Baked Potato

What do you eat when you're feeling sad or emotionally wrecked or furious at the world?

I grew up in a family in which, whenever there was a crisis of some sort, the grownups would say "how can you eat at a time like this?!"

But I'm an eater and, in fact, when I am feeling like life is closing in, I want to eat more than ever, fill myself with food and just keep pecking away like a chicken in a barnyard.

People talk about comfort foods. You know, the foods that supposedly make you feel better.

So what is that food, that one thing that I want the most when I'm at a low point? I've thought about it, that's for sure.

Do I want my Mom's Mac n' Cheese?

Actually, I would rather have my Mom, thank you.

Ditto, my Mom's Apple Pie and Chicken Soup.

Popcorn helps, but isn't sustaining.

Ditto Li-Lac chocolate's Butter Crunch. 

Actually, what I want is the very simplest of foods. What helps me most is a plain baked potato.

Russet-Idaho. Organic. Crunchy crusted. Faint metallic taste to the flesh.

This is food so basic and sustaining, so wonderful that, IMHO, it needs just a bit of butter, salt and pepper. Skip the sour cream. No chives. No cheese.

Keep it simple. 

I just ate one. I might have another later.

So easy to make perfectly:

Baked Potato

• 4 organic Idaho, russet type potatoes
• 1/4 cup butter
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Scrub the potatoes. When the oven reaches 400 degrees, place the potatoes in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Pierce each potato with the tip of a sharp knife. Continue to bake for another 45 minutes or until the outside is crusty and the inside is tender (pierce the flesh with the tip of a sharp knife). 

Makes 4 servings

A new day, a new year, a new website

After years and years of always making the same New Year resolutions to go on a diet or exercise more, or to be more organized with my papers, or to keep my car neat and clean, I finally have realized that I am who I am and love to cook and to eat, so giving up “all carbs” or “never eating another bowl of caramel corn” are vows I cannot keep.

I do exercise. More is unnecessary. 

Alas, my sloppy desk is, I am sure, a permanent thing.

Ditto, the car. I eat popcorn in my car. Some of it falls out onto the floor. I drive my grandkids around. They discard grain bar wrappers, banana peels and half-done artwork in the back seat. I don’t always get around to tidying up right away.

So be it.

So this year’s resolution was different. I decided to start a new website. And, thanks to my son-in-law Jesse Hertzberg, here it is!

Today is cold and dreary, dark, and about to snow. It’s stew weather. Any kind of stew. For warmth and comfort and filling up. For my new website? A recipe for Beer Braised Beef (you can call it stew).

This recipe is just the right dish for a day like this, and for some months to come.

You might notice that I don’t use stew meat. I get a large chunk of chuck instead, and cut it into big pieces. That’s because most of the time the packages of stew meat at the supermarket contain pieces that are too small. Stew meat shrinks — if you start with pieces that are too small, you wind up with tough little chewy bits rather than tender succulent, meaty nuggets. Also, chuck is the tastiest cut of beef for stew — I recommend it above any other cut.

Beer Braised Beef

• 6 pounds beef chuck roast

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon paprika

• 1 teaspoon dried herbes de provence

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 12-14 ounces beer or ale

• 4-6 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

• 6 medium carrots, cut into chunks

• 3-4 tomatoes, cut into chunks

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Cut the chuck into large chunks. Combine the flour, paprika, herbes de provence, garlic powder and salt and pepper in a dish. Coat each piece of meat with the flour mixture. Pour the vegetable oil in a large, deep saute pan over medium heat. Working with a few pieces at a time, cook the flour-coated beef for 6-8 minutes, turning the pieces occasionally, or until crispy on several sides. Return all the meat to the pan. Pour in the beer. Cover the pan. Turn the heat to low. Cook for 1-1/2 hours. Add the potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and parsley. Cover the pan. Cook at a bare simmer for another hour or until the meat and vegetables are tender.

Makes 8 servings

Minestrone

Here’s what’s cooking: Minestrone Soup. 

Because it’s winter and even though it hasn’t been particularly cold in my neck of the woods, it gets dark early and the wind still blows a big chill.

