Reviews and Red Beans

I was at the airport, anticipating my visit to Texas and my cooking class at Revival Market and biding my time at the newsstand when I saw it.

I’d already seen it online, but there it was in the Fine Cooking August/September print edition, on “The Reading List” between reviews of Fire & Smoke and The Essential New York Times Grilling Cookbook. And you know that person you see alone in a public place smiling a bit too broadly for seemingly no reason at all? I became that person. A grin from ear to ear on my face, I had to fight the overwhelming urge to show all the strangers in my immediate vicinity. I quickly paid for just one copy (I did consider buying the whole stack) and ran out of the store to call family and friends to spread the good news. I didn’t feel bad for a second boasting that Fine Cooking describes Marinades as “the kind of utilitarian cookbook I will turn to again and again on a busy weeknight when I want to switch up the flavor of my usual grilled chicken (or pork, or steak, or fish).”

So how about a taste of some of the recipes in the book? BookPage offers up the Grilled Lamb Rib Chops with Curry Marinade. The Detroit News includes that one as well as the Grilled Baby Back Ribs with Asian Plum Marinade, Grilled Chicken Breasts with All-Purpose Tex-Mex Marinade, Shashlik with Shashlik Marinade, and Grilled Fruit with Caramel-Vanilla Syrup along with this interview with yours truly. Kate Lawson says, “Vaserfirer basically has never met a food she hasn’t tried to drown, and I mean that in a good way.” I love that! I also love that they ran my Shashlik photo BIG in their print edition!

For more Marinades, tune into AM Northwest between 9:20AM and 9:40AM on Tuesday, August 12. I’ll be demoing another delicious recipe from the book.

Speaking of the visit to Texas, we decided to make fajitas with Pico de Gallo, Guacamole, and homemade flour tortillas for dinner one night when I was there. This menu was decided on just as we stood before the vast meat case at Central Market. As I began to inquire about skirt steak, my mother guided me over to the pre-marinated meats. She insisted we get their pre-marinated meat for fajitas because it was her favorite. Can you believe it? Could my own mother betray me like that?! “I didn’t just write an entire cookbook with 200 marinades to buy that pre-marinated stuff.” She later claimed my rebuke was accompanied by “that scornful look”. Whatever. We bought the fresh meat, soaked it in my Carne Asada Marinade overnight, and I showed her what’s what. She wrote on her Facebook page, and I quote, “I will never buy pre-marinated meat again. Lucy’s recipe made the best fajitas we ever had.” Vindication is mine!

You can find the Carne Asada Marinade recipe in the book, so here’s another dish that’s often requested of me when I visit the fam in Texas.

New Orleans Red Beans & Rice
Printable Recipe

1 ½ pounds red kidney beans, picked over and rinsed
¼ cup canola oil
3 yellow onions, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
5 stalks celery, diced
8 to 10 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ pounds andouille, sliced
1 2-pound smoked ham hock
2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
Kosher salt
Cooked long grain white rice, for serving
Sliced green onions, for serving
Minced Italian parsley, for serving

Place the beans into a large bowl and add enough water to cover by several inches. Cover with plastic wrap and let soak overnight at room temperature.

Drain the beans. Heat a large, heavy pot over medium-low heat until very hot but not smoking. Add the oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pot. Add the onions and sauté for 8 to 10 minutes, or until soft. Add the bell peppers and celery and sauté for another 10 to 12 minutes, or until soft. Add the garlic and sauté 1 to 2 minutes more, or until fragrant. Add 2 ½ quarts water and the beans, bay leaves, thyme, pepper, white pepper, cayenne, Worcestershire, andouille, and ham hock. Bring to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 2 ½ hours, or until the beans are very tender. Remove from the heat and discard the bay leaves. Remove the ham hock to a cutting board and let rest for about 15 minutes, or until just cool enough to handle. Remove 3 ladlesful of the beans to a bowl and mash with a potato masher. When the ham hock is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bone and chop. Return the pork and beans to the pot. Return to the heat, bring to a boil, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the desired consistency. Stir in the Tabasco and season to taste with salt. To serve, spoon some of the rice into the center of each bowl, ladle the beans over the rice, and sprinkle with the green onions and parsley.

Serves 12 to 14. Mashing a portion of the beans ensures that the results are creamy and thick.

The Perils of Cherry Picking

Have you noticed that the rules and regulations pertaining to cherry picking are getting more and more stringent every summer?

