Aroma Cucina

High Altitude Chopped

I’ve got at least 20 years of experience under my belt, or in my ski boots, whatever the case may be, but I still think high altitude cooking is a royal pain. The Lodge at Snowbird is 8100 ft above sea level, which means water boils at around 185F. It means the little white Zolfino beans that I lovingly carried all the way from the Italian village of  Anghiari, that usually cook in 45 minutes, are still rock hard 2 1/2 hours later.   It means pasta that should cook in 16 minutes was done in 8 minutes. There is no rhyme or reason.
It’s not that temperatures don’t mean the same, but is a rare steak rare at 140F, or is it bleeding red, or that funky grey overcooked color?
  Do you know anything about Snowbird? It has a reputation for being a tough, rugged, testosterone mountain, but in reality, it’s a tough, rugged, testosterone mountain. The ratio of men to women is roughly 750 to 1. Maybe I’m exaggerating. I refer to the hot tub as being a “man tank” bubbling away with tired man flesh. The occasional women who show up are ogled like pin up girls from the 1940’s. There is a certain tough girl glamour for those of us who ski with the boyz. Connected to the hot tub, is a large heated swimming pool and that’s where our clan usually gathers, and the conversations range from the weather (it’s an obsession), the conditions in Mineral Basin, did you hear the avalanche bombs this morning,  and what’s for dinner.
The ‘what’s for dinner’ part of the conversation is always the most serious. Fresh food ebbs and flows depending on if anyone has gone down into the valley to shop, or has someone passed along some mountain stash, or is it time to break out the frozen vegetables? If we tap into Kevin’s stash of canned goods, then things are dire.

 It’s like playing an endless game of Chopped. In your mystery basket tonight you have: 1 package of scallops, 2 boneless pork chops, 2 cajun sausages and 1 orange bell pepper and an onion. Too easy!  Cut up the pork and sausage into bite size pieces. Thinly slice the onions, thickly slice the pepper and saute the ingredients until done.
Remove from the pan and add a few chili peppers, chopped garlic and quickly sear the scallops. Finish with a zap of soy sauce and hot sauce. Toss together. Finish with finely chopped fresh basil and serve over rice.

For last night’s finale dinner, we started with one tri-tip steak, but the party was too big for just one tri-tip, so we added shrimp to the mix. The last bit of fresh broccoli needed to be eaten. Salad greens were a distant memory, but we had celery in abundance. And there was a last minute request for couscous. So here it is, dinner made in 30 minutes.

Sear the tri-tip. Have staff open all the windows and doors so we don’t set off the smoke alarm. It’s good to be the Queen of the Kitchen with a minion of hungry men willing to do  my bidding.
While the tri-tip is searing, chop the broccoli and thinly slice the last of the ginger.
Give a trusted kitchen companion the super sharp mandolin and let him slice the celery for the celery and blue cheese salad. Keep a close eye on the companion so that we don’t wind up with finger salad.
In the shrimp pan add all the remaining garlic cloves in the house, a few chili peppers, a small glug of olive oil, a knob of butter, a bay leaf, a few shots of hot sauce. Turn the heat on medium low.
Add the remaining frozen peas to the boiling couscous water, add some Vadouvan spice that you had forgotten all about, add the couscous, turn off the heat. One dish done.
Saute the broccoli. Realize the men folk are wolfing down almonds. Grab a handful and chop them up to finish the broccoli.

Turn up the heat on the shrimp pot.

Check on the tri-tip which is resting comfortably.

Toss the shrimp (with their shells on) into the pan and toss vigorously. Complain loudly that there isn’t enough heat. It’s good to get a disclaimer out there early. No one is listening anyway. Hit the shrimp with a good sized glug of cognac.  Remove the shrimp from the pan, add another knob of butter and let it melt and mingle with the spices. Add a few more shots of hot sauce, a couple of squirts of Worsteschire sauce and the rest of  lemons left over from the cocktail making frenzy that went on while you were cooking.

Slice the tri-tip, drizzle generously with truffle oil and sit down with the gang.

Serve. Eat. Laugh a lot. And that’s what high altitude mountain cooking is all about. Sort of makes cooking at sea level boring, doesn’t it?
I’m already missing the clan, but I’m  certainly happy to be a member.

