Saturday, March 19, 2011.
Old Issues. Mary Ann's Shrimp Concoction.
Nothing on the docket for today. No radio show, no newsletter, no lunch or dinner plans, not even Mary Ann in the house all day long.
There is, of course, this little matter of the Lost Restaurants book. Peggy Scott Laborde e-mailed to say that she wants all my copy in ten days. I can do that if I stay in the zone. Given my immobility, that should be easy.
I spent some time digging through the old print editions of The New Orleans Menu when it was in its magazine years--1981 through 1997. There were thirty such editions, each 32-40 pages. Going through all this is like reading a thousand-page book.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of articles I'd forgotten I'd written. More recipes than I thought, for example. Noteworthy among those was the one for Clarence & Lefty's roast beef poor boys. Mrs. Lefty called me in 1985 and gave me the whole rundown. I thought I'd lost it. But there it was in magazine!
Also in those pages were many missing facts about long-gone restaurants. I couldn't remember when Bouligny opened--an important date, because Bouligny was the first of the new-wave Uptown bistros. I was thinking it was 1983. But here is my review in a 1982 issue! This is hot stuff.
I realized how remiss I have been in not scanning all these things into digital files. I'm lucky to have them at all. I lost all my back issues of everything in Katrina. But one of my long-time subscribers wrote to say that she had every one of them. She sent them to me in exchange for a lifetime subscription--a great deal for me. She was about to throw them out.
But oh, what a time-consuming job that is.! I spent the better part of the morning scanning and then cleaning up one issue. If I am stuck here with a bag leg for many weeks--as I suspect I will be--at least I'll get this stuff done. Maybe.
On the other hand, it's not very interesting to write about. I think I'll re-start the fictional series I had going in the newsletter a few years ago.
When Mary Ann came home, she had two pounds of shrimp and a gleam in her eye. She wants me to do a bunch of cooking features, but she wants to be the cook. I say that we cane do it together. The dish she came up with today was pan-seared shrimp on top of grilled celery, with a sort of aioli made with the pan juices, olive oil, green onions, crushed red pepper and a few other things.
She was disappointed with the way it came out. A bit bland, she thought. I took a taste, agreed, and asked for a lemon and the Worcestershire sauce. (I would have fetched them myself if I have been able to.) I squoze (I know that's not a word, but it ought to be) the lemon over the shrimp, and dashed on a little too much Lea & Perrins (at the end of a bottle, it comes out too fast). I'm not trying to present myself as a genius, but that did the trick. Even she thought so.
It's all about balancing flavors. The first time around was dull because it was too rich and vaguely bitter (from the searing of the shrimp). But the acidity of the lemon juice pulled all that up and balanced it. The Worcestershire also added acidity, as well as umami (the Asian fifth flavor). Balancing flavors is the paramount skill in cooking--one that you have to have an experienced palate to acquire.
All I can claim as that I know what tastes good to me. But a lot of cooks don't know what tastes good to them.
