Feeding A Colony Of Artists

Breakfast, Anyone?

A bunch of us working.  I like the celestial light.

This Thursday, Friday and Saturday this merry gang of Original Sinners:

Franca Sofia Barchiesi               
Paul Bernardo
Lauren Coppola
+Estefania Fadul
+Lindsey Gates
Chris Grabowski
Brough Hansen
Maggie Lacey
Liz McLaughlin
Phil Mills
Rahaleh Nassri
+Eric Sutton
+Alex Trow
+Steven Wooley

will be going up to the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center

 http://www.theoneill.org/

on an artists' retreat so we can work on the first four books of PARADISE LOST

I am not including "play board games" on the schedule, although that's what I'm planning we do every night after dinner until midnight or so.

OUT OF HELL

I think we're going to call these books, the first of three installments, OUT OF HELL, as it chronicles Satan's journey out of Hell and to Paradise.  It turns out that planning the retreat is a whole lotta fun as well - making up the schedule, creating the room assignments, figuring out transportation.

And of course, putting together the menus.

Although the idea of rehearsing for twenty hours in a three-day period and making six meals for a group of 14 is appealing, I decided to call in some help on this one.  Enter Chris Grabowski, director and cook extraordinaire, who was also my directing mentor at Vassar College, when I was a wee little thing.

LUNCH, THE MIDDLE CHILD

The first menu decision Chris and I made was to let lunch be a delicious but simple array of cold cuts from which the company could assemble sandwiches.  In this country, lunch is the neglected middle child of meals, and for reasons of simplicity, I wasn't going to change that (even though I'm a middle child, and there's a great reading of Paradise Lost in which Satan is the middle child, sandwiched between Jesus and Man.  And when I say "a great reading," I clearly mean one I made up myself last week).  To dazzle lunch up a bit, because even a middle child deserves some bling, I'm going to make the mayo from scratch, a not very hard thing to do if you've got a food processor, and it's hella delicious.  I use this recipe from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/12459/Mayonnaise.html

BREAKFAST IS SEXY

I asked Chris to take over the dinners, because they're harder, and also because I love making breakfast.  Breakfast is a sexy meal, and during my single days, I'd love to see what I could whip up in whatever foreign kitchen I found myself (if this hasn't been made into a reality show, it obvi should be).

My proving-to-be-invaluable assistants, Steven Wooley and Estafania Fadul, and I spent a few hours this weekend figuring out the logistics, and they've created menu books and ingredient spread sheets and lots of other things to make our lives easier.

For one breakfast, I figured I'd put my money where my mouth is (god knows I've put everything else there) and make the tofu scramble that I posted about earlier, served over quinoa.

http://michaelbarakiva.blogspot.com/2012/12/vegetarians-are-annoying-but-you-dont.html

BETWEEN QUICHE, CASSEROLE AND HEAVEN. . . 

For my second breakfast, I'm going to make a strata, an Italian breakfast casserole dish that lives somewhere in the exquisite space between quiche, casserole and heaven.  I made this dish for the getting-to-know-you brunch I hosted for my FARRAGUT NORTH cast a few weeks before we started rehearsal.  Clearly it did the trick - link to our NY Times review here.  A strata is a great way to feed lots of people well.  I'm tripling the recipe, and making one of the portions without chorizo (an ingredient I add as homage to the Mexicans I'm marrying into) so that the vegetarians can dive in.

From what I understand, what amateur food bloggers like myself are supposed to do is take a recipe I like, make marginal changes to it, and then publish it as my own.  But there are some things that are sacrosanct even to a double genocide descendant such as myself, and one of them is the cookbook that basically helped me (re-)discover my love for cooking.  It is The New Best Recipe, the cookbook from the editors of Cook's Illustrated.

