Dress Diet

Not my 20 year high school reunion, nor the impending thud of turning 40 could make me quit eating all of my favorite foods and get up before dawn and run 5 miles up and down hills.  But the threat of a wedding dress, a wedding dress can make me do those things. That’s right, no more butter, no more mayo and any thoughts of bacon or sausage are banned.  In fact for the most part I’ve gone back to being a vegetarian and Jim is forced to come along for the ride.  The 'hungry ride' he's quick to point out.  As it’s referred to in our house ‘the wedding diet’.  ‘I don’t think that’s on the wedding diet.’  is the refrain for telling yourself ‘no’ to all things verbotten, like that very special sandwich ham my friend Lily was selling at the farmer’s market.  Or Jim’s pleas to eat grocery store fried chicken while shopping.  Or ordering what you want off of any menu.  This dress in particular will not allow me to rely on Spanx or even 3 pairs of Spanx alone.  So up the hill, down the hill, around the block, egg whites for breakfast, tomato sandwich for lunch and another page ripped from Yottam Ottolenghi’s vegetable tome for dinner.  

Now the biggest problem with all of this, is I also to break up with ice cream for this dress too. Ice cream is my very best food friend.  I love it, and, yes PeeWee, I would marry it if I could. It was my first job and it would be my last meal. 

Jim knows me as well as I do.  Sometimes he’ll slip a bucket of half sour pickles or a slab of Polish butter into our shopping cart.  He also saves me the majority of squid tentacles when we order calamari.  He knows that bucket of pickles, the pricey butter with the weird wrapper and tentacles are going to make me as happy as flowers.  And I always save him the biggest piece of whatever we are eating.  Similarly, I carry a banana to work everyday.  It’s not for me.  Jim loves bananas but he can’t always remember to take one with him. 

Jim also has a love of ice cream that rivals mine.  Which is why we are skipping the wedding cake when we tie the knot.  Let them eat ice cream.  So before we quit it all in hopes of achieving Ken & Barbie figures I revved up the ice cream maker one more time.

Roasted Banana Chocolate Chip Ice Cream - Serves 8

2 cups of milk

2 cups of cream

1/2 cup of sugar

3 very ripe bananas

8 egg yolks

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli)

1/2 lemon 

Heat the oven to 400. Place the sliced bananas face down on a Silpat lined baking sheet. Roast for about 10 minutes until they are slightly browned and the natural sugar has released and become crispy at the edges. Remove and set aside to cool. Squeeze lemon juice and mush up the bananas and mix lemon in well. Refrigerate if needed for use the next day.  Combine the milk and the cream and 1/2 of the sugar and bring to a boil. Meanwhile whisk together the egg yolks and the remaining sugar until thick.  Temper the eggs with 1/3 the hot milk mixture, whisking until combined. Return the mixture to the milk mixture and continue to heat while stirring until it can coat the back of a wooden spoon, add in vanilla.Remove from the heat and strain the mixture in to a bowl over an ice bath. Let cool and store in the fridge for several hours or overnight.  Add custard and bananas to ice cream maker and precess per the ice cream machine's directions. A few minutes prior to finishing add in the chocolate chips and process until evenly distributed. 

The First Recipe

First came the Orange Crush with Strawberry Quick, the thought of it still makes me gag some 30 years later.  Next was the cheese melt developed with my neighbor John; it’s the microwave’s soggier, less complicated version of a grilled cheese.  Then I learned how to make Knorr vegetable soup mix spinach dip and stuffed mushroom caps from my cousin Amy.  Soon after I deviled some eggs and not too long after came this salmon.  I can’t tell you where it came from but I have been making it virtually unchanged since high school.  I know the provenance may seem a little dubious considering the recipes that came before but the kids love it and Jim’s mom enjoys it, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t suck, unlike that orange soda concoction.

