Tres por uno

 

Dining out does not matter.
But the pins do!
2017 Valentine Day from the Archives

We established a tradition decades ago of preparing Valentine's Day dinner together rather than eating out at a crowded restaurant. In fact, this is probably the reason we have several ribald cookbook titles on our shelves. While we have had some good meals in restaurants on the lovers' holiday, we more often spent our time struggling to find a table, perhaps finding one after a long wait ... and/or much driving around ... and getting a meal barely as good as something we could make at home. Or giving up all together and making something subpar late in the evening. Since we are apparently never going to get the hang of reservations, we just opt for treating each other to a nice meal at home.

Good thing too since a global pandemic made an in-home celebration a necessity this year. We selected three recipes, one from each of three different cookbooks: main dish, side dish, and dessert. Pam was in charge of dessert. James took on the other two. (Applies to the preparation and to the authorship of the next few paragraphs.)

A tomato dish accompanied by ... a tomato dish!

When we met, I was the tomato eater. I grew up eating tomatoes all summer. On hot days, we lived on sugary iced tea and sandwiches made of white bread, Real mayo, black pepper, and huge slabs of Mr. Foster's tomatoes. My brother and I would walk to the end of Owl's Nest Road and then up his long driveway. On his porch were baskets of tomatoes, stacks of paper bags, a scale and a money box. I dod not even remember what he looked like -- he was in the field, and the money box took care of itself. Prices early in the summer were 2 pounds/dollar, steadily decreasing. The highest number I remember was 13 pounds/dollar, after which people were encouraged just to take as much as they were willing. My mother canned a lot of these for use all year. But eating them fresh was best.

Again, when Pam and I met, I was the tomato eater and it was serious. I hardly think of the fruit at all (it is a fruit, just like coffee) without thinking of how central it was in our northern Virginia summers. Pam, however, was not a fan. Ketchup, pizza sauce, sure. But fresh tomatoes? No way.

Over the years, I maintained my prior level of interest in Solanum lycopersicum (though I learned the Latin name only about 8 seconds ago), while Pamela evolved from resistant to tolerant to obsessed over the course of a couple decades. She not only likes tomatoes: she now has a ranked-order list of tomato varietals she prefers ... and we cook with them often.

All of which I am including not only as a rebuff to those who foolishly wish for brief posts on food blogs but also as an explanation for including two fairly simple tomato-based recipes in a Valentine dinner and having the nerve to call them special.

The main course was rosemary-scented lamb over pasta from Intercourses (see what I mean about titles?). Except that I cannot bring myself to cook lamb, and so used locally raised chicken breast instead. I am certain this resulted in a huge departure from the original intent of this recipe, but we liked the result very much. The preparation probably took less time that it took me to write what you've read so far (if you are still reading). I sautéed minced garlic with strips of chicken and bell pepper. I then deglazed the pan over high heat with white wine and added crushed tomatoes and a sprig of rosemary. Once heated through, I reduced the heat and stirred in salt, pepper, and two tablespoons of heavy cream. I tossed all of this with warm, freshly cooked rigatoni and garnished with Parmesan and freshly chopped rosemary, sage, and oregano. Yum!

Meanwhile, I somehow managed to prepare roasted Parmesan tomatoes from A Taste for Love. I heated the broiler, applied Pam (the cooking spray) to a shallow baking dish, and filled it with 1-inch thick slices of tomato. Given the small tomatoes on hand, this amounted to tomato halves. In a small bowl, I mixed chopped shallots, fresh oregano, and shredded Parmesan. I sprinkled this mixture on each tomato slice, drizzled olive oil over all of them, and placed it in the boiler (not to close) for several minutes, checking frequently. When the cheese was just browned, they were perfect.

Dessert: Three-Quarter-Pound Orange Cake

We have a favorite dessert from Molly Katzen's The Moosewood Cookbook: our award-winning variation of the Mocha Swirl Coffee Cake  and while we considered replaying this recipe for Valentines Day we opted instead to try something different. I read out loud to James the Table of Contents for Katzen's dessert section and after considering a few options chose Orange Cake (I added the "three quarter pound" designation to the heading since it used three sticks of butter rather than four).

I made a list of everything we would need for the recipe and dutifully added them to our grocery list. And, we actually remembered to pack them all up when getting ready to go to our beach house for the three-day Valentines weekend. What we forgot, however, was the bundt cake pan. We normally wouldn't run out to the store for one forgotten item so we made a short list of other things so we could justify the trip out. James successfully returned with not only the necessary cake pan, but some elusive frozen hash brown patties as well. 

I started by buttering the pan and then mixing three softened sticks of butter, and 1+1/3 cup sugar (the recipe calls for 1+3/4 but that seemed excessive). Once the butter and sugar were well mixed I added four eggs (beating after each one). Next I added 1 tsp orange rind and 1 tsp vanilla.

In a separate bowl I sifted together 3 c flour and 1 T baking soda, and 1 t salt. And in yet another bowl I wisked together 1 c. plain yogurt, 1/2 c. orange juice. Each of these mixtures were added to the butter and sugar mix by alternating dry with wet, stirring after each addition, until everything was well mixed. 

Once everything was mixed together it went into the Bundt pan and baked for an hour at 350.

The cake was left to cool while I mixed and cooked the glaze of 1/2 c orange juice, 1 T sugar, 1 T lemon juice, and 2 T Triple Sec. I put all ingredients into a saucepan, brought to a boil and then simmered for 3 minutes. When the cake was cool I turned it onto a plate and poured on the glaze. 

This made a lot of dishes and a lot of cake. We will be enjoying this for a while still.

