Gobi Matar

I haven't posted on cooking in a while. Or much of anything for that matter. But I have been a bit obsessed with learning to cook more Indian food in recent weeks.

Gobi Matar

A side dish for a Massaman curry tonight was a new recipe for Gobi Matar (Cauliflower and Peas). This is a fairly typical Indian dish of a sauce base made from onions, ginger and garlic, and then tomatoes, to which you add about a dozen spices and simmer for a while. An oversimplification, but true nonetheless.

It was delicious. Nobody around here seems to be complaining about the Indian food kick...

Life Coming Full Circle

...or, we're getting old.

...or, just appreciate the random symmetry.

32 years ago, fresh off of our graduations from Haverford College and Bryn Mawr College, we moved to west Philadelphia, Powelton Village to be specific, to be near both my new job in Center City and Amp's PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania.

One of the first things we found in our new neighborhood was the White Dog Cafe, a quirky and revolutionary restaurant on the 3400 block of Sansom Street. Judy Wicks founded the restaurant in 1983, and was an early disciple of the kind of farm to table cooking and sustainable agriculture focus that was pioneered by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in California. Such a thing might not seem unusual now, but it was very unusual in the 1980's...

Anyway, despite being one of the better restaurants in Philadelphia, the White Dog's prices were very reasonable, and the food was astonishingly good. So with a good job, and a stipend, and no kids...we ate at the White Dog maybe once a week. For a couple years. We became familiar with the staff, and became friendly with the Manager at the time. We attended a few fundraising dinners and wine tasting events with Judy Wicks and Kevin von Klause in the residence space above the restaurant.

September 1990 rolled around, and a wedding was happening, so we needed a place to have a small reception for 50-60 family and friends, with us footing the bill ourselves. Our first choice was to have everyone to the White Dog, but they didn't do wedding receptions. Until we had a nice conversation with the manager, let's just call him Mr. Blake, who agreed that we could have our wedding reception there if we could squeeze it in between the lunch service and the dinner service. Which, for a noon wedding at my childhood church in Havertown, would work out fine.

We picked a menu, worked with the pastry chef to come up with a chocolate raspberry wedding cake, and had a wonderful wedding day. I still have the copy of the then-current dinner menu from which we picked the three entrees from which the guests could choose. Keep in mind the prices are circa 1990...

White Dog dinner menu c. September 1990

So we got married...

The Bride

And some years later we had kids. And the kids grew up. And Grace got a job as a junior server at a retirement home. And then Grace decided that she would like to work in a somewhat similar but more dynamic environment (i.e. a real restaurant). And she saw that the White Dog was opening it's 4th location, less than 10 minutes from our house, this September. And this name rung a bell for her. So entirely on her own, she applied for a job as a food runner and hostess trainee. And got the job. She starts later this week, when the place opens for business.

First, I am immensely proud of her initiative, in that she decided entirely on her own that she wanted to do this, did the research, applied, and got hired. Without any help from us other than an enthusiastic "go for it!"

Second, it gives me a warm feeling inside that she is going to be working at the White Dog Cafe. The White Dog was a part of the earliest years that Amp and I had together. And now... Well... Less than a month short of our 30th anniversary... If you have kids (or a heart!) you'll get what I'm feeling.

It's strange how things work out. Pure chance, or a graceful symmetry, who can say.

That being said, with time to spare on this Labor Day holiday Monday, Amp and I put together a meal with help from the White Dog Cafe cookbook.

The Cookbook...

We did a simple grilled chicken with Lime-Mojito marinade (McCormick's marinade, not White Dog), with Warm French Lentils (page 206) and Lavender and Honey-Roasted Butternut Squash (page 198). We decided to do something simple as the main course/protein, and try a couple of new side dishes from the cookbook.

All I can say is "wow!" This was one of the best meals we've had in a while, and given that we have been stuck at home cooking a good bit to kill time during the pandemic, that says a lot.

Mojito-Lime chicken with Lentils and Roasted Squash

So... Who knows what the future brings, but I am happy that my daughter is going to start working at my favorite restaurant, and one the has a strong connection to our little family's history.

Not to mention the fact that we now have a White Dog right down the street, as dangerous as that may be...

Anyway, I wish any and all who may stumble upon this blog post health and happiness in these difficult times. Stay safe. Wear a mask. And recognize that the choice in the USA this November is between democracy and the slippery slope to fascism, between progressive views and a reversion to the social stone age. Personally, I prefer democracy, not living in the stone age, the rule of law, checks and balances, and an open-minded viewpoint that respects and supports everyone. I prefer living in an America that the rest of the world respects, not laughs at. I reject "Make America White Again" as a thinly-veiled campaign slogan. Or a world-view. Despite being an aging, relatively well-off, straight white guy... Right is right. And I need to be able to look my kids in the eye and tell them that I used my vote to try to make their world a better place. For myself and for them. Your mileage may vary. 

