What Recipes Don't Tell You

As a geologist I worked in a silver mine near a tiny Mexican village named Bolaños. The mine owner provided me with a one-bedroom house and the services of an old Mexican woman to prepare my meals. I was really looking forward to some good, authentic Mexican cooking. Was I ever disappointed! The food was plain rice and barely seasoned refried beans with some scraps of beef, pork or chicken. Exactly the same flavorless meal every day of my ten-day visit, though she varied her choice of meat. The best part was the good Mexican beer that the mine owner filled the small refrigerator with.

That was many years ago, but ever since I have not been fond of Mexican food. Sampling local Mexican restaurants did not change my mind. But I recently found a brand new Mexican cookbook by Roberto Santibañez called Truly Mexican and became a convert. With a little effort and very good ingredients, Mexican food can rival the best Mediterranean cooking. No enchiladas and tamales here.

Through this cookbook I learned that preparing a very good salsa, adobo (puréed salsa), mole and pipián (similar to mole but with nuts and seeds as main ingredients) is the secret. You can add any of these to any meat and continue cooking the combination slowly. You prepare everything from scratch, and the sauces always start with fresh or dried chilies.

Is it time consuming? A little bit. No cooking of any kind has shortcuts that benefit food quality. Preparing good refried beans takes 20 minutes after the beans have been soaked and cooked. To make an adobo, you will spend 20 to 30 minutes in the kitchen. Assembling the meal with all ingredients will take perhaps another 30 or 40 minutes.

What takes time in preparation is dry roasting. In authentic Mexican cooking everything is dry roasted: chilies, tomatoes, tomatillos, onion and garlic. Roasting induces flavor development like nothing else. (Compare the flavor of unroasted and roasted almonds and you will understand the concept.)

Your spices and herbs must be reasonably fresh to produce the good flavor. Buy them in small quantities, date the container and replace old ones when crushing or rubbing between fingers results little or no smell. (I buy all my spices and herbs in natural food coops and health food stores where I can get a small handful at a time.)

Then you’ll have a Mexican meal only the very best Mexican restaurants offer. Once you learn to make some of these Mexican sauces, you will be surprised how really good Mexican food can be.

Who doesn’t look forward to a good holiday reception? Although some can be truly boring, if the host or hostess is known for kitchen expertise, good food can compensate for a lot of meaningless small talk and dreary people.

If you plan to be only a guest, this article isn’t for you. But if you are planning to host one, listen to some useful advice from a seasoned caterer.

The Basics First

Figure out your budget—how much you are willing to spend on the party. Budget and space limitations help you decide on the number of guests to invite. Send invitations early and ask—no beg—for RSVPs. Once these arrive (you can expect 50 to 60 percent returns), you can very roughly estimate a head count.

When preparing the menu, remember that even a mediocre item you prepare will be better received than the very best purchased commercial foods. Keep the menu simple. Five to eight items are enough for the average hors d’oeuvres party.

Plan the reception for 2½ to 3 hours, never longer. Some people will stay well beyond the stated time, and being a host and hostess is tiring.

Food Next

Make the spread varied: something meaty, something cheesy, some snacky items, never forgetting  something sweet. Even though not many bother with healthy veggies and fruit, they must be part of the table because they look good if displayed with flair, and those on diets can eat healthy. Avoid adding buffet items that keep you busy in the kitchen during the event.

Quantities are the hardest to estimate for most home cooks. You don’t want huge amounts, a common mistake. Count on two or three of each kind of the finger foods (like bruschetta with a topping) per person. For heavier items a total of four ounces per person combined meat and cheese is plenty. Depending on their sizes, keep sweets to two to three per guest, or if large, one or two. Add 10 percent extra for uninvited guests and just for your own peace of mind.

Display is critical. The food must look appetizing and beautiful, and be artistically displayed (yes, you can do it). The table setup is the first thing guests will see. Arrange food platters surrounded by various non-edible displays like flowers, candles, knick-knacks, or colorful fabrics. Stack plates at the front of the line of foods and napkins at the end.

