One Action Dinners, Part Three

One Action: OPEN YOUR LIQUOR CABINET. 

Cook with gin, vermouth, tonic, bitters & more. Those bottles can do more than fill cocktail glasses. Let the elixirs flavor your dinner food, too. Last week’s Academy project (finding fun anyway possible) was cooking with booze, using tablespoons and cups, not shot glasses. Still consuming alcohol but with emphasis on creativity and sophistication. The alcohol gets burned off so dinner is still child friendly. And the aromas are divine, as Mae West might say... 

Beefeaters & Beef

Beefeaters is more than a foundation for martinis and G&T’s! Smooth, silky and juniper scented, gin and beef is a marriage made in a pan. Sauté salted and peppered ribeyes over high heat. When steak is almost to your liking, pour in the gin and turn down the heat. Add a couple tablespoons of butter. While the gin and butter swirl together, turn the steak over a couple of times in the sauce. Remove steak to cutting board, slice, plate and pour gin sauce over steak slices while the juniper aromas are still strong.

Vermouth & Quail

The Vermouth bottle has been getting a workout. And when friends drop off quail, I quail with delight. After a quick flour dusting, sauté the birds in olive oil over medium high heat. When browned on one side, flip over. After both sides are brown, pour in vermouth. (our new favorite is Dolin.) Simmer until quails are cooked, throw in a tablespoon or two of butter, fresh thyme leaves, coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Done!

Vermouth & Savory Scones

When making ham and cheese scones (no yeast required) add equal parts vermouth to crème fraîche along with enough butter to satisfy fat requirements. To find out more, schedule a virtual scone class at the Academy.

Tonic’s Many Uses

Besides delivering a tiny hit of quinine, that lovely bitterness that mixes so well in cocktails, tonic can be whisked into flour (to the consistency of sour cream) making a batter for fried zucchini slices. Even children enjoy these green vegetables enclosed in crisp. After turning golden brown in very hot oil and draining on paper towels, use a generous hand when sprinkling coarse salt over the fried pile, because salt is a taste accelerator. 

Don’t forget the bitters lurking in your refrigerator…

Who doesn’t love nuts? Add a healthy dose of Angostura when you make spicy nuts. 

Roast 2 cups of unsalted nuts — a mixture of nuts is especially yummy — at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Combine 1 tablespoon of Angostura bitters, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary, 1/2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper and cinnamon and finally, 3 teaspoons of coarse salt. Mix with warm nuts. Serve with cocktails. Reheat extras for tomorrow and the next day and the next…or toss in a salad for crunch.

And desserts love liquor too.

You can flambé, scent, and build flavors with booze. Flame Bananas Foster with rum, make Grand Marnier or dry curaçao souffles, add tablespoons of sweet vermouth to macerate fresh strawberries for shortcake. 

Inquire about Academy classes to learn these techniques & other spiritual matters. During the past few weeks we have learned how to hold your hand, guide you step by step, answer all questions and even look into your cabinets, examining mixing bowls and knives. Real learning takes place when you do all steps on your own!  It’s not watching and wishing. It’s watching, doing, producing and tasting, together. Best of all, it’s hanging out with your friends and completing an activity!

One Action Dinners, Part Two

Less equals more, that’s what we are learning. We know what we do not need, what we can live without, and what we can do that we didn’t realize before. We might be discovering that the simplest dinner ever can be soul satisfying. The children might be happy with macaroni and butter but you need some fiber and greens.

One Action Dinners are simple. The one action might be brushing olive oil on a vegetable. Something delicious awaits you about an hour later. Sixty minutes to sit back, feel proud, drink a cocktail or finish a work project, know that you will be fed, and soon!

By the way, who said dinner had to be a meat and three? No it doesn’t! Sometimes one is enough. Kids might not like all of these, but you will. (Because…health.)

• Huge baked sweet potato - 425-degree oven for 1.5 hours, served with salted butter and sour cream and plenty of S&P.

