Ina Cooks Restaurant Food At Home AND A Sensational Kitchen Trick

Restaurant Rules

Peas and Prosciutto

Prosciutto Roasted Bass with Autumn Vegetables

Rao's Famous Lemon Chicken (Pollo al Limone)

Skillet Brownies

I’m so happy I saved this show from a few weeks ago. I learned something SO useful, but not until almost the end of the episode...

Ina says she’s going to show us restaurant cooking at home AND home cooking in restaurants.

We see skillet brownies in the intro. That sounds so awesome, but I hope that ramekins will do instead, because I really don’t think many people are going to go out and buy 6 to 8 tiny cast iron frying pans…as cute as they are. Ina is also promising us a visit to Rao’s with Frank Pellegrino to learn about two of their dishes. Great, because unless your name is Regis, it’s impossible to get in.

Ina says when she’s cooking at home, she stays away from restaurant style meals, because they’re too complicated. But after a visit to LA’s Spago, Ina was so impressed by the prosciutto roasted bass that she came up with a simpler recipe to make it at home.

Ina starts by roasting lots of vegetables in 1/2 inch pieces – parsnips, carrots, Yukon Gold potatoes and butternut squash. (Sometimes when I can’t bear to peel those stubborn butternuts, I just use yams instead…) Let me guess – olive oil, salt and pepper at 425°F for 25 minutes. She says olive oil, pepper and A TABLESPOON OF SALT  (I wouldn’t use that much) and 400°F for THIRTY minutes. I was close.

Ina asked her seafood shop to make “little” squares of sea bass, 6 to 8 ounces each. Ina looks like she has enough for 8 people – Oh! Just the right amount for dinner with Jeffrey. She brushes each piece with a generous amount of olive oil.

Ina peppers the fish A LOT. She wraps each piece of fish in a single piece of prosciutto, almost like it’s wearing a wide belt. She says to use really good prosciutto and make sure it’s thinly sliced. She places each wrapped piece on a rack on top of a baking pan.

I tried this recipe and MY fish was thinner and more rectangular than hers, so I wrapped the prosciutto on a slight angle, so it would cover more of the fish. Don’t tell Ina I didn’t bother with the rack.

Prosciutto-wrapped fish served over roasted vegetables 

Ina tells us she likes to end every book tour with a stop in LA so she can take her assistant to Spago. (I’m not sure she needs the excuse of a book tour to go to Spago, but I like it when Ina’s being humble.)

The fish goes into the same oven as the vegetables - 400°F for 15 minutes. BTW, there are “only” 6 pieces of fish. Ina stirs in some chopped garlic 10 minutes before the vegetables are done. (I often add whole unpeeled cloves of garlic to roasting vegetables at the beginning of the cooking time, then I squeeze them through a garlic press and mix them into the finished dish.)

Just as I was thinking that this was reasonably healthy (if you count a skinny piece of prosciutto as being healthy, plus the added olive oil and salt on the vegetables), Ina tells us she’s making a flavored butter to go on top. She melts a stick of butter with 6 sprigs of rosemary and cooks it for a few minutes, before adding fresh lemon juice. I’ve flavored olive oil plenty of times with rosemary and I might go that way instead of the butter.

Ina serves the fish on top of the roasted vegetables and spoons over some of the flavored butter. Barbara, her assistant and lunch guest, arrives and Ina hands her a fork. They both taste a bite…just to be sure it’s okay before they chow down.

Finally, we’re on to the brownies! At The Standard Grill in New York, Ina had warm brownies in a skillet and she was entranced by them. She’s making her own version. She mixes flour, baking powder and salt. (Nah!) She melts a stick of butter with 4 oz. semisweet chocolate chips and some unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler. She cools that. (Why not use the microwave?) In a separate bowl, she stirs together eggs with vanilla, cocoa, sugar and instant coffee, which she loves to use to bring out the flavor of the chocolate. She adds the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and allows the mixture to cool.

Lastly, Ina folds in the flour and adds some extra chocolate chips. She makes sure the batter is cool, so the chips don’t melt. (I NEVER thought of that.) Ina adds a bit of flour to the chips so they don’t sink to the bottom of the batter. (Have your chips ever done that? Mine haven’t.)

Ina spoons the mixture into five 3½ inch skillets. (They ARE cute. I really don’t need any more kitchen paraphernalia, but these are really sweet looking.) She likes them because you can eat them hot right out of the oven and you don’t have to wait for them to cool. They bake at 350°F for 25 minutes.

