One Action Dinners

We love Churchill’s Action This Day! campaign. He believed in getting the extreme priorities done daily. (Everything else was relegated to Report In Three Days...)

At the Academy, we take Churchill’s quote in a culinary direction because feeding people is an extreme priority. We like the idea of one step at a time towards delivering dinner tonight. Sometimes it’s too difficult to focus on more than a single action during times of distress.  

Know that some of the tastiest meals are the simplest. Here is a dinner menu made up of one action items, all delicious:

• Had Enough Cocktail - Pour soda water over ice. Sprinkle a few cocktail bitters on top. This is a perfect drink if you decide to reduce alcohol but still want the illusion of a cocktail.

• Roast Chicken - Liberally sprinkle the outside and inside with coarse salt, freshly ground pepper and Herbs de Provence. Stick chicken in 425-degree oven for 1.25 hours. Done!

• Fennel - Cut fennel bulb in quarters and save the fronds. Toss in oil. Place in 425-degree for 1.25 hours. No turning. To serve sprinkle the crispy roast fennel with S&P and lots of reserved fennel fronds. Delightful! 

• Sweet potato - Wash sweet potato. Put in 425-degree oven for 1.25 hours. Cut and let diners load potatoes with butter, creme fraiche, sour cream — any or all. Their choice! 

While looking through the fridge and figuring out what to make with what’s inside, remember that often the simplest things are the best.  Sometime all it takes is ten minutes and even less ingredients to deliver a meal you can proudly serve to anyone in need.

• Eggs + Butter = Omelette

• Jars of cherries + Angostura bitters = Old Fashioned

• Parmesan + Heavy cream + Fettuccine from the pantry = Alfredo

• Olives + Anchovies + Capers + Tomatoes + Spaghetti from the pantry = Spaghetti alla Puttanesca 

• Sour cream + Buttermilk + Herbs + Lemon = Dressing for a wedge of lettuce with crispy bacon

• Sour cream + Yogurt + Lemon zest and juice + Garlic = Creamy sauce for meats of all kinds…

@#$%&! #’s are difficult right now. Looking at a scale (going higher), looking at a bank account (tanking), all information that leads to even more numbers — faster heart rates. Let’s lower that beat by counting breaths, counting numbers in a recipe, counting projects to be done in the house and the times it takes to do them, counting how many times our children and other inhabitants living at home ask, ‘What is there to eat?’ (Actually don’t count that last one but the Academy has solutions for that too.) 

For all of us it comes down to one number, ONE. One step at a time, one day at a time, one problem solved at a time. But make that one into a smart choice. Make that into One Action Now.

The Point of Tea

I am a tea addict. My mornings begin with a comforting mug of milky tea and honey, a cup of smokey Hu-Kwa highlights my afternoons. My favorite characters in fiction join my tea habit. The redoubtable Dowager Countess in Downtown Abbey insists there is always something particular to discuss at tea. In Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Series, Precious Ramotswe, the owner of a small detective agency in Gaborone, makes the case for regular tea breaks throughout the day. Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, in Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow puts the tea matter perfectly:

…A prompt dispensing of pleasantries and a quick shift to the business at hand [is] utterly in keeping with the etiquette of tea — perhaps even essential to the institution… Before the first cake was sampled the purpose of the invitation would be laid upon the table… The most accomplished of hostesses could signal the transition with a word of her choosing. For the Count’s grandmother, the word had been Now, as in Now, …I have heard some distressing things about you, my boy…. For Princess Poliakova, a perennial victim of her own heart, it had been Oh… Oh, Alexander, I have made a terrible mistake…

The point of tea is different than the point of a breakfast meeting, a ladies luncheon or a dinner party. Some meals have no point but tea does and that’s what makes the ritual special. Tea calms, tea puts things into perspective, tea has a long history around the world. We are focusing on afternoon tea here and the elegant accoutrements of porcelain cups, dedicated tea pot, silver spoons, bite size sandwiches and scones; all of which make a cup full of hot liquid become a memorable break anywhere. A cup of tea even soothed the jangled nerves of Londoners under bombardment during World War II. Whether a flighty or weighty topic is discussed, the result is similar: one feels better about one’s life after tea. There is almost nothing one can’t face after a bracing cup of tea.

