Yellow Perch = Great Lakes Best

Very tasty simple dinner tonight, Great Lakes yellow perch, sauteed in butter, fast cooked fresh hashbrowns and Michigan summer broccoli.

Yellow perch is such a delicious fish - tender, small, buttery. It's everything our Great Lakes does best. Can be pricey but so well worth it. Pure Michigan.

Pure Detroit

Diego Rivera Murals

Detroit Institute of Arts

An afternoon of Pure Detroit started with a visit to the Diego Rivera/Frida Kahlo special exhibit at the DIA. Those monumental murals are part of the DNA of the city, commissioned by a wealthy capitalist at the behest of a highly cultured director of the museum. 

These monumental murals portray the fantastic effiency of industry, the threats it might hold over the long haul, the essential elements of all human endeavor to strive, to nurture, to grow, to build. 

While the Rivera work was monumental, Kahlo's work was intensely person, female, and political. The contrast of the two artists works make the exhibit fresh and curatorial background a great education for what is a strictly iconic work. 

So, what to do after? Go to Go Cash Gold, repurposed in all the best ways, recycling what was the best and the questionable of Detroit; a pawn shop, gorgeous recycled wood. 

The food was bright, flavorful, cooked with personality and care. Gary and I and the two offspring shared, talked, yakked, took in the city, and our tastebuds took a ride with food you just wanted to keep on eating.  Foccacia with peppers and sausage, charcuterie plate with kimchi, pimento cheese, cheese straws, bratwurst.  Deep fried soft shell crabs, fried chicken, cioppino, marinated flank steak and a couple good stiff cocktails and great beer. 

What more could you ask on a day of perfect weather?  Great art, great food, and lots of love. 

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

The star

Going retro today in preparation for family meal tomorrow. 

Green bean casserole already made.

Next, pineapple upside-down cake. 

I've only made it from canned pineapple rings. Today, using the real deal fresh, hand carved pineapple. Joy of Cooking recipe is a tad complicated but results in a dense, delicious cake that slid right out of the pan onto the serving plate with fruit and caramel sauce intact.

It's been years since this has graced our table. Spring's a good time to bring out an old friend.

And speaking of breadbags

Dolphin reply to #sotu a sad tale of having to swim to school with a #breadbag on its flipper. pic.twitter.com/HGqoeOlBjN
— Andrew Veety (@amveats) January 21, 2015

Fromage et du vin

We were the happy recipients of Zingerman's Cheese of the Month gift. Installment two brought us French cheeses:  Camembert, Brebis d'Ossau and Comte.

A cheese tasting was in order. With help from Holiday Market, we paired our new arrivals with a Kermit Lynch Graves and a good baguette.

The Comte is sweet, nutty and creamy. The Brebis flowery, milky with a little hint of goat milk tang. The Camembert is earthy, mushroomy with a cabbage-y scent and aftertaste (in a good way) with an unctuous creamy texture.

All the cheese were enhanced by the bright, slightly acidic wine.

What a treat for the gray days of January.

A light dinner

Lake trout, rice and asparagus

After the richness of the holidays feasts and a trip to delicious New York, we were ready for a little lighter fare. Our wonderful local market had a special on fresh caught lake trout. 

After searing in a screaming hot cast iron skilled, the fish went under the broiler with just some butter and salt. The end result was moist and flavorful trout, enhanced with some lemon juice, butter and capers. 

Rice pilaf (the original recipe by Craig Claiborne never fails) and asparagus rounded out the meal, with a crisp Bogle Sauvignon Blanc. 

On a freezing cold night, it was the perfect dinner. 

Batard NYC

In NYC for combo of conference and to spend time with darling daughter.  First order of business is check-in and the massive Hilton. There are hordes of historians. Khakis, sport coats, lots of tweed jackets, khakis and walking shoes are the ID.  My husband looks like all of them. Women sensible and chic.

We hightailed it over to a sports bar recommended by the concierge - large TVs to see the MSU game and connect with the darling daughter and the darling daughter of good friends. On the other side of an unexpectedly good burger, great fries and a Rebel IPA we were in good form.

And watched the victory in the hotel room w/ carry out.

Tonight Batard -- top rated new restaurant in NYC and thanks to DD we had a great seating, VIP treatment, wonderful wine and appreciated comps. Braised artichokes with barley and eiswein sabayon, octopus pastrami, shortrib terrine were beautifully composed, brilliant and bright flavors to whet the appetite and a French cremant added just enough sparkle.

Mains are duck breast with natural jus and potatoes w/ capers;  veal "trapezzini" a kind of veal tenderloin Wellington with brilliant pastry and sauce diablo, chicken schnitzel with potato salad and cuke salad. So simple but so dimensional in taste, texture and sauce.

