HUNGRY GERALD

No snow. No white Christmas. The big presents and feasting extravaganza is a few days away and the weather is cold. HG, age 94, has a need for warming comfort food. BSK (Top flight home cook) meets the challenge. One night, BSK does a riff on Melissa Clark’s (NY Times) “Red Lentil Soup.”The ingredients are red lentils, mmonions, tomato paste, cumin, garlic, chicken broth, salt & pepper,a roughly chopped carrot; olive oil (for drizzling). The soup is a puree with some chunky bits in it for texture. When completed, it gets abundant squeezes of lemon (plus the olive oil). Farewell chills. This is a great comforting  (but exotic) soup somehow evocative of many cultures. Red wine, a baguette, and endive salad were the table mates. The next night was New England style, BSK made a chowder “chowda”. No milk or cream or flour or other dread ingredients that find their way into many regional “chowdas.” BSK  simmers BSK’s version in a tangy mix of clam broth and vegetable broth, Ingredients are simple–mainly cod, potatoes and onions. It’s a wonderful dish. Its splendor is derived from BSK’s adroit handling of the fish and potatoes–not too soft but just right. The secret of BSK’s triumph over winter chills is Aleppo pepper. BSK adds it to both soups to bring up the picante level.  (HG gilds the lily by making a bowl of mayonnaise mixed with an over the top amount of sriracha). Take that, Jack Frost !!!

There’s usually bad news from Bangladesh: Fire, Flood, Transportation accidents, Factory disasters, Riots, Major and minor accidents of all kinds. The saving grace is very good food. Gifted daughter Lesley R. and her illustrious husband, Massimo R., proved that last night. They braved a rainstorm and came to HG/BSK’s Central Falls loft bearing a Bangladeshi feast for dinner. Two very wet dogs–Pip and Toby–accompanêd them. The feast: Okra in a piquant sauce; spinach, samosas, eggplant, lamb curry, chicken curry; naan and other tasty breads, a variety of excellent chutneys; large container of rice. Dessert: Wonderful Bangladeshi rice pudding.

The time is mid-afternoon. HG is busy in his office–writing, reading, plotting financial strategy, etc. And then, a period of pleasure. BSK appears, bearing HG a cup of steaming tea. BSK knows how to brew a potent, life enhancing “cuppa.”  BSK learned how to brew tea from two English women (Of, course)–BSK’s mother and grandmother. HG’s afternoon- tea has another layer of pleasure—sips of tea and nibbles of chocolate “cigars”.  These delicate cookiês are feather light–a layer of thin pastry enclosing a puree of fragrant chocolate. These delicacies are a gift to HG from Maiko Sakamoto Freeman, SJ’s wife and partner in their Tokyo izakaya. The “cigars” are from the Yoku Moku shop in Tokyo–enclosed in a tin box and swathed in layers of pleated paper. They stay fresh for years.

BSK’s dinner cuisine is inspired by many regions, countries, and cities. On successive nights BSK cooked: Gumbo (New Orleans); Moussaka (Greece);Tagine (Morocco —This was a simmered dish of chicken, garlic, onions, caulîflower, broth, olive oil and loads of middle eastern spices  (Including pungent  cinnamon). On another night there was no cooking for BSK. Gifted daughter, Lesley R.; her extraordinary husband, Author/Professor/Intellectual Massimo R.; their remarkable daughter, Sofia (HG/BSK granddaughter who has inherited beauty and brains ) brought fiery Szechuan Chinese food from Chengdu Taste. Set Massimo’s mouth ablaze. Cured by glasses of icy milk.

Cruising the Market Basket supermarket in Providence, BSK noticed some fresh, just picked okra. It’s a key ingredient in gumbo–the hearty New Orleans/Louisiana stew. Abundant okra went into BSK’s version of the New Orlean classic—plus a carefully swirled roux, shrimp, chunks of chicken thighs, chorizo sausage, file powder, cayenne pepper (just a pinch), salt, garlic, onions, celery and other tasty bits and flavor enhancers. Son Jeremy’s gumbo is world champion but BSK’s is a worthy challenger. Gifted daughter Lesley R., her erudite husband, Profesore Massimo R; and their  brilliant daughter (HG/BSK’s granddaughter) Sofia, had designated Saturday night for Christmas tree trimming at their home. So, BSK made everyone happy by bringing a big pot of leftover gumbo. Splendid meal. Beautifully decorated tree. Prone on the living room sofa, HG watched all of the activity while getting a neck massage from a device  Arianna gifted HG some years ago. Bliss.

Many years ago, HG commuted to an HG/BSK summer home in scenic New Paltz (Upstate New York). This was a historic (Filled with antiques) French Hugenot stone dwelling with a guest cottage and a chilly water swimming pool for a very modest sum. New Paltz is a one and a half hour drive from New York so HG commuted there by express bus. When working late HG skipped home cooking for a meal at a Greek restaurant on the second floor of the Port Authority Bus Terminal (Eatery is long gone). A HG’s favorite meal was Moussaka and multiple glasses of retsina (An acquired taste). Retsina is a pungent pine flavored wine and Moussaka, cooked in the oven, is served in the pottery dish it was cooked in. Bubbling hot. Essentially, the dish consists of ground lamb enriched with seasonal vegetables and herbs and spices. Topped with a thick layer of bechamel. BSK made a big baking dish of it two nights ago. Hearty and delicious. Much left over so HG/BSK brought the baking dish to Gifted daughter Lesley R.’s home. Happy festive dinner for five hungry adults. Much praise for BSK. And, what are HG/BSK eating tonight for dinner? You guessed it. Moussaka (The last of it). Here’s a sidebar: One night.HG was busy with a spinach pie at that Greek eatery and Mel Brooks was seated at an adjacent table with friends. Upon seeing HG, Mel embraced HG and shouted “It’s the great actor Boris Thomashefsky !!! One of my heroes.” HG admitted that HG was that actor (Of course, Boris had been dead for many years. He was a flamboyant (hammy?) star of the Yiddish stage.) HG had much funny Yiddish/ English badinage with Brooks. No tape or any other record of those moments exists. Too bad. HG had a mane of white hair in those late 60’s–thus the purported resemblance to Boris.

HG/BSK’s family (gifted daughter Lesley R., her husband, Profesore Massimo R; HG/BSK’s spectacular granddaughter, Sofia  R.) came for dinner last night. The generous group brought a fabulous Chinese feast from Chengdu Taste restaurant (Providence). Foods included wontons in hot (blazing) sauce; crystal shrimp dumplings ; pork soup dumplings; ma po (silky bean curd, ground pork, hot sauce) stew; eggplant; string beans; pork belly; fish prepared in two ways. Big container of white rice. Poor Massimo. He swallowed a wonton drenched in blazing sauce. Like many Europeans,he has a problem eating heavily spiced foods. The wonton was a flamethrower.   A glass of ice cold milk cured him. He managed to do justice to a carrot cake dessert.             

These were the dishes HG ate on date night with HG’s beautiful teenage girl friend. Neighborhood Chinese restaurants were cozy, welcoming—and cheap. HG would order pork chow mein and HG’s shapely companion would order shrimp chop suey.  We shared. This was preceded by egg drop or won ton soup. Dessert was almond cookies. Cost for the meal: $1.00 (Fifty cents each). HG found the food delicious and would bring back memories by ordering yummy and messy chow mein sandwiches at the Nathan’s outpost near Times Square (Even Mimi Sheraton, the former NY Times food critic, wrote nostalgically about her Brooklyn chow mein of the past and wished it would return.) Chop suey and chow mein were introduced to America by the Chinese cooks feeding the workers building the cross country western railroads.

BSK made Korean “Fire Chicken” last night and it was piquant and delicious. Chicken thighs were cut into small pieces and cooked with Korean baejong sauce. Molto picante!!  The dish got a layer of melted mozzarella cheese which cooled the fire a bit. There were bonuses. Remaining rice was turned into BSK’s perfect congee. (“Jook”). The next night, HG/BSK ate congee mixed with the leftover chicken and Chinese mushrooms. Delicious.  And, in the morning, HG breakfasted on the congee topped with an elegant poached egg and flavored with sesame oil and Sriracha. Congee’s a gift that keeps on giving.