St. Louis Eats and Drinks With Joe and Ann Pollack

Stotties

Christmas week, when things are almost as quiet as August: Fewer meetings, more folks at home, and a good time to offer something a little special. I found this recipe in a recent ad supplement, and adjusted it a little to reflect what I had on hand.

Stottie is not a word often heard in this part of the world. They're traditional breads from the north of England, and they're not usually made in this sweet-ish style. Rather they're bread-like, split and used for sandwiches like ham and pease pudding (I'm not making this up...) or sausage, bacon and egg. Sounds like just the thing on the way home from the pub after closing time, their answer to what we fill with White Castles.

This one, though, is dense and moist, slightly sweet, the sort of thing I can see Grandmum cutting slabs of for a winter afternoon pot of tea. I don't think butter or jam is necessary, although it's good toasted. Not a handsome loaf at all, to be sure, but very easy to put together, no kneading and just one rise. You could even call it relatively healthy with all the fruit and nuts and oats. And I think it would be fine to substitute whole wheat flour for part of the white flour.

 

1 c. old-fashioned oats

1/2 c. honey

1/4 c. butter

1 Tbs. salt

1 1/2 c. water

1 c. applesauce

5 1/2 c. all-purpose flour, divided

2 envelopes Rapid-Rise Yeast

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. cloves

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

(or may substitute 2 tsp. “pumpkin pie spice”)

2 eggs, room temperature

1 6-oz. package dried cranberries (about 1 1/2 c.)

1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

 

Grease two 8- or 9-inch round pans. I used 8-inch springform pans, which have higher sides than my regular cake pans that diameter, and they worked well.

Place oats, honey, butter and salt in a large mixer bowl. Heat water and applesauce until boiling. Add to bowl and stir well. Cool mixture until it's just fairly warm (120 to 130 degrees). The length of time to cool will depend on your mixer bowl; my Kitchen Aid has a heavy base and doesn't cool off very quickly. A sink half-full of cold water helps cool such bowls down.

Add 2 cups flour, yeast, spices and eggs. Beat 30 seconds on low to combine, then raise speed to high and beat for 3 minutes.

Stir in cranberries. Add remaining flour and walnuts to make a stiff batter. Spoon batter into the pans. It will probably be too stiff to spread with a spatula, just dampen your hands and pat it down so it's all about the same height. These are supposed to look rustic. Cover the pans and let rise in a warm place until batter has about doubled in size, perhaps an hour depending on ambient temperature. While they're warming, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and make sure there's a rack in the middle of the oven.

Bake for 50-55 minutes. They should sound hollow when thumped. Remove from pans and cool on a rack.

Gives 2 loaves.

 

-Ann

More No No-Knead Bread

A couple of years ago, the bread world was a-twitter over Jim Lahey's no-knead bread. I've hung with it ever since, although an oven that hot is something I generally forego in summertime. But we stopped by Salame Beddu this week and picked up some confit, which really deserves good bread. Nothing against the increasingly good artisan bread available in this town, but here was my excuse, and the temperatures the last few days, plus a dead furnace gave me even more incentive.

The recipe is here. But as I thought about it, I also muttered about the difficulty in moving the dough from the towel to the pre-heated Dutch oven. I do have a pizza stone in the oven now. Maybe something with that.... I began to Google.

So here's what I ended up doing. After the first rise, I took a large sheet of parchment and sprayed it with oil. I put it in, or actually on top of a good-sized mixing bowl. (I don't know the size, but if I made up a 2-layer size cake mix with a handheld mixer, this bowl is the size I'd use; does that help?)

I greased a large flexible scraper and loosened the dough from the sides of the bowl it had been rising in. I then greased my hands, picked up the dough, and turned the edges under a couple of times to shape it a little, and placed it on the center of the greased paper, and the dough and paper fell into the bowl. I covered the bowl and let it do the second rise.

When it was time to preheat the oven, I made sure the pizza stone was on the correct shelf, and I put the Dutch oven in to preheat, too. Be sure that the Dutch oven will lie flat if you turn it upside down, because we're going to use it as what's called a cloche, a cover for the baking bread.

