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The deal of the week!
It's called the City of Monterey's two hours free parking program,
presented by the parking division. Two hours free parking at four city
lots - only $10.00! What happened to the free? Oh I get it - free
parking after you pay for it. Okay, let me try this, free food for all
after you pay $10.00. What part of the "free" am I missing? To get your
free decal for $10.00 call 646-3953.
Q). Got another birthday coming up, and I would like to cook a
really good steak. Now that Joe
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Solis no longer runs Monte Vista Market,
who can we get a really good cut of beef from? Of course, I'll be
grilling it with your Sensational Seasoning as a rub.
Gordon Beechum
Service manager at Val Strough Honda, Via e-mail
A). Only one place to go Gordy, and that's the Station. Call me
and I'll save a table for you - Val Strough Honda rocks!
Sweet and crunchy! The other night I tasted a great salad mix from Mills |
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Family Farms. It's called Cascade Mix and
it's crunchy and very sweet - my kids loved it. Mills uses their
patented method to process the greens by pulling away the leaves rather
than cutting the bases and the shelf-life is amazing. No more thrown
away soggy greens. Sergio at Monte Vista Market will start carrying it
and my restaurants will be changing over to this wonderful product -
it's that good. Check out my show this week to see the different ways I
used these perfect greens.
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Q). Hey, I moved to a new house
and cannot find the fantastic pasta sauce recipe featuring tasso. Do you
remember it?
Chris Hudson
E-mail
A). This one is real simple and delicious. Tasso is lean strips
of boneless pork, marinated in special seasonings and then heavily
smoked to create a true Cajun delicacy. Traditionally, it is sliced or
diced into small pieces and added to beans, vegetables, gumbos, or red
beans and rice to add flavor that's out of this world. You may have to
do some searching to find it around here; there are also mail-order
sources.
Pasta Tasso Sauce Recipe
1 pound of pasta
6 chopped garlic cloves
1 cup chopped celery |
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1 bunch chopped basil
1/2 bunch chopped parsley
1 cup diced green bell pepper
1/2 pound diced tasso (or bacon, but get some tasso)
Sauté everything together in olive oil until it starts to brown. Add a
28-oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes and season with Sensational
Seasoning, salt, pepper and a little sugar and you got it!
Q). At our local market, we just picked up a delicious lump of
goat cheese covered in ashes. I know that there are a lot of ways to
turn goat's milk into cheese (hanging from trees, in the fridge...) but
I am a little unclear about this process with ashes. Any feedback?
G.P.
Via e-mail |
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A). Why are some cheeses covered in
ashes? I checked with the Cheese Shop in Carmel for this one. Coating
goat cheese, also known as "chèvre" the French term for goat, with ash
is a traditional method of enhancing the appearance of cheese, to make
it look distinctive or artesian crafted. The edible ash coatings are
made by burning the wood of junipers, grape vines, or the remains of
vegetables such as bell peppers and eggplants. The ash is then processed
further by mashing or pounding it into a fine-textured powder that is
dispersed over the area of cheese to be coated. It certainly is not for
flavor. Also used as coatings are leaves, straw, a thin layer of
paraffin and herbs. There is even a domestic goat's milk cheese called
Humbolt Fog that features an inner layer of ash. |
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Q). Looking for the secret to good homemade French fries.
Via e-mail
A). Old buddy Tony Ricciardi, used to make great homemade fries.
At press time my call for his recipe wasn't returned. In the
restaurants, we buy fries that are half-processed and we just finish
them off, using good quality, clean, hot oil. Making good ones at home
is not something you do at the last minute.
Classic French Fries Recipe
2 pounds peeled russet potatoes
oil for frying (peanut, neutral vegetable oil or duck fat)
coarse salt
Cut the potatoes lengthwise into 1/4 -inch sticks. An easy way to do
this is to first trim off a slice so the potato will lie flat on the
cutting |
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surface. Cut the potato into 1/4 inch slices, then make manageable
stacks of the slices and cut again, this time into sticks. Drop them
into a big bowl of cold water as you cut them and leave the potatoes to
soak for at least 2 hours in the fridge, or if you don't have room on
the counter with ice cubes added. Pour at least 3 inches of oil into a
large pot - careful not to fill it more than half full. Heat the oil to
325 degrees. While the oil heats, drain the potatoes, lay them out on
clean towels and blot them completely dry with paper towels. Heat up a
skimmer or slotted spoon for the stirring and retrieval of the fries by
putting it in the oil. Grab a handful of potatoes and drop them into the
oil. Not too many, so you don't lower the temperature. Cook for 3 to 4
minutes, stirring once in a while
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for even frying. The spuds will be beginning to go limp and will show
just the slightest hint of gold. Lift them out with your handy heated
skimmer and drain on paper towels. Once you've pre-fried all the fries,
spread them out on trays and refrigerate for 2 hours. At dinnertime,
heat the oil to 375 degrees and heat up the skimmer. Drop in the fries,
again by handfuls and again not crowding them, and fry, stirring for
even browning until they are perfectly golden and crisp, 3 to 4 minutes.
Drain on paper towels, sprinkle with coarse salt and serve hot. Don't
forget the catsup, mayonnaise doesn't work for me. You might also try
some malt vinegar infused with a couple of garlic cloves.
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