Gran Fran as Julia

Fall is always a nice time of year to make stews and soups. In our family, it's also when Gran Fran's birthday occurs. As she heads into a new decade (no, I won't tell you which one), these next few weeks' worth of posts will focus on her coming up as a cook. First, we have a small ode to the Queen, Julia Child. Stay tuned for some of Gran Fran's own pieces.

As you have probably already surmised, if you've read several of these posts, Gran Fran is an awesome cook who uses mostly intuition, learned over decades of cooking, alongside her unquenchable thirst for cookbooks.

One of my earliest mother-daughter memories is of a fundraiser that we did when I was about 5 years old. Gran Fran volunteered for a membership drive for our local PBS television station. We were stationed in a small fold up booth in front of the Bloomingdale's in Fresh Meadows, Queens (which I believe is now a K-Mart).

In exchange for membership, new members would get a cookbook. Not just any cookbook, but THE cookbook. Which one, you may ask? It's the Julia Child tome of greatness, Mastering The Art of French Cooking.

I recall Gran Fran waxing poetic about the recipes and the program. Remember, this was 1975, or so (oops, there it is again, a veiled reference to my actual age), not a time when a lot of people were spending hours make Bernaise sauce at home, but it was beginning to happen. Gran Fran sold some memberships that day, but mostly, she got to represent one of her culinary heroes to the public.

Recently, I asked her which of Julia's recipes was her favorite. She said "Well, of course it's Beef Bourguignon." I know, it's a typical recipe to choose, but it is one of the best, and we grew up eating it a lot. Gran Fran made it and the house smelled like a French bistro. The warmth of the kitchen, the smells of the red wine mingling with the bacon, thyme and onions is an unmatchable sensory memory for me.

Beef Bourguinon ala Gran Fran with a nod to Julia Child serves 8

One gigantic non-reactive pot is needed!!

Ingredients:

• 3 to 3.5 Lbs Bottom Round, cubed (any good beef stewing meat works here)
•  1/4 Lb Double Smoked Bacon
• 2 Tbsps Olive Oil
• 2 Carrots, cut into chunks
• 1 Onion; diced
• 2 Cloves Garlic, peeled and diced
• 2 Tsps Flour
• 3 Cups Dry Red Wine
• 1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
• Salt
• Pepper
• Thyme
• Bay Leaf

Method:

• Preheat oven to 325°.
• Boil diced bacon in 3 cups water for 10 minutes. Refresh bacon under cold water. Dry well.
• Heat oil in a large skillet. Add bqcon. When bacon browns, remove from pan and set aside.
• Dry beef well, then add it to the hot skillet.
• Brown well on all sides.
• In a heavy, nonreactive stew pan, add some oil from the skillet.
• Saute onions and carrots in stew pan until golden brown. Then, sprinkle the veggies with the flour (which ultimqtely helps thicken the stew).
• Brown until golden over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add browned meat to veggies.
• Add red wine to the skillet you used to cook the meat. Stir up all browned particles and bring to a boil. Add this to meat in stew pot.
• If needed, add water to stew pot so all so meat is covered.
• In a small non-reactive sauce pan, place tomato paste, salt, pepper, garlic and thyme, with a little bit of olive oil. Stir over medium heat until paste has thinned a bit and all herbs/spices have been incorporated. Add to stew pot.
• Bring the stew to a boil on top of the stove.
• COver closely (another gran franism) and plce on lower rack in the 325° oven.
• Leave undisturbed for 1.5 hours.
• Then, stir,put cover back on and simmer another 1.5 hours.

This stew tastes even better when reheated, so make a day or two in advance.

C'mon, it's Ham, that's OK for Vegetarians, Right?

My friend S. is a Vegetarian 98% of the time, with some fish here or there. But, she has a weakness....ham.

