Oh, Pears!

Hey, It's pear season here in the Pacific Northwest. It's also that time between Thanksgiving and Christmas when turkeys are easy to come by. Well, this is a recipe for turkey thighs (you could probably try it with a turkey breast, or a half chicken even. Let me know if it comes out good) and a pear or two. It's turkey thighs baked on a bed of pear slices. It's even better than it sounds, when you serve it up with mashed potatoes. Here's what you need;

2 turkey thighs, bone in and skin on
1 good sized pear (Bosc is what I used, but you can try whatever)
1 small onion
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp coarse salt (like kosher salt or sea salt)
2 tsp ground black pepper
3 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp thyme
Some butter

Preheat the oven to 374

Start out by peeling the pear, as you would a potato, and cut it into 1/4" slices. Remove and discard the stem and seeds and lay the slices into the bottom of a baking dish. Cut a couple of 1/4" slices of the peeled onion and lay them in there too. Put a small smear of butter on each of the slices of onion, then sprinkle about a half tbsp of the brown sugar over the pear and onion slices.

Put the rest of the Sugar, salt, pepper, parsley and black pepper into a bowl and mix it together. Rub that mix into the turkey thighs (both sides) and lay them skin side down on top of the pears and onions in the baking dish. Pop that into the oven for about 40 minutes while you make mashed potatoes. After 40 minutes, take the baking dish out and carefully turn over the thighs so that the skin side is up. Pop it back into the oven for another 30 minutes.

When it's done, remove the thighs from the baking dish and slice them, removing the bone. The pears should be served alongside the mashed potatoes, or mixed in with them. It's a very nice flavor combination.

Hard Boil an Egg (perfectly, every time)

How hard is this? It's hard to do so consistently without making a science project out of it. Use the Google and search "Hard boiled eggs" and you'll see what I mean. I was amazed how complicated people can make it.

I recently got the hot tip for how to do it perfectly without any broken shells or green yolks.

The secret, of course, is time and temperature. The water should be boiling (duh). The problem with this is that if you put the cool eggs into the boiling water, it brings down the temperature so you need to wait for the water to come back up to a boil. Fine for one egg, but now time will need to be added if you boil a whole bunch of eggs. And then, of course, you run the risk of some of the shells cracking. People avoid this by putting the eggs into the cool water and then putting it on the heat. The water is then brought to a boil and then kept there for a predetermined time. The problem here is that it requires constant attention. When did the water start boiling? Were you watching it the whole time? Did it just start or has it been boiling for a few minutes without your noticing?

So here's the secret.

Steam.

That's right, you steam the eggs. I have a big pot with a small steamer basket that fits into the top. Bring the water to a boil without the steam basket in place. Put the cool eggs into the cool steamer basket, and place that in the top of the pot. put the lid on, and set the timer for twenty minutes (you folks at high altitude (I'm talking to you, Denver) may need to add a few more minutes). Fill a large bowl with cool water while you're waiting, and when the timer goes off, remove the eggs from the heat and put them in the cool water to stop them cooking. They're ready to eat in a few minutes (unless you like them hot, then they're ready right now)

They will come out perfect. The eggs will be fully cooked, the yolks fluffy and bright yellow. There is no better way to hard boil and egg consistently and without any breakage. Whether you do one or a dozen at a time, it's the same. Remember this next Easter.

Souper Chicken

I made chicken soup for my ill Girl Friend the other day. I don't quite know what the big deal is about chicken soup. It's not like it's hard to make. And it's only slightly less not hard to make a tasty chicken soup. I like to start with a chicken.

All kidding aside, I like a roast chicken and I like to use the leftover carcass to make either stock or soup. In fact, when it comes to stock, it's way easier to make it from the leftover roast (or baked) chicken than it is to start with raw ingredients. The roast chicken recipe is for another post, I'll assume you already made one. I often save the carcass in the freezer until I have two or three of them then I can make a big batch. It's real easy. Just put the bones in some water on the stove. how much water? Well, that's up to you. I use about a quart per bird. More if there's more meat on the bone. Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for an hour or two. Then skim the fat off the top, strain the bones and meat out and you're done.

