Omelet

There are a lot of omelet styles. Some are good. I like a thin omelet surrounding a good filling. Some people prefer the thick egg patties folded over and a separately cooked filling.

There is also "the" way to cook an omelet. Julia Child describes it (and the recommended equipment for it) in an excerpt from Mastering the Art of French Cooking here: http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/child/recipe.html. There's also a great, albeit passing, omelet scene in Tampopo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampopo), a great Ramen Western movie that anyone interested in food would likely enjoy. It's not Ratatouille, so you may want to think before choosing this for family movie night. All I'll contribute to the omelet discussion is that I use a 8" nonstick pan, and this is the only time I'm pretty fearless about preheating it on high heat (because of the whole fumes thing). Also, I add the salt and pepper while the eggs are cooking, not before adding them to the pan. I've done it both ways, and prefer the former.

Omelet:
Ingredients:
- Eggs (2 per omelet)
- Cream (just a bit if it's laying around)
- Smoked trout, flaked
- Bacon, cooked and broken into pieces
- Butter
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Preheat nonstick pan
- Beat eggs in a bowl and add maybe a tablespoon of cream
- Have everything ready to go
- Add butter to a hot pan
- When butter stops foaming add eggs
- Add some salt and pepper
- Add trout and bacon
- Roll according to Julia's instruction (or as close as you can get)
- If things don't look too good, you can shape the omelet using a paper towel for grip

Toast:
- You're on your own

That's it. No cheese, but that's just because I didn't have any I wanted to use on hand. It wasn't missed, but a small bit of Gruyere could have been nice. Filling additions, omissions, and swapping options are endless.

My favorite place for an omelet in the Cleveland area--Irv's Sandwich Shop at 2164 South Taylor Rd. in Cleveland Heights. There's nothing fancy about the place, so be ready for that if you go. They make the omelets on a griddle, spreading the egg mixture out super thin before adding the toppings and folding the whole thing into a nice package. For most other places in the area I stick to eggs over easy or pancakes.

Day three

The Mackinac Bridge: five miles long, two dollars and fifty cents each way, and only two cars have wound up in the water.

Continued from the last post.

Day 3 - Lunch: Pellston Market (again). It's just that good, and convenient to where I was working. This time I had the pork tenderloin sandwich. It didn't have the caramelized onions that were part of what made yesterday's steak sandwich so great, but it definitely did not disappoint. The pork was perfectly cooked, and there was a fennel/cumin combination that was a pleasant change from what I've been eating recently. And of course, the greens on the sandwich were fresh and organic. I wish there was a place like this back in C-town.

Day 3 - Snack: Mackinac Island, one of the many fudge shops by a ferry drop off. I did not, however, get fudge, but instead went for a sugar cone of Mackinac Fudge ice cream. The one generous scoop full of Island fudge (according to the lady behind the counter, actual Island fudge is sent away to be incorporated into the ice cream) mixed with vanilla ice cream was terrific. I forgot the name of the place I went to, but all of the places seemed to serve the same brand of ice cream, and most of it looked good. Between Mackinaw City, Mackinac Island, and the U.P. I saw more fudge shops than I had in my entire life. None looked bad, and it's fun to watch them make the fudge. Still, a few samples and the ice cream was all I needed. The Island itself was amazing, but this is a food blog, not a tourist bureau.

Day 3 - Dinner: Mitchell St. Pub & Cafe in Petoskey, MI(http://www.mitchellstreetpub.com/). I wasn't expecting much from the town I never heard of, but I guess I should have expected more. A great town with a New England/Coastal/Ski area/Midwest feel loaded with restaurants, galleries, great views, and great houses (really, this isn't a tourist bureau). Method for choosing a place to eat--stopping a random nice looking lady walking a not-pure-bred dog and asking for a good affordable place. She, along with others we had previously spoken to, recommended the Pub, and also Roast & Toast (http://www.roastandtoast.com/). Unfortunately, there was no time for Roast and Toast, but the Pub was perfect. I had a bowl of chicken and white bean chile and a some fried cheese curds (which were much better than the U.P. cheese curds). Both were very good, and I'm not a chicken chile person. The coworker had a great looking veggie sandwich. Also, for drink I had a pint of Huma-Lupa-Licious IPA brewed by Short's Brewing Company in Bellaire, MI (http://www.shortsbrewing.com/brews.htm). It was pleasantly hoppy, but was by no means overboard (Disclosure: In college I worked for a PA brewpub that produced Hops Infusion, and I didn't think that was too over the top either.). Also, the Pub had a nice no smoking section, so both huffers and nonhuffers were accommodated.

Another day of good food in Northern Michigan. But, it was a working trip, and the job out here is done, for now. Hopefully I'll run low on gas near The Jerky Outlet tomorrow, but it's not looking good.

And here's why I'm a fudgie (That's me in the reflection, but not my bike. And the pictured marble tables and fudge theatrics were de rigeur in the area.):

I am a Fudgie

And you probably are too. If you don't know what a fudgie is, ask someone who has been to Northern Michigan. The first two days of traveling in way Northern Michigan were productive for both working and eating. Some helpful locals and lucky stops led to the following:

Day 1 - Drive up from Cleveland: Stopped for gas and ran into The Jerky Outlet at a gas station (Pure coincidence, I swear.). The Outlet purported to have the second largest jerky selection in the United States. Not sure of the exact location, but I imagine all seven are similar. Surprisingly, I left empty handed, but the selection for a small gas station market was ridiculous. Also present were various smoked and hacked up fish. See http://www.thejerkyoutlet.com/ for more information.

Day 1 - Dinner: The Village Inn at the Pellston Regional Airport. I've never gone to an airport just to eat. Some airports have surprisingly good food, but to actually go to an airport to dine was a whole new experience for me. It was worth it, although the place bordered on too swanky. There are about twelve thousand Village Inns in the area, and I imagine the quality varies. I think the one I went to is part of this Village Inn conglomerate: http://www.viofmackinac.com/. It was not at a typical airport, and there was no need to go through security. I got Planked Whitefish, which appears to be one of the official dishes of the area. It was great. A large fillet of fresh Whitefish (Actually a fish called "Whitefish," not the generic term--http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10364_18958-45680--,00.html, purportedly delivered daily.) on a maple plank/platter surrounded by duchesse potatoes (mashed, mixed with stuff, and piped), a neat broiled tomato thing, and some more carefully cut vegetables. Also nice was that they accommodated my vegetarian companion graciously. Finally, they served a great draft of Stout from Michigan. Overall a great, if not a little different, experience. May not be the local hole in the wall, but really enjoyable nonetheless.