PS - It has been pointed out just now that I always seem to avoid posting pictures of myself. True. Very true. So...

Amp and myself, downstairs at the White Dog

Clearly September 1990 didn't still count as the '80s, judging from the lack of hair on me. A trend that would continue... We won't be posting high school pictures of me anytime soon, thank you very much.

The Happy Couple

Well, nobody pays any attention to the groom anyway, right?

Aloo Gosht, sort of

Covid-19 self-quarantine Day 34. Grace and I make Pakistani "Aloo Gosht". Sort of.

I've been itching to make Indian (or related food), and this was a recipe in a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook (From Curries to Kebabs: Recipes from the Indian Spice Trail) that looked good, and not too difficult to put together on a weeknight. We do have time these days after all...

I will recap the modified recipe that we actually ended up making, since we didn't have exactly the correct ingredients to make it as written, and the recipe seemed like it was starting to go a bit off the rails part way through. We substituted pork shoulder for the lamb shoulder, since we had the one and aren't going out shopping for the other. We also used an onion instead of shallots. A very minor difference.

You start by sautéing a thinly sliced onion in some oil for about 5 minutes. When softened you add a 2-3 inch piece of finely grated ginger, 2 minced jalapeños, and 6 minced cloves of garlic. [The recipe says make a near-paste out of this in a food processor, but I didn't feel like washing the food processor afterwards for this little bit]. Saute for another couple minutes, then add 2 pounds of cubed pork shoulder (or lamb). Stir it around for a minute or so then add turmeric (1/4 tsp), cayenne pepper (~1 tsp) and ground coriander (~1 TB). Add a cup of water and cook for 5 minutes. The picture below shows us at this stage.

Early stage of cooking

Then you add 2 diced tomatoes, some salt, and 2 more cups of water. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add 2 whole black cardamom pods and a cinnamon stick. Keep cover on and cook for 10 more minutes. Add a pound of small waxy potatoes, or the equivalent in chunks. Cook uncovered about 10 more minutes. See below.

Middle stages of cooking

At this point, you are supposed to have thickened sauce clinging to the meat, and not much liquid. If that's the case, you add 3 more cups of water, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for about 20 more minutes. However, at this point, we still had soup consistency despite cooking vigorously. So we skipped the 3 more cups of water and just kept cooking as is. At the very end, you sprinkle some garam masala and cilantro over it. We had to use dried cilantro, but that was better than nothing.

As an aside, Grace has pointed out that I am very rarely in pictures in my own blog. That's kinda true. I don't like pictures much. But here I am throwing loose cardamom pods around the kitchen island. [Note Ryder lurking behind me in case food falls out of the sky (which it sometimes does).]

Grabbing runaway cardamom pods

This is the end result. It's still stew-ish in consistency, but the sauce has thickened nicely. I can't imagine what those 3 more cups of water would have done.

Aloo Gosht, but with pork not lamb

We ate it with white rice, green beans, and raita (cucumbers, yogurt, salt, pepper and cilantro). I can't eat this kind of food without raita, or don't want to anyway... It was pronounced yummy by everyone. I could have used a little more heat, but adding much more in the way of additional cayenne or jalapeños probably would have ruined it for Grace. As it was, it had a nice subtle heat, but nothing extreme at all. The pork was very tender, and the potatoes were almost too tender.

If I were making this again (and I will), I think I would lightly sear the meat as the very first step, then set it aside before repeating what we did above. I also might put the potatoes in a little later to keep them firmer. But these are only very minor tweaks.

Pennsylvania States - Xcel Gold - 2018

We knew that Grace had qualified for States, and would be going no matter what, but we didn't know exactly what date and time her Xcel Gold group would have their reporting time. It turns out the answer to that question was 7:45 on Friday morning. So that meant a day off from school on Friday, and a departure after school on Thursday afternoon.

The trip out the turnpike was uneventful (other than the fact that Grace doesn't like tunnels, of which there are 3 or 4). We had picked both girls up around 1:30 and were on the road by 2:00. This got us to the hotel in the northeastern suburbs of Pittsburgh by about 6:30.

Running into a teammate of Grace's, and one of her good friends, they told us that their family had eaten at a Primanti Brothers chain outlet just a few minutes down the road from the hotel. We went there to do the tourist thing. I know that Primanti Brothers is the famous place in Pittsburgh where you get a sandwich and they put cole slaw and french fries in the sandwich.

