What Wise Guys Eat

When I lived in the North End of Boston, in the nineteen eighties and nineties, I hung around a neighborhood bar from time to time, called The Corner Café. It was located on Prince Street near the corner of Salem Street. And it was indeed a neighborhood place. The owner, Richie Longo, was a neighborhood kid who grew up on Prince Street and duly attended Saint Leonard’s School—as his first generation Italian-American parents had—along with all the other neighborhood kids.

The regular patrons at the time, were neighborhood people too; all of whom seemed to have nicknames. (although, the nicknames were useful for identification purposes). There was Joe the Lawyer, who wasn’t a lawyer at all, but worked as an insurance investigator. Then there was John the Lawyer, who was a stockbroker, and John the Lawyer, who really was a lawyer with an office across the street. And I was always confused about Mary the Nurse, whose nickname seemed unnecessary; she was indeed a nurse, but she was the only regular named Mary.

Then there were the rest of the regulars: mostly young men ,who fancied themselves to be wise guys. Their conversations were peppered with phrases like ‘fuggeddaboudit,’ and ‘ba-da-bing!’ And they often talked about ‘needing to see this guy,’ or ‘having to take care of that thing.’ But despite the fact that they revered Robert DiNiro, and may have harbored dreams of being known by a nickname like “extreme unction,” the most serious crime any of them may ever have committed was betting on the Red Sox late in September.

When these local heros weren’t talking about ‘this guy,’ or ‘that thing,’ though, the conversation tended to stray toward food; often, toward Chicken Scarpariello. This was a hot dish—literally, and figuratively—during my years in Boston. And the folks often debated the qualities of one preparation over another. The talk often centered around the merits of Cantina d’Italia’s recipe, that included sausage, over Felicia’s, that didn’t. Sausage or not, though, Chicken Scarpariello is the kind of dish that would please any wise guy because it encourages eating with a fork in one hand an a torn-off piece of crusty bread in the other; the latter, used for sopping up the sauce, and for punctuating various exclamations of ‘fuggeddaboudit,’ or ‘ba-da-bing.’

The short version of the history of Chicken Scarpariello, ‘shoemaker’s-style’, is that it was named for the humble fellow who cobbled together the ingredients for the dish from his meager pantry. How it became a wise guy favorite is more obscure, and very likely lost to history. But I suggest that when you serve Chicken Scarpariello at home, the dinner table conversation will become animated and rise a decibel or two above normal. And will you and your fellow diners enjoy it? Fuggeddaboudit.

Skip’s Chicken Scarpariello
Chicken, Shoemaker's-Style
Excerpted from my second cookbook, "Almost Italian."

Ingredients:

2 ½ — 3 Lb. Frying chicken cut into 8 pieces
4 Tbs. Olive oil
4 Cloves garlic, peeled, and sliced thinly
1 Cup dry white wine (Pinot Grigio or Verdicchio are popular choices)
6 - 8 hot cherry peppers, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped
1 14 oz. Can chicken broth (preferably low sodium)
4 Tbs. Flat-leaf Italian parsley
2 Tbs. Unsalted butter
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Six Links sweet Italian sausage, cut into 1 in. chunks (optional)
4 Tbs. Flat-leaf Italian parsley

Preparation:

Season the chicken pieces on all sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, then add the olive oil. Add the garlic and sauté for about 1 minute, being careful not to let the garlic burn.

Add the chicken pieces to the sauté pan without crowding. Do this step in batches if necessary. Cook the chicken pieces, turning occasionally, until they’re golden brown all over; about 10 minutes. Remove the chicken pieces from the pan and reserve on a plate, covering them with aluminum foil.

Raise the heat to high, and add the wine. Boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to loosen any bits of chicken that may have caramelized on the bottom of the pan, for about 2 minutes. Add the cherry peppers, chicken broth, parsley, and butter. Allow the mixture to return to the boil, then stir in the lemon juice. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as necessary.

