A fine Valentine's

I am basking in contented satiate at the moment.

Our Valentine's Day meal, eaten at home, was Linguine with Calamari and Garlic; roasted asparagus; salad of romaine, bibb, baby lettuces, tomatoes, avocado and radishes, dressed with spices and olive oil. We enjoyed a Hendry Primativo, which burst forth with spells of wonder when we brought forth the dessert, the vegan chocolate mousse that was featured last week in the New York Times. 

And to make it all perfect, the love of my life took the day off. We're almost to our 24th anniversary, and I hope we'll have 24 more!

Linguine with Calamari and Garlic

Bon Appétit,  December 1996

Serves: 2

Ingredients

1/2 pound linguine

4 rolled anchovies with capers, from 2-ounce tin; anchovies crushed, oil reserved

1/2 pound cleaned calamari (squid), thinly sliced crosswise

3 large garlic cloves, chopped

1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

3/4 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

Instructions

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, heat reserved oil from anchovies (about 2 tablespoons) in large skillet over medium-high heat with garlic. Add calamari and toss just until opaque, about 1 minute. Add crushed red pepper and crushed anchovies with capers and stir 1 minute. Add white wine; boil until sauce is slightly reduced, about 3 minutes. Mix in basil.

Add pasta to mixture in skillet. Toss until heated through and sauce coats pasta, adding reserved cooking liquid by tablespoonfuls if pasta seems dry, about 2 minutes. Divide pasta and calamari between 2 pasta bowls and serve.

Cioppino benissimo

After a recent trip to San Francisco, we discovered how sleep-inducing the sound of waves and foghorns off in the distance could be. When we got back to Charlottesville, we found a bedside clock that mimicked the sound of the seashore, and have used it to lull us to sleep.

One drawback is it makes us long for the dishes we associate with the Bay Area: Dungeness crabs, sourdough bread and cioppino. While I don't think we'll find those fresh big crabs or the exact sourdough in Virginia, I still managed to make a fine cioppino, thanks to Seafood on West Main. Paired with a baguette from Albemarle Baking Company, it made us a little less lonely for Baghdad by the Bay.

Cioppino Benissimo
By Lori Korleski Richardson
Serves 4-6


Ingredients
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion
1 small (or 1/2 large) fennel bulb
4 garlic cloves
3 bay leaves
6 sprigs fresh oregano
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes (with basil, optional)
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 8-ounce bottle clam juice
1 pound skinless fillets of a white fish (halibut, talapia, haddock or cod), cut into 1" pieces
1 pound mussels, scrubbed, debearded
1/2 pound cleaned squid, thawed if frozen, bodies cut into 1/2" rings, tentacles left whole
Crusty baguette, or sourdough bread

Instructions

Toast fennel seeds over medium heat until fragrant. Cool and grind to fine powder in spice grinder. Set aside.

Finely chop garlic, onion and fennel (food processor is fine for this) and combine. Put oil in a large heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring, until onions are softened, about 5 minutes. Add bay leaf, oregano, the ground fennel seeds and red pepper flakes. Stir in tomatoes and cook for about a minute. Add wine and boil until reduced by about half, 5 to 6 minutes. Add clam juice and simmer, covered, 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (You can do this step up to a day before serving and reheat.)

About 7 minutes before serving, add the fish chunks and mussels and cook until the mussels begin to open, about 2 minutes. Add the squid rings and tentacles and cook 5 minutes.
Serve hot in large soup bowls with bread. Set out small bowls for the mussel shells.

If you double the recipe, double the fish, and add 1 1/2 pounds of other seafood as you like: clams, shrimp and/or crab. If you like spicy food, increase the red pepper flakes to 1 teaspoon.

Treasures from the deep - deep-freeze, that is

I found a bag of calamari rings at the grocery the other day; they seemed to be at a decent price, so I bought them. On the bag, it had a recipe for calamari salad, starting with poaching the rings 1 or 2 minutes. OK, I thought, I'll follow the directions, but use them in pasta sauce instead. I've often done that with fresh squid with excellent results.

For starters, I could tell as soon as I put them in the hot liquid that they were chosen for their size, not freshness. But what was worse was they had probably been cooked 1 or 2 minutes before they had been frozen. So add on the poaching time to thaw them and they were overcooked. Chewy. Unappetizing.

A disaster? No way. 

I remembered my first taste of calamari, which wasn't like most non-Italians' experience of a mound of deep-fried rings. It was at an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia that had been the site of a mob hit just two weeks before, which meant we were the only non-Italians in the place. Alan ordered me a dish that he said I'd love, but it would be a surprise. Sure enough, it was a plate of what I thought were giant Spaghetti-Os in a very rich and spicy tomato sauce. The white rings had the texture of al dente pasta, but they were calamari.

You can cook calamari to tenderness two ways: Cook them very fast over high heat, just until they become opaque and serve them immediately; or cook them slowly over low heat for at least a half hour. They will relax and expand and become delicious once more.

Year of the Ox - graze on this

Monday, Jan. 26, 2009, marks the start of the Chinese new year, the year of the . Jaden Hair, who writes a bright and informative blog called Steamy Kitchen, talked with her parents last year about Chinese food superstitions. These are from her mom, whose family hails from Canton:

• To begin with, Mom always serves a noodle dish, the strands of the noodles signifies long life. Don’t cut the noodles before serving, otherwise you’re snipping your life short.
• A whole chicken, head and all, is served simply steamed to represent good health. A whole steamed fish, eyeballs and all, was served for abundance.” The Chinese word for fish is, “yu,” which, according to my mom, sounds similar to the Chinese word for “every year our family has something leftover and we always have enough.” The Chinese are very efficient in the language department.
• Crispy egg rolls, once fried to a golden brown, resemble long gold bars. Handmade dumplings, either pan fried or boiled, look like ancient Chinese gold ingots. My mom’s family used to hide a gold coin in one of the hundreds of dumplings that they would make and the lucky bastard who bit into the dumpling with the coin was to receive wealth and prosperity throughout the year following a hefty dental bill, I’m sure.
• For luck, display plenty of tangerines, preferably big fat ones with leaves still attached. Also of great importance is “Nien Goh,” or steamed rice cake, which signifies “every year you reach a higher level of life,” says mom.
• But whatever you do, don’t serve squid, called “Yow Yu.” In the olden days, workers would have to travel far from home to work, often bringing personal belongings rolled up in a blanket. When a worker was fired, he was ordered to “yow,” or roll up his blanket, packing his stuff to go home. Serving squid symbolizes being fired in the coming year. If your co-workers or subordinates pleasantly surprises you with a dish of succulent squid, be very suspicious.