Hmmm, where to store it? Here's the easy trick. I'm sure you've been saving those plastic containers that the sour cream and margarine and yogurt come in. Fill up several of these with a measured amount (I use exactly one cup per container) and then freeze them overnight. The next day, pop the frozen pucks of stock out of the containers and wrap them individually while they're still frozen and put them in a bag back into the freezer. Now you have cup-sized pucks of frozen stock that you can thaw and use as you need, without taking up scads of space in the freezer. It works great.

Ok, say you're sweetheart's feeling under the weather when you get home from work. If you have a chicken carcass in the freezer, you're in luck. Throw it in a pot with a couple'a quarts of water, some salt, ground pepper, coarsely chopped carrots and a few cloves of garlic. While that comes to a boil, chop some onion, celery, and peppers (last night, I used jalapenos that I had cut the seeds and placentas out of(yeah, that's what that whitish/yellow structure inside the jalapeno is called, and it's the hottest part. Remove it and you get the flavor without a lot of heat) ). Saute that in a tiny bit of butter until the onion and celery start to soften. Dump that into the now boiling water and turn it down to a simmer. Add some dried parsley, dried rosemary, thyme, and a bay leaf.

Let that cook for about an hour then lift out the chicken carcass and let it drain and cool a bit in a colander over a bowl. Once it's cool enough to handle, remove all of the meat from the bones and chop it up and return it to the soup. Let it cook like that for another half hour or so. I like to cook rice separately and serve the soup with rice mixed in. Make this for your sick friends and it's like you're a hero. Just remember to pretend it was a lot of work.

Non-Stick it to The Man!

I had to throw out a non-stick pan this last weekend. I'd left it on the burner, empty, and forgot about it while I did something. By the time I got back, it was starting to smoke. I set it outside to cool off, then gave it a good scrubbing with a plastic scrubber. It was a bit discolored, but still usable. About a month later, I left it on the god damned burner again. I managed to pull it off before it started to smoke, but it was too much for the poor thing. Over the next few weeks, I began to notice that the bottom was beginning to flake. This is not a safe thing to cook in, so it was time to replace it.

Years ago, I used to just accept that non-stick pans would be useless within a few uses. I didn't realize that metal spatulas would ruin them. (Look, I was barely 22 and living on my own for the first time. Non-stick cook pans were still a novelty to me. My mother had only ever used cast iron frying pans when I was a kid). Well, I found out that they would last longer if I got a plastic spatula, and they did, but I still had problems.

I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I eventually figured out that I was still ruining my pans because I was stacking other pans inside my non-stick pans. I got smart finally and got a rack to hang my pans from. Boy, that made a difference. This last pan (the one I ruined through my own carelessness) was about to turn 8 years old, with not a single scratch or mark on the Teflon surface. I think I paid $30 for it, and it was a great pan.

I often shop at the restaurant supply store (Cash & Carry), and I've been eying the non-stick pans I see there. They tend to run in the $60 range for a 12" pan, but they have nice riveted handles that don't come loose and they're thick like cast iron. Well, I couldn't bring myself to spend that much so I went to the housewares section of the local grocery store (Lamb's Thriftway, if you're curious) and found a Berndes 11" frying pan for $30. It's not as thick walled as the pro one, (though it is thick) and the handle is screwed on, but it's as good as my old one, and if I get 8 years out of it (and I don't see why I couldn't) I'll have gotten a bargain.

