Creating Menus

People often ask me how I come up with ideas for our 'Dinners.' So in this blog I will share with you, at least in part, my thought processes on creating the following menu:

Egg-rolls Almondine

Wild Mushroom Ravioli
With Carmen Sauce

Haricot soup with Chevre Crème

Smoked Rock Cornish Hen
over Mixed green Salade
with Balsamic Chevre Dressing

Mango-Blackraspberry-Lemon Glace’

Veal Scallops with Shirred eggs
with Traviata Sauce
Spinach and Sweet Red Pepper Souffle

Chocolate Surprise Popovers
With Crème Fraiche

The truth is that most of the time I focus around a specific theme or even just an entree and build from there. In this case I had some nice veal scallops and started from there. No real theme, but a 'sort-of' theme eventually crept in -- Sauces.

Once I had chosen the veal scallops as the centerpiece I just let my imagination go -- I had shirred eggs on the brain, so that seemed like a nice 'topping' for the veal and I decided I would create my own "Traviata" sauce, since my wife and I are going to the opera "La Traviata" in a week. The sauce idea started with a Lemon base (ala Veal Piccata) but I wanted to vary that a bit. For grins I looked up "Traviata Sauce" on the web and came up with a restaurant -- 'La Traviata' in Long Beach -- and they had a sauce with green peppercorns, mustard and brandy. This twisted my head in a slightly different direction so I ended up with -- Lemon, Chardonnay, Green onions, Mustard, and, of course, butter. The spinach souffle came about because I had some nice fresh spinach and some roasted red peppers I had frozen and wanted to use. I also diecided that I would skip the carbs for the main course and though I was, in a sense, doubling up on the eggs, the individual souffle dishes finished off the plate nicely (and handsomely, I might add -- the 'red' of the peppers made a nice change to the traditional spinach souffle look).

The rest of the dinner flowed from there. Usually I get ideas, check local stores for what looks good, and dream up courses. In this case what came next on the menu was the Wild Mushroom Ravioli, which I had wanted to create for awhile, and the sauce for those became a browned butter (ala Roux) saffron menage. The name 'Carmen Sauce' alludes to Spanish Saffron.

The Smoked Rock Cornish Game Hen salad was chosen mostly because one my guests didn't eat seafood, so while I would have traditionally had a fish or seafood course, I decided to smoke several hens and thus three of the courses grew in my head from that thought: the salad, the navy bean soup (stock used boned carcasses of smoked hens), and the egg rolls. The sauces/dressing for these I thought up as I went: Salad dressing for Hen breasts became a balsamic vinagrette with Chevre; bean soup -- a chevre creme (yummy! and a great match BTW); and egg rolls -- pepper jelly-lemon sauce with toasted almonds sprinkled on-top(pepper jelly is something I originally came across in New Orleans served with boudin blanc -- sausages). Note: the egg rolls contained the non-breast meat of the Smoked Hens, veggies (spinach, cucumber, green onions).

The palate-cleanser, also a tradition in many of my dinners, started with some ripe mango I had frozen, and for a change of pace I added homemade blackraspberry puree, lemon, and berry vodka.

I wanted a light dessert and popovers are always a favorite, so I made James Beard's recipe, added cinnamon and sugar, and tossed a square of Giardelli's caramel chocolate in the center of each just before popping into the oven. The creme fraiche I made from scratch and whipped it, sweetened it, and added a touch of pure vanilla.

And to be perfectly honest, all of this grew in my head over the period of about a week. The final touches taking place as I was actually preparing the food.

The rest, as they say, is now history and part of our waistlines.

Best,

Joe Koob

Florida Dinner IV -- Love Those Dessert Souffles

To finish this Florida Dinner Blog I need to run through the side dishes and then wax eloquently (hopefully) about dessert souffles.

