Buenos Aires Herald

Getting all medieval on your chicken

Dan P.Sunday, September 23, 20120

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

While fried chicken is, in many people’s minds, automatically associated with the southern United States, it’s certainly not the origin. There’s enough archaeological evidence to trace deep-frying chicken back to the medieval era and likely before. Throughout that time period and throughout both Eastern and Western Europe, folk were frying up chickens and other birds with abandon. Recipes were already codified, which would indicate that they had long histories by that time period.

In the U.S., the dish was introduced by the Scots, many of whom settled throughout the south. Being the epoch of slavery, it’s not surprising that the serving class, mostly black, were the ones tasked with making the dish. And, as with many dishes, they put their own spin, based on the spices and flavor combinations they brought with them from the African repertoire, on it. The close association with the community was furthered by the fact that chickens were often the only animal they were allowed to keep and cook for themselves, lending to more and more innovation.

But back to Europe and, perhaps, the origins. Even that is in doubt – after all, the domestic chicken is a crossbred animal imported from southeast Asia, and there are certainly fried version of fowl in the various canons of cooking from that region of the world. One of the most popular dishes in Indonesia is ayam goreng, which is, well, fried chicken. So who fried that first chicken? We’ll never know, and in truth, we’ll probably never really care. We just like to eat it.

In this week’s column we’re headed to a traditional pollo fritto from Italy, and in particular a version from the south central regions – probably originating somewhere around Umbria, back in time. It’s not a common dish these days because it’s fairly picante, and over the last century or so many of those old spicy dishes have been left by the wayside. I mean, try to find a good spaghetti all’assassino anywhere outside of some small villages in Basilicata. Much like here in Argentina where over time, many of those older, more fuerte dishes, seem to have been dropped from the repertoire. Hmm, there’s an idea for some future columns, bringing back some of those older, more “puta pario” dishes that local friends tell me their grandparents used to make.

So, let’s, to quote a TV chef of note, kick it up a notch, and “bam”, put out a spread of some spicy fried chicken.

Spicy Green Olive Chicken

4 chicken breasts, butterflied or pounded flat
60 grams flour
1 egg, beaten with 25 ml milk
100 grams breadcrumbs (panko are best)
25 grams grated hard cheese
1 standard can plum tomatoes (roughly 240 grams) – peeled and crushed
4 garlic cloves, sliced
12 green olives, pitted and sliced
4 hot chilies, sliced
50 ml balsamic vinegar
good handful of mixed herbs, chopped (parsley, oregano, basil are good choices)
50 ml olive oil

Make a mixture of the breadcrumbs and cheese. Dip the chicken pieces in flour, then in beaten egg, then in the breadcrumb mixture. Fry in oil until lightly browned. Add the garlic, olives and chiles to the pan and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar and cook, turning the chicken over every minute or two, until you’re sure it’s cooked through – about another 5-6 minutes. Add the herbs and serve – our favorite accompaniment to this is either a simple pasta, or better yet, some baked macaroni and cheese.

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

Poultry

Veg on a spike

Dan P.Sunday, September 16, 20120

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

With spring arriving on our doorstep the verdulerías are in bloom with a riot of color. Beautiful vegetables are piled high and calling out to be used for something, anything. And, it’s time, if you have one, to start thinking about breaking out the parrilla – scrape off all that crusty stuff left from the last barbecue – you know you said you’d get to it another day and then forgot about it. Go look, really.

Of course, not everyone has a grill at home, and for those who don’t, there’s nothing wrong with a stovetop grill, ridged or not, or even a bit hulking frying pan, preferably something heavy like cast iron. Most of the year we can’t quite get ourselves to spend the time firing up the charcoal, it’s a whole lot easier to stick the plancha on top of a couple of burners and crank the flame up underneath.

