Brussels Sprouts

I despised Brussels sprouts until at least the age of forty. Now I love them. (I suspect that it was they way people had cooked them for me.) Here is a recipe that may make you love them as much as I do now:

Buy a tub of Brussels sprouts and rinse them in cold water in a colander. Now clean them by removing any discolored outer leaves, cutting off the darkened stem end down about ¼ inch, and notching the fresh-cut stem end with a ½ inch deep cross. Place them all, cleaned, in a pot of cold salted water to cover. Bring to a rolling boil and cook for about five minutes or so until softened. Return them to the colander and rinse in cold water. Now cut them all into half-moons through one slit in the stem end. Heat a large frying pan with about two tablespoons of butter and the juice of half of a lemon. Add the Brussels sprouts and four grinds of fresh black pepper and a pinch of ground nutmeg. Now stir and sauté them until they are dark brown all around. (It’s alright if a few appeared blackened … they are the best tasting.) Sample one and add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve piping hot (important!)

Lily Livered

Not many people like liver.  I love it and, if you follow these dictates, you might like it too.  The process is quite simple and in three steps:

1) Cook some nice bacon until crisp in a large cast-iron frying pan.  Drain on paper towels and wipe out the pan with more paper towels.
2) Saute a thinly sliced onion or two in sufficient butter until golden brown but not burnt.  Salt and pepper and remove to a warm plate. (Optional)
3) It is important to prepare the calf's liver by removing the outside membrane and any large internal veins.  (The calf's liver should be very pale and fresh ... not gamey ... otherwise forget it.  Beef liver is what has ruined most people's taste for this dish.)  Add more butter to the frying pan and a good dollop of peanut oil.  Heat until wisps of smoke appear.  Salt and pepper the liver liberally, lightly flour it, and add to the frying pan.  Sear quickly until you get a brown crust on both sides but the inside is still a little pink.  Remove to a serving dish. Add a little white wine or water to the frying pan to make the au jus. Top with the fried onions and/or the crisp bacon. 

Serve with mashed or escalloped potatoes (see: Escalloped Potatoes) ... topped with the au jus and sided with maybe sauteed Brussels sprouts (see: Brussels Sprouts).  Enjoy!  (And you know it is very good for you too!)

Stuffed Flank Steak

Start by cutting a large pocket into a good-sized flank steak (or in about four thick pork chops). Then make the following stuffing:

- Melt one half a stick of butter in a large frying pan (or in an equivalent amount of olive oil if you prefer)
- Finely chop and add two shallots
- Chop and add about four good sized mushrooms
- Include two tablespoons of bread crumbs or Panko
- Add one teaspoon of dried thyme and a few sprigs of chopped parsley
- Dice and add about five apricots
- Chop and add a handful of pistachio nuts (or pecans)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Sauté and stir until well incorporated

Let this mixture cool and then stuff the flank steak (or pork chops), securing the opening(s) with a few toothpicks. In the same frying pan add some olive oil, salt and pepper the outside of the flank steak (or pork chops) and sauté it (them) to your preferred level of doneness. (Alternately, use your barbecue grill), When cooked, let stand five minutes and then cut the flank steak across the grain or serve the pork chops whole. In either case remove the toothpicks before serving.

Serve with a good potato salad or even mashed potatoes. (You can even make a little gravy for the mashed potatoes with the sauté pan drippings.)

Carrots Vichy

This is a very simple but very good side dish that is well received on holidays. Start by scraping and de-ending five or six medium size carrots. Then cross-cut them into very thin (1/16th inch) medallions (smaller than pictured). This should make about two or more cups of carrot slices. Next melt about ½ of a stick of butter in a large sauce pan. Into this melted butter finely grate one small onion or two large shallots. Sauté this until translucent. Next add about two tablespoons of flour and cook until a light brown roux is formed.

Then add the carrots, a good pinch of sugar, and enough water to cover. Stir well. Cook the carrots until fork-tender and most of the water is evaporated. You should have the consistency of a thin gravy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then add about three grates of a fresh nutmeg. Stir well and finish with a few sprigs of chopped-up Italian parsley and serve immediately. Serves six to eight people.  Goes well with roast turkey, roast beef or baked ham.

For a variation on this recipe, you could substitute an equal amount of tiny baby carrots (even those fru-fru ones with part of the tender stems still attached). And, if you want the silky restaurant-like sheen on these carrots, use a smaller amount of arrowroot instead of the flour ... and don't cook the roux quite so long. (Believe it or not, you can even use powdered kudzu root instead of the arrowroot.)

Buffalo Wings

Every Superbowl Sunday I make Buffalo chicken wings. I can never make enough, so I have decided to tutor my ravenous friends on how to make their own:

- Buy a very large package (or two) of chicken wings (on sale, if possible) at most a day or two before their intended use.

- Rinse and dry off these wings well. Cut each wing at their joints into three pieces. Put the expendable tips into a large pan with lightly-salted water, a small onion, and a bit of celery. Simmer long enough to get a nice chicken stock as a side benefit. Cool, drain and save the stock in the refrigerator or freezer for future use.

