Text 26023, 97 rader
Skriven 2015-04-15 11:07:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av RUTH HAFFLY
Ärende: sad evolutions 515
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 RH> Possibly there. The one bbq place in town offered free samples one
 RH> night before they actually opened. They hadn't gotten their final
 RH> kitchen inspection so couldn't charge for food but it made for good PR.
 RH> We've gone back quite often, and the food has stayed top quality. The

That's a nice story on both counts.

 RH> other bbq place in town that opened a few months before, started off
 RH> with really good food, both meat and sides. Next time we went, the meat
 RH> was still good but sides had taken a big nose dive in quality. Third,

And to balance it a not nice story. Maybe once the other place
opened, this one's proprietors just decided to give up? Or
didn't realize that cutting corners is a precipitously slippery
slope.

 RH> and last time we went, the meat wasn't as good as before, sides were
 RH> still of the lesser quality. We never went back and they closed some
 RH> months later.

Sad story, but survival of the fittest and all that, what?

 RH> You win some, you lose some. I don't try a lot of "fancy" things, but
 RH> do a good job on basics. I got most all of my cooking mistakes out of
 RH> my system before getting married--but not all, as we found out. (G)

There's always the time and opportunity for making new and
better mistakes, as I keep being reminded.
 
 ML> There is a dish called veal valdaostana (or valdostana)
 ML> that is a kind of ordinary melding between parmigiana and
 ML> cordon bleu, but there was a guy named Stanley Nicas who
 RH> Interesting sort of combination.

I dunno, they're kind of similar to begin with, so why not
mash them up?

 ML> at one time was the coach of the US culinary Olympic team
 ML> who made it in a different and altogether better way.
 ML> People tried to pry the secret out of him, and he sort of
 ML> gave it away, only I think he lied by leaving out a crucial
 ML> secret ingredient. Forty years later I still think of that
 RH> He didn't want his version to become common and messed up, the way so
 RH> many do when the chef lets out the recipe.

Hard to say what his motivation was, if there was any: maybe
he simply assumed something (as many good cooks do) was
self-explanatory or not worth mentioning.
 
 ML> dish and how he made it. Sad to say, the dish wasn't on
 ML> the menu when I last visited his restaurant (not recently -
 ML> with Sacerdote shortly before he left the echo for good),
 ML> as he was sort of retired and had not vouchsafed the recipe
 ML> to his children; and it will, unless it is in notes left
 ML> behind when he died a year ago. I suspect that his secret
 ML> addition might have had a dab of hoisin and/or caramelized
 ML> onion.
 RH> I presume it still hasn't been found among the papers from his estate.

I wouldn't know, having known him for all these years as
an acquaintance and a customer but not having much truck
with his kids (the ones who ran the restaurant pretty hard
into the ground).

Leek And Asparagus Filling With Mint And Lemon
categories: holiday, pie filling
Yield: filling for an 8- or 9-inch mina

2 Tb olive oil
4 to 5 sm leeks, or 2 to 3 lg
- thinly sliced and washed free of all dirt
1/2 ts salt
1 bn asparagus, washed, tough stems snapped off
- sliced into 1" lengths
1 sm bn fresh mint, finely chopped (a scant 1/4 c)
1 lemon, zest of, finely grated
milled black pepper to taste
1 c cottage cheese (for dairy-free, substitute
1 c very moist - borderline soupy - mashed potatoes)
2 lg eggs, lightly beaten

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over a medium
flame. Add the leeks, sprinkle with the salt, and
saute until they totally soften but do not color,
about 10 min. Add the asparagus, cook 1 min or until
they just begin to turn bright green, then turn off
the heat (they'll cook further in the oven). Add the
mint and lemon zest, and correct seasoning. Let cool
2 min, then add the cottage cheese and eggs, stirring
to combine, and proceed with the Basic Mina Template
recipe.

Deena Prichep, npr.org

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