The Magic of Fire

December 25th, 2009

There is something fundamental about cooking over an open fire. I love the flames, I love the smells, and of course, I love the taste. _ Alice Waters, chef, owner of Chez Panisse.

I received my Christmas present early this year. The fireplace in our kitchen is raised to waist high and I have been contemplating the possiblities of hearth cooking. I originally wanted a pizza oven, but it was both cost prohibitive and impossible to add to a second story chimney. But cooking in a standard fireplace is a tradition that dates back centuries. I started looking into the tools needed to do hearth cooking. As it turns out there are many options. One of the old time ways of cooking and the simplest is done in a cast iron spider, which is basically a frying pan with legs. Spiders usually had lids and were used to make such things as cornbread. The spider was placed in the embers and then embers were scooped over the lid and the heat from all around the vessel would bake the cornbread. But one of the easiest methods of cooking in the fireplace is with a grill. I first saw this done on Napa Style with Michael Chiarello. He has a great hearth grill on his website. I would have gotten that one, but it would not get here by Christmas. This wonderful hearth grill that I ordered from Amazon arrived two days before Christmas.

We were entertaining friends on Christmas Eve and with the cold weather and snow we have been having in the North Carolina mountains, I thought it would be fun to grill steaks in our fireplace. Actually I can’t take credit for how great the steaks came out. David took to grilling in the fireplace like a caveman over an open fire. He built a roaring fire in the afternoon and kept adding logs to it until he had a good bed of smoldering ashes. The grill height is adjustable so you can cook as close or as far away from the heat as you like. You can visit this site web to efficiently remove the soot or dust that is clogging your HVAC, duct, or exhaust system, thus improving the quality of indoor air. A heat pump is an electrical system that provides both heat and air conditioning. When your heat pump not heating enough, Sunset Heating & Cooling is the heat pump contractors to call.

Our meal was memorable and our friends dear to us. I wish all of you as Merry a Christmas as we have had. We will celebrate again with our family on Monday.

Tonight we will be doing spatchcocked Cornish hens. I think next year I would like a rotisserie. Please tell Santa.

A Dinner Party From the Past

October 27th, 2009

The above picture appeared in our newspaper back in 1975. It is so funny to look at this again. I was so skinny and David had lots of hair! That is the kitchen in the first house that we bought. It was this sunny kitchen that sold me on the beautiful old house. Our friends Jim and Janice were the first people that we met in Greensboro. They lived next door to us in our first apartment and Janice and I took cooking classes together. They later moved away from Greensboro, raised a family and we lost touch. Recently we have reconnected and Jim and Janice just moved to Black Mountain, just over the ridge from us. We decided that it would be fun to get together and cook again. Janice and I recreated the menu from 1975. The recipes all came from our cooking instructor Irena ( Kirshman ) Chalmer’s cookbooks published by Potpourri Press.









Here we all are, a little older but still having lots of fun, the girls taking their positions behind the counter and the guys pouring wine and setting the table. Since Jim was pouring in the old picture he is doing the honors again.

The first course for our dinner party is Coquilles Saint-Jacques Nantaise or Scallops with shallots, butter and breadcrumbs. I have to warn you, this is rich with lots of butter even though I cut back some, but it was delicious. Click on the name for the recipe.


The entree was Tournedos Henry IV with Artichoke Bottoms and Sauce Bearnaise. There is more butter in this, but the bearnaise sauce is worth it. It took the two of us to make the bearnaise. The filets are flattened, cooked in clarified butter and then flamed in brandy. They are topped with the artichoke bottom holding the bearnaise sauce. This dish was sublime.

We served simple roasted potatoes and asparagus with this. We roasted the halved potatoes drizzled with olive oil and rosemary skin side down for about 20 minutes. We then added the asparagus tossed in oil to the pan and continued roasting until done.

