Bobby And Ina Do Thanksgiving And I Only Have A Few Issues

A Barefoot Thanksgiving with Ina and Bobby

Bobby's Smoked Turkey

Ina's Herb And Apple Bread Pudding

Bobby's Heartland Chopped Salad

Bobby's Eleven-Layer Potato Gratin

Ina's Orange-Honey Glazed Carrots

Ina's Sautéed Shredded Brussels Sprouts

Ina's Make Ahead Cranberry Sauce

Ina's Lemon Ginger Molasses Cake

Bobby's Fall Sangria

I just spent the most enjoyable hour with Bobby and Ina. They were doing a test run of all the recipes they were serving for Thanksgiving. I won’t do my usual blow by blow of every knife stroke, because there were a lot of dishes, but I will go through them. Let’s see what sounds good.

If you’re like me, every year you look through tons of Thanksgiving recipes to see if there’s anything you want to add to your menu. (And it IS usually adding to and never subtracting from.) I know instantly if I’m not interested in a given recipe. Since I always stuff my turkey, I set aside most turkey recipes. Nobody wants the hassle of stuffing the bird anymore (I do!) and brining is the most popular thing going. I’ve never been convinced that you can stuff a brined turkey without the stuffing being way too salty, so most recipes are nonstarters. Bobby shows Ina (and us) how to SMOKE a turkey. I love him, I love Ina’s outdoor area, but I’m not going to do that, so let’s move on.

Ina wants to give Bobby a taste of her Apple Bread Pudding, which she’ll make instead of stuffing this year. Oh my, this looks like a winning dish AND it can be made the day before. She sautés pancetta in butter with onions, celery and one Granny Smith apple. Then Ina adds sherry, fresh rosemary, salt, pepper and parsley. Separately, Ina puts together a custard with 5 EXTRA LARGE eggs (here we go again!)*, chicken stock, cream and Gruyere. To be honest, I’d be tempted to leave out the cheese. If this is a stuffing substitute, I think adding cheese is weird.

Ina toasts bread cubes at 350°F for 20 minutes and, of course, don’t forget to use “good bread”. She adds the sautéed vegetables with all their juices to the custard and bread. The mixture goes into a rectangular baking dish and Ina adds a bit of Gruyere on top. Then it’s refrigerated overnight. She doesn’t mention that an important calculation you have to make is the oven space you have available. You need 45 minutes at 350°F. I’m thinking I can do it after the turkey comes out. Ina tests it with a knife. If it comes out clean, the custard is done.

Bobby is back with the turkey. (By the way, that thing takes HOURS to cook.) Okay, cool…not doing it. He comes in to taste the bread pudding. Bobby gives Ina a big “Wow!” He loves the crustiness on top and says it’s “Absolutely superb”. They exclaim that it will make it onto the (imaginary) buffet that they’re serving (together) on Thanksgiving.

Ina says they both agree that they never have a first course on Thanksgiving. Yeah, I get the concept, but I would NEVER do that. The idea of diving into the full meal without a little pre-eating does not appeal to me. I don’t follow the super-light appetizer rule either.
 

This is my Superbowl of cooking. Go big or go home! We also learn that Ina loves to serve Thanksgiving as a buffet because she hates the idea of all those bowls all over the table. HUH?!! Isn’t that the point? This is Amurica and shouldn’t Thanksgiving dinner be served family style (if you have the room)?!!

Their next dish would make a great first course, even though I usually go with soup. Bobby is making a Heartland Salad. They get busy stripping the kale off its woody stems. I’m not doing that. I would buy baby spinach, baby kale and maybe a bit of baby arugula. I do not need another vegetable to prep.

Bobby chops an Asian pear and says you can also use a regular pear or even an apple. (I usually go with Bosc pears for salads. I like Mark Bittman’s rule, which is when the “shoulders are soft”, they’re ripe.) Ina gets to work (and it IS work) chopping the kale.

Bobby has soaked the dried cranberries a bit to plump them up and overcooked the wild rice, which is softer and absorbs the dressing more. He says when wild rice is cooked the regular way, it’s kind of “pine needle-y”. He’s so right! I think I may always overcook wild rice from now on!

Bobby throws the dressing ingredients into a bowl, acknowledging that Ina likes to measure. Ina is pretty sure that his rough measurements are pretty exact. He’s using white wine vinegar, Dijon, a splash of honey, a tiny bit of pomegranate molasses (yum), and salt and pepper. That’s all whisked with olive oil. He and Ina are on the same page with their vinaigrettes. They like them heavily acidic with two parts of oil to one part vinegar or lemon juice, instead of the classic three parts of oil to one part acid. You may never hear me say this again, but I don’t have an opinion about this. I figure it out based on what I’m making. If the salad needs more tang, I’d go with the 2 to 1 rule. If not, I might stick to 3 to 1.

Bobby gathers all the salad ingredients and says, “Everybody is going to go into the pool.”  Ina likes that. Kale, baby spinach, pears and cranberries, walnuts, salt and pepper…it all goes in. Ina giggles. Bobby’s trick with the dressing is to spoon it around the (inside) perimeter of the bowl so that he doesn’t overdress the salad. He tosses it all together and then Ina remembers the rice! He adds it and has to add more dressing. So much for his lightly dressed salad. He plates it and it looks gorgeous. If I were serving this as a side dish (and with that Apple Bread Pudding too), I might leave out the wild rice. 

