Mains

I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying two cookbooks recently purchased that have delivered very well indeed.  The first, “Double Awesome Chinese Food” by Andrew, Irene and Margaret Li, are the three family chefs who own and cook at Boston’s Mei Mei restaurant.  The food is what food impresario Andrew Zimmern deems the  “true new American-Chinese.”

And that’s it in a nutshell.  Call it fusion American -Chinese cooking if you must.  But it’s the sauces and techniques that make it distinctive.  The recipes are easy, though as in all types of Asian cooking, prep work is a bit daunting, all the chopping and dicing should be done carefully before assembling the ingredients to cook.

You don’t need special equipment, not even a wok (though in some of the recipes it’s helpful to use one).  Sharpen your knives, however, for the prep work is not necessarily the work of a food processor.

Go to any of our Asian stores to stock up on the ingredients.  I’ve purchased everything from the Hong Kong Market, which is one of my favorite markets of all of them in Portland.

You’ll need a pantry of toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, fish sauce, black vinegar, fermented black beans. Chili oil, hoisin sauce, sesame paste or tahini, Shaoxing wine and various Chinese seasons such as Sichuan peppercorns.

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Sook’s Cookbook is one of the most unusual cookbooks around.  I found it on Amazon.  It’s written by Marie Rudisil, who is author Truman Capote’s aunt.  Sook was the matriarch of the Faulk Family whose collection of recipes were legendary among her Alabama peers.  Capote’s favorite recipe from her was for lemon meringue pie.  I’m making that tonight.

It’s an endlessly charming collection, describing various family member recipes through the ages, especially from the black maids and cooks from the slavery era to more contemporary times.  These women created black Southern cuisine as we know it today.

I recently prepared the Roast Chicken, based on Scriptural Precepts described in the book.  It’s basically a roast chicken put on a bed of vegetables and bathed in nearly 2 sticks of butter.  I brined the chicken first, which gave the bird wonderful flavor and moistness as brines do.  I used Erin French’s basic brine (found in her cookbook, “Lost Kitchen.”) It’s flavored with juniper berries, which have become hard to find.  In the past I’ve had no problem, but a recent search in Whole Foods and  Hannaford yielded nothing.  But keep a jar in stock—however you find it—because they add wonderful flavor to brines and other preparations.

I don’t generally buy farm birds because they’re so expensive and often not worth the premium price just because of their exalted heritage.  The breast meat is not plentiful on these birds and they get so much exercise free-roaming around yard that they work off the fat that less rigorously raised birds contain.

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At last count I have around 300 cookbooks but use a small percentage of them on a regular basis, often forgetting to cook from those that served me so well in the past such as my collection of Bobby Flay or Jamie Oliver cookbooks. New cookbooks that I’ve acquired gain my attention and preference instead.  But when I tire of these I return to the collection and find dishes that I never made before or overlooked. Recent re-discoveries have included “The Three Star Recipes of Alain Senderens” (veal cutlets with lime and ginger cream); “The Best from Helen Corbett’s Kitchen” (stuffed pork chops) or, among others, “Bakewise” by Shirley Corriher (touch of grace buttermilk biscuits).

A re-discovered recipe for lemon pound cake found in the Grand Central Cookbook by Portland, Oregon cookbook writer and bakery owner Piper Davis and Ellen Jackson

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If there’s one dish that you should make this winter it’s the classic chicken and dumplings, the epitome of comfort food. It’s a stew-like soup, with a thick stock base filled with big chunks of cooked chicken, carrots, peas and the beautiful pillowy dumplings. It makes for a lovely family style supper.  Some biscuits or corn bread wouldn’t hurt and you can go all the way and have a big slice of cake for dessert. I happened to have a rum-flavored pound cake on my cake stand.  Everyone was fully sated.

Chicken and Dumplings

There are two ways to make the dish.  The traditional way is to boil a chicken in the usual way, with plenty of aromatics to produce a flavorful poaching liquid, with the boiled chicken meat nice and tender falling off the bone.

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Certain dishes remain locked up as seasonal holiday preparations when they could easily be unleashed to enjoy any time of the year.  Some examples include goose or prime rib for Christmas, lamb or ham for Easter and corned beef, the centerpiece of a New England boiled dinner, traditionally served on St. Patrick’s Day. But these are wonderful whenever you want to have them.

That’s what I thought when on a recent weekend I was at Bisson’s, the Topsham butcher, and spied their corned beef, which is in the meat case year-round.  It’s a great cut of beef, prepared traditionally–with the dividend of leftovers in sandwiches or corned beef hash.

Bisson’s corned beef wrapped and ready brined with salt, sugar, and pickling spices

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No dish typifies New England cooking better than baked haddock fillets topped with a white sauce and buttered crumbs.  The flavors are so inimitable and pure.  I like haddock best for this dish but cusk or pollock, though not as flaky, are fine alternatives.  What’s more, these fish, from local waters,  are so economical, running anywhere from $3.99 to 6.99 per pound. In New York at specialty fishmonger, Citarella, they’re priced at $15.99 per pound, termed  “wild caught” in New England waters (most likely Maine).

Season the haddock fillets on both sides before topping with sauce to bake

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On the bone –or not–is a choice to make when you buy any of the big cuts of beef, lamb or pork. Generally, I prefer roasts that are on the bone.  They have more flavor and produce richer juices than their de-boned counterparts. The recipe I offer here is for a beef chuck roast on the bone.

Certainly, there are those who, for example, prefer a standing rib roast on the bone (without it how can it stand?).  Conversely, the boneless cut is easier to carve, cooks in less time and is just neater.  If the flavor difference is not crucial, boneless is a doable alternative.

Chuck roast on the bone

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If there is one essential pair of late-spring early-summer vegetables to pair now it’s new potatoes and summer shelling peas.  I haven’t seen this duo in Portland’s farmers’ markets yet, but I encountered them at Beth’s Farm Market in Warren, the midcoast farm-store behemoth that always seems to be the first with the gems of summer produce.

Beth’s market in Warren–early strawberries, shell peas and new potatoes are plentiful now

At a recent trip there, the peas were just out, still somewhat small but bulging pods with sweet green peas.  Nearby were the basket of new red potatoes and those precious baby carrots that are just being pulled from the ground.

Baby carrots, peas and new potatoes

At the Portland Farmers’ Market today, English peas from Goranson Farm

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As a child at the family table, rice was anathema to my foodpreferences.  Yet my mother served it often as the side dish to a main course.  That box of Uncle Ben’s held a prominent place in the cupboard.  But the best I could do was grit my teeth and roll it around my fork soaking up its starchy blandness.  In fact, the only way I would eat it was with a good pour of maple syrup over it, presaging my sweet-tooth proclivities.

Rice grits (photos courtesy of Anson Mills)

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At the  fabled Bisson’s butcher shop on Meadow Road in Topsham, where the beef or dairy you  buy there comes from the cows grazing across the road, the least likely treat from their freezer case is Bisson’s  salmon pie. It’s an old family recipe that’s highly regarded by regulars and staff.   As with the other pies that the shop makes–beef and chicken–salmon seems an unlikely choice where meat otherwise reigns.

Bisson’s salmon pie

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