The rise done, I removed the Dutch oven, carefully set it on the stovetop, lifted the parchment paper and dough out of the bowl and placed it, paper and all, on the baking stone. I inverted the Dutch oven and placed it over the dough  and set the whole thing to bake as usual. I removed the cloche/Dutch oven after 30 minutes, and completed things.

The results are much handsomer than what I'd been getting, and I'm going to keep doing it this way. The parchment doesn't burn, although it gets very crisp, and the dough doesn't stick to anything. I'm thinking you could use the non-stick coated aluminum foil, but the flexibility of the parchment seems superior to me.

 

--Ann

Crockpot Meatloaf

Not everything in our kitchen is haute cuisine. I've given up Hamburger Helper now that the kids are raised and I'm not working 40-plus hours a week at a hospital, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in food that's easy. And I'm frequently on the prowl for new meatloaf recipes, since the guy who sits across the table from me loves it in almost any iteration. I found the basic recipe for this at the website southernplate.com, and did a little hacking.

Doing it in a crockpot produces a meatloaf that doesn't heat up the kitchen, and is much more about meat and gravy than the usual version. No breadcrumbs or oatmeal to stretch the meat, just an egg to hold it together and the packet of seasoning. The resulting gravy, with as much fat spooned off as possible, thank you, is luscious.

Christy Jordan, who writes the blog, points out that you can use ground turkey in this; I used chuck. She also uses a can of condensed tomato soup instead of my Ro-Tel, and adds the possibility of a quarter-cup of ground flaxseed to be mixed with the meat. Not that you'd find any of that around here, I fear. If I were cooking for folks who didn't do spicy food, I'd probably haul some of my standard tomato sauce out of the freezer and substitute about a cup for the tomatoes and chiles. The Ro-Tel is the one with lime juice and cilantro, my favorite for making chili.

 

2 lbs. ground beef

1 large egg

1 packet dried onion-and-mushroom soup mix

1 can condensed mushroom soup

1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes and chiles

 

Mix together the meat, egg and soup mix. (Does anyone not use their hands for this?) Form it into a ball or a loaf, depending on the size of your slow cooker, and place it in the bottom of the cooker. Spoon the mushroom soup over the top of the meat mixture and around it. Add the Ro-Tel.

Christy asks for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. I did 2 hours on high and 4 on low, and it was done. (This is a good place to use a meat thermometer) I removed quite a lot of the extra fat from the gravy, and didn't thicken it any further.

Serves 4.

-Ann

 

Chicken Adobo

 

Another succulent recipe from Jaden Hair's The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook skipped onto our table the other day. Adobo means marinade in Spanish, and entered the culture of the Philippine Islands centuries ago via the influence of Spanish explorers. Over the years, some Far Eastern flavors were added, and today chicken adobo is considered by many to be the Filipino national dish. Chicken is the most common meat, but the marinade, or sauce, can be used with beef or pork, or even shrimp.

Years ago, I knew a physician whose calm, reserved demeanor became noticeably animated when he talked about cooking. I discovered this one day when he began describing this delicious-sounding chicken dish that he cooked pretty much by ear. No measurements. I never got around to making Dr. Jesse Arcelona's version of chicken adobo, but a tip of the hat in his memory as we enjoyed this.

The ingredients add up to a salty-tart sauce that also has some sweetness, thanks to the cooked garlic, and it's a fairly simple dish that only takes some brief last-minute finishing. Unlike Western cooking, the meat is quickly browned after simmering until tender. This means more contrast in textures than in the average stew. Jaden says she prefers dark meat with skin for this, since it stays tender better than white meat–and of course, the skin crisps up nicely.

I doubled the recipe, since I had three pounds of leg quarters in the freezer. That meant two quarters for now and two for another dinner, along with the last of the sauce.

This is meant to be served with rice, which means it's another version of that great combination, chicken and rice. I've never been able to rationalize the purchase of one of those fabulous electronic rice-cookers, but I bought a small inexpensive one a couple of years ago. We're not obsessive about home-cooked rice, and the quality it turns out is fine with us. In addition, it's really nice not to have to time my rice-cooking so that it's ready exactly at dinner time. It was worth the counter space and the money.

