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Happy Cooking,
Mary

Ask Mary: Should I Give Heirlooms a Try?

Ask Mary: Should I Give Heirlooms a Try?

Hi Mary,
I am not really a fan of tomatoes but everyone keeps saying that heirlooms are worth trying. My main concern? Their price. What do you think?
Alice

Sometimes at farmers markets they will give you a taste to encourage you to buy what they are selling, so that’s one way to find out if you like these incredible fruits. I think that heirloom tomatoes are the magnum of tomatoes. They are indeed a little pricey, but if you buy one and toss it with a little salt, pepper, good olive oil and a delicious fresh mozzarella, you will find yourself extremely satisfied with the flavor and forget all about the price. Let me know how it goes!

Happy Cooking!
Mary

Heirloom Storage Tip

Make sure that you do not refrigerate heirloom tomatoes. Keep them on the counter at room temperature. If you do cut them, however, you can refrigerate them for up to an hour before serving without losing their delicious flavor.

What I Cooked Today… Yellow Heirloom Gazpacho

Ingredients:

1. 6 yellow heirlooms (cut top and cut into small pieces)
   
2. 3 cloves garlic
   
3. 1 shallot
   
4. ¼ cup almonds
   
5. ½ cup olive oil
   
6. ¼ cup white balsamic vinegar
   
7. 1 bunch chives chopped
   
8. 2 tbsp goat cheese
   
9. 4 crostini (toasted bread)
   
10. salt and pepper to taste
    

Directions:

Chop and blend well the following items in the blender: tomato, garlic, shallot, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and almonds. If you are having a hard time blending add more olive oil and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Chop the chives to garnish, and spread goat cheese on crostini to be served in the middle of the soup.

Enjoy!
Mary

Ingredient of the Day: Heirloom Tomato

A true California treat. I wait around all year for this delicious fruit. Or is it a vegetable? In California, when these tomatoes come fresh off the trucks from the farm, I guarantee you that you would never put this tomato into the same category as any vegetable. These beautiful, multi-color FRUITS of all different shapes and sizes take over my menus through the summer months.

True heirlooms are cultivars that have been “nurtured, selected, and handed down from one family member to another for many generations.” Not only are these fruits gorgeous in color, shape and size but they have delightful names such as Green Zebra, Mortgage Lifter, and my personal favorite, Lilian’s Yellow Heirloom.

Happy Cooking!
Mary

You are What You Eat

Monday lunch. I grab my lunch box, which was usually pink with some cartoon character on it, also wearing pink. I take it to the table in our very small classroom. The smell of lukewarm meats, fruits and treats lingers in the air. I reach into my lunch box and find mom’s culinary delight for the day. My typical mom meal consists of turkey with American cheese and mayonnaise on Wonder Bread, Pringles, a green apple, and a Caprisun – tropical flavor of course.

The more I think about my childhood lunches, the more I realize that what we used to eat as children can really describe who we are as adults. Sometimes, you can even break down who a person is by just one type of food.

A perfect example of this: My mom’s friend and her husband were given two pieces of art. She received a two-dimensional sculpture of a green apple, and her husband was given a two-dimensional sculpture of a red apple. The thought behind it was simple: she was a combination of sweet and sour, and her husband was simply sweet. What are you?

Happy Cooking!
Mary

Ask Mary: Storing Pecans

Dear Mary,
What is the best way to store pecans? When I buy them they seem to go bad so quickly.
Thanks, Faye

Great question. Even though nuts are a dried good, it is best if you keep them in the refrigerator. They are very perishable. This actually goes for all nuts. The heat is really tough on them and you will find that if you keep them on your shelf you will be throwing them out sooner than you have to.

Happy Cooking!
Mary

Don’t Let Those Nuts Burn!

Don’t Let Those Nuts Burn!

Whenever something is burning in a kitchen, nine times out of 10 it’s the nuts. That’s because it is so easy to burn nuts when you cook them. This is bittersweet as nuts are easy to remake, but sadly, they are very expensive.