Internet woes

We haven't fallen off the mountain, we just have extremely limited internet connection at the moment. No worries, we're still alive and enjoying the massive snowstorm that has settled into the Little Cottonwood Canyon. Bouillabase Mountain Style is on the menu for tonight's dinner, so rest assured we aren't suffering!

Valentines Day: Massacres, Vinegar & Unsainted Saints

What do debunked saints, a mob massacre, punch, highballs and vinegar have in common? They’re all part of our Valentine’s day celebration.

What Pope Gelasius I declared in 469AD, namely the honoring of Saint Valentine, who may have been two men, one from Rome and one from Terni, Pope Paul VI took away in 1969 when he removed St. Valentines Day from the Roman Catholic calendar.  But that never stopped the steady march of Hallmark and the eating of chocolate and giving of roses.

Valentines Day was less of a sacred holiday in 1929, when the infamous St. Valentines Day massacre took place in a Chicago warehouse.  Bugs Moran’s henchmen were lured there by the promise of a shipment of Old Log Cabin Whiskey from Canada and they were ambushed and executed by Al Capone’s gang... although no one was ever officially charged with the crime.

In honor of Old Log Cabin Whisky, why not make this 1929 Canada Punch? Recipe from Cocktail.com.  Offer a toast to Bugs, Al & Carrie Nation, and invite a lot of friends.

1929 Canada Punch
96 oz. Rye or Old Log Cabin Whiskey
32 oz. Jamaican rum
3.5 lb. of sugar
14 lemons, thinly sliced
2 pineapples, thinly sliced
4 gallons of water

Garnish with 1-2 Advils on a skewer, to be used the morning after.

Too complicated? Try a classic Prohibition drink:  The Highball: Whiskey, Ginger Ale. Serve with a straw so it looks like soda pop.

And if saccharine sweet Valentine’s are not your thing, try a Vinegar Valentine. Popular in the 1850’s they poked fun at the romantic notion of holidays.

If you really want to get to the core of the matter, then we should probably be wishing each other a happy Lupercalia, an ancient pagan festival that encourages good health and fertility. 

So many ways to celebrate!  Enjoy your Valentines Day no matter what you choose to do!
In the spirit of the holiday, Vook is offering Cooking Simply: The Italian Way for 99cents today, just in case you need a quick cooking lesson.
Me? I’m going vegetable shopping and then we’ll take it from there.

Crispy Chicken Paprika and the Kindness of Mountain Friends

There is a mountain tradition, when you leave the mountains, you pass along  left over food to who ever comes along and may need it.  Our stash pass here at the ‘Bird is a bit more upscale than left over granola or packets of freeze dried cranberries. 
Friends of ours left this week and passed along the mother lode of goodies: fresh parsley, mint, cilantro, Maytag Blue cheese, steel cut grits, onion, garlic, frozen vegetables and prosciutto.
Fresh food has immense value up here in the mountains; salad cravings have been known to cause grown men to tear up,  climb into their vans and drive down into the valley foraging for crunchy goodness.

And this particular stash pass came at a critical moment; we were down to nearly nothing!  It’s like playing mystery ingredient, what do you make with this bounty?

Well, we started with a Mountain Pearl Cocktail. Yet another riff on the famous French Pearl.
This time with lemon juice because we had fresh lemon and Pernod because that’s all we had in the Absinthe department.

Mountain Pearl
2 oz. gin
1/4 oz Pernod
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
3/4 oz Simply Syrup
Muddled Fresh Mint

Shake, rest, Shake, serve.

Mike: “Oh, I don’t like gin but let me taste this. Oh, this tastes good. I’ll take one. In fact, I’ll take this one.”  It’s a good cocktail.

Iceberg lettuce. I confess I don’t often eat iceberg lettuce;  perhaps I’m a micro-green, arugula loving food snob?
Doesn’t matter, because when there is iceberg lettuce and good blue cheese around, there is nothing better than a juicy, crispy wedge of iceberg slathered with blue cheese dressing and crumbles of cheese. Maybe it’s a 1950’s steakhouse speciality, but I was born in the 50’s so it suits me just fine.

And now for the finale:
Crispy Chicken Paprika
2-3 medium russet potatoes
1 fresh white onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 T minced guanciale or pancetta or bacon

4 chicken legs (1 per person, with thigh)
Paprika (preferably the Smoked Spanish Paprika) Salt, Pepper
Sour Cream, Splash of Milk, Splash of olive oil


Thinly slice the potatoes, onions, garlic and place in a roasting pan. Add a few tablespoons of sour cream, a splash of milk and olive oil. Lightly salt. Heavily Pepper. Mix well.