I found this out one evening when I came home (S. was babysitting Ms. Iz) to find her chowing down on a big bowl of my split pea with ham soup. After the shock wore off, she told me that ham is her achilles heel in regards to the meat world. And that, there were some lovely ham biscuits that came from Virginia that she treated me to. Pure deliciousness!

The first time I made the split pea with ham soup, I had a bit of a mishap. The hamhock I chose was subpar, too salty, not enough real flavor, you know, none of Gran Fran's best quality ingredients at the Safeway that day. Sadly, it did not make my soup any better, and nowhere near Gran Fran's. But, I perservered (and started buying nitrate free hamhocks) and am now an expert split pea with ham soup.

When I was little, Gran Fran usually made us a batch around Thanksgiving. As with everything, which I believe I have mentioned before, there was so much that it lasted for at least a week. I cherished every last drop. By watching Gran Fran, I learned that you need to brown the hamhock first, and use cloves, not the powder, the whole ones, for the best flavor.

One thing I've realized is that there is an alternative to the hamhock....left over Honey Baked Ham on the bone. It makes a much sweeter soup (welcome, honey), but it's a nice rich alternative, and a good use of a bit of leftovers.

So, in closing, enjoy the hammy-goodness as we had more fully into Fall!

Split Pea with Ham Soup ala Gran Fran serves 8 as a side dish

Ingredients:

• 1 Package Green Split Peas (or about 12 ounces), rinsed
• 1 Ham Hock (nitrate free is best)
• 1 Large Yellow Onion, sliced
• 2 Large Carrots, sliced
• 4-6 Whole Cloves
• Thyme
• Bay Leaf
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 Cloves Garlic, peeled and smashed

Method:

• Saute onions and carrots in the olive oil in a large non-reactive pan.
• Place hamhock in the pan and brown on all sides.
• Add washed peas, stirring over meium heat.
• Pur boiling water to cover, about 4 cups, into pan (or as much as you need to actually cover the hamhock).
• Add cloves, thyme, bay lead, pepper and garlic. Wait until the soup is further along in its cooking to add salt, since the handhock is fairly salty on its own).
• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, partially cover the pan and simmer for 3 hours, stirring every now and then.
• Let cool and refrigerate. Then skim all of the fat off the top.
• Remove hamhock, dice the meat, and return to the soup.
• Reheat soup and serve with toasted baguette and a nice glass of wine.

roasted veggies

"Kids will eat anything if you broil them in oil (the food, not the kids). Heck, you could probably get her to eat cardboard prepared that way."

So said my oldest sister D. when I reported that my daughter Iz, at the ripe young age of 2 was eating sweet potatoes, cauliflower and brussels sprouts. D. was especially impressed, having a son just one month younger than Ms. Iz, who would not think of touching any of these foods.

I recall Gran Fran making all kinds of food (that might have been considered odd for a home cook, even in NY in the late 70's and early 80's), such as okra, paté, bagna cauda, and any number of other off-the-beaten-path items she was inerested in trying out that week.

There were no options, as I mentioned in some earlier posts. You ate what the parents made. No questions, no exceptions. So, if a plateful of broccoli rabe with red pepper flakes showed up on the table, you ate it. I am not a fan of cooked spinach, never have been , never will be, but that is how it was served in those days on Gran Fran's table, so I had to eat it.

In my own adulthood, I have come to love okra, broccoli rabe and spinach (but uncooked, please). And, I've found a foolproof way to create veggies any kid (almost) will eat: roast the heck out of them. The longer they roast (or the higher the oven heat), the sweeter they become. To be fair, some of the important nutrients do disappate if you cook the veggies too long, but as an introduction to the different flavors and textures of a good variety of vegetables to a young one's palette, you can't beat this.

It is now possible for me to serve brussels sprouts and cauliflower just steamed, hence preserving their vitamins and minerals, to Ms. Iz, and she loves them. Of course, she likes it best when I add some olive oil to either a baking dish or a hot pan on the stove, and saute or roast her veggies, but she will eat them either way with pleasure.