So now that we’ve got all that out of the way, some heat in the offing, and vegetables that you enjoy piled up on the counter, it’s time to get to work. We’re going to make brochettes, kebabs, skewers, spiedos, pinchos, whatever name it is you like to use. You’re going to need skewers, whether metal (much preferred for this), or wood. If you use the latter, soak them in water for an hour or two before threading the vegetables on them, it will cut down on them burning.

So here’s dinner at our house when we’re in the mood to stick a veg or two on a spike….

Vegetable Brochette

1 large onion
1 green bell pepper
2-3 red frying peppers (ají vinagres)
4-6 mushrooms
1 medium eggplant
1 medium zucchini
2 tomatoes
salt and pepper
olive oil
salsa verde

Basically, cut all the vegetables into wedges or pieces that are 2-3 cm across. Wedges are great where possible, squares, rounds, whatever works for you. And then, poke the skewers through them, mixing up the vegetables so that they look pretty. Sprinkle them with salt and freshly ground pepper, and then drizzle them lightly with olive oil on all sides.

Onto the grill with the skewers – it should be really hot to start with, we’re looking to just get a bit of a sear, or caramelization, on the surface of the vegetables. Turn them after you get a little bit of color, maybe 1-2 minutes, and just do that until all sides have a touch of browning.

At this point, turn the heat to low, or move the skewers to a low heat part of the grill. Take your salsa verde and brush the upper surface of the brochettes, and then turn that to face down. Keep doing that every couple of minutes until the vegetables are cooked through – in total, we’re looking at about 5-6 minutes for the first part of browning, and then maybe 12-15 minutes of cooking over lower heat, regularly brushing on our sauce.

When they’re cooked through and nicely browned, serve them up on a platter alongside some simple rice – whatever your preference is for type. When we can get it, we love to use wild rice or a mix of wild and white.

Salsa Verde (Green Sauce)

This is one of our staples in the kitchen, it’s incredibly simple to make, and pairs well with vegetables, meat, pasta, gnocchi – really, wherever you want an intense herb flavor. Traditionally it’s not a vegetarian sauce, but there’s an easy fix for that.

1 large bunch of mixed fresh herbs (parsley, chives, cilantro, dill – whatever you like)
1 handful of arugula leaves
3-4 anchovies (if you want to keep this vegetarian, use a tablespoonful of miso paste instead)
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoonful of capers
6 green olives, pitted
100 ml good olive oil
salt and pepper

Put everything into a blender or food processor, set to stun, and go for it. When it’s nicely pureed (add more oil if needed to get a smooth puree), adjust the seasoning to your tastes and start using.

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

Vegetables

Toasted ravioli

Dan P.Sunday, September 9, 20120

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

If you haven’t figured out by now, I’m a bit of a pasta fan. I don’t care if they’re long and thin, short and fat, straight, bent or twisted. Toss those noodles with a sauce, vegetables, meats, whatever may occur to you, and likely, I’ll eat it.

Now, if you were to ask most folk about cooking pasta, they’d tell you to boil it up, in salted water, maybe with some oil mixed in. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But, this weekend, we’re not boiling our pasta. We’re baking it. Baking you say? Why yes – pasta doesn’t have to be boiled – it is after all, simply a dough made from flour and water, often with egg. And, if you stop and consider, lasagna is baked… right there, you’ve baked pasta – though, likely, you gave it a quick parboil first. No, today, we’re simply going to bake it.

This isn’t unheard of. For those of you from the U.S., particularly from, say, the “Show Me State” of Missouri, you might just be familiar with St. Louis Toasted Ravioli. Traditionally, a straightforward meat or cheese filled round of dough, dipped in egg, then in “Italian seasoned” breadcrumbs, deep-fried, tossed in grated parmesan (which may or may not also be mixed into the breadcrumbs), and then served up smothered in marinera sauce.

