March 4th, 2009
“Sara Foster has remained true to her beliefs and convictions that good, honest food can be deliciously simple.” – Martha Stewart
North Carolina is fortunate to have many fine cooks and chefs. And we are fortunate that Sara Foster chose to move here in 1990. Her career in cooking took her from her roots in rural Tennessee to New York City where she attended culinary school, worked in restaurants, and became a part of Martha Stewart’s catering team. She eventually branched out on her own and opened her own catering business in Greenwich, Connecticut. One of her dreams had always been to open a gourmet food market and cafe and she found the perfect location for it in Durham, North Carolina. Foster’s Market became so successful that she opened a second store in Chapel Hill in 1998.
I have visited the Durham Foster’s Market on several occasions and was impressed with the array of food available for take-out and wished that I lived close enough to pop in after work to pick up chicken and dumplings or slow roasted pork shoulder with Foster’s applesauce. As it was I had to settle (by no means a hardship) for lunch ordered at the counter and eaten in the funky, but charming dining room.
Sara Foster has written three cookbooks and I own two of them, one signed by Sara herself. Her first cookbook is The Foster’s Market Cookbook which features recipes from the kitchen of Foster’s Market. I especially like the variety of sandwiches and salads that are included. The second cookbook is Fresh Every Day which is geared more to the home cook and includes food that Sara cooks in her own kitchen. She believes in “simple honest food prepared with fresh local and seasonal ingredients”.
To illustrate this philosophy she offers four sauteed shrimp recipes. For Winter, the recipe is the one I cooked today – Sauteed Tangerine Shrimp. For Spring, the recipe is Garlic Sauteed Shrimp with Spinach. For Summer, the recipe is Sauteed Shrimp with Corn and Tomatoes and for Fall, the recipe is Curry Coconut Shrimp.
I can honestly say that the sauteed tangerine shrimp were simple and flavorful and I am looking forward to the other seasonal shrimp recipes. I served the shrimp with jasmine rice and peas.
SAUTEED TANGERINE SHRIMP
The warmed sections of tangerine in this dish are a sweet surprise with the shrimp. If you can find them, use clementines, a Mandarin orange variety that comes from Spain. Not only do they have extra flavorful tangy-sweet flesh, clementines are a breeze to peel – and they have no seeds!
Serves 4 to 6
Juice of 4 tangerines or clementines
2 tangerines peeled, sectioned, and seeds removed
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (1-inch piece)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp (21 to 25 per pound), peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1. Combine the tangerine juice and sections, ginger, garlic and shrimp in a bowl and toss to coat the shrimp. Cover and refrigerate to marinate for 2 to 3 hours.
2. Heat half of the oil and half of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the butter melts. Remove half the shrimp from the marinade, reserving the marinade, season with salt and pepper, and place in the skillet to saute for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side, until they turn pink. Place the shrimp on a platter covered loosely with foil to keep warm. Add the remaining butter and oil and cook the remaining shrimp.
3. When all the shrimp are cooked, pour the marinade and tangerine sections into the skillet, increase the heat to high, and boil the marinade until it has reduced by half, about 30 seconds. Turn off the heat and stir in the cilantro. Season with additional salt and pepper if needed and serve the shrimp warm with the tangerine sauce and sections spooned over them.
Printable recipe
February 26th, 2009
Once again it is time for the Barefoot Bloggers to reproduce an Ina Garten recipe. Today’s recipe was chosen by MBK at
Reservations not Required. Be sure to visit her amazing blog for lots of creative ideas. Meringues Chantilly remind me of a time in my life when we held formal dinner parties. We were young, we had just discovered Julia Child, and we were out to impress the boss or the department chair. Fancy food was de rigueur and the fancier the better. Oh how I struggled and exhausted myself trying to make the dining room table set for 8 with the fancy china and cut crystal look fabulous. The food was another story. I had many successes but also a few failures. I remember the time that I tackled individual Beef Wellingtons with homemade puff pastry crusts. After the first course was served, I checked on the beef to see if it was ready and the crusts had melted droopily over the beef. Thank goodness the house we lived in at the time had a formal dining room, separate from the kitchen, so no one could see this disaster. I scraped off the offending crust and quickly browned the beef in my new 14″ copper saute pan. I think I was the only one that knew what had really happened, even though I was sweating and not the most composed hostess. Another time I made Bananas Foster for dessert and when I poured in the brandy and put a match to it to flame it, one of our guests leapt from his chair, knocking it over, and ran into the kitchen to my rescue, not knowing that the conflagration was intentional.
Upon first glance Meringues Chantilly appear to be one of those pretentious desserts. Thank goodness we live in a more relaxed time. I no longer feel the need to impress. Dinner is all about being with people you enjoy. Meringues Chantilly is still a somewhat complicated dessert, but the steps can be performed over a period of time. My meringues did not come out as tall as I would have liked. Next time I will put more pressure on the pastry bag. But it was no problem leaving them in the oven overnight. The sauce was easy to make and the whipped cream was a snap. Serving was just a matter of assembly. We had good friends visiting and Ina’s dessert was fabulous. And I didn’t sweat the small stuff. Thanks MBK for suggesting this dessert. For the recipe go here.
