July 4th

Every July 4^th we have a party and watch fireworks from from our deck. This year was no exception. It is always touch and go as to the weather. Sometimes it can be foggy and you can’t really see much. This year it was clear and we watched the fireworks, both legal and illegal, from Silverlake to the Ocean.

Everyone contributed to the meal. We started on the deck with Cheeses and Rivera Cup Cocktails. Fran and Tom brought Guacamole and Chips and a great Hot Crab Spread. They also introduced us to a new olive: Graber's that I had never tried before. They were very meaty.

I grilled steaks from McCall’s Meat and Fish. Once again we used the Babo recipe for Dry Rubbed Rib-Eye Steak from the Babbo Cookbook by Mario Batali. It is the best rub! You can get the recipe from our blog of April 10, 2010: Just click the date to get the recipe. Nate at McCall's couldn’t believe how many steaks we bought for 8 people (4 very large ones) and promised us there would be leftovers. Unfortunately there wasn’t. At least we saved the bones for Daryl and Robert’s dogs!

We started with one of my favorite tomato salad recipes from Campanile: Green and Red Tomato Salad with Russian Dressing from New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel.  The Russian Dressing is exceptional. We did cheat however and use Best Foods mayo rather than make our own. We crushed garlic into it. This is a fabulous salad when tomatoes are at their peak.

Billy / Kevin brought a Potato Gratin. It was yummy crispy with lots of onions. I don’t know the recipe, but on the other hand, if I can always convince Billy to make it, I don’t need to know the recipe!

For dessert Daryl and Robert brought not one but two tarts that they made: a delicious Sour Cherry Pie and a Tarte Tatin.

We finished with Ginja Cherry Liquor. We had it in Lisbon (it is their national drink) and finally found it here in the US.

It sure makes the dinner easier when everyone contributes a dish (especially if they are ALL good cooks!).

green and red tomato salad with russian dressing

[makes 4 to 6 servings]

New Classic Family Dinners

Mark Peel

I made this dish after seeing the movie Fried Green Tomatoes. It's a perfect salad to make at the end of summer or the middle of fall (depending on where you live), that time of year when the last of the tomatoes have come in and the green ones that are still growing on your vines will never fully ripen. Tomatoes with Russian dressing is one of my favorite steak house combos. This rendition with green and red tomatoes is a great study in contrasts—creamy and chunky (dressing and tomatoes), sweet (red),and sharp (green), crisp (green) and juicy (red). I use beefsteak tomatoes for this; they're perfect for any all-tomato salad. They slice well and have a great firm texture.

[RUSSIAN DRESSING]

1     large egg, hard-boiled (below)

½    recipe Garlic Mayonnaise (below)

½    teaspoon white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar

1     teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

3     tablespoons Heinz ketchup

¼    teaspoon Lee & Perrins Worcestershire sauce

¼    teaspoon Tabasco sauce (more to taste)

2    tablespoons finely chopped red onion, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes, drained, rinsed, and dried on paper towels

1    teaspoons (packed) grated fresh or prepared horseradish

1    tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Salt

1/8  teaspoon ground black pepper

[SALAD]

I ¾     pounds mixed green and red tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1    hard-boiled egg, finely chopped

1    teaspoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

½    red onion, sliced very thin in half-moons, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes, drained, rinsed, and dried on paper towels

[HARD-BOILED EGGS]

Place the eggs in a medium saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Cover the pot tightly and turn off the heat. Meanwhile, fill a bowl with ice and water Let sit for 10 minutes for a dark, very slightly soft yolk, 12 minutes for a lighter; thoroughly hard-boiled but still very tender yolk. Drain and chill in the ice bath for several minutes, then peel.

1.             Make the Russian Dressing: Peel the hard-boiled eggs, cut in half (or break the eggs in half and scoop out the yolks and whites), and remove the yolks from the whites. Chop the whites very fine. Separately, chop the yolks very fine and mix with a tablespoon of the mayonnaise. They should almost be a puree (and indeed, you can puree them through a sieve instead of chopping them). Set aside.