Well, I've had occasion to use the pan a several times, and let me say I'm totally happy. No, I have received no money from this company to pimp their product, but I will say that I wouldn't mind getting a free set of pans from them (hint hint). Often, the frying pans sold at the grocery store are pathetic looking, thin aluminum with a non-stick surface that appears to have come out of a spray can. The handles start off loose, and go downhill from there. This Berndes pan is nice, thick (well, thick enough. I'd prefer a couple of more millimeters, but hey, it's $30) and the Teflon is as smooth as glass. I made an omelet (well, more of a frittata) for my Girl Friend this morning, and it was like the egg floated above the pan without really touching. It's been very good for whatever I've cooked in it, and of course, very easy to clean.

So, if you get non-stick cookware, remember these things;

-Don't use metal utensils
-Don't stack other pans inside of them. Stand them in a dish rack in your cupboard or hang them up
-Don't use too much heat, and don't forget the fucking things on the hot burner like I did.


Update

The pan didn't hold up well to heavy use, and I don't think that it was a problem with the quality of manufacture, but with the fact that on several occasions I was cooking with coarse sea salt in the pan. The coarse sea salt abraded the non-stick surface and put some really ugly scratches in there. I have since replaced that pan with another from the Cash and Carry (United Grocers or Smart & final, depending on your location) and it has stood up wonderfully. I am NOT using the coarse sea salt in it this time.

Thighmaster

For some reason, chicken thighs are unbelievably cheap. These are a great source of protein, and they can be very tasty if you know how to cook them. I often find them in the meat section for under 50 cents a pound. When they're that cheap, I tend to buy a lot and freeze them. I like to freeze them wrapped individually so I only have to thaw the amount I want to use. I usually buy them with the bone in and skin on. They're pretty easy to bone, especially while they're still a tiny bit frozen, and I save the bones and skin for stock in a bag in the freezer.

I generally use thighs in place of pork. Now don't get me wrong, I love pork, but my sweetheart is Jewish and, though she is not a kosher Jew, she still won't eat any pork beyond bacon. She's "kosher style" as my friend Mike used to say. The dark meat from the thighs is a pretty decent substitute, though. Here's a recipe for meatballs that I like. I stretch ground beef with equal or greater parts of ground chicken for this, and it's not bad. You'll need

1 & 1/2 pound each of ground thigh meat and ground beef (the thigh meat can be chopped fine in a food processor or by hand. I chop up the skins in there too if I'm using lean ground beef)
2 Tbsp each of crushed fennel and oregano
1 Tbsp each of basil and ground black pepper
4-5 cloves garlic, crushed and finely chopped
Salt (to taste and according to your health concerns)
1 cup bread crumbs
1 egg

Squish everything together in a mixing bowl until everything is well blended. You'll have to use your hand. It's loads of disgusting fun. Form the mix into golf ball sized meat balls set them in a shallow baking pan (like a jellyroll pan) with a bit of olive oil. Cook at about 350 for 30 minutes, then take them out and turn them, then bake for another ten or so. you can also fry them in a fryng pan, but that takes too damned long and makes too much of a mess.

Here's something else to remember. When you make your spaghetti sauce (you do make your own spaghetti sauce, don't you?), throw a thigh bone in there while it cooks on the back of the stove. It helps give the sauce a really hearty flavor.

When Buffaloes Fly

I like hot wing. Yes, they're messy to eat, and they're also messy to make. But they sure are tasty. Every once in a while when I'm at the grocery store, I'll see wings on sale for pennies per pound. I generally buy a few of the jumbo packs when they are. Somewhere between 5 and 8 dozen wings. When I'm ready to cook them, I cut the wings at the joint, discard the wing tip (actually, save it for stock) and start heating up the oil.

I cook them in huge batches and freeze most of them for later parties. The best way to cook them is outside. If you have a turkey fryer, that's the way to go, only don't use the 10 gallon pot you fry the turkey in, use something shallower. If you have a canning pot, that's the ideal size. You need something that'll hold about a gallon of cooking oil so you can cook about 2 dozen wings at a time.