CHICKEN ADOBO

1 ½ lbs. chicken thighs and legs, skin on, lumps of excess fat removed

Adobo sauce:

1/3 c. cider vinegar or white vinegar

¼ c. soy sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. black peppercorns (whole, not ground)

1 Tbs. sugar (I used Splenda and it worked well.)

½ c. water

2 Tbs. Cooking oil

Combine the ingredients for the adobo sauce in a bowl or plastic bag. Add the chicken, stir things around, and cover the bowl or close the bag, removing as much air as possible. Refrigerate the chicken anywhere from two hours to overnight.

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, place the chicken and marinade. Bring to a boil, drop to a simmer, cover and let cook 20-30 minutes.

Using tongs, remove the chicken to a dish. Keep the adobo sauce in the pan. You may want to skim off some of the fat or foam at this point. Bring the sauce to a boil and let it cook five minutes or so to thicken a little.

Heat a heavy skillet over high heat. When it's hot, add the oil. Pat the chicken pieces dry so they won't spatter, and fry for two minutes a side, until the skin is a crisp golden brown. (Alternatively, Hair says, you can slip the chicken under the broiler to crisp it up.)

Serve with rice, and spoon some of the sauce over the rice. Serves 2-3, depending on the rest of the meal.

-Ann

Korean BBQ Burgers

 Bloggers are a source of many of the new cookbooks, and I've found a favorite from a blogger I haven't read – until now.

Jaden Hair's The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook, from her blog steamykitchen.com, offers Asian flavors that can be created in American kitchens. Not such an unusual idea, but sometimes a set of recipes seem to particularly cause the mouth to water, and that's what happened here.

Last night I threw together some Korea BBQ-style Burgers from her book, a recipe she semi-credits to Sarah Gim of tastespotters.com. The flavor is the slightly sweet, salty-savory delight often found on the Korean-style ribs at Korean restaurants. It translates well to the hamburgers, which were good enough we didn't even use buns. The fast pickle that she suggests alongside or on top is easy and a nice contrast. Joe said it was tasty, but its light flavor made him think more of a relish or a salad than a pickle.

I say “threw together” because pretty much everything I needed was in the freezer or pantry. I used ground chuck for the beef. As to the minced garlic and grated ginger, purists will sneer, but I succumbed to the temptation and ease of keeping a commercial jar in my refrigerator. No, I agree, it isn't as flavorful as the fresh stuff, but sometimes we all succumb to the lure of quick. As to what Hair calls “high-heat cooking oil,” I keep peanut oil on hand for just such times, and it worked fine. Don't be afraid to use it; when the burgers were done, they hadn't sucked up any of the oil. In fact, there was more fat in the pan after cooking. And the burgers didn't stick. They also can be grilled on a barbecue, of course.

For the best texture, hamburgers should be handled lightly, so what I did was mix all the seasoning ingredients together in a bowl and then crumbled the ground beef into it. I tossed it gently until the seasonings were well dispersed, and then gently formed the mixture into fat patties.

Hair suggests offering the usual burger condiments, making sure the mustard is a hot one (think about the fiery English mustard that comes with egg rolls), as well as kimchi and sriracha, that Asian hot sauce sometimes called rooster sauce, along with the aforementioned pickles. We found the hamburgers so tasty that, they didn't need anything except the pickles, whose cool, slightly crunchy tartness made for an exceptional side.

 

3 Tbs. finely minced garlic

3 Tbs. grated fresh ginger

2 ½ Tbs. soy sauce

2 ½ Tbs. brown sugar

3 Tbs. finely minced green onion

2 tsp. sesame seeds

fresh-ground black pepper

2 tsp. high-heat cooking oil

1 ½ lbs. ground beef

 

Mix the ingredients together and form into 4 patties a little less than an inch thick. Set aside and let rest for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet on high heat until a bead of water sizzles and evaporates. Add the oil and shake the pan to allow it to cover the surface.

Place the patties in the pan so that they are not touching. Cook the patties 5 to 7 minutes on each side for medium. (I did 5, and they were excellent, juicy and slightly pink.)

