I’m not one of those Chefs who sits around trying to figure out how to deconstruct a classic. Nope, that isn’t me. I do however like to eat really good food… comfort foods that I went crazy about as a kid don’t taste the same as they did back then. You know, things like Miss. Paul’s fish sticks, Swanson’s meatloaf with that dry as all get out chocolate pudding, and of course, the PB&J. Who could forget Skippy creamy with Welches concord grape jam all slathered on some dynamite wonder bread…mmmmmm

So here is a classic that took a turn for the delicious. This is a mind blowing homemade blueberry jam with almond butter on toasted brioche. You can buy the bread and almond butter at most fine food shops. I bought both at our farmers market. As for the jam, well, it’s the end of summer and blueberries are in abundance AND on the cheap. So while they’re still in season, you too can have fun making some jam. Here’s an easy recipe to eat with your very own concoction. Good on warm baguette or rich vanilla bean ice cream too!

Let er rip!

Blueberry Jam

3 cups blueberries, rinsed well
5 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 package powdered pectin
3/4 cup water

Crush berries in a large bowl and add lemon juice. Stir in sugar and let stand for 10 minutes. In a saucepan, mix pectin and water and bring to a full boil stirring constantly for one minute. Add fruit mixture into pot with pectin water and cook on low for about three minutes. Pour fruit mixture into small jars and let cool. Cover and give away to friends for immediate consumption.

A few years back, I spent a month during summer in Cape Cod. The food, for the most part, was hum drum; it seemed like a lot of the chefs on peninsula were recent grads from culinary school who were simply trying to show off their new talents. Needless to say, there wasn’t a lot of thoughtfulness or cohesion. High prices for mediocrity . So I did what any Roman would do and spent time tracking down what the locals eat. I found that folks loved to eat seafood while at home. And, that they loved to go to Boston when they wanted to eat “off the hook” (get it) cuisine.

One gem that caught my eye was the lobster roll. A lot of eateries had their own special version and took extreme pride in the execution. It was a downright religion! Heck, even 7-eleven and MacDonald’s were selling lobster rolls.

At a picnic I recently attended, I was asked to bring along a dish. Remembering the rolls and how good they tasted on a hot summers afternoon I decided to make some. Because lobster can be pricey, I decided to cut it with some shrimp. The result was spectacular! You could still taste the sweetness of the lobster but had a nice meatiness from the shrimp that made for a good solid roll! Try this version and see what you think.

S.T.G., mad seafood love

Lobster and Shrimp Rolls

Serves 6 people

Ingredients

2 cups of lobster meat, chopped
2 cups cooked shrimp, chopped
*you can usually buy cooked lobster and shrimp at your local seafood place. DON’T buy from a large chain or box store as it might have been frozen and shipped.

1 cup mayonnaise
2 stalks of celery, small dice
½ bunch of green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
juice from 1 lemon
1 tablespoon capers, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
6 artesian hot dog buns☺ or baguette
½ stick butter

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except lobster and shrimp in a mixing bowl.
Rough chop lobster and shrimp meat and mix gently into dressing with a rubber spatula.

Split open the dog buns 3/4 of the way or cut baguette lengthwise into 4 6-inch sandwiches. Butter the inside generously and toast or grill before filling.

Have you scratched the surface lately? I seem to scratch my head a lot, but if I’m completely honest I’ll confess that I don’t dig very deep sometimes when it comes to the politics of food. I’m just a simple fellow doing the best I can. Life throws enough complications our way.

Day to day, I tend to simply focus on the elements of food that make me happiest: the smell of fresh produce, sharpening my knives, the sound of diced onions as they come into contact with a hot buttered pan.

If you choose to burden yourself with every issue that hits the table then invariably you won’t be able to enjoy the simple act of eating. You become a victim of hot air. The deep fried evangelists want you to feel bad about not “doing the right thing.” Sometimes the pleasure has been sucked out of the act of consuming food and it really gets my goat!

To me there’s a much bigger picture to focus on. Food is about community, romance and laughter. It’s social first, political second. Yes, we’re human and there is much to worry about in life but I find it sad that the social experience of eating has become diluted.

Somewhere along the road, we took a serious wrong turn. The big RV lost its way in Kalamazoo. Time to get back on track, wouldn’t you say? So that’s where this story takes a turn. Instead of focusing on surface level semantics, I thought that it would help to get connected. Forget for a moment that food is a function of patronizing a farmer’s market or a shrink wrapped product on a shelf. To know food, you really need to know nature. Plug in and the light will turn on. Trust me.

So, a bunch of us packed up the trucks and headed up the coast for a weekend at a lodge on the Sonoma coast, about 40 miles north of Jenner beach.

The weekend really brought me back to a place I forgot existed. A place where the simple elements of nature and the company of friends are enough. On the property was a garden thick with fava beans, kale, tomatoes and herbs. There were chickens, peacocks and doves walking the grounds. Standing on the cliff, you could inhale the intoxicating aroma of kelp, pine and earth.

During the day, we scratched, burrowed and shoveled into the mud to hunt for clams. Ha! Then after getting cold and muddy we headed back to the ranch for hot showers, beer and cooking. At dinner time, there was a profound silence, a thanksgiving-like peace that made me feel all right with the world.

After dinner, we stayed up late playing board games and laughed into the night. The food, while delicious, was secondary to what unfolded under the lodge’s broken down roof. It was a connection.

And that is where the story ends. It isn’t complicated at all. Enjoying life, like food, is one part laughter, one part good ingredients and a pinch of the ability to let go.

In the end, we all dug a little deeper that day, both for our clams and into ourselves.

Little Neck Clams and Mussels with Spanish Chorizo and Fennel

Serves 8-10 people

Ingredients
1 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, rough chopped

1 tablespoon honey
splash of dry white wine or brandy
3 cups chicken or fish stock
1 cup of heavy cream

1 pound Spanish chorizo, diced
2 pounds little neck clams, soaked
2 pounds black mussels, cleaned, soaked, beards removed

1 sweet baguette, sliced on the diagonal about _ thick
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Special Equipment
Grill, grill plate
2 good thick bottom sauce pots

Instructions
Drizzle baguette with oil, salt and pepper and grill. Serve alongside for soping up the rich sweet sauce!
Throw one of the sauté pots on a medium high flame. After it gets hot add some vegetable oil. Then add the onions, fennel and garlic, making sure to stir frequently. Once the mixture has turned a nice rich brown color add the honey and stir. Add a splash of booze and cook for another 5 minutes. To finish, add stock, cream and seasonings.
In another large sauté pan or sauce pot, get a tablespoon of vegetable oil nice and hot. Throw in the chorizo and cook until nice and crispy! Then throw in the clams and mussels. Sauté for about 2 minutes. Pour the stock mixture over the mussels, clams and chorizo and cover with a lid to circulate the heat. The mussels and clams should open up in about 5 minutes or so. Take them off the heat immediately once they have opened to prevent over cooking. Throw the mussels in a bowl and serve.

I made this tart tangy jam about two weeks ago. I didn’t use any recipe, mainly because I’m terrified to use the amount of sugar typically used in jams. Luckily, it came out good, really good actually. So good that I decided to write down this recipe to share with you. Preserving fruit isn’t that difficult and it’s a great way to prevent ripe fruit from ending up in the compost bucket.

Super Easy Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Ingredients

5 stalks of rhubarb, ends removed and chopped
4 pints ripe strawberries, hulled and cut in half
3 cups of sugar (a lot less than a typical jam, I like it tart)
Juice of one lemon

Special Tools

Good solid stainless steel well made pot!
Wooden spoon

Instructions

Any jam purist might not go this route but I like to make any preserved fruit as simple as possible. Two things that I’m doing different are that I’m not cooking the rhubarb and strawberry separately and there is no pectin in my recipe.

Throw everything in the pot, except 2 pints of strawberries, and bring to a quick boil. Stir the mixture while it starts to break down. Skim off the froth that rises to the top. Turn heat down to a simmer and cook (constantly scraping the bottom of the pot) until the mixture starts to thicken (approx 1 hour). Add the remaining berries and let cook for another 10 minutes; take off the heat.  As it cools it will start to thicken more.

To serve
Serve on ice-cream, over cake or eat with a spoon! Good stuff!

We wanted to describe the taste sensation of this multi-layered, mascarpone stuffed crêpe cake but it was borderline x-rated.  How about you try the recipe and let us know in your words what you make of it! Any tart fruit filling will work for this recipe.  If you don’t have bing cherries, try blueberries, blackberries or a berry mix.  You just need the tart acidity to cut through the lusciousness of the mascarpone filled crêpes.

