HUNGRY GERALD

A Tramezzino is a modest in size, but rich in taste, little Italian sandwich with origins in the city of Turin. In Britain it would be referred to as a “tea sandwich” — those thin sandwiches served with afternoon tea. In Italy, these sandwiches scale creative heights. The bread is always thin white bread (crusts removed). If you want to make Tramezzini at home, try Pepperidge Farm Very Thin Sliced White. At bars in Venice, there are a variety of Tramezzini fillings. All start with lots of mayonnaise (home chefs make sure to use Hellman’s Real Mayonnaise). Here are some fillings: chopped egg; sliced egg with asparagus spears; arugula and bresaola (air cured beef); tuna and sliced onion; tuna and white beans; ham and provolone. When HG makes Tramezzini at home, he adds to this list rare roast beef with slices of cornichons; bacon and turkey; sardines and sliced onion; Piquillo peppers and anchovies; smoked salmon and capers (no mayonnaise on this one– just brush the bread with a bit of olive oil). Tips: Do not stint on the mayonnaise. Do not use tomatoes — you don’t want mushy bread. Use your imagination in terms of additions and garnishes and always slice the sandwich diagonally to create 2 attractive triangles. In Italy, Tramezzini are a favorite of teenagers, businessmen in a hurry and ladies who like them with a bracing cup of tea. If you enjoy Tramezzini you will be in good company. HG’s distinguished son-in-law, Profesore/Dottore Massimo and Guido Brunetti, the detective protagonist of Donna Leon’s Venetian novels, fancy these morsels. HG favors a tray of Tramezzin with chilled Prosecco while watching his NBA heroes performing their wonders on television. Nice way to spend a chilly Sunday afternoon.

The De Gustibus Report in The New York Times noted the growing popularity of the peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Many claim that this unlikely combination is superior to the traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the staple of children’s lunchboxes. This is old hat for BSK. She grew up in Ohio munching on peanut butter, pickle, lettuce and mayo sandwiches. Now a purist, BSK insists upon Bubbie’s Bread and Butter Pickles as an ingredient in this sandwich. BSK manages to get down a lot of peanut butter. Spreads it on slices of apple and dips carrot spears in a jar of peanut butter. However, BSK does not indulge in an Elvis Presley favorite sandwich: bacon, sliced bananas and peanut butter. HG is not a big peanut butter fan. But, there is an exception. HG likes to mix peanut butter with dark soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, Szechuan preserved vegetables, pungent Chinese chile-garlic paste. Pours this over shredded cold chicken or room temperature linguine. Showers it with sliced and shredded scallions plus some crushed Szechuan peppercorns. Great summer dinner.

Lesley R., gifted daughter of HG and BSK, has spent much time living in Italy with her family. When HG has visited them (in Bologna, Venice, Siena) meals often started with a platter of Bresaola (thinly sliced, air dried beef). Lesley covered the beef with fresh, baby arugula, good olive oil and shards of Parmesan. Splendid dish. HG hasn’t encountered Bresaola in the USA and feared an Italian trip was the only way to access this delicacy. Well, happy news. Trader Joe’s is now carrying Citterio’s Bresaola and it’s mighty good. Had it last night with arugula fresh from the Farmers’ Market.

Some more nice taste news. When HG and BSK lived in their Vancouver loft, they often enjoyed Black Cod (also known as sable — when smoked it is that lush stuff found at Russ & Daughters, Zabar’s and other New York smoked fish specialists). Vancouver chefs sometimes prepared it with a maple syrup glaze or sauce. The sweetness complemented the richness of the fish. Well, don’t want to sound like a Trader Joe’s press agent, but TJ is now carrying frozen Black Cod filets. HG has sourced a nice recipe for Black Cod with “maple syrup gastrique” — a fancy way of saying maple syrup sauce. HG is not a fan of frozen fish but HG’s had a good experience with TJ frozen sole. So, the Black Cod may be a winner. Will keep you informed.

Chilly Sunday morning here in The Land of Enchantment. The big, fat Sunday New York Times is on the table. Mozart is on the Bose. Time for a true comfort breakfast. For HG, that means grits. Must be the memory of grits and gravy served to little HG by a motherly African-American woman when the five-year-old spent a year in Athens, Georgia. Today, HG used Quaker Instant Grits (grit purists, don’t sneer, they are pretty good). Made them like polenta. Added a thin stream of grits to boiling water and stirred, stirred, stirred for about five minutes. When the grits were just about done, HG added plenty of butter, grated cheddar, sea salt and ground pepper. This was topped by two of BSK’s perfect poached eggs. Did I die? Is it all over? Am I in Heaven?

Fresh fish has always been expensive but now that our ocean fisheries have been nearly decimated, prices are getting a bit nutty. Good, wild caught, fresh and unfrozen salmon, tuna, swordfish and halibut hover around $29 a pound. HG feels that paying that much for a simple piece of fish is a bit self indulgent. Therefore, HG is opting for moderately priced, farm raised fish like tilapia and catfish. Older fish farms were ecological disasters — pumping filth into the environment and shipping out muddy tasting, chemically processed product. Some modern farms have really cleaned up their act and become more environmentally sound with the result that the fish are healthier and quite palatable. Make sure to seek out fish from these type of farms (Whole Foods has very strict guidelines for their farmed fish purveyors — so buying through them is a good bet).

Here’s a very good way of cooking them. Coat the fish in a mixture of Hellman’s mayonnaise and Dijon mustard. Roll the fish in Louisiana Fish Fry or Zatarain’s Fish Fry or panko (crushed fine). Fry in a mixture of grapeseed oil and brown butter. After taking the fish out of the pan, melt a bit more butter with lemon juice, capers and a few drops of Tabasco. Pour this flavorful sauce over the crispy fish.

During HG’s college days at the City College West Harlem campus, HG enjoyed very cheap and very good fried catfish sandwiches. The breaded catfish was fried in lard (like cast iron pans, a staple of Harlem fry cooks), doused in a blazing hot pepper sauce and served between two slices of Wonder or Silvercup bread. It was accompanied by cole slaw or potato salad. HG’s version of fried fish is just a little bit fancier.

It’s eggplant season. There are tiny, round eggplants on display at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market. Also, slim Japanese eggplants. BSK has been cutting up the little round ones into cubes and sauteeing them with chopped tomatoes, basil, olive oil and garlic. BSK adds chopped, fresh mozzarella for Pasta a la Norma, a favorite in Sicily. HG and BSK first tasted it on a sunny Sicilian terrace overlooking the beautiful ruins of a Greek temple. Unfortunately, Sicily is wholly associated in the American mind with the nefarious activities of mafiosi. Sure, that’s part of Sicily. What doesn’t get enough attention are the Greek ruins, the extraordinary architecture and street food of Palermo and Taormina, a city with some of the most spectacular sea views in the world. Okay, enough about Sicily, let’s get back to those eggplants: BSK also sautes slices of the round, seasonal eggplants for a nice accompaniment to grilled lamps chops. HG likes to roast the Japanese eggplants. Cuts them open and eats with a bit of Chinese hoisin sauce.Those big eggplants one finds in supermarkets throughout the year are full of water. Best use for them is HG’s Baba Ganoush. HG roasts these eggplants until they are soft. Scoops out the insides and mashes them with olive oil, loads of garlic, some finely chopped onion, Spanish smoked paprika, chopped parsley. Dusts them with Zaatar, that lovely middle eastern spice mixture. HG gets much much applause when the Baba Ganoush is served with a chunk of feta cheese, Kalamata olives and warm pita.

Pickled egglplant is a classic, Italian antipasti dish, the best example of which SJ discovered at G. Esposito & Son’s Jersey Pork Butchers. You can find a middle European version of chopped eggplant at Sammy’s Roumanian Steak House on New York’s lower east side. Very heavy on the garlic and best accompanied by shots of vodka from a bottle frozen in ice. HG’s all time favorite eggplant dish can be found at good Chinese restaurants that feature cooking from the Szechuan and Hunan areas. Sometimes combined with chopped pork, these eggplant dishes stoke the mouth flames with an abundance of hot chile and Szechuan peppercorns. Pass the cold beer…

No, HG doesn’t pick a peck of peppers but he buys a lot of them at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market. The pepper in question? Shishito peppers (sometimes called Japanese peppers). These are slim little peppers about two to three inches long. Great with any number of dishes — fish, meat or fowl and equally great on their own. HG likes to put out a big bowl of them — sauteed in a hot pan with lots of garlic — alongside slices of good, toasted bread rubbed with oil, garlic and tomato. HG gathers some friends and pours red wine (Rioja, Tempranillo or Malbec). Lively conversation ensues and much scorn is heaped on Mitt and other enemies of women. HG learned about these peppers in Madrid where a Shishito lookalike is dubbed Piquillos al Padron. These are omnipresent in Madrid bars and bistros, HG and BSK devoured hundreds accompanied by Pulpo al Galego — very tender chunks of super tender octopus cooked in the Galician style (tomatoes, garlic and Spanish hot paprika (pimenton). Bread sopped up the sauces and sangria washed them down. Olé! There’s a minor problem with these peppers. Most of them are mild but every now and then you encounter a hot guy. Then you might need artificial respiration. My pepper guy at the Farmers’ Market also carries piquillos al padron. He steered me away from them. “Molto, molto picante,” he warned. When a Spanish speaking New Mexican farmer says a pepper is hot, you better believe him. They know hot.

Happy New Year to one and all. Rosh Hashonah, the Jewish New Year holiday, has just passed and solemn Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and atonement, will soon be here. This leads HG to a remembrance of a Jewish Tom Sawyer moment when HG was a growing and ever-hungry ten-year-old. HG’s mother and father were secular, left wing socialists. However, in a bow to tradition and identification with their fellow Jews, they observed the High Holy Days. HG’s father attended synagogue on Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur was a day of fasting (which ended in an exuberant feast). One autumn, HG’s Mom prepared a big tray of rugelach for the fast-ending Yom Kippur dinner. Yes, you can buy rugelach today from Zabar’s, Dean & DeLuca and many other sources. These yummy Eastern European pastries have entered the foodie mainstream. However, current day rugelach are only pale imitations of HG’s Mom’s cinnamon, raisin, walnut stuffed wonders. Little HG was a rugelach junkie. One wasn’t enough and a dozen weren’t too many. On that memorable Yom Kippur day many years ago, little HG came home and discovered the tray of rugelach cooling in the pantry. The HG family lived on the ground floor of a two family house and the pantry could be entered through a separate rear door. Hungry HG discovered the apartment was empty and this gave him the opportunity to do the forbidden: Eat on Yom Kippur and devour rugelach meant for the celebratory dinner. Well, naughty HG ate a rugelleh (the singuar of rugellach. HG rearranged the tray so his theft would not be discovered. This made HG even hungrier so HG ate another rugelleh. Yes, gluttony took over and the bad boy ate every pastry on the tray. Mom came home and discovered the theft. Obviously, rugelach burglars were at work. “Goniffs came in through the back door. I’m calling the cops,” she shouted. HG had to confess. No hitting but many angry words. Fortunately, Mom had made a big lekach, a honey cake. At dinner that night the family had wedges of the cake and toasted the new year with shots of Park & Tilford rye whiskey. All made wishes for a sweet new year. Little HG was forgiven. After all, his pastry felony could be interpreted as a loving testimonial to his Mom’s baking skills.

Is there any food more versatile than salt cod? HG has a pound of salt cod soaking in a big bowl of cold water (the cod has been rinsed and the water changed many times in the last 24 hours). How shall it be cooked? No, not a creamy brandade. HG likes to make this with fresh poached cod or haddock. Portuguese style? Cooked in the oven with lots of olive oil, garlic, onions and potatoes. Showered with black olives and halves of hard boiled eggs. Spanish. An emphasis on peppers and onions. Italian (served on polenta). Basically, a fish and tomato ragu. Save some of the poached cod for some fritters and cold salad tomorrow. Have just scratched the surface of possibilities. Love Jamaican Ackee and salt fish, but the ackee just isn’t available in these parts. If you are interested in the fascinating history of cod read Mark Kurlansky‘s book: Cod: A Biography of The Fish That Changed The World. He’s also done two other great books: Salt: A World History and The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell.

Now that autumn is rolling around, HG expects to see Cassoulet, the French casserole based around a mix of duck confit, sausage and beans on many restaurant menus. HG has dined on Cassoulet in many estimable Paris and New York restaurants. The dish sounds so good but, inevitably, HG is disappointed. In fact, the only really good Cassoulet HG ever enjoyed was prepared by his talented cousin, Wini Freund, in her Port Washington. L.I. kitchen. Deeply flavored, robust and rich, with every ingredient retaining integrity. The memory lingers on.

HG likes beans. They know how to handle them in Tuscany. In Florence, Steak Fiorentina cooked blood rare and gilded with great olive oil is usually accompanied by abundant, firm white beans with lots of that good olive oil, rosemary and plentiful garlic. HG replicates this dish in New Mexico with New York strip steak and Goya beans. HG has never liked Boston baked beans. Too sweet. Serving it with Boston brown bread just adds to the saccharine quality. The only cook who can do anything good with conventional Heinz or Campbell’s baked beans is BSK. The excellent woman adds lots of sauteed onions and ketchup to the mix (and a dash of Tabasco). Serves the beans with grilled Hebrew National all-beef frankfurters. Mustard pickles on the side. A -once-in-a-while, funky, teen age, down home treat.