Jambalaya

This story is about research and improvisation, and sisters.

I arrived in Atlanta on Marti Gras. I came to visit my youngest sister, who is pregnant with her second child. So I, the Super Aunt (dah-dah-da-dah!), offered to make dinner that night.

"How about Jambalaya?" asked my sister.

"Sure!" I replied. I'm a firm believer that pregnant women should have any reasonable request fulfilled.

When we got into the kitchen, I turned to my sister and said,

"I have a confession to make...

"I've never made Jambalaya."

"Well," she replied, "let's pull out the cookbooks."

If Jane Austen had written a novel about sisters such as us, she would have titled it Pride and Pragmatism.

My sister has only a handful of cookbooks, but they are well chosen. We consulted The Joy of Cooking, The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, and Better Homes and Gardens. While no one recipe appealed to us, we got the general idea and improvised. Here's what we came up with.

Jambalaya for Marti Gras 2009 with Alli, et al.

Ingredients:

3 (or so) tbsp bacon drippings

1 young chicken, about 4-5 pounds

1 cup water

1 pound andouille sausage links, sliced

1 medium onion, chopped

8 cloves garlic, chopped

1 orange bell pepper, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

4-5 cups chicken broth or stock

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

4 oz tomato paste

4 cups cooked brown basmati rice

several sprigs fresh thyme from Avalyn's garden (neighbor)

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

cayenne pepper

Quarter the bird, and season liberally with salt, pepper and cayenne.

Heat a large dutch oven on the stove. Add bacon drippings; when melted, stir to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken (including neck and back) skin side down and cook until well browned. Flip quarters and continue to cook about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup water to deglaze delicious brown bits, cover and cook until chicken is just done. If there's not enough room in the pan, cook chicken in batches. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.

Add sausage and onions to the pot and cook in pan juices until onions are tender--about 5 minutes. Add garlic, bell pepper and celery, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. Continue to cook about 5 minutes.

In the meantime, peel off the skin and pick the chicken. Meat should be in bite sized pieces. (Reserve the bones for stock.)

Add chicken stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir well to combine.

Add rice, chicken meat, bay leaves, and thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until liquid reduces and Jambalaya thickens.

Serve it up when it smells so good, you can't stand to wait any longer.

By the time we dished it up, a couple of neighbors had shown up at the back door. We pulled up some extra chairs and called it a party. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

White Chocolate Mousse for Miss D

My friend Jen, who lives in Dedham, Massachusetts, is a fan of white chocolate. While visiting with her recently, we discussed White Chocolate Mousse. She remembered seeing it on dessert menus everywhere a few years ago, then it just disappeared.

Jen had three recipes for White Chocolate Mousse in her collection, all from the teacher of a cooking class she had taken with her husband. The variations were typical--one was whipped cream based, another called for whipped egg whites, and the third employed gelatin.

It struck me was that all three versions seemed to be dark chocolate mousse recipes for which equal parts of white chocolate were substituted. But dark chocolate and white chocolate are not interchangeable. They are, in fact, very different. Dark chocolate is composed of cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sugar. White chocolate is composed of milk solids, cocoa butter and sugar. They melt differently, have different mouth feels, and react differently when combined with other ingredients.

I asked Jen if she'd tried the recipes yet. She had tried one, but was very disappointed with the results. She asked if I had a good recipe. I did. And I offered to make it.

We started with the white chocolate. First manufactured in the United States in the 1950's, it wasn't until 2004 that the FDA established a standard of identity for white chocolate. That's also about when Jen started seeing white chocolate appearing all over dessert menus.

I am not much of a fan of white chocolate, mostly because I've tasted very few white chocolate couvertures that I like. The general availability of white chocolate for baking has decreased with its decline in popularity in the recent years, although higher quality options can be found at gourmet and boutique food shops. At a regional Massachusetts grocery and at a Whole Foods Market, we found only Nestle Premier White Morsels (ingredients include palm kernel oil, sodium caseinate, hydrogenated palm oil, and artificial flavors), Baker's (subject to a recall in 2007 for Salmonella), Ghirardelli White Chocolate Baking Bar (which Jen doesn't care for), and Whole Foods 365 Brand White Chocolate Chunk (which we ended up using). If it had been available, I would have preferred Callebaut or Valrhona.

Next we contemplated cream. I like to use pasteurized organic heavy whipping cream. Unfortunately, none of the pasteurized cream at the store was organic, and all of the organic options were ultra pasteurized. Ultra pasteurized cream doesn't taste as good or whip up as well, since the molecular structure of the cream is compromised when it is heated to the required minimum of 280 F. Frequently, manufacturers ultra pasteurize cream and other liquid dairy products to give it a longer shelf life. The pasteurization process is the same for shelf-stable milk milk products, except the packing conditions are not sterile so they still require refrigeration. I stood in front of the dairy case for about five minutes, staring idly at my disappointing options, dreaming of the delicious cream from the Strauss Family Creamery in Marin County. Alas, my magical powers failed that day. I settled for the organic ultra-pasteurized and headed for the check out.

So, Jen, here's a new recipe for your collection. Throw those other ones out.

White Chocolate Mousse for Miss D

8 oz good quality white chocolate, such as Callebaut or Valrhona (in small chunks)
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1-1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tbsp sugar

1) Keep cream well chilled for 24 hours before making mousse. Chill metal mixing bowl and beaters/whisk for 15-20 minutes.

