60 Minute Gourmet - Fond Memories

The reference to 60 Minute Gourmet last week brought back fond pre-marriage memories of the routine Margie and I had for Wendesday nights when we were dating. The 60MG column ran in the NYT on Wednesday. That night, I'd cook whatever was in the column, whether we thought it appealing or not. Margie would sit on my "folk music star" wooden stool at the doorway to my kitchen, which was too small for me to cook and her to sit at the same time. She would have a glass of wine, usually red and often Marietta Old Vine Red, and prop her feet against the door jamb. I cooked, she did most of the cleanup. It was a great night to look forward to, as it gave us a mid-week connection, despite the commute from Naperville to Oak Park.

Just as we followed a set routine for Wednesday nights, so there was a 60MG system. There were usually two recipes - an entree and a vegetable or rice/pasta dish. Almost all the ingredients were staples that a good cook should have on hand, including fresh staples - shallot, plum tomato, peppers, fresh herbs and so on. So all that one needed to shop for were the entree item and a few perishables - say beans, or fennel. The recipes rarely if ever required a true specialty ingredient, so shopping would be contained to a single grocery, no running all over for exotic stuff. The only problems encountered might be if a recipe called for a cut of meat or a type of fish, and that fish was not available. But often as not, he'd list several equivalent fishes to choose from. It was a very well tuned system, and I'm not sure that many people were aware of how well composed these recipes were on the point of shopping and use of staples.

So if any of this iterests you, here are links to the books created from the NYT columns. Cuisine Rapide is the best book of the bunch, but doesn't follow the format of the columns as orginally published. Also, the CR recipes are not particularly limited to "60 minutes" of prep time. other two books pretty much just publish the columns themselves, in book form. You'll find a few of the recipes a bit dated, and may want to cut back amounts of butter and cream, but for the most part these are classic dishes and are pretty timeless. And, best of all, they definetly meet the criteria for shopping and preparation I described above.

The New York Times 60-Minute Gourmet

More 60 Minute Gourmet

Cooking with the 60-Minute Gourmet: 300 Rediscovered Recipes from Pierre Franey's Classic New York Times Column

Cuisine Rapide: A Classic Cookbook from the 60-Minute Gourmet

WTC Returns with a Vengeance

Well, after a long drought, this blog is returning to form. For a discussion of fairly non-feeble excuses for this absence, go here. Why the triumphant tone after abandoning the blog? Becuase this here entry you're about to read is what this here blog is all about.

The Scene: Saturday 5 pm. Ms. Finn and big kids are at church. Me and the 5-year-old Sunshine are at home, charged with whipping up dinner.

The Plan: Cook some chicken. That's it. We've got a couple packages of chicken breast thawing, essentially no other ingredients of note, and it's already 5 o'clock.

First step: Pour a cocktail. I mean you gotta get some inspiration, right?
Second step: Go to the greatest go-to cookbook of all: Cuisine Rapide. It's not really all too rapide, but it's rapide enough. The discovery: Chicken with Garlic and Balsamic Vinegar. I've got garlic and balsamic. Read further: need mushrooms. I've got no mushrooms. OK, we'll do it without mushrooms. Kids don't like them anyway.
Third step: Scrounge around. Hey - whatta you know? There's a bag of fresh sugar snap peas. The kids have never seen them before, so maybe they'll buy in to the "funny looking bean" / "peas inside" thing. Another good angle "they're like edamame but you can eat the pod". It didn't work , but it was a nice try. They had carrot sticks.

Here's the menu:

• Chicken with Garlic, Balsamic Vinegar, Fresh Oregano and Sundried Tomato
• Asian-flavored Sugar Snap Peas
• Herbed Rice
• Carrot Sticks (ha!)

The Results: excellent. The chicken was out of this world, the peas very nice, and the herbed rice among the best I've made to date, even as simple as it really is. Recap of each recipe:

Chicken: The Cuisine Rapide recipe called for dusting the breasts in flour, and old school technique we don't see a lot anymore. However, it created a nice little texture around the chicken, without the down side of egg wash, breadcrumbs, etc. Also kept the breasts from sticking in the very large non-nonstick skillet I used. Lots of S&P helped, especially since I was not planning to finish the balsamic sauce for the kids, so they needed some seasoning. After browning the breasts I added chicken stock, bay leaf, a half dozen garlic cloves and fresh oregano sprigs. Cover and saute for 10 mins. Perfect. Removed chicken for kids, added balsamic and sun dried tomato slices (Amy loved them), and finished the sauce with a touch of butter. Wonderful, wonderful. Kids really liked the chicked - "best you've ever made" from Alex, the pickiest of the bunch. The oregano and sundried tomato were added simply because I had them, and wanted to substitute for the missing mushrooms.

Peas: Steamed them in microwave, 2 min then let sit covered until done. Sauteed shallot, ginger and garlic in oil, added a splash of sesame then tossed with the peas. Not the perfect match for the chicken, but nice and fresh.