I had a fair amount of leftover (cooked, but not sauced) angel hair pasta, so I decided to rejuvenate this and serve with a light olive oil-basel-garlic sauce. One of the best ways to rejuvenate cooked pasta, in my opinion,is to boil some water, toss the pasta in, shut the burner off, let it sit about one minute, drain pasta and toss with sauce -- voila.

Basel Olive Oil Sauce

I used a light Italian Olive oil -- a few tbls to taste
several knife-smushed Garlic cloves
Chopped Fresh Basel -- medium chop

Heat olive oil on medium heat with garlic cloves for a couple of minutes, toss in chopped basel, stir, turn off heat within a minute, and toss the pasta with the sauce. BTW remove the garlic gloves! Simple and delicious. This is one of those circumstances where the quality of the Olive Oil does make a difference!

Sugar peas with scallions and Baby Portabellas

Half pound or so of handpicked sugar peas (see note)
One bunch of chopped scallions cut into one inch pieces
Baby portabellas (eight ounces) sliced
Garlic

Note: I am one of those dastardly people who pick sugar peas one at a time out of the bin because I am very picky about what I get. I like firm, fresh, GREEN (not faded) pea pods. It does take some time to get all I want, but to me it is worth it and I don't have to toss out a bunch of them when I get to preparing them.

Peas: I trim both ends, wash, and saute over medium heat with several smushed garlic cloves for several minutes. Add scallions and portabellas more or less at the same time and continue to saute. After five minutes or so total time pick out the garlic cloves and add some herbs if you wish. Serve with salmon and pasta.

Strawberry Souffles: preheat oven to 350

Okay, one person has asked me how to make good souffles, so I'll go into more detail this time. I find it actually quite easy with only a few caveats to success. First: I have never made a "Classic" souffle by putting buttered parchment paper or whatever around the souffle dish so that when you remove from oven and remove the paper you have a sort of mushroom effect. I just use a buttered souffle dish or in this case a casserole as I did not have a souffle dish at hand and use enough egg whites to make a nice pouffy effect when it is taken from the oven. This particular souffle turned out magnificently -- a beautiful browned crown. Which of course, collapsed shortly after placing on the table-- sorry folks that's what souffles do --no way to prevent it

Ingredients:

about six or seven Eggs, separated (depends on size of your dish)
1/2 to 2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
few tablespoons of Powdered Sugar
cup to cup and a half of Milk
1/2 cup or so of Strawberry Jam
couple of tablespoons of Butter (salted)
tablespoon or so of Flour
Cream of Tartar (optional), about 3/4 teaspoon

Note the irreverence for the amounts -- very little is sacred in cooking or baking. Sugar to taste, etc. Create!

Butter souffle dish throughly. You can also dust it with a few tablespoons of powdered sugar to help it release more and to add to sweetness.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in medium-sized saucepan on medium heat. Heat milk either on the stove or in microwave to just below simmering. Stir flour into butter (use about one tbls flour to 1 cup of milk) when it is incorporated pour hot milk into mixture and raise heat to medium-high so the sauce thickens -- whisk as needed. Add sugar a quarter cup at a time until dissolved and then add strawberry jam and whisk until incorporated. Turn to low or warm and whip up the egg whites.

Egg whites: This is one of those crucial steps. I think maybe some people's souffles fail because they either overwhip or underwhip the egg whites. Basically most recipes call for the egg whites to be whipped to 'soft peaks'. So what does this mean? Essentially what you are looking for is a puffy, cloudlike appearance to the top of the egg whites in the bowl. I use a handmixer (though I have done this by hand with a whisk, but you need really good wrists!) and I not only have the mixer on high but I move it around in the bowl, in both directions and up and down, to make sure ALL the egg whites are getting whipped. You can add cream of tartar at this point or when folding into the eggs. It can help the souffle stay puffy a bit longer (stabilizes the egg whites).

ALSO, if you are not familiar with whipping egg whites, you can't let any yolk into the mix or they won't whip properly. Now, another way to tell if you have whipped your egg whites enough is to take the bowl by the handle and turn it upside down. If they stay in the bowl, you're there. If they fall out, OOPS! Well, that's how we learn. Be brave!

