October 2 – October 8, 2023

                             

Monday: White Bean Chili with Spiced Cheddar and Soda Bread

Tuesday:                   Tomahawk Steak Hash                  

Wednesday:            Fig & Ash Restaurant for Beez’s belated birthday dinner

Thursday:                 Chunky Vegetable Soup

Friday:                       Lamb Chops with Jacque’s ‘Mom’s Cheese and Spinach Soufflé

Saturday:                  Onion, Sausage and Mozzarella Pizza

Sunday:                     Tomahawk Steak, Creamy Stewed Potatoes, Corn Poele 

Side Dishes and Jacques Pépin

Note:  Tomahawk steaks are now being sold at our local grocery for $7.95/lb.  This is a drop of nearly 70%.  Tomahawk steaks are essentially rib-eye steaks with the rib-bone attached.  So, even if you didn’t read my post last week on how to cook these Flintstone-sized pieces of beef, it would still be worth your while to buy the tomahawks and then simply cut the rib-eye away from the bone.  But don’t do that – look up last week’s post, buy the rib-eye and leave it on the bone and cook it.  [I suspect that the reason for the sale is that most people don’t know how to cook these babies – but, if you’ve paying attention to this blog, you do.]

This post is a nod to side dishes and to a new cookbook I have acquired. 

Side dishes are often thought of as playing supporting roles, but I would argue that they’re considerably more important than, say, Jimmy Olsen in Superman, or Newman in Seinfeld, or even Ashley (that snotty pretty boy) in Gone with the Wind.  Think about it, side dishes are the reasons we all love Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  It’s not exactly true that if you’ve had one turkey, you’ve had them all – but it’s as close to the truth as it gets on this planet.  I can’t tell you how many times, in a high-end restaurant I’ve thought of telling the waiter, please take back this veal chop and bring me two more servings of that parsnip purée it’s sitting on.

I found the dishes below in Jacques Pépin’s new cookbook, Quick & Simple, gorgeously illustrated by none other than Jacques himself.  I have yet to find a recipe in the book that is not worth cooking again.  And the two dishes we cooked to go with our tomahawk steaks turned out to be real ‘keepers’ – in fact, we’ll certainly be having them for Thanksgiving.

These dishes are inexpensive and soul satisfying and a perfect complement to the richness of the tomahawk or any steak for that matter.  And as soon as I saw these recipes, while leafing through the book, I knew that I had to cook them.  You might almost say that I cooked those tomahawk steaks in order to have something to go along with these side dishes.

(These dishes would go well with any meat or mild fish as well, and the corn would go with anything.)

The Multi-talented Jacques in his studio – you should buy his cookbook for the paintings alone

Purée of Carrots and Potatoes

(Jacques Pépin, Quick and Simple)

Timing:                                                  20 minutes

Ingredients:                                    

(Serves 4 -6:  6 as a side for steak or chicken or fish, 4 if you’re featuring this at Thanksgiving where people go for second helpings)

4 cups peeled potatoes, diced into 1 inch pieces.  I suggest russet potatoes for this dish.

1 pound baby carrots (yep, those bags of little, blunt things already trimmed and peeled at your grocery story.

4 tablespoons butter – DO NOT SKIP THIS, NO MATTER WHAT KIND OF DIET YOU’RE ON.

1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste.  (We served this with Maldon Sea Salt on the side)

½ teaspoon black pepper – we used a teaspoon – Jacques suggests a mere ¼ teaspoon.

Prep:

Get the butter out before you start prepping – it would even be better if you had taken the butter out early in the day and let it come to room temperature.  But let’s be real – you’ll probably forget to do that.

Put two cups of cold water in a large saucepan.

Peel and dice the potatoes and put them in the water, then add the carrots, straight from the bag!

Cook and Finish:

 Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and boil gently for 10 minutes or so.  You want only 1/3 cup of water to remain – and you want that to be the water the vegetables cooked in.  So, if you have more than 1/3 cup, cook a little longer and over higher heat.

With a slotted spoon, transfer the carrots and potatoes to a food processor.  Now pour the water into a measuring cup – you need 1/3 cup – and add to the food processor.  Add the butter, the salt and the pepper.

Process for about 15 seconds.  Serve

Corn Poele – ‘poele’ means stove in French

(adapted from Jacques Pépin, Quick and Simple)

Timing:                                              15 minutes

Ingredients:                                       Serves 4

5 ears of corn or a 1 lb. package of frozen corn (Jacques uses 4 ears of corn – but we really like corn.  On the other hand, I don’t want you to have an open bag of frozen corn in your freezer, so just use one bag, if you’re doing frozen)

3 scallions, minced (Jacques uses 2)

2 tablespoons corn oil (avocado or canola will do – but you don’t want olive oil for this dish)

1 tablespoon butter

¼ teaspoon salt – we used probably ¾ teaspoon before we finished adjusting the seasoning

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper (we used ¾ teaspoon)

Prep:

Mince the scallions

Cut the corn from the cob and put the corn oil and the butter into a large, non-stick skillet and heat them over medium high

Cook:

When the butter and oil are hot, add the corn and scallions and cook, covered for 3 ½ minutes.

Remove the lid and cook for another 2 minutes, shaking the pan, until the mixture is dry.  You’re shaking the pan to make sure the kernels don’t stick – but you want to let them sit a while, as well, to brown some of them.  You can use a wooden spoon or tongs to move them around, if you’re not a good shaker.

Add the salt and pepper to taste and serve.