Rosemary Salmon - Serves 4

1.5 lbs. salmon fillet

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

2-3 cloves garlic, sliced

1.5 tablespoons rosemary, chopped

2 teaspoons dark brown sugar

juice of 1/2 a lemon

Whisk together the last 7 ingredients, pour in to a ziploc bag and add the salmon.  Marinate 15 minutes - 1 hour.  Preheat the oven to 320.  Remove the salmon from the marinade and place on a baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes at 320 then turn on the broiler and broil for 2 minutes.  

Friends with Strangers

I’m pretty devoted to my chicken recipes, especially a roast chicken.  I normally do roast chicken the Thomas Keller way with a Jaques Pepin twist.  Which simply means I use TK’s recipe but I don’t truss the bird, it is hands down the easiest thing to make, tasty too.  But that all changed last week.  

I am a member of a couple online food ‘communities’.  And like all online communities you make ‘friends’ with people in other cities.  Ignoring your parents and talking to strangers.  For all you know they could have different political opinions and plastic on their couches.

While commenting/chatting, whatever you call electric banter, with one of my total stranger ‘friends’ we discovered that she not only lives 3 blocks from my childhood home but she also happens to be real life friends with my very best friend.  Small world indeed.  Anyhow, we did what any normal electronic friends who have never met before would do, we became Facebook friends.

It’s been a week of blog related mishaps. So it’s a good thing my virtual friend posted that she was roasting an herb stuffed chicken with seasonal vegetables.  Somehow that just sounded like perfection to me and so I resolved to make one.  I knew it was a total winner when our pre-teen son took a bite, his eyes popped open and said ’Mmmm, wow, that’s really good! What did you do differently to the chicken?‘ YES!  I served it with a squash, zucchini, leek casserole the first time, which was also gobbled up, hopefully I can remember what went in to that.  It was so good we made it again the other night.  So thanks to my friend Linda, who I don’t actually know, for changing my chicken gears.  Hopefully one day we can actually meet, in the meantime, we will be enjoying this chicken. 

Herb Stuffed Roast Chicken - Serves 4

1 - 4.5 pound chicken

4 cups herbs on stems, use at least 4 kinds, I used

Rosemary

Tarragon

Globe Basil

Purple Basil

Bee Balm

Oregano

Thyme

Lavender

1 lemon, sliced then cut in half

3-4 cloves garlic, sliced in half lengthwise

Kosher or sea salt

Rinse and pat dry the bird, very well. Dry bird = crispy bird.  Salt and pepper the cavity.  Stuff the bird with the lemons, garlic and herbs, alternating to get a good distribution of flavors.  Truss the bird.  Place the bird breast side up on a roasting pan.  Sprinkle liberally with salt all over.  Place in a 425 oven for 40 minutes or until a thermometer reads 165.  Let rest 5-10 minutes.  Carve and serve.

Note:  As usual chicken doesn't photograph so sexy, my apologies.

The Stats

Somehow I’ve managed to hit 5,000 views on this thing.  I’m not sure who reads this besides Jim and a few friends but I guess someone does.  Maybe 5,000 doesn't sound like a lot, but it does to me.  Apparently it has been viewed in 10 different countries with Google being the number 1 referring site, followed by Facebook.  I’m not bragging, I’m just baffled.  I can tell you my most popular recipes are the eggplant meatballs followed by the Vietnamese chicken and, bizarrely, rutabaga ribbons.  Don’t get me wrong, I love rutabaga ribbons, which is why they are here, but it seems like an odd recipe for the top 3.  My least popular posts:  my very first one, which is for mashed sweet potatoes with smoked paprika (it’s delicious), my butterscotch cookie recipe, and my salad dressing recipe.  I am forever making salad dressing.

So, like that rutabaga recipe I’m going to celebrate with something simple.  Jim suggested we have a party with dishes from this blog, but I informed him if we did, we’d have to blog about it, and it’s way too hot outside for a party.  The best part of summer is how simple it is to make a great dinner.  The grill, the produce and all the herbs make summer the most delicious time of the year.  Like most recipes, this salad came in to existence because it’s what we had in the house.

