I Don't Know About The Tom-inator, But ...

... I have no doubt that the rest of this is the best barbecue in Atlanta. Our co-worker Chris's brothers run it and he's given us some of their ribs as a Christmas gift before. Mmmm, mmm, good! As this Fox News guy attests to.

Fine Art Friday

Red Wine by Qiang Huang,
the featured artist in today's Fine Art Festival.

How to Peel a Banana

Here's one reason to read David Leibovitz. He's so darned funny ...

*To Peel the Banana: Hold the banana in one hand near the base. With your other hand, grab the top stem, and pull it firmly downward. If it gives you trouble, rock it back-and-forth, trying to break the area between the stem and the skin just beneath. If that doesn’t work, take a sharp paring knife, being careful not to cut yourself, hold the blade facing away from you and make a small incision on the side of the skin near the tip. Set the knife aside the tear the skin of the banana using your hands, which should make the skin peel away nicely.

Pull each side of skin down from the banana, exposing the fleshy fruit beneath. Once the banana is almost completely visible, firmly yank the skin down as far as possible and extract the banana from the skin. Discard the skin (it can be frozen, well-wrapped, for up to six month and saved for another use, if desired.) The banana should be used immediately. If not, it can be pureed then stored in a container with a sheet of plastic film pressed against the top, and refrigerated for up to 48 hours.

(Disclosure: The International Association of Banana Peelers, Slicers and Blenders, nor any liquor companies, are sponsors of the site. The instructions for peeling bananas and the recipe are a direct result of my trial-and-error methods, which I developed exclusively for readers.)

The other reason to read him? Because this footnote accompanies a recipe called The Easiest Chocolate Ice Ream Recipe ... Ever which doesn't require an ice cream machine and evidently keeps a perfect consistency in the freezer for months! Wow!

Why Fruitcake for the Holidays?

Did you know that fruitcake is considered a holiday dessert to this day because of a law that was passed in England in the 18th century? The law restricted fruitcake consumption to the holiday season because it was considered far too rich for regular eating. These days, whether people think of fruitcake kindly or with deep suspicion, it is something to make, consume and share around the holidays.

Slashfood has the scoop. I don't make fruitcake but I love it ... and who wouldn't when it is from the Collin Street Bakery? Mmmmm ...

Thanksgiving ... Already?

Finally, this weekend I could no longer ignore the fact that Thanksgiving is this week. Luckily, our menu, like most, is set except for a few things which are my Thanksgiving "funny bone" and that I get quirky with every year. Variations are allowed by my family in the cranberry relish and sweet potatoes ... and that is only because I am the only one who eats them. Our day-after-Thanksgiving meal also is mandated by tradition. Chef salad featuring turkey (of course), blue cheese dressing and crumbled bacon (the real thing please!) on top. Mmmmmm, crumbled bacon ...

Here are a few links to recipes I've posted that we'll have at the feast.

Holiday Central
Ok, not my recipes but O Chef must answer just about every question you could think of there ... including any that my "short-hand" recipes may leave you with!

Herbed Thanksgiving Stuffing
This is the best stuffing ever and cooks in a slow cooker. I have made this four times now and never been disappointed. It really frees up the oven for other things and, if you happen to have a problem with sticking your hand up a turkey (no problemo here) then you're set free from that as well.

Skillet Cornbread
If you happen to like cornbread stuffing (which I do not), you may want to make this for your base. I've never found a better recipe.

Pecan Topped Sweet Potato Casserole
This was new for Thanksgiving last year and it was delicious. However, this year, I'm going to try Sweet Potatoes Baked in Cane Syrup from The Texas Cowboy Cookbook (scroll to the bottom of the post). Why? Just because it sounds interesting.

Mashed Potato Dinner Rolls
These are a favorite any time but especially at Thanksgiving ... all-American dinner rolls.

Cranberry Ginger Relish
I made this last year. Then I made another recipe when that ran out ... and then another. Well, you get the idea.

Perfect Piecrust
This is not a misnomer. Very easy and very delicious. It is long but that is to give detailed directions. You can't go wrong with this.

Pecan Pie
This is non-negotiable. Gotta have it.

Pumpkin Pie
Are you allowed to have Thanksgiving without this? Or watch the Cowboys play without having some? Nope.

We'll also be having some Greek Green Beans (a pound of green beans, juice of a lemon, a can of diced tomatoes, a chopped onion, some olive oil ... all simmered slowly for about an hour ... mmmm) and ... something else green ... maybe spinach? Not that we need any more food, mind you, but my mind quails at the sheer heaviness of it all without some veg to balance it.

LEFTOVERS
These are not usually a problem around our place but The Common Room has some interesting looking recipes, especially that casserole. Check it out.