Day 2 - Lunch: Pellston Market (http://pellstonmarket.com/). Amazing. Pellston is a small strip of a town with a 40 mph limit on the main street, but if you don't blow by it, Pellston Market is a great gourmet market/sandwich shop. The first thing I noticed walking in was a table full of heirloom tomatoes and a cooler with things like racks of lamb and gourmet cheeses. Then there was the lovely proprietor, who recommended a steak sandwich (I asked her to choose between the steak, pork tenderloin, and turkey for me.). While the sandwich choices may sound somewhat ordinary, this place was also serving a delicious sounding duck soup, and everything came with organic greens-- all in a town with a population of less than 800, and it's not a pretentious town. The sandwich was great, as was the service. I can't say enough.

Day 2 - Snack: Suzy's Pasties, St. Ignace (over the Mackinac Bridge). Admittedly not my first choice, but the time of day limited the choices. It did, however, fit my criteria--it had cheese curds and smoked fish. The cheese curds were from Wisconsin, and while they weren't bad, it was no Tillamook factory (http://www.tillamookcheese.com/). As for the smoked fish, the jury is still out. Is it okay to smoke fish with maple? Who knows. Only trout was available when I was there. Also, back on the Lower Peninsula, I had some free sample fudge in Mackinaw City--it was good, but I don't think I could handle a pound of it.

Day 2 - Dinner: Keyhole Bar. Right in downtown Mackinaw City, a town that exemplifies the unique Great Lake lakeside town atmosphere, it may look like the least family friendly place short of the tattoo parlor, but it was great. Flawless--no, but definitely great. Again very accommodating to the veggie companion, and also another purveyor of fine Whitefish. This time, the Whitefish was blackened Jamaican style (For more on the Jamaican-Northern Michigan connection, apparently the place to check out is the Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island. I was informed that it may not be so "grand" for everyone.). The Whitefish couldn't have been better, but I could have done without the canned veggie mixture on the side. The seemingly premade coleslaw was fine, and the fries were good. The atmosphere could be slightly off-putting, or welcome, depending on what you're looking for. Either way, the service is friendly, and they seem like they really want you to enjoy the meal, which isn't hard to do. I'd go back, and hope I have the chance.

Day 3 - . . .

Not incidentally, the picture is from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Peninsula_of_Michigan), and Wisconsin is not as close as it looks (to the Lower Peninsula).

More pasta

This was really good. Simple and good. After a great lunch at Jaleo (http://www.jaleo.com/) in Bethesda, MD, (If you don't like Jose Andres there may be something wrong with you.) and a short flight followed by a shorter train ride, I just wanted something relatively quick. Also, since I'll be gone for the next four days traveling for work (If you know of a good place to eat at the very top of the four finger portion of the Michigan mitten, please leave a comment with the recommendation.), I was looking for a way to use up some lingering ingredients. Above is the result.

Ingredients:
- Pasta (Once again, frozen fresh Ohio City Pasta. Vegan red pepper noodles that had been in the freezer two or three months. It was perfectly fine.)
- Cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
- Garlic, just one clove, sliced thickly
- Tomato paste
- Heavy cream
- Olive oil
- Parsley leaves
- Salt & pepper
Method:
- Boil water for pasta
- Heat some olive oil in a frying pan
- When oil is hot, add some tomato paste
- Cook tomato paste for a bit, then add garlic
- Just after garlic slices are warm, add a film of cream to the pan, stirring well and lowering heat
- Add pasta to boiling water
- Once water is starchy, add some of the pasta water to the cream mixture, stirring well raising the heat and adjusting the sauce's seasoning with salt and pepper
- When pasta is done, drain and add to frying pan
- Add parsley leaves and cherry tomato halves, mixing well and then removing from heat
- Serve

I wasn't that hungry, but still ate two pre-portioned servings of the Ohio City Pasta with the sauce (their serving size is a bit small, but usually in a good way--see the pasta with broccoli post from a few days ago for a look at one serving of pasta.). There was no need to add cheese.

There will be no cooking at The CFT for the next few days while I'm away. If all goes well, there may be an Upper Peninsula restaurant review posted from the remote location. If not, please enjoy the archives.

Pasta L'autumno

Lots of veggies, some pasta from the freezer, and not much else. It's pretty much a dumbed down bastardized ratatouille with pasta. Or a fall version of Pasta Primavera, hence the name. It's a happy mix of vegetables--yellow tomatoes commingling with red ones, Japanese eggplant embraced by California olive oil, even Italian parsley and Jamaican chile pepper grown on the West Side of Cleveland nesting side by side with East Side grown shallots. All the while Bob Marley tunes were emanating from my next door neighbor's house. We all have much to learn from this melting pot of vegan pasta.

Ingredients:
- Shallot, sliced
- Chile pepper, sliced
- Eggplant, roughly cubed
- Zucchini, roughly cubed
- Garlic, minced
- Tomato, diced
- Parsley, chopped
- Nasturtium petals
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil
- Pasta (Preferably wide noodles. Method is for fresh or fresh-frozen; if using dried, plan accordingly.)
Method:
- Start water for pasta
- Preheat olive oil in pan
- Quickly caramelize shallots in olive oil with some salt
- When shallots are soft, add chile pepper and mix (mix each time new vegetables are added)
- When chile pepper is soft, add eggplant, salt and pepper, and some more olive oil
- When eggplant is about there, add zucchini
- Once zucchini is warmed through, add minced garlic
- Add pasta to water
- Add tomato to veggies, lower heat and adjust seasoning (Don't be shy with the ground pepper.)
- When pasta is about ready, drain and add to veggies with parsley and nasturtium and mix well
- Serve

It's pretty simple and goes quickly. Omit the chile pepper if you don't like heat, but maybe substitute with bell pepper, because it is nice to get some pepper in there. As the picture shows, it's more about the veggies than the pasta, but it doesn't have to be that way. The zucchini is cooked more than it looks, with just a bit of crispness left. Despite their diverse national origins, or possibly because of them, all the veggies work well together. Plus, just about anything can be omitted or added.

Early fall harvest

Pictured above are Japanese eggplants, Chioggia beets (Italian), Jamaican chiles, Nasturtium flowers, Purple tomatillos (Mexican), Yellow Perfection tomatoes (English), and a Cayenne pepper. A few cherry tomatoes are in there too. And those are marigolds in the top left of the frame.

Not awful for late September in NE Ohio, and there's more to come, but not much more. Here, vegetables from different countries are gathered together peacefully, and tonight at least some of them will put their differences aside and get along well enough to provide a nice, healthy dinner for me, a transplant in the Midwest. With everything that was going on today, at least the dinner plate (or bowl) will be a bastion of uncontroversial inclusion (unless you consider not salting eggplant before cooking controversial).

Under the weather

White rice and brown sugar. Growing up, if I wasn't feeling well, this is what I had.

It's hard to say what did it. Lack of sleep, a flu going around, or about a week of intensive smoked food testing (read: a years worth of salt). Regardless of the cause, things are looking up. Jewish penicillin (chicken noodle soup) for breakfast, a sandwich heavy on the bread along with mac and cheese for lunch, and the simple dinner pictured above. So after this day of rehab, hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to pick some brussels sprouts that have been begging to be harvested for the last week.

