Category Archives: Recipe

mamster’s in the market

[Matt’s in the Market](http://www.mattsinthemarket.com/) is a cult restaurant. You’re unlikely to stumble into it, because it’s on the second floor of a building at Pike Place Market. And when you do get there, you’ll probably have to wait. In fact, if you get there now, you’ll have to wait weeks, because it’s currently closed for remodeling. Matt’s is known for:

* Doing all of their cooking on hot plates. (Well, individual burners.)

* A controversial reservation policy. Not controversial in the sense that anyone disagrees with the policy, but controversial in that people argue over whether they take reservations at all. They tried to settle this a couple years ago by writing things like WE DO TAKE RESERVATIONS on their web site. This didn’t settle anything, and people kept on arguing about whether they take reservations. (We have successfully made reservations. Not that this will settle anything.)

* The fried catfish sandwich with spicy mayo. One time I went to Matt’s and got something other than this sandwich, some fish of the day with bacon. It was excellent. Then I went back to the catfish sandwich.

Matt’s has been closed for a couple months. When they reopen, probably in July, they’ll have doubled in size and grown a real kitchen. The same people who discuss the reservation policy are presumably now discussing whether the food will still be good when cooked on a real stove. The food is Cajun-inspired, by the way. Here are the new menus. Brunch is a brand-new offering, and the duck confit tacos might convince me to come for brunch, even though it will be a zoo.

Laurie and I hadn’t had a fried catfish sandwich in far too long. So I made some tonight, and they were, honestly, pretty close to what you get at Matt’s. Here’s the recipe.

**SPICY CATFISH SANDWICHES**
Adapted in freewheeling style from Matt’s in the Market
Chipotle mayo from Nancy Silverton’s A Twist of the Wrist

*How many sandwiches does this make? Depends on the size of your bread and whether you consider a half-sandwich a sandwich. This is probably enough to serve three.*

For the mayo:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons pureed or minced canned chipotles (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the catfish:
2 catfish fillets, quartered into strips
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
salt and pepper
1 cup frying oil of choice (you will be shocked to hear that I used lard, albeit mixed 50-50 canola oil because I didn’t want to use up all my lard)

Thin-sliced sandwich bread (see note)
Butter lettuce, torn into bread-sized pieces

1. Stir the mayo ingredients together in a bowl.

2. Salt and pepper the catfish on both sides. Let sit at room temperature for five minutes. Mix the cornmeal and flour together in a pie plate. Dredge in the catfish in the cornmeal mixture, shaking off excess, and remove to a plate.

3. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high until the oil shimmers and a chunk of bread bubbles vigorously when you toss it in. Add half the catfish strips and fry 2 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels and repeat with the other batch.

4. Assemble the sandwiches. I am not going to explain this part, except to say that you should put the mayo on both slices.

**Note:** At Matt’s they use some kind of potato bread. You want something not very rustic–not Wonder bread, but closer to that than to anything crusty. I used Trader Joe’s Cracked Wheat Sourdough Bread of the Northwest (actual name).

Veggie veggie combo

My vegetable adventure began with butternut squash. It didn’t go so well. I made a recipe from Fine Cooking for sauteed butternut squash chunks with ginger, garlic, and spices. As Laurie put it, “The flavor is good, but the texture is bland.” I found that any given chunk was either stringy or mushy. Conclusion: I still don’t understand butternut squash.

But then I turned around and discovered a new favorite green bean recipe, one so good that even Iris liked it. (Actually, Iris has shown an unusual willingness to try vegetables lately. I approve, but where is her independent spirit, her stick-it-to-the-man gumption?) The recipe comes from Andrea Chesman’s book The Roasted Vegetable. I can’t say I actually recommend this book. It’s poorly organized; it has no mention of broccoli or cauliflower; and it has a section of granola recipes, apparently on the grounds that the author has some good granola recipes. But the green bean recipe nearly lives up to its title: World’s Best Green Beans.

Green beans and I already get along fine. I tend to prepare them either stewed with tomatoes and garlic or braised with duck legs, shallots, fish sauce, and chiles. I also love Szechuan dry-fried green beans, which I haven’t made in too long. But I’d never roasted a green bean. I called them “frizzled green beans,” and Iris thought the name was funny. We’ll be making these often.

**FRIZZLED GREEN BEANS**
Adapted from _The Roasted Vegetable_, Andrea Chesman
Serves 2, plus Iris

1 pound green beans, trimmed
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 500°F. Toss the green beans with the olive oil and a generous sprinkle of salt. Lay them out on a foil-lined half-sheet pan in approximately a single layer. Roast for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with additional salt to taste and serve immediately.

**NOTE:** I added some slivered almonds in the last three minutes of cooking, and it was a good move.

Sproutnoodle

I have two recipes that I hope will brighten your day as they did mine.

Iris and I made a chocolate tart this afternoon. We had to do it. The other day we tried a new lemon tart recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours, and the lemon cream filling (which she learned from Pierre Hermé) was superb, but the crust was thick and tough. A bad tart crust just makes me mope. Why it should upset me more than a bad burger I can’t say, but I’m not alone. It upsets Jeffrey Steingarten, whose favorite tarts are found at Maury Rubin’s City Bakery (locations in LA and New York):

> If a baker, at home or in commerce, cannot make better pastry than Maury’s he or she should simply follow Maury’s recipe or throw in the towel and find other work.

