Cookbook Of The Day

Palmer House Cook Book

2012-01-30T12:16:00.003-05:00

Ernest Amiet was a classically trained chef who trained in France, Switzerland and England before landing in Chicago at the Palmer House.

The Palmer House is still in existence in Chicago. The first version, was built as a wedding present for his bride by Potter Palmer. Thirteen days later, it burned to the ground in the Great Chicago Fire. Which does not sit well with the superstitious. Undaunted, Palmer signed a slip of paper and was granted a loan of over a million and a half dollars (which some believe to be the largest signature loan secured during 1871) and set out to rebuild it.

When Chef Amiet arrived he set out to bring the finest dining experience to the hotel's visitors. He was a big success and received literally thousands of requests for recipes for dishes served at the Palmer House. Finally, he decided to write a cook book because,

“During the past fifteen years I have kept a careful record of the requests for recipes by patrons of the dining room…this book is made up of theses dishes.

Home cooking is altogether different from the wholesale method used in a large hotel. Therefore, I evolved a plan whereby even beginners could produce my restaurant dishes in the kitchens of their own homes.”

Published in 1940, the Palmer House Cook Book offers up over a thousand recipes. The first half of the book offers up breakfast, luncheon and dinner menus and recipes to follow. In the second part, a series of basic recipes for cakes, sauces, meats and hors d'oeuvre are listed. Unlike many cook books from this era; the Palmer House Cook Book features many pictures to illustrate its food. As one might expect, photo’s of food from nearly 75 years ago can be a bit challenging.

While the cream pie holds up, the boiled chicken and potatoes looks a bit dated.

Who would order boiled chicken in a restaurant?

The recipe titles are quite grandiose and offer a look into the mind of a chef – or perhaps a hotel staff bringing “the Continent” to the middle of America. The pairings often seem to have nothing to do with one another.

Boiled Fresh Ox Tongue Polonaise served with Noodles Countessa.

Breast of Guinea Hen General Grant and a Siberian Coupe for dessert.

Bisque Idaho and Batavia Mutton Curry.

Here is a little vegetable dish for the family tables.

Spinach Mussolini

Six ounces of spinach well drained, 2 slices of bacon cut in strips, 4 thin slices of cucumber, 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, salt and pepper to taste.

Slightly sauté the bacon, add the cucumbers, cook for a second and then add the spinach, butter, salt and pepper, stir slightly and cook for a few minutes and serve.

Now ask yourself, when is the last time you had Spinach Mussolini, so cook some up for the family.

Dining With The Washingtons

2012-01-27T13:26:00.004-05:00

As I stated in the Lucindaville Abecedary, Dining With The Washingtons is a glorious book. It may look like a stuffy old academic tome from the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, but it is a breath of fresh air when you open the covers. Yes, it is a well researched scholarly book about George and Martha Washington, but the focus is about an area often overlooked in most histories – it is about the kitchen – or more specifically, how the kitchen impacts the dining room.

This interdisciplinary study starts in the kitchen and uses this space to view everything around it. It begins with the house as a focal point for entertaining such as, who came and why. George Washington’s life of public service made him a distinguished guest and those traveling through Virginia became his guests. Mount Vernon became one of the first private homes to offer its guests ice cream. In 1784 a “Cream Machine for Ice” was purchased in England for the sum of 1.13.3 pounds. It must have been a hit as three years later and expenditure of $7 was noted for another ice cream maker and the next year a full five shillings for ice cream spoons. Seriously, who wants to eat ice cream with plain soup spoon?

Ice Cream "Machine"

There is section on how everyday meals would have been prepared. While not incorporating the same pomp and circumstance of “state” dinners, the meal preparation was executed with military precision. The household staff, consisting of Washington’s slaves, began work before sunrise and ended late in the evening. A diary of the cook’s day from the 1790’s tells us that the cook, Lucy, along with her husband, Frank Lee, the butler would rise at 4 a. m. to begin work. A normal workday for Lucy would end with cleaning the kitchen at 8 p. m. When company was expected, the day would run much longer as Washington generally served his guests at 9 p.m.

Larder at Mount Vernon

Washington’s lavish meals were raised at Mount Vernon. Washington was a serious student of agriculture. He was one of the first farmers to abandon the once lucrative crop of tobacco for more farm friendly grain, which he milled and sold. A world traveler, Washington was fond of imported drink, but in his desire to “shop American” he replace imported ale with local beer. Especially fond of Robert Hare’s porter from Philadelphia, Washington was saddened when the brewery burned and wrote of his sorrow, “on public as well as private accounts.”

No book on dining would be complete without recipes. Noted food historian Nancy Carter Crump assembled a lovely collections of recipes that would have graced the tables of the Washington and translated them into a usable collection for today’s kitchens. For historical sake, here is one of Martha Washington’s actual recipes for you to try.

Take 40 eggs divide the whites from the yolks & beat them to a froth then work four pounds of butter to a cream & put the whites of the eggs to it a Spoon full at a time till it is well work’d then put 4 pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same manners then put it in the Youlks of eggs & 5 pounds of flower & 5 pounds of fruit. 2 hours will bake it add to it half an ounce of mace & nutmeg half a pint of wine and some frensh brandy.

Even if you could care less about history, this is one culinary romp you will want on your shelf.

The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato and Sorbetto

2012-01-26T12:08:00.004-05:00

Years ago...

I would venture into Whole Foods and grab a pint of the most delicious blood orange sorbet made by Ciao Bella.

Then the evil queen...

also known as Oprah, decided to make Ciao Bella's Blood Orange Sorbet one of her "favorite things."

Poof...

It was gone. Oprah's minions set out to eat it all. It was a full three years before one could find Ciao Bella's Blood Orange Sorbet in any store.

So you can just imagine our unmitigated joy when we found out that they were writing a cookbook. AS you know, we have a plethora of ice creamy cookbooks at our disposal. But this is a gem. In the first place, they make the whole process rather easy. Well about as easy as making ice cream can be, provided one owns a big ol' ice cream machine. But still...

Since moving far far away from the dazzling Whole Foods, transporting ice cream has become a bit of a hassle. So the DIY approach suits us well and if there is anyone we want to DIY ice cream with it would have to be F.W. Pearce & Danilo Zecchin. If you don't believe us, check out this New Yorker article.

Now we just love chocolate, but it is a bitch to clean up in our Simac. Next to the blood orange, this is terrific.

Classic Chocolate Gelato
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (about 60% cacao), finely chopped
4 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar

In a heavy-bottom saucepan, combine the milk and cream. Place over medium-low heat and cook, stirring occasionally so a skin doesn’t form, until tiny bubbles start to form around the edges and the mixture reaches a temperature of 170°F. Turn off the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder. Add the chopped chocolate, and stir or whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth.

Meanwhile, in a medium heat-proof bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth. Gradually whisk in the sugar until it is well incorporated and the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Temper the egg yolks by very slowly pouring in the hot milk mixture, whisking continuously. Return the custard to the saucepan and place over low heat. Cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and it reaches a temperature of 185°F. Do not bring to a boil.

Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean bowl and cool to room temperature, stirring every 5 minutes or so. To cool the custard quickly, make an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice and water and placing the bowl with the custard in it; stir the custard until cooled. Once completely cooled, cover and refrigerate until very cold, at least 4 hours or overnight.

Pour the custard into the container of an ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.

If you don't live next door to the Whole Foods, grab up a copy of this book before summer and make your own.
If you do live next door, make your own anyway because one never knows when Oprah will open her mouth and steal away your favorite sorbet.

Not A Cookbook -- A Birthday

2012-01-24T13:00:00.003-05:00

Edith Newbold Jones, 1870 by Edward Harrison May

Today is Edith Wharton's 150th birthday. In that spirit, we thought we would go back and look a couple of cookbook posts on the Edwardian era. Enjoy.

Edwardian Glamour Cooking Without Tears

Last Dinner on the Titanic

Ancient Grains for Modern Meals

2012-01-21T12:46:00.002-05:00

This past year we cooked a lot of “ancient grains” in our kitchen, prompted by a birthday gift of 5 pounds of quinoa. Yes, Virginia, I am the kind of girl who finds 5 pounds of quinoa a spectacular birthday gift. Along with quinoa we consumed a fair amount of farro. Not a week passes without grits and our bread is enriched with wheat berries.

Now here is a word about incorporating “ancient grains” into your diet. Before you get all freaked out about what to do with them, just think of quinoa, farro, barley, oat berries as a substitute for rice. Want to be more adventurous? Pick up a copy of Maria Speck’s Ancient Grains for Modern Meals. Maria Speck takes and old world approach to cooking, stating that she doesn’t own a lot of cooking equipment. She has a mortar and pestle rather than a food processor. She does, however, have two different grain mills, as one might expect. Many of these recipes walk you through making the grains first. Once the grains are cooked then the remaining ingredients are prepared and the dish is put together.

This year, for Christmas(it actually arrived before Christmas, but that's another story...)we got a grain grinder. It is not the spiffy German one that Speck owns, but a silver behemoth whose bucket was cracked. Upon our first use, we covered the kitchen in a fog of blue cornmeal. We then turned our blue cornmeal into a green cornbread. A good first effort!

Health professional tell us we need more whole grain. So if you think that might just be a bowl of oatmeal every now and then you desperately need Ancient Grains for Modern Meals. One of the easiest grains to both find and cook is probably couscous. Like all packaged foods, buy the plain, whole-wheat couscous and not a box that has already been flavored. Remember, your job is to add the flavor. This citrus couscous makes a lovely side dish, especially for roasted chicken.

Orange and Lemon Couscous

2 large oranges

1 lemon

3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup whole-wheat couscous

2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Finely grate the zest of one orange and squeeze the oranges until you have about 3/4 cup juice. Finely grate the zest of the lemon, and squeeze the lemon half to get 2 tablespoons juice. (Reserve the remaining lemon for another use.) Whisk together the orange juice, lemon juice and zest in a liquid measuring cup or small bowl.

2. Bring the chicken broth, olive oil, salt and pepper to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the juice mixture and the couscous. Cover and let sit until the liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes.

3. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper. Fluff the grains with two forks, sprinkle with the parsley, and serve right away.

See, that was easy. Now that you have jumped right in you, too, will be getting large bags of quinoa for your birthday. Lets hope they throw in a copy of Ancient Grains for Modern Meals. Happy Birthday.

Handheld Pies

2012-01-20T12:37:00.003-05:00

Handheld Pies was one of many Christmas cookbooks. The reason I got his book as a present was clearly stated. My friend, Ann believed that she would like to eat some of the handheld pies on the cover. Seemed like a good plan.

The book is fairly straightforward. The twist in the book is that the pies are backed in a small, transportable manner. Little tarts in cupcake tins, cream pies in preserve jars, and tiny little pop tarts. The recipes are familiar, pared down versions of pumpkin pie, cherry pie, coconut cream, lemon meringue and even a chicken potpie in a little pot.

Sarah Billingsly and Rachel Wharton visited a vast array of pie shops from East to West, North to South and offer up a short profile of these shops. The book offers up several crust options including a plain, flaky butter crust and a cornmeal crust. Then there are a series of filling options, like cherry, blueberry, and apple.

Blueberry Filling

3 cups/340 g fresh or frozen blueberries (if frozen, do not thaw)
1/4 cup/50 g sugar
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)

In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mix gently so as not to crush the berries. Use immediately.

You can pick a crust and make a pie in a jar or little pop tart pies.

As you can see, the recipes are familiar but the deliver provides several cool options for presenting and pie that one might have in their repertoire.

Not A Cookbook -- A Blogger Cooks

2012-01-04T14:48:00.003-05:00

We posted about Countess Morphy's Recipes of All Nations. Recently our reader, Chandra, found an old copy of this book and decided to cook the entire book. Seriously...

She began her quest with this question: "Where do I buy a whole pig's head?" Indeed!

Here is the link to her site: Chandra Cooks Recipes of All Nations.

Chandra, we are rooting for you. We will keep checking in.

Happy Christmas Cooking

2011-12-25T16:01:00.002-05:00

Happy Cooking

Our newest little elf, Treat, wishes you and yours happy cooking during this holiday season.

Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook

2011-12-23T11:55:00.004-05:00

Christmas is here. And don't you wish you had some help with all that Christmas entails. Today, on Martha Stewart's blog, she featured a little party she had for her household staff at Bedford. All 17 of them.

You have no idea how much work I could get done with a staff of 17. I would be writing my blog (actually my blog writer would be writing my blog) and I would right now be asking for nice hot tea with a pumpkin scone from Starbucks. Since Starbucks no longer has pumpkin scones (that is another blog entry...) I would have my baker make and remake pumpkin scone until they were just like Starbucks. (Note to self: Have my secretary call Howard Schultz and give me that recipe.) But I digress...

After years of doing up Christmas in her magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart compiled a Christmas cookbook, Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook. It is chocked to the gills with Christmas recipes, over 600 of them. Frankly, you do not have enough Christmases left on this earth to make all this stuff. So start now.

The recipes tend to be overcomplicated. And long. There is section of photos, but most of the recipes require the use of your imagination as to how they will look. Here is a recipe for that Italian classic, panettone. Martha likes to bake them in half-pound brown paper bags. But then again, Miss Martha has someone to go out an find half-pound brown paper bags. Feel free to get some of those little panettone cups from King Arthur's Flour.

Miniature Panettone

For Sponge:
1/3 cup warm water
1 envelope active dry yeast
½ cup all-purpose flour

For Bread Dough:
1/2 cup warm milk
1 envelope active dry yeast
2/3 cup sugar
4 large whole eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, plus more, melted, for bowl, plastic wrap, and bags
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
2 cups mixed dried and candied fruit, such as currants, orange peel, apricots, and cherries, finely chopped
Grated zest of 1 orange
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

1. Make sponge: Pour the warm water into a small bowl, and sprinkle with yeast. Stir with a fork until yeast has dissolved. Let stand until foamy, 5-10 minutes. Stir in flour, and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes.

2. Make the dough: Pour warm milk into a small bowl, and sprinkle with yeast. Stir to dissolve, and let stand until foamy, 5-10 minutes. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, 2 egg yolks, and vanilla. Whisk milk mixture into egg mixture.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and flour on medium speed until mixture is crumbly. With mixer on low speed, slowly add egg mixture; continue beating on medium speed until smooth.

4. Add sponge mixture; beat on high speed until dough is elastic and long strands form when dough is stretched, about 5 minutes. Beat in dried fruit and grated zests. Transfer dough to a buttered bowl, and cover with a piece of buttered plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

5. Fold 12 paper bags down to make cuffs, about 3” deep. Generously butter the bags inside and out; set aside. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface; knead a few times, turning each time, until smooth. Divide the dough into 12 equal parts, and knead into balls. Drop balls into prepared bags. Place bags on a large rimmed baking sheet; cover loosely with buttered plastic. Let rise in a warm place until dough reaches just below the tops of the bags, 45 to 60 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, with rack in lower third. In a small bowl whisk together remaining egg yolk and the cream. Brush tops of dough with egg mixture. Using kitchen scissors, cut an X, centered, in the top of each loaf. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F and continue baking until loaves are deep golden brown, about 20 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. If they start to get too brown, drape a piece of aluminum foil over tops. Transfer baking sheet to a wire rack; let panettone cool completely; dust with confectioners’ sugar.

I totally recommend this recipe, especially if you have twelve staff a-leapin! If not, buy yourself a panettone and stuff it into a paper bag. And to all... a good-nite.

Mrs. Bridges' Upstairs, Downstairs Cookery Book

2011-12-18T14:58:00.003-05:00

Today we are featuring a television tie-in cookbook, Mrs. Bridges' Upstairs, Downstairs Cookery Book.
As you may know, Upstairs, Downstairs recently received a makeover. Returning to 165 Eaton Place gave a new generation a look into one of the best loved British television series of all time. And thanks to DVD, one can watch all 68 episodes from the 1970's to catch up to the new series. With a copy of this cookbook, one can cook exactly as Mrs. Bridges did for the Bellamy family.

The fictional cookbook is presented as the actual cookbook of Mrs. Bridges, even featuring a dedication to Lady Marjorie Bellamy. The recipes were pulled from many Edwardian cookbooks to give it that authentic feel. Alas, it does not always feature the dishes one can see being served in the show, which might be its biggest flaw.

When I need a recipe for spotted dick recently, (check out the reason and the "dick" at Lucindaville.) I turned to Mrs. Bridges and she did not disappoint.

Spotted Dick

4 oz flour
4 oz suet
4 oz breadcrumbs
2 oz sugar
5 oz currants
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Sieve the flour , salt and baking powder. Add the suet, finely grated, the breadcrumbs, sugar and currants. Mix into a stiff dough with water. Wrap in a floured cloth, then tie into a ball and boil. allow at least 2 1/2 to 3 hours' boiling. Turn out and serve with Custard Sauce.

If you are totally enamoured of British historical drama, do add this book to your collection, even if you don't make spotted dick.

Avec Eric

2011-12-15T11:29:00.003-05:00

I just got a Christmas present from my food-loving friend, Anne. She paid a visit to the wonderful kitchen shop in DC, Hill's Kitchen, to see Eric Ripert. while she was there she bought my Christmas present, Avec Eric. Now I will be frank, here, I really have not had the time to give to Mr. Ripert as I just got the book, but since it has been a few days since I have posted (got called away for work) I just couldn't resist.

At first glance, it is one of those books that one could give to anyone, cook or not. It is filled with glorious photos of food, France and... food and France, do you really need anything else? Actually there are many places other than France and a fair amount of artisanal producers who grace its pages.

I have been on a bit of a pasta binge as of late, so here is Eric's recipe for a lovely carbonara.

Carbonara
1/2 cup diced applewood-smoked bacon
2 cups crème fraîche
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- fine sea salt
8 ounces dried linguine
1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese plus more for garnish
4 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh chives

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.

Meanwhile, sauté the bacon in a large skillet over medium-low heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Add the crème fraîche and bring to a simmer. Whisk the egg yolks into the sauce. Add the black pepper and season to taste with salt.

When ready to serve, cook the linguine in the boiling salted water until al dente. Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. Stir in 1-n cups of the Parmesan cheese and chives; let stand for 1 minute to allow all the flavors to blend.

Using a meat fork or carving fork, twirl a quarter of the pasta (for each serving) and place each swirl of pasta in the center of 4 bowls. Spoon some of the sauce over and around the pasta and top with more grated Parmesan cheese, as desired. Serve immediately.

Anne has seriously given Santa a run for his money... or his pasta!

A New Turn In The South

2011-12-09T11:53:00.005-05:00

I knew this would happen. One day "The South" would become this cool place and every Tom, Dick and Yankee would start saying "ya'll" and start eating the food from from our gardens, start stealing our ramps and okra, and we would get "cool." That day seems to have arrived. Not only are Yankee cooks showing up in our kitchens and cooking our food(check out Cooking In The Moment) but now even Canadians are doing it.

I admit, I didn't know when I first started following his really cool recipes, that Hugh Acheson was from Canada. Imagine my surprise! It turns out Acheson is a good ol' boy at heart. And really, that is the heart of the matter. He listens to R.E.M., he has a cooler full of beer, he shells peas(not those English green peas, but actual filed peas), and cooks up some amazing Southern grub.

We waited a long time for A New Turn In The South and we were not disappointed. Honest, if one didn't know better, one might just think this boy was from Georgia. Like my Daddy, marrying a lovely Southern Belle has a way of transforming a man, and Acheson is no exception. His fresh spin on Southern ingredients makes his recipes at the same time new and still remarkably comforting.

The other day I was on the phone and the caller asked, "What are you having for dinner?" Well, of course "dinner" is that mid-day meal some people call "lunch" and "supper" was what I was having, but I digress...
I told my caller that I was making a bog. Long silence. A bog, much like its name, is a sticky, wet rice dish. Famous rice historian(it's a tough job but someone has to be a rice historian!) Karen Hess, believes that bog began as traditional pilau, a sauteed and seasoned rice cooked with meats. When it was made by slaves in large batches, the rice overcooked and became steamy and wet and resembled a bog.

Now one might be surprised to find a Canadian who could even spell "bog" much less cook one. But Mr. Acheson seems right at home in this cleaned up bog.

Chicken Bog

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 chicken, cut into breasts, drumsticks, oysters, and thighs, skin removed
¼ pound andouille sausage, diced
½ cup finely chopped mixed giblets
1 bay leaf
1 leek, white and light green part, cleaned and diced (½ cup)
½ cup diced yellow onion
½ cup diced celery
½ cup diced red bell pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
¼ cup red wine
4 cups chicken stock reduced to 2 cups
1 cup beef stock
1 large ripe tomato, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Heat the oil in a large, wide 6-quart pot over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken breasts, drumsticks, oysters, and thighs evenly, about 3 minutes on each side, removing them to a platter when they are nicely browned.

To the pot, add the sausage and the giblets and cook until well browned. Remove to the platter. Discard all but a tablespoon of the cooking oil and add the bay leaf, leeks, onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, and thyme. When the onions have just turned translucent, add the red wine and reduce until almost dry.

Add reduced chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the reserved chicken and sausage-giblet mixture, reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until the chicken is just done, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the chicken pieces from the pot, pull the meat from the bones and return it to the pot along with the beef stock. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring all the while to break the chicken into threads. Stir in the tomato and parsley. Discard the bay leaf. Season with the salt. Serve with rice!

Now that's a bog! So grab a cold one, a copy of A New Turn In The South and get into the kitchen. Don't forget your favorite R.E.M. mix tape. If you don't have a favorite R.E.M. mix tape... get out of the damn kitchen... or check out Paste's 2009 article of the 20 Best R.E.M. songs and make that tape.

Girl Hunter

2011-12-07T11:01:00.002-05:00

What makes a hunter? Some hunters learn it from family and some through extended family. Georgia Pellegrini was farm girl in the afternoon and Manhattan school girl during the day. She left Wall Street for the kitchens of Blue Hill at Stone Barns. After having to actually kill food that was on the menu, she began an exploration of what it actually means to kill your own meat and how she became a girl hunter.

Girl Hunter is one of those hybrid memoir/cookbooks. I admit that I usually am not very fond of this type of work, as I feel the recipes get the short shrift. that was not the case in Girl Hunter. Pellegrini provides a thoughtful and rational insite into hunting. One soon finds that hunting is one of those sports that engenders some colorful characters and Pellegrini finds her fair share of them.

The book also explores that facet of hunting as not just a sport, but for many, a necessity for putting food on the table. Pellegrini puts some fine food on the table. I am most anxious to try her recipes for javelina, the famed "skunk-pig" found in the Texas countryside. We Southerners are always on the hunt for different pork.
Alas, I do not see Texas in my near future.

I decided to offer up something that even the non-hunter might try. Granted, wild turkey bears no resemblance to the turkey breast found in your grocer's freezer, but give this one a try.

Whiskey Glazed Turkey Breast

6 tablespoons butter
1 turkey breast, skin on and brined
salt and pepper
8 to 10 strips of bacon, or equivalent in lard (for breasts without skin only)
1 cup turkey stock
3 tablespoons honey
6 tablespoons whiskey
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. In an ovenproof skillet or Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter until it begins to bubble. Sprinkle the skin of the brined turkey breast with salt and pepper. If the breast is without skin, wrap it with bacon or lard and fasten with toothpicks or kitchen twine as needed. Place the breast skin side down in the butter, sprinkle the underside with salt and pepper, and let the skin brown for about 5 minutes. Turn it over and add the stock. Cover with foil or a lid and transfer to the oven.

2. In a separate skillet, melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Whisk in the honey until well incorporated. Add the whiskey along with the orange zest and juice, and cayenne and whisk together. Turn the heat to low and let the glaze reduce by half. Turn off the heat and set aside.

3. Once the turkey has cooked for 10 minutes, brush with half of the glaze and recover. Roast for 20 more minutes, brush with the remaining glaze, leave uncovered and increase the temperature to 400F. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes more, or until the internal temperature reads 140F to 150F.

4. Remove the turkey from the oven, cover with foil for 10 minutes before slicing, and serving.

For anyone who like game or a tall tale of hunting, Girl Hunter is for you. Check out more on Pellegrini's official web site.

Cooking In The Moment

2011-12-03T11:49:00.002-05:00

We have been waiting years, literally years, for Andrea Reusing to get this cookbook published. Reusing is a transplanted Southerner (and lately we have seeing a lot of those crop up in the cooking world.) She owns one of the best restaurants in the entire country, Lantern Restaurant, in Chapel Hill North Carolina (and you don't have to take our work for it, the lofty and extinct Gourmet said so.) Reusing was recently named the Best Chef of the Southeast by the James Beard Foundation. And if all that wasn't enough, she is married to Mac McCaughan, the frontman of Superchunk and co-founder of Merge Records.

All that info aside, she is a great storyteller. The stories in this cookbook along with casual and innovative twists on classics are what make this book great. While Reusing has made somewhat of a name for herself in that fresh, seasonal, up-to-the-minute, alright, Farm-to-Table, she has the right attitude about it. She was quoted as saying:

"In that same vein, there is a sort of fatigue that has settled in around the ubiquity of the words "local" and "organic." For many home cooks, "farm-to-table" has nearly been weaponized. Cooking with food grown near home — which was just called "cooking" until recently — has come to signify something rigorous and philosophical. The idea behind most recipes in my book is to show how seasonal, local food is the most efficient path to satisfying meals."

For quite some time we have struggling with the exact way to describe the "farm-to-table" phenom and when we read the word"weaponized" we were very disappointed WE did not think of it.

In the end, however Reusing gets the ingredients, she has a way of making them shine. Her Asian spin on Southern staples breathes life into the often monotonous repetition of Southern fair. Here Reusing gives a Southern classic an new profile.

Fried Okra with Indian Spices and Hot Tomato Relish

1 teaspoon coriander seeds
¼ teaspoon fennel seeds
1 clove
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large egg
¼ cup buttermilk
1 medium serrano chile, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chickpea flour
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 pints okra (just under a pound), stems removed
Sea salt, for serving
Hot Tomato Relish

In a small pan over medium heat, lightly toast the coriander, fennel, and clove until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Allow to cool completely; then grind and set aside. Toast the cumin seeds in the same fashion and add them to the ground spices.

Fill a deep, heavy stockpot with about 3 inches of oil. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until a deep-fat thermometer reads 350°F.

Beat the egg in a small bowl and whisk in the buttermilk and serrano chile. In a medium bowl, combine the chickpea flour, all-purpose flour, salt, pepper, and spice mixture.

Cut the okra on a sharp diagonal into long ¼-inch-thick slices. Put the okra slices into the bowl with the flour mixture and combine, leaving a light dusting on each piece. Pour the egg mixture on top and mix with your hands, making sure to coat all surfaces. In batches, use a large slotted spoon to carefully lay loosely formed handfuls of 6 to 8 slices into the hot oil and cook for about 2 minutes, turning as necessary until the okra is golden brown and uniformly crisp. Drain on a clean brown paper bag, season with sea salt, and serve with the tomato relish.

Hot Tomato Relish

1 tablespoon expeller-pressed vegetable oil
½ teaspoon brown mustard seeds
3 garlic cloves, slivered lengthwise
½ teaspoon cayenne
1¼ teaspoons ground turmeric
5 ripe plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and finely diced
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup distilled white vinegar
¼ teaspoon sugar

Heat the oil in a medium-size heavy nonreactive pot over medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds and garlic, and cook until the garlic is turning light golden brown and the seeds are popping, about 2 minutes. Add the cayenne and turmeric. Cook for 10 to 20 seconds, and then add the tomatoes, salt, vinegar, and sugar. Simmer for 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft and the relish has thickened slightly. Serve hot.

Pick out a recipe from Cooking In The Moment, throw No Pocky for Kitty on the turntable, grab a beer and crank up the volume and stove and get cooking.

Odd Bits

2011-12-02T11:13:00.003-05:00

As promised, one of the New York Times Notable Cookbooks of 2011, and one of our favorites...Odd Bits by Jennifer McLagan. We are big fans of offal. In the South the rule for eating pigs was: Everything but the squeal. That rule covered most every other meat. (Actually, Southerners were never big on fish with the heads still attached, but I digress.)

McLagan has made a bit of a career out of writing cookbooks for the parts of the animals that most people see, not as "odd" but as simply trash. Her other books were about fat and bones. I heard her talk of this book as being the final chapter in her trilogy. So Odd Bits offers up recipes for heads and cheeks and brains and tongues and our favorite "odd" bit, the gizzard.

One of our favorite uses of gizzards is in a confit. Every so often, D'Artagnan's, the gourmet meat purveyor has confit of gizzards or as the French would say, confit de gésiers. In France, they are a popular salad enhancement, like croutons. This recipe calls for prepared gizzards. Most of the gizzards one buys at a market are going to be cleaned. Occasionally, they will have a wrinkled, yellowish substance on them, just peal that away and discard. This method will work with gizzards of any type, chicken, duck or turkey.

We do like to see writes who use a particular spice blend, to keep us from constantly add 1/4 teaspoon of this and 1/2 teaspoon of that. For McLagan's confit of gizzards she offers up an easily changeable confit salt.

Confit of Gizzards

10 1/2 ounces / 300 g gizzards, prepared
1 1/2 tablespoons / 3/4 ounce / 20 g Confit Salt
1 clove garlic
Melted duck fat or lard
Sprinkle the gizzard halves with the salt, turning to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 1 day.
Preheat the oven to 200°F / 100°C.
Rinse the gizzards to remove the excess seasoning mixture and pat dry. Place them in a small, heavy flameproof casserole or Dutch oven and add the garlic clove and just enough fat to cover the gizzards. Place the pan over medium heat, and when you see the first bubble in the fat, remove the pan from the heat and transfer to the oven. Cook, uncovered, until the gizzards are very tender, about 3 hours.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer the gizzards to a sieve placed over a bowl and let cool. Strain the fat into a large measuring cup and let stand for about 10 minutes so the cooking juices sink to the bottom.
Place the gizzards in a clean container and then pour enough of the fat over to cover them completely. Discard any cooking juices at the bottom of the measuring cup, and reserve any extra fat for another use.

Confit Salt
3 large sprigs thyme
2 fresh bay leaves, torn
1 1/2 ounce/40 g coarse salt
2 teaspoons black pepper corns
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Remove the leaves from the thyme stems and discard the stems. Combine the thyme and bay leaves, salt, peppercorns, and nutmeg in a spice grinder and grind till powdery. Store in an airtight container; it will keep for several months. (McLagan suggests that sage and fennel are excellent additions to the salt. Just add a bit to the grind.)

So if you are squeamish about gizzards do give this recipe a try.

Not A Cookbook -- Cookbook

2011-12-02T10:54:00.004-05:00

There is just so much cookbook news flying around out there that we offer this little cookbook interlude. Ann sent me a link this morning informing me that Presidential candidate, Ron Paul, has a cookbook. Now it would seem that family cookbooks are a Paul family tradition, and this is no exception...except for the fact that they are using it for campaign contributions.

Frankly, we could get behind a candidate who give out cookbooks for campaign contributions!

New York Magazine couldn't resist suck an opportunity and featured a "page" from the cookbook which includes a "recipe" for scones.

Raspberry Scones

Who are we to order you how to make raspberry scones? You're and American. You have the God-given right to make your raspberry scones however you chose. And it's none of our business!

We don't care what your political affiliations are, we want to read more cookbooks... oh yes, and vote!

Not A Cookbook -- Notable for 2011

2011-11-30T10:00:00.003-05:00

The New York Times published its list of new and notable cookbook titles. Out of the eighteen, we have reviewed Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. We were convinced we had reviewed Cooking in the Moment by Andrea Reusing and Odd Bits by Jennifer McLagan but I suppose we just THOUGHT about it and failed to post. We will rectify that this week.

We have been savoring A New Turn in The South by Hugh Acheson and Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Maria Speck.

We desperately want to peruse Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet but even with the amazon price tag, one could about buy a new stove...OK, a VitaMix, still it is way out of our price range.

The Mission Street Food book by Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz is shown but not on the list??? We have similar feelings. We kind of wanted it but couldn't decide.

Weigh in with your favorites!

Cookbook Of The Day in the News

2011-11-29T14:53:00.002-05:00

Cookbook Of The Day was happy to be included in Edible Allegheny's feature Online Dish.

As I said in the article, "I believe the way we cook is a window into the culture of a particular time period."

Thanks so much to Katie Green and the staff at Edible Allegheny.

Not A Cookbook -- An Essay

2011-11-21T09:56:00.004-05:00

A decade ago, I was visiting in Key West. I met a woman who had been an editor at British Vogue shortly after World War II. One of her first assignments was to travel to Italy with Elizabeth David. Britain was still reeling from rationing. She told me that they would be riding in a car and David would yell, "Stop!" She would scurry out of the car and pull wild garlic and herbs from the hillside. That is the way I always think of Elizabeth David -- climbing a hillside for wild garlic.

As you know, gentle readers, I adore Elizabeth David. The is a wonderful essay in the New York Time Book Review about bringing David's Italian Food to an American audience. It is by Laura Shapiro, who is not too shabby, her own self!

Girl In The Kitchen

2011-11-19T12:30:00.003-05:00

I have watched Top Chef since the beginning and only once has the chef I wanted to win actually won the competition. Stephanie Izard was that winner. I have been looking forward to her cookbook and Girl in the Kitchen doesn't disappoint. The book captures Izard's sunny and bright personality. She is a girl in the kitchen, so one is never in danger of hearing shouting and cursing in the background. Nothing gets slammed or bammed or yelled at. That is not to say that the recipes are not "chefy." The Pan-roasted New York Steak with Sautéed Cucumbers and Salted Goat Milk Caramel will require 3 days, quited a bit of organizing and sourcing of ingredients. (And convincing anyone there should be caramel on a strip steak...)

Most recipes, however, have a "tip" for getting things done and many have drink ideas in case you don't know what to drink with Fried Cheese with Spring Veggies and Strawberry reduction. (That one stumps me every time. Bourbon? No, rosé.) If you watched Top Chef with Izard as a contestant (or should I say cheftestant? No! No one should ever say "cheftestant."), you will be familiar with her style of slightly Asian inspired Mediterranean cooking. Even the steak's goat's milk caramel has a bit of fish sauce thrown in.

Our one big problem with book is the four column list of ingredients. Surely there was a lot of "design" thought put into this format, but it is distracting.

We don"t mean to obsess on the weird, so here is a rather straight forward and yummy clam dish for you to try.

Clams Steamed with Corn, Bacon, and Fingerlings

12 ounces fingerling potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 slices bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 ears of corn, kernels cut off the cob
24 fresh littleneck clams, scrubbed
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoon crème fraiche
1 tablespoon butter
Several sprigs fresh mint leaves, chopped for garnishing

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F.

2. Toss the potatoes with a few teaspoons olive oil on a rimmed baking sheet or casserole dish and season with salt and pepper. Roast potatoes until they are slightly tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Let cool, then slice into 1/2-inch rounds.

3. Heat a large Dutch oven or stockpot over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook it until the fat is rendered and the bacon is just browned, about 7 minutes. Add the onions and garlic and sweat by cooking them until they are tender but not browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the sliced potatoes, corn, and clams and season with salt and pepper. Pour in the wine and cover the pot and steam the clams for about 10 minutes. When the clams are completely open, use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the vegetables and bacon to serving bowls or plates, leaving the liquid in the pot. (Discard any clams that do not open.)

4. Stir in the crème fraiche and butter into the pot and simmer over medium-low heat until just thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and spoon the sauce over the clams and veggies. Garnish with mint and serve.

On this cold day, I can think of nothing better.

Not A Cookbook -- An Article

2011-11-10T14:33:00.004-05:00

By now I am sure that most of you have seen the New York Time's article: Are Cookbooks Obsolete?

We scoff.

Bitters

2011-11-08T10:57:00.004-05:00

We have been waiting a long time for Brad Thomas Parsons book Bitters. That slight touch of bitterness adds a remarkable depth to cocktails and why shouldn't it be used to achieve that same level of nuance in cooking. Inspired by Parsons' book, the canned clementines we wrote about at Lucindaville featured a dash of bitters in our recipe.

There are a plethora of cocktail books out there, but Bitters is so much more. First and foremost, it is cultural history that encompasses food, medicine, and government in a tangled web of who's who. Are bitters food? Alcoholic beverage? Medicine? Well yes and no.

In a landscape of potions and elixirs and prohibition, what bitters survived. In an era of a romantic cocktail renaissance, who are the new players and will they survive this heyday? And you????

Will you head into your kitchen laboratory and whip up your own batch of bitters?

Yes, boys and girls, Brad Thomas Parsons answers all these questions and more. As one might suspect, the vast majority of the recipes in this book are for drinks. However, tucked neatly in the back are a dozen or so recipes for cooking with bitters. We cannot advocate the inclusion of bitters into cooking more. The section on compound butters, alone, will elevate your cooking prowess, not to mention that a "hostess gift" of a lovely log of compound butter will make you a standout in a sea of Two Buck Chuck wine.

