Carine Clary - 3/26 - The FrangloSaxon Cooks

Ragu alla Bolognese

June 15, 2019 by Carine Clary 2 Comments

Everyone needs a good basic ragu meat sauce and this one is a variation on the one our neighbor used to make when I was growing up. She was “Miss Nonna” to us and her husband was an angostura bitters importer which I thought was the ultimate exotic profession (and notable by its absence at my high school career day, but no matter.) She made good everything and the only change to this basic ragu is the optional substitution of port wine for red wine and the addition of fennel pollen.

So assemble your ingredients as below and let ‘er rip (but very slowly and on a low temperature).

…and yes, that’s an anchovy over there at five o’clock. Just drop it in the pot and it will puree all on its own after a few hours.

Ragu alla Bolognese

Author: Carine Clary

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 4

Ingredients

¼ cup lard (or same amount of olive oil and three strips bacon)
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 medium carrot, grated
1 rib celery, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
½ tsp. fennel pollen (or fennel seeds, or powdered fennel)
1 lb. ground chuck (or ½ lb. chuck & ½ lb ground pork or loose pork sausage)
¼ cup red wine
a few gratings of fresh nutmeg
1 bay leaf
½ tsp. red pepper flakes (or cayenne)
1 15 oz. can of tomato sauce
¾ cup water
salt and black pepper to taste
Parmesan

Instructions

Heat lard in heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Add the vegetables and saute for about 5 minutes. If you’re using olive oil and bacon, mince the bacon and fry it in the oil till all the fat is rendered out. You can leave the bacon in.
Raise heat to medium high, add beef stirring till it is broken up, about 5 minutes.
Add spices & bay leaf.
Add wine and stir till mostly evaporated.
Add tomato sauce and water and cook over a very low heat for at least a couple of hours to three or four.

Notes

Very low heat means low as you can go. Don’t want to end up with sludge. And check for taste and consistency after an hour. Excellent base for lasagna. And don’t be afraid of the fennel. It won’t make the sauce taste like licorice – in this small amount it just enhances the flavor.
If you have it and are feeling adventurous, substitute in whole or part, ruby port for the wine. It’ll make the sauce a bit sweeter and richer.
If you're running a little short of ground meat don't worry. I've made this with about ⅔rds of a pound and it is plenty meaty.

Can add an optional anchovy. I usually do.

Chicken Clemenceau

May 27, 2019 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

Chicken Clemenceau, named after Georges Clémenceau, the World War I French President, is one of the backbone dishes of New Orleans restaurant cuisine, probably because it’s a composite, easy to assemble entree and who doesn’t like fried potatoes?

As a kid I used to order the shrimp version at Galatoires mostly because I loved shrimp and partly because I liked rolling the peas around my plate and surreptitiously flipping them at various angles towards unsuspecting diners. My mother tried to encourage eating as opposed to flipping by reminding me of starving children who would kill for peas. Unfortunately my sympathy for invisible starving people was poorly developed at that point so I kept up the flipping until my father proposed the scenario whereby I was an evil giant and the peas were rebellious peasants whom I must spear and devour.

It was a winning strategy! I really cottoned to the idea of being the all powerful pea(sant) killer and have loved peas ever since – enough, at least, to use them in recipes like this.

One thing that struck me when I first started making this at home was the tendency of some recipe writers to call for large amounts of frying oil, in one case an actual gallon. This is fine if you have a dedicated biofuel pump in your kitchen but for most people it’s just way way too much. If you cut the potatoes up into small chunks you can pan fry the lot in an inch or so of oil. With the price of oil being what it is deep frying has become an indulgence of the rich. So the thing to remember about frying veg in oil is, cut small, fry shallow. You’ll save enough over time to buy some caviar.

So to sum up this recipe I’d say it’s more about organization than actual culinary skill. After you put the chicken in the oven it’s just a matter of getting the other ingredients prepped, sauteed and assembled.