Two tips to avoid disaster and keep your wallets fat:

1. Roast nuts in the oven. Oven temperatures stay constant and can prevent overheating.
2. When nuts are finished cooking, put them on a different cooking sheet to cool. Even though they are out of the oven, the old cookie sheet remains hot and could burn your perfect concoction post-bake.

Happy Cooking!
Mary

What I Cooked Today… Candied Walnuts

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup walnuts
   
2. 2 tbsp white sugar
   
3. ½ tbsp tobasco
   
4. ½ cup water
   

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325. In a large bowl mix all the ingredients except the walnuts. Then, once the mixture is like wet sand add the walnuts. Toss together and spread on a cookie sheet and a greased piece of parchment. Bake for five to six minutes. This is a delicious treat for any salad.

Ingredient of the Day: Walnuts

“Stay away from the nuts,” my dad always said to me as a little girl, referring to walnuts, pistachios, peanuts, pecans and any other delicious morsels that came my way. I always thought it was because he didn’t like them and he was saving us from the inevitable fate of eating one. However, I later learned that in fact he did like them. Actually, he loved them. But he was always afraid that we would choke on them because they break apart so easily in your mouth.

It took me years before I actually began eating them, and it took me even longer to like them. Now that I do, I think they are a perfect accompaniment to almost any salad, fish or chocolate dish around. They are also loaded with tons of Omega-3 fatty acids and are known for lowering cholesterol.

For those of you who don’t know, many of the walnuts we eat today are genetically modified versions of the originals. These new nuts are designed to have thinner shells with more nut-meat inside. Translation: heaven. And speaking of heaven, I think walnuts look like a pair of pale, brown, caramel angel wings, with each ridged side connected by one thin centerpiece. There’s nothing like them.

Happy Cooking!
Mary

Cooking with Mary, How to Cut Chicken.

Ask Mary: Asparagus Types

Dear Mary,
Which do you like better? Fat or skinny asparagus?
Paul

I actually like them both equally. It really depends on what I am cooking. For instance, if I am grilling them, I like buying the fatter ones. If I am sautéing them, I usually like the thinner ones. For salads and pastas, I prefer the fat ones so I can chop them up. But they all taste great!

Enjoy! Mary

Prosciutto Prep Gone Awry

I have an Italian for a husband, and anyone who is Italian – or is married to one –knows that prosciutto falls into its own food group. One Saturday, when we were first dating, I thought I would bring home some things to make a prosciutto sandwich. I went to the store and asked for about ½ lb or so of prosciutto. When I got home, I was so proud, and got to work preparing the sandwiches.

My husband James came into the kitchen to help, and immediately found and opened the prosciutto to sneak a bite. When he opened it, however, he found that the deli clerk had cut it way too thick and did not stack it between pieces of parchment paper. It was a big mess! I will never live it down. And I will never make another mistake like that. Always make sure your deli clerk slices your prosciutto nice and thin!

Happy Cooking!
Mary

What I Cooked Today… A Typical Spanish Salad

Spanish Salad with White Asparagus
Ingredients:

1. 1 head of iceberg lettuce chopped
   
2. 1 carrot shredded
   
3. 1 can of white beans (drained and rinsed)
   
4. ¼ red onion shaved
   
5. 4 white asparagus marinated
   
6. 1 can drained tuna (drained)
   
7. ¼ lb sliced prosciutto
   
8. 1 tomato quartered
   
9. 2 soft boiled eggs quartered
   

Dressing:

1. ¼ c red wine vinegar
   
2. ½ c olive oil
   
3. salt and pepper to taste
   

Directions:

On a large plate, arrange all of the following ingredients and top with olive oil, vinegar, and a little salt and pepper. You can let your guests pour their own olive oil and vinegar as well.

