Maggie's Farm

He's back from 9 days in a mountain villa overlooking the Adriatic in Abruzzo. He'd only been to Italy once, as a kid. Naturally, I had questions:

Any mishaps? Just left my backpack with money and passports in a cab. Luckily, he soon noticed and caught up with us as we entered the Rome airport. 

How was the house? Gorgeous, but hard beds. Nice pool with mountain views.

Like the women? Dangerously sexy and well-dressed.

Natives in Abruzzo speak any English? Not really.

See any relatives? My 85 year-old aunt had her driver take us around to see my Mom's relatives.

Go to the beach? Twice. 

Eat any pizza or pasta? My daughter did.

Have some vongole? Yep, raw and in sauce.

Grilled octopus? Of course. That's a dumb question.

Any risotto? They don't make risotto in southern Italy.

Calamari? Yep, raw on toast and in sauces.

Fresh white anchovies? Of course.

Mussels?  We had a mussel pie.

Swordfish or tuna? No. 

Cinghiale? Looked, didn't see it on a menu. 

Breakfasts? Just espresso. 

Wine? Too much, usually. 

See any gyms in the towns? Nope. 

Would you return? I'd just stay there. 

I told you that in Sicily last Spring we had Parsley Pesto (with grilled swordfish) and Pistachio Pesto (with grilled pork), but we never saw a Basil Pesto. They do love their Pistachios in Sicily - they use them with everything. We brought a small, overpriced jar of pistachio pesto home, but it's fairly easy to make.

"Pesto" means something that is pestado - pounded or ground up, as in English "pestle and "paste" or French "pate". Walnut-Parsley is a popular combination. Also, fresh mint pesto. The Cuisinart is what made Pesto easy. 

More: Move out of the way, basil. Cheese + nuts + olive oil + garlic + whatever the hell you want = awesome pesto.

Pesto is for seafood, vegetables, noodles.  

These treats used to be called Frankfurters. Sausages in Frankfurt, of course.

I've eaten plenty of sausages in Germany but there is nothing like an American baseball game hot dog. Or anywhere else during the summer. Not a dirty-water hot dog on an NYC street - a grilled one. As with any sausage, never think about the ingredients.

A bit about the history of hot dogs. 

Love them? How do you like 'em? I like some mustard.

Maine- Versus Connecticut-Style

Much as I love a Wellfleet Oyster, I'll draw a line at Oyster Ice Cream. Or any seafood-flavored ice cream.

A History of Ice Cream

Yes, I know the ancient Egyptians made sorbets. Ice from Lebanese mountains.

That Pompeii fresco could never have been pizza as we think of it. Sure, humans have put stuff on breads since bread was first made because bread alone is boring. It probably was like focaccia with stuff on it. No tomato or mozzarella though. Maybe fruit, oil, herbs.

Pastry stuff less boring, as in our galette post yesterday. Looks like a pizza.

While the typical Italian-American "tomato pie" is what Americans tend to think of, pretty much anything can be cooked on a pizza crust. In Southern Italy and Sicily, the menu will have 40-50 choices, most without tomato. Consider figs with goat cheese.

Or, in my photo from Sicily, egg and olive with pureed red pepper. 

It's like a fruit pizza, with pastry dough.

As reader commented, "easier than pie." 

Recipes here. 

You always wondered what those baby corncobs were, mostly in Asian foods in the US. You never bothered finding out.

Baby corn is real baby corn. Mainly imported from Thailand. Corn (maize) of course spread around the world from Central America after Columbus. Like so many things we consume, baby corn is crunchy and fun to eat but has no nutritional value. Who cares?

I like them. 

If you even need breakfast other than a medium Dunkin (if Irish, a Guiness mixed with a raw egg), lots of people go for various cereals. 

Sure, tasty, but pure carbs. Might as well have a donut or two. 

Mrs. BD tells me that the ladies like a teacup of Cold Oatmeal for breakfast.   No cooking.

Readers know that Maggie's has a preference for rare Ribeyes (especially those thick Costco ones which can dine 4 people), cooked on an iron pan over a hot gas flame. Olive oil and butter, salt and pepper. Hard crust on the surface, but almost alive inside.

Burgers and hot dogs on the outdoor grill? Excellent. Also, marinated butterflied legga lamb.  But a good steak? Nope.

I know others have different opinions. 