Tomato Salad with Dill, Capers and Lemon Vinaigrette  - Serves 6-8

1 pint grape tomatoes, cut in half

2 tablespoons dill, chopped

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon capers, drained

sea salt, such as Maldon

Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons honey

2 teaspoons dijon mustard

Place the tomatoes in a bowl, toss with the dressing.  Add in the dill and capers, lightly toss, sprinkle with salt and serve.

The Daydream

When we couldn’t sleep or felt totally wronged by the college cafeteria, my college roommate, Val, and I would describe favorite dishes from favorite restaurants to each other.  Sounds a little torturous, I know, especially after we probably had some Sysco canned green beans for dinner.  But it always did the trick, Val and I would drift off with visions of crepes and sushi all through our heads.

Val grew up in Brookline and had another outpost in the West Village at her Dad’s house.  She had also spent a summer in Aix.  She had a delicious food list.  Mine wasn’t too bad either.  Baltimoreans don’t be so surprised. No other place has our crab cakes, steamed crabs, Tio Pepe’s pine nut roll, Mary Sue easter eggs, Italian pastry shops on Bel Air road, our cheesy Baltimore version of Little Italy, soft shelled crab sandwiches, mussels, Berger cookies, crab chips, the treasures inside Cross Street and Lexington Markets, shall I continue?  All of these items are unique to Baltimore.  Sure you can get a crab cake anywhere, but it probably doesn’t taste remotely as good as the ones in Baltimore.  And while you also might be able to ferret out a soft shelled crab I bet it’s in a restaurant with a white table cloth not on a piece of white bread at a diner in Remington for $5. And if you live in Baltimore I suspect you tend to take all of this for granted.  I did and now I spend my time trying to recreate many of these items.

One other Baltimore tradition is the shrimp salad sandwich.  Shrimp salad is always served at bridal showers, with a side of croissants from Costco.  But more traditionally it is served on white bread with lettuce and tomato.  Eddie’s of Roland Park is the bench mark for shrimp salad sandwiches.  Eddie’s is the bench mark for a lot of things, I don’t know any other grocery store where you can have a grown man follow you around the store and place items in your cart, because selecting groceries is that exhausting?  Their deli is amazing and run like science lab, exacting, precise and very, very serious.  And if they don’t actually wear lab coats they wear something extremely similar.  Whenever I visit Baltimore I make a point to get a shrimp salad sandwich from Eddie’s.  I daydream about this sandwich.

Like crab cakes, everyone in Baltimore has a shrimp salad recipe.  I have tried to make mine as much like Eddie’s as possible.  They manage to keep their shrimp whole, I find they stay on the bread better if cut in half lengthwise.  You can guarantee after all this talk I am having this sandwich for lunch today.

Shrimp Salad for Two

3/4 lb. shrimp (30-40 count shrimp)

1/4 cup mayonnaise

4 teaspoons diced celery

1 tablespoon green onion, green part only sliced thinly

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon Old Bay, or your preferred Chesapeake Bay seasoning

1/8 teaspoon dried parsley

1 tiny pinch celery seed

salt and pepper

Heat 1-2 cups of water to a boil over a steamer basket, add the shrimp and steam until just cooked, about 4 minutes.  Cool on ice.  When the shrimp are cool, peel and devein them, then slice (or not) them lengthwise.  Combine the shrimp and the remaining ingredients and chill for 1 or up to 24 hours.

The Sauce

It used to not be on the menu, it was just a very well known secret.  My friend Sheryl introduced me to it.  We started by dipping our chips in to it but eventually ended up dousing everything on our plates with it. It was a good secret to know.  The ‘it’ is Chuy’s creamy jalapeno dip and if you’ve had it, you know exactly what I am talking about.  The stuff is as legendary as Kraft macaroni and cheese or a good batch of Ronald’s fries.  

I would describe Chuy’s as Tex-Mex Elvis-a-fied TGIFriday’s.  It has lots of tacky junk tacked to the walls and you can dine in a Cadillac but unlike TGIFriday’s it’s actually cool to go to Chuy’s in spite of the cheese factor.  It’s the kind of place where you can openly drink a frozen margarita and not feel like a dick because everyone else is happily having one too.  Specifically the ridiculous ‘dot’ or ‘double dot’ which is a frozen margarita served in a bathtub of a glass with a dot or a double dot of strawberry margarita in the center. It’s Disneyland level dining for adults.  