When we moved to the Pacific Northwest about a dozen years ago and first sought out u-pick cherries, we were able to do practically whatever we wanted on the farm. We would wander through the orchards and our dog was welcome too, no leash required. Then one year, dogs were banned altogether. The owner told us that liability insurance was becoming too expensive.

A slightly more off the beaten path cherry grower that we frequent surprised us this year with news that the use of ladders was no longer permitted. Imagine that—cherry picking without cherry ladders!

And I know of one farm whose unsmiling employees do nothing but bark orders at visitors. “No open-toed shoes on ladders!” “No mixing cherry varieties!” Doubtless they were drill sergeants in a previous life. They go so far as to make you fill out a liability waiver before they let you climb their ladders. The visit to that particular farm didn’t exactly meet my expectations for an idyllic country outing. Needless to say we never went back.

Of course it’s the insurance companies who are responsible for this proliferation of rules. They know cherry picking is perilous, and they’re just looking out for your well-being. They wouldn’t want you to fall off a ladder and break your neck.

They have yet to eliminate all of the perils, however, like the porta potty positioned on a hill. I can tell you from personal experience that the precarious angle of the facility makes falling in when answering the call of nature a real and credible threat. And the most serious peril of all, which is that they would allow you off the premises at all with over ten pounds of cherries per person. The endless gastrointestinal distress brought on when you can’t stop eating those cherries, now that’s a serious peril indeed.

Before I get to the recipe I created using this year’s cherries, I have to thank Nici for including me in this HCP Dishes! post about her favorite food-related internet resources. I know since she works for my publisher she’s biased, but her support still made my day! Also, thanks to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for spreading the word about Flavored Butters.

Cherry Hand Pies
Printable Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, shredded
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons, or more, cold water
1 ¼ pounds cherries, pitted and quartered
1 tablespoon cornstarch
¾ cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon milk
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together the flour, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and, using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water and stir until just combined. Test the dough by squeezing a small amount together with your fingertips. If the dough holds together, it’s ready. If it’s crumbly, stir in up to 1 more tablespoon of water. Transfer to a work surface and knead a few times until the dough just holds together. Bring the dough together into a ball and then flatten into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425˚F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a 13×17-inch, 1/8-inch thick rectangle. Trim the edges of the dough and cut it into 6 5 ½×6-inch rectangles. Transfer the rectangles to a parchment-lined baking tray and refrigerate for about 10 minutes.

Toss together the cherries, remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, and cornstarch in a large bowl. Using a fingertip, lightly moisten the edges of each dough rectangle with water. Divide the cherry mixture among the dough rectangles, mounding it over half of each one and leaving a 1-inch border at the edge. Fold the other half of each dough rectangle over the filling, forming a smaller rectangle, and lightly crimp the edges together with the back of the tines of a fork to seal. Pierce the top of each hand pie several times with the fork. Refrigerate for another 10 minutes.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer the hand pies to a rack and let cool to room temperature.

Whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla and drizzle over the hand pies.

Makes 6 hand pies. Work quickly and with a light touch to prevent the butter in the pastry from melting.

Frying a Better Razor Clam

Hubby would not be discouraged by previous unsuccessful clamming expeditions. And his perseverance finally paid off this spring.

It took him only an hour to reach the legal limit of 15 clams.

If I wasn’t so busy working on my next cookbook Marinades, I would’ve gone with him and bagged another 15 in no time at all.

The usual way to prepare razor clams is to coat them whole in breadcrumbs or cracker crumbs and then pan-fry them, like this. It’s quite delicious. But after trying it, I reasoned that deep-fried clams would be even more delicious. Clams have a tendency to be chewy no matter how expertly they’re cooked, and submerging them completely in hot fat would minimize the cooking time, thereby lessening any chance they’d get tough. Cutting the clams into strips would further ensure tenderness. But it would also expose a lot more surface area, and that much breading would have been heavy and overwhelmed the clam meat. Switching to a light flour coating would create a nice balance of clam to crust. Finally, adding a bit of cornstarch to the flour would make for a super-crisp coating. All that reasoning proved to be correct—the result was the best fried clams ever, even if I do say so myself.

But before I get to the recipe, Flavored Butters continues to get positive mentions in the press. I have to thank Food Republic for endorsing it and featuring the Caramelized Onion Butter, the Red Chile Butter, and the Caviar Butter. Thanks to Mommypage for the interview about the book and BND.com for featuring the Tarragon Butter. I’m ever so grateful to The Spokesman-Review for calling the book a “mouth-watering gem” and featuring the Bed & Breakfast Butter. And finally, thanks to Mother Earth Living for sharing the lessons on how to form a log of butter and how to shape compound butter and featuring the Gorgonzola-Chive Butter, the Radish Butter, and the Whipped Vanilla Bean Butter. I love that so many are getting on the butter bandwagon—it feels amazing!