To make Maury’s pastry, buy The Book of Tarts. But the recipe I use is, in my experience, indistinguishable from Maury’s and slightly easier, because it doesn’t require cream. It’s from Tamasin Day-Lewis’s lovely book The Art of the Tart. It takes minutes to make, only has to chill an hour, rolls out easily, and the texture is perfect–a fork passes easily through the raised edge. The only problem with this recipe is that it makes a weird amount–more than enough for one 9- or 10-inch tart, but not enough for two. But seriously, I am *never* going to make a different sweet tart crust recipe again.

**SWEET TART CRUST**
Adapted from _The Art of the Tart_

180g butter
75g powdered sugar
2 egg yolks
225g all-purpose flour

Put the butter, sugar, and egg yolks into the bowl of a food processor. Process until fully combined. Add the flour and process until it begins to come together into a ball, about 30 seconds. With your hands, press the dough into a disc, wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Roll it out very thin (1/8-inch) and line a large tart pan. To blind bake, dock the dough well and bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes.

For the chocolate part, just buy the book already.

Now, the next recipe, which is not in metric. Iris and I were planning to surprise Laurie with the tart. In fact, we did. As soon as Iris heard the door open, she yelled, “MAMA, WE HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU.” Unfortunately, the tart hadn’t cooled sufficiently to eat yet, so I threw it in the fridge for after dinner.

Our plan for dinner was buckwheat pancakes, but we couldn’t have pancakes with syrup and then a tart. “Do we have any frozen brussels sprouts?” Laurie asked. We did. This is what I made; I’ve done something like it before, but never quite so well.

**PENNE WITH BRUSSELS SPROUTS AND BACON**
Serves 2 to 3

10 ounces penne rigate
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1-1/2 cups frozen brussels sprouts, thawed and halved
salt and pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup (lightly packed) grated Parmigiano

1. In a large skillet, cook the bacon in the olive oil until crisp. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate, reserving the fat in the pan. Raise heat to medium-high and add the brussels sprouts. Cook until lightly browned, sprinkling with salt and pepper. Add the chicken broth, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, cook the penne. Drain and add to the brussels sprouts along with the bacon and Parmigiano. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

“There’s too much Parmigiano on this noodle,” Iris complained, but you won’t. She didn’t complain about the tart.

Free sample

Like everyone else, Iris loves free samples. She also loves the term “free samples.” The other night I tried to give her a kiss at bedtime and she said, “No free samples!”

They often have free samples at the meat department at QFC around lunchtime, whatever’s on sale this week. Iris will try *anything* they’re sampling. I am thinking of slipping them a twenty to offer things I want to make at home, or possibly decorating our dining room to look more like QFC.

A couple days ago it was sirloin steak, seasoned with lemon pepper, $5 a pound. Iris demanded some, and then she said, “I need another sample, because I love it.”

I asked her if she’d like steak for dinner, and she agreed. I like steak, but I like it best as an ingredient rather than the main event. Unless I’m getting a serious grass-fed or dry-aged (or both) steak, I’d take chipotle rubbed steak tacos or Thai beef salad over a big hunk of meat any day.

So I turned to a Cook’s Illustrated recipe I’d long been eyeing: Tuscan-style steak with arugula and parmesan. It’s a steak salad, and it couldn’t be simpler. While the steak cooks, you make a vinaigrette with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, S&P, and fresh herbs (I used thyme). Make some Parmigiano curls with a potato peeler and line dinner plates with a big handful of arugula. After the steak has rested, slice it, distribute the slices atop the arugula, and top with the dressing, cheese, and any accumulated meat juices from the resting of the steak.

Iris, of course, only wanted to cram as many bites of steak into her mouth as possible. In any case, this one is going into permanent rotation. Now, if QFC would feature free samples of sauteed fennel and radicchio, we’d be all set.

Gritsydoodles

The 2007 Saveur 100 issue is out, and among the usual roster of markets, restaurants, and weird touchy-feely things like #45 (“relaxing while cooking”) is a recipe I had to try immediately.

It’s #47, it’s called Nassau grits, and it’s a specialty of Pensacola, Florida. If you’re a fan of smoked pork products and stone-ground grits, you’ll want to try these right away. I served them along with fried catfish and a nice pot of greens, but I would have been perfectly happy with just the grits. (Not so Iris, who eyed the Nassau grits warily and declared, “I love catfish. Why is it called catfish?”)

This recipe is so good, it almost makes you want to forgive the Florida Panhandle for the 2000 election.

**NASSAU GRITS**
Adapted from Saveur, February 2007

8 ounces thick-cut bacon, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
6 ounces smoked ham, diced (I used a cheap supermarket ham that was not smoky enough)
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup stone-ground white grits
Salt and pepper

1. Start making the grits. Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Place the grits in a large bowl and run water over them to cover by at least an inch. Stir well and let sit one minute. Using a small strainer, skim off any hulls and other detritus floating on the surface. Drain. Add the grits to the boiling water and stir well. Return to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low. I use [Anson Mills](http://www.ansonmills.com/) grits, which take up to two hours to cook.

2. Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate and pour off all but 3 tablespoons fat. Add the onion and pepper to the pan and cook until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the ham and continue cooking until the pepper is soft, about 10 more minutes. Add the tomato and garlic and simmer until the mixture is pretty dry. The original recipe suggests simmering over medium-low and simmering for 30 minutes; I was running late so I boiled it over medium-high for less than 10 minutes. I doubt it makes any difference.

3. Stir the vegetable and ham mixture and most of the bacon into the grits and season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with remaining bacon. I found that the grits were a lot better warm than hot, so don’t worry about serving them instantly.