So Much Wine, So Little Time

It's amazing how much you can learn even from a work of fiction.  Fiction can portray reality in such a way that we can identify with it.  Recently, I read a book called the Cookbook Collector, where the author, Allegra Goodman, intersperses facts and knowledge within her narrative.  I really enjoyed it, because it interweaves two subjects I'm passionate about: cooking and the dot com world.  Both are fascinating and exciting worlds to me.

This book was not so much about cooking, although there was some cooking going on.  No recipes were posted as in the novels of culinary mystery writer, Diane Mott Davidson, yet I could still drool over what was being served.  The book, in part, is about an enviable cookbook collection.

What I found most interesting, however, were the wines that were consumed in the book.  The mention of the names made me want to know more.  My subsequent search was quite an education. I had never heard of some of them which caused me to look up those particular wines at their websites.   

In the book the descriptions sound luscious. For example, the  glass of "deep almond hued" Chateau Montelena Chardonnay the character drank was too "buttery". The 1970 Chateau Latour was "...never overpowering, too genteel to call attention to itself..."  The 1975 Chateau Petrus was "more flamboyant, flashier, riper, ravishing the tongue."  In the Heitz, the flavor was "creamy..smooth and silky..meltingly soft...  I wanted to rush out and try all of them.

Needless to say, I didn't.  Just looking at the websites and reading about the vineyards and the grapes made for quite an adventure.  There is much to look forward to trying. Wine making is fascinating and wine tasting is way too much fun.  Nope, I take that back, it is not too much at all. It's enjoyable.  My one trip to Napa with my daughter including our visit to a few of  vineyards is one of the highlights of my life.  What fun!  (Yes, we had a designated driver.) 

So the research into these wines mentioned in that novel let me know I still have lots more tasting to do.  Ahhh!  So much wine, so little time. I'll do my best.  Yum. Yum!

Is Summer Really Over?

Summer is my favorite time of year.  My winter and ski-loving friends and family think I'm completely nuts.  Hot though it may get, and it does get really hot here on the east coast,  the heat doesn't deter me from enjoying this season more than any other.  It means freedom to be outside, not cooped up in a house or apartment with air conditioning-looking outside at the world instead of being out in it. (Not that I am opposed to air-conditioning.)  It means vacation even when I'm not strictly "on vacation."

Summer always takes me back to a time of total irresponsibility-no school, no homework, swimming, fun, picnics, family gatherings, not having to be serious about anything.  It was a time of dreaming, making big plans and envisioning a great future. (Gosh, I didn't know squirrels made so much noise. Just looked out in the backyard to see two squirrels in two different trees making loud noises at each other and a neighbor's cat rolling on her back in the sun having great fun!)

Even cooking is different in the summer.  I'm not a "griller" myself, however, I love the taste and smell of foods cooked on the grill.  There's nothing so tasty and delicious as fresh veggies and chicken breasts lined with beautiful artistic grill marks.  Then there's the variety of salads.  You can make a salad out of anything: fried chicken, fish, lemons, figs, bright colorful vegetables of all kinds, grilled spring lamb or beef--just anything!


Even now, despite the responsibilities of a "grown-up" with a demanding daily life, jobs, family, children, grandchildren, cooking, blogging, reading, there is no time like the summer.  I just love it!  Longer days, lighter food, icy drinks, picnics and barbecues with family and friends, frosty beers and paler wines give me that feeling I used to have.  Thankfully, that feeling of joy, carefree freedom and dreaming comes every year.


Now it's back to cooler weather and different foods, wines and ways of cooking.  Though I must say, I'm fortunate, being here with my daughter, who has a gas grill in the backyard.  Even without power during Irene, we could cook breakfast on the grill, including toast!

So, even though I love the good old summertime, I enjoy the relief of the cooler temperatures and colors of fall.  However, I'm already looking forward to next summer's vacation.

