Food Musings...

Geriatric Calendar for those of us where days just seem to run together.. 

You can tell what day it is just by looking for the one with meds in it (in this case – Thursday)

Musings

You know me, I’m kind of a classic guy when it comes to food.  I prefer classic dishes prepared in a classic manner when I can get them.  There is nothing like sitting at a white tablecloth table with silver, crystal and a trained wait staff. But there is another world of.., “eating healthy and fast”.   More and more in our fast paced world we're leaning in that direction.  There are multiple publications like “Cooking Light”, “Clean Eating”, and the like as well as a plethora of web sites, all touting the preparation of (for want of a better term) “healthy eating”.

A quick caveat here, you are perfectly able to decide what you want to put in your body and the reasons for your choices.  I would not presume to chide you for any food that you wish to consume for whatever reasons.

Those same sites and magazines are filled with recipes that specify ingredients like: use low fat cheese; substitute yogurt for sour crème, add low sodium chicken broth; season with fresh herbs (or salt substitute) instead of salt; egg white omelets; use half and half instead of heavy cream; on and on.  When there were such things as restaurants, more and more of the dishes on the menu had a string of parenthetical codes behind them specifying various features, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and so on.  And somewhere on the menu will be a statement about only using sustainable, non-GMO, maybe free range, grass fed, etc. 

Okay, okay, feeder what’s your point?  For want of better terms, in my (probably biased) mind we are developing categories of food: “real” and “almost”.  The former DOES use heavy cream, homemade stocks, whole eggs, they leave fat on meats. Thomas Keller takes 3 days to produce a roasted chicken for his restaurants.  The “almost” category would include such things as a “Turkey Reuben” sandwich which I assume is a pretty good sandwich, but a Reuben sandwich is corned beef (or sometimes pastrami); Russian dressing; Sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, on Rye (please not marbled).  Well, you say, the turkey version is “almost” as good as the “real’ thing.  Call it something else – Turkey melt?

Another example is the making of say, Sauce Bernaise.  The as far as I’m concerned Bible of sauces is the (James Beard awarded book)

Their recipe (and directions) runs for two pages. 

It’s a bear to make. 

Gather:

The recipe: all 15 steps. 

And this is the paragraph where I always fail.  "Break" is the watchword I always stumble.

Far easier and quicker would be the “almost” version made in your local blender.

SAUCE BEARNAISE

¼ cup white wine vinegar                                    

¼ cup dry white wine or vermouth                               

1 Tbsp minced shallots or scallions (white part only) 

1/2 Tsp Dried tarragon

¼ tsp. salt 

1/8 tsp pepper 

3 egg yolks  

1 Stick of butter (thoroughly melted and still boiling                                         

Boil the vinegar, wine, herbs, and seasonings in a small saucepan until liquid has reduced to about 2 Tbsp.  Let cool.  Place egg yolks and cooled vinegar mixture in jar of blender.  Cover and blend at high speed for 30 seconds.  Uncover, (my blender has a little center cover that I take off) and still blending at high speed, start pouring in the hot butter by DROPLETS.  When about 2/3 of the butter has gone in, you can pour a little more quickly.

There are really two classes with all sorts of references for each:

“real” from the classic:

Both of these should have a place in your cooking library.  Invaluable references.

And the "other" type: 

The “real” stuff is what you would get and expect in a fine dining restaurant with kitchen brigade whose job it is to turn out classic dishes as they were intended. 

Confession: over the years I have softened on the “almost” items.  People have lives, families, soccer practice, meetings, and so on.  A lot of that leads to “eating from bags”, but there are caring home cooks who would like to feed their family tasty, and yes, healthy meals, in a timely manner and these books supply a way to do that. 

Sure, there would be difference between the rigorous Sauce Bearnaise and the blender version, but it is better than NO sauce.  Find an “easy and fast” recipe, but once in a while make the time and effort to move over to the “real” side.  It’s fun and a treat.

Speaking of recipes, here’s one I WON’T be trying

one of my favorite meaningless phrases: "next level"  which level are YOU on?

And for the time being, the heck with

DFD

Life is too short to stuff a mushroom

Shirley Conran

postscript..  in rereading this before hitting "publish" it seems I kind of changed my tune from beginning to end. There is a place for quick cooking