Listics

Bubba Bear and Chez JJ were talking over on the Grits bulletin board. They’ve revealed some culinary secrets that deserve wider distribution. Chez JJ said, “Boil a few pounds of peeled & cleaned shrimp with some white vinegar in the water (make sure the water is at a rolling boil before you put the shrimp in & once it returns to a boil, take it off the fire & drain it immediately). Cook a big pot of real grits with sea salt & a substantial blob of real butter. Put some grits in a bowl and heap some shrimp on top. The finest cuisine on the planet now resides in your bowl!”

To which Bubba Bear replied, “You forgot the freshly ground “white” pepper and the Melissa’s habañero sauce. As to the “water,” the white vinegar is a nice touch, but half the amount of balsamic and a “boil” made of two or three bushy twigs of fresh rosemary, the leaves heavily bruised, a fair sixed twig of fresh thyme, a golf-ball-sized wad of fresh marjoram, a quarter of a bunch of Italian parsley, and one semi-large head of garlic, peeled and crushed will send you into a state of pure bliss. If you have the time and patience, use 40-50 count shrimp, clean very well and fillet open as if butterflying them. Bring water to a boil, drop in shrimp and remove from heat. Allow shrimp to “steam” in the water until they turn pink and pop to the surface; remove immediately and dash into icy cold water to stop cooking process. The heat of the grits will heat them back up. Discard boil after one use. DO NOT use over, even immediately, as the vitality of the seasoning has already been spent and the results will never measure up a second time.”

Thanks to Niek without whom I may never have found the Grits page, being a mac and cheese with ketchup on top kind of guy.

Kansas City, “…the women are as saucey as the bbq. I try to avoid both, as they can be trouble down the line.”
– Ben Paynter

From: beau@starcaster.sps.mot.com (Bob Guilbeau)
Aug. 16, 1993

PASTA E FAGIOLI SOUP====================
(8 servings)

Ingredients:
————
1/2 lb dried cannellini or navy beans
1/2 lb dried kidney beans
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 lb salt pork, diced fine
1 large onion, chopped fine
5 garlic cloves, peeled and mashed
4 celery stalks, including leaves, sliced thin
3 tsp salt
2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 16 oz. can Italian tomatoes, drained, tomatoes chopped coarsely
1/4 cup snipped fresh parsley, preferably Italian
1/2 cup julliened carrot
1/2 lb ground sirlioin
1 egg
4 tblsp seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 lb ditalini (tiny, tube shaped pasta)
Freshly grated Romano, Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

Instructions:
————-
Rinse and pick over the dried beans. Soak overnight in cold water. Drain, then place in stockpot with 10 cups cold water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer while preparing vegetables. Heat the olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the salt pork and cook, stirring frequently, until the fat melts and the meat begins to brown, about 15 minutes. Do not allow to burn.

Add the onion and garlic and saute gently until the onion is golden. Add this mixture to the beans, along with the celery, salt, red and black pepper, oregano and basil. Cover and simmer until beans are tender, about 2 1/2 hours, checking frequently to make sure the liquid has no evaporated too much. There has to be enough liquid to cook the meatballs and pasta in the final cooking stage. Add more water if necessary.

About 30 minutes before the soup is finished simmering, add the tomatoes and their juices and the parsley. Combine the ground meat with the egg and bread crumbs and roll into miniature balls. Add to the simmering soup. Add the carrot.

About 20 minutes later, add the ditalini and cook until tender. Serve with the grated cheese.

Back on the diet, enjoying restaurtant reviews. here’s a little about Hearth from the NYT:

Banished are the garnish, the layered sauce, the architectural tuna. This disciplined, almost stoical, cooking can be joyless at times but is mostly pleasing in its simplicity. Mr. Canora carries the torch here. A dish of hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, direct from Craft, could not be better. The mushrooms are roasted and served on a solitary white plate. Have your fork ready when they arrive; even good friends will betray you.

The Anson Mills polenta and its elemental presentation may also be familiar. The polenta fills a tiny copper pan. It is soft, like pudding, and on top is a shallow pool of olive oil flecked with thyme leaves.

…red cabbage, brussels sprouts and apple are shaved into threads and then dressed aggressively with vinegar and thyme. Marinated sardines glisten like silver blades beneath a rough of frisée, parsley leaves and a miniature dice of sofrito.

I need an entrepreneurial category. I was looking closely at Veneta tonight and I figured out what she needs. Kitty-whisker mascara! Her whiskers are long and lovely as can be, but they are white, bleached out, practically invisible. A conscientious pet owner would apply kitty whisker mascara to Veneta’s whiskers morning and night as a beauty treatment and to enhance her self esteem! God knows too many cats suffer low self esteem these days, and it could all be avoided by the application of Farmer frank’s Kitty Whisker Mascara. Send me money and I’ll send you a jar when I’ve manufactured some.

Stolen from Meer.

The mile high club is one thing. United Airlines is another. I suppose if you look at it a certain way, they’re both just variations on how to get fucked. Based on my experience coming and going this last week, I will in the future avoid United Airlines connections to Madison through Chicago at all costs. It wasn’t just the holidays. And it wasn’t just the simpleton Bush-whacked homeland security bullshit. Although that paranoid nonsense has given the airlines something to hide behind and allow their customer service to degrade.

United was not on time. They were not forthcoming about the reasons for not being on time. Their baggage handling was miserable. They’ve introduced paid meals on their flights. And their equipment on the feeder routes sucks big-time… small seats, inadequate room for carry-ons…

That company needs some help. But first they owe me some money I think I’ll try to collect. Parking fees, kennel costs, an unplanned night at the Chicago Hilton. Those are the quantifiable items. The pain and suffering (heavy sigh, back of hand pressed against forehead, woe is me…), the anxiety, and the precious hours of holiday time were robbed from me by their shoddy operation and I can’t get those back.

Of course I also blame George Bush. At least the fascists in the thirties made the public transportation run on time. What’s the porgie dude done for us lately?

Thanks to everyone who paused to wish me “Happy Birthday.” It truly was a happy day, starting with a visit to the Farmers Market at the Ferry Building with Beth and Leslie, pause for a pork bun at Yank Sing in Rincon Annex, some pictures of the old WPA murals there that I’ll post as soon as I’ve photoshopped Rageboy’s head into the one that depicts a raft of great writers…. Thanks for the Harry and David’s Moose Munch, Leslie!

We wound up our visit with a trip to Sausalito. Less English being spoken there than any of a half dozen other languages… French, Farsi, German, Arabic, Spanish, Japanese, a couple of Chinese dialects… amazing diversity on the street. After cracked crab for lunch at the Seven Seas, we went out to Fort Baker, walked a bit, took a few pictures, then went back and met Matt downtown. After a few beverages at the no name bar, we went down Bridgeway to Scoma’s. Matt and I each had the seared ahi tuna (change of pace from my consistently loyal support of the beef industry) with wasabi, shaved ginger, and sesame seeds. The wasabi was real, not the green horseradish paste that we have all learned to tolerate absent the increasingly rare spring water grown relative of watercress. The waitress stuck a lighted candle in my “French Vanilla Cheesecake with raspberry sauce” dessert. We said goodbye to Matt with joy rather than the usual tears. There’s a lot to write about those partings we’ve experienced over the years, but now that he really is grown-up, the quality seems to have changed. Ben had already lit out of town for a week in Jamaica: tough duty. Matt will be headed for Honduras soon. We get up at zero dark thirty to catch a 7am flight Sunday morning.

See you lagter, when I’m back in the US Central time zone!