Out of Revolution

Posted on April 26th, 2008 by likeasaladinabowl.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I have become obsessed with Madeleine’s. If anything, they make this Tilt-a-Whirl ride a bit more realistic. Sugar, this substance of sweetness, eggs, a thickener that comes from a plumed two legged football, salt mined from water, wheat that springs from this earth in a strange and uncommunicable process of ’science’ that you have to have a degree to understand, butter, a combination of cow and human, the former turns grass into milk and the latter turns this liquid into a chunk of fat that sticks on your knife, vanilla comes from what we call a bean which is held in a skin which hangs from a tree which grows from the earth, and then throw in the orange. Strange creature in color and formation, wrapped in an earth friendly disposable shell, that encases a skin which holds together wedges of small peaks filled with juice. And what is this juice? Sweetness, and tang, to accompany us on our spinning earth. Mix this up and we have a Madeleine. This too is a mystery. Chemically, how eggs combine to thicken, and how heat makes all of this rise and form into an edible sponge. But gastronomically, how everything is made agreeable to man - whether it is sugar unto children or stuffed mushrooms unto the French Apprentice, we consume and call it good. Our mouth realizes what our intellect cannot fathom.

The traditional Madeleine is usually made with orange, but this is a recipe for an Anise version of the French Madeleine:

You will need a Madeleine pan
Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
2 eggs, beat well
1/3 C sugar
1/4 tsp of salt
1 1/2 tsp of Vanilla
1 Tblsp of anise seed

Mix these ingredients well, starting with the sugar, salt and eggs, and then adding the rest.

Fold in 1/2 C of flour
then
Fold in 1/4 C of melted butter

Make sure it is combined well. Taste, and add more anise if needed.

Butter and flour the molds.
Using a spoon, fill the molds with the batter (this recipe is good for a pan with 12 molds)
Bake for 10-12 minutes; they’re ready when you can smell vanilla and they look golden on top. For extra measure, press on one and if it springs back they are perfecto.

Enjoy on your tilt-a-whirl ride.

0 comments.

An Obsession with Leeks

Posted on March 1st, 2008 by likeasaladinabowl.
Categories: Uncategorized.

In a recent dinner conversation, over rosemary-orange chicken served with rice and Mexican Zucchini stuffed with leeks and tomatoes, one friend commented on the book “French Women don’t get Fat.” Her observation was that leeks do not taste, and to make soup with them was like unto boiling water with grass. Now, the recipe for “miracle soup” which appears in “French Women don’t get Fat” has not been scrutinized by myself. Rather, quickly read over, it sounded scrumptious. Thus, when asking how her soup was made it sounded something like this:

Clean some leeks
put them in water
boil
add salt and seasonings of some sort
eat

Some people might enjoy that kind of leek soup. And done well, it might even be good. But most humans do not like boiled green things floating in water that tastes exactly like boiled water. So.

Clean some leeks, chopping off most of the leaves. I personally think they add flavor, and if anything its fun to eat leaves. But if you’d rather not, save them for future chicken stock.
Cover the leeks with water, then double that with chicken broth.
Add salt and pepper, and for extra excitement throw in 2 or 3 thinly sliced potatoes
boil until both potatoes and leeks are cooked
pour into the blender and blend until its a smooth consistency
pour it back into the pot, and add about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of heavy cream
and voila!
Enjoy with a baguette, loaded with butter

To make food taste good, you do not need to load it with spices and herbs and different things. Rather, load it with simple things that contain good hearty flavor already. Thus the stock.

0 comments.

shaking their shoulders from the earth

Posted on June 14th, 2007 by likeasaladinabowl.
Categories: Uncategorized.

“Mirth of those long since under earth
Nourishing the corn. Keeping time,
Keeping the rhythm in their dancing
As in their living in the living seasons
The time of the seasons and the constellations
The time of milking and the time of harvest
The time of the coupling of man and woman
And that of beasts. Feet rising and falling.
Eating and drinking. Dung and death.”
- T.S. Eliot

This is a food blog. A food blog of seasons, and eating and drinking. In food, the cook is forced to extend his gaze beyond the surface, to taste, to touch, to smell, to imbibe. To poke and to prod, to sprinkle and to dash. And like the southern writer, we aim to find the hearty smell of earth in our potatoes, and enjoy the deep taste of life in our escargot.

4 comments.