Our favorite ice cream gets a bitters boost as do the ubiquitous spiced nuts. Now if you grew up in house with a little home bar, there was probably an old bottle of Angostura bitters floating about. Angostura was always publishing little recipe books and a staple recipe was always the broiled grapefruit with a splash of bitters. In keeping with that tradition, here it is:

Broiled Bitter Grapefruit

1 pink or ruby red grapefruit, chilled
Angostura bitters, Peychaud's Bitters, or other aromatic bitters
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 tablespoons Demerara sugar or turbino sugar
Garnish: maraschino cherry (optional)

Preheat the broiler and cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Slice the grapefruit in half at its equator. run the knife along the perimeter of each exposed half and along the membrane of each segment to loosen the segments. Dot each grapefruit half with 2 to 3 dashes of bitters.

In a small bowl, mix together the melted butter, sugar and 6 healthy dashes of bitters to form a sugary paste. Cover each grapefruit half equally with the brown sugar-bitters mixture and place on the prepared baking sheet. Broil until the sugar starts to crisp up and bubble, 2 to 4 minutes, Serve at once.

How fun was that? Now get in there and dig around in that old bar cabinet and find that bottle of bitters and start thinking of all the things to add a slash of bitterness.

From Season to Season: A Year In Recipes

2011-11-03T12:08:00.006-04:00

We love Sophie Dahl. In fact we love all the Dahl's, especially Roald. Sophie is Roald's granddaughter, who took the famous family name when she began to model. She was what we loving call in America a plus-size model.

Ironically,since she has started writing cookbooks, she has slimmed down considerable. But with a second cookbook and a another television show, the British press loves to compare her to Nigella Lawson.

With all that cleavage one worries whether they can even get close to the stove without some sort of Mrs. Doubtfire moment...

...but I digress...

We really loved Dahl's first cookbook, Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights. This new book is called From Season to Season: A Year In Recipes. However, when it gets published next year in America is will be titled, Very Fond of Food: A Year In Recipes. Why the name change is beyond me unless they are worried that there are several "season to season" books floating around.

This book is very much like the last. It is filled with comforting food, great photos, and family anecdotes. The recipes are fairly easy to follow and would be at home on any family table. In Britain is would seem that the kebab is very much like the hamburger -- that food one grabs when in a big hurry. Dahl's kebabs offer both a vegetarian and a chicken option, safely providing something for everyone. I must say, the recipe for the dressing is a good one. Often the words "dressing" or "sauce" are usually tedious and the part of the recipe that makes the reader turn the page. So putting everything in the blender and blitzing is quite comforting.

Kebabs
1 large courgette/zucchini, cut into rough chunks
1 packet of halloumi cheese, cut into chunks (or 250g/9 oz of skinless and boneless chicken breast, cut into chunks)
1 large red onion, peeled and cut into chunks
250g/9 oz of cherry tomatoes

For the dressing

250g of plain yoghurt
25g/ 1/4 cup of flaked almonds
1 clove of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
A handful of fresh coriander/cilantro
A small handful of fresh mint
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon of olive oil

If using wooden skewers, soak them for one hour in cold water first. Light the barbecue or preheat the grill of the oven.
Assemble the vegetables and cheese on the skewers, alternating courgette/zucchini, chunks of halloumi, onion and whole tomatoes. Leave to one side.

To make the dressing, put all the remaining ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth. You can now pour this over the skewers before or after cooking them.
Put the skewers on the barbecue or under the grill and cook for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally.

Last time, the book was coming out before Christmas but Very Fond of Food: A Year In Recipes has a spring release date. If you can't wait, pick up a copy of From Season to Season: A Year In Recipes and find out why Miss Dahl is very fond of food.

Pieminister

2011-11-02T13:13:00.005-04:00

We have acquired several British cookbooks as of late. Now we love a good pie, but frankly we love a great savory pie. Apples and pears and berries, oh my. But for a really spectacular pie try chicken and rabbit and leeks...among other things. Enter the Pieminister. The most funnest pie shoppe in Britain and now the best little pie book one can lay one's hands on. Loads of savory treats and sweet touch or two.

Tristan Hogg and Jon Simon were just two blokes who loved their pie. Then one day it dawned on them that they could be piemakers. They tried out a bunch of recipes and in 2003, they opened a little shop in Bristol. The next year, they became the official pie shop of the Glastonbury Festival. Then they became the pie shop of the Borough Market in London. Pieministers started sprouting around and now, for those of us who live outside their delivery area, Pieminister, the cookbook.

Really, the book is filled with yummy casseroles stuffed into pastry. So if one to find one's self trapped at home with no flour or suet, the book would still work. (Though, frankly, if one has,sausage, cider and potatoes, my guess is there is some flour around.) Of course, in America, it is rather hard to find suet anywhere, except in the occasional bird feeder. Keep your fingers crossed that suet will become the new "It" ingredient and start showing up everywhere. While we don't like to tamper with a recipe, the suet-challenged can stuff this into a fine plain pastry.

Sausage, Cider & Potato Pie

500g new potatoes, cut into slices 6-8mm thick
25g butter
1 onion, sliced
1 dessert apple, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
1 tsp sugar
100ml good-quality cider
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
500g herby sausages
1 quantity of suet pastry
handful of grated Cheddar cheese
1 free-range egg, lightly beaten, to glaze
sea salt and black pepper
a little chopped thyme and/or sage, to decorate

Cook the sliced potatoes in boiling water until tender, then drain and set aside. Melt the butter in a pan, add the onion and cook gently until softened. Stir in the apple and sugar and cook until the apple slices are tender but sill hold their shape. They should just be starting to caramelize a little. Pour in the cider and simmer until almost completely evaporated. Stir in the mustard, season with a little black pepper and remove from heat.

Slit the sausages open and peel off the skins. Mix the sausage meat with the potatoes, using your hands to break it up a little. Finally, stir in the warm onion and apple to give a loose mixture.

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Roll out half the pastry on a lightly floured surface to about 5mm thick. Use to line a pie tin and then fill with the sausage and apple mixture. Brush the edge of the pastry with beaten egg. If you like, you can add the Cheddar at this stage, pushing it down into the filling to make cheesy pockets. Roll out the rest of the pastry to about 3mm thick and use to cover the pie, trimming off the excess and pressing the edges together to seal. Brush the top of the pie with beaten egg and then make a couple of holes in the centre to let out the steam. Place in the oven for 40-45 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is cooked through – check by inserting a skewer in the centre; it should come out hot. Serve with a WI-competition-winning chutney.

What could be better? I am headed to the kitchen now.

Testicles

2011-11-01T12:58:00.006-04:00

I often write about my predilection to procure every French cookbook there is and often lament the fact that there really are just so many ways on can make boeuf bourguignon! So leave it to some French author to come up with a cookbook that covers a culinary delicacy I have never thought of cooking.

Blandine Vié has written a book that is the best of what a cookbook can be. Testicles: Balls in Cooking and Culture is part cookbook, part cultural history, part lexicon, an all profoundly entertaining. The book was originally published in France in 2005. It has been masterfully translated by Giles MacDonogh. I regret that my knowledge if French does not allow me the pleasure of reading this work in its original as MacDonogh tells us that Vié has a masterful sense of words, puns and is often plainly untranslatable. In fact, Testicles won the Prix Litteraire de la Commanderie des Gastronomes Ambassadeurs de Rungis.

The book is divided into three section. Mythology offering up a history of balls from anatomy to slang. Method, the bulk of the book, features recipes from ancient to modern. Attributes serves as a dictionary or lexicon of testicular. (Here, Giles MacDonogh augmented Vié's heavily French list to include more of an English slant.)

Having read several of the cookbooks alluded to in this book, I can safely say that one often overlooks the unfamiliar, that is to say, I am more likely to read that thousandth recipe for boeuf bourguignon before delving into say, a ragout of cock's stones. One of the easiest balls ~~to come by~~ or ~~to get ones hands on~~ or well, as you can see, one must chose one's words as carefully as one's balls. Let me start again: Lamb's testicles or "fries" are probably the easiest to procure from a butcher. Here is a small plate of lamb fries, but it can be doubled ~~if you are a big ball eater~~ for an entréé.

Balas à la provençal, as an apéritif

4 lamb’s fries [balas in Provençal]
200g fine soft breadcrumbs or dried crumbs
2eggs
1 tbsp crème fraîche
oil for deep-frying
2 lemons
fine sea salt
freshly ground white pepper

Remove the membrane surrounding the testicles and rinse them in cold water in which you have added a dash of vinegar or lemon juice. Drain and dry and cut into slices 5 mm thick. Spread out the breadcrumbs on a flat plate. Beat the eggs as for an omelette in a bowl together with the cream.

Lightly season the slices with salt and pepper, dip them in the egg mixture then turn them in the breadcrumbs, making sure both sides are covered.

Next drop them in the hot oil, which should not be smoking (175°C) and fry them for 2–3 minutes on each side until they are golden. Dry them on paper towls.

To serve, arrange them in a pyramid on a hot plate and surround them with lemon quarters.

Note: double the quantities if you wish to serve the balas as a main course. They can be accompanied by a fresh tomato sauce.

If you love food, language, and culinary history, you will have balls of fun with this book. IT makes a great present as I am sure, few out there have a a testicle cookbook!

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T11:09:00.003-04:00

Night of the Living Teddy

Eat, Drink And Be Merry In Maryland

2011-10-24T12:22:00.004-04:00

I defy you find another cookbook that is dedicated to Oliver Wendell Holmes and features and introduction by Emily Post. That is, however, what you will find in Eat, Drink And Be Merry In Maryland by Frederick Philip Stieff. Stieff was the scion of a famous piano-making family and a well-known gastronome. Post was a rather famous Marylander who found the cookbook dredged up many a Maryland memory. Holmes once wrote, "Baltimore... is the gastronomic metropolis of the Union." Who knew!

This cookbook was published in 1932 and features over 100 illustrations by Edwin Tunis. Remember that the book was published in 1932, so some of the illustration are very politically incorrect. Some of the illustration offer up poems, jokes, and histories of Maryland. For instance in the "drink" section, this:

A Marylander and a Virginia were discussing the merits of their respective liquors, The Marylander poured the Virginia two drinks. On imbibing one the Virginian fainted. When he came to, he admitted defeat. "But, " said the Marylander, "you drank the chaser."

I am sure it was more amusing in 1932, but you get the gist.

The endpapers feature a gastronomic map of Maryland, featuring the bounty of the state. Stieff not only

cooked, but collected recipes from multiple sources: restaurants, hotels, bars, inns and people. He culled recipes from housewives and spinsters, to a recipe from Senator Millard Tydings for a rather interesting breakfast.

Since crab is one of the bounties that makes Maryland great, here is a recipe featuring the states finest.

CRAB MEAT DEWEY

Take one pound of crab meat, melt two ounces of butter and blend with two ounces of sifted flour, gradually add 2/3 cup of chicken stock and a pint of thin cream.
Bring to boil for about five minutes, season with salt and cayenne pepper. Stir in the yolks of three well-beaten eggs.
Pay attention that sauce is perfectly smooth, add one cup full of thin sliced cooked mushrooms and crab meat. Serve on toast in shallow casserole. Sprinkle very fine chopped parsley as garniture.—Maryland Yacht Club, Baltimore.

Cosmopolitan Cookery In an English Kitchen

2011-10-15T11:57:00.003-04:00

Theodora Fitzgibbon wrote over 30 books, most of them cookery books. Much of her writing dealt with her native Ireland and its surrounding area, but she was also well versed in food from an international perspective. For 15 years she worked on The Food of the Western World: An Encyclopedia of Food from North America and Europe a compendium of... well, it is exactly what the title says it is: an encyclopedia of food from North America and Europe.

As a kind of precursor to this monumental work, Fitzgibbon wrote Cosmopolitan Cookery In an English Kitchen. The book is a collection of Recipes Fitzgibbon adapted from her many travels. IT was an attempt to move the English cook away from mutton and boiled carrots. Published in 1953, it recalls a time when England was still dealing with the ravages of rationing. On 4 July 1954, food rationing in England came to an end with meat being the last of the rationed foodstuffs. After so much hardship, it was often hard for the home cook to let go and explore new options, as simply putting "food" on the table had been so hard.

Fitzgibbon offers this advice to those reading her book:

"I have found that many a good cook tends to spoil a meal by serving the wrong things together. A dinner consisting of the following was given to me some time ago: a leek and potato soup with cram, followed by chicken and onions in a bechamel sauce, followed in turn by mousse covered in cream. All delicious separately and all practically tasteless together, to say nothing of the appearance three times of a great gery-white splodge. (For the colour and consistency of food is important too.)"

I find "splodge" to be my new favorite word. Technically an irregular milky spot or drip, but with a recently more sexualized connotation. But I digress...

I have never been fond of veal, but I do love a good cooked cucumber and this dish offers the option of lamb and frankly, I think chicken would work too.

Sliced Veal or Lamb and Cucumbers

1/2 lb veal
1 1/2 dessertspoons of water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 oz mushrooms and/or Chinese fungus
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 cucumber
1 oz cooking fat

Slice the veal into thin strips, and mix with the cornflour paste made from the teaspoon of cornflour and the water, Peel the cucumber, cut into cubes, and fry for a few minutes with the slice mushrooms or fungus in the cooking fat Add the meat and cornflour mixture and fry together for 10 minutes. Add soy sauce, stir well and cook gently for 5 minutes, This dish can be made with pork and celery.

Or, I think, chicken!

Not A Cookbook -- Mamie Eisenhower's Fudge

2011-10-12T11:04:00.004-04:00

Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower, 1959 by Thomas Edgar Stephens

Having a boatload of cookbooks means that I often get requests to find recipes. I was asked recently for an old fudge recipe, that someone remembered and I dare say, Mamie Eisenhower's Million Dollar Fudge may well be the most famous fudge recipe, if not the most famous recipe in American history.

Not only has it been reprinted in numerous newspapers and books, but it seems that everyone's mother or grandmother has a recipe card with this fudge recipe tucked in a box.

Supposedly, it made its first appearance in a cookbook entitled, Who Says We Can’t Cook, published in 1955 by the Women's National Press Club. Here is the recipe:

Mamie’s Million Dollar Fudge

4-1/2 cups of Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Butter
1 pinch of Salt
1 tall can of Evaporated Milk
12 ounces of Semi-sweet Chocolate Bits
12 ounces of German Sweet Chocolate
1 pint of Marshmallow Cream
2 cups of chopped Nutmeats

Heat the sugar, butter, salt and evaporated milk over low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil, and boil for six minutes. Put the chocolate bits, German chocolate, marshmallow cream and nutmeats into a heat resistant bowl. Pour the mixture you've been boiling over the ingredients you've just placed in the bowl. Beat until the chocolate has melted, and then pour it all into a pan. Let it stand for a few hours before cutting it into fudge sized pieces. Remember, it is even better the second day. Store in a tin box

When not tucked in a recipe box, it can be seen as a bookmark,

holding a place in a rather obscure Vladimir Nabokov novel.

Several days before Dwight Eisenhower was elected President, Mamie Eisenhower sent a letter to Mrs. Robert W. Macauley. She included a recipe for "Uncooked Fudge," and sent her best wishes for the success of the Cathedral's Women's Auxiliary Fall Festival. Whether this was the same fudge as her Million Dollar Fudge is unknown to me.

The Food Network "updated" the recipe for Eisenhower's fudge. The update seems to be changing "nutmeats" to "pecans" and moving the nuts to a higher position in the recipe. Here is their update:

Mamie Eisenhower's Fudge

4 1/2 cups sugar
Pinch salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
1 pint (1 jar) marshmallow cream
12 ounces semisweet chocolate
12 ounces German's sweet chocolate

Directions

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring the sugar, salt, butter and evaporated milk to a boil. Boil for 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the pecans, marshmallow fluff and chocolate in a large bowl. Pour the boiled syrup over the chocolate mixture. Beat until chocolate is all melted.

Spray a 15 1/2 by 10 1/2 by 1-inch jelly-roll pan with a nonstick cooking spray and pour fudge into pan. Let harden at room temperature before cutting into 1-inch squares (can be placed in the refrigerator or freezer to speed hardening process).

All the updating in the world will not change the fact that this recipe is still a family favorite.

Check out things people leave in books at Forgotten Bookmarks.

For old recipes check out Gram's Recipe Box.

Gridiron Cookery

2011-10-08T08:00:00.001-04:00

~~Are you ready for some football?~~ I am sorry we are no longer allowed to use that phrase due to some some dumbass who should have known better. Oh well, every state has one, or two. However, the answer is... we are.

This evening Alabama is playing Vanderbilt for Homecoming because Agnes Scott doesn't have a football team.

In Alabama, Paul "Bear" Bryant is still the driving force in football. Hundreds of students, who weren't even born when Bear was alive, will file into the stadium wearing his famous houndstooth hat.

I will admit to being alive when "Bear" coached and to give you some idea of just how powerful Coach Bryant's influence was and is in Alabama, I can tell you that every time I hear about an event "marking 9/11, " I always ask myself, "Why are they celebrating "Bear" Bryant's birthday?"

In 1960, Frances Daugherty and Aileen Brothers published a collection of recipes from the wives of football coaches around the county. Gridiron Cookery boasts that these resourceful hostesses are:

"skilled at taming (and feeding) victory-mad mobs -- or reviving a few low-spirited losers."

One such hostess was Mrs. Paul Bryant. Here is a recipe she picked up when "Bear" was the coach at Texas A & M.

Cheese Biscuits

1/2 pound of butter
4 cups grated cheese (half New York and half American)
2 1/2 -2 2/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
stuffed olives, cut in half

Cream butter and cheese; add flour and cayenne pepper. Press through cooky press in long strips. Place cut olives on the strips and roll like a jelly roll into small biscuits. Place on a cooky sheet, and bake at 300F until slightly browned.

There is time to make up a big batch of these before kick off. (Provided you own a "cooky" press.)

I know if was 1960 but it is now 2011. Mrs. Paul Bryant was Mary Harmon Black Bryant.

The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook

2011-10-07T14:05:00.001-04:00

Well, we think the Fabulous Beekman Boys, Dr. Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell, are famous and just getting more famous and fabulous as the days march on. (Though we are not sure they could get any more fabulous.) We would like to take some credit for their success and why shouldn't we. We were in their camp and encouraging everyone to buy their book and take a gander at their television show before it ever aired and long before they graced made the pages of Food & Wine.

Since our blog, Cookbook Of The Day, is simply enamored of cookbooks we were beside ourselves when we found out that a Beekman Boys cookbook was in the works. It went immediately on our pre-order list and it arrived last week. Let me tell you that it was worth the wait. For those of you who watched every episode of the Fabulous Beekman Boys, you know there was controversy over the title of the cookbook which was resolved in Dr. Brent's favor. You will also remember the preliminary photo shoot for the cookbook. If you saw that, you know that ever detail was meticulously thought out and shot and re-shot until it had the Beekman stamp of approval. Needless to say, the picture of the food by Paulette Tavormina are works of art.

