Eats For One … or more

Bean Ragout a la Bon Appitit, Barbara, Lidia and me.
I was inspired by White Bean Ragout with Toast I read about in Bon Appetit on the drive home from our last scout trip to Reno. That recipe is all about building a flavor base for what is essentially a white bean and tomato bread salad made soup by adding liquid. The soffritto, an Italian blend of chopped cooked aromatics is that flavor base. That’s fine, but the recipe makes about 3 cups of soffritto and only uses 1/2 cup… refrigerate or freeze the balance for use in many strange and wonderful ways. Well… I’m trying to EMPTY the freezer.
I do have a container of Lidia’s Soup Base in the freezer. (Lidia Bastianich: if you don’t know her, you are missing out.) I’m not sure what’s in it or why I made it in the first place, but I’ll bet it’ll be good with white beans. So I got that out to thaw and I’m on my way to some kind of bean soup or stew. I checked my recipe files and glommed onto Barbara Kafka’s Bean and Kale Soup.

So I had a plan, and all I needed was the Kale. I’ll start with Barbara’s Bean and Kale Soup but substitute Lidia’s Soup Base for the broth and borrow the croutons from the Bon Appitit recipe.

The ragout is cooked and croutons in the bowl.

Ragout on the table.

Feast in the midst of chaos.

That was delicious.

Lidia’s Soup Base turned out to be a bit tomatoey and garlicy and made it really great with the beans and greens. I used farfalle pasta — which I don’t much like — but we had a bunch of it in the cupboard, so using it up is a good thing.

Here’s what I did:

Bean & Kale Ragout with Croutons
Adapted from Bean & Kale Soup, from Soup: A Way of Life by Barbara Kafka
Altered and rewritten by Marcus, Judith Jones style.
Makes about 5 cups; 4 first-course servings.

PREP
Wash and trim 1 bunch kale and in a medium saucepan, over medium heat, cook the kale with 1?2 cup (125 ml) water and 1 teaspoon kosher salt until tender. Drain and coarsely chop the kale, reserving any liquid that remains.

Rub some slices rustic bread with garlic, drizzle with olive oil and bake on a baking sheet at 400°F for about 5 minutes until just right. (I keep slices of bread in the freezer for this purpose, and bake in the countertop convection oven.)

COOK
Very finely chop 2 flat anchovy fillets together with the 1?4 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves or dried. Reserve.

Put on enough water for 1/2 cup shell pasta and cook for 5 or 6 minutes (half the time on the package). Reserve in its water if necessary.

Smash and peel 2 garlic cloves and in a medium saucepan, stir together 1?3 cup (80 ml) olive oil and the garlic over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the garlic is pale gold, about 10 minutes. Take the pan off heat and stir in the anchovies and rosemary for 1 minute. [A furious sizzle ensues when you throw the anchovies into the very hot oil.]

Discard the garlic. Put the pan back on heat and stir in the kale and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring to thoroughly coat it with the oil. Stir in 1 cup drained, cooked small white beans (or rinsed canned beans). Cook for 3 minutes.

Stir in the reserved kale cooking liquid and 3 cups broth (here’s where I used Lidia’s Soup Base). Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and stir in 1?2 cup (60 g) of your partially cooked small shell macaroni. Simmer for 6 minutes, or until the pasta is tender. Adjust the seasoning, if necessary.

Place 3 or 4 croutons in each serving bowl, top with the beans greens and broth.

