February 2010 Archives

Now that we can all see at least a little bit of our front lawns and drive wherever we may want to go, and the forty inches of snow is but a bad memory, I want to share something with you without making you feel too guilty about living in the lap of suburbia.

Please sympathize with Doug Linton’s run-on account of what he dealt with at Angelic Beef in Fauquier County where twin calves had been born just before the snows came:

Let me know what time you need to know by,If you think this amount of snow sucks in general,try it with 3oo acres of trees snapping like twigs,1 mile of driveway to clear,80 head of cows in 4 different fields that need to be fed and (normally not watered} bad grammer oh well a little tired. because I have automatic waterers in every field with heaters,But when you lose electricity for 24 hours you have no running water and everything freezes,YEAH.
Anyway I am pretty much up and running I will have to see getting the building dugout where ANGELIC BEEF lives plus my vehicle.Going to try to take pics and send it is hard to comprehend I am looking at it and having a hard time believing it.

And commiserate with Phyllis Mainhart and her travails in the snow on the side of a mountain in Bluemont, Virginia. Listen to this voicemail she left me.

And enjoy and appreciate the attitude they bring to the work they do for you.

Join us at our Fairfax Corner market in March for a special cooking class taught by Smart Markets’ own Jean Janssen. We’ll focus on some basic staples for your kitchen that you can make better and healthier instead of opting for the processed store-bought versions: ketchup, mayonnaise, soups and broths.

Every Tuesday in March, starting at 12:30 p.m.:

March 2: Homemade mayonnaise

March 9: Homemade ketchup

March 16: Homemade beef, chicken and vegetable stocks

March 23: We’ll decide together on what to do for this class

Recipes will be provided. Feel free to bring your kids — our resident babysitter will be on call. We will try to start by 12:30 p.m. each market day.

See you at the market!

My father was a traveling salesman for much of my life growing up and it was always exciting to hear about his trips to NYC. He loved an Italian restaurant in the City and convinced the chef to share a spaghetti sauce recipe with him that he then adapted to his — and our family's — tastes. It soon became our special-occasion dinner; he prepared it for company, often for the boyfriends of his three daughters. Somewhere along the line it was called "Daddy's Famous Spaghetti" by one of those boyfriends and it stuck.

I also served it myself in my own apartment in Chapel Hill to a boy in my graduate school program the evening of our first date. I am still serving it to him — maybe even this weekend — as we were married about two years and much more spaghetti later.

Note the term "spaghetti" — even adventurous cooks like my Dad were not using the term pasta in the ’60s. In fact our favorite spaghetti was good old Mueller's, and we loved the really long, thin spaghetti that came in the plastic wrapper rather than a box. And of course we all learned to twirl it!

Cook together 4 garlic cloves, sliced thinly, in 1/2 cup olive oil until very lightly brown. Remove from the oil. Add three medium onions, chopped, and cook until lightly colored. Add 2 1/2–3 lbs. ground beef to pot and brown well; season with salt and pepper.

(I would suggest one deviation from this method: brown the beef in small batches by itself, drain and then add to the oil and onions. Daddy always carefully ladled out the fat after browning the meat, but he lost the olive oil that way, and it was much harder to remove the fat.)

Add:

• 2 large cans of good quality Italian tomatoes
• 2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce (homemade if you have it)
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon parsley flakes or 3/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 bay leaves
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 4–6 stalks celery, sliced thin, including leaves
• 4–6 carrots, sliced thin

Cook over a slow fire for 2–3 hours. Just before serving add 1 pound fresh sliced mushrooms, sautéed till brown in oil and butter; taste the sauce for seasoning, adding additional salt and pepper if necessary.

This recipe originally called for no fresh ingredients — you could not buy fresh herbs or fresh mushrooms at the grocery store even in Atlanta where we lived when Daddy developed the recipe. But now I encourage you to use fresh herbs instead — just add them near the end of cooking and use 3–4 times as much of the fresh herb as the dried.

Makes about 3 quarts.

Fabbioli Cellars will be at our Oakton market February 13 with the following selection of wines — visit us and pick up a few bottles! Celeste at Fabbioli provided us with this listing:

It is Valentine’s Day again, the time for romantic dinners, quiet moments and wonderful food. And what goes perfectly with all of those? Well, Fabbioli Cellars wines, of course.

You need the perfect wine to go with the perfect foods. It is time to bring out the good stuff. Here are some wine–food pairing suggestions:

Pasta, cheese, maybe a cheese fondue — then you will want our Chambourcin. A light Chianti-style wine.

Fish, seafood, fruit — 8 Chains Loco Vino is what you need. A citrusy white wine that is a little sweet and a little dry, done in stainless (no oak) and has a nice crisp finish.

Chicken, pork or a spicy beef dish — Our Cabernet Franc is your perfect fit. A medium-bodied wine, a little spicy, a little peppery.

A nice thick steak on the menu? Then you can’t beat the Tres Sorrelle — Doug’s flagship (and original) wine. This is our full-bodied “steak” wine. Complex tastes of Merlot, Petite Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.

And don’t forget that romantic dessert. Maybe a dark chocolate cake or a tart or any other sweet thing you are planning to serve your sweet thing. We have the best dessert wines around, and I am not exaggerating. All of these wines are sweet but not overly sweet. They are not loaded with residual sugar like most dessert wines (most of which have 30%-40% residual sugar). Their sweetness is derived naturally from the sweetness of the fruit. The perfect finish to the perfect romantic dinner.

