Making Mad Men into Glad Men: channeling 1960 in the kitchen

It started when I saw an unfamiliar cut of meat in the butcher’s case at a Slovenian-owned supermarket. Rib steaks. “Why,” I whined, “don’t you ever sell this whole so we foreigners can make roast beef?” “I have some in the back uncut,” bragged the young butcher, “want to see it?” “Yes, yes, yes!” I cried. In Italian that is ordinary, just sì, sì, sì. No big deal like the American translation.

So back he went, this fellow of about 19 — when did butchers become children?– and out he came with about 5 ribs worth of meat. I showed him the 5″ cut with two ribs I wanted and he cut them. I explained what I wanted to do about the spine for easy carving and he used a band saw ro do it. I left with a chunk of meat worth €27.99 or about $34.63. Whoa mama! That’s a lot of money for sitting around the house while dieting. So I decided to make a lunch party.

Standing rib roast of beef was once a very chic dinner menu in the United States of my youth. I love the television show “Mad Men” in which the early 1960s is so well portrayed. The two things collided in my brain and I started planning a classic, iconic 1960s gourmet meal. I started by phoning guests to make sure I wouldn’t be eating it alone and I snagged several Italian innocents and American supporters.

I set the table in my best version of 1960s splendor, with loads of roses from my garden and freshly ironed linens.

Over the next days I will write up and publish what we ate in both English and USA measurements as well as Italian and metric measurements.

I will start with the appetiser course. Tomato aspic. If you’ve ever had it it was likely long ago. I really loved it ages back, but somehow fashions change and tomato aspic disappeared from the foodie table. It’s comeback to my table was partly because it is low carbohydrate and I can eat it. Warning: I do not know if my version is vegetarian or not. I can only get one kind of gelatin, but if you can get vegetarian gelatin, you can be sure.

Like any clever cook, I did some research of recipes, techniques and substitutions. I began with David Lebovitz’ article on using gelatin because I would need to convert from powdered gelatin, like Knox unflavored to sheets. David, a fabulous dessert chef, is often a great help to me, who isn’t that into sweets, frankly. His ratio for substitution was precisely right. Bravo!

Tomato Aspic

This recipe I found on cooks.com and they call it Supreme Tomato Aspic. I did not take it all the way to supreme with a cheese filling, but I made the aspic itself pretty much as they did.

3 cups tomato juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 teaspoon onion juice (if you have a lemon reamer, just ream a cut onion over the pan.)
dash of Tabasco
2 envelopes gelatin
1/2 cup water

1/2 cup celery minced
1/2 cup green olives minced
1 avocado chopped (this I did not add as they are impossible here)

Bring to a boil the tomato juice with the seasonings, turn off the heat and allow to steep for 10-15 minutes. Soften the gelatin in the cold water. Add the softened gelatin to the pan and stir until it melts. Cool until the mixture begins to thicken, then stir in the minced vegetables. Because I can’t put a hot pan into my fridge, I stirred the pan of aspic over a bowl of ice water until it was cooled and then put it in the fridge. It didn’t take long to thicken then.

Pour this mixture into a mold and refrigerate until firm. I made sure to leave at least 12 hours for this step. When ready to serve make a sauce to accompany the aspic. Cooks.com suggests Durkee sauce, but I don’t know what that is. I made a sauce by taking some mayonnaise, adding several drops of Tabasco to it, and then a heaped teaspoon of horseradish and stirring it up. I made perhaps 125ml or 1/2 cup of it and I should have made more. You never know, when you are whipping up something you’ve never even thought of before. This time it was nice.

Then dip the mold into a bowl of warm water for a few seconds. If you shake it you can see the edges lift away from the mold when it has released. Put the serving plate over the top of the mold and quickly flip it over. Plop! If you’re lucky. If you are not, and as has happened to me in the dim past you have broken your molded aspic, cut it into pieces with a tableknife and pile those pieces onto lettuce leaves. These days there are so few people who have ever seen a molded aspic you will almost certainly get away with it. Serve the sauce alongside the aspic.

My Italian friends were quite taken with this, which is surely way outside the norm for Mediterranean cookery, let alone Italian cookery. I promised to publish the recipe in Italian using Italian ingredients.

Gelatina di Pomodoro

710 ml passata di pomodoro ( la bottiglia intera più un pò di acqua)
1 cucchiaino sale
1 cucchiaino zucchero
1 cucchiaino succo di limone
1 cucchiaino Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cucchiaino succo di cipolla
un pò di Tabasco salsa di peperoncino americano
7 foglie di gelatina (pelle di pesce)
acqua fresca di ammorbidirla

Lascia ammorbidire la gelatina nella acqua fresca.

Mescolare la passata e tutti i condimenti in una teglia e portarla a bollizione. Spende il fornello e lasciala 10 minute. Prende la gelatina ammorbidita con le mani, toglendo come possibile l’acqua e l’aggiunge alla passata, mescolando fino a è tutta sciolta. Lascia rinfrescare il misto fino è parzialmente consistente.

Quando sarebbe consistente più o meno come una velluta, aggiunge i seguenti:

una gamba di sedano, tagliata fine
una mancia grande di olive verdi, tagliata fine

Una volta è mescolato bene, versare il misto in una forma e lasciarla in frigo per circa 12-24 ore. Per sformare la gelatina, sfondi la forma in acqua calda per qualchi secondi, mette un piatoo sopra la forma e versi tutto velocemente. Se è fallito, non importa. Puoi tagliarla con un coltello in pezzi grandi e servirla sulle foglie di lattuga.

La Salsa

200 ml maionesa
6 goccie Tabasco o un pizzico di peperoncino in polvere
1 cucchiaino colmo di raffano grattato, bottigliato

Mescoli tutto e servirla accanto la gelatina.