Yearly Archives: 2008

Grammy Elaine and NY strips

Warm potato salad in stainless steel bowl

Gramma Elaine is here so we grilled New York strips.  My Mom’s friend, Rita, joined in, as well as Jon, who is spending the weekend, so it was a hoot.  Accompanied by seared fig halves with walnut vinaigrette and warm potato salad a la Chef Erwin Pirolt (one of my cooking school instructors and arguably the most ornery) were the steaks grilled rare by Renate, Sr.  The backyard is a problem, though, in that we just cannot block the sun.  This is a by-product of having a corner house without a real backyard.  We have a couple of market umbrellas rigged up, but to no avail.  I love the space this house has to offer, but I miss my beautiful landscaping at the old Albany house!  We would have been able to eat this meal there in style. 

searing halved  figs in skillet

Searing halved figs in skillet

To make the seared figs, just buy Mission figs, gently wash and dry, cut lengthwise and sear in a hot non-stick pan until browned, but not mushy.  Place them on a platter, cut side up.  Prepare a vinaigrette with 1/3 part orange juice, 2/3 part walnut oil, a splash of lemon juice, a dash each of ground rosemary and onion powder and salt and pepper.  Pour over figs.  Shave a bit of hard Italian cheese, like Asiago, on top, if you like.  Note that I include here photos of the warm potato salad in its first phase of construction, and when it has had time to marinate.  If I were you, I would allow it to do the latter.  By the by, sorry about the large quantities in the recipe, but if you are able to divide, you’ll be fine.  I also show the figs in preparation for those who have not worked with figs in the past.

Renate senior and jon at BBQ in summer of 2008

Corn muffins

corn muffins on two plates side by side

Corn muffins made today.  That box of Albers yellow cornmeal was staring me in the face so I put together the recipe on the box, adding twice the quantity of sugar called for.  I made two batches — one for the heavy, dark, non-stick muffin pan and the other for the blue silicone pan.  The heavy pan browned better, but both versions were fine.  These silicone pans (even the smooth ones) stick when you make cornbread or pound cake-type recipes, I don’t care what anyone says.  I always rub a little oil in them first.  The last time I made cupcakes in those individual, ridged silicone cupcake pans, fuggedaboutit — they really stuck and were a mess to clean up.  Berry took it upon himself to oversee the corn muffin process and then kept an eye on them, as you can see in the photo.

Find the dog watching corn muffins being made

Find the dog watching corn muffins being made

NY style crumb cake, where art thou?

Half-eaten New York style crumb cake in a sqaure baking dish

New York City has the best crumb cake, often sold in individual squares like brownies, with about two inches of crumb topping.  I used to buy hunks every now and again at Mama Joy’s when I was at Columbia.  I was leafing through the May/June 2007 issue of Cook’s Illustrated, which has a decent recipe, though the crumb is not exactly right.  It’s good, but not spot on.  It tastes too much like brown sugar and is floury so I may try to futz with it.  They do, however, give you the technique for producing professional-level crumbs.  The one thing I discovered is that you need to wrap the cake well and let it sit overnight to get the right texture.  If you have a good recipe then please email it to me so I can once again enjoy one of the few cakes I actually like!

Mugged in El Cerrito CA

My mother was mugged today.  I should say there was an attempt to mug her but she fought back.  In El friggin’ Cerrito.  She spent most of her life in New York City and was never mugged – go figure.  The Albany side of El Cerrito is a quiet area with nice houses but subject to criminals commuting in on BART.  The BART stations here are a mixed blessing, not only because they provide easy access to all comers, but because of the paths under the tracks, which provide a sheltered area for criminals to strike at individuals enjoying a walk or trying to get someplace efficiently.  Such was the case here, with my mom entering the BART path off of Fairmount, when two young men — one about 15, one about 18 — ultimately knocked her down and tried to take her bag.  She screamed bloody murder and held onto the bag.  One of the two ran off and the other continued with the struggle.  He finally ran off, as well, when he saw she was not going to give in.  She was injured by the assault, but I am very glad they did not do her grave injury.  In any event, I’m sure you know what I’d like to do to the bastards.  Imagine choosing to prey on productive people — let alone those most vulnerable! — rather than making an honorable life for yourself and getting a job.

