Jan Norris writes at all hours of the day and night. To keep up with Jan, please sign up for her once-a-day Appeteaser. We have a no-spam guarantee and you can opt out of the email Appeteaser anytime you like. Of, if you're more of the RSS sort, you may subscribe to her feed.
Robyn Kalajian
One of my new favorite food web sites is The Armenian Kitchen, written by Robyn Kalajian and her spouse, Doug. Robyn is a retired high school cooking teacher; Doug and I were colleagues at The Palm Beach Post. That was a huge family with many good cooks; Doug was among them.
The Kalajians are Armenian and have incredibly wonderful stories about their cuisine. Not only have I learned a lot – through their videos and recipes – I’ve got a true sense of what family means to them through their foods. That connection is the reason I write about food and Florida and the South, so I appreciate their passion for their traditions.
Here’s a little about the site:
Fans of Armenian food — meaning, just about anyone who has ever tasted Armenian food — will delight in discovering TheArmenianKitchen.com, a Web site and blog devoted to the age-old but still evolving cuisine.
The site features recipes Robyn has gathered from friends and family over the years, many of them written down for the first time. Preserving these recipes and the techniques involved in preparing them is a work of love for Robyn and her husband Douglas, a retired journalist who shares her passion for cooking and for their shared ethnic heritage.
“Food is portable culture,” Douglas said. “Armenians scattered across the world by tragedy brought their prayers, their songs and their pots. Keeping these recipes alive is our way of preserving that culture.”
Robyn’s interest in Armenian cooking began as a child, helping her grandmother pick grape leaves from their yard in Clifton, N.J.
“Armenian food is as richly diverse as the Armenian people,” she said. She noted that Armenian dishes share many ingredients with Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, with an emphasis on fresh vegetables and whole grains.
In addition to recipes, TheArmenianKitchen.com features how-to videos as well as tips on nutrition, kitchen tools and food safety.
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I asked Robyn to share one of her favorite recipes with my readers. This is a typical one, she writes, that’s a great comfort food.
Tass Kebab
(Lamb cubes made in a pot)
Serves 5 to 6
3 pounds stewing lamb (see note), trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 teaspoons freshly ground coriander seed
Salt, pepper, paprika to taste
2 medium onions, sliced
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 beef bouillon cube
Dash sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons butter
Place lamb cubes in a large bowl and season meat with coriander, salt pepper, and paprika.
In a large, non-stick skillet, sear the lamb, in small batches. After searing the last batch of meat, add the onions to the skillet and cook until soft and slightly caramelized.
Place meat and onion in a large pot.
Dilute the tomato paste in 2 cups of water. Pour over the meat. If it looks too thick, stir in more water, a little at a time. Continue to add more water, if needed, during cooking. Stir in the bouillon cube and sugar.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cook, with the pot lid slightly tilted, for 1 ½ to 2 hours, or until the meat is fork-tender.
Just before serving, stir in the butter to mellow the tomato sauce.
Note: If stewing lamb is not available, stewing beef or veal can be substituted.
Serve with rice or bulgur pilaf, or wide egg noodles, and a green vegetable or tossed salad.
The droll Brits have the right idea: The best way to eat a mango is standing in a bathtub, wearing a rubber raincoat.
The Brits have a ton of experience at this — since they tried to own India, and that country has arguably the most and best mangoes anywhere, they know a long bit about the slurpy side of these very juicy fruits.
Bananas eat mangoes’ dust
Fact: Mangoes are the most popularly eaten fruit in the world. In the coniguous U.S., they grow all around South Florida, the southern tips of Texas, Arizona and California. Hawaii (celebrating its 50th anniversary of statehood in August) has a terrific number of trees.
Down here, mangoes are heavy with fruit this year — it’s an on-again, off-again thing. You can’t always predict how the season will go, but this year’s crop is quite astounding.
People down here sell their whole treesful – some are worth a few hundred bucks to the right buyer. You can get your pants seat filled with buckshot or torn by a pit bull if you mess with the fruit on the wrong mango tree without asking permission. Roadside mango stands are everywhere — the fruit selling from a quarter to a buck each. It’s whatever the market will bear.