Choose small display platters and replenish them from the kitchen frequently. Once a platter is at least half empty, replace it with a fresh, full plate. The food must look neat, with garnishes or possibly a bed of greens. If you serve high-demand items, like shrimp (some guests will fill their plates with them), display them on particularly small plates and don’t replace them right away to stretch them further. Even better, have someone offer those while walking through the crowd every 20 or 30 minutes.

 Once it’s over, you will be exhausted but so satisfied!

It is not a sauce, not a sandwich spread, not something you dip with crackers or vegetables but dipping sauces are so versatile you can use them for all of the above.  These sauces are favorites at cocktail parties. Too bad most hosts and hostesses simply mix a carton of sour cream with a dry mixture instead of making their own.

The international sauce repertoire is filled with excellent dipping sauces—some take minutes to make others some serious kitchen work.  Their flavor (and how guests perceive them) are far above store-bought sauces. Whatever is left over from the before-dinner appetizer offer may be next day’s sandwich spread or a sauce reserved to flavor cooked vegetable. Most keep well for many days, even for several weeks if kept cold and covered. You are likely to find a number of them in you cookbooks.

Here are a few examples of my favorite dipping sauces:

Hummus from the Middle East with garbanzo beans and tahini (sesame paste)

Aïoli from the Mediterranean, that is simply an earnest garlic mayonnaise

Baba ghanouj from the Middle East with eggplant and tahini

Liptauer cheese from Eastern Europe

Guacamole from Mexico

Tapenade from the Mediterranean with olives and anchovies

Adobos from Mexico with fresh or dried roasted chilies

Tzatziki from Greece with spiced Greek yogurt

Learn to make just two or three that you can whip up with ease for the next party, for a different sort of sandwich spread or whenever you need a sauce for extra flavor.  Here is a reasonably simple dipping sauce you can try:

 Tzatziki (Yogurt) Dip

 1 cup unflavored yogurt (not fat-free or low-fat)

½ clove garlic, finely minced

1½ tsp red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

½ tsp salt

Spoon yogurt into a cheesecloth-lined colander and let liquid drain overnight into a bowl. No need to refrigerate. Next day discard the liquid and transfer the thick concentrated yogurt (this is Greek yogurt) into a bowl. In a small bowl blend garlic, wine vinegar, olive oil and salt with a rubber spatula. When salt is dissolved, fold this gently into the yogurt. Cover and refrigerate for several hours before serving.

Makes half a cup of tzatziki.

(Photo of aioli dip)

As the wet and cool weather takes over in the fall and winter, more and more local mushroom gatherers end up at the ER with terrible pain—the unlucky ones will die. This is the time those irresistible wild mushrooms push up from below the leaf cover, and the expert mushroom hunters often return with their booties for dinner. But those with cursory knowledge are the ones who will be the victims.

Some half a dozen foolproof mushrooms in our area are safe to collect yet even the experts identify every one they cook with absolute certainty before considering them for dinner. Unless you are one of them, take the safe route and buy your mushrooms at the market even though few can match the flavor of some of the wild ones.

Today we are fortunate to have a variety of good mushrooms in every market.

Mushrooms in the Kitchen

Both wild and tame mushrooms are naturally high in MSG; thus, they are wonderful natural flavor enhancers in dishes. Raw mushrooms are almost as flavorless as tofu but, like tofu, they act like sponges soaking up flavors. Marinated in a nice salad dressing for a few hours, they become good additions to salads and hors d’oeuvre trays.

Their flavor really only shines when sautéed, deep-fried, or stir-fried, just like meat and poultry. Whenever the recipe calls for mushrooms, your first step is to brown them. Once browned, they can be part of a vegetable dish or a side dish on their own. Or you can add them to soups and stews both for flavor and that pleasing shrimp-like chewy texture.

The mildest is the common white button mushroom; next is the little brown button mushrooms, also called crimini. Criminis are immature portabellas. As in all mushrooms, the young criminis are the mildest, while their mothers, the big, deep-brown portabellas have a robust, deep, earthy flavor kids tend to hate.

If you wish to murder your mushrooms, leave them in a plastic bag. The bag builds up moisture and molds will destroy them in days. As soon as you get home transfer them into a paper bag, close the top and refrigerate. They will keep for a week.