Mascarpone Crêpes Cake

Serves 10 people

Ingredients

For the Crêpes
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon melted butter

For the Cherries in Wine
2 pints fresh bing cherries (or 1 cup dried cherries)
1 vanilla bean
2 1/2 cups red wine
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter

For the Whipped Mascarpone
2 cups cream
1 cup mascarpone
1/4 cup sugar

To garnish
Shaved Valrhona dark chocolate

Special Equipment

Electric blender
Crêpe pans
Offset spatulas

Instructions

For the Crêpes
Combine all ingredients in an electric blender and process until smooth. Strain. Brush non stick pan with butter over medium heat. Ladle batter into pan to coat bottom and cook until set and underside is lightly browned. Flip the crêpe over and let the second side cook for 20 seconds. Slide crepe onto a plate. Repeat process with remaining batter, coating pan with butter as needed.

For the Cherries in Wine
Simmer the wine, sugar, and vanilla bean over low heat until reduced to 1 1/2 cups. Sauté the cherries in butter for 2 minutes and then add the wine reduction. Simmer for 2 minutes.

For the Whipped Mascarpone
Combine the cream, mascarpone and sugar. Whisk to form soft peaks.

Assembly
Layer 6-8 crêpes with the mascarpone cream. Spread the cream evenly, approximately 1/8”, one on top of another. Chill for half an hour before slicing into wedges. Top each wedge with the cherries in wine and finish with shaved chocolate.

To Serve
Top each wedge with the cherries in wine and finish with shaved chocolate.

HA! The thought…there are no such thing as spring tomatoes. Sure, some do hit the markets this time of year but most are mealy and underdeveloped. If you must have tomatoes out of season I recommend going down two different avenues. Either use good canned tomatoes or make some sweet slow roasted ones, the latter being my preference. Roasting basically puts the maturing in an accelerated process. The result is a sweet, tangy sun dried-like tomato. Try it out! They won’t let you down.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Serves 8-10 people

Ingredients
10 roma or standard 5×6 tomatoes, cores removed and sliced in half
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh picked thyme
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper

Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 250 f

For the Tomatoes
Place the tomatoes on a sheet pan, cut side up. Drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with some fresh thyme and season with salt and pepper. Cook in the 250 degree oven for 2 hours or until tomato seems slightly shriveled but not mushy.

To serve
This is the best part about these beauties. Serve on grilled bread, in pasta, on sandwiches or simply put in blender and serve as soup with grilled cheese on the side… yum!

Crispity crunch, salty-sweet, juicy, sassy.  In this dish, the bbq glazed duck rests atop homemade buckwheat udon noodles.  Udon are the thickest traditional Japanese noodles and are served in a variety of ways: cold, hot, dry and in soups.  Dashi is fundamental to Japanese flavor and forms the base of most Japanese soups. Itadakimasu!

Soba Noodles, Barbecue Duck, Dashi Broth

Serves 10 people

Ingredients

For the Soba Noodles
2 cups buckwheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup cold water
flour for dusting

For the Barbecue Duck
4 duck breasts
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Sherry
2 teaspoons mustard powder

For the Dashi Broth
12 cups water
Kombu (about 2 ounces)
2 cups bonito flakes
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Mirin
2 cups shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 cups sugar snap peas
1/2 carrot, julienne
1 cup green onions, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces

To Garnish
Chiffonade shiso, sesame oil

Instructions

For the Soba Noodles
Combine the dry ingredients on a clean, dry work surface. Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and the water. Mix together and knead by hand on the table for 12 minutes. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes. Roll out with a pasta machine or by hand. Cut into noodles and boil in salted water until done. Shock in ice bath.

For the Barbecue Duck
Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, vinegar, Sherry, and mustard in a saucepot and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes to create a thick glaze.

Score the skin of the duck breasts. Season generously with salt and pepper and cook over a low barbecue flame, skin side down. Brush and baste with the barbecue glaze every few minutes. When skin becomes crispy, check the center for doneness. Grill to desired doneness, rest for 5 minutes and slice into thin slices.

For the Dashi Broth
Place the kombu in a large stockpot and cover with cold water. Over medium low heat, simmer for 20 minutes. Remove kombu and add the bonito flakes. Return to heat. Once simmering, remove from heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Strain out the bonito flakes. Add the soy sauce, mirin , snap peas, shiitake mushrooms, and carrots. Simmer over low heat until mushrooms and snap peas are slightly cooked.

