My Mother's Breaakfast

My Mother’s Breakfasts

My Mother learned to cook as a young girl, but she didn’t have any sweet stories about sitting on a stool in her Grandmother’s kitchen with a wooden spoon.  Johnnie Belle and her older sister, Jewel, didn’t have childhoods in the modern sense.  They were productive members of a hardworking, small town family in the 1910s and 1920s.  Until her tenth child was born in 1931, their Mother, Belle, was either pregnant, nursing a baby, or both, so many of the daily household tasks fell to Jewel and Moma.

Up at four to prepare breakfast and fill lunch boxes for their coal mining Father and an increasing number of siblings, the two girls fried bacon or ham. Eggs and biscuits with gravy, or pancakes also filled the platters.  Their food was simple Northern Arkansas fare, without the garlic, herbs, or hot peppers favored by the cooks farther south.  The Suppers they learned to cook were based on a fried meat: chicken, pork chops, chicken fried steak, fish or small game from a day’s hunt.  Gravy, mashed or fried potatoes, thoroughly cooked vegetables (if available) and cornbread or more biscuits completed the menu. The only seasonings they used were salt, pepper, sugar and bacon fat.

This is the food my Mother cooked for me and my Dad in the fifties in California.  She accepted some conveniences such as canned or frozen vegetables, but she never became one of those cooks who starts cooking an entree by opening a can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup.  Over the years she would occasionally add to her repertoire, often treats like the dark moist banana bread she found on our trip to Hawaii. 

My favorite foods were the ones she cooked for our weekend breakfasts.  When I would walk into the kitchen she would be patiently frying bacon.  An almost impossible task because she let me “taste” slice after slice, while the buttermilk for the biscuits warmed to room temperature.  When the bacon was done frying, out of sight in a slow oven, she would start the biscuits. 

First she put a pan with about ¼ inch of melted Crisco in her second oven warmed to 425 degrees.  Then in her wooden bowl, she made a well in the flour and mixed in the baking powder, soda and salt. Adding the buttermilk into the well, she began slowly mixing the dough by pushing the flour from the outside with her right hand while rotating the bowl with her left.  This process of pushing became very gently kneading until the dry and wet ingredients were blended, then she removed the hot pan with oil from the oven.  Instead of rolling the dough and using a round cutter to shape the biscuits, Moma formed each one by pinching off a piece of dough with her floured hands and flattening it in her left palm.  She then folded it over, dipped the top in the hot oil and set it into the pan.  The pan went back into the hot oven while she scrambled the eggs. 

The eggs were scrambled to my father’s taste.  He liked them to cook until they have begun to set, then stirred so they become a white and yellow mixture of textures and flavors not a homogenized pale yellow.  When I asked Moma how much longer for the biscuits, she said she didn’t know.  “You just have to wait until they are done.”  Everything and everyone were always ready and waiting at the table for the biscuits. Moma even had butter rather then the usual margarine to go on them with the strawberry preserves. 

Here is the recipe she wrote for me after I was married:

BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

Pour 4 cups of flour in a large mixing bowl.  Make a well in flour and put following ingredients in the flour well – 1 tbs. Baking Powder, ¼ tsp. Soda, ½ tsp. Salt.  Add 1 cup Buttermilk.  With hands knead these in slowly with the flour until a medium firm ball is formed.  Gradually knead in more flour until dough can be handled without clinging to hands.  Divide Dough in half, then squeeze small lumps from the dough and form into a small circle and fold in half.  Place in pan of 1/3 cup melted shortening by dipping in shortening and arranging until all dough is used.  Bake in 425 degree oven 15 to 20 minutes.

I’ve never found any other pancakes like my Mother’s.  Their texture was unique.  They didn’t stand up high and dry, but were thin and very moist.  They were so good that I ate them without syrup, just spread with butter.  Moma would start serving them to my Dad and me as the second batch was finishing.  She would then stay at the stove and cook seconds for us.  By the time she sat down to eat, my Dad would be almost finished.  So Mama and I would set and talk while she ate her breakfast.  Over the years I have adapted the recipe by substituting ½ a cup of whole wheat flour and using brown sugar

BUTTERMILK PANCAKES                        

1 cup of flour                                         1 ½ cup of buttermilk

¼ teaspoon salt                                     1 egg

¼ teaspoon soda                                    1 tablespoon shortening

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon corn meal

Mix the dry ingredients and make a well in the center.

