I love simplicity.”Keep it simple”, I say to myself constantly. (I try remembering that phrase in everything I do.) I’ve realized that when something becomes too complicated akin to putting together a piece of furniture from Ikea, I believe it’s either not meant to be or you need to stop, look at the process and leave it alone for a period of time. 

I truly wish I knew what “keeping it simple” meant in my early twenties. My relationships were complicated and living in New York City felt just as complex. However, looking back I had no one to blame but myself and life always feels complicated in your youth.  

 

I was invited to a pot luck dinner party at a friend’s house in the West Village. I offered to bring something and my darling friend Penny said, “Bring an appetizer like a dip and chips!”. Of course, I interpreted this as why don’t you make something complicated like Parmesan Puff Pastry Straws. 

Opening up the “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” more than 20 years ago, I started the process thinking it really couldn’t be that hard. On the third day of rolling out that iced dough, I was through. I wanted to throw it against the wall or in the trash. I saw the pieces of butter throughout the rolling…and no, I did not find the act of rolling it out for three days engaging. It was a difficult process, plus I had to shave in a “good quality” parmesan which added another process of folding. This was in the late 80’s, long before the internet and the magic of industrialized cooking. Now,you can buy Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry, then, it was the Stone Age and DIY. 

At the end of four days, it was tasty just not worth the hassle and I never tried making bread again. Pie crusts and Apple Brown Bettys were all I was going to muster. 

 

Then, 25 years later, and now in Los Angeles, I’m perusing the world wide web and came across an article on Mark Bittman’s site, fleshing out the simplicity of “No Knead Bread”. I thought I would try my hand at it making dough again. It’s not puff pastry but hey, it’s a beginning. The recipe is essentially five ingredients and the stunning bread lasts about a week. What is more beautiful than that? Five items purchased at any grocery store! Once it gets a little stale, you can turn it into croutons or into homemade breadcrumbs with a food processor. 

How to make it….(or you can look up “No Knead” Bread”). 🙂 

3 cups of all purpose or bread flour

1/4 teaspoon of yeast

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 cups water. 

1. Place the flour, yeast and salt in large bowl and stir together. 

2. Pour in 1 3/4 cups of water and mix. The dough should be a sticky mess. Cover with plastic wrap and but in an area that will stay about 70 degrees. Let this rise for about 12 hours. It will be very bubbly on top. 

3. Next Day: Flour surface and turn out the dough. Place the floured and sticky mess into a clean, cotton dishtowel and let rise another 2 hours. 

4. Here’s the real trick. It needs to go into a very hot oven at about 450 degrees. Place the dough into a dutch oven that’s been heated (do this while pre-heating the oven) and bake covered for about 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 20 to get the crust brown and crackling. You should get a beautiful artisan loaf. 

 

Couple of tips: Once you remove the bread from the oven. Let it rest for about 15 minutes. Once you cut into, store in a paper bag, cut side down. It helps to keep it from get to hard. And…never cut more than you are going to use. 

I have made about 6 of these loaves now. I will never go back to buying bread again. 🙂 

 During the seventies, which is when I was growing up, it was difficult to be single mother in the workforce. Alas, I didn’t grow up eating a lot of home-cooked meals such as Alice prepared for the Brady family. It was usually stuff opened from a can and heated such as Campbell’s beans with boiled Oscar Mayer ballpark franks cut up. That was it and mostly likely, I heated it up on the stove and served it to my mother since she just got home from work. Nothing bad about it, it was just how life was. 

Occasionally, around the holidays, she would make turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes. Nothing too complicated and maybe a store bought frozen dessert to be garnished by Cool Whip, that sweet, seemingly innocuous topping that came in a tub. (It wouldn’t last too long. Once my mother was asleep, I was standing in the kitchen, refrigerator door wide-open, scooping spoonfuls into my mouth.). 