Raspberry Merlot — only 5% residual sugar (most syrupy dessert wines are 30-40% residual sugar). Wonderful with chocolate or ice cream. Oh, you really can taste that Raspberry.

Rosa Nera — Black Raspberry Wine in the port style, only 3% residual sugar and a little added body with 3% Brandy (great for those winter nights by the fire), also great with chocolate or ice cream.

Pear Wine — in the port style, only 3% residual sugar and 3% Brandy to warm those toes. Great with cheesecake and fruity desserts. A bit different and a lot of fun.

We will be at the Oakton Market February 13 and we would love to see you. Come out and try our wines — you won’t be disappointed. And remember the pairings that are mentioned above are only suggestions. The most important thing is to drink the wine you love with the food you love. If you already know what you would like and would like to ensure that we have it with us on Saturday, please contact me and reserve your bottles ahead of time. Contact Celeste at llamaladymd@hotmail.com or call 703-554-4591. Please state your name and the type and number of bottles you would like.

This is the basic recipe with no added herbs or spices. This recipe lends itself to great variation with thyme and rosemary or chili powder and cumin — you can go in many directions or just serve like this, which is still a great simple winter soup.

In 3 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat, sauté the white part of two large leeks, sliced thin, or 1/2 large sweet onion, sliced thin until beginning to soften. Then add 1/2 lb. sliced carrots and cook for five minutes longer over medium-low heat. Add one 28-ounce can of good plum tomatoes with their juices, one cup of good chicken or vegetable stock and one heaping tablespoon of tomato paste and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat, partially covered, for 30 minutes or until carrots are soft. Let cool before pureéing in a blender (it works better than a food processor with this soup). Return to the pot and add another 3–4 cups of stock and bring back to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for another 10–15 minutes to allow flavor to develop, then season to taste with salt and lots of freshly ground pepper.

As with many of my recipes, the proportions of this one are fluid, to say the least. For a winter tomato sauce the first accommodation is the tomatoes; forget the fresh ones, no matter what they look like, and buy your favorite canned tomatoes. I will go far and wide to find Cento Italian Peeled Tomatoes which interestingly enough are now found at Safeway. I also like Muir Glen and will often combine the two. I usually have both on hand for snowy days.

I also like to begin with a winter mirepoix for a nutritional and flavor boost, but you can always go with just the onions and garlic. And depending on how your tomatoes are packed, with juice or puree, you can always add some tomato paste to thicken the mixture for pizza sauce or another dish that requires a thick, spreadable sauce.

So read this recipe and then be prepared to adapt it to your own sensibilities — but most important of all, make lots of it at one time and freeze it in quart containers and you have what you need for soups, casseroles and other wonderful homemade meals.

This is what I am making up today with the tomatoes I have on hand:

• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 large fennel bulb, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 3–4 cloves of garlic, minced (more if you really like garlic)

Sauté these veggies in 1/4 cup of good olive oil, adding the garlic after about five minutes. Important note: You can cook the veggies until slightly colored, but do not allow the garlic to brown. This whole process should take you no longer than 8–10 minutes.

Then add 2 large cans of whole tomatoes (28- or 32-ounce cans ) and one 28-ounce can of diced or crushed tomatoes. Add all juice and puree in the cans. I use a process called "squishing" for the whole tomatoes; I run the tomatoes through my bare hands, picking off pieces of peel, removing the core and gently mashing them up a little bit. Now simmer at the lowest heat possible, stirring occasionally, for about one hour or until thickened to taste. Taste after about 30 minutes and add 1–2 teaspoons of sugar if the sauce is bitter, as well as salt and pepper to taste. Also at this time add any dried herbs you would like, though if you want to be able to use this for a variety of dishes, you may wait to add herbs and spices at a later date. You will have a little more than 3 quarts of chunky sauce after one hour.

(Serves 8–10)

This recipe is from the November 1971 issue of Gourmet Magazine, one of the first I ever bought after I was married in June of that year. Those early issues have grown into a collection covering the thirty-six years since then, and I use them all the time.

I served this smooth, rich-tasting soup for twenty years as a caterer, and it never failed to get rave reviews (and requests for the recipe, which I wasn’t able to honor at the time). It has also been served at every family Thanksgiving reunion since I first introduced it more than ten years ago. Now, if I don’t make and bring it, someone else will. It is so easy to serve because it can be ladled into mugs and sipped as an appetizer, though it makes a beautiful presentation at table too.

In a saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons butter and add one cup minced onion and 1/4 cup minced carrot. Sprinkle the vegetables lightly with salt and white pepper. Cover the vegetables with a sheet of waxed paper, put the lid on the pan and cook the vegetables about ten minutes, or until they are tender. Add 2 medium potatoes and 2 acorn squashes, both peeled and cubed, and 4 cups of chicken stock, and simmer until the vegetables are very tender. (You can make this a vegetarian soup by using a good vegetable stock.) Cool a bit and then puree the soup in batches in a blender or food processor and return it to the pan. Add 1/2 cup each heavy cream and milk and simmer the soup until it is heated through. Add one teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon white pepper or to taste. Serve in cups, mugs or low soup bowls garnished with a bit of cayenne pepper.