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Author: Brian Garrido

  • An Embarrassing Confessional: Whipped Cream

     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.). 

    Cool whip photo

    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)

    Whipped Cream 2

    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!)

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    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! 

  • Miami’s Cuban Food Recreation in Los Angeles

    Miami

    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. 

    Mojo Bottle

    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. 

    Mojo Chicken

    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. 

  • The Humble “Crumble” or Just a “Crisp”

    ladies baking

    I have written many times that my mother wasn’t really a cook. She was a working, single mother and it wasn’t really in her repertoire to cook. Occasionally, she would make a meatloaf or the requisite holiday dinner but normally it was a sandwich, doughnuts, Kraft Mac & Cheese, possibly a can of Campbell’s Pork and Beans (very Sandra Lee). 

    It wasn’t until I moved to New York City that my taste buds began to experience real food and cooking. One of my teachers in my gastronomic learning was my roommate, Teresa. Born in Massachusetts, outside of Boston, from a family of 9, she quickly became someone I thought of as a family member; plus, she loved to cook. She made simple American dishes like “baking soda biscuits”, roasted chicken and made delicious “Apple Brown Betty” which is what she called it. Really it was just a “crumble” also known as a “crisp”. 

    Brought over by English settlers, a crumble or crisp, is baked fruit topped with a crust of sugar, butter and flour. And one of the most amazing things in the American cooking world. It’s a simple concoction that conjures up Norman Rockwell scenes: kids frolicking in freshwater lakes, post an afternoon of strawberry picking or climbing apple trees, yanking down bushels of apples. (None of which I experienced growing up in Baltimore. Besides, I had never seen a berry plant much less an apple tree in the urban Seventies landscape.) 

    Kids in a lake 1950

    It was Teresa’s Irish family cooking which opened me to this bit of Americana. I can still smell the baking aromatics of cinnamon and nutmeg with the sweetness of the apples. She would pull it from the oven still bubbling hot and top it with some cheap ice cream bought at one of the local bodegas.  

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    It sort of came back to me when I was moving. I was triggered to make a crisp for me and Nick. It’s funny how doing something can make you want to do something else. A move is stressful and I wanted to eat something nostalgic, when I thought life was simpler like living in New York City and being a club kid. (LOL) 

    You will need: 

    • 2 pounds of hulled and sliced fresh strawberries
    • 2 or 3 cups of fresh blueberries
    • 3 tbs. of cornstarch
    • 1 cup of brown sugar
    • ¾ cups flour
    • ¾ cups quick-cooking oatmeal
    • 1 tsp cinnamon
    • 1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)
    • ½ cups Butter

    To Make: 

    Preheat oven to 350 F. Put the berries into a large bowl. Toss berries with cornstarch. Butter a 10″ glass pie plate or loaf pan and place the berries inside. 

    In a medium sized bowl, mix together the brown sugar, flour, rolled oats and cinnamon. Cut butter into the dry mix until resembling “crumbles”. Place over top of the berries.

    Bake for 45-55 minutes with a rimmed baking sheet just in case it bubbles over.(Hate having to clean an oven!) 

    Serve warm with your choice of ice cream…vanilla is probably my choice because it’s tasty and doesn’t conflict with the berries. You can top with some homemade whip cream. (Add a touch of bourbon to the cream….whoo- hoo!) 

  • An Ode to Summer Tomato Sandwiches

    NYC Farmer

    As a kid, I didn’t like tomatoes. I found them not only tasteless but mushy or sometimes, hard and inedible. My mother, a good Southern woman, loved them. She was particularly fond of Tomato Sandwiches, which is a predominant lunch staple in the South. Food writer, John Kessler, wrote in the Atlanta Journal Constitution that for ten years, while he lived in Georgia, he had never had one.  One response to his posting on Facebook said, “he should renounce his citizenship”. (I don’t know whether that was to the Confederates or to the Yanks….the writer didn’t qualify.) But my mother, she loved them. It’s a simple process of two pieces of white bread, mayonaise and big beefsteak tomatoes. The kind that when you bite into them, dribble down your chin, almost like a greasy cheeseburger but without the cholesterol and animal fat. Kessler also references Chef Bill Smith, from his blog “Seasoned in the South” who states “that a riot ensued for the sandwiches”.