Once I moved to New York City to go to school, I started to waiting tables. The first restaurant job I had, as a waiter, was at a Cajun restaurant in Tribeca. It was part of our opening side-work was to daily prepare the whipped cream for the nightly desserts. If the kitchen staff wasn’t busy, they would make it for us, if asked kindly. If they were swamped by preparations of the specials or didn’t want to help us that night, we had to do amongst ourselves. Using a freezing cold metal bowl, two quarts of heavy cream, a couple of teaspoons of powered sugar, vanilla and a hint of bourbon. We would then pass it around among the three or four wait people. We would whisk it for about 5 minutes each, beating it in a frenzy. Our arms would ache after we were finished but we all scooped a dollop of the stuff into our mouths, to perfect the taste, adding a little more sugar or cream to get it right. I learned how to make proper whipped cream. The real stuff is made of heavy cream (from a dairy cow), sugar (from a stalk), and vanilla (from a bean)

Its interesting to know that “whipped cream” isn’t something from 1952 with “Leave it to Beaver” and Jello fruit salad. It has a real history and originated in France (natch!) in the 16th Century to decorate pastries and cakes. It’s original name was “Chantilly creme” which if you read enough bodice-rippers (romance novels), it’s always in some sex scene. 

My confession is that I never knew until I was 19 that whipped cream actually was real cream….I always thought it came out of that white plastic tub or a canister. 

How to make Whipped Cream:

1. Use a metal bowl which is preferable (ceramic is okay too) and get it wet. Don’t dry it and put it into the freezer. We want the bowl freezing with ice crystals. I have also seen sous or pastry chefs double-bowl it using ice in the bottom bowl and then placing a smaller bowl on top, then pouring the cream into the smaller vessel. (Restaurant tips.)

2. Use cream that has also been chilled, either directly from the fridge or you can also put it in the freezer for about a minute. (Another restaurant tip.)The colder it is, the easier and faster it’ll be to whip. Pour the cream into the cold bowl. 

3. Using an electric hand-held mixer, starting whipping the cream. You are trying to get air into the liquid which will make it fluff up. (You could use a whisk but that’s ridiculously hard and tiring…why do that to yourself?)

4; Stop whisking when you see peaks forming. Add about a tablespoon of confectioners’ sugar per pint of heavy cream. At this point, you can add a dash or two of vanilla extract and/or a liquor like bourbon, Cointreau, Midori (for color and flavor), Campari…if you are feeling festive and gay. Add more sugar to make it sweeter, less if you just want to taste just the cream which is also just as good. Keep whisking until the cream makes stiff peaks but be cautious, if you whisk to long it will the liquid  to butter.(In elementary school for a science class, we poured cream into a empty milk jug. With the thirty or so students passing and shaking the bottle, it turned to butter. That was fun!)

I learned a lot about cooking working in restaurants. It was illuminating to make whipped cream.  I don’t think I ever told anyone that….but now I have….I feel relieved. 

HA! 

I don’t know a lot about Cuban food. I do know that much of originated from the Canary Islands and Spain, just like most of Latin America. With that said, Nick wanted to make something called “mojo” (prounounced “mo-ho” not “mo-jo” which is an Austin Powers act, just to be clear). It’s a very popular sauce and marinade from the Caribbean island and like most indigenous recipes has a lot of different variations based upon family recipes.However, the sauce has to include citrus, garlic and oregano.  

Nick discovered it while living in Miami. It’s served up in restaurants, at parties and also bottled. It can also be found as “pollo de mojo” in Miami stores at the hot bar along with rice and beans, plantains and other dishes native to Cuba. 

We tried making a couple of different recipes but it was never “cuminy” (is that a word?) for Nick. It lacked that deep earthiness and warmth that he kept wanting and would explain to me. Finally, Nick added several heaping tablespoons of the dried cumin to get that intense flavor which was required. Having never had “mojo”, I couldn’t help. Eventually, it wasn’t just the addition of the extra cumin but also the fresh oregano which made it taste just right. 

How to Make “Mojo”:

Two to three bulbs of garlic (chopped)

1/2 cup of fresh lime juice

1/2 cup of orange juice 

1/2 cup of olive oil

2 tablespoons of fresh oregano (minced)

3 tablespoons of cumin

1 small onion (chopped)

1. Put everything in a bowl and mix together. To use as a sauce, reserve about a cup.

Mojo Chicken

Use 3 pounds of meat (chicken, pork or beef) and place the sauce into a resealable plastic bag. Marinate overnight for at least 24 hours.  We found this to be key to the flavoring as well. 

You can roast at 400 degrees for an hour or grill. 

A delicious, easy way to bring a bit of Cuba to your table.