Next Ina gets tips for home cooks from her restaurant chef friends:

• Kevin Penner, executive chef of Cittanuova, says to put plastic wrap on your kitchen scale before you weigh meat or fish to avoid cross contamination. Avoiding cross contamination is my favorite pastime, but is that really a useful tip? Do most people even USE scales at homes? And my scale has a removable pan that I can wash.

• Oliver Quignon, Executive Chef of Daniel Boulud’s DBGB Kitchen and Bar, shares his recipe for an iceberg salad. First, he adds dressing to the plate, which acts as a glue and then he places a flat, ROUND piece of iceberg lettuce on top. The shape is interesting. It’s as if he cut a cross section of the lettuce from the North Pole to the South Pole straight down the middle and then turned it on its side, so it’s a flat (thickish) slice and not a wedge.

Then Chef Quignon seasons the lettuce, adds vinegar and oil and lots of blue cheese and then he says to garnish it with whatever you want – nuts, bacon, shallots, tomatoes and tarragon to name a few things. It looks sensational. Who says there are no new recipes?

• Wild-haired Julia Turshen, a private chef, offers up the greatest tip of the decade: For getting the most juice out of a lemon, roll the lemon on the cutting board. Cut it in half. Place it in between the arms of cooking tongs as near the bottom as you can. Then press the tongs together and it will squeeze out lots of juice, because of all the leverage.

OMG! This really works…it really works AND it works REALLY well!

 

The previous most excellent lemon (and lime) squeezing tip I’d learned was when Oprah showed Gayle how to squeeze limes BETWEEN HER TEETH for a pitcher of margaritas. She was making them for the whole campground on a camping trip. It was amazing, if only a little unsanitary. What Ina’s friend taught us was SO much better and would pass any kitchen hygiene test.

• Joe Realmuto (we’ve seen him before on Ina), Executive Chef of Townline BBQ, says he FRIES dried herbs in olive oil with the garlic to release their flavor before using them in a tomato sauce. Very interesting! I rub them in my palms, but I’ve never fried them. Actually when I have fried FRESH sage leaves for a garnish, I’ve loved it and I mentioned cooking fresh rosemary in olive oil, which is quite good too.

Ina thanks them all for them tips and she practically sprints to get the brownies out of the oven. Oh wait, I’m just projecting what I would do. She’s actually quite calm. She puts one on a plate and places a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. She takes a taste. It’s all melted and molten in the center. Yumbolicious!

Ina goes to Rao’s next and tells us it’s over one hundred years old! (Sounds like Tom Moore’s Tavern.) She says it’s impossible to get a reservation, partly because they have only one seating and it’s closed on the weekends.

Frank Pellegrino is in the kitchen with Ina. Chef Dino Gato is in the background, ready to lend Frank a hand. Frank says he’s been doing a lemon chicken for 70 years. He splits a 2 to 2 1/2 pound chicken and puts it under the broiler, skin side down. When it starts to char, he turns it over. Frank says to blacken the chicken. Ina says it’s great for entertaining. 

Frank mixes up a sauce of 1/2 cup of olive oil, 1 cup of fresh juice, crushed garlic, salt and pepper, a pinch of oregano and some red wine vinegar. He cuts up the chicken into 7 pieces. (The recipe says to cut each half into 6 small pieces.) The cut pieces go onto a baking pan and Frank spoons some of the sauce over. It goes back in the oven for 2 minutes on each side.

It’s really funny that Chef Dino keeps coming up behind Frank and assisting him with everything. The Chef puts the chicken back under the broiler and then takes it out. He gives Ina a taste. She loves that it’s so lemony.

Lastly, Frank (and Dino right behind him) do a peas with prosciutto dish - his biggest selling vegetable dish, he says. He heats 1/4 cup of olive oil with 1 clove of mashed garlic.  He adds 1/4 cup of diced white onion and cooks that for 2 minutes. He says to tilt the pan for faster cooking. The garlic goes out now and 1/4 cup of prosciutto goes in for 2 minutes. He adds 2 cups of fresh blanched peas  and cooks them for a minute or two. He adds salt and pepper and 1 cup of chicken stock, which Frank says helps to sweeten the peas. It cooks for a couple more minutes to marry the flavors. Ina takes a taste. She loves it.