Mushrooms are very clean, grown in a hospital-sterile environment but they are handled by human hands, so a very quick but thorough wash is essential before cooking. Wash quickly that the open-textured mushrooms don’t absorb extra water, which makes browning difficult. Peeling mushrooms is totally unnecessary. I have no idea why my mother insisted on peeling every one.

You don’t eat mushrooms for their nutrition but for their flavor. Mushrooms are not high in nutrients, unlike most of our vegetables (after all, mushroom is only a lowly fungus).

Whether your choice is wild or commercial, good cooks place mushrooms on the menu often.

If you are a hunter, read the first half only; if a cook, read the second half. Only those hunters who cook their game need to read from top to bottom.

Few people enjoy game meat, complaining that the flavor is too gamey and the meat is too tough. Blame both the hunter and the cook. Game meat can be as free of gamey flavor as good ranch-raised beef and nearly as tender. Let’s start with the hunter.

The Hunter’s Job

A frightened animal releases adrenaline that tightens its muscles; tight muscles mean tougher meat. Good hunters have stealth, patience, and skill to take their game unaware and not frightened. After a successful shot, drain the blood right away, remove testicles and scrotum from males before they can release hormones that taint the flavor of the meat. Gut the carcass quickly and don’t delay transporting meat any longer than necessary.

Hunters who want to save money and process their own game meat are fools. Meat processing is an art and science that butchers spend years learning. The cost of the butcher’s work pays for itself in the long run.

All meat benefit from aging and game is no exception — aging improves flavor, relaxes muscles and tenderizes fibers. Unaged wild meat is still good, but aged meat turns more tender and more flavorful after about five days under controlled temperature and humidity. Very few have the proper place to age meat, again, leave it to the butcher.

Aging means moisture loss, so expect 10 to 12 percent less meat after proper aging, yet the flavor will be more concentrated.

Packaging the meat for long-term storage is as important as processing and aging. Poorly-packaged meat turns rancid when exposed to oxygen in the air that finds its way into the package. It also develops “freezer burns.” The cause of freezer burn is simply dehydration, loss of moisture and oxidation. In a properly wrapped package freezer burn doesn’t exist.

How you freeze meat and how fast you freeze it are both critical to retaining high quality and full moisture content, and only quick freezing in the butcher’s very cold deep freezer with fans running can achieve that. Leave both packaging and freezing to your butcher.

The Cook’s Job

When you want a frozen game meat ready for a meal, plan ahead. Defrost it slowly in the refrigerator for the least moisture loss, never on your counter (bad), under running water (worse) or in a microwave (worst). Thick steaks defrost in a day or two, roasts in three to four days, a little longer if the inside of your refrigerator looks like a commuter bus in rush-hour.

Wild game is not like corn-fed beef. Most wild game develop little fat reserves (except bear in the fall). Expect lean meat — in fact, so lean that it can be much too dry if you don’t cook it right. If the hunter bagged on old animal, it is likely to be tough, too.

First, let’s get rid of the strong gamey flavor that comes mainly from the fat covering, whatever little there is. Trim off all visible fat as much as possible and you get rid of most of that objectionable flavor. But you end up with even leaner meat.

Any cooking method that uses oil adds lubricant to the meat and makes it more tender. Long, slow cooking at bare simmer is the best, such as stewing, braising or pot roasting. If you chose dry-heat cooking, such as broiling or grilling on coal, use either tenderizer or an acidic marinade for at least four hours before cooking. A splash of dry red wine is very nice with wild meat, either in the marinade or in the liquids of slow-cooking methods.

If you are roasting a large piece of wild meat, trim off all fat and stick fatty bacon or salt pork on top to keep the meat moist, then baste it often — every 20 to 30 minutes — while roasting.

As a professional cookbook reviewer, I peruse eight or ten new cookbooks every month. Some end up in the trash, most in the Jackson library and a few irresistible ones on my own cookbook shelf. My shelf space is as limited as everyone else’s, so any time I add a cookbook, something else must go.

I urge you to do the same; cookbooks that you haven’t used for a year or more belong in the trash. It’s best to retain a few high-quality cookbooks that you can trust. As for recipes from the Internet, they are so unreliable that it is best to forget about them.