So, soup.

Minestrone is a wondrous choice for so many reasons. It’s thick and filling, colorful and inviting, nourishing and nurturing.

Also, I can make it ahead, which I am doing today, for my New Year’s Eve dinner.

And it tastes so, so wonderful.                                                                                                   

Minestrone Soup

• 3-4 ounces beef bacon** 
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion
• 2 medium cloves garlic
• 3 carrots, sliced 1/2-inch thick
• 3 stalks celery, sliced 1/2-inch thick
• 2 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size chunks
• 1 small zucchini or yellow squash, cut into bite size chunks
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 cup cut up green string beans 
• 28-ounce can Italian style tomatoes, including juices
• 8 cups stock (beef, chicken or vegetable) or water
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano (or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup elbow macaroni
• Parmesan cheese, optional**

If you include bacon, place it in a soup pot over low-medium heat and cook for 5-6 minutes or until crispy. Remove the meat and set aside. Drain most of the fat. Add the olive oil. Raise the heat to medium. Add the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, carrots, celery, potatoes, zucchini, peas, corn and string beans and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the bacon pieces, if used, tomatoes, stock, parsley, basil, oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pan partially and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the beans and macaroni and cook for about 10 minutes or until pasta is tender.

Makes 8 servings

** If you make the soup without bacon, serve it sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. 

Yellow Split Pea Soup

Yellow Split Pea Soup

The best reason to freeze a smoked turkey carcass or buy a big smoked turkey drumstick.

So you can use it for this soup, and have a most comforting dish for dinner when it’s cold outside like today. Or when it’s rainy or snowy and you need something hot, filling, thick and nourishing, easy to prepare and good to eat.

Yellow Split Pea Soup

• 1 smoked turkey carcass (or use a smoked turkey drumstick)
• 10 cups water
• 1 pound dried yellow split peas
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 large carrots, chopped
• 2 large stalks celery, including leaves, chopped
• 2 medium parsnips, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the turkey in a soup pot and pour in the 10 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Turn the heat to a simmer and cook for 4-5 minutes, removing any scum as it rises to the surface. Add the peas, onions, carrots, celery, parsnips, parsley, allspice and some salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pan and cook for about 2-1/2 to 3 hours or until the peas are soft. Remove the turkey. Puree the soup in a food processor or with an immersion blender. If you wish, remove any meat from the turkey, chop it and add to the soup.

Makes 8-10 servings

Grilled Ginger-Lemon Chicken Wings

They say that chicken soup is a cure for all ills, the “Jewish penicillin” that magically works to make you feel better. And studies have shown that hot soup actually can help you get over a cold quickly.

But some health issues are not so easily remedied. Like cancer and the effects of radiation and chemotherapy, which, unfortunately, a colleague of mine in the food writing world is facing now.

He is Gil Marks, renowned authority on Jewish cooking and food history, author of 5 cookbooks, founding editor of Kosher Gourmet Magazine and award-winner many times over, including a James Beard Foundation award for his book Olive Trees and Honey.

I have — and use — all his books.

I don’t know Gil personally but he is a giant in the world of Jewish and kosher cooking and I wish him well.

While I realize that no food is magic, I know that sometimes it can be a comfort, if not a cure. 

So what kinds of foods are comforting? What helps when you’re feeling ill, needy, upset, insecure, frightened?

Well, I suppose we all have our own list. For me, it’s chicken wings.

Chicken wings because when I am in need of comfort I want my mother and father, but I don’t have them anymore. So I remember that in the days before chicken parts were so readily available, my mother always gave me the wings from the whole chicken because she thought the wings were the tastiest, most tender part and that the children should have them. And I remember that my Dad, who would have loved to eat the wings, sacrificed them for his kids.

Chicken wings are like a gift of love and generosity from my parents. Treasured memories that I take comfort in when I need comfort.

Chicken wings, my favorite blanket, a good book and my specs. These help.

Wishing you well, Gil.    

