved mixture to the pan. Reheat with 2 cups bouillon. Just before serving, blend in 2 cups cream and heat thoroughly. Garnish with reserved peas.

Can't have soup without some great bread, I'll have to do that comparison next time.

French vs. Italian

The Culinary Arts Institute put out both a French and an Italian cookbook in 1954, let's compare:

The French woman certainly is more young and buxom than the Italian one, who even appears a little weary. The interior illustrations only continue the artist's image of young French women full of joie de vivre and Italian matrons full of...well...babies apparently. No wonder she looks sick of rolling out her millionth damn ravioli. What about the recipes, surely the French ones must be easier and less time consuming so our belle femme can get out and enjoy the lights of Paris. Or maybe the Italian ones are easier because this perservering madonna has too many diapers to wash to spend the day over a stove. You decide.

We'll start with hors d'oeuveres versus antipasto.

Bouchees a la Reine (Mouthfuls for the Queen)
Prepare Vol-au-vent shells. (This is puff pastry and while I could write out a recipe here, really, just go get some prepared shells from your grocer's freezer. The book does give a recipe but notes that it takes 9 hours to prepare.)
Prepare and set aside Bechamel sauce
Wipe with a clean damp cloth and cut tips of stems from 3 or 4 medium sized mushrooms. Chop and saute in 1 T butter. Mix with 3-4 T of Bechamel sauce and:
3/4 c finely minced cooked chicken
2 T chopped salted almonds
1 t capers
1/4 t salt
few grains pepper
Reheat baked shells and fill each with about 1 T of the mixture. Top with reserved covers.

Bechamel sauce:
Melt 3 T butter over low heat, stire in 3 T flour, 1/4 t salt, 1/8 t white pepper. Heat until it bubbles, then remove from hear and stir in 3/4 cup cream and 1 T minced onion. Return to heat and bring rapidly to boiling, cook 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly.


Carciofi con Limone (Artichokes in Lemon)
Drain and place in refrigerator to chill 1 jar (13 oz.) artichoke hearts
Meanwhile combine 3 T lemon juice, 2 T olive oil, 1 clove garlic finely chopped, 1/4 t salt, 1/8 t pepper. Chill. When ready to serve, stir lemon-olive oil mixture and pour over artichoke hearts.

Pomodori all' Olio (Tomatoes in Oil)
Wash and remove the stem ends and slit lengthwise 6 plum tomatoes. Set aside.
Combine 3 T olive oil, 1 clove garlic, sliced thin, 1/4 t salt, 1/4 t oregano, 1/8 t pepper.
Pour olive oil mnixture over tomatoes and serve.


Next up: Soup!

Italian paste

I never ate the paste in kindergarten. But I will admit that there was something about those squat little jars with the stick in the orange lid (that was actually worthless for spreading the paste) that always warranted a deep lingering sniff. I also love the smell of crayons. Perhaps my paste-eating compatriots were merely confused by growing up in a home with recipes like the following:

ITALIAN PASTES (from Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, 1918, vol 1)

To produce the Italian pastes, the wheat, from which the bran has been removed, is ground into flour. This flour is made into a stiff dough, which is rolled into sheets and forced over rods, usually of metal, or made into a mass and forced over rods, and allowed to dry in the air. When sufficiently dry, the rods are removed, leaving slender tubes, or sticks, that have holes through the center. Because of the manufacturing processes involved in the production of these foods for

market, they are higher in price than some cereals, but their value lies in the fact that they are practically imperishable and are easily prepared and digested.

MACARONI WITH EGGS.--Since macaroni is high in protein, it takes the place of meat in whatever form it is served, but when it is prepared with eggs it becomes an unusually good meat substitute. Therefore, when eggs are added as in the following recipe, no meat should be served in the same meal.

MACARONI WITH EGGS

(Sufficient to Serve Six)

1 c. macaroni

2 qt. boiling water

2 tsp. salt

1-1/2 c. milk

2 Tb. butter

2 Tb. flour

1 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

4 hard-boiled eggs

1/4 c. crumbs

Break the macaroni into inch lengths, add it to the salted boiling water, and cook it until it is tender. To prepare the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, salt, and pepper, stir until smooth, and gradually add the milk, which must be hot, stirring rapidly so that no lumps form. Cook the cream sauce until it thickens. When the macaroni is tender, drain it and arrange a layer on the bottom of a baking dish, with a layer of sliced, hard-boiled eggs on top. Fill the dish with alternate layers of macaroni and eggs, pour the sauce over all, and sprinkle the crumbs over the top. Then place the dish in the oven and bake the food until the crumbs are brown. Serve hot.

My mother: "I think that in the past, food really didn't have much flavor."

Browsing the pages

I enjoy flipping thru the glossy pages of a new cookbook or magazine as much as the next person, but my first love is old cookbooks that are falling apart and over-stuffed files of vintage recipe cards. There you will find the handwritten notes in the margins, the yellowed newpaper recipes paper-clipped to a page, the editorial notes about quality, quantity, or even who's favorite it might be. Perhaps these messages make me feel connected to other cooks from the past: other women in other kitchens, doing their best for their families; perhaps in a world swimming with foodie opportunities they help identify what's actually worth trying (so many recipes, so little time); or perhaps they justify my own compulsive need to editorialize whenever I give out a recipe. Whatever...here they are, recipes and notes from myself and numerous anonymous cooks who have left their marks in the margins of my collection.

First Up...

Alfredo Sauce

You can substitute Neufchatel cheese for the cream cheese, and use skim milk, to make a—ha!—lower fat version.

1 stick butter

1 cup milk

1 pkg. cream cheese

1 cup freshly grated romano or parmesan cheese

Nutmeg to taste.

In a saucepan on med.low heat, melt butter in the milk, bring to a low simmer. Cut the cream cheese into chunks and melt it in the milk mixture, stirring frequently. Slowly add the cheese, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth. Sprinkle with nutmeg to taste. Serve over pasta, or try it on a baked potato. Also good with diced ham and peas, bacon, grilled chicken and/or chopped salami mixed in.

This recipe was given to me in the 1980s on a 3x3 piece of scratch paper by a friend who originally got it from a newspaper who originally got it from a local restaurant. Afraid I'd lose it, I copied it into a new journal I had picked up for a trip to Saudi Arabia to visit my parents and siblings. It went to the other side of the world with me, fed my family, and came back home again. I made it for my ex-husband the first time he ever came over to my house. I think he married me for it. Of course, you can’t make a sauce of love and then put it over plain old store bought pasta; try making your own fresh.