Once the oil is hot (about 350 degrees), put a couple of dozen wings in and cook them for 15-18 minutes. If they're a little on the overdone side, that's fine. They're better a bit dry. As you do each batch, put the done ones aside to cool. Unless you plan on eating then right away, then set them in a warm oven to keep them hot.

A Large steel mixing bowl comes in handy for getting the sauce on them. Melt a bit of butter and mix in the hot sauce (purists will insist on Frank's brand hot sauce, but I find that stuff a bit bland. I make my own), pour it over the wings and toss them in the bowl to coat them all. Serve with some blue cheese or ranch dressing. I love 'em.

The hot sauce is easy, and you can make it in giant batches because it won't go bad, and it doesn't need refrigeration. Take one part salt, one part brown sugar, and three parts ground Cayenne pepper. Stir that together in a bowl, and then start adding apple cider vinegar while stirring until it gets the consistency of catsup. This will be very hot sauce, so you want to use it sparingly. The more butter (or margarine) you use, the less hot it will seem. Using it straight will be more than hot enough for all but the most die hard capsicum junkies.

Dal "M" for Masala

Lentils are cheap, nutritious, and when you make them into the traditional Indian dish, dal, quite tasty. There are as many variations of dal as there are languages in India, and probably a few more thrown in for good measure. This is a basic one that won't make too many Indians wince, and you can certainly experiment and try different things out there. Google "Dal recipes" and you'll get an idea of the many different ways to make this.

Here's all you need for your first stab at it;

2 cups dried lentils
1 med onion
2-4 jalapenos (it's really up to you. I like mine spicy so I use 4-5)
2 tbsp curry powder
2 cloves garlic (more if you wish, it's really "to taste")
4 cups water
A bit of cooking oil (you should really use ghee, which is clarified butter, but I never feel like trying to make that. I generally use a mixture of butter and sesame oil. You probably don't want to use olive oil)
Salt (to taste)


Start by chopping the onion and peppers and throwing them in a hot pan with enough oil to saute them nicely. Rinse the lentils and set them somewhere to drain while the onions and peppers get good and soft. Mince and crush the garlic as finely as you can.

When the onion and pepper are cooked well enough, throw in the garlic and stir. Cook that for a minute or less followed by the water and lentils. Stir it all together and then add the curry powder. Bring it to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 45 minutes. You may need to add a bit of water near the end if it dries out too much. Best to keep an eye on it.

Serve over basmati rice.

You can cook this longer to get a more mushy consistency. I had a friend from Indonesia who would cook it long enough so that it was just a lumpy liquid served over the rice. It was delicious. If you want something like that but don't want to wait that long cooking, you can always take a cup or two of the cooked dal and puree it in the blender, then mix it back into the rest and serve it like that.

Lentils cost pennies per serving, and are a great source of protein.

Salsa, easier than you may think

It doesn't really take that much time to make a big batch of salsa, and the way I make it, it seems to keep pretty well (over a week in the fridge). The recipe I use is pretty basic, and it can be changed to suit any one's tastes. Here's what I start out with;

5-6 fresh tomatoes
1/2 a bunch of cilantro
1/4 of a medium onion
1 small clove of garlic (it's really easy to overdo the garlic)
2-3 jalapenos
1 Lime
Salt (you need to figure that out for yourself)


I generally use my food processor, but a blender will work as well. If you use the blender, you may wish to chop the ingredients smaller to begin with for a more consistent salsa.

Start by getting a large pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. While you're waiting for that to happen, you need to blister the skin of the jalapenos. You can do this on the grill (pretty fast) or in the toaster-oven (not so fast). Simply cook them until the skin begins to blacken and blister (it takes a while in the oven, so be patient. There's lots to do while you're waiting). Chop up the onion and cut up the cilantro. Crush or mince the garlic as well as you can (be careful not to use too much. It's easier to add more at the end, so be pretty stingy to start).

