SOME FAIRLY EASY FAVORITE RECIPES

Cucumber Mezcal shots

This drink offers the perfect balance between cool-refreshing and tangy-sweet heat. If you want a more colorful drink, but not more heat, substitute minced red bell pepper for the red chile.

About 10 shots

1 large English cucumber

9 oz. mezcal

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 cup agave nectar or honey

1 2-1/2-oz. piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

Fine sea salt

3 Tbs. coarsely chopped fresh mint

1/2 tsp. minced fresh red chile, such as serrano or Fresno, for garnish

Peel the cucumber and cut crosswise into 2-inch pieces. Cut one of the pieces in half lengthwise, seed, cut into small dice, and reserve for garnish. Transfer the remaining cucumber pieces to a blender with the mezcal, lime juice, agave, ginger, and a pinch of salt, and purée. Add the mint and pulse 5 to 6 times to incorporate. Let the flavors infuse for 30 minutes. Strain the contents through a fine-mesh strainer, cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Pour the mezcal mixture into chilled shot glasses, and garnish some of the reserved diced cucumber and the minced chile, if using.

Anchoiade

A perfect palate awakener and snack.

Photo Courtesy of France-Voyage.com

4 Dried figs, stemmed

12 Salted anchovies, filleted, soaked 10 minutes

1 tablespoon Pernod

2 tablespoons Green Chartreuse if available

2 tablespoons Whole almonds, skinned

1 tablespoon Walnuts

¼ cup Dry white wine

1 Red sweet onion, peeled, cored, chopped

2 cloves Garlic, peeled

1 tablespoon each Fresh thyme, tarragon, fennel seed

1 Lemon, zested and juiced

1 tablespoon Orange flower water

½ cup Extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper

Soak the figs in the Pernod, Chartreuse, and wine for 2 hours.

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and grind until the texture of whole grain mustard – smooth, but not completely, like baby food.

Spread on olive oiled bread and bake in an oven at 400 for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with red chili flakes, if you are in the mood, as I usually am.

Special effect is to bake them on a bed of pine needles and dried orange peel.

How to Peel Tomatoes for Chopping or Slicing

Whatever cook was fortunate enough to get a job at Stars was soon unfortunate on their first day to face 10 double layer boxes of ripe tomatoes that had to be peeled. There would be mumbled threats from the prep crew about ‘whatever you do, don’t screw up the tomatoes.’ After the chef would check the first dozen, the cook, if good, would quickly figure out that enormous judgment and skill was required for this task. Not all the tomatoes were of equal ripeness so would have to be in the boiling water more or less than the others. How quickly would the ice melt in the cold bath, and would it cool the tomatoes equally fast enough. How many to do at once to have them all consistent – which they certainly were not to begin with.

Much better to take a few minutes to look at the tomatoes, separate them into what looks like equally ripe and sized batches, make sure you have plenty of ice, then go for it.

Of course, one can chop tomatoes with the skin on. And one can slice them for summer tomato salads with perfumed extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper ground over the top both 30 minutes before serving them. The texture of the tomato without the skin is one with less resistance and, somehow, that gives them a more pleasing flavor.

Make a water bath with ice in a bowl large enough to hold at least half of the tomatoes you want to skin.

Remove the cores of ripe tomatoes, and put in boiling water for 10 - 15 seconds, and then into the iced water bath. Leave for another 10 seconds, remove, and slip the skins off.

Cut the tomatoes around the circumference, and squeeze the halves, cut-side down, over a sieve on top of a bowl to capture the tomato water. Then chop the tomatoes coarsely or finely, depending on the use. Use the tomato water in sauces or your Bloody Mary.

Fresh Tomato Salsa, Lemon, and Olive Oil Sauce

When Jeremiah Tower’s New American Classics came out in 1985 and won the James Beard award, we were at the height of the public and journalistic outcry that there was never enough time to cook at home.

