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CookVolume 1 Issue 13 April 29, 2009

Bill's Appetizers

Deviled EggBecause I write this column, many of my friends look to me as their personal food expert. I’ve had to field questions from where to eat to how long to cook a lobster. One friend asked me to plan her menus for a three-day camping trip. Another recently texted me his shopping list from the farmers’ market and asked what I would do with it for dinner.

I look forward to these questions with relish because they challenge me and often provide the creative spark to try something new. But, a couple of months ago, a friend stumped me when he asked, “I need to bring appetizers to a party in Houston, what do you suggest?” As I racked my brain for something fun and delicious, I realized that I didn’t have any appetizers in my repertoire. I started thinking about those I like, and decided to focus on two that I truly enjoy —deviled eggs and chicken wings.

My approach to the deviled egg was to find an ingredient or two that could elevate the egg to a new level. I started with the basic ingredient, a hard-boiled egg, and thought that the first thing we all add to an egg is, of course, salt. But, instead of getting the shaker out, I chose to use two ingredients that would provide that special saltiness I desired — anchovies and caviar.

After stumbling upon pomegranate molasses in a Indian food store a couple of years ago, I have been experimenting with it as a sweetener for a barbecue sauce and have found it works really well with poultry. For the wings, I combined it with harissa paste for a tangy, sweet and slightly spicy glaze.


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Deviled Eggs with Anchovies and Caviar
(serves 8-12)

12 eggs
3
cured achony fillets
2
tablespoons mayonnaise
2
teaspoons olive oil
salt and pepper
1
tablespoon caviar

Put eggs in a large saucepan and add enough cold water to cover by one inch. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Cover pan and let stand for exactly 11 minutes. Plunge in ice water. Peel eggs and cut in half lengthwise. Carefully remove yolks and place them in a mixing bowl. Refrigerate the egg whites. Finely chop anchovy fillets and add to yolks along with mayonnaise and olive oil. Mix thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place egg whites on a serving platter and add a spoonful of yolk mixture to each and top with a pinch of caviar. Refrigerate for at least an hour to let flavors meld before serving.

Pomegranate-Glazed Chicken Wings
(serves 8-12)

4 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
4
tablespoons ketchup
2
tablespoons pomegranate balsamic vinegar
2
tablespoons harissa sauce
5
pounds chicken wings
salt
  pepper

Wings

Combine the molasses, ketchup, vinegar, and harissa sauce. Mix well and set aside. Salt and pepper the chicken wings. Grill chicken over medium heat for 20 minutes, turning over halfway through. Using a brush, baste with sauce. Grill an additional 5 minutes, turn and baste other side. Cook 5 more minutes and serve.

If you don’t have a grill, place chicken in a shallow baking dish and bake in a oven preheated to 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Baste with glaze and bake for an additional 10 minutes and serve.

Cheers,
Bill

For more of Bill's recipes, visit

http://www.northsidesf.com/kitchenlesscook.html
E-mail: bill@yummyletter.com

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Home Recipes from GraceAnn Walden

I’m taking a break from something I’ve been doing since I was 16 — drinking. Now, don’t get me wrong, I haven’t been besotted for decades, but I think I’ve had my quota.

When I think about not doing IT, I’m confronted with lots of habits. The other day, I had a late lunch in the East Bay, did several errands, and had time to kill before my dinner reservation. Normally, I would have stopped at Bing Crosby’s restaurant in Walnut Creek, hung out and had a cocktail.

It wasn’t that I would have had 20 cocktails, but when I got to dinner I certainly would have had two more and wine. Then I would drive home buzzed. Other times, I’ve driven home from the City more than buzzed.

At no time did I “crave” liquor, so much as I used it compulsively to self-soothe. Ironically, I used to watch that reality show, Intervention, while sipping on a Diet Coke and gin.

Recently, I went to see my doctor and told him my concerns — that I had fallen into the daily habit of two or more cocktails. Adding to the mix, and more important, I have mild diabetes. He told me that by the time our kidneys show the ill effects of drinking and diabetes, they are 95 percent shot.

Hello, dialysis.

The coming weeks and years, given how I make my living, will be very challenging. I think with the help of friends and a self-help group, I’ll sail into the future bright-eyed and unbuzzed. 

But for now, I’m taking it one day at a time.

I had this delicious drink at Brenda’s French Soul Food cafe. It’s not my own, but I intend to make lots of it this summer. It calls for sugar, but I make it with Splenda.


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Sweet Watermelon Tea from Brenda’s French Soul Food

− One gallon-size tea bag of orange pekoe or enough tea bags to make a
gallon of iced tea, probably a dozen?