Put all of this in the food processor. By now, the water should be boiling vigorously. Put the tomatoes in there and let them boil until the skin starts to split. You don't want to cook them, you just want the skins to start peeling back. How long it takes depends on the tomato. I've seen some split as soon as they hit the water, and some take a few minutes. If they take more than five minutes, it's OK to poke them with a sharp knife to help 'em along.

As the skins split, remove them from the boiling water and place them in a bowl of cool water (you can even add ice to the water if you want. You want to serve the salsa cool, so this'll help get it there). Peel and chop the tomatoes into chunks. I generally discard the woody core as well.

By now, the jalapenos should be very well blistered. You want to get them into the cold water now and remove the cellophane-like skins. You don't need to get it all off, but it helps a lot to get most of it off. A combination of peeling and scraping seems to do the trick. Don't rub your eyes. I always do, but I'm not a pussy so it doesn't bother me. The rest of you may wish to wear gloves or something. Discard the stem portion and dice up the chilies and add them to the food processor. Now, squeeze the juice of one lime into the whole thing and run the blades until it's the consistancy you like. Taste it and start adding salt until it tastes right (generally a couple of tsps. does the trick.

Because of the lime juice (pretty acidic) and the cooking of most of the ingredients, I don't see this stuff spoil even after a week in the refrigerator (I keep it sealed in an airtight container). I generally make a batch of this every week or so. Most times, it doesn't even last the whole week because it gets consumed pretty quickly.

Like I always say (or I should always say), this is a basic recipe. There are any number of variations you can try, and you shouldn't be afraid to experiment. Use less jalepeno or more tomato if it's too hot, add roasted garlic for a more garlic-y variation, or try other ingredients. There's no "Salsa Police" out there to tell you not to.

Ma and Pa Kettle (corn)

Kettle corn, that slightly pricey popcorn snack that you see at state fairs and carnivals, is easy to make at home. You'd be surprised how easy.

Here's all you need;

Popcorn

Oil

Sugar (either granulated or powdered)

Salt

I assume you already know how to make popcorn on the stove top, so I won't go into the exact measures (I have never tried this in the microwave, so if you want to try and tell me how it turned out, I'm all ears).

What I like to do is get the oil into the pan and drop three kernels of popcorn into it. Once the three kernels pop, then the oil is hot enough to start. Drop the rest of the corn into the pot and then (quickly) sprinkle the sugar evenly around the pot (you don't want to just dump it in one spot or it'll clump up). For one half cup of unpopped kernels I use about 1 & 1/2 Tbsp of sugar. Now start shaking the pot over the heat. You're doing this to keep the popcorn from burning on the bottom and to keep the unpopped corn sifted to the bottom of the pot. Once the corn is popped, empty the pot into your serving bowl. Add the salt and there you go, Kettle Corn! The kids love it, and you will once again be the hero of the kitchen.

What a load of Crepe

Here's something that'll make your next Sunday brunch memorable and give it a little French cachet. Crepes are surprisingly easy to make, there are a lot of things you can do with them, and they freeze well, so I you make too many, they won't go to waste.

There are plenty of crepe recipes available on the inter webs. The one I'm giving you works very well for me, but you may wish to browse around and try some others. Here's all you need;

1 cup all purpose flour

3 large eggs (4 medium)

Milk (enough to bring the volume of the milk and eggs combined to 2 cups)

pinch of salt

melted pat of butter

1 tsp cinnamon*

1 tsp vanilla*

(* you may omit these items, or substitute any number of other things in their place. For example, you may wish to make a savory crepe with something like rosemary and garlic to go with a seafood dish. There are lots of possibilities. This is a blank canvas)

Mix all of the liquid (except butter) ingredients in a large mixing bowl and whisk them well. In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients and stir them together well. While whisking the liquid, slowly pour in the dry ingredients. When it's all mixed, then pour in the melted butter and whisk it until it's a bit frothy.

