Re: Midwest Memo - The Kitchen Sink

In this nostalgic op-ed on The Kitchen Sink, Alan Shultz waxes poetic on the old wall-hung porcelain sinks of his grandmother's day.

He also has derogatory things to say about stainless steel sinks and dishwashers and Kitchen designers...ahem.

"Today's kitchen designers want us all to pretend dirty hands and dirty dishes aren't the norm and so all such unpleasantries must be hidden away."

Surprisingly, I too pine for the old porcelainized cast iron sinks of yesteryear. Unfortunately they went the way of the sinks of Alan's childhood.

Back in the 1970's, in response to concerns about health and safety, the lead was taken out of the formulations for coating cast iron sinks. The results have been disastrous for the genre. Today's cast iron sinks lose their shiny finish in a few short years with typical care and are dull and uncleanable after that.

The sinks I recommend for most of my clients are Corian and other high quality solid surface sinks, 18 gauge high-nickel stainless, or fireclay. These sinks will last the lifetime that the old cast iron sinks used to last, and be carefree their entire lives.

Most other sinks break down early and are not suitable for mounting underneath countertops.

Alan also pines for the days when families did their dishes together after a meal:

"As wonderful as the dishwasher is, I wonder what we have all sacrificed in sparing generations of children from the tradition of washing and drying the dishes. What lessons have gone untaught, what revelations have stayed untold because this post meal gathering has been done away?

More likely SOMEONE was stuck doing the dishes while the rest of the family lolled in the living room watching TV! Those family dishwashing sessions were a figment of Procter and Gamble's dreams and television commercials. I KNOW. I was that SOMEONE in a previous life!

It was labor saving appliances that freed women from the drudgery of endless housework and allowed them to consider a life outside the kitchen (I got out of the kitchen to get into kitchens).

Methinks Alan is really pining for the days when his wife was under his thumb. Methinks also that my clients would be really upset with me if I recommended a product out of nostalgia when it wouldn't perform for them.

Peggy

Tomato Ketchup/Sauce

Most of the time, its store bought ketchup at home. When tomatoes are in season and when I get them at throw-away price, I make ketchup and pickle using them. Though preparing ketchup is time consuming, if you get everything ready, then it is easy to prepare. And constant attention to the recipe is not required. So this can be done along with the other cooking, so that you can oversee the progress at intervals. This recipe is from the hand-written list of my mother-in-law. So the exact recipe source is unknown.

Select ripe, juicy tomatoes with less seeds. Blanch and peel the tomatoes. Make puree of it and strain. I don't have patience to do the blanching and peeling. I totally ignore this step. Still it comes out fine. I directly wash and put the tomatoes in the mixer grinder and make puree and strain.
If you use 2 Kg of tomatoes, you will get around 10 cups of juice. I prepared with 1.5 kg and I adjusted the ingredients.

The following ingredients are for 10 cups of tomato juice.

Sugar - 1 cup
Vinegar - 1/2 cup
salt - 1 tspn
To be tied in a cheese cloth
Garlic - 2 pods
Onion - 1 medium
Jeera - 1 tspn
Cardamom - 5 nos
Cloves - 3 nos
Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp
Cinnammon - 1 inch pc
Nutmeg powder- 1/2 tspn

Powder the spices. Mix it to chopped garlic and onion. Tie this mixture in a cheese cloth.

Take the juice with 3/4 cup of the sugar. Dip the cloth pouch in to the juice and cook till you can smell the aroma of spices.

This will take around 20 minutes. Just stir 2/3 times in between. By this time, the syrup will start thickening. Remove the tied pouch.
Add salt, vinegar and the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar.
Boil the mixture, till it reduces to 1/3 of the original quantity.
Remove from fire.

To preserve them for a longer period, add a pinch of sodiumbenzoate to it.
I don't usually add the preservative. It stays good for more than 2 weeks on refrigeration.

This goes to Roma's Long Live Shelf event

and to The 'Food in Colors ' event started by Sunshinemom. Sunshinemom has kick started a new event starting this month to celebrate the colors in food. And she has chosen Red for the month of August.

Gateaux Basque

Gateaux Basque is originated from a town in south of France. It is now famous at everywhere and different flavors of Gateaux was created by different chefs. I read this recipe from a french recipe book, the chef was using the traditional recipe by adding some cooked apple to make it more interesting. I noticed many people add blueberries, cherries or other fruits instead.

It has a crumbly texture from the outside and soft texture from the inside which has contained with some cooked apple and custard. French named the custard as "Cream Patissier". European will love this cake as it's rich and buttery flavor. I would love it when I'm looking for something rich to fill my appetite and this is the one!

Recipe for one round tin 18cm x 3.5cm

For the Basque Pastry: 133g Butter / 133g plain flour / 67 ground almond / 2.6g Baking powder / 46g Egg yolks / pinch of salt / 100g sugar powder / 6g rum

For the Cream Patissier: 333g milk / 33g sugar / 1 teaspoon vanilla extract / 53g egg yolks / 33g sugar / 26g plain flour / 6g corn flour / 8g butter / some egg wash

Cooked apple : 2 large cooked apple / some sugar and butter / 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method for the Cream Patissier:

1. Warm the milk with sugar in a sauce pan.
2. In another mixing bowl, mix the yolks with sugar then slowly add in plain flour and corn flour.
3. When the sugar melted in the warm milk, add it to (2) the yolks mixture. Add little by little until everything combine.
4. Pour it back to the pan at low heat. Keep stirring with the hand whisk until its thicken.
5. Off the heat and keep stirring for couple of minutes, add in the vanilla extract then the butter.
6. When everything combined. Pour it into a bowl and cover with cling film. Let it completely cool down and place it into the fridge for 4 hours or overnight and its ready to use.

Method for the cooked apple:

1. Peel the apples and cut into 8 slices. You would have 16 slices.
2. Grease a baking pan with butter then sprinkle with some sugar. Place the apples into the baking pan.
3. Place some butter on top of the apples and bake at 180'C for about 1 hour. Sometimes it depends on what apples you are using. So keep an eye on it, the apple should have a little soft. Sprinkle with some cinnamon powder on the apple after 40 minutes baking.

Methods for the Gateaux:

1. Mix the egg yolks with salt and rum together.
2. In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar powder.
3. Mix the egg yolks mixture (1) to the butter mixture (2). (Add little by little)
4. Add in flour and mix until everything combine.
5. Wrap it into a cling film and flatten it into 1cm thick. Place it into fridge to sit for 3 hours.
6. After 3 hours, cut out 2 pieces of 18cm round shape and place one into the tin. (Do this with a cling film would be much easier)
7. Continue to make about 3.5 cm long shape to fit the side of the cake tin. (If the mixture start to melt, place it back to the fridge until it could be easy to handle)
8. Fill in the cream patissier then follow with some cooked apple. Cover with another piece of pastry on top. (You might not need all the cream patissier, I used 2/3 only)
9. Egg wash the top and use a sharp knife to draw some pattern on it if you like. (I didn't draw it nicely so you couldn't get what I actually draw.)
10. Bake in a 180'C preheat oven for 90 minutes or 2 hours. (place a piece of aluminium foil on top if you find it is burning too much on top after some times of baking, it is better to bake at the lower part of the oven)
11. Let it completely cool down before cutting it into slices. It's best to serve the day after.