The recipes are bright and homey. There is a good mix of things you have heard of, like fried green tomatoes and roast leg of lamb and interesting twists. The Harvest Beef Chili not only has beans but nice big chinks of pumpkin, which we find to terribly underused. We are big fans of augmenting the plain mashed potato and this recipe is a fine way to do just that.

Sorrel Mashed Potatoes

1 1/2 pounds of baking potatoes, peeled and sliced
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
3 bunches of sorrel(about 2 ounces each), tough ends trimmed, leaves torn
3/4 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon salt

In a medium saucepan, combine the potatoes with salt water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer, and cook until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain and return to the pan.

Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over low heat. Add the sorrel and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is very tender and soft, about 4 minutes.

With a potato masher or a handheld mixer, mash the potatoes with the milk, salt, and remaining two tablespoons of butter, Stir in the melted sorrel and serve.

While The Beekman Boys might live way up there in New York, their cookbook has a gentle Southern vibe mixing rustic fare with recipes that offer a nice addition to Sunday Dinner.

If there was an element we were not overly enamoured of, it would be the keepsake addition of removable cards allowing the reader to make the cookbook, "their own." Seriously, Dr.Brent, you know that people will scribbling notes in their ratty old handwriting and stuffing in articles and before you know it that nice The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook is going to be a mess. But then...

...they could always buy another copy.

The Mushroom Cook Book

2011-10-04T12:19:00.004-04:00

Cookbooks like to offer up a count on the recipes held with in. It would seem that the two favorite measurements in cookbook girth are "101" and "365." The 365 recipe book is an easy one to understand as there are 365 days in the year and these cookbooks offer up a recipe for each day of the year. One might assume that the 101 variety are just one better than an even hundred. one will often find the phrase, "over 100 recipes," used quite often in cookbook descriptions. So we were rather amused by Garibaldi Lapolla's The Mushroom Cook Book as it offers up 111 Successful Easy Recipes. Why? Well, your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps 111 recipes were the sum total of all of his mushroom recipes.

Lapolla believes that almost all cookbooks feature at least one or two recipes for mushrooms but he laments the fact that no cookbook in existence has, "made a special fuss over them." For Lapolla it is because the mushroom is neither meat nor vegetable and it smells funny, or as he would say, "pronounced." this book was written in the early 1950's at a time when, perhaps, mushrooms had a pronounced smell, but most of the mushrooms we find in today's supermarkets would be hard to find even with a bloodhound on the case.

I will say that Lapolla makes a valiant effort at making the mushroom the star of the recipe as opposed to merely sticking it in a tomato sauce. To that end, he is very fond of stuffing things into mushrooms.

I have a steadfast rule in my kitchen -- no nuts in my food. It is a personal thing and while I have been known to make an exception, the rule stands. So I was as surprised as anyone when I kept coming back to this recipe. There is a distinct possibility I might just make an exception here. But don't count on it.

Sautéed Mushrooms with Nuts

3 tablespoons of olive oil r melted butter
1 onion, minced fine
1 pound of small mushrooms, whole, or large ones, quartered
1/2 pound of unsalted nuts -- almonds, Brazil, filberts, or pignuole
Salt and pepper
Pinch of nutmeg

In a skillet, melt butter and add onion, Do not brown, Add mushrooms and saute over fairly high flame, uncovered, for 15 minutes until golden in color. (Mushrooms need watching and stirring to avoid burning.) Add nuts and seasonings and heat thoroughly.

Aside from a 111 easy mushroom recipes, we were drawn to this cookbook when we saw the author's photo.

It would seem that Mr. Lapolla is cooking on a Garland range much like one we posse in Lucindaville. And we do love our stoves.

The Happy Table of Eugene Walter

2011-09-30T11:59:00.002-04:00

OK, some of you may not think Eugene Walter is that famous, but I do. It is one of my greatest regrets that I never met Eugene Walter. In a previous post at Lucindaville, we extolled the copious adventures of Mr. Walter. At Cookbook Of The Day we have featured several cookbooks from Eugene Walter. If ever there was a Renaissance man, it was Eugene Walter who was at varying time in his colorful life:

cryptographer

writer

poet

artist

founder of a chamber orchestra...
...and the Paris Review

winner of a Lippincott...
...an O’Henry...
...a Sewanee-Rockefeller fellowship...
...the Prix Guilloux

puppet maker

music composer

opera singer

actor (including Fellini’s 8 1/2 and Lina Wertmüller’s Ballad of Belle Starr and 100 others)

cookbook author

legendary party-giver

consummate Southerner

They just don't make them like this anymore. For much of his later life, Eugene Walter talked of writing a book about gumbo. It is the great "lost" book of Eugene Walter and the first question everyone asks his executor, Donald Goodman. Goodman says the book never existed. I have asked him repeatedly. One day last year, I got an e-mail form Goodman. While there wasn't a gumbo book, there was a manuscript that never got published. The University of North Carolina Press was going to publish the cookbook and Don wanted me to know. I immediately pre-ordered the book. The Happy table of Eugene Walter arrived last week. First I just looked at it for a couple of days and finally I sat down to spent the day with Eugene. It was the next best thing to meeting him.

The first thing one notices about the book is its division. The first, substantial section, is on drinks. Southern drinks, of course. There are 5 juleps, 7 eggnogs, 13 punches, two pages of instructions on iced tea and 9 hangover "cures" all with a proper history and introduction.

The second section is on victuals. And what victuals they are. Walter offers up a favorite from the famed creole cookbook author, Celestine Eustis. The recipe is a basic bread pudding recipe titled "Monkey Pudding." The recipe calls for stale bread, milk, cream, sugar and spice, but it is the actual baking instructions that caught Walter's eye. According to Eustis the pudding is cooked until... "it looks like an old monkey."

Water loved monkeys and one can just see him laughing at as he pulled that monkey pudding from the fire.
Walter never looses his humor nor his writing style when introducing a recipe. Here is his introduction to Sunday Supper Onion Pie:

"Okay, you have the wreckage of a baked ham, roast beef, or pork. So prepare your favorite flaky pastry for a deep pie pan --not a casserole, not a shallow pie pan, but a deep pie pan. Bake it; chill it.
Then make your onion pie filling. There are dozens of recipes. And, just like the 2,000 green tomato pie recipes are about evenly divided between sweet versions and savory ones, same's true of onions. Many eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century green apple pie recipes were simply northern apple pie recipes with, in the apple-less south, green tomatoes substituted for Eve's preference."

Walter's description of learning to make rice from Marie Honorine Julac is worth the price of the book.

Here is a little recipe Walter calls, "a mad dish from the 1920's."

Whoopsadaisy Toast

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 pound grated Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup dry Champagne
Dash of mace
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
Toast

In your chafing dish, melt butter over hot water, then add grated Cheddar cheese. As it melts, gradually add Champagne, Pit in a dash of mace, a pinch of salt, and a hint of freshly ground white pepper; serve immediately over warm toast. Chilled champagne, of course, with it.

Cheese toast. Every kid has had it at one time or another, yet, in the hands of Eugene Walter it becomes an elegant and delightful luncheon. "In your chaffing dish..." because everyone has a chaffing dish, really what kind of Southerner are you? "A dash," "a pinch," "a hint," all less than a 1/4 teaspoon, but important measurements to be learned through a culinary osmosis. Chilled champagne-- "of course" -- because what is the point of whoosadaisy toast without a little champagne on the side.

I said it before and I will say it again, I am very sorry that I never met Eugene Walter. But, I am grabbing a bottle of Champagne and making Woopsadaisy Toast for lunch in his honor.

Italian Cooking

2011-09-28T16:27:00.004-04:00

We are not particularly one an Italian cooking crusade this week, but we did pick up Robin Howe's vintage tome Italian Cooking on our recent beach adventures. In the 1950's the venerable British publishing house, Andre Deutch, published a cookery series featuring a vast collection of international cuisines from Alsace to Turkey. Robin Howe was responsible for several of the titles including this Italian cookbook.

For Howe this book is two-fold:

"...to bring Italian cooking to the housewife and to help those traveling in Italy who, faced with a long and tantalizingly attractive menu, end up by ordering spaghetti because it is the only dish they are sure about."

As Bob Dylan might say, "the times, they are a-changin'." Or maybe not. One could actually take most every recipe in this book, give them an updated re-write, add some color photos, slap Mario on the cover and have a fine cookbook.

This is not so much a testament to Robin Howe as it is to Italian cuisine. Truth be told, once you learn a few basics, you can cook up a storm. And while Howe laments the fact that the most the British housewife of the 1950's might have known of Italian cooking is as simply "spaghetti, garlic, olive oil, and tomatoes", there is a lot to be said for spaghetti,garlic, olive oil , and tomatoes! Trow in a pounded cutlet and some aubergine, grab a bottle of red wine and it's dining at its finest. It seems that every other recipe title ends with the words, "cooked in wine." There is:

veal with marsala
chicken marsala
whiting cooked in wine
beef braised in wine
beef stewed in wine
rabbit stewed in wine
quail cooked in wine
artichokes cooked in wine
cabbage cooked in wine
onions cooked in wine

We are sticking with the aubergine.

Fried Aubergine Slices
Melanzane Fritte

4 medium aubergine (egg-plant)
Salt
coating batter

Wash the aubergines, cut off the stems, peel and slice thinly in rounds Sprinkle the slices with salt and press between two plates. Leave for one hour. Wipe dry with a cloth and dip in coating batter. Fry in deep boiling fat until brown.

Alternatively you can dip the slices in egg and breadcrumbs, or fry au naturel. Serve hot.

Mario couldn't have done it any better. If you don't want to fry it, just cook it in wine!

Cooking Dinner

2011-09-26T12:21:00.005-04:00

Full Disclosure: The author's sent me a copy of their book. My gentle readers might think this happens a lot. Well, much to my chagrin it does not happen nearly enough! Seriously all you editors out there at Clarkson Potter and Chronicle, send us your books... sorry, I digress... Generally, however, we are kind of the low-girl-on-the-totem-pole. Cookbook writers, like everyone else who publishes, get a really small budget to market their books. They make a big list and then they get a dozen books to send out, so of course, they go to big media outlets. While we are often asked it we will review a book, we often fail to make the final cut. So when Rima Barkett and Claudia Pruett asked if I wanted a review copy, I said yes, but didn't really expect to make the cut. So imagine my surprise when a big fat envelope arrived with a shiny copy of their book, Cooking Dinner.

I love cookbooks that advocate family dinner. As a child in Alabama, everyone in the family had Sunday dinner together whether you wanted to or not! I learned to cook, not from the thousand cookbooks that line my walls, but at the elbows of the women in my life. Cooking, like reading, is something one needs to actually see being done.

Cooking Dinner: Simple Italian Family Recipes Everyone Can Make are just that: simple recipes that you can make with your kids in tow and feed to everyone in the family and all those people who happen to be hanging around the house when dinner is served. The recipes are full of flavor while maintaining a simple kitchen-friendly vibe.

One of the nicest features of the cookbook is the addition of info bubbles beside the recipes. They offer info, tips and a helping hand. The helping hand feature is aimed at the kids in your kitchen, but if you cook, you know there is always someone coming in and asking, "Can I help?" The helping hand feature gives an efficient and easy answer to satisfy even the biggest helping hand.

Writing a cookbook just wasn't enough for Barkett and Pruett. The pair has a website, A Tavola Together, which is chocked full of tips, recipes, shopping lists and more to keep the family in the kitchen.

My favorite recipe from the book is the penne with asparagus. I love both penne and asparagus, and when you add cream and cheese how could you go wrong?

Penne with Asparagus

1 pound penne pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, peeled & chopped fine, about 1 cup
2 pounds asparagus, rinsed and cut into 1/2 pieces
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Dash freshly ground pepper
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over low to medium heat. Add onion saute until translucent, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot over high heat. When the water is boiling, add 2 tablespoons salt and penne pasta. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Add asparagus, salt and pepper to the onions. continue cooking, stirring occasionally. After 5 minutes, add cream and cook two more minutes.
Meanwhile, pour hot water into a serving bowl and let stand. This is an important step which serves to warm the bowl.
When the penne are 3 minute from being done, transfer them to the sauce in the skillet using a slotted spoon. Add about 1/3 cup of the cooing water and cook for a few more minutes over medium heat, stirring often and adding more water if necessary. he pasta will finish cooking in the sauce. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Stir in 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese.
When the penne are ready, pour out the water and dry the serving bowl. Transfer penne to the bowl. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese and serve.

The tip for this recipe: Slice the asparagus in the diagonal to match the shape of the peen pasta.

The helping hand: Young children can help rinse the asparagus. Older ones can grate the Parmesan.

If you are looking for a way to get the whole family into the kitchen, grab a copy of Cooking Dinner and get in there and cook dinner.

The Lewis & Clark Cookbook

2011-09-23T13:16:00.008-04:00

If you read the post over at Lucindaville, you have been regaled with pawpaw facts. Continuing in that vein, here is an entry from the journal of William Clark, September 18, 1806:

"Subsisting on poppaws. we divide the buiskit which amounted to nearly one buisket per man, this in addition to the poppaws is to last is down to the Settlement's which is 150 miles the party appear perfectly contented and tell us that they can live very well on the pappaws."

Clearly, me and Clark share a love of speling! As one might remember, in 2006 there was a celebration of the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Every museum in every state that Lewis or Clark ever set foot in had an exhibition and books proliferated.

Leslie Mansfield wrote The Lewis & Clark Cookbook: Historic Recipes from the Corps of Discovery & Jefferson’s America. It is a nice cookbook featuring foods that Lewis & Clark might have encountered on their journey as well as (note the subtitle of the book...) recipes prevalent during the Jeffersonian era. George Washington was supposed to be greatly enamored with iced pawpaw as a dessert. Not to be outdone as a statesman or botanist, Thomas Jefferson cultivated the pawpaw at Monticello.

Even the great naturalist painter, John James Audubon was not spared from the plentiful pawpaw. It makes and appearance below.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo in Pawpaw Tree, John James Audubon

Given all the Lewis & Clark hoopla, Mansfiled's book generated more than one "Lewis & Clark Dinner." This was favorite dessert:

Pawpaw ice Cream

2 cups pawpaw puree, thawed if frozen

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup milk

1 cup sugar

Place the pawpaw puree in a bowl and set aside. In a heavy saucepan, stir together the cream, milk and sugar. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Slowly pour the cream mixture into the pawpaw puree, whisking to blend. Cover with plastic wrap and completely chill in the refrigerator. Pour the cold mixture into an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Yes, Lewis & Clark did eat more than their share of pawpaws.

No, they did not bring their Cuisinart ice cream maker along with them.

If they had, no doubt, Sacagawea would have had to tote it on her back and make the ice cream.

A Recipe Request...

2011-09-20T12:53:00.004-04:00

...from Amy.

Amy sent us this:

Thanks for featuring this cookbook Lucindaville. I remember it being a fantastic read and a great snapshot of some of the more popular recipes of the past. In there is a very special Christmas Plum pudding recipe. My ex's mum used to make this every Christmas and extra for me to last until July! In the break-up I unfortunately lost my pudding privileges and access to the recipe. There are no words to describe how amazing this pudding is! I think many women in my mum's generation might have experienced the same feeling I get from the first bite of the pudding, when they saw Richard Chamberlain take his clothes off in The Thornbirds way back then. So could I ask *pretty pretty please* for you to share the Plum Pudding recipe from the book? If anyone gets past the astounding number of ingredients required it really is worth all the effort!

We do so hate to lose recipes in a break-up. So here is Colleen's Christmas Pudding recipe.

Christmas Pudding

4 cups raisins
6 cups sultanas
1/2 cup chopped almonds
4 tablespoons chopped orange peel
4 tablespoons chopped lemon peel
1 cup glace cherries, chopped
2 cups brandy
450 g (1 lb) butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
8 large eggs
1 cup apple puree (or apple sauce)
1/2 cup orange juice
6 cups fresh soft bread crumbs
2 cups plain flour
2 tablespoons ground ginger
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons ground allspice
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Chop the fruit and almonds and orange and lemon peel, dust lightly with a little flour, and put in a basin overnight with the brandy poured over them.

Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs one by one, getting each one well absorbed before breaking in another. The mixture will look very curdled by the time the last egg is added, but this is quite normal for rich dark cakes and puddings, and as the flour is added the curdling disappears.

To the creamed butte/sugar with the eggs beaten in, add the apple puree and beat well, the orange juice and beat well.

To the liquid mixture, add the breadcrumbs a cup at a time, mixing well.

Sift the flour together with the spices, salt and baking powder, then stand the mixture aside in a basin.

To the liquid and breadcrumbs, add 2 cups of the soaked fruit, stirring well.

Add 1/2 cup of the flour, stirring well.

Add 2 more cups of the fruit, then 1/2 cup of the flour, and continue in this way until all the fruit and flour have been incorporated.You may find that this is impossible toward the end to mix with any other implement than your hands, so use your hands.

Make sure that you put into the pudding all the liquid that might have run out of the fruit soaked overnight. You don't want to lose any of the brandy!

Spread the pudding cloth, sprinkle it with flour except for the outer margins, then pile the pudding mixture in its center. Tie it up tightly and well with string.

Place the mixture tied in its cloth in a very large pot of boiling water, put the lid on the pot, and boil the pudding for 8 hours. As the water evaporates, replenish it with more boiling water - never add water which isn't boiling, and never let the pudding go off the boil.

It is best to make the pudding at least two weeks before Christmas, to permit it to mature.

You can add small silver coins to the mixture which is traditional for Christmas, but make certain they are silver coins, and do not use any of the modern Australian five and ten cent pieces which are amalgams of metals other than silver.

The pudding is served with brandy butter and hot custard.

When you make this, Amy, do send us photos. Merry Christmas!

The Three Chimneys

2011-09-15T10:30:00.000-04:00

When you write a cookbook blog, you often find that you are the recipient of cookbooks that your friends bought on a whim. I know this sounds bizarre, but there are some people out there who see no need whatsoever for a thousand cookbooks to peruse. Well their loss is my gain.

Recently, I gained a lovely cookbook from my friend Nanci. Several years ago, she and her husband took a whirlwind trip to Scotland. While they were there, they had dinner at the famous restaurant, The Three Chimneys that was vote one of the world’s top 50 restaurants.

Being dutifully impressed, and filled with vacation largess, they not only ate at The Three Chimneys, but they also bought the book. Recently, without ever having to visit the Isle of Skye myself, I became the inheritor of the cookbook.

