I’ve been watching a little too much Match Game on YouTube lately.
I’m taking a little time off (only a couple of weeks) because I am coming up blank on just about everything. September has rather knocked the wind out of my Soupy Sales, as it were (I’ve also been watching a little too much $25,000 Pyramid.). It knocked me flat out into a shivering, sweat-drenched mess for six days, in fact.
Yay.
I need a couple of weeks to recharge, regroup, and rehydrate.
I shall return with full snarkiness, I promise. Soon.
I’ve had this cake on my mind for some time. It has been years since I’ve eaten one– not since childhood. I remembered it as being sticky and sweet, delicious and remarkably easy to prepare– that is, I do not remember anyone ever slaving over the making of a Pineapple Upside Down Cake.
My fondness for the cake was shared– to my great joy– by a cartoon dragon who no one seems to remember any more, but has always been associated with the dessert in my head.
The upside down cake is essentially a skillet cake– begun on the stove top and finished in the oven. Plums, apples, and cherries were popular topping (or bottomings, depending on your point of view) in the 19th century. The pineapple upside down cake, according to foodreference.com, dates to “sometime after 1903, when Jim Dole invented canned pineapple.”
The Hawaiian Pineapple Company (now Dole) held a pineapple recipe contest in 1925, with judges from Fannie Farmer’s School, Good Housekeeping, and McCall’s magazine on the judging panel. The 100 winning recipes would be published in a cookbook the following year. More than 60,000 recipes were sent in and 2,500 of them were for Pineapple Upside Down Cake. IF the cake was popular before the contest, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company took that popularity and ran with it, running ad campaigns based on the fact that so many recipes had been submitted.
I had a very specific reason for making upside down cake this week. I had planned on baking one in honor of the birthday of someone who had, well, turned my life upside down. And turn it he did. It was an obvious metaphor, certainly, but I loved the fact that this simple cake held a secret. Its fruits and its sweetness lay hidden as the cake develops and are then suddenly–almost violently– brought to the surface.
In a way, I’m glad I didn’t make him the cake– it’s too sweet and gooey for my tastes. It is insubstantial. And the thought of eating one now makes me sick to my stomach.
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
This is as close to the original recipe as I could find. Typically, the maraschino cherries are placed in the middle of the pineapple rings before baking. I have chosen to omit this step. This way, garnishing with them is still possible, but I can immediately yank them off upon consumption. I dislike maraschino cherries. Intensely.
Ingredients:
1 large can pineapple, crushed or sliced
2 cups flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup brown sugar
Maraschino cherries for garnish
Procedure:
1. Drain the juice from the can of pineapple.
2. Sift 2 cups flour. Sift again with 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
3. Cream 1/2 cup butter, gradually add 1 cup sugar; cream well.
4. Beat yolks and whites of eggs separately. Add yolks to creamed mixture, then add flour and milk alternately, mixing well.
5. Fold in the beaten egg whites and vanilla.
6. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large frying pan.
7. Spread 1 cup brown sugar over the pan.
8. Add pineapple, placing rings closely together in an attractive pattern.
9. Pour cake batter over fruit.
10. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
11. Remove from oven, turn upside down onto serving plate and garnish with maraschino cherries.
I’ve served dinner to thousands of people over the span of my adult life. In that time, I have been alarmed– though seldom to the point of fits– by the number of those people who do not know how to behave at table. Proper table etiquette is often poorly executed.
I don’t mention this for reasons of stodginess, I mention it because I see what is happening at the tables of countless business dinners and first dates– people trying to impress one another and failing miserably. On one end of the spectrum, there are the overly cautious– those who navigate their dinner with extreme caution, eating their olives with knife and fork, for example. Then, of course, there is the other, cork-sniffing variety too hideous to mention this morning. Most people, fortunately, fall somewhere in between, but are sadly unclear on the finer and much more subtle points of dining. So I thought I might drop in from time to time and explain, as gently as I can, how you might avoid some of the most common pitfalls of eating in public.
Since my mood this week is decidedly morbid, I thought I would share with you the proper way of ending it all.
Finishing Your Meal
When one has had enough of whatever is placed in front of him, no pushing away of the plate is necessary, no handing your mess off to the first member of the waitstaff who passes by, no verbal proclamations other than those that convey how lovely everything was, is necessary to let others know your condition.
Only one simple, silent act is necessary to communicate your state of doneness. For those of you who do not already know this, here’s how:
The above photo illustrates the proper way to tell the world “Yes, I have finished with my meal.” Place your knife and fork together, with the business ends point roughly to “10 o’clock” on the clock face that is quite often your dinner plate and with the sharp end of your knife facing inward to avoid any show of aggression, no matter how you might actually feel. It is a clear and, hopefully, unmistakable signal to your fellow diners and to whomever may be clearing your plate.