Roasted Veggies

serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Brussels Sprouts (or caulifower works well, too), shredded or well chopped
• 3 Tbsps Olive Oil (best-quality, of course)
• Salt to taste (you can add pepper, but not for the little ones

Method:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees
• Take a sheet pan, add some olive oil and salt.
• Place the vegetables in question, and toss to coat with olive oil.
• Roast in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until the veggies are nicely browned.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:

• 2 Large Sweet Potatoes
• 4 Tbsps Olive Oil (best-quality, of course)
• Salt to taste (you can add pepper, but not for the little ones

Method:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees
• Take a sheet pan, add some olive oil and salt.
• Place the vegetables in question, and toss to coat with olive oil.
• Roast in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, until the potatoes are nicely browned.

Popcorn, Popcorn Get Your.....I Mean, Bring Your Own Popcorn

The weather here in SF has been nothing if not confusing these past few weeks. Not only have we had rain, including thunder and lightning (which rarely, if ever, occurs here), but in a span of 3 days, we have gone from 95° to 55°, with no knowledge of which way the wind will blow next (literally, folks, I mean it). With the hope that Fall is really coming to us, and all of those great new releases, I've been thinking a lot about popcorn. Not the microwave kind, nor the Jiffy-Pop stovetop popper kind, and most certainly not the air popper kind. No. The Joe kind. My Dad makes the best oil-popped popcorn around. And I should know, since popcorn was a bring your own affair to movie theaters and baseball games alike.

This was as much out of necessity (imagine buying popcorn for five kids and two adults...it could cost as much as a downpayment on a small house), as it was out of personal taste. It is yet another example of Gran Fran and Joe's unerring level of taste, which extended even to snack foods.

Getting everyone out the door for the movies, not only involved a final trip to the bathroom for all (which always led Gran Fran to yell out "Gotta go to the bathroom Anthony?", apparently this was something she often overheard as a child in her Brooklyn neighborhood, being yelled from a window to kids on the street), but also to the preparation and packaging of everyone's popcorn.

There were two packaging methods, plastic quart bag with a twist tie, or a brown paper lunch sack. I am unclear to this day as to whether or not these co-existed, or if we transitioned from one type of bag to the other over time. Regardless, the popcorn went with us in a lare purse, and somehow we always made it into the theater with our secret stash intact until the lights went down.

To this day, even though I have been known to consume huge quantities of movie theater popcorn, it never quite lives up to Joe's. The secret, I believe, is his use of olive oil as teh cooking medium. It leaves the popcorn just moist enough to not burn, but no too soggy. And, there is no butter served or offered. Instead, salt, cayenne pepper or just black pepper are accompaniments for Joe's popcorn. I don't think I even realied that butter was an option until I was grown and buying popcorn at the movies myself. I do sometimes add butter at home, but usually, just sprinkle some more olive oil over the top when cooking is complete.

I can no longer keep popcorn kernals in my house. Many a night has passed without dinner while I watch movies at my house. Instead, I can be found on the couch with a mixing bowl large enough to hold a small baby in it, filled with popcorn, covered in olive oil, salt and cayenne, alongside a big glass of water. Needless to say, my belly isn't well for hours afterward, but it is sually worth the slight stomach upset in return for the goodness of JoeCorn (I just made that name up, but I think it might stick).

JoeCorn (or Popcorn: The Joe Way)

from Joe: 

I pretty much follow the instructions on jar, except that I don't put the corn in until the pot is hot. So, do the following once you have determined how much corn you shall pop:

Three generous tablespoons of oil and four or five kernels into the pot. High heat until one of the kernels pops. Then add the rest of the corn and lower the heat to medium-high.

Jostle the pot every 20 seconds or so, even after the popping begins. When the popping slows, turn the heat off and leave the pot on the burner until the popping stops.

If you want to surprise your guests, offer cayenne along with the salt, both to be administered in bowls filled from the serving bowl.