Lower the heat to the simmer, return the chicken to the pan, and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. For a real wise guy presentation, add the sausage at this point too.

To Serve

Remove the chicken (and optional sausage) pieces to a platter, cover with the sauce and garnish with the parsley. Serve with plenty of Italian bread for sopping up the sauce.

Serves four

Skip Lombardi is the author of two cookbooks: "La Cucina dei Poveri: Recipes from my Sicilian Grandparents," and "Almost Italian: Recipes from America's Little Italys." He has been a Broadway musician, high-school math teacher, software engineer, and a fledgeling blogger. But he has never let any of those pursuits get in the way of his passion for cooking and eating. Visit his Web site to learn more about his cookbooks: http://www.skiplombardi.com. For comments or questions, e-mail at info@skiplombardi.com

Cookbook Publishing - The Basic Ingredients and the Secrets to Success

You are about to embark on the most exciting enterprise of your life -- publishing a cook book! You will soon learn that writing a cook book is truly a fun, exciting and challenging project – more than you can imagine. Like me, you can publish your own wildly successful cook book. And if you ask me if I think publishing a cook book is worth the time and effort? You bet I do!

My cook book, Fit to Cook – Why ‘Waist’ Time in the Kitchen? sold over 250,000 copies (with, I might add, less than 10% of those sales coming from book stores). However, I wasted a great deal of time, back-tracking and scrambling in order to sell all those books because in the beginning I did not have a complete grasp of the publishing industry and the process of marketing a cook book.

Before you rack your brain figuring out how to write a cook book, and more importantly, how to publish a cook book, take some time to thoroughly research the why and what you are writing about, who you are writing for and when is the best time to launch your book.

Whether you want to get published or whether you want to self publish your cook book, the same basics apply – you need a good understanding of the publishing industry. Without the basics, will you know if your contracts are in order, that your book is the best it can be and that your cook book marketing plan is actually an effective strategy? No – but, knowledge is power. It is crucial that you take enough time to educate yourself about the entire publishing industry.

Understanding publishing, and the marketing of books, will clearly help you to identify why you are writing a cook book. Perhaps you are writing a cook book just to record secret family recipes or to have all of your own favorite recipes in a book format; maybe you are writing a cook book for a community or church fundraiser; or best of all, your goal is to create a bestseller. Cook books that are written for a very small group do not require business and marketing plans because you already know how many books will be purchased and who the buyers are. However, if you are planning to publish your own cook book for the mass markets, you need to understand that you have moved beyond author to publisher. That means that you are now a business person whose primary goal is the creation of a product to sell. There is no point in printing a book that no one will want to buy.

When I began writing my own cook book, I naively thought that it would be a two or three month process, and that in no time I would have a book on every book store shelf in the country. Ha, ha, ha, chuckle chuckle… Experience is a great educator, but who says that you have to learn the hard way? Obviously I had no idea how to publish a cook book in the beginning! However, through this article and via the publishing course that I and my partners have created, I intend to help you avoid losing time and money.

How did I create such a successful cook book? The short answer is research, research, research, and then more research. Thankfully I had the wisdom to do the research before going to print. But research can, and did, take years.

In my experience, after I learned how to write a cook book I had to learn all about cook book publishing:

copyright

trademarks

ISBN numbers

cataloging in publication data

printing terms like cover stock, bindings, signatures and bluelines

learning how to obtain printing quotes, (crucial in knowing how many books you can afford to print)

barcodes

graphic design (makes the difference between great sales and no sales)

editing (cannot, and I mean cannot, be done by yourself, friends or family)

titles and subtitles (they can make or break a book)

title search (avoid duplicating someone else’s title)

distribution

Next, I had to learn about how to start a business:

business plan

incorporation

toll free numbers

corporate logos and identity

websites

shipping arrangements

accounting principles

Most importantly I had to become wise about marketing:

writing a plan

researching competition

understanding target markets

going through the difficult but crucial process of choosing a book title

discovering the importance of a book’s cover – both the front cover and the back cover – and how to design the cover

looking outside book stores for buyers

learning the importance of publicity

discovering the essential need for a stellar media kit and how to create one

approaching the media and the importance of a good publicist

I learned, and I will share with you, a key point to consider when you are discovering how to write a cook book. Before you even begin to write your cook book, you must identify your target market. Who will actually buy your cook book? It is amazing that so many authors think that “everyone” will want their book, but that is not so. Not “everyone” is a target for anything! – not even the Bible.

Know who will actually buy your book. Interviewing the owners of cook book stores and specialty cooking stores can help you to identify cook book trends so that you know what people are actually buying. It is also a good idea to think of corporations and organizations that might benefit by using your book as a promotional item. Approach them even before you go to print, offering them special discounts, opportunities to place their information in a special printing of the book, advertising chances to offer your cook book as a “freebie” with the purchase of their product – just to name a few cook book marketing ideas.

If your cook book is targeted to busy families, the recipes must be easy to prepare in a short time period; if it is targeted to gourmet cooks, the recipes must be of the quality that you would expect to find in a four or five star restaurant; if it is targeted to a specific ethnic group, the recipes must be authentic; but if it is targeted to the mass market, your cook book must have a very wide scope with recipes that make any mouth water, and the ingredients must be readily available in grocery stores.

Once you have identified who will buy your book, you can target your marketing plan and your book design with your customers in mind, such as:

· Where do they shop?

· Where do they play?

· What style of book appeals to them? - (research your competition closely).

· What price are they willing to pay?

· How many pictures do they want in a cook book? (a lack of photos can kill book sales)

· What colors attract them? (spend time in book stores and libraries, learning which books have the most appealing appearance)

· What size of book is currently popular?

· What type of book binding increases sales?

· Are they concerned about health or other issues?

· Do they appreciate little stories, jokes, cooking tips or other information in the book?

Sometimes I took two steps forward then had to take one step back, but at other times I took one step forward and two back. Don’t waste time the way that I did – use my experiences to your advantage. Once you have a grasp of the basics, you can actually begin to put your cook book publishing and marketing plans into action.

Of course, a cook book has special challenges that other books may not have. Your primary goal is to give people unique, delicious recipes that they can create successfully in their own homes. That means that you have to measure exactly and your instructions must be clear and simple. You will have to test each recipe over and over until it turns out perfectly every time, then you will have to enlist other people to prepare those recipes independently of you. No matter what their comments, you must take the critiques of your testers seriously because if they do not achieve great results the chances are very good that your customers will be unhappy with their “flops”. Finally, it is a good idea to have the recipes tested by a professional home economist or other food expert.

Depending on the focus of your cook book, you might want to include nutrition information such as calories and fat content. Fortunately, there is now computer software that will do the calculations for you. You must also provide an index at the back of the book, and thankfully, software is available for this chore also.

Food photography is a special challenge of its own, requiring many tricks to make good look appealing. A good food photographer is a vital part of your cook book publishing team. Great attention must be paid to every minute detail, down to the grains of pepper in a dish and to the bubbles on top of a cup of coffee. Each photograph can require four hours of shooting time, if not more, so plan adequate time for the photo shoot.

The services of a food stylist are very helpful, but with research you can do a great deal of the food styling yourself. Find as many books as you can on the subject and practice in advance of the photo shoot. I learned simple tricks like:

sticking sandpaper to the plate to prevent food from slipping

using whipped icing or shaving cream in place of ice cream or whipped cream

placing a shot glass under a very thickly cut slice of lemon to prevent the lemon from absorbing the liquid underneath

using beef bouillon in place of “coffee”

using dish detergent to create bubbles in the “coffee”

using a blow torch to make meat appear cooked

and the list goes on…

Food styling is such fun, but it requires a great deal of time, even in advance of the photo shoot. You will need all of your “props” in place, such as dishes, cutlery, flowers, table linens, food items and backgrounds. Many companies will happily lend these items to you in exchange for a credit in the book – this can appear on the Cataloging in Publication data page at the beginning of your book.