• A pound of veggies - cut up & marinated in olive oil and any spices you’d like, grilled until charred. 

• Roasted red cabbage - slice, toss with olive oil and place in a 400-degree oven for an hour. Sprinkle in some caraway seeds and S&P. (Some cabbage slices get crispy, others are soft, all delicious and a little different.)

• Crispy potato pancake - thinly slice peeled white potatoes, toss with olive oil, arrange in an overlapping circle, sprinkle with S&P and bake for 1 hour at 425. What you want is golden brown crispness. This potato cake is addictive. If you want two actions, serve with a poached egg. 

• Fennel bulb - cut lengthwise into fourths, add oil and salt, roast for an hour at 425. Toss with fronds before serving. Served hot, warm or room temperature for a very pleasing dinner.

• Broccoli rabe - toss with olive oil, sprinkle with S&P, roast for 30 minutes at 400. 

For a change in pace — when you feel like doing two things and have some farm vegetables a neighbor left at your door — melt a little butter in a pan and sauté spring onion bulbs (white parts cut lengthwise in half) until lightly browned, and their delicate onion-y smell fills the kitchen. Then throw in a few snap peas and add tablespoon or so of heavy cream. While the mixture simmers, get a plate, fork, S&P and DONE! Dinner is simple and simply delicious.

What to do with leftovers? Add in pasta, rice or salads for yet another One Action delight.

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.

One Pan Wonder

Moms are the masters of cooking with only one pan (and only one arm!) Photo: Elliot Erwitt c. 1955.

What is so great about one pan meals? For starters, one word: EASY to make and to clean up!

Beyond that, one pan is a way to train the brain to become free from distraction and endless chatter. Use this type of cooking to remain razor focused for a short period of time instead of multi tasking with too many pots and other problems. The job at hand, whatever is going on in one single pan, is all that is important, at least for the moment. Before putting pot to fire, stow away your cell phone, set the table, organize the mise en place, warn your family to be ready to sit when called.

Lastly, limiting yourself to one pan frees you from a deluge of too many options, giving you a chance to get creative! Cooking is really fun when you riff and listen to your intuition. What is your stomach telling you? What is calling you from the aisles of the produce section?* One pan cooking is about following your likes and your mood, using a recipe as a guide rather than a rule book… 

Steak and Veg. for Two

• thin steaks, sliced 1/4 inch thick, edges notched to keep from curling

• 1 raw potato, peeled and cut into small cubes

• 1 red pepper, sliced

• handful of mushrooms, sliced

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

• coarse salt, freshly ground black pepper

• fresh oregano (leaves removed from the stems)

• olive oil

Choose a skillet large enough to hold the steaks in a single layer. Pour in just enough olive oil to barely coat the bottom of the pan. Heat the skillet over high heat until smoking hot. Cook the steak just long enough to brown on one side, then turn over and season with salt and pepper. Do Not Over Cook! 3 minutes on one side, 2 to 3 on the other, for rare. Transfer steaks to a plate to rest. Add a tablespoon or more of olive oil. When hot put the potatoes in. Leave the potatoes alone until crispy brown on one side, turn, then add the peppers, mushroom and garlic. Sauté for a few minutes until all ingredients are crisp and tender when pierced with the tip of a knife. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano and place vegetables next to steaks. 

*Don’t give up on physical visits to the grocery store. The benefit of walking up and down the aisles (instead of having everything delivered) is the opportunity for a spontaneous idea to spark while faced with a pyramid of potatoes, a deluge of favas, a mountain of shiitakes, or whatever else might be right in front of your eyes! Tonight’s dinner might take a left turn from what you thought you wanted. We know the ease of delivery: avoiding traffic, saving time, etc. etc. But still, there is something about a grocery store that is creative and even relaxing. All you are doing is planning for meals. Taking a toddler to a  grocery store is a learning experience that shouldn’t be missed.  (When my twins were small enough to sit in the front of the cart together, one twin picked up a tomato and took a bite of what he thought was an apple. Oops!)