Rice: Suateed onion as a base, sauteed the rice as well, then added fresh thyme, fresh parsley, tarragon (I never have it fresh and don't think it grows in our harsh summer climate) and used half chicken stock / half water. I used an Emile Henry ceramic pot that can be used on the stove top, oven or microwave (and dishwasher). Love this pot. The key to this recipe though, was use of a high quality Basmati rice. The one I used was about $5-6 for 4 pounds. Pretty steep for rice, and the price will likely go higher soon with the news of rising rice prices worldwide. But, the texture, nuttiness and appearance are well worth it. This simple dish is really a stunning side that can hold up to and complement most any cuisine. Respect this one.

TTFN - and please wish me luck on staying current on the blog updates.

Steak and Potato Frittata with Blue Cheese Butter

With Margie's father in law Pete visiting us for most of the month of February, we needed a nice Saturday morning breakfast today. Cuisine Rapide (CR) has a couple of frittata recipes which have been staples for years. Today's frittata uses some ingredient proportions based on the CR recipe, but differs greatly in main ingredients.

The choice of steak is based on some leftovers in the fridge. Chunks of ham, chicken, or pork would work as well, but you would want to adjust the herb choices. Fresh basil works with most anything, but I felt rosemary and a touch or oregano was a better match for the steak.

We also had some left over blue cheese butter. A half teaspoon on top of a warm frittata slice is more than enough to add a finishing complementary flavor.

We also served this with browned sausages and fresh baked bread using the NYT no-knead recipe.

A classic frittata recipe calls for flipping it in the pan after cooking about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way. However, I've avoided that complex and risky step through effective use of the broiler.


Steak and Potato Frittata


3/4 lb potato, sliced thin
2 T butter
1 red pepper, diced finely
1/2 C red onion, diced finely
1/4 t rosemary (dried). 3/4 t if using fresh

1/8 t oregano (dried). 1/2 t if using fresh

1/2 to 1 C leftover steak, cut into small cubes

10 large eggs
1/4 lb gruyere or other medium white cheese
Pinch of cayenne pepper, salt


1. Pre heat broiler
2. Add butter an potato slices to large, oven proof skillet. Cook 4-5 minutes, until potatoes are softened.
3. Whisk eggs and cheese with cayenne and salt.
4. Add pepper, onion and herbs. Mix with potatoes and cook 2-3 minutes.
5. Add steak cubes and cook 2 minutes
6. Pour egg mixture into pan, incorporate thoroughly, then leave pan alone for 1 minute to allow eggs to begin to set.
7. Gently life edges of cooked egg, tipping pan and allowing more egg to run underneath.
8. Cover and cook 2-3 minutes. Top center of eggs will be not yet be cooked.
9. Place pan under broiler until center of eggs are cooked, and the entire surface is browned.

Using spatula, check a thick part of frittata for doneness. If not fully set, cover pan and rest on stove for 3 or more minutes. Frittata can be covered and kept warm for 10 or 15 minutes before serving, but if covered, it will deflate slightly.

Cut into 6 or 8 wedges, serve with small dollop of blue cheese butter.


Blue Cheese Butter

2 T Blue cheese
2 T butter
1/4 t salt
1/4 to 1/2 t pepper

Allow cheese and butter to soften, then combine all ingredients. Keeps for 1-2 weeks refrigerated.

Shrimp, Tuna, Zucchini and Porcini Pasta

We turned the corner late last week and returned to beautiful temperate southern weather - more than sufficient for comfortable evening grilling. I enjoyed spending time Saturday with my buddy Paul, a single dad who is embarking on learning how to cook. A future post will cover some of that discussion, where we reviewed basic pantry needs and kitchen equipment.

We reviewed a number of recipes from How to Cook Everything, since it includes so many good foundation recipes. You know, "basic tomato sauce", "the basics of cooking fish", and so on. A recipe for orrechiette with porcini caught my eye, and I dragged out a large container of dried porcini to show Paul. Another recipe we discussed was the spiced crust for grilled tuna that I stumbled across last summer.

All this lead to the following menu for Sunday:

• Spice crusted grilled tuna, Bon Appetit, August 2005
  
• Shrimp with rosemary garlic butter, Cuisine Rapide
  
• Grilled zucchini and nectarines, no recipe
  
• Orrechiette with porcini and garlic, How to Cook Everything, pp.
  

The spice mix for tuna was part of an attempt by Bon Appetit to create a near one-dish meal that includes couscous and sauteed vegetables. It also included a simplistic aioli. From that mish mash only the tuna seasoning stood out. The recipe called for 2 1/2 pounds of tuna steak, but a large quantity of spices is needed for that much tuna. So for about 1 1/2 pounds of tuna, brush olive oil on the steaks, and coat with a spice mixture composed of 2 t fennel, 1 t whole coriander, 1 t black peppercorns - lightly toasted then ground. Add 1 1/2 t of kosher salt to complete the rub.