Deep-Fried Razor Clam Strips with Buffalo Dipping Sauce
Printable Recipe

3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce
¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
¾ cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon granulated garlic
¼ teaspoon onion powder
Generous pinch celery seeds, ground
Generous pinch cayenne pepper
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Canola oil, for frying
5 razor clams, cleaned, rinsed, patted dry, and cut into 3/8-inch wide pieces

Blend together the mayonnaise, Tabasco, and Worcestershire in a small bowl and refrigerate.

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, paprika, granulated garlic, onion powder, celery seed, cayenne, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper in a large, shallow dish. Add enough oil to a large, heavy pot to come to a depth of 3 inches. Heat the oil to 375°F. Meanwhile, add the clams to the flour mixture and toss to coat, separating any pieces that stick together. Shaking off any excess flour mixture, add the clams to the oil and fry, stirring occasionally, for 1 to 2 minutes, or until golden brown. Using a skimmer, remove to a paper towel-lined plate and immediately season to taste with salt. Arrange the clams on individual plates and serve immediately with the buffalo dipping sauce.

Serves 2. When frying, be sure to use a pot that's large enough to accommodate the displacement of the oil from the clams and also the bubbling of the oil. Serve with Classic Coleslaw and corn on the cob or fries.

Cornier Cornbread

My husband loves cornbread. I love the idea of cornbread. But usually it’s a false promise—rarely does it deliver the earthy, corny flavor I crave. So the last time I was whipping up a batch of cornbread to go with some chili, I got to thinking…Certain chili recipes rely on masa harina for thickening…Masa has big flavor, and masa and chiles are the perfect pairing…Why not make a side of cornbread using masa harina instead of cornmeal?


Turns out it works beautifully well. The result is a thoroughly satisfying cornbread, and I may never go back to cornmeal cornbread again.

Cheesy Masa Cornbread
Printable Recipe

2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the baking dish
6 ounces masa harina
4 ounces all-purpose flour
½ ounce sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
6 ounces milk, at room temperature
6 ounces buttermilk, at room temperature
4 ounces cheddar, finely diced

Preheat the oven to 425˚F. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Whisk together the masa harina, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the eggs, milk, buttermilk, and butter in a medium bowl. Add the egg mixture to the masa harina mixture and stir until just combined. Gently fold in the cheddar. Transfer to the baking dish and spread evenly. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the edges of the cornbread start to shrink away from the baking dish and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool slightly, cut into portions, and serve.

Serves 6 to 8. Masa harina for tamales, which has a coarse texture, is best here. This cornbread happily straddles the lines between Southern, Southwestern, and Mexican food, and it’s the perfect accompaniment to a big bowl of Real Texas Chili.

Luck for the New Year

Happy New Year, dear reader! How did you bring in 2012? I spent New Year's Eve with my parents at their home in Texas eating Purple Hull peas (along with some blackened snapper and Fried Okra). Why Purple Hull peas? Well, in the South eating Black Eyed peas is a New Year's tradition that's said to bring good luck. As I didn't want dried Black Eyed peas and frozen fresh Black Eyed peas weren't available, I went for the next closest thing—another variety of cowpeas. By the time they're cooked, you can hardly tell the difference anyway.

So have a bowl of Purple Hull peas for luck, and may your 2012 be full of prosperity, happiness, and joy!


Stewed Purple Hull Peas
Printable Recipe

1 slice bacon, diced
1 sweet onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 ½ pounds thawed frozen Purple Hull peas
Generous pinch cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf
5 cocktail tomatoes, diced
Several drops Tabasco sauce
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat a large, heavy pot pan over medium-low heat until hot but not smoking. Add the bacon and fry, tossing frequently, for 7 to 8 minutes, or until rendered. Add the onion and sauté for 8 to 9 minutes, or until soft. Add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Add the peas, cayenne, bay leaf, and enough water to cover by about 1 ½ inches. Bring to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally and skimming off any scum that rises to the surface, for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the peas are cooked through. Discard the bay leaf, stir in the tomatoes and Tabasco, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and serve immediately.

Serves 8 as a side dish. Black Eyed peas can be substituted for the Purple Hull peas. Use fresh peas in the summer when they're in season. The peas will be tender and creamy when they are cooked through. Good served over white rice or cornbread for soaking up the pot liquor.