Put the egg in the well and stir in the buttermilk slowly, adjusting the amount until the consistency is right.

Add the shortening now or just before cooking.

Heat a heavy skillet and pour in a little oil.  Using a paper towel, spread it over the bottom. 

Pour in rounds of batter about 4 inches in diameter.

When bubbles form on the top, flip.

I prefer these with lots of good butter and no syrup.  Some thinly sliced fruit between the layers makes them seem healthier.

COCO PALMS BANANA BREAD

Cream: 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of shortening,

Add: 6 ripe mashed bananas and 4 eggs,

Blend in: 2 ½ cups of flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons baking soda.

Do not overmix

Bake in bread pans at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes.

Yields 2 loaves

Gertie's with the Johns

When I got a job as prep/salad cook at Gertie’s Chesapeake Bay Cafe, my friend Sandy said I was lucky because it was hard to get a starting position in a good restaurant, even in 1986. Now that I have read about other professional kitchens I realize this was more true than we knew because Gerties was the right place for me.  It lacked the macho cruelty Tony Bourdain talked about at Les Halles, as well as the military precision so in vogue today at places like The French Laundry.

Gertie’s was the creation of two men we called the Johns.  John Shields was the executive chef who had learned to cook from his Grandmother, Gertie.  John Kelly took care of the books and ran the front of the house.  They had been business partners for many years, but the rumor was that they were no longer lovers. 

John Kelly charmed the customers with just the right amount of humor and attention.  When he came into the kitchen, he could be quite the horny bitch out of their earshot.

John Shields was boyish with red curls and hilarious stories about kitchens and his family.  Some were about his aunt Harriet who had been the first woman private detective in the country.  Later, when I had stopped laughing I realized many of the anecdotes had covered up a difficult childhood with a troubled mother.

John was an excellent and creative cook.  One of the best desserts I have ever tasted was his hazelnut, Grand Marnier, chocolate mousse.  He also took a pounded chicken breast, rolled it around cream cheese mixed with basil and sun dried tomatoes.  This he wrapped in filo dough and baked until it became a “love explosion”.

One of the most popular dishes at Gertie’s was our Caesar Salad.  I remember John Kelly standing in the middle of the kitchen telling the staff that it was his recipe, while John Shields and Eric Haines, the sous chef, rolled their eyes.

Gertie’s served food in the style of Baltimore.  All of the crab meat  was from blue crabs.  After I had spent a few months chopping cases of tomatoes and pounds of onions, peeling and cleaning pounds of shrimp, washing bunches of lettuce, and making salads during service, I must have proven something to John Shields because he taught me how to make crab cakes.

This was before crab cakes were a familiar sight on menus.  We used equal amounts of backfin and lump meat.  After picking over all of the expennsive crab by hand and removing small pieces of shell, l would prepare the mixture of seasonings to pour on top of the crab meat.  I would lift the meat and let it fall gently into the seasonings until it was all combined but without breaking the lumps of crabmeat. Then I sifted in a few dried breads crumbs and repeat mixing.  This process took focus, gentleness and skill.  When the proper consistency of sweet crab chunks and seasoning was reached, I weighted and formed each cake to be fried at dinner that night.

When I started working at Gertie’s I was turning 40 and had been cooking from books for 22 years.   I learned a lot working there.  How to poach an egg, how to properly boil an egg, how to grill a piece of fish, how to work until midnight on Saturday, then open the kitchen for Sunday brunch.  I also learned how a crab cake should taste.

Freezer Cassoulet

I saw two large freezer storage bags in my little freezer filled with the tail ends of Acme Upstairs bread waiting for me to need bread crumbs.  Putting crumbs on top of a cassoulet would be a winter treat and could perhaps use up a lot of leftovers.