In a small bowl, combine the paprika, lots of salt and some pepper. Rub the chicken legs with the paprika mix and lay on top of the potatoes. 
Roast at 400F until done, or when the cocktails are finished, whichever comes first.

I think we made fine use of our bounty, where we can always rely on the kindness of friends.

Thanks Bert & Jeanie! We all toasted your generosity and anytime you want to pass the stash, our refrigerator door is always open.

Sablefish Fisherman Style & Superbowl Chowder

Joe at Gotham Seafood may have thrown down the gauntlet, but I do believe we rose to the sablefish challenge.

In case you are wondering, fresh sablefish is a cod fish is a butterfish, is a fine, fine tasty fish.
One of the highest in omega3 fatty acids, it’s also richly delicious and healthy to boot.

On Night One we had our Black Sablefish done up as a ‘brodetto’,  Veneto Fisherman Style.

Fish Stock:
2 medium carrots
3-4 stalks celery
1 medium onion
Salt, Pepper, Bay Leaves
Olive Oil
All the fish trimmings (head, tail, fins) and the shrimp shells

The Sauce:
2 cups of fish stock
1/2 cup white wine
4-5 peeled garlic cloves
4T butter

The Finishing Touch:
1 lb side stripe shrimp
parsley
2 cloves fresh garlic
juice of a lemon
glug of white wine

Prep: Cut off the head, tail and fins. Cut the body into large steaks.
Make a fish stock with the fish trimmings.

Fish Stock:
Roughly chop the carrots, celery and onion and saute in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Add about a quart and a half of water and the fish trimmings. Simmer for 1/2 hour, then strain and return to medium heat and reduce by half.

The Fish:
Dredge each fish steak in salt and peppered flour.

In a large saucepan, add a few tablespoons of olive oil and the peeled cloves of garlic. Saute the garlic until it is dark, dark brown and remove from the pan and discard. I know, tossing garlic doesn’t sit well, but this bitter burnt garlic. Feel better?
 Working in batches, saute the steaks. When all the steaks are done, place in an oven proof pan and keep warm in the oven.
In the saucepan, add 1 1/2 cups of the reduced fish stock, and the wine, and futher reduce by half and pour over the fish. Keep warm.

The Finishing Touch:
Peel and roughly chop the side stripe shrimp.
Finely chop the parsley and garlic together.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the shrimp and parsely/garlic and cook for only a few moments, until the white of the shrimp turns from translucent to milk white.

Pour over the top of the fish and serve.  A loaf of crusty bread for dunking wouldn’t be a bad idea, but let me tell you, there is no crusty bread to be had in Snowbird..or maybe in all of Utah.

What to do with leftover sablefish?

Superbowl Chowder
All the leftover sable fish, picked clean of bones and skin
1 large onion
2 T butter
2-3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
2 cups of milk
2 cups of frozen corn
salt, pepper, smoked paprika & hot sauce


Finely slice the peeled onion and gently, slowly, lovingly saute the onions in the barely melted butter. Think of melting soft onions gently relaxing and giving up their oniony goodness into the air.  Add the cubed potatoes, leftover fish with all of the sauce & juices, liberal amounts of pepper, corn and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add the milk and cook for another 10 minutes.   
Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.  Serve with a dash of smoked paprika and hot sauce on top. 
A good winter chowder even if you aren’t watching the Superbowl.

Ski Food Survival Stash

I don’t know what you pack when you go skiing, but socks, gloves and hats only come along after we’ve packed the confit and there is still room in the luggage.   Let’s just say, If the plane goes down in the mountains, we won’t have to worry about eating our fellow passengers.

This is a version of “What Food Would You Bring to a Desert Island”, only now we’re playing, “What do we need to bring to the mountains of Utah?”. 
This is serious business, we’re going to a wild and wooly place where Dijon mustard is in the “Exotic International” aisle and I’m not kidding.

Here is our Mountain Survival Stash:
“Il Cortile”: “Il Cortile” is an Italian name for all the animals that live in the barnyard. In our case our cortile has: ducks, chicken, quail, partridge, bunnies. Of course,  the duck legs are traveling as confit; they’re already resting quietly in a nice layer of fat.
 