Best Japanese Comfort Food: Nabe

No matter where we come from around the world, we all have our favorite comfort foods.  Whether it's fried chicken and mashed potatoes from the US; crispy tempura from Japan; Tom Yum Goong from Thailand;  Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread); Akoho sy Voanio (Chicken in Coconut Milk) from the Southern African island of Madagascar or Ukrainian Filled Dumplings (Perogies); we all remember a favorite dish from our childhood that comforts us to this day.

My good friend, Ritsu, who spent her early years in Fukuoka, Japan, has more than one comfort food, as we all probably do.  One of her favorites is tempura; but the one dish she says she still loves to make from her mother's kitchen is Nabe, a one-pot or one-dish meal.  To hear her tell it; you can throw just about anything edible into it.

This one-dish meal is great for winter, you can add any kind of fish, shellfish or meat, including octopus, oysters, beef, pork, chicken, vegetables, tofu and mushrooms.  I even saw one recipe with sweet potatoes in it. Ritsu likes kimchi in hers.  And she makes it with a traditional Japanese Ponzu sauce.
It reminds me of a winter stew where you can put all kinds of ingredients.  The Japanese, of course, put everything into one pot and cook it at the table. This is also a fabulous comfort food because you don't have to worry about exact measurements. In fact, my friend could not give me the exact quantities, because she literally pits in whatever proportion or kind of ingredients she likes.  She makes it hearty and makes a lot of it for her family.
Here are some of the other foods she puts in this delicious one pot dish.  Chinese or Napa cabbage, salmon, cod, clams, salmon, shiitake and enoki mushrooms, shrimp, scallions, sesame oil and cellophane noodles.

I did look up a recipe on the About Food site.  I have put it here:

Yosenabe is a kind of Japanese nabe (one-pot) dish. It literally means putting everything together in a pot. You can put various ingredients, such as fish, seafood, meats, and vegetables in yosenabe. Like other nabe dishes, yosenabe is cooked at the dining table as people eat it.

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cup dashi soup
• 4 Tbsp sake
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp mirin
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 or 8 hard shell clams, cleaned and sand expelled
• 2 salmon steaks, or salmon fillets, cut into 2 inch lengths and bones removed
• 1/4 head hakusai (Chinese cabbage), chopped into 2-3 inch lengths
• 1 negi, leek, rinsed and cut diagonally
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds
• 8 shiitake mushrooms, stemed removed
• 1 enoki mushrooms, stems trimmed
• 1 shungiku (chrysanthemum greens) *if available

Preparation:

Put dashi soup stock in a donabe pot or an electric skillet. Heat the soup and bring to a boil. Season with sake, soy sauce, mirin, and salt. Turn down the heat to low. Add salmon and clams in the pot at first. Place other ingredients and simmer until softened. Have diners take cooked ingredients into individual serving bowls to eat.
*makes 4 servings

Memories of Jamaica, the Value of Family, Friends and Jerk Chicken

My son, Dan, is married to the most wonderful young woman, Natalie, from Jamaica. In fact, my entire new Jamaican family is wonderful and is an awesome addition to the already fabulous family I have here in the US mainland.  Sandra, Natalie's mom, and I became instantly close and have bonded on a deep level.  Wendy, my daughter, has taken on her brother's wife as a  little sister.  My granddaughter, Danielle, and her new step-mom have also become very close and have secrets together.  My brother, Aubrey and sister in-law, Joyce, and nephew, Aubrey III, have also welcomed the Jamaica branch of the family.

Denise and Dudley Stokes, Natalie's aunt and uncle, are lovely and have embraced me and all of my family. Dudley, by the way, was a member of the first Jamaican Bobsled team!  You may remember that they shocked the world in 1988 when the first Jamaican bobsled team participated in the 1988 Olympics Winter Games in Calgary. Canada.

This, to me, is great fortune.   Many people look on fortune as having a great deal of money or great financial resources.  I don't.  Fortune is having people you love, like respect and admire who feel the same about you.  Don't get me wrong.  I don't reject the idea of having money and the things it does, believe me.  I am an entrepreneur and make my money form my business.  You can not get a bus to wherever you need to go without money.  Money is necessary to live.