Especialidad de la Casa

Meaning "Specialty of the House" -- this was the title Pamela suggested when she said I should include this dinner on the blog. It implies something a bit beyond the usual post, as no recipe was involved.

Rather, the concept for this dinner evolved in real time as I considered what to do with a few different leftovers. I set the chicken breasts (about one and a half of them) that were thawed but not used earlier in the week onto a plate and poked them with a sharp knife. I doused them with soy sauce and then smothered them in sriracha and returned the plate to the fridge for a couple of hours. 

When it was time to cook, I heated oil in our indispensable cast-iron skillet over a high flame while I sliced the chicken into thin strips. I then sprinkled liberally with dried thyme and when the chicken was seared and nearly cooked through, I thinly sliced a crisp, granny smith apple and stirred it in. As I usually do when cooking with apples, I sliced the top and the bottom off, discarding them, and then used a corer to make 8 sections. I sliced each lengthwise into two or three thin slices, leaving the skin on. By discarding the tops, I get about half the skin and most of the flesh, making for a nice compromise on texture.

Apple-chicken-thyme, in progress

I then added a bit more oil and a cup of cooked rice that was already in the fridge. Once heated through, I plated this and opened -- as one might guess -- some Malbec. This was so simple and delicious that we will savor today's leftovers (with a shared quesadilla) and will put this in the Casa Hayes-Boh dinner rotation!

Rare Baked Scallops

Careful readers of this space will know that our menu choices are often inspired by the National Day Calendar -- and that we often do not consult it early enough to make a solid plan. In these unprecedented times, we have to balance among three factors: our desire to get the meal right, our willingness to improvise, our ability to improvise, and our willingness to risk an extra grocery run.

To these usual considerations, we added a bit of seaside snobbery to the decision matrix for Friday's dinner. The most important scalloping harbor on the planet is minutes from our weekend kitchen -- we do not subject fresh scallops to heavy-handed preparations, and we certainly do not BAKE them. But Friday was -- for whatever reason -- National Baked Scallops Day -- so we decided to make an effort. Even the calendar page suggests that baking is not the best way to treat scallops, but I must admit I did not even read the recipe posted there.

Rather, I turned to our weekend-kitchen bookshelf for Scallops: A New England Coastal Cookbook by Elaine Tammi, Karin Tammi, and Chris Schlesinger. This is more of a scallop bible than just a cookbook. I decided that if these authors had ideas for baking, they would be good enough for me

I found "Baked Scallops with Bacon Bits" and decided to proceed without the bacon. Even though it turns out we did have enough free-range bacon on hand to have provided these bits, they were certainly optional. I also concerned myself with an ingredient from the recipe on the previous page in the cookbook, "Baked Scallops and Leeks." My lazy reading conflated the recipes, but I do not regret it. Having no leeks -- and being willing only to go to the fishmonger, not the grocery -- I decided to use an onion, but with the mildest preparation possible. So it came to be that I sautéed a thinly sliced onion over very low heat with a lot of butter. I spooned this into the bottom of a small baking dish.

I cleaned the scallops carefully -- removing that muscly "foot" from each one makes a BIG difference in any scallop meal. I then used this recipe's key innovation: poaching. I simply poured boiling water over a bowlful of scallops and let them rest for two minutes before draining. Scallops are so sensitive to heat that even this very mild form of cooking made them all opaque. I neglected to add a bit of vinegar -- again, I was not so much following this recipe as allowing it to exert a bit of influence on a freelance effort.

I then prepared a "wash" by whisking an egg with a bit of water and Tabasco. using indispensable tongs (click-click!), I drenched each one and then dredged it in flour. The recipe called for dredging in bread crumbs as well, but I opted to sprinkle them on top, and then to drizzle just a bit of melted butter over the entire dish. I baked 15 minutes at 400F and then broiled (from the center of the oven, not top-rack) for 5 more minutes.

Baked scallops -- a rare sighting that might become
more common at Whaling House

The result: perfect! I am convinced that the gentle poaching was key -- it gave the scallops just enough of a cooking start that the baking time could be limited and toughness avoided. This paired nicely with a chilled Chardonnay from our favorite local vineyard.

The other key: my favorite librarian, life partner, and co-blogger has asked that I mention an additional key to the success of this dish. I like putting bread crumbs on casseroles; Pamela does not. But some while ago, she realized that panko crumbs are different. She liked this dish because I used panko and not the "toaster shakings" I might otherwise have imposed on the dish!

Lagniappe

Please see my 2018 post Hot Island Hot Spot for information about the McIlhenny efforts on behalf of the rapidly disappearing coastal lands of Louisiana and Tough Shape for more thoughts on the importance of coastal erosion there.

Huevos Rotos

This recipe comes from the New York Times Cooking page. It was super simple to make in our indispensable cast-iron skillet. Also filling and delicious. We will definitely be making this more often. 

photo from the New York Times

Chicken in a Packet

One of our earliest posts was for Asian Fish in a Packet. We have since adapted this recipe on a number of occasions to incorporate any ingredients we had on hand. Over the weekend while browsing some cookbooks I discovered a recipe for Chicken in Foil in Cooking Seafood and Poultry with Wine. It is essentially "Chicken in a Packet", and of course includes wine!

I already had everything the recipe called for, so no shopping was required. The only substitution I made was Malbec for Burgundy. This was very easy to prepare. It bakes much longer than fish, but is just as tasty and tender. It also made the whole house smell good. There were some chickpeas and liquids still in the packet after we ate, so we tossed that into some leftover chili we had and ate it for lunch the next day.