17 posts tagged “listener comments”
Then it's all about cooking quickly. I prefer using low sided wide pans because you have more surface area for evaporation. Of course, at the restaurant I have big pans and big burners which let me put one giant pan on four burners which will actually deal with 25 pounds of tomatoes in one batch. That said, try to use good heavy pans. The largest pots most home cooks have are to boil water for pasta and they tend to be very light weight.
Cut the tomatoes into quarters. I keep the seeds because I believe a lot of flavor resides in the juices around them, but you can scoop the seed pockets out with your fingers if you want the sauce to thicken more quickly.
Put enough good olive oil in your pot/pan to come up at least 1/2 inch. That will give your sauce body and flavor. Add a few whole garlic cloves (don't go overboard) you can always add more garlic to whatever dish in which you are using the finished sauce. Add the tomatoes, add salt and stir. Cover the pan and turn on the heat to high. Check the tomatoes and stir. When they start to break down and the pan fills with liquid remove the lid and let the evaporation process begin. Stir frequently to prevent burning and to create a smoother, more full bodied sauce. Check for salt and add basil if you want at this stage. I don't add black pepper, choosing to wait until I'm using the sauce to decide how I want to spice it.
If you like a chunky sauce simply cook until the consistency pleases you. You can break the tomatoes down further with a sturdy whisk or a potato masher. Or if you love a really smooth sauce run it through a food mill with the coarse or medium disk.
I keep the skins on then use the food mill at the end to remove them and create a smooth sauce.
A listener named James asked whether it was okay to freeze leftover wine to use for cooking. I asked Stacie Hunt of Du Vin what she thought. Here's what she wrote:
"Freezing wine is a perfect thing to do with any leftover wine. You can pour the wine into ice cube trays, freeze and then put the cubes into baggies. You'll have perfect beginnings for sauces, soups and marinades. Frozen wine cubes can stay indefinitely.
Thanks to a listener named Alice for this recipe:
32 oz of sour pitted cherries (she calls for 2 16-oz cans, but I use the Trader Joe's bottled ones)
3 cups hot water
1 cup sugar
cinnamon to taste
2 Tablespoons flour
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup red wine
Combine cherries, water, sugar and cinnamon in a large pot and bring to a boil. Blend flour and cream, slowly pour into cherry mixture, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in wine or sherry and chill well covered.
I actually have used Greek yogurt very successfully instead of the cream/flour mixture. It just says summer to me, memories of eating it in the shade of the porch with lots of older Hungarian aunts and grandmas.
Listener Will Haynes sent us a note about his sour (tart) cherry picking adventure. He and his sister write a blog called Last Crumb. They have a great post about sour cherry picking and what they did with the results of their harvest.
Here is a link to the Leona Valley Cherry Association.
Will went to a sour cherry orchard called Cherry Tyme.
Cherry Tyme Sour Cherries:
39913 107th St West
Leona Valley, Ca 93551
(661) 270-0649
I asked Jonathan Gold for an egg foo yung recommendation. Here's what he wrote:
"A rare and exotic food these days. I always send people to the Chinese food stand in the Grand Central Market, but the version at Paul's Kitchen, 1012 S. San Pedro St. downtown, is exactly like the one we all grew up eating."
One listener suggested Little China Restaurant in Hollywood. Another suggested CBS Seafood.
Here's a recipe from Epicurious:
Egg Foo Yung
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 Tablespoon ketchup
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 bunch scallions
8 large eggs
1 tsp Asian sesame oil
1/4 lb sliced fresh mushrooms (preferably shiitake)
1 cup fresh bean sprouts (3 oz)
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
6 oz peeled cooked shrimp, chopped
Whisk together broth, oyster sauce, ketchup, soy sauce, vinegar, cornstarch, and a pinch of salt in a small heavy saucepan. Bring to a simmer, whisking occasionally, and simmer 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Chop scallions, separating white parts and greens.