You can 'overwhip' egg whites, too. That is indicated by a dry, grainy appearance. If you have nice puffy, unrunny, cloud-like egg whites, you should be good.

These can sit for a few minutes while you finish the sauce, but not forever -- after ten minutes or so they will start to go backward, in a sense.

Turn heat back up on sauce to medium-low. Add a few (3 or 4) of the egg yolks while stirring constantly with wooden spoon to help thicken the sauce more. You can add all of them, but that's getting pretty rich for my blood -- literally. Remove from heat after fully incorporated.

Now, it doesn't matter which way you do this, but it is very important to do this next process properly as well. Add about 1/4 of the egg whites to the sauce (or you can add the sauce to 1/4 of the egg whites), FOLD with spatula or wooden spoon, over and over until well incorporated(lots of incorporation in this recipe!)This lightens up the sauce and makes it far easier to fold in the rest of the egg whites GENTLY for the souffle -- IMPORTANT! Then fold in the remaining egg whites as gently as possible until fairly well mixed. It doesn't have to be perfectly mixed together. If you over mix or over-fold at this point your souffle won't rise so well. Gently spoon souffle mixture into souffle bowl and pop into oven. Cook for about 30-40 minutes until golden brown on top and well-puffed.

NOTE: Believe it or not it is not usually disastrous to open the oven door and peek at your masterpiece, just don't open it really wide and let a bunch of heat escape. I have done it dozens of times without ill effect, but it is better if you have an oven light and can peak (Peek!) through the glass window.

Remove from oven to great acclaim and quickly sprinkle top with powdered sugar -- I do it through a fine sieve.

Godiva Martinis

Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
Vanilla Vodka
Heavy Cream

All this is according to taste and how strong you want your drinks. 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3will work well. Blend, shake with ice, pour into martini glasses.

Hint: I once made this 'hot' or warm and added a chocolate triffle to the center of the glass -- served as a dessert in and of itself. Yum.

Hope you've enjoyed the Florida Dinner Blog.

Good eating!

Joe Koob

Florida Dinner Part III

Raspberry-Lemon Glace'

I like to make these little palate-cleansers even though in this case there wasn't a drastic need for it. These are typically totally creative and I use whatever strikes my fancy and is at hand.

Red Raspberry Jam (1/4 cup?)
Fresh Lemon juice from one lemon
Vanilla Vodka (about 1/3 of total or to taste)

Mix ingredients thoroughly in a bowl and either place bowl in freezer OR (and I do this often) pour into small shaped molds (I typically use candy molds) and freeze.

Classically one places the mixture in the freezer and every twenty minutes or so (sooner as it starts to freeze) go in and mix it up with a fork. This is what I did on this occasion as my resources are yet limited in Florida. I almost always use some kind of liquor, snapps, etc.,to slow the freezing and for additional flavor and kick. When I use molds I let the mixture set and then plunge the molds into warm water just to loosen; then remove the glace and place in serving glasses. The unmolding usually makes the ice just the right consistency for a glace'.

Main Course

Basel Rainbow Trout with Angel Hair Pasta
and Sugar Peas with Scallions and Baby Portabellas

One of the local markets had some nice fresh rainbow trout fillets and while this is not a local Florida fish it fit the seafood theme and we had already enjoyed local fresh grouper in two of the other courses. I got a nice one and a half pound fillet and prepared it simply by washing it, cutting for nice fillets off of the skin and drying.

Puff Pastry

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup butter (cold)
Ice water (1/2 cup or so
Salt to taste (1/2 tsp)
1 stick (or more) cold butter (salted/unsalted according to your taste/diet)

I hadn't made puff pastry in a long time when I read the book, "The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry" by Kathleen Flinn (recommended!) and it got me back on track. So I tried it once again after a long layoff, and bingo, worked like a charm.