Shirley Spear, the cook at The Three Chimneys began her career as a journalist. The job took her to London where she met her husband. As with any journalist living in London, she couldn’t wait to go back to Scotland and open a restaurant. Sure, after being named one of the 50 best restaurants in the world, one might think it was a great idea, but for many years it seemed like a huge catastrophe. But Shirley was determined to make the local ingredients of the Scottish countryside a source of culinary pride.

Shirley succeeded.

Now, along with the gift of this cookbook, I also received the menu from 16 August 2004, the night Nanci dined there. I really wanted to start with the Loch Dunvegan Lobster & Langoustines with Peashoot, New Potato & Quail Egg Salad, Lemon & Olive Oil Vinaigrette but alas, the recipe was not included so I went for dessert.

Whisky and Lemon Syllabub with Skye Strawberries

250 ml fresh double cream

Finley grated rind and juice of 1 large lemon

125 g castor sugar

1/2 a measure or I generous tbsp. of your favorite whiskey

Whisk all the ingredients together until holding just form.

Spoon on top of fresh strawberries.

Eat and enjoy.

Did she really have to tell us to enjoy? Now I feel the need to re-visit Scotland. And eat langoustines and syllabub and…

Thanks, Nanci!

Caviare to Candy

2011-09-13T10:27:00.000-04:00

Mrs. Philip Martineau, sometimes known as Alice, wrote several cookbooks and a gardening tome or two or three. Caviare to Candy features recipes for small households from all parts of the world. This particular “new” edition Mrs. Martineau notes:

“…there are fashions in cookery as in all things and “Caviare to Candy” must be kept up to date. Readers have urged me to give more French dishes while some have said…I should tell them how to make and omelette, and how to prevent Brussels sprouts looking brown instead of green!

So here is good eating to you all, good appetite and a cook good enough to like experimenting.”

Caviare to Candy was updated in1933. Mrs. Martineau suggests Welsh Rarebit as a savory, but interestedly, with all the lovely hard English cheddar, she suggests Kraft cheese.

She laments the poor soul who lives in a small flat and thus, has very little room to hang game.

Since the poor old cook in one’s employ has rarely eaten in the finer restaurants. How Mrs. Martineau asks:

“…can one expect one’s cook to invent such a sauce as current jelly beaten into horseradish cream to eat with saddle of mutton – or to stuff French prunes with chutney as an alternative?”

I am definitely explaining to my cooks that she should add current jelly to the horseradish cream.

I keep coming back to this economical and emergency recipe.

Poached Eggs with Sweet Corn

A dish for an emergency

Make a white sauce of half a tin of sweet corn, butter and a spoon of milk or cream, pepper and salt.

Heap up and pour over the poached eggs, and garnish with tiny strips of fried bacon.

Well, you know most anything is better with fried bacon.

nobody does it better…

2011-09-12T10:23:00.000-04:00

Trish Deseine is a lovely Irish lass. For twenty years she has been an Irish lass living in France. Writing cookbooks. Her book Ma Petite Robe Noire was awarded the Priz La Mazille at Perigueux, one of France’s highest culinary honors, making Deseine the first non-French author to ever win the prize.

In 2007, she put her love of French cooking into an English language book appropriately titled, nobody does it better…Why French home cooking is still the best in the world. Our love of French cooking and cookbooks is well noted and while French home cooking might just be the best in the world, I am convinced the French food photography is clearly the best in the world. Frankly, the food could be absolutely abysmal, but the pictures of the food make it look fabulous.

Deseine is not a trained chef, but learned to cook in the French style the same way most home cooks learned, at the elbow of other women. She watched them cook and more importantly, she watched them shop. She read and experimented and before long, she was the woman with the elbow everyone wanted to stand beside. Of course, her fist inspiration was Elizabeth David…”the only guru you needed or heeded, she was the first foreign cook you wanted to emulate.”

Of course, like most French cookbooks, this one has a battery of recipes that you know and love (and find in every other French cookbook you own), but there are many other new and luscious recipes just waiting to be added to your personal repertoire. Like this joues de porc braisées au cidre.

Pig Cheeks Braised in Cider

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for frying

50 g butter

1 kg pig’s cheeks

4 –5 shallots

750 mi dry cider

200 g button mushrooms

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 160 C/325 F/Gas mark 3

Heat the oil and butter in a heavy-based casserole with a lid. Brown the meat with the shallots for a few minutes, then pour over the cider and scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze, bring to a boil and cover. Transfer to the oven and cook for 1 hour 30 minutes.

Some 20 minutes before serving fry up the mushrooms in a little olive oil and add them to the casserole.

Serve with fresh ribbon pasta.

Chefs just love to make pig’s cheeks and they make such a fuss about cooking them, like only a big old chef would be able to master such a recipe. And here is a recipe that anyone can make and everyone will want to eat. Oh yes and even the picture is yummy.

The How-Not-to-Miss-the-Cocktail-Hour-Cookbook

2011-09-06T12:26:00.002-04:00

Just as the Swinging Sixties were rolling to an end, Edward Lowman was gathering all of his entertaining expertise into a single volume -- The How-Not-to-Miss-the-Cocktail-Hour-Cookbook. Lord knows we have no intention of missing the cocktail hour, so this little cookbook is simply a must-have. We are told from the start:

"The joy of cooking for friends is in spending time with them. Time away from guests is precious. The secret of cooking-cum-conviviality is now told by an inveterate entertainer with gourmet tastes."

The recipes and menus in this volume promise no more than 20 minutes in the kitchen and away from the cocktails. In fact each recipe has its own TAG time. (That would be the Time Awayfrom Guests.)

Surprisingly, Edward Lowman, who happens to be a medical doctor, is a huge fan of MSG. He just loves to throw it in everything and swears that there is no proof that MSG in any way affects those hypochondriacs who complain of headaches and other ailments. I already have a headache.

Lowman has a very good list of shortcuts at the beginning of his book and a list of things not to do. Lowman says:

"There are many good prepared food products that measure up well in the art of gourmet shortcuts, but there are others that will dismally betray your trust and expose you with an inferior result. These latter are what I dub "N.O.O.C.D." which translated means, "Not of our class, darling!""

On his "Yes-Yes" list he includes items such as prepared pie crusts, packaged breadcrumbs, frozen cleaned uncooked shrimp, curry powder, and bakery bread. No-Nos include canned shrimp, instant coffee, pre-cooked rice and cornbread mix! (I am totally creeped out just typing "cornbread mix."

Alas, many of his soups begin with canned soup, and of course, I feel that most probably, canned soup should end up on the "no-no" list. Here is the very first recipe. The TAG time is a mere 1 minute. Just the time it takes to drag it out of the refrigerator. This recipe sounds positively dreadful and yet, there is something about it that makes it sound that it just might work, you be the judge.

Quick Pâté Maison

2 6-ounce packages liverwurst
1 3-ounce package cream cheese
2-tablespoon butter, melted
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon MSG
1 1/2 tablespoon sherry
1/4-teaspoon salt
1/2-teaspoon curry powder
1/3-cup mayonnaise
Pinch nutmeg

Have liverwurst and cheese at room temperature (easier to mix). Combine all ingredients and mash and cream well together, using a fork; do not use and electric blender. Chill well.

Frankly, if you stuffed this into tiny little ramekins and served it with some toast points, it might just be a winner.

The best news - you will only miss 1 minute of cocktails.

Dinner With Tennessee Williams

2011-09-02T12:38:00.005-04:00

Let's just get this right of the way -- I am not fond of cookbooks that take a famous person of event and then just throws together recipes claiming to be a cookbook. So I was quite skeptical about Dinner With Tennessee Williams. Drinks with Tennessee Williams might have been another story...

Thomas Lanier Williams by Alfred Eisenstaedt

Still, if you were going to do a Tennessee Williams cookbook, this one was done in the right way. First, there was rhyme to their reason. Every year New Orleans has a Tennessee Williams Literary Festival. This cookbook grew out of a love of Tennessee William's New Orleans. Chef Greg Picolo had cooked for the Literary Festival on occasion. Troy Gilbert had written a cookbook or two. Throw in Dr. Kenneth Holditch, a noted Williams scholar, and you have a fine cookbook, one even Tennessee Williams would have been proud of.

I lived in New Orleans for a year. I gained forty pounds! Seriously, I GAINED forty pounds. Even the crappiest food in New Orleans is about ten times better than the BEST food in most places. Southerners love to sit around an talk and eat. And talk and eat and tell you about what they ate and how their grandma cooked it and how that differed from the way Mama cooked it and how they cook it and what restaurant has a good approximation. New Orleans is one of those cities where people can talk poetically and passionately about food and spend their entire life having never set foot in a kitchen!

Gilbert and Picolo do a great job of translating Dr. Holditch's scholarship about the food in the plays of Tennessee Williams into actual food on a plate. Here is a pork chop fit to serve the overbearing and "big" Big Daddy from Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Note they are not just pork chops but double-cut pork chops cooked in Coca-cola, bourbon and molasses the real "holy trinity" of Southern cooking.

Big Daddy's Braised Double-Cut Pork Chops With Coca-Cola, Bourbon, Molasses, and Granny Smith Apples

6 double-cut pork chops
Salt and pepper
2 cups flour, seasoned
1/2 cup olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
2 cups bourbon
4 cups Coca-Cola
2 cups apple juice
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons lite soy sauce
2 tablespoons Steen's Molasses
2 teaspoons Tabasco or Crystal Hot Sauce
2 cups demi-glace
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 cup beef stock, if needed
5 Granny Smith apples, cored, quartered
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Season chops with salt and pepper and then dust in seasoned flour. Sear chops in hot oil in an ovenproof pan until light brown, about 2 minutes on each side and remove to a plate. Carefully pour off excess oil, then add onion and saute 2 minutes. Return chops to pan and deglaze with the bourbon, allowing the pot liquor to reduce by two-thirds.

Add Coca-Cola, apple juice, garlic, soy sauce, molasses, Tabasco, demi-glace, thyme, rosemary, and salt and pepper. While cooking, take a brush and baste the chops every 5 minutes or so. Braise in an oven, uncovered, at 450 degrees F for 8 minutes. If needed, add stock or water if the pot-liquor reduces too quickly. Reduce heat and cook at 350 - 400 degrees F for 20 minutes; turn the chops. Cook for an additional 20 minutes then turn again. Add apples and cook an additional 20--40 minutes, until the meat is almost falling off the bone. Serve .

Another reason to feature this cookbook is to take a look back at some of the fine actresses that have given life to the complex women of Tennessee Williams' imagination.

Judith Ivey
The Glass Menagerie

Calista Flockhart and Julie Harris
The Glass Menagerie

Cate Blanchett
A Streetcar Named Desire

Olympia Dukakis
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore

Cherry Jones
Night Of The Iguana

Elizabeth Ashley
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Natasha Richardson and Amy Ryan
A Streetcar Named Desire

Frankly, this is the "short list" ...we could go on and on... Check out more actresses at Lucindaville.

Good Poultry and Game Dishes

2011-08-31T13:11:00.004-04:00

In his day, Ambrose Heath wrote and translated more than one hundred works on food. We have a few of them and you might remember that we have featured several of them in the last few years. Good Poultry and Game Dishes falls into another of our favorite categories, game cookbooks.

First, let me say that we cook chicken every single Sunday and on other days of the week, too. Second, let me say that living with a thousand cookbooks often means that is nothing new on the recipe front. If you can eat it, we have read a recipe for it. In fact, we have read recipes for numerous things that you wouldn't put in your mouth in a million years!

So while perusing Good Poultry and Game Disheswe ran across several recipes for hazel hen. What exactly is a hazel hen. Here was something quite new and in need of research.

The hazel hen is a small little grouse. They are found in England and central Europe. The males are quite the little crooners and evidently sing as a way to defend their breeding territory. There are a few recipes out there for this type of grouse and here is Ambrose Heath's.

Hazel Hens, Potted

Cut three or four hazel hens into neat pieces and slice the breasts. Put a few slices of fat bacon into a terrine, and add some pieces of the bird with a bay-leaf, one or two cloves, a little cinnamon and chopped onion and salt and peppercorn, covering with more bacon and repeating the layers until the terrine is full, then pour in enough light red wine nearly to fill the terrine, put on a lid or a pastry top, and bake in a very slow oven for five to six hours. Serve cold.

In a 1958 Sport's Illustrated article, we are told that "21" is the place to go for fowl of all kinds including the hazel hen:

"But Scottish grouse is only one of a large number of game specialties which have helped to establish the considerable reputation of "21." Chukar partridge, mallard and other species of duck, hazel hen, Mexican quail, young Canadian snow goose and Norwegian ptarmigan are other available items in season. Larger game includes venison, of course (the ragout of venison St. Hubert is outstanding), reindeer, moose, elk, hare from Canada and, occasionally, saddle of antelope. Also, of all things, bear. Gary Cooper, I was told, on his visits to New York never misses ordering the grilled black bear chops."

Ambrose Heath has nary a recipe for bear in Good Poultry and Game Dishes, but there are about 99 other books we could try.

150 Alabama First Lady's Cookbook

2011-08-30T13:22:00.003-04:00

We don't go in much for old spiral-bound cookbooks, but when one spends a lot of time studying Southern cooking, they are hard to escape. 150 Alabama First Lady's Cookbook was assembled by then Governor Albert P. Brewers wife, Mrs. Albert P. Brewer. (Rumor has it her Christian name was "Martha" but there is no sign of that in this cookbook.) The cookbook was compiled for the Alabama Sesquicentennial in 1969. It is just jam packed with recipes, quite a large number of them involving "canned" ingredients like mushroom soup, mushrooms and lots of Jello. There is the ever present lemon Jello and tomato juice aspic, cheese straws, and Red Velvet Cake.

We have Mrs. Hardenburgh's $1000 Prize Recipe for Chicken which might have been awarded this vast sum because she actually used fresh herbs in the chicken... also canned mushrooms and canned cream of mushroom soup, but fresh basil and rosemary just the same.

So here is a recipe for Party Chicken. It would seem that "party chicken" was quite a popular dish as two, count them, TWO Mrs. offered up this recipe.

Party Chicken

4 whole chicken breasts, split, skinned and boned
8 slices of bacon
1 4-ounce package of chipped beef
1 can mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream

Wrap each breast in strip of bacon, cover bottom of flat, greased baking dish with chipped beef. Arrange chicken on chipped beef. Mix undiluted soup and sour cream and pour over chicken. Cove and refrigerate. Bake uncovered in a very low (275) oven for 3 hours.

I have spent a lot of time in Alabama and I have never been served chipped beef on chicken. Especially after it has been cooked for three hours. I just don't believe there is enough canned soup and sour cream to keep chicken breasts from totally drying out after three hours.

I suggest serving the Party Chicken with Company Beans.

Company Beans

2 packages French cut green beans, frozen
2 packages baby lima beans, frozen
2 packages English peas, frozen

Cook each according to instruction on the package.

Mix the following sauce, and keep at room temperature:

2 cups mayonnaise
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco sauce
1 medium sized onion, minced
4 hard-boiled eggs, minced
Salt and pepper to taste.

Drain liquid from hot vegetables, put into serving dish, and top with sauce.

Again, I lived in Alabama for years and never, never, EVER had a frozen green bean nor a green pea. (OK, we did often have canned English Peas.)

So my little Southern Belles, go forward and party.

Cooking With Colleen McCullough

2011-08-26T14:20:00.005-04:00

People often joke that EVERYONE has a a book in them, well it is not a far stretch (especially if you read Famous Food Friday) to assume that EVERYONE has a cookbook in them. Today we are... Cooking With Colleen McCullough.

McCullough was a literary sensation in the late 1970's and 1980's after producing an rather large and rambling novel about Australia entitled: The Thorn Birds. It was ostensibly about a priest waging battle between his love of God and his love of all things female. It was all the rage and in 1983 it was turned into a rambling mini-series.

I came to write about this cookbook, not because of Colleen McCullough but because of Barbara Stanwyck .

Recently I saw an interview with the new "IT" girl, Brit Marling,

who said the actress she most wanted to be like was Barbara Stanwyck . A few days later, I saw Barbara Stanwyck in Annie Oakley.

Then, I was moving something in a desk and I ran across the Barbara Stanwyck Christmas Ornament, my BFF, Beverly gave me. Then I remembered The Thorn Birds, largely because of Barbara Stanwyck, who had a hot sex scene with a naked Richard Chamberlain. It was quite scandalous at the time. And that, my dear readers, is how we got to to Colleen McCullough's cookbook but, as always, I digress...

Colleen McCullough set out to be a doctor, but dermatitis kept her from scrubbing in as a physician, so she turned her interests to neurophysiology. While studying, she had a professor, Jean Easthope. The pair became friends and quickly began cooking together. They proved to be an unlikely, yet interesting mix. McCullough was raised in a meat-and-potatoes household while Easthope was raised by vegetarian parents.

The book is filled with archival prints, drawings and photographs, including a rather lovely kangaroo hunt (unless, of course, you are the kangaroo).

I was quite dismayed that the book failed to include a single kangaroo recipe. Since humans are a bit on the squeamish side and would rather eat pork than pig, venison than deer, so, an attempt was made recently to develop a "people" friendly culinary term for kangaroo. The winner is... "Australus." If you see"Australus" steak on the menu, you will no longer be in the dark.

Since we had no kangaroo, we immediately went to the chocolate. Even kangaroo, sorry, Australus, would be great if just smothered it in this lovely sauce.

Chocolate Rum Sauce

225 g (8 oz) dark chocolate
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons rum

Melt the chocolate and butter together in the top of a double boiler, stir well, and add the rum, stirring again.

As long as we are rambling...

The joy (as well as the curse) of our new technology may well be that we never lose anything. When you snort milk out your nose in the junior high lunch room, chances are it will end up on YouTube. Forever. FOREVER. Every dumbass thing one does, things that used to be forgotten, are now immortalized for better or worse.

The good news is, one no longer has to watch 8 hours of The Thorn Birds to see the naughty bit with Richard Chamberlain and Barbara Stanwyck .

Not A Cookbook: More From Zac Brown

2011-08-24T10:47:00.004-04:00

In January we featured Zac Brown's cookbook Southern Ground. Check out this today's article in the New York Times about the band's chef, Rusty Hamlin and their "eat and greets."

Tart And Sweet

2011-08-23T12:57:00.004-04:00

We love confiture.

The last couple of years has seen a boom for canning cookbooks. It seems everyone with some Ball jars and deep pot is out there canning. Well good for them. What is really great about these newer canning book is their detail to size. Many older canning books go for that big batch, supporting the family for the entire year approach. Newer canning books tell you how to grab up a few pints of berries and turn it into jam without commandeering the entire neighborhood or kitchen for that matter.

