French Fries – A War Story

The culinary history of the United States has been greatly impacted by what soldiers brought back from war. From WWI the soldiers brought back French fries. From WWII they brought back pizza (and many other items). Funny how they didn’t bring back real Kimchi from Korea(?).

My grandfather fought in the First World War. I remember his story about he and his buddies getting potatoes and bringing them to a French farmhouse where the farmer’s wife would make them Pommes Frites. Gramps brought back a love for French Fries from the war. Unfortunately, he didn’t bring back his leg. Gramps got shot in the leg during the battle for the Argonne forest. He told the story about the wound not being so bad, but because of triage, he didn’t get treatment right away and the wound led to gangrene and eventually the loss of his leg.

My Grandmother and Grandfather at their engagement party before Gramps left for World War I

Gramps was a hero. He received the Purple Heart, but his biggest accomplishment was how he dealt with adversity and went on to to live a full life. Gramps had gotten engaged to my grandmother before the war. After losing his leg he wrote, telling her that the engagement was off, as he wasn’t the same man. Of course, she wrote back telling him it didn’t matter. When I was in college, I went to visit Gramps and he took me to the Historic Richmond Town site on Staten Island NY. My grandmother’s house is part of the site. We sat in the car in front of the house and Gramps told me about how when he came home from the war, he arrived on Staten Island late at night. He walked across the island on one leg with crutches and arrived at the house at 4 in the morning and sat quietly on the porch afraid to wake anyone and afraid that the family wouldn’t accept him. I cry every time I tell this story. Gramps will always be my hero.

My Grandmother’s Home where my gramps was afraid they wouldn’t welcome him as a wounded veteran

My grandfather’s Purse Heart, Helmet and Dog Tags from World War I

Ironically, French fries became a favorite of our family growing up. My mom made French fries in a small fryer on the stove top for years. There were two problems:

The fries were never crispy enough.
She could never make enough fries to keep a family of five happy.

The key to making the fries crispy is to do what the French farmers wife did. The French know that to get a crispy fry you need to cook them twice. The answer is to precook the fries and then finish them off with a second cooking in really hot oil (over 300 degrees). This also helps my mother’s second problem because when you precook the fries it only takes a few minutes in hot oil to get them to the perfect crispiness and you can churn out a targeted quantity pretty quick. It is no coincidence that precooking the fries is the key to McDonalds success with fries. I’ll never forget my first trip to France and having fries and thinking: “These are even better than McDonalds!

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Canapés And The “One Bite Rule”

Just about everyone likes appetizers. Many of us prefer appetizers to the main course. Canapés are a great solution. Easy to make. Easy to serve. And most importantly, easy to eat. You have to love Canapés.

I have a “One Bite Rule” for eating while standing at a party. The rule is to stay away from anything that takes more than one bite to eat. The reason is simple, multiple bites of just about anything can get sloppy when trying eat, drink and converse while standing. The genesis of this rule dates back to a corporate cocktail party when I was thirty. A pesky BBQ chicken wing slipped out of my mouth and onto my tie. From that embarrassing moment on, I have lived by the one bite rule and still avoid chicken wings. Canapés are a simple solution to the “One Bite Rule”.”

If you can come up with a low carb solution for Canapés, you will have a winner. The problem with Canapés is that they are usually served on bread. I have tried serving them on cucumber and zucchini rounds with mixed results. Recently, I have worked on using Parmesan Crisps and low carb crackers. The parmesan crisps were a winner. Low carb crackers (based on almond flour) are pretty good. Combine with delicious toppings and you can’t go wrong.

We have been to a few weddings lately. The staple of every good wedding cocktail hour is an array of good Canapés. Those weddings inspired the following menu.

Flora Wedding Canapés

Canapés Menu

Parmesan Crisps

Low Carb Crackers

Shrimp Salad on Parmesan Crisp Rounds

Smoked Salmon Spread on Low Carb Crackers

Smoked Salmon with Wasabi Cream and Capers on Parmesan Crisp Squares

Seared Sea Scallop with Wasabi Cream and Dill on Parmesan Crisp Rounds

Seared Beef Fillet Mignon with Cucumber/Celery/Scallion Melange and Dill on Parmesan Crisp Rounds

Poached lobster with Wasabi Cream and Dill on Parmesan Crisp Rounds

Two versions of Parmesan Crisps (Rounds & Squares

Low Carb Crackers

We had a neighborhood supper club dinner party this week and a Canapés with a Spicy Shrimp Remoulade. The Canapés were a big hit. One of the reasons were the excellent texture of the pumpernickel round baked with a molasses butter. Not exactly low carb, but boy were they tasty. Once again, low carb is trendy, but sometimes the combination of carbs and fat can’t be beat.

Spicy Shrimp Remoulade Canapés

Notes Can Be A Gift

Preparing for a dinner party can be stressful. You have developed your menu, planned all the detail, but you are afraid that in the heat of the final moments, you will forget something. Writing yourself some notes is a great way to minimize the stress and reduce the chances of something being left behind.

They say that apples don’t fall far from trees. My daughter Jenn has seen her father prepare for many a dinner party and place a few strategic notes around the kitchen. Lo and behold, she did the same thing when she was preparing her first Thanksgiving dinner for her new in-laws. They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, not only did Jenn replicate her father’s traditional Thanksgiving menu, she used his note trick to manage the stress. In hindsight I wonder if she followed the family tradition of forgetting the cranberry sauce?

Jenn’s Uncle John has been an important player in her life. He was her first babysitter in California. He served Jenn her first beer before she was a year old (pictured below). Most importantly, Uncle John schooled a young Jenn from Memphis on the ways of the big city when she first moved to New York. I’ll never forget Uncle John treating a twenty something Jenn to a makeover at Saks Fifth Avenue in the city and proudly announcing to the make-up artist and crowd of 10 tourists, that changing baby Jennifer’s poopy diaper was his first and last. You can’t buy memories like that one.

(Uncle John Nangle serving baby Jennifer her first beer. If we only knew…)

Jenn’s husband Ethan also had his Uncle John who was very important to Ethan and his brother Bret growing up in New York. Their Uncle John who taught them many things, left his rent controlled apartment to Bret when he retired several years back. Uncle John passed away recently and Bret wrote a touching tribute to his Uncle John:

When Uncle John retired and moved upstate, I lived in his apartment. And as much as I tried to make it mine, I never could; his presence there was too strong. Especially in his tiny kitchen, where, inside the cabinets, he’d taped valuable cooking lessons and recipes. I could never bring myself to take them down until I moved out. He was such a great cook, and I was too intimidated to ever try to make anything that he had. But there were about a half dozen warnings up in those cabinets never to use dish soap on the coffee filter, and I consider having lived that commandment my greatest personal tribute to him.

(A few of Uncle John Cahill’s kitchen notes)

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