    Ingredients for Gazpacho

    Me? Although, I didn’t like them growing up, I began to love them while I lived in New York City and tomatoes in general. I couldn’t have been more than eighteen and was walking leisurely on a hot summer afternoon through Union Square’s Farmers Market. I still remember that there was a young, blondish woman barking out, “Try our heirlooms!!!” In her hand were striated wedges of red tomatoes, flecks of green in some, a couple with purple lines but all were poked with wooden toothpicks, offering the shoppers a chance to try her wares. I was game. I had only moved to the city in September the following year to attend school and I was trying everything. Dance clubs, drinking and decadence. (The things that made NYC in the 80s.) I thought I should give the tomato another try. So I bit into the pretty girl’s heirloom, which I had never had. It was life-changing. Juicy. Sweetly acidic. Warm from the sun. I bought two big red ones, which I couldn’t afford (I was a starving student, after all)  a loaf of white bread,  baked fresh for the market that day and swung by a bodega to pick-up some Hellman’s (throwing in a little urbanity with that down-home goodness.) I now eat them every year, sometimes daily.

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    My darling friend, Lulu, and I recently made the perfect tomato sandwich. We went to her backyard garden and pulled a couple of Persimmons and Consoluto Genoveses, two types of the nine varieties she was growing. (She also has grapes, pomegranates, zucchini, arugula, Meyer lemons, cantaloupes, watermelons, blackberries, raspberries, etc. It’s practically a farm.) Still warm from the Southern California sun, we sliced them with her mandoline, not too thick but enough to pile them on the whole grain toasted nut bread. (Truthfully, it should be made with Wonder Bread or Sara Lee.) On one piece of bread, we used some of her freshly made basil pesto with chunks of garlic, on the other, smeared it with Hellman’s (I prefer Hellman’s, less sugary and Duke’s isn’t available in California). With glasses of sweet tea, we sat at her outdoor table, shaded by a big orange umbrella and ate the deliciousness. It was a little bit of crunch from the toasted whole grain bread, the sweetness and balance of the acidic tomatoes, the creaminess of the mayo, with the bite of the garlic and basil. Perfection on a hot day.

    The authentic Southern sandwich is made with only two pieces of mushy white bread, mayo and tomato slices but if you want to get “all gourmet-like” and mess with the original by all means. It like eating a just a little bit of the summer sun.

  • How I Go About Cooking

    How I Go About Cooking

    When I want to make something to eat, I first think about what I have in my fridge that will make something decent to eat. I will start perusing recipes thinking to myself what do I want to make and how should it be made? I visit such sites like Cookstar, Foodily and Yummily, ascertaining what I have in my fridge and what I need to get. 

    Sometimes, I head to the grocery store, knowing full well what I have and all I need is one ingredient. This is what happened with the Pork Chops. Nick was going to the Hollywood Bowl for the first time with Lulu. And I was staying home. It was important that Nick, a former guy from Miami, should experience the LA Philharmonic. I have a tendency to get overwhelmed with the parking idiocy that ensues at the venue or any venue, since I hate parking, driving and cars in general. At the Hollywood Bowl, it’s stacked parking. A nightmare’s nightmare and after an amazing evening of relaxing with live classical music to get stressed, then infuriated at the situation, I would rather just not go.After all, that’s why we have HD television and streaming internet. HA!

    So I stayed home and made Pork Chops with a Rosemary, Dijon Mustard Sauce. (Really, it should be made with chives but I forgot to buy them.)

    Essentially, you just pan fry the chops until brown on both sides. (The great thing about pork is that it can be served medium now. Cooking them until they are hockey pucks isn’t necessary.) They can be thin and if you brine them for about 30 minutes, they won’t be dry but tasty and juicy! 

    Once you pan fry the chops (in a pat of butter…very Julia Childs…and some olive oil), deglaze the pan with some white wine. Add about a half cup of heavy cream, three tablespoons of dijon mustard (you can use yellow, only you and Julia Childs will know and a restaurant critic), half a cup of chicken stock, chopped rosemary (use the whole bunch…it will be a lot or save half.)

    There are no rules to cooking like there is baking. Baking is really an edible science which is why I don’t do it too often.

    There. Now you have a little bit of how I cook, why I cook and what I put into it. Really, I don’t put that much thought into it. 

  • Thinking of Christmas in July: Grilled Meats in Buenos Aires

    Thinking of Christmas in July: Grilled Meats in Buenos Aires.

