Tag: Home Cooking

No Mayo Potato Salads

If your idea of potato salad is limited to the typical mayonnaise based recipes, it’s time to think again and experiment with farm fresh potatoes, new mix-ins, and alternate dressings.

This potato and egg salad with a vinaigrette is made creamy by the mixing of the eggs and dressing. A few scallions add flavor and color.

The great American writer Laurie Colwin devoted a chapter to potato salad in her book “Home Cooking.” She began with her belief that there is no such thing as a bad potato salad, “So long as the potatoes are not undercooked …” From there, she described the many versions she has tried and loved over the years.

She had a favorite for this time of year. “If you can find them, the tiny potatoes of early autumn are delicious. They are the size of quail eggs and are wonderful steamed and eaten with a French olive oil, salt, pepper and a drop of lemon juice.”

Colwin also gave good advice on selecting potatoes for salads. She found that waxy potatoes like our popular red skinned varieties don’t absorb as much dressing and are best when you want a salad, “delicately coated.” And that mealier potatoes, like a russet, soak up dressing for a creamier result.

You'll find the recipe for this Summer Corn and Potato Salad in one of our posts from 2008. I still make it and we still love it.

Vinaigrette Potato Salads

Thinking vinaigrette rather than mayonnaise is very traditional. In Fannie Merritt Farmer's “The Original Boston Cooking School Cook Book 1896,” there are five potato salad recipes, all sans mayonnaise.

One version is great for apple season – Potato and Celery Salad. She wrote, “To two cups boiled potatoes cut in one-half inch cubes add one-half cup finely cut celery and a medium-sized apple, pared, cut in eighths, then eighths cut in thin slices. Marinate with French Dressing. Arrange in a mound and garnish with celery tip and sections of bright red apple.” Her version of “French Dressing” was what we call vinaigrette: a mix of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Family Recipe

The potato and egg salad you see at the top was my father-in-law's recipe. Ed and I enjoy this as a quick meal some evenings. I use two pounds of red potatoes as the base. Rather than peel the potatoes, I scrub them, remove any eyes or bad spots, slice into wedges, and cook them in a steamer until tender. While still warm, I mix in a large stalk of diced celery, two thinly-sliced scallions, four sliced hard boiled eggs, two tablespoons of cider vinegar, and about half a cup of olive oil. You can serve this warm or cold.

Other additions to a salad like this might be capers, grated carrots, parsley, dill, or a bit of dry mustard. As with so many salads, I use what I have on hand when I begin to make it and change it up often enough to keep it fresh among the routine meals.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

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Words: Penny Cherubino (Adapted for the web from one of her Fresh & Local newspaper columns)
Photos: ©2008- 2015 Penny Cherubino

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September 23, 2015
Mastering Hamersley’s Roast Chicken Recipe

I’m sure Ed and I are not the only Hamersley’s fans missing that restaurant’s fantastic roast chicken. I plan to master that recipe over the next few months. I’ve made it once or twice. But, as long as I could just take a walk to Tremont Street to enjoy the finished product, I let the Hamersley’s kitchen do the work.

Start with the Recipe

First, of course, you need the recipe. It's in the cookbook Bistro Cooking at Home By Gordon Hamersley. And, while this is currently out of print, you can buy used or even a few treasured new copies on Amazon. You can also check local, used bookstores. I highly recommend having a copy of this book on your shelf and I look forward to the next publication from this great food champion.

If you just want a copy of the recipe, Boston University posted it online after one of Gordon Hamersley's cooking classes at the Seminars in Food and Wine. Here's a link to that posting.

And, if you prefer visual instruction, here is a link to Gordon Hamersley's appearance with Julia Child as a part of her Master Chefs series.

There are many steps to this signature dish. Fortunately, the process that Gordon Hamersley (and his first sous chef Jody Adams) developed to serve a perfectly roasted chicken with a crispy skin and moist interior also makes it a great party dish for a home cook.

The chicken is roasted ahead of time and popped under a broiler for heating and crisping before it is served. I love dishes like this that I can make a day ahead because they let me spend more time with my guests.

Begin With Shopping

Of course, to come out with a result like the dish served at Hamersley’s, you have to begin as the chef did with the finest ingredients you can find. In his tips for choosing chicken, the chef suggests trying chickens from smaller producers or kosher brands.

In 2003, when Gordon Hamersley wrote “Bistro Cooking at Home,” he said what many locavores are saying now, “… getting a more flavorful bird that has also been raised free of antibiotics and hormone injections seems to me to be worth the price.”

Stepping Along

You begin this dish by preparing an herbed lemon pesto marinade. You rub this all over the clean and dried chicken and let it marinate 2-4 hours in the refrigerator.

Next, the chicken is roasted to an internal thigh temperature of 165-170 degrees and rested before cutting and deboning. The final step in this part of the preparation is to make the sauce from the pan drippings.

When it’s time to serve the chicken, you broil it with lemon slices on top and the sauce in the pan below until the skin is crisp and the meat is heated.