Makes 4 burgers

Quick Cucumber Carrot Pickle

1 c. matchstick-cut carrots

1 c. matchstick-cut cucumber

½ tsp. sesame seeds

4 tsp. rice vinegar

½ tsp. Sugar

Toss the ingredients together.

I cooked two of the patties when I made the mixture and refrigerated the other two for the following evening. The burgers seemed even more flavorful after standing, so don't hesitate to do them ahead of time. On the other hand, the pickle loses crispness, so it's better done fresh.

-Ann

Black Cake

 

Several years ago, re-reading Laurie Colwin's "Home Cooking," I was taken with her description of black cake. It's a Caribbean dessert, traditionally used at times of festivities, a higher form of fruitcake steeped in rum and other ethanol-type liquids. So I tried it. The idea was good, but her relatively vague recipe, which she admitted she hadn't actually made, just obtained from her daughter's baby sitter, just didn't hold together, literally, for me. (Other people, apparently, have done better with it.) But the idea still held promise. I am not one of those people whose idea of a Christmas cake is glaceed cherries and citron. No, indeedy. I have two fruitcake recipes, one dark and the other light, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly, as it were, and both are tasty, so it wasn't as though I actually needed another one, but it nagged at me. Two years ago, I read Nigella Lawson's discussion of Colwin's cake and her take on the recipe. And last year I came across another recipe, and succumbed to it. I did a little tinkering, using what I had on hand and what I could easily find. And I was blown away when I finally tasted it. Moist and dark and mysterious, fruit and spice and booze. I cannot imagine a kid liking it, as laced with liquor as it is, but it is so worth the effort. (And the cost; this is not an inexpensive project.)

So it's November. I've chopped up the fruit and set it to marinating. It should sit for at least a week. Nigella says one year she began the marinating a month early, and when the time came to bake, she was so tired, she didn't make the cake. It sat 13 months in the liquid and she used it the next year, and it was fine. I don't think it's fair to drop a recipe like this on, say, December 15. So start now.

I've done some subbing from that recipe. The orange peel was awful-smelling and I pitched it, substituting some candied dried pineapple I had on hand. And glad I did, too; the occasional hit of pineapple is fun. I didn't have enough rum so I finished off the amount with some Madeira I had on hand. If you need to substitute in the fruit, nuts, or liquor, just figure on an equal volume. As to chopping: Measure first, then chop. (You know you can always tell by how it's listed - “1 cup nuts, finely chopped” means measure, then chop: “1 cup chopped nuts” means chop before measuring, right?) I use the processor for chopping the almonds, but I'm not crazy about that; it's easy to end up with half ground to flour and another half ranging from too-large-to-barely-nicked. For the rest, I just put on some cooking music and get cracking with a chef's knife and my cutting board, cutting them medium-coarse to just plain medium. I like much of the fruit to just sort of meld into the cake.

The ingredient that puzzles most people is the burnt sugar. There are ways to make it yourself if you look on the internet, but it's easier to buy it. I found it at Global Foods on Kirkwood Road, where it's with the Caribbean foods, a dark brown liquid in a bottle. I also buy many of the fruits there, finding them less expensive and properly fresh.

PANS: I use two loaf pans that measure 8 ½ by 4 ½ inches at the bottom, and 3 inches high. Following Nigella's advice and drawing on my own experiences, I lined each pan with two pieces of paper. I was out of parchment, so I used clean, unprinted grocery bags, cut the strips roughly to size, one to go longways in the pan the other sideways. I made sure I had some overlap at the corners, which was fine. Fortunately, the paper went above the sides of the pan. That turned out to be a good thing, as the batter also rose above the sides. The cakes also are often made in round cake pans; this volume of batter could go into a 9- or 10-inch round pan that's 2 inches tall, and would bake for less time. But I'd still line the pans on the sides and bottom, especially if I were using a springform pan.

UPDATE: So this year, I just made the cake again (it's now the end of November) and there was, somehow, way too much batter for those two pans. So I filled the two I had, popped them in the oven, and got a third, smaller loaf pan that is 6 1/2 inches by 2 3/4 inches. I whacked out a brown paper liner for it and put the rest of the batter in it. (It fit perfectly.) It took an hour and 45 minutes to test done; the other two ran about 2 hours 15 minutes.