Two favorite tea parties:

Teas for two. My friend Inga Owen was born in the early 1900’s and raised in a palace in Sweden. During our tea afternoons Inga told stories about etiquette and dressing that were part of her young aristocratic life in Stockholm. I baked scones, Inga poured Hu-Kwa tea while we quickly dispensed with our obligatory remarks on this and that, hardly waiting to dive in on what needed to be discussed. The moment Inga poured the tea we shifted to the weighty matters at hand.

Inga stuck to a hard and fast rule in everything: the simpler, the more elegant. Her tea menu was a case in point. Inga’s Tea Menu consisted of cucumber sandwiches and a pot of Hu-Kwa tea. She allowed me to gild the lily by adding scones but it took convincing to change her strict rules!

Teas for many. Teas for a group of mothers and daughters (and grandmothers) is a celebration tea. The conversations will be wide ranging, but a single finer point is made — daughters feel the camaraderie and connections of females getting together, often dressing up, sipping and nibbling special foods, and taking time out to celebrate nothing much, the whole point!

MOTHER & DAUGHTER TEA MENU -

Little girls like sweets more than sandwiches, especially vegetable and fish sandwhiches, so the menu is titled in the cookie direction...

• Tomato sandwiches

• Smoked Salmon sandwiches

• Cucumber sandwiches

• Orange scones

• Brandy snaps

• Almond biscotti

• Lemon mounds 

Goodbye for now. Time to put the kettle on.

Thank You Global Traveler

We are delighted by the marvelous review of our private classes for the Beach Club at Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina, written by Becca Hensley for Global Traveler. Here's a clip:

"No visit to this centuries-old magnolia blossom of a harbor town would be complete without a visit with [Dean Pollak.] A cookbook author, socialite and expert on Lowcountry manners, she welcomes me, throws me an apron and gets me cooking the moment I walk in the door. Hoisting a glass of wine, nibbling on some fried zucchini cooked by a friend under Suzanne’s expert tutelage, I fold biscuit dough like origami animals. Suzanne swears this is the secret to flaky pastries. I chop dill for salmon flown in from Scotland that morning, and help mix an organic garden salad, composed from lettuce grown next door. Sitting down at the expertly set table for lunch, we relish our reward."

Jump to the full link HERE!

MORE on How to Host a Bridal Shower (for Martha Stewart Weddings)

The Dean, Etiquette Expert Extraordinaire, returned to Martha Stewart Weddings with some additional tips on how to host a Summer Bridal Shower. For everything from menu suggestions (spoiler alert: no messy finger foods) to theme ideas, as well as how to hone your guest list, check out the full piece HERE...

The Makings of a Pork Chop

An advisor to the Academy, the Minister of Meat, maintains that a pork chop is harder to perfect than a steak.* We all know where a pork chop comes from** but not many of us know the simple secrets to cooking a chop that will blow your mind this time, and every time.

What we don’t want is a grey pork chop. A grey chop means the heat wasn’t high enough. It means that you were chicken. Don’t get chicken with the pig. The difference between chefs and home cooks is that chefs are not afraid of high heat. The pork chop goal is juicy pink inside, crispy fat on the outside. The difficulty lies between crusty on the outside and tender on the inside. The following are the Pork Chop Poobah’s exact directions for the perfect pork chop, which he follows to the letter every time: 