Grilled Ginger-Lemon Chicken Wings

• 18 chicken wings
• 1/2 cup ginger preserves or marmalade, chopped if the pieces are large
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 medium scallions, chopped
• 2 medium cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• pinch or two cayenne pepper
• salt to taste

Preheat the oven broiler. Wipe the chicken wings dry and set them aside on a broiler pan, top side down. In a bowl, mix together the ginger preserves, lemon juice, scallions, garlic, lemon peel, coriander, cayenne pepper and salt. Brush the surface of each wing with some of the ginger mixture. Broil for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned and crispy. Remove the pan from the oven and turn the wings over. Brush with the remaining ginger mixture. Broil for another 10 minutes or until browned and crispy. Makes 18

NOTE: you can prepare these on an outdoor grill

An InLinkz Link-up

Mom’s Fried Chicken Wings

MOM’S FRIED CHICKEN

• 12 chicken wings, cut into pieces
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon paprika
• 3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• shortening or vegetable oil

Rinse the chicken pieces and set them aside. In a large dish, mix the flour with the paprika, salt, garlic powder and black pepper. Coat the chicken pieces with the seasoned flour. Place them on a cake rack to air dry for 25-30 minutes. Heat the shortening or vegetable oil in a deep saute pan over medium-high heat (should be about 1/2-inch) to 365 degrees (a bread crumb will sizzle quickly when you add it to the pan). Add a few chicken pieces at a time (adding too many will make the cooking oil too cool) and cook, turning the pieces occasionally, for 8-10 minutes or until crispy and golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Makes 12

Beef Pot Pie

Just because I’m a food writer it doesn’t mean everything I cook is either fancy or comes out tasting delicious. The other night, for example, I made a chuck roast and it was terrible. It was tough and I didn’t particularly like the seasonings I had tried.

But there I was stuck with it. I wasn’t about to throw out 3 pounds of meat.

So I cut some of it up and cooked it into a beef pot pie. Easy and simple enough. I made a fairly standard recipe but I included a small amount of beef bacon which really amplified the flavor.

Ed declared it “great” and had thirds. 

BEEF POT PIE

3 carrots, sliced about 1/2-inch thick

2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size pieces

2 ounces beef bacon

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 cups beef, chicken or vegetable stock

3 cups cooked, cut up beef

1 cup frozen peas

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

frozen puff pastry

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the carrots and potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Drain and set the vegetables aside. Cook the bacon in a large saute pan over medium heat for about 2 minutes or until the pieces are beginning to crisp. Pour in the olive oil. Add the onion and cook for 4-5 minutes or until tender and beginning to brown. Add the flour, mix it in and cook for 1-2 minutes. Gradually pour in the stock, stirring constantly until the liquid is smooth and the sauce has thickened. Stir in the carrots and potatoes, the beef, peas and parsley and mix to distribute the ingredients evenly. Spoon the contents of the pan into a baking dish. Cover with puff pastry. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Makes 4-6 servings

Crusted Mashed Potatoes

Prune or potato?

My mother, who was very funny, always said that when a woman gets old she becomes either a prune or a potato. You know, she gets thin, frail, fragile and wrinkled or, um, plump and not so frail or fragile (and not so wrinkled).

I like prunes. The dried plums and also some people I know who are senior citizens and slim, whom my mother would regard as prunes.

But potatoes! What can I say?! To me, there is nothing better than a potato, except maybe a cup of hot coffee, but that isn’t food.

Potato. Every kind, every way. That’s for me. 

Women? Men? I don’t really care about their girth or lack thereof.

Give me a potato to eat and I’m happy.

Today, National Potato Lover’s Day, seems made for me, don’t you think?

I’m having potatoes with dinner.

These:

CRUSTED MASHED POTATOES

5 medium all-purpose potatoes such as Yukon Gold

1/4 cup olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 large clove garlic, chopped

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons chicken or vegetable stock

salt to taste

pinch or two of cayenne pepper

3 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel the potatoes, cut them into chunks and cook them in lightly salted water for about 15 minutes, or until they are fork tender. While the potatoes are cooking, heat the olive oil in a sauté pan and add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes, then add the garlic. Cook for another 1-2 minutes, or until the vegetables are beginning to brown. Set aside. Drain the potatoes and mash them with a ricer or potato masher until the lumps have disappeared. Add the vegetables and olive oil and stir them in gently. Stir in the lemon juice, stock, salt and the cayenne pepper. Place the mixture in a baking dish. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the top is crispy and brown.