Mashed Potato Dinner Rolls

This weekend I made a batch of these to have on hand for Thanksgiving. This recipe is from The Grass Roots Cookbook by Jean Anderson. I don't think it is in print any more so if you see a copy for sale, snap it up. It was the result of a "best cooks" series run by Family Circle, for which Anderson traveled thousands of miles and profiled many home cooks around the country known locally for their excellent cooking. This is one of the best cookbooks I know for representing regional cooking in the last days when such a thing was widespread and cooks vied to be the best. Every recipe I have tried from it has always been wonderful.

These rolls are no exception and my family loves them. They are the epitome of those soft, slightly sweet, buttery American rolls that are so difficult to find these days. Bakeries carry ciabiotta, authentic baguettes, fresh flour tortillas ... but a good American roll is hard to find.

I make these using leftover mashed potatoes. The fact that they are seasoned doesn't really make any difference to the rolls. Also, I have found it is good to leave the dough slightly sticky. Otherwise the rolls will be dry. I also tend to add 1-1/2 teaspoons malt powder (from King Arthur Flour) when I have it around.

If I am making them to serve to a large group, then I will bake them as described in the recipe. The result is very pretty, as our Japanese exchange student from long ago said, "Like a flower!" Otherwise, in a more utilitarian fashion, I make 48 balls of dough and put them 6-rolls x 8-rolls into a half-sheet jelly roll pan. (This is a large size pan that you can get from a restaurant supply company. I find them invaluable for cookie baking and much more.) I then freeze them in 6-roll squares to pull out for dinner.

Here is the recipe, straight from the book.

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup hot, unseasoned mashed potatoes
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 package active dry yeast (That would be 2-1/2 teaspoons for those using bulk yeast ... also available from King Arthur flour. I double this amount if I am in a hurry.)
2 cups warm milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
9-10 cups all-purpose flour (enough to make a soft but manageable dough)

1. Combine butter, mashed potatoes, sugar and salt and stir until butter melts (if using leftover mashed potatoes, melt the butter and add it ... that warms up the potatoes). Cool mixture to 105 to 115 (or lukewarm).
2. Sprinkle yeast over warm milk in a large mixing bowl (milk should feel comfortably warm when dropped on wrist). Stir until yeast dissolves.
3. Add mashed-potato mixture to yeast; beat in eggs. Add the flour about 2 cups at a time, beating well to blend. Add only enough flour to give you a soft but workable dough -- it should not be so sticky that you cannot knead it.
4. Turn dough onto a floured board and, with well-floured hands, knead about 5 minutes or until soft and springy (I do the mixing in my Kitchen Aid with the beater until it is "shaggy" and switch to a kneading hook for the kneading ... but for many years I made these by hand).
5. Turn dough into a buttered bowl and brush the surface with melted butter. Cover with a clean dry cloth and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in bulk -- about 2 hours. (This dough takes somewhat longer than usual to rise because it contains only 1 package of yeast.)
6. Punch dough down and let rest about 10 minutes. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead lightly again -- about 2-3 minutes.
7. Pinch off bits of dough and roll into balls about the size of golf balls. Arrange one layer deep, in concentric rings, in three well-greased 9-inch layer-cake pans (I also have used pie pans for this), spacing the rolls so that they do not quite touch one another (they will after they have risen). Cover pans with clean dry cloth, set in a warm, draft-free spot and again let rise until double in bulk -- about 1 hour or slightly longer.
8. Bake the rolls in a very hot oven (450) for 10 minutes or until rolls are nicely browned and sound hollow when thumped with your fingers. Serve hot with plenty of butter.
9. Note: Any rolls not eaten right away can be cooled to room temperature, then wrapped in foil (do not separate rolls) and frozen to enjoy later.
   

True Confessions of Two Chefs

David Leibovitz reviews Alice Water's new cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, and begins with a classic reminiscence.

During my interview at Chez Panisse, as I sat across the table from Alice Waters in the main dining room at the restaurant, she asked me, "What do you eat at home?"

Since I'm not exactly convincing when lying, I told her.

"I eat popcorn, mostly." And continued, "I'm a restaurant cook. I don't have time to eat at home."

(Although I did conveniently omit the fact that it was microwave popcorn...)

In spite of that, or because of my chutzpah, I got hired and worked at Chez Panisse for a long time. What nailed it for me and endeared me to Alice, years later, wasn't her politics or her philosophy on cooking. It was when I told her, "I really like to drink coffee leftover from the morning, with milk in it, that's been sitting on the counter all day."

And she said, "Me too."

Go read the review and take a look at that Gingersnaps recipe he excerpts. Mmmm, those look fantastic.

Cross-posted at Happy Catholic.

Fine Art Friday

The Bucket by Edward B. Gordon

Can this guy do a painting I don't like? Nope.

