When you can't make pie . . .

So we had 3 pie apples. That's right just 3. When we bought the house, we were provided with a map of our trees and the first tree when you enter the garden was labled "Gravenstein - pie apples." It's a young dwarf tree, shorter than my husband. So we were excited that it managed to produce even 3 apples. But the thing is . . . 3 apples are not enough for pie. And then we realized that 3 apples would be plenty for a dutch baby pancake. Have you ever had a dutch baby? Have you tasted it's puffy, buttery, skillet-baked deliciousness? No? Then you are missing out. The dutch baby goes by many names, but it's basically a puffy pancake baked in a cast iron skillet in the oven in more butter than most folks want to know about. I adapted a recipe off epicurious.com for the Big Apple Pancake, substituting our Gravensteins and almond extract for vanilla (which made it fantastically, subtly, almondy). The result? Probably the best damn pancake we've ever had. Try it. Try it soon. Apple season is upon us.

Cooking Technique: Searing Meat for Stew

If you plan to make a stew, assuming it's not something unusual in which the meat should not be browned, as in a blanquette de veau, follow these steps to ensure the best flavor:

-season meat with salt and fresh ground pepper and then dredge the meat in flour
-shake off excess flour piece by piece (not doing this diligently guarantees poor results)
-get healthy amount of oil very hot in skillet (choose the right pan: very low and outward sloping sides to give steam a direct route into the atmosphere so as not to steam meat)
-set pieces of meat in hot fat so that there is ample space between each piece and brown on all sides

Note: the pan you make the stew in does not and should not be the same pan you brown the meat in, since the shapes are so different they could never serve the same purpose.

Sauteed Salmon

One of my favorite ways to cook salmon is to saute it in olive oil with salt and pepper. It's one of those challenging techniques that doesn't involve lots of time or ingredients. Here are the steps:

-Make sure salmon is nice and dry. Sprinkle on both sides with salt and fresh ground pepper (only one side if thin, such as tail piece).
-Heat skillet over medium flame. The best kind of skillets are either cast iron or low-carbon steel. Not only do they function properly, they feel good to use.
-Add oil to skillet. It should become hot very quickly. You know it's hot when it ripples in the pan. If pan is too hot oil will smoke. If it smokes, it's too hot. Let it cool off the flame or dump it out and start over.
-Lay fish into oil. It should not stick. Test it by sliding the pan to see if the fish is loose.
-The best part: let the fish sizzle in the pan and see how long you can go on one side. Check the underside to make sure it's not burning. One of the most beautiful things is a piece of salmon that is becoming golden brown on its underside as the salmon cooks its way up the fillet. Cook it to your doneness. If you want both sides seared, flip it over and let the top side cook briefly, what Thomas Keller calls "kissing". Voila.

p.s. The ultimate tool for cooking fish is what professionals call a fish spatula, shown by yours truly in the picture. I have seen these marketed as "batter stirrers" and other such nonsense. Who needs a batter stirrer? Anyway, if you like to cook fish, buy one. They are anywhere from $8 to $20. Although I as a rule hate overpriced items, I do love that I have a wood-handled fish spatula that cost, if I remember correctly, around $17 at a restaurant supply shop in New Orleans. It has held up well, and every time I pick it up I am transported back to the thousands of other pieces of fish I have cooked with it.

Life in the Pacific Northwest: Fresh Halibut

Last Friday we had a handyman out to the house. He was supposed to come at nine in the morning, by three o'clock he had still not shown up, so I gave him a call and found out he had been cutting halibut cheeks all day with his son who just got back from a fishing trip, and that he was running late (Gee, thanks). Though I will never understand handyman time, my ears perked up when he said halibut cheeks. "Can you bring me some?" I asked. "Sure," he said. "How about a whole fish?"

It was fourteen pounds, fresh-smelling if not exactly the most pristine specimen (note fin decay), and a lot of fun to butcher. A halibut is what's considered a flat fish, so it has 4 fillets instead of two. Very easy to cut up and skin, and in addition to eating lots of fresh fish we now have two gallons of fish stock in our freezer. Looking forward to fish stew!

What time did he actually show up at our house, you ask? Six o'clock.