So-o-o the absolute, most important thing in making puff pastry is to keep everything C-O-L-D. The basic dough recipe varies a bit from cookbook to cookbook but these above are good balances for ingredients. You can increase or decrease based on need. It may seem overkill but cool everything: rolling pin, rolling board, bowl, keep cooling the dough between each round of folding, even wash your hands in cold water if manipulating the dough (but avoid doing much handling).

Make the dough by blending in the flour and salt with the 1/4 cup of butter until well mixed.(I typically use a fork or the old Foley Fork -- has anyone seen these for sale anywhere???)[I'm told you can use a food processor for this, but I guess I'm old school on this point.] Add ice water gradually until you have a medium stiff dough. Refrigerate.

After twenty minutes you aready to begin shaping the puff pastry. Take dough from fridge and roll out on your cold board with your cold rolling pin. [Up north I have a marble rolling pin which stays nicely cold for some time. Down here I actually put my wooden rolling pin in the freezer.]Roll into a rectangle. [BTW I'm not going to tell you how big. It really doesn't matter and depends on the amount of dough you made.] To about one-eighth of an inch thick or so. [I also don't get too excited about how exact my rectangle is -- try for the general shape.]Place dough in fridge for twenty minutes to cool down.

Now here's the tricky part (time to wash those hands in cold water!)-- probably best to do the slicing of the butter ahead if you are new at this and put the butter slices in the fridge until ready -- slice the butter lengthwise into one-inch thick slices and place quickly on top of two-thirds of the rectangle starting at one long end and moving toward the other. Fill up two-thirds of the pastry with these long slices. Then you take the uncovered one-third and fold it over the middle third (now covered with butter slices) and then fold it again to the far third. You will end up with a smaller rectangle. Turn 90 degrees and roll this out with your cold rolling pin until about the shape and size of your first rectangle. Fold over in thirds as you just did, only you are not adding any more butter, turn 90 degrees and roll out again. Turn 90 degrees and repeat folding and then pop in fridge to stay cold (wrap in wax paper or clear wrap). [Some recipes call for doing three rolling-outs each time, but you face the possibility of the dough getting too warm and the butter melting into the flour which is what will destroy your puff pastry. Put your rolling pin and board in freezer between each rolling out, as well.

Twenty minutes or so later repeat the rolling, turning, folding, rolling, turning, folding again. Then put in fridge again and wait and do again in another twenty minutes or so. [You can do this several more times, but this is probably enough, though once more won't hurt anything and it will give you thinner 'puffs'or sheets.]

It probably sounds like too much effort to do this when you can buy frozen puff pastry in your local supermarket, but it is one-helluva feeling when it puffs up so nice and friendly when you bake it.

When my dough was done and back in the fridge I got the fish ready, took the pastry out one last time and rolled it out to about an eighth of an inch or so into a shape that would provide enough pastry to wrap each piece of fish (I rolled into a squarish-rectangular shape. I dusted the fish with a tad of white pepper and wrapped each fillet in just enough dough to cover pinching the ends to seal. [I also made a cute little fish from extra dough and placed on top of each. Presentation, you know. Then voila --ready for the oven. Depending on your oven bake at 425 or 450 until puffed and browned lightly. Serve with Basel sauce (see below).

Basel Sauce for fish

Fresh Basel
Butter
Freshly squeezed lemon
White wine vinegar
Lowfat sour cream (about a cup)
Lowfat butter milk
Flour for thickening if desired
White pepper

I wanted a bit of a light tangy sauce for the rainbow trout in puff pastry so I used the basel as a centerpiece and did the following:

Melt a few tbls butter in small saucepan, squeeze in juice from a large lemon, put in several heavy dashes of white wine vinegar to taste. Cook on medium heat until warm. If you want to thicken this sauce mix a scant tbls of flour into about a half cup or so of the sour cream.) Mix in sour cream mixture to thicken. Add medium to finely chopped basel just to barely wilt and then thin slightly with buttermilk (adds a bit of a slightly sweet tangyness -- must be added at end or it will curdle over medium heat). Take off heat, sprinkle in a bit of white pepper and serve with fish.

