Jo and Clarence's Baby Boy

Today is a very special day. Every year on March 5th, I think about Jo and Clarence Parker and wish I had gotten to know them better. We lost both of them the year we married, Clarence in February of 1996, and Jo in July of that same year.  Paul was the baby of the family, with brothers 8 and 11 years older.  Sometime during Jo's illness, Paul asked his mother if he had been a mistake, perhaps giving voice to a nagging insecurity in the back of his mind or more possibly, a shameless effort to bask in motherly love!  By that time, ALS had robbed Jo of her ability to speak clearly, so she often resorted to writing her responses.  Paul has a sheaf of papers tucked away giving record to Jo's side of many of their last conversations.  One special page in that collection documents Paul's mother's response to that probing question from her "baby" boy.  In shaky yet bold handwriting she answered, "No, you were a precious gift from God."

And so he is!  He is MY special one, a gift I celebrate each year on March 5th.  And since I love people by feeding them, my gift to him is a rich and decadent chocolate dessert. As I have shared before, Paul does my primary G2 work by scouting out new and interesting recipes. One of the best gifts I ever gave Paul (aside from food) is home delivery of the New York Times every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  If there is ever a glitch in the delivery service, Paul's enjoyment of his weekend morning is greatly diminished.  The happy by-product of this subscription for me is the many recipes Paul passes my way.  He emailed a link to me this week, and the timing just seemed a little too coincidental.  It is his birthday week, and he sends me a link to an Amanda Hesser article in the Times offering a reprise of a 1969 recipe for French Chocolate Cake.  It seemed the thing to bake on this birthday morning.  While his gift to himself is a few hours watching his favorite movie, Lawrence of Arabia, I have time to putter in the kitchen with chocolate and butter and eggs and such.

Happy birthday to my Paulie!  Fifty-seven never looked so good.

I hope you will follow the link and read Hesser's background information on this recipe.  You may want a copy of her new cookbook, The Essential New York Times Cook Book; Classic Recipes for a New Century, which contains the recipe in this blog and many other updated classics.  At the time of this writing, Hesser's 900 page encyclopedic work sells for under $25 and was voted one of Amazon's "Best Books" of 2010.  What a bargain!  Here's my adaptation:

Evelyn Sharpe's French Chocolate Cake
1 pound semisweet chocolate
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
4 eggs, separated
Sweetened whipped cream
Creme fraiche


1.  Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Line the base of an 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper. (My pan was 9 inches.  It made a slightly flatter cake.  I would recommend an 8-inch pan as the recipe suggests, but the cake didn't suffer from being a bit flatter.)

2.  Break the chocolate in pieces and place in a microwave proof bowl.  Microwave in 30 second increments until chocolate is melted, but has not completely lost its shape. In my microwave, that was less than 2 minutes.  (Can melt in a double boiler slowly over hot water--NOT boiling.)

3.  Stir the chocolate until smooth.  Stir in the butter, flour and sugar.   Beat the eggs slightly and whisk into the chocolate mixture gradually.

4.  Beat the egg whites until they hold a definite shape but are not dry and fold into the chocolate mixture.  Overbeating or underbeating will ruin the cake, warns Amanda Hessser.  The beaten egg whites should be folded smoothly, quickly and easily into the chocolate mixture.  Pour into the prepared pan.

5.  Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Open the oven door, leaving it ajar, and allow the cake to cool in the oven. The cake is best served a little warmer than room temperature.  Serve with whipped cream.  Hesser recommends mixing a little creme fraiche into the whipped cream.  I followed her suggestion and am glad I did.  The slightly sour taste of the creme fraiche works nicely with the richness of the cake.  To slice the cake, run a long thin knife under hot water and then cut the cake into small slices.  Serves 10.

At the Market

Fresh Produce at Campo di Fiori

If my grocery shopping habits were the sole criteria, I would make a good Italian housewife.  My best and favorite way to procure the stuff that will be supper is to stroll through the market a few hours prior to cooking, handle and sniff the fruit, examine the veggies for freshness, peruse the meat aisle judiciously, hover in the bakery inhaling the aroma--then repeat the whole process until inspiration emerges.  What looks fresh?  What is in season?  What works with my pantry, whether it be well stocked or a bit on the lean side? What fits our moods on this particular day?  I am further propelled in the direction of daily shopping because I currently have a diminutive refrigerator that groans with age and irritability when I try to overstuff its already burgeoning shelves.  The vegetable bin and the door shelves are already hanging on for dear life with the help of a little duck tape.  And even if I had adequate space and refrigeration, I am reminded that on many occasions when I have yielded to the desire to plan menus for a week and stock the larder, I end up days later with wilting greens, meat that gets exiled to the nether world I call my freezer and baguettes once beautiful and tender, now sporting a distinct green glow.