So here's the deal with many of these cookbooks: they tend to be overwrought with info, making you believe you need to be a rocket scientist to make a simple jam... Houston we have blueberries! Then there is the other extreme, add fruit, sugar, cook, and can. Tart and Sweet has a nice medium. There are photos of things you need to know, like how much head space does one really need in one's pickles, or jam for that matter.

Kelly Geary runs Sweet Deliverance NYC in New York City or Brooklyn, you know somewhere "up there." Jessie Knadler used to be a big old New Yorker until love intervened and now she live in Virginia and can be found at Rurally Screwed. Their recipes are easy, the pictures are lovely, and they give you options for what exactly to do with all this stuff once you get it canned. I love using my jams and conserves as cocktail ingredients and so do they.

If I do have a big old criticism it is using Pomona's Universal Pectin. I have used it before, but being one of those people who is "rurally screwed", it is a tough product to find in West Virginia. But then, I try to stay away from pectin all together. But seriously, what do I do.

That being said, this is a good book for someone who is starting out and needs to know the basics. This book includes one of my favorite pickles, pickled fiddleheads. Now if you think Pomona's Universal Pectin is tough to find, try finding fiddleheads at your local grocery.

I first tried these great pickles in Vermont. I swore my friend Barbara said her mother-in-law made them, but both Barbara and her husband, Steve, swear I made that up. Several years later I found a forager and pickle maker in the backwoods of Vermont. The guy had no e-mail, nothing but a PO Box. I would request two jars of pickled fiddleheads and send cash. Several months later I would eventually receive a box packed with two pints of pickled fiddleheads. I would admire them for several weeks before breaking into them. I lost track of my forager, but if you find the fiddlehead guy, tell him to call. In the meantime if you've got the fiddleheads....

Pickled Fiddleheads

3 1/2 cups white wine vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
2 Tbsp. kosher salt
1 3/4 lbs. fiddleheads (see note)
Per jar:
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp. brown mustard seed
2 tsp. coriander seed
1/2 tsp. black peppercorns
1/2 tsp. dill seed
1/4 tsp. celery seed

Note: Fiddleheads can taste bitter if not cleaned properly. To prepare, trim the “tail” of the shoot just to where it starts to coil. Soak the heads in cold water and swirl them around, picking and rubbing away any brown flaky bits. Repeat as necessary until all the brown bits have been removed.

1. Bring the vinegar, water and salt to a boil in a medium nonreactive pot. Stir to dissolve the salt.

2. Pack the fiddleheads, bay leaf, garlic and spices into hot jars. Pour boiling brine over the fiddleheads, making sure they are covered and leaving 1/2 inch head space.

3. Check for air bubbles, wipe the rims, and seal. Process for 10 minutes , adjusting for elevation.

Or you could just grab a pint or two of berries.

Down The Kitchen Sink

2011-08-19T13:08:00.001-04:00

Last year Lucindaville (and Cookbook Of The Day) offered up a Famous Food Friday about Beverley Nichols and we are doing it again.

When last we were cooking with Beverely Nichols, we were pondering his "found" cookbook, In an Eighteenth Century Kitchen. This was the cookbook Nichols wrote about in A Thatched Roof. After his success with Down The Garden Path, the first and probably best known, or should I say, remembered of Nichols' books, he chose to undertake a similar culinary adventure which would become Down the Kitchen Sink. Nichols knew as little about cooking and he once did about gardening and I am sure he thought if could master gardening, why not cooking.

This is, however, Beverely Nichols, so an actual cookbook is not exactly what is presented. Even Nichols admits to this:

"This is supposed to be a cookery v book, but I suspect that it will turn out to be something rather different. True, it contains a number of Gaskin's own recipes, which, after his death, I found interlarded among the pages of the cookery books that he had collected over the years. these were sometimes scribbled over with mysterious comments on the guest who were to partake of them, such as 'No crab for Lady F'. I cannot remember any Lady F in my life, nor why she should have been denied this delicacy."

The "Gaskin" mentioned is Reginald Arthur Gaskin who was Nichols manservant for 40 years. When the writer, P.G. Woodhouse visited Nichols and was served by Gaskin, he remarked that Gaskin was, "the perfect Jeeves." While it is said that Woodhouse based his character on a butler he employed for research, Eugene Robinson, it comes as no surprise that Jeeves' Christian name is revealed in 1971 to be "Reginald" but then... Bertie was based on an earlier character named Reggie Pepper... but I digress....

Beverely Nichols, Reginald Gaskin and Nichols gardener, Oldfield.

You get the idea of Gaskin's demeanor. After forty years, when Gaskin died, Nichols found himself in his kitchen alone searching for something to eat. Nichols takes it upon himself to write a cookery book, but it becomes more of dining book filled with interesting people including but not limited to: Noel Coward, Oliver Messel, and William Randolph Hearst. His stories are wonderfully gossipy filled with dish and food.

Clearly, some of the recipes are unique to Nichols. This unnamed recipe is on Nichols "heard" about. It is by far the strangest recipe, and one you should replicate at your own risk.

Silver Chicken

I had to invent this title for this recipe does no appear in any cookery book which I have yet encountered.

You take the largest capon you can buy. It must be a whooper.

You then rinse 6 or 8 silver spoons or forks in hot water. Only silver will do; silver plate would be worse than useless.

Now, taking a firm grip of the chicken, push the silver up its behind. As if this were not enough humiliation, follow it with two heaped tablespoonful of ground ginger. All this sounds extremely sadistic but it is no more so than keeping the poor thing cramped in a cage for the whole of its unnatural life.

Having maltreated the chicken in this manner, bring a large saucepan of slightly salted water to a boil, put in the chicken, add 6 carrots and 6 medium sized onions, cram on the lid, and boil at the gallop for precisely 5 minutes.

Turn off the gas, lift up the saucepan, transport to the larder, and leave to cool overnight.

On the following morning you must be prepared for a shock. When you lift the chicken out and drain off the water, and remove the spoons and forks, you will find that they have all gone black. Do not be alarmed. A good soaking in any of the modern silver-cleaning preparations will restore them, though this may take rather longer than usual.

A chicken prepared in this manner tastes quite different from any chicken you have ever had before, unless you are at least sixty years old, and can recall the days of your youth, when a chicken really was a chicken, and not a synthetic Robot bird, reared by Robots for the mechanical digestion of other Robots. Apart from the taste, it can be carved in delicate slices, instead of falling to pieces in the manner of the average boiled chicken of today.

I cannot think of a better dinner companion than Beverely Nichols. When you try this recipe, do send us a photo -- or the chicken and the silverware!

The Transcendental Boiled Dinner

2011-08-18T13:07:00.003-04:00

The Transcendental Boiled Dinner is one of those cookbooks that is not. Died in the wool Mainer, John Pullen delivers his 92 homage to one of the quintessential Maine culinary experiences -- the boiled dinner.

Pullen begins his history with the apropos statement from none other than Mark Twain:

"Mark Twain once remarked that there is nothing so good as Southern corn bread and nothing so bad as the Northern imitation of it."

He had me at "corn bread."

Pullen admits to no culinary ability except for the New England Boiled Dinner. But it is not culinary ability that makes a boiled dinner:

"Success in preparing the New England Boiled dinner begins with the character of the cook."

To understand Pullen's hypothesis he illustrates it with two well-known characters from eighteenth century America. Cooking character on a scale of 1 -10 would give you:

Benjamin Franklin ............................................................Johnathan Edwards

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Pullen says of Franklin, "I would not trust Franklin to boil this Dinner as far as I could throw him."

Pullen says of Edwards, "he is superb metaphysically in his qualifications for the Boiled Dinner assignment."

He had me at "Jonathan Edwards."

Anyone that feels the need to employ the Doctrine of Original Sin into their culinary pursuits is fine with me.
For his Transcendental Boiled Dinner, Pullen notes that there is beef and the following four vegetables: Potatoes, Cabbage, Carrots and Turnips. Now some people will say that in addition to these vegetables, one should add the onion. Pullen disagrees -- vociferously.

"I have emphasized the necessity of a theological point of view that will exclude from the Dinner all ingredients except those I have appointed as being fit and worthy. To all these excluded things the onion stands a does Satan to his host of minor fiends, demons and evil spirits!"

As you now may realize, the recipe for Transcendental Boiled Dinner is more of "path" than an actual recipe, filled with science, theology and literature. Here however is the recipe. There is a standard table and the modified table as Mr. Pullen was regrettably tardy in beginning the process:

Standard Table........................................................... Modified Table

Beef starts simmer.....2:00 P.M.....................................2:05 P.M.
Turnip insertion.........5:16 P.M.....................................5:21 P.M.
Potato insertion..........5:31 P.M.....................................5:36 P.M.
Cabbage insertion.......5:41 P.M.....................................5:46 P.M.
Carrot insertion..........5:46 P.M......................................5:51 P.M.
Dinner done...............6:00 P.M......................................6:05 P.M.

And as Jonathan Edwards will tell you, one simply cannot lie about the details, lest he be cast into Hell. Cookbook or not, The Transcendental Boiled Dinner is a culinary masterpiece.

Cold Cuisine

2011-08-16T13:55:00.004-04:00

In the late 1970' and 1980's, Helen Hecht wrote a series of lovely cookbooks, including Cold Cuisine. The book has a lot of salads and soups and refreshing deserts. As with most old cookbooks, it is a product of its era. Cold Cuisine is very much a a regular book, a simple octavo unadorned by photos and thus very different from the vast majority of the cookbooks published today. Perhaps the grand size and all those colored pictures are simply a mask to conceal the actual recipes. I know it seems much easier to cook from a photo than from the blank canvas of a printed recipe, but in time those photos will be as dated as avocado appliance. In the end, it is the recipes that make the book.

Helen Hecht writes of cold cuisine:

"The appearance of a dish is especially important in the summer. While a steaming hot cassoulet may require no further embellishment than its own enticing aroma and an appetite stimulated by winter chill, summer food must rouse appetites languishing or dormant in stifling weather. You can transform an ordinary-looking dish into something attractive and appealing with a few simple touches and an eye for color, arrangement , and detail."

It might come as no surprise that Helen Hecht was married to the poet Anthony Hecht, as her brief introduction is a poetic tribute to cuisine. When I read this recipe, it seemed to be a simple salad. That it is, but taking into consideration Hecht's description of transforming a cold weather dishes, a simple salad might just be the starting point. Before you toss a bag of lettuce into a bowl, think of how it might be transformed with tiny black olives, rich green avocado, and bursting red tomatoes.

Al Fresco Salad

8 thin slices bacon
2 ripe avocados
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 medium-size, ripe tomatoes
1 cup black pitted olives, halved
1 small Bermuda onion, peeled and sliced thin
2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled (1/2 cup)
1/2 pound fresh spinach, washed and stemmed and dried
salt
freshly ground pepper
1 recipe of Basic Vinaigrette (below)

Sauté bacon till crisp, drain on paper towels. Peel avocados, slice into bowl and toss with lemon juice. Core the tomatoes and chop into bite-size pieces. Combine bacon, avocados, tomatoes, olives, onion, blue cheese, and spinach in a bowl. Season to taste.

Basic Vinaigrette

1 garlic clove peeled and cut in half
3/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons wine vinegar
Combine and let stand for several hours. Remove garlic before using.

Enjoy the last of the garden and Fall is waiting in the wings.

The Woman's Guide to Boating and Cooking

2011-08-13T16:31:00.004-04:00

So you are thinking to yourself, "I really need a good book on sailing and cooking." Well look no farther than The Woman's Guide to Boating and Cooking by Lael Morgan. Not one to spend a great deal of time on the lesson taking approach to sailing, Morgan married a man who liked to sail and travel so they bought a boat and with no experience, Morgan became the first mate, quite literally. And also the cook.

The first half of the book is about sailing. Written in the late 1960's, it might just seem that Mrs. Morgan was at sea during the Women's Movement judging from this observation:

"Women who love to sail are as rare as cats who swim for pleasure. My husband can sail for hours and enjoy playing with the wind and current. I have to be going somewhere. I can't get ecstatic over the set of the jib without ulterior motives, and I have found few women who can."

It is the very "datedness" of this little book that is so charming. Take for example the straight forward approach to buying your boat:

"At the last national boat show the typical answer to "how much?" was $548 for the boat and $501 to move it."

Well, today, given our inflammatory stock market, you couldn't buy groceries for the boat for $548. And speaking of groceries, the recipes in this book are quite consistent with the prevailing food trends of the time -- there is an abundance of canned soups and canned meats, even canned seafood, which, given the fact that one is supposed to be on a boat, seems a little silly. Just catch some fish. Seriously.

Here is a recipe that is the "boating" equivalent to welsh rabbit. It seems to me the kind of dish that just might have the cook walk the plank.

Blushing Bunny

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 pound grated cheese
1 can tomato soup, undiluted

Melt butter, Add flour and mustard. Add water, blend, and let thicken. Add cheese and let melt, stir in soup. When hot and well mixed, serve on crackers.

How about this recipe to get you in the pink...

Pink Stew

1 cup lobster meat (cooked or canned)
3 tablespoons butter
4 cups milk, scalded
1 teaspoon salt
onion slice
paprika

Saute lobster in butter 4 minutes. Add milk. Season. Serve hot, but do not boil. Float onion ring in each serving and sprinkle with paprika. (Crabmeat may be substituted for lobster.)

You will forgive me if I don't try these two winners on or off dry land. We seem to be in a "yachting" mood these days. Check out our favorite, Ethelind Fearon's travelogue, Without My Yacht, at Lucindaville.

Recipes Of All Nations

2011-08-08T14:39:00.004-04:00

Many cooks of the thirties, including Elizabeth David, were enamored of Countess Morphy's Recipes Of All Nations. There is very little known about Countess Morphy, though many believe she is a "countess" in that same way Prince is a "prince", that is in name only. Still the Countess knew how to collect recipes. This rather massive tome contains over 800 recipes from 29 countries.

This copy bears an introduction by the well-known 1950's television cook, Philip Harben. Harben states that while he has not cooked all 800 recipes, he has cooked over a dozen and boldly states, "I have never found Countess Morphy once to be in error."

There is a large section on Creole cookery and more than one person believes that before she was the "Countess", she was Marcelle Azra Hincks or maybe Forbes from New Orleans. Her section on Creole recipes features a calas recipe. This is a great old New Orleans recipe that is making a bit of a comeback in cooking circles.

Calas (Breakfast rice fritters)
These delicious breakfast fritters or cakes were sold by the old Creole negro women, and their familiar and harmonious street cry of “Bel calas, bel calas, tout chauds!” was heard in all the streets of the French quarter at breakfast time. They went their daily round carrying on their heads a covered wooden bowl containing the hot Calas – picturesque figures they must have been, with their brightly coloured bandana tignons or head-dress, their blue check dresses and their spotless white aprons. The negro cooks would dash out to secure the freshly made hot Calas, which were eaten with the morning cup of coffee. The following is the traditional recipe for Calas:

Ingredients: ½ a cup of rice, 3 cups of water, 3 eggs, 3 tablespoons of flour, ½ a cup of sugar, about 1 oz or a little under of yeast, lard or oil.

Method: Put the water in a saucepan, bring to the boil and add the rice. Boil till the rice is very soft and mushy. Remove from the saucepan and, when quite cold, mix with the yeast dissolved in warm water. Set the rice to rise overnight. In the morning, beat the eggs thoroughly, add them to the rice, with the sugar and flour. Beat all well and make into a thick batter. Set aside to rise for another 15 minutes. Have ready a deep frying pan with hot oil or lard, drop into it 1 tablespoon of the mixture at a time, and cook till a light golden colour. When done, remove them from the fat, drain well by placing them on a sieve or in a colander, sprinkle with sugar and serve very hot.

My copy of this book was used exclusively for the Austro-Hungarian recipes. (There are notes and checks.) This seemed to be a favorite. The "paprika" here refers to the actual pepper so the Countess should have translated it as a Pepper Salad.

Paprika Salat (Paprika Salad)

The paprikas are either boiled or baked till tender and served with salad dressing made of 2 tablespoons of oil to 1 of vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little sugar.

AS you can see, there are just more countries than we have time for here.

Cold Dishes For Hot Weather

2011-08-01T12:24:00.004-04:00

It seems that EVERYONE is talking about the weather. It seems funny that during this horrible "hot" spell, no one is raising the issue of global warming. It is 104 in Washington, D. C.! So it seems time to pull out this little gem, Cold Dishes For Hot Weather. As with the weather, many of these dishes are libel to end up "hot" or at the very least lukewarm before they can be served.

this book was written in 1896 and it features many a simple and straightforward offering.

Egg-Plant Salad

boil the egg-plant until cooked; peel and cut into small pieces; add the juice of a lemon , 1 tablespoon of oil. Mix well and serve.

Simple and to the point.

This book loves "patties" for cold dishes and offers this time saving advice:

The cost and trouble of making patty-cases is such that it is far preferable to buy them at the caterers'; especially is it desirable as when the cook will run the risk of spoiling the paste. Pie pastry is not so easily spoiled as patty of puff paste, and as this is not obtainable, the cook will have to tempt fate and try her own skill at making it herself.

And then... the reader receives absolutely no information on making one's own puff pastry or pie pastry for that matter. It is obvious that the cook is obliged to buy those puff pastry cases and be done with it. After you buy yourself some pie crust you are instructed to make pies like this one...

Cheshire Pork Pie

Skin a loin of pork; cut into small steaks; season with salt, nutmeg, and pepper. Make a pie-crust, and fill with a layer of pork, then one of apples, pared and cored, and sugar enough to sweeten it, then another layer of pork; pour over half a pint of white wine, and cover all with a little butter before covering the pie.

OK, that is all the instruction provided. One assumes the pie must now be cooked. Since it has chunks of pork and raw apples, one would think it might just need to be cooked for quite some time. Since it is 1896 and most stoves are still wood-fired, I'm going out a limb here and saying that this "cold" dish is going to seriously heat up my house. My "hot weather" is going to be blazing hot in my house! But the time this pie cools down it may well be tomorrow! I believe that Cheshire Pork Pie should therefore be a 'Hot Dish for Cold Weather."

I'm headed back to the air-conditioning with a Dove Bar.

Entertaining All'Italiana

2011-07-09T17:19:00.005-04:00

It is no big secret that I collect cookbooks. Unfortunately for me, I do not have unlimited funds to procure said cookbooks, so I always have a list of items that I am looking for with the caveat that they must fall on $20 range. Many of them I can find, but alas, I cannot afford them, so there is an eternal quest for certain grail. One such grail was Anna del Conte’s Entertaining All'Italiana. There have always been a few copies of this elusive book on the market, but they tended to be priced between $100 and $300. That is a lot of tomato sauce and garlic!

First, let me say that Anna del Conte is not well known in America. In England, however, she is cross between Julia Child and Lidia Bastianich. Sure, now there is big food movement in England, but thirty years ago, English food was a bit of a joke. Imagine what it was like when Elizabeth David and Anna del Conte put forward fresh spicy, Italian creations. Del Conte married an Englishman and that is what lead her from her Italian kitchen to England. Del Conte wrote the first complete compendium of Italian food for and English speaking population, Gastronomy of Italy.

Finally, it didn’t hurt that Nigella Lawson stated emphatically that Entertaining All'Italiana was probably her favorite cookery book. (Click here to read Nigella's touching tribute to del Conte.)Published in the early 1990’s, Entertaining All'Italiana is a throwback to older cookbooks, featuring a handful of line drawings for chapter headings, but no pictures of the food.

So finally, I saw a copy of Entertaining All'Italiana. I knew it immediately as I had memorized its blue jacket with the painting of the plums and walnuts. I knew it would be out of my price range, but surprisingly it was under my $20 limit and I practically hyperventilated at the pristine book and fine jacket.

When I got it home, I admired it for several days before I even cracked the spine. The very first recipe was for Linguine coi piselli alla panna, a flat spaghetti with peas and cream. That very morning I picked peas in the garden and had a small bowl sitting on the counter. It was kismet.

Linguine coi piselli alla panna

450 r/1 lb linguine
salt
freshly grated Parmesan for serving

For the sauce

45g/1 1/2 oz unsalted butter
4 shallots, very finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
225g/1/2 lb fresh garden peas, podded, or frozen peas, thawed
1 tbsp flour
6tbsp dry white vermouth
120 ml/1/4 pint single cream
freshly ground pepper

If you are using fresh peas, plunge them in a saucepan of boiling water and cook them for 5 minutes, Frozen peas do not nee this blanching.

Choose a large sauté pan or frying pan into which you can later transfer the drained pasta. Put the butter and shallots in the pan and sprinkle with the sugar and salt. Saute the shallots until soft and then add the peas. Coat them in the butter for 1 minute, sprinkle with the flour and cool for a further minute, stirring the whole time, Stir in the vermouth, boil for 1 minute and then add the stock. Cover the pan and regulate the heat so that the liquid will simmer gently for the peas to cook. They must be tender, not just al dente. Stir in the cream, cook for a couple of minutes. Add pepper , taste and check seasoning.

Meanwhile, put a large saucepan of water on the heat and bring to the boil. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of cooking salt and when the water has come back to a roaring boil, slide in the linguine, a ll at once, pushing them in gently with your hand. Stir with a long fork, putting the lid back on the pan until the water is boiling again, then remove the lid and cook at a steady boil until the linguine is done. Drain, but do not overdrain, and transfer immediately to the pan with the sauce. Stir-fry, using two forks, and stirrings with a high movement so that all the pasta strands are well coated with the sauce.

Now, if your frying pan is a good-looking one, bring the pan directly to the table. The less pasta is transfer from the container to another , the better; it keeps hotter. But if you do not like to bring sauce pans to the table, tun the pasta into a heated bowl and serve, handing round the Parmesan in a bowl.

For my version, I added a bit of ham. It was wonderful. And I can't say enough about how much I love this book. Perhaps it was the quest, perhaps it was Nigella, perhaps it was the first recipe being for peas, but I love it. Frankly, I have long been a fan of Anna del Conte after finding her Gastronomy of Italy. This book is a much more personal journey. Check out our review of Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes,

In the meantime, be on the lookout for you own copy of Entertaining All'Italiana.

Heart of the Artichoke

2011-07-03T12:35:00.005-04:00

David Tanis is a chef. Granted he is the head chef at Chez Panisse, which has a more laid back, ingredient vibe than say... The Four Seasons, but he is still a head chef so you have to think, big old complicated recipes. Here is where Tanis is brilliant. The recipes really do feature the food. The clean, only slightly fussed with, fine ingredients that one really wants to eat. Heart of the Artichoke is Tanis' second book. It follows up on his first book A Platter of Figs which shares the same clean edible and "cookable" recipes.

While I am the first to embrace immersion circulators and having a huge tank of liquid nitrogen in my kitchen, there is something remarkable to be said for some one who can look a a beautiful pile of green beans (how pedestrian) and turn them into Green Bean Salad with Pickled Shallots, a dish that is one the one hand so simple and on the other so complex and beautiful, not to mention it a dish that even the most challenged cook cold pull off with total aplomb.

Don't get me wrong, while I adore the Stand Around Melon with Mint, your basic melon balls with mint sprinkled on the top, there are some very involved recipes, like Pho with its nearly thirty ingredients. But for the most part, these recipes are easy to do and would make even the most finicky eater happy.

How could I resist my favorite poached pears. Tanis says that he often finds poached pears in spice end up coming off like a really bad mulled wine. Here he takes a light and delicate approach.

Spiced Pears in Red Wine

8 slightly under ripe small Comice or Anjou pears
1 (750-ml) bottle medium-bodied red wine, such as Côtes du Rhone
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 whole cloves
A wide strip each of lemon and orange peel

1. Peel the pears top to bottom with a sharp vegetable peeler, leaving them whole, with stems attached and the core intact.

2. Put the pears in a large wide nonreactive pot (enameled or stainless steel) in one layer. Stir the wine and sugar together in a bowl to dissolve the sugar, pour over the pears, and add the aromatics. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Poach the pears for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted encounters no resistance. Remove from the heat and let cool, in the poaching liquid, overnight.

3. The next day, with a slotted spoon, transfer the pears to a platter. Heat the poaching liquid over high and boil down until it is reduced by half. Strain this syrup into a bowl and let cool.

4. Use a paring knife to cut a small slice off the bottom of each pear, allowing them to stand up straight. Stand the pears in a deep rectangular glass or plastic container large enough to contain them in one layer.
5. Pour the cooled syrup over the pears. Refrigerate for up to several days. Serve chilled, putting each pear in a soup plate and spooning over a little syrup.

Today is a steamy, muggy summer day. What a lovely end to any meal.

Pig

2011-07-01T12:14:00.005-04:00

For more than thirty years, James Villas has devote his life to food. It's a tough job but someone has to do it. Twenty-seven years of his career were as Food and Wine Editor of Town & Country. He has also written about his food endeavors for a slew of other publications including Esquire, Saveur, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Life, The New York Times, and don't forget the cookbooks, two of my favorites with his mother, Martha Pearl Villas, who died several years ago. Miss Martha Pearl always traveled with her White Lily Flour, a custom I understand, but I digress...

Usually, when writing books one moves from the general to the specific. James Villas, who wrote the ever popular book, Bacon, moved from this particular cut of pork to whole hog in his book Pig. Leave it to a good old Southern boy to call his book simply Pig. Really, does one need further info? There are, of course, a few bacon recipes and standards like ham steak and red eye gravy. There is a traditional spiced stuffed hams seen on every buffet South of the Mason-Dixon, and some fancier fare. Still, no one can give a better explanation of how to make a great fried pig's ear.

Recently I made some great double-fried french fries for a cookout. A guest went on and on about how good they were. He never got his fries to taste like that. I told him to double fry them and he looked a bit stunned. "You made these?" he said. "you cut them and everything?" Well duh! Why do think they were so good!

For the next few days, I got e-mails from "friends" outlining how bad potatoes were for one's diet. I got potato chip, french fries and just plain old baked potato warnings. Let me just say that if I have the choice of living to be a hundred without fries or living to eighty with a big bowl of cheese fries covered in bacon and ranch dressing... no contest...but I digress.

Back to Pig.

So I decided to share a recipe featuring pork AND potatoes. And not just pork but Virginia Ham, with a salt content that blows the USDA standards right out of the water. Here is Villas' take on such a dish.

"Scalloped potatoes with lots of butter and cheese have been a staple in Southern homes for centuries, but only in Virginia have I encountered the dish made with the state's incomparable country-cured ham -- simply called "Virginia ham" in the Old Dominion. Do remember that you need to use dry russet potatoes for any gratin, and if the potatoes seem to be drying out after 35 or 40 minutes, just add a little whole milk, basting them slightly to produce a golden crust."

Old Dominion Scalloped Potatoes with Country Ham
4 medium russet potatoes (about 2 pounds), peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick
1 cup finely diced cooked country ham
1/2 cup chopped fresh chives
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1 cup half-and-half

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Butter a 1 1/2 to 2-quart gratin or baking dish and arrange alternate layers of overlapping potato slices and ham, sprinkling a few chives over each layer and seasoning with salt and pepper. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the cheese over the top, dot with the butter, pour the half-and-half over the top, and bake till the potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes, basting from time to time with the liquid. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and bake till golden brown, about 10 minutes longer.

3. Serve piping hot directly from the dish.

Ham and potatoes. I'm ready to meet my maker or my Maker's Mark, which ever comes first.

The French Cookie Book

2011-06-27T13:44:00.004-04:00

I ran across The French Cookie Book looking for cornmeal. Several people have made the recipe in this book for cornmeal cookies. I admit I am not a big "cookie" person. For me there is peanut butter and chocolate chip and peanut butter chocolate chunk and peanut butter blossoms and...well, you understand. French cookies are macaroons. Period. I asked my friend and fellow foodie Francophile, Anne, and she said basically the same thing -- French cookies? Really not something one thinks of off the top of ones tête.

Bruce Healy has thought about it a lot -- excessively, in fact. Healy is or was a theoretical physicist before he became consumed with pastry. His science background comes through in his exhaustive research of the French cookie. Combine the physicist with and actual baker in Paul Bugat and you have a cookie compendium of grand proportion.

According to Healy , and I am not one to argue with a theoretical physicist, these are very rare French cookies. They probably originated in the Bresse region of southern Burgundy. They are piped to resemble little ears of corn. Of course the cornmeal cookies would come from the South of Burgundy.

Cornmeal Cookies

1 3/4 ounces (50g), or 3 1/2 tablespoons, unsalted butter, softened
2 ounces (60 g0, or about 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 large egg yolks
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 2/3 ounces (75 g), or 1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons, all-purpose flour
2 ounces (60 g), or 7 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, yellow cornmeal

Preheated oven to 475F

1 Place the butter in a small stainless steel bowl and beat with a wooden spatula, warming it up over low heat as needed to make it smooth, white, and creamy. Sift the sugar over the creamed butter and beat it in. Beat in 1 egg yolk with the wooden spatula. Then beating in the remaining yolk with a wire whisk. Whisk in the lemon zest. Sift the flour and cornmeal over the batter and mix them with the wooden spatula.

2. Scoop the batter into the pastry bag, and pipe the batter in 1/2 inch-(12 mm) wide fluted strips the length of the baking sheets, separating them by 1 to 1 1/2 inches (2 1/4 -4 cm). Score each strip crosswise at 2 1/2 inches (6 cm) intervals by pressing through the batter with a small pallet knife or the back edge of a paring knife. wipe off the blade after each three to four cuts to remove any batter that sticks to it.

3. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until the cookies begin to brown on the bottoms but are still pale yellow on the top, about 5 minutes.

4.Transfer the baking sheet o a wire rack and let the cookies cool to room temperature.

%. When the cookies are cool, separate them at the scored intervals.

These remind me of little sweet "cheese straw" like cookies. If you like this book, you will love Healy's others. He has put his exacting detail into another book on French pastry and one on cakes.

An Appetite For Passion

2011-06-20T12:38:00.007-04:00

Sometime people write cookbooks because they love the food and sometimes because they get paid.

Today at Lucindaville, we wrote about Ivana Lowell's memoir. Lowell is the daughter of Caroline Blackwood. An Appetite For Passion was written because Lowell got paid... here is the story.

Ivana Lowell worked for Harvey Weinstein (oh yes and she was dating his brother, Bob). Miramax, the Weinsteins company had acquired the movie, Like Water for Chocolate and they were about to do a special-edition DVD release. Harvey wanted a cookbook tie-in and he enlisted Ivana Lowell.

"I had loved the movie, and the idea of a cookbook seemed like a terrific one until I looked at a copy of [Laura] Esquivel's book... The book was divided into twelve sections, one for each month of the year, and each section began with a recipe.
I went back to Harvey with the bad news. "It already is a cookbook, " I told him. He flew into a rage. "I don't care if it's already a fucking cookbook! Write another one. Call it a sequel! I want a Miramax book to tie in with the movie."

Like her mother before her, Lowell collected recipes from friends and other sources to compile the book. Her sense of humor was always at the forefront as she presented dishes like Root Vegetable Ménage à Trois, Spice Massaged Tuna in Bed with Greens and her mother's recipe for lamb meatballs, Lady Caroline's Lamb with Three Byronic Sauces. Here is a recipe from The Four Seasons:

Lush Peach soup

6 ripe peaches, peeled and pitted
1 small orange, halved and seeds removed
1/2 lemon, seeds removed
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick (You may substitute 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon)
4 whole cloves
2 cups dry white wine
2 cups water
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons peach brandy
7 ounces ginger ale

Place the peaches, orange, and lemon in a large saucepan and add the bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves, wine, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat slightly and simmer for 1 hour, or until the ingredients are very tender.

In a small bowl whisk the cornstarch into the brandy. Stir the brandy mixture into the peach mixture and return to a boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Remove and discard the orange and lemon rinds, bay leaf, cinnamon stick and cloves. Puree the mixture in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Push the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. Divide 1 cup of the soup into 4 small ramekins and freeze. Chill the rest of the soup and add ginger ale just before serving. Serve in chilled bowls and float the frozen soup on top.

Check out Caroline Blackwood's cookbook, Darling, You Should'nt Have Gone To So Much Trouble.

Sumptuous Dining in Gaslight San Francisco

2011-06-17T15:08:00.002-04:00

San Francisco has always had its share of fine dining and debauched behavior. This is by no means a recent phenomenon. If fact, much of the high jinks of the past 50 years seems downright timid compared to the era ending the nineteenth and beginning the twentieth century.

Saloons, restaurants and houses of ill repute were rampant until 1921 when the Clubwomen’s Vigilance Committee foisted a respectability, coinciding with Prohibition, on the city.

Sumptuous Dining in Gaslight San Francisco by Frances de Talavera Berger and John Parke Custis is a glorious reliving of gaslight San Francisco in its heyday. The book is a biography, cookbook, culinary history, architectural history, cultural history and plain old entertaining history of San Francisco’s eateries and the people who made them from 1875-1915.

They are a colorful lot. There is “Irish” Dan O’Connell who confounded the Bohemian Club. He was brash, charismatic a bit of a poet:

Fill me a brimming goblet,
I said to my winsome wife,
Let me read in its bubbles reflected,
The story of its life.

Much to our sadness, “Irish” Dan failed to leave behind a recipe book, but a few of his recipes exist with some help from his friends.

Fricassee of Veal Bohemian

2 pounds of veal, cut into 2-inch chunks
3 tablespoons arrowroot
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
Cracked black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/2-teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons bacon fat
3 tablespoons chopped fresh celery leaves
1/2 boiling water as needed

Dredge the chunks of veal in a mixture of arrowroot and dried seasonings. Brown the dredged meat in the hot bacon fat, and add the celery leaves. Cover the skillet and cook the meat slowly, in the same skillet, just until tender. Do not overcook it. If the skillet becomes dry during the cooking, add as much as 1/2 cup of boiling water.

A San Francisco chef who did leave behind his recipes was victor Hirtzel. The chef at the famed St. Francis Hotel, Hirtzel collected recipes and menus into the appropriately titled Hotel St Francis Book of Recipes and Menus, first published in 1910. With numerous printings, copies of his book are still prized among chefs and cookbook collectors alike.

San Francisco boasts inventing Peach Melba for the singer Nellie Melba,

Nellie Melba

Chicken Tetrazzini for the singer Luisa Tetrazzini,

Luisa Tetrazzini

and Pisco Punch for everyone else. Duncan Nichol of the Bank Exchange Saloon invented the Pisco Punch and it soon became the most popular and most copied drink in San Francisco. Nichol died with his recipe and with another of his Pisco punches, the Button punch. Pisco is an Italian brandy made from a grape known as the Rose of Peru. It is colorless, fragrant, and strong. It has been described as tasting like a fruity Scotch.

Pisco Punch

1 tablespoon Pernod
1 1/4 ounces Pisco Peruvian or other brandy
1-ounce Meyer’s Catawba or any grape juice
Shaved ice
6 ounces chilled pineapple juice

Coat the inside of an ample fizz glass with Pernod by swirling the liquor around the glass. Discard any of the liquid that does not cling. Pour the brandy into the glass and add the grape juice. Fill the glass with shaved ice and pour chilled pineapple juice to the brim.

Of a similar Pisco punch, the writer Rudyard Kipling said:

“It is the highest and noblest product of the age. I have a theory it is compounded of cherub’s wings, the glory of the tropical dawn, the red clouds of sunset and the fragments of lost epics by dead masters.”

The tales are tall and they continue throughout this book. It is thoroughly delightful. There is however one hugely egregious, if not fatal flaw in this book – there is no bibliography. How can that be? Who cold possibly gather such a delightful band of stories and recipes and fail to provide a list of further reading. I am shocked.

Still, it makes me want to pack my bags and go to San Francisco.

Famous Food Friday

2011-06-17T10:28:00.003-04:00

Mrs. Marquis de Sade Cookbook

We couldn't resist Roz Chast's New Yorker cartoon depicting Mrs. Marquis de Sade making her favorite dishes including:

World of Hurt Broccoli

Chop up a bunch of raw broccoli, throw it on a platter, and serve without dip. Invite people over, stand back, and enjoy.

Indeed, enjoy.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home

2011-06-15T13:53:00.004-04:00

We finally got our copy of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home by Jeni Britton Bauer. It has been on order since she stated writing the book. Lucindaville is the land of ice cream. We have quite the repertoire of favorite flavors including our Berries and Balsamic, Pimm's Cup, Red Velvet (hey we can turn any recipe into Red Velvet --it's a Southern thing), Pumpkin, Bloody Mary, if you can eat it, we can make it into ice cream. We recently ran across a recipe for asparagus ice cream and it is on our summer experiments list.

It is no wonder that our cookbook shelf is has an entire ice cream section. Bauer uses an interesting technique for making her ice cream. Instead of eggs to thicken it, she uses a corn starch. At Lucindaville where eggs are a mainstay, we were a bit shocked by this. So we were beyond anxious to give this corn starch thing a try. (Please don't tell our chickens about this cookbook. They are firm believers in offering up fresh eggs for ice cream and the thought that Jeni doesn't like that eggy taste in her ice cream will leave the girls miffed.)