The Italians, too, make a fried ravioli – seadas – a traditional cheese filled and honey and grappa soaked dessert pasta. But, we’re talking fried here. What about all that baked? For those who want to cut out a bit of the whole deep-frying fat thing, these work out just perfectly when treated to oven cooking. And, I’ll also throw in a twist on those traditional Italian flavors – we’re going to finish these with a lemon sauce and some fresh mussels.

I’m going to trust, for this column’s purposes, that you can come up with some fresh pasta sheets, either homemade or store-bought. You’ll need about 250 grams.

Baked Ravioli

250 gm feta or ricotta cheese
250 gm fresh spinach leaves, washed and coarsely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt, black pepper, nutmeg

Saute the onion in the oil until soft and just starting to color. Add the spinach and cook until well wilted. Add the crumbled cheese and mix well. Season to taste – if you use feta, which I recommend, you’ll need very little salt. Let the mixture cool and fill the ravioli, sealing them well – try to avoid air pockets – when deep-frying or baking, these have a tendency to expand quickly and you end up with a ravioli blow-out. You should end up with a couple dozen ravioli.

2 eggs
100 ml milk
200 gm breadcrumbs (approximately)
100 gm grated parmesan

Mix the breadcrumbs and parmesan. Separately, lightly beat together the eggs and milk. Dip each ravioli into the egg mix, then into the breadcrumb cheese mix, and then place on a lightly oiled baking tray (or, better yet, on a silicone baking sheet. Into the oven with the tray at 200̊C, a fairly hot oven, and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Sauce

2 eggs
juice of 2 lemons
5 tablespoons hot stock

Beat the eggs for 3 minutes in a mixer, until just starting to thicken and lighten in color, then beat in the lemon juice. Slowly add the hot (not boiling) stock, beating at the same time. Keep warm, but not too hot or the eggs will curdle.

And, finally, to round the dish out, if you’d like a little seafood with it, my favorite, and simplest preparation of mussels.

1 kg fresh mussels, washed well and de-bearded
10 gm ground black pepper

Put mussels and black pepper in a large pot, cover, no added liquid or anything else. Put over a high flame, and cook for 5-6 minutes, until the mussels all steam open in their own juices. Delicious on their own with some crusty Italian bread, or, as here, remove them from their shells and serve along with the ravioli and lemon sauce.

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

Pasta, Seafood

Lunch steak

Dan P.Sunday, September 2, 20120

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

This last week I was listening to an NPR broadcast online, an interview with Eugene Gagliardi, the inventor of the Steak-Umm (and other “convenience foods”), that pale imitation of a lunch steak. It got me thinking – a couple of years ago, here in Argentina, the local Heritage Commission declared a new range of food items that were considered “emblematic” of porteño culture. Those of us who live here in our adopted country have become used to offbeat claims in casual conversation by many a local that one plate or another is Argentine in origin. Often, these dishes are ones that anyone who travels the globe or explores the world of food knows existed elsewhere in the world long before Argentina had anything but a native, indigenous cuisine. But this wasn’t some guy at the local kiosk, this was an official government announcement.

The one that generated the most controversy at the time among my circle of friends was the milanesa a la napolitana, that ubiquitous local version of a weiner schnitzel topped with ham, cheese, and a bit of tomato sauce. Much of the controversy came from the juxtaposition of “milanesa” (from Milan) and “napolitana” (from Naples). The milanesa part is easy, pounded thin, breaded and fried slices of beef or veal are called cotoletta alla milanesa in Italy, or, a “Milan style cutlet”, and have been since before the first Italian set foot on South American soil.

While the name “a la Napolitana” is both claimed locally to come from the idea of Neapolitan pizza or from a restaurant called El Napolitano that existed in the 1940s over by Luna Park; most likely this is a simple renaming of the classic Neapolitan saltimbocca alla Sorrentina – pounded thin, floured or breaded, fried slices of veal topped with Parma ham, mozzarella, and a fresh tomato sauce. The dish has been around since long before anyone from Sorrento headed to Argentina. Who knows, maybe that’s where the owners of El Napolitano were from?

