Archive for January, 2009

Fish Stew. Something that you almost never see on any restaurant menu and it is rarely if ever served at anyone’s dining table. I learned to make Bouillabaisse when I was in my late twenties and perfected it by thirty. No one in my family likes it and therefore I do not make it often since I am only preparing this luscious soup for myself. Bouillabaisse is a delicious traditional French fish stew that was originally created in the port city of Marseille. The word “bouillabaisse” comes from the Provençal word bolhabaissa. The root word within bolhabaissa reveals the two main steps in creating the stew. The Provençal words bolhir and albaissar mean “to boil” and “to reduce,” respectively.

Bouillabaisse is an aromatic stew made with a fish base and a variety of fish and shellfish, unless you are limited in funds like I was and just used scraps of fish I had in the freezer. In classic bouillabaisse, nearly a dozen kinds of fish are cooked into the stew. The most common fish in bouillabaisse are monkfish, mullet, and conger. Of course, many other kinds of fish can be incorporated, preferably firm flesh fish. Bouillabaisse gains rich flavor from vegetables such as onions, tomatoes, leeks, and celery, which are boiled and added to the stew. But it is the blend of herbs and spices that gives bouillabaisse its wonderful aromatic quality. Garlic, bay leaf, savory, fennel, orange peel, turmeric, and saffron, all compliment the flavors in bouillabaisse making a rich stock bursting with flavor.

I am always looking for ways to prepare economical meals and preparing this dish is not only easy, but affordable. I know it calls for all those expensive, and to some degree uncommon types of fish, but I used cod, talapia (I know it’s not firm, but I tossed it in anyway), halibut, shrimp and clams (canned) hey, they were in the pantry, and had been there a while. The vegetables I choose to use were onions, sweet red peppers, celery, one garlic clove, green onions, and a can of stewed tomatoes (Delmonte no-salt), one red potato and 1/2 cup left over corn (don’t ask) and a quart of low-sodium chicken stock. I would have boiled the fish bones and make a fish stock, if I had fish bones, oh well.

I am a big believer in caramelizing my onions, (you know sauteing them until they’re golden) so I did, tossed in everything else with the stock, fish and slow simmered for about 45 minutes to an hour. The Bouillabaisse was absolutely wonderful. Full bodied, silky, flavorful and just wonderful. So the next time you’re cleaning out the freezer and you see scraps of fish, shrimp and other things from the sea, think Bouillabaisse, you’ll be glad you did.

Those babyboomers out here will remember the Pillsbury Bake-Off Cookbooks sold at the grocery check-out for 25 cents many, many, many years ago. Okay so I’m dating myself, but during those days women and men really baked from scratch. There was no prepared cookie dough, bread dough or cake mix. You had to know math, flavoring techniques and have strong arms since most recipes called for you to beat the batter 250-300 strokes with a wood spoon to form the cake batter.

Yes, for those “babybakers” out there the word Kitchen Aid® was non-existent; and there was no such thing as an electric mixer, we had plain old egg beaters, that again, ran by good old fashioned muscle power. As I think back on those days I can now appreciate the knowledge I gained from having to do things from “scratch.” When you bake from scratch you learn about the texture of a product, the smell, taste, color, knowing when it is wrong and when you have hit pay dirt.

I do not use boxed mixes, or bread machines, I am a purist and I admire and cultivate to other purist(birds of a feather). It’s easy to toss ingredients in a bread machine and dump out dough. I know the bread will bake up beautifully and taste divine, but there is something about getting your hands in that dough and making the bread from scratch, plus if the machine ever breaks down, I can still produce wonderful bread for my family and friends. I am not knocking folks with bread machines, use what you like. I am of that generation that just appreciated the work that goes into using physical labor, hands, sweat to produce a delicious product. One of the students in my micro business class said it best, “There’s something about going to sleep at night knowing you have produced with your own hands a product that not only fed the hungry, but also “your” soul, you just seem to sleep better at night.”

Well it’s time for the 44th Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off and another person will win one million dollars for creating some sweet or savory concoction from preservative laden pre-prepared doughs and mixes. What does this tell us? We are continuing to dumb down American cooks and bakers. Why can’t we go back to the days when people made these delicious baked goods from scratch? What’s wrong with scratch cooking? Don’t give me the excuse about saving time either, because I know all the garbage (preservatives) put in these prepared mixes has to affect our health.

Scratch cooks and bakers around the world need to rise up, take note and protest! This is an abomination, right?
Alright, I got that off my chest, back to my kitchen…today I working on a new brownie infused with Butterscotch Liqueur …from scratch…I might add.

There is no doubt that food is becoming more and more expensive. I search like everyone else for affordable cuts of meat and inexpensive ways to prepare food without a lot of additional ingredients. How do you do this and still allow the flavor to peak through?

Recently while at the grocery store, I noticed a wine sale. There were bottles of Madeira, Cream Sherry and the usual Burgundy, Sauternes and Rose on sale for under $3.00 per bottle. I thought to myself perhaps the wine was damaged, but after speaking to the wine attendant, she graciously advised me that the wine was not selling and had been on the shelves too long, the manager wanted to move in another product and needed to see if he could get it off the shelf. I bought one bottle of each and once home, proceeded to pull out my cookbooks. I substituted the Madeira for chicken Marsala, I used the Burgundy in a beef stew to add depth to the flavor and I added a bit of the Cream Sherry to left over raspberries I had in the freezer to make a delicious vinaigrette. The other bottles I still have in the pantry.

When you are looking for new ways to jazz up old recipes consider cheap wine. I know the rule is to always cook with a wine you would drink and no one wants to drink cheap wine, but I’m not a wine drinker (so that doesn’t apply to me); what I am however is a culinary scientist who  love to experiment and in this particular case the end result was absolutely divine. I did not have mushrooms for the chicken Marsala so I substituted sweet red and orange peppers and garnished it with a bit of chopped green onion; served over brown rice, I must say it was pretty tasty! What kind of wine do you cook with?