Eats For One … or more

The wok and the pot.

Back in the day, the late 1960’s/early 70’s, living in Newton, Massachusetts, an urban suburb of Boston, we discovered the Joyce Chen Restaurant in Cambridge. We came in 1968 from Roanoke VA, where nearly everything new and good was “over the mountain” from us. Cambridge was a revelation! Everything was new and different and good, from Design Research to good Chinese food.

three woks

THE WOK
We went to Joyce Chen on celebratory occasions, often with a like minded group, as the restaurant had big round tables with a lazy susan in the middle. Joyce Chen had a cooking show in WGBH, the Boston PBS station where Julia Child honed her TV chops.

Joyce Chen’s restaurant was on the second floor of a three story wooden building in Cambridge near Central Square, a neighborhood less toney than Harvard Square; a place where new restaurants got their start. Legal Seafood started there at about the same time; another venue celebrating good food that has grown and flourished.

Joyce Chen was content with her single location, but soon enough, she opened a store on the street floor where she introduced a line of Chinese cooking utensils. I’m pretty sure I bought my first wok there, a big, steel 14 1/2-inch wok that over the years has become well seasoned. I still use it.

well seasoned wok

Eventually, her name and influence in the restaurant and design world faded. Joyce Chen died in 1994 and her restaurant closed in 1998.

In 1992 my wife and I moved to San Francisco. I moved three months before her, and in barely equipping a temporary bare bones kitchen, bought a small black aluminum calphalon wok shaped pan, only 8 inches in diameter. When Carol arrived with our furnishings and cookware, it got buried the cupboard. (more…)

…on the way to Thanksgiving in Maine

Since son Brian moved to Southern France six years ago, we’ve met in Europe for our family get-togethers – except for son Eric’s 40th birthday in 2004, celebrated in New Hampshire and Maine. This year, it was great to get reacquainted with Boston friends and spend Thanksgiving with friends and family in Maine.

Millennium Bostonian Hotel

We touched down in Boston about six o’clock Friday and checked into the Millennium Bostonian Hotel, tired and hungry. If you’ve lived in Boston, you don’t return to Boston without dinner at Legal Seafood. We didn’t even take the time to unpack before walking through Faneuil Hall Marketplace to State Street and across the “Big Dig” park. It was plenty cold for us Californians – about 25 degrees – but we were comfortable in our saved Boston overcoats… until we turned the corner onto State Street and the wicked wind cut through our woolens like a serving spoon through soufflé. The lights of Legal warmed our soul and a few steps later; the blast of warmth from the vestibule took care of our bodies – quickly followed by a Macallan and Manhattan, which provide their own kind of heat.

Legal Seafood

some fine steamed clams

Sooner than expected, we were escorted from the bar, through the busy and cheerful dining room to our table. We ordered the quintessential Legal Seafood antipasto: cup o’ chowdahbucket o’ steamers and , to be dipped in broth and/or melted butter before dropping the morsel in to one’s mouth, open like a baby bird’s, to receive it. Yum. That’s livin’.

Crab Cake for Carol

As entrees I had the Scrod and Carol a big ol’ Crab Cake. What a lovely welcome to New England.
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K-Paul Meatloaf

My hardcover copy of Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen is dogeared, foodstained and some of the pages are coming out of the binding. It is inscribed, “From Robert and Katy, 1984,” and it is still a “top shelf” cookbook in my kitchen library.

I prize it because the recipes have a zing to them and it contains the best meatloaf recipe of all time. Paul Prudhomme calls it Cajun Meat Loaf and it’s on page 112 after Cajun Prime Rib and followed by Fresh Veal Liver with Mashed Potatoes, Smothered Onions and Bacon. I call it K-Paul Meatloaf.

I am a lover of good meatloaf, and its first cousin, meatballs. I have tried countless such recipes over the years, 13 remain in my database, and probably an equal number in my Cookbook collection; most are good. K-Paul Meatloaf is the best.

What is meatloaf anyway, but ground meat, bread, egg, milk and seasoning. It can be hard and dull or rich, moist and full of flavor, depending on the “other stuff” that goes into the mixing bowl.

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One of the very first entries in this blog—noted “entered 21 December 2005 by Marcus”—was actually entered by Eric, the guy who gave me this WordPress template for Christmas, four days later. He had already posted five entries—taken from my eats4one book—to demonstrate what it would look like (looks good!).

