The inclination to combine unlikely foods begins, of course, in childhood, but it doesn`t necessarily end there.
My own favorite mixture was mushy white bread larded heavily with chunks of cold butter and sprinkled with white sugar. That may not sound terribly bizarre, but my little after-school treat (washed down with chocolate milk and followed by an eyeball-popping rush of sugared energy) set me apart from the crowd. Everyone else on my block concocted their weird snacks with peanut butter: bananas with peanut butter, apples, onions, pears, celery and even carrots with peanut butter.
Peanut butter became the beige carpeting of our tiny food world, working amiably and unobtrusively with any color or flavor one might throw at it.
Most hot dogs had the same characteristic, but everyone, as far as I knew, used it as a bland medium for the same old condiments-mustard, catsup, onions, pickles, relish, hot peppers and tomatoes, all of which served to render the meat itself superfluous.
Childhood experimentation with the butter family inevitably ended with surfeit. Fat cells proliferated and overflowed the belt, causing nutritional enlightenment. We no longer could allow ourselves to eat dessert as an appetizer or limit our vegetable intake to mashed potatoes punctuated with peas swimming in Land O` Lakes. And that occasional yearning for baked bean and potato chip sandwiches? Just say no.
Beyond nouvelle cuisine
In the nick of time, nouvelle cuisine came along, meeting our need for scrawny entrees and at the same time satisfying our desire to see things put together in unexpected ways. All manner of strange combinations began appearing in menus and forming colorful little sauce-drizzled pictograms on restaurant plates. Then chefs took it beyond nouvelle cuisine. Cookbooks, such as Michael Roberts` ”Secret Ingredients” featured these odd combos. Roberts, the chef at Trumps restaurant in Los Angeles, does such eclectic items as a green pea guacamole and a chocolate-anise cake.
At Chicago`s highly eclectic Star Top Cafe on Lincoln Avenue, chef Jackie Harris surprises patrons with such exotica as marlin in a bordelaise sauce made with shellfish stock rather than the traditional meat. A caramel sauce that tops several desserts is made with white pepper. ”We strain the pepper out of the caramel, and it leaves a spicy taste,” explained Star Top partner and kitchen supervisor Michael Short.
At Star Top, combinations such as bay scallops with mint, montrachet
(goat cheese) and cappellini, or shrimp and sweetbreads saute with jaggery
(palm sugar) and Chinese mustard sauce have become routine.
Chef David Jarvis, owner of Melange in Wilmette, has created so many odd pairings that at first he could only scratch his head when asked if anything on his own menu would strike anyone as unusual.
Even though the very name of his restaurant means mixture and even though Jarvis has built his reputation on items like angel-hair pasta with duck confit and sun-dried tomatoes or salmon tartare mixed with chopped cilantro or tamarillo-flavored ice cream, he had to think about it for a long time.
”So we`re talking about foods that sound as if they wouldn`t go together but are really delicious,” he mused. ”Hmmm.”
After a long pause, Jarvis ventured a couple of suggestions but quickly withdrew them as slightly less than extraordinary.
No longer experimental cuisine
”When we did fried parsnips three years ago, it was unusual, but nowadays I consider that normal. I`ve worked with a lot of this food for so long now that it`s normal to me. It`s not experimental cuisine any more.”
Then Jarvis brightened. ”How about vanilla with oysters? We have a pecan-breaded oyster with vanilla cream sauce. That`s something that sounds like it wouldn`t work at all, but it does.
”It`s an appetizer. The oysters are breaded in pecan meal, and the sauce is made with cream, vanilla and cucumber. It`s finished in butter and put in the shell with the oyster on top.
Restaurateur Gordon Sinclair revealed that his employees at Gordon on Clark Street sometimes indulge themselves much as kids do. ”Some of the cooks make themselves apple, peanut butter and Cheddar cheese sandwiches- grilled,” Sinclair reported. ”I`m partial to sandwiches with peanut butter, mayonnaise and cucumbers. And then there`s Italian bread with butter and anchovies. That`s Italian and that`s from my accountant. Also, I`ve noticed that unsweetened cocoa tastes very good on ice cream.”