Beat eggs in a bowl with sesame oil and 1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper.
Cook white scallion, mushrooms, sprouts, and 1/4 tsp salt in vegetable oil in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until any liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add shrimp and half of scallion greens, then pour in eggs and cook, stirring occasionally, until eggs are just cooked but still slightly loose. Cover skillet and cook until eggs are just set, about 3 minutes.
Serve sprinkled with remaining scallion greens. Serve sauce on the side.
If you're heading up to Santa Barbara for some wine tasting. You might want some cheese to go with it. A listener named Lori emailed me with a recommendation for a cheese shop in downtown Santa Barbara - C'est Cheese.
825 Santa Barbara Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, (805) 965-0318
If anyone tries it, let me know how it is.
My mother imparted a pleasure for cooking to both my sister and I. We are in our 30's and very much consider ourselves to be foodies. While we have drastically different styles - I like to cook on the fly using recipes as a guide, my sister follows everything to a T - we definitely exhibit a bit "Gerry" in us.
My mother is an OCD baker. She tries a recipe such as lemon cornmeal cookies and then for the next month we have unending supply. There is really something cute and special in that. The kitchen is my mother's refuge, her haven, her special place. It is there that she is able to provide the most basic and necessary form of love - nourishment and sustenance.
My mom can cook almost anything. And yet, on my birthday, I always ask for the one dish that will always be "home" to me - Swedish Meatballs. I doubt that any Swede would find them authentic, but that is not the point. The meatballs are a bit laborious to produce as the preparation requires cooking in two parts - browning and then cooking. But I love it. And I love my mother.
It is because if this that I am so happy that my mother spends time with my own kids teaching them about this aspect of our family culture.
Last week I interviewed Kathleen Collins about cooking shows on TV. A few listeners commented about what they like to watch. Jenna recommended Aarti Paarti on You Tube:
I want to share and email I received from a listener named Nancy. She shares some wonderful memories about - what else? - pork:
I grew up in a small town filled with a very diverse population. Migrant workers from Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia (this was when everyone else knew the area as "Yugoslavia"), Italy and Finland came in the early 1900's to work in the iron ore mines in Northern Minnesota. The area is called The Iron Range. Like most of my friends, my parents were the first US born generation.
Porketta was a staple at all get-togethers. I never questioned what this deliciously flavored meat's origins were, I only knew that my mom and all the women made it. My mom's, of course, was the best. My dad raised a few pigs every year, so we had the tastiest pork. My dad's garden always had fresh fennel and garlic. From these, a delicious porketta was made. I can still see the golden brown fat, the string keeping the fennel and garlic "stuffing" from falling out and I can still smell the fabulous aroma. (wild fennel grows in southern California, and I recently picked some, and rolled it in a pork tenderloin...however, not the same thing.) If you travel to Northern Minnesota in the summer, you can see Porketta sold in the small town markets. I didn't know that it was originally Italian....but now I understand how the food in our community was shared by the different groups!
Now, another pork delight was something called Svedika. I don't know how to spell it, but the short name was "cracklings". In the fall, my dad butchered his pigs and my mom rendered the fat. She strained the melted fat into cheesecloth and the fat was stored in a crock in the basement for use in cooking. But, the small pieces of pork that stayed in the cheesecloth were precious and stored in a coffee can in the freezer. In the winter, my mom took out a couple large tablespoons of this "fat-pork" mixture and fried it. Once this was lightly fried, she put it into homemade bread "jelly-roll" style. Once baked, the bread was absolutely delicious.
Finally, if you ever go to N. MN. make sure you try potica. Of course, my mom's was the best. It was a whole day's production: grinding walnuts in a meat grinder, warming them with milk and honey on the stove, spreading a table with a flour-dusted sheet, and stretching dough so thin, you could read threw it. The walnut mixture was spread on the dough and rolled up. Sunrise Bakery in Hibbing still makes it.
Share your food memories. Email me or post it below.
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