THE BEST COOKBOOK IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WIDE WORLD 
 


Although the a few of the recipes are occasionally more complicated than they ought to be (the chicken parm takes like two hours to make), everything is so well researched, so clear, and so specific that it takes all the annoying guess work out of cooking and pretty much guarantees a successful product (if theater had an equivalent handbook, I guarantee you I would've committed it to memory by now).  I especially recommend it for beginning cooks, because I find its meticulousness as I wander into unknown territory especially comforting.  When I made this strata the first time for my FARRAGUT NORTH cast (another great review here from some local NJ rag) I had never eaten, let alone made a strata.  But I followed the good book, and it did not lead me astray.

Here's the recipe.  Stay tuned for updates from our retreat, pictures of the food we make, and Chris's dinner recipes!

STRATA RECIPE

Breakfast Strata with Spinach and Gruyere

SERVES 6

To weight down the assembled strata, use two 1 pound

boxes of brown or powdered sugar, laid side by side over

the plastic-covered surface. To double this recipe or the

variation that follows, use a 13 by 9 inch baking dish

greased with 1.5 tablespoons butter and increase the baking

times as suggested in each recipe.

Breakfast Strata

8-10 (1/2-inch-thick) slices supermarket French or

This is not a strata I made, but rather, the image of one I found online.

Italian bread

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

4 medium shallots, minced

1 (l0-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach,

thawed and squeezed dry

Salt and ground black pepper

½ cup medium-dry white wine, such as

Sauvignon Blanc

6 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated

6 large eggs

1 ¾ cups half-and-half

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position

and heat the oven to 225 degrees. Arrange the

bread in a single layer on a large baking sheet

and bake until dry and crisp, about 40 minutes,

turning the slices over halfway through the drying time. (Alternatively, leave the slices out over night to dry.) When the bread has cooled, butter the slices on one side with 2 tablespoons of the butter; set aside.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a medium

nonstick skillet over medium heat. Saute the shallots  
until fragrant and translucent, about 3 minutes;

add the spinach and salt and pepper to taste

and cook, stirring occasionally, until combined,

about 2 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl; set

aside. Add the wine to the skillet, increase the heat

to medium-high, and simmer until reduced to 1/4

cup, 2 to 3 minutes; set aside.

3. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish with

the remaining 1 tablespoon butter; arrange half of

the bread slices buttered-side up in a single layer

in the dish. Sprinkle half of the spinach mixture,

then ½ cup grated cheese evenly over the bread

slices. Arrange the remaining bread slices in a single

layer over the cheese; sprinkle the remaining

spinach mixture and another 1/2 cup cheese evenly

over the bread. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl

until combined; whisk in the reduced wine, the

half-and-half, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste.

Pour the egg mixture evenly over the bread layers;

cover the surface flush with plastic wrap' weight

down (see note), and refrigerate at least 1 hour or

up to overnight.

4. Remove the dish from the refrigerator

and let stand at room temperature 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, adjust an oven rack to the middle

position and heat the oven to 325 degrees'

Uncover the strata and sprinkle the remaining

1/2 cup cheese evenly over the surface. Bake until

both the edges and the center are puffed and the

edges have pulled away slightly from the sides of

the dish, 50 to 55 minutes (or about 60 minutes

for a doubled recipe). Cool on a wire rack for

5 minutes; serve.

Vegetarians Are Annoying But You Don’t Have To Be

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My Killer Tofu Scramble

This post is going to be a cooking post.  My last one was about getting gay married.  The one before that was about getting my book published.  I’m curious to find out which topic (work, love, food) gets the most positive response from you, my eager readers.  I hope your holiday season is choo-chooing along merrily and that you haven’t killed or been killed by your relatives.  I had a lovely three days in Central Jerse with my fam, punctuated by heavy board-game playing with my friends in Central Jerse who make my visits to the suburbs bearable: Billy Reeves,  Christoper Parks and Chris Guild.  I also saw THE HOBBIT, the first third of which reminded me of an awkward Will & Grace episode, and the last two-thirds reminded me of ridiculous drek.  But I digress. . .

Before I get into my recipe, I want to share the menu at Tossini the night Rafael gave me my engagement ring.  My sister, who is shocked by my audacity in using friends’ real names on this blog and asked that I refrain from using hers, pointed out that I promised it in the last post but did not actually include it.  So here goes:

Speaking of great eating, the centerpiece of the Barakiva Xmas dinner this year was a  beautiful crown roast of pork.  My brother did the actual cooking, but I found the recipe, so I figure I can include it in my blog.  It's from Melissa Clark's New York Times column.  Here’s the link to the video and recipe:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/dining/a-roast-that-cant-be-overlooked.html?_r=0 

And here's a picture of my brother's final product:

It was hella delicious.

A Hearty Vegetarian Breakfast

I'm including a very simple (although rather time-consuming) recipe in today's blog - something that I hope won't intimidate my non-cook friends and still stimulate the ones comfortable in the kitchen.  It's one of my favorite breakfast recipes, a killer tofu scramble.  I’m not someone who especially likes tofu, so when I make something of that ilk, it has to be rather extraordinary.  If you're one of those vegan-types, just cut the cheese at the end and, voila, you're good.

Scrambled Tofu on mini-tortillas

When I was the resident director on DIRTY DANCING in Los Angeles, there was this great diner (don’t ask me for the name – I have no memory of it, much the way I have no memory of most things I did in LA) where I’d have breakfast around the corner from the theater.  They served up a pretty good tofu scramble, so I decided to come up with one myself.  The recipe I’m presenting to you is the result of years of experimenting.

FLOUR IS THE DEVIL’S WORK

It’s rather labor intensive, but since scrambled tofu keeps for a few days (unlike, for example, scrambled eggs), I recommend making a big batch and eating it intermittently over the course of the week. It’s also delicious served over brown rice or wheat/spelt berries, or with tortillas (use corn tortillas, which are de rigueur in Central Mexico, where Rafael is from.  Flour tortillas are more popular in the North, but Rafael and I look down on them and the people who eat them, because he considers them less authentic and I think flour is the devil’s work).

Like most great recipes (quiches, for example), you can basically make this with anything you have lying around the house, so don’t stress the individual ingredients.  Use capers if you don’t have olives, or feta cheese if you don’t have goat cheese.   The only important part is making sure to add the ingredients that require the longest time to cook first, and proceed accordingly. 

This recipe starts with chopping and onion – this is probably the single most important kitchen skill a cook can have, since so many recipes (savory especially) start like this.  So, I’ve decided to dabble into multi-media and created some very sophisticated video for this post, in which I demonstrate close-up (since that’s the only way I could figure out to shoot this sequence with my iPhone) how to slice, chop and mince an onion.

Tofu Scramble Recipe

INGREDIENTS

A few tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, sliced thin

1 or 2 chiles (Serrano works well if you can handle the heat, but chipotle or something mellower is lovely, too)

1 or 2 containers of tofu (firm or extra firm are used in savory cooking, soft or silky in dessert – again, don’t ask me why – this is just the way of the world)

4-6 oz of mushrooms (those cheap white ones are fine, or baby portabellas work well, too)

3 bell peppers (I like using different colors, but monochromatic works)

A handful of olives (kalamata are my favorites with this, but use whatever you have to give it some brininess )

4-6 oz of spinach

2 oz goat cheese, crumbled (or feta, or any cheese, really)

WHAT TO DO

Bring a very very large skillet or pot or Dutch oven to medium heat.  Remember, we’re going to be making enough for a few portions, so whip out the big guns here.  When it’s hot, pour in the olive oil [MB1].  Don’t be shy with the portion– this is a very healthy dish without a lot of fat, so you can afford an extra splash. 

I slice the onions while the oil is heating, because I’m lazy and hate having to prep.  Once the oil is hot but not smoking, throw the onions in.  If it starts to make a sizzling sound, you’ll know you did it right.  If it doesn’t, you didn't.  Then slice and de-seed the chile [MB2]                          and throw that in with the onion.

