French Omelette (The True Test of a Good Cook)

I recently finished a fabulous book on food that contained no recipes. Despite this fact, it is one of the best books on food philosophy, restaurants and the way they operate, life lessons in general, and the life experiences of its author, Daniel Boulud. Boulud has a spot at the table among my top five chefs of all time. The book, Letters to a Young Chef, is well worth your time if you are a foodie, a cook, or eat in restaurants.

Brown Rice and Assorted Goodness (Green Tea Soup)

I am always disappointed when December 26th rolls around. All the wonderful parts of our faith that are so meaningful this time of year, advent, parties, music, beauty, special foods, lights, and time with family, seem to cease so abruptly. To some folks the 26th of December is all about more shopping at the malls looking for deals that eluded them prior to Christmas. Don't take me to the mall! I am not fond of shopping and I am less fond of crowds.

In past times, Christmas day merely commenced more days of meaning. Remember the song "Good King Wenseczslaus looked out on the Feast of Stephen?" Well, the Feast of Stephen is December 26th. The "twelve days of Christmas" refer to the days of the interval beginning with December 25th and ending with January 6th, the feast day of "Epiphany." In France and Mexico January 6th is also known as "Three Kings Day," when presents are exchanged in honor of gifts brought to the Christ Child or "Krist Kindl" (sound familiar?).

I am having no problem extending and enjoying the season. I and Sam drove through the very cold southwest to Denver. The mercury hovered around 10 degrees for most of our drive till we reached Albuqurque where it was a balmy 28 degrees. For two southern California boys our blood felt a little thin. Denver has a foot of snow, it is cold, and it is still Christmas. We now celebrate Christmas all over again, as well as the conjoined birthdays of Iris and Lydia.

I brought another group of gifts to the Farrens family which we will all share. Gifts of meat. Standing beef rib roast, crown roast (or "prime rib") of pork, and pork tenderloin. We might as well keep the feasting going as well. I'll write about preparing those later. Last night was Pork tenderloin, green beans, and brown rice.

My grand-daughters Lydia and Iris are brown rice eating machines. Iris (1 year old) ate a full two cup portion. They also like it for breakfast. Brown rice is much more healthy for you as all the fiber is still present, and has been processed much less. The down side to brown rice? It takes pretty much forever to cook. No "minute rice" is available in brown. To speed things up slightly, use short grain, but plan on one hour of cooking time. What do you do with the leftovers? Try this yummy soup.

Green Tea Soup (jasmine tea may be substituted and is quite delicious as well)

2 cups short grain brown rice

1 tsp salt

1 package toasted seasoned Nori

1 lb lean white fish, black cod, halibut, rockfish, or other (cubed into 1" pieces)

2 green onions

2 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp tamari soy sauce

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp red chile flakes

2 tsp rice vinegar

8 teaspoons bulk green tea (or 8 teabags)

2 cups chicken stock

1 tsp black sesame seeds

1) Prepare brown rice or retrieve your leftover brown rice.

2)Slice nori into 1/4 inch strips. Set aside. Slice green onions including white parts into diaganol 1/2 slices. Set aside.

3) Prepare green tea with 8 cups water.

4) Add tea, rice, chicken stock, fish, and all other ingredients to a large stock pot.

5) Quickly bring all ingredients to a boil, then turn heat immediately to low. Allow to rest on low for twenty minutes. Serve and enjoy.

* you can also add a very lightly poached egg to each bowl of soup just prior to serving for beauty and delicious extra notes of flavor

Side Dishes/ Rissotto'd Orzo

I am not sure who originated this rule, but it seems to live in the heart of every red-blooded American. Dinner is a rather trinitarian affair, even if you do not believe in Trinitarian theology, or have any sort of theology. What do I mean? Think of the meals you ate growing up. Think about the meals you prepare. Meat, fish, or chicken, with vegetable, and a startch. The starch can be potato, rice, or pasta. Gets pretty boring, doesn't it?

It was in the spirit of doing something different that I created this recipe. I know, I know, orzo is a pasta, and therefore still a starch. I guess I am not ready to totally break with convention just yet. I really like rissotto, but it takes forever to make. You can make this in around fifteen-twenty minutes.