Cheater’s BBQ

Slow-cooked pork butt looking good on kitchen counter

If you’ll be spending time outside anyway, then you might as well multitask and get some BBQ going.  You can make some “cheater’s” BBQ, which means you’ll slow-cook a hunk of meat using a Weber grill for as many hours as you are able to baby-sit the process, and then finish it off in a low oven in the house.  For this you’ll need a drip pan (buy yourself a supply of medium-sized disposable catering pans — you can ask for “half-pans”), a goodly supply of charcoal, aluminum foil, a hinged grate for your Weber grill (makes the job easier, trust me) a dry rub, a about two quarts or so of hot water in a kettle and a 4 – 5 pound piece of meat, like beef brisket or pork shoulder.  Having an active garden hose handy would be a good thing, in case you have embers drift away and catch something on fire.  It happens.  You’ll also need a plain old meat thermometer and long tongs.  Massage the meat with some kind of dry rub, which need be no more than salt, pepper, paprika and a little sugar, and set aside.  On your Weber’s bottom grate, set in the drip pan,  Next to that, mound about 20 coals on a triple layer of foil and light them.  Place your top grate such that one hinged opening is over the coals and one is over the drip pan.  Make sure the bottom vents are about half open.  When your coals are ready, meaning when there no more flames and they smolder to the ashed-over point, spread them out a bit with tongs and then fill the drip pan to the half-full point with hot water.  Make sure you have about a quart of water in the kettle so you can add more to the drip pan later, if you need to.  Place the meat over the drip pan, fat side up.  Set the cover on the grill with vents over the meat so that you are pulling hot air through the cavity of the grill.  Create three long, crunched-up, 1/2-inch sausages out of sheets of foil.  You’ll use these to open and close two cover vents manually and to seat the meat thermometer in the third.  Open the vents on the cover completely.  Take two foil “plugs” and close off two of the cover vents.  Take the third and run the tip of the thermometer through its length so you create a hole.  Take this foil scrunchy and use it to plug up the third lid vent.  Slide the thermometer back in so the dial is now sticking out of the vent with the probe serving as an internal temperature gauge when the lid is closed.  Close the vents slightly to jam the foil in so it stays put.  Be sure the probe of the thermometer is not touching anything in the grill – like the meat.  Here’s the dance, for as long as you can endure it:  keep the unit at about 200 deg. F., as best you can, by opening and closing upper vents with the foil and the lower vent with the handle.  Close vents to lower heat, open them to raise it.  Your problem will most likely be keeping the heat down, but don’t worry about it too much as these cuts of meat are very forgiving.  Add a couple coals every half hour or so by placing them with tongs over active coals.  If you want a little smoke flavor, you can soak some wood chips in water an hour before you start and then add a couple to the coals every now and again, but I generally don’t do this as I’m not crazy about smoke flavor.  BBQ this way for at least three hours.  If you keep this going all day, meaning 8 hours or so, you most likely won’t need to move the meat to your inside oven.  When the internal temperature of the pork is about 200 deg. F. you are good to go in terms of meat that will pull apart.  For beef brisket this will be around 185 deg. F. — but people have fist fights about the correct temperature for slow-cooked meats.  If you complete the cooking process inside, simply pop the meat into a pan and a preheated 250 deg. F.  If you do the whole thing on the Weber, be sure to keep your eye on the drip pan, which will fill up with fat as it melts off the meat.  Be sure to keep the water level up so your operation is not a grease fire waiting to happen.  If, God forbid, you ever have to deal with a grease fire, use a Class B fire extinguisher or a large quantity of baking soda.  Never, ever use water, as water will make a grease fire spread.  If it is very small and in a frying pan, try to smother it with a lid.  When the meat is done, let it rest for a few minutes and slice or pull apart.  Serve with Louisiana hot sauce or a vinegar-based sauce instead of those scary ketchup-based sauces that hide the flavor of the meat.