− Sugar or Splenda to sweeten it

− ¼ watermelon cubed

− 3 sprigs of Thai basil

− After making tea, mix everything in but basil

− Mull basil in the bottom of container, but strain before serving. Let sit 3 hours before serving.

- GraceAnn


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Cookbook Review

The Great Chefs of San Francisco
Avon Books (spiral bound)
Starting at one penny on Amazon (original price $9.95)
ISBN 0-380-87072-X

A penny for your thoughts?

I was thinking of that phrase when I saw that this week’s cookbook is available on Amazon starting at a penny.

Using my trusty Google, I found that a singer and playwright named John Heywood, who was born in London around 1497, first included the phrase in a book he compiled called A Dialogue Conteinying the Nomber in Effect of all the Proverbes in the Englishe Tongue in 1546.

It’s in his catalog where we also first discover these: "it's an ill wind that blows no good," "no man ought to look a given horse in the mouth," "butter would not melt in her mouth," and "went in one ear and out the other.”

Imagine, almost 500 years ago, someone was saying, “butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.”

The exact origin of a “penny for your thoughts” is unknown, but even in my lifetime a penny could buy more than it does now. Two pieces of candy come to mind.

By the way, Heywood was a staunch and outspoken Catholic — so much so that when the Protestant King Edward took the throne, Heywood fled to Belgium to live out the rest of his days.

This slim, spiral-bound book, The Great Chefs of San Francisco, had great influence on me, and I know was a popular book and television series that influenced all that was to come including the Food Network and our local station’s Saturday lineup of unending cooking shows.

Here are the chefs that were included: Bruce Le Favour, Rene Verdon, Jeremiah Tower, the late Masataka Kobayashi, Max Schacher, Jacky Robert, Christian Iser, Werner Albrecht, Mark Miller, Roberto Gerometta, Adriana Giramonti, Udo Nechutny, and the late Barbara Tropp.

Of the thirteen chefs, I did dine at the Miller’s Fourth Street Grill, Tropp’s China Moon, Tower’s Santa Fe Grill, Giramonti’s Giramonti in Mill Valley, and Jacky Robert’s, when he was at Ernie’s.

The one person that I never met was Masa. And I never dined at Masa’s when he was there. When he left Le Plaisir in New York City to come to Auberge du Soleil in California's Napa Valley, Le Plaisir temporarily closed their doors. Two years later, he opened Masa's in San Francisco.

In 1984, Kobayashi, 45, was found murdered in his San Francisco apartment. The San Francisco police bungled the investigation and his killer was never apprehended.

Here is one of Masa’s recipes from the book:

White Chocolate Mousse in an Almond Cookie Shell
(serves 6)

3
 egg whites
2
 tablespoons sugar
2
 tablespoons flour
1/2
 cup almonds, sliced and toasted

Put egg whites in a bowl and beat briefly. Add sugar and flour, then whisk. Stir almonds into mixture. Butter a sheet pan and spoon tablespoons of the mixture onto pan. Spread slightly mixture with the back of a spoon to form circles about 2 inches apart.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 5–7 minutes. Remove from the oven and while still hot mold into small cups by placing over a rolling pin. Set aside to dry.

Mousse

1
 cup sugar
1/2
 cup water
8
 egg whites
6
 yolks
1 tablespoon white rum
1 pound white chocolate, melted*
  crème fraiche
  raspberry puree

In a saucepan, heat sugar and water until it forms a soft ball. In the bowl of a mixer, put egg whites and beat until medium stiff, beating first on medium and then on high. Add sugar and water (soft-ball stage) to egg whites and continue to beat briefly until a stiff meringue is formed.

Place egg yolks in a metal bowl and beat over heat (double boiler) with a whisk. Add rum to egg yolks, still beating over heat. Fold yolks into whites. Fold melted chocolate into egg mixture. Refrigerate 3–4 hours.

Serve one scoop of mousse in an almond cookie shell. Garnish with raspberry puree and crème fraiche. 

*I have made it with good dark chocolate

— GraceAnn

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Tools & Toys: Star Trek Collectible "Spork"

SporkThis week’s “Tools & Toys” item is courtesy of Yummy letter reader and Star Trek fan John Roarty.

With the new Star Trek movie about to hit theaters, we thought we’d offer up a tool that is more toy — even though it’s fully functional — and a must-have for Star Trek-foodie-geek collectors: the Star Trek “Spork,” available only at ThinkGeek.com. They’ve already sold out of the mere 1,701 Limited Edition Sporks, but a cheaper (nonnumbered), just-as-cool version is coming soon. Sign up on the ThinkGeek Web site to get an e-mail notification when the sporks are in stock. Who doesn’t want one of these?

 

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