The following are cookbooks that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend if you have space on your cookbook shelf and money in your budget. To see my reviews, check online at Portland Book Reviews, San Francisco Book Reviews, Sacramento Book Reviews or Amazon.com and search for my name or the book title.

Here is my list:

Tessa Kiros, Food from Many Greek Kitchens (simple Greek recipes from the ordinary folk’s kitchens)

Aaron McCargo, Simply Done, Well Done (nice collection of everyday recipes)

Pamela Sheldon Johns, Cucina Povera (features recipes from Tuscany peasants, simple but flavorful cooking)

Roberto Santibañez, Truly Mexican (about the best Mexican cookbook I have come across, focusing on basics like salsas, guacamoles, adobos, moles and pipianes)

Fine Cooking editors, In Season (excellent recipes using seasonal produce)

Aurora Baccheschi Berti, My Tuscan Kitchen (simple, good recipes from Northern Italy’s Tuscan region, a beautifully produced book)

America’s Test Kitchen, Blue Ribbon Desserts (not only a good dessert cookbook but also gives the results of the test kitchen’s tinkering with each recipe)

DK’s Classic Look and Cook Series, The Illustrated Step-by-Step Cookbook (perfect cookbook for novice cooks, where step-by-step illustrations guide you through recipes, but equally good for advanced cooks)

Joanne Chang, Flour (a serious baking cookbook, some simple and some more complex recipes)

Janet Hornby, What to Cook and How to Cook It (general cookbook, great illustrations, good recipes)

Jennifer and Nathan Winograd, All American Vegan (perfect for anyone who is thinking of becoming a vegan, this humorous cookbook helps you “veganize” your own recipes)

Whether for yourself or as a gift, choose any of these cookbooks that appeal to your cooking style and taste. Most of the recipes in these books are written for the average home cook without the need to search markets for hard-to-find ingredients.

Mousse means foam in French. Tiny air bubbles whipped into a rich pudding like sweet preparation provides the light, foamy texture and silky-smooth mouthfeel in this dessert item is known as mousse. Whipped cream is usually the basis of the foam while whipped egg whites may add further lightness. Flavorings vary widely. In this recipe it is milk and very strong espresso coffee, thus the name cappuccino mousse.

The only caveat in its preparation is when to fold the whipped cream and egg white foam into the cooling liquid. Fold it in too soon and the liquid and foam will separate. But fold it in too late when gelatin begins setting the liquid and you cannot make a smooth foam; the partly set mousse remains chunky. But don’t despair—this is just esthetic imperfection, it doesn’t harm the final product (in the photo this is exactly what happened). Your guests don’t need to know that mousse needs to be perfectly homogenous as long as you don’t point it out.

1 c milk

1¼ c sugar, divided ¾, ¼ and ¼ c

1 packet unflavored gelatin

¼ c cold water

6 Tbsp fresh-brewed very strong espresso

1 T orange zest, finely minced

2 egg whites

1 c heavy cream

• Heat milk with ¾ cup sugar in a small, heavy sauce pan. Sprinkle gelatin over cold water, let rest for a minute and add to hot milk. Continue heating while thoroughly blending until quite hot but well below boiling. Add espresso and orange zest, stir and chill. Monitor often to catch the exact time to fold in egg whites and cream. The liquid should just begin to set (at about 75? to 80?F).
• Beat egg whites until it starts to get thick, then add ¼ cup sugar and continue whipping until soft peak stage. Remove from the bowl.
• In the same bowl whip cream with remaining ¼ cup sugar.
• Fold both egg white foam and whipped cream into the setting liquid with a rubber spatula. Spoon into eight 4-ounce ramekins and chill.

Serves 8.

If you like kisses, you’ll love these little cookies called walnut kisses. Their flesh is mainly ground walnuts, and the glue holding the sweetened walnuts into a cohesive mass is egg white and eggs. Even better, if you are concerned about your weight and/or cholesterol, there is no butter or oil added to the dough, it only contains the natural walnut oil. One egg in a batch adds a bit of cholesterol but the cookies may be prepared using egg whites only.

