white bean and chard soup

I made a beautiful quarantine soup from the larder today: Burn merguez sausage in a pot so that it leaves nice brown sticky stuff on the pan. Substitute anything here; you could use other sausage or fake meat or a chicken thigh or a bone. Or go old-school vegan! (If you go vegan, get your brown from the mirepoix.) Remove the meat to a bowl.

Clean the pan by sautéeing diced onions, carrots, and celery (that is, mirepoix) in olive oil. Add white beans (either from a can or parboiled from dry for 40 minutes in water). Add water, salt, pepper, garlic, and maybe a mushroom-broth cube or something like that. Bring this all to a boil on the stove and then simmer it in the oven at 300 F (150 C) for 40 min.

At the end, add a bunch of finely chopped swiss chard (silver beet or equivalent; any lettuce will do), and the crispy sausage bits. Return to the oven for 15 min or until the lettuce is wilted. Serve with harissa for hotness.

I'm being unspecific about quantities here, but this truly isn't rocket science. The only thing that really matters is the ratio of salt to total mass.

chowder fist algorithm with a discussion of salt

Chowder is deeply satisfying and dead easy. Here's my algorithm:

Chowder is big chunks of POTATO and OTHER THINGS in a broth built of FAT, ONION, WATER and CREAM.

• POTATO is any somewhat starchy variety because you want it to fall apart a bit and thicken the soup. I like Russet and Yukon Gold.
• OTHER THINGS can be any or all of seafood or flaky white fish, corn, bacon.
• FAT is butter, bacon drippings or, hell, even coconut oil.
• ONION is a yellow or white variety and not too sweet. Could also be French shallots in a stretch.
• WATER is, well, water of course, but if you have a bottle of clam juice and are making a fish/seafood chowder, throw that in too.
• CREAM is heavy or whipping cream (otherwise it will curdle) with the addition, if you are making corn chowder, of some "corn-cream" made by grating some of the ears of corn.

Here's how I make about 4-6 servings (about 1 pound of chowder per serving which, I assure you, is not too much).  Measurements are mostly in terms of the volume of my clenched fist (about a cup). Making this is very relaxing (despite the clenching).

• 1-2 thumbs fat
• 1 f (ie. one fist) chopped coarsely onion
• 3 f potatoes peeled and cut in wedges
• 2 f of the other thing(s)
• 1 f heavy cream
• salt and pepper

Put a large, heavy bottomed pot on medium heat. If bacon is one of your other things, add to pot and cook slowly to render out the fat. (Put the bacon bits aside to add back at the end.) Sweat the onion in the fat. Add the potatoes and water to just cover.  Bring to a boil and simmer until spuds are almost tender. Add other things and cook until other things are falling apart (if white fish) or about 10 minutes.  Add cream and season with salt and (generously with) pepper (see below).  Turn off the heat and, with the lid on, let the chowder get comfortable for about 20 minutes.

The Salt

With a dish as simple as this, adequate seasoning is essential.  Salt is the not-so-secret secret ingredient. Now, if you look at the ingredients, you'll notice that, with the exception of bacon and maybe canned clams and the butter, nothing is salted. So how much salt would I expect to add to this?  My rule of thumb (thanks Julia Child) is about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt per pound of unsalted food.  A pint of water is a pound and two of my fists are about a pint (two cups).  There are six fists of ingredients in the list plus the water, which is going to be about another 4 fists.  10 fists is about 5 pints so I would expect to need at least 5 x 1/2 tsp of salt, which is just shy of 1 tablespoon.

If that scares you, measure out your tablespoon into a little bowl and add it a 1/2 tsp at a time. Stir well between additions and keep tasting until you find yourself thinking, "Dear Lord, that is delicious.  I must eat an entire bowl immediately!" My guess is there won't be any salt left in your bowl.  In fact, you may have even gone beyond.

southern-style cornbread

B and his girlfriend SL are staying with us during The Confinement and she is gluten-sensitive, so I'm exploring gluten-free tastiness. A number of family members are also keen on eating a more plant-based or plant-rich diet, so tonight's menu was Vegetarian Chili with Southern-style Cornbread.

This cornbread is amazing.  The batter is very soupy; you won't believe it could turn into delicious cornbread, but have faith. The recipe fits nicely in an 8" cast iron pan. For the fam, I triple it and use a 14" pan.

You need:

• 2 tbsp fat (half-and-half butter and oil, bacon drippings, rendered fatback,...)
• 1 cup cornmeal (not corn flour: think polenta rather than tortillas)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 c boiling water
• 3/4 c buttermilk (you could do half plain yoghurt, half milk too)
• 1 egg, beaten

Place your 8" cast iron pan in an oven and heat to 450°F.

Put 1/3 c cornmeal in a large bowl.  Put remainder of cornmeal in a medium bowl, add remaining dry ingredients and stir. Pour boiling water over the cornmeal in the large bowl and stir to break up.  Stir in buttermilk, breaking up lumps, and then the egg.   Stir in dry ingredients.  It will be soupy. Don't worry.

Remove the pan from the oven, add fat and swirl to coat, but don't get fancy. Don't burn yourself with that extremely hot pan.  Pour in the batter and return to oven.  Bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Will be golden brown on top and pass the "toothpick test". Allow to cool 5-10 minutes before devouring.

oven fried potato chips (crisps)

More quarantine food! Pre-heat the oven to 375 or 400 F. In that pre-heating oven place a large cookie sheet with walls or roasting pans or a few cast-iron skillets. Meanwhile, slice two or three potatoes into 1-mm-ish-thick slices (thicker than potato chips or crisps). When the oven is hot, put a layer of olive oil into the pans and give it a minute or two in the oven to get very hot. Pull out the pans and line them with a single layer of slices of potato only very slightly overlapping. Generously salt and pepper. Return the pans to the oven and check every five minutes. The chips are done when the median chip is half brown! Remove from the oven, cool, put on a plate with a paper towel (to absorb excess oil) and add taste sands like hot flakes, cayenne, brewer's yeast, tajin, etc.