February 24th, 2009
Indian Lake is a scene
You should make with your little one
Keep it in mind if you’re looking to find
a place in the summer sun — The Cowsill’s Lyrics
Growing up in Southwestern Michigan was magical in so many ways. This part of the state has beautiful lakes, apple orchards, and tree-lined back roads, where as teenagers we got into all kinds of mischief. As children, one of the things my brother and I enjoyed was going to Indian Lake with our parents. We would pack our towels and blankets and a change of clothes and head out in Dad’s jeep for a day of fun. Indian Lake was probably only 15 miles from our home, but it seemed to take forever to get there. The entrance was marked by a large totem pole and we wound down a hill to the lake. The shore of the lake had a large expanse of lawn and we would claim our spot with the blanket and spend the day swimming and playing on the swings. But the highlight of the day was dinner in the lodge. After changing into dry clothes, we would enter the dining room and find a table overlooking the lake and study the menu. There really wasn’t any need to do that because we always got the same thing – Chicken in a Basket – a simple meal of fried chicken and french fries served in a red plastic basket. It was our favorite food and the perfect end to a warm summer day.
My Mother and Grandmother made delicious fried chicken, but over the years Mom got tired of dealing with the mess it made in the kitchen. One of her specialties then became oven fried chicken strips. This recipe is loved to this day by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren alike. It is a simple recipe and I have seen it on other blogs and in magazines, but it reminds me of Mom and Dad and the special days of youthful innocence on Indian Lake.
OVEN FRIED CHICKEN STRIPS
3 Boneless Chicken Breasts
6 to 8 Tbls Butter, melted
1 to 1 1/2 cups dried beadcrumbs ( I used Panko crumbs )
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut each chicken breast into approximately 6 strips. Dip each strip into melted butter in one bowl and then the dried breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese mixture in another bowl. Place the strips, well spaced on a baking sheet. To set the crumbs, place the baking sheet in the refrigerator for at least one half hour. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes, turning once until the strips are golden brown. Serve with dipping sauce of your choice.
February 21st, 2009
I love a good mystery and I love reading about food. One of the best authors who combines the two brilliantly is Rex Stout. Nero Wolfe is a detective who weighs 1/7 of a ton because of his passion for food. His other passion is orchids, which he raises in a greenhouse at the top of his brownstone house in New York City. He rarely leaves his home and has two employees who are indispensible to him. Archie Goodwin is his assistant who ventures forth from the brownstone to help solve the cases that Wolfe undertakes and Fritz Brenner is his Swiss born, European trained chef who collaborates with Wolfe in creating inspired meals. These books make me happy and I have been collecting them. They were originally published from 1934 to 1975. Many of them may appear dated, but it is like watching an old black and white movie from the 40’s. Some truths are universal and eternal. Dining well is one of them.
Breakfast in the brownstone was taken by Wolfe in bed. Now that is a custom that I could get used to. Fritz Brenner refused to fry eggs so his egg dishes were omelets, coddled eggs or this recipe for shirred eggs. Rex Stout even talks about a shirred egg dish for single servings. It would be interesting to find one in an antique store. I’m assuming he is talking about a kind of ramekin. For my serving I used a 6″x 8″ casserole and it was perfect. By the way I found 6 of these at The Dollar Store a few years ago. The recipe for shirred eggs and many more of the dishes discussed in the Nero Wolfe Series can be found in
The Nero Wolfe Cook Book published in 1973 by Rex Stout and the editors of Viking Press.
SHIRRED EGGS
4 breakfast sausages ( I used diced ham )
1 Tbls. butter
4 Tbls. light cream
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 dashes paprika
chopped fresh chives
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Brown the sausages in a skillet and set them aside to drain on a paper towel. Butter 2 shirred-egg dishes generously, add 2 tablespoons of cream to each, and slip in the eggs, 2 to a dish, being careful not to break the yolks. Arrange the sausages in each dish and sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika, and chives. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the eggs are done to the desired firmness. Serves 2.
February 18th, 2009
We have had a lot of company lately. I enjoy all of our friends and family who visit us in Florida. And soon we will have more. It is a pleasurable challenge for me to come up with great meals that everyone will like. I don’t know about you, but one of the things that always has me fretting is – what kind of vegetable dish should I serve with my stupendous main course. I spend so much time with the entree that sometimes the side dishes become whatever is easy or expedient. Easy peasy is green beans or broccoli. A salad would do and usually does. But sometimes I really want vegetables that stand on their own. I love to roast vegies. The caramelization they receive in the oven renders them sweet and succulent. Even cauliflower loses it’s bitter bite. Carrots and sweet potato chunks are beautiful roasted and you can add cumin to them for an unexpected flavor. I like to halve baking potatoes lengthwise, place a pat of butter, fresh rosemary sprigs and salt and pepper on them and bake cut side down until done. The cut side becomes deeply brown with the rosemary embedded decoratively in the flesh. For this particular meal I was looking for something colorful. We had been to the farmers market last week and I had peppers, squash, onions, and asparagus that needed my attention.
Placed on a baking sheet, the vegetables are so colorful and the roasting process maintains their vibrant color. Maybe next time I will experiment with red and yellow beets. What do you think?
ROASTED VEGETABLES
1 Green Pepper, cut into 2″ chunks
1 Red Pepper, cut into 2″ chunks
1 Red Onion, cut into large chunks
4 small Yellow Squash, cut into chunks
12 to 14 Asparagus Spears, trimmed
3 to 4 Tbls. olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put all vegetables except the asparagus on a baking sheet. Drizzle with 3 Tbls. of olive oil and salt and pepper and toss to cover. Roast for approximately 20 minutes turning once. Add the asparagus and toss again. Roast an additional 10 to 15 minutes.