I greased the pans in case there was any leakage and then the papers, using Pam spray.

FOR THE FRUIT: 

1 3/4 C. almonds, chopped

1 3/4 c. dried cherries, chopped

1 3/4 c. pitted prunes, chopped

1 3/4 c. raisins, chopped

3/4 c. dried pineapple, chopped

1 c. currants, chopped a little (they're small)

3/4 c. dried cranberries, chopped

1 1/2 c. Port

1/2 c. Madeira (may substitute more port)

1 c. dark rum

Combine nuts, fruit, and liquids in a container that holds at least 3 quarts and has a sealable lid. Cover and store in a cool dark place for at least a week.

FOR THE CAKE:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. baking powder

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

4 sticks (1 lb.) butter, room temperature

2 1/4 c. packed light brown sugar

6 large eggs, room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 c. burnt sugar

Place an oven in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut lining papers for cake pans, allowing for an overlap at the corners and extending an inch or so above the tops. Grease the pans, insert the lining papers, creasing them so they fit in, and grease the papers.

In a large bowl (that isn't the bowl you're going to mix the cake itself in) whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and spices. In the bowl of the mixer, place the butter and sugar, and beat on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides as necessary, and when the mixture is fluffy, scrape down the sides completely, stopping the machine. Return to medium speed and add the eggs, one at a time, beating each one in completely before adding the next. Add the vanilla and drop the speed to low.

Add the flour, the fruit-nut mixture and any remaining liquid and the burnt sugar, and mix just until combined. (I ended up using a large spatula to get everything nicely moistened rather than beating it to death in the ol' KitchenAid.)

Divide between the prepared pans, bang each pan on the counter a couple of times to settle the batter in, and place in oven.

Bake for about 2 hours, until a cake tester comes out clean from the middle. The cake will be very moist.

Allow to cool in the pans for 30 minutes or so, and then remove from the pans and finish cooling on the rack.

When cool, gently peel paper off cake. Brush cake with a little more rum and place in an airtight plastic bag. Can be eaten soon, or left to age up to 2 months.

Makes 2 cakes, each giving about 10-12 slices. (Or more: see added notes above.)

Not a handsome cake, although I can see setting it ablaze a la Christmas pudding and bearing it in to the assemblage with a sprig of holly atop it.

-Ann

Lettuce Wraps With Chicken

Uh-huh. You bought all that stuff for an exotic Asian dish, which was okay, but what on earth are you going to do with the rest of the bottle of oyster sauce, the dried mushrooms and the rice wine? Do I have a solution for you? Indeed I do.

I found this recipe in Saveur magazine and thought it would appeal to the emerging palate of our Apprentice Eater. Saveur, it turns out, got it from a great blog called rasamalasia.com and did a little adapting. I did a little more adapting, and this is the result. It’s light, and quick to cook once the prep is done. It’s definitely finger food–in fact, small lettuce leaves could be used to make an hors d’oeuvre. And I don’t think a quick re-heat would do major damage to the meat mixture, so it’s not impossible to cook in advance.

The Saveur version called for 20 cashew nuts. I subbed walnuts, because it’s what I had on hand, but the point of the whole thing is crunch, so it was no surprise to see that the blog used water chestnuts. Both versions called for iceberg lettuce, but thinking about rolling the filling in the lettuce, I had visions of iceberg being more like a crisp taco shell, prone to crack. I had leaf and Boston lettuce on hand, and they worked perfectly. The dried mushrooms give a great flavor, and they keep forever. They’re a staple around here. And the soaking liquid makes a great addition to risotto or soups; I have a resealable plastic bag in the freezer marked "mushroom broth" with just that.

The contrast of the cool lettuce and the warm filling is great. You can have some chili sauce on hand for those who like it a little spicier, but I think this is fine the way it is.