The shrimp and sauce is a very solid recipe from Cuisine Rapide - THE GREATEST COOKBOOK EVER WRITTEN. Coat shrimp in olive oil, put on skewers and grill for 2-4 minutes. The sauce was approx 2 T butter, 2 T white wine, 1 T finely chopped rosemary, S&P - combine all and bring to boil. Take off heat and add 1 T chopped chives.

This sauce was used last night by Amy to dip her broccoli. Mmmmmm.

Zucchini were brushed with oil, S&P and grilled just until marks appears, about 2-4 minutes. Simultaneously a halved, pitted nectarine was brushed with oil and grilled. Each were chopped into large pieces, about 1" and tossed together. What it needed was a little more kick - maybe a little cayenne would have done the trick. If not, then cayenne, garlic and fresh thyme ought to work.

The last dish was based on the HTCE recipe for porcini pasta. However, in substituting reconstituted dried porcini for fresh (which are exceedingly hard to find), that recipe wouldn't t have had sufficient flavor. So I added garlic and shallots to the sauteed porcini. The sauce was completed by simply adding pasta cooking water and the porcini soakcing water to the hot pasta and vegetables, topped with a generous handful of chopped parsley.

Cold Weekend - Chili Day

Day two of the cold weekend was dedicated to football and chili - after golf of course. 29 degrees in the morning and the first frost delay I can remember in Houston. So late afternoon chili was quite appealing.

• Chili a la Franey, Cuisine Rapide
  
• Green Chipotle Turkey Chili, Gourmet Cookbook
  

Also served leftover jicama and cucumbers, veggies and marinated tomatoes (see previous post).

The first chili is a long time staple from Cuisine Rapide (CR - the GREATEST COOKBOOK EVER PUBLISHED). It's not remarkable, and that's it's strong point. It's resplendent in fresh vegetables and flavor, has great balance and a nice little spicy kick. I substitute cayenne for red pepper flakes, but otherwise make this as written. Also the mix of 50/50 ground pork and ground beef seems to smooth the meat flavors and textures just a bit.

The Chipotle Turkey chili is a keeper. The body of the dish is four pounds of ground and chopped turkey, onion, garlic, green pepper and turkey stocks (I had rich homemade turkey stock still available). Key ingredients were two chipotles that were blended in a cup of water, allowing the chipotle flavor to be distributed into every bite evenly, via tiny flecks of pepper. Over a pound of tomatillos were blanched then blended - making up the majority of vegetable in the dish.

The chili was "thickened" with a tablespoon of corn meal. I wouldn't recommend that approach, and will revert to a cornstarch mixture, as in my regular white chili recipe. The only complaint about this dish is that it needed to be thickened more.

Both chilis were served with small pasta for 'chili-mac', sour cream and lime wedges.

New Years Day Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo

The first gumbo I made was likely from the old New York Times cookbook, or the Shrimp and Crab recipe from Cuisine Rapide. No question, the CR recipe is solid, and I've made it many, many times. However, it would never be mistaken for an authentic gumbo. It cheats on the roux, has too much tomato, and is far too fancy with it's pound of crab.

Here's my New Years Day 2008 variation: Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo

2 pounds pork and venison sausage, in 1/4" slices
-- alternately, use andouille or other specialy cured soft sausage combination
1/2 lb tasso, cubed
2 cups onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups celery, chopped
1 1/2 cups bell pepper, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pound fresh okra, trimmed and sliced
1 cup crushed tomato
6 cups stock - (from shrimp shells, celery, onion, peppercorn, bay leaf; or other stock).
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon cayenne
3 tablespoons Worchestershire
S&P
2  pounds shrimp
1 lemon, sliced thin

1. Saute sausage in small amount of olive oil, in a dutch oven, until most of the slices are browned. Expect a frond to develop on bottom of pan. Remove sausage. Brown tasso and remove. Tasso substitue: pork shoulder.
2. Add vegetables except okra. Saute 5 minutes. Add okra and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add stock, spices and reserved meats. Bring to boil. Reduce to simmer.
4. Add shrimp and lemon. Simmer 10-15 min.
5. If needed, mix 1.5 tablespoons cornstarch with water, add to gumbo to thicken. Remove lemons. Adjust.

Serve over rice. Toasted sourdough bread sounds appealing, as does a garlic bread - but this gumbo is so filling that bread is overkill and should be omitted.

Saturday November 3 - Grilled Lamb and two salads

Can't remember much of this day, but took these notes. Raddichio and Fennel came from Gourmet or NYT Chef book. But recipe wasn't great, so not worth checking which source it came from. The proportions on the viniagrette for the fig and mozz salad are sublime - definite long-term keeper recipe.

• Grilled Radicchio and Fennel Salad
• Fig and fresh mozzarella salad - Gourmet Restaurant Issue, 2006; chef David Chang, Momofuku Ssam Bar
• Grilled Lamb leg

Can't go wrong with grilled lamb. I've used many recipes, but the best remains Cuisine Rapide Provencal Grilled Lam Leg. The whole mustard seeds and tarragon are masterful and stand up to the grilling, which is hard to believe.