Late Fall in the Hood River Valley

The yearly fall pilgrimage to the Hood River Valley to stock up on apples. I love it out there this time of year after the fall harvest festivities are over. The visitors go home, and a calm settles over the valley.


You have the fields and orchards all to yourself.


And of course, you have all that fruit to yourself. In addition to the countless varieties of apples, pears, and winter squash, this year there were new crops of walnuts and hazelnuts for inspiration.


Inspiration such as these cinnamon-scented apple muffins with walnut streusel topping…


Apple Crumb Muffins
Printable Recipe

Nonstick pan spray, optional
10 ounces all-purpose flour
8 ounces light brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 ½ ounces walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus 4 ounces (1 stick), melted
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
8 ounces milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Braeburn apples, peeled and diced

Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Grease a jumbo 6-cup muffin pan with nonstick pan spray or line with paper liners.

Whisk together 2 ounces of the flour, 3 ounces of the brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon, and the nuts in a medium bowl. Add the room temperature butter and, using your fingertips, rub in the butter until the mixture holds together in clumps.

Whisk together the remaining 8 ounces of flour, 5 ounces of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Gently fold in the apples. Divide the batter among the muffin cups and spread the nut mixture evenly over the muffins. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, or until the edges of the muffins start to shrink away from the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Invert onto a cooling rack and finish cooling completely.

Makes 6 jumbo muffins. Can also be made in a standard 12-cup muffin pan—just adjust the baking time accordingly. Any variety of cooking apple may be used instead of the Braeburns. Muffins keep well and stay moist for 2 to 3 days in a tightly sealed container in a cool, dry place.

Ono

It's Hawaiian for delicious. Isn't it a fun word?

Hubby and I just had our tenth anniversary, and we celebrated in ono style with a trip to Maui. During our short seven days there, we toured almost every part of the island and managed to consume more tropical fruit than we had had during the entirety our marriage.

In a macadamia nutshell, the food on Maui is pork, beef, and fresh fish—especially mahi-mahi and ahi tuna—with Asian flavors and lots of tropical fruit. Steamed rice and creamy but bland macaroni salad (possibly heavier on the mayo than the macaroni) seem to accompany every meal, including breakfast. A selection of noodle dishes appears on most menus. The fruity adult beverages are to die for. Oh, and Spam is ubiquitous, but we didn't feel the need to delve quite that deep into the culture.

Our first meal, at the local favorite Da Kitchen, was an enormous traditional Hawaiian "plate lunch" consisting of succulent and salty shredded kalua pig, pork lau lau, lomi-lomi salmon (more fun words!), brothy ginger-scented chicken long rice, and two scoops of rice.


We also tried a plate lunch with kalbi short ribs at Aloha Mixed Plate as we eavesdropped on the luau next door. By the way, I gather this sort of combination is referred to as a plate lunch even if it's eaten for dinner. We never did get around to tasting the poi, though we did see a number of taro ponds. As tasty as the plate lunches were, when you plan on spending the majority of your waking hours in a bathing suit, it seems prudent to partake in lighter fare…

And so, this was the first vacation the hubby and I actually spent more time on activities other than fooding.


We floated in the waves and snorkeled with the colorful fish and the graceful, curious sea turtles. We bird watched, and we were endlessly amused by the riot of birds in constant motion around the fragrant guava tree behind our hotel room. We explored the black sand beach.


And the surrounding cliffs, with their curious vegetation.


We drove the winding road through lush tropical jungle to Hana.


And marveled along the way at the beauty of the eucalyptus trees.


We pulled over to the side of the road to feel the texture of their rainbow bark.


To prove to ourselves they were for real.


We watched the expert surfers, wind surfers, and kite boarders from the beach (as we enjoyed an ahi poke picnic), but we thought the waves would be bigger.


We took in the views from above the clouds on the moon-like summit of Haleakala.


We daydreamed about the freedom of sailing the high seas.


We gazed at the sunset.


We gazed…


And we gazed…


And we gazed…


Still, being that we are who we are, we must seek out edible activities for our travels not to feel incomplete. Every farmers market—apparently a single roadside fruit stand constitutes a "farmers market" on Maui—warranted a visit, no matter how tiny or out of the way.


We picked up macadamia nuts still in the shell, yellow-skinned lilikoi—that's passion fruit and yet another fun-to-say Hawaiian word—for the bargain price of four for $1, mangoes sweeter than honey, and a juicy, just this side of cloying pineapple.


Three-bite, complexly flavored apple bananas were the norm.