Up North, they tell me, zucchini are this prolific soon — and people go around leaving the gourds on others’ doorsteps to get rid of a garden full they can’t handle. Same thing here with mangoes. Workplaces are filled with counters of them, and I saw some in a bank the other day, signs saying “Free - please take!”
There are so many, they fall off (or are felled by the naughty one-bite-and-I’m-done squirrels) and rapidly rot in the yard from the hot sun. This makes for one slippery, smelly, fly-filled mess — anyone who’s slipped and fell on one and landed on a pile of the stinkers is shuddering right now.
The trick to cutting them
Mangoes don’t give up their seeds easily. Those who try to cut one like an apple or peach soon learn they’re wasting more of the fruit than slicing it the way most chefs do: vertically, on both sides of the seed.
Mangoes aren’t truly round — they have a “flat” side that parallels the seed. That’s how you determine where to cut.
The following video shows how it’s done. It’s straightforward – but a few caveats: Don’t peel it first. To cut them, use a firm cutting surface and grip the mango carefully with your hand well out of the way (a rubber glove helps grip it). The mango is so slippery once the juice hits the skin, it will slip, and you can chop off fingers in a heartbeat. Use a paring knife to peel it after slicing (our model is super confident with her knife — don’t try this at home, please!).
Bag and tag ‘em, Probie
Once sliced, you can freeze the mangoes in a zip-top bag, or if you prefer, on a cookie sheet first then put the slices in a bag so they don’t all freeze together. They’re great for smoothies straight out of the freezer that way, or use in cooking or baking.
Date them; try to use them within 6 months for best flavor and texture. Any fruit in the freezer will take on odors if not sealed very well — double-bag them for long storage, or use a canning jar to freeze them. Or use them in the previous post’s recipe for making mango chutney.
I am still in contact with so many of my food readers from The Palm Beach Post — many have become friends I keep in touch with regularly.
One whom I recently found again is Ingrid Hugel of Lake Worth. We met this week at the Palm Beach County Quilters’ Guild where I’m a member. It was chaotic as usual before the meeting, so she shoved a paper into my purse and said, “Here’s that mango chutney recipe I asked you for a year or so ago. I’m getting ready to make it.”
I followed up with her on it – she’s been making it for years but had misplaced her copy a while back and needed to retrieve it from The Post’s archives. It’s from a “Mrs. Gordon” – and I have no way of knowing who that might be, though it could be the notable Mrs. Bob Gordon of Palm Beach.
Be warned before you start: This makes enough for the Lower Prussian army – call in friends to help and turn the work into fun making it, unless you just like to work alone. It’s a lot of chopping, and I don’t recommend the food processor because the ripe mangoes will turn to puree in a heartbeat.
I asked Ingrid if she has made hers yet. “No – I’m still gathering the mangoes and shopping for the rest of it. Two or three ladies get together to make it — it’s a two-day affair so we’re getting ready.”
Hatcher Mango Hill can help
It’s a good recipe to have when ripe mangoes are literally falling in backyards everywhere as they are here – this is a serious crop year for our local mangoes.
If you don’t have enough of your own, you can order the famous Hatcher mangoes from Hatcher Mango Hill now for pickup in July and August when they’re ripe. Owner Marilyn Hatcher currently has a bumper crop of Hayden mangoes – along with everyone else in South Florida, so it seems.
Choose pots carefully when canning
Ingrid told me that at first, she didn’t have a pot big enough for it — you need an enamel or stainless one – don’t use aluminum or copper as they’re reactive metals. She intially used the enamel crisper drawers from her refrigerator to let it stand overnight and macerate. Her daughter had an enameled baby’s bathtub that worked equally well. A large glass container or crock as used for sauerkraut also would work. (No plastic.)
The recipe calls for hot red pepper, garlic and ginger — all spicy ingredients. Instructions are at the end to make the stuff less spicy if you choose.
There are no directions as to canning it other than sealing into hot, clean jars. It’s meant for the refrigerator where it will keep well into 2 years if not cross-contaminated (always use clean spoons and knives when dipping out handmade foods). I add a note at the end that might help keep it sealed more tightly.