Orzo Risotto

4 Tbsp butter
2 chopped shallots
2 garlic cloves
2 cups orzo pasta
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup water
2 T white wine
1 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon zest
Finely chopped fresh thyme
Finely chopped flat parsley
Parmesan cheese for garnish

Saute shallots and garlic in butter. Add wine, stirring ingredients. Add pasta. Brown pasta in the butter until toasty and lightly browned. Add water while stirring over med-med/high heat. Continue to stir and add water till it is absorbed, continue stirring, adding chicken stock. As stock is absorbed, continue stirring and adding stock. At about the fifteen minute mark, taste the pasta. Pasta should retain some firmness. Add lemon zest, herbs, and cheese.

Serve. Serves 8.

Side Dishes/ Pecan Praline Green Beans

I am a child of the sixties. I was born in '58. I don't think "cuisine" had been invented yet. It was the days of "meat and potatoes" and the nascent frozen food industry. T.V. dinners were just coming into their own, T.V. trays were necessary so the family could sit in front of the boob tube and consume their victuals. Not much nutrition there. Not much family time around the table either.

Every mom knew in her heart that meat and potatoes were not a balanced meal. Enter the vegetable. Not fresh from the garden, not even fresh from the factory farm. I can't remember ever buying fresh vegetables. We had canned vegetables. They were utterly wretched. Speaking of wretched, that is what the sight, smell, and taste of them caused in me; wretching. They were soooooooo bad. The worst of the worst: canned peas and canned green beans. Is it any wonder I ate no vegetables until I reached my teens?

Well, I became a parent, and I too realized that children should eat their vegetables. Green beans included. What to do? Raise your own green beans. They are easy to grow, and nothing tastes better than fresh from the vine green beans, eaten the same day they were picked. A french chef friend of mine was so impressed that I was growing green, yellow, and purple "green beans" that I thought he would cry. He said "I haven't seen these since I left France." Kids will eat veggies much more readily if they "know"their food. Seeding, watering, feeding, and picking one's own veggies will make them taste immeasureably better.

If you can't convince people to eat their green beans for their own sake, buy Garlic Green Beans from SPICY CITY chinese restaurant in Kearny Mesa. Their garlic green beans are the best I have ever had from a restaurant. Or, make these for them. I developed this recipe for our kids who would have nothing whatever to do with green beans under any circumstances. Our son Sam and son-in-law Jerry were avowed green bean haters, and shockingly, always have seconds of these. Pair these green beans as a side dish with the salmon with honey mustard sauce. Enjoy.

Pecan Praline Green Beans

2/3 pound green beans
4 slices bacon
1 shallot
2 cloves garlic
¾ cup chopped pecans or pine nuts
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T brown sugar
2 T butter

Green beans can be steamed ahead till just tender when pierced with the end of a knife.
Cook bacon. Set aside. Drain grease, leaving perhaps 1 tsp drippings. Saute shallot and garlic in pan, add nuts, stirring to toast. Add balsamic to deglaze pan. Add brown sugar along with 2 T water. Add Butter. Toss steamed green beans to cover with sauce.

Farewell Diliya/ Grilled Salmon with Honey Mustard Glaze

Last night we had such a lovely dinner with two of our dearest friends and fellow workers in the work of Christ Jesus, Scott and Mary Davidson. Also present for a fond farewell supper was our new friend Diliya from Uzbekhistan. I am amazed at the way God puts new friends together, but more than friends, family and fellow heirs of the blessings of being children of our Lord together in all the riches of Jesus Christ.

What do you serve for a farewell meal? The options were beef prime rib, crown rack of pork rib (not something likely to be served in Uzbekh, a muslim country), or salmon (Uzbekh, is also utterly and completely landlocked, so seafood is rare). You can't get salmon in Uzbekh, and Diliya really likes seafood. So salmon it is.

Seafood is also the menu choice for Italian Christmas eve meals. Although I have not one drop of Italian blood, in my heart, I am at least half Italian. I have prepared this salmon for Christmas eve a few times and it is always a hit.

Grilled Salmon with Honey Mustard Sauce

Four to five ounce portions of salmon.