2) In a large glass (microwave safe) mixing bowl, combine white chocolate and 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream. Heat in the microwave on high for 20-30 second, then mix with a spatula for 45-60 seconds. Repeat just until white chocolate chunks are indistinguishable and mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool while you whip the cream

3) Place 1-1/4 cup well chilled heavy whipping cream in well chilled metal bow. Beat with well chilled beaters/whisk until foamy. Slowly stream in sugar (while still whipping). Continue to whip at medium high speed until soft to medium peaks form.

4) Check the texture of the melted white chocolate. It should be slightly warm to the touch and easy to stir. If it is not, return to the microwave for 10 seconds, then stir well for 30 - 45 seconds. Repeat, if necessary, to acheive this.

5) Add about 1/3 of the whipped cream to the melted white chocolate and mix well by hand with a spatula or whisk. This step will lighten the white chocolate mixture.

6) Add another 1/3 of whipped cream to white chocolate and fold gently to incorporate.

7) Add last 1/3 of whipped cream to white chocolate and continue to fold until mixture is well blended. If necessary, briefly use a whisk at the end to acheive a smooth mixture.

8) Pour mixture into individual ramekins and chill until set--at least 4 hours. To store for up to 3 days in the fridge, cover chilled mousses with plastic wrap and protect from strong odors (e.g. cheeses, onions, fish). To freeze, wrap aluminum foil over plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months.

P.S. This mousse can be poured directly into a prepared graham cracker or cookie crust and chilled as directed for a white chocolate mousse pie.

On Food and Ethics

A quote I read in the New York Times Food Section this past Wednesday struck a chord with me. Thomas Keller commented on how the current salmonella outbreak in peanut butter is affecting the restaurant industry. He is quoted as saying, "There’s always something new to worry about in food safety, but your customers trust you.”

Yes, Mr. Keller, your customers trust you.

But is that any wonder? You, Mr. Keller, are in the minority when it comes to responsible Chefs. You've worked in kitchens for most of your life. You've washed dishes, peeled potatoes, strained stock. You taste everything. You do not compromise your standards. You acknowledge with respect every detail as important.

And those who work for and with you are expected to accept and adopt those standards. Chefs in your kitchens greet each other with a hand shake. Pots are scrubbed by hand until they shine. The low-boys are immaculate. Food containers are neatly labeled with sharp black marker in legible writing on tape that is neatly cut with scissors (not torn).

And your food is consistently delicious, as documented by numerous food critics, bloggers, and my own taste buds. Even though the frites at your Bistro in Yountville are delivered to the kitchen door as frozen sticks of potato in a box from Sysco, I know that you and the chefs who work for you respect the food that is served in all of your restaurants at every stage. As one of your customers, I trust that those frites will be handled, stored, cooked, plated and served with due respect. And mayonnaise. A good frite deserves some good mayonnaise.

I trust that the food you serve is safe in part because I have been in a few of your kitchens and know many people who work for you. Carelessness with food safety and cleanliness in your kitchens is simply not tolerated.

But I've been in and worked in many other restaurant kitchens and know that your standard is not the industry standard. Not by a long shot. I have turned down jobs in restaurant kitchens where I have seen roaches in the dry storage, mold in the walk-ins, and no paper towels in the employee bathrooms. Have you ever seen a cook walk into the bathroom with his apron still on, come out wiping his hands on it, and return to his station? I have. Many times. But never in a Thomas Keller restaurant.

With the industrialization of the food industry and pervasiveness of processed foods throughout the United States (and most of the World), have we been lulled into a false sense of safety with regard to our food supply? If it comes in a shiny wrapper with a tamper proof seal it must be safe to eat, right? Perhaps it's time to reread The Jungle.

But the responsibility for food safety lies not only with government agencies and departments of health. I dream of a day when private citizens, faced with a food safety issue, will take the reigns of responsibility to find a solution and share it with others.

I don't think it's an unreasonable dream. When I was working in New York in 2005, the NYC Health Department began cracking down on restaurants using sous vide as a method of storing and cooking food because there was no official protocol for that method established by any health department in the country. One restaurant group stepped up to write a HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) Plan for sous vide, and shared it with other restaurants. Thanks again, Mr. Keller.

I wonder if some will take Mr. Keller's quote as a dismissal of the importance of the matter at hand: "there's always something new to worry about in food safety." It may seem so, especially when serious food borne illnesses such as salmonella have taken center stage multiple times in recent years, with mass media sensationalizing the "outbreak" to maximize ratings. It is symptomatic of greater issues in the current state of food in our country: the regulation and enforcement of food safety standards, agriculture subsidies, the farm lobby, food labeling, etc. Coupled with the ignorance and complacency of the American public with regard to the food we eat, and the vague ethics of food manufacturers who make decisions based on profit margins and cost benefit analysis, we've gotten ourselves into a bit of a pickle.

Nicholas D. Kristof offers a thoughtful opinion in a column posted to the New York Times in December 2008. He proposes a bold overhaul of the USDA, and presents a reasonable argument for a rethinking and restructuring of this antiquated government agency if it is to be pertinent and effective in the 21st century. Certainly an opinion worth discussing.

So, for now, caveat emptor--restaurateur and customer alike. Not all that's packaged is safe. One day we may realize a new meaning for the "Freedom from Want" and "Freedom from Fear" as articulated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. One day we may be able to trust with confidence that all the many food choices made available to us in this country are truly safe. But to get there we must accept that you and I have an ethical responsibility to know where the food we eat comes from, and to hold both our government and the food industry responsible for what is offered to us.