After all that decadence we decided that we wanted something light and easy for dessert. We made a Raspberry Whip. This is nothing more than whipped egg whites to which you add a little sugar, raspberry preserves and framboise or raspberry liqueur. What is so great about this dessert is that you can adapt it to many flavors; perhaps orange marmalade with Grand Marnier.

We had such a good time doing this meal. It is not often that we eat like this anymore but it was well worth it to bring back some of these classic recipes. Cooking together with friends is one of the joys of life.

Cabernet- Braised Short Ribs

July 29th, 2009
We have been away for the last few days taking care of our Granddaughter Rachel while her parents were in Boston. I haven’t had much time to grocery shop since we’ve been back so I checked the freezer to see if I could find something, . . . anything, for dinner. There was one lonely package of boneless beef short ribs which I had purchased on sale months ago when the weather was still chilly. Boneless short ribs are sometimes hard to find, so when they are available I always snatch them up and squirrel them away. With the heat and humidity it didn’t seem right to cook such a hearty meal, but I was actually in the mood for doing just that.
We keep a collection of old magazines on our screened porch and my husband mentioned seeing a cover on a Bon Appetit magazine with short ribs that looked very tantalizing. I looked at the recipe and actually had all of the ingredients. It called for fresh rosemary, parsley, and thyme which I had in my herb garden plus lemon and garlic for a gremolata topping. We always have Cabernet Sauvignon on hand since that is David’s favorite red wine, so dinner was easy. It makes be feel self- sufficient to be able to pull a delicious meal together out of whatever is at hand even if it is for just one day. Now I really have to go the grocery store.
I made half of the recipe for the two of us with leftovers.
CABERNET- BRAISED SHORT RIBS (Adapted from Bon Appetit)
4 lbs Boneless Beef Short Ribs
2 Tbls chopped fresh rosemary
2 Tbls chopped fresh thyme
1/2 Tbls coarse kosher salt
1 Tbls freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Enough Cabernet Sauvignon to cover meat ( about 3 cups )
2 Tbls softened butter
2 Tbls all purpose flour
For the Gremolata:
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
3 Tbls finely grated lemon peel
2 garlic cloves minced
1 1/2 Tbls finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 1/2 Tbls finely chopped fresh thyme
Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and reserve
Arrange ribs in a glass baking dish. Mix rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper in small bowl and sprinkle over ribs. Let stand for one hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy wide ovenproof pot over medium high heat. Working in batches, add ribs to pot and cook until browned on all sides. Add more oil as needed for each batch. Transfer ribs to large bowl. Pour off drippings from pot. Add wine to pot and bring to simmer, scraping up any browned bits. Return ribs and any accumulated juices to pot; bring to a boil. Cover and transfer to oven and braise until meat is very tender, about 2 hours.
Using slotted spoon, transfer ribs to large bowl, cover tightly to keep warm. Skim any fat from top of braising liquid. Boil liquid until reduced to 2 generous cups. Mix 2 tablespoons softened butter and 2 tablespoons flour with fork in small bowl until well blended. Whisk butter mixture into reduced braising liquid. Whisk over medium high heat until sauce thickens slightly. Return ribs to sauce to warm slightly. Serve over a bed of mashed potatoes and sprinkle with gremolata.