They sit at the bar and Dino brings them out some food. Dino says he’s been there for 17 years. Ina asks how long it would take to get a reservation at Rao’s. Frank says a year. Ina says he HAS told her 35 years. He says it’s because the same people keep their tables and never want to give them up. I guess when you’ve been eating lemon chicken and fresh peas and prosciutto for decades, it’s pretty hard to give them up. 

Bermuda On My Mind

We made a quick trip to Bermuda, which was soooo beautiful. The best part? The beach. 

The second best? The strawberry daiquiris ON the beach.  Actually, the first daiquiri was a little weak, but the second one made up for it. (Sorry, no pictures.)

There were a couple of business dinners with really nice folks and really good food. 

24 Hour Beer-Soaked Chicken

Grilled Vegetables

MEAT!

Stuffed Potatoes with Montery Jack and Double Smoked Bacon

Wouldn’t Bermuda be a beautiful place to be a chef?

Our one non-catered dinner was at Tom Moore’s Tavern. It was built as a private house in 1652 and has been a pub or restaurant for over 100 years. I didn’t look to see if the kitchen had been renovated since then.

The servers and maître d’ wore Bermuda shorts with knee socks. The shorts I understand. It’s hot! But the knee socks? And they’re often in jarring colors like tan or black! That looks so odd to me with my American sensibility. When a jacket and tie is worn as well, that REALLY takes it over the top. Actually the only thing stranger is this.

The place was kind of fancy (in a 1800's kind of way), so I didn’t use a flash everywhere that I should have.

Dinner at Tom Moore's Tavern

From top left, row by row -

• The fried calamari were okay, but definitely not the special dish that reviewers had written about. 

• Scallops three ways was interesting. The SMOKED scallop mousse was the best.

• Good sea bass with bok choy. 

• The quail was okay, but the cheese tart that it was sitting on was way too heavy and salty. 

• The famous chocolate soufflé was just fine. I liked the vanilla sauce, but both H and I could have sworn that there were bananas in it...as if they had put some banana slices in the bottom and the flavor had permeated the soufflé. The server assured us there were NO bananas. That makes me think maybe they were using imitation vanilla extract. Dunno. 

• I thought the crème brulée was a bit over-browned, but maybe it's supposed to be that way. I just learned I've probably been
undercooking my meringues, so it could be the same thing with the sugar crust over the crème brulée. 

BUT the men in shorts gave us wonderful service, which is always important to me. 

We spent an afternoon in St. George, which is a lovely historic town and a world heritage site. 

The last time we were there, a few years ago, H was particularly thrilled because we were two tables away from Jamie Moyer! Yeah, I only knew who he was because of H. 

Also last time (and this time) we walked up a hugely steep hill to the “Unfinished Church”. It looked like this before:

 

Pretty, right? 

THIS time we saw this:

 

We snuck around the side and I stuck my camera inside. It LOOKS the same, but I suppose that sign is there for a reason. 

I also liked this new coffee shop, especially the name - CV (Conscious Vibe) Café :
 

Good iced latte.

Beaches, Bermuda shorts and pretty good dining...I have nothing to complain about...

Poor Mama, Poor Buddy

By now, most Cake Boss fans probably know that Buddy’s Mama is battling a terrible disease – ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. I saw the story a few weeks ago. Mary Valastro’s ALS was the subject of Cake Boss’s 5th season finale last week and it’s being repeated tonight at 9:30 EST.

It’s really sad and I guess the whole family is pretty brave for showing it on television. It’s an interesting choice they made. I have no idea if I would have done the same in this situation. The episode is a complete tearjerker. Unfortunately, there really is no silver lining; there will be no happy ending.

Perhaps they thought showing their family’s struggle would help other people going through similar challenges. We do see Buddy and all the sisters and the in-laws coming together to help Mama in whatever ways they can.  

In this episode, Buddy decides to make a really special cake for Mama using a new formula for caramel. He puts together a stunning cake and serves it to the family and Mama on Easter. I couldn’t help thinking, though, that she looked pretty good on Easter, but now it’s months later and I wonder how she’s doing.

TLC is encouraging Cake Boss fans to send messages of support and they’ve given some resource information at Stand By Mama in Her Fight Against ALS.

Buddy certainly doesn’t need me to tell him that good health trumps everything and they all have a very difficult road ahead of them.

