DELICIOUS & EXCITING DISHES YOU NEED TO EATYou haven’t lived until you’ve added garlic French fries to your salad. Or better yet, try jalapeños stuffed with goat cheese and ricotta. Oh, add pasta with seared scallops, red pastrami and marsala cream to the list. These are just some of the insanely satisfying comfort food recipes Chef Kerry Altiero and Katherine Gaudet have up their sleeves.The Best Comfort Food on the Planet takes ordinary dishes like mac ’n cheese, salad and lasagne and turns them into Lobster Mac ’N Cheese, Hot Dressed Salad and Sorta Lasagne. Make Brussels sprouts a favorite by slow cooking them in cream, pizza more exciting with some Thai sweet chili sauce, and pot roast new again when topped with blue cheese.Each recipe has a unique approach that takes the flavor to new levels of greatness for you and your family. With one-of-a-kind recipes throughout, this book is a surefire way to have your dinner guests talking about your food and coming back for more. KERRY ALTIERO is the chef and owner of Cafe Miranda, an edgy yet intimate multi-cuisine restaurant in Rockland, Maine. Kerry and the restaurant have been awarded numerous honors, including “Lobster Chef of the Year” and “Best Farm-to-Table Restaurant.” Kerry lives in Owls Head, Maine.KATHERINE GAUDET works at the University of New Hampshire and is a freelance writer and editor. She lives with her husband and daughter in Saco, Maine.“ I HAVE LOOKED UP TO KERRY AS THE PIONEER CHEF OF MAINE.”—MELISSA KELLY, OWNER/CHEF OF PRIMO AND TWO-TIME JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER “ CHEF KERRY IS AN AMAZING AND INSPIRATIONAL CHEF. I WOULD BUY ANY BOOK OF HIS.”—CHEF MICHELE RAGUSSIS, FOOD NETWORK STAR FINALIST“ LONG BEFORE IT WAS A NATIONAL TREND, KERRY WAS SERVING HIS CUSTOMERS FOOD THAT WAS HOMEMADE, FRESH AND WILDLY CREATIVE—AND IT HAS ONLY GOTTEN MORE WONDERFUL OVER THE YEARS.”—CHELLIE PINGREE, REPRESENTATIVE FROM MAINE’S 1ST DISTRICT “ AS A CHEF, KERRY IS AS COMPLEX AS HIS ENORMOUS MENU. THE MEALS I’VE HAD ARE NEVER AN INCH SHORT OF EXCITING.”—JOSEPH RICCHIO, FOOD CRITIC“ CAFE MIRANDA WAS BRINGING HEALTHY, CREATIVE LOCAL FOODS TO OAK STREET BEFORE ‘FARM TO TABLE’ WAS A BUZZWORD.” —LARRY PRITCHETT, MAYOR OF ROCKLAND, MAINE“ FROM FARM TO TABLE, CAFE MIRANDA OFFERS A REMARKABLE TASTE OF MAINE!”—PAUL LEPAGE, GOVERNOR OF MAINE“ KERRY IS A WIZARD, AS YOU’LL SEE WHEN YOU CHOW DOWN ON THIS WONDERFUL BOOK.”—JEAN KERR, AUTHOR AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, NORTHEAST FLAVOR MAGAZINE“ EATING KERRY’S CREATIONS IS LIKE LISTENING TO JIMMY HENDRIX’S MUSIC: ALL YOU CAN SAY IS, WHOA!”—JOHN PAUL CAPONIGRO, FINE ART LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHERCOOKING/GeneralTHE BEST COMFORT FOOD ON THE PLANETALTIERO THE BEST COMFORT FOODON THE PLANETKERRY ALTIERO CHEF/OWNER OF CAFE MIRANDA IN ROCKLAND, MAINEWITH KATHERINE GAUDET9IntroductionTwo decades ago I started Cafe Miranda in a Maine fishing village. We offer a huge menu that mixes traditional American fare with Italian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Thai, vegan . . . whatever strikes our fancy. Our motto is “Because We Can.” We serve wonderful, surprising, innovative food that defies expectations and wins over all kinds of eaters. This cookbook will help you do the same at home, whether you are cooking for world-weary sophisticates or picky toddlers. Your kitchen may never be the same.I’ve always had what you might call a contrary streak. In our little town of 7,000 residents, restaurants were traditionally built around deep fryers. We built ours around a wood-fire oven instead. It’s great for bread and pizza, of course, but almost everything else goes in there, too: vegetables, casseroles and soups—almost everything benefits from a dose of high heat. Your home oven, cranked up, can create the same effect, while leaving your stovetop and your hands free for other things.I admit to having some punkish tendencies. I like to do things my own way; I like speed; I like gears and metal. I’m addicted to the pace of restaurant cooking. But there are other, better reasons for seeking out adventures in food. Food can make the world bigger. It can change lives. For me it started in the ’70s, touring around racing my motorcycle. I was a vegetarian then. Eating pinto beans with melted cheese and tortilla chips in every town got boring, so I learned to look abroad: to India and China and Mexico. All of this exploring gave me some great recipe ideas. When I was just a motorcycle-racing kid from a