Not just for toast!
I am highly allergic to mangoes and don’t handle or eat raw ones. I’m looking forward to sampling some of Ingrid’s already canned chutney, though.
Ideas for serving: It goes so great with Cuban-style roast pork (my first choice), turkey, grilled chicken and grilled fish. You could use it in the recipe I printed a while back for salsa-couscous chicken - just add some tomatoes to the dish along with the spices. Serve the chutney on Neufchatel or a Boursin cheese spread on a cracker for a fast nibble for company with a Sauterne. Eat it on banana-coconut bread – it’s a free trip to the Tropics! Use your extra jars for holiday gifts – if you can keep it that long.
Enjoy – and thanks, Ingrid!
Mrs. Gordon’s Mango Chutney
Time: 2 days
Equipment: Large non-reactive containers; 25 pint or 15 quart canning jars and lids, boiled and drained for canning, or run through the dishwasher and sterilized.
Yield: Approximately 25 pints.
15 pounds cut-up ripe mangos (weigh fruit after dicing)
5 pounds brown sugar — half dark, half light
1 box seedless raisins
1 box currants (or golden raisins)
2 cups cider vinegar
2 cups lime juice
4 tablespoons crushed red pepper (see note)
1 tablespoon ground ginger
4 tablespoons mustard seeds
4 tablespoons salt
8 small garlic cloves, minced (see note)
2 pounds onions, chopped fine
1 pound crystallized ginger, minced (see note)
Weight mangoes after dicing. Measure and mix all ingredients except crystallized ginger. Let stand overnight, covered lightly, in an enamelled, glass or crockery container.
The next day, put mixture into one or two large kettles and heat very slowly to low boiling point. (Mixture will burn – take care to do this slowly.) Stir and skim the film as chutney bubbles gently.
In 3-1/2 to 4 hours the film will no longer rise and chutney will look rich and thick.
Add crystallized ginger during last 1/2 hour of cooking.
Remove from heat. Ladle into hot, clean jars and seal.
Refrigerate. Keeps for 2 years or more in refrigeration.
Jan’s notes and tips:
To make it less spicy, reduce the red pepper to 3 tablespoons; the garlic to 4 cloves and the crystallized ginger to 1/2 pound.
To put a better seal on the jars, once they’re sealed and while mixture is still hot, turn the jars upside down immediately on the counter, and allow to cool completely. Once cooled, the lids should appear concave, and be pulled tight.
For a different tang and texture, choose green, firm mangoes for 1/4 of the mangos called for.
Warning: Do not eat from any canning jar with a lid that appears swollen or popped out; it could contain toxins. Do not depend on smell or sight to determine this — discard the food.
Editor’s note: This is one in my “Summertime Eats” series of guest blogs. Share your favorite memories of summertime foods and places with me by emailing your story to: Jan@JanNorris.com, subject: Summertime Eats. Attach a photo of yourself or the food as a .jpg if possible. A few of you will win one of my cookbooks if your story is published.
Turkey’s for Thanksgiving – not bratwurst
I got a note this week from my buddy Tom Sears – a former colleague (sports desk copy chief ) at The Palm Beach Post. He’s a die-hard Wisconsin native, Milwaukee born, and is as passionate about his beautiful, green, lake-flecked state as I am about my Florida.
The Packers, the Brewers, hating Chicago, loving cheese, ice fishing, and of course, bratwurst — they’re very much a part of Tom.
‘Yuck’
That was the subject of his e-mail. I opened it, and my hand holding my Blackberry was scorched by Tom’s invectives. He was truly fired up.
Here’s the sanitized, expletive-deleted version:
I should have known better, but yesterday I bought a package of turkey bratwurst from Winn-Dixie. Shady Brook Farms makes them. I cooked two on my grill for supper; I ate half of one, threw out the other one I cooked and then immediately tossed the rest of the package.
It was perhaps the worst-tasting piece of (bleep) I’ve ever eaten.
If you get the temptation to buy any, please resist. It gives bratwursts everywhere a bad name.
