Grass-fed beef in Argentina

Our first and only night in Buenos Aires, we had dinner at the Duhau Restaurant and Vinoteca. Our reservations included a wine and cheese tasting at the Vinoteca, and we assumed it would be a cheese or two with a glass or two of wine. Boy were we wrong. 6 cuts of cheese and two bottles of wine later, we were stuffed with local cheeses and tipsy with excellent wine. Halfway through our tasting, the head of wine buying for the hotel deceided to stop by to see how we were doing. That led to a one-hour wine tasting class and lesson on Argentine wines. We had an amazing torrontes, which is a grape native to Argentina, and two malbecs of terrific quality for the price. That led into dinner which was a rib eye for me (have I mentioned I love ribeye steaks?). The beef was delicious, but I wouldn't say it was the best I've ever had- just really good steak. The differnce was the price - only about $15 for a pretty good-sized steak grilled to a perfect medium rare.

The next day, we went shopping for leather goods, and found some great handbags. But the highlight of the trip was the empanadas store - El Sanjuanino in Recoleta. We got carnes picante empanadas, as well as a cheese and onion one - both were delicious, but the meat one was better. The crust was impossibly light and flaky - like pastry - and the filling was a perfect ratio to the crust. Delicious!! We definitely preferred Argentine empanadas to Chilean empanadas, but that's another story yet to come...

What A Braiser Looks Like

I realized that I keep referencing my braiser, so here's a picture of it in case you don't know what one is or don't already have one. Mine's from Le Creuset, but I would imagine any wide, shallow, heavy, oven-safe pot with a tight-fitting lid would work for most of the recipes where I mention it. That being said, I love my braiser - it cooks very evenly and releases food easily. The lid stays put, even when food is at a full boil. And it's a breeze to take from stove to oven and back again, and then to the dinner table.

Now, getting it in and out of our ridiculously small apartment-sized kitchen cupboard is another story, as it is heavy as sh*t (it is iron, after all) and unforgiving on your fingers when you accidentally drop it.

Roast Chicken Three Ways

During the winter months, my husband and I go through a lot of chickens. Sunday is roast chicken night, and since we don't want to get bored eating roast chicken, we have a few recipes we work from. I've already mentioned my standby roast chicken, based on Ina Garten's recipe, but I also like to do a roast chicken provencal, loosely based on Gourmet's braised chicken recipe, and a spiced chicken from Claudia Roden's Arabesque cookbook. In any case, I roast the chicken at 400 degrees for about 1.25-2 hours, depending on the size of the bird.

I usually get my chicken from Savenor's, after years of being disappointed with supermarket chickens and Whole Foods. The chickens would not last in my fridge even for a day or two, and would often have an off-smell from the packaging. I have tried three kinds of chickens carried at Savenor's: grade A, Giannone air-chilled, and Misty Knoll Farms. I have found that the Misty Knoll chickens are head and shoulders above the others for taste, juiciness, freshness and size. They are definitely more expensive, but since changing over, I have found that one chicken can feed my husband and me for at least 2 dinners, sometimes even 3. For that, it's well worth the extra cost to me.

My standby roast chicken: 3-4 vegetables (choose from quartered onions, yellow potatoes, carrots, parsnips, fennel, beets and sliced acorn squash) in the bottom of the roasting pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. Lay on top of the veggies a roasting chicken, with salt and pepper both inside and out, and the cavity stuffed with a head of garlic (sliced through crosswise), a couple of lemon quarters, a celery stick and a handful of parsley. Serve with roasted brussels sprouts or a crisp salad.

My provencal roast chicken: quartered tomatoes, fennel bulb, onions and black brined olives in the bottom of the roasting pan with olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh thyme sprigs and herbs de provence. Lay on top of the veggies a roasting chicken, seasoned as above, with herbs de provence, garlic, lemon, fennel stalks and celery in the cavity. Serve with Alice

Waters's fingerling potato coins for a rich and homey, stick-to-your ribs dinner, or with couscous for a lighter spring dinner.

Finally, my spiced chicken: lots of quartered onions (or whole peeled shallots) on the bottom of the roasting pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. Lay on top a roasting chicken, seasoned with a pasty mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, salt and pepper and honey. Serve with couscous or rice pilaf and some lemony, garlicky sauteed greens.

"Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up." - Ernest Hemingway

So, it's been about 4 months since my last blog post. I feel like I'm starting an AA meeting...

In February, my husband and I went to South America with friends. It was a terrific trip, and I'll be posting some pictures in the next few posts.

We took off from Logan airport with nothing to report (thank god) although I did succumb to my inner demons and had an Egg McMuffin for breakfast. Growing up, when my family would road trip for vacations, our parents would let us get McDonald's. My favorite was breakfast, and my absolute favorite was the Egg McMuffin with hash browns and an orange juice. So it felt good to have that again, although this time without the hash browns. Nowadays, I make egg sandwiches at home - with Canadian bacon, farm eggs and real cheese. They are delicious, and especially pretty if you use egg rings to shape the eggs into the perfect sandwich patties.

Anyway, we landed in Miami without incident, and were starving for a decent lunch. Unfortunately, everthing in the airport was fast food or worse: Villa Pzza, Nathan's Hot Dogs, Pizza Hut, blech. We just knew if we ate that we'd be in trouble somewhere over the Caribbean. Then our friend suggested Sushi Maki, which the rest of us had discounted, thinking it was food court sushi in an airport. Instead, it was a glorious little oasis in the middle of an otherwise horrible airport. Table service and reliable sushi in an airport setting. We ordered chicken fried rice, "blazing noodles" with veggies, miso soup, gyoza and some cooked sushi (we're not crazy-we were in an airport!), which included the dynamite roll (shrimp, scallops and crab stick), the dragon roll (eel, shrimp and avocado) and the volcano roll (an otherwise innocuous shrimp and crab roll that was quite unfortunately drowned in spicy mayo sauce, which was meant to resemble lava). The food was terrific for airport food, the service was a little flighty, and the sushi was better than most of the other items on the menu. And we were grateful to have found such a welcome, calm atmosphere at the Miami airport.