To Serve
Place noodles in bowl and top with slices of duck. Cover with the Dashi broth. Finish with drops of sesame oil and shiso leaves.

In Argentina and Peru alone, there are over 15 varieties of the Alfajores cookie. Sandwiched between the layers is thick and gooey Dulce de Leche that stings your lips. In this dessert, we combine the cookie with clouds of whipped bittersweet chocolate mousse. It’s sure to smolder the flames of any spicy South American meal.

Dark Chocolate Mousse with Alfajores Cookies

Ingredients

For Cookie Dough
1 cup 2 tablespoons corn starch
2 cups 2 oz flour
2 t salt
½ cup ground almonds
½ cup icing sugar
1 ½ pounds butter
lemon zest from 3 lemons
2 t vanilla extract
2 t water

For caramel
1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup cream
pinch salt

For Chocolate Mousse
10 oz 82% Valrhona dark chocolate
½ cup 2 tablespoons
3/4 C (9 ea) egg yolks
1 cup sugar
4 cup cream
2 oz honey

For garnish
Powdered sugar to dust the cookies
Fresh berries

Special Equipment
Large pastry bags
Bowl scrapper
Biscuit cutters
Rolling pin
Baking pans
Stainless steel sauce pot

Instructions

For Caramel
Be sure to prepare the caramel first, to allow time for it to set up. Cook the sugar in a stainless steel sauce pot with a little water. When it becomes caramel, slowly pour in the warm cream and whisk. Pour into a shallow pan and chill to set up.

For Chocolate Mousse
Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl above warm water (do not boil the water, keep it at a very low simmer). Whip the cream to medium peaks and set asid. Heat the egg yolks with the sugar and honey over a bain marie until doubled in volume. Fold the chocolate into the egg mixture and fold the cream into this. Scrape into pastry bags and chill.

For Cookie dough
Combine all dry ingredients by hand and cut in the butter. Mix in the water and vanilla and roll between parchment paper into ¼” thick sheets. Chill, then cut into small discs. Bake at 325 degrees and then chill again. When hot, the cookies are very fragile. When cool, remove from pan with a baby offset spatula and sandwich the caramel between two discs of cookie. Cover with powdered sugar.

To Serve
Pipe the mousse onto a chilled plate and stick an alfajores cookie standing sideways in the side of the mousse. Serve with fresh berries.

eeeeks! Are you cringing right now? Has your mouth just gone dry looking at this image? If so then good… I’ve done my job. The reason I’m writing this post is to address the misuse of salt. We’re a salt crazy nation that has done a terrific job at masking good, pure, delicious food with salt, fat and sugar. It’s out of control! Don’t get me wrong, salt is a wonderful seasoning and helps accentuate many dishes but it can be your worst enemy as well! I can’t begin to tell you how many sauces I’ve destroyed because I didn’t listen to my acute (ha) senses and simply leave a sauce, soup or ragout alone. A perfect example is tomato sauce. For some reason the acidity and sweetness in tomatoes covers salt while it’s still hot. When it cools down the sodium levels really come through and there is NOTHING you can do but weep if over salted.

Restaurants are the biggest offenders and are notorious for heavy salty hands. If you ask most professional cooks to name the one ingredient that is used the most in kitchens it’s SALT! It goes like this “Hey Kev, could you taste the sauce that I made for the chicken and see if it needs anything?” “sure Bob… (finger in pot and inserted in mouth) hmmm, tastes good but needs some acid and… salt!” and then when you order the chicken dish later that night you might feel that Bob should have left the finger lickin chicken sauce alone!

To get the bottom of the salt lick and uncover the why; we need to get a little scientific. Your mouth and tongue has all kinds of receptor cells that basically get stimulated when it comes into contact with certain foods and seasoning. Taste is the function that your mouth performs when recognizing these chemical properties. Taste is composed of sweet, salty, sour and bitter and most recently umami that defines certain taste components that are barely perceptible (I’m not getting into this right now.. too long)…. But basically the more you have of one taste component, like salt, it makes a dish off balanced.. and then the tongue and mouth send signals to the brain that something is off.