A Primanti Brothers chain store...

We pretty much universally agreed that the classic Primanti Borthers sandwich was....meh. Not bad. But not particularly good either. Bland. Nothing special. Meh.

...and an overrated sandwich.

As for the meet itself, Grace did very well. 9th in beam. 13th in the all around. No bad for a state-wide competition.

My baby's name in lights at States!! 9.2 in Floor.

As always, I am happiest knowing that she is part of a team, doing the best she can, and having fun doing it.

My baby at States!!

This will be a great memory for Grace.

Grace and teammates

The meet started around 8:30, and all the awards ceremonies and everything were done by about 1pm.

We left the Pittsburgh Indoor Sports Arena and headed southeast to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater... but that's a story for the next post.

Paul Prudhomme (1940 - 2015)

I love to cook, and it was with great sadness that I saw that one of my foodie idols died today. Paul Prudhomme died in New Orleans at the age of 75 following a brief illness.

Paul Prudhomme. later years

Credited with mainstreaming and popularizing cajun food in the 1970s and 1980s, Prudhomme was a larger than life character (literally and figuratively). Before there was a Food Network and a Cooking Channel, the only way to see cooking on TV was PBS (Public Broadcasting System) channels. One of the early people that I remember vividly was Prudhomme (who appeared on some other shows, but didn't have his own series runs until the 1990's).

Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen

Sometime in the 1990s, I was in New Orleans on a business trip with a few others, and we tried to get into K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen but could not. Back in those days, the place didn't take reservations, and the lines routinely stretched down the block.

Prudhomme's Fiery Foods...

I have three of his ten cookbooks; Louisiana Kitchen (1984, his first), Seasoned America (1991, his fourth) and Fiery Foods That I Love (1995, his seventh).

Louisiana Kitchen is a treasure trove of classic cajun and creole cooking. Fiery Foods contains some of my favorite recipes of all time, including two fantastic chicken recipes, Tomato Cream Chicken (page 182), and Chicken Dippin' (page 172). Tomato Cream Chicken is perhaps my single favorite recipe. Of any kind. Ever.

Browning for Chicken Dippin'

Grace and I made Chicken Dippin' this past weekend: (it was delicious)

Grace Making Chicken Dippin'

Rest in Peace, Paul.

Farewell to Jessica's Biscuit

I went to my favorite cookbook website this morning to do a little Christmas-related potential present browsing. Or, I should say, I tried to...

I have used ecookbooks.com, the website for Jessica's Biscuit, an online specialty store selling only cookbooks for years. They always had great customer service and a dazzling array of cookbooks at great prices, and their website was easy to browse, categorizing and tagging books by all sorts of criteria to make it easy to browse. But it seems like they are out of business. Gone without a trace. A brief story by a food blogger is here, but the gist of it is that after many years in business and with a dedicated and loyal customer base, the guy who ran it simply closed the doors to open a craft brewery instead. No warning. No farewell. Nothing on the website (because there no longer is a website; it's gone as well). Just gone.

As noted in the article, there is nothing wrong with moving on in life and doing something different. Once a business decides that it is done, that business has no obligations to its customers. But a simple "Thanks to our customers and good bye" on the website would have been nice.

I'm sad to see it go. It was the best cookbook resource on the web.

Washington DC Postscript - Georgetown Cupcakes

In my writeup of our trip, I managed to overlook Grace's favorite part; a not-so-quick side trip to Georgetown Cupcakes, where they film the TLC show "DC Cupcakes". Grace loves cooking shows in general, and baking shows specifically, and she has watched this show off and on (along with Cake Boss, Cupcake Wars and all the others). At the start of the trip she surprised us by telling us that the one thing that she really wanted to do was go to Georgetown and buy cupcakes. That sounded fine. Then she told us that because they are so famous the wait to get in the door is typically anywhere from 1-3 hours. Yep. Hours. That sounded less fine.

Almost in the door...

Having been chased out of the National Gallery by our bored kids, we had a few hours to kill before a planned late dinner (the aforementioned crying disaster), so a side trip to Georgetown by cab seemed reasonable. If the line was too long, we wouldn't stay, but at least we could look around the area a little.

Mission accomplished

The line, as promised was out the door and up the block, but didn't look too horrible, and we had been walking most of the day, so standing around resting for a while wasn't bad. In the end, the line didn't move very fast, but one hour and fifteen minutes later we were in the door and buying cupcakes.

The priceless gems...

The things we do for our children. (And the cupcakes were awfully good...)