This sauce had been invented a few years before at my Santa Fe Bar & Grill because there was never enough time in the restaurant to make time-demanding sauces. At every stop on the book tour I made this sauce in 15 minutes, the exact time in which the pasta was cooked, so there it was: dinner on the table in 20 minutes. My spiel was: “When you get home first put on a large pot of water to boil. Pour yourself a glass of wine. Take a shower, pour another glass, put the pasta in the salted water and start chopping the tomatoes. By the time the pasta is cooked, the sauce is finished. Drain the pasta, toss it while hot with extra virgin olive oil, and then pour the sauce over it. Open another bottle if there is someone else around.”

No one in the audience believed me until I did it and they tasted it.

This sauce can be an obsession. It is easy to make, and on a warm pasta, pasta salads, grilled fish hot or cold, asparagus hot or cold, meats, and grilled garlic bread as a snack, it’s sublime. The explosion of herb perfume when poured over hot vegetables or pasta is for me what summer is all about.

Do not assemble the sauce until 30 minutes before you are going to use it. The sauce is better very loosely mixed, not as an emulsion. If using fresh rosemary, chop it very finely.

Serves 4

1 cup chopped skinned tomato

¼ cup mixed fresh herb leaves, such as basil, rosemary tarragon, thyme, or fennel, coarsely chopped

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

Zest of one lemon

1large clove garlic, peeled, finely chopped

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Pinch salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix briefly.

Stuffed Eggs

Few dishes can claim to show all the influences in the cooking of the American continent as well as stuffed eggs!

In Spanish and French New Orleans stuff them with smoked oysters; in Southwestern Tex-Mex and the Gulf of Mexico with Ancho chili puree mayonnaise or with red and green Poblano chilies; in Italian and Portuguese New England with lobster scraps (and its liver tomalley, and any fat that lines the shell) after buying lobster for a main course at another meal; in Mediterranean African Florida with cumin, mint, salt preserved lemons, pistachios or with grilled spicy sausages, almonds and mint; and in Cuban Florida: stuffed eggs with smoked marlin and almonds.

The stuffed eggs below are delicious by themselves, but served with smoked sturgeon, smoked eel, or smoked salmon and hot buttered garlic toasts, they are celestial. Stuffed with a puree of black truffles added to the mashed yolks and they need no accompaniment.

If you want less heat in the following recipe, use the closely related Mulato.

Poblano Chili Stuffed Eggs with Pickapeppa Sauce

Serves 4-6

16 large eggs

2 large fresh poblano chilies

½ cup sour cream

2 tablespoons Hellman’s mayonnaise

1 teaspoon ground cumin

pinch ground cardamom

2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, finely chopped

pinch of salt

Ancho chili powder

Put the eggs in a heavy pan and cover them with cold water by one inch. Then bring to the point just before a boil, remove from the heat, cover, and let stand 10 minutes. Then run cold water over them, adding ice if you are in a hurry, until they are cool enough to peel.

Roast the chilies over a fire on over a gas stove until the skin is charred all over. Put them in a plastic bag just large enough to hold them, twist the top closed, and leave the chilies for 30 minutes. Take them out, cut off the top and bottom, flatten out the chilies: on the inside scrap off the ribs and seeds and on the outside scrape off the skin. Save any juices and strain.

Peel the eggs, cut in half lengthwise, remove and mash up the egg yolks with the sour cream, mayonnaise, cumin, cardamom, mint, and chili juices. Add half the salt, mix, and taste. Add more salt if desired.

Stuff the whites with the yolk puree, and sauce with the Pickapeppa.

Warm Red Cabbage Salad

I first prepared this salad in 1979 at San Francisco’s Balboa Café which I had taken over for an update and redo.

It was a popular success beyond my wildest dreams, especially because I thought at the time that cabbage and duck fat would be the last two things to capture the taste buds and imaginations of barfly Californians. Then for years there were people who would not come to the restaurants without a promise that the cabbage salad will be available.

