Watercolors: Art Friday. Steak.

I did a big story on specialty meats for a magazine, finishing up in early April. I decided I wanted to send thank you notes to my sources. THEN I decided I wanted to do a little, simple watercolor steak on each card, no bigger than an thumbnail...

Well, the only watercolor paper cards I came with were pretty big. A teeny little thumbnail would have been lost...so I watercolored the front of each card with a large steak in watercolor. Each one a little pen and paint masterpiece. I was so pleased with them. I was eager to hear what my sources thought, but not-a-one has replied with praise of my work! So instead, I share the art here...(I love a hand-written thank-you note...I super love hand-painted and hand-written--as silly as it might have been to spend so much time on these, I got lost in the work and really loved doing them...)

Aren't my sources so lucky??

Epic Fail: Almond Macaroons.

So a place I know serves these light, slightly sticky-chewy almond macaroons...Not French "macarons", but bigger, a bit denser...not sandwiched with anything, but covered with sliced, blanched almonds.

All I know about them is that there is honey and rice flour in them. Unable to find any recipe, I've been playing around. And boy did I find a fail. I made some little, dense (yet tasty) cookies, but they weren't right, so I cracked open Martha Stewart's cookie book...They looked kind of close and the description sounded right.

I doubled the recipe, tweaked it a bit to use some honey and rice flour and got...almond macaroon pancakes. TASTY almond macaroon pancakes, but pancakes nonetheless.

Knowing I'm not a baker, I though I must have done something so very wrong. So rather than tweak the recipe, I decided to make a second, single batch of the original recipe.

Here's a photo of the book illustration.

Here's a photo of the result I got using the original recipe. Right, the difference is mine aren't sprinkled with powdered sugar...

But I am nothing if not determined. Luckily these tasted great and my family is not hung up on looks alone!

I post this in case someone out there thinks I don't have fails in the kitchen. Boy do I EVER have fails!!

Watercolors..Art Friday...

Today's work is me trying to copy a painting by Charles Reid, an artist whose watercolors I love--the fluidity, the colors, the complex simplicity/simple complexity...I really aspire to that style...

Click here for images by Charles Reid himself...

Fishcakes I Love...No Joke

One of my very worst memories of meatless Fridays growing up is the fishcakes we were served. It was always a very bad, sad day on those Fridays (we would have eaten fish sticks every Friday night. This was not during the years of fresh seafood in the greater U.S. interior. Trust me.). I remember a textural mush, a certain fishiness and filler--whatever it might have been.

Blech. Still makes me shudder.

Well, imagine being reintroduced to fishcakes as an adult. Let's just say I did not even bother trying one immediately. But there they were, showing up at every turn. So I broke down and bought some last year for Easter (an Easter tradition)...and they were okay. I homemade the traditional hot cross buns last year. They were just okay, too.

This year, I reversed the order. I homemade the fishcakes and bought the buns. Stellar decision. I will leave the baking of the buns to the pros in the future and will always make a batch of fishcakes.

This uses salt cod, which, in spite of my Italian heritage, I'd never prepared. I read one article about a well-known chef who did not divulge his recipe, just named a few ingredients and a ratio: 2 to 1, fish to potato. Well, that was enough for me.

I rocked these fishcakes. I think we ate them for lunch and for dinner...I made two types of tartar sauce, one plain and one with curry powder...oh, and it was unusual tartar sauce, because I used Branston Pickle instead of relish, which I didn't have...

Try them, you'll like them. These won't erase the childhood fishcake scars, but they'll go a long way towards blotting those taste memories out.

2.5 pounds salt cod
2 red potatoes
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped parsley
mixture of fresh thyme, oregano and dill
Salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
Seasoned flour
Vegetable oil for frying

1. Soak the salt cod for at least 10 hours, the water every couple of hours. Place salt cod in stock pot with onion. Cover with fresh water, bring to boil and cook about 20 minutes.
2. While salt cod cooks, cut potatoes into small pieces. Cover with water, add salt to water, bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook until soft, about 20 minutes.
3. Drain cod and onion. Drain potatoes. Let potatoes cool until you can hold them, then peel the skins and mash potatoes with a hand masher.
3. Place the fish and onion into bowl. Break fish into pieces. You will have about 2 cups fish. Add 1 cup mashed potatoes. Add parsley, herbs, salt and pepper and egg to the bowl and mix well.
4. Heat oil in cast-iron skillet to about 365F. While oil heats, shape mixture into fish cakes about 2 1/2 inches wide. Dredge each cake in seasoned flour (flour mixed with salt, pepper and paprika) and gently shake to remove all excess. Heat oven to 225F and place rack over sheet pan in oven.
5. When oil is hot, place about 4 fishcakes gently into oil. When golden brown on bottom, gently and carefully turn the fishcakes and cook until golden on second side. Drain fishcakes on paper towels then place onto rack in warm oven.
6. Repeat with remaining fishcakes. You will have about 12 fishcakes.