However, real support comes from people.  They are the treasure of the heart.  For example, when I was battling breast cancer in 2001, money was not what I needed to steel me against what I was forced to confront.  It was my spiritual philosophy, my family and friends, including my former husband, who encouraged me that, no matter what, I had the strength within myself to win and overcome this fierce opponent.  And, I did.  Money, which is paper, uncaring and neutral, could not do that.

I have had jerk chicken here in my area, yet, there was nothing like tasting Jerk chicken in its native habitat with native chefs.  So, in honor of my Jamaican family, I present this Jerk Chicken recipe:

INGREDIENTS :

    * 1- 31/2 lbs chicken (3lb of chicken breasts may be used if preferred)
    * Jerk Sauce (See below)
    * lemon or lime juice

Jerk Sauce

METHOD:

   1. Clean, skin,and cut chicken in medium pieces,then wash with lime or lemon juice
   2. Rub the chicken with the Jerk seasoning.
   3. Be sure to rub under skin and in cavities
   4. Marinate overnight.
   5. Grill at lowest possible setting over a low fire until done.
   6. Pimento (all spice) branches (this is what is used in Jamaica) mixed with charcoal is best. If not try to use an aromatic wood in the barbecue grill to enhance the flavor.
   7. Chop meat into pieces, and serve traditionally with hard-dough bread

INGREDIENTS :

    * 1/2 cup Pimenta ( allspice berries)
    * 1/2+ cup packed brown sugar
    * 6-8 garlic cloves
    * 4-6 Scotch bonnet peppers
    * 1 tablespoon ground thyme or 2 tablespoons thyme leaves
    * 1-2 bunches scallions (green onions)
    * 1 teaspoon cinnamon
    * 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
    * salt and pepper to taste
    * 2 tablespoon soy sauce to moisten

METHOD:

   1. Put ingredients in a food processor or blender and liquefy
   2. Pour sauce in a Jar and keep refrigerated.
   3. The sauce will keep forever if kept refrigerated
   4. To increase spiciness blend pepper and pimenta and add to sauce the hot peppers at any time.

Seasoning Instruction:

    * Leave skin on chicken
    * Rub the meat (chicken, pork or beef) with the seasoning.
    * With chicken, be sure to rub under skin and in cavities
    * Marinate overnight.

Cooking Instructions

    * Grill at lowest possible setting over a low fire until done.
    * Pimenta (all spice) branches (this is what is used in Jamaica) mixed with charcoal is best. If not try to use an aromatic wood in the barbecue grill to enhance the flavor.
    * Chop meat into pieces, and serve traditionally with hard-dough bread

World's Best Fried Catfish Nugget Recipe

That's a pretty bold statement, however, beauty and taste are in the eye (mouth) of the beholder.   I am a catfish lover, so, IMHO, this is the word's best catfish recipe!  Having grown up at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on the Severn River in Annapolis, MD, I suppose it is only natural that I came to love fish.  We had all kinds of fresh fish and seafood available to us: butterfish, rockfish, shad, white and yellow perch, and hardheads (which I was to learn later were actually Atlantic croaker) were a few in abundance. 

Of course, we also had Chesapeake Bay blue crabs and in late spring through the summer, we would enjoy pan-fried soft-shell crabs.  Aside from a short walk to the bottom of my street to go fishing and crabbing with my father and brother, there was a fish vender who came to our street every Saturday and sold fresh fish right from his truck. Then my mom would fry the smaller fish and bake the larger fish and add a sauce.  Then I would be in fish heaven.

I hasten to add that we did not have catfish nuggets; it was the whole catfish with the bone in that my dad would catch, skin, clean and cut in half.   At that time, my mom cooked the world's best fried catfish. 

2 lbs catfish nuggets or fillets cut into strips
1 cup yellow corn meal
2/3 cup crushed Panko (Korean or Japanese bread crumbs)
3 tsps salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or to taste
Oil

Pour enough oil into a large heavy skillet (cast-iron is my favorite) so it is about 1/4 inch deep.  Heat oil to very hot, but not smoking. 

Rinse catfish nuggets in cold water.  If using fillets, cut them into pieces.  Put cornmeal, Panko, salt, pepper and cayenne into a thick brown paper bag.  Drop nuggets into bag and shake until well coated.   Shake off excess. 