• Pork chops 
• Fresh sage leaves
• Pears, apples or peaches, thickly sliced***

1. For starters, buy your pork chops from the best butcher in town. It is literally impossible to make an inferior pork chop superior. In Charleston we go to Ted's.
2. Heat a cast iron skillet over high heat. When surface is hot, pour a generous slug of olive oil in pan. You are not frying the chop, but you need more oil than a bare sheen. Using enough hot oil is the reason why the fat crisps and becomes delicious. This heated oil is definitely going to splatter, so wear an apron to protect your clothes, and know you will be wiping the stove and floor near the stove during clean up time. Your stomach and loved one’s stomachs are worth that hassle. 
3. When the oil starts to pop or "spit" (about thirty seconds), lay the pork chops in pan and leave the chop alone for exactly five minutes. Then turn the chop over. The Pork Doctor says that the second side is the creative side. Not to make you crazy, but he says listen to the vibe. The Dean’s translation: depending on the chop’s thickness, temperature of pan surface, even the humidity, the second side is done in three to five minutes. After cooking pork chops a few times you will know exactly when it is ready by touching and looking. Until that time comes, know that your chop is finished when the second side’s fat is crispy but the interior is pale pink. Stick a knife tip into middle of the meat and take a look at the color. It’s a fine line between pinky perfection and grey overtones.
4. When you turn the chop to the second side, place sage leaves and slices of pears around the chops. Both leaves and fruit will be ready in two minutes, when browned and crispy. If the chops need another minute, remove the sage and pears with tongs onto a paper towel first, and then take the chops out.
5. Serve pork chops with sage and pears on the side.****

*Why is a pork chop harder to cook than a steak? Steak is more forgiving. Cooking a streak properly means charring the outside and leaving the inside rare. You can guesstimate by looking at the thickness. There is more leeway between black and blue rare and overdone for a steak than there is for a pork chop. 

**A pork chop is from the loin of a pig, which runs from the hip to the shoulder and contains the small strip of meat called the tenderloin. The most common chops you see in the butcher case are from the ribs and the loin.

***Fruit and pork go together like Fred & Ginger. Use apples or pears in the fall and winter, peaches in the summer.  

****For a colorful feast, serve alongside sautéed yellow wax beans and roasted cauliflower.

Spring on the Table

What is the color of money, of envy, of Spring? 

The answer: a perfect party theme!

Antique soup plates...

antique dinner plates...

Ted Mueling salad plates (complete with bugs!)

& a silver chalice, to reflect it all.

The Dean decided to give an all-green dinner party in honor of both the weather and the surname of an esteemed invitee. So, green plates, green cocktails, green foods became the theme of the night. Luckily the guest of honor was amused. His eyes twinkled when he heard that a theme was involved, and twinkled even more when he heard that the theme was no doubt his favorite color.

Generally themes are too silly to be discussed (with the exception of Halloween), but a green theme is not too serious. Maybe a little silly, but so what? It’s fun! Anything to please a guest, and any excuse to serve margaritas at cocktail hour.

MENU

• Middle Eastern Watercress soup
• Roasted King Salmon, with chive sauce, spring onions & sautéed asparagus
• Micro-green salad with tiny croutons
• Roasted pears with crunchy pistachios, saffron and green cardamon sauce

The centerpiece? Greens snipped from the public park across the street. Shhh...

New Year's Eve, Academy Style

“This is the way the world [/year] ends
Not with a bang but a whimper [almost].”

— T.S. Eliot [and the Dean]

After all the sparkly Christmas parties, crushing crowds, decorated windows, doors and trees, not to mention major cooking…New Year’s Eve could be a time for going off radar. A big New Year’s bash is unabashedly out to blow all your circuits -- isn't that the whole point? Make no mistake, this night's party takes sustained effort both to organize and enjoy (as any New Year's host will attest.) This year the Academy takes our cue from our favorite poet, T.S. Eliot, and decided to end our year with a whimper. 

How do you orchestrate a whimper that is also unforgettable? An evening worth staying up for, and going out to? Start by inviting several couples for a champagne cocktail before they go off to blow out all their circuits, but invite one or two of those couples to stay longer for dinner. New Year's Eve isn't without a little over the top, but keep it classy & do it with your menu. Key words: Simple and Extravagant.

MENU

• Champagne Cocktails - here are ten different ways to make one.
• Caviar - Ossetra is fine with the Deans but don't overlook delicious domestic varieties i.e. ...) Try an assortment for that really over-the-top feel.
• ...with Blinis and Creme Fraiche - easier to make (Martha's way) than you think.
• A plate of charcuterie -- the best you can find. (In Charleston the best is Bob Cook's at Artisan Meat Share on Spring Street.)
• Oyster Stew
• Cognac Chocolate Mousse in Champagne Cups - from the Handbook.
• More Champagne.

We also like to to have plenty of seltzer on hand, because bubbles, as well as the words to Auld Lang Syne so that everyone can join in a round of song to usher in the New Year.

Here's to you, your parties, and 2016!