5 lb shrimp for quick meals
10 lb of veal bones that I’ve already turned into a scant quart of the most delicious veal stock gelee. Instant flavor wallop.
Rice: basmati and carnaroli for risotto
Truffle Butter: don’t leave home without it
Zolfino beans: it’s a fabulous white, Slow Food protected bean that only comes from Anghiari, a tiny town just over the Tuscan border. I know eating beans at high altitude could be problematic, but these beans are well worth it.
Olive Oil: our own hand harvested oil...of course
Spanish Olives:  mmmmmmm.....
Seasoned Salt

And a large can of wasabi peas.

And if we have enough room, I think I’ll bring along Paula Wolfert’s “The Cooking of Southwest France”  for slow cooking inspiration.

Let the fun begin! See you in the mountains.

Mountain Life, Cross Pollination and a Rechargeable Battery

We’re back!!!

We’ve come down from our mountaintop and have rejoined the world at large.  I know there has been a long break in blogging, and I have the nagging emails to prove it…but my personal foodium-battery needed some recharging.

 

We’ve all heard the adage that all work and no play makes Jude a dull girl.  Along with being a firm Play Advocate, I also believe in cross-pollination, meaning that pitching myself down a mountain on skis will ultimately make me a better cook, a better skier and an all round better person. No really, don’t scoff. There may not be a clear connection, but that doesn’t mean the connection doesn’t exist, sort of like AT&T and a 3G connection in Manhattan.

 

         During my Mountain Sabbatical here’s what I learned:

           *  I LOVE my Snowbird family.  There is a group of us that ski together, eat together, hang out in the hot tub together, and most definitely watch the Olympics together (sometimes in our jammies). Some of us are there longer; some of us come and go, but its all family. I think Liz  compared it to one long Thanksgiving weekend: there is the crazy uncle, the erratic cousins, the nut jobs and the sane. I’m very lucky to be a part of this family.

       *   We eat really, really well. Cooking at altitude is a god awful bitch of an experience. Bread doesn’t bake, water boils at 180F/82C which means pasta turns to mush before it cooks, beans never get soft, making soft boiled eggs is a total crapshoot and pots boil over when the contents aren’t even hot. And if you open the Moka coffee pot too soon, it will explode. Wakes you right up!

       *  Eating local is not an option unless you like to eat snow and porcupines with a side of coyote. And just what was that huge critter that ran down the balcony by the light of the full moon?

       *  I am no longer a Wal-Mart virgin.  After seeing Food, Inc. I was willing to visit Wal-Mart with an open mind, however their produce is yucky, without even a nod to seasonality, so I wouldn’t mind if we didn’t go back. I may have been deflowered, but apparently I’m still a snob.

      * Ingredient adaptability is essential.  Hot tub dinner planning conversations would go like this, “What do we need to use up before it goes bad?”  “I’ve got a mango.  I’ve got pork chops. And just like that there is a dinner plan

         * When in doubt about flavor, throw in some guanciale (cured pig jowl, I do not leave home without it).  This rule holds no matter where you are.

      * Cocktails taste great after a day of skiing.  It’s a civilized reward after a day of battling the elements.  Not to mention having an ice machine down the hall is the ultimate extravagance.  Years of living in Italy where 3 cubes in a glass is the height of indulgence and tests the boundaries of good health, abundant ice is divine. (Italians are convinced a cold drink will send you to the hospital, I don’t know why, could be nationwide hysteria).

      *  Oysters, caviar, lots of chocolate, good cheese and truffles should replace chili and burgers as ski food. Thanks Mosks! Thanks Masons!

      *Having fresh Valentine roses in our room was a spectacular treat!

 

And that’s the Snowbird round up. Lots going on in NYC. Its good to be back in the blog world!

Thank You Foodista!

 
A big thank you to the fun, fine folks at Foodista.com.   Aroma Cucina is the featured food blog post for today with "Parsley loves Potatoes". Foodista.com is like Wiki for food lovers, only with a much better attitude and cool features.

And sigh, what I wouldn't give right now for some fresh parsley here in the snowy mountains!

And apparently this must be my lucky day, because I just won the Just Because book prize over at Postcards from the Dinner Table.

To celebrate, I'm going skiing!!!

Mountain Life: Swan Island Oysters

What is it about raw oysters? If you like them you LOVE them.  It’s like powder skiing, as the saying goes, “No friends in powder.” Well, there are no friends around the raw oyster plate, the meek do not inherit the best of the plate, they don’t get any oysters at all.