- Now well salt and pepper all the two bigger wing joints in a big bowl. In a large heated cast-iron frying pan add about an inch and one half of peanut or safflower oil. Fry and turn these chicken wings in batches until nicely browned (about five to eight minutes) adding more oil as required. Drain each batch on copious amounts of paper towels.

- When finished frying all the wings, dump them all into another large clean bowl.

- Depending upon how many wings you have, melt at least one stick of butter in a pan and add ½ a medium bottle of Frank’s Hot Sauce to each melted butter stick. Right before you serve them, pour this hot buttered sauce over the wings and stir (or flip) until they are all covered.

- Serve while hot with cleaned and chilled quartered celery sticks and chilled blue cheese dressing. (I usually make this blue cheese dressing by taking a bottle of such dressing -- Ken’s is good -- and augmenting it with crumbled blue cheese bits bought separately.)

- Make sure you have enough cold beer on hand to cool and lubricate the enjoyers.

Fat of the Land

Much of our nation is lipid-averse. Saturated and trans fats are about as popular these days as Osama Bin Laden. Although animal fat is a saturated fat, it is not chemically identical to artificially saturated fat. About a hundred years ago scientists learned how to bubble hydrogen (with a nickel catalyst) through unsaturated fats like corn oil or vegetable oil to add hydrogen atoms to the existing fat molecules to solidify (hydrogenate) them. That’s how such liquid oils were made into oleo margarine during the Second World War to serve as a substitute for the then-severely-rationed butter. Recently, these artificially hydrogenated oils, particularly trans fats, have been found to be very damaging to our health as they unacceptably push up our cholesterol levels (particularly LDLs). So, since animal fats are also naturally saturated, they have been also condemned by implication.

This development is unfortunate because animal fats add a great deal to the good taste of foods. We have seen over recent years the food Nazis forcing restaurants to substitute bad oleo for good butter … McDonald’s to be required by these same loonies to no longer cook their French fries in lard … and New York’s Mayor Bloomberg has banned all trans fats from the city's restaurants.  But, being a contrarian, I still cook with animal fats and will continue to do so. May I suggest the following uses:

Butter – I cannot imagine many desserts made without butter … perhaps Jello or zabaglione.  It took level-headed cooks like Julia Child sensibly to advocate for butter over oleo. She most often picked butter as the fat of choice in her cooking and baking … but, as she also always said, “in moderation.”  I would like to throw my lot in with Julia’s legacy.

Lard – Pie crust and scones made with lard (or half lard, half butter) have an unique, attractive taste. Although Crisco has generally been called for in pie crusts, I can’t help but think that this fat is (or, at least, was) artificially hydrogenated (ergo, saturated.)  And don't forget to use lard for frying French fries ...

Bacon grease – I find that frying a ham steak in bacon grease works best. As the first side is cooking, sprinkle a few teaspoons of dark brown sugar and some ground cloves on the up side. Quickly turn the ham steak and briefly cook the sugar-covered side and then flip back again so that both sides are covered with the sugar covering. Cook, turning back and forth until both sides are well done but not burnt. Serve with baked beans, and/or escalloped potatoes, and/or carrots Vichy.

Duck fat – Next time you roast a duck, save (in a closed container in the refrigerator) the usually copiously rendered duck fat like it was precious gold. Then, whenever you prepare oven roasted potatoes, use this duck fat in the bottom of the roasting pan. Preheat gently. Next peel, quarter, salt, and pepper some Yukon gold or Russet potatoes and swill them in the melted duck fat. Add a bunch of peeled garlic cloves and sprinkle with rosemary (or thyme). Roast until nicely browned and serve. You will get gastronomic raves from your guests but don’t you dare tell them the secret to these splendid spuds least they turn you in to Jenny Craig.

Chicken fat – This is also known by Jews as “schmaltz”. One cannot make good chopped chicken livers without schmaltz. Since chicken livers are almost free at grocery stores these days, they are very economical (and tasty). To make chopped chicken livers, clean one container of livers of their white sinews and connective tissues, separating each pair into singles. Dry them off well. Melt some schmaltz in a frying pan (augmented with butter if you don’t have a good three tablespoons of schmaltz). Thinly chop one very large shallot and add it to the frying pan. Slide in the chicken livers carefully as they tend to spatter. Salt and pepper them well and also add a good pinch of powdered bay leaf. (You can create powdered bay leaf by grinding two dried bay leaves in a spice grinder or in a mortar and pestle.) Cook the livers until medium (just a hint of pink). Deglace the pan with a good shot of cognac, letting it flare up. Turn off the heat and let cool. Place this mixture in a blender with half a hard-boiled egg and pulsate until a course pate is formed, adding a little cold water if needed. Place in a small bowl topping with the rest of the cooked egg white, finely chopped, and finely chopped parsley. Stand a bay leaf on the top so that its consumers will know what that elusive taste is. Refrigerate overnight and then serve the next day with rice crackers.