This annoys. Granted, Dr. Claw was a little bold with his clandestine operation, calling a lot of attention to himself online and on various food television outlets, even, on one occasion, giving a Facebook tongue lashing to a similar guerrilla operation that uses his delivery method (They’ve since made nice, it appears). But in a time when there really aren’t so many jobs to be had, and what cooking jobs there are have mostly been spoken for by an immigrant population who’ll work for next to nothing, people have to do SOMETHING. Just ask illegal immigrants who walk the streets selling empanadas out of baby strollers.

The concern for public health standards is well understood in this kitchen-office. There’s some specific knowledge required to safely produce and deliver food. Some people do not know what they’re doing, and they should not be doing it. But Dr. Claw is no stranger to the food business. He began his lobster roll operation as an experienced culinary professional, not a hobbyist. And then, there are those who do know what they’re doing, blatantly ignore what’s best for the public’s health, and are allowed to remain in business on a very large scale. Case in point:

Since being served with a notice, Dr. Claw has begun selling t-shirts proclaiming “Lobster Rolls are not a Crime” on the internet to his loyal fans. In any case, here’s a video depicting Claw doing what he does best. There is NOTHING happening in this video that should scare you. Dangerous transgressions are aplenty in fully licensed, Grade A approved industrial kitchens.  Now, with the “economy the way it is,” some regulations on small food businesses should perhaps be changed to allow for properly maintained home kitchens to serve as headquarters for knowledgeable, experienced culinary professionals. But even if the laws don’t change, this sort of thing is going to continue to go on. It’s a way of life for culinary artisans all over the world, and has been since time immemorial. Should we now expect a “war” on underground food entrepreneurs? Or even worse, reality food television that follows underground chefs, blurring out their faces and disguising their faces? Perhaps Dr. Claw’s brashness was part of a bigger picture. Whatever the plan is, let’s hope he keeps his fingers out of his mouth in front of the camera.

When you have beautiful fish such as these exquisite filets of Dover sole, please don’t tamper with it so much. In this case I sea-salted and peppered each filet, heated the cast iron skillet to wicked-hot and then removed it from the stove. I gently placed each filet into the pan and let them cook on the residual heat for about ten seconds on each side. Onto a plate they went, where they received enough olive oil and lemon juice to mingle with the juices of the fish and give me something to soak up with a crust of bread.

The Christmas meal in Croatia nearly always includes bakalar, a simple stew of dried cod and potatoes. It’s beyond delectable. The Croatian word bakalar is not only the name of the dish, but also of the fish. It’s a derivation of bacalao, the Spanish word for cod. The highly prized cod fish cannot be gotten from the Adriatic Sea, so it’s imported to Croatia in its durable, salted and dried form from various colder-water locales. It’s assumed that bakalar was introduced to Croatia by Dalmatian sailors who’d been on ships in the North Atlantic, and it’s now a Croatian tradition.

To make stewed bakalar, you will need:

1 lb dried salt cod
2 lbs. peeled and large diced potatoes
8 oz. large diced onion
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 oz. fresh parsley, roughly chopped
8 oz. olive oil
salt, pepper to taste

Wash the salt cod well and soak overnight in water. Wash again, then cover with fresh water in a large pot and cook on a low flame until tender, but not falling apart (5-6 hours). Remove the cod from the water (which you will reserve), lay it on a clean cutting board and carefully remove the bones, taking care to keep the meat in large pieces. Quickly saute the onion, garlic and parsley in olive oil in the cooking pot, then add the potatoes and stir until coated with oil. Add the reserved cooking water and simmer the potatoes until tender, then return the cod meat to the pot. Simmer slowly for an additional 20-30 minutes without stirring. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with freshly baked crusty bread for soaking up the broth.

You can, as in most cases, adjust aspects of the recipe to suit your tastes. Like much Croatian food, bakalar is a very simple, satisfying and homey dish, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I was thinking Mediterranean when I went to town on this one, but it looks pretty Asian. Well, Spaghetti Bolognese is Asian-Mediterranean fusion of a sort, what with the Chinese purportedly inventing the noodle a few days after the Big Bang. So I shouldn’t feel awkward for depicting this little Monday Night at the Improv routine: The Green Bean, Red Cabbage and Squid Tumble-Down. I’ll even reveal how it was done.

You need:

12 oz. cleaned, well-drained squid tubes and tentacles (as dry as possible)
8 oz. fresh green beans or haricots verts, de-stemmed
6 oz. red cabbage, ever so thinly sliced
2 giant cloves of garlic, fileted
1/2 tsp. red chile flakes
4 tbsp. roughly chopped Italian parsley
3 tbsp. your favorite olive oil
1 oz. dry white wine
salt, pepper and additional olive oil to taste

A word on “fileted garlic”: I recently bought a massive head of organic garlic, the cloves of which are roughly the size of a screaming infant’s clenched fist. By fileting, I mean slicing the cloves lengthwise to roughly a millimeter in thickness. When prepared in this fashion, the garlic behaves like another vegetable rather than a smattering of undiscernible vegetal fragments.

Do blanch the green beans in generously salted boiling water for one minute, then drop 3/4 of the sliced cabbage in with them for nearly a minute further. Drain these, then immerse them in a bath of ice water to halt further cooking. Once cooled, drain the cooked vegetables again, please.

Heat the olive oil in a wide skillet over a high flame until it begins to smoke, then add the garlic and red chile flakes. The garlic will begin to brown quite quickly, so add the blanched vegetables to absorb the heat and prevent further browning. Toss it all in the skillet to evenly coat the vegetables with the olive oil. Once the pan and its contents have become quite hot again, add the squid. Toss this all about over high heat for nearly a minute and a half, or until the liquid from the watery squid has reduced. Add the wine. Season with salt and pepper, then add the parsley. After no more than a mere 20 seconds further of tossing over high flame, the contents of the pan are ready to be served. Garnish the plate with the remaining raw cabbage. Drizzling additional olive oil over the melange will cause it go down the hatch that much more easily and leave you with something flavorful for dipping with a nice bread.

The key to success in sauteeing is high heat, constant movement and short cooking time. Remember this always.