The pictured bag of rice came from Pakistan via Halal Meats, a food store around the corner from where I live (near the Detroit/West Blvd. intersection). I'm not sure if the store is actually named Halal Meats, but that's the most noticeable sign on the place. Regardless of political affiliations, if you find yourself in the area, Halal Meats may be worth a stop. The rice was ridiculously inexpensive, and cooked up from start to finish in under 20 minutes. Still, for someone who doesn't eat rice every day, the ten pound bag was a bit intimidating.

Ingredients:
- See above
Method:
- Bring rinsed rice, small pinch of salt (I couldn't help myself), and water to a boil (1 cup rice/2 cups water)
- Lower heat and cover for 12 minutes (following instructions on bag)
- Turn off heat, leaving covered for about 4 minutes
- Fluff rice and serve sprinkled with brown sugar

That it. No rice cooker necessary.

Oh Nancy . . .

. . . you were so wrong:

SMOKING A PRIZE CATCH: NOT A TASK FOR THE TIMID
By NANCY HARMON JENKINS
Published: July 22, 1987
LEAD: MOST fishermen know that no fish tastes finer than the one you have caught yourself, whether its a trout from a mountain stream, mackerel off a dock in Maine or a fighting bluefish like those John Hersey catches off Marthas Vineyard and describes in his fine new book Blues.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4DB123BF931A15754C0A961948260&sec=health&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Pictured above is half of a Lake Erie Walleye, half of a Sockeye Salmon (just shy of 2 lbs.), and a pair of U10 Scallops all smoked at home.

A video clip while I slack

A nice bit on offals. Not for the squeamish. Rated PG 13 due to some foul language. It's a great piece.

http://www.chow.com/stories/10661

I'll be back to posting in the next day or so.

Gone Smokin'

Will be back soon.

(Some beautiful King Salmon and Scallops in the smoker.)

A simple meal

It may look a bit lopsided, but it tasted good. I stuck to the game plan mentioned in the previous post. The fresh-frozen pasta from Ohio City Pasta is always a treat. Even though it's vegan, there's no missing the egg. Also, the whole wheat is perfect for the wide ribbons of pasta. There's no hint of the mushiness that could be present with similarly shaped fresh pasta noodles, and it had a great texture to the bite. It's a pretty straightforward meal, so there's not much else to say about it.

Ingredients:
- Pasta (I like the wide noodles with the large broccoli florets.)
- Broccoli, cut to your liking (Fall garden broccoli is great where available. It's a small silver lining to the fast approaching Cleveland winter.)
- Butter
- Parsley, chopped
- Parmesan
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Bring a good amount of salted water to a boil
- Once the to be pasta water is about at a boil, preheat a pan large enough to hold all the ingredients
- Once the pan is hot, add enough water to make a small puddle in the pan and add the broccoli and some salt
- Turn the broccoli to get it wet all around
- Cover the pan and steam the broccoli until it just short of where you want it
- Remove broccoli from pan, but leave the small amount of green tinted water remaining
- If/when the big pot of water is boiling, add the pasta (Straight from the freezer in my case.)
- Add butter to the pan of broccoli water and mix together
- Add some hot, starchy pasta water to butter/broccoli water mix
- Drain pasta when ready and add it to starchy water/butter/broccoli water mix over a medium heat
- Add broccoli to mix and stir
- Add parsley to mix and stir again
- Turn off heat and grate Parmesan into the pan with everything in it
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- Mix well and serve

With a good pasta and large pieces of broccoli this makes a very satisfying meal. Also, the sauce is just to coat--there should be none left in the pan and none draining off the pasta on the plate. With fresh pasta, and the addition of the starchy pasta water to the sauce, it shouldn't be a problem for the sauce to hold together and cling well.

My dirty secret

This picture is borrowed, without any particular permission, from the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Program (http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp).

I meant to cook tonight. I even had the food picked out--double-wide whole wheat vegan fettuccine with broccoli, lightly coated in a pasta water/butter/Parmesan sauce with some parsley mixed in. The pasta came from a hippie food group meeting last night. It will have to wait until tomorrow.

Around dinner time I found myself on the East Side. It was a Tuesday. That meant one thing. Extra fresh sushi at Pacific East, my favorite sushi place in town. I'm not going to debate the merits of Cleveland sushi shops, except to say that Sushi Rock is ridiculously overrated, and Kimo's Sushi is enjoyable (Kimo's also makes the best, and only, Hawaiian plate meals in the area on Fridays and Saturdays.). That being said, on a Tuesday or Wednesday I believe that Pacific East produces sushi that could stand up to the best places on either U.S. coast and anywhere between. I'd be skeptical at a claim like that too, but the stuff is good. Visitors agree.

Tonight dinner was one piece each of Spanish Mackerel (barely seared with a ginger scallion garnish), Snapper (Tai), Spicy Octopus (a battleship of diced octopus and a sriracha), Baby Yellowtail, Tamago, a Christmas Roll (tuna and avocado) and a Sapporo. And, the dirty secret, one wonderful piece of Toro. All of it was great. The Sapporo, lovingly brewed in Canada, a Christmas Roll, standard and cost effective, Tamago, sweet and just about perfect, Baby Yellowtail, which is leaps beyond the standard Hamachi, Spicy Octopus, spicy, but not so much that a quick piece of ginger doesn't get you ready to enjoy the next piece (although the taste does linger a bit), Snapper, always super clean, and Spanish Mackerel, a treat. Still, the meltingly sweet and savory Toro, tuna belly, was the highlight of the meal.

The best Toro allegedly comes from Bluefin Tuna, the type I enjoyed this evening. A quick search of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's website reveals that Bluefin Tunas are severly overfished and the methods used to catch them result in significant bycatch and harm to sea turtles (And I love sea turtles, particularly Loggerheads. If you're in the area and the season is right, John D. MacArthur Beach State Park in North Palm Beach Florida provides evening turtle walks to watch the Loggerhead's lay their eggs. The tours are offered in other places as well. It's really something to see, just bring bug spray.) So, clearly eating the tasty Bluefin is not a good thing. But it's so good.

I have no excuse. Usually I'm good about these things--eggs from happy chickens, produce from considerate and often local growers, and generally meat from well treated animals. Right or wrong, I never go near farmed salmon. So why this exception to my usual eating ethics that give me a smug sense of self satisfaction? Even after a semi-religious turtle walk? It's a weakness. I guess it could be worse.

Note, there may be some other bad fish in there, but the Bluefin is representative of the problem. Plus, to me it's the most blatant and easily understood problem fish I ate tonight. Please forgive me.

