Fast, Fresh… and Delivered!

Every once in a while, rather than offer up a recipe, I enjoy serving up insights into what’s trending in today’s kitchens. Several young moms have turned me onto new food delivery services, like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh, catching on fast with lots of age groups. These are online companies that let you order a week’s worth of individual meals from a restaurant style menu that include absolutely everything but the cook. You plan the meals on Friday and a huge box arrives at your door on Tuesday, with step-by-step instructions and pre-measured ingredients, right down to the 2 tablespoons of olive oil for sauteeing. If you need a single parsnip, 6 sprigs of rosemary or a ½ cup of lemon juice, it’s all right there. You chop that parsnip, snip the herb, and juice that lemon yourself. The idea is that any hassle, waste or mess has been eliminated. It costs around 10 bucks a plate and the meals last 3 to 5 days in your refrigerator.

Another food trend we’ve begun to lean on is practiced at Dream Dinners. This is a successful franchise that lets you come in, cook with a crew in a fully stocked assembly line of would-be home chefs—and prepare a week to month’s supply of yummy dinners that are immediately packed into coolers, brought home with you, and stored in the freezer for no fuss, no muss dinners later on.

It feels like cooking, looks like cooking and tastes like cooking!

I asked my foodie friends what they thought of all this. One or two admitted to using such a service, while others dismissed it as “a good idea for budding chefs, but a bit pricey.”

There is a reason that these services are popping up. While Americans watch a whole lot of Food Network TV, we begrudgingly spend just 27 minutes a day actually cooking! That’s less than half the time we spent in the early 60s. Sure Julia Child was popular then, but not a decade later, there came the advent of drive-through restaurants, and before we knew it nobody wanted to spend their time deboning a duck or baking their own bread. Let’s face it, when Gen X Moms were toddlers, their moms were burning their bras and buying designer briefcases; they had freed themselves from traditional women’s roles and created the slippery slope to where we are today: microwaving a pizza and calling it cooking—or simply eating out too much.

But now, with the help of these meal delivery services, the tide may be turning. Right now, there are LOTS of consumers, weary of being overcharged for so-so restaurant experiences and finger wags from the American Heart Association. There is, after all, a whole lotta sugar, salt and fat going into our collective tummy, compliments of restaurants like…well, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! How attractive that makes “eating in” for a change sound! At home you have complete control over what you’re putting into your body. It also tastes better, costs far less, and you get that cozy, family ambience without having to grease the palms of a lackadaisical wait staff.

I wouldn’t call cooking a lost art; I’d call it a longed for art—with people trying to get back to what we were, before we were too busy to cook like we care.

So why don’t people rediscover the joy of cooking at home? Is it because current surveys reveal that only 1/3 of Americans claim they know how to cook? As much as 51% say they lack the time to shop for ingredients, or the skill to manipulate said ingredients into the perfect meal.

Perhaps a fresh food delivery service is the perfect way for the novice to learn the cooking process. At the very least, it is the answer to serving up home-cooked dinners in minutes. Now that’s a trend I want to follow!

 

It’s a Foolproof Food Day!

One Reader Shares His Memory of World’s Best Gumbo and How to Recreate It

Foolproof Food Days are a lot of fun on my site. They expose my readers to new ways of thinking about and preparing the classics, so when a self-described “Southerner” and fan of mine (he shall be known here as Jon A.) offered to share his gumbo recipe, I looked forward to retelling the charming story behind it. This version of gumbo is based on Jon’s trip to New Orleans, roughly 1 year after Hurricane Katrina. There had been a wedding and the groomsman’s family—who lived in the Metairie district within ear shot of the trolley—was still having a great deal of problems inside the house. Parts of the city were still without electricity, and the kitchen had flooded so badly, that the wedding party chose to eat outside. The gumbo was prepared on a grill, right next to the family’s pool. Today’s Foolproof Gumbo recipe is written for the kitchen stovetop; however, it’s a carbon copy, ingredients wise, of everything that this wedding party enjoyed on a crisp cool night in 2006.

With Lent on the Way, This Dish is Perhaps the Most Perfect Use of Leftovers

For many home cooks, gumbo is a way to get rid of leftovers, and this recipe works well using that same notion; this version has the same trinity of meats that the best New Orleans style gumbo has: Andouille sausage, chicken and crab, but frequently uses leftover roast chicken in the fridge, or tasty remnants of last night’s crab boil. If those ingredients aren’t around, and the household still has a hankering for wedding-party gumbo, why then canned crab and chicken are used, but give any chef his druthers and it’s fresh all the way.

There’s always something fun to learn when you’re cooking, and in the case of this Foolproof Food story, the lesson learned was that coriander is the secret ingredient in recreating the gumbo from Metairie, Louisa, circa 2006. And that makes sense when you think about it. Coriander is mentioned in the ingredients on crab boil kits, so consider that next time you’re wondering what dash of spice works the best on slow simmering seafood dishes. As to seasoning, the original gumbos used an extract from sassafras leaves that give the taste that recognizable fire; you can recollect that fusion of flavor—sassafras, cayenne pepper and caramelized onions with Tony Cachere’s Original Creole Seasoning. 