This dish requires many steps with a good bit of waiting time for some of them, but it is not a difficult recipe. Dozens of Hamersley’s cooks mastered it over the years. And, I can’t wait until I can make it without glancing at the cookbook just as they did.

If I master the chicken, next up on my list will be the perfect duck confit that was so tempting on the Hamersley's menu and is often such a disappointment when I order it elsewhere.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino (adapted from one of her Fresh & Local newspaper columns)
Photos: ©2008 Penny Cherubino

June 29, 2015
Mastering Hamersley’s Roast Chicken Recipe

I’m sure Ed and I are not the only Hamersley’s fans missing that restaurant’s fantastic roast chicken. I plan to master that recipe over the next few months. I’ve made it once or twice. But, as long as I could just take a walk to Tremont Street to enjoy the finished product, I let the Hamersley’s kitchen do the work.

Start with the Recipe

First, of course, you need the recipe. It's in the cookbook Bistro Cooking at Home By Gordon Hamersley. And, while this is currently out of print, you can buy used or even a few treasured new copies on Amazon. You can also check local, used bookstores. I highly recommend having a copy of this book on your shelf and I look forward to the next publication from this great food champion.

If you just want a copy of the recipe, Boston University posted it online after one of Gordon Hamersley's cooking classes at the Seminars in Food and Wine. Here's a link to that posting.

And, if you prefer visual instruction, here is a link to Gordon Hamersley's appearance with Julia Child as a part of her Master Chefs series.

There are many steps to this signature dish. Fortunately, the process that Gordon Hamersley (and his first sous chef Jody Adams) developed to serve a perfectly roasted chicken with a crispy skin and moist interior also makes it a great party dish for a home cook.

The chicken is roasted ahead of time and popped under a broiler for heating and crisping before it is served. I love dishes like this that I can make a day ahead because they let me spend more time with my guests.

Begin With Shopping

Of course, to come out with a result like the dish served at Hamersley’s, you have to begin as the chef did with the finest ingredients you can find. In his tips for choosing chicken, the chef suggests trying chickens from smaller producers or kosher brands.

In 2003, when Gordon Hamersley wrote “Bistro Cooking at Home,” he said what many locavores are saying now, “… getting a more flavorful bird that has also been raised free of antibiotics and hormone injections seems to me to be worth the price.”

Stepping Along

You begin this dish by preparing an herbed lemon pesto marinade. You rub this all over the clean and dried chicken and let it marinate 2-4 hours in the refrigerator.

Next, the chicken is roasted to an internal thigh temperature of 165-170 degrees and rested before cutting and deboning. The final step in this part of the preparation is to make the sauce from the pan drippings.

When it’s time to serve the chicken, you broil it with lemon slices on top and the sauce in the pan below until the skin is crisp and the meat is heated.

This dish requires many steps with a good bit of waiting time for some of them, but it is not a difficult recipe. Dozens of Hamersley’s cooks mastered it over the years. And, I can’t wait until I can make it without glancing at the cookbook just as they did.

If I master the chicken, next up on my list will be the perfect duck confit that was so tempting on the Hamersley's menu and is often such a disappointment when I order it elsewhere.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino (adapted from one of her Fresh & Local newspaper columns)
Photos: ©2008 Penny Cherubino

June 29, 2015
Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin Enters the James Beard Hall of Fame

One of my daily reads, A Proper Bostonian, gave me the great gift of an introduction to Laurie Colwin's books. Somehow, it hadn't registered with me that this essayist, that I had read in Gourmet and The New Yorker, also had books I should read.

I borrowed the Boston Public Library copy of Home Cooking for far too long and when they wanted it back, because another fan requested it, I bought my own copy.

Last week, the James Beard Awards placed Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin in their Hall of Fame for cookbooks. However, this is far more than a cookbook. It does have some recipes, but it also has stories flavored with witty and wise insight.

A big thank you to Ms Proper for putting so much enjoyment into my evening reading sessions. I think my summer reading list will include the rest of this author's books. That should make for a warm, relaxed summer with lots of gentle laughter.

By the way, here's where you can find the rest of the winners of the James Beard Foundation Book Awards. Just click on the category under, "Browse more book awards" in the left hand column.

What's on your summer reading shopping list? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Cover art courtesy of Vintage Books

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May 7, 2012
Use Your Lid: Keep it Simple in the Kitchen

When I'm making something like onion soup and have to prep a large quantity of an ingredient, I often use the lid to my Le Creuset French Oven to hold things until they're needed. Hey, I'm going to have to wash that anyway, it's sitting right there, and I won't need it until later in the cooking process.

My recent "Fresh & Local" newspaper columns have been about keeping it simple, saving time, and doing more home cooking. Chatting with non-cooks I realize that cleaning up is one reason they don't cook. So I'll start to share some of my ways to keep it simple in the kitchen and get the job done with less time, equipment, and clean up.

Related Posts: Tips & How To…

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Details:
Words: Penny Cherubino
Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

January 12, 2012