How to Judge a Tex-Mex Restaurant

Here are a few guidelines: 1. It has to be family-owned. 2. A ramshackle space with added-on rooms is a positive. The most successful Tex-Mex restaurants started small and expanded due to popular demand. 3. It’s best if the patrons in the dining room look like the face of democracy. You want a mix of gringos and Hispanic customers; professionals and laborers.

Joe Gonzalez who, with his wife, Alma, opened El Jardin in 1975, offers a fourth tip: take careful measure of the chips and salsa.

“It’s the first thing that hits the table,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “Are the chips and salsa homemade, or does it taste like they’re from a bag and a jar? Right there you know if you’re in for the real thing, or they’re trying to save money.”

Indeed, this is exactly how I begin judging a new Tex-Mex place. Much, much more about Tex-Mex, that "native regional food," from this NY Times article, A Celebration of Tex-Mex, Without Apology. It's got plenty of input from Robb Walsh whose seminal Texas cookbooks I reviewed here. Thanks to Don for sending me the link to this enjoyable article!

NOT ENOUGH TEXAS COOKING?
Read about The Saga of Texas Chili and Terlingua.

Deep in the Heart of Texas: Robb Walsh

Whenever I see an unlicensed shade-tree barbecue stand along the side of a Texas farm-to-market road, I think of history's first barbecue salesmen -- those famous outlaws, the buccaneers.

In the French West Indies, the word for a barbecue grill is boucan (from Tupi, a Brizilian language). Boucanee means smoked meat. Hence, "buccaneer" is derived from the French word for "barbecuer." The buccaneers were a ragtag crew consisting mainly of French and English outlaws and escaped slaves. They hid from the Spanish on the island of Tortuga off the northern coast of Hispaniola in the mid-1600s. Although they would later be known for their seafaring exploits, their original business was smoke-cured meat.

The buccaneers hunted the wild cows and pigs left behind the failed Spanish settlements on the island of Hispaniola. They smoke-cured the meat and sold it to the passing ships. Hunted themselves by the Spanish, the buccaneeers banded together for their own protection. Eventually they gave up on the meat business and went to sea. soon they discovered that capturing Spanish vessels by surprise attack was a lot more lucrative than chasing wild pigs. Before long, the buccaneers came to be known more as fearless seamen than as barbecue purveyors. But many would argue that it was in their first occupation that they made their most significant contribution to humanity.

Like the buccaneers, Texas barbecue joints are forever at odds with the authorities. Barbecue is, by definition, a primitive cooking process. The health laws in many Texas counties do not allow restaurants to cook outdoors. Many barbecue joints build tin roofs, screened porches, and other elaborate facades to bring the outdoor cooking indoors (at least technically). In outlaw tradition, the best barbecue generally comes from the joint that is in the most trouble with the health department.

Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pit Bosses by Robb Walsh

If you are interested in the history of American cooking, then Robb Walsh is a must read.

If you are interested in the history of Texas cooking, then Robb Walsh is a must read.

If you are interested in Texas cooking now as well as recipes on doing this yourself ... well you get the point.

Must read!

Yes, I'm a fan.

He has covered barbecue, Tex-Mex, and cowboy cooking with historical information, oral tradition, restaurant information, and current day cooking and tastes. He does his own research, takes his own photos when those he can find won't do, and makes it all so easy to read that you don't feel as if you are absorbing history.

Excerpts tend to speak better for his cookbooks than I can do.

The Tex-Mex Railway

"Tex-Mex" first entered the language as a nickname for the Texas and Mexican Railway which was chartered in 1875. Newspaper railroad schedules used the abbrreviation "Tex. Mex." for the rail line which ran from Laredo to Corpus Christi.

The Oxford English Dictionary has cited a 1941 Time magazine quote as the first use in print, but several earlier citations appear in small-town newspapers. An earlier use of the hyphenated form is found in this May 23, 1922, citation from the Mexia Evening News (Mexia, Texas): "... the new town of Marindo City on the Tex-Mex Railway, where oil is loaded ..."

The term came to be used across the U.S. to describe people of Mexican ancestry in Texas as in this item from The Gastonia Daily Gazette (Gastonia, North Carolina) May 29, 1926: "One year the offering went to the Tex-Mex school, the School for Mexicans on the Texas side." On September 19, 1928, the Newark Advocate (Newark, Ohio) published this definition: "Q. What are Tex-Mex? A. Texas-born Mexicans."

The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos by Robb Walsh

But what about the recipes I can hear you saying. What about cooking from these books?

Good question and, sadly, all my appreciation comes from reading the books as I have been doing basic subsistence cooking lately. However, I feel myself shaking that mood off and plan to make this recipe soon. For more concrete appreciation, check out Homesick Texan who not only cooks from these books but has actually spent time cooking with Robb Walsh!