Here at Lucindaville, the ice cream maker is a 1982 Simac Il Gelataio that was 20 years old when we got it. It is slightly smaller than a VW Beetle and weighs about the same. During the summer it sits on an old milk crate in the middle of the floor, close to the fridge. The freezing bowl does not come out. Generally it takes 40 minutes to make ice cream and 2 hours to clean it, but I still haven't found an ice cream maker that I would trade it for.

We were glad to see some of our staples in Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home, like Sweet Potato and Olive Oil. We have been experimenting with a number of olive oil ice cream recipes, so we are adding Jeni's to our trial list. Another ice cream in the book that has us all aglow is the Oakvale Young Gouda with Vodka-plumped Cranberries. But let us begin with vanilla.

Ugandan Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
Prep
Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. fill a large bowl with ice water.

Cook
Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, corn syrup and vanilla seeds and bean in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heat-proof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Chill
Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag into the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.

Freeze
Remove the vanilla bean. Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

Of course it is Ugandan vanilla, but you can use plain old vanilla beans if you don't have the ones from Uganda. But then you will have to drop the "Ugandan" from the name. Now you need to go out right now and get yourself a copy of this book so that you, too, can make ice cream. If you live close to Jeni, just grab a pint. She's opening up a new store in Nashville real soon. Jeni is always on the prowl for new ice cream ideas, so check out her blog, salty caramel to follow more Jeni updates.

So now we have the ice cream machine sitting on the milk crate, the corn starch and Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home, let the summer begin.

Good Egg Dishes

2011-06-14T14:59:00.004-04:00

We were thrilled to hear that Angry Bird is coming out with own egg cookbook. As you know, egg cookbooks are a favorite here at Cookbook Of The Day. Until the Angry Bird hatches, you will have to settle for this gem, Good Egg Dishes by Ambrose Heath. Heath wrote and translated more than one hundred works on food, this being the fourth of his books we have reviewed.

Like many egg cookery books, this is not so much a "cookbook" as a list of how to treat the eggs after they have been cooked. It is more of an egg "decorating" book.

Eggs Sur Le Plat Clamart

The bottom of the dish is garnished with green peas
à la française, and the egg is broken on to these and baked.

How many peas? How high the oven? You are left to the imagination.

The most favorite thing about this book is the clever use of recipe titles. Heath wallows in his French providing the most decadent titles for the most simple of dishes. Think about it-- eggs cooked over peas -- I don't think so. But Eggs Sur Le Plat Clamart, I am so making this dish.

How about scrambled eggs? Heath makes a mere scrambled egg a vision of poetry.

Eggs Scrambled Chatillon

The scrambled eggs are served in a border
with minced fried mushrooms in the middle, surrounded by a heap
of fried parsley, and little fleurons of puff pastry round the outside.

Again, if you have to ask how to scramble and egg or make a puff pastry or fry mushrooms or parsley, this book is not for you.

Chatillon is a French town or family or battle, one would guess depending upon how you perceive your eggs.

A border is a small platter with slightly raised edges. Now days a square plate would work nicely.

Fleurons are literally florets. In typography they are those curly cues around type, the frilly bits, which accurately describe the exact way those little bits of puff pastry should adorn the boarder.

Here is his cooking instruction for Eggs Mollets.

"There is no English word to describe this kind of egg, which might perhaps be called a soft hard-boiled one, for it is cooked enough for the white to to be firm enough for the shell to be removed, while the yolk remains quite soft inside."

Let's go out a limb here and and say that in English we would call eggs mollets "soft-boiled" eggs. Again we must point out that a soft-boiled egg doesen't hold a verbal candle to eggs mollets. And, as a added bonus, Heath points out that for every recipe that calls for poached egg, eggs mollets can be substitute and there would, of course, be a name change:

"In any recipe for Poached Eggs that follow, an Egg Mollet can be substituted where convenient. The name would then run: Oeufs Mollets So-and-So."

Next time you are in restaurant and the waiter says, "How would you like your eggs?" You know what to say!

Requiescat in Pace -- Kathryn Tucker Windham

2011-06-14T13:51:00.004-04:00

The great storyteller, Kathryn Tucker Windham, died 12 June 2011. She was 93. In addition to many volumes of ghost stories, she also wrote two cookbooks. One of our early Lucindaville posts featured Southern Cooking To Remember. We have reprinted it below.

Here at Cookbook Of The Day, we featured her book, Treasured Alabama Recipes.

She was a lovely lady who constantly reminded people of the importance of listening. In 1940, after writing movie reviews for her hometown paper, she began a career as a police reporter for the Alabama Journal in Montgomery. At the time newspaper women were generally confined to the society pages. She gained the respect of the police by following the most grisly of stories, even scrambling down a steep ravine to get to the body of murdered child. Of the incident Windham wrote:

“When they saw me stay with them on that one, they accepted me. They knew I could do a good job, just like our male reporters."

But storytelling would always be her greatest gift -- storytelling and playing the comb. Here is a short video, in honor of her 90th birthday, describing an early comb playing class.

She will be missed. But don;t be surprised if you see her now and then, strolling down an Alabama road, or waving from a high, dark window...

REPRINTED from 27 February 2009

Famous Food Friday -- Kathryn Tucker Windham

If you were a child in Alabama, you know Kathryn Tucker Windham. She is a quintessential storyteller who made ghost stories a way of life. It all started in 1966 when a "friendly" ghost named "Jeffery " took up residence in the Windham house. When a group of kids came over and tried to "contact" Jeffery with a Ouija board, they succeeded and Jeffery was photographed. Jeffery became a kind of spirit world collaborator as Mrs. Windham collected stories that became 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. My favorite is the Red Lady of Huntingdon College. Kathryn Tucker Windham began collecting ghost stories and other tall tales from around the South. Now 90, she is still in demand as a storyteller. She founded the Alabama Tale Tellin' Festival, held each year in Selma, Alabama.

What people may not know is Kathryn Tucker Windham's first book was a cookbook. Later she published a second cookbook, Southern Cooking To Remember. In November, I was in a large, well stocked grocery store and found a lovely bag of sunchokes, which I thought was funny since they looked like Jerusalem artichokes to me. Actually, Jerusalem Artichokes are not from Jerusalem nor are they artichokes. They are indeed, sunchokes, tubers from a sunflower like plant. When an early explorer to America sent the tubers back to an Italian friend, he dubbed them, "girasole articicco," quite literally, "sunflower artichoke" or sunchoke. The Italian pronunciation was corrupted and "Jerusalem artichoke" stuck. What do you do with them, my friend asked and Kathryn Tucker Windham knew the answer. Most Southern larders have at least one jar of Jerusalem artichokes pickled in some way.

Jerusalem Artichoke Relish

2 pounds Jerusalem artichokes
4 yellow onions
3 red peppers
1 cup salt
1 quart cider vinegar
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 tablespoon celery seed

Use a stiff brush to scrub artichokes well. chop coarsely. Chop onions and peppers coarsely. Put chopped vegetables and salt in a large bowl and cover with cold water. put in the refrigerator overnight. being sure to cover it tightly. Next day, pour off the water and place vegetables in a large kettle. Add other ingredients and cook over moderate heat, stirring , until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture boils. Reduce the hear and simmer for half an hour or until relish is thick. Stir right often during the simmering. ladle into sterilized pint or half-pint jars and seal. This makes four pints.

Grab yourself a sous chef, spectral or not, and make a batch of this relish. And afterwards, I'll tell you the story of the Red Lady...

Food Graphics

2011-06-05T14:34:00.011-04:00

Today we are not looking at a cookbook, but at the changing ideas of food and nutrition. This was, of course prompted by the unveiling of the new USDA food "plate." This whole idea started back in the 1900's when then director, W. O Atwater published his booklet, Principles of Nutrition and Nutritive Values of Food. The gauntlet was picked up by Caroline Hunt who quantified the process by recognising five food groups and how they should be divided. Hunt recommended a diet consisting of 10 percent daily calories from milk; 10 percent from meat; 20 percent from breads and other starches; 30 percent from fruits and veggies; and 30 percent from all else, including fats and sugars.

The 1930's brought diversity and H.K. Stiebeling. His guide to buying groceries gave consumers the Basic 12. this included milk; eggs; flours; cereals; potatoes fruits; veggies; tomato or citrus; lean meat; beans/nuts; leafy greens; sugar and other fats. Though there seemed to be some overlap in his categories. These detailed booklets fell flat, and by the 1940's zippy graphics were employed to better explain what one should be eating.

1942 took the Daily 12 to the Daily 8.

1943 brought us several variations on the new "Basic 7"

Including suggestion on how to arrange the Basic 7 into meals.

And even this patriotic graphic in Red,White and Blue.

1949 continued the Basic 7.

1956 saw the the rise of Basic 4, not only to provide nutrition, but fitness, also.

There was the 1979 Hassle-Free food Guide

Even the Red Cross got involved in 1984.

After carefully looking at Sweden's food pyramid, the USDA adopted their own in 1992.

The pyramid's proportions and directionality were updated in 2005.

This week, we saw our new USDA graphic. The friendly plate.

I don't know about you, but I am ready to go grab a bag of Cheetos.

In Defence of English Cooking

2011-06-03T12:39:00.005-04:00

I am going to take this Famous Food Friday to namedrop. No, I do not know George Orwell, but I am friends with Christopher Hitchens who has often written about Orwell. In fact, Christopher Hitchens is often credited with inspiring a kind of “Orwell Revival” as it were. Though for, some of us, the revival was preaching to the choir. Still anyone who fosters a further reading of Orwell is peaches in my book.

Now let me clarify: When I say Christopher Hitchens and I are friend, I don’t mean in that -- Graydon-Carter-and-I-are-headed-to-the-Waverly-Inn-do-you-want-to-join-us-for-lunch -- way, but more in the way that we would say hello if meeting on the street.

About a year ago, I was doing some research and ran across an unpublished essay of Orwell’s entitled British Cookery. It was complete with several recipes and I was totally enamored. It was one of those moments you really wanted to share with someone. (Yes, people, finding an obscure, unpublished essay by George Orwell is definitely a Hallmark moment for many of us. The card would say: Reading Orwell and Thinking of You – Keep The Aspidistra Flying!) Alas, I had no one to share it with. Several weeks later I was to see Mr. Hitchens and I made him a copy of the article. When I saw him I handed him the article and he promptly left the room. I was undaunted by this behavior and rightly so. A few minutes later, he returned bearing a large book. For one of his speaking engagements, he was given a multi-volume hardback collection purporting to be EVERYTHING that George Orwell ever wrote. He had ducked out to check this collection to make sure that British Cookery was included. It was and all was well.

For Penguin’s 70th birthday, they published works from 70 of their authors for 70p. One of these titles was a collection of Orwell essays featuring In Defense of English Cooking. Had I been the editor, I would have compiled all or Orwell’s writing about food into a single volume. It would be scant but very interesting. After all, In Defense of English Cooking has nary a recipe included just the best of English cookery.

"We have heard a good deal of talk in recent years about the desirability of attracting foreign tourists to this country. It is well known that England’s two worst faults, from a foreign visitor’s point of view, are the gloom of our Sundays and the difficulty of buying a drink. Both of these are due of fanatical minorities who will need a lot of quelling, including extensive legislation. But there is one point on which public opinion could bring about a rapid change for the better: I mean cooking. It is commonly said, even by the English themselves, that English cooking is the worst in the world. It is supposed to be not merely incompetent, but also imitative, and I even read quite recently, in a book by a French writer, the remark: ‘The best English cooking is, of course, simply French cooking.’"

Nonsense says Orwell. His list of British culinary accomplishments are vast. There is bread sauce, horse-radish sauce, mint sauce and apple sauce along with redcurrant jelly. Sweet pickles which are he says, "in greater profusion than most countries." All the bread is good. Stilton cheese and Cox’s Orange Pippin apple would go great with the bread.

I am more taken with his unpublished British Cookery that begin with the French:

"When Voltaire made his often-quoted statement that the country of Britain has “a hundred religions and only one sauce”, he was saying something which was untrue and which is equally untrue today, but which might still be echoed in good faith by a foreign visitor who made only a brief stay and drew his impressions from hotels and restaurants."

It ends with a flurry of recipes for British culinary favorites, including an orange marmalade that Orwell cites as a bad recipe with too much sugar. It is nice to know he cooked his recipes before publishing them, or attempting to publish them. I am sorry, after the Voltaire quote, that Orwell did not include his recipes for sauces that he speaks so highly of in The Defence of English Cooking. We will have to settle for puddings. Here are two examples (one savory, one sweet) from British Cookery and the recipes to go with them.

"Most characteristic of all is roast beef, and of all the cuts of beef, the sirloin is the best. It is always roasted lightly enough to be red in the middle: pork and mutton are roasted more thoroughly. Beef is carved in wafer-thin slices, mutton in thick slices. With beef there nearly always goes Yorkshire pudding, which is a sort of crisp pancake made of milk flour and eggs and which is delicious when sodden with gravy."

Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients:

4 ounces flour
1 or 2 eggs
½ teaspoonful salt
½ pint milk (or milk and water)

Method. Put the flour into a basin with the salt. Make a well in the centre, break in the eggs; beat well, adding the milk to make a think batter; allow this to stand for 2 hours. Melt some dripping in a baking-tin and when quite hot pour in the batter. Make for half an hour in a hot oven.

"Far and away the best of all suet puddings is plum pudding, which is an extremely rich, elaborate and expensive dish, and is eaten by everyone in Britain at Christmas time, though not often at other times of the year."

Christmas Pudding

Ingredients:
1 lb each of currants, sultanas & raisins
2 ounces sweet almonds
1 ounce bitter almonds
4 ounces mixed peel
1/2 lb brown sugar
1/2 lb flour
1/4 lb breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoonful salt
1/2 teaspoonful grated nutmeg 1/4 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon
6 ounces suet
The rind and juice of 1 lemon
5 eggs
A little milk
1/8 of a pint of brandy, or a little beer.
Method:
Wash the fruit. Chop the suet, shred and chop the peel, stone and chop the raisins, blanch and chop the almonds. Prepare the breadcrumbs. Sift the spices and salt into the flour. Mix all the dry ingredients into a basin. Beat the eggs, mix them with the lemon juice and the other liquids. Add to the dry ingredients and stir well. If the mixture is too stiff, add a little more milk. Allow the mixture to stand for a few hours in a covered basin. Then mix well again and place in well-greased basins of about 8 inches diameter. Cover with rounds of greased paper. Then tie the tops of the basins over [with] the floured cloths if the puddings are to be boiled, or with thick greased paper if they are to be steamed. Boil or steam them for 5 or 6 hours. On the day when the pudding is to be eaten, re-heat it by steaming it for 3 hours. When serving, pour a large spoonful of warm brandy over it and set fire to it.
In Britain it is usual to mix into each pudding one or two small coins, tiny china dolls or silver charms which are supposed to bring luck.

In addition to these essays, Orwell wrote a lovely piece on tea. A Nice Cup of Tea outlines Orwell's eleven rules of making tea. (Read Christopher Hitchens' article on making tea the Orwell way, here.) In Moon Under Water, Orwell waxes poetic about his favorite public-house, or pub, discussing its decor, its beer and its food. How nice would it have been if Penguin had collected all these essays into a single volume.

P.S. As you know, Christopher Hitchens has been very sick. The last time we saw him on television we noticed that he was building new bookshelves. Always a good sign! From the Hallmark/Orwell collection we say:

Hope You Are Feeling Better -- Keep the Aspidistra Flying!

P.P.S. Keep the Aspidistra Flying is a rather dismal book to have such a zippy title. I am not suggesting you read it, but it is an excellent charades clue.

Plenty

2011-05-30T08:00:00.001-04:00

In 2006, The Guardian asked Yotam Ottolenghi to write a weekly column on vegetables. “The New Vegetarian” proved to be a runaway hit with readers and it spawned Ottolenghi second cookbook, the vegetarian That led to a vegetarian Plenty. It is often noted that Plenty spent a great deal of time on the England’s best-seller lists jostling with some girl with a dragon tattoo! Who knew veggies could be so scintillating.

If there is any irony to this accomplishment, it is that Ottolenghi is not a vegetarian, himself. In fact, he caused quite the stir when he boldly announced, “You can be vegetarian and eat fish.” This sent the died-in-the-wool (or should I say, the-vegetable-dyed-in-the-hemp) vegetarians into a frenzy and her later tweeted, “To all, fish eaters are NOT vegetarians!”

I feel if you are going to be a vegetarian, you should be a vegetarian that eats meat, but I digress.

Recently, Yotam Ottolenghi paid a visit to Martha Stewart, who was gaga over Plenty. He made the following tart:

Caramelized Garlic Tart

375g all-butter puff pastry
3 medium heads of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
220ml water
¾ tablespoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon chopped rosemary
1 teaspoon chopped thyme, plus a few whole sprigs to finish
120g soft, creamy goat’s cheese
120g hard, mature goat’s cheese
2 free-range eggs
100ml double cream
100ml crème fraîche
salt and black pepper

1. Roll out the puff pastry into a circle that will line the bottom and sides of a 28cm, loose-bottomed tart tin, plus a little extra to hang over the edges of the tin. Line the tin with the pastry. Place a large circle of crumpled greaseproof paper on the bottom and fill up with baking beans. Leave the tin to rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Place the tart case in the oven and bake blind for 20 minutes. Remove the beans and paper, then bake for a further 5-10 minutes, or until the pastry is golden. Set aside. Leave the oven on.

3. While the tart case is baking, put the garlic cloves in a small saucepan and cover them with plenty of water. Bring to a simmer and blanch the cloves for 3 minutes, then drain well.

4. Dry the saucepan, return the garlic cloves to it and add the olive oil. Fry the garlic on a high heat for 2 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and water and bring to the boil, then simmer gently for 10 minutes.

5. Add the sugar, rosemary, chopped thyme and ¼ teaspoon salt to the garlic in the pan. Continue simmering over a medium heat for 10 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated and the garlic cloves are coated in a dark caramel syrup. Set aside.

6. To assemble the tart, crumble both types of goat’s cheese into pieces and scatter them over the bottom of the pastry case. Spoon the garlic cloves and their syrup evenly over the cheese – the deliciously caramelised garlic will try to stick together in clumps.

7. In a jug, whisk together the eggs, creams, ½ teaspoon salt and some black pepper. Pour this mixture over the tart filling to fill the gaps, making sure that you can still see the garlic and cheese peeping through.

8. Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C/Gas Mark 3 and put the tart in the oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the tart filling has set and the top is golden brown. In my oven, this took almost an