Time to the Table: 15 minutes Serves 6 to 8
Tricks of the Trade
Make sure that you don’t put too many onions in the pan at the same time. The oil should completely surround the onions as they cook.
YOU’LL NEED
Vegetable oil
2 large onions
2 cups all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
IN YOUR PAN
In a large iron skillet, pour in enough oil to be able to just cover your onion rings. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until it’s very hot but not smoking.
WHILE THE OIL’S HEATING
Cut the onions transversely so that they separate into little rings.
Put the flour in a Ziploc bag, followed by the onions. Gently move the onions around in the bag to completely cover them with flour, and then place them in the vegetable oil, in batches if necessary, to sauté until golden brown. Remove to a paper towel, season with salt and pepper, and eat immediately.
Play with Your Food
To spice up your rings, you can throw any of your favorite spices into the bag with the flour to coat your onions with them. Try chili powder or plain cayenne pepper. You might also try your onion rings like the Brits have their fish and chips—with malt vinegar.
FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: French’s Original French Fried Onions
Ingredients: Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (soybean and/or cottonseed), wheat flour, onions, soy flour, salt, dextrose, TBHQ and citric acid in propylene glycol.
Your Daily Bread: Baguettes
Before we went to France, we never had bread with every meal. But we returned with the need to feed our fresh bread habit without spending a fortune in specialty stores.
If you have a normal life, you run into a particular problem with making your own bread. Who has time for this when you get home at 5:30 and have to eat sometime before midnight? So I use this basic French bread recipe, but treat it like I would something made in a Crock-Pot. That is, make the time-consuming part in the morning (mix the dough and put it in a bowl in the fridge), let the dough rise while I’m at work, and then finish it up in the evening (form the loaf, cover it, then put it in the oven in one hour). You can also make the dough ball the night before, letting it rise overnight (then form the loaf in the morning and pop it in the oven in the evening).
Time to the Table: 1 day Makes 2 baguettes
YOU’LL NEED
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 ¼ cups warm water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt
IN A SMALL BOWL
Add the yeast with ¼ cup of the warm water. Let this sit, warm itself, and come alive while you are preparing the rest of the ingredients.
IN A FOOD PROCESSOR OR MIXING BOWL
Combine the flour and salt with the remaining cup of water and mix. Incorporate the yeast into the flour until it forms a slightly sticky ball. Be sure to knead (or process) the dough long enough so that it’s smooth when you stretch it by hand (maybe a full minute in a food processor, ten minutes by hand).
Lay the dough out on a board lightly dusted with flour, and knead into a nice round ball. Place the dough into a bowl rubbed with a smear of olive oil, cover with a cloth, and allow the yeast to fluff up the bread until it doubles in volume (at least 1 hour).
Then deflate our enlarged baguette-to-be and form it into 2 long, thin loaves. Cover and allow them to sit and rise again for at least another couple of hours.
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Before putting the loaves in the oven, moisten your hands and rub them over the bread. Then put the loaves in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. When the bread is done, the crust should be firm and the inside light and fluffy. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack for a few minutes.
Play with Your Food
For herbed bread: Try adding a teaspoon of oregano, rosemary, or cumin seeds to the dough in your first mixing. Fresh herbs are even better.
As for the rise time, there is a tradeoff between speed and taste. The natural fermentation that occurs within the loaf as it rises for a longer period of time dramatically adds to the complexity of the flavors you get on the other end. A good way to do this is to give it a “cool rise” by putting it, covered, into the refrigerator overnight.
FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Wonder Country White Bread
Ingredients: Enriched wheat flour (flour, barley malt, ferrous sulfate [iron], niacin, thiamine mononitrate [B1], riboflavin [B2], folic acid), water, high-fructose corn syrup, yeast, soybean oil, salt, calcium sulfate, wheat gluten, soy flour, dough conditioners (may contain: sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium dioxide, calcium iodate, diammonium phosphate, dicalcium phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, mono-and diglycerides, ethoxylated mono-and diglycerides, calcium).
Somebody’s Buttermilk Biscuits
This rich recipe is at least five generations old; I call them Somebody’s Buttermilk Biscuits because the original source is unknown. Warm up with these on a snowy November morning. Remember that these biscuits go with everything—butter is an obvious first choice, followed closely by milk gravy, sausage gravy, tomato gravy, and molasses.