2.             Place the rest of the garlic mayonnaise in a bowl. Stir in the vinegar, lemon juice, ketchup, Worcestershire,Tabasco, onion, horseradish, and parsley. Season to taste with about 1/4 teaspoon salt and the pepper Stir in the minced hard-cooked egg whites and the yolks. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Transfer to a covered container and refrigerate. It will keep for about 5 days in the refrigerator

3.             Make the salad: Line an oval or round platter with the tomato slices, overlapping them slightly and alternating red and green. Season with salt and pepper and let sit for 10 minutes.

4.             Spoon the dressing over the tomatoes. Sprinkle on the chopped egg and the parsley and if you wish, top with the onion slices. Serve.

VARIATION /THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING

Substitute 1/4 cup finely chopped cornichons for the horseradish.

[GARLIC MAYONNAISE, makes  1 1/4 cups]

This isn't as garlicky as Provencal aoli but it's garlicky nonetheless. The bread, blended as it is with the egg yolk, makes for a tighter mayo.

1/4   cup diced baguette, without crusts

2   teaspoons white wine vinegar

1       to 2 fat garlic cloves (to taste), halved, green shoot removed, quartered

1/2   teaspoon kosher salt (more to taste)

1/2   cup plus 1 teaspoon canola oil, at room temperature

1       large egg yolk

1   tablespoon warm water

1       level teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2   cup extra virgin olive oil, at room temperature

1       teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1.    Place the diced bread in a small bowl and toss with the vinegar until saturated. Squeeze the bread over the bowl, extracting as much vinegar as you can (you may not be able to squeeze out any at all), and set the bread aside.

2.    Place the garlic, salt, and I teaspoon of canola oil in a mortar and mash to a paste; don't pound the garlic, but grind it against the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the bread and continue to mash until the mixture is smooth. Add the egg yolk, water; 1 teaspoon of the vinegar squeezed from the bread, and the mustard and mix together thoroughly. Slowly begin to drizzle in the remaining canola oil, stirring constantly with the pestle. When you've added about a third of the canola oil and the mixture has begun

3.    to emulsify, scrape the mixture into a medium bowl. Wet a dish towel and wrap it around the base of the bowl so the bowl doesn't move around while you whisk. Switch to a wire whisk.

4.    Very slowly drizzle in the remaining canola oil while whisking constantly. When all of the canola oil has been added, drizzle in the olive oil, whisking all the while. Once the mixture has emulsified you can add the oil a little more quickly. Add the remaining vinegar and the lemon juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more vinegar or lemon juice ,or salt if desired. Scrape into a jar or small bowl, cover tightly, and refrigerate until ready to use.

[MASHING GARLIC AND OTHER INGREDIENTS IN A MORTAR AND PESTLE]

When a recipe instructs you to mash garlic to a paste, it means to mash by grinding, not by pounding.The movement of the pestle should not be up and down but circular If you pound the garlic, you'll release too many volatile oils and your puree will be too pungent. Also, you risk breaking your mortar It's just as easy to get a smooth puree by slowly but firmly grinding the garlic against the sides and bottom of the mortar

HEINZ KETCHUP, LEE & PERRIN’s

WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE, AND TABASCO

Some commercial brands of food have their place in gastronomy, and the above-named are three of them. You can rely on their quality and consistency when you use them to season dishes.This point was brought home to me when I was a young chef, training at the 3-star French chef Roger Verge's restaurant Moulin de Mougins in the south of France. One afternoon between the lunch and dinner service, Chef Verge came into the kitchen to prepare a late lunch of steak tartare for his friends. He grabbed a superb piece of sirloin and I watched as he hand-chopped it with impressive skill. He seasoned the meat, then reached into a cabinet and pulled out some Heinz Ketchup to mix into the tartare. I couldn't believe my eyes, but it was at that moment I realized that a good product is a good product, worthy of even a 3-star kitchen.