Get your non-stick pan moderately hot and, using a soup ladle, pour into the center of the hot pan about 1/4 - 1/3 cup of the mix. Swirl it around the pan to coat the entire bottom and let it set on the heat for a couple of minutes. After a bit, use a spatula to lift the edge and peek under the crepe. It should be starting to get a bit brown on the bottom. When it is, carefully flip it over and cook the other side for about the same amount of time. Once it's done, lay it on a plate and set it in a warm oven while you make the next one. I use two pans at a time to speed things up. This recipe will make about 2 dozen crepes. It takes a while to hit your optimum rhythm, but once you find it, you'll be a crepe makin' machine.

You can make a sauce for them from berries, serve them up with ice cream, or just roll them up and dust them with powdered sugar. Kids love 'em that way.

If you make too many, they can be frozen. Just put a sheet of waxed paper between them and seal them up in a zip-lock bag and drop 'em in the freezer.

Start baking bread. It's fucking easy.

The idea of baking bread seems pretty intimidating to people who've never done it before. There are so many ways to do it that it may seem complicated, but it's fucking easy. Here's an easy recipe that won't fail, no matter how stupid you think you are. This is all you need;

3 cups of all purpose flour

2 Tbsp sugar (white, raw, powdered, brown, it doesn't matter)

1 Tsp salt

1 cup warm water (tap water, it feels warm when you stick your finger in it. You don't need a fucking thermometer fer chrissake)

5 tbsp butter

1/4 cup milk

1 Tbsp active yeast (or one packet. It doesn't matter. The measure doesn't have to be exact)

The equipment you need is;

Large mixing bowl and mixing spoon

measuring cup

measuring spoons

5" X 9" bread pan (if you don't have one, you can form the loaf by hand and cook it on a cookie sheet)

Oven (duh!)

Clean counter top to knead the bread

Get started- Get the butter melting and put the warm water in the mixing bowl and dump in the yeast. Add the sugar and salt. Let it sit for a few minutes while the butter cools down. Throw the cool milk in the pan with the butter to cool it down faster. You don't want it too hot to touch. Throw the butter and milk into the mixing bowl with the yeast and water. Now dump in about half of the flour and start stirring. As the flour gets incorporated into the mix, keep adding flour a bit at a time.

Once it's all stirred in, reach into the flour bag and get a handful of flour and rub it all over your hands and spread it out on the counter where you're gonna' knead the dough. Use a spatula if you have one, or just use your hands and get the dough out onto the counter(I generally do it with my hands because I forget that I have a spatula until I have my hands in the dough) . Start kneading and do so for ten minutes. Keep adding flour to your hands and the counter to keep the dough from sticking. Make sure you knead for ten full minutes! It actually does matter.

After you're finished kneading, wash and dry the mixing bowl, and coat the inside with cooking oil. Drop the ball of dough in there and set it somewhere to rise for one hour. It's good to find a draft free place that's a bit warm. But don't worry about it too damned much. You can just put in on the kitchen table with a dish towel over it. In an hour, come back and look at it. It will be about twice as big as when you put it in the bowl. Punch it right in the middle and it will deflate like a balloon. Dump it back out onto the counter and flatten it out into a rectangle that has one side a bit less than the length of your bread pan. You're going to roll it up from that edge and set that roll in the oiled bread pan (if you don't have the bread pan, just place that roll of dough onto the floured cookie sheet). Dust the top of the loaf with a little bit of flour and lay that clean dish towel on top of it and let it rise again for another hour.

At some point during the second rising, you need to turn the oven on so it's pre-heated to 400 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course. Don't be so silly) by the time the hour is up. Put the loaf in the oven and cook for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take it out of the oven and pop it out of the pan. Let it cool for a few minutes before you start slicing it. You've made the homemade version of Wonder bread (the big difference being that your version has flavor). It's amazingly easy and amazingly good.

See how simple that is? Now go try it. Once you've done it, trying different bread recipes won't seem so damned intimidating. Here's a simple variation that you can use to get whole wheat bread just like you get at the store. Substitute one cup of the all purpose flour with one cup of whole wheat flour, and add about a quarter cup of wheat germ.