They go by several other names too (Miniature Watermelons, Mouse Melon), but I never had them until last week in Georgia. They cut them in half and put them in salads at our inn along with the cherry tomatoes, etc. Crunchy, refreshing little cucumber-like things about an inch long. Grow prolifically on vines. Be the first in your neighborhood. I ordered some seeds right away.

Another good thing they grew in their gardens was a tangy peppery green which is new to me, Curly Mustard, or Mustard Mizuna. Use it when the leaves are young.

And lots of Mache, of course. Down there, you must do many sequential plantings of greens, but in summer they must be shaded.

I like it for noodles, or as a salad dressing. I like a little hot pepper sauce in it too, sometimes.

Thanks to the Spanish for spreading the peanut around the world.  

How to make Asian Peanut Sauce 

Another menu I just found from our October hiking trip in Provence. No choices - it was what the Chef wanted to do that night. Olive Oil Ice? Yeah. Quite amazing. But for me, it's all about the cheeses.

Mrs. BD and her dad ventured out today to the real Italian market a few towns away. Everybody there speaks Italian or Sicilian, including most of the customers. Place smells amazing from all of the cheese and salumi and pickled vegetables. And, next door, is an Italian pastry shop. All of it, the best food on this planet. 

We tend towards the Italian on religious holidays. Mrs. BD is 50%; her dad is as Irish as can be. However, trust me, Italian blood beats celtic or anglo-saxon every time. 

She needed candied citron for Easter Pie (Wheat Pie). Naturally, they brought home a bunch of arancini for lunch. They were the size of baseballs. I've never seen them that big in Sicily. Also, baccala for tonight. Hard as wood at first.

For today, baccala to keep with her family tradition. For Easter dinner, a Nice Legga Lamb. That's the Irish part. Just 4 of us, sad to say this year. Distancing, for what it's worth. I miss the whole BD family but I miss church a lot too. It doesn't feel right. I love our congregation.

My buddy and I had Aile de Raie for dinner last night. I think poached, with a nice sauce. (Our wives had pork osso buco.)

Have you ever caught a Skate? I've caught a couple over the years on Cape Cod while fishing for Stripers. Released them. Felt like you hooked a log. Should have cooked them. 

I've had Joue de Raie once, years ago in France. Like a scallop. The "wings" are the more usual menu thing. A nice sweet white meat, and a first time for me.

Everybody who visits Atlantic beaches has seen their blackened egg cases ("mermaid purses") washed up. Skates lay those egg sacks, while Sting Rays bear live young. People eat Sting Rays, but do not step on one.

Cooking skates 

Types of Rays 

There are too many routine uses of cheese in the US to list them all - just think cheeseburgers, nachos, cheese and cracker appetizers,  McMuffins with cheese, grilled cheese, ham and Swiss sandwiches, salads with gorgonzola. There are many more.

The big supermarket sellers in the USA seem to be "American cheese" (which is a food-like substance), sliced Swiss (made in Wisconsin), Dutch Gouda, and Cheddar-type cheeses (often made in Vermont - but the best of that type imo is Irish Kerrygold Dubliner). Gorgonzola too if there are a lot of Italians around, and goat cheese has become basic these days. Cottage Cheese and Cream Cheese are not really cheeses. Yeah, and Brie is a popular party cheese.

Amazing cheeses (often French) are due respect. The frogs can be as fussy about cheese as about wine, and for good reasons: they go from sheep to cow, from gooey to hard, from intensely stinky to nutty, plenty of complex blues, etc.

Our experience in France is that a charcuterie board (supposedly an aperitif) is a meal in itself - sliced hard cheeses, cured meats, nuts, olives, bread, etc. 

We also had excellent and interesting cheeses at breakfast buffets. 

However, the special cheeses are reserved for the Cheese course, before dessert. If you don't know the names, you just point to 3 or 4 that you want, and the slices are put on your plate. Some jam, sliced apple or pear. No bread to dilute the intensity.

Links:

 Cheese or Dessert First? Short answer: the cheese. 

 How To Serve A Cheese Course For Dinner

Our menu from October, at the very nice place in Provence. This was just a one hour hike to Gordes (which is not a very interesting destination but it has a few shops and restaurants).

My main point is about the cheese board. They bring it around on a dolly with an expert cheese server, and you point to which ones you want to try. I need to do a post about the cheese course in nice dining because it is my favorite.