Spuds - two ways

So I received a comment asking for potato recipes; here are 2 of my favorites:

Alice Waters's braised potato coins: cut fingerling potatoes (skin-on) into "coins" of about 1/4 or 1/8 of an inch thick. Put the coins into a saucepan and fill with just enough water to cover and salt to taste. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender. When the potatoes are tender, add a knob of butter and let melt with the heat off. Season with pepper to taste. Let the potatoes soak up the leftover water and butter, and serve. You can add a little chopped parsley for color if you like.

Easy roasted potatoes: Cut yellow potatoes (with skins on) into wedges. Toss with olive oil, fresh chopped herbs (such as rosemary, thyme, and/or herbs de provence), salt and pepper. Roast on a baking sheet in a 400-degree oven for 30-45 minutes or until the potatoes are crisp and browned on the outside and tender on the inside, tossing once or twice for even browning.

"A kid comes up to me in a white jacket, gives me a Ritz cracker, and uh, chopped liver, he says, 'Canapes.'"

"I said, uh, 'can of peas, my ass, that's a Ritz cracker and chopped liver! - Frank Pentangeli

Sorry for the long absence, folks. It's been a little crazy this new year.

Last night we followed up with our Godfather friends and watched The Godfather, Part II at their place. For starters we had these amazing stuffed cherry peppers from Salumeria Italiana on Richmond Street in the North End. They were pickled hot peppers stuffed with prosciutto and I think provolone cheese. Fantastic flavor. The olives were also excellent - and they came in a great variety with different olives, caper berries and sun-dried tomatoes.

For dinner, our friends made chicken parmesan, using breaded chicken breasts, pounded nice and thin, pan-fried in olive oil and then finished in the oven. Their sauce was different from my husband's: they used the same mirepoix, added tomatoes, garlic and basil, but they pureed it to get a smooth sauce. My husband leaves his sauce chunky, mostly because he can't be bothered with pureeing it, and also uses red pepper flakes and red wine. Our friends' sauce came out with a more up-front and robust tomato flavor and a touch of sweetness, which matched very nicely with the chicken parm. Oh, and there was a secret ingredient to the chicken parm. When I put the first bite in my mouth, it tasted like bacon, my favorite thing in the whole world of food. Turns out the smoky flavor came from smoked mozzarella, which they put on the chicken pieces while they finished in the oven. What a marvelous idea - the chicken got a distinct smoky flavor that was almost reminiscent of a wood grill!

I was hoping I would be able to share their recipe for chicken parm, but given the intense nature of the "who's a better Italian husband" competition, I didn't ask for it. Maybe they'll post it on the comments...

"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." - Clemenza

One of our friends has never seen The Godfather Part II. We couldn't believe it. I mean, she's seen every episode of The Wire and Goodfellas, and even remembers watching The Godfather Part I, but never saw Part II. How could that be?

So we decided to make her an offer she couldn't refuse. We invited our friends over to watch Part I and eat my husband's famous spaghetti and meatballs. In a couple of weeks, we're going to our friends' house to watch Part II and have their chicken parmesan. Nice touch, eh?

Anyway, in Part I, Clemenza (Corleone muscle) makes pasta sauce for the boys. He teaches Michael how to make the recipe, in case he has to "cook for twenty" guys someday. During the scene, my husband and his friend made a big to-do about how Clemenza puts sugar in his sauce. My husband does not do this, but we got rave reviews, despite the lack of Sicilian authenticity. Here's the recipe (my husband does not measure anything, so this is my best guess at the amounts he used):

For the Meatballs:

2/3 lb 85% lean ground beef

2/3 lb ground pork

2/3 lb ground veal

3 slices of bread, processed into small bread crumbs (by hand or in a food processor)

2 eggs

1 onion, minced

Handful fresh parsley, minced

5-7 garlic cloves, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

For the Sauce:

1 onion, minced

1/2 large carrot, minced

1 stick celery, minced

6-8 garlic cloves, minced

1 TB dried oregano

1 TB red pepper flakes

2 TB tomato paste

1/2 cup red wine

2 28-ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes

Chicken or vegetable stock

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all meatball ingredients with your hands. Make golf-ball sized meatballs and chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the vegetables for the sauce (5-10 minutes). Then heat olive oil (2-3 TB) over medium heat in a large heavy dutch oven or other pot until hot but not smoking. Brown meatballs all the way around, in batches if necessary. Set meatballs aside on a plate. Drain all but 1-2 TB of fat from the pan (or, if your meat is lean, add olive oil to make about 1-2 TB of fat).

Add minced vegetables, red pepper flakes and oregano and saute until soft with salt and pepper to taste, about 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook until the paste becomes a dark brick color. Add wine and boil until it evaporates almost entirely. Add tomatoes, crushing them with your hands as you put them into the pot (be careful - they can explode juice all over your clothes!), and bring the sauce to a simmer. Add meatballs to the pot, making sure they are completely immersed in the sauce. Add stock if necessary to loosen the sauce and provide enough liquid to cover the meatballs. Bring to a boil, partially cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 1-2 hours or until the consistency of the sauce is to your liking. The longer it cooks, the better your house will smell and the better the sauce will taste. Have your friends over, watch The Godfather series and ENJOY!