Halibut and Cornbread

Halibut, cheddar/jalapeno cornbread, beet greens, and a lime/butter/basil sauce. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it was a weird shaped piece of fish--very rectangular, not the standard fillet. But, that worked well for lightly searing all four sides, as opposed to the normal two, so it was a pleasant abnormality. The cornbread has jalapenos and cheddar cheese, which seems to be a pretty regular combination these days. The beet greens are the tops from the beets used in the prior post. As for the sauce, which you can barely see just to the left of the fish, it added a nice citrus flavor to the fish and greens. The whole thing was done with a 10 inch cast iron pan for the cornbread, and a small nonstick pan for the fish, greens, and sauce.

Halibut:
Ingredients:
- Halibut (Obviously.)
- Salt and pepper
- Butter and/or high heat oil (I used Ghee that someone from the community garden gave me. The stuff I've gotten from stores isn't nearly as good, so if I didn't have that I'd have used half Canola oil half butter.)
Method:
- Get nonstick pan hot and add the fat
- Season fish
- Sear each side of fish
- When cooked just less than your liking, place on plate in warm oven (200 degrees)

Greens:
Ingredients:
- Beet greens, slightly wet (Or Chard or Kale.)
- Garlic, minced
- Butter
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- After fish is cooked wipe out pan with paper towel
- Place pan back over medium heat and melt some butter
- Add damp greens and garlic
- Season, and stir to wilt greens
- Cover pan for a short minute
- Ucover, stir some more, and taste until it's how you like it
- Add to warm plate

Sauce:
Ingredients:
- Lime, cut in half
- Butter, small piece
- Basil, chopped
Method:
- Add butter and squeeze lime juice into pan on heat
- Add basil
- Cook for a bit being careful not to brown the butter or burn the lime juice
- When you put sauce on the plate and over the fish, leave basil behind (I did this with a spoon being careful to leave the basil shreds in the pan. As for leaving the basil behind, it gives up its flavor quickly.)

Cornbread:
- If you get this working before you start with the fish, everything should be ready at the same time
- I followed this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/109644
- It looks real soupy in the mixing bowl, but it works out in the cast iron pan in the oven
- Also, I didn't have buttermilk, and used 2% mixed with lemon juice instead (I think adding a small amount cream of tartar would have also worked.)
- I added small squares of smoked cheddar and roughly diced jalapeno, half before putting the pan into the oven, the other half after it set in the hot oven for about 10 min.
- If doing again, I'd probably shred, not cube, the cheese. The jalapeno was good in there raw, but I'd be curious to see how it would be if it had been sauteed or roasted.

That's the whole thing. It was a nice dinner.

Beets

Here's a quick Beet snack or appetizer. Besides roasting the Beets, the whole thing came together quickly. The Beet (and the tomatoes and parsley) came from my garden. I had planted seeds for Chioggia Beets, an Italian heirloom that is supposed to have alternating red and and white stripes like a bullseye. As you can see, there are no stripes. Maybe I mixed the seeds up with Golden Beet seeds, but that wouldn't explain the red blushing shown on the right side of the Beet slices. Who knows. If I get one with the stripes I'll post the picture. This was a great snack nonetheless.

Ingredients:
- Beets, well washed, not peeled (Preferably small ones.)
- Tomatoes (Yellow Pear and Supersweet 100 here.)
- Parsley, uncut leaves
- Sunflower seeds (Little ones.)
- Goat cheese
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Place cleaned Beets on a large piece of aluminium foil
- Coat Beets with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper
- Fold up foil to seal Beets inside, and place in hot oven for about 1 hr. 15 min.
- Turn off oven, and leave Beet packet inside for about another 30 min.
- Remove Beet packet from oven and allow them to get cool enough to handle
- While Beets are cooling, slice some cherry tomatoes in half
- Peel Beet by rubbing with a paper towel (The skin should come off easily.)
- Make a bed of parsley on the plate
- Slice a Beet and arrange on parsley
- Arrange tomatoes
- Lightly salt the Beet and tomatoes
- Drizzle olive oil over the Beet
- Add bits of goat cheese and some sunflower seeds

That's all there is to it. The Beet should be fork tender. It should taste slightly earthy, but not dirty (There is a difference.).

And the winner is . . .

Carnaroli. Very few food blogs are without at least one risotto recipe, and why should The CFT be any different. This started with me running out of rice, and reading Janet Fletcher's Risotto Revelation in the San Francisco Chronicle's archives (linked below) before restocking. The article is great and seemingly as timely today as it was when written nearly four years ago. I had always used Arborio and never gave it too much thought. It worked well, and was always readily available. But the article sparked my interest, and I knew other varieties would be available at Urban Herbs, an herb/legume/spice mixture purveyor at the West Side Market.

After reading the article, I was ready to give Carnaroli a try. It was about 25% more expensive than the Arborio, but since I was only buying a pound of rice the actual dollar difference was not too significant. Inspired by a great picture of Milanese Risotto in The Silver Spoon Cookbook, the creeping fall weather, and a freezer bag full of over six months of chicken parts, it was time to put something together.

A quick word about the chicken parts. While I like the Carnaroli and believe it made a slightly better risotto than Arborio, I think the differences between the varieties of rice have a lot less to do with the quality of the end product than the cooking liquid. I made a quick, simple stock with my frozen chicken part cache. While well schooled chefs might cringe at the stock making method described below, it worked well and is much preferable to anything from a can or box.

Stock
Ingredients:
- Chicken Parts (I had collected bones, ends of wings, backbones, necks, and even some leftovers in a freezer bag for a long time. There may have even been giblets and livers in the mix.)
- Onion, roughly chopped
- Bay Leaf (I highly recommend keeping a potted Bay Laurel plant for you Bay Leaf needs. I leave mine outside in the summer, and during the winter just forget about it in a barely lit part of the kitchen.)
- [Carrot and Celery chopped -- Bracketed because I was out of, and therefore omitted, them]
Method:
- Put the chicken parts and onion in a pot big enough to hold them comfortably and cover generously with water
- Bring pot with chicken parts, onion, and water to a boil
- Once everything is at a boil reduce heat to simmer everything
- Add more water to cover if necessary (You can always boil the stock down to concentrate the flavor, so there's no need to worry about too much water.)
- In about two hours you should have a decent stock
- Strain out chicken parts and onion, give pot a quick rinse, and return stock to pot
- Keep the stock hot