(Farmed is now 7.99 per pound at Costco! At that price go to Trader Joe’s for flash frozen shrink wrapped wild caught salmon. Each species of western salmon has a different color, taste, and texture. DO NOT BUY: anything labeled Keta, Johnson Straight, or silverbrite salmon. These are marketing euphemisms for a species called chum or dog salmon by the locals in Alaska, because it was worthy of using for chum for better species or to feed to the sled dogs.

4 4-5 oz portions salmon filets, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper and just a hint of garlic powder

Wood chunks and smoking box for the gas grill

2 tbsp Dijon or your preferred type mustard (for San Diego locals use Raspberry/wasabi mustard from the Julian Cider Mill in Julian, CA. It brings some amazing complex flavors to the dish)

2 tbsp Honey ( brown sugar may be substituted for honey, but use light brown)

2 tbsp dry white wine, chardonnay, pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc are nice choices

2/3 can chicken stock (of course use a good fish stock if you have it)

2 tbsp butter

Sauce can be prepared ahead for better synchronization of cooking times. Combine mustard, wine, honey, and stock in a sauce pan. Over medium high heat reduce by half. You will be concentrating flavors. Start the sauce well ahead as it will take a bit of time to reduce the liquid. Sauce will thicken without flour or corn starch.

Set aside. Grill fish until JUST DONE. Very center should be just pink as you pull fish off the grill. It will “coast” to complete doneness as you plate. Warm sauce through. Add cold butter to sauce just before serving and melt in.

Dill can be added to the sauce or put a sprinkle of it on the fish of those that like it.

Christmas Memories

Time speeds by much faster these days. Each year seems to fly more swiftly than the one before. Do you remember how painfully slow time passed in childhood. Counting down the days to Christmas seemed an eternity. I think I am still digesting turkey from Thanksgiving, and the calendar tells me it is nearly Christmas. No lights are up yet, no tree has been trimmed. We have marked the season in one of our favorite ways. I had a rare free day on Friday, a beautiful rainy day. We lit a fire in the hearth, made tea, put on Christmas music of our childhood years and baked biscotti.

When I was a child at home we had neighbors from Italy. They dug a wine cellar into the hill in their backyard. They planted fruit trees throughout the property. They had vegetables growing in the front yard while everyone else on the block had lawns. The Vitales could also really, really cook. I don't mean make a dinner now and then, everything was a production. Meals were masterpieces. They even put another cooking range in the garage off the kitchen to handle the overflow. I can still smell the fragrance of fennel, basil, rosemary, and ripe figs. Pizzas baking, sauces bubbling on the stove, Joanne Vitale cranking pasta on tables in the garage. There was always something delicious in progress at the Vitales, but Christmas time was unrivalled in the variety and quantity of treasures that were baked, simmered, roasted, rolled, and stuffed.

For some reason, the Vitales never bought a mixer. There was no need. They borrowed my mother's. We could anticipate them knocking on the door a few days preceding holidays asking to borrow our white Sunbeam mixer. I was always so delighted to rummage through our cabinets looking for the mixer and the beaters. I was excited because I knew when the mixer returned it would be accompanied by a heaving plate of goodies like nothing we had ever seen or tasted. Christmas star cookies, cannoli, pannetone, biscotti, and bowls of zabalgnon and panna cotta would be brought over by Emmanuel or Giovanni. No fairer deal has been made in history than a few hours use of our small appliance for plates full of exquisite holiday treats. I can still smell the smells and taste those tastes.

Friday's rainy day took me back to those sweet days of my childhood. The smell of cookies in the oven, brisk winter weather, and the delight of giving away love through baking for others. Who needs a tree and lights to get in the Christmas spirit.

You will love these biscotti. They contain NO FAT. No butter or shortening will be used in the making of this treat. They contain only two eggs! The flavor notes come from the variables you add to the mix. Make up your own combinations. Each ingredient brings something different to the party. Mix and match. I like to use liqeurs for adding a punch of flavor. The alcohol also adds lightness to the cookies. Try limoncello walnut! Do some experimenting. You will find the moisture content to be the trickiest part. If you get stuck or have troubles, call me or write. I am happy to give phone consultations. If you want, let's bake some together. Teaching is loads of fun.