Pass Parmesan cheese and freshly ground pepper at the table.
~~~~

I noodled around in my recipe database and actually found a recipe I might have used for Lidia’s Soup Base — a part of larger cook-most-of-the-day Hearty Minestra Base with Cranberry Beans, Potatoes, and Pork

It is not so different from the Soffritto of the Bon Appitit recipe. (Ironically, I rejected that recipe because I didn’t want to make the soffritto, only to discover I had something similar in my own freezer.) So I altered Bon Appitit to make it tomatoey, and suggest that. I’m not sure I’m right and I haven’t tested this, but it seems a lot like Lidia’s other soffritto recipes. When I get moved, I promise to test it.

Faux Lidia Soup Base
PREP
Garlic — finely grate 3 garlic cloves.
Chop 3 medium onions and 1 red bell pepper — Pulse in a food processor until finely chopped but not puréed. Mix well in a bowl.
COOK
Heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add onion mixture (it may splatter) and season with salt and pepper. Simmer, stirring often, until vegetables are completely softened, about 30 minutes. Make a hot spot in the middle of your skillet; add the finely grated garlic and 2 teaspoons tomato paste and cook, stirring that into the onion mixture until tomato paste begins to turn deep red, about 3 minutes. Add a large can of San Marzano tomatoes with their juices. Break up the tomatoes with your hands or a wooden spoon and cook for at least 30 minutes until all the flavors are blended and the sauce is smooth.

Bon Appitit, as they say.
Yum, as I say.

When Carol’s Retirement story was published, so many asked, “Now what will Carol do?”

“I’m going to RENO !” she said.

That’s not news. Since Brian moved there, we go to Reno three or four times a year to visit Brian and Natasza — or just to go. We like Reno. The difference this time — we’re not coming back… we bought a house in Reno.

Here’s the deal:

A freshly minted Ensign in the Navy in 1962, I was stationed in San Diego. Anticipating a transfer “back east,” that summer Carol and I took a driving trip to Disneyland, San Francisco, Reno, Las Vegas. That was our first visit to Reno. I remember getting a flat tire on the long causeway across the flats leading to Sacramento. When we left our Reno motel, I backed the car into a tree. Why return to that wretched place?

But the years rolled off the clock and in May, 2009. Carol and I went to Reno to meet a real estate agent and scout houses for son Brian. We stayed at Peppermill. WOW.

Brian was being transferred from his job as an research entomologist for the Exotic and Invasive Weeds Research Unit of the USDA in Montpellier, France to a similar position in Reno, NV, USA. Brian bought a house and moved in that August. Since, we’ve visited many times and grew to like the place.

Reno has seasons. It can be darned cold in the winter, but when it snows, the snow goes quickly as there’s often some welcome warming sun during the day. Summer days can be hot — it’s a dry heat, as they say — but since it’s high desert, it cools off at night. I experienced a similar climate during my nearly two years in Jerusalem.

This year, we went to visit Brian for Christmas. Driving into Reno, we saw a billboard by I-80, “Sierra Canyon, A Del Webb +55 Community.” Carol said, “That might be worth a look.” We looked on Christmas Day, went back three days straight and made an offer on a house before we left Reno. WOW, again.

9135 Spruce Creek Court

We’ve lived in San Francisco, in the same perfect flat, for almost exactly 20 years. In April 1992, I moved — along with some furniture — and started work in SF. Carol joined me with the balance of our furniture in August, after finishing up at her school in Newton MA.

Our flat on Union Street, Russian Hill, San Francisco is fabulous. It’s so convenient for all the things we like to do. We can walk to Polk Street, Cow Hollow, the Marina and North Beach. The 45 bus passes through Chinatown and Union Square and goes on to ATT Park and the Giants. We love living in the City. But Union Street is steep, and there are 14 terrazzo steps to our flat. Hey, it’s good exercise, but we are 20 years older. If one of us should fall or just get a joint out of joint, we’d be in a fine pickle.

We like the way we can easily use inside/outside at Brian’s house. Our new house is on one level with no steps, our back patio faces North for the shade. Our front porch faces South for the sun and a swell view of the Sierras. I’ll be able to cook a lot more on the grill. Maybe get a Big Green Egg just like Mark and Jannie’s.

back yard

front porch

We won’t have our beloved Giants at ATT Park — though we can get all their games on the TV. We will have the Reno Aces, a AAA team in their own new and swell ballpark. We’re already members of the Great Basin Food Coop.

Aces "cap day" on the "club level" (actually a restaurant overlooking the ball park)

after some eats, we moved to our seats

Our move date is not until the first week of June, so I’ll be around here packing and cooking and trying to work in some writing. Sure, we’ll miss the action and activity of the city, but as I said to Carol when we looked at “The Tahoe” Model Home at Sierra Canyon, “Hey, this is like being on vacation.”

I’ve been thinking about broccoli since a meal at the El Paisano hotel in Marfa TX. The restaurant wasn’t great and the meal wasn’t great but the broccoli was fabulous. I bought some broccoli at the first Market after we got back.

First off, buy (or grow) fabulous broccoli, so fabulous that when you separate the buds, they will look great.

Make your favorite vinaigrette. For this one, I used 1 tablespoon Navarro Vineyards Gewurztraminer Vinegar, 3 tablespoons Stonehouse Sevillano XV Olive Oil, 1 clove garlic, sliced very thin, and shook it up in a used up Mustard Mistress Sassy Sensation mustard jar, a scant amount of mustard clinging to the sides and bottom of the jar.