They go on to Bobby’s 15 layer potato gratin. It turns out the name could be an exaggeration. He calls the actual recipe ELEVEN layer. It depends on how big your dish is and how many layers you put in. He and Ina layer thinly mandolined Idaho potatoes with salt, pepper and cream. That’s it. They remind us not to rinse them after peeling, because you want the starch. And Bobby explains, “Eventually we want the cream to become part of the potatoes and reduce.” The exciting part is what he puts on top - shallots in butter with a pinch of sugar, cooked until caramelized. AND he’ll add fried sage.

Bobby goes out to baste his gorgeously brown turkey while Ina makes orange and honey carrots. She cooks carrots, covered, in water, butter and minced ginger for 5 minutes. Then she uncovers them and cooks them until the water evaporates. They simmer for another 5 minutes with orange juice and zest. She seasons them and they can be done the day before. Ina heats them up in an olive oil coated pan, while Bobby plays with his turkey some more.

Bobby tells us he could pinch himself – He’s at Ina Garten’s house “doing Thanksgiving practice! Wouldn’t you wanna be here?” YES!!! I would! And I kinda feel like I am. That’s how effortless these two pros are at letting us in the kitchen with them, watching and learning their tricks and turns.

Standing over the carrots, Ina and Bobby agree that reheated food has to be seasoned again before serving. Bobby says the food seems to go through a “flavor filter”, where the refrigeration blunts the seasoning. Hmmm, I have to think about that. He also says you also have to rehydrate and he guesses (correctly) that Ina added a bit of olive oil to loosen things up. Bobby tastes the carrots after Ina (re)seasons them. He approves and laughs as he tastes them, “So good.” And he jokes with her saying, “Can you imagine (me saying), You know what, Ina? I don’t think the carrots are gonna make Thanksgiving.” Harhar. As if. He continues, “The entire country of America would hate me.” Ina laughs heartily. Love her.

While Bobby bastes the turkey again. Ina moves on to a Brussels sprout dish. She shreds them in a food processor and sautés them in butter and olive oil. Ina says this is so much easier than roasting AND it frees up the oven. She drizzles over balsamic vinegar. I like that, but I don’t like the muddy color it gives the dish. I would definitely use a white balsamic vinegar, even a lemon one, if you can find it.

Bobby tests his turkey. He says the key number to remember is 160°F. But he says 155°F. is actually okay for the breast and the thigh should be 160°F. Whoa, Nelly! Food safety experts would NOT agree with that.

The USDA says the breast, thigh AND stuffing should all measure 165°F. Butterball goes a little overboard and recommends 180°F. for the thigh and 165°F. for the breast.

Bobby takes his turkey’s temperature. The breast is 157°F. and the thigh is 162°F. I usually split the difference and do 160°F. for the breast, but I make sure the thigh and stuffing are 165°F. And always put the thermometer in the thickest part of the breast and the thickest part of the thigh, not touching the bone. Obviously, this whole issue is why people spatchcock their turkeys. That’s fine, but I like the challenge of cooking a big bird, whole, stuffed and intact.

Finally Bobby brings in the turkey. Ina says it looks amazing. While it rests, they test the sprouts. Bobby loves the balsamic vinegar addition and remarks that the two of them cook so much alike. She laughs and says she’d LIKE to cook like him.

For the Potato Gratin garnish, they fry the sage in canola (ICK!) oil. The amount of oil Ina and Bobby use shows they’re definitely not paying for their own oil. Ina acts like she’s never done this and asks how long they cook. “30 seconds, Missy,” Bobby says! (He didn’t really say that, but he could have, since they’re so cute together.) Bobby salts the sage leaves straight out of the pan. He tops the cooked potato gratin with the beautiful shallots and then the sage. Ina is in heaven and decrees that this dish will definitely be on the table. (Instead of the Gruyere, the shallot and sage situation would be a good thing to top the bread pudding with.)

Bobby carves the turkey. He separates the legs and cuts off the thigh. Like Ina, he carves each breast off in one big piece and then cuts it sideways. Ina says her father could carve a turkey beautifully, but he was a surgeon. They taste the turkey. She says it’s actually the moistest turkey she’s ever had.

Ina shows us how she simply, but elegantly, set the table. 

Ina tells us how she made her cranberries. They’re okay, but look at this recipe. It’s my cranberry staple and soooooo good.

Lastly, Bobby shows Ina how to make his Autumn Sangria. He starts by teaching her how to bash the outside of a pomegranate to get the seeds out. Ina’s pretending this is all new to her. I guess if Bobby Flay were in MY kitchen showing me, I would let him too.

Bobby says this is another “everyone in the pool” recipe. He soaks the fruit in all the liquor and wine for quite a long time. I worry that the fruit could become somewhat flabby if left too long. He adds pear brandy to the fruit in the pitcher. Great idea! Then Calvados. Even better! (Ina has to open the bottle for Bobby. Funny.) And then red wine and apple cider go in. WOWEE! He adds cinnamon simple syrup, which is just simple syrup made with cinnamon sticks. The pomegranate seeds go in at the end.