Chicken Clemenceau

Author: Carine Clary

Cuisine: Creole

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 small chicken, about 3 lbs., cut up (or equal weight in cut up parts)
Salt, poultry seasoning, and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 lb. potatoes (red or Yukon Gold), diced & soaked in water for 30 minutes
Vegetable oil
⅓ cup clarified butter
1 lb. medium mushrooms, sliced in quarters (white or Cremini)
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1 cup green peas (fresh or frozen, not canned)
Minced curly parsley for garnish

Instructions

Dry chicken well. Season & bake skin side up in a 350 oven until done (about 30 minutes).
While the chicken is cooking, drain potatoes & fry in about an inch of the oil.
Remove and drain on paper towels.
Melt the butter over a low flame & add the garlic and mushrooms. Saute until light brown.
Add peas & cook for a few minutes.
Spoon the vegetables onto a platter, arrange the chicken on top, and garnish with parsley.

Notes

Clarified butter is butter that has been melted over a very low heat until the fluffy white milk solids float to the top. They are skimmed off and what remains is a cooking oil that has a higher smoke point than regular butter. In the Indian tradition it's called "ghee" but it tastes great in whatever cuisine it's used in.

For this recipe it's fine to just use regular butter as long as you remember to saute the garlic & mushrooms on a low enough heat to keep the butter from burning.

Kolaches

March 14, 2019 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

My first experience of kolaches came on a family car trip where we pulled over for gas in this little town north of Waco. Inside was a small case of pastries and a family of extremely blond people speaking a foreign language that was not Spanish. Hmm… Come to find out that the pastries and the people were Czech and after czeching out the eatables we were converted.

Turns out they were called Kolaches. And Kolaches, if made correctly, offer the perfect ratio of yeasty buttery dough to jammy filling – good for getting the back seat of the car sticky (sorry Mama) but worth it especially if you’re not the one cleaning up the car. So what’s the background here? Keep reading.

But first a spelling lesson. ‘Kolache’ is plural for ‘kolach’ which means wheel in Czech. It’s a general reference to the round shape of the roll which is hollowed out with your fingers and filled with cream cheese and jam. And oh yeah, it’s pronounced ‘ko – lah – chee.’ And according to some purists if you fill them with sausage and roll them up they should be called ‘klobasniki.’ which is not an authentic kolache but tastes real good and which are hanging out in the back of the photo above, although not in rolled form. And even though ‘kolach’ means wheel they are frequently square but no matter the shape they taste great.

If you find yourself in Austin you can get them at Lone Star Kolaches but if you are on the road and in West, Tx (not west Texas the geographical area but ‘West’ the city) you can get them at the Village Bakery.

But on to the prep which starts with the dough. There are three rises to this recipe which is less daunting than it sounds. Just multitask while the rises are rising and you’ll be fine.

While you’re following the directions below just remember when you’re kneading not to add too much flour. This should be a soft dough. Kneading it in a bowl is a great way to achieve a smooth glossy dough ball without over flouring. Just hold the side of the bowl with one hand and knead away with the other. Saves a lot of mess.

The first rise is the milk/yeast/one cup of flour portion.

Second rise comes after you work in the remaining flour and knead it till smooth.

Third rise (and last one thank goodness!) you will punch down the dough and form into small dough balls & flatten out to about 3 inches and let rise for about half an hour. Then you’ll hollow them out gently with your fingers until you have enough space for the filling. Try to go as close to the edge as you can. Brush gently with the remaining melted butter.

Fill with the cream cheese, jam and top with a slice of whatever fruit matches the jam. And a note about the cream cheese. I use less sugar than most other recipes because I find that the tang of the cream cheese is a better foil for the jam than sweet jam on top of too sweet cream cheese.

After they’re filled they’ll look like this:

or this:

These savory inauthentic kolaches are great with a little grated cheese on top and I added the sage leaf because I had it on hand and it tasted good in a crispy baked state.

