dre in the morning

Oh, it’s a dread word: leftovers. No one likes them. My kids won’t eat them. Personally, I like leftovers, and I really think it’s the word itself that turns people off. I just call ‘em “ingredients.” Like most people, we generally have the most leftovers after a big holiday meal. Which is what happened this Labor Day.

We’ve been trying something new: everyone takes a turn at cooking dinner. It works pretty well. At least no one whines anymore about doing the dishes. So, for Labor Day, Christopher decided to cook Garbage Plates.

Nick Tahou’s is a Rochester, New York landmark restaurant featuring a dish called the Garbage Plate. The restaurant was founded in 1918. While there are other Upstate New York variants, Nick Tahou’s is the originator of the Garbage Plate and, as holder of the trademark, the only restaurant able to use the name.

A Garbage Plate is a combination of one selection of cheeseburger, hamburger, red hots, white hots, Italian sausage, chicken tender, fish (Haddock), fried ham, grilled cheese, or eggs; and two sides of either home fries, French fries, baked beans, or macaroni salad). On top of that are the options of mustard and onions, ketchup, and Nick’s proprietary hot sauce, a greasy sauce with spices and ground beef. (wikipedia)

The classic Garbage Plate is mac salad, home fries, 2 hamburgers and hot sauce. This is the version Chris settled on. They are kinda like the popular English “fry-up” and my theory is they were invented after a long night of binge drinking. Anyway, they make a nice hang-over cure. I would suggest you only eat one a year. My doctor advised me to stop eating Garbage Plates when I began to bleed butter.

We ditched the cast-iron skillet and spread the home fries out on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven to get them nice and crisp. The recipe Christopher found for mac salad called for 2 cups elbow macaroni, to produce four servings–it made twelve. I explained that recipes are mostly lies (especially ones found on the internet), and they are to be mistrusted and used only as a general outline.

No matter, our hot sauce came out pretty good. Especially when doused with plenty of Frank’s. So Labor Day Garbage Plates are, I am sure, a new family tradition. At least I’m willing to bet we make them again, unlike my feeble attempts to make “Christmas Morning Fried Spam” a family tradition.

But all that extra mac salad. What to do? Leftovers. Blechh. Well, I’ve found pasta usually works great for a base when it comes to cleaning out the fridge. Alton Brown calls this type of recipe “refrigerator velcro.” I call it Copypasta.

Copypasta

3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbs. olive oil
1/4 tsp. black truffle oil
1 tsp. butter
Salt & pepper
1 thin slice prosciutto, roughly chopped
1 grilled chicken thigh, deboned and roughly chopped
1/4 cup peas
2 fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
2 cups cold mac salad
2 tbs. parmigiano-reggiano

Cook garlic in oil & butter, seasoned with salt and pepper. After a few minutes, add prosciutto, chicken, peas and basil and saute. Pour over pasta, add cheese and mix well. Serves one: the guy in the house that knows that leftovers are really just ingredients.

Five authors, five must-have books and five recipes. While not all of these authors are specifically food writers, they are arguably the finest writers about food on the face of the planet. All recipes are either adapted from or inspired by the authors.

Peter Mayle
Famous for his series of books about Provence, Mayle has the ability to make the flavors of southern French peasant food leap off the page and into your mouth. His essays on truffles, poulets de Bresse, and frogs legs (just to name a few) are a delight to read, and his off-the-cuff reviews of French restaurants (thinly disguised as “slice of life” sketches) are a feast onto themselves. I would almost rather read a Mayle piece describing his lunch than go out and have my own. Almost. Must-have Mayle book: all of them, but Toujours Provence stands out because I just finished re-reading it, and it has some delightful chapters specifically about food.

Simple Provençal Lunch
1 baguette
1 hunk of cheese
1 pot of rillettes
3 cornichons
1 half bottle red wine

Sit outside in the sun and eat.

John Thorne
John Thorne is the finest writer about food we have at the moment, and his highly opinionated essays are invaluable looks behind the culinary curtain. Thorne picks up where MFK Fisher left off. John’s writing about food goes beyond recipes and culinary history. He considers himself a “literary” food writer, and once you tuck in and digest a few of his essays, you’ll understand this is not bombast. Must-have Thorne book: All of them, but I think I’ve cooked more from Serious Pig than any of the others. You must read all of Thorne’s books, and subscribe to his food newsletter, Simple Cooking, otherwise you’re a fake and should stop reading right now.