Gordon`s customers generally dine on more obviously integrated fare, although some may find adventure in salmon spiced with a hot oriental glaze made from honey and Chinese mustard. A few might be startled when their potato chips and french fries arrive with vinegar or Scandinavian mustard, but the British would not find those combinations unusual in the least.
Pineapple-cheese casserole
Imaginative mixtures needn`t be confined to the gourmet precincts, of course. An editor with white-bread tastes and a deep suspicion of any dish considered ”healthy” fell in love with a sort of pineapple and cheese casserole not long ago. To his amazement, he found himself asking the cook, Lori Gluck of Vernon Hills, for her recipe (see below).
Gluck explained that the dish was not original with her but had come from an aunt, Eloise Rosenquist, of Youngstown, O., who had suggested it as a side dish to go with the family`s traditional New Year`s dinner of sauerkraut and pork.
”The pineapple dish did really go well with that sauerkraut and pork combination,” Gluck said, ”with the sauerkraut contrasting with the sweetness of the pineapple.”
Surprizingly, pizza-the kid food that usually makes the transition into adulthood virtually unchanged-never seemed to lend itself to highly creative toppings during our wonder years. Even children could sense that sugar and peanut butter would not mix well with cheese and sausage. It took the imaginations of trendy chefs of the 1980s to exploit the exotic possibilities. ”We have a pizza that sounds weird, but we sell a lot of them, and once people order it, they love it,” announced Tony Mantuano, a consulting chef at Spiaggia.
The item probably deserves that much fanfare: ”It`s a pizza with Gorgonzola cheese-which is a blue cheese-and pears, walnuts and chives. Pears and blue cheese, that`s a classical combination, and we found it works great on top of a pizza. It`s not sweet; it`s savory.”
Globe-spanning menus
Arun Sampanthavivat innovates freely at his Thai restaurant, Arun, and serves as managing partner and resident muse for Eurasia, a Levy Organization enterprise with globe-spanning menus. ”Things that sound as if they wouldn`t go together but actually taste good!” he enthused. ”I like this idea very much.”
He hustled into the kitchen and emerged a day later with two complex and strange-sounding delicacies: green-banana curry with Florida avocado and an unusual fruit chutney.
Other food innovators have taken a more conservative approach in recent months, sensing that some customers are losing patience with the too, too exotic.
Jarvis of Melange is one who exercises caution. ”I take a traditional product and put a twist to it,” he said. ”I don`t like to do something just for the sake of experimentation. It`s better to stay with the known and just deviate from it a little bit. I figure if I only have one leg up to the knee in mud, I can always pull it out.”
”People are tired of paying for expensive experiments,” said David Friedman of the Elbo Room on Lincoln Avenue. ”When some of the California chefs were getting famous for their outrageous pizzas and other combinations, I think a lot of American chefs-and I was guilty, too-tried to find that next big craze that was going to get them into the food magazines. I`ve come full circle. I`m getting back to basics and doing sensible foods.”
Gordon Sinclair shuddered at the memory of those bizarre, competitive times. ”Back in the days when new American chefs were emerging and going all out trying to innovate and be clever, a dish came out that I`ll never forget,” he said.
”It was a rack of lamb with Roquefort cheese sauce. I thought it sounded like a terrible combination and it turned out to be exactly that. It was just awful.”
SCALLOPED PINEAPPLE
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
This recipe comes from Lori Gluck of Vernon Hills.
2 cans (20 ounces each) unsweetened pineapple chunks
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons flour
2 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/4 cups crushed Ritz cracker crumbs, from about 16 crackers
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter or margarine
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 1 1/2 to 2 quart casserole.
2. Drain pineapple, reserving 6 tablespoons juice. Mix reserved juice with sugar and flour, then with pineapple chunks. Transfer to baking dish. Sprinkle cheese over top. Toss melted butter and cracker crumbs together and sprinkle over top.
3. Bake until top is crisp and golden, about 30 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.
PEAR AND GORGONZOLA PIZZA
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Rising time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 14 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
This recipes comes from the Spiaggia restaurant.