Now they’re done. Beautiful, tasty and wholly worth the effort.

Kolaches

Author: Carine Clary

Cuisine: Texas

Ingredients

Servings 18 kolaches
For the dough:
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
¼ cup sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
¾ cup melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
optional ½ teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg
For the sweet filling:
Jam of your choice
1 tsp. lemon or orange zest
For savory filling:
½ lb. breakfast type or polish type loose or cut up link sausage cooked lightly & drained of fat
For the cream cheese
1 8 oz. package of full fat cream cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine yeast, warm milk, sugar, and a cup of the flour. Cover and let rise until doubled in size.
Beat the eggs, ½ cup of melted butter, and salt. Add egg mixture to yeast mixture and blend.
Stir in about 2 more cups of flour, ½ cup at a time. The dough should be very soft. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. I do it right in the bowl with one hand so as not to need to add too much flour. When it starts to pull away from the sides it's ready to rest. Cover and let rise for an hour.
After the dough has risen, punch it down and pull off egg-sized pieces. In your hands, roll pieces into balls and then flatten to about 3 inches in diameter. Brush with the remaining melted butter. Place flattened pieces on a greased cookie sheet, cover and let rise again for another half-hour.
Next hollow out gently with your fingers a round space in the center and fill with a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture and top with jam & fresh fruit if you have it. If you are preparing the sausage version you can leave out the cream cheese.
Bake in oven at 375° F for 12 to 15 minutes.

Notes

You can use nutmeg in the dough for the savory version, lots of sausages have it, but it's your choice.

Vietnamese Cucumber Salad

March 2, 2019 by Carine Clary 4 Comments

A Vietnamese style cucumber salad that looks elegant and tastes really good. For some reason I’ve found that the dressing tastes better after it’s had a chance to set a spell, so if you have the time you should make it a day ahead or at least a couple of hours ahead but don’t add it to the cucs till you are ready to serve.

One of the ingredients called for is “fish sauce.” There are dozens of fish sauce makers and its pedigree goes back to the Romans who called it “liquamen” and put it on everything.

Generally speaking it’s fermented essence of anchovy or other small fish like sardines and you can use it in a pinch for non Asian recipes calling for anchovies. Everyone has their favorite – mine is Red Boat. When I started looking into different fish sauces I came across endorsements for other brands along the lines of, “smells like gym socks but once it’s in the finished sauce it tastes fine,” or “smells like Dad’s pits after he’s mowed the lawn but it’s ok in the final product.” Really? Gym socks and armpits? For your first course? Don’t think so… Look, we all know that these types of things may taste too intense if you’re sampling them out of the bottle but they should still taste good. I took a chance on Red Boat and when I got it home I poured some out into the palm of my hand and yessiree Bob, it tasted delicious straight up.

The company was started by an American, Cuong Pham, a former tech executive, and it has only two ingredients, black anchovies and salt. This is fermented for a year and then strained, bottled, and delivered for your dining pleasure. I even cheated and used it in my Ragu Bolognese when I ran out of anchovies, and it worked well. And how corporate of Mr. Pham to have given us a multi tasking version of fish sauce. You can feel that vibe (but in a good way)!

Finally, if you’re addicted to take out spring rolls this doubles as a first rate dipping sauce. You can can make some up and keep a bottle in the fridge in case they forget to pack it when you pick up your food.

Vietnamese Cucumber Salad

Author: Carine Clary

Recipe type: Salad Dressing

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Ingredients

2 cucumbers
small red onion or shallot, sliced very thin
1 tsp. chili garlic sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
2½ teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
Optional cilantro or mint to taste
Optional grated ginger to taste.

Instructions

Peel and slice the cucumbers lengthwise. Run a spoon down the center to remove seeds.
Slice cucumbers about ⅓ of an inch thick.
Slice onion very thin and add to cucumbers.
Whisk remaining ingredients in a bowl and dress just before serving.