My favorite Cake Boss episode with Mama is the one where Buddy secretly makes a dirty cake that completely shocks Mama. And, OF COURSE, she finds out. She’s MAMA!  Read about it here - NO WAY! NO HOW! Mama Should NEVER Be Left Out Of An Episode Of Cake Boss

What Pirates Eat, Jamie Deen’s Admirable Objectives - Even If His Grammar Ain’t Too Good - Plus My Favorite Kitchen Tool Of All Time

Home for Dinner With Jamie Deen

Dinner With Ginny

Bow Tie Pasta Salad

Grilled Lemon and Rosemary Chicken

Strawberry and Cream Ice Cream

Jamie IS very appealing. His son, Jack, is cute too, when he’s not being that first-son, little prince kind of bratty. But Jamie has used the work “I” wrong twice in just the first few minutes of the show. “That gives Jack and I enough time to head over to…”

Why can’t people realize how easy it is to figure out when “I” should be used and when it should be “ME”?!! Just take out the word "Jack" and you’d never say, “That would give I enough time to…blah, blah, blah.”

He also said, “One of the sweetest things Jack said to his mom and I is…” To his mom and ME!!! People don’t talk to I…They talk to ME!!!

Jamie is a sweet dad anyway, and I do like that he’s in charge of dinner. He wants to be in control of what he feeds his family and that’s certainly commendable. Today he’s making a pasta salad and throwing in lots of vegetables.

Jamie tells us about a little trick he uses with Jack that’s really ingenious. He throws Jack “curve balls”. That’s when he tells his son little white lies to get him to do stuff. (I certainly had no problem lying to my kids every chance I got, but this particular tale is very clever.)

Jamie tells Jack that pasta salad is PIRATE FOOD. Isn’t that hilarious? And really smart?  I think it’s perfectly acceptable to fudge the truth about a certain dish or what ingredients are in something (to kids OR adults), as long as no actual allergies are involved. But saying something is PIRATE FOOD is really original.

                                                                  

Jamie says you’ve GOT to salt the pasta water. Agreed. But his water does NOT look like it’s boiling when he adds the pasta, but I guess he knows what he’s doing.

Jamie advises us that he NEVER peels his carrots. I think we were supposed to know that about him, but this is the first I’VE heard of it. It’s a simple notion – not peeling carrots - but it makes me think about living a purer, better, more moral life.

This is actually something that I aspire to - to cook and eat unpeeled carrots. I DO buy organic carrots, but when the time comes to peel or not peel, I lose my nerve and I always give in and peel them. But I need to work on this. Remember when I promised recently to wash my lemons and limes as soon as I get home from the store? I’m 50/50 on that so far…I forgot the second time. Baby steps…And this carrot thing is another improvement I should make.

Jamie cuts the carrots in quite large pieces, almost an inch big. He cuts broccoli into florets. He doesn’t use the stem, which is kind of a pity. I usually peel it and cut it into a julienne. For the dressing for the pasta salad, he mixes 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar and 1/3 cup of mayo. There’s nothing to argue about there, except maybe nutritionally, but it’s not SO over the top. Jamie says this is one of the first dishes they used to make at his mama’s business, The Bag Lady.

I wonder what his orange rubber bracelet is for. It could be for a number of things.

Jamie adds the carrots to the pasta water. He likes to clean out the fridge when he makes this. He says there are no rules about what to add to this pasta salad, because “PIRATES follow no rules, Matey”.

He readies edamame and grape tomatoes. He told Jack the tomatoes were candy - “Curveball!” He says his wife gets mad because he never uses a timer to cook pasta or anything. He just knows when things are done. (Most husbands do far worse things and if mine is making dinner - not that I know what that feels like - I am NOT going to harrass him for the crime of knowing when something is done without a timer.)

He adds the broccoli to the cooking pasta and carrots and tells us not to overcook it. He also says that you really realize time is speeding by when you have kids. I THINK that has something to do with the broccoli…Is he comparing it to a fast-growing baby?

Jamie drains the pasta and vegetables and rinses it all in cold water to stop the cooking. He adds it to a big bowl with the tomatoes, edamame and dressing. Then he adds a cup of already-grated mozzarella. I don’t think it needs cheese and that’s not the one I would have added if it did. I love cheddar in a pasta salad or a bit of parmesan, but a kid would probably prefer cheddar.

He says the pasta salad gets better on standing, just like chili. Jamie doesn’t say this, but have you noticed that blanched vegetables hold up better than raw ones? So if he hadn’t cooked the broccoli and carrots, they might have looked a little sad the next day, but blanching them helps to keep them LOOKING fresh, at least.