Biscotti di prato (almond orange biscotti):

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup corn starch

1 cup sugar

1 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/4 t cardomum

1/4 t dry powdered ginger

2 eggs

zest from one whole orange

1 t vanilla

1 T orange juice

1 t triple sec or grand marnier

1-1 1/2 cups chopped almonds

1 cup finely chopped dried cranberries (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 375 or 350 convection.

2) Sift together dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly after sifting. With mixer on low add one beaten egg. Add zest, vanilla, orange juice, and triple sec. Add the next beaten egg. Mix thoroughly. Fold in nuts and cranberries.

3) Shape dough on a floured board into two squat logs no taller than 1". Place the two logs on two ends of a cookie sheet on parchment paper. Bake at 375 for twenty minutes until firm and golden. Remove from oven and cool about five mintues. Reduce heat to 300. Cut logs into 1/2 slices with a sharp chef's knife. Go straight down as you cut, do not "saw."You want clean sharp edges to the slices.

4) Bake twenty more mintues on cookie sheet until lighty toasted. Let cool on wire rack. Makes 2 1/2 dozen biscotti.

Gougeres- Cheese Puffs from Bourguignonne

I have not been to Burgundy (or Bourguignonne). In my dreams I visit in the Fall, perhaps take a trip down the river on a barge. Food and wine is a big part of life in this region. Perhaps this is why Bourguignonne has given us some of the world's best chefs: Escoffier, Bocuse, Pepin, Franey, Boulud, and many others. One of the signature dishes of this region are gougeres. Gougeres are simply a cheese puff made with pate choux, the same dough used to make eclairs and creme puffs. If you master this dough, you can do all of these delicious pastries.

The first time I had gougeres I was doing a landscape consultation at a home in Rancho Santa Fe owned by a couple that owned a well known chain of french bistros about twenty-five years ago. It was a foggy, damp, cold November late morning. I was invited in for a cup of tea and gougeres. The kitchen was about 30'x 25' with french country antiques, limestone walls and floors, a walk in fireplace with a spit and places near the fire for pot au feue. I may as well have been in Lyon. The tea warmed the body, and when I bit into a gouger I was shocked. It was as light as air. The puff was nearly hollow, but there were gossamer threads of light, eggy pastry and hints of earthy cage aged gruyere cheese. It was utterly delicious. I hope you enjoy these. I have altered 3 different recipes to arrive at this one. This recipe includes milk in the pate choux and I think it makes all the difference. Most recipes only use water. This recipe is very easy, but will impress anyone. I like to dip them in really good home-made tomato soup or with a quality salad. Go very, very Lyonnaise and serve them with bowl of french onion soup. These puffs should warm up any brisk Fall or Winter morning.

1 cup water

1 cup milk

6 tablespoons butter, cut into tablespoons

3/4 t salt

1 1/2 cups + 1 Tbsp all purpose flour

1/2 t paprika

4 large eggs

2 cups shredded gruyere cheese (Dubliner cheddar, ementhaller swiss, and many other cheeses are equally delicious)

1/4 t black pepper

1) Preheat oven to 375. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silpat. In a saucepan, combine milk and water. Heat to a near boil while stirring. Add butter 1 T at a time while stirring, till all butter is melted into the liquid. Add the flour all at once. Add the salt, pepper, and paprika. Reduce heat to low, beat vigorously with a sturdy wooden spoon over low heat, cooking the dough until flour is thoroughly incorporated. Continue to beat about three minutes until dough pulls away from the side and bottom of the pan. Trust me, you will know when this happens.

2) Remove pan from heat and let stand at room temperature about five minutes, stirring occasionally to even out heat in the dough. Add the eggs, ONE AT A TIME, beating briskly and incorporating each egg throughout all the dough, before adding another egg. This is very important. Dough will become very silky.

3) Add the cheese to the dough by gently folding in a bit at a time. Drop 3 Tbsp mounds of dough onto the baking sheets, a couple of inches apart.

4) Bake the puffs for 15 minutes at 375. Then, turn pans GENTLY. Reduce temperature to 300 for thirty more minutes. CAREFUL with the door. These are like little souffles. You do not want them to deflate due to rough handling. Turn off the oven. Prop open the door with a wooden spoon and leave for another half hour. The gougeres will be crispy on the outside and light and puffy on the inside.

Enjoy!