I don’t know what they put in that sauce to make it so awesome.  I’ve been trying to replicate it for years.  When I lived in Texas some of my friends speculated that the backbone of the sauce was ranch dressing.  At home I mainly use the creamy jalapeno for fish tacos but I also use it as a crudite dip served with jicama and peppers.  Apparently I now have the chance to compare mine to the real deal, Chuy’s just went national and opened an Atlanta location.

Creamy Jalapeno Dip - Makes about 1 cup

1 - 4.5 ounce can green chiles

4 ounces sour cream

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 bunch cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/3 of a jalapeno, minced or 5 pickled jalapeno slices

1 tablespoon pickled jalapeno water from the jar

Place everything in a food processor and process until blended.

Going Green

Our friends Jessica and George like the things we do, which are mainly eating, drinking, and traveling.  When we see them several times a year it’s a time for epic food marathons.  George is a chef with 2 restaurants under his belt, training in Boston and a pedigree of growing up English and Spanish in Venezuela.  So he’s got a big set of crayons in the kitchen.

I can honestly say some of my favorite meals have been with them.  The day before they got married Jessica picked me up at the airport in with a pea coat in hand.  I had just moved to Atlanta from Texas and was not equipped for a February wedding in Boston.  From the airport we went to their home in Dorchester.  George made us lunch.  I remember it exactly, but I doubt he does.  George:  you made a porcini mushroom risotto with parsley; we drank a Sam Adams seasonal ale, it was you, me, Jess and your mom and it was great, perfect even.  A warm meal and a heavy beer on a snowy day.  I believe it’s the best risotto I’ve ever had based on that memory alone.  And it snowed and snowed all night and we have the wedding pictures to prove it.

George has continued to feed me and Jim over the years and introduce us to things we didn’t know we couldn’t live without, like smoked paprika and chimichurri sauce.  I’ll put those two things on almost anything.  The first time I had chimichurri was at their house in the ‘burbs.  They had just had their son and had left Dorchester for Main St. USA in the Boston suburbs.  It looked very much like the town in Vermont where I had attended college.  They lived on the actual Main St. and it had, stereotypically, one traffic light and a post office.  The house was white clapboard, as you would expect, with matching labrador retrievers in the yard.  

On that trip Jessica made her famous sangria with the very special addition of Southern Comfort (don’t knock it till you try it).  George made dinner, of course.  I don’t know what else the meal consisted of but I know for certain it was the first time I had ever had yucca and chimichurri.  Out of that dinner I have parlayed that chimichurri sauce onto most everything besides steak.  I use it as dip for shrimp cocktail, I marinade swordfish in it and I most famously make zucchini ribbons with it.  

This recipe is my own and I do things differently than George so don’t blame him because my recipe is not traditional.  These zucchini ribbons go well with a cedar planked fish.

Zucchini Ribbons with Chimichurri Sauce 

Chimichurri sauce - Makes 1 cup

1 bunch parsely

1 bunch cilantro

1/2 a cup of olive oil

Juice of 1 lime or lemon

2-3 garlic cloves, blanched

1 teaspoon cumin, toasted

1 teaspoon honey

large pinch red pepper flakes

sea salt to taste

Combine ingredients in a food processor and process until combined.

Zucchini Ribbons

With a peeling knife remove the outer green layer, then peel in to strips, creating 4 sides to the zucchini, stopping when you get to the seed layer, this should take about +/- 8 swipes of the knife.  Plan for 1 zucchini per person.  Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Meanwhile prepare and ice bath.  When the water boils turn it off and plunge the zucchini ribbons in for 30 seconds, remove and plunge in the ice bath.  When they have cooled drain and dry them well on paper towels or a dish towel.  The sauce and the blanching of the ribbons can be done a day ahead.  Do not dress them until you are ready to serve them.  Toss the zucchini with 2 teaspoons of sauce per zucchini.