Makes 6 servings

 

Red Wine Braised Short Ribs

Yesterday, when I was in New York City having a treat with my grand daughter Lila, we met a young couple from Sydney, Australia, who were visiting the United States. They’d already been to Los Angeles and Chicago and now New York, where they were taking in the museums and shows and having a great time.

Except, they said, they never anticipated how cold it would be here.

In Australia it’s summer. And even though they loved being here, they sort of missed the wonderful weather there.

I can’t blame them!

I wish I was there. 

But I’m not. And I’m not going to any other sunny, balmy place either.

So I’m making food that makes me feel warm. That warms up the kitchen and makes everyone feel safe and comfy.

Like these short ribs:

Braised Short Ribs

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

5-6 pounds short ribs (4 pounds boneless)

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

4 carrots, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces

2 stalks celery, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces

3 cups beef stock

2 cups red wine

15 ounce can tomato sauce

2-3 sprigs fresh thyme

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a dish. Dredge the meat, coating all sides, and set the ribs aside. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Cook the flour-coated ribs for 3-4 minutes per side or until lightly browned. Remove the meat to a dish. Add the remaining olive oil to the pan. Add the onions, garlic, carrots and celery and cook, stirring often, for 3-4 minutes. Return the meat to the pan. Pour in the stock and wine. Add the tomato sauce and stir it in. Add the thyme and rosemary sprigs. Cover the pan. Cook at a bare simmer for about 4 hours, or until the meat is tender. Remove the meat and vegetables to a dish. Discard the herb sprigs. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat for about 6-8 minutes or until thickened. Pour the sauce over the meat to serve. Makes 6 servings

Almond Crusted Winter Squash and Noodle Kugel

Almond Crusted Winter Squash and Noodle Kugel

One of the tumblr blogs I follow asked readers what their favorite comfort food was.

I thought about it for awhile because there are so many, I couldn’t make up my mind. Like challah and butter; baked, crispy-skinned Russet potato; apple pie; fried chicken wings. Snacks like potato chips and popcorn.

You’ll notice most of these are starch. Even the chicken dish I chose is wings and therefore mostly crunchy, flour-crusted skin.

And of course, there’s kugel: egg noodles, boiled until they’re tender, then crisped in the oven, either plain or with all sorts of stuff inside. Like this recipe for Almond Crusted Winter Squash and Noodle Kugel. 

What makes this kugel such a comfort?

Not just the soft noodles, but the sweet crunchy crust. You get to feel them both in your mouth at the same time, with one bite.

And there’s color too, because I’ve included white cottage cheese, dark red cranberries and orange winter squash, so when you cut a piece it looks pretty on a plate.

Notice please, that you can sort of cut down on some of the less healthy aspects by using Greek style, plain (non-fat) yogurt instead of dairy sour cream and non-fat cottage cheese instead of the full-fat kind.

Kugel is a year ‘round treat. But it’s usually a must for Hanukkah. Sure is for us.

Almond Crusted Winter Squash and Noodle Kugel

• 5 tablespoons butter, melted

• one pound medium egg noodles

• 3 cups diced winter squash (such as butternut or acorn)

• 1 cup dried cranberries

• 2 cups cottage cheese (nonfat is fine)

• 1-1/2 cups nonfat Greek style plain yogurt (or use dairy sour cream)

• 6 large eggs, beaten

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup chopped almonds

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 9”x13” baking dish using some of the melted butter. Cook the noodles according to package directions, drain and place in a large bowl. Add the squash, cranberries, cottage cheese, yogurt and remaining melted butter and toss the ingredients to distribute them evenly. Beat the eggs, sugar and cinnamon together with a hand mixer at medium speed for about 3 minutes or until thickened. Fold into the noodle mixture. Place in the prepared baking dish. In a small bowl, mix the almonds and brown sugar. Sprinkle on top of the kugel. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top is crispy and brown. Makes 8-10 servings