Karen Gaudette
Claim to Foodie Fame: Journalist, Food Writer and Blogger (Seattle Times, PCC Stir-fry blog)
What is your earliest memory of cooking?
My earliest food memory is the scent and taste of my mom's homemade doughnuts. She'd fry them in her Dutch oven, then shake them in a brown paper bag filled with sugar, making a merry sound. I recall sneaking into the kitchen time and time again as a toddler to swipe a fresh doughnut from the platter when I thought she wasn't looking (even though she always knew).
What is your idea of comfort food?
I adore warm Japanese homestyle delights, like katsudon (tonkatsu-style pork served atop a warm bed of rice with a savory onion/egg broth) and niku udon (udon noodles in beef broth with thinly sliced beef and scallions). Both warm my insides and satisfy my craving for my mom's cooking.
How did your family honor food traditions in your household?
My mom is from Japan and my dad from Massachusetts. So our tradition was to vary dinner offerings regularly between both cuisines. Mom was just as adept at putting together a New England-style boiled dinner as she was whipping up a quick yakisoba, plate of gyoza, or platter of tonkatsu. Each Christmas, we'd bake a Christmas cake (yellow cake with chocolate frosting) and decorate it to our heart's content.
Who first taught you how to cook or inspired in you a love of food and cooking?
Growing up I was too busy with school and playing sports to really get into cooking, aside from putting together Sunday breakfast for my parents. I credit my college years for instigating my love of food due to the diverse eating habits of my friends, who hailed from around the country and world. I grew up not caring for fish, mushrooms, cheese, chilis, and many other foods I now count as essential to my well-being. Watching so many friends savor those foods taught me to expand my palate and introduced me to so many different culinary traditions that I then looked to re-create in my own kitchen.
Share an example of one of your family food traditions.
A big one in my family was driving an hour from the Kitsap Peninsula to Uwajimaya in Seattle to load up on all of Mom's favorite foods from her homeland. This was a huge deal in the early 1980s when it was still rare to find Asian ingredients in conventional supermarkets. Plus, any trip to Uwajimaya meant many delicious meals in the near future!
What is your favorite dish or meal to cook?
Beef Burgundy from the classic Fannie Farmer Cookbook. It's rich, decadent, time-consuming and makes the whole house smell incredible. I like to serve it with oven-roasted potatoes, crusty bread, and a crisp salad, and sometimes a beautiful carrot soup.
If you could invite anyone to your holiday dinner — living, dead, or imaginary — who would it be?
Mark Twain. As a fellow writer, it would thrill me to no end to hear first-hand about all the things he'd seen on his many travels, the people he'd met and foods he'd eaten during his fascinating life.
Mom's Homestyle Okonomiyaki
Okonomiyaki is a delicious savory pancake prepared throughout Japan with regional variations. Mom hails from Kobe and favors the flattened variety over the stacked style piled high with ingredients that is
common in Hiroshima. This is the simple, homestyle version she prepared for us in the 1980s, when Asian ingredients were not as readily available in our small town. Make the recipe yours by using pork or seafood in place of the ground beef, with a different variety of shredded vegetables, or with dashi in place of bouillon. This recipe is a great way to use up leftover vegetables and meat.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cube beef bouillon (I prefer beef Better Than Bouillon paste)
1 yellow onion
1 pound ground beef
Salt and pepper to taste
About 2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 head of green cabbage, sliced as thinly as possible
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
Tonkatsu sauce (I prefer Bulldog brand)
Method:
In a small bowl, combine bouillon with 1 cup boiling water, stir and let cool. While you're waiting, dice the onion and in a medium bowl combine with ground beef, salt and pepper. Form mixture into 1-inch meatballs, flatten them, then set aside.
Back to the batter. In a large bowl, gradually add bouillon water to one cup flour until the mixture reaches a thick pancake batter consistency, then add the egg and combine thoroughly. Add thinly sliced cabbage to batter and combine thoroughly.
Heat and grease a griddle or large frying pan on medium heat. Pour out pancakes in desired size and top with as many beef disks as possible. Like a pancake, cook first side until golden brown and the second side until the beef is done. Serve topped with a drizzle of tonkatsu sauce and a side of your favorite Asian pickles.