LETTUCE WRAPS WITH CHICKEN

1 lb. ground chicken

12 English walnuts, coarsely chopped

4 dried shiitake mushrooms, softened in hot water, stemmed and finely chopped

2 green onions, finely chopped

4 tsp. soy sauce

1 Tbs. oyster sauce

1 Tbs. rice wine (or dry sherry)

1 tsp. cornstarch

1/2 tsp. sugar

freshly-ground pepper to taste

2 Tbs. cooking oil

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

16-20 lettuce leaves, to wrap filling

cilantro sprigs or leaves (optional)

Put chicken, nuts, mushrooms and green onions in a bowl. In another bowl, stir together the soy and oyster sauces, wine, cornstarch, sugar and pepper. Pour over chicken and mix well. (Mixture will be very sticky.) Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the oil, and when oil is hot, add the garlic. Cook for 10-15 seconds and add the chicken. Cook, stirring and breaking up clumps, until all the pink is gone.

Place lettuce leaves on a platter and the chicken mixture in a bowl. Garnish with cilantro. Spoon some the chicken onto a leaf, roll up and eat. The Apprentice Eater had seconds.

Serves 4.

-Ann

Peaches in Red Wine

It seems sort of shocking to think that this part of the country has a lot in common with Provence, in the south of France. But actually, if you’re looking at what to do with all the great stuff from the farmers markets, check the cookbooks that focus on Provencal cooking to find your answers. All the tomatoes, eggplant, Swiss chard, squashes and so on can be brought to glorious ends in that tradition. So this is the time of year that I find myself leafing through my several Provencal cookbooks. And when I offered to bring dessert to a Fourth of July dinner and I needed something with no sugar, I found my answer in The Provence Cookbook by Patricia Wells.

These are fresh peaches, gently poached in spiced red wine. I used Splenda, which dissolved easily, instead of sugar, and adjusted the recipe slightly to account for what I had on hand (and my own taste; she adds one star anise, which I preferred to omit). Wells calls for four white peaches, but I used eight cling peaches, whose pits I managed to remove without too much trouble. For wine I used two partly consumed bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon from the previous evening’s tasting.

 

I cannot say this improves on the taste of fresh peaches. That’s almost impossible, of course, but it’s not feasible to offer them up on a buffet without some sort of adjustment to avoid the flesh browning. The aroma from this is wonderful, sort of a vanilla-spice. She says it can be served warm as well as cold; I refrigerated it overnight

PEACHES IN RED WINE

8 peaches

Grated zest of 1 orange

2 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

10 black peppercorns

1 whole vanilla bean

1/ 2 cup sugar (or equivalent of sweetener of your choice)

1 750-ml. bottle red wine

Prepare a large bowl of ice water and set aside. Put enough water to cover peaches (I did them four at a time) in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. While the water is heating, cut a shallow X in the bottom of each peach. In a deep pot, put the remaining ingredients and begin heating them over low heat.

When the water boils, add the peaches, doing them in batches if necessary, and heat them for about 2 minutes. Lift them out and plunge them into the ice water. When they’re cool enough to handle, slide the skin off each peach and cut it into halves or quarters. Discard the peach pits.

Place the peaches in the wine, and allow them to cook over low heat until they’re soft. The time will vary with the ripeness of the peaches; use a sharp knife or a toothpick to check.

Remove the peaches and set aside. Raise the heat over the wine and cook it down until it’s reduced by half. (Wells says this will take 10 minutes, but at my house, things never reduce as quickly as the cookbooks say, no matter what I do.) Use a fine mesh sieve and strain the wine over the peaches. Serve immediately or chill to taste.

Serves 8 or so.

Steak (or Other) Salad

A new summer entree has popped up at our house. It’s from an old recipe, dating back probably to the Reagan administration, from a magazine I can no longer identify, it did me well in my single years as a late-night supper when friends gathered to decompress after a long evening at the hospital. Now it’s bringing grins of approval from the Apprentice Eater, a dedicated carnivore we’re housing this summer.

Oh, I suppose you could do this Thai-style salad in the winter, with those ersatz tomatoes available then, but like most things it does best with the lovely results of warm weather. It’s a very flexible recipe—I’ve called for beef here, but the photo is from a try with boneless, skinless chicken, and there’s no reason why shrimp wouldn’t work, although I’d leave them in the marinade considerably less time.

