Banana Pudding

Today I am feeling particularly joyful! I have been in the market for a new job for a few months and accepted an offer late yesterday afternoon. TLMM cooked up a celebratory dinner which included phenomenal grilled shrimp along with my favorite dinner, steak and artichokes! Complete with champagne! It was a fun night, I don't change jobs often so when I do I see it an an excuse to celebrate. Anyhoo, have you ever tried to make the banana pudding recipe on the Nilla Wafer box? I did it the other day and the result was rich and downright delicious.

3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Dash salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
45 NILLA Wafers, divided
5 ripe bananas, sliced (about 3 1/2 cups), divided
Additional NILLA Wafers for garnish

Mix 1/2 cup sugar, flour and salt in top of double boiler. Blend in 3 egg yolks and milk. Cook, uncovered, over boiling water, stirring constantly for 15 to 20 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.



Reserve 10 wafers for garnish. Spread small amount of custard on bottom of 1 1/2-quart casserole; cover with a layer of wafers and a layer of sliced bananas. Pour about 1/3 of custard over bananas. Continue to layer wafers, bananas and custard to make a total of 3 layers of each, ending with custard.



Beat egg whites until soft peaks form; gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff but not dry. Spoon on top of pudding, spreading evenly to cover entire surface and sealing well to edges.



Bake at 350°F in top half of oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until browned. Cool slightly or refrigerate. Garnish with additional wafers and banana slices just before serving. Makes 8 rich, custard-y servings...and the eggs.

Classic Bolognese! Mange!

In the heart of NYC's Little Italy is a great little eatery, Amici II. It's a little gem in a sea of Italian food- and their bolognese is the best I have ever tasted. I wanted to recreate the taste so I turned to.....you guessed it......Cook's Illustrated. This is their Classic Bolognese Sauce.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons minced onion
4 tablespoons minced carrot
4 tablespoons minced celery
1/2 pound each ground beef chuck, ground veal, and ground pork
2 cups whole milk
1 cup dry white wine
2 cans whole tomatoes (28 oz.) , packed in juice, chopped fine, with juice reserved



Heat butter in large, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over medium heat; add onion, carrot, and celery and sautè until softened but not browned, about 6 minutes.





Add ground meat and 1 teaspoon salt; crumble meat with edge of spatula to break apart into tiny pieces. Cook, continuing to crumble meat, just until it loses its raw color but has not yet browned, about 3 minutes.

Add milk and bring to simmer; continue to simmer until milk evaporates and only clear fat remains, 30 minutes. Add wine and bring to simmer; continue to simmer until wine evaporates, 30 minutes longer.



Add tomatoes and their juice and bring to simmer; reduce heat to low so that sauce continues to simmer just barely, with an occasional bubble or two at the surface, until liquid has evaporated, about 4 hours. Adjust seasonings with extra salt to taste and serve. When draining the pasta, leave some water on the noodles- and add a couple of tablespoons of butter to the draining noodles- this, in addition to some parmesan cheese on top of the sauce, will help the sauce coat the pasta noodles.

As you can see, it's easy- just time consuming. You add liquid three times and wait for it to be absorbed each time. I think the secret to the Amici's taste I was looking for was simmering the meat in milk. This isn't kosher Italian, folks. But it is wonderful- the flavors of the tender flavor infused crumbly meat do the talking. The recipe above is doubled- if you halve it, simmer each time for 10-15 minutes instead of 30, and after the tomatoes simmer for 3 hours instead of 4. You know how pasta sauce is always better after being frozen? That's precisely why I doubled it, to have even better sauce in a couple of weeks with another box of fettucine. That is if I can wait a couple of weeks for another pranzo squisito...and the eggs.

Eastern Shore Crab Cakes!

My father grew up in Baltimore and he tells us that as a child he would crab the Chesapeake by dangling his toes in the water waiting for a nibble and scooping up crabs with a net. My earliest memories of him involve crabbing off of a rickety (my mother's adjective for the spot) pier in Port Aransas, Texas, tying chicken necks to strings and sitting, waiting for that good tug on the line. If we went out with one of his friends on a canoe or small boat for a few hours, we'd come back with laundry baskets brimming with live crabs. We'd take them home and he would cook them in huge pots with beer and Old Bay seasoning. Finally, when we were all sitting around a picnic table covered in newspaper, wooden mallets and small cups of melted butter, our mouths watering, I would watch my father meticulously clean at least a dozen crabs- placing all of the cleaned meat in a small pile- before he would start to eat. OCD? Perhaps. I never emulated that strange and wonderful skill (I was far too impatient), but I did inherit his love of crabmeat. This is a not-so messy way to enjoy the goodness of crab. The recipe is from Cook's Illustrated, a periodical and a website which I strongly recommend based on its use of a test kitchen. These crabcakes are made with ingredients which enhance the flavor of the crab without adding much filler.

1 pound lump crabmeat, meticulously cleaned
4 medium scallions, green part only, minced (about 1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning (or more, to taste)
2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs or cracker crumbs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Table salt and ground black pepper
1 large egg
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cups vegetable oil

Gently mix crabmeat, scallions, herb, Old Bay, bread crumbs, and mayonnaise in medium bowl, being careful not to break up crab lumps. Season with salt and white pepper to taste. Carefully fold in egg with rubber spatula until mixture just clings together.



2. Divide crab mixture into four or five portions and shape each into a fat, round cake, about 3 inches across and 1 1/2-inches high. Arrange on baking sheet lined with waxed paper; cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 30 minutes. (Can refrigerate up to 24 hours.)







3. Put flour on plate. Lightly dredge crab cakes. Heat oil in large, preferably nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Gently lay chilled crab cakes in skillet; pan-fry until outsides are crisp and browned, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Serve hot.



I made a super-easy chipotle dipping sauce. It can be spicy or mild, depending on the ratio of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to mayo. Start by putting 1 cup of mayo in a food processor and add one chipotle pepper and one teaspoon of the adobo sauce. Blend and then taste. If it's not spicy enough, just do the same steps again until it is as hot as you want it.

Well, as it happened, that rickety little pier did collapse, and we were on it at the time. We managed to escape unharmed. It was one of those inexplicable times when your mother ends up being right. That evening, we headed home with the story of the adventure and, of course, a few dozen crab...and the eggs.