A Connecticutian in the Kitchen: July 2011

“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.”
- Luciano Pavarotti

“Desserts are like mistresses. They are bad for you. So if you are having one, you might as well have two.”
- Chef Alain Ducasse

“Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn.”
- Garrison Keillor

“I’ve long said that if I were about to be executed and were given a choice of my last meal, it would be bacon and eggs. There are few sights that appeal to me more than the streaks of lean and fat in a good side of bacon, or the lovely round of pinkish meat framed in delicate white fat that is Canadian bacon. Nothing is quite as intoxicating as the smell of bacon frying in the morning, save perhaps the smell of coffee brewing.”
- James Beard

“Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements.”
- Marcel Boulestin

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
- Virginia Woolf

“You know how I feel about tacos. It’s the only food shaped like a smile. A beef smile.”
- Earl Hickey, My Name is Earl

“All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.”
- John Gunther

“Ingredients are not sacred. The art of cuisine is sacred. It is at that altar I worship, and I shall go to sacrifice the fat geese and tender cattle to serve its ends. The holy icons of the chef’s faith—fragrant truffles, rich foie gras, well-marbled meats and other luxurious ingredients – these are not God. Their synthesis and their miraculous transformation into a sum greater than its parts is creation, and this is what I find most worthy of reverence.”
- Tanith Tyrr

“I believe that if ever I had to practice cannibalism, I might manage if there were enough tarragon around.”
- James Beard

“Plain fresh bread, its crust shatteringly crisp. Sweet cold butter. There is magic in the way they come together in your mouth to make a single perfect bite.
- Ruth Reichl

“Truffle isn’t exactly aphrodisiac but under certain circumstances it tends to make women more tender and men more likable”
- J.A. Brillat-Savarin

“When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes in it in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one’s ramble was over and slippered feet were propped on the fender, of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries.”
- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

“Life is so brief that we should not glance either too far backwards or forwards…therefore study how to fix our happiness in our glass and in our plate.”
- Grimod de la Reynière

“Scallops are expensive, so they should be treated with some class. But then, I suppose that every creature that gives his life for our table should be treated with class.”
- Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet

“Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements.”
- Chef Marcel Boulestin

“I’ll bet what motivated the British to colonize so much of the world is that they were just looking for a decent meal.”
- Martha Harrison

“Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea.”
- Pythagoras

“Great restaurants are, of course, nothing but mouth-brothels. There is no point in going to them if one intends to keep one’s belt buckled.”
- Frederic Raphael

“There is a communication of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine is drunk. And that is my answer when people ask me: Why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love.”
- MFK Fisher

“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in it’s evocation of innocence and delight.”
- MFK Fisher

“I prefer to regard a dessert as I would imagine the perfect woman: subtle, a little bittersweet, not blowsy and extrovert. Delicately made up, not highly rouged. Holding back, not exposing everything and, of course, with a flavor that lasts.”
- Graham Kerr

“A man taking basil from a woman will love her always.”
- Sir Thomas Moore

“Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”
- Harriet Van Horne, Vogue 10/1956

“To give life to beauty, the painter uses a whole range of colours, musicians of sounds, the cook of tastes — and it is indeed remarkable that there are seven colours, seven musical notes and seven tastes.”
- Lucien Tendret (1825-1896) ‘La Table au pays de Brillat-Savarin’

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,’ said Piglet at last, ‘what’s the first thing you say to yourself?’ ‘What’s for breakfast?’ said Pooh. ‘What do you say, Piglet?’ ‘I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?’ said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. ‘It’s the same thing,’ he said.”
- A. A. Milne, ‘The House at Pooh Corner’

“How do they taste? They taste like more.”
- H.L. Mencken

“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”
- George Bernard Shaw

“There are many miracles in the world to be celebrated and, for me, garlic is the most deserving.”
- Leo Buscaglia

“Leave the gun. Take the cannolis.”
- Clemenza, in The Godfather

“A jazz musician can improvise based on his knowledge of music. He understands how things go together. For a chef, once you have that basis, that’s when cuisine is truly exciting.”
- Charlie Trotter

“He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it hath already committed breakfast in his heart.”
- C. S. Lewis

“To be tempted and indulged by the city’s most brilliant chefs. It’s the dream of every one of us in love with food.”
- Gael Greene

“Great food is like great sex. The more you have the more you want.”
- Gael Greene

“To eat is a necessity, to eat intelligently is an art.” La Rochefoucauld

“The tradition of Italian cooking is that of the matriarch. This is the cooking of grandma. She didn’t waste time thinking too much about the celery. She got the best celery she could and then she dealt with it.”
- Mario Batali

“The Italians were eating with forks when the French were still eating each other.”
- Mario Batali

“Pounding fragrant things — particularly garlic, basil, parsley — is a tremendous antidote to depression. But it applies also to juniper berries, coriander seeds and the grilled fruits of the chili pepper. Pounding these things produces an alteration in one’s being — from sighing with fatigue to inhaling with pleasure. The cheering effects of herbs and alliums cannot be too often reiterated. Virgil’s appetite was probably improved equally by pounding garlic as by eating it.”
- Patience Gray, author

