Local Flavor

Greetings once again from the kitchen!

First of all a huge "Thank You", to everyone for their support and kind words about the site thus far, I am very grateful and will continue and try to entertain you as best I can!

Ok, this week we got a couple of different things happening; there is the title of this piece, "Local Flavor", I have seen several chef's both local and celebrity, advocate the use of local foods.  So in that vein I am fortunate to have a teammate on my softball team who has her own garden, (Hi Marcy) who hooked me up with some tomatoes and fresh basil, which was awesome! So from that I decided to try my own tomato sauce.  Also on the menu for this edition is my take on my Grandfather's classic chili recipe that was provided to me by my mother and interpreted by me.  And finally...the long awaited cheesecake discussion!

I have always had a preference for Italian foods, and while learning my way around the kitchen I have prepared many things of an Italian nature.  I have learned how to prepare my own pasta from scratch, and it's not as difficult as you would believe.  But I wanted to go further.  Instead of using canned sauces and adding my own spices, I NEVER use a prepared sauce like a Ragu, I thought that I should learn how to do my own tomato sauce from scratch that way it is exactly what I want, not anyone else' interpretation, just mine.

First I needed some tomatoes, and as I mentioned earlier Marcy has her own garden and said she would bring some out to me at our next game.  Last Wednesday she arrived with a large bag of Mama Mia tomatoes and a large jar of fresh Basil still in water.  Perfect! One the way home the Basil scent filled up my entire truck and got me thinking of ways to best utilize my gifts.  I like using basil in a lot of things and Marcy suggested a Pesto sauce.  I'm not the biggest fan of Pesto but I have never tried my own either.  So I may take a swing at that in the future.  But today is about tomato sauce! Which leads me to the next player in this piece; Susan.  I ran into Susan, from the Susan Can Cook blog last week, and because she is into canning and things like that I asked her the best way to peel a tomato.  Again, easier than I thought, she told me that I need to boil some water, make an "X" in the bottom of each tomato, submerge them in the boiling water for about a minute until the skin starts to separate from the meat of the tomato.  After that place the tomatoes in a bowl of iced water, to stop the cooking process, and once they have cooled sufficiently then peel the skin off and put them in your large pot.  That's it. It's that simple to peel tomatoes.

From there it was time to do the sauce.  For me I started with heating some Olive Oil in a saucepan, and then added some minced garlic, and since I like garlic I used about a half a cup.  Then I added a chopped Red Onion.  Then 6 of the Basil leaves and a teaspoon of red pepper chili flakes and some fresh ground pepper, yes I own a peppermill, and some salt.

Let that cook on medium-high for several minutes until the onions and garlic begin to get really aromatic, you're not trying to fry them, just  get them nice and flavorful.  From there transfer the onions and garlic to the pot where the peeled tomatoes are, add a cup of red wine and a 1/2 a cup of water, then let simmer for 25 to 30 minutes and you are done.  What's cool about this is you can add whatever spices you want, Oregano more onion, less garlic, whatever you want to do.  Once mine was done and I was preparing it as a spaghetti sauce, I added some mushrooms, and some chili powder for a little kick and I'm golden.  My sauce is ready to go!

Our next presentation is some good-ass Chili! I love Chili.  Really.

Before I get into my chili experiences I would to point out that my girl Kelly, who along with her husband Terry own the PepperTree Lounge in Union City, are doing a chili cook-off the weekend of the 18th and 19th but I can't attend because my softball team "Team Sexy" is in the League Championship Series invitational here that weekend. Crap. Otherwise the chili cook-off would get sexy...

As for the chili, I remember when I was very young my Grandfather would take all day making his chili in this gigantic pot, the whole house would be filled with that aroma, those are great memories.  His chili was so good but it was HOT! He was originally from Texas and apparently they like their chili with some kick in the ass to it!  I got the recipe from my mother because I was having a chili fit recently, so here we go...

First you must start off with certain ground of beef, only the amateurs use ground beef or turkey exclusively.  I went over to Corti Brothers market and had them make me 3 pounds of chili meat, and that was going to be combined with 1 pound of ground beef for the base.  When I got home I then diced up one red and one yellow onion, and they were pretty good sized, if you don't have the big-ass ones then use two.

From there you take your big-ass( yes there is a recurring theme here) stock pot, put in 2 tablespoons of Vegetable Oil, get that heated over a high heat, add your beef, 3 tablespoon of chili powder, 1 tablespoon of Cumin, 1/2 tablespoon of crushed red pepper, and one bay leaf.  Once the meat has browned then add your onions, stir them into your beef and let them cook together, about 8 minutes or so, then you can add a couple of cloves of crushed garlic and let them cook into the mix for a minute or so.  And at this point because there was no music on, I went over to the system and fired up some classic KISS, I went way back to 1975 and "KISS ALIVE", a little "Rock Bottom" from side four of the LP was just what I needed to get my rock on! That's what I'm talkin about... 

From there add a big can of whole tomatoes and a smaller can of diced tomatoes, this was before I got my tomato hook-up from Marcy.  Add 1 cup of Beef stock and bring to a boil, then add a little salt and reduce the heat to slow and let simmer for about 80-90 minutes, stirring often.  After that if there is an excess of fat you can skim it off or you can do what Gramps used to do and a dd a sleeve of saltine crackers to it to thicken it up, either way is valid , the choice is yours.   As it simmers I diced some celery and put it in about 30 minutes into the simmering process, I saw it on a show and wanted to give it a shot.  After it was all done, I had a nice thick, big-ass pot of chili, and it was sooo....goood!  I took some out to my teammate Jessica (Hi Jessica) and she loved it as well.  I went to the store and picked up some Casper's hot dogs and some big-ass buns, and I was back in Oakland again.  Having a Chili Cheese dog from Casper's on 55th Street  and Telegraph Ave. Yes. The formative years of Big Sexy.  Whenever I'm in the "510", I ALWAYS swing by Casper's and get a bag of hot dogs for the ride back to the State Capital.  Doing them here is an excellent substitute...yum!  Truly awesome eats!

Now we are going to shift gears, we have gone from sauces to a really thick and tasty chili, and now let's add a little sweets...for the ladies...

For my birthday several years ago, Nicole brought by a cheesecake that she had made just for me and this was the best cheesecake I have ever had. Period.  Cheesecake Factory can bite me. Not even close. I asked for the recipe and like I mentioned in a prior blog, I made some great cheesecake....pudding.  Definitely pilot error on my part, but I have addressed the bugs, and added my flair, and made a positively SLAMMING Peach/Strawberry cheesecake.

First I must mention that for this I got to use my trusty KitchenAid stand mixer, and I've said before and it bears mentioning, I love my KitchenAid mixer! Can't recommend it highly enough!

Now, take three bricks of cream cheese and let get soft in your mixing bowl, usually several hours at room temperature, then add 3 eggs, 1 egg white and a cup of Sugar.  Then beat on low speed until smooth, and while that is happening take a stick of butter and grease your 9" breakaway cake pan and dust with fine Graham Cracker crumbs.  Earlier in the day while your cream cheese is softening, prepare your peaches and strawberries.  The peaches are very simple, open a can of peaches and drain them on some paper towels,  too much moisture from them will prevent your cake from setting up properly, then slice them into quarters.  To prepare the strawberries you get a basket of strawberries, remove the stems, then slice into quarters and place in a bowl.  Add 1/2 cup of sugar and let sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.  Afterward then strain them like you did the peaches.  When your cake batter is smooth, then add the peaches and strawberries and mix again just to get then mixed in well, but not pulverize them.  Then pour the cake batter into your pan and bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes, then cool for another 30 minutes.  From there you prepare your topping.  Take 2 cups of sour cream, 7 tablespoon of sugar, and 2 teaspoon of real vanilla, mix thoroughly and pour over the cooled cake.  Then bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.  Once done, let cool then refrigerate overnight.   The next day its on! You have you Peach/Strawberry cheesecake! The one I prepared was on a Sunday, and was gone on Wednesday.  It was that good.  If you were to try one thing from today's entry, do the cheesecake, you will not be disappointed.  It is really that good, and you will never look at Cheesecake Factory the same again...

Go out there and do it people, you will not regret it!