Happy Mardi Gras, Everyone!

I’m told that this Foolproof Gumbo was a hit on the night it was served and photographed on the eve of Mardi Gras weekend in New Orleans.  I understand that the family enjoyed it around a fire-lit bracero on an unseasonably cold night—even for February!

Have a recipe you’d like to share? Send it to me, and we’ll chat about its background and inspiration and do a Foolproof Food post that encourages our tight-knit community of home chefs to give it a try. Thanks for reading!

Jon A.’s Gumbo

Serves: 10
Prep Time: About 2 hours

1/3 cup olive oil
4 large yellow onions, chopped (about 8 cups)
4 red bell peppers, seeded, chopped (about 4 1/2 cups)
4 celery stalks, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons Creole Seasoning
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups red wine
1 (15 oz.) can black beans
1 (12 oz. can) corn
1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
6 bay leaves
2 (28-oz.) cans diced tomatoes with juice
1 (8 oz. can) tomato paste
6 cups vegetable broth
4 pounds andouille sausage, cut into slices
10 ounces chicken breast, shredded
10 ounces fresh crab meat
1 pound okra, sliced (about 4 cups)

Salt and ground pepper

2 pounds peeled deveined medium shrimp

Steamed rice

In a large stock pot, Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until caramelized, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add bell peppers, celery and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, cayenne, red wine, black beans and corn.  Add coriander, and bay leaves; bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes (do not drain), tomato paste, vegetable broth, sausage, chicken and crab; simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Add okra and simmer until just tender, about 8 minutes.

Add shrimp to pot and cook to doneness, about 5 minutes. Season gumbo to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in soup bowls on a bed of steamed rice.

Eat Like All Your Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight

It’s no accident that my awesome league of recipe testers are now reporting back to me with their thoughts on the “Couch Potato Fan Food” section of my new book. Glancing over the list right now is whetting my appetite for the big game this weekend. The Superbowl XLVII is back in New Orleans this year, with the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers facing off at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. If I could be there in person, it’d be sweet for sure, but it would also severely limit my choices in terms of what I can eat. With my kitchen less than a yard behind me, I can make a touch down with a wide variety of gnosh platters that offer everything from wings to quesadillas. You don’t have to be at work on a cookbook to get inspired—you just have to look around!

It’s a tasty time to web surf right now, because anyone who’s a sports fan and a foodie and loves to write about it, has been publishing mouthwatering collages (compliments of a new social media outlet called Photoshake) that shows you the range of spicy shredded pork, sliders and creamy ranch and blue cheese dipping sauces that’ll make us a little more light hearted about Lipitor commercials between plays.

My point is, is there anything better than combining game watching with gnoshing? I think not.   

The list of nail biting nibbles and crowd pleasers I’ll have on tap are all about spicy sauces, beef and beans, blackened shrimp and hot garlicky wings; it’s fun to think that some of what I’ve served at Superbowl parties in the past are an homage to the kinds of food the players’ hometowns are famous for. Take last year when I made my famous crab cakes. Chances are they’d remind a Baltimore Raven about the famed crab cakes that the historic dive bar, “Swallow at the Hallow” has been serving for over 50 years near Towson State.

Yes sir, where the players come from and where they are meeting up bring in many different flavors—you could say that the Spicy Black Bean and Rice Salad I’m perfecting this month add new meaning to the idea of a San Francisco treat. It’s almost a shame to be sidelined on the living room couch at kick-off this year, because if I had tickets and were watching it live in the Big Easy this season, you better believe I’d be sampling my share of King Cake and Craw Fish. I’d probably be too full to notice one way or another if Beyonce is going to actually sing at half-time or start another Lip-Gate.

Suberbowl Sunday is “The Sunday Best” of all game watching Sundays!

Hopefully, my guests at this year’s Superbowl party will be too happy with my buffet table to notice the half-time entertainment on TV. Let me offer you links to my greatest hits at Superbowl parties of old (my Crab Cakes and Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps) and invite you to post your links and comments about the kinds of foods you'll enjoy this go around. I’m sure whatever you eat, it'll be a real winner! 

3 F-U-N Words: Sunday. Jazz. Brunch!! How to Make Your Next One Legendary

Even cookbook authors seek to get away from their kitchens once in a while. Like anyone, we like being waited on. We like seeing for ourselves what the buzz is all about when a restaurant or club has its grand opening. Live music is also a wish fulfilled. I can’t think of a Sunday Excursion that lives up to all that and more, as much as a good old fashioned Sunday Jazz brunch.

Google those 3 little words and you’ll pull up reviews with “legendary” headlining the Sunday papers. The icing on this South Florida girl’s cake is that I don’t have to go too far to find a legendary Sunday Jazz brunch, and hope my Broward County friends know about it too. This official Go Riverwalk logo says it all--you just have to remember to make it down there between 11 and 2, pick a place to wine and dine, or simply reserve your space on the Esplanade lawn.