When your book is ready to go to print, it is time to put your cook book marketing and publicity campaign into gear:

· Decide on the best time of year to launch your book. September is usually the best month for Christmas sales, but you also face steep competition. Try to think of a time that is appropriate for your book, such as January for a healthy eating book, late Spring for a barbecue book, Valentine’s Day for a romantic book, Heart and Stroke month for a heart-healthy book, etc.

· Produce galley copies.

· Send galleys to appropriate book clubs (look at their websites to learn their submission requirements).

· Research appropriate catalogs and send galleys to them.

· Have your publicist approach magazines that review cook books (magazines have long lead times).

· Stay in contact with any corporations and organizations that might use your book for promotions.

· Find a reputable distributor to have your book accepted by the book store trade, as well as other retailers.

· Contact non-book store book sellers.

When your book is ready to roll off the press, get your publicity campaign into high gear. You can have the best book in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one will buy it. The easy part is over – publicity and marketing now become your life. This part is the most fun, as you now reap the rewards of all of your efforts. Your goal now is to turn your cook book title into a household word. Go for it -- publish your own cook book!

Ink Tree Ltd. helps authors publish, market and sell books. If you are considering publishing a cookbook, we will help you make it a success. http://www.inktreemarketing.com/PublishaCookbook.htm

Rockfish Bessie

Ingredients
5-6 lbs. Whole Rockfish
1 Onion
1 Lemon
1 Lime
Cilantro
Corn Husks
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Preheat over to 375F.

Make sure the fish is clean of all entrails. Slice the onion, salt and pepper it and place it in the cavity.

Chop the cilantro and slice the lemon and lime and place it on top of the fish. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top of the fish then salt and pepper the top. Cover the fish entirely in corn husks and then wrap the fish in tin foil.

Place fish in a baking pan and place in the over. Bake for 30 minutes and then flip it over carefully and bake for another half hour. If the meat flakes, its ready.

Serve with salsa, rice pilaf, black beans and fried plantains.

Paul Rinehart is the founder of Online Cooking

Blue Cheese Omnivorous

Ingredients

Romaine Lettuce (head $1.29)
1 pound of steak ($10 per pound)
1 box of colorful pasta ($1.03 Blue’s Clues because my inner child sways me at times.)
1 red pepper ($2.62)
Blue Cheese dressing ($2.43)
½ pound block of blue cheese ($3.79 optional ingredient)

*Save money everywhere but in buying the meat. Cheap meat is too tough for this.

Wash and shred lettuce. Put it in the refrigerator so that it remains cold and crispy at serving time.

Then, cook pasta until tender but not downright floppy. We want the pasta to be somewhat cooler, so in this instance, it’s okay to rinse it off with cool water a little bit so it no longer steams.

Meanwhile, cut steak into slices and sear with salt and pepper. Do this in a shallow pan and a tablespoon of oil in the pan. As the meat cooks, toss it around a bit. When it starts sticking to the pan, you’re done in thirty seconds.

As the steak finishes, wash and half the red pepper. Faux roast a half on an electric range or carefully roast a half on a gas stove so that the outside is dark and toasty. While the pepper can still keep its shape, remove it carefully from the heat and slice lengthwise. It’s a lovely and tasty garnish with dramatic flair during cooking!

Assembly for presentation:

Toss the lettuce and cooled pasta together evenly. Now add enough dressing to coat the pasta and lettuce in a toss. Put this tossed mix as a bed on a plate or in a bowl. With clean fingers, crumble some of the wedge of blue cheese. Now place the steak strips on top in no particular pattern. Lightly drizzle with blue cheese dressing (diners can add more to taste). Finally, garnish the top with the most aesthetic strips of red pepper providing remaining slices for your companion.