I'm sure that there are many readers of this blog who will take issue with my bread recipe because it's not "real bread" like the sourdough baguette that they love, or the whole grain ciabatta that they've got dialed in. To which I say "Of course it's not, it's the first step in baking bread". Try this, and then start to read more and experiment. You'll come up with something wonderful to share with your friends and family. That's the fun of cooking.

Pancake mix? We don't need no stinking pancake mix!

I thought it'd be really cool to learn how to make pancakes from scratch. I'd be some sort of super-dad who spent the pre-dawn hours working hard in the kitchen so that my son could have tasty homemade pancakes, cooked with paternal love. It was with a mix of horror and chagrin that I discovered just how unbelievably fucking simple it is to make without the mix. In fact, I would just like to point out that every dollar you have ever spent on instant pancake mix has been completely wasted. The premixed crap is neither easier nor faster to use. It is quite likely that you have all of the ingredients already in your pantry right now. If you don't, then whatever you're lacking will be far cheaper than the next box of Bisquick, and just as easy to make.

Here's all you need;

1 cup all purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder* (this and the flour are probably the only things that you may not have on hand)

2 Tbsp sugar

pinch of salt

1 large egg

Milk (enough to bring the volume of egg and milk together to 1 & 1/4 cup)

1 pat of butter, melted

(*that's baking powder, not baking soda. Big difference there)

Directions; Mix it all up and there's your batter, just like the fancy stuff that comes in a box. I like to add some cinnamon and vanilla (about a teaspoon of each) into the batter. It makes for a very tasty pancake.

Just pour the batter onto the hot greased griddle and flip them when they start to bubble on top. Cook'em on the other side until done and serve 'em to your kids. Tell them you made them from scratch and they'll think you're the king of the kitchen.

Discovering just how laughably easy it is to make pancakes from scratch actually opened up my eyes to how easy cooking really is. It was the "gateway dish" if you will. I am now completely unafraid to attempt anything in the kitchen. I hope this does the same for you if you've ever been intimidated by the stove.

Pearl Barley, the other white grain

The trouble with barley is that most people have no clue what to do with it once they get it. The only recipe on the package is for beef barley soup. Like Galliano, the anise flavored liquor whose only use seems to be in a harvey wallbanger, pearl barley seems to be the one-trick pony of the grain world.

But no more.

Here's a recipe that will transform this rather humble and inexpensive grain into a surprising and tasty side dish. You're guests will marvel at your culinary acumen while they ask for more. It's a bit like a tabouli salad, and it's a great dish for summer months. Here's what you'll need;

1 cup pearl barley (rinsed)

4 cups water

1/2 bunch Italian parsley (the regular stuff'll work well, too, so don't sweat it)

1/2 cup of roasted pine nuts or walnuts (walnuts are, literally, about 1/20th the price of pine nuts, so really, if you don't have a bag of pine nuts sitting around without a use, you'd save quite a bit by sticking to the walnuts)

1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

1/2 cup crumbled feta or goat cheese (the slightly soft goat cheese is better, I think, but the feta is easier to get hold of)

1/4 cup vinagrette

Put the rinsed barley onto the water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes then drain and rinse the barley in cold water and set aside. Chop the parsley and sun-dried tomatoes finely, then combine all of the ingredients and toss. Serve over a bed of romane lettuce leaves. This keeps well in the refrigerator for several days.

Baked Polenta

"What in the hell" you're asking, "is polenta"?

Or maybe you're not asking that.

For those of you that don't know already, polenta is corn grits. Not to be confused with hominy grits that some of us grew up on, but very similar in taste and appearance. Polenta is yellow, like corn, though.

You can buy polenta ready to eat in a tube, but I honestly don't know why the hell you'd bother. It's so damned easy to make fresh and you have a lot more say in how it comes out, plus it's a fraction of the cost. Here's a really simple way to make it and it comes out really good.