Here I am talking about Sunday Best Excursions, and January’s first weekend found me nowhere near live jazz. So, I’ll just have to be retroactive in practicing what I preach. I spent a morning perfecting some ideas I had for leisurely and elegant breakfasts that meandered into lunch time and listened to a little jazz in the meantime. Who knows why we free associate and remember the things we do, but I thought how nice it would be to make some of my Sunday Best breakfast recipes close to the lavishness you might expect at Brennan’s in New Orleans.

The radio blared over the hiss of my electric griddle.  Dexter Gordon’s Fried Bananas song saw me through the preparation of this SCANDALOUS  pancake recipe that’s a twist on Brennan’s very own Bananas Foster. I’m including a photo (an extreme closeup!), but I’m not giving away the recipe until my book comes out.

Some things are better when one’s lips are sealed. Besides, you need to get outta the kitchen. History is being made out there, and Sunday Brunchers are loving their eggs on outdoor patios, tapping their feet to the saxophones—maybe even getting little flashes of inspiration while they eat. We can only assume that’s the way it went for the person who invented the Mimosa—a fusion of Sunday jazz brunch staples, like citrus juice and champagne.

A Grand Opening to Look Forward To…

If you love jazz and champagne, and you happen to be from West Palm (or neighboring areas), keep your eye out this month and February for the opening of a HUGE jazz club coming to Mizner Park. I read about it in Jazzizz Nightlife. This place is going to be great! It’s in the former space for Zed451, and will include, in it’s 11,000-square feet (not a typo), private dining, a stage, a cigar bar and lounge. I know what I’m getting my Valentine!

Come to New Orleans with me Next Week!

If you like N’awlins inspired food, be sure to check in with my blog next week. I’m having another Foolproof Food Day. A reader is making his famous Gumbo. Hope to see you again, January 20th. 

Write it on the Sunday Menu: A Dreamy One-Pot Chicken Dish, Heavy on the Sauce!

Sundays should be special. They should also be easy, and that’s why I’m so enamored of my Sunday Best Braised Chicken Thighs with Sweet Peas and Bacon. When it comes to ingredients, precious little (you could practically write what you’ll need on the back of a postage stamp) goes into this kicked up version of Coq au Vin, but it’s ridiculously good, and, better yet, teaches the home cook about creating sauces on the stovetop that could pass le saucier’s final exam in a French cooking school. Coq au vin is simply chicken cooked in red wine, and while the cook can work with whatever crimson vino he or she prefers, I recommend something dry for this, like a Pinot Noir or French Burgundy.

On shopping day, consider going to Costco for the chicken—as I mentioned in my Sunday excursion post, I visited Costco and was just as pleased as punch that the retailer sold 18 chicken thighs, already neatly bundled, in 6 different packages—that made it so easy!  However, if you’re more provincial with your poultry and see your butcher, ask him to cut up a whole chicken into 10 pieces; that’ll help you approach this chicken dish with utter and complete ease.

Half the wine to cook with, the other half to help the mind wander!

I love the history behind anything braised. That’s why it made me laugh so much in the movie Hairspray, when John Travolta (as Edna Turnblatt) drifts over to the skillet on the stove and asks in a dreamy Baltimore accent: “Is that braised!?” It so happens braising has been a family favorite long before the 60s. Since Julius Caesar! The earliest recorded mention of it came from a English cookbook in the 1800’s. The cook/author was known merely as “a French woman”, and she taught the Brits to make Poulet au vin blanc. She used white wine. There are so many options when you braise chicken! In Fresh Traditions, I made a version of this dish with chorizo sausage and baby artichokes—but I like Sunday Best’s version even better.

More to Come…!

You’ll be so pleased when you plate this dish for your family. The peas give the dish a freshness and brightness that’s much needed on these cold January nights. This chicken is heaven on its own, but also works when served over a bed of rice, egg noodles or the Polenta With Asiago Cheese that’s making the rounds through my test kitchen. Stay tuned!

Braised Chicken Thighs with Sweet Peas and Bacon

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ pound bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 large (5 to 6-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken thighs or 6 smaller thighs
1 teaspoon coarse salt
½ teaspoon coarse black pepper
1 large white onion, peeled and thinly sliced, about 1 ½ cups
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup red wine
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
½ cup sour cream
1 (16-ounce can) sweet peas, drained or 1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas, thawed

            Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook the bacon in the olive oil until crisp.  Use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon to a platter. Set aside. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the pan drippings.

            Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper.  Cook the chicken in the pan until browned on one side, about 3 minutes.  Turn and brown on the remaining side, about 3 minutes more.  Transfer to a platter.

            Carefully pour out the fat from the pan, leaving about 2 tablespoons. Place the onions into the skillet. Cook until soft, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce, wine and tomatoes. Return the chicken to the pan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 to 25 minutes. 

            Stir in the peas and cook for 3 to 5 minutes more. Turn off the heat and stir in the sour cream and sprinkle the dish with bacon.