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Mac And Cheese Beyond the Ho-Hum

November 11, 2022 / / Uncategorized

While we all love the ultra creamy, cheesy version of macaroni and cheese casseroles made with a custard base (preferred) or white sauce, the one that I offer here turns out an extra crispy crust made with saltine cracker crumbs.

Admittedly I’ve served this up to mixed reviews.  One was in a recipe article I wrote several years ago in the Boston Globe’s food pages.  I got a terse email from the editor saying it was rejected by their test kitchen who thought it was too dry.   Too much New England muster there.

Another time I served it to an old friend of mine who’s since passed (not from my cooking!).  And he loved it, saying it was the best mac and cheese.  He had a pedigree in the food world since his son is none other than TV cooking personality Andrew Zimmern whose love of cooked bugs brought him to fame. He visited his father Bob in Portland often, and his favorite spot of all in Maine–besides lobster joints– is Fore Street restaurant.

Bob was a voracious cook, rarely eating out but rather enjoying his own food more. He’d clip (as in the old days) recipes from magazines and newspapers and put them in  what he  called a tickler file, a holdover from his days as an advertising executive for Gray Advertising.  He was friends with James Beard also since Bob in his younger adult years lived in Greenwich Village,  and they were neighbors.  Though in all the years I knew Bob he never once mentioned going to Sunday brunch at James Beard’s house, a story his son Andrew brags about “going with his father.”    We were friends for years in New York and he followed us here when we moved to Maine.

Crisp and cheesy mac and cheese

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The Room Up Front: Quintessential Munjoy Hill Restaurant Has Not Changed One Bit

February 8, 2022 / / Restaurants, Uncategorized

It took a long time for the The Front Room to get back to normal  after Covid-era dining upheavals.  It’s not yet open 7 days per week but enough of the days (Wednesday to Saturday, dinner only) to make it a steady neighborhood hot spot for dining.  The food is well prepared, peppered with plenty of home-grown ingredients to deem it locally sourced.

The room, however, is not much different.  Tables are not as close together as before but still packed into the room.  I’m not aware that when the restaurant was “closed for renovation” that it included one of those new air filtration systems.  I’d have liked to see tables spaced  farther apart,  and until Portland requires vaccination (x3) cards for entry in all restaurants (and public spaces) as in New York City, I’ll still remain wary of dining-in at places that I’d love to return to.  But any regulations regarding masks, vax cards or otherwise are met by the inane political divide that shrouds our pandemic ideology.  Ultimately the mask rule here and elsewhere  is useless without more stringent controls like proof of vaccination in your back pocket. Today the City Council voted to repeal the mask mandate, another misstep by an out-of-step council.

The bar, the dining room and starter mixed green salad

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Sour Cherries are the Star of Cobbler Season

July 16, 2021 / / Uncategorized

I have finally found a recipe for cherry cobbler that works.  They’re somewhat easier to make than pie–less messy but thoroughly wonderful tasting with a rusticity that’s so pleasing.

Cobblers are quick to make, or “cobbled” together  in three basic ways. There’s the batter method where you melt the butter in a baking dish as the oven preheats; a milk and flour batter is poured in and then topped with the fruit of choice.  Some recipes call for boiling water, sugar and cornstarch mix poured over the fruit.

Cherry cobbler in pastry dough

cherry cobbler baked in pastry

The deep dish double-crust cobbler is basically a pie made in a 2+inch baking dish; sometimes you can do just as well with a single crust in the dish with only a top crust.  The double crust is beneficial because the bottom crust  absorbs some of the liquid. In fact in some cobbler recipes, strips of dough are simmered with the fruit filling, thus acting as a thickener for the filling. And finally there’s the biscuit topped cobbler, which seems to be the most popular.  I like them all.

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The Survivors: Three + Portland Restaurants That Still Excite, Simply Delicious Food

July 4, 2021 / / Uncategorized

The point is,  can you get into any restaurant in Portland  on the spur of the moment? No.   From persnickety websites to various ways of reserving a table, it’s not so easy.  Online is encouraged, but in person or phone discouraged.  Tuesday has become the new Monday, both of which have been the day that most restaurants are closed.  Then there’s the Wednesday dilemma–some closed, a few open–where dining out can only take place Thursday to Sunday.  Dining tables inside or out are precious few to reserve.  If your favorite restaurants are serving at full capacity, where every allowable table is ready to be booked, the restaurant’s staff may still be limited, thus affecting the easy sway that restaurants used to enjoy–yes, I’ll say it–“pre-pandemic.”