One can even look at things like schnitzel “cordon bleu”, a dish dating back to some unknown time in the history of L’Ordre des Chevaliers du Saint Esprit, the organization of knights famed for their luxurious banquets since 1578… this dish a breaded cutlet topped with a thin slice of ham and melted cheese – only missing that bit of tomato sauce.

But regardless, it’s a favorite lunch, there are even restaurants dedicated to nothing but differing versions of the milanesa. And, while we may not fire up the grill just to make a casual meal, we’re quite happy to throw a couple of these lunch steaks into a pan and make our own version – generally without the breading and frying part, though trust me, we’re not going to stop you if that’s your preference. This version, a favorite here at home, is based on a traditional scallopini from Umbria.

Umbrian Veal Scallops

4 large veal scallops (milanesas de ternera)
5 cloves of garlic
1 small onion, chopped
1 small bunch basil
4 sprigs oregano
4 leaves of mint
1 sprig rosemary
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
2 salted anchovies
juice of 4 lemons
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Season the veal with salt and pepper and saute in olive oil. The remaining ingredients are pounded together in a mortar, or, in modern day, pulsed in a food processor or blender to form a sauce. Add the sauce to the pan and cook just enough to warm it. Adjust the seasoning with more salt and pepper if needed. Serve the veal slices with the sauce spooned over them, and a nice green salad on the side. Serves 4.

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

Red meat

A chicken in every pot

Dan P.Sunday, August 26, 20120

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

As winter slowly crawls towards its finale, replete with a constant assault of water falling from the skies, our thoughts here at home turn towards warming, comfort food. I’ve covered one-pot sort of meals here in this column with a look at lighter takes on classic local stews like locro and lentejas, but what about a non-stew sort of meal?

One of our favorite dishes, and when it comes down to it, not just for colder weather, is roast chicken. Whether we leave it whole and roast it in its glory, or spatchcock it, “mariposa” style, as it were, and broil or grill it, or, simply pan roast it, already cut into serving pieces, it forms the centerpiece of a tasty and simple meal to prepare, and one that we repeat time and again throughout the year, with variations only as to its accompaniments.

For this week’s column I’m going the route of the “fondant” method – classically used for root vegetables like potatoes, it’s an extraordinarily simple and completely satisfying way of achieving delicious results with minimal effort. At its simplest, you brown the potatoes or whatever you’re cooking, add some stock and throw the whole thing in the oven and cook until done. And, given that we’re using a very small amount of stock, using a “cube” is perfectly acceptable here. As friends from the other side of one or the other of the oceans might say – this is the perfect “chicken and two veg”.

Pan-Roast Chicken, Potatoes & Broccoli

4 serving pieces of chicken (or more, as you like)
4 small to medium potatoes
1 large head of broccoli
100 ml olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
3-4 sprigs of rosemary or other aromatic herb
3 garlic cloves flattened (skin and all)
200 ml chicken or vegetable stock (from a cube is fine)
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to medium high heat, 200°C. Get a large skillet, preferably cast iron (it just works better), heated up over a medium flame. Peel the potatoes and cut in half, or slices, or whatever shape makes you happy. Separate the broccoli into florets.

When the skillet is good and hot, add the olive oil – this is a place to use a more basic olive oil, not your fancy and expensive extra virgin sort – and, yes, other vegetable oils are fine if you don’t have the olive. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper, place them skin side down into the hot oil – make sure it’s good and hot, that will help prevent the chicken from sticking. Now season your pieces of potato and place them around the chicken, with one surface flat on the pan.

Add the butter, garlic and the herb sprigs and just let them much about in there. The butter will help the chicken and potato brown, but won’t burn over the higher heat because of the oil. Cook until the chicken and potatoes are nicely browned on the underside, then flip them over. Here’s where it gets really easy. Pour in the stock, toss the broccoli into the skillet as well, just letting it nestle in around the chicken and potatoes. Stick the whole skillet into the oven.