Risotto
There are a lot of great risotto recipes and methods elsewhere on the web, so this is by no means definitive. It works, but it's worth taking a look around at some others.
Ingredients:
- Risotto Rice (Besides Carnaroli or Arborio, Ming Tsai suggests using sushi rice, http://www.ming.com/, and while I'm sure it works, there's something to be said about tradition. When Mario Batali, http://www.mariobatali.com/, recommends sushi rice, or if it's all I have around when craving risotto, I'll give it a try.)
- Onion, diced
- White Wine
- Butter
- Olive Oil
- Saffron (From the Spice Hound at the Coit Road Farmers Market, the great, but neglected, year round market in East Cleveland. Definitely optional.)
- Parmesan Cheese
- Salt and pepper
- Parsley, chopped
Method:
- Sweat onion in mixture of olive oil and butter
- Once onion is soft, add rice and stir well
- Cook like this until rice is well coated with the fats and the rice is clear with an opaque spot in the center (This was less pronounced with the Carnaroli than with the Arborio, but noticeable nonetheless. The opague spot has been referred to as the soul of the rice grain.)
- Now add a good glug of wine (White was used here, but red is good, especially if you want a reddish risotto, which looks nice with some meats.) and stir well
- Once the white wine is absorbed (and boiled off) add a good ladleful or two of hot stock and stir well
- After the rice has absorbed the stock (again, some of it's boiling off) repeat with one or two more ladlefuls of of stock, this time adding the saffron if you have it
- Keep repeating adding stock, stirring very regularly (If you are running out of stock get some hot water ready. The stock should be flavorful enough that adding some water towards the end shouldn't make too big a difference.)
- Keep tasting the rice to see where it's texture is and seasoning with salt and pepper
- When rice is just about getting there, add more stock, turn off the heat, and cover the pan for a few minutes
- Lift cover, add some butter, Parmesan cheese, and parsley and stir well (If the rice is too tight add some more stock.)
- Serve as a side or on it's own

Vegetables could be added, either cooked with the risotto or separately. Just about anything could work. Leftovers are nice formed into a patty, coated in bread crumbs, and sauteed in butter in a nonstick pan. Add a poached egg on top and it's a great breakfast.


Janet Fletcher, Risotto Revelation, SF Chronicle, Oct. 22, 2003:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/22/FDGH12D7IN1.DTL

North by Midwest

If I had remembered to take a picture of the uncut whole side of the fish there would be a more complete record. But I didn't, so the photos start with the cure, skipping the most important step--getting a good fish. This is the rest of the fish that was used in the New Orleans recipe below. To recap, it's half of a fall Coho Salmon from the Copper River in Alaska.

A few things about salmon. First, I'm not going to comment on farmed salmon. I've already taken up enough space with the three pictures. For the rest of this post, unless otherwise indicated, salmon refers to fresh wild salmon. Second, the infamous Copper River. I believe the hype about Copper River salmon is as much about great marketing as anything else. I've eaten great wild salmon caught elsewhere in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and even Michigan. It's all been good. Maybe there's some merit to the claims of the exceptional taste of the hardworking salmon caught in the Copper River, I don't know. When I'm lucky enough to be able to pick between different types of salmon I'm not too concerned about their provenance. I pick which looks best regardless of where it's from. I don't discriminate based on point of origin (I may take fishing methods/fishery management into account though.). Third, while I'm not concerned about the fish's domicile, I do pay attention to what type of salmon it is, which generally means choosing between Chinook (King), Coho (Silver), and Sockeye (Red). They're all good.

Chinook salmon are large and have a high fat content. It's also usually the most expensive type. Coho are generally smaller, and that's what I used here. Sockeyes are my favorite. I like the color and flavor of Sockeyes, and as long as its not overcooked I don't think there is any better variety. The preference is personal, and I don't suspect everyone agrees. But in my experience, which has included bartering with an Alaskan fisherman for huge fillets of salmon flash frozen in cryovac bags to buying a fresh from the water Chum salmon (variety not recommended) out of the back of a guy's pickup truck at a gas station, I always go back to the Sockeye. Incidentally, if it's frozen and thawed well it's amazing how long salmon can stay stored in the freezer without dramatically decreasing in quality (I got my salmon fix through long Midwest winters by buying a whole scaled and gutted fish in season, portioning it out and freezing it at home, and then thawing portions from the freezer when the mood arose.).

Okay, enough about that. The top picture is of the majority of one side of a filleted salmon cut into four pieces. It was cut once along the length, dividing the thick portion and thin portion (belly) of the fillet (The thick portion takes a little bit longer to cook through.), and then again across the width of each half. When I first did this, I learned to cut the fish into small individual portions at this point. Using four big pieces here was easier to handle than lots of little pieces, but, as the edges/crusts are likely the best part, in the future I'll go back smaller pieces.

The salmon is covered in a curing mixture made up of equal parts salt and sugar. I need to get approval from the folks who gave me the recipe before releasing the details, i.e. types of salt/sugar. As you can see, it will start to leak, otherwise known as cure. I let it sit like this for about an hour before draining the dish and brushing off the majority of the mixture with a paper towel.

Next, it's off to the smoker, where it smoked at a very low temp for around three and a half hours. I converted the charcoal smoker to electric by putting an inexpensive single electric burner in the area designated for coal, and placing a pie pan on the burner element to hold the smoking mixture. I kept the burner on high the whole time. It still didn't get too hot. The electric smoker makes it easy and helps alleviate any temptation to peak at the fish. It's constantly cooking, slowly.

After a few hours I flake off some of the fish to check if it's done. Also, if it starts oozing white stuff, that's a good indicator. I think the white stuff is fat coming up, but I could have sworn I read that it was tissue or muscle or something (I didn't do very well in biology.). Once done let it come to room temp, wrap in plastic wrap, bag it (it smells smokey), and enjoy at your leisure. It's great with crackers and in omelets, and I'm thinking about throwing it into the food processor to make some kind of mousse (I don't claim to have made up the idea.) . . . there are lots of things to do with it.

Everything in moderation

It's not the healthiest, but it could be worse. I've been making pasta like this for a number of years, and it's always safe for casual company who don't mind pork and dairy. It's a simple complete meal that requires just two pieces of cookware, one to boil the pasta, and another for the sausage and veges, which may explain why similar concoctions are available at a lot of restaurants. The combination I used here was just what looked good at the time. Just about any vegetables can be used. Asparagus is a classic, as are bell peppers. The colors and textures of the veges matter, otherwise it's just pasta and cream sauce.

Ingredients:

- Pasta (The little ridged penne I mentioned a few posts ago.)
- Sausage (I used Spicy Italian, although I imagine others would do.)

- Heavy Cream (There's no substitute.)

- Cooking oil

- Okra, sliced

- Carrot, small/medium sized dice

- Parsley, chopped

- Chile pepper flakes (Optional, I guess.)

- Paprika

- Salt and pepper

- Parmesan Cheese

Method:

- Bring salted water to a boil

- While water is heating up, brown unsliced sausage in cooking oil in a pan large enough to hold everything, including the pasta (I kept the sausage in its casing for this one.)

- Once the sausage is browned on as many sides as possible (Don't worry if it's not cooked through.) remove it to a cutting board

- Don't clean the pan (The pan never gets cleaned for this one.)