Do not make an “x” with your utensils. Not only is this incorrect and, frankly, boorish, it is a potential hazard-waiting-to-happen. Proper placement of utensils allows whoever is removing your plate to stabilize the knife and fork with his or her thumb, ensuring that , upon removal, they do not slide off the plate and on to your clothing. Improper placement means your server must spend more time interfering with the flow of business conversation or the ogling of your date’s décolletage. And no one wants that– not you, not your server.
You should also be aware of when you finish. It is just as rude to lag far behind in pace with your fellow diners as it is to race too far ahead. Though you may be engrossed in deep conversation with the person sitting on your right, you may have failed to notice that everyone else at your table has been finished with their meal for a good fifteen minutes. No fine dining server worth his or her grey sea salt is going to clear anyone’s plate from your table until the last person has finished. But patience has its limits. For example, I occasionally have to let some of my guests sit with dirty plates for up to half an hour while their blithely unaware tortoise of a tablemate chews and chatters while everyone else squirms, wants coffee, or is jonesing for a post-prandial sugar rush. In such cases, I feel I have to act in the interest of the table as a whole and somehow signal to the lagger that he is on his own. The irritation of everyone from one’s boss (or clients) to the waitstaff is palpable. Be aware of your surroundings.
I hope this has been enlightening. It felt very, very good to share it today.
Now, if you will please excuse me, I have to go to work and wait on some more people so I can come back and tell you what they’re doing wrong.
Have you ever entertained thoughts of becoming a cooking show personality?
Chances are, since you’re currently reading a food blog, you’ve thought about it. Perhaps you have a running narrative flowing out of your mouth as you make your lunch, explaining in chatty style to your cat the origins of oil-packed tuna and how to make it shine. Maybe you’ve always wanted to be as perfect as Martha or, at least, body-check Rachel off camera and show her how it’s really done.
If any of the above sounds familiar and you have a special affinity for garlic, this could be your big, fragrant chance at local stardom.
KTEH Cooks with Garlic is giving you the opportunity to show the Bay Area what you’ve got. In December, KTEH will broadcast a live show featuring local viewers preparing their favorite garlic recipes.
Submissions so far have been encouraging– and interesting. All types of professional and amateur cooks have already submitted. A local master chef; a Pavarotti-lover who once got him to sign her package of veal in North Beach; a vegetarian Peace Corps volunteer (and “future film star”) who plans to cook lamb, stating that “eating is not destroying; everything is merely transferred.” That’s one segment I’m going to want to see. I hope she makes it.
All kinds of recipes have been submitted, too. Lamb dishes, chicken cacciatore, salads, and–I only offer this as a warning– a preponderance of soups. No one, so far, has been adventurous enough to submit a garlicky dessert recipe. Perhaps you can be the first.
No professional experience is required– just a love of cooking, a bit of enthusiasm, and a knack for teaching. A clever introductory letter is helpful, beginning your letter (as one submitter did) with “I’m not sure I’d make a great tv chef” is not.
Sound like fun? Good. Just remember to be kind to the little people when you’re famous.
How to apply:
Step 1: Send them a letter, telling them why you would make a great “TV Chef,” and an original recipe that you would like to prepare live on KTEH. The recipe must feature garlic as an ingredient. Submissions must be received by September 15, 2008. (the date was extended from September 1, 2008)
Send to:
Garlicrecipe@KTEH.org
Or mail to:
Garlic Recipe
KTEH
1585 Schallenberger Rd.
San Jose, CA 95108
Step 2: All recipes submitted become the property of KTEH and will be included (with your byline) in our KTEH Cooks with Garlic Cookbook.
Step 3: KTEH will review the letters and recipes and invite selected viewers to video tape themselves preparing their recipe. These videos will be posted on our website.
Step 4: If you are selected, start your video camera and prepare your recipe as you would if you were on television. Then upload your video to their website (instructions to come) or send it to KTEH and they’ll upload it for you.
Step 5: KTEH viewers will be invited to vote for the video they like best.
Step 6: Videos with the most votes will be reviewed by KTEH producers who will invite their favorite “chefs” to prepare their garlic recipe on their live special, KTEH Cooks with Garlic, December 3, 2008.
Step 7: If selected, you will be asked to provide all the ingredients for your recipe and a completed version of the dish. If your recipe is made in stages, you will need to provide a version in each stage- just like Martha!
Step 8: The show! Chefs will be assigned a time slot and have 10 minutes to prepare their recipe.
Step 9: Each TV Chef appearing on the show will receive a KTEH Cooks with Garlic Cookbook and a DVD of their appearance on the show.