Washington DC Day 2 - Julia Child's Kitchen

Since we had decided to make this trip relatively spur of the moment, not a tremendous amount of planning went into what we would do once we got there, other than "see the sights". But as we were taking a quick look at the various museums to see what they had to offer, one thing jumped out at both Amp and I as something that we really wanted to see: the Smithsonian Museum of American History had Julia Child's kitchen. Not a replica or a recreation. The actual kitchen.

Sink side with oven

In 2001, three years before her death in 2004 at the age of 91, Julia donated the entire kitchen from her Cambridge MA home to the Smithsonian. Everything except the flooring was taken apart, brought to the Smithsonian, and reassembled as part of a "Food in America, 1950-2000" exhibit (ceiling, walls, pots, pans, knives, gadgets, everything). This is the kitchen in which they filmed most of her shows over the decades, and there were still metal rails along the tops of the walls in a few places where they used to hang the TV lights during filming.

Stove side

I've been a foodie for a long time, and have always loved Julia Child. I was too young to know her from the French Chef days of early food TV, but I'm very aware of what she meant to food, wine, and home cooking in America. Everybody cooking on Public Broadcasting channels, Food Network, or anywhere else on TV owes a huge debt of gratitude to this pioneer. And she was hilarious, intentional or not.

Far side with books

The kitchen itself, viewed through Plexiglas windows and doorways, was familiar from some of her later shows (which I did watch regularly in the 1990s), and was entirely utilitarian. Other than the fact that it must have been considerably larger than most kitchens of its day, it had very little in common with today's modern high end kitchens. Knives and tools were hung up on simple racks, or stood in jars. Pots, pans and various other things were hung from pegboard which had been mounted on the walls. It some ways, it looked more like a workshop than a kitchen (which I guess in some respects it was).

"Batterie de Cuisine"

It was especially neat to see the small bookcase near one of the doorways, filled with a variety of cookbooks, including many of her own (with "Kitchen" handwritten on the spine), as well as video tapes, phone books, and the other paraphernalia of everyday life.

Julia's own books

Having already been to this museum on our last trip (to see the Star Spangled Banner flag, etc), after touring the Food exhibit and a couple other things, we went to lunch (fantastic Vietnamese food out of a food truck), and then spent the rest of the afternoon with more sightseeing... [more to come]

Cassoulet

I do not typically cross-post anything from my food blog here (and generally won't in the future), but if there was ever one simple recipe that I would recommend, I just posted it over there - Sausage and White Bean Cassoulet.

Make it. Trust me.

Moody Blues, Atlantic City NJ, Fri Nov 30, 2012

As has been well-documented here in the past, The Moody Blues are one of my favorite bands, if not my favorite band of all time. I have seen them more times live than any other band by far (at least a dozen times beginning in 1982 at the Spectrum; Rush and Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler are a very distant second at 3 times each if memory serves). We were sitting around our kitchen table with Anthony and Cathy one evening a few months back when I got an email notification that they were coming to Caesar's Palace in Atlantic City. Anthony said that they were a band that he had always wanted to see, and I said that given their ages he should see them sooner rather than later. Before the evening was over, much to my surprise (and pleasure), we had four tickets to the concert, a pair of hotel rooms, and plans to do an overnight trip to see them.

Consequently, by 3pm on Friday, brother Dave's Darling Wife was at my house to stay with the kids overnight, and the four of us were on the road to AC. We arrived at Caesar's at around 4:30 after a quick and uneventful drive, freshened up, and then wandered around the casino killing time before our 6:15 dinner reservation. We wandered through the gaming areas (most of which I find fascinating, but don't know the rules), checked out some of the shops, and settled in for a drink at a place next to the restaurant.

Dinner was at Buddakan, a Steven Starr asian fusion place, and it was absolutely fabulous. All four of us appreciate good food, and this was a meal to remember. We all agreed to try the chef's tasting menu, and out of the 4 appetizers, 4 entrees and 3 desserts, ten out of the eleven selections were fantastic. And the one that wasn't fantastic was still perfectly fine, just not memorable. Especially memorable were the edamame ravioli, the asian "caesar" salad, the king salmon and the horseradish crusted filet. Even the side dishes of wasabi mashed potatoes and grilled eggplant were out of this world (ok, make that 13 dishes not 11).

By the time dinner was over, it was time to make our way to the "Circus Maximus" theater for the concert. I was very excited, but also a little apprehensive, to be honest. My heroes were getting pretty well up there in years, and I was unsure as to how they would sound. Since this was Anthony and Cathy's first show with them, I hoped they'd sound good. The theater was small, perhaps a few thousand seats, and was completely sold out. By my count, we were in the 21st row, a little off to the left of center. Great seats. The band took the stage a few minutes after the 9pm show time, and launched into a setlist that, having researched it on the internet ahead of time, looked to be a greatest hits show (not surprisingly).