Walk away. Really, walk away I tell you. Leave it for 15 minutes. Go set the table, watch the news, check your Facebook page, send a tweet “roast chicken and two veg for dinner – what are you having?” Come back, remove the skillet, serve as is, or move all the various components to a big platter or plates. Pour a glass of wine. Enjoy!

We often like to top this with a nice salsa verde, which is basically a pesto (we’ve covered that in past columns) without the cheese and nuts – into the blender with some fresh herbs like parsley, mint, rosemary, a couple of garlic cloves, a couple of anchovies (don’t worry, they’ll disappear and just provide some salt), a spoonful of capers, a dried chili, the juice and zest of a lemon, and about 100 ml of olive oil. Blend, or pulse, for just long enough to thoroughly chop everything without turning it into a smooth puree (or do, it’ll still taste as good).

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

Poultry

The 110 on TVP

Dan P.Sunday, August 12, 20120

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

You have that friend who’s a vegetarian, you know the one. Always going on about seitan and tempeh and quorn and tvp. You nod and smile as if you actually know what those are and then promptly excuse yourself, rush off to the nearest parrilla stand and order a vaciopan “extra jugoso” just to recover your inner balance and put everything right in the world. You know that, perhaps, you ought to be eating two or three fewer chorizos per weeks, but they’re just so darned good, and the idea of “meat substitute”, well, that’s a conversation best left for, well, never.

But, we’re going to have it anyway. You’re all grown up now, you can handle it. And today we’re going to tackle “tvp”, or “textured vegetable protein”. We’ll set seitan, or wheat gluten, to the side because here you either have to make it yourself or for the most part trek to Barrio Chino to buy it; tempeh, a sort of fermented version of tofu, is near non-existent; and quorn, a mushroom based fake meat has yet to hit this riverbank. But, tvp is all around us, you can find it in virtually any dietetica, where it goes by the monikers soja texturizada or carne de soja.

It sounds like something industrial, and when it comes down to it, it is. Somewhere, in an evil factory, someone is taking mounds of soybeans and extracting all the soybean oil from it, leaving behind a high protein, fat free, soy flour. Someone else is taking that flour and heating it up and pressurizing it, and then extruding it… yes, I used the word extruding early on a Sunday morning, and forming granules or strips or chunks of what sort of looks like a golden colored packing material. All sounds really appetizing and gets you revved up to run to the dietetica right now, doesn’t it?

But here’s the thing – we eat all sorts of things that go through processes like this, and the cool thing about tvp is that it’s basically just 100% high protein soy – high protein like 50% by weight. It’s a completely blank, tasteless canvas, and is flavored by rehydrating it in whatever liquid you choose – most often something like a good soup stock, but you can use your imagination, where it takes on that flavor. From there, it can be used as a meat substitute.

Now, we’re going to start with the easy one – the granules – which basically, when rehydrated in a nice, dark, roasted vegetable stock, looks like ground beef. And that’s how we’re going to use it today. We’re going to make our very lahmajoon (or any of various other similar spellings), those lovely little open faced empanadas arabes that we find all around the town.

Lahmajoon – Armenian “Pizzas”

165 gm all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
approximately 175 ml warm water

2 garlic cloves
1 medium onion
1 small green pepper
120 gm TVP in granule
240 ml of warm vegetable stock (or water)
170 gm tomato paste
4 plum tomatoes (canned are fine here)
10-12 sprigs parsley
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
Lemon wedges, to serve

Mix dry dough ingredients together in a bowl, add olive oil and mix well with your fingers or a fork until it resembles wet sand. Add water, a little at a time as needed, to make a smooth dough – soft but not sticky. Knead a few minutes, then form into six equal size balls, then let rest for 15 minutes. Roll out into individual rounds. Heat the oven to 200°C.