The picture at the header of The Good Earth and several in this post are shots I took at Campo di Fiori, one of the centrally located markets in the heart of Rome.  I filled my digital camera with shots of amazingly fresh vegetables, ropes of fragrant garlic, containers of fresh cut flowers, all purveyed by the farmers who had been intimate with these offerings while the rich earth still clung to them.  I wanted more than anything in those minutes to fill a bag with fresh ingredients, rush to the nearest kitchen and start chopping, mixing, sauteing, braising, baking, filling a house with mouth watering aromas and gathering loved ones around a communal table.  Though that was not possible, I was heartened by the knowledge that the restaurants flanking Campo di Fiori on all sides were doing that good work for me.  Time for lunch!

My friends, Gina and Mac Walcott, have given me a wonderful place to channel my inner Italian here in our little hamlet of Fairhope.  In the heart of their Windmill Market is a little gem called Westside Grocery.  The Walcotts have as their priority a desire to promote locally grown, cultivated or produced grocery items.  In addition, they have assembled the makings of healthy, gourmet meals at a price competitive or in many cases better than what we can find at our big box markets.  Their inventory is growing and expanding almost daily, so I encourage you to take a peek soon if you haven't been by there lately.

After my better half headed east for a business trip earlier this week, I found myself pondering supper alone and facing the reality that my cupboard was somewhat bare.  I hopped in the car and drove the 6 or so blocks to Westside Grocery and found all hands on deck handing out their first grocery and produce boxes, a new program the grocery is offering to our community.  A quick perusal of the frozen fish yielded a beautiful tuna steak, and as I turned around to look at the produce, a large green cabbage caught my eye.  I did a mental inventory of the few items on hand at home and recalled flour tortillas, jalapeno peppers and a jar of prepared wasabi.  Ah, seared tuna tacos it would be!  My turn as an Italian housewife had taken a decidedly Southwestern bent with an Asian flair.  Inspiration can switch things up just that fast!

Don't be afraid of frozen fish.  Much seafood is individually flash frozen (IFF) before the boat even comes into port. Often this preserves the quality of the fish better than if it was delivered to market fresh.  And quite often the seafood you see behind the glass case at your grocery or market has been thawed after IFF.  So buying it frozen and thawing it yourself when you are ready to eat the fish is a good option.  Get to know your source and the quality of IFF fish they carry, and you will usually not be disappointed.  I find that if I submerge an individually wrapped frozen portion of fish in cold water, it will generally thaw in less than 30 minutes.  Just make sure it is wrapped airtight.  If it is not, put it in a plastic ziplock bag before thawing.

Here is my suggestion for Seared Tuna Tacos.  These are preparation instructions with lots of wiggle room, so don't expect an exact recipe here.  You can add or subtract from my suggestions to fit your taste or that of your family.  And that is exactly what inspiration at the market is all about.

Seared Tuna Tacos (makes 2 tacos per person)

1 tuna steak per person

salt, pepper and worcestershire

mayonnaise

prepared wasabi

shredded cabbage

red onion, thinly sliced

jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced

salt, red wine vinegar

2 flour tortillas for each tuna steak, warmed

1.  Mix 3 parts mayonnaise with 1 part wasabi.  (For two tacos, mix about a tablespoon of mayonnaise with a teaspoon of wasabi.)

2.  Combine cabbage with red onion and jalapeno to taste.  Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with red wine vinegar.  Toss all together.  (For two tacos, mix 1 cup cabbage with a few slices of onion and about 1/2 a jalapeno pepper.)

3.  Heat a heavy skillet (cast iron is great) over medium high heat.  Coat bottom with olive oil.

4.  Sprinkle both sides of the tuna steak with salt and pepper.  I use a smoked sea salt that is particularly nice for tacos.  Drizzle with a little bit of worcestershire.

5.  The best way to prepare tuna is rare to medium rare.  The oil in the pan should be smoking so that you will get a nice sear without overcooking the center of the fish.  Put the first side down in the oil and as you do, give the tuna steak a slight nudge with the spatula.  This will help keep it from sticking.  (You can do the same on a grill.  Just that slight nudge makes a huge difference in the "sticking" factor.)  Sear for about a minute and a half per side, and don't forget to "nudge" the fish when you flip it to the second side.

6.  Remove the tuna from the heat and slice it across the grain into thin slices.  Put a smear of the wasabi mayo on the tortilla.  Top with half the tuna slices from one steak.  Put a few dabs of wasabi mayo on top of the tuna.  Add a liberal amount of the cabbage mixture.  Fold the tortilla around the filling and enjoy!