Jonathan our sommelier is wonderful.  Red Burgundy with dinner with a Spanish white Albina with appetizers were perfect matches.  To finish, two tokays for with gorgeous dessert course of hazelnut mousse torte and fried milk bread (aka creme brulee french bread) and a warm runny epoisse with baguette and nut bread.

The food is superb --among the top three in Detroit Food's experience. But the warmth and hospitality make the great restaurant it is.  DD is a part of the trade and her colleagues took such personal care of us with interest and engagement. This is why great restaurants live on - the people, the food and the pursuit of perfection and caring.

Peak dining experience to beat in the next ten years.

Batard

Polenta and Italian sausages

So the New York Times Dining section left an impression, from a very basic dish of polenta and sausages. Tried it tonight and it's a keeper.

Italian Sausage and polenta/ NY Times

I have used regular cornmeal for polenta before, but this time I used Red Mill coarse ground corn grits/polenta. Cooking time = 30 minutes.

While that was cooking, I browned and cooked through some sweet Italian sausage, cut in chunks. I cooked two links, only half a pound and used chowed on not even one sausage, didn't need more because it flavored everything. And put a large thinly sliced onion in a pan to caramelize.

Also added in Marcella Hazan's cabbage recipe, long and slowly cooked thinly slice cabbage that yielded such a sweet flavor.

End result was very deep and flavorful and creamy polenta, topped with the caramelized onions, the crisp sausage with a side of sweet and braised cabbage.

Peasant food, to be sure. The whole meal, which was enough for at least six, cost maybe $4. An inexpensive but good red wine rounded out the meal.

But price doesn't always count, does it, when it comes to comfort food on a cold winter night?

Antics in Aspic

When you think you've seen all the horror aspic can unleash, there's this.

BEHOLD!

I GIVE YOU ASPIC AQUARIUM. 

Abraham Lincoln - A great president and cook

Abe Lincoln was a cook

Coincidence - a great statesman who cared a lot about food, was a cook? I think not.

Food played a great part in Lincoln's life from an early age - does this make a great statesman? I like to think it does.

House of Seafood

Yes, it's Valentine's Day but also the new season of House of Cards. A small celebration of both at our house featured some very fresh littleneck clams and shrimp.

Garlic and white wine made these into a fine meal on another cold, wintry night. A Kermit Lynch white Bordeaux made for wonderful sipping as the clams and shrimp cooked.

Spaghetti ala vongele - aka w/ clam sauce was so simple - olive oil, garlic, a splash of the good white wine cooked together, tossed with simple pasta.

The shrimp were sauteed with garlic, butter and black pepper. Fresh asparagus rounded it out. And to sop up the juice a couple chunks of toasted baguette.

In less than 30 minutes, we were feasting.

And then onto the dark vortex that is House of Cards. What could be better on a slushy and cold winter night?

A Happy Hour on a cold night in Birmingham

Nothing like meeting long time college friends for a drink and a snack and lots of talking. We tried Townhouse in Birmingham, MI tonight, because the Happy Hour menu was appealing and the price was right.

The regular menu at Townhouse is very pricey - burger's $19 bucks, NYC prices for local chow.

The happy hour menu = 3/ $20  - drinks and apps. (e.g. 1 drink + apps, 3 apps, 3 drinks, etc.)

The three of us shared two 3/$20. Two glasses of really decent sauvignon blanc and a pinot noir. Snacks were totally outstanding:
        Crispy Brussels sprouts -- crisped in brown butter and sauced with balsamic
        Fried Manchego cheese -- crusted with almonds and served with apples, dried cherries
        Truffled french fries w/ garlic aioli sauce

All were beautifully crisp, flavorful - in fact just delicious. Portions were more than generous. Service was extremely friendly.

Planning on another gathering in February.

http://eatattownhouse.com/food-drink/4579150781



 

Eat It Detroit is always right

Eat It Detroit consistently does great reporting on the Detroit food scene. She's never wrong:

Eat It Detroit

A small taste of Detroit

A colleague of Gourmet Underground Detroit, Nicole de Beaufort, was assembling a small recipe book for a souvenir for a number of German Marshall fellows. Heady company. The goal: to send them back with a taste of Detroit.

It was a quick project and a number of folks dived in, including Detroit Food. The end result is a charming, well-designed and tasty look at some of the delights of Detroit cooks. There's some talk of an expanded book -- a welcome addition to Motor City chow!

Detroit Food's (aka Gary and Martha Shea) contributions are Sloppy Joes and hamburger gravy -- iconic foods of junior high school and a highlight of Catholic school lunches.

Read it here:   Detroit Delicacies

Harvard + Science and Cooking

Harvard: The Michigan of the East


Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science

This is the first course I've taken through HarvardX , the online learning portal for Harvard. 

It's pretty rigorous and not a beginner cooking class. Per class syllabus: "At the end of the course, students will be able to explain how a range of cooking techniques and recipes work, in terms of physical and chemical transformation of food."