Rehydrate the TVP in the stock until it has absorbed all the liquid – about 5 minutes. Finely chop the onion, garlic, parsley, green pepper and tomatoes. Add the TVP, tomato paste, cumin, cayenne, and salt and pepper and mix well – you can even pulse all this in a food processor if you prefer. The consistency should be wet and pasty, like a thick spread. And, spread a layer of the mixture onto flour rounds all the way to the edge. Bake directly on the oven rack for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges are browned and the filling is cooked through. If they begin to inflate in the oven like a pita bread, or pan arabe, pop them with a fork from the top. To serve, squeeze some lemon over the top and eat.

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

Baking, Vegetables

In the salmon’s layer

Dan P.Sunday, August 5, 20120

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

The common definition these days of a pescetarian seems to be “a vegetarian who eats fish”. That’s not in accord with the Vegetarian Society – the coiners of the term vegetarian back in 1847, who point out quite rightly that fish are not vegetables, they are meat. They may not be red meat, they may not be poultry, but they are, quite simply and graphically, animal flesh. Still, the common definition cited in the first sentence seems to pop up more and more – at my restaurant I constantly get request from “vegetarians” who tell me that fish and shellfish are just fine.

Of course, I also get some who tell me that they’ll eat a bit of bacon, or perhaps a sausage, or even a chicken wing were it to show up on their plate. “Vegetarian” it seems, is simply a moniker many adopt to make a claim to better dietary practice, regardless of reality.

One of my favorite go-to dishes is one that I came up with many years ago for some visiting fish eating friends who also were trying to lighten up their lives and asked me to avoid pasta… and also rice, potatoes and bread. A gut-wrenching experience for someone trained by Jewish bubbes and Italian nonnas.

But I got over it and whipped up this “lasagna”, with slices of white eggplant standing in for the noodles. When you get right down to it, it’s really just more of a hot terrine of sorts, sans any kind of gelling agent to hold it together, and I’m sticking with my lasagna claim. It’s a quick and easy dish to whip up and a crowd pleaser for the pescetarian set. And of course, if you want to throw in a layer or two of noodles, some cheese, or some bechamel sauce, who am I to say no?

Salmon & Eggplant Lasagna

500 gm fresh salmon
2 large eggplants (white ones if you can find them)
1 large bunch of fresh basil
6 plum tomatoes
250 gm black olives, “Greek” style
Approximately 1 cup olive oil
4-5 sprigs of fresh oregano
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed
2 cloves garlic
3 anchovies
salt and black pepper

Slice the salmon into 1 cm thick slices. Slice the eggplants into slightly thinner slices. And, slice the tomatoes into thin slices. Pit the olives. Now you’re ready to start cooking.

In a large frying pan, saute the eggplant slices in a little olive oil a few at a time (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan) with a little salt and pepper. Keep the heat fairly high as it will help prevent the eggplant slices from absorbing too much oil. When the slices are lightly golden on both sides, set them aside to drain on some paper towel.

In a blender mix the pitted olives, the leaves from the oregano, capers, garlic and anchovies and blend with just enough of the olive oil to give yourself a smooth paste – a tapenade. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper – you probably won’t need much, if any, salt.

Lightly oil a 20 x 30 cm baking dish and place a single layer of the eggplant, covering the bottom – they can slightly overlap, not a problem – aim to use a third of the slices in this layer. Top that with a layer of the sliced salmon and a layer of basil leaves. Then place a second layer of the eggplant, again using about a third of the slices. Top that with the tomato slices and coat generously with about half of the tapenade (olive puree). Finish off with the last third of the eggplant slices, sprinkle with a little fresh pepper, and then cover the baking dish with foil.

Bake in a hot oven (180°C) for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and turn the oven up to broil and cook just a few minutes more to lightly brown the top. Remove from the oven and let it sit a few minutes, then cut into portions (this should make roughly six, depending on how hungry you all are) and serve, topped with the remaining tapenade and basil leaves. Accompany it with a nice green salad and some of that fresh bread you made from last weekend’s column, and you’ve got yourself one delicious pescetarian dinner.

