This appeared in the Toronto Star as my column on Father’s Day, 2007.
Bittersweet.
That lovely word perfectly evokes the wrenching but strangely joyful emotion that floods my heart when I think of my dear late dad: a complex, colourful man riddled with contradictions.
A tough wise guy wont to act like a character in the movie Goodfellas, Dr. Mel Schachter was a brilliant “boy wonder” raised during the ‘20s and ‘30s on streets like St. Urbain, Bagg and Esplanade in Montreal’s then Jewish immigrant ghetto. He was from a poor, mostly illiterate family with gangster roots in rural Russia.
In contrast, a learned yet tender obit published after his death in 2000 by the University of Alberta where he was the head of physiology for 20 years described him as “known internationally for his work on endogenous vasoactive substances.”
I learned the latter after I Googled him for this column, not because he ever boasted about his work. Ever the working-class rebel, he loathed pretension.
But there were clues to his professional success. Eminent colleagues like fellow physiologist Sir Andrew Huxley and flea aficionado Dame Miriam Rothschild attended lively dinner parties at our home.
On a humbler note, our pudgy pa often roamed the garden brandishing a butterfly net and looking a lot like Winnie the Pooh, in an effort to catch wasps or hornets so he could snag their venom for experiments.
Recently, I discovered he was a key researcher in the study of kinins: substances in the blood crucial to understanding inflammatory disease.
But Mel was more interested in listening to tapes of comedian Jackie Mason, reciting Robbie Burns, reading works by his hero Tolstoy and seeking out lox and bagels at a lone Jewish deli tucked away in the British white-bread suburb of North London where my family lived for 15 years.
My father had a temper which he directed mostly at fellow academics with whom he often butted heads.
His soft side appeared when he was funny, which was often, and hammed it up doing antics like “Dance of the Piglet” (a spoof of Swan Lake) on dainty tip-toes around the living room.
Mel, a slim young man who grew increasingly tubby as he aged, loved to eat. He also loved to cook.
I can see him now standing by our small stove, having cleared us and all extraneous objects to one side so he had space to wield his spatula, meticulously making salami and eggs for Sunday breakfast – a ritual that was bordering on sacred.
He worked as a short-order cook to put himself through McGill medical school which explains his specialties: Perfect scrambled eggs; fabulous French toast and the ultimate toasted bacon sandwich.
Beef Stroganoff, Mel’s favourite dish, was a family staple. I will make it as a tribute to my inimitable, complicated father Mel on Father’s Day.
Beef Stroganoff
My late mother Ruth (Nisse) Schachter was a Holocaust refugee from Latvia. She used to make Beef Stroganoff regularly and other East European dishes. My mum was adamant that this is a quick pan-fried dish, not a stew as it often is in restaurants. Also, you must use top-notch beef like tenderloin, sirloin or New York steak. She used brown (cremini) mushrooms. Don’t use low-fat sour cream or yogurt; they may curdle. I serve Beef Stroganoff over noodles – it’s delicious.
1½ lb/750 g beef tenderloin
1 lb/500g mushrooms, halved
½ tsp each: Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, peeled, chopped
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup beef or chicken stock
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
⅓ cup sour cream or plain yogurt
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Chopped fresh parsley
Cut beef into strips about 2 inches/5 cm long, 1 inch/2 cm wide and ¼ inch/1 cm thick. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat in large heavy skillet. Add mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt and pepper; cook, stirring, until browned, about 4 min. Transfer to bowl.
Add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to skillet. Using tongs, add only enough beef to fit in single layer. Cook, in batches if necessary, turning once, until browned on both sides, about 3 min. Transfer to bowl.
Reduce heat to low. Add onion to skillet. Cook, stirring, until soft, about 2 to 4 min. Add flour. Cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits from bottom of skillet, about 1 min. Whisk in stock and mustard; cook, whisking, about 2 min. or until thickened.
In small bowl, combine sour cream and 2 tablespoons of sauce from skillet. Add to sauce in skillet; cook, stirring, until heated through, about 1 min.
Return mushrooms and beef to skillet. Stir to coat with sauce. Cook until heated through, about 1 min. Taste; add salt and pepper if necessary. Garnish with parsley. Serve with egg noodles.
Makes about 6 servings.