Breakfast Clafoutis (from Outlaw Cook)
4 to 6 oz. blueberries
Zest from 1 small lemon
2 tbs. granulated sugar
1/2 cup unbleached flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs, any size
1 cup milk
1 tbs. unsalted butter
Confectioners’ sugar
Sour cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 425. Cook washed blueberries in 12-inch cast-iron skillet with butter and a sprinkling of sugar. Make lemon sugar by mixing zest with granulated sugar in a small dish. In a large bowl, sift flour and salt. In a small bowl, beat the eggs gently and whisk in the milk. Add the wet to the dry ingredients a little at a time, whisking smooth. Stir in lemon sugar. Let the batter rest while the fruit is being cooked. Pour batter into skillet over fruit, bake in over for about 20 minutes. At this point, the clafoutis will be set, golden brown and puffed up on the edges. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar. Serve with a dollop of sour cream. Kids love this on Sunday mornings.

Sharon Tyler Herbst
Sharon’s Must-have book: The Food Lovers Companion (now in it’s fourth edition) is a must-have for anyone interested in food. It’s a culinary dictionary, with comprehensive definitions of nearly 6000 food, drink and culinary terms. Says so right here on the cover. This is the reference book that newspapers (modern media as well) use. Better than the New Larousse Gastronomique, and a lot easier on the wallet.

Gratin
A gratin is any dish that is topped with cheese or breadcrumbs mixed with bits of butter. (Definition from the book)

1 onion thinly sliced
4-5 large Yukon Gold potatoes, thinly sliced (I use a mandoline)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 cup Gruyere
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
Nutmeg
Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a well-greased round casserole, layer potatoes, onions, cheese in a spiral pattern. Sprinkle each layer with a touch of nutmeg, salt and pepper. When done, add the heavy cream. Finish top with dots of butter. Bake for roughly 40-60 minutes. 10 minutes before done, sprinkle breadcumbs on top and return to oven.

Richard Olney
Olney was an inspiration for the aforementioned John Thorne, and two of his books stand out as Must-haves: Lulu’s Provençal Table: The Exuberant Food and Wine from Domaine Tempier Vineyard and Provence, the Beautiful Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from the Regions of Provence. I would choose the latter over the former, and often do. I own Lulu, but I check Provence out of the library about once a month (it’s $100 for a new copy) purely for inspiration. The photographs and descriptions of the recipes are pure food porn, much better than the pedestrian versions offered by slick magazines like Gourmet and Food & Wine. This book is like an edible travelogue, allowing the reader to tour the South of France by recipe. Olney lived (and died) in Provence, and his love for its cuisine shines through on every page. However, if you can only buy one Olney book, you’d better go for Simple French Food. To do otherwise would be a mistake. I don’t think Olney would want you to just look at pictures… he expects you to cook.

Grilled Bread
I would include a recipe here, but Olney scares the ever-living bejesus out of me. I’m afraid I could never do him justice. So just do what he did: take a slice of rustic sourdough bread, grill it, rub it with a piece of garlic and dribble on some good extra-virgin olive oil.

Jim Harrison
Harrison’s novels almost always feature food and he wrote a must-have collection of essays, culled from his column for Esquire magazine entitled The Stomach God Forgot to Invent. Just kidding, the real title is The Raw and The Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand. Harrison is one of those rare characters who can write about haute cuisine without making it sound so, well, haute. A Michigan farmboy poet, Harrison traded his pentameters for prose and cashed-in Hollywood-style with films like Legends of the Fall and Wolf. His appetite is matched only by his machismo. This is what it would be like if Hunter Thompson had written about food. Which is a good idea. Remind me to do a gonzo-style article about food. Oh wait, Jim Harrison beat me to it.

Meatballs
1/2 lbs. ground beef (80% lean)
1/2 lbs. ground pork
3 tbs. HP sauce
1 tbs. soy sauce
3 anchovies
1 tbs. garlic powder
1 tbs. onion powder
1 egg
1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
Salt & pepper
3 tbs. olive oil

Mix everything together (except olive oil) in a large bowl. Heat olive oil in a cast-iron skillet. Pre-heat oven to 350. Make meatballs by hand, about the diameter of a silver dollar. Cook in batches until well-browned. Finish in oven on a wire rack over a baking sheet, 15-20 minutes.

Sauce
8-10 Roma tomatoes
Handful of fresh Italian herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary)
2 cloves garlic, minced or passed through a press
1 tbs. sugar
2 tbs. red wine
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

Cut tomatoes in half and arrange on wire rack over baking sheet. Sprinkle with olive oil, wine, sugar, herbs, salt and pepper. Roast in oven at 350 until done. Finish in a food processor or with an immersion blender. Serve over meatballs with pasta.

Other notable authors: Harold McGee, Anthony Bourdain, Jasper White, Thomas Harris, Robb Walsh, Alexander Dumas, pere, Ian Fleming, Patience Gray, Patricia Wells, Alice Waters.

Author’s Note: I don’t like celebrity chefs.

Author’s Note 2: I did an Amazon list (Learning to Eat) several years ago, and it’s one of the things that still haunts me today (if you google my name).

FoodTV personality Alton Brown will celebrate 10 years of his popular Good Eats program tomorrow night with a live episode broadcast from Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Atlanta GA. Brown, a cinematographer, was disappointed with the quality of most TV cooking shows, so he decided to produce his own. He enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute and graduated in 1997.

The pilot for Good Eats first aired on the Chicago, Illinois, PBS member station WTTW-TV in July 1998. Food Network picked up the show in July 1999, and continues (as of 2009) to air new episodes. Brown seems to take particular delight in making tongue-in-cheek references to pop culture, such as when he lectured an actor dressed as cartoon character Wimpy during an episode on hamburgers. (For trademark reasons, the surname was changed to “Whimpy.”) He has made numerous references to Fight Club in reference to the cooking processes of lye, such as an episode in which he discussed the process of curing olives. Episode titles themselves include references, such as “Mission: Poachable”, “It’s a Wonderful Cake”, and “My Big Fat Greek Sandwich.” A Good Eats episode takes about three days to produce, according to the special episode “Behind the Eats.” (wikipedia)

I’ve been a fan since that first episode, and owe Brown big-time for turning me on to John Thorne in his first book, I’m Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking. Alton is the patron saint of all cooking geeks, as he closely follows the science and history of food as he presents recipes and techniques, a la Harold McGee. He’s a devout Apple fanboy, collects Spyderco knives, and has been interviewed by numerous uber-geek websites, from slashdot.org to gizmodo.com.

Heck, I even bought the original “Alton Salt Cellar,” actually a parmesan cheese holder from William Sonoma, made popular during the first few seasons of Good Eats. Unfortunately, the original design is no longer available, but Alton peddles a modern version at his web site.

Even though he’s a self-proclaimed geek, Brown avoids most kitchen gadgets and much of the time prefers to build his own cooking apparatus out of things found around the house.

You know the deal: Alton hates single-purpose kitchen gadgets. So I read him a list of unitaskers that I thought might make the cut. Here’s what did—and what didn’t—meet the maestro’s approval, along with his color commentary:

Dehydrator
• Useless. Why should I get that when I can get a box fan, bungie cords and cellulose furnace filters from the hardware store. I used it twice on Good Eats for herbs and all kinds of jerky.

Electric Knife Sharpener
• If I had any knives I hated that bad, sure. No. There’s not a good one made. I like my knives and use them too much to use a sharpener—maybe I’d use it on garden tools.

Margarita Machine
• What’s that? Oh, you mean blenders with stickers on them? I believe in having a really good blender. I have a Vitamix blender, which I believe to be the finest on the planet. I suspect people who would buy a “margarita machine” have already been drinking heavily. (gizmodo)

Back in 2002 (or was it 2003?) Brown appeared locally and I got to see him cook in person. He was exactly as he appears on his show; irreverent, witty, relaxed. It’s this familiar charm that makes his work so engaging. Alton never resorts to the crowd-pumping that’s a staple among many FoodTV personalities. Nor does he talk down to his audience. His monologues have that quality of sharing only attained between old friends.

During his presentation, he set off the fire alarm in the auditorium, and the entire audience had to evacuate the theater and wait for the firemen to arrive (New York State policy). During this unscheduled intermission, Brown quipped, “Now would be a good time to have a cigar, if you’ve got one handy.”

Important links

Ten Years of Good Eats @ AltonBrown.com
Alton’s newest book: Good Eats: The Early Years
Good Eats Fan Page