GREAT HOME COOKS : Home at the Range

“I remember one meal my father served us,” David Speakman says. “It was a big pot of beans and ham hocks with Wonder bread and butter, and he said, ‘I wonder what the poor people are eating?’ Later on I found out we were the poor people, but I couldn’t imagine what could be better than those beans and ham hocks!”

Of course, he’s recounting that story today with a glass of ’85 Schramsberg in his hand, in a room with a variety of fresh-cut exotic herbs hanging on the wall. Speakman is a sturdy man with a healthy shock of gray hair, faint traces of a Texas accent from his Wichita Falls upbringing and the poise that comes from having taught calculus at Pomona High School for 28 years. He’s cooking dinner, as he regularly does for himself and his wife, Lynne--and often as many as 10 guests as well--in this tiny Claremont kitchen.

“My father and grandfather were the cooks in the family,” he continues. “I’d call my father a good Southwestern cook--he always made more than anyone could eat, and that’s influenced my way of doing things.

“My uncle owned Lakeside Casino in Lake of the Ozarks back in the ‘40s. The restaurant there seated 300 just in the main dining room, looking out over the water. Seeing how a restaurant kitchen worked when I was young, how all the jobs fit together, just fascinated me, and it’s why I can cook a meal for 10 people in an hour and a half. It drives my wife crazy.”

He met his wife-to-be, in 1958 when he was stationed in Pasadena during his Army service. “The first time I met her,” he recalls, “she and her roommates didn’t cook, so I offered to make them a dinner. Lynne decided never to worry about (cooking) ever after. She sets the table, and it’s a work of art the way she does it. And she washes the dishes.”

Last year Speakman was selected as a Jaime Escalante teacher for creativity in math teaching--the national award named after the Garfield High calculus teacher on whose life the 1988 movie “Stand and Deliver” was based. He retains contact with many of his students and recites their achievements proudly; he’s also involved in a project based at Harvey Mudd College to get minority students into science and engineering. Lynne is a teacher too, at the kindergarten level (“She starts them out, I kick them out”).

When they retire next year, the Speakmans will move to Texas . . . and a home with a much larger kitchen than the tiny “Pullman-sized” one in Claremont. Altogether, the Texas connection continues to loom large in their lives. Country singer Johnny Cash has attended a party at their Claremont apartment, and his daughter Roseanne and her husband, Rodney Crowell--both major country stars in their own right--have stayed there.

Right now Speakman is finishing up the pasta for dinner, wearing a formal jalapeno-pattern apron. He recalls one of his father’s sayings: “It just costs a little more to go first class.”

“So on Saturdays,” he says to illustrate, “we’d wake up to the sound of Porterhouse steak sizzling in the morning. That’s what we had for breakfast--Porterhouse steak, maybe an egg or two. Something that would clog up the circulation of a charging rhino.

“I have a lot of friends back in Texas who weigh 250 to 300 pounds, but here in California I have to be very careful how much I serve. I’ll make the portions smaller, maybe increase the salad. Everybody out here is concerned about health problems and their weight and how they look.” (The big-eating Texas attitude is probably better represented by his friend Bryant Stone’s saying: “The worst meal I ever had was still pretty good.”)

“I’ve learned a lot about food here in California,” he adds. “We used to have a business selling sterling silverware through teachers’ associations, and then lawyers’ and medical groups. Eventually (precious metals speculator) Bunker Hunt cornered silver and drove us out of business, but it had allowed us to go to the finest restaurants. I get some of my ideas from restaurants.”

He’s cooked a relatively simple meal tonight. A salad, based on one served at a local Claremont restaurant, of chopped spinach and red cabbage, mixed with walnut meats and dressed with orange juice and a light vinaigrette. Fettuccine snappily flavored with herbs and lemon. A boneless pork roast with a fragrant, mouth-filling sauce based on homemade jalapeno-mango chutney, the sweet-sour effect mellowed by reduced dry Marsala wine.

“I like to cook with Marsala,” he says. “It has a good, nutty flavor when it’s reduced. It’s awful hard to find in Texas, though.” He’s also a big fan of Grand Marnier, which the Speakmans take in place of commercial nighttime cold medicines (“It’s cheaper, and it tastes better too”). This particular meal seems rather Californian in its openness to Italian, French and Asian influences, but another time he might put together a meal where grilled fish coexists with chicken-fried steak or Texas chili.