The perfect Negroni at EVO

One place that I often visit when I don’t feel like cooking is a neighborhood eatery (Munjoy Hill) that specializes in pizza.  The problem is you can’t call up to order a pie.  It must be done online.  Recently I walked in since I was in the neighborhood to place my order for pizza pie.  I was told it must be done online. (Why not in person?)  I answered that I have problems with the website, filtered by TOAST, the popular format for online ordering.  Sometimes you hit it just right and can breeze through the process.  But doing it on a cell phone is not effortless if downright impossible.   It just it doesn’t work that well.  I spent 5 minutes once looking for the menu on which to place my check mark to order.

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Dining Out Is Essential But Reservations Are Hard to Get and Cooking In Has Its Rewards

June 7, 2021 / / Uncategorized

The right choice might be to just continue to cook in frequently

The other night I joined friends to go out to eat.  When we arrived–Saturday night– the restaurant was shuttered.  We bumped into someone we knew who also had a reservation and wasn’t notified that the restaurant would be closed for a catered affair elsewhere. No sign on the door. No phone messages from restaurant.  I called the restaurant and learned from their voicemail recording that they would be closed due to an outside commitment  WTF  Besides all the restaurant troubles from the pandemic, it behooves restaurants, now open, to keep on their toes.

On a Saturday night choices were nearly nonexistent with a check of a restaurant reservation site. Portland area restaurant were fully booked.

Back in the day when restaurant patrons were shoulder shoulder (Lolita, now close, circa 2016

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Pandemic Shopping: The Rules Still Apply at Farmers’ Markets Even Though Outdoor Safer Settings Now Prevail

May 16, 2021 / / Uncategorized

This is the first time in years that I didn’t go to the Saturday farmer’s market in Deering Oaks. Not  much  is there in terms of local produce other than the long-awaited arrival of rhubarb and asparagus.  Though I’ve ferreted out early arrivals at some of the farm stores like Spring Brook and Jordan Farm. But under present conditions the market is not much fun.

Portland’s farmer’s markets are still under pandemic rule.  Farmers’ incomes are hurting because attendance isn’t what it used to be. In Portland the vendors are still spread out–not six feet apart but more like 20 feet–into two sections of the park, with vendors allowed to operate on only one side of the walkways, with  one-way shopper traffic still the rule.  And though the Portland Farmers Market lists over 40 vendors, I’ve not seen more than around 20 of them spread out through the park. Some like Green Spark Farm don’t even attend the market anymore, when at one time they were a mainstay at Wednesday and Saturday market days.

One way traffic at Portland’s Saturday farmers’ market Circa summer 2020

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Comfort Food: Char Siu Pork Tenderloin Mississippi Style

March 25, 2020 / / Mains, Recipes, Uncategorized

Continue ordering in from our local restaurants to help our Maine restaurants stay afloat,  but sometimes you might need a break if only to curb the cost of restaurant meals on a regular basis.  The takeout menus available are, I think, fairly priced and they’re still less than real dining out tabs.  I cook at home most of the time, and this dish courtesy of cookbook author Virginia Willis can be found in her book “Secrets of the Southern Table.”

I’ve made this often since there are few recipe ideas for pork tenderloin that appeal to me.  Don’t confuse this pork cut with a tenderloin roast.  This is the fillet section extracted from the loin and measures about 1 1/2 pounds.  Prices vary depending on where you buy it.  I get mine from Bisson’s who sells excellent Canadian pork products.  A full loin is about $6 and can easily feed two to three people.

When grilling season arrives soon enough, this cut is great on the grill, smoked over fruit wood and bathed in whatever kind of sauce you like. Or use char siu sauce.

Various dishes using pork tenderloin

A word about the sauce: It’s Cantonese and typical of urban Chinese markets. How it wound up in the Mississippi Delta is a curious story.  It’s from, according to Willis, an inspiration of a Chinese market in the Delta in the home of another cookbook author Martha Foose who says, “Though Cantonese, the flavors of the char sui have always reminded me of the flavors of the Mississippi Delta.” Read more…

Cookbook Review: Midwest Made and Make the Best-Ever Peanut Butter Cookies

February 27, 2020 / / Baking & Desserts, Recipes, Uncategorized

If there’s one cookbook on baking that should be in your library it’s “Midwest Made,” a collection of classic recipes attributed to the Midwestern food culture described as “Big, Bold Baking from the Heartland” by Shauna Sever.

I’ve made over 10 recipes in the book from pound cakes, pies, bar cookies and the one featured here, peanut butter cookies, which are the best I’ve ever had.

I reread the recipe several times because the cookie dough had no flour whatsoever.  Instead it called for a few tablespoons of cornstarch and only four tablespoons of melted butter.

After I was sure that there wasn’t, a mistake in the recipe I carried on.  It’s all peanut butter based, with 2 cups of creamy peanut butter; the author recommends Skippy (I used Jif) saying that more rarefied, natural peanut butters won’t work as well.

The stiff dough is made easily enough in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Its few ingredients include the cornstarch, vanilla extract, sugar, melted butter and 2 eggs (“refrigerator cold”).  Because you don’t have to wait for butter to soften or room temperature eggs, the dough is quickly assembled.

Once it’s all mixed you take out about ¼ cup of dough, roll into a ball and then roll in sugar.  Placed on baking sheets, the dough is then pressed down using an old-fashioned potato masher, which produces that little nobs that decorate the cookies.

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Wilson County BBQ: “For This I Shaved My Balls?” Proclaimed One Diner (See Text in Bold Face)

February 16, 2020 / / Uncategorized

At first, I thought that Wilson County Barbecue was going to set the new standard for BBQ in Portland.  After several visits I’m not convinced yet.   I wanted it to be like they reinvented fish chowder or the lobster roll or at the very least be an homage to southern barbecue transplanted in the Maine tundra.  But rather the big difference from our few other barbecue places is its authenticity:  the co-owner/manager, Spencer Brantley,  is a real southerner , bringing North Caroline barbecue techniques –even the pork ribs  and other cuts hail from the well-known, highly respected Joyce Farms in Winston-Salem North Carolina. That they’ve teamed up with Ri-Ra for financing and developer Ted West who owns the building in West Bayside is another story and one that I’m not going to address here.

On my first visit for lunch I was bowled over by the great fried chicken sandwich.  This is what we should be getting at Popeye’s or Chick Fil A.  Tender breast meat is brined in pickle juice, bathed in buttermilk and then dredged in a seasoned flour mix and deep fried in their state-of-the-art compression deep fryers.

The roll held up through most of the sandwich and the mayo dressing,  and housemade pickled added to the heft.  The slaw accompaniment was another winner: vinegar-based–as is most North Carolina BBQ cooking– with cabbage chopped into tiny bits still crisp.  I left thinking: Wow this is good.

A few weeks later I made it to dinner having been invited by friends to join.

A local food writer had—a southerner—said that the hush puppies were the real deal.  The night we were there (about 5:30-6:00) they were sold out.  As the ordering progressed, a lot of items on the menu were unavailable including mashed potatoes with gravy and their high, dense buttermilk biscuits.

Communal tables; restaurant during lunch, much quieter

Southern food writer and cookbook author Ronni Lundi talks about the best hushpuppies are made with cornmeal, buttermilk, chives and sweet onion.  I can’t say what Wilson County’s are like.  One of these days I’ll go sit at the bar   to order up a batch.

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Strawberry Tart: Fresh Berries At Their Best

July 17, 2019 / / Baking & Desserts, Recipes, Uncategorized

A recipe in the New York Times Magazine last week (see link) featured a fresh strawberry pie recipe from famed cookbook author Dorie Greenspan.  It was a reminiscence of the best strawberry pie she had in Paris years ago.  She recreated it in her recipe.

It certainly sounded great.  But the more I studied the recipe before trying it myself, I had several issues with her method.  (Am I being presumptuous to question such a baking expert?).  What bothered me was the method employed in the dough recipe.  It called for processing it in the usual way in a food processor, giving it many pulses to nearly pulverize the flour, sugar and butter into a grainy mass.  The only liquid was one egg yolk beaten with a half-teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Impossible, I thought.  It will never come together.  I followed the recipe up until squeezing the dough gruel until it came together.  This would never happen. And if it did, I think I’d wind up with a dough terribly difficult to roll out, much less retain its shape after baking in the tart mold.  I thought it would fall apart when slicing it.

This pie won’t last long. You can’t stop slicing it!

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