Revised Beefy Mac, Tomato-Basil Soup and Marion Cunningham ...

Within an hour of the announcement that star quarterback Drew Brees finally signed a deal with the New Orleans Saints, the local Ritz-Carlton had a revised version of the Breesy Beefy Mac back on the menu at M Bistro and the Davenport Lounge. The cost: $13, to commemorate the date -- Friday, July 13 -- that Brees signed.

A press release from the hotel noted that the chefs hadn't planned to reintroduce the dish until football season started, "but they wanted to show their support of the Who Dat Nation and Brees."

Since it was created in October by chef de cuisine Emily Dillport for the tailgate menu, and the recipe was printed in The Times-Picayune, the recipe has been changed. It eliminates the butter, heavy cream and 1-1/2 cups of shredded Cheddar and American cheeses. The press release says that "Chef Emily revised the recipe after speaking with Brees and has made his favorite dish for him on several occasions. Brees is not a fan of cheese."

Breesy Beefy Mac (No-Dairy Version)

1 cup chopped andouille

1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1 tablespoon flour

2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce

1 cup chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon chopped jalape?os

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup uncooked macaroni or pasta of your choice, cooked, drained

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat a large skillet and saut? andouille until crispy. Add ground beef. Break up the ground beef, and cook until the beef is done all the way through. Stir in flour until smooth.

Add Worcestershire sauce. Simmer until mixture thickens. Add tomatoes, jalape?os, salt and pepper and stir well. Mix the sauce with the cooked pasta, and place into a well-greased oven-safe dish.

Bake for 7 minutes or more at 375 degrees, until dish is heated through.

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TOMATO SOUP DEMO: For the In Judy's Kitchen instructional video this week, in which I try to teach young reporter Danny Monteverde how to cook, we make Tomato Basil Soup at his request. We got to play with the stick blender, one of the most fun kitchen tools.

Tomato Basil Soup has been widely popularized by the La Madeleine restaurants in the past 20 years or so; it's the slightly more sophisticated sister of the worldwide favorite, Campbell's Tomato Soup (introduced in 1897 and, according to Campbell's, eaten by more than 25 million people once a week).

The basil freshens up the taste of the soup. You can easily make this recipe richer by substituting half and half or cream for the whole milk.

Like the Campbell's, this begs to be paired with a grilled cheese sandwich. Even in summer.

Tomato Basil Soup

2 tablespoons butter

2 cloves minced garlic

1/2 onion, chopped

2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes

1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth

18 fresh basil leaves, minced

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup whole milk (or low-fat evaporated milk, cream, etc.)

In a large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until the onions are clear, about 5 minutes.

Add tomatoes and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add basil and sugar. If desired, puree with a stick blender at this time.

Reduce heat to low; stir in milk and remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Cook just until butter is melted. Do not let soup return to high heat.

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RIP MARION CUNNINGHAM: Last week my thoughts were on breakfast even more than usual, after the news that Marion Cunningham died in Walnut Creek, Calif., at age 90 from complications of Alzheimer's. Cunningham was a home cook whose life changed after she took a class with James Beard in Oregon, and the two became great friends and colleagues.

She updated the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, first published in 1896, and her 1979 revision made her known as the Fannie Farmer of America. Russ Parsons, who was one of her editors in the 1990s, wrote last week in the Los Angeles Times that Cunningham was "one part America's grandma, one part culinary godfather. She was the ?minence grise of the Bay Area restaurant scene. Chefs who were pondering their next career move would call her up for advice.

"When she thought somebody needed a little help, she was there (she's the one who took James Beard to Chez Panisse for the first time, launching the restaurant and her friend Alice Waters)."

She was a champion of home cooking. She taught with Beard, traveled the country giving cooking classes, wrote for the food magazines and wrote her own cookbooks. My favorite has always been "The Breakfast Book," published in 1987.

A recipe she said was from an early Fannie Farmer cookbook is perhaps the best-known recipe from the book, reprinted dozens of times. Start it the night before, adding the eggs and baking soda in the morning.

Raised Waffles

Makes 16 waffles

1/2 cup warm water

1 package active dry yeast

2 cups milk

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Use a large mixing bowl; the batter will rise to double the original volume. Put the water in the bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let dissolve 5 minutes. When dissolved, stir in milk, butter, salt, sugar and flour. Beat until smooth and blended. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand overnight.

Just before cooking the waffles, beat in the eggs and baking soda. The batter will deflate and become about as thin as soft yogurt. Cook the waffles according to the manufacturer's instructions for your waffle maker. Bake until golden and crisp.

Each waffle: 137 calories; 4 grams protein; 14 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 7 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 45 mg cholesterol; 187 mg sodium.

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Another of Cunningham's "Breakfast Book" recipes is this unusual one for uncooked jam. How simple is this? And just delicious. The recipe notes that the fruit should be "properly ripe and mashable, and the texture of the jam should be coarse."

Raw Fresh Fruit Jams

Makes about 2 cups

2 cups mashed fruits or berries

1/3 cup sugar, more or less, depending on sweetness desired

Optional: Lemon juice, if the fruits or berries are flat-tasting

Put the fruit in a shallow dish, mash, and sprinkle the sugar and optional lemon juice over. Let the fruit sit until the sugar dissolves, about 30 minutes. Put in a pretty bowl and serve.

Depending on the fruit used, the jam will keep anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks, refrigerated.

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Check out the archive of Times-Picayune recipes at www.nola.com/food

Exchange Alley seeks to rebuild recipe collections. Send requests (described as fully as possible) or recipes (along with a phone number, your name and where you live) via email with ALLEY in the subject line to: jwalker@timespicayune.com Send mail to: EXCHANGE ALLEY, Food section, The Times-Picayune, 3800 Howard Ave., New Orleans, LA 70125-1429.

All responses will be printed in Exchange Alley.

Source: http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2012/07/revised_beefy_mac_tomato-basil.html

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