Having seen them the number of times that I have, there is a lot of live experience that I have to draw on by way of comparison, and my initial impression was that they sounded good from an instrumental standpoint, but that Justin Hayward's voice sounded strained. I don't know how to describe it exactly, but I just got the sense that he was struggling somewhat. I began to believe that this was true when they began to skip some songs compared to the expected setlist that I had written down from shows earlier in the week. One of the things about the Moodies is that they tend to be very predictable on tour, rarely straying from that tour's setlist on a night to night basis. If the prior shows' posted lists can be trusted, they ended up skipping 5 of the intended 20 songs, making for a fairly brief hour and a half show.

The exact setlist they did perform was (and you can bet the house on the accuracy of this...):

1. Gemini Dream
2. The Voice
3. Steppin in a Slide Zone
4. You and Me
5. Tuesday Afternoon
6. Peak Hour
7. I Know You're Out There Somewhere
8. The Story in Your Eyes
9. Your Wildest Dreams
10. Isn't Life Strange
11. Higher and Higher
12. I'm Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)
13. Late Lament / Nights in White Satin (actual YouTube performance video linked)
14. Question (video the night before)
15. (Encore) Ride My See Saw (video also the night before)

If the prior shows' setlists are to be believed, they dropped 3 songs between Tuesday Afternoon and Peak Hour (Gypsy (video from the night before), Nervous, and Say It With Love), as well as two songs later in the show (The Other Side of Life, and Driftwood). I have to admit, these drops disappointed me. Having seen the band as many times as I have, and taking into account the fact that they generally play a very similar list these days, it is the few nuggets from days gone by that they add in that are the special treats for me. For this show, I was looking forward to Gypsy, Nervous, and Driftwood. I hadn't heard any of these 3 songs live since the 1980's (as best I can remember), and hearing them again after all these years would have been the icing on this particular cake. Each of these, as they were skipped, was a tiny little dagger in the heart. Gypsy is a great up tempo song from the late '60's that has always been a favorite of mine, Nervous is a very good song from 1981's Long Distance Voyager album, and Driftwood is one of Hayward's best (but lesser known) love songs (from the "reunion" Octave album of the mid '70's). On the plus side, Peak Hour (1967) and You and Me (1972) were both old chestnuts that were a live first for me.

My overall impression of the concert, once I had some time to reflect, is that it was a good show. Not great by any means, but good. Anthony and Cathy said they loved it, which is also worth something. That being said, I had a hard time not comparing it to all the other shows I had seen from them before, and this made it hard not to feel a touch of melancholy. There were some songs where they sounded great (Nights in White Satin among others was certainly a highlight), but also some where they sounded more like a remembrance of what they have been. Perhaps this is unfair, but life, and the aging process, isn't fair.

Writing this reminds me of a couple of appropriate lines from Moodies songs. In the poem Late Lament, which leads into Nights in White Satin, Graeme Edge says "...senior citizens wish they were young...". And in Never Blame the Rainbows for the Rain, Hayward says "...the last whispered wish of age is to live it all again". Amen.

I should remind myself to see the glass as half full. Justin Hayward is 66, John Lodge is 67, and drummer Graeme Edge is 71. And they are still touring, sounding pretty good, and making me feel young. So there is something to be said for that. Something pretty important.

If they come around again, I'll be there...

Good News, Bad News

or... My Wallet May Never Be the Same
As a dedicated Foodie and fairly serious recreational cook, I was pretty pleased when I heard last year that the empty supermarket space less a mile from my house was going to be turned into a Whole Foods Market. Delay after delay kept pushing back the opening date, but after months of waiting, it finally opened a couple days ago.

I knew what to expect, having shopped at them when visiting in-laws who used to live in Providence, but this is the first one anywhere close enough to home to be a threat. And I mean threat in a good way. I am a huge fan of Whole Foods. I love their selection of fresh food and healthy prepared foods. They have a cheese section unlike any other around (my motto is "cheese makes everything better"). Fresh veggie selection is fantastic. I am not a hard core organic guy by any means, but I do respect what they have built themselves to be. But practically speaking this all comes with a price. Hence the threat. My wallet may never be the same.

I went into the store today for the first time to get things for dinner. I wanted to buy everything. I never wanted to have to leave. I exercised what I would consider to be remarkable restraint. But still...

If Pennsylvania weren't so screwed up with the "state store" liquor monopoly and they were allowed to carry wines, it would be heaven. Or more heaven than it already is.

So... Good news. We have a Whole Foods. Bad news.... Keep Eric out of the Whole Foods. At least some of the time.