Intimidation in the kitchen

 

Our potluck lunch
Clockwise, from 12:00: tuna salad, marinated tomatoes slices,
cheese snacks, Greek salad, pesto/challah

I let myself get intimidated in the kitchen today. A former student was coming for lunch. When I knew Heather, she was an English major at TCU and an intern at TCU Press. She went on to work for Harcourt in downtown Fort Worth, but then she disappeared off my radar only to reappear a few years later, having studied at the Culinary Institute of America. Today, as a classically trained chef she is part of the food service team at a local retirement community. For a while a few years ago, Heather and I had lunch regularly as she helped me with my cookbook, Gourmet on a Hot Plate. The cookbook was finished, we discovered we had severe political differences, and the lunches just sort of drifted away. But Heather called last week to say she’d written and published a children’s book and wanted to brag to me and bring me a copy. She would bring lunch. Let me add she did absolutely nothing to intimidate me—I did it to myself.

Letting her provide lunch seemed inhospitable to me, so I suggested we each contribute something—we’d have a potluck lunch. What do you fix when a chef comes to lunch? I found instructions for a tomato/spinach/cheese thing and thought that was unusual and creative enough. So I ordered frozen chopped spinach with my groceries—and Central Market cancelled it. No sub, just no spinach. Punt! By then I had no shopping options (not driving is sometimes a relief, occasionally a pain). I finally told her I would make my signature tuna salad. So, I have two sort-of recipes for you this week:

The tomato/spinach/cheese thing

Sliced heirloom tomatoes

Balsamic vinegar

Spinach – I think creamed would be good, but just cooked with butter, salt and pepper would be good. Sauté with garlic.

Cheese – the recipe called for mozzarella, but I think I’d use good old sharp cheddar

Marinate tomato slices in Balsamic. Bake at 350 for about 7 minutes.

Top tomatoes with spinach and then with grated cheese.

Broil until cheese melts and is golden.

I will order spinach again this week and plan to try to fix this to a friend Monday, so I will report.

A friend asked me this morning why I applied the word “signature” to my tuna salad (I think she thought I was being pretentious). But Jordan doesn’t like anybody else’s tuna, so here’s what I do. It begins with good tuna, and I’ve mentioned this before. I order tuna from the Pisces fishing vessel in Oregon—it is line caught (no nets) while dolphins swim unharmed next to the boat. The tuna is heated only once in the canning process (most fish is canned twice) and seasoned only with salt. So good. You can get albacore in water or smoked albacore. I prefer the plain.

1 6-oz. can tuna, flaked (today I gave it a spin in my counter processor to make it light and fluffy)

1 large green onion, sliced

1 stalk celery, finely minced

Salt and pepper

Juice of one large lemon—lots of juice

Mayonnaise – just enough to bind; don’t make tuna soup out of it

Mix thoroughly and chill before serving.

No nuts, no grapes, no pickle, no mustard. It’s a simplistic tuna salad.

Heather brought Greek salad, a wonderful challah with pesto rolled into the dough, and berry muffins. Our plates overflowed and looked gorgeous besides. We talked books and writing and cooking—and politics. We differ, but we were able to talk reasonably about it and to some extent express why we feel the way we do. That’s what this world needs more it—calm discussion. It was a lovely lunch, and I look forward to another visit with Heather. I may let her fix the whole thing next time.

A note about food safety: I’ve had two events recently that made me conscious of food safety. One was my own fault: I had put a lb. of hamburger out to thaw around supper time, intending to refrigerate it before I went to bed. Only I forgot and woke at six in the morning with the clear thought that the hamburger was still on the counter. We froze it until we could put it out with the garbage today.

I mentioned this on the blog, but I was opening a jar of pickled herring for Mary D. on Tuesday night. As I cut off the cellophane collar, I realized my fingers were wet and smelled like herring. Sometimes it’s hard to get the lid off jars like that, but this time without my touching it, the lid popped off. I screwed it back on, washed the counter and the outside of the jar with soap and water, and then washed my hands thoroughly. Next day I called Central Market: they told me that someone else had lodged a similar complaint, the product had been removed from their shelves and the manufacturer notified, and they would credit my account. The credit was the least of it, but I was pleased that they took action on keeping others safe.

As we move toward warm weather, I am much aware that food poisoning can attack when you’re the least bit careless. So, watch your potato salad, devilled eggs, and, yes, tuna salad—plus a lot of other dishes.

Stay careful and safe!