♦  CatChat – Misty’s purrty sure you’ll like what we have for you this week  ♦

Tidbits – the tortilla that isn’t / oh, oh, pyrex / the brownie saga   CS Marketplace Spotlight – Paris food / duo bookmark   Featured Recipe – downhome {in Italy} pasta   Tip – garlic decision   Barbara’s Week – boffo pancake  / Boston EATS / tasty discovery

Misty’s History  ♦  Misty’s Gallery

♦  Tidbits  ♦ 

Newsy, schmoozy stuff for cooks 

♦  Love Mexican food? Avoiding carbs/gluten? Hooray, look at this traditional, but relatively unknown “tortilla.” Called pacholas, they’re thin, thin, patties of well seasoned meat that is then topped with, e.g., tomatoes, onion, avocado, cilantro, really any of the usual suspects. Thanks for the article, Epicurious.

♦  Did you know this about your pyrex dishes? According to an msn report, they are no longer reliably safe to go from one temp extreme to another. I actually had a pyrex casserole break and it fits exactly what they’re saying here. This tells you why, what’s still safe, what not to do and something you definitely should do.

♦  This is a 3-star story from the the Tasting Table newsletter. Star #1 is a recipe for brownies, extra, extra fudgy. Star #2 is Katherine Hepburn who is credited with the recipe. The unexpected Star #3 is a woman who became familiar on the Internet by pretty much blaming these very brownies for losing her husband to another woman – click Commenter in the story for that tale.

♦  CS Marketplace Spotlight  ♦ 

The great food of Paris has a fascinating backstory

After delving further into that treasure trove disguised as an ordinary stack of papers, it has become clear that the word “restaurant” referenced below is also from the David Downie book just like the Curnonsky quote last week. Adding that to some other notes hidden in the trove reminded me what a delightful read this was.

Called “A Taste of Paris,” it takes us deep into that city on a culinary tour through the ages and across the arrondissements. We peer into history and see what was so good back then and what echoes on the tables at today’s cafes, bistros, and restaurants.

And though Downie’s tome spans centuries of Parisian cuisine, he also peppers the pages with current options, some earning a snarky take, others high praise. In turn his book garners high praise, 4 stars, and also right now at a good discount.

Btw, in case you missed that Curnonsky quote, I’m happy to repeat it. “If the potage had been as hot as the wine, the wine as old as the chicken, the chicken as plump as the mistress of the house, things would’ve been almost all right.”

“A Taste of Paris”  ♦  Other Downie books {Paris, Rome}

Also at CS Marketplace “Especially For Book Lovers” & “Especially for Dog Lovers”

Extra for Book Lovers – what a boffo idea! A bookmark that’s also a dictionary, different word counts available. Browse here

♦  Featured Recipe  ♦

Who loves Italian cuisine, rustic dishes & simple cooking? {most 5 steps or fewer}

Author Susan Hermann Loomis says the recipes in her “Italian Farmhouse Cookbook” come right from “the Italian farm and farm country, and they represent the sensuous core of Italian cuisine.” And “. . . each is marked by the personality of the cook who gave it to me.”

More than a compilation of of recipes, this cookbook also serves up vignettes of local folks, backstories of ingredients, glimpses of farmland traditions and . . . “segreti.”

Among the interesting preps: roasted peppers with tuna, chestnut pasta with wild mushrooms {alternate: artichokes}, crisp Sardinian bread, hazelnut truffles. The one featured here is a simple buttery dish of pasta and two herbs, the creation of a restaurant owner in the small town of Soliera.

Angelo’s Fabulous Pasta with Herbs

6 tablespoons unsalted butter 

1 cup fresh oregano or marjoram leaves loosely packed

1 cup chives from one bunch 

1 pound fresh tagliatelle 

fine sea salt

Recipe  ♦  “Italian Farmhouse Cookbook,” paper & hc, 4 stars   

Other Herrmann cookbooks

♦  Tip  ♦

How do you like your garlic? {other than, very much!}

I was paging through another of Loomis’ cookbooks, “The French Grill,” and found a notation about removing the green germ from a garlic clove, as she says “when necessary,” because it can be “tough and bitter.” She’s referring of course to the sprout that can often be found in the center of the clove, and which is in fact easily pried out.

Chefs and cooks have some differences here, though most agree that if the germ is still white {as shown here} it can be left in. Also that if the garlic is going to be cooked into a dish, the germ can stay in no matter what color it is.

The debate comes into play when the garlic is going to be used raw, or lightly cooked as perhaps in a stir fry. One contributor’s comments made the best sense to me: if you like the taste of the green germ leave it in, if you don’t, remove it.

♦  A Peek at My Week  ♦

Join me in my kitchen & parlor

♦  So, I finally made the sheet pan pancake, the recipe linked in our Aug 3, 2018, chat. Some notes: First, this makes a really good pancake. Second, the directions call for brushing with melted butter and broiling for the last two minutes so it will brown. But guess what – it’s already brown on the bottom so just serve it upside down and then you can skip that last step.

Third, it says makes 12 servings and while pancakes are usually stacked at 2 or 3 or more, these are very generous pieces and likely quite enough per person especially if you’re also accompanying it with bacon or sausage and fruit. Last, I think there’s a way to achieve this more easily, which I will test and of course let you know.

♦   Going to be in Boston next week? If so, good news, you can enjoy a spectrum of the town’s best cuisine at America’s Test Kitchen Boston EATS festival. Fri, Sept 14, Cook’s Illustrated 25th birthday party, “featuring food cooked by a who’s who of Boston’s best-loved chefs.” Sat, unlimited food and drinks from Boston’s top restaurants plus demos from the TV show cast and test cooks. Sun, a Kids Fest for young foodies.

♦  I had occasion to finally have lunch at a Puerto Rican restaurant, and after they turned the music down to somewhere below deafening it was an exceptionally pleasant experience. One of the highlights was a classic dish of the culture, mofongo, made of plaintains but tasting like a most flavorful stuffing kicked up with the crunch of crumbled chicharron. Googled plaintains and found this good place to learn more about these banana-looking non-bananas.

So far, next week: cheesy sirnikis, tomatillos how old???, how to cook anything, the mayo trick, curry cookies became what???

Cook with passion and a party spirit, whether for a crew, or for two, or just for you