- If water for the pasta is boiling now, add the pasta, if not, just add the pasta when the water's ready

- While pasta is cooking (hopefully), add carrot, salt, and pepper to the pan along with a splash of water (The water should cook off quickly, and it will help soften the carrot.)

- While carrots are cooking, slice the sausage

- Once carrots are pretty soft add okra, chile flakes, and the now sliced sausage to the pan

- Cook until all the pan's contents are just about how you like them (It's nice if you could brown the face of the sliced sausage.)

- Add some cream to the hot pan (It should start cooking down right away. You don't need much, just enough to thinly coat the pasta once it's cooked down.)

- As the cream and contents are bubbling away, scrape the bottom of the pan with a utensil to incorporate any stuck bits and add some paprika (This is for flavor and color. Some sausages will leach lots of color, some not so much. Adjust amount of paprika accordingly.)

- Add some of the pasta water to the pan to thin out the cream sauce and get it to a good place

- Check on the pasta, it should be getting there (It's best if it's pretty al dente in this recipe.)

- If the pasta is not done, but the sauce and contents therein are where you want them, just turn off the heat under the pan

- Once pasta is done, drain it an add to the sauce, sausage, and veges (The flame should be on when the pasta is added.)

- Add parsley and mix well

- Turn off heat when pasta is just about perfect

- Grate Parmesan cheese over the mixture and, again, mix well

- Ready to serve

It sounds more complicated than it is, and it tastes pretty good. Here's what the part that didn't fit in the bowl looks like:

Getting back to my roots

An uncle of mine was asked to make a family recipe for a potluck at his daughter's school. He brought a brisket, and said that his recipe worked out great, which, no doubt, it did, as he's a great cook. While he was telling the story to my Mom (he's married to her sister) and me I asked about the recipe, hoping to adopt it, as our heirloom recipe collection is woefully deficient for reasons beyond our control. One of the first ingredients he listed off was sundried tomatoes. Now, I'm not from a Mediterranean bloodline, nor did I believe my uncle was. When I asked about how the sundried tomatoes found their way into his family recipe he replied honestly. He said something to the effect of "This was the way my mom would have made it if she had tried this recipe." At first I felt cheated, or at least like he had cheated, but I don't anymore--family recipes evolve. I've yet to get the entire brisket recipe from him, but I have no doubt that it is excellent. As great as my Mom's, who's to say.

All that being said, the picture above is a variation of the bagels and lox I grew up with. I don't think it's any better than the standard Sunday morning fare, although this version could easily be made safe should the occasion call for unleavened bread. So, like my uncle's brisket recipe, even though it's not entirely traditional, I don't think it does the original any grave injustice.

Ingredients:
- Smoked Salmon* (This not Lox, or Nova, or the like, not that I don't love the stuff, becuase I do. This is Pacific Northwest/Native American style smoked salmon, hot smoked sans dill. For another presentation, smoked tuna would be great, if you can get it.)
- Goat Cheese (I used Cypress Grove Purple Haze. I like the herbs in it, and it seemed appropriate to use a good Northwest cheese with a good Northwest fish.)
- Water Crackers
- Chives, cut into small batons
Method:
- The picture is self explanatory (Minimal assembly required.)

So, hot smoked salmon instead of lox, goat cheese instead of cream, and water crackers instead of a bagel. I don't think my Mom would be offended, and I'm sure she'll let me know if she is.

*Smoked Salmon
I'll put the process for making this up shortly. It's pretty simple, but you'll need a smoker. While this recipe would work with cold smoked, thinly sliced salmon, that's not the point of this snack. The Northwest stuff is different, but equally good. Plus, the way it flakes is great for portioning.

Guacamole

A simple recipe that's more about getting the proportions right than anything else. The picture above is from a batch made with four fairly large avocados. It was enough for my contribution to a potluck with about twenty-five people. It's safe for just about everyone. As for those who swear that they just don't like guacamole, well, there's not much that's going to satisfy them.

Ingredients:
- Ripe avocados, peeled and broken up (Preferably the Hass type, they're dark when they're ripe. Others may work, but I haven't tried them.)
- Plum tomatoes, diced (Really should use plum, as opposed to other, tomatoes here.)
- Red onion, finely diced
- Chile pepper, very finely diced (Jalapeno is classic.)
- Cilantro, chopped
- Lime
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Squeeze some lemon and lime juice in the bowl that will hold all the ingredients
- Add chunks of peeled avocado to the juices and get the avocado pieces coated with the citrus juice (This will slow down discoloration.)
- Add salt and pepper to avocado and citrus juices
- Mash the avocado, salt and pepper, and citrus juices (I use two forks, but a potato masher would work well. Make sure to get it all smooth, because this is the only real chance to mush everything around. The salt helps the process.)
- Add a whole bunch of diced tomatoes, stirring them in as they are added (It's amazing how much tomato the avocado mixture can handle. Just add until it looks good to you.)
- Reseason with salt and pepper (Don't be shy with the salt, both avocados and tomatoes can handle a large amount of salt. It's shocking how much seasoning you can add.)
- Add diced red onion and stir that in (Again, even if you don't like onion, don't be shy with it here.)
- Now add the diced hot pepper and stir well
- Recheck seasoning (If something's off, this is a good time to fix it, i.e. adding additional lime juice or some more salt.)
- Finally, stir in chopped cilantro (Again, don't be shy with it.)

That's all there is to it. As you can see, there's a significant quantity of the non-avocado ingredients. They don't interfere so much as they complement the completed product, which is guacamole, not just squished avocado. Enjoy.

Versatility:
What's great about this recipe is that it can be a base for many others. Trade the avocado and tomato for mango, and it's a great mango salsa (Sure, that may have been cooler two years ago, but it's still good.). Swapping the avocado for some raw fish (like halibut or flounder), or shrimp, and/or scallops, and adding some extra lemon and lime juice, results a quality ceviche. Whatever you do with this recipe, if you do anything, it will go well with tortilla chips.

New Orleans

I'm not saying salmon is a traditional Creole ingredient. But I'm sure they'd understand, particularly if their nearest significant body of water was limited to a lake with a maximum depth about the same as a decent above ground swimming pool. What is "authentic" is that the Coho, or Silver, Salmon was fresh. Picked up by the fishmonger at the airport this morning after arriving on a flight from Alaska. Around here it's impossible to beat Kate's Fish at the West Side Market. Kate's attitude may be as seasonal as the fish, but the prices are fair and the selection is honest. Today I saw them throwing away pounds and pounds of Halibut that wasn't up to par. They'll get reimbursed for the fish from their connection, but they passed on a lot of sales this afternoon. Most of the rest of the dish is pure New Orleans, or at least as best as this Jersey guy can do it.