What you have is a colorful and healthy salad for the human omnivore. Most every need of nutrition is encompassed in this attractive dish that goes well with red wine, water, or even cola for the kiddies.

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Bryan Applegate is >Online Cooking's Associate Editor and does really cool things with 3d graphics!

A Simple Technique to Remember Grocery Items

Whoops! I Forgot the ... at the Grocery Store!

Have you ever left the grocery store and said, "Whoops, I forgot one recipe ingredient"? Or, "Whoops, I forgot to use my coupon"? Or even while in the store, "Whoops, I passed that aisle, and now I have to go back"?

Here's a simple technique to help. Use an aisle-by-aisle grocery list. Include coupon reminders on your list.

You could make an aisle-by-aisle template for your store, and then write the items in the proper aisle. Another way is to write down the items in groups, by category. This requires some thought and discipline ahead of time. Most people just jot down the items in the order that they think of them, and they end up with a randomly ordered list.

Alternatively, you could use computer software. Then you can simply select the items and let the computer figure out the aisles. Of course, you'd first have to enter the aisle information into the computer so that it knows what to work with.

One shopper's experience with aisle-by-aisle shopping follows:

Before using the program my shopping took forever. I would have a list created by the "what do I need" method. Things were jotted down as I thought of them so my lists were a mess. I would need to go back and forth through the store checking off items willy-nilly. This would take forever, making me stay in the store for 2-3 hours each time. I would often forget items and have to return to the store hours later.

Now I can shop aisle by aisle and rarely forget to pick items. I can keep track of coupons and make sure that I get the discounts that I am entitled to. I have tried different methods of shopping but the Aisle-by-Aisle program has made my shopping easier. I can use my time more efficiently and I am able to have more free time with my family due to quicker shopping.!!!!

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Visit http://www.aislebyaisle.com for recommended computer software.

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London Broil - Garlic

eRix Recipes

London broil - Garlic

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. London Broil beef
• 1 ½ cups cubed, peeled carrots
• 1 ½ cups cubed cabbage
• ½ cup cubed Spanish yellow onion
• 2 cups halved, unpeeled red potatoes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon of canola vegetable oil
• 4 quartered cloves of garlic from bulb
• ½ cup of water

Step One – take the 2 lb. London broil beef slab and infuse it with the 4 quartered cloves of garlic. The easiest

way to accomplish this is to take a chopstick or a paring knife to make incision into the beef about 2 inches apart,

then take the garlic and insert it into the holes created. Take ½ of the teaspoon of oil a put it into a pan

warming to medium-high heat. Take ½ teaspoon of salt and dust the slab of beef. When the pan is warmed for about 2

minutes, place the beef into it and spend 10 minutes browning all sides of the beef. DO NOT WASH THE FRYING PAN,

keep the heat on medium-high and place the ½ cup of water into the pan and bring to a boil, then remove from heat

and save to be put on the vegetables. From that point place the seared meat onto a broiler rack lined with foil

and place into a pre-heated 400º oven for 20 minutes. This should bring a meat cooking preference of medium-rare.

Adjust the time longer or shorter for your liking of meat doneness.

Step Two – while the London broil beef slab is in the oven, take ½ tablespoon of canola oil and place into another

frying pan warming to high heat. Next take the halved potatoes and carrots and begin to cook for about 4 minutes,

then add the onion and cabbage and cook for an additional 4 minutes. Add the other ½ teaspoon of salt and the ½ cup

of water that is in the pan used to brown the beef, then cover and cook for another 4 or 5 minutes. Remove from the

heat and let to rest until serving time.

Step Three – a simple, clean presentation of the food will always wet the appetite of those about to eat a meal.

