Why is it that there are some foods that you want to taste just like they do in a restaurant?

For instance, I want my thin crust pizza to taste like Anna Maria’s greasy Brooklyn-style pizza and my deep dish pizza to taste Chicago-style like it’s from someplace like Gino’s East.  I’m also quite fond of the Southwestern Salad at The Cheesecake Factory (minus the chicken, of course) and have made a fairly accurate reproduction at home though it doesn’t quite have the presentation pizzazz of the huge mound of shredded lettuce and tortilla strips that you get at the restaurant.  I’ve also heard that the Buffalo Wings at Hooters are quite the industry standard, but I don’t eat buffalo, or chicken-that-supposed-to-taste-like-buffalo, and furthermore that bulbous owl-eye logo freaks me out.

Miso soup is easy to make at home but I’ve never quite gotten it to have the same restauranty miso soup flavor that all Japanese restaurants can someone clone quite flawlessly.  What I have, however, discovered is the secret to that other Japanese restaurant mainstay, the Japanese salad.  It’s light, sweet, crunchy and makes an easy pairing with any stir-fry.  It’s restaurant-style deliciousness in the privacy of your own home, without strange buffalos or owls.

Serves: 4
Time: 20 minutes

Japanese Salad and Dressing

1/2 a head of iceberg lettuce, finely shredded
1 small head of Napa cabbage, finely shredded
1 cucumber, julienned or sliced
4 carrots, julienned or sliced

Shred the lettuce and cabbage.
Slice the cucumber and carrots on the bias (diagonally) quite thin.  Or, if you’ve really got some time, it’s more authentic to julienne them.

Japanese Dressing

2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp honey
¼ inch garlic
¼ inch ginger

Put all the above ingredients in a jar/tupperware and shake until well combined.  Pour over the salad and serve.

This is a dish that falls squarely into the category “Ugly but Tasty.” Oh you sneaky chefs, you know what I’m talking about: One of those dishes you love to make and eat in the privacy of your own home or to stash silently in an opaque Tupperware and nip out and wolf down at lunchtime. Dishes that smell delicious, but look… well, rather like an unattractive lumpy mess.

This Ugly but Tasty dish, Panade, is adapted from adaptations from other bloggers who seem equally smitten with this homely sloppy-spoon casserole. Orangette does a wonderful ode to bad bread made good and it’s quite the revered dish in What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway’s pantheon of amazing vegan dishes. At first sight I thought: stale bread, lots of onions, some greens, more time in the oven than I care to spend waiting in my apartment, so strange, so plebian, so ugly… it has to be good.

Serves: 6
Time: 40 minutes prep time plus 2 hours sitting silently in a low oven

Artichoke Panade (adapted from various sources*)

Kale: Wash the kale well and knife the curly leaves away from the kale stalks. Chop roughly. Add a little olive oil to a large wok/pot and heat the kale over medium-low, turning often, until wilted, about 20 minutes.

Onion and Artichokes: Add some olive oil to a skillet/wok and cook the onions over medium-low heat, turning often, until wilted.
Drain the cans of artichokes and squeeze each heart lightly over the sink to get rid of any excess liquid. Chop and add to the wilted onion to heat through.

Bread: Dice the bread into 1 inch cubes. Doing this the day before would make the bread staler and give the casserole even more texture.

Liquid: Heat the broth, milk, and/or white wine to equal 3 cups in a saucepan until almost boiling. Add a dash of salt, a splash of soy sauce, a generous few grinds of pepper, and the nutmeg.

Putting it all together: Layer a 9×13” sized casserole thusly: 1/3 of the bread cubes, ½ of the kale, ½ of the onions and artichokes, the second 1/3 of the bread, remaining ½ of the kale, remaining ½ of the onion and artichokes, remaining 1/3 of the bread cubes on top. Pour the hot liquid over carefully, trying to soak every bread cube. Sprinkle the cheese over.

Don’t take the layering so seriously, it’s supposed to be unattractive.
Here’s an alpha-illustration:

Cheese
Bread cubes
Onion and artichokes
Kale
Bread cubes
Onion and artichokes
Kale
Bread cubes
[liquid soak through all]

Top with a piece of foil and bake in a 250 degree oven for, yes, 2 hours.

*adaptation credits include Paula Wolfert and the Zuni Café viaWhat the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway, more Zuni Cafe via Orangette, and more Paula Wolfert via the Seattle Times

I suppose I’m feeling sentimental because my mom visited me this past weekend.  She’s on her way home now, maybe flying over the mountains of Pennsylvania, or crossing that just-big-enough-that-you-might-mistake-it-for-an-ocean Great Lake Michigan.  She lives outside of Chicago where the family grew up and I, as regular readers surely know, live in Big Bad New York City.  The flight is only a touch over 2 hours but boy does it just feel like a long way home sometimes.

Mom flew in for just the weekend under the general premise that it’s her 59th birthday and what she really wants to do is to spend time with her daughters.  Life has been busy for me, last week especially so, and I hardly had a chance to look forward to mom’s visit let alone do those things that I, like everyone else, like to do to impress upon my mother that I lead a clean, safe, and adult life.  You know, things like clean my room, change my sheets, buy toilet paper, hide the bong, etc. Kidding, mom, kidding.  Anyway, I still can’t find it from when I hid it in college.

But what I did have time to do was to make some good, $0.50 per person, bean soup.  I had to buy the veggies on Tuesday because I was going to be too busy Wednesday and Thursday.  I was so stressed I even forgot the beans.  The Li’l Sis thoughtfully pitched in and bought the beans and chopped the veggies Thursday night.  Friday morning I added spices and flipped on the crock pot.   Friday lunchtime I ran out to buy a loaf of bread so I could dash out of work at the stroke of five to get home and clean before Mom’s arrival.  Instead I just crashed out on my bed until her cab pulled up.

It was just bean soup.  It wasn’t anything special.  It was borne of the necessity that I needed something hot, filling, and most importantly, ready when Mom arrived at six when I work until five.  It needed to be cheap so we sisters could splurge on Saturday to take her to one of Manhattan’s finest French restaurants.   It needed to be simple, easy, and something I’ve made and tasted so many times I could finish up with the lights off if I had to hide the state of my unwashed floors.

Mom’s eaten it a million times too but was careful to give the bean soup her fullest compliments.  Yeah, the soup is good in the way that it’s exactly what you’re expecting.  It’s modest, straightforward, and doesn’t hide its homeliness under a topping of mircrogreens.  It’s plain and cheap; it’s what grandma used make when times were tough.

But I think what mom was really saying when she complimented the soup was, “Thanks for taking the time to make me a home-cooked meal.”  Or “It’s really nice to spend time with you, Vanessa.”

Thanks Mom.  It was one of those few times when it mattered much less what we were eating than with whom we were eating it.  It was nice to spend time with you too.

ps. The sentimental nature of this post made me realize it would be a perfect contribution to the “Dishes of Comfort” food blogging event hosted by Ivonne at Cream Puffs in Venice and Orchidea at Viaggi & Sapori.  Watch for the roundup on November 16th or 17th.

Serves: 6
Time: 20 minutes of prep plus overnight and a workday hands-off in the Crock Pot

Crock Pot Bean Soup 

1 bag mixed beans, rinsed
2 leeks, chopped
3 – 4 carrots, cut into coins
4 – 5 stalks of celery, chopped
veggie broth or water and 2-3 bullion cubes
1 tbsp Herbs de Provence
greens, chopped. optional
lemon, salt, and pepper to taste

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