One of my indulgences with Rick's Cafe is being able to put items on the menu that I miss, and I assume (hope) others do too. Hamburgers were obvious, had to have them, along with Chili Con Carne. Our Hungarian Goulash with dumplings is an old recipe from a cooking class in Portland in the 70's, but a tribute to the Hungarian connection in the film "Casablanca" through the director Michael Curtiz and a nostalgic reminder of my 4 years in Prague, Czech Republic. "Casablanca" was very popular in the Czech Republic, with the Czech freedom fighter, Victor Lazlo (as played by Paul Henreid), although the Czechs were not too happy that Curtiz chose to give the character a Hungarian name! I lived 8 years in Japan and love the country and its food. Although tempura was always one of my favorite dishes, the many times I tried to make it myself resulted in disappointment. With all the fresh fish and vegetables here in Casablanca I was inspired to find a good tempura batter recipe, and after several tries finally found something relatively foolproof (the secret is soda water) and Tempura was put on the menu, and is quite popular. It's always bothered me that we have a starter, called a Smoked Salmon deli plate, composed of lovely Norwegian smoked salmon, onions, capers, cream cheese and...toast. I've never asked friends to bring bagels from New York as it would make me too nostalgic, and we could never depend on a supply. I don't know what made me think of it but last Saturday I suddenly wondered why I didn't see if our kitchen could make bagels...they are undaunted about trying new things, especially El Baz the pastry chef. I easily found a French recipe with a picture. What followed has been a "Bagel Marathon" and undoubtedly a one-week return to the Atkins diet for me! The first try was Saturday night, and El Baz mixed up some ingredients, resulting in very flat bagels which I didn't bother to taste. The second try was Sunday afternoon, and was close - they just needed to be a bit more plump. I ate one with cream cheese with an omlet for brunch. Sunday night another batch, although in the rush of orders El Baz forgot about the bagels, and they rested a bit too long - nevertheless he ressurected a bagel from the earlier batch to bring me a smoked salmon plate for dinner...at 1:00am - yummy. I didn't want to think about bagels today, but at lunchtime the Maitre D' said El Baz had made a batch of bagels he thought were good. I went to look and almost cried they were so beautiful! Friends Larry and Lorna Dewitt were having lunch and Larry had ordered the salmon plate, just a bit too early for the bagel to cool down. They gamely agreed to taste a bagel after finishing their lunch. It almost brought them to tears too - they, like I, just didn't realize how much they missed bagels until they tasted what we'll now call El Baz' El Bagels! |