“When I do a dinner,” he says, “I don’t go for calorie-counting. It’s got to be an assault on the body. When I want clarified butter, I want a pound of clarified butter. And we’re both in good health.” Of course, it probably doesn’t hurt that the Speakmans rarely eat dessert.

And this seems to be a family tradition too. With that faint Texas accent deepening a little, he recalls a saying of his grandfather’s: “If you can serve them good food, why serve them some old cheap pie ?”

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“I like colors. I like changes of flavor. This is sort of my signature dish.”

LEMON-AND-HERB FETTUCCINE WITH RED AND GOLDEN SWEET PEPPERS

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 sweet red pepper, cut in julienne strips

1/4 sweet yellow pepper, cut in julienne strips

12 ounces fettuccine, cooked

1/4 cup butter, melted

4 tablespoons lemon-and-herb seasoning; or 3 tablespoons lemon pepper, 1/2 teaspoon basil, 1 tablespoon crushed rosemary, 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/8 teaspoon thyme

Place olive oil in medium skillet and saute red and yellow peppers until tender-crisp. Add fettuccine, butter and lemon-and-herb seasoning and toss. Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

454 calories; 374 mg sodium; 31 mg cholesterol; 16 grams fat; 66 grams carbohydrates; 11 grams protein; 0.42 gram fiber.

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“This was originally a lamb recipe,” says Speakman, “but rack of lamb is $9 a pound these days, and I asked myself whether you could do it with a good rack of pork. Nothing is as good as lamb, but this is pretty good. I made the sauce sweeter for the pork.” The seasoned salt Speakman prefers (Lindberg-Snider Porterhouse and Roast Seasoning, available at specialty butcher shops) reflects his tastes in having a stronger herbal flavor than most.

PORK LOIN ROAST WITH MARSALA-JALAPENO-MANGO CHUTNEY SAUCE

5 pounds pork loin, back bone removed

1 tablespoon seasoned salt

Pepper

2 tablespoons butter

2 large shallots, finely chopped

2 cups dry Marsala

1/4 cup Grand Marnier, optional

1 cup Marsala-Jalapeno-Mango Chutney, or hot Indian chutney such as Sharwood’s Bengal Hot

Rub roast with seasoned salt and pepper to taste. Insert meat thermometer in thickest part of roast. Roast at 425 degrees 40 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 degrees and cook until thermometer reaches 170 degrees, about 25 to 30 minutes.

While roast is cooking, melt butter in 1-quart saucepan and add shallots. Saute 2 minutes over medium heat. When shallots and butter start to brown, add 1 1/2 cups Marsala. Bring to boil and cook until alcohol evaporates, about 2 minutes. Add Grand Marnier and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium. Add Marsala-Jalapeno-Mango Chutney and whisk mixture until sauce flows easily from spoon. Keep sauce warm and covered until ready to serve.

Remove cooked roast from pan and set meat aside. Spoon excess fat from roasting pan and set pan over high heat. Add 1/2 cup Marsala, bring to boil and cook until alcohol evaporates, about 2 minutes, stirring and scraping bottom of pan. Reduce heat to medium-low and add Marsala-Jalapeno-Mango Chutney sauce. Whisk or stir until hot. If too thick, add 1 or more tablespoons water to bring to sauce consistency.

Slice pork roast into 8 chops, spoon sauce over and serve. Makes 8 California-sized servings, 4 Texas-sized servings.

Each California serving contains about:

499 calories; 852 mg sodium; 135 mg cholesterol; 19 grams fat; 27 grams carbohydrates; 44 grams protein; 0.02 gram fiber.

Marsala-Jalapeno-Mango Chutney

4 medium fresh mangoes

2 cups dry Marsala

3/4 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup light-brown sugar, packed

2 cups granulated sugar

2 large cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 cup honey

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup minced ginger root

2 tablespoons diced sweet red pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped jalapenos, or more to taste, seeded

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

Peel mangoes and remove flesh from pit. Chop flesh into chunks. Set aside.

Place Marsala in saucepan and reduce to 1 cup over high heat.

Place mangoes, reduced Marsala, raisins, brown sugar, granulated sugar, garlic, honey, lemon juice, vinegar, ginger root, red pepper, jalapenos, salt and pepper in large saucepan. Bring mixture to slow boil. Cook, stirring, 25 minutes. Process in blender or food processor until smooth. Makes 1 quart.

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