Sublime versions include chopped shallots and using walnut oil or rendered duck fat instead of bacon fat. Or add duck skin cracklings on top of the salad.

The procedure for a warm or “wilted” salad is the same whatever the ingredients: mix the salad, seasonings, and acid beforehand, then pour over the hot oil or fat, toss, and serve.

Serves: 4-6

1 Medium red cabbage

8 slices Bacon or pancetta

1 log Goat cheese

1 bunch Scallions, peeled, green tops finely chopped

8 slices Baguette or country-style bread

1 clove Garlic, peeled, cut in half

¼ cup Bacon fat

2 tablespoons Red wine or sherry vinegar

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Cut the cabbage in half through the root end. Cut out the core from each half. Turn the halves cut side down and slice crosswise into 1/8-inch pieces.

Lay the bacon out flat on a rack and bake or grill until crisp. Remove the bacon, saving the rendered fat, and when the bacon is cool enough to handle, cut into 1-inch lengths. Keep warm.

Slice the goat cheese into half-inch rounds, and roll the edges in the scallions.

Heat the oven to 350°F.

Bake the bread slices on a sheet pan for 10 minutes. When the bread is cool enough to handle, rub the croutons with the garlic.

Put the cabbage in a bowl. Add the vinegar and the salt and pepper and toss the cabbage thoroughly.

Heat the bacon fat in a pan and put the cabbage in it. Toss quickly but thoroughly for 10 seconds then add the bacon and toss again for another 10 seconds. Check for seasonings

Serve immediately on warm plates with the croutons.

Leftover Vegetable Soup

Use whatever leftover vegetables you have, no matter how they have been cooked. Everything from mashed or gratin potatoes, to green and white beans, to carrots in butter or olive oil, to mixed greens.

This is a soup that is more delicious than the little work it takes makes it seem.

Serves 4-6

2 cups leftover cooked vegetables

2 cups chicken stock or water

1 cup half and half

salt

freshly ground white pepper

Put the vegetables in a food processor and grind until in 1/8-inch pieces.

Then put in a saucepan with the half and half, bring to a simmer. Take off the heat, season, and serve.

If the soup is too thick (from the mashed potatoes) or too rich (from the potato cream gratin) Solution: add more water or stock.

Spaghetti with Warm Shrimp Sauce

For really easy, the tomatoes are from a carton, the shrimp are in the freezer, pasta on the shelf, and there are lemons in the refrigerator. All you have to buy is the onion and fresh herbs.

Serves 4

1 cup chopped skinned and seeded tomatoes

¼ cup chopped, mixed fresh herbs (basil, marjoram, tarragon, parsley)

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 shallot peeled and chopped

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1-pound uncooked shrimp

8 ounces spaghetti or linguine

salt

freshly ground black pepper

Mix the tomatoes, herbs, lemon juice, onion, and olive oil in a bowl large enough to hold the cooked pasta.

Simmer the shrimp in ½ cup of lightly salted water for 3 minutes. Drain the shrimp and save the cooking liquid. Peel the shrimp when they are cool enough to handle, chop coarsely and add to the tomato mixture.

Meanwhile cook the pasta in salted boiling water until just cooked and still slightly al dente. Heat the shrimp water and add to the tomato mixture. Then add the drained pasta, toss, taste for seasoning, and serve.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Photo Courtesy of Belly Full

1 cup smooth peanut butter

½ cup corn oil

1 large egg

½ tsp pure vanilla extract

½ cup granulated sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ cup confectioners’ sugar

½ tsp salt

1 cup plain, roasted peanuts, very coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter, corn oil. Egg, vanilla and granulated sugar. Beat until smooth and blended. Meanwhile, in another bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Stir in the peanuts. Gradually add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture, working the dough only until it comes together.

Drop the dough by heaping tablespoons onto a parchment-covered baking sheet. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the cookies are very light brown on the bottom. Let rest on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.