I didn’t work up the confidence or technique to make my own post until January 14th when I put together Broccoli di Cicco.
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“Gravy isTomato sauce, usually the kind made with meat like pork, veal, etc, and typically eaten with macaroni, rigatoni or ziti. As opposed to marinara sauce, a meatless tomato sauce usually eaten with spaghetti.”
Peter Paul “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri quoted in The Sopranos Family Cookbook [Warner Books 2002]

I’m posting this Pork Braciola and Tomato Gravy recipe just because its so good and reminded both Carol and me of the “spaghetti sauce” she used to make back in the day when there were hungry kids around. I’m pretty sure she picked it up from one of the neighbor ladies in South Roanoke Apartment Village. In any case, it followed us to Newton, and is one of the few recipes I took to Jerusalem.

After our move to San Francisco, there were no longer hungry kids around and we got caught up in trying new recipes from new cookbooks, and then there was the no carb phase and Carol’s tried and true spaghetti sauce fell by the wayside.
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Shell of a flavor… get it?

I loved the headline so much that I clipped this recipe from the Boston Globe, sometime around 1980. And good for me… though I don’t cook it often, it is one of my favorites.

In this dish, the shells of the Prawns flavor a stock that is used for cooking couscous to serve with the prawns. An extra dollop of stock sends more flavor back to the Prawns as they cook.

So what if you can only find Shrimp in your market? Use the Shrimp. Technically, they’re different critters, but commercially, the terms are used interchangably. Some think Prawns looks more classy on a menu or in a recipe.

This “trick” can work with lobster, as well, using the shells to make a broth or sauce. In fact, the poached fish dish that I posted earlier, essentially uses the fish juices to help the sauce.
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Sally Redmond’s Cincinnati Chili

Sally lived across the street from us in Newton, and though she isn’t from Cincinnati, her husband Jeff is. In any case, they would have a Kentucky Derby Party every spring, with Mint Juleps, their own Tote Board, and this chili, served in small bowls. It was generally accompanied by creamy Cole slaw, since this chili has some spice.

The party would start well before the five o’clock Derby, so we could get our bets down and our tote board correct, and last into the night. Money changed hands. As the evening became night, dancing ensued in the living room. I often wound up dancing with Sally to tunes from Jackson Browne’s Late for the Sky LP.
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Ah yes, the celebration of winter vegetables combined with the early spring treat of Corned Beef, traditionally at its peak of popularity around St. Patrick’s Day.

The Academy Awards are close enough to March 17, so that corned beef is readily available. We like to have folks over for the Oscars in order to share catty remarks and ooohhh and aaahhh, make fun of folks and generally enjoy one another’s company. This year there will be four of us. I’m making a New England Boiled Dinner and planning for leftovers for Corned Beef Hash.
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So simple: flour, water, olive oil, salt, honey, and yeast. Top with whatever. And yet…

One day, somebody said on the radio, or I read somewhere, or Carol said that somebody said… but it doesn’t matter, “Two slices of pizza is the perfect breakfast.” This lit up my eyes and my senses. All my life I’ve been trying to find a breakfast.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Eat three balanced meals a day!

As a kid, I was force-fed cereal and milk. If I didn’t feel well, my mother would give me milk toast. That was pretty good. (Butter a piece of toast, and submerge it in a shallow bowl of warm milk. The butter melts and makes yellow streaks on the surface of the milk. How can that be bad?) I’ve tried the traditional eggs every way with meat any way or without. Pancakes… French toast… All this stuff is fine… after 10:30 in the morning. Before that, I wanna wretch. I even tried Carnation Instant Breakfast. Yuk.
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I once carried this up into the White Mountains of NH on a hike of a few 4,000 foot peaks. Makes for a heavy backpack, but a darned good meal at day’s end.

2# lean stew beef cut in 1″ cubes
3 T. butter
2 large onions
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 T. flour
2 t. paprika
2 cups boiling beef broth
1 can tomatoes
1 cup red wine
1 jar boiled onions
1/2 cup sour cream (optional)

Melt butter, add onions and garlic, cook until slightly brown.

Add meat, brown.

Add flour, paprika, and stir thoroughly.

Add broth, tomatoes, wine.

Cover and simmer 1 1/2 to two hours and at the end add boiled onions and sour cream.