  • Thinking of Christmas in July: Grilled Meats in Buenos Aires

    photo (121)

    My birthday always happens near Christmas. It’s not that I’m complaining. People are in a full celebratory mode at that time. Wine and liquor flow freely. It’s just that it’s never warm that warm around this the holidays plus taking a tropical vacation at that time is incredibly expensive since it’s traditionally high season for the airlines and hotels. So, on my 40th birthday, an auspicious occassion indeed, I wanted warmth, pools along with great food and drink. I also wanted to cook…like I did in Paris. We went to Buenos Aires. Tango. Wine. Food. South America. Yep.

    We choose an apartment to stay in the Palermo for it’s comfort, shopping location, huge balcony and it’s Argentinean parrilla, a large wood grill which is pretty common in most outdoor spaces and sometimes, for the wealthy, it can be indoors. (Think of a small park hibaci on steriods.)

    For my birthday dinner, I don’t remember the place but I do remember what I ate. We went to a large cavernous restaurant, loud and painted blue where I had a Pork Sirloin with Chimichurri. The wine we drank was a bottle of Spanish red, a tinto del toro, which I recognized from the States. (Why I didn’t want wine from Mendoza, I don’t remember. Probably because its what I was drinking mostly while we were there.)

    We had planned to spend Christmas in Buenos Aires as well so I planned out the Christmas dinner. It was definitely the parrilla that I wanted to play with.  I went to one of the local butchers to create an Argentinean dinner which is essentially just grilling everything except for the empanadas which were bought from a store front that only made empanadas. I purchased around 20lbs of meat (including chicken and pork) at a ridiculous cost of about $20 dollars. It was so inexpensive that I went a little hog wild. (Sorry, couldn’t resist). I also made the chimmichurri which was a little difficult without a food processor or a mortar and pestle. Everything was chopped with a steak knife. (Hey, we rented an apartment with a lovely kitchen not a restaurant.). We even had guests! We had met this lovely family from Chicago and invited them to eat with us and also the apartment’s caretaker came to celebrate. This time, we had copious amounts of Argentinean wine.

    So, when I grill, sometimes I think back to that trip. It’s July and I grilled steaks. It made me think of Christmas in Buenos Aires.

    Grilled Blade Steaks with Cucumber Tomato Salsa

    You Will Need The Following
    4 Blade Steaks
    Soy Sauce
    Olive Oil
    Chili Flakes
    1 large cucumber
    3 lbs tomatoes
    2 clovea of garlic
    1 half a chopped red onion
    1 small jalapeno.

    Let’s Finish This Puppy Up! (I eyeball this so just go with it…if not…at least you had a little fun.)
    1) Put the steaks in a zip lock bag and put four or five glugs of soy sauce, five glugs of olive oil, chili flakes (that’s me…joking), and a minced clove of garlic. Do this the night before or before you head out the door for work after the meat has defrosted. Essentially, this will tenderize the meat.
    2) Chop all the other ingredients and put into a bowl or container. Toss and shake the container up to mix the flavors. A good rumba works well.
    3) Grill the meat to your liking. (Argentineans love well-done meat. Funny, isn’t it? I wasn’t going to tell them how to cook it. I was in their country.)
    4) Place on platter and spoon out the salsa on top of the meat.
    5) Voila!

  • Los Angeles Surprises & Garden Fresh Gazpacho

    Subway image

    Los Angeles is not known for trains or gardens. Normally, the Land of Pretty People is thought of as a place of vast asphalt and traffic jams. Where a minor fender-bender can result in a manslaughter charge. Tonight though,  Lulu, Don and I were going to high-tail it on three trains to get to Highland Park, a small off-shoot community populated with Hispanic families and which is fast becoming one of the new hipster areas that will soon be teeming with tattooed skinny boys, multi-colored haired women and piercing aficionados who know nothing about BDSM.

    Ingredients for Gazpacho<

    First, it was an early dinner of Gazpacho and Pasta at Lulu’s. When I arrived at Lu’s house, Don was in the backyard picking tomatoes but Lu was already setting up the image of the washed arugula and other freshly harvested vegetables to be shot for this blog.  After the requisite but lovely air-kisses, I was given the task of squeezing the meat from the large and beautiful heirloom tomatoes. (You don’t have to ask me twice!). It was a very Nigella Lawson moment as the joke abounded “about squeezing the meat”. Essentially, I was extracting the juice and pulp from the tomato so that it would be easier to puree into the soup leaving the…ahem…seeds from the meat. (Sorry, I said that it was very Nigella Lawson-like.)

    Anyhow, into the blender went the squeezed tomato pulp, cucumber, onion, garlic and a little green pepper. and out came a sweet, refreshing chilled soup.