These reheat very nicely. Place on sheet tray in 350F oven and heat until piping hot.

Painting Food

I was possessed recently--I hand-painted 8 thank-you notes to some sources (I spoke to them about "specialty meats" for a story)...I was proud of these little masterpieces.

As ever, I continue to paint food best...landscapes? Meh.

Now go find a dry-aged steak and enjoy a great meal.

Trends...Or Not.

Food trends are funny things. What's old is new again and what was once "poor" food is now hot and trendy--pork belly anyone? Skirt Steak? How about fried hominy? Not saying that those things aren't great. I LOVE me some pork belly, skirt steak and fried hominy (if you haven't had this, think corn nuts).

But yesterday I read a CBS news story on the Top 5 Kitchen Trends. While I'm on board with the colorful cookware they feature (they show Ingrid Hoffman's fun T-fal cookware), a few photos down is the popcorn maker they gush about: Popcorn makers, including this one from West Bend, were very popular at the show. The dome of this particular model detaches and turns into a bowl. 

I have owned that Westbend popcorn maker for at least 7 years. And I bought it because a popcorn loving friend showed me her well-used maker way back when. Not new.

The very next image is of a microwave with a coffee maker. Ditto--when we remodeled the kitchen in Kentucky 8 years ago, I coveted a multifunction stove/cooktop...

Not to say I don't like some of the items mentioned in the story. Wilton Ametale has cookware that does double duty as serveware..They say it can go straight from the stove to the table. I like that (especially since I never have enough serving bowls)..

I also like the Cubodira, the dish rack that collapses into a cutting board. Again, double duty.  Works for me.

The rest seemed like not-needed stuff to me. I don't need more STUFF. I need less of it. I need workhorses in the kitchen.

You want trends? Make something real. Like this kettle corn (sweet and salty)...and I don't even use my Westbend popcorn maker--a pot, popcorn (you know, the kernels--not the stuff that goes into the microwave), sugar and oil.

Ready for Some Creamed Spinach?

What can I say? Creamed spinach is a household favorite. But I've jazzed it up now--all because of last weekend.

Not pretty, but it sure tastes good.

Last weekend I visited Ayse Mezze Lounge in Frederick, MD and had many bites of fabulous food. One of my favorites, one I wanted to recreate, was a creamed spinach with feta dish (side dish on most delicious lamb chops)...I did a decent job here, but I left out the bacon (It wasn't bacon they used, but something called sucuk (pronounced soo-jook) so Bryn would eat it--but I won't leave it out next time...In fact, I think I will use linguica sausage (since I have no clue where I can find sucuk). I liked my version, although I missed the sucuk, and mine had a lot more spinach to bechamel ratio than the version at Ayse.

Barb's Creamed Spinach with Feta (inspired by Ayse)

1 teaspoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
HERE'S WHERE I WOULD ADD THE BACON/SUCUK
3 cloves garlic, minced
pinch cayenne
1/2 teaspoon oregano 1/4 cup flour
2 cups warm milk (I used skim....bec. that's what I have)
1 20-ounce bag frozen chopped spinach, thawed  and squeezed dry
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 ounces feta cheese

1. Heat butter and oil in large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until softened. (If using sucuk/bacon/linguica, add it here and cook it with onion.) Stir in garlic, cayenne and oregano and cook another minute. Sprinkle flour over all and stir to coat vegetables.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Slowly add warm milk, about 1/4 cup at a time, stirring each time until no lumps are left. Cook about 5 minutes over medium heat. (Now you have bechamel sauce).
3. Stir spinach and lemon juice into bechamel. Continue cooking and stirring until heated through.
4. Crumble feta cheese and stir into hot spinach mixture. Serve immediately.

This serves about 8 (reasonably generous portions).