kayb

Okra newbies should never make the mistake of buying supermarket frozen okra, encased in its little batter shells, which fries up approximately like ammunition for a .50-caliber machine gun. That is an abomination. Take fresh okra pods about 3-4 inches long and as big around as your thumb. Slice them about 1/2 inch thick, put them in a bowl, and forget them on the counter for about 20 minutes. This gives the okra time to ooze, and you need the ooze to make the cornmeal stick. Put cornmeal (NOT cornmeal mix!) in a bag with salt and pepper to taste; add the okra and shake. Heat about 1/2 inch oil in a (preferably) cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, and put in one okra; when it starts to brown, the oil is hot enough. Scatter okra slices in the oil and fry until golden brown, flipping a time or two; do not overcrowd the skillet, but fry in batches. Drain on paper towels and eat while it's hot. Preferably with sliced ripe tomatoes, sauteed squash and onions, and purple hulled peas. Meat? Who needs it?

French toast, made from challah sliced a little more than an inch thick. Nothing else compares. Doesn't matter what you top it with -- maple syrup, honey, peach sauce, caramelized bananas, blueberry syrup. But never, never, never with confectioner's sugar or cinnamon sugar sprinkled over it!

I spend between $100 and $150 every couple of weeks at Kroger, which includes staples, paper and cleaning products and the like, and meat on sale; it also includes most of the import cheeses (this Kroger has an excellent selection, as it's in an upscale neighborhood). There's another $30 a week at the farmers' market (higher than Kroger produce, which here is surprisingly good), but better quality stuff. We (my 20-year-old and I) might eat out twice a month that is NOT work-related for me (and thus on the company nickel). If I'm not having a business lunch, I take mine from home, usually something left over or a salad and soup. I buy meat when it's on sale at Kroger, and keep it in the freezer until I decide to cook it; a roast will make two or three meals in one form or another, and I get ground beef and chicken in family packs, portion it out and freeze it; I also use a lot of cured meats. I order coffee online, probably $30 a month, and spend perhaps $50-$75 a month on alcohol (mostly wine, the occasional restock bottle for the bar, more in the summer when I'm buying beer because we live on a lake and, well, you just drink beer at the lake in the summer). So say $500 a month, which would probably also cover the periodic trips to specialty and import stores, for a family of two. But I eat lunch out probably at least two days a week for business, and dinner probably twice a month. The 20-year-old will subsist for a week on a batch of homemade mac and cheese.

Hot chocolate mix and spiced tea mix are both good. I loved getting preserved fruit I could eat with my toaster waffles, and Chex mix, and my mother's homemade popcorn balls (Halloween standby). I'll add my vote to the cheese and sausages, maybe with some well-wrapped cornichons and/or baby sweet gherkins.

This has been the firsr cool (read: soupworthy) week we've had. Thus, quickie tomato bisque (Bloody Mary mix and plain yogurt; don't knock it until you've tried it!) with grilled cheese, beef and barley soup, and today, tomato-lentil-chorizo soup: 8 oz Spanish chorizo, sliced 1/4 inch thick 1 small onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 large tomatos, skinned and diced, with seeds and juice 3/4 cup dried lentils, soaked for about 20 minutes 3 cups chicken broth 1 tsp Hungarian paprika 1 tsp sugar salt to taste Saute the onion and garlic over medium heat; add the chorizo and let it stew for a few minutes while you peel and dice the tomatos. Add them and continue to cook over medium heat until the tomatos start to break down. Add the chicken broth and lentils, paprika and sugar. Let simmer 40 minutes, and then salt to taste.

Italian Roast Chicken with meat stuffing, cooked on the grill, for a dinner party last weekend: A mix of olive oil, thyme, basil, oregano and fennel rubbed beneath the skin, and the skin rubbed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and freshly cracked pepper. The meat stuffing has ground beef, an egg, some grated parmesan cheese, basil, oregano, thyme, fennel; it's stuffed into the cavity and bastes the bird from the inside as she cooks. Later in the week, beef and barley soup with roasted sweet potatos with pimenton and cayenne, and cheese toast (sourdough with grated Gruyere). I love sweet potatos like this, particularly now when they're in season; olive oil, a little sugar, smoked pimenton, cayenne, roast.

Shameful admission: Starburst jellybeans. I will eat the entire bag. And Pancho's Cheese Dip (a mid-South regional specialty) with crispy, salty tortilla chips. Fried okra. Fresh corn.

Red beans and rice, with andouille sausage. Carbonnades a la flamande. Moussaka. Vegetable beef soup. Chili. Tagines of chicken or lamb with Middle Eastern spices. Roasted stuffed chicken.

In the event you're going back to Hot Springs again....I just moved there three months ago and have been learning my way around the restaurant scene. Here are a few I will testify to: Cafe 1217, salads and sandwiches, carry-out and warm-up-at-home entrees and sides, best cream of tomato soup on the planet. Taco Mama, good, very fresh, Mexican. Taco Shop, authentic, blue-collar Mexican. Porterhouse, good steaks. Belle Arti, excellent Italian Pompeii, good Italian, nice wine bar Back Porch Grill, decent steaks and such, overlooking the lake Brick House Grill, OK bar food Chez Paul's is supposed to be the local four-star; haven't been there yet.

Merchant's, on Broadway. The Wild Boar, on West End (as best I remember).

Don't know if you're flying or driving in to Jackson, or what your time demands are, but the best places to eat are about an hour south or an hour north. In Hattiesburg, MS, try the Purple Parrot; good seafood, Cajun/Creole specialties. In Greenville, do not miss the original Doe's Eat Place; steaks are wonderful, and the tamales, if you don't get them to eat there, well, then you must get some to go.

My favorite pork roast is similar to Fooey's, but with a Caribbean slant to it. I roughly chop an onion, about 6 cloves of garlic, and a couple of whatever kind of fresh peppers I have around the house, pulse them in the food processor with a tablespoon of cumin, some salt and black pepper,and a tablespoon of oregano, 2-3 tablespoons of oil, and the juice of a lime. You want a heavy paste, so add oil as needed to get to that consistency. I use a Boston butt, stab it a number of times, work the paste into all the nooks and crannies, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and put in the fridge overnight. The next day, I let it come to room temp, sear it on all sides, and then put it in a low oven (275-300F) until the bone wiggles freely or big chunks of the roast can easily be torn off. You may need to baste periodically with the pan juices to keep it from drying out, but usually a Boston butt is marbled heavily enough to be OK; you can also cover it for the first couple of hours of cooking and then uncover it to develop a good crust. I've also been successful cooking this on the grill with indirect heat. A great treatment for leftovers -- pull the pork into shreds, soak it in lime juice, garlic and a bay leaf long enough to allow some sliced onions to saute until soft and starting to caramelize. Turn the heat up to medium high, squeeze the marinade out of the pork, and toss it in the pan; stir-fry until it develops some bits of browned crust. Wonderful!

Slightly flatten and then salt, pepper and flour the breasts; brown in a mix of butter and olive oil over medium high heat. Add a mix of half-and-half wine and beef stock to half the thickness of the dove breasts; braise over medium low heat for 20-30 minutes.You can add a bit of rosemary to the flour if you wish; it plays well with the dove breasts.

I made breakfast paninis this morning: Sourdough bread, bacon, eggs scrambled in the bacon grease (my house guest doesn't like fried) with a dash of half-and-half, and grated butterkase cheese. Quite respectable!

Chili. Pot roast. Lamb shanks. For starters.

Spices I MUST have: Lawry's seasoned salt Ginger root Garlic Cumin Ancho chile powder Pimenton Coriander Oregano Thyme Rosemary Peppercorns Cinnamon Other stuff I always keep around: Cardamon Caraway seeds Galangal Wasabi powder Nutmeg Allspice Curry Powder Hungarian Paprika Adobo seasoning And lots of other stuff, some of which I don't use that often but if I'm going to use it, I want it there.

I don't know that my pot roast is out of the ordinary, but it's one I've been making for years and that my children call for on a regular basis. 1 3-4 pound chuck or shoulder roast 2-3 sweet onions (one sliced, two quartered) 4-5 Yukon Gold potatos, halved or quartered 4-5 carrots, scraped and cut in 2-3 inch lengths Rosemary Lawry's Seasoned Salt Pepper 1 12-oz bottle dark beer (Newcastle works well, and so does Old Peculiar) 1/2 small can tomato paste (about 3 tbsp) 1 tbsp spicy or dijon mustard 1 tbsp brown sugar 1 tsp thyme Slice and saute ONE of the onions. Film the bottom of the pan with just enough beer to cover. Sprinkle the roast with rosemary and brown it; put it in the center of the pan. Surround with the potatos, carrots and onions. Sprinkle the veggies with the Lawry's seasoned salt. Spread the caramelized onions atop the roast. Make a sauce of the remaining beer, tomato paste, mustard, sugar and thyme. Carefully pour the sauce over the roast and onions (trying not to flood the onions off. Cover with foil and bake at 300 for at least 2 1/2 hours; it can cook up to 4 or 5 without hurting it. Roast will be falling apart -- should not be able to slice, but just tear into chunks. Wonderful stuff!

Here's the one my kids still clamor for. Nothing gourmet about it...but they love it. 1 pound cooked elbow macaroni 1/2 stick butter about 1/2 to 3/4 cup half-and-half 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar or cheddar-jack mix 1 1/2 cups grated Velveeta salt pepper bread crumbs Cook the mac in salted water, drain, put back in pot on low heat; add butter, grated cheeses, cream and pepper to taste. Add enough cream to make it "juicy." Turn into buttered baking dish, top with bread crumbs, and bake at 400 until golden.

A Caprese salad the size of a dinner plate. With a glass of Santa Margherita pinot grigio. I'm content.

I would simply second Bittman's How To Cook Everything, and also add Shirley Corriher's Cookwise.

My standard coleslaw, which I keep on hand all summer, is this: 1 head green cabbage 1 cup chopped carrots 1 bell pepper, minced 1 onion, minced 1 cup cider vinegar 1 cup white sugar 1 tsp celery seed 1/4 tsp white pepper 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp dry mustard 1/2 tsp turmeric Combine vegetables in a bowl with a tight-fitting lid. Bring vinegar, sugar and spices just to a boil. Pour over vegetables and cover. Leave on counter for two-four hours, stirring about every hour or so; refrigerate overnight. Keeps for ages. Great with barbecue. For Asian dishes, I make sesame ginger slaw. Sauteed red peppers, onions, garlic and ginger, cooled (I don't like raw peppers or onions; in fact, I leave both out of the previous recipe); shredded cabbage, minced carrots. Dressing of vegetable oil, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, a little sugar, a little fish sauce, light soy sauce. I made a snow pea slaw the other night; steamed and julienned snow peas, with a dressing of olive oil, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and a little ginger. Very good with roasted red snapper and jasmine rice scented with sambal oelek and caramelized green onions.

Very, very good! This one's definitely a keeper! ← Oh, yeah. That one goes in the file. I love broccoli this way, and I love anything you can do to shrimp, so...

Roasted chicken thighs with peaches, ginger and garlic, from Mark Bittman's blog; sauteed eggplant with mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar, over brown rice; and old-fashioned Southern green beans and new potatos.

Today -- breakfast pastries filled with honeyed mascarpone cheese, country sausage from the farmers' market, scrambled eggs, cantaloupe.

Any braised meat that can be shredded, reheated in a skillet and served over rice. Which you have made extra of, so you can put it in the fridge, so you can make fried rice later in the week. Any kind of legumes. Anything with a base of tomatos or tomato sauce. And pound cake, which, leftover makes both marvelous toast, and great sandwiches with fruit-and-cheese filling.