    Lulu's Garden Gazpacho

    After this delicious dinner, served with Shrimp and Arugula Pesto and a Smokey Roasted Tomato Pasta, we began our adventure of riding the Los Angeles train system. Getting on at Exposition and La Cienega, which we needed to take a car (only in LA), we bought our TAP cards and away we went. This particular line traveled by Leimert Park, Staples Center, Civic Center, University of Southern California and was almost completely above ground. It’s really a good way to see Los Angeles without the stop and go traffic. We swtiched to the Red Line for a bit of time and then, transferred to the Gold Line which took us up into the streets again. We slipped past Chinatown and South Pasadena and arriving at Highland Park, which is neon lights, tree-lined avenues and Latino thumping music.

    photo (117)

    It was an art gallery opening that we are in the area to see but the subway or elevated or whatever transportation system Angelenos start calling our “train”. It’s a great way to avoid traffic, not worry about parking and see The City of Angels without wings.

    Garden Fresh Gazpacho
    You Will Need:
    2 to 3 lbs Heirloom Tomatoes
    1 large, peeled, seeded cucumber
    2 cloves garlic (peeled)
    1 half onion/ shallot chopped.
    1 chopped bell pepper (red or yellow are preferable)

    Let’s Finish This Puppy
    1. Using a fine mesh strainer, squeeze out the meat and push through gently. Leaving behind the skins and seeds.
    2. Place everything into a blender or food processor including the tomato pulp or liquid.
    3. Hit that button marked “puree”. Voila, gazpacho.

    Ideas: Taking this basic premise, you can add vegetable stock to make it thinner. Add some sour cream or creme fraiche to finish it. Maybe a little cilantro to make it feel special.

  • Yucatan Chicken Dinner Party with Mark and Mary

    Cucumbers with an Herb & Garlic Goat Cheese Dip
    Cucumbers with an Herb & Garlic Goat Cheese Dip

    Being a single person, I admit that I like cooking for myself. I don’t have to worry about someone saying, “That’s too much of this!” or “Don’t put that in!”. I really enjoy the freedom of not hearing another voice. First, I have more voices in my head then Sybil and, second, I think if you think you can do much better, than I am really happy to relinquish the task. Instead I hear, “What are we going to do for dinner?” Yep, single….much better.

    Although I do find, as a couple, you have a lot of dinner parties. I’m not sure why that is. Maybe because you get tired of looking at each other night after night over the same table. Who knows? Recently, I’ve found myself the happy recipient of being a guest at many delicious dinners as I have shared such as Shelley’s, David’s, Mark’s and Mary’s. Thus, in return, I decided to do the same for Mark and Mary making it a two-fer.

    Red Potato and Egg Salad
    Red Potato and Egg Salad

    And…cough,cough… being the over-the-top control freak that I am (“Didn’t I say no wire hangers!” Oops, that was Joan Crawford.)…I love cooking food in themes. Hawaiian-themed with everything garnished with a pineapple. (Heh!) Southern themed. Italian-themed. For Mark, who did Moroccan, and Mary, who did barbeque, I opted for “Picnic Indoors”. It was a menu which consisted of Cucumber Slices with Garlic and Herb Goat Cheese Dip (see above), a simple but delicious Red Potato and Egg Salad sans the Hellman’s (mayo) (also above), BBQ Beans, and a lovely Roasted Yucatan Chicken (Roasted Achiote Chicken). Essentially, everything could be served at room temperature or cold. Making the temperature of the apartment come down by the time dinner came out. It was a very gay dinner. (Get it? Came out? Gay dinner?)

    The Roasted Yucatan Chicken is one of my favorites on the roasted Chicken. Hailing from the Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, achiote paste is fairly easy to make or buy it at your local market. The paste made from the annatto seed is very hard so it’s best if you use a spice mill or grinder. (The seed is actually used often as a coloring agent from everything to cheese, to clothes so be careful how you handle it.) Once you coat your chicken in the paste, it will come out with a deep orange hue, something akin to a sunset. It gives the skin a deliciously mild heat and smokiness. You can use this on grilled fish and chicken or oven-steam in foil. Make a lot and you can freeze it for up to 3 months.