Tuesday: Ingredient of the Day- White Asparagus

It was such a dream to walk around Spain, France and Italy and see these amazing asparagus varieties. First of all, the size was uncanny. They can literally be a handful. The flavor is out of this world ¬– fresh, milky, a little less pungent than common varieties, and delicious. Whenever I go to Whole Foods looking for them they are never as big as the ones I found in Europe. And they never seem to have that pearly white skin.

My favorite variety of asparagus is called “White Gold.” Grown in Europe, these beautiful and expensive vegetables are worth every penny. To keep them white, they are grown with little light and increased exposure to ultra violet rays. Asparagus have so many healthful properties, but it’s the aphrodisiac properties that make me smile. One look and you’ll know what I mean!

Happy Cooking!
Mary

Cooking with Mary, How to Grill Asparagus

Ask Mary: Steak Cuts

Mary,
What is the best cut of steak? I am always unsure of what I should buy.
Thanks, Dana

I prefer a T-bone. It contains parts of the filet (the smaller side) and the strip loin (the larger side). And, of course, it has the bone still attached, which allows the meat to stay tender while cooking. It also contains a lot of delicious flavor.

The only problem with T-bone steaks, however, is that you will have to spend a little bit more money. Buy it for the weekend and make a celebration of it if you choose to go for it.

Also, when buying a steak, make sure you do the following: press down on the meat and make sure you can see your nail imprint. I learned about this tip in Italy when shopping for a Florentine cut. Hope this helps!

Happy Cooking!
Mary

“Meat” Me in Greece…

Cooking in today’s world, we have gotten use to the idea of meat coming in a nice container covered in plastic with a pad at the bottom of the container to catch any excess juices. We buy meat in different cuts, styles, sizes, and from different animals. However, given all of these conveniences, we have been far removed from the actual animal that our food has come from. I guarantee that if any of us were ever faced with a living, breathing animal before slaughter one of two things would happen. Either we would begin to appreciate our food more, or we would all become vegetarians.

Prepackaged, accessible meat is now part of our culture. In others, though, you can still find whole animals with entrails intact. I have to admit, I find these conveniences very accommodating, but I do see how we lose something in the process from farm to table. Even though I have yet to see an animal butchered, seeing an entire animal makes you more aware of what you are eating, and humbles you a bit. The difference definitely lies within the taste and the feel of the meat. Fresh is always best.

Almost every country I visited in Europe had its butcher shop with their beautiful fresh meats, but the most amazing was the market I visited in Athens, Greece. I was caught off guard by many of the things that I saw, and yet it was all very impressive to see. Food for thought…

Happy Cooking!
Mary

What I Cooked Today... Chicken with Fine Herbs

Chicken with Fine Herbs

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken
½ stick softened butter
1 tbsp kosher salt
a couple of cranks of fresh cracked pepper

Directions:

I have done a lot of chicken recipes that are the same but different. This takes the same old things and switches up the flavor a bit. This recipe is a great way to use that same old chicken with the basic things you keep in your pantry at all times.

Take the softened butter and add the fine herbs and the salt. Wash the chicken and pat dry with a towel, place on a cookie sheet. Take the softened butter with herbs and salt and rub all over the skin. Next, crack the pepper over the top. Place in an oven that was preheated to 350 degrees. Bake for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. Perfection!

Enjoy! Mary

Ingredient of the Day: Fine Herbs

Parsley, chives, tarragon, and chervil…

A beautiful mixture of herbs used fresh or dried. Their flavor is released throughout the cooking process, and the longer it cooks, the more intense the flavor gets. I usually buy this herb dried to keep around the house on a regular basis. I use it most often with chicken, but I find that it can be used on salads with a little touch of salt at the end to give it a nice flavor. I also use it in pastas as a finishing touch.

I always love fresh herbs as well. You will truly see the difference between fresh and dried. However, just remember that when you use fresh ingredients, you have to use more of them to get the same flavor. But the reality is that you can’t really go wrong with either.

Happy Cooking!
Mary