coal town in Pennsylvania, food opened up the world for me. I want to include everyone in that experience, from New York foodies to local fishermen. The food you’ll find in this book is gutsy, but it isn’t strange for the sake of being strange. There is a lot that’s familiar, comfortable enough to open the gate to new experiences.Time and time again, I’ve seen limited eaters become adventurous ones. Jim Hall, who provides the wood for our oven, ate only spaghetti and meatballs for a very long time. One day he tried the Bolognese. Then he tried other things: the Mexican, the Thai. Now, when Jim travels, he likes to call and tell me what new crazy thing he’s eating (and how much he’s getting charged for it). Making people comfortable, serving real, bold food that isn’t churned out by the industrial circus, getting fresh products into the mouths of the people we care about: These things change lives.What these recipes do is modern but not new. They build on tradition and find new paths. When we opened in the early 1990s, our food looked strange to Mainers who were used to bread and butter on the tables and a choice of rice or baked potato with every entrée. Still, they recognized something in our food. The passion and the heart that we cook with comes out on the plate. You can’t fake it. The Mainers who became our first customers understood that there was integrity and quality in the food even if they had no idea what it was. We’ve been here over twenty years now, and have seen the town grow from a down-on-its-luck fishing village to a culturally rich tourist destination. It’s the rare place where an influx of galleries and terrific restaurants hasn’t erased the local character. It’s a privilege to cook where you can operate in a way that focuses on integrity and honesty. That’s what this cookbook tries to give you: delicious, real recipes you can make at home, with fresh ingredients, and without more than an average risk of fire damage. Crank up your oven, get yourself some good pot holders and let’s get cooking. 12 THE BEST COMFORT FOOD ON THE PLANETRed Curry MusselsThe first time I had this dish, when I was working at the Bayberry Inn in Cape May, my boss, Joe Lotozo, said, “If you ever have mussels that are better than this, you gotta tell me.” I’ve never had to tell him. The salt in the fish sauce rips open your taste buds, and the curry flavor rushes in like soldiers when the line breaks. The herbs are fresh and aromatic and the coconut smooths everything out. Mussels are usually pretty good, but in this preparation they are spectacular.Serves 212 oz/355 ml coconut milk2 tbsp/29 g red curry paste (preferably Maesri brand) 1 lb/454 g mussels, cleaned and debearded5 basil leaves, Thai if you have it, or a combination of mint and basil8 sprigs cilantro1 lime1 tbsp/15 ml Thai fish sauce, or to tasteSome rice or bread for dipping (optional)Grab a large, heavy-bottomed, nonreactive saucepan. First, render some coconut fat: Put 3 tablespoons/45 ml of the coconut milk in the pan. Boil on medium-high heat until the milk stops bubbling, but before it starts smoking; this will only take a minute. Add the curry paste and stir vigorously so that it cooks in the fat briefly; don’t brown it. Add the rest of the coconut milk and whisk for 20 seconds or so, until the liquid is an even, deep red. Taste and add more curry paste if you want it spicier. Add the mussels to the pan and cover. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes, occasionally giving them a gentle stir. When most of the mussels have opened, add the basil and stir gently. Let sit for 1 minute, or until you can smell it. Remove from the heat and garnish with the cilantro. Squeeze the lime over the mussels and squirt with plenty of fish sauce. Serve with rice or with bread for dipping.Chef’s Tip: Look for green-lipped mussels for this dish, if you can’t find Maine mussels. The best are three years old or less. How can you tell? Mussels grow rings every year, like trees, so you can look at the shell and see how many there are. Generally rope-grown mussels are freer of grit. If your mussels are wild or you just want to be safe, purge them first. Cover the shells with cold salted water and add a half-handful of cornmeal. Give it a stir every once in a while. After a couple of hours, the mussels will have eaten the cornmeal and spit out the sand. DINNERS 117Chicken JerryWhile I steadfastly deny that we do (con)fusion food, I guess this one breaks the classic rules. It is a delicious fried chicken with spicy Asian