    You Will Need:
    1/4 cup annatto seeds. (Found in the ethnic section of your supermarket, somewhere by the soy sauce and jarred Gelfite fish)
    1 teaspoon cumin or powder. (Make these easy on your self, the annatto seeds are tough enough.)
    1 teaspoon oregano
    1/ 4 tablespoon of allspice berries
    Sea salt
    4 garlic cloves, pressed
    Juice of 3 limes

    Let’s Make This Puppy:
    Combine the annatto seeds, cumin seeds, oregano, allspice berries, and salt in a spice mill or coffee grinder. Grind to a powderlike consistency. In a small bowl, mix the powder with the garlic and lime juice. Store in an airtight container, in the refrigerator.

    Use for Cochinita Pibil or any grilled seafood

  • Dinner at Shelley’s & Hanging in the Kitchen: Pork and Apple Meatball Submarines,

    250px-Dagwood_Comics

    It’s been a little bit of time since I posted. Writing a blog is time consuming and I was trying to do three a week. I think two a week is a little more manageable plus cooking, working, hanging with my homies, and writing. I have a full life.

    As life goes on, as it does, I’ve stopped pulling out the grays because I want to keep what remaining hair I have, I become more and more interested in spending quality time with my friends. To me, that means, cooking together. Not necessarily eating but the time you spend chopping and stirring. There is definitely something beautifully human in the idea of “hanging out in the kitchen”. We, meaning people, love being in the space where the food resides, not because we are hungry but because it’s where we are nourished. Physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually nourished.

    Working-Kitchen-Black

    Recently, I came to a place in my cooking where I kind of just wanted to cook but not eat. I know that’s an odd thing to say but it’s where I get my satisfaction, turning the ever-present “committee” off. You know, that round-table of voices saying, “You aren’t good enough”, “You can’t do that” and my favorite….”You will never be loved.” (I can only imagine what goes through Gordon Ramsey’s head….actually, I don’t want to know.)

    So, on one of these past Sundays Shelley said, “Why don’t we cook?” With Shelley, since she’s always working, we need to do something simple. I like simple, easy, obtainable food even when eating out at restaurants and at home. Pizzas, Tuscan food, sometimes French. I know many people love 15 ingredients cooking like making Moroccan or even high-end dining where the food is pristine and artistically maneuvered. I was in the mood to make Pork Apple Burgers. Something kind of different but kind of not. Still an easy thing to make and it’s my recipe. (Really. I’m sure there is a recipe you can follow but I made this one up. A little shocking, I must say.) Then, I thought, while I was at the Farmers Market, since it was a Sunday, why don’t I get a couple of hero rolls and make a submarine sandwich. Instead of burgers, make meatballs.

    Pork and Apple Meatball Subs

    That’s what I did. Served up with a salad, tossed with a Blood Orange Vinagrette which Shelley made. Couldn’t be simpler and more perfect for two friends, hanging in the kitchen.

    You Will Need:
    1 pound ground pork
    1 Fuji Apple
    1 egg
    1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (Or more depending on how “wet” everything is when assembled.)
    1 cup (or thereabouts) freshly grated Asiago, Pecorino or Parmesan.
    2 garlic cloves
    2 tablespoons each of assorted fresh herbs (Chopped). You can use rosemary, basil, chives, oregano, thyme…any combination or use them all. Just skip the dill.
    1 12 oz can of canned tomatoes or prepared sauce. Happy Girl Kitchen in Monterey has the BEST canned tomatoes EVAH! If you live in the Bay Area you can buy it at Farmers Market in the Ferry Building. Stunning. Fresh. Not cheap but worth it if you don’t want to grow and can your own tomatoes.

    Let’s Finish This Puppy Up:
    1. Assemble everything minced or chopped into a bowl. Just go at it and mix…with your hand. (Make sure you washed them first though.)
    2. Once that’s accomplished, form into “balls”. You can make your own size but you want to get them into the rolls and you want to get them into your mouth. (You can go there…) I make my about 2 inches approximately. It should yield about 12 balls. Three per hero….(If only…sorry, I know, I know…high school humor.)
    3. Add some olive oil to a skillet and fry them up on until brown on all sides.
    4. Once browned on all sides, add the tomatoes, cover and finish cooking.
    5. Cut the bread, leaving the seams intact. Hollow out one side (This is for the meatballs to have a bed.) Brush with a little olive oil and toast in an oven. When toasted to a “toasty” brown, take a peeled garlic clove and scrub the inside of the rolls until the garlic becomes a nub and the bread is fragrant.
    6. Place the meatballs in the “bed”, pour some sauce, add some grated cheese.
    7. Voila….eat heartily….and with a lot of napkins.