I read Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of Southwestern France, and made confit all those years ago, but instead of making confit, rounding up the cured pork products, perhaps I can use the duck leg in the refrigerator.  There is also the container of garbanzos cooked with a little pork, spinach and a lot of garlic which lost their garlicky kick as they became leftovers.  I don’t usually like anything after its second heating so I have half cup plastic containers of a few things taking up room in my freezer.  I defrosted sausage and tomato sauce which looked a little freezer burnt, mushroom soup with my wonderful meat stock and another container of lentil soup.  Everything I used had been cooked with French and Italian seasonings so I was confident they would blend well.  My only concern was the freezer burn. 

One of Mama’s Pyrex glass casseroles, about 1.5 quart sized held the cassoulet.  I separated the duck leg and thigh and put them in first.  Then I spread around some of the garbanzos, the sausage, the lentils and the mushrooms. I reduced the mushroom broth and added it to cover the mélange. With a lid on the pot I put it into the oven heated to 275 degrees.   

Then I put some of the defrosted bread ends into the Cuisinart and began making crumbs.  After an hour or so the cassoulet was warm and bubbling around the edge. 

I took the cover off, sprinkled the crumbs on the top, raised the temperature of the oven to 325 degrees and let it cook another half an hour until the top was crisp.

Since then, I have cooked some beans (cannellini) and layered them in my small casserole with left over poultry and pork using the same technique with delicious results.

Perhaps cassoulet originated when leftovers accumulated and begged to be transformed.

Dijon Legs

Mother’s Day 2010

When Leland gave me my own website for Christmas last year, I was delighted and honored. To know he valued my food and our experiences made me proud.

As I tried to work with it even the simple wix.com proved too much for my tech skills. I spent much more time getting the posts up than I did thinking and writing. My efforts that did make it online showed my lack of web design understanding and the seduction by the wix visuals. I hope this blog will be my little sports car and zip me though the congestion of the web to interest and inform you.

For most of my adult life, from early in my marriage at 18, after I found Julia on PBS, I have considered myself part of the sophisticated epicurean world. Gradually most Americans stopped cooking, or used the word to refer to the heating of the contents of a can or baking hunks cut off a roll of prepackaged dough.

As I bought books and cooked from them, I learned not just French and Italian ingredients, but Chinese and Indian. The more I learned, the more I could use my techniques to combine flavors in creative and pleasing ways.

Now I see breaded chicken with Dijon on morning TV. I found that recipe in Gourmet forty years ago. Most young chefs can add an exotic spice like cardamom to their French toast, too. The pendulum is swinging to better tasting, healthier food.

Hooray!!

Dijon Chicken Legs and Thighs

This recipe is from Gourmet Magazine before 1974 when I left OC for the first time. It was in an article about food to take on a picnic.

It called for dipping in sour cream after slathering on the mustard, but I never saw the need for it.
I save up bread ends in the freezer, defrost them and put them through the cuisinart to make crumbs. You can also grate dried bread with the large holes in a grater while holding the bread by the crust.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Six to eight legs and thighs. Pull the skin off, salt and pepper, then cover with Dijon mustard. Coat with dried bread crumbs.


Put in one layer on a baking sheet and cover with foil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Remove foil, increase heat to 450 degrees, and bake 15 to 20 minutes longer until golden brown.

Garnish with watercress.

Enjoy

My Birthday 2009

At 63 I have finally learned how to enjoy my birthday without a bout of sadness. For many years I could always find a reason for self pity; the things lacking in my life always came to the forefront. Today was a lovely day with three cards, and many phone calls from people I love, including two long chatty ones with Leland.

The table for one downstairs at Chez Panisse was mine, with views of the kitchen and the entry way. I watched for the pretentiousness I’ve heard of, but the employees all seemed delighted and proud to work in a restaurant that was serving, and also letting them eat, house made sauerkraut, sausages and confit of pork belly.

First came an amuse bouche of house made salami and a cornichon, perhaps the best salami I’ve tasted. Making salami is popular in Bay Area restaurants now, but once the taster is over the awe, the product has to taste better than the ones Molinari makes or why do it? There was also a basket of two Acme breads, the Levain, and a white torpedo shaped bun made especially for Chez Panisse.

The Sommelier was offering wines by the glass to accompany each course. First came a Gamey Noir with the salad. There were golden and pink beet slices with a sprinkling of cooked leeks in a super citrus vinaigrette. Someone had drizzled a little crème fraiche over this and then topped it with a few sprigs of mache. Small and delicious, especially the leeks.