Enjoy!

Next time: rejuvenated angelhair pasta, veggie, and dessert.

Florida Dinner Part II

Seafood Stew

Soups, stews, goulashes and the like all begin with a good stock. Usually I have at least one stock in my refrigerator, most often a chicken or chicken and duck based stock. Since I rarely have a seafood or fish stock I make one up for the occasion.

For the stock: can be prepared days ahead up until you need it. I started mine when I started working on the dinner.

Fish cuttings (I used edges and smaller pieces from the grouper I was using)
Shrimp shells (from the Shrimp used in this and other courses)
Water to cover
Bay leaf
Thyme (dried from a friend's herb garden)
celery leaves (cut from fresh stalk)
Fresh Parsley
Juice from steaming the clams
Pinch or two of white pepper

Simmer on low for half hour to and hour or so, use what you need in the stew

Stew

1/3 pound of shrimp -- cut into medium pieces
1/3 pound of grouper -- cut into medium pieces
5 large chowder clams (can be several varieties -- large clams found in many markets)-- chopped into small pieces -- reserve liquid steamed in
1 stalk chopped celery
1 small potato chopped
ground pepper to taste (white or black or both)
heavy cream -- approx. half a cup.

Optional:

other veggies: few tbls carrot chopped, peas, corn, etc.

I was only serving four people and since we had a number of previous courses I aimed for small 'cup-sized' portions. This recipe can be doubled, tripled, etc.

Wash/scrub clams throughly in cold-warm water. Then steam the clams in a small amount of water until just open. Strain clam liquid through a very fine strainer and/or coffee filter and use liquid for stock. Chop clams and reserve any liquid for stew.

Start with fish stock, chowder clams, and celery in a medium pot on medium-low heat. Simmer until celery is beginning to soften. Add other veggies depending on cooking time, i.e. carrots before potato, then potato, etc. When all veggies are almost done, add shrimp and fish, cook until just done, then add cream to taste to smooth out. Taste to see if you need any salt. (Clams and other shellfish can have a salty flavor, so I don't use salt in fish dishes until the end.)

Serve hot with Popovers -- see below

Stilton Popovers

Popovers are one of those simple to make and wonderfully received dishes. My friends often request them. I use a James Beard recipe as a foundation, but they are quite versatile and you can be very creative with them:

2 extra-lg eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup water
pinch of salt
1 tlbs melted butter (optional)
1 ounce or so stilton cheese crumbled

Toss ingredients except cheese in a bowl and mix until blended. Pour in well-buttered popover molds* until about 2/3 full, sprinkle cheese in center, and place in cold oven.** Set to 425-450 and wait. Remove when puffed and gold brown (5-7 minutes). Serve with butter. [Note: Popovers fall quickly (as souffles do) when removed from the oven; so ideally time them to come out just as the fish stew is served.]

*Muffin tins work well also and I have even made 'mini-popovers' in small muffin tins and small candy/cake molds -- great fun for all.

**Tradition has it that popovers and the related Yorkshire Pudding should be popped (pun intended) into a very hot oven. As Mr. Beard points out, this is not necessary and they pop admirably when placed in a cold oven set to a high temperature.

Popovers can be 'flavored' in many ways. I have had cinnamon-sugar popovers and used many types of cheese and even other ingredients 'inside'-- what ever you set in the center of the mixture will sink depending on its weight and density and melting cheeses work very nicely as they spred throughout the popover as it cooks.

