“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”

– Federico Fellini, film director

[And, a write-up from one of the students in the class!]

“What the hell do you think Leona really puts in that pizza?”

– Lili Taylor as JoJo in Mystic Pizza

Buenos Aires – Those of you who’ve been reading awhile might remember the fiasco I considered the much lauded Guido’s Bar in Palermo. I know, I know, I hear regularly from people how amazing it is, how much food you get, how incredible the food, the atmosphere, the people. I don’t get it. From my perspective, anyone who likes a place like that probably loves hanging out in Little Italy in NYC, one of the biggest jokes on the “Italian” food eating public that’s ever been perpetrated. I have been back to Guido’s once more to see if it was simply an off-day – it wasn’t, the menu was virtually identical that we received, and without being asked for additional plates, we were cut off after simply receiving antipasti and a couple of mediocre pastas – asking for more didn’t elicit any scorn, and we received, once again, a small plate of meat to share, but for the price, we shouldn’t have had to ask, they should have been asking us. I standby my rip-off assessment.

Overall, recommended for a very nice evening!

“The history of intellectual growth and discovery clearly demonstrates the need for unfettered freedom… the right to think the unthinkable… discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable…

To curtail free expression, strikes twice at intellectual freedom… for whoever deprives another of the right to state unpopular views… necessarily deprives others of the right to listen to those views.”

– C. Vann Woodward, Pulitzer Prize winning historian, of the American South

Buenos Aires – Joining the ranks of our centenarians is Comer Vann Woodward, one of the preeminent historians of the United States during the 20th century – with a specialization in race relations south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Woodward was born and raised in Arkansas, so that gave us a starting point for our Casa S dinner – it’s not one of the first states I think of when I start thinking about American regional cooking, but like the other 49 states, it has its unique quirks, flavors, and recipes. Game, fresh trout, tomatoes, watermelons, and fried pies all popped up time and again in researching ideas – it didn’t take long to come up with an Arkansas inspired menu – quite probably nothing that would be directly recognizable (other than the fried pie) at your average roadside cafe outside of Little Rock, but we didn’t hear any complaints…

The second course, our soup, you’ve seen before – with Arkansas reputation for good tomatoes, I thought about the wonderful sun-dried tomato soup that I’d made a couple of months ago for our umami dinner.

The main course was a minor twist on the oven roasted trout that I’ve made before with the charred tomato sauce – the trout were skewered in a ring shape, then drizzled with olive oil and baked in the oven – no pumpkin seed crust. Underneath, some buttermilk mashed potatoes (I had the suero, or whey, from making the ravioli handy – I used most of it in the tomato soup, but kept a cup or so to flavor the potatoes, and then the sauce drizzled around.

“We still think of ourselves as Basques”, says Mme Pitchoauajue. “Until I went to school at the age of seven, I couldn’t speak a word of French.”

– Graham Simmons, The Basque Way

Buenos Aires – Although it was suggested, I did not wear a proper French Basque Beret to celebrate “National Day” in the northern Basque country, i.e., the French side of the Pyrenees. We hear a lot about the Spanish Basque side of things, and all the high falutin’ restaurants along the coast and up into the mountains there, but we rarely hear about what’s happening in the southwest of France. So, how could I pass up the opportunity to play with some classic flavor combinations from the countryside? Even if I wasn’t wearing a beret.

Although it would have been more traditional to use bacalao, or salt cod, in this dish, I was feeling inspired by an array of fresh fish at the local pescadería, including a trio of beautiful fresh, whole cod, just ready to be filleted. My first idea was to fill some fresh piquillo peppers with some sort of cod preparation, but none were to be had this last week. A bit of thinking, and I decided on small tartlets filled with cubes of fresh cod, diced tomato, and thin strips of lemon zest. Added to that, some frying peppers and red onion, sauteed in a little olive oil, and then the whole thing topped with a scoop of beaten egg and milk, then baked until lightly browned. On the side, a puree of red bell pepper, orange juice, a small chili pepper, cumin, and salt.

If you’ve been reading SaltShaker for awhile, you’ve seen several iterations of panade, a slow cooked onion and bread soup. There was a very interesting looking Basque recipe for a garlic soup, and somehow, I sort of put them together – following the exact same procedure as for the onion panade, but using about 3 full heads of garlic, the cloves thinly sliced. What a great garlic soup!!!

This was a fortuitous accident. It started out with the idea of a fava bean filled ravioli, well, really, a half ravioli, an agnolotti, with a sort of trout cream sauce. But I got to doodling, and decided to put the trout inside the agnolotti – it’s a simple mix of homemade cream cheese, smoked and fresh trout, a little salt and pepper. The agnolotti dough was a basic egg yolk pasta. I decided to make a saute of fresh fava beans and corn with shallots, bacon and chives tossed in – lots of olive oil. Now here’s the accident. I laid the agnolotti out very carefully on silpats, those lovely non-stick sheets. They stuck. I couldn’t remove them without tearing them to shreds, so boiling them up instantly became out of the question. Now, it happens that I like baked pastas of various sorts, and I figured – they’re already on the baking sheets, and at least once they’re cooked, even if they’re still somewhat stuck to the silpats, I can slip them off with a spatula. Turns out they puff up almost instantly, brown, unstick, the filling solidifies a bit, almost like a ricotta type filling. Delicious, really delicious. This one goes in the cookbook!