Each week we virtually visit a world-famous chef, who shows some of the secrets of their cooking. These include:  Jose Andres, Nathan Myrhvold, Dan Barber, Ferran Adria, David Chang, Wylie Dufresne as well as author Harold McGee and food scientist Dave Arnold. We're using Harold McGee's "The Science of Food" as a textbook. 

We'll have homework each week of the 10-week course, and a new lab exercise every Tuesday, where we can experiment with the scientific concept of the week. We'll submit home and lab findings  and will finish with a final project where were can carry out our own scientific study of an aspect of cooking in your kitchen. 

As knowledge of high school physics and chemistry are useful, there are whole review sections on calculating density, pH, logorithms, geometry, and chemistry. Good combination of video and work pages. So I've been figuring volume of cubes, density of a solid in a solution,  and about to relive my chemistry class and taking multiple choice practice tests.  

Parts of my brain feel like the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz --- rusty but starting to move. 

I'm excited about this, and including it on the blog so I have some accountability and push through the hard parts. 

Wonder if I need Harvard t-shirt? 

A simple pizza dinner

Homemade pizza

A busy couple of days, and today a bunch of games. No time or inclination for a full dinner.

But we had some simple, delicious ingredients; tomato sauce made from Marcella Hazan's tomato/butter/onion recipe, fresh mozzarella, good olive oil and garlic and homemade pesto. 

Threw it all on a simple crust brushed with the garlic oil, tossed on a couple of pepperoni slices, good cheese and a short stay in the oven. Here's what emerged. 

A good early evening - good chow, Michigan won, Michigan State did, too. No pizza left for watching the Tigers. Maybe next game. 

Chickarina soup

Serious Eats is one of my favorite food blogs, great food cred, smart writing, good research and a site that you can count on as solid and yet always new.

Italian wedding soup is always a favorite, but Serious Eats introduced chickarina soup just last week. Basically, it's a great chicken soup with chicken meatballs, and pearl pasta added to a  basic chicken soup.

Today was the day to try. After a number of autumnal nights, including clicking on the heat, soup was calling for dinner.

The recipe is pretty simple  -- chickarina soup

The chicken meatballs emerged from the food processor just as the recipe called for. The soup meat came from some chicken tenders, chunked and browned. Skipped making the stock from scratch but used a good chicken broth.  A bunch of onion, garlic, carrot and celery browned up in a soup pot, along with a bay leaf and some gentle long cooking gave the stock a real home-cooked flavor .

Dropped in the chicken meatballs = awesome and fun to watch they float upwards! The recipe calls for baking soda that added that lightness to what would otherwise be meatballs. These really were chicken meatball dumplings, which were just delicious.

With all the ingredients melding, some spinach from the fridge called and a couple handfuls added some color and texture.

Crostini with garlic, buffalo mozzarella and fresh tomatoes added to the meal.

A good first outing for what will be a standard soup dinner - and probably a regular come colder weather.

Honeyrocks rock!

Honeyrock melons taste like summer

Honeyrock melons have been out for a little while and one of them lasts about a day and half at Detroit Food's table. One of the best tastes in the world, honeyrocks rock out tomatoes. Sorry tomato fans, but they just do. 

A big bowl of chilled honeyrock in the morning makes life worth living, makes you an optimist and a better person. The season is short, don't settle on a cantaloupe. Michigan honeyrocks should have their own Pure Michigan commercial. 

So I'm going the fridge, right now. 

New old-fashioned chicken salad

About once or twice a month a couple of bone-in chicken breasts go in the oven with good seasoning to bake until done. Sometimes we have a bit for dinner.

But the best is left for chicken salad. The basic one - chicken, mayo and diced celery, a little salt and pepper and that's it.

Except tonight.  A wonderful meal in Brooklyn started a jones for arugula salad, simply dressed with olive oil and fresh lemon juice and shards of good parmesan. One of the best salads ever.

So, with the ideal chicken salad just made, a small arugula salad followed, generously lined the plate and complemented the salad.

Fresh lemon, chicken salad's new best friend

The bite of the arugula and the blast of citrus from the lemon gave a whole new dimension to our much-loved chicken salad.

Blasted a squeeze of fresh lemon juice in the leftover salad and - wow - it really popped!

It's never too late to love a favorite in a new way.

Behold! The new grill= Broil Master

After a number of years buying Home Depot, etc. grills that last about four years (or less) and conk out we stepped up and about doubled our budget to get this Broil-King grill.

Now, on day two/dinner two we're using it again. Ramps up to fiercely hot in 6 minutes, is so solid and well-built, we are so happy we moved up a big step. And, while not American built, it's built in Canada, which makes us happy, too.

We're in the shallow end of Broil-King, but it's worth every dollar.