Next Jamie makes a rosemary chicken dish. He says folks ask him what his favorite kitchen tool is and they’re expecting him to say something fancy like a chinoise. Nope, it’s a zip-lock plastic bag that he can use as anything from a glove to a garbage bag to holding a marinade, which is what he’s using it for today. I think that’s probably what a pirate would say. I have a different answer…It's at the end.

Jamie mixes garlic and ¼ cup of oil with Dijon. (Pirates love garlic, although Jack Deen doesn’t.)  

Squeeze bottle alert – don’t be fooled into buying Grey Poupon in that tall squeeze bottle – it’s IMPOSSIBLE to get it all out of that container. It’s a waste, unless you add water or vinegar or wine and shake it up.

Jamie loves rosemary with chicken, so he adds fresh chopped rosemary and fresh lemon juice to the oil. He places the boneless chicken cutlets in the plastic bag and pours the marinade over. With leftovers, he makes chicken salad with chopped hard boiled eggs, dill pickles and mayo. He seals the bag and mashes the chicken around. Jamie says you can marinate it for only 5 minutes OR overnight. He greezes up his grill pan and places the chicken on it and cooks it for 3 minutes on each side.

Jamie says his number one goal is to prepare the same dinner for the kids as the grownups. Right on! He also grills some lemons as a fancy schmancy garnish. Jack comes into the kitchen and Jamie places arugula on a platter with a bit of olive oil. He puts the chicken on top and squeezes over that grilled lemon. That looks nice, but I want to see the kid eat arugula. THAT would be impressive.

Jamie takes a walk with Jack to Leopold’s ice cream shop. (I thought it was dinner time.) They’re borrowing an old time ice cream maker. Wouldn’t mama have one he could borrow? While they’re waiting for the ice cream machine, Jamie gets him some raspberry sorbet. He gets a HUGE cone and they sit down. Jack refuses to share. He makes his dad SWEAR not to take any while he holds the cone for a sec. Stratton, the owner, brings out the machine and describes to Jamie and Jack how to use it. Jack is too interested in not sharing his sorbet to listen.

Back in the kitchen, Jamie says he’s going to make a true homemade ice cream and all of sudden Ginny (pronounced “guinea”) appears. She cuts the strawberries and Jack moves them into the bowl with sugar. Jamie adds lemon juice. He heats whole milk and cream with a vanilla bean and gets 4 yolks ready with more sugar. He tempers his eggs with the hot milk, which he says is going to bring up the base temperature of his eggs. He adds the eggs in and lets it cook for 6 minutes.

It’s too bad he doesn’t discuss all the signs that you look for in a cooked custard. As it nears the end of cooking, the foam disappears. It coats the back of a metal spoon and sometimes, depending on how thick it is (not really in this case), as you stir the bottom, you can make a little temporary highway through the custard with your spatula before it all flows together again.

But the best way to judge when the custard is done is with a candy thermometer. My all-time favorite classic Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Craig Claiborne had a custard base which he cooked to 180°F. Because the custard keeps cooking, I usually go to 170°F (which is what most folks say these days) and THEN I immediately strain the mixture into a glass bowl. That gets rid of any little snotty bits and cools it quickly. Plus if you’ve left it too long, it will get rid of any curdled egg.

Jamie adds 1/4 teaspoon of salt (ick) to his custard and pours it into a bowl and cools it over ice. He doesn’t strain it. That's not good. He pours the sweetened strawberries, which he puréed, into the cooled custard and refrigerates it for 30 minutes. Maybe he thinks because he’s got the chunks of strawberries in there he doesn’t have to strain it, but I still would.

Jamie sets up the ice cream maker and pours in the ice cream mixture. He starts churning. He makes Jack turn it and count to 5000. The kid is smart and starts counting at 1000. Finally it's done and they get to sample it right out of the ice cream machine. Jack gets a bit exuberant when his dad says no more ice cream until after dinner. He practically rips the tasting spoon out of Paula’s hand. (I guess he knows her well.)

The three eat dinner together. Let’s see how Jack does with the arugula. Well, at least he’s eating the chicken and pasta salad. His dad serves him ice cream and Jamie asks for a taste. Jack says NO. Then Paula runs over with a spoon to take a bite. He’s not having it. Are you supposed to teach a kid to share his portion of food? I can’t remember. I don’t think I ever tried to rip food out of my kids’ hands, so I can’t really say.