The entrée was the sauerkraut cooked in Riesling with a beef frank, a garlic sausage, a little piece of confit of pork shoulder and a grilled slice of pork belly. I haven’t eaten a lot of sauerkraut and this was well balanced, not too salty or sour. The pork offerings each had its own flavors. I drank the recommended Riesling, not usually one of my favorite wines, but it was fuller and heavier as the Sommelier had described, and not too sweet.

Finally they brought the Pavlova, a firm meringue, not too sweet, with two ice creams perched on top. One was chocolate and one kirsch-sour cherry. These had a few reconstituted dried cherries around them and some shaved chocolate on the top.

As I was eating my dessert, I spoke to the table next to me. It also had a birthday celebrant, a gentleman who turned ninety-three. He enjoyed his meal, asking for extra salami and drinking his favorite wine with his three companions. I mentioned that we shared the birthday and some one working in the dining room must have heard me. A plate of cookies and a wonderful date appeared for me with a birthday banner and a candle. So I also had a surprise for my birthday.

Toasting Almonds

I like topping my oatmeal with rough chopped toasted almonds or hazelnuts. They also make great, satisfying and healthy snacks by themselves. A few may substitute for chips which I don’t keep in the house because I will eat too many too fast. Nuts also add protein to salads or to yogurt with fruit as well as a dimension of flavor and texture to almost anything.

Toasting nuts, especially almonds, is very easy. Put them in a pan, then into an oven. Take them out.

There are a couple of factors that complicate this plan. The first is finding good raw almonds. I buy them in bulk from Andronicos or the Berkeley Bowl. When I lived in OC, I bought them at Trader Joe’s. You want a good fresh product and buying from a bulk source where you scoop them out is usually a good sign if the store has enough turnover to keep the nuts fresh. Whole Foods in Tustin when I was in OC didn’t pass this test. Stores don’t encourage sampling, but it is the best way to judge the freshness.

You might try a local health food store (I found good nuts in a quaint place in Fort Smith, Arkansas) or an ethnic market. Little packages of nuts sealed in cellophane will not have much flavor and will be much more costly.

The next complication is timing. You put your almonds into a pan in one layer. They need a little room so don’t jam them in. Put the pan in the oven and turn it on to 350 degrees or lower. If your oven beeps to let you know when it is hot, you can check the nuts then.

You check them by opening the door and smelling the aroma and seeing if they have begun to brown. If it doesn’t smell nutty, close the door let them toast another 2 or 3 minutes. This process will teach you two things. The first is how thoroughly cooked you like the nuts. Eventually you will also develop a sense of timing so you don’t have to check them as often. This subconscious sense of time will help you to become a better cook for most things you prepare.

When you think they might be done, take one out. Let it cool a little and try it. Is it delicious? By experimenting you will decide how darkly toasted you prefer your almonds.

You can use this method for most nuts, pine nuts and pistachios need less time so you have to watch them closely to be sure they don’t burn.

Hazelnuts or filberts are my favorite, but need one more step. When they are done you put them into a clean kitchen towel immediately after taking them from the oven. Then you create a bag from the towel and roll the hazelnuts between your hands in the bag to remove the skins as much as possible. The skins crisp in the oven and will come off easily although probably not completely.

Enjoy.

My Son's Introduction

Although my mother grew up in the 1950s in Orange Country, California (known for its void of culture), she somehow found Gourmet magazine and read about food she wanted to taste. The ingredients and wine she found at her local Ralph’s were a poor facsimile of the produce, dairy, meats and wine the authors were describing from Europe. Of course she didn’t know that, and cooked Julia Child’s recipes.

In the early 70’s she migrated to Berkeley Ca. Here she found access to the tools she needed to pursue her passions. Over the last 40 years she’s tried 1000’s of wines, endless restaurants and made countless meals.

I asked her to start a site to provide a forum for comparison and a place to chronicle all of her food knowledge.

Why should anyone read this? Because they like food. Not only how to make béarnaise sauce, but how to correctly roast an almond. And find for under $20 bottles of wine that are a good fit with a hamburger, a roasted duck breast or a piece of dark rich chocolate.