A Thanksgiving Warning

Something to avoid on Thanksgiving.  Click here.

A Wine Whiner

Upon further reflection, I probable should have published this blog post over here.

Navy Bean Soup

A few weeks back, at the Commons Lunch in Little Compton, Rhode Island, I had a steaming bowl of delicious navy bean soup. I’ve kept thinking about how good it was and how I wanted to reproduce it for my family. I came very close last night so I thought I would share this success.

Rinse well a package of dried navy beans and then place them in a pot of cold water. Bring this pot to a rolling boil and boil for two minutes and then turn off the heat, cover, and let it stand for a hour.

In a much bigger soup pot sweat, in about two tablespoons of good olive oil, one finely-chopped onion, two finely-chopped stalks of celery, two cleaned and finely-chopped carrots and a hand full of finely-chopped parsley. If you have some left over ham use it, but I bought a bone-in ham steak and cut it into pieces. Add the ham (and bone) to the soup pot along with 6 peppercorns and 6 allspice berries and about a good two quarts of water. No salt yet! Start boiling this mixture and, when the beans are ready, add them along with their soaking liquid. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for a good two hours.

Next take a 15.5 ounce can of stewed tomatoes and, after chopping up the tomatoes, add it to the soup. Now, add salt to taste (less than a teaspoon). If need be, retrieve the ham pieces and mince them finer. Remove the bone, but add the marrow and the minced ham back to the pot.  Re-cover and simmer for another half hour.

Serve with crusty bread and butter. (Even my wife loved this soup and she hates beans.)

Ala Porcine

Schnitzel is a quick and delicious departure from normal American fare. You can make it with expensive veal if you wish, but I usually use pork and defy most diners to tell the difference.

First find some nice, almost white pork tenderloin. Cut it into two inch sections and the pound these sections flat (about ¼” thick) with a tenderizing mallet. The results should be about six inches across. Salt and pepper these schnitzels on both sides, then do the quick-frying three step: dip in seasoned flour first (shaking of the excess), then a beaten egg (or two), then seasoned breadcrumbs or Panko (again shaking off the excess), and pan-fry in hot oil (corn or canola oil is fine) till golden brown on both sides. (The seasoning for the flour and breadcrumbs is open for creative flair, but I use salt, pepper, dried parsley flakes, and sometimes onion powder.) Top with the traditional lemon slice.

Serve these schnitzels with sides of red cabbage and apple sauce. To make the red cabbage: melt in a frying pan a good tablespoon of bacon grease (a must), add a small onion diced finely, sweat the onion for a minute or so and then add a jar of red cabbage (I’ve only ever seen one size of red-cabbage jar.) Heat thoroughly for a few minutes and then serve. The apple sauce is more complicated: get a large jar of good apple sauce, chill well, and serve with a topping of cinnamon. (French fries would be good too ... nice and hot ... and maybe even the cucumber salad from my previous blog post here.)

Should serve four.  Enjoy. (Make sure you have hired an oompa band and a zaftig female server.)

Unencumbered Cucumber

Here is a traditional German salad dish that is devoid of sour cream. (Not that that version isn’t good too.) And it is quite simple.

Peel and slice two medium cucumbers into 1/8 inch pieces. Next, peel, half and slice a small Vidalia (or other sweet) onion. Place all these slices in a bowl and cover with ice cubes. Place in the refrigerator for at least half an hour. In the meantime mix 5 tablespoons of good sharp cider vinegar with three tablespoons of sugar (can be light brown), a good pinch of salt and about four pepper mill turns … all in a small glass. Mix well and place this glass in the freezer until you are ready to remove the cucumber and onion slices. Drain and pat dry these cucumber and onion slices and top them with the well-chilled vinegar dressing. Sprinkle with chopped fresh dill or coriander seeds (pictured) and serve immediately ... as the secret of this dish is for it to be well chilled.

Goes will with chicken or pork dishes.