Easter Ham Loaf

April 11th, 2009

My Mother loved this ham loaf. She became known for this ham loaf. She served it at so many family get togethers that some in the family grew tired of it. But now that she is no longer with us, I make this in celebration of her spirit. She was an amazing cook and eating at her table was an event not to be missed. There were always at least six different dishes, each cooked with love and care. She would start early in the morning cooking and prepping at her small corner countertop and I was always amazed at her ability and precision. She was an accomplished artist and she brought that creativity to everything that she touched. She also had a sweet tooth and the glaze that covers this ham loaf makes you fight over the end pieces. She always enforced the cook’s perogative to get first dibs on the end piece. And since she usually made two three pound ham loaves, there was plenty of glazy goodness for the diehard sweets lovers.
A ham loaf makes an inexpensive alternative to the traditional Easter ham. The hardest part in preparing this dish is finding ground ham. Back in the day, you could ask your butcher to grind a center cut ham steak with a pound of ground beef. Lately, the supermarkets I have visited will not do it for you because they fear cross contamination in the meat grinder. I have a meat grinding attachment on my stand mixer so I buy a center cut ham steak, grind it, and mix it with the ground beef.
While this was in the oven last night, David said “it sure smells like ham loaf in here”. I smiled and thought “it sure smells like Mom’s kitchen in here”. Happy Easter. We will be with our kids and grand daughter Rachel for the next few days.
HAM LOAF

1 pound ham steak, ground
1 pound ground chuck
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
2 cups saltine crackers, crushed

2 teaspoons mustard
1/2 cup vinegar
2/3 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine the first five ingredients and form into a loaf. Score top diagonally in both directions with knife (about 1/4 ” deep). Mix together the mustard, vinegar and brown sugar in a small sauce pan and heat and whisk until mustard is combined and sugar is dissolved. Set pan aside. Bake the ham loaf in a baking pan somewhat larger than the ham loaf so that the glaze will have room to caramelize. Bake the ham loaf for one hour. Pour sauce over the meat and bake an additional one hour, basting frequently, especially during the last 1/2 hour.

Printable recipe

Zinfandel Beef Ribs

January 26th, 2009

When I was working in the world of retail, Saturday was our biggest day. That meant that on a day that I would have loved to kick back and relax with my husband, I had to look good, be creative, sell furniture and solve computer problems. It was never my favorite day of the week. That is why I looked forward to the end of the day when I returned home to wonderful aromas wafting from the kitchen. My husband had free rein in the meal preparations on Saturdays and I think he loved it because I was not there to question why in the world he wanted to mix some odd ingredients or serve pork necks. Who in the world eats pork necks? We actually had friends for dinner one Saturday and that is what he served – being a good friend Jim said ” I believe this is the first time I have ever eaten pork necks by candlelight.” To be honest they were tasty. The point of all of this is that because David has no preconceived ideas of the rules of cooking, he is a much more creative cook than I am. One Saturday he found a recipe for Short Ribs of Beef in a Wine Country Living magazine. It called for Zinfandel wine, orange rind, a cinnamon stick and a dried Ancho chili – if I was cooking I would have thought this combination strange. But David breezed ahead with the recipe and it was sublime! There was just a hint of cinnamon, the heat was not overpowering and the orange rind calmed the richness of the meat. We all should come home to meals like this.

ZINFANDEL BEEF RIBS – Adapted from Wine Country Living
2 T. Vegetable oil
2 lbs Beef Short Ribs ( I use 3 lbs boneless short ribs)
1 large onion, cut into medium dice
2 medium carrots, cut 1 inch thick
2 cups Zinfandel
1 cinnamon stick
1 Dried Ancho Chile
2 cups Beef Stock
1 zest from a medium orange, cut into thick strips
salt and pepper to taste

1. Put vegetable oil in large pot, just filming the bottom and heat to high. Brown beef while seasoning generously with salt and pepper. When nicely browned on all sides remove to platter.

2. Reduce heat to medium. Add carrots and onions and cook until vegetables begin to brown. Deglaze the pan with the zinfandel and add the cinnamon stick, orange peel and chile. Continue cooking until wine is reduced by half.

3. Return ribs to the pot and add enough beef broth to cover ribs. Bring to a simmer and adjust seasoning. Cover pot and place in 300 degree oven for 2 1/2 hours to 3 hours.

4. Remove meat from pot and reserve. Strain the sauce and puree the strained vegetables after removing the cinnamon stick. Boil the sauce to reduce it then add the pureed vegetables and stir to combine. This thickens the sauce. Pour over the ribs. Serve with a hearty starch.

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