Roasted Acorn Squash Soup

Acorn Squash.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

In November I cooked for a great number of people; one group lucky enough to eat my food (if I may, somewhat egotistically, describe the experience thus,) was the Indian Village Women's Garden Club. Indian Village is an area of Detroit containing some of the oldest standing houses in the area, most of them what could be described as mansions—especially in the Victorian era, when many of them were built—and most of those still complete with butlers' pantries, kitchens wholly closed-off from the rest of the house, secret passages, back staircases, servants' quarters, and so on: the whole package of Victorian Opulence.

I was asked to prepare a meal for the ladies, and speak about the historical cooking techniques, theories, and styles that I have documented here. I took the chance to refine the speech I would ultimately give at Teslacon, as well as to debut the curry recipe I intended to cook at the con. I also wanted to take the opportunity to write some new recipes and try some new techniques for preparing them, which is represented in this recipe.

Excitement!

I've been in a prohibition-era mood lately,
it would seem...

I've often declined to post things here because I don't find them to fit particularly with my little project, for one reason or another. The food doesn't feel "steampunk" enough, I didn't take good pictures, I don't feel like it represents the best cooking I can do, and so on and so forth.

There's no immediate solution to this. I could invent a multi-point criteria system for evaluating my recipes in terms of their quality, interest, and overall steampunk nature—but that would involve work, and for someone as sleep-loving as I am, I feel my time might be better spent napping. (Actually, I just don't know what all my criteria would be...)

I do, however, have some interesting things coming up this month that I'd like to tell you all about, and that will form the basis of the new content for this blog in the coming weeks.

Chicken Curry - From Leftovers

Photograph by Mark Staubitz, at Teslacon II
(The blue pot soon to hold chicken curry.)

Mrs. Beeton and many of her contemporary cookbook writers were very concerned with using leftover food. In an age lacking refrigeration or the ability to freeze leftover food, the remedy was to create recipes to use that cooked meat, like Chicken Croquettes, meat pies, and stews of cooked meat. These recipes highlight one of the main drives of cooking in the Victorian era, a desire—and indeed a need—for food utilization. Sausages, terrines, and pâtés all see their beginnings in this need to utilize all the parts of a meat animal, and recipes like the one below (and a hundred different variations on hashed meat) come from a need to make something of the very valuable food items left after a meal.

Wintertime Trifle

One of the most quintessentially British of desserts, Trifles have allegedly existed since the end of the 16th century. In the Complete Traditional Recipe Book, Sarah Edington says,

Trifle is one of those dishes for which no one can agree on the correct recipe. Grown men remember with affection the trifle made by their mothers and grandmothers and come to blows over whether or not jelly and/or jam should be ingredients.

I won't make any claim to one version of a trifle that's any more correct than any other, but I will present you a short history of the Trifle as I can assemble it from some of the cookbooks in my collection.

On the Future

I haven't been writing here a lot of late, and I feel rather guilty about that. It's not that I haven't been cooking—I have, in fact, been catering and cooking for friends and family—but I haven't been taking pictures of the things I have made, when they're appropriate for the blog, and a lot of the time the things I'm cooking don't really fit that well into the catalog of Articles for the blog.

HOWEVER! The next month is auspicious. On the 27th of this month, a friend and I are catering an art show. Nothing particularly steampunk about it, but I might write it up just for the fun of it—after all, it's not every day I get to throw down Tapas at a show that bills itself as "An Exhibition of Enlightened Darkness." The next night, exhaustion permitting, I'll be cooking at Up in the Aether again, as I do on a (mostly) regular basis.

Then, in November, I'm presenting twice in the space of one week on Steampunk food! First is to a local ladies' garden club in one of the older portions of Detroit. I'll be cooking three dishes for them: A fall/winter squash soup, curried chicken—a different recipe than the one I've presented here, and a trifle.

Second, and most excitingly for me, I will be hosting a panel at Teslacon II on Steampunk Food.

Hopefully, I will be able to record the panel and post clips (or indeed the full hour-and-a-quarter lecture) here. I will once again be presenting a couple items for the assembled masses, and (though I am still awaiting final permission to do a live-fire cooking demonstration in a hotel conference room,) I plan on doing:

• Chicken Curry (same as at the garden club—it's a cooked chicken dish, which makes it easier to do.)
• A Cold Dish of some kind. Perhaps a salad, perhaps an hors d'oeuvre.

Of course, there will be a bonus to the people attending the panel—because I am a magnanimous host—in the form of five or six as-yet unpublished Steampunk recipes, presented to them in my usual prosaic but useful recipe form.

So if you're coming to Teslacon (and why wouldn't you be?) make sure to come to my panel.

As always, I appreciate your readership and patience, my friends, and hope to return with more Steampunk food again soon.

A Triumphant Return

Or sort of, anyhow. The restaurant and I have amicably parted ways—I wasn't exactly what they needed, and they weren't exactly what I needed, and that was (as they say) that. They're some very nice businesspeople and I would work for them again in the future, if the opportunity presented itself.

Once again, that leaves me here to contemplate life, the universe, and everything—and to cook delicious food and present it to the lot of you!

Last week, I returned to the Phoenix Café, with two dishes for the assembled masses: From New Vegetarian Dishes by Mrs. Bowdich, 1892, a preparation of Green Beans (which I purchased fresh at that week's Tuesday Market at Eastern Market,) and Chicken Cacciatore.