There are three components: The fish, the shrimp remoulade (which is really two components in itself), and the fried green tomatoes. I take no credit for the shrimp/fried tomato combination. I copied if from Upperline in New Orleans, where I had one of the best meals of my life. Chuck, at The Gumbo Pages (http://www.gumbopages.com/) discusses the recipe, and has a great New Orleans themed website. Danno, at NOLA Cuisine (http://www.nolacuisine.com/), has some great recipes and commentary too. Danno doesn't know it, but he's my hero.

The salmon part is simple. The rest, while by no means difficult, is a bit time consuming. But if everything is laid out beforehand preparation goes pretty quickly, and there are ample times to pause and grab a drink. The sauce is best if it hangs out in the fridge for a bit, so you'll want to make that first. Here it is:

Shrimp Remoulade*

Remoulade
Ingredients:
- Egg yolk
- Lemon juice
- Whole grain mustard
- Creole mustard powder (If you can get Creole Mustard, which shouldn't be too tough, that can be used in place of the mustard powder and whole grain mustard. It'd likely be preferable.)
- Oil, of neutral or pleasant flavor (I used half peanut and half olive.)
- Bell pepper, roughly diced (Mine was a California Wonder that was mostly red with some green.)
- Onion, diced (I used a sweet white onion from the North Union Farmer's Market at Crocker Park.)
- Celery, roughly diced
- Chile pepper, roughly diced (A Habanero is great here.)
- Carrot, roughly diced
- Ketchup
- Cilantro, chopped well
- Salt and pepper
- Cayenne
- Water to thin it out
Method:
- Put egg yolk, mustard, mustard powder, cayenne, lemon juice, and some salt and pepper in the work bowl of a food processor (I use a mini food processor, and it's great for things like this and pesto. I don't have a full size one, but I'm sure it would work too.)
- Pulse that stuff to combine it
- Now add oil slowly, through a hole in the processor's lid if it's there (It should be there.)
- Enjoy the magical process of watching these liquids form into a viscous mayonnaise (It's enjoyable to do this part by hand, but you'll see in a second why I used the processor here.)
- Once there's a nice thick mayo, stop adding oil
- Add diced bell pepper, onion, celery, chile pepper, and carrot, some ketchup and process
- When sauce has just little specks of the veges showing, and no more big chunks, stop processing
- Thin with a bit of water if you'd like (Keep in mind that it will thicken up a little bit in the fridge. If you're going to err, err on the thick side. It's easier to thin it out later than mess around trying to thicken it up.)
- Now add the cilantro and pulse
- Congratulations, you have made a remoulade
*It appears that there are as many ways to make a remoulade as there are people who make it. Take a look at The Gumbo Pages and NOLA Cuisine, and if that's not enough, or you don't trust internet sources, compare James Peterson's treatise, Sauces, to the lovely The Silver Spoon cookbook. If there's a consensus, I can't find it. So I took some license, as did those before me.

Shrimp
Ingredients:
- Bell peppers, chopped
- Onion, chopped
- Carrot, chopped
- Celery, chopped
- Old Bay Seasoning (Or the like. I imagine a liquid crab boil would be nice in here too.)
- Peppercorns
- Salt
- Shrimp, uncooked, shell on, preferably (Thawed if they were frozen. I thaw them by putting the frozen shrimp in a bowl in the sink and letting cold water slowly run over them. It goes fast. Once they are thawed they go in the fridge, but I tend to do this at the last minute so they go right from thawing to cooking.)
- Ice bath (Bowl of ice water.)
Method:
- Get a pot full of water similar to what you'd use to make pasta
- Put bell peppers, onion, carrot, celery, Old Bay, peppercorns, and salt in the water
- Bring the pot and it's fillings to a rapid boil
- Add shrimp
- Once water starts to simmer again turn off the heat
- Let the shrimp steep in the infused water for about five minutes
- Remove shrimp and place in ice bath (The veges, sadly, get discarded.)
- Once shrimp have cooled peel them (Try one to make sure its cooked through. It should be, and it should taste good. Also, work on getting the whole tail out of the shell. I believe that last little bit of the tail is the best part.)
Putting it together:
- Combine shrimp and remoulade a few minutes before serving

Fried Green Tomatoes
Ingredients:
- Green tomatoes
- Cornmeal
- Bread crumbs (I used Panko, 'cause that's just what folks use these days.)
- Flour
- Egg
- Cayenne
- Salt and pepper
- Oil for shallow frying
Method:
- Set up three bowls next to each other
- Put flour seasoned with salt, pepper, and cayenne in one bowl
- Put egg with a bit of water mixed in in the next bowl
- Combine equal parts bread crumbs and cornmeal in the third bowl
- Preheat pan
- Slice tomato
- Add oil to pan and get it hot enough so tomato will sizzle when placed in there
- Dip slice of tomato in flour, then knock off excess flour
- Dip flour coated slice in egg wash
- Dip now egg and flour coated slice in bread crumb mixture
- Place in pan and brown each side
- Let rest on a paper towel

Salmon (the easiest part)
Ingredients:
- Salmon (Or any fresh fish that's not too flakey)
- Oil, for high heat (Mixing Canola and butter works great, but I just used Grapeseed oil here.)
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Preheat pan to get it very hot
- Add oil
- Season both sides of fish with salt and pepper
- Place fish, presentation side (here flesh side) down (Shaking the pan right when the fish is put in, and every now and then thereafter, will help ensure the fish doesn't stick if you're using an uncoated pan.)
- When colored nicely flip over, lower heat a drop, and let it cook through (If it's not cooking through or is a particularly thick piece of fish, throw it in a hot oven, assuming the pan has oven safe handles, or cover the pan. Putting it in the oven is preferable to covering the pan. Try both methods and I think you'll agree.)
- Serve

Thats it. I put some leaf lettuce down under the fried green tomatoes--it traditionally goes with shrimp remoulade. I also garnished with diced and whole chives, and diced avocado, because I had both laying around. It's a good meal. Blackened Redfish may have been even better, but this wasn't too bad.

More on New Orleans

Catfish Po Boy at Johnny's Po-Boys, Muffuletta at Central Grocery, Hurricanes at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, dinners at Brigtsen's and Upperline, Roast Beef Po Boy at the Gumbo Shop, Coffee and Chicory and Beignets at Cafe Du Monde, music at jazz clubs, bars, and in the street, dancing . . . it just kept going. We also saw the Lower 9, the 17th Street Canal, other devastated neighborhoods, and scenes that would make you think Katrina hit two weeks, not two years, ago. It was my first trip to New Orleans, and I hope it won't be my last. The place is like it's own world, and even though I can't compare how it is now to how it was before the storm, I can say that there is no reason not to go. Things are up and running. It's as safe as anywhere else--I've never seen so many police. And you'd have to try to find a bad meal. This town convinced me that I could never be a food critic. It's just too much. There was so much goodness it was overwhelming. Now I'm just looking forward to getting a chance to go back.