You will need;

One cup of corn grits (polenta)

One cup of grated mozzerella, provelone, or parmesian cheese, or any combination of those three.

A toe or two of garlic, finely minced or crushed

Some fresh or dried rosemary (fresh is better)

Three cups of water (or chicken stock)

Bring the three cups of salted water to a boil and then sprinkle in the grits. Do this carefully otherwise it may get lumpy. You wouldn't want that. Bring it back up to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer. It needs to cook like that for 5 minutes with some occasional stirring. Italian women will tell you that you should stir it continuously, but they just say that to make you think they do more work in the kitchen than they really do. They're lying. You want it to thicken up quite a bit, but not too much. It shouldn't be soupy, and if it is, leave it on the heat for a few more minutes.

After 5 minutes take it off the heat, add the garlic, the rosemary, and the cheese. It wouldn't hurt to drop a pat of butter in there. Stir all that together and then get a baking dish that will hold it all and paint the inside with some olive oil. After the polenta has cooled a little, pour it into the greased baking dish. You might wish to lay a couple of thin slices of cheese on top of it. This gets baked until the cheese topping starts to bubble. Remove it from the oven and let it sit for an half hour or so to firm up.

You can serve it up in fat slices with tomato sauce and italian sausage. It's something nice in place of pasta, and it's cheap.

You don't have to use rosemary, you could use any herb or even a variety of them. Or none at all. Polenta is a blank canvas, and you are only limited by your imagination. Have fun with it.

Dealing with a potato(e)

Potatos are a cheap food. They are relatively nutritious as well. Some people love them, some people (like myself) feel rather ambivalently towards them. There are about as many boring ways to cook a potato as there are boring people in the world. But there are also a good number of really tasty ways to make them (thankfully). This post is going to be an evolving one where I will add new ways to use this wonderfully carbo-rich and inexpensive vegetable in tasty ways.

Like all of my recipes here, I'll give you the basic rundown on a few basic ways to use some ingredient, and then give you a few interesting variations as (hopefully) inspiration for you to explore some wonderful culinary inventions with your own personal stamp.

Mashed potatoes. Pretty simple, but as leftovers, they can be used in a couple of very interesting ways. One is the potato pancake. Simply form the cold mashed potato into a small pancake and set it in a hot frying pan with a bit of oil. Cook on each side for long enough to brown it and so that it has a crispy outside. Good with a couple of eggs at breakfast or mix it with something savory as a side dish for dinner.

The other interesting use is potato bread. The potato is mixed with flour (about 50/50) and baked as a bread (with yeast, that is).

Baked potatoes. The only recommendation I have about baked spuds is that you should always make extra ones so that you can easily use them as leftovers for dishes like gnocci, potato bread, or the hash brown recipe below.

Hash browns. Here is a really simple way to prepare a potato and there's a lot of room to improvise and add. Here's my favorite variation, and a few sub variations that use up the left-overs. First, start out with a scrubbed raw potato or two. set them close at hand for the grating (if you grate them ahead of time, they tend to turn purple. If this doesn't bother you then don't worry about it, but if it does, either don't grate them until you're ready with a hot pan, or rinse them in cold water a bit before you cook them). I generally like to start with a bit of chopped onion and jalepeno in the mixing bowl. Start to get your pan warmed up while grating the potato. Squeeze out as much water as you can from the grated spud and add that to the onion and chili peppers. Then add salt and pepper and mix it well. Put some sort of cooking oil in the pan and put your potato in. Flatten it out like a pancake and cook it until it gets brown enough to flip. Cook it on the other side until it's brown and crispy. This is something I like to have with a steak.

Left-over uses! If you have some leftover mashed or baked potatoes (peel them and mash them up), you can squish them in with your hash browns and they will help to hold the whole thing together. It comes out very tasty. In fact, I often bake extra potatoes when I have the oven on so I can do this a few days later.