Carefully place catfish pieces in the oil.  Fry in batches in a single layer so you don't crowd them.  Cook until golden brown; about 2 minutes on each side.  Drain on brown paper bag or newspaper.  If preferred, you can cover paper with a paper towel.

Serve with homemade tartar sauce.

Homemade Tartar  Dipping Sauce

1 cup mayonnaise
3 Tsp dill relish
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or to taste
1/2 tsp cumin seed (optional)
Mix well and dunk away

The Catfish That Walks

I think the catfish species has been much maligned.  When I talk to people about my love of catfish (for eating), many reject the idea and turn up their noses at the thought.  However, catfish inhabit every continent on the planet except Antarctica.  That could be because they don't like the very cold, frozen temperatures.  They prefer cool, clean, deep water with slow or moderate currents. They also like a sandy or rocky bottom. So they inhabit rivers, streams, swamps, lakes and reservoirs.

There are over 2000 catfish species in existence and more than half of them live in the Americas.  They live in Central Europe, Africa and Asia and some of the world's best catfish recipes come from those countries.  In some locales, there is a species of catfish that walks.  Well, it doesn't actually walks, but has a way to get across land when the waters dry up.

At one time, catfish were a delicacy and eaten on special holidays, so when immigrants came to American shores, they brought that tradition with them.  Nowadays, catfish is enjoyed anytime.

Catfish have no scales, but they do have what are called "barbels" which look like cat whiskers.  Nor do they have fur. They have a delicate flavor so they lend themselves easily to many fish recipes.    They can be sautéed, broiled, put in stews or barbecued. 

In Indonesia, people get their catfish grilled by street vendors in stalls and eaten with vegetables and soy sauce.  In Malaysia catfish is fried with spices (See below: Fried Catfish Middle Eastern Style). In some Indian states catfish is eaten as a favored delicacy during the monsoons.  And, of course, in the Southern United States, catfish is generally fried in oil with cornmeal.  (See below my Annapolis-inspired Fried Catfish Nuggets for the Super Bowl.)

In the US, roughly 95% of  farm-raised catfish is raised in Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, and Louisiana.  Catfish is very popular in the South in the summertime.  In recognition of and to celebrate its popularity, President Ronald Reagan declared June 25th National Catfish Day in 1987.

Here, in the coming months, you are going to find some of the world's best catfish recipes for catfish lovers.

Fried Catfish Middle Eastern Style

You will know from this blog that fish and catfish, in particular, are featured.  Searching always for new catfish recipes, this one is adapted from a recipe called Lahori Fish.  Lahore is a city in Pakistan.  It is not specifically for catfish, yet this recipe is delicious using my favorite river food.  You may find some new seasonings and ingredients in this recipe you might not have in your pantry, like gram flour (made from chickpeas), chaat masala and carom seeds.  No worries.  You can find them in Indian markets or online.

The fish is marinated in and covered with a thick  batter of gram flour (Besan) and spiced with carom seeds (Ajwain) and chaat masala, another spice mixture..

Ingredients

    * 1 kg, (about 2.2 lbs) catfish nuggets or fillet, cut into medium sized fillets/chunks)
    * bread crumbs
    * oil for frying

 

  * Batter:

    * 1/2 cup gram flour (Besan)
    * 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
    * 1 tsp red Chilli powder
    * 1 tsp crushed red chillies
    * 1 tbsp crushed whole coriander
    * 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
    * 1/2 tsp carom seeds (Ajwain)
    * 2 tbsp white vinegar
    * salt to taste
    * water, as required

Directions

    * Combine all ingredients for the batter with enough water to make a thick paste.
    * Apply this well on the fish.  Marinate for couple of hours so that some marinade is absorbed by the fish.
    * Now lightly coat with bread crumbs and set aside for 15 minutes.
    * Deep fry the fish, in batches, in hot oil until golden brown.
    * Drain and sprinkle fish with lemon juice and Chaat Masala.
    * Serve hot with salad and lemon wedges.