Cup of Joe

Simple breakfast. Would've been perfect if I had some yogurt, but it was pretty good nonetheless. The Melitta Ready Set Joe coffee maker (I'll try to keep product placement to a minimum except where it makes a difference. Here it does.) is great, for one cup of coffee. This is a bit of a well traveled meal, in stark contrast to most of the posts here. Even the olive oil from the last pasta post was only from California (All things being equal, I prefer the Spanish stuff.). Here, the coffee is from Columbia, by way of Arabica, a Cleveland area coffee chain, sold vacuum packed.

A word on the coffee, particularly when brewing this way, but I imagine it's always relevant. These beans were fine. They were a gift, and anything given is always good . . . usually. And I am partial to Colombian coffee, partially because I had a good friend from Columbia and I'm sentimental, being a Cancer and all. That being said, I ground the coffee beans in a blade grinder, wet about three tablespoons of roughly ground coffee in the Melitta #2 filter with hot water from a tea kettle, and then filled the filter up with more of the hot water and let it do its thing. It was fine in the mug, particularly so with a bit of cream (that was local and organic) and some sugar (organic by way of Paraguay). But, there's a place in the West Side Market, and I'm sure there are equivalent places just about everywhere, that gets great traffic and a quick turnaround on their product. Using those beans on a different occasion, during the initial wetting of the beans a thick foam develops and there's lots of bubbling. Same, but to a lesser extent, when the additional water is added. The smell was stronger and the taste superior. The beans were from the same place of origin and I had used the same technique. Maybe the coffee boutique roasts their beans differently, but I believe the difference is in the freshness alone. Coffee at my local Aribica (it's an individually owned and operated franchise) is great, same at the West Side Market boutique shop. But if I'm buying the beans, it's worth a trip to the Market. Plus, they sell by weight, so you can buy less and keep your stock fresh.

Back to breakfast. Some good Oatnut bread (Pennsylvania I think), raspberry jam (organic from California), and a banana (organic, Ecuador). As noted above, some good yogurt mixed with some grains or nuts would have made it the perfect meal, but despite my waxing on about the omission, they really weren't missed. At the very least it was a nice break from eggs or muesli, especially since I was out of eggs and milk.

Almost Vegan

If it wasn't for the for the cheese, which, frankly, looked prettier before it started melting, this meal would have satisfied nearly any dietary restriction. It's not, however, gluten free, and for that I apologize. It's a quick and clean meal if prepared in a good order, and with the velvety full taste of fresh pasta, there's no missing the meat. As it's really just pasta with tomato sauce and vegetables, there's not much need for further description, so here it is.

Ingredients:
- Olive Oil
- Shallots (They're the new onion.)
- Garlic
- Tomato (Mortgage Lifter)
- Hot Pepper (Here it was a yellow Jamaican Habanero type. Peppers have flavor, so give it some thought. Powdered Cayenne or chile would not be too good here, but flakes would work.)
- Squash (Yellow Crooked Neck here -- all the vegetables, with the exception of the shallots, are from the garden, which is only to say they are seasonal and all that.)
- Broccoli
- Pasta (Here it was "fresh," albeit frozen, Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Pasta from Ohio City Pasta.)
- Basil (Despite what you don't see in the picture, I swear it's in there.)
- Any hard grating cheese (I used Parmesan.)
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Start boiling a big pot of salted water (Don't be afraid of the salt.)
- Preheat a sauce pan and put in a film of Olive Oil
- While pan is preheating peel and somewhat finely slice shallot
- Add sliced shallot to pan and sweat with a little salt and pepper
- While shallot is sweating, crush and mince garlic (Give the cloves a very good smash with the side of a chefs knife. They should be mush after the smash, then mince them a bit more.)
- Add the minced garlic on top of the sweating shallots (Don't mix them together yet, ensuring that the garlic will soften and smell all nice without you having to worry about it burning when you get back to the cutting board.)
- Finely mince a hot pepper (Easiest thing to do is julienne the pepper and then cut across the matchsticks you just made. Even easier is to add red chile flakes.)
- Add diced pepper or chile flakes to shallot and garlic and stir all together
- Now roughly dice some nice juicy tomato (I cut out the area where the stem was attached, but do not seed or peel the tomato for this quick sauce. This is not a fine dice.)
- Add tomato to shallot, garlic, pepper mixture, add salt and pepper and stir well
- Turn the heat up (Soon there should be a liquidy mess in the sauce pan. Keep at a boil until it's starting to get to a slightly drier consistency than you're looking for at the end. I'd say add a bit of sugar if your tomatoes are not good, but this isn't recipe for mediocre fresh tomatoes--better to use canned ones.)
- While sauce is boiling away, preheat a frying pan
- Start cutting up squash and broccoli
- Add some olive oil to frying pan
- When oil is hot add pieces of squash and broccoli and some salt and pepper
- Let the squash brown just a bit with broccoli in the pan, and keep the pan moving now and then if it's not nonstick to ensure that the squash doesn't stick (Both the squash and broccoli will go from not cooked enough to over cooked pretty quickly, so keep an eye on them. You can always take the pan off the heat if it's going to fast. Foreshadowing--the veges are going to keep cooking for a minute or so when you put everything together, so err on the undercooked side.)
- Sauce should be about where you want it now, and veges just about done
- Now add pasta, here straight from the freezer, into the boiling water (Obviously if you're using dried pasta it should have been working a while ago. The fresh, even if frozen, cooks very fast.)
- When pasta is about done, add some of the pasta water to reconstitute the sauce to get it a bit wetter than you want it at the end (This step is key. The starchy water ensures that the sauce will bind to the cooked pasta . . . I think.)
- Rapidly boil sauce to get it to just about right consistency
- Drain pasta--do not rinse--and put still damp pasta back in the pasta pot (If you're using a big saucepan for the sauce, or a big frying pan for the veges, than you can add to pasta to one of those. Also, keep in mind that the pasta is the focus of the dish. The sauce is just to coat and provide some tomato chunks.)
- Add sauce and veges to pasta and stir well over low heat (However you're working your pan sharing, i.e. which pan everything is winding up in, everything should now be together over low heat.)
- Julienne some basil and throw it in with the pasta, sauce, and veges (Don't be shy with the basil. Again, the picture is deceptive.)
- Stir well and turn off heat
- Plate pasta and grate some cheese over the top (I used a vege peeler to get some small Parmesan strips, but grated cheese would have been just as good. Diced Fresh Mozzarella is a good touch at the end too if everything is off the heat and you stir well and quickly, otherwise it will clump pretty readily. Cheese can also be omitted.)

Nothing else to it. One knife, one cutting board, three pieces of cookware, and maybe a grater/peeler. It's a good meal and goes equally well with red and white wine, so you won't have to make a considerate guest feel bad. Pass the Parm at the table and vegans, vegetarians, and those who love to crazily douse their pasta with cheese will all be happy. What could be better?