Using a food processor, the dough is prepared in a minute. Hand processing is more time consuming and takes some muscle work before the dough is cohesive and workable.

2¼ c walnuts

1 c + 2 Tbsp sugar

¾ c flour

1 egg

1 egg white

(or use 2 egg whites)

Grind walnuts, sugar and flour in a food processor until very fine, about a minute. Slowly add egg and egg white (or two egg whites) through the feeding tube and process until a cohesive dough is formed in a few seconds. Dump it on a flour-dusted work surface, and shape it into 24 to 28 round balls.

Preheat oven to 325?F.

Cover two baking sheets with parchment or foil. Place balls 1½ inches apart and press a small walnut piece in the center of each. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven while still slightly soft to the touch.

Peel cookies off paper or foil after they completely cooled.

Makes 24 to 28 kisses.

Though this is not hard to prepare, it is not for the novice baker. With baking experience, you have 30 to 40 minutes total work before the roulades are ready for the oven.

But there is a trick. Ground poppy seed is best when fresh-ground and so far I was unable to find any appliance that grinds the tiny seeds except a genuine hand poppy seed grinder. If all fails, buy ground poppy seeds that come in cans.

Dough for two roulades

2¼ c all-purpose flour

¼ c sugar

1 tsp salt

1½ tsp dry yeast

¾ to 1 c milk

8 oz unsalted butter, chilled

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1 egg yolk (reserve a little for egg wash)

Poppy seeds filling (for two roulades)

6 oz poppy seed, ground

14 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp lemon zest

½ c milk

½ c raisins

To prepare dough, combine dry ingredients, including yeast. Cut in cold butter until pea sized.

Combined egg yolk (reserving a little for the egg wash), lemon zest and milk and add to dry pastry. Kneed for a few minutes to form soft, pliable dough. Cover and chill.

To prepare filling, combine all ingredients in a small pan and heat gently for a minute, stirring all the time. May need more milk so it’s spreadable. Put aside, cover and cool.

Let chilled dough warm up for about 30 minutes, cut it into two and roll each into a thin rectangle on a floured work surface. Spread half of filling on each, spreading it uniformly within half inch from edges. Roll up tightly starting from the longer side, moisten and seal edges, and place on parchment-covered baking sheet seam side down.

Combine reserved egg yolk with a little water and brush top and sides of roulades with this egg wash. Let rise covered for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350?F.

Brush roulades again with egg wash and dock top with a fork.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until firm and slightly brown on top. Cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Makes two roulades, about 15 thin slices each.

Most people with sweet tooth agree: flavors on the top of the list are chocolate and lemon. I have a serious sweet tooth and I love both flavors. Since I bake regularly, these two often receive frequent attention.

Today it was lemon and I spotlighted it in an old-fashioned lemon meringue pie. Over the many years of baking I experimented and tested lemon meringue pies (as well as their close cousins and siblings) yet I found that the simplest is the best. The recipe below could not be simpler though a beginning baker would have a nice baking challenge to perfect it. For the more experienced baker it is half hour’s work the most, once the pre-baked crust is ready and waiting.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Prebaked crust

1 c sugar

6 Tbsp cornstarch

¼ tsp salt

½ c cold water

6 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

4 egg yolks

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1½ c boiling water

2 Tbsp butter

Meringue

4 egg whites at room temperature

¼ tsp cream of tartar

½ tsp vanilla

½ c sugar

1.     Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in a small heavy saucepan. Gradually stir in cold water and lemon juice, stirring constantly with a wire whip or a large spoon. When smooth, stir in egg yolks and lemon zest, then slowly the boiling water and butter while keeping up stirring. Bring slowly to boil over very low heat while stirring gently until thickens (5 to 8 minutes). Pour into baked pie shell.

2.     Preheat oven to 400?F.

3.     To make the meringue, beat egg whites with cream of tartar, when soft peaks appear, add vanilla and gradually pour in sugar. Keep whipping until foam is soft, firm but avoid overbeating to a stiff foam stage.

4.     Spread meringue over hot filling leaving the top raggedy.

5.     Bake in preheated oven for 6 to 8 minutes until top is nice a brown. Cool, then chill before serving.