Vacation Guy - Part 1

I'll be in Vegas Tomorrow...

Well now... Beth is off to Minneapolis to grab her sister for a week in Las Vegas. Beth is celebrating her err... 'tieth birthday and her sister Frances is celebrating a cancer free year. So... I'm here in Philly, also on vacation, but with a bunch of stuff to do... house, garden, guitar...

Somewhere along the line I do have to eat. And that means I cook. For myself. Now our tastes have converged over the last couple decades so it's likely that anything I make this week would be perfectly acceptable to Beth. This is one of our "go to" recipes, kicked up with chorizo sausage instead of the usual ham...

Potato and Chorizo Casserole

Recipe by Bill C

Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients

• 2 lb. Potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 12 oz. Fresh Chorizo Sausage
• 1 cup Milk
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups Grated Swiss Cheese

Cooking Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.

2. Peel the potatoes and slice them 1/4 inch thick. Dump them into the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. In a small saucepan bring the milk to a low simmer and add the nutmeg. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Remove the chorizo from it's casings, crumble it and saute until cooked through. If it looks too dry add a tablespoon or so of olive oil.
5. Oil a 9x9 baking dish and layer the potatoes, cheese, and sausage. You should get three layers: P/C/S - P/C/S - P/C/S.





6. Pour the milk mixture over the casserole along with any flavorful oil from the sausage and bake at 400 F for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden and the milk has been absorbed.

7. Serve hot.

Pesce con Olive, Capperi, e Limone

Pesce con Olive, Capperi, e Limone

Recipe by Lejla Mancusi via Arthur Schwartz

This quick and easy recipe from Arthur Schwartz' Naples at Table : Cooking in Campania is perfect for hot summer evenings. Add a glass of your favorite white wine and you're all set.

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

• 1 lb Fish Fillets
• 4 oz. Green Sicilian Olives, chopped
• 1 Tbs. Salt Packed Capers, chopped if large
• 1 Lemon, juiced
• 2 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Parsley, chopped

Cooking Directions

1. Warm the oil in a pan large enough to hold the fish fillets in one layer.
2. Add the olives and capers and lemon juice and cook until they begin to sizzle.





3. Carefully place the fillets on the sizzling olive and caper mixture and cook two or three minutes, until the edges start to become opaque.
4. Turn the fillets over (some of the olive mixture will stick) and cook to taste, another two or three minutes depending on their thickness.
5. Transfer the fish and olive mixture to serving plates, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

Note: Naples at Table has been out of print for some time and has developed something of a cult following. Used copies are readily available available and if you happen to see one locally don't hesitate to buy it. Of course it's also available through Amazon:

Han Dynasty Date Night

Entrance and Outdoor Seating

As everyone knows, August 1 is Jerry Garcia's birthday (he would have been 70 this year). And this year two events combined to make Wednesday the perfect date night. First, Fathom Events put on a theatrical presentation of "The Grateful Dead" (movie) and second, Han Chiang opened another of his eponymous restaurants a couple blocks from that very theater. So we bought tickets online and braved the unsettled Philadelphia weather for an all too rare night out.

So, what's the deal with Han Dynasty? As many (most? all?) Philadelphia area foodies are aware, the restaurants of Han Chiang (and particularly the Old City incarnation) are temples to uncompromising Sichuan style cuisine. Han Chiang himself is apparently quite a character as well.

Now, it's been a while since we've had a satisfactory experience with this style of Chinese food. It's fairly common in the Chicago area and at one time was the dominant style in the western suburbs where large numbers of Chinese engineers once worked at places like Motorola. And there were a couple good spots in Minneapolis back in the day. But until now Philadelphia seemed strangely lacking in Ma-La.

The restaurant itself is in the modern open style with the bar area separated from the restaurant seating and open kitchen by a large communal table. Although it's currently in a "soft opening" phase, service was efficient, friendly and very attentive without being intrusive. But it's the food right?

Twice Cooked Pork Belly

We're not big fans of appetizers so we went immediately to our main dishes. The first was Twice Cooked Pork Belly, one of the mildest dishes on the menu, but also one that can test an inexperienced kitchen. In this case instead of the traditional large slab of pork, wide thin slices of pork belly were uniformly seared to a slightly crisp exterior, then quickly simmered with leeks, fresh hot green pepper, black beans and chili oil.

Ma Po Tofu

Those of you who know me could have predicted this one and I will say up front I was not dissapointed. Naturally on the hotter side (7 of 10 by Han's scale) this rendition was almost perfect, the only tiny flaw being perhaps a few too many black beans. That one quibble aside, it was otherwise perfect. The rustic style of the dish was highlighted by the sweet chopped leeks and chewy ground pork. The thick sauce, deep red with chili oil and flakes and fragrant with Sichuan pepper and smoky black beans balanced the Ma La flavors wonderfully.

As far as we're concerned there's no reason to go to any other Chinese restaurant unless it's for Dim Sum. Han Chiang has hinted on Twitter he may bring Taiwan street food to the city so there could well be some even more interesting Chinese food coming soon.

And the Grateful Dead? Well, the last time we saw it in a theater sometime around 1980, it was a damaged 35mm print in an "art house" (read old) theater with a weak sound system. Seeing it onscreen in all it's remastered digital glory was quite a revelation. Although we have a fairly ridiculous home theater system it can't even begin to compete with the power of a full blown theater's lamps and sound. Of course nearly every song is a sing-along these days and not surprisingly the "real Deadhead" scene ("you're gonna pay 4 or 5 dollars to see this...") got a hearty laugh. It was a good time, even though these old folks were up past their bed-time.

A fun night out, and now we know where to eat on future movie nights!