Pizza crust:
1/2 package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup warm water, 105-115 degrees
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Topping:
3 ounces provolone cheese, cut in thin slices
2 ounces crumbled gorgonzola cheese
1 ripe Bosc pear, unpeeled
1/4 cup walnuts, coarsley chopped
1 tablespoon fresh snipped chives
1. For crust, stir yeast and honey into warm water and let stand until foamy.
2. Combine flour and salt in a food processor or mixing bowl. Slowly add yeast mixture and olive oil. Process or knead until dough is soft and supple. Transfer dough to a large plastic food bag, seal tightly and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Heat oven to 475 degrees.
4. Roll dough on a floured board to a 13-inch circle. Using a 12-inch guide, cut a neat circle from the dough. Transfer to an oiled pizza pan.
5. Arrange provolone to cover crust then sprinkle with gorgonzola. Cut pear in half lengthwise and remove the core. Cut into thin lengthwise slices. Arrange over pizza and sprinkle with walnuts.
6. Bake until crisp is browned, 12 to 14 minutes. Sprinkle with chives and serve hot.
CAPPELLINI WITH BAY SCALLOPS, MONTRACHET AND FRESH MINT
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 2 first course servings
This recipe comes from the Star Top Cafe on Lincoln Avenue.
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 ounces Montrachet cheese
4 ounces dried cappellini pasta, cooked according to package directions
4 ounces bay scallops
1 teaspoon each: minced fresh mint, fresh parsley
1/4-1/2 teaspoon coarsely cracked pepper
Fresh mint leaves for garnish
1. Put cream in a medium skillet and cook over medium heat until reduced by half. Stir in cheese and cook very gently until smooth.
2. Add pasta and scallops and toss gently. Cook just until pasta is heated through and scallops are cooked, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add minced herbs and pepper. Garnish with mint leaves and serve immediately.
MIXED FRUIT CHUTNEY
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Yield: 4 cups
Arun Sampanthavivat serves this recipe in his Thai restaurant, Arun.
1 large Anjou pear, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons minced ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium shallots, inced
Juice of 1 1/2 limes
1 cup diced pineapple, either fresh or canned in water
3/4 cup rice vinegar or distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3 finely minced hot peppers
1/2 cup golden raisins
Finely grated rind 1 orange
1/4 teaspoon each: nutmeg, cinnamon
Salt, as needed
1. Combine diced pear, ginger, garlic, shallots and lime juice in a medium pan. Simmer 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and cook until slightly thickened and flavors are well blended, about 20 minutes longer. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
MARGUERITE`S FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Standing time: 4 hours or more
Yield: One cake, 10 to 12 servings
This recipe comes from ”Secret Ingredients, The Magical Process of Combining Flavors” (Bantam, $19.95) by Michael Roberts, chef at Trumps Restaurant in Los Angeles.
Cake:
8 ounces semi-sweet cooking chocolate
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted before measuring
Buttercream:
4 ounces semi-sweet cooking chocolate
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
4 egg yolks
1 cup unsalted butter, cut in tablespoon sized pieces
1 teaspoon anise extract or Anisette liqueur
1. For cake, heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9- by 13-inch baking pan. Line with waxed paper and butter paper. Melt chocolate in a microwave oven or in top of a double boiler. Cool slightly.
2. Cream butter with an electric mixer until smooth. Slowly add melted chocolate and mix on medium speed. Beating as you do so, add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the sugar and cinnamon and beat until smooth. Turn the mixer to low and add the cornstarch. Mix just until combined.
3. Transfer to prepared pan, smoothing surface with a rubber spatula. Bake until set, 35 minutes. Cool completely.
4. For buttercream, melt chocolate and cool to room temperature. Combine sugar and water in small heavy pan and cook until mixture is syrupy and reduced to about 1/2 cup.
5. Transfer syrup to a mixing bowl. Start beating then add egg yolks. Continue beating until mixture is thick and forms heavy ribbons when the beaters are lifted. Add the butter, piece by piece, mixing well after each addition. Continue beating until smooth and fluffy. Slowly add cooled chocolate and anise extract.
6. Remove cake from pan and peel away paper. Cut it into four 9-inch lengths. The cake is crumbly and may fall apart. It can be patched together with buttercream. Place one cake layer on a plate and spread with buttercream. Continue layering, but do not add buttercream to the top layer. Refrigerate several hours then trim with a serrated knife to neaten edges. Frost top and sides with buttercream. Refrigerate at least 2 hours but let stand at room temperature 45 minutes before serving.