I do know, though, that when you train a puppy, you DON’T want him (or her) to guard his food and get aggressive. So you’re supposed to bother your young dog while he’s eating. Stroke his feet, move his dish a few inches, things like that. But a kid?  I guess it would be nice if he would share, but frankly, I’m not so sure I would share anything as good as homemade ice cream. (I would just make enough for everybody.) Maybe I can’t blame Jack for guarding his ice cream, but it wouldn’t kill him to give his granny a bite (although it might kill HER).

About my favorite kitchen tool of all time… What’s yours? I don’t even need one second to think about it. Mine isn’t sexy or surprising. It’s basic and it’s a chef’s knife. With a knife I can do anything. I can take onions and carrots and chicken and make 10 different dishes, based on just the way I cut them up. Anything from a dice for a stew to julienning for a stir fry and everything in between. You can’t do THAT with a plastic bag, Jamie! 

Sticky Chicken My Way

I was listening to XM radio the other day and the Oprah channel had a group of chefs on with her (from an old show). Because it was the radio, I couldn’t SEE what they doing, but I heard them talking about healthy meals for the family with Tyler, Cat (oy, what problems!) and Curtis. Curtis mentioned some quick recipes that he likes and one of them was Sticky Chicken Drumsticks. I’ve heard him talk about those before.

This is my version. I didn’t use drumsticks and I didn’t use Chinese Barbecue Sauce, although I would have been happy to if I’d had some.  Also my recipe gives you some sauce in the baking dish to use on rice, which is never a bad thing.

Sticky Chicken (serves 4)

adapted from Curtis Stone’s Sticky Chicken Drumsticks

Printable recipe here.

1/4 cup honey

1/8 cup hoisin sauce

1/8 cup soy sauce

1 thick slice of ginger

1 tsp. sesame oil

2 tsps. sesame seeds

1 package (anything under 2 lbs.) boneless chicken thighs or breasts 

For garnish: chopped scallions and 1 tsp. sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Mix together 1st six ingredients in a large bowl. Add the chicken and mix it around well. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or overnight, turning at least once.

Place chicken in Pam-ed baking dish, nice side up, scrapping all the marinade on top of the chicken. Bake boneless thighs for 20 minutes; boneless chicken breasts for about 15 minutes. Place under the broiler for about 2 minutes, to get a good color.

Sprinkle with chopped scallions and a teaspoon of sesame seeds before serving with rice. 

Ina Goes Fruity

Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten

Fruit All Ways

Apple Chutney

Wild Rice Salad

French Nougatine

Something’s not the same about the Contessa. I noticed it the second her show began. What is it? Oh! Her bangs are different. Did she even have bangs before? I just looked at tons of her shows that I have recorded and, yes, she always had bangs, but these are not the same. There seems to be more of a center part, and...NOW I KNOW WHAT IT IS. She has a lot more coppery highlights in her hair. They look good. It freshens up her whole look.

Ina tells us that she likes to take ordinary ingredients and make something special out of them, like apple chutney. I use chutney by the bucketfuls, so I’ll be happy to have a good new recipe.

What do I use it for? I serve it alongside just about any rice or pilaf dish. I marinate and cook chicken in it. You can have it on a turkey sandwich (so good!) or make a quick spread by mixing chutney with some mayo. Or add chutney to any barbecue sauce for a slightly different spin. (I also love to add fresh mango too. Yum!) And it’s pretty great with brie. You can either serve it alongside the cheese or cut the top rind off and spread it on top. Warm it just for a few seconds in the microwave.

Ina chops up lots of peeled and cored Granny Smith apples and adds them to a big pot with 1 cup of onions and 2 tablespoons minced ginger, which makes the chutney spicy. She adds a cup of fresh OJ.

All the ingredients that Ina is using are everyday ones that are easy to find, but she’s using many little appliances in the kitchen that folks may not have - she chopped the ginger with a mini food chopper, she squeezed the orange juice with a small electric juicer.

Into the apples, she stirs in 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar and 1 cup of brown sugar. Isn’t that a lot? She spices it up with 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds (hers were yellow), ¼ teaspoon hot pepper flakes and 1½ teaspoons of salt. I’d start with ½ teaspoon…or even none. 

Ina brings the mixture to the boil and simmers it uncovered for 50 minutes, stirring it occasionally. At the end, off the heat, she adds raisins. Ina says it will last for 2 weeks in the fridge. (Just be sure not to double-dip with your tasting spoon.)