Bobby pours them a taste. Ina exclaims, “Oh, we’re getting whole glasses! Let’s get serious! We’re done testing. We can now drink!” Bobby even tells us HOW to pour the sangria. Spoon some fruit in the bottom of the glass and then pour in the sangria, holding back the other fruit with a wooden spoon. Ina is enchanted with everything. They toast to the best Thanksgiving ever.

I love Ina and Bobby together. I love their happy enthusiasm. They make a perfectly charming pair and their chemistry is undeniable. FYI, The Food Network is repeating this show on Saturday morning (November 21) at 9 am, 11/23 at 4 pm and, cutting it a little close, Wednesday 11/25 at 1pm.

I hope all your holiday dinner preparations go as swimmingly as theirs did. And, after all the chopping is done, I’m sure Ina would approve of a cocktail or two.

* If the recipe says 5 extra-large eggs, use 6 large.

Easy Going Ina Meets Easy Italian Giada PLUS The Extra Egg Question Again AND Did Giada Diss The Contessa??!

Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten

Cooking with Giada DeLaurentiis
Lobster & Potato Salad
Chocolate Cassis Cake
 Mascarpone And Lemon Gnocchi With Butter Thyme Sauce 

This will be fun. Ina has invited Giada for an afternoon of cooking. And before Giada gets there, Ina gets a nice lunch ready of lobster and potato salad. By the way, Ina calls this episode, “Cooking With Friends” and we see preview scenes of her in the kitchen with Tyler Florence and Michael Symons. (Did I miss them and they’ve already visited?)

Ina starts by cooking 1½ lbs. of Yukon gold potatoes in COLD, salted water. I do not agree with that. If I’m cooking unpeeled potatoes, I cook them in BOILING water. It’s much easier to measure the cooking time. Otherwise, you have to stand around waiting for them to come to the boil and start timing from that point, which is much more inexact. Plus, this may be my imagination, but I think they get less mushy that way. 

But I DO love Ina’s method for finishing their cooking. She drains the potatoes and covers the colander with a kitchen towel to steam them an extra five minutes, which ensures that they’re cooked all the way through…without being overcooked. I usually just use the pot turned upside down on the colander.  

Giada is excited as we see her driving to Ina’s manse. Oh, it looks like it’s raining, but Giada has a snazzy black leather trench coat which just happens to match her car’s black leather interior. I’m just really hoping that Giada isn’t going to mix thyme with chocolate, like she did on her big debut AND last appearance (I believe) on Oprah.

Meanwhile, Ina is making the dressing to go on the potatoes. She mixes champagne vinegar (or use “good” white wine vinegar) with Dijon, garlic (I’d prefer shallots), a room temperature EXTRA LARGE egg yolk, TWO teaspoons of Kosher salt (no way!), pepper, olive oil AND more good stuff like dry white wine (interesting!) and capers. AND THAT’S NOT ALL! Also added to the salad are scallions, red onion, celery AND 1½ lbs. diced lobster meat, which Ina strongly recommends buying already prepared, so you don’t have to deal with “screaming lobsters”. I’m with her. 

Now about that extra large egg yolk…just ignore that and use 1 large yolk. Remember?

Ina says the last time she and Giada had lunch together, they had lobster rolls in Montauk, so she was trying to commemorate that lunch in this dish. Sweet.

Ina mixes everything together and, frankly, the potato to lobster ratio looks a bit high. In other words, the amount of lobster looks chintzy. I might have used fewer potatoes or, even better, just gone for a full 2 pounds of lobster. Ina also says you can make this JUST as a potato salad and serve it with salmon or tuna. That’s a good idea. Another problem is that the halved potatoes are so much bigger than the chunks of lobster that the lobster looks like a garnish instead of a main ingredient. Lastly, Ina adds the zest and juice of a lemon with some tarragon and a bit more dressing. She likes it to sit for an hour.

Giada pulls up to Cavaniola’s  to get some cheese for the dish she’s going to cook with Ina. She tells the guy three times that she’s making gnocchi with Ina. That’s okay, I would tell everyone from the butcher to the plumber to the toll collector that I was cooking with Ina!

Ina’s in the garden, setting the table. I guess the rain has passed. Giada comes strolling in and greets Ina at the table. Ina’s friend Frank Newbold is also there to join them for lunch. They sit down – with coats and capes and vests on – and Ina serves the salad. Giada remarks that she always seems to be eating lobster when she’s with Ina. Was that a little rude or, at the least, unartful? It’s as if she’s saying that Ina can’t think of anything else to serve. Giada recovers (a little) by saying she thinks of lobster as a way of saying how happy she is to see someone.  

Ina tells Giada that they’re going to make a Cassis Chocolate Cake. Giada is thrilled because she says she’s been making Ina’s Espresso Chocolate Cake FOREVER and she’s happy to have a new twist. HOLD ON! Is that another subtle dig? Is Giada saying she’s really bored of the SAME OLD chocolate cake and finally Ina came up with something different?!! Ina is her same gracious self and moves right on and asks Giada what HER dish will be. 

Ina is excited about the gnocchi and says she’s never made it before. How is that possible? One Thanksgiving, I made Giada’s amazing Sweet Potato Gnocchi. It was excellent, but the damage to the kitchen in the way of flour and bits of dough EVERYWHERE was a bit much just before lots of company was coming. 

 

After lunch, they head to Ina’s pantry where Ina grabs the cocoa and cassis.

For the cake, Ina has melted 12 tablespoons of butter with 10 oz. of dark chocolate. Giada adds the following things – cocoa powder, vanilla and crème de cassis. Giada asks (obviously scripted), “So the cassis is just blackcurrant liqueur?” YES! And I’m sure she already knew that. Ina says she likes cassis with raspberries.

Ina whisks eggs and sugar in the mixer until they’re pale yellow. She asks Giada if she considers herself a baker OR a cook. Giada says she initially wanted to be a baker, but now she considers herself a cook. Ina generously grants her that she’s both.

The egg mixture is now light and airy because there is no flour or leavening. They carefully add the chocolate and cassis. The batter goes in a buttered and lined springform pan. Ina asks Giada if she always lines her cake pans with parchment, because what’s the point of making a great cake if you can’t get it out?!! Giada says she SHOULD, but she doesn’t. (That really isn’t smart. I use wax paper. If you find it a pain, just cut out 4 or so circles at a time and then have them ready for next time. I just store them in the other cake pans that I’m not using.)

The cake bakes at 350°F. for 35 to 40 minutes. While it;s in the oven, Ina invites Giada into the garden for a tour. Won’t that take a few hours? Giada says she’s not much of a gardener. She loves herbs, but she says she doesn’t do flowers…as they walk through a bevy of blooms. Then they visit “The Orchard” filled with crab apple trees. Ina says though they usually have pink flowers, HERS have white flowers for one week in May. Giada oohs and ahs.

Next they move to the walled garden. Ina says after the tulips are finished, they plant tomatoes and basil. (Wouldn’t you LOVE to see Ina and Martha together? Would Martha turn up her nose at Ina’s diminutive setup, which, for the rest of us, would be as close to Versailles as we would ever get?!!)

Giada is thrilled to see some thyme and says she needs some for her dish. Ina produces some clippers from under her wrap. Of course, she does. Giada clips away.

Back inside, Ina takes the cake out of the oven and Giada chops the chocolate, admitting to Ina that there may be a few pieces missing. Harhar. Giada adds 6 ounces of chocolate to a bowl over boiling water with ¼ cup of heavy cream. Ina says she’s doing a VERY good job. She says she likes ordering Giada around, which she adds takes a lot of nerve. Giada stirs in the cassis and vanilla and Ina says to be careful not to over-melt it. They agree that you can’t save overheated chocolate. (I like to always add vanilla off the heat.)

Ina takes the cake out of the cake pan and demonstrates how easily the cake comes out with parchment. Listen to Ina, Giada! Giada rolls her eyes but says she’ll start using it from now on. Giada stirs the ganache until it’s shiny and Ina pours it over the cake. Ina again says she’s done a very good job. Ina spreads it around the top allowing it to dribble over the edge.

Onto the gnocchi, Giada is grating cheese (by hand) and Ina is zesting lemons. Giada mixes up Parmesan cheese, the lemon zest and mascarpone. Giada says this is her own version of gnocchi with no potatoes and just a little flour. They add 1 egg and 1 yolk to the mascarpone mixture with a little nutmeg (NOT freshly ground) and salt. They beat it with a little hand mixer and then add the flour.

Giada sprinkles more flour on a big sheet pan and they drop oval spoonfuls of the dough onto the pan. Then Giada shows Ina how to gently roll it in the palm of her hand and then push the sides in. Giada adds a few at a time to boiling water. She says they initially sink to the bottom and when they rise to the top they’re done – about 4 minutes.

That was good idea about corralling everything onto a giant sheet pan and NOT shaping them on the counter. It’s A LOT LESS mess.

Ina chops up thyme and adds it to melted butter. It starts to brown. As Giada asks Ina to grate the cheese, she gets in another little dig. Giada says she bought SARDINIAN pecorino (from Ina’s local cheese store) and that it isn’t AS SHARP a cheese as she usually uses, “BUT I think it’ll be great”.

If it’ll be great, then why even make that comment?  Why is she putting down the cheese she got from Ina’s cheese shop? I thought that was a bit ungracious.

But GRACIOUS is the Contessa’s middle name, so she hasn’t reacted to these unmitigated slurs from Giada. All right, maybe Giada’s digs are part of my own personal delusions, but I’m just looking out for Ina.

Giada pours the butter sauce over the top of the plated gnocchi as Ina grates (the inferior) cheese over it. They taste it. Ina loves it and says it tastes “like a light pillow with butter sauce.  Who wouldn’t want to eat that?” Giada is thrilled she likes it. Okay, that’s better.

In the meantime, we see a Giada commercial where she says “Tri-Ply Clad” several times, trying desperately not to trip over the words. You try it, it’s not easy.

Giada and Ina are sitting at the table in the (barn’s) kitchen and Ina says what an unbelievably delicious dinner the gnocchi is. Thank goodness Giada doesn’t say, “Just think how good it could have been if I had had the right cheese!” Giada just wants to get to the cake. “Enough with the gnocchi!” Ina exclaims, laughing, although I kind of think Ina really wanted to finish her gnocchi.

They slice up a pint of strawberries, add a pint of raspberries and toss that with 1/3 cup of sugar. Is that more sugar than is necessary? Probably, plus there will be the sweetness from the cassis. I always thought the general rule of thumb was 2 tablespoons of sugar (an eighth of a cup)  to 1 pound of strawberries, so that would be ¼ cup of sugar for those 2 pints of berries, instead of Ina's 1/3 cup. 

Ina adds the cassis and Giada stirs it into the fruit. I know what to do! Measure out a third of a cup of the sugar and the cassis and add about 2/3’s of each to the fruit. Taste it and add the rest…or not. If not, put the rest of sugar back in the sugar bowl and have a shot of cassis and you’re all set.

They don’t leave the fruit to macerate for long. Ina gets out two plates and says those are for her, how many does Giada need? Funny! Giada says she’ll take the rest of the cake. Ina cuts them each a slice and spoons the fruit alongside. Giada takes a bite and is enthralled. She says it tastes like a cross between a brownie and a truffle. She adds that she’s hooked on cassis and that the next time Ina comes to LA she (Giada) will do all the dishes.

Good recipes and Ina has chemistry with everyone. Giada…by the end, anyway…was fine. She just needs to quit the foreign cheese dissing and making snide comments about ubiquitous lobster and chocolate.

Ina Does The Big City (kind of) And My Complete Ignorance Of A Southern Dish Plus Pork Matters (Read that as a noun OR verb.)

Ina has spent the last three weeks in New York. This is last week's escapade...

Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten

What's Cooking In Brooklyn?

Grits, Country Ham and Red-Eye Gravy

Snap Peas with Pancetta and Parmesan

Bien Cuit Baguettes
Spicy Pimento Cheese

Ina says she’s going on a food adventure in New York City as we see her walking on Museum Mile. She says she’s going to hit some hot new places and classic ones too. Maybe she’ll head to the Lower East Side or Chinatown or her friend Eli Zabar’s.

Oh wait, Ina’s going to Brooklyn?!! Why didn’t she just say that? This may be a small point, but if you’re going to Brooklyn, usually you say you’re “going to BROOKLYN” and not New York City. Of course, I KNOW it’s part of New York City, but it also would be the 4th largest city in the country if it existed on its own, so it deserves to be mentioned by name.

Anyway, Ina starts at Seersucker, which she says is famous for Chef Robert Newton’s southern breakfasts.

The chef lays this astounding statement on Ina as he’s about to prepare a southern favorite. “I don’t like to treat my grits as a receptacle for butter and cream.” Ina tries not to show her shock.

I’m a little surprised at that myself, because isn’t that the only good thing about grits – all the rich stuff that’s in them?  Maybe you have to be born south of the Mason-Dixon line to appreciate grits. I’ve had grits out, but I’ve never cooked the long-cooking type myself. Maybe that’s the problem, but I think of grits as, well, gritty. Plus they seem like an adulterated, simple starch and if I’m going to eat trashy food, I’d much rather have a fresh doughnut or hush puppy. If something really has no redeeming nutritional value, it should, at least, taste REALLY GOOD and I don’t think anyone would argue that grits are particularly tasty. I’m probably totally offending the southern third of the country, but, sorry, I just don’t get grits. 

This chef LOVES his grits. He says the longer you cook them, the creamier they get. Okay, great, so now they’re CREAMY wallpaper paste. Chef Newton shows us a pot of stoneground grits which have been cooked for an HOUR and, actually, they do look really fluffy and creamy. He adds only salt and pepper and says once you get past the grittiness (see? I wasn’t crazy) and you don’t taste that metallic flavor anymore (well, where did it go?), they’re ready. Chef Newton adds that quick grits are illegal in his restaurant and most places in the South.

He moves on to poaching an egg in a big pot of water. The recipe says it should be a gentle simmer. The chef adds salt and vinegar to the water. Ina thought the vinegar was added because it sets the white (I did too), but Robert says there are all kinds of theories and he just likes the acid with the salt. He also says it’s important to get the water whirling around before you add the egg. He cooks it for about 2 minutes.

Then the chef cuts a couple of small slices from a Virginia country ham, which has been aged over 400 days. Ina asks if it’s like prosciutto. He says yes, but it’s smoked. All these smoked and cured meat things are somewhat confusing. Here’s the lowdown: 

Prosciutto is made from ham or the hind leg of a pig. It’s salt-cured, then air-dried and can be eaten as is. Or you can cook it. Roast it for 10 minutes at 400°F. and crumble it like bacon.

Pancetta comes from the belly of the pig and it’s cured with spices, but not smoked (like American bacon). It’s less salty than prosciutto. While it does not HAVE to be cooked, many cooks agree that it benefits from browning. In Italy, it is often served raw.

Bacon is made from pork belly and it’s raw. It’s cured and (usually cold) smoked, so no heat is used. It needs to be cooked.

Country Ham is salt-cured, then smoked and aged. It is sold cooked AND uncooked The uncooked ones can be fried in slices or the whole ham can be boiled and/or baked.

What’s important to remember?

Prosciutto doesn’t need to be cooked. Pancetta usually is browned and Bacon always is cooked. For Country Ham, it depends. 

If you want a smoky flavor, go with bacon (or country ham, if you live in the land of grits). If you don’t want the smoke, use pancetta. I love the unexpectedness of roasted prosciutto. It tastes wonderful and is a surprising addition to dishes that would normally have bacon.

Back to Ina’s breakfast - Rob fries the ham in a cast iron frying pan. Ina says she still hasn’t seen the red-eye part. Rob says she will soon. He removes the ham from the pan and guess what he deglazes the pan with? Coffee. And you know what? THAT is what red-eye refers to! 

This coffee-based sauce in the morning supposedly does the trick when you’re bleary and “RED-EYED”! I never knew that was what red-eye meant! In the back of my mind, I thought it had to do with some kind of red bean or legume. I had no clue it involved coffee. Rob reiterates that red-eye gravy is country ham drippings deglazed with coffee, as he also adds some pork stock to the pan. Ina is delighted to see this entirely new dish. (Me too.)

Rob spoons the grits (remember those?) into the bottom of a bowl, adds the two slices of country ham, tops it with the poached egg and snips some chives over. Then he spoons over some of the red-eye sauce. Ina likes what she tastes, but she doesn’t get any of the country ham. It IS kind of awkward to cut a piece of ham in a bowl and maybe when the camera was off she scooped up the strips of ham.  

Next, Ina heads over to Stinky with their 150 artisanal cheeses and “the only meat bar in Brooklyn”. I’m not sure what that means, but I sure hope it has to do with what’s being served and not what the actual bar is made of.

She visits with Chris Killoran and he shows her how to open a 90 pound wheel of Parmesan. Very carefully, it turns out. He scores the rind and then stabs all around the rind a few times until it “crags” the cheese apart. How amazing. When he finally cracks it open, both halves look like quarried shale. He likes the uneven craggy shapes, which have more flavor, he says. (Why? I just think they look cool.)

Ina then has a lesson in pimento cheese making with Chef Rachel Warren. She likes to use piquillo peppers and jalapeños for big punches of flavor. Ohhh, Ina doesn’t give us the actual recipe in this week’s show, so I better pay close attention. I found a basic recipe for Spicy Pimento Cheese on Ina’s website, but it doesn’t have amounts.

Rachel chops up three (maybe four…) piquillo peppers and then about ½ cup of sliced pickled jalapeños. Then she adds mayonnaise and room temperature cream cheese, let’s say a cup or 8 oz. of each. Rachel sprinkles in a decent amount of celery seeds, easily a teaspoon, then about a tablespoon onion powder (to which Ina looks amazed – not good, not bad…just amazed). Then she grabs garlic powder and adds another tablespoon. I hate those last two things except in a rub that’s going to get blackened, where you couldn’t use the real thing, because it would burn.

Rachel mixes all those ingredients with her hands. Next she adds grated cheddar cheese. How much? At least a pound grated, I would think. Then Ina squirts in some Sriracha to finish it off and Rachel mixes that in as well. It looks awesome.

Rachel spreads some pimento cheese on a beautifully crusty looking small baguette and  sends Ina down to Erin Amey, who is thinly slicing some ham for Ina to put on her sandwich. This is really fancy ham. Erin says it’s Mangalica ham, a Hungarian ham from a big wooly pig, which is cured in Spain. (I’d like to see its passport.)  Ina also buys some rosemary smoked ham for a salad she’s making for Jeffrey.

Ina's next stop is the Bien Cuit Bakery, where owner Zachary Golper shows her how he makes his baguettes. Gosh, it’s a long process. Let me see if I have this straight:

Zachary mixes malt and flour in the Hobart. “The malt is like baby food for the yeast.” He adds the “poolish”, which is flour, yeast and water, which was made the day before. The resulting, incredibly sticky mixture. which is called the “autolyze”, is scooped out of the mixer bowl and rests for 20 minutes.

Then salt and more yeast are added and it’s mixed again in the Hobart. Then it gets a 40 minute rest. Next Zachary gives it the ”fold”, which is just folding each side onto itself and then it rests AGAIN for 40 minutes. He cuts the dough into six 400 gram pieces and pats down each dough piece HARD to “degas” it and then rolls it over twice to make a kind of flat jelly roll shape. It rests for ANOTHER 20 minutes.

Next, Zachary and Ina each grab a piece of the dough. They flip it over and degas it by patting it firmly. Then they roll and tuck it and stretch it to make a baguette shape. Bien Cuit’s special spin is to thin out and make points at the end of each baguette, so buyers will know that each one is handmade. They proof for 2 hours and then bake at 460°F for 20 minutes.

WOW! That means each baguette takes FOUR HOURS of waiting time and that doesn’t take into account the initial poolish that was made a day ahead. They should sell for a hundred bucks EACH with that kind of labor. Ina gets to take one home. They really do look like works of art. Incredible!

Back in her own East Hampton kitchen, Ina is making dinner for Jeffrey. She places thinly sliced pancetta on a baking sheet and bakes them at 450°F for 8 to 10 minutes. Next she blanches sugar snap peas in a big pot of boiling water for 15 seconds and plunges them into an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Ina slices the snap peas lengthwise and puts them in a big bowl with some diced red onion. 

The pancetta comes out of the oven and she makes a simple vinaigrette of olive oil, champagne vinegar and fresh lemon juice. Ina pours some dressing on the peas, crumbles over the pancetta, adds seasoning and tosses the whole together. Lastly, she grates some of that lovely aged Parmesan cheese that she came home with over the dish and she serves it with the rosemary ham, oh, AND that gorgeous baguette.

Jeffrey is super-interested to hear all about her Brooklyn adventures. I love them together and I love that Ina can make a dish of peas and call it dinner and that Jeffrey is completely delighted.

Ina Gussies Up Apple Tarts And Surpasses Her Own Record For Butter Usage

Barefoot Bistro

Apricot Butter 

Apple Tarts

Cinnamon Honey Butter 

Chicken Liver Mousse Mirabelle

French Mussel Bisque 

Herb Butter
Lemon Butter

Roquefort Butter 

About that butter record, I don’t have any hard numbers on Ina’s PREVIOUS butter practices, but her proclivity for this fat is well-known. I’ll let you know at the end of the post the jaw-dropping amount that slipped through her fingers in this episode.

This show was an older one about bringing “French bistro ideas back to East Hampton”. We’re lucky Ina didn’t just skip town and hop on a plane to Paris to visit her favorite bistros.

She starts with a mussel bisque. 3 pounds of mussels get soaked in water with a bit of flour and then drained. Ina says they drink the mixture and “disgorge” the sand. And she makes sure the beards are off. (I suspect her fancy fishmonger did that for her. If you’re responsible for that, grab hold of the beard tightly and always pull it off TOWARD the hinge.)

Most folks don’t bother with flour (or I’ve seen cornmeal too). Here’s an easy explanation of how to clean mussels.

Ina cooks the mussels, covered, in a mixture of 1½ cups of boiling water and 1 cup of wine for 5 minutes.

Separately, she makes a base of onions, leeks, carrots and garlic, which she cooks in butter with salt and pepper. She adds threads of saffron at this point too, which is interesting. Nine times out of ten, saffron is steeped in liquid and THAT gets added to the recipe.

Occasionally, you may see a recipe where the saffron is toasted before using. But the stuff is so unbelievably expensive that to get the most out of it, I’ve always dissolved or soaked it in liquid. Ina kind of splits the difference by cooking it to the butter before any liquid goes in. I would still definitely soak it first, maybe in the mussel broth, and then add that to the bisque.

Ina cooks those vegetables for a long time to completely soften them. She tells us how much better saffron threads are than saffron powder. (I’ve never actually seen saffron powder. I thought people just used turmeric instead for a saffron-y color without the distinctive taste. But don’t do that here!)

Next Ina chops 4 tomatoes from a big can of San Marzano tomatoes. She says she first had Mussel Bisque when she was cooking her way through Mastering the Art. I didn’t know she did that! She adds the tomatoes to the softened vegetables and cooks that for a minute. 

By the way, I searched through Mastering for a bisque recipe that used saffron and I couldn't find it. The Bisque de Homard À L'Américaine has no saffron and the Soupe aux Moules does have a touch of curry powder AND egg yolks and cream, but no saffron. 

Ina removes the mussels using a spider to keep all the sand on the bottom of the pan. She strains the cooking liquid through cheesecloth to catch any sand and adds 2 cups of it to the pot. She says she’s going to discard the rest. Wait, don’t do that! She also adds the rest of the bottle of Pinot Grigio that she used, so that’s one bottle minus one cup...which would be 2 cups. She simmers that for 5 minutes. Is that too much wine, I wonder?

Ina takes all the mussels out of their shells by removing one side of the shell and using it to scoop out the mussel. (She says don’t use any closed ones.)

Ina says whenever anyone asks them about their favorite restaurants in Paris, she and Jeffrey surprise people when they say they prefer bistros to big fancy restaurants. And she says she always orders mussel bisque if it’s on the menu.

Ina adds the mussels to the broth over low heat with 1½ cups of half and half, which “never made anything taste worse”. Funny. And then a cup of heavy cream goes in, which Ina defends by saying it IS a French recipe. She seasons it and adds chopped fresh parsley. She tastes it. It’s good, really good.

Okay, I know we’re replicating bistro food today, but I would cook the vegetables in olive oil. Or maybe half oil and half butter. Or maybe just a tablespoon of butter. And I would definitely save all of that broth and substitute it for some of the cream. Instead of a total of 2½ cups of cream and half and half, I might use just ½ cup of cream and the rest stock, clam juice and wine. It would still be good, especially if you cooked the vegetables a long time as Ina says to give them that sweet, delicious flavor. And you wouldn’t be assaulting your arteries with quite as big an onslaught of cream. Just saying…

Next Ina visits her friend, Chef Guy Reuge, in his Stony Brook restaurant, Mirabelle, where he’s going to show her how he makes his Chicken Liver Mousse. Ahhh, here is one source of all that butter. For one pound of chicken livers, he uses 2 sticks of butter. I love his super strong Frensssccchhhh accent, even though he’s had his restaurant here for 30 years.

Chef Reuge seasons the chicken livers with salt, pepper and quatre épices, which Ina pretends not to know anything about. It’s a spice mixture and he gives us his own recipe for it here.

Chef sautés the chicken liver in grapeseed oil. (I love that oil! It has a super high smoking temperature so you can fry with abandon.) Then he throws in sliced shallot, sage, sprigs of thyme and sliced garlic. Next he takes the pan off the heat and pours in some Cognac and returns it to the heat. “Uh-Oh!” Ina says as the pan bursts into high flames.  He says he takes it off the burner so he doesn’t burn his moustache. I just love French chef humor.

Chef Reuge takes the pan off the stove and strains the contents of the pan to “remove the excess blood”. He places the chicken livers in the fridge, because he wants to process them when they’re ice cold. Meanwhile, he deglazes the pan with Marsala and Port.

He puts the cooled livers into a food processor with the deglazing liquid (isn’t that a bit hot and won’t it defeat the purpose of chilled livers?) and a half pound of completely and beautifully softened butter. That looks like Plugrá to me. He processes it until it’s smooth and puts it through an upside down tamis. Ina is very impressed with his equipment and his method. Me too.

It comes out smooth as silk, Ina says. Chef puts it a plastic wrap-lined terrine and then refrigerates it again. He serves a slice with cornichons and 4 microscopically thin toasts. (I would need about two dozen more to be happy.) They taste it together. They love it and Ina can’t wait to make it for Jeffrey.

Back at the ranch barn, Ina’s getting her table ready and, OMG, I thought she had taken a trip to Holland in high season. She’s standing amongst the most beautiful tulips of many different colors. AND she’s in her back yard!

Ina fills each vase (there are three) with only one variety of flower. They go on the table that’s been set with “raw Belgian linen napkins” used as placemats - “very modern” Ina says; white plates; and vintage flea market bowls on top. She’s also using new and vintage cutlery, which she mixes up on the table. I can’t tell whether each place setting is different (which I do when I run out of one kind of silverware) or if Ina is using different knifes, spoons and forks of different patterns at each place. I prefer the former, but I guess it’s kind of cool to do it the other way too. She finishes it up with plain white rectangularly folded napkins. No swans for her.

Her chairs look similar to the ones in the Jardin du Luxembourg, except theirs are green and Ina’s are white(ish).

Next Ina tells us about flavored butters. She gives us tons of recipes. The Roquefort butter looks particularly good. Truthfully, this is where all that butter comes in. But still it’s A LOT. Stay tuned to see how much.

Last, Ina shows us how to make a quick apple tart. I love that she tarts it up with an apricot glaze. This is a simple trick for giving any earthy fruit-topped dessert a sophisticated glow. There are several reasons for glazing. Number one is eye appeal.

Another reason for glazing is taste. It adds another layer of flavor. I like to add fresh lemon juice to my glazes too. Incidentally, you use apricot jam for apples and any yellow fruits and red currant jelly for berries. If you have mixed fruits, use apricot.

The third reason to glaze is to keep the fruit from drying out and looking brown. It keeps the tart looking fresher longer. 

Ina cuts apples (use small ones to fit better) and places about 6 slices on each rectangle of puff pastry. She uses thawed frozen pastry and doesn’t roll it out at all. She just cuts it in quarters.  

She sprinkles over sugar and dots the tops with butter. Ina grabs her sugar from a lovely clear glass vase. How pretty! But I like to have a tight cover on mine. She bakes them at 400°F. for 40 minutes. They look lovely.

Next Ina does her version of a glaze. Her glazing is completely and totally different from mine. And this isn’t the first time I’ve disagreed with her about this. She makes a glaze of ¾ cup of apricot jelly with 3 tablespoons of Calvados. She doesn’t strain it, which is okay, because she’s using jelly, which I can never find. She brings the glaze to a boil and immediately brushes it over the tarts, which are still warm from the oven.

I always use a HOT glaze over a COOLED tart. That way it doesn’t pool together in certain places, so I can’t explain her thinking here. She loves the finished product of her tarts and how quick they were to make. Ina wants to know how to say, “How easy is that?” in French. She should have asked her French chef friend.

Okay, here’s the butter count. Drum roll…this week Ina used a total of…NINE sticks of butter or two and one quarter pounds. That’s got to be a record. (I think my math is right…for all I know it could have been ninety sticks, but I don’t think so.)

Butter in This Episode
Apricot Butter  1 stick

Apple Tarts ¾ stick
Cinnamon Honey Butter  1 stick

Chicken Liver Mousse Mirabelle 2 sticks

French Mussel Bisque  ¾ stick

Herb Butter 2 sticks
Lemon Butter 1 stick

Roquefort Butter  ½ stick

I know I suggested lightening up the Mussel Bisque recipe earlier, but I still like Julia’s quote, “If you're afraid of butter, use cream.”