Enjoy,

Joe Koob

Florida Dinner

Florida Dinner (for four)

Shrimp Diavolo

Shrimp, Grouper and Avocado Salad

Seafood Stew with Stilton Popovers

Raspberry-Lemon Glace

Basel Rainbow Trout in Puff Pastry with Angel Hair Pasta and Sugar peas with scallions and Baby Portabellas

Strawberry Souffle
with Godiva Chocolate Martinis

Had some friends in from 'the north' for the weekend and a trip to the opera. Thought I'd give them a taste of Florida (fish/shellfish) so I dreamt up the above menu. In the next few blogs I'll detail most of what I did. If I leave something out -- remember, I just tend to throw things together -- and you want clarification, let me know.

The Menu

The local supermarker still had some nice fresh steelhead trout available (btw NOT from Florida), so that became the centerpiece for dreaming up the rest of the meal. I also had a bit (2/3 of a pound) of fresh grouper and some angel hair pasta left over from another meal so I decided to incorporate them as well.

Shrimp Diavolo

1 whole dried ancho pepper (available at Latin/international markets)
tamarind (you can use paste -- I used a small chunk -- two tbls from a pressed block)
Oriental fish sauce (at oriental markets)
Lots of garlic finely chopped(half to whole bulb)
drizzle of vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
ground white and black pepper (dash, pinch, smidgen, or heavy-handed sprinkle of each)
Juice from a fresh lemon
Pound of large to extra-large shelled, cleaned, and butterflied shrimp

Okay, yeah, I'm a bit of a slacker when it comes to HOT and spicy, so this was more spicy, than hot. Add some heat if you wish.

Soak Ancho pepper and tamarind in very hot water until soft -- drain (save the liquid -- I used it later for two other dishes on the menu). Cut open pepper and remove seeds and hard parts, chop finely with tamarind and then mix with all the other ingredients in a bowl for marinating. Toss shimp well in marinade and place in refrigerator until ready to cook.

Butterflying: I just run a sharp knife down the spine of the shrimp until almost cut through (watch your hand holding the shrimp!). I often prepare shrimp this way as I like the presentation and the ease in cooking.

You can do all of the above a half or even whole day in advance or several hours will do for marinating.

I skewered the shrimp on long bamboo skewers and broiled on high heat for about one minute per side (turn once). Charcoal on the 'barbie' would have been better, but I didn't want to start a fire for just this appetizer. [Note: you will likely have bits of pepper, tamarind, and garlic clinging to the shimp -- fine, adds falvor!]

Remove from skewers with a fork (slide them off the pointy end!) and enjoy. I served these in a communal dish and we all just dug in with our little forks.


Shrimp, Grouper and Avocado Salad

1/3 pound of large to extra-large shelled, cleaned, and butterflied shrimp
1/3 pound of fresh grouper
1 ripe avocado
mayonaise
a tangy salad dressing
white wine vinegar
ground white pepper

This is fairly basic and I kept it simple. The purist in me (which is not always there) would have insisted on making my own mayonaise. But I only needed a dollop, so I used the store-bought stuff. (Horrors of horrors -- I even tend to buy the 'lite' or 'low-fat' varieties -- I have to make some concessions to the cholesterol Gods!).

I steamed the shrimp and grouper in the fish stock I was making for the soup course until just done. [Note: overcooking shimp and fish is a bad-d-d-d thing! When in doubt, check, check, check, so you get it right. Otherwise you will be dealing with tough and dry versus soft, moist, and yummy.] Cool slightly before making the salad.

Chop shrimp and grouper into medium pieces, add a dollop of mayo, a sprinkle or two of white wine vinegar for extra tang, and the salad dressing. (Again, horrors! I do sometimes make my own, but here I used about a tbls and a half of Ken's Sun-dried- tomato dressing. {Note: I don't typically 'hawk' products, truly, but I do like many of Ken's dressings.] And white pepper to taste. Mix well and place in refrigerator to cool down (needs to be made a half hour or so before serving so it will get chilled). Slice avocado onto plates, dollop portions of salad over. Serve.

More from this menu next time. Enjoy.