While the onions and chile cook, cube the tofu.  The easiest way to do this is to do exactly what I demonstrate in the onion-cutting viedo: cut it into horizontally (maybe two or three parallel cuts per block), then along it’s length, then along it’s width.   It should look something like this:

 

 

Once it’s cubed, you have two options.  You can either smush the cubes in your hands, resulting in something that looks like a scramble, or you throw it all in a large bowl and use a potato masher to achieve the same effect.  If you use your hands, you might want to wear gloves because the tofu is really cold.  What’s important is that once you’re done with it, the tofu achieves the same consistency as scrambled eggs.  Throw the tofu in with the onions and chile, stirring it in.

 

While all of those cook, prep your mushrooms:  cut off the bottom part of the stem, then run a paper towel over their heads.  [MB3]   Once you’re done cleaning them, slice them.

Throw the mushrooms in to the pot, bring the heat to high, then cover for around five minutes, to force the mushrooms to release their water.  They don’t want to do it, but you shouldn’t feel bad about making them.  Then drop the heat back down to medium and remove the lid, so the water cooks out of the dish – like with eggs, you don’t want the tofu scramble to be wet or runny.

While the mushrooms are cooking, cut the bell peppers in half, remove the seeds and tops, and cut them into the strips and then again into squares, so they’re roughly the size of those little square pieces of gums we used to get out of the machines. 

Once the mushroom water has all evaporated, throw the gum-sized pepper squares in with everything else.  Your skillet/pot/Dutch even should be quite full by now, and if you think things are sticking to the bottom, throw some more oil in.  That always helps when things are sticking to the bottom.

Give the scramble a good stir and then throw in the olives, chopped up a bit, obviously sans pits.  Give everything a few more minutes for the flavors to blend, then throw the spinach (baby spinach as is, if it’s all grown up, give it a good chop.  I imagine even frozen spinach could work, but I don’t use frozen vegetables because I’m not a heathen).  When the spinach has wilted a bit (two minutes, let’s say), turn off the heat, and ladle a portion out into a bowl or plate (if you have brown rice or wheat berries, put that in the bowl first), and sprinkle some cheese on top, letting the scramble’s heat melt it.  I prefer to sprinkle the cheese every time I serve it, rather than putting into the mother lode of the dish.

If you didn’t use a chile, some good hot sauce is another nice way to give the dish a kick.   

Stay tuned to find out why a wedding photographer makes more in one day than I do in a month of directing work, why the rebel angels attempted a coup d’etat against God in Heaven.

Until then – happy holidays from Awful Goodness.

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 [MB1]COOKING TIP:

Always get your skillet or pan or pot or Dutch hot before adding the oil.  Just trust me here: hot is better, because the point of the oil is to act as a conduit for the heat, and if there's no heat, the oil just gets absorbed and then you'll have to put more oil in the dish and the dish will be well, oily.  To ensure the skillet or pot is sufficiently hot, I like to lick my finger and super-quickly run it over the surface of the skillet.  If it sizzles and I almost burn myself, I know it’s hot enough.  Unless you’re cooking with meat, you don’t want the oil smoking, just glistening in that beautiful way oil does, like a scrying pool or magic mirror.  Yes, I played Dungeons and Dragons as a child.

 [MB2]COOKING TIP:

Most of a chile’s kick comes from its seeds, which carry the oil that gives its heat.  Removing the seeds is a great way to tame the hotter chiles, but when you’re working with the super-hot ones, like serranos, I’d recommend wearing gloves.  As I said in my first post, I have accidentally touched my eyes or nose or other parts after working with them bare, and the searing sensation as the oil penetrates your orifice is anything but pleasant.

 [MB3]COOKING TIP:

Don’t wash mushrooms – they’re already incredibly high in water content.  To clean them, just lightly run a paper towel over their head to remove any dirt.  It’s just dirt, after all.  On average, you eat three pounds of dirt a year, so a little more ain’t gonna kill you.