Time to the Table: 20 minutes Makes 8 to 12 biscuits
YOU’LL NEED
2 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking-powder
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
IN A LARGE MIXING BOWL
Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder). Then mix the wet ingredients (oil and buttermilk) into the dry ingredients. You can either stir them around with a wooden spoon, use a food processor, or knead it with your hands until the dough is nice and smooth. If your hands get a bit sticky from the wet dough, just dust a bit of flour on them.
Preheat the oven to 475° F.
ON A CUTTING BOARD
Sprinkle with flour and set the dough on it. Knead it a few times to increase the fluffiness you can expect from the biscuits when they come out of the oven. The dough picks up flour from the board; make sure it takes on just enough to be soft but not sticky.
Form the dough into a round that’s about ½ inch thick. Use the open end of a small glass to cut the biscuits.
Dab the glass in flour periodically or it’ll get sticky from the wet flour on the inside of the dough. The biscuits you make don’t have to be perfectly round, and you can mold them into any shape you want. Put them in a 9-inch baking pan or large iron skillet so they’re snug one next to the other. Once they are all sardined in, cut a sliver of butter to place over the top of each.
Bake for about 14 minutes. When you smell them and the tops are golden, take them out and enjoy.
FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Pillsbury Hungry Jack Biscuits
Ingredients: Flour, skim milk, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, sugar, sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, dextrose, salt, vital wheat gluten, water, sodium stearoyl lactylate, mono-and diglycerides, xanthan gum, propylene glycol alginate, calcium sulfate, natural and artificial flavor.
Baked Beans
Baked beans are a commonplace culinary triumph. What began as teeth-splitting flavorless pebbles are transformed by this recipe into pure deliciousness!
Time to the Table: 90 minutes Serves 6 to 8
YOU’LL NEED
¼ pound bacon, cut into ½-inch pieces
2 tablespoons each of minced onion, celery, and green pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 15-ounce cans beans, drained
¼ cup “Still Kicking” Barbecue Sauce
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
Splash of Tabasco sauce
Salt an
d freshly ground pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
IN A FRYING PAN
Fry the bacon until just crisp. Remove the bacon and set aside, and add the onion, celery, green peppers, and garlic to the fat in the pan. Sauté until they are soft and pungent.
TO AN OVEN-SAFE CASSEROLE
Add the beans, vegetables, bacon, and remaining ingredients. Mix until the texture is even. Bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 30 minutes more.
Play with Your Food
This recipe is easily adapted to dry beans in the Crock-Pot: Boil 1 pound of rinsed, dried, white beans for 30 minutes. Then drain and add to the Crock-Pot and follow the other instructions above. Put the setting on high and leave all day long, covered.
Substitute spicy Italian sausage for the bacon. You still get the savory addition of the pork, but also enjoy the spice to offset the sweetness of molasses.
FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Hanover Baked Beans
Ingredients: Prepared beans, water, brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, bacon (with water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphate, hydrolyzed soy protein, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrate), salt, modified corn starch, corn cider vinegar, apple cider vinegar, onion powder, caramel color, spice, natural and artificial color.
Cancer-Fighting Coleslaw
Many foods have properties that safeguard our cells from the rampant reproduction of cancer. One of them is cabbage, which contains the cancer-fighting molecule indole-3-carbinol.
As an added benefit, cabbage is a good source of vitamin C (especially in red cabbage) and folate (especially in Savoy cabbage). This makes it a wonderful staple and an investment in both your short-term and long-term health.
Time to the Table: 15 minutes Makes enough for 4 servings
Tricks of the Trade
Make sure you slice the cabbage very thin, to maximize the crunch and minimize its chewiness.
The same principle applies to the onions. Just a bit of onion sparks a strong flavor, even for “sweet” onions. These, too, should be finely chopped.
YOU’LL NEED
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Dijon or other spicy mustard
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 cups thinly sliced cabbage
¼ cup finely chopped carrot
¼ cup finely chopped sweet onion
IN A MEDIUM MIXING BOWL
Mix the mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper together. Correct the seasonings, as you like. Mix in the cabbage, carrots, and onion thoroughly. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator and serve cold.
Play with Your Food
Try adding fruit, such as raisins or apple, or nuts, such as walnuts or pine nuts (these are even better if lightly toasted in a dry pan). To add a bit of acid for balance to this salad, balsamic vinegar is very nice (about 1 to 2 teaspoons).
For those southerners who like their slaw—like their barbecue sauce and baked beans—to have a little sweet twang to it, don’t add sugar. Instead, add about 1 to 2 teaspoons cider vinegar and a small clove of garlic, minced.
FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Gmnma’s Cole Slaw
Ingredients: Cabbage, mayonnaise (soybean oil, egg yolks, high-fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar, mustard [distilled vinegar, mustard seed, salt, spices], water, salt), fructose, sugar, carrots, apple cider vinegar, gluconodelta-lactone, pea fiber, potassium sorbate, salt, erythorbic acid, citric acid, xanthan gum, coloring (water, color [Yellow No. 5, Blue No. 1, propylene glycol, polysorbate 80, turmeric, annatto, potassium hydroxide]).
Perfect Picnic Potato Salad
Look up-picnic and you’ll see a photograph of people sitting around a long wooden table, with a red-and-white-checked tablecloth and a spoon in a large bowl. What’s in the bowl? Potato salad. It’s the absolute summer must for eating outside. Inexpensive and easy to whip together, this recipe is perfect picnic fare.
Time to the Table: 20 minutes Serves 6 to 8
Tricks of the Trade
Slightly undercook the potatoes so they retain their texture. Remember, too, the smaller the pieces, the faster they’ll cook through.
YOU’LL NEED
1 ½ pounds new-potatoes, cubed
½ cup minced-parsley
¼ cup minced onion
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
PREPARE THE POTATOES
Place potatoes into a pot of boiling salted water. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are almost done.
IN A LARGE BOWL
Mix together the parsley, onion, mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper. After the potatoes are done, drain and add them to the bowl. Toss well. Correct the seasonings and serve.
Play with Your Food
For a Mediterranean flavor, try adding capers or olives with very thinly sliced red onions.
For German potato salad, add a little crumbled bacon and some sliced boiled eggs. Chopped sweet pickles add a nice balance to the mix, and a fresh sweet bell pepper gives a terrific crunch.
Grill your potato pieces, after brushing them with olive oil, for a lovely smoky flavor.
FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Grandma’s Potato Salad with Egg
Ingredients: Potatoes, salad dressing (soybean oil, water, high-fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar, egg yolks, salt, sugar, mustard [distilled vinegar, mustard seed, salt, spice], salt, modified corn starch, dextrose, whey protein concentrate, guar gum, xanthan gum, locust bean gum, sodium alginate, onion powder, mustard flour, spices, coloring [propylene glycol, polysorbate 80, turmeric, annatto, potassium hydroxide]), eggs, onion, celery, red peppers, salt, potassium sorbate, coloring (propylene glycol, polysorbate 80, turmeric, annatto, potassium hydroxide).
Buttermilk Cornbread
Making a pone of cornbread is a quick way to add a piping hot bread accompaniment to your meal. I grew up with this as a normal part of meals, especially those with fried fish.
Time to the Table: 20 minutes 1 pone
YOU’LL NEED
½ cwp all-purpose flour
2/3 cwp cornmeal
1 ½ teaspoons baking fowder
1 finch baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup buttermilk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Tricks of the Trade
Don’t leave the cornbread batter in the skillet too long before putting it into the oven, as it can burn pretty quickly.
Self-rising cornmeal can work just as well and you don’t have to fiddle with the baking powder and salt. But that means you must settle on their ratio of cornmeal to flour. This determines how muffin-like or cornbread-like the corn pone turns out. Experiment with the ratio on your own to find the graininess you prefer in your bread.
Preheat the oven to 475° F.
IN A LARGE MIXING BOWL
Mix the dry ingredients together (flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt). Add the buttermilk, egg, and 1 tablespoon of the oil. Mix until smooth.
Put the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in a 6-inch iron skillet and heat over medium-high heat until the oil becomes wavy and hot. Pour in the cornbread batter and allow it to sizzle for about 1 minute.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.
Play with Your Food
For spicier cornbread, add between 1/8 and 14 cup minced jalapeño peppers, the same amount of crumbled bacon, and substitute the drippings for the olive oil (or at least supplement) to add a smokiness to the bread.
For corn muffins, increase the cornmeal to flour ratio up to 1 to 1 and add a tablespoon of sugar. Serve with butter and raspberry jam.
FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Boston Market Home Style Meals Cornbread
Ingredients: Cornbread mix (bleached flour, sugar, cornmeal, partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, whey, modified corn starch, egg yolk, leavening [sodium
aluminum phosphate, baking soda], egg white, salt, wheat starch, mono-and diglycerides, xanthan gum, defatted soy flour), water.
The French Don't Diet Plan Page 29