Therefore, never crowd the plate with more than three items at a time. I suggest you take the beef sliced about ¼”

thick—against the grain of the meat to ensure tender cuts—and place it a fan shape on the lower left portion of

the plate. Nest take the vegetables and place the above and to the left of the meat. Compliment this with your

favorite salad placed across from the vegetables and you have a delicious, hearty garlic infused London broil your

family and friends will rave about. I like how cool the slices of garlic appear within the meat and how good it

really tastes.

eRix © 2004-08-26

Eric Smith - over 9-years experience as a Japanese Teppan-yaki Chef

ebernard38@yahoo.com

http://www.quality-gifts-galore.com

Rowan Jelly (Mountain Ash - Pyrus aucuparia)

Sharp and sour but sweet and succulent all at the same time, this traditional accompanyment to cold meat is bursting with flavour, and folklore !

‘Rowan tree and red thread - have the witches all in dread’

On May eve Rowan crosses used to be worn in UK and were sometimes fastened to cattle (or their barns) for protection against witches and other ‘evil doers’. Legend has it that the crosses had to be made without a metal knife to work properly. Rowan branches were also bought indoors on a Good Friday as this tree had a reputation for strong protection against psychic forces.

This ‘mish-mash’ of folklore and Christianity indicates older uses of the tree having been ‘assimilated’ into a religion that converted people by adapting their beliefs and practices to its own ends. ‘Rowan’ is the most interesting of tree names with connections to both ancient Norse and Hindu/Sanskrit culture. Spelled several ways it is connected to the old Norse word ‘Runa’ - meaning a charm - and being able to ward off the effects of the ‘evil eye’. In even earlier times ‘Runa’ was the Sanskrit word for ‘magician’. ‘Run-stafas’ were staves cut from the Rowan tree and inscribed with runes for magical (and most likely protective) reasons. The smooth bark is ideal for this purpose.

The Rowan was such a sacred tree to the Celts that many churchyards in Wales still include the tree, not unlike the Yew tree in English churchyards. The berries were much used by the Celts for brewing wine, spirit, flavouring mead, ale, perry and cider. Try squeezing some of the fresh berry juice and putting it into a gin and tonic - it makes a convincing alternative to Angostura bitters. The fresh juice is mildly laxative and good for soothing inflamed mucous membranes. In herbal medicine the juice forms the basis of an astringent gargle for sore throats and in the 19th century it was used to treat scurvy - the disease of vitamin C deficiency.

Rowan berries are around from July/August through to November in the UK and may even stay on a tree until January if the thrushes don’t eat them. They are at their best for Rowan Jelly when they have attained full colour but are not yet mushy. They contain varying amounts of tartaric, citric and malic acid dependent on their ripeness. Cut them from the stalks in clusters and remove as much stem as possible before cooking. When made into a jelly the fruit becomes quite astringent and the tart taste makes a good ‘digestif’ accompaniment to meats such as venison, cold game or fowl.

Take about 3 pounds of Rowan berries and two pounds of juicy apples. Peel and core the apples, slice them and place them to simmer in 2 pints of water for 10 minutes, while you are washing and sorting the berries. Add the berries and simmer to a pulp. Use a potato masher to help this process if you like. Let the mixture cool a bit and then strain it through a jelly bag, leaving it to drip overnight.

Warm about 2 pounds of sugar and stir in the liquid mixture and heat to a simmer. I must admit to adding some pectin at this point as I have a problem with runny jams. You can do this and leave the apples out for a clear jelly. Add a knob of butter and stir to a rolling boil for a few minutes and put it into sterilised jars and seal. It is a most unusual taste but the thing that delights me most about this jelly is the fantastic colour.

With thanks to: J. Lust, C.L. Zalewski, R. Phillips, Edward Step

From an ebook called ‘Wild Food’ underway at simonthescribe. If you wish to republish this article (with this resource box intact) you will find excellent quality pictures to accompany it at

http://www.simonthescribe.co.uk/ROWAN%20JELLY.html