sauce and blue cheese. It might be easier to understand its appeal if you think of buffalo wings with their spicy sauce and blue cheese dressing, though those were nowhere near my thoughts when I conceived this one. I was just thinking about Jerry, and how good this crazy combo is.Serves 2Vegetable oil, for frying2 (8 oz/227 g) portions of natural, organic or free-range boneless, skinless chicken breast½ cup/63 g all-purpose flour2 large eggs¼ cup/60 ml milk1 tsp/6 g salt1 tsp/2 g coarsely ground black pepper1 cup/100 g panko bread crumbs1½ cups/237 g cooked Yello Rice (page 215) or other aromatic rice 6 oz/170 g crumbled blue cheese¾ cup/177 ml Thai sweet chili sauce (we use Mae Ploy brand)½ cup/118 ml Sriracha ½ recipe The Usual Suspects (page 101)In a deep fryer or heavy skillet, heat vegetable oil to 350°F/177°C. If you’re using a skillet, the oil should be deep enough to immerse your chicken breasts halfway.Put the flour in a wide bowl. Beat the eggs with the milk in a second wide bowl, and the salt, pepper and panko in a third wide bowl. Line them up. Dredge the chicken in the flour, shaking off the excess. Dip it in the egg wash, then dredge in the panko. Go back for another dip in the egg and another in the panko.Fry in the oil, turning as needed until dark golden. Time here depends on a few variables. The magic of frying is that as long as the oil is consistently in the 350°F/ 177°C to 375°F/191°C range, the food is done when it is brown. Magic. (But it will probably take at least 6 minutes per side, FYI.)I prefer a very warm 12-inch/30 cm plate for each serving. This one deserves a dramatic presentation! Place the rice in a tight pile, resembling an upside-down coffee cup. Sprinkle on the blue cheese; it’s OK if some rolls off. Put the yard bird (Charlie Parker reference) on top of all, then pour on the sweet chili. Drizzle the Sriracha over the plate and the chicken. This is easy if you just squirt it from the bottle; act like the dudes on TV and stripe the heck out of the plate, getting a decent amount on the chicken. Top with The Usual Suspects. Jerry would have this with a Singha brewski.Chef’s Tip: It’s important to use jasmine rice or another aromatic one, like basmati, in this recipe. It’s so weird it needs that exotic note. For (your favorite deity)’s sake, do not use boil-in-a-bag rice. It will not be a success, no matter what the label says. 218 THE BEST COMFORT FOOD ON THE PLANETLatex MarinaraThis isn’t my grandmother’s marinara recipe, but it’s inspired by her chunky, unrefined cooking. Kids had two jobs in the kitchen when she was making sauce. We squeezed tomatoes and grated cheese. You didn’t want to be on cheese grating, and you didn’t want to think much about what might be in the cheese you ate later. Nanna Connie made her sauce rough and chunky, which you can do with this recipe, or you can pass it through a food mill to make it smooth. Why is it called Latex? It got that name long ago, when the restaurant was half-built and I’d made the first pot of sauce. I was putting it away while talking over paint choices, and the container of sauce got labeled “latex.” The name stuck, though it might be more accurate to call it oil-based. Note that when recipes call for Latex, I mean the smooth, food-milled version.Makes about a quart/946 ml6 tbsp/90 ml olive oil4 whole cloves garlic½ cup/66 g onion, sliced thinlyPinch ground cloves28 oz/794 g canned tomatoes2 tbsp/34 g tomato paste (optional)SaltCoarsely ground black pepperHeat the olive oil in a heavy, nonreactive 3-quart/3 L pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and toast until golden, 3 or 4 minutes. Add the onion and let it sweat about 6 minutes, until translucent, sweet and soft. Add the cloves. Simmer for 5 minutes. Dump in the can of tomatoes. Simmer for an hour and a half, until the tomatoes break down. If necessary, mash with a potato masher (the wavy kind will work better than the grid kind). Taste. It will be highly acidic. Add salt to taste, which will neutralize the acid. There’s no need for sugar. If the texture is too loose or the flavor too thin, stir in the tomato paste. Add pepper to taste.Leave it chunky if that’s what you like. Otherwise, put the sauce through a food mill. Don’t use a food processor; you need to get the seeds out or the sauce will be bitter.This keeps for weeks and freezes well. COMPONENTS 219We hope youenjoyed this EYB Book PreviewThe complete book is available from all major booksellers. Or use the "Buy Book" button and help support EYB.Next >