 

Let me count my blessings: our good ski friends Liz & Mike Moskowitz are oyster farmers. They grow, farm and direct ship the tasty little morsel known as the Swan Island Oyster.

 

What good luck! We get the message from Kevin that Mike and Liz are sending us oysters!

What bad luck! A blizzard hits NY, all flights are grounded and the Mosks can’t get to Snowbird.

What bad luck! From a planned Wednesday arrival, the word is that the Mosks can’t get here until Saturday night.

What good luck! The oysters arrive on Thursday. Fedex beats Delta.

What torture! Do we wait for the Mosks to arrive before we sample these beauties?

Group vote: No. We don’t wait. They might spoil and that would be a crime.

What bad luck! We don’t have an oyster knife and although a screwdriver works, its not the preferred method for other than a desperation taste.

What good luck! Kevin goes down to our Lodge Bistro restaurant and cons the chef RJ into ‘lending’ us his oyster knife.

What good luck! Even though Jeff has never really shucked before, it turns out he’s pretty darn good at shucking. And he gets better and faster every night.

What good luck! We are eating oysters and watching the snow fall.

What even better luck! the Mosks arrive and we can finally have a full-blown Valentine’s Day oyster fest.

 

A large platter of perfection: briny, juicy, plump, crisp and just the right size, we have surround sound happy noises. Along with the inevitable debate on the best way to eat an oyster: with a fork (never!), with cocktail sauce (never!), slurped straight from the shell (always), with lemon juice (sometimes), with hot sauce (sometimes) with a shallot and red wine vinegar migonette sauce (in very small quantity).

   This was followed by a platter of Oyster Rockefeller. No one makes them better than my Cousin Jim, but I think I did a fair approximation of his recipe.  This is another one of those classic dishes that has fallen by the wayside and should be resurrected.

 

Mountain life can be very, very good! And here's one of our Valentine's Day roses for you to enjoy. Just because the holiday is over, it doesn't mean that we can't still share the love. 

By the way, how do you like to eat oysters??

The Red Iguana

 

What do you do if there is no powder to ski, the fridge is looking bare and a friend could use a lift to the airport? Jump into Kevin’s Beast of a Van and go on a field trip to Salt Lake!

 

1^st stop, SLC Airport: Bye-Bye Jerry! It was fun skiing and playing with you. See you next winter, if you don’t show up in Portland or Italy before that.

 

2^nd stop: State Liquor Store: Utah is better than it used to be, but its still a weird wine selection and just like Italy, no rye whiskey to be had.

 

3^rd stop LUNCH!  Kevin picked the Red Iguana and it is a perfect Mexican joint!

Funky to it’s red and orange core with simply delicious Mexican food.

Jeff picked a mole and our smart waiter Keith asked, “Did you pick a mole you love, or did you just go by the description?”  

Jeff: “By the description.” 

Keith: “Wait, I’ll bring you a taste of our seven mole sauces and you tell me which one you want.” 

Me:”Hello! This is the way it should be done!”   Seven mole sauces appear and are tasted and each one has a very fresh, distinctive flavor. I am not a mole expert so I couldn’t tell you which one was voted the favorite but it had that sweet-spicy yinyang that I really enjoy.

I’m avocado deprived living in Italy, so I needed to have some of that guacamole…and again it all tasted very fresh and clean.

After all these years of grumbling about the state of food affairs in Utah, we’ve found one place that is a total gem.

 

4^th stop: Wal-Mart.  Now, until yesterday I was a Wal-Mart virgin. I’ve seen the photos of people at Wal-Mart website, I ‘ve heard stories about the greeters and I have respect for them at least attempting to put in organic foods, but the overall experience was sort of ….meh….  The produce was pretty disappointing and I knew we were heading to Snider’s Meats so I ignored the meat section.  I was awed by the size of the frozen food section and the Mexican ingredient section. The chili selection was superb, but all in all, not my first choice for food.  And what is up the front door greeters carrying big, heavy canes? They had no interest in greeting me, but it was a little intimidating having these dudes with big canes hanging around the door. They pummel shoplifters without even a trial?

 

 

5^th sop: Snider’s. Just a little freezer fill-in and a chance to say hello to Walt the butcher.

 

Now we are safely back in Snowbird, and there is actually some snow falling…so I’m going out to play!!