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

Fish, Pasta

The big panino

Dan P.Sunday, July 29, 20120

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

We always have fresh bread around the house. Sometimes we buy it from a local bakery, but more often, it’s just something that one or both of us make every other day or so. No cultural offense intended, but the miñon that is ubiquitous on tables throughout Buenos Aires has, bluntly, the texture of a medicinal cotton ball and a flavor not much different. It amazes me, and many of my friends, that a culture so based in the history of its Italian and Spanish ancestors can mass produce such a pale imitation of the staff of life.

One of my favorites, for many uses, though especially for sandwiches (and those of you who read my blog know that I’m a sandwich fanatic), is the ciabatta, or “slipper bread”. In classic form it’s somewhat flatter than a more rustic Italian loaf, mostly due to being a very wet, soft dough, and, also is generally pinched in towards the center, almost hourglass shaped. In short, looking a bit like a bedroom slipper. The form maybe important in some presentations but isn’t key – it’s the process of making and working with a wet dough that gives this bread its unique texture.

There are two versions of the bread, one made with a starter, essentially a sourdough, the other a more “quick bread” style – and I’m going to hit you up with the latter because who among us has time to spend on making starters and all that? Now and again for a special occasion, you know? I also recommend using a mixer with a paddle attachment (rather than dough hook) – you can certainly make this bread by hand but it requires an inordinate amount of work.

Ciabatta – Slipper Bread

220 gm bread flour (000 or better yet, “harina aglutinada”)
80 gm semolina flour
300 ml warm water
1 packet dry or half cube (25 gm) fresh yeast
2 teaspoons (10 gm) salt
1 teaspoon (4 gm) sugar

In the bowl of your mixer place the warm water, sugar and yeast, give it a quick stir and leave it for a few minutes until the yeast is bubbling away. Add the flours and salt. Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment – this dough is very wet and what you need to do is beat a lot of air into it. Start the mixer slow until it is all combined – the texture will be like a thick pancake or crepe batter.

Turn the speed up to fairly high and let it go for approximately 10 minutes. By this point the gluten will have developed sufficiently that the texture will be something like marshmallow. Turn the speed down to medium and continue for another 5-6 minutes (you can, if you like, switch to the dough hook at this point, particularly if it seems like the paddle is having trouble kneading the dough) – until the dough more or less starts to “climb” up and wrap itself around the paddle or hook.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, lightly cover with a kitchen towel and leave in a warm place to double in volume. Remove from the bowl, split the dough in two (or more if you want to make small sandwich breads), and spread each half out in a rough disk on a floured surface – don’t flatten it too much, just stretch it out to about 25-30cm across. Starting from one side and using a pastry scraper or spatula, roll the dough up from one side to the other, then place on an oiled baking sheet. If you want to make the traditional form, use a large round cutter, or scissors, and cut an arc out of each side. Cover with the towel again and leave until doubled once more.

Bake in a very hot oven (200°C or more) until browned and crisp on the outside and it should sound hollow when you tap on it. Rotate the baking sheet once or twice during the cooking so that if your oven doesn’t heat evenly on all sides the bread will cook more evenly. Remove, leave to cool, slice and enjoy.

One of our favorite things to do with one of these big loaves is treat it almost like a pizza – we slice it in half horizontally, brush it with olive oil and stick it under the broiler to get golden. Then we top it with a mix of olive oil sauteed vegetables – zucchini, eggplant, tomato, onions, peppers, chilies, olives, and perhaps a little finely chopped prosciutto (jamón crudo), some salt and pepper. We pile those on the two halves of the bread, top with a good melting cheese – cuartirolo is a favorite – and a grating of parmesan, and stick it back under the broiler to lightly brown. Makes a fantastic dinner!

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

Baking

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