Not to get side tracked here… the absolute main point that I want to address is how to approach a dish that you are making. You really want to taste the sweetness in corn and tomatoes or the vegetative properties in asparagus or even the flesh in a cut of meat. It’s all a balancing act and really important to realize that salt only plays a supporting role. If fava beans with shaved pecorino and olive oil are the lead actors then salt is cop #3. Just there to add to the story… that’s it! Below is a recipe for un-salted tomato sauce. The thing to realize here is that it uses canned tomatoes that already has added salt and sugar; as so many packaged products do. Think about it, it already contains trace amounts of sodium and sugar and has sweet (tomato), bitter (eggplant) and fennel (flavor booster) with heaps of other aromatic properties. It’s loaded like a gun with flavor, so why add more salt? You try the recipe and let me know… in the mean time use salt with a delicate hand and enjoy more genuine flavors from your food.

This is Chef Stephen from the HOG laboratory

Un-salted Tomato Sauce with Fennel and Fried Eggplant
Serves 6 people

Ingredients
3 tablespoons pure olive oil
1 medium size yellow onion, diced
1 bulb of fennel, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 cup dry red wine
6 cloves garlic
4 cups canned San Marzano plum tomatoes or canned Italian tomatoes
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 small Italian eggplants
1/2 bunch of fresh basil
pepper

Instructions
In a medium to large sauce pot add the pure olive oil and bring up to medium low. Add the onions, carrots and fennel and cook until soft (approx 15 minutes). Add tomato paste and stir into veggies. Cook mixture for 5 minutes, constantly stirring so that you don’t burn the paste. Add wine and reduce until liquid has disappeared. Take off the heat and set aside.

Poach the garlic cloves in the olive oil over low heat until the garlic begins to lightly brown. Add the tomatoes, the onion fennel mixture and 1/2 of the basil. Simmer for about one hour, adding a few tablespoons of water at a time to prevent the sauce from drying out. Continue to stir as the sauce simmers.

Throw a large cast iron skillet on medium high heat and add 1/4 cup pure olive oil. When it starts to lightly smoke add the eggplant. Cook on each side until it gets dark brown and crispy (approx 1 minute per each side). Remove and drain eggplant on paper towel; then chop. Fold into sauce.

Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Chop the remaining basil and add to the sauce. DO-NOT season with salt! Only some fresh ground pepper.

Eat with pasta or spoon over toasted baguette.

Molly has been making these cookies for years. This year however the cookies were over the top scrumptious!! They would have won multiple green clover trophy’s at any 4-H county fair.. Bessy watch out!

So to mend your curiosity I’ll fill you in why I’m calling them “adult pop tarts”… you remember when you were a kid and how pop tarts, especially right out of the toaster, were so damn good?! The sweet sugar glaze, tender dough and tart jam made any kid do back flips until dad came home. I took one bite of these cookies and was transpotred to 1436 Pickering Place, where I spent many mornings in my winnie the pooh jammies watching huckleberry finn and eating warm pop tarts.

In this application, Molly used a garden variety Italian sour cherry jam instead of a more rounded softer fruit and along with the floral lavender made for the best pop tarts I’ve ever experienced.. try them and you too will giggle with happiness!

Lavender Cookies with Sour Cherry Jam

These delicate sandwich cookies are like sophisticated adult pop tarts. Tender, sweet and tart.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
6 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract1 tablespoon dried lavender blossoms
1 cup sour cherry jam
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup lavender syrup
1/2 teaspoon (or more) water

Instructions
Whisk flour and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Add egg yolks 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Add vanilla; beat 1 minute. Stir in flour mixture just to combine. Stir in lavender blossoms. Beat dough until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gather dough into ball. Divide dough into 4 portions; flatten each into disk. Wrap disks in plastic; refrigerate overnight. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll dough out on lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Using 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Transfer to prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Gather scraps and roll out on lightly floured surface; cut out more cookies. Repeat until all dough is used. Bake cookies until light golden, about 9 minutes. Let cool completely on sheet.

Spread about 1 teaspoon jam on flat side of 1 cookie; top with flat side of another cookie, forming sandwich. Repeat with remaining cookies and jam.Whisk powdered sugar, lavender syrup, and 1/2 teaspoon water in medium bowl to blend, adding more water as needed by 1/2 teaspoonfuls to form spreadable icing. Spread thin layer of icing atop each sandwich cookie. Let stand until set, about 1 hour. (Cookies can be made 1 day ahead. Store in airtight container in single layer at room temperature.)