Joe Koob

On the Quality of Things

I was brought up, at least in my youth, in a lower-middle class environment. Perhaps my parents weren't as poor as they made out to be, that's hard for a kid to know, but they certainly fought over money a good bit and it always seemed like my mother was scrimping and cutting corners. For better or for worse, and it is probably a bit of both, I learned very quickly the value of things, the 'could haves' and 'couldn't haves,' how to make do, and so on. I carry that with me to this day and it does affect my cooking.

Over the years I have indeed gotten a bit more persnickity about certain things and of course I would much prefer to use high quality products and ingredients, but there is always that side of me that is looking for a bargain. So I 'shop around' alot, and sometimes 'I make do,' just because I can. I probably keep spices and other ingredients too long in the cupboard (although very few could beat my mother at that)and I definitely keep herbs longer than I should, though I do plant a herb garden every year and often dry my own for the winter.

I do, however, have one perspective on cooking that would probably knock the socks off some gourmets and chefs, but I feel pretty strongly about it: I firmly believe that one of the marks of a good cook is the ability to transform even poor to mediocre ingredients into something that is not only palatable, but often quite tasty. AND, the opposite is also true -- that is, a not so good cook can easily destroy, even dessicate, a fine quality ingredient. Unfortunately I have experienced this too many times, even at quality restaurants.

One of the things that I have been asked many times, and I always find these types of questions pleasurable challenges, is 'what can I do with this, this, and this?' This is the type of situation that sparks my creativity and I enjoy the challenge of melding a diverse, and sometimes seemingly strange combination of things into a quality meal.

This also shows in my own creations when I do have everything I desire at hand. I like to try new things, new ways of combining things, and thinking through with everyone's tastebuds in mind, how something will turn out if I do X, Y, or Z. Hence, as illustrated previously, I dream up menus like "Thai-American Fusion."

Quality, truly, is about the outcome; what we taste when the plate is served. None of us are perfect and we can't always hit everyone's tastebuds exactly right, nor can all of us afford the best meats, olive oils, etc., etc., all the time. Create with what you have and enjoy. That is joie-de-vivre!

Enjoy.

Joe Koob

Memorable Meals Part I

I think it might be worthwhile to occasionally wax on for a brief period about some of the great culinary experiences I have had over the years. One would think that many or most of these would have come from 4 or 5 star restaurants, but the truth is, almost all of them have been in 'just some place' I managed to wander into on my travels. Here is one that took place in Athens, Greece when I crew-rested there while in the Air Force flying in C-141s circa the early 1970s.

Sorry, but I don't know the name of the restaurant, but it was one of hundreds in Athens and it seemed a very popluar spot and you'll soon see why.

There are two things I remember distinctly about this experience, though it is now almost forty years ago. The first, of course, was the food. It is one of the few meals that I have not been able to reproduce successfully since.

What I remember about it was that I had lamb, braised in a very rich stock served with potatoes. But what was unique about this is that as part of the stock there was a rich layer of some type of wilted lettuce. Well, at least I think it was lettuce. It didn't look like any type of cabbage I ever had, but I have never been able to find out through experimentation what it actually was. [If there are any Greek cooks out there who know what it might have been, please let me know!] At any rate it was stupendous and it has influenced my cooking in a number of ways: knowing how to make really good stocks (a later blog perhaps) and understanding that lettuce is not something that has to be served cold -- it can be cooked, and quite successfully.

The other part of this particular experience was the atmosphere. It is rare to achieve the levity and joie-de-vivre that this restaurant imparted to its clientele, but, and I don't think I had anything to drink, this was probably one of the most fun dinners I ever had.

One of the waiters was an outstanding tenor and he would literally erupt in song throughout the evening. It was wonderful and his enthusiasm and joy permeated the restaurant and all of us eating there. We had a great time and great food. What more can you ask for?

This is one of those feelings, occasionally achieved at our long, many-course gourmet dinners, that truly make cooking and eating a great pleasure. Of course, a bit of good wine and song never hurt to start things off. Those of you who have been at such meals with me, you know what I'm talking about.

Best,

Joe Koob