Green Beans 
1 shallot, minced
1 pint (473 ml) tomato juice
1 pound (453 g) green beans, steamed and shocked
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt
1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) pepper
a blonde roux of 1 oz (28 g) flour and 1 oz (28 g) olive oil
 
1. Sweat the shallot, and add the tomato juice. Whisk in the roux, Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer about half an hour.

2. Season with pepper and salt. Add the Green beans in, and thoroughly re-heat.

(When I prepared this, I used tomato purée instead of juice, and a bit of garlic instead of a shallot. I think the results were comparable. This is a very simple dish, and I like it that way—even though my compulsion is to complicate it overmuch.)

On to the second recipe: Chicken Cacciatore. It's a recipe that has existed more or less in the same manner for many years; I have a cookbook from the turn of the 20th century called "The Cook's Decameron" that includes a recipe for Cacciatore; indeed, "Hunter-Style" food is a common item in many cuisines, usually containing more "rustic" (or wildly available) items like mushrooms, as well as "spicier" things like bell peppers. (French cuisine includes "Forestière" sauce, for example.) I've figured out a way to make the recipe cook more quickly, so that I can serve it in under an hour from start to finish.


Chicken Cacciatore
2 pounds (907 g) chicken meat (I used breasts,) boneless, skinless, and cut into 1" (2.5 cm) cubes
2 Orange Bell Peppers, Julienne
2 Green Bell Peppers, Julienned
2 White Onion, Julienne
1 pound (455 g) White Button Mushrooms, Sliced
2 28-oz (794 g) cans Diced Tomatoes
Dry Red Wine
Salt and Pepper 
Oregano
Olive Oil

1. Salt and pepper the chicken, and sear it in hot oil. Set aside.

2. Heat more oil and begin to cook the onions. When they have become somewhat translucent, add the bell peppers. Cook until slightly softened.

3. Add the chicken back in, and the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are softened.

4. Add a good quantity of red wine (it will depend on how large your cooking vessel is how much you want to use,) and cook until mostly evaporated. Add the tomatoes and season with salt, pepper, and a good amount of oregano. Simmer until the chicken is cooked through.

I apologize I don't have any pictures of either of these dishes at this time—hopefully I'll add some soon.

Lessons Learned

About a month after opening the restaurant, and about two months after starting to work there, I have moved on from the place. It was not a decision that I came to on my own after consideration, but it is not one that I am explicitly unhappy with.

Working at the restaurant was a lot of fun. I got to meet some good contacts in the food industry, and I got to get into the groove of cooking the same 16 items day in and day out, as well as figuring out HOW to make them given the equipment that I had. At the same time, though, it was frustrating—I lost an entire month of my life to the fact that I worked almost every day; the few days that I didn't work, I was lucky enough to spend with the important people in my life—but the sudden change from seeing someone every day to almost never seeing them was... disheartening.

But onward and onward I go, and hopefully this will return to being a busy blog in the next week or so.

The Travails of the Restaurant Chef

Caprese Salad: Roasted Roma Tomatoes, Fresh Basil,
Buffalo Mozzarella, Olive Oil, Balsamic Reduction,
Crostino with Tomato Confit, Sicilian Pesto.

As I've made mention of on my Facebook page, I've become employed lately at a restaurant (not that the bookstore was a bad place to work, by any means, but I do feel the need to work within my chosen profession.) It's a startup, and I'm running the kitchen. This means that I'm responsible for everything from designing plate layouts to purchasing products, and everything in between.

It's been a lot of work—consecutive 14-hour days and I are now friends—but it's also been a lot of fun, and a wonderful learning experience so far. My sous chef is a good friend of mine from culinary school, and together we're rocking this place out.

I'll leave you with a couple menu items from the restaurant. It's not particularly steampunk, but it's fun and delicious...

Triple Grilled Cheese—Pepperjack, Mozzarella, Cheddar

Pepperoni Pizza, hearth-fired

Italian Roast Beef Sandwich (Mozzarella, Roasted Red Peppers)

Potato Soup

Potatoes—delicious in many ways.

The lovely and talented Miss Hayley Jane (also available at Facebook and more) is, I have learned, a fan of potatoes. Being as I have some Irish heritage, the potato is a familiar item to me as more than just a thing to mash, boil, or bake. As much as I do enjoy taking potatoes, chopping them up, boiling them up, and/or putting them in stews, I also enjoy playing with potatoes in many different manners, such as using them to thicken sauces, making them into chips (Saratoga Potatoes, which are covered well by the Culinary Chronoaviatrix,) roasting them for salads, and generally trying new and different ways to use the humble potato.

Today, I am making potato soup. Simple, clean, and delicious. There's half a million recipes for potato soups; each cookbook I have in my collection has at least one, and some have more than that. As is my style, I shall present to you a few recipes, followed by the one that I will use for tonight's little dish—an item being sold at the bookstore for Craft Night.

Potage Printanier—French Springtime Soup

Much like Chicken Soup, there are myriad variations on the Potage Printanier; Technically speaking, the name merely means "Springtime Soup" and therefore can be made with any number of springtime vegetables, generally resulting in a green, semi-thick soup. Typically it includes peas as a main ingredient. Some recipes will have it merely be a puréed pea soup; others include lettuce and greens; others include asparagus and haricots, and many include egg. It's all a matter of whose cook book you use.