Steam the broccoli until it is just right to the bite. For me, four minutes. I cool mine on a “cooling rack” I put over the sink; or you can plunge it in cold water then drain well.

Lay down your vinaigrette on a plate.

Arrange your broccoli on the plate.

Beautiful, no?

I warmed plates on top of the oven while potatoes baked.

Serve your broccoli. This is with a Fatted Calf Lamb Crepinette (with greens and pine nuts), plus a small baked potato and half of a peeled, raw tomato.

Yum.

So fabulous that I had the leftover broccoli with a sliced leftover baked potato for breakfast.

…or is it a Stew of Root

I’m so full of stories — there’s plenty of Texas left and some Reno to come — but they’re not strictly about food and I thought I’d better squeeze one in about food. It’s not for lack of cooking or eating — we’ve been doing that — it’s just that there’s all that other stuff, unfinished.

Whatever… I took my own advice and revisited the Bi-Rite Cookbook.

Standing in Books, Inc, I was browsing that cookbook and came across Wine-Braised Chicken Legs with Root Vegetables. I gave it close inspection and decided that I must make that recipe. And so I did. Along the way, I modified and adapted a lot, but stuck to the idea of braising chicken legs and root vegetables in wine and chicken broth.

3 whole chicken legs and about 2 1/2 pounds of vegetables, not peeled or trimmed. (I used turnip, rutabaga, potato, fennel, carrots). The onions are cooked separately and don’t count with the vegetables.

Before we got to that point, I put the whole chicken legs (about 2 1/2 pounds) on parchment paper on a large baking sheet seasoned them generously with salt and pepper. I put them in the refrigerator about 9am (recipe says uncovered overnight, but I figured 7 hours or so would be just fine to dry them and soak in the seasoning).

When you’re nearly ready to cook, rinse the chicken well, pat dry and let come to room temperature. Preheat oven to 300°F.

Dredge the chicken legs in about 1/3 cup flour, shaking off the excess. I took my biggest Le Creuset Dutch oven to brown the legs in plenty of olive oil over medium heat, they need to be in one layer, otherwise they’ll steam, not brown. If you don’t have a big enough pot, work in batches.
…Read the rest of this entry »

Texas Two-Step
THE IDEA

June 2006, Carol and I were in San Antonio for one of Carol’s education for young children conferences.

San Antonio is pretty interesting, and the Riverwalk is swell, but while Carol was at her meetings, I wanted to go somewhere in Texas.

I had heard and read about Donald Judd and the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, so I looked it up on the map and internet. Hmmmm, not just a day trip. So I dropped that and went to Bandera in the hill country for breakfast (look for “Thursday Breakfast near the end).

Sometime later, I mentioned Donald Judd and Marfa to Alison, our artist daughter-in-law. Oh, yes. She would love to go there sometime. After many mentions and dreams and then serious planning, mid-March of 2012 became the time

As it turned out, son Brian and Natasza would be vacationing in Texas around that time, as well. Hey, a family gathering!

OK then, we would fly from San Francisco to Midland TX, Eric and Alison would fly from Maine to Midland TX and Brian and Natasza would be able to meet us in Big Bend National Park. As it turned out both the Maine and SF flights would arrive in Midland about 9:30pm. We would spend the night in Midland and drive to Big Bend — in separate cars — and meet Brian there. Spend a couple days in Big Bend and drive to Marfa to visit Chinati, while Brian goes home through San Antonio. Sounds like a plan.

NOTE: Normally eats is about food. On this trip, I found the food, art, architecture and the trip itself intertwined to the point of being inseparable. I’m still cooking and eating, so there will be more recipes.

Texas Two-Step:
MARFA and CHINATI

Sweeping in on US-90 from the northwest, we found Marfa and met Eric and Alison in the lobby of the El Paisano Hotel. Eric handed me my much missed bag (see the plight of my bag in “getting there”) and I checked into the hotel.

We went with them to see El Cosmico, an “alt lifestyle kind of place” where they are staying in a robins-egg-blue knock-off Airstream trailer. The next night they would stay in a tent. TeePees and Yurts are on the grounds, as well.

Eric and Alison's home for the night

here are some tee pees where they won't stay

here are some tents where they will stay tomorrow

El Paisano is the class historic hotel in Marfa. Built in 1930 it operated for many years as a Cattleman’s hotel.

The hotel was also the prime location for social events within a 100 mile radius of Marfa. In 1955 Warner Brothers chose Marfa as the location for the filming of the epic movie Giant. In June of that year the cast and crew including James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson made the hotel their headquarters.

The lobby is large and comfortable, with clay tile in rustic tones enhancing the floors and fireplace. Jett’s Grill at the El Paisano, the dining room, is to the rear left, sharing courtyard frontage with the lobby.

Carol and I are not campers, this is where we'll stay

…Read the rest of this entry »

I take that back… Had a great grilled pork chop at Wall Street Bar and Grill in downtown Midland… Lovely marbled moist pork served with horseradish mashed potatoes. Yum

We’re in Midland TX and the food is not so good, so I thought I’d send a fragment of local lore.

Texas Chili with cheese and onion — and plenty of saltines — at the Lost Horse Saloon, Marfa TX

Courthouse and water tower. Food tomorrow, I promise… Or maybe art.

What on earth are we doing here?
I’ll tell you when I have better writing instruments. Clue: United is FUBAR.