“There is nothing like a plate or a bowl of hot soup, it’s wisp of aromatic steam making the nostrils quiver with anticipation, to dispel the depressing effects of a grueling day at the office or the shop, rain or snow in the streets, or bad news in the papers.”
- Louis P. De Gouy, The Soup Book (1949)

“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relatives.”
- Oscar Wilde

“Life is too short for self-hatred and celery sticks.”
- Marilyn Wann

“Two words to improve any dish. Ba, Con”
- Ted Allen, The Iron Chef

“For the first time I know what it is to eat. I have gained four pounds. I get frantically hungry, and the food I eat gives me a lingering pleasure. I never ate before in this deep carnal way… I want to bite into life and to be torn by it.”
- Anaïs Nin

“The greatest delight the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.”
- Henry David Thoreau

“Tell me what you eat, I’ll tell you who you are.”
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“I went to a restaurant that serves ‘breakfast at any time’. So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance.”
- Steven Wright

“You can never have enough garlic. With enough garlic, you can eat The New York Times.”
- Morley Safer

“Enchant, stay beautiful and graceful, but do this, eat well. Bring the same consideration to the preparation of your food as you devote to your appearance. Let your dinner be a poem, like your dress.”
- Charles Pierre Monselet,French journalist

“A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch”
- James Beard

“Grilling, broiling, barbecuing – whatever you want to call it – is an art, not just a matter of building a pyre and throwing on a piece of meat as a sacrifice to the gods of the stomach.”
- James Beard

“All sorrows are less with bread.”
- Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

“I pray for the neck of a crane, that I might linger long over my pleasures.” – Melanthius, Ancient Greek Gourmand

“Chicken-fried steak is indefensible to anyone who didn’t grow up with it.”

“Hunger the need…appetite the desire.”

“Never eat more than you can lift” –Miss Piggy

“If I am ever stranded on a desert island with only 3 ingredients, I pray they are prosciutto, butter & baguette.” –Nancy Silverton

“If you’re afraid of butter, as many people are nowadays, just put in cream!” Julia Child

“I prefer to regard a dessert as I would imagine the perfect woman: subtle, a little bittersweet, not blowsy and extrovert. Delicately made up, not highly rouged. Holding back, not exposing everything and, of course, with a flavor that lasts.”
- Graham Kerr

And the drumroll please…for Julia Child!

“You have to eat to cook. You can’t be a good cook and be a noneater. I think eating is the secret to good cooking.”

“Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal,”

“In spite of food fads, fitness programs, and health concerns, we must never lose sight of a beautifully conceived meal.”

“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.”

“Always remember: If you’re alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. Who’s going to know?”

Okay, I had one of those moments again today!

You know the kind, when you realize you may have outdone yourself, and only WISH this was an original recipe of your own because it is so DIVINELY YUMMY!!!

The background is this, L and I went to Las Vegas last summer. We knew food was going to be delicious but expensive on the strip, but we really wanted to experience that level of dining. So we budgeted to do one really good meal a day. Upon arriving we found out that many "celebrity" restaurants have great lunch menus. We had especially looked forward to eating at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. I ordered the Grilled Swordfish Club, which was absolutely delicious, L ordered the New Mexican Spiced Pork Tenderloin Sandwich. She loved it so much that she has literally been bringing it up for the last year (though she denies this accusation). So last night while I was shopping I picked up pork sirloin steaks and arugula (L wanted an exact replica, hence the arugula), I was finally going to make the sandwich of L's dreams.

To replicate this I used:
2 pork sirloin steaks
Joanne's New New Mexican Spice Rub
Spicy Yogurt Sauce
Grilled Red Onions
Arugula
Rolls

Using this recipe from Bobby Flay I made the spice rub for the pork. I didn't have, nor did I want to have 3 types of chili powder, so I subbed a bit. The following is what I used.

Joanne's New New Mexican Spice Rub
2 Tbs Chile powder
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs paprika
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp allspice

Season the pork with salt and dredge it in the spice rub. Don't sprinkle this on, or rub it in, coat it like you are breading chicken. Sear the pork on a hot grill or in a pan. (Short plug for my Cuisinart Griddler, buy one yesterday, I love mine that much!) Then finish cooking in oven or on low heat. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing, patience is hard when that delicious-ness is staring at you but be strong! While you are waiting, go ahead and grill the red onions for a bit til they are just caramelizing.

Mesa Grill serves their sandwich with an ancho chile mayonnaise, all the recipes in this vein called for dried chilies, which I didn't want to purchase, and making your own mayonnaise, which I am not ready to try. So I read a few recipes and decided to wing it with my own creation derived from my Google searches.

Spicy Yogurt Sauce
3 oz Greek yogurt
1/2 Lime
A few squirts of Sriracha

Combine the yogurt, lime juice, and Sriracha to taste.

Gather everything together, because you are ready to assemble!

First, slice that well rested pork thinly, against the grain. And go ahead and try a bite, especially the end pieces, that play of sweet then spicy is absolutely perfect!

Next, toast your buns, both sides, of both sides, does that make sense? This another place I used my Griddler, compacted the bread enough, made a crispy outer and soft center.

Now assemble as follows: