Cooking Confidential

Well, I ‘m back in the saddle again running what’s essentially Ma’s Boardinghouse. We refurnished the bedrooms (remember all my palavar about moving?…) thanks be to my favorite second-hand haunts and a smidgen of IKEA, and picked up where we’d left off in earnest with four Taiwanese visiting dentists for the month of March. Their fond farewells were immdiately followed in April by our two current English Language students who’ll be here for a few months, along with the various post-docs, visiting researchers, med students, etc., who will replace one another in fairly rapid succession.

My guests might be here because they need an English speaking homestay or a conveniently located, cheap place to live. But I need them, too– they are attracted to the no lease temporary housing listing, but it’s nice if they decide to stay on rather than move into more conventional accommodations like a studio or shared apartment. Frankly, good and plenteous FOOD is the magnet that holds my boarders. My Marach Taiwanese dentists were so cute– they loved our dinners so much that they started taking pictures of every meal! I’m always surprised when people ask me whether I make my guests, mostly foreigners, and a lot of Asians at that, their native fare to remind them of home. It seems to me that I could never really come up to standard in that department, and, in any case, they can eat good______cuisine for the rest of their lives…and, when I have asked them, my guests have heartily agreed with me!

However, I have made some adjustments to the daily dinner in view of both the need to fill up hungry young men (mostly) and giving them something that’s sort of familiar, ergo, comforting. I make a lot of rice and pasta as side dishes to inexpensively round out the meal and fill in the corners of their tummies– more than I would if our family was eating alone. Hence, a lot of my gussied up rice dishes and pastas with a lightish treatment — often a little unorthodox as far the typical American dinner plate goes, but definitely tasty and nutritious: The other night, I thrilled them (and my husband, too) with pasta dressed with homemade basil pesto (a batch big enough for at least four generous meals lodged in the freezer), thin slices of eye of beef round roasted to medium rare, and a nice melange of sauteed onion, julienned carrots and asparagus seasoned simply with a bit of butter, salt and Penzey’s “Parisien Herbes” (otherwise known as “Fines Herbes”). With my trusty sourdough on the side, and large piles of pasta for the guys, I had more than enough meat left over for tonight’s meal!…Maybe roast beef sandwiches and soup (there’s a nice cabbage in my fridge that wants using) or a potato salad on a big bed of lettuce (ditto)?

Note on the roast beef: Years ago, I read a recommendation in Cooks Illustrated for slow roasting inexpensive cuts of beef at 275 degrees, which is 250 degrees in the convection oven, which is what I do. When an “instant read” thermometer, or whatever kind you’re using, reads a little over 120 degrees, remove the roast from the oven– it’s residual heat will keep it roasting, and you’ll see that the temperature will reach 130 degrees, a perfect medium rare. The longer ahead of the meal you roast it, the better– that way the juices “resettle” themselves rather than get lost on the serving plate– try to let it rest at least 1/2 hour or more.