In fact, I don't remember seeing a single "regular" banana while we were there. Coconuts were whacked open to order.


Cups of coconut water were free for the asking.


Addictive coconut chips, sold as coconut candy, were available in either sweet or spicy varieties at the quirky stand on the road to Hana.


The loaded coconut trees everywhere prompted my husband, with his ever inquisitive mind, to ask, "How many people die from coconut strikes each year?" There was also a small amount of foraging, as we passed wild guava and avocado trees in the jungle. Hubby wondered if they were growing wild or wildly growing. There was trespassing too as I tried to get a glimpse of the pineapple fields.


Apparently pineapple thieves are a big problem on Maui. Hubby yelled at me, insisting I obey the signs, but as you can see, I took my chances in order to watch the harvest.


One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to the isolated Ono Organic Farms. We were greeted by a lovely spread and the even lovelier news that it would be a private tour.


We did a tasting of all of the fruits that were in season, and we strolled the farm until a tropical deluge forced us back under the cover of the porch.


Between the farm itself and their roadside stand in Hana, we tasted fibrous mamey sapote, low acid pineapple, star fruit, star apple, white and strawberry guavas, both wild and sweet lilikoi, strawberry papaya, a new-to-me variety of juicy avocado, rambutan, longan, dragon fruit, pink and white pomelo, Apple banana (to our extreme disappointment, the Ice Cream bananas were not yet ripe), macadamia nuts, sour cucumber-shaped bilimbi, spicy Surinam cherries, peanut butter fruit, which tastes just like the name implies, and ripe coffee berries.


The guava was a revelation. We couldn't get enough of the lilikoi, but the star fruit was disappointing as I'd had better before.


I couldn't bring myself to like the papaya even though it was by far the best quality specimen I'd ever tasted.


Strangely, it smelled a lot like funky cheese to me.


On the tour, we saw many of the things we had experienced during the tasting and then some. We discovered that papayas grow in a very orderly columnar fashion and that, though they are easy to confuse from a distance, guava is a tree and lilikoi is a vine. Banana flowers and "hands" of bananas were quite sight.


Who knew sugar cane was so colorful?


We saw jackfruit (from which Juicy Fruit gum gets its flavor) as big as watermelons and softball-size breadfruit on the tree. If falling coconuts are a problem, imagine what a risk jackfruit and breadfruit strikes must be! We admired the broad, deeply veined leaves of a turmeric plant. Then our tour guide had us take a whiff of one particularly nondescript looking tree and guess what it was. I said cinnamon, and she exclaimed that I was the first ever to correctly identify it. I bet she says that to everyone because the aroma was unmistakable. We saw macadamia nuts and cashews growing and learned that macs must be dried in the sun before they can be extricated from their shells and cashews are poisonous unless heat-processed correctly. Most fascinating were the cacao pods, which mature from brown to pale blue-green to yellow and sprout directly from the trunk and branches of the tree.


Unfortunately I couldn't convince our tour guide to break into a cacao pod or even sell me one for less than $40—that's about $1 per seed, but we did get to try previously cleaned raw cacao seeds, which tasted remarkably like chocolate. It was fascinating, and if I ever find myself in Maui again, I'm going back to Ono.

In case you're wondering, the lighter fare that I spoke of we found at the small, out-of-the-way Star Noodle. The homemade ramen at this modern Asian-inspired restaurant hit the spot so well that we returned there for two more meals to sample the other offerings: tempura colossal prawns, steamed pork buns, sous vide rib-eye, roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and kimchee puree, garlic noodles, malasadas, and the outrageously ono tropical fruit saketinis. The best part was that only locals and in-the-know tourists would ever find this place.

Also memorable and definitely worthy of mention were the guri guri, a frozen novelty in pineapple and strawberry flavors with a texture that's somewhere between that of sherbet and shaved ice, at Tasaka Guri Guri (70 E Kaahumanu Avenue, Kahului, 808-871-4513), the refreshing shaved ice with homemade fruit syrups—made right, not grainy and crunchy like a snow cone—at Ululani's Hawaiian Shave Ice, the truly ono tropical fruit sorbets at Ono Gelato, and the locally made furikake potato chips I picked up at TJ's Warehouse Outlet.

We returned home a little tanner, a little more relaxed, and a carved wood tiki salt and pepper shaker set heavier. And though we're suffering from tropical fruit withdrawal (going from four lilikoi to zero per day is a severe shock to the system), we are full of ono memories of our time in Maui and looking forward to the adventures the next ten years together will bring.