I cannot allow these things to be sold under the name of bratwurst! People who buy them may get a complete misperception of Wisconsin and its residents. No self-respecting Wisconsinite would ever eat one of those things. I should be assassinated for even buying them.
First five words says it all
You just don’t mess with some foods — or the natives who eat them. Leave Chicago pizza alone – and don’t try to sell a Yank from New Haven, Conn., on it. Don’t fool with Virginia ham. California may grow peaches, but a Georgian won’t even acknowledge them.
And for heaven’s sake, don’t make green or (she shudders) flamingo pink Key lime pie and try to get me to eat it.
So: He of all people should have known better. Brats are pork and beef (sometimes the veal version of beef). Turkey is for Thanksgiving. So says Tom, the Wisconsin son.
Now for his story.
Summer means brats on the grill and a ball game
By Tom Sears, guest columnist
Old County Stadium
Ah, I have wonderful memories of grilling brats with my dad after a ball game on Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee at old County Stadium.
Grilling bratwursts (aka Wisconsin’s soul food) is a tradition much like Friday night fish fries at the corner tavern and even top-flight restaurants.
For me, the fondest memories were after the games of the old Milwaukee Braves while I was growing up and then later the Milwaukee Brewers at old County Stadium. Both my folks died before the new stadium, Miller Park (whose naming rights were bought by the brewery, as you probably could guess) was built.
A cribbage board
When we were kids, the gathering would include the whole family (dad, mom, sister and my two brothers, and all six of us would go to the game). After us kids grew up and moved away, the gatherings as a family became less frequent, but that made the cookouts more special. For me, my summer vacations, and those Sunday afternoon games with my dad and then cooking out afterward, followed by a couple of games of cribbage, are memories that will stay with me forever.
Treat brats gently!
After we got home from the game, my dad would get the grill going in the driveway or in the garage (with the door open, of course) and my mom would start working on the side dishes, which she had prepared in advance. After lighting the charcoal, you gently simmer – never, ever boil, just simmer — the brats in the liquid of your choice (it’s usually beer) and a chopped up onion. My dad would also occasionally chop up a couple of cloves of garlic and drop them in the liquid.
After simmering the brats for 20 minutes, they are ready to go on the grill. The charcoal, by this time, should be white hot. The brats should be turned occasionally with tongs until they are a golden brown. I cook mine for about 10 minutes. My dad always said it was important to stand and watch the brats cook (all the while holding a bottle of beer, of course). This was to guard against any sudden burst of flame, which could burn and ruin the bratwursts. Brats should never be cooked until the skins are black. This is not good.
A ban on yellow mustard
While the brats were cooking, my mom would set up the picnic table on the east side of the house, where we would be in the shade. Side dishes would include macaroni salad (made with Miracle Whip, never mayo!!!), perhaps baked beans, either German or American potato salad, a relish plate of green onions, pickles, olives, celery and carrot sticks, etc., and potato chips. When the brats were done, they were put in a bratwurst bun — never a hot dog bun; you MUST use a bratwurst bun, which is a little bigger than a hot dog bun.
For condiments, I always just use chopped up raw onions and brown mustard (never, ever, ever yellow mustard and never, ever ketchup. That is a no-no). Some people use hot dog relish, but I never did. Many people also put sauerkraut on their brats, but we didn’t. At Miller Park (and before that County Stadium), however, it is quite acceptable, even chic, to put Stadium Secret Sauce on your brat (or Polish, Italian or hot dog). Yellow mustard is not available anywhere in the stadium. Yellow mustard is an insult to any Wisconsinite.
For dessert, what else but watermelon?
It’s always bratwurst season
You do not need a reason or a season to grill bratwursts outside. Any ballgame (Brewers, Packers, Badgers) is a reason to grill out. Maybe people grill out in their back yards before Packers game, and they have a couple of bratwursts before the game starts, so they feel they are at the stadium and they have their own little backyard tailgate party before watching the game on TV.
A nice spring, summer or fall weekend day is a good reason to cook out. Picnics and neighborhood cookouts are always an excuse. And of course there are the many lakefront festivals in Milwaukee during the summer. Neighbors have been known to take turns on weekends cooking out and having four or five couples and their kids over.
Buy brats like a native: Usinger’s or Klement’s
The best brats to buy are Usinger’s orKlement’s, both based in Milwaukee. However, they are not sold nationally but they can be ordered and shipped from their Web sites. Sheboygan Bratwurst, based in Sheboygan Falls, Wis., also is good.
I’m not sure, but Cher-Make, another sausage-maker based in Manitowoc, Wis., also may have brats (Editor’s note: they do). If they don’t, though, they make the best wieners in their casings this side of Munich. If you insist, and can’t find any of these brats, go ahead and buy Johnsonville, which is sold nationally (Publix and Winn-Dixie have them occasionally). However, few self-respecting Wisconsinites would admit to eating Johnsonville. If you buy them, you hope a neighbor doesn’t see you at the grocery store.
You would never be able to find a Johnsonville brat at any of Milwaukee’s lakefront summer festivals, at Brewers games, at Packers games, or at Wisconsin Badgers games. And if they aren’t sold there, they aren’t worth buying. There also may be some small local sausage makers who cater only to their part of Wisconsin, but those four are the main ones.
Resources:
The following Web sites should be helpful. The first two give you a sense of what brats mean to people from Wisconsin.
Stadium Secret Sauce (read about it at OnMilwaukee - an online magazine for the city) is available for $5.99 a bottle at brewcityonline.com or for $3 a bottle at the Brewers Fan Zone store at Miller Park . It is a tomato based sauce with just a hint of spiciness to it.
What is it about beautiful hand-wrought pieces that whets my appetite for more?
I’m not sure, but my appetite was stirred when I saw this beautiful set of Seneca glass “Slim Jim” pilsner glasses.
Scott Simmons
The 16-ounce tall tumblers were made in the 1930s in West Virginia by Seneca, a company that was known for its exquisite quality — just look at the crystal clarity of that ruby glass.
Just about any beer would taste better in a vessel like this. I also think they’d be great for serving parfaits.
The fun thing with elegant glass like this is mixing it. I also have Slim Jims in clear and teal — think of the possibilities for Christmas.
Or, I can use this simply elegant set of pilsners as a foil to glassware with a more elaborate design.
The glasses were a bargain, too. I paid $35 for a set of eight. One was chipped, but they still were an exceptional buy — they might have cost me $30 apiece at a Depression glass show.
A thrift store with a cause
And buying them helped a good cause. I found them at The Lord’s Place’s One More Time Thrift Shop & Coffee Bar. The store benefits the The Lord’s Place, which helps the homeless.
Stop in, buy a cup of coffee, nibble some baked goods, and shop for clothing and accessories in one of the brightest, cleanest thrift stores I’ve seen anywhere.
On the trail to Scott’s finds:
The Lord’s Place One More Time Thrift Shop and Coffee Bar
7600 S. Dixie Highway (a half-mile south of Forest Hill Boulevard)
West Palm Beach, FL
Phone: (561) 494-0125, ext. 4412
Scott Simmons is a South Florida writer whose passion is antique china and glassware. He has written about collectibles for more than 10 years as The Palm Beach Post’s “Look What We Found” columnist. His Kitchen Kollectibles column highlights food and dining ephemera. Have questions about your own vintage treasures? Email him at scott.simmons.writer@gmail.com.
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Jan Norris writes at all hours of the day and night. To keep up with Jan, please sign up for her once-a-day Appeteaser. We have a no-spam guarantee and you can opt out of the email Appeteaser anytime you like. Of, if you're more of the RSS sort, you may subscribe to her feed.
There are so many, they fall off (or are felled by the naughty one-bite-and-I’m-done squirrels) and rapidly rot in the yard from the hot sun. This makes for one slippery, smelly, fly-filled mess — anyone who’s slipped and fell on one and landed on a pile of the stinkers is shuddering right now.
You do not need a reason or a season to grill bratwursts outside. Any ballgame (Brewers, Packers, Badgers) is a reason to grill out. Maybe people grill out in their back yards before Packers game, and they have a couple of bratwursts before the game starts, so they feel they are at the stadium and they have their own little backyard tailgate party before watching the game on TV.