Mrs. BD had a tough week with four days and nights of meetings in NYC, then moving my in-laws to a new elderly place an hour away from here in the last 2 days (boxes and boxes of stuff, then computers, lamps, comfy chairs, pictures, and more boxes, big TVs, moving guys, hospital bed, etc).

So I asked her what might please her tonight. She said "Funny you ask, cuz Beef Bourguignon was on my mind". I like making stews, so ok. I make these things on the fly, no measurements. Always works. French chef taught me to cook soup and stew by instinct and taste. It should be ready by the time she gets home from the old folk's home tonight. Yes, I did send my father-in-law some more nice vino to keep the old guy happy. The wines they serve at the old folks home are disgusting, and old guys need the wine for good cheer.

- Around 1 or or 2 lbs. of chuck, cut into 1-2 inch chunks. Flour them, then brown quickly in butter and/or bacon. Toss them into a pot or crock pot with a container of beef broth and begin the long simmer.

-  Grab a handful of thyme twigs from the garden and throw them in. I would have tied them as a garni but could not find the string. Then plenty of salt and pepper in the pot. Semi-chopped parsley too.

- Cut up a bag of carrots into roughly 1-2" lengths and throw them in.

- Sautee one or two chopped big onions with a bunch of garlic cloves, and throw them in.

-  Throw in a bottle, of half-bottle, of decent red wine. The really cheap stuff does not work. My friend uses some port too, but why waste it?

- Throw in some good squirts of ketchup if you are out of tomato paste.

- Throw in a glob of grape jelly and a splash of wine vinegar.

- Quarter a big or small box of brown mushrooms, and toss in. I always always throw in a handful of dried porcinis too (affordable on Amazon). Wow - porcinis are a flavor for the kitchen gods.

- Keep all covered with more wine, stock, or water. Crock pot never needs that.

- Towards the end of simmering or crock pot (a few hours - too long is better than too little), I throw in a bag of frozen pearl onions. I love them.

- Really close to the end, I throw in a bag of frozen peas. For color I guess.

- Serve on/with rice or egg noodles. I like egg noodles but noticed that we are out of 'em. If the juice is too thin, thicken it a bit.

Roman food, including a Flamingo Stew

One of my kids went to the B&H last night. Unlike many sort-of Jewish delis in NYC (which are termed "Kosher style", serving dairy and meat - especially pastrami)), B and H is a kosher dairy joint. A famous East Village hole-in-the-wall place. 

Decades ago, when I was dating the future Mrs. BD, we frequented that place. We aren't Jewish. The food was cheap and good. The challah is tasty. 

Digging back in my memory, I suggested that my kid try the Matzoh Ball Soup. She liked it. 

My siblings and I were fed boxed cereal about every two mornings, scrambled eggs every two or three mornings, and same with oatmeal. Pancakes or waffles on Sunday before church.

I fed my little kids pickled herring with sour cream and onions most weekday mornings, cut in small chunks. It comes in jars. Or hard-boiled eggs. I figured protein was good for kids' breakfasts, and I liked it too.

I later learned that pickled herring was considered "Jewish food" in New York. Schmaltz. I thought it was Scandinavian, but it's all sorts of things. Ukrainians love it. Who doesn't like pickled herring? It has a pow effect.

I am told that Jewish people like plain pickled herring on a bagel, with a schmear. Sounds good to me, but I would add a slice of onion. But I don't bother with breakfast anyway, other than coffee. Breakfast is for growing kids.

Do you ever wonder what breakfasts NBA players were raised on? Wheaties? Or steak? I should have had some of whatever they had.

I mean game meat in your freezer. A Cassoulet is nice, if not exciting. But how about an English Game Pie?

Brits have always been big on meat pies, and the Game Pie is one made in the same pastry as a Pork Pie. Why not? 

Photo is a fancy Pork Pie hat. 

I had thought that this speakeasy-type joint was still closed "for renovation", but nope. It is open again as The Campbell. As before, there is almost no signage, and a girl checks your attire before letting you in. You just have to know where it is. Cozy place. We have used it as a destination for a couple of our Maggie's Urban Hikes.

Located in Grand Central Terminal (aka Grand Central Station), this office of John Cambell in the 1920s had been abandoned for decades and used for storage. Here's what it looked like in Campbell's time: