eG Foodblog: John Whiting

[John Whiting]

As somebody who once spent a lot of summer days vacationing (and eating--gotta keep this on-topic!) in Provincetown, I enjoyed jumping to your website just now and sampling some of your reflections on growing up there. Not to distract from the main theme of your blog, but any asides you might care to throw in here about life and food in Provincetown from the perspective a native would find a very interested audience over here.

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Ah, Provincetown! Don't get me started! A glance at your website tells me that there are subjects we musn't pursue under eGullet auspices. Among the permitted ones, did you experience Sal's Place? Sal del Deo is a dear friend and one of the finest spontaneously natural cooks I've observed. Just watching him build a tomato sauce is a form of higher enlightenment.

[John Whiting]

Shameless plug: There is much good cassoulet over here at the cassoulet cook-off. No excuses now!

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I won't even look, until after this blog closes down. I could be accused of plagiarism or contrariness.

[John Whiting]

I've also never had cassoulet, so be careful with all us virgins....

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If you've had Boston baked beans, you're only demivierge.

[mizducky]

As somebody who once spent a lot of summer days vacationing (and eating--gotta keep this on-topic!) in Provincetown, I enjoyed jumping to your website just now and sampling some of your reflections on growing up there. Not to distract from the main theme of your blog, but any asides you might care to throw in here about life and food in Provincetown from the perspective a native would find a very interested audience over here.

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Ah, Provincetown! Don't get me started! A glance at your website tells me that there are subjects we musn't pursue under eGullet auspices. Among the permitted ones, did you experience Sal's Place? Sal del Deo is a dear friend and one of the finest spontaneously natural cooks I've observed. Just watching him build a tomato sauce is a form of higher enlightenment.

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Yeah, I think most of my own P-town escapades would definitely be way the heck off-topic to eGullet. But as to food: alas, I don't think I ever got to Sal's Place (although time, and some of those escapades, may be playing tricks with my memory). But I do recall at least one lovely time at Ciro and Sal's--of course Sal was long gone from there by the time I showed up, and the exact memory of what we ate is also long gone, but the general enjoyment of that evening has stayed with me.

[fifi]

. . . . .

First, the confit. Its origins lie in two historical factors: (1) the raw material from which it was made and (2) the method of its preservation. First, the meat of the geese or ducks that are force-fed to produce foie gras has a coarseness that does not take kindly to roasting or braising; it requires a rather more assertive treatment to tame it. Second, the production of foie gras at the height of the season produced such a massive by-product of left-over flesh that in pre-freezer days it had to be salted down or thrown away.

. . . . .

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I just learned something that I did not know. I love it when that happens.

I have eaten cassoulet here in the US, in France and in my own kitchen with my rather abbreviated attempts. I have to say that they were all good. But, the ones that depended a lot on the quality of the confit stand out in my memory.

Your market pictures had me checking the flight schedules to London. There are some good deals this time of year.

[Zucchini Mama]

Mr. Whiting,

I love your essay on authenticity! I particularly like this quote of yours: "Even a genuinely authentic recipe is only a freeze-frame, a snapshot taken at an arbitrarily chosen moment in a spatial/temporal continuum." You nailed it.

The idea of people losing the ability or the will to cook in the same way people no longer make their own clothes intrigues and frightens me. Will cooking at home be a lost art some day? Or will ingredients be so expensive that it will no longer be economical for people to make their own meals from scratch?

I liked all your references to the art world as analogous to cuisine. You've given me a lot to think about.

Zuke

[helenjp]

You mention that your pressure-cooker is a valued piece of kitchen equipment...I'm beginning to get over misspending my youth cleaning soup off my mother's kitchen ceiling, and have been thinking about buying one.

Can you tell me why you value your pressure-cooker so much?

[Swisskaese]

Very interesting blog John.

I have never had cassoulet, because I don't eat pork and I didn't grow up eating cholent. My family is from the German-Dutch border and they had never heard of it.

The problem I have with cholent is that they tend to dry out. I think that this is due to the fact that it stays in the oven overnight. I don't know what the solution is to keep it from drying out.

[bigbear]

Great stuff, John. Thanks and a happy 75th.

[John Whiting]

Can you tell me why you value your pressure-cooker so much?

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Our 8.5 litre Demeyere, Belgian-made, is in almost daily use. Our chicken bones go into it to make stock, which takes an hour for total extraction of flavor. Made under pressure, the stock isn't clear, but that doesn't bother us; the "impurities" that are removed by careful simmering, skimming and sieving are, for us, part of the flavor.

Since the bones are steam-cooked under pressure, they don't have to be covered with water and the stock can be as strong as you like without reduction.

I also deal with tough game birds that I'd rather not wrestle with at the table by browning them at high heat in the oven in a loosely foil-wrapped dish, then transferring the covered dish to the pressure cooker on a low rack with a cup of water, and "steam roasting" it for as long as it takes to tenderize. I then put the covered dish back in a hot oven to dry out the skin a bit.

Since it's a spring-loaded pressure cooker that doesn't constantly lose steam, a small amount of water is enough. And it will have absorbed enough of the bird's flavor to make it worth adding to the stock pot.

So far as the pressure cooker's usefulness is concerned, that's just for starters.

[Marco_Polo]

John, we meet in many places but rarely here. As you know, I've enjoyed reading about and discussing your virtual cassoulet for years now and this illustrated and annotated blog will no doubt add new levels and depths of delicious information and flavour.

Happy cooking, happy blogging and many many congratulations on your milestone birthday.

Marc

[helenjp]

Thank you! Spring-loaded...hmmm.

[John Whiting]

Thank you! Spring-loaded...hmmm.

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As opposed to the older types with a weight sitting on the jet. Maintaining a constant pressure meant that there was always steam escaping, so that with not much liquid inside it could boil dry.

The Demeyere has a small cylinder that gradually protrudes from the pressure gauge with three graduated rings around it. Top pressure is when the third ring is exposed. If it starts to hiss, you've too much heat, and you then back off until it stops. I've cooked safely and successfully with only a cup of water for a large load.

Edited January 11, 2006 by John Whiting (log)

[hathor]

Mr. Whiting,

I love your essay on authenticity! I particularly like this quote of yours: "Even a genuinely authentic recipe is only a freeze-frame, a snapshot taken at an arbitrarily chosen moment in a spatial/temporal continuum." You nailed it.

The idea of people losing the ability or the will to cook in the same way people no longer make their own clothes intrigues and frightens me. Will cooking at home be a lost art some day? Or will ingredients be so expensive that it will no longer be economical for people to make their own meals from scratch?

I liked all your references to the art world as analogous to cuisine. You've given me a lot to think about.

Zuke

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Authenticity is something I've recently been giving a lot of thought to. I'm in love with Italian cooking and when I'm living in Italy, my food is Italian, it can be nothing else because of the ingredients. The bread I'll make is infused with the air of Umbria. But what happens when I'm in NY and I can only cook in the Italian style? Have I sacrificed all 'authenticity"? To be authentically Italian I should be using local NY products and not expensive imports. A conundrum methinks.

Zuke, do you really think its that bad? People have lost their will to cook? YIKES. But...do you think this could be a North American bias, but one that is spreading?

And as for the divine cassoulet: I belong to the 'jes let it accumulate' camp. But, I like the way you 'deconstruct' your flavors John. Thanks for taking the time and sharing with us.

[John Whiting]

John, we meet in many places ...

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Indeed we do. We're war buddies.

[chow guy]

Thanks so much for your wonderful blog... I always enjoy your posts.

Have a very Happy Birthday.

[Abra]

I'm glad to see that someone else loves his pressure cooker as much as I love mine. I'm not sure how I lived without it all those years.

I'm going to be especially interested in the meats you use for the cassoulet. I can't find any of the traditional sausages, unless I buy them online, and I never know what to sub. Same problem with feijoada. Certain meats seem to be necesary but unobtainable.

[Adam Balic]

And there’s the check-out counter, behind an ever-changing array of wild and tame mushrooms, including the portobello, Ah, there’s a story. I’m told that the name was a PR invention, designed to sell large brown mushrooms for which there had been no market.

Everything is marketing. Portobello/Chestnut/Cremini is the remarketing of the older brown strain of the gilled mushroom Agaricus bisporus. This strain fell out of fashion after the development and hugely successful marketing of the white strain ("champignon de Paris") in the 1920's.

What ever the market name I am glad they are back as they have more flavor then the white strain. It is odd to think that many of the classic dishes that use these as a ingredient or garnish, most likely didn't use the flavor lacking white strain at all.

Excellent images, I look forward to more installments - especially regarding pressure cookers as I have the same model.

[Behemoth]

Excellent images, I look forward to more installments  - especially regarding pressure cookers as I have the same model.

I'm also interested -- currently thinking of getting one. The other reason a lot of people use pressure cookers outside the US, I've been told, is that energy is more expensive here and so anything that cuts down on cooking times makes a lot of economic sense.

[John Whiting]

DOWN MARKET

The Borough Market is where I do my fun shopping; Mary does the real shopping at Chapel Market near the Angel, Islington. That’s where she gets most of our everyday fruits and veggies.

Yes, that will do!

And there’s the coriander, a fresh generous bunch for 60p. I trim the ends off the roots and put it in water…

…whereupon it springs gloriously back to life.

I use a lot in my lunches, taking it fresh from the jar for a couple of days and then cramming the rest into a freezer bag. After such rough treatment, it’s not pretty enough to sprinkle on salads, but for cooking, I can take slices off the frozen ball and stir them straight in, and the strong coriander flavor survives. It ain’t elegant, but I can’t go shopping every time I want a few fresh herbs. The meagre little force-grown supermarket bunches are about the same price and totally useless.

Mary makes our wholemeal bread, but she sometimes has slices of baguette for lunch, and I’ll need breadcrumb topping for the cassoulet and also for starters—pain grillé spread with tomatade.

Tomatade? What the hell is that?

Be patient, you’ll find out later.

Mary gets our French sticks from the Chapel Market’s Stiles Bakery.

There they are.They cost 80p, which would get you about one thin slice of Poilâne’s finest.

Unlike most baguettes these days, even in France, they’re not only crusty, but the next day they haven’t turned spontaneously into hardtack. There’s density, substance and flavor to the insides. We cut them into short lengths and freeze them in plastic bags; when thawed as needed, there’s still life in them. Freezing only ages bread by a day.

Chapel Market also has a pie and mash shop that has been brought gloriously back to life. It’s not my thing, but I’m glad it survived.

There’s a neat little stall that sells nuts and other dry odds-and-ends.

And for a generous lunch, there’s Indian Veg.

It’s a sort of Vegan Salvation Army where you can get fed really cheap if you’re prepared to be preached to at the same time. Fortunately, the preaching is silent, in the form of texts on the walls. It’s not a hippy mess, but is neatly laid out and kept spick-and-span. A help-yourself buffet costs an unbelieveable £2.95, and the dishes are genuinely tasty. OK, so it hasn’t the vegetable elegance of Alain Passard’s l'Arpege, but it comes at about 1% of the price. And no surcharge for seconds.

Here’s what I helped myself to for lunch today:

What gastronomic artistry! (I tried building a tower, but it fell over.) Note especially the carelessly-thrown-down whisp of onion bhajee, cleverly ballancing the whole bhajees on the other side of the plate. Truly a meal to be savored with the eye as well as the tongue.

Edited January 11, 2006 by John Whiting (log)

[Marco_Polo]

DOWN MARKET

The Borough Market is where I do my fun shopping; Mary does the real shopping at Chapel Market near the Angel, Islington. That’s where she gets most of our everyday fruits and veggies.

Brilliant pics, John. Looks like you enjoyed as nice a day in north London as we have in Devon. Almost springlike. Nice to see Mary making an appearance, looking as lovely as ever.

Your vegetarian lunch for £2.95 looks pretty darn good. Did you have seconds?

M

[John Whiting]

Did you have seconds?

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Those were the seconds.

[Pan]

In New York, several of the South Indian vegetarian restaurants have caught on to the fact that they can increase their patronage by having the local rabbi certify them as kosher (which, being strictly vegetarian, of course they are). Are there some kosher Indian vegetarian places in London these days?

[John Whiting]

Are there some kosher Indian vegetarian places in London these days?

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I don't know about kosher Indian, but there's a kosher vegetarian society in Golders Green, also a kosher chinese restaurant in Temple Fortune--Marcus, I think--with a cartoon in the window of a rather rabinical-looking Chinaman pulling a rickshaw (at the least that's the way I remember it). It's been there for a long time.

I love South Indian vegetarian food. The very first one in London, Diwana Bhel Poori in Drummond Street, has been going strong since 1971. I know it from very soon after that, and their original dishes have changed not at all, only being supplemented by a few newer ones. Back then, these flavors were new to me, and they were like an epiphany. It still remains one of our favorite places to eat lunch. When I take strangers there, I order a "tasting menu" of all the starters. The benches are uncomfortable, which is fine by me--it makes the turnover fast enough so that we can always get a table at short notice.

The Time Out London Restaurant Guide used to list the Indian vegetarian restaurants together, but it has dropped the section and most of the individual restaurants as well. What reason can they have, other than mere fashion?

[jackal10]

Sabras in Willesden Green..

Most (outside of Golders Green) Indian restaurants are not certified Kosher. The density (both senses) of observant jews in London doesn't justify the expense. Nothing like New York.