Sweet Potatoes Baked in Cane Syrup

(from The Texas Cowboy Cookbook)

How long you bake it depends on how wet the potatoes are, Mama Sugar Sanders cautions. If the sweet potatoes give off a lot of water, increase the baking time until the liquid is reduced.

Serves 8

2 tablespoons butter
3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 cup cane syrup
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter a medium baking dish.

Layer the sweet potato slices in the prepared baking dish. Pour the cane syrup over the top and dot with the remaining butter. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the baking dish from the oven and tun with a spatula so the top slices are on the bottom and the bottom slices are on top. Sprinkle with the sugar and return to the oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes more, until the juices have thickened into a syrup. Remove the pan from the oven and press down on the potato slices with a spatula so they are submerged in the juices. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Now Serving Hot Links

3 Easy Pieces
Spaghetti with Breadcrumbs, Quesadillas, and Shrimp. That's what three Dallas chefs cook at home for their families on their day off. Good looking and simple recipes ... I'd forgotten about Quesadillas as a potential meal so this was a nice reminder of a really quick, delicious save for busy days. This is the feature story of the food section at the Dallas Morning News and free registration may be required.

The King of Casseroles?

We Texans, like most Americans, love our casseroles. Though what usually sets a Texan casserole apart from its neighbors is the spices used. Not shy with the peppers, most Texan casseroles have a bit of a kick. And one of the most popular casseroles we make is King Ranch Chicken Casserole, a soft, slightly spicy, cheesy mixture of tomatoes, corn tortillas, chicken, cream and peppers. It goes down easy and is the ultimate comfort food.

Yep. I love a good King Ranch Casserole which I'd never heard of until I moved to Texas. Homesick Texan has not only a recipe but her always-fun-to-read commentary as well.

Mooncakes and the Mid-Autumn Festival

Growing up, our group of girl cousins were told that the Moon Goddess Chang E would powder her face so as to be at her most beautiful on that night. Being a deity, the powder that falls from her puff would bless young maidens with beauty. Hence, we should sit demurely with our faces upturned toward the moon and think "pure thoughts." ...

Also, I could not wrap my mind around why the aunts did not have to participate in the same vapid moon-gazing; at that tender age, I did not know of anyone in greater need of Chang E's magic powder than Second Aunt.

Memories of the Mooncake Festival ... a good read.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

As I anticipated, there is a heckuva a lot of agenda in the book. However, I find most of the agenda congenial. Because I've grown increasingly suspicious of anything that represents itself as "non-fiction" there are some facts I would like to check out--particularly things like whether a patent on a genotype gives you the right to shut down nearby farming operations into which your patented genes have dispersed by air. If so, we all have a lot to be concerned about with the control of the eight basic crops in the hands of only four companies.

But I've also grown used to the fact that a specific wildly idiotic example is held up as the universal practice. I'm also suspicious of unquoted sources and innuendo.

Steven Riddle is reading the latest trendy food-ethics book (the label is my own) and has reactions similar to the ones I have felt from simply reading enthralled foodies' reviews. Being Steven, of course, he is eminently fair and so also shares an overview, a bit of Ms. Kingsolvers' humor, and a danger that never would have occurred to him without the book. Certainly I never would have thought to consider this book alongside Dante's warnings about gluttons, even though I am currently working my way (very slowly) thorough that classic. Check it out.

Good Blogs Alert!
A lot of people probably have already discovered these blogs but just in case ...

• Tigers & Strawberries
  Barbara Fisher has intelligent and interesting food writing as well as a passion for Asian foods to make at home. Take a look through her archives and you will find accessible recipes for a gaggle of noodle dishes as well as the more commonly thought of stir-fries ... many of them inspired by the sort of restaurant cooking she used to do. As well she has thoughtful writing on food subjects of the moment when they arise ... such as the media terror over fewer bees and the trendiness of cupcakes. (Which is to say that I agree with, right? Right.)


• CHOW Tour: Mongol Rally
  From London to Mongolia, fish and chips to fermented horse milk, all in a month. Writer Joshua M. Bernstein and his crew are eating their way across 8,000 miles in the Mongol Rally... Which leads to such seminal moments as ...

  What interests me more are pinkie-size bricks that appear to be made out of the stuff that’s inside malted milk balls. I walk up to a woman wearing a vibrant purple dress and a green headband. Her front four teeth are fake, which she demonstrates by disconcertingly sliding them around her mouth while talking.
  
  She tries to sell me a bowl of milky liquid, which looks suspiciously like the sour goat milk I despise. But I do buy several bricks for five soms (less than a penny).
  
  “Moo?” I ask. Thankfully, animal sounds are universal. I’m guessing it’s milk curds.
  
  The woman nods. “Aaruul.”
  
  Mims and I take a bite of one brick. It’s as dry as chalk and tastes like sour Parmesan.
  
  “All the moisture has been sucked from my mouth,” Mims says.

  Good stuff.