This is more or less a deconstruction of a traditional poulet a la vasca, or Basque-style chicken. Normally it’s a slow cooked braise of pieces of chicken with potatoes, peppers, onions, tomatoes, in a white wine and olive oil combination, thickened with a little flour. I separated the components – mashed potatoes instead of whole, finished with lots of cream and butter. Atop those, sort of a chicken milanesa – pounded thin breast of chicken dipped a couple of times in a mix of flour, salt, and cayenne. The sauce, slow cooked onions, green and red peppers, all diced up fine, in olive oil, then tomatoes added towards the end of the cooking, a good couple of splashes of white wine, and then thickened with a paste of butter and cornstarch, cooked just until the sauce was the consistency I wanted.

Finally, a fairly straightforward cheesecake using our homemade cream cheese, but substituting roughly half of the volume with a fresh goat’s milk cheese. Atop, a warm kumquat and cinnamon marmalade.

See, I didn’t need a beret….

“We all have hometown appetites. Every other person is a bundle of longing for the simplicities of good taste once enjoyed on the farm or in the hometown [he or she] left behind.”

– Clementine Paddleford, food writer, journalist

Buenos Aires – One of the pluses of a private dinner at Casa SaltShaker is that it’s generally less experimental. We all know that kitchen experiments sometimes work well and sometimes not so much – and our regular public dinners get a little of each. It’s part of the process, part of the fun – sure, if something’s a particularly complicated dish I’ll play with it in advance, but quite often, the folks trying my dishes at these dinners are trying my first one or two stabs at a new dish or new variation. So far I haven’t had to go for any last minute emergency take-out…. Generally, for the private dinners I pick from favorites or dishes that worked out particularly well, or the customer picks from dishes that they’ve read about here that sounded especially good. Still, if things are left to me, I try to put in at least one new twist or new dish entirely, even on those menus.

We’ve become particularly popular with various folk from the U.S. embassy here in BsAs, and have had many of them at dinners, and several have booked private functions, including this last week, when they held a goodbye party for one of their number who is heading off to a new posting. Four of the dishes I selected from some favorites – an oyster mushroom coca, with a more classic pizza crust, a pink gazpacho, pollack (instead of hake) in roasted green pepper broth topped with fried garlic, and a chocolate lemon kiss tart. But, snuck in there as the main course, I decided on a simple chicken and pasta dish, just to celebrate the produce now arriving in the markets.

 There are some oligarchs that make me want to bite them just as one crunches into a carrot or a radish.”

– Eva Perón

Buenos Aires – While I have been to quite a few events held in the garden or dining room of the Museo Evita, and toured the museum once a few years back (pre-blogging days), I’d never simply sat down to have a “regular” meal at the Museo Evita Restaurante, J.M. Gutierrez 3926, Palermo, 4800-1599. Since the museum was on “the list” for touring while my friends were in town over the last week, it seemed the perfect opportunity – a little lunch, and then Eva.

While the dining room is comfortable and well-appointed, the real draw of this place, when weather permits, is the beautiful courtyard garden. Thankfully, this last week was a delight for being out of doors, and we grabbed a table for five in a nice sunny spot. The waitstaff were immediately attentive, and continued to be friendly and helpful throughout lunch. Several of them speak English as well, which is a plus for those whose Spanish is less than fluent.

We started off with a couple of plates of rabas, or squid rings. For a change from the ubiquitous fried ones with mayo or lemon that are a staple of local fare, these were lightly seasoned and grilled, still tender, served up with a small side salad and some fresh lemon wedges. Perfect! Risottos and pastas are the mainstay of the menu, though not the only choices, however we were steered that way by our waiter. A mixed mushroom risotto, and another tinged vermillion with beets and topped with cubes of fried goat cheese, were both cooked to a proper al dente and loaded with flavor. The lurid purple lamb ravioli were packed with delicious meat and spices and served in a delicate cream sauce – the purple color, it was explained, came from beets as well, the color changing to a dark violet when cooked in salted water.

Desserts were likewise delightful – a pair of crepes filled with dulce de leche, beautifully presented with spun sugar decorations, an orange and vanilla custard, a cappucino mousse, and a frozen coffee and chocolate dessert more or less like a semi-freddo.

Lunch was moderately expensive – running us about 50 pesos apiece for a three course meal – and well worth it for the quality of the food and ambiance. All in all a delightful experience!