You can be fairly casual about the amount and what sort of greens you use. I like a mixture of crisp and tender ones, like romaine and Boston lettuces. I buy flank steak or a similar cut, something fairly lean that will become more tender when cut across its grain. And it’s fine to use the pre-chopped ginger you can buy at Indian groceries or places like Global Foods. The jalapeno pepper may have the seeds and fibers removed to make it less fiery, giving just a light kick to the dressing. The next time we have it, we’re going to add some cucumber slices for garnish.

Thai-Style Beef Salad

3 small heads or 2 large ones of different lettuces of your choice

3/4 c. of peanut oil, divided

4 Tbs. fresh lime juice, divided

3 Tbs. soy sauce, divided

1 lb. fairly lean beef, about 1 inch thick

1 Tbs. minced fresh ginger

2 medium garlic cloves, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, coarsely chopped

1/4 c. minced fresh cilantro

1 or 2 tomatoes, cut in wedges

1 small red onion, cut in rings,.

Wash the lettuces and break them into bite-sized pieces. Dry them and refrigerate until needed.

Combine 2 tablespoons of the peanut oil, 2 tablespoons of the lime juice and 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce in a sealable plastic bag. Trim any extra fat from the beef, put it into the bag with the marinade, press out any excess air, and set aside at room temperature for an hour. (If you’re using chicken, refrigerate it.)

In a food processor or blender, combine 1 /2 cup peanut oil, the remaining 2 tablespoons of lime juice and of soy sauce, the ginger, garlic and jalapeno. Blend until smooth. Set aside.

Heat a heavy skillet over high heat. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the pan, and heat it until it smokes a little. Remove the steak from the marinade, shaking off any excess, and add the meat to the skillet. Sear it for about 3 minutes on each side. Allow it to cook for another 10 minutes or so, turning once or twice, to make it medium rare. Add the reserved marinade to the dressing in the processor. (If you’re cooking chicken, cook it longer, and do not add its marinade to the dressing.) When the meat is cooked, set it aside on a cutting board, and remove the skillet from the heat.

Put the greens into a large bowl. Add the minced cilantro, the tomato wedges and the onion rings. Pour the dressing into the still-warm skillet, using a spatula to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Put a lid on to keep the dressing warm.

With a sharp knife, cut the beef across the grain into very thin slices. Add any juices from the meat to the dressing, and toss the salad very well. Serve with the slices of meat laid across the top.

Serves 4.

-Ann

Chocolate Embarrassing Cake

At this time of the year, it always seems like parties come up, and the search begins for something to bring. Sometimes you want to show off, and other times, it’s too much trouble or takes too much time. Yes, there certainly are nice things you can buy locally, but when you really want to make something good, but not deeply involved, here’s the answer.

Deeply, dangerously chocolate, this cake is so good it was served it at my son’s wedding, the bride being a chocoholic and the cake being one of his favorites. It is not, however, complicated. In fact, it’s embarrassingly easy—thus the name. I make it in a tube pan, the sort of pan used for angel food cake, and mine is the kind with two pieces, so the cake can be lifted out from the sides. But a bundt pan or even a 9" x 13" pan (which will bake for less time) will work.

1 box chocolate or devilsfood cake mix, 2-layer size, that does not say "pudding in the mix"

1 4-serving box of instant chocolate pudding

1 12-oz. bag chocolate chips (I like mini-chips)

1 16-oz container sour cream

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the cake pan quite well, especially if you’re dealing with a tube pan that isn’t the 2-piece kind.

Dump everything in a bowl and mix until combined. The batter will be very thick. Put it into the pan, spreading the batter out. Bang it on the counter a few times to settle it in and help eliminate large air pockets. Smooth the top down a little and put it in the oven.

Bake 50-55 minutes. The top will spring back when touched lightly. Don’t bother with a cake tester; the chips make it too gooey to ever come out clean. Cool in the pan 10 or 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges (and bottom, if it’s a 2-piece pan) before removing from the pan.

Plain looking (and hard to photograph...), but yummy. If you want to do something a little more elaborate, you can fill the middle with fresh berries and/or dust it with confectioner’s sugar. Freezes well, and can be made a day or even two before serving.

-Ann