Ina shows us two ways to use it. Oh goodie, I wonder what interesting things she’s going to do. She takes really good quality aged cheddar and places it on a plate with crackers, apricots and the chutney. Next she says to serve a rotisserie chicken with the chutney. She says it “wakes up the flavor of the chicken”. Those were kind of my ideas too, but did mine sound as boring and basic as hers?!! Sorry if they did!

Next Ina goes to Citarella to buy some fruit. It’s a shame she couldn’t have highlighted a local farm stand. Oh, she’s buying green grapes. I don’t think they grow those in the Hamptons. Then she starts talking about random dishes which use random fruits. This is weird. She lists loads of fruits and names all the dishes she ISN’T making.

Ina moves on to a wild rice salad, which she admits is from the 70’s. I guess everything that’s old becomes new, or something like that. (I might modernize it by mixing the wild rice with some of the wonderful rices we have available now, like my fav – forbidden rice...or red rice. Heck, you could even mix wild rice with quinoa, which I don’t hate quite as much as I used to, and barley.) This reminds me of that fabulous grain salad from Food52.

Ina cooks wild rice in lots of boiling salted water for 50 minutes and drains it. Then she puts it back in the empty pot, covers it and lets it sit off the heat for 10 minutes to finish steaming. That’s like her method for potatoes, where she has them sit in a colander covered with a dish towel to finish cooking. I use a pot instead of a dishtowel.

Ina starts adding ingredients to the cooked wild rice – 2 oranges, segmented, 2 tablespoons GOOD olive oil, 2 tablespoons fresh OJ, 2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar and ½ cup seedless green grapes, halved. “We’re almost there”, Ina assures us, in case the list of ingredients is getting too onerous. She also adds ½ cup pecans, toasted for 5 or 10 minutes, ¼ cup dried cranberries and 2 tablespoons chopped white and green scallions. Don’t chop them too tiny, she says, you want to see them. This IS looking good. Ina adds salt and pepper. (She likes wild rice with plenty of pepper.)

Ina says they used to make this in the store a lot and it’s great for buffets because it’s best served at room temperature. “Make it in advance and it just gets better and better.”

I made mine with wild and brown rice.

Next, Ina’s friend, Laura Donnelly, a pastry chef, is with her. She’s making a frozen French nougatine. What does that have to do with fruit? Oh, she’s serving it with a raspberry sauce. Isn’t that cheating on the theme just a little bit?

While Laura beats egg whites, Ina macerates fresh raspberries in framboise for 20 minutes.

Laura whips 1½ cups of cream with one cup of sugar (!!!) and vanilla. She turns up the mixer SUPER HIGH and covers the whole thing with a dishtowel “so you’re not wearing it,” Ina says. Ina tells Laura that if you overwhip cream, you just stir in an extra little splash of cream and it will come back. Laura says she never knew that. I find that hard to believe.

Ina folds the egg whites into the cream. Ina doesn’t say this, but she doesn’t beat in a quarter of the egg whites initially to lighten the mixture, because she’s folding them into whipped cream, so you want to use a light hand throughout the mixing.

They’re adding pistachio brittle to the nougantine. I like that! Laura roasts 4 ounces of shelled pistachios (shelling pistachios is the hardest thing) at 300°F for 10 minutes. She pours them onto an oiled sheet pan. Then Laura makes a caramel with 3 tablespoons of water and 4 ounces of sugar. She cooks it to a light amber and pours it quickly over the pistachios. She gives it a quick shake to cover as many pistachios as possible.

What does all this have to with fruit? Although it is interesting… 

Laura chops the pralines and says you can make them with macadamia nuts and also use other fruits like mango or passion fruit in the dessert. She folds the chopped pralines, brittle - whatever you want to call it - into the egg white mixture. Ina spoons it into a loaf pan covered with plastic wrap. Yum.  

Laura says to freeze it overnight or for 8 hours. Ina doesn't want to wait that long to taste it. Luckily, Laura knew who she was dealing with and she brought another one.

For the sauce, Laura adds 6 cups of fresh raspberries into the processor with ½ cup sugar and ½ teaspoon lemon zest. That’s so little, why bother? She pureés it and then strains it. Ina asks if she can finally try it. They unmold the nougantine. Ina centers it on the platter and cuts a few slices for a nice effect. They spoon the macerated raspberries down one side of the frozen loaf and the raspberries sauce down the other. Ina says it’s been a very fruitful day.

This nougatine recipe reminds me of an ancient recipe in “From Julia Child’s Kitchen”. It was for a Bombe Glacée, in which Julia made the same basic mixture as Laura's of whipped cream and egg whites, but her egg whites were made into an Italian meringue (made with sugar syrup, instead of the usual plain sugar). The recipe was for a vanilla AND a chocolate version and you lined a metal mixing bowl first with the vanilla and froze that. Then you added the chocolate mixture into the middle and froze it all and then unmolded it. It was so pretty when you cut it. This pistachio nougantine would make a wonderful bombe, maybe with coffee ice cream as the second flavor.

This fruit-filled episode had some good moments, but I’m wondering if this was all a bit too simple. I know we want straightforward “How easy is THAT?” recipes, but is cooking apples down with spices and mixing rice with a bunch of stuff a little too easy? The nougantine (although not the first thing I think of in the fruit category) is definitely something worth trying. The addition of the pistachios is a great idea and the fact that it doesn’t freeze rock-hard solid makes it easy to serve.

Made In America

Well, the food was, at least. But I have to admit these nifty decorations, which I picked up for a song the day before, were Made in China.

I hope your July 4th was wonderful. Ours was HOT, but I was so grateful that we had power and water. I feel so terrible for the millions of people who went without both after those crazy storms, and for those who STILL ARE!!!  

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Not a lot of pictures, but I have to give you my latest and greatest and ever-so-slightly revamped recipe for White Sangria, which will make your summer...and fall and spring. The biggest change is the pour of Prosecco at the top of each glass, which gives it even more fizz (and alcohol).

White Sangria (serves 4 to 6 heavy drinkers)

Printable recipe here.

2 bottles white wine

1 bottle Prosecco
3 cups of Sprite or 7up (diet or not) 

2 lemons

2 limes

1 orange

and any other fresh fruit you wish – peaches, nectarines, strawberries

½ cup Triple Sec

Chill the white wine, Prosecco and Sprite well. 

Generously cut both ends off the lemons, limes and the orange and squeeze the ends into a large pitcher. You want big pieces, so you get a lot of juice. Cut the middles of the fruit into thin slices. Quarter each lemon and lime slice and add to pitcher. Cut the orange slices into sixths and add to pitcher. Add other fruit as desired, cut into small pieces. (I usually peel the peaches.) 

Pour Triple Sec over fruit and refrigerate until almost ready to serve, up to 3 hours. 

Just before serving, stir in wine and Sprite or 7up.  Fill glasses with ice and spoon in some fruit (from the pitcher). Pour over sangria, filling each glass about three-quarters full. Top with Prosecco.

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A few other things:
Andouille with coarse mustard



Guacamole
Hamburgers
Barbecued Chicken
Baked Beans
Chips
White Cole Slaw
Red Cabbage Cole Slaw with Green Goddess Dressing

This is fine to make a few hours before serving. Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Red Cabbage Slaw with Green Goddess Dressing

Printable recipe here.

1/2 large head red cabbage, quartered, cored, and thinly sliced

3 carrots, shredded
1/2 red pepper, cut into thin strips

2 scallions, sliced thinly

½ cup raisins

In a big bowl, stir together the red cabbage, carrots, red pepper, scallions and raisins. Mix with three-quarters of the Green Goddess Dressing, holding some back to add just before serving if necessary. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Green Goddess Dressing

adapted from Gourmet, March 2002

1 cup mayonnaise
3 anchovy fillets

1 chopped scallion, green and white parts
3 tbls. fresh parsley
4 tbls. fresh chives
1 tbl. fresh thyme

2 tbls. white wine vinegar, plus more if needed

Place ¼ cup of mayonnaise in food processor with rest of ingredients. Process until smooth. Stir into remaining mayonnaise in a small bowl. Taste for seasoning. Add another tablespoon of vinegar if you want more zing.

Note: Add fresh tarragon in addition to, or instead of, some of the other herbs, if you wish. (I hate it.) Also any combination of herbs is fine. You just want to add a lot. 

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Blueberry Cake
Lemon Meringue Cake

That last thing wasn't a formal recipe. I made a lemon pound cake and layered it up with some meringue rectangles and filled it with lemon curd and cream and some raspberries here and there. 


Remember when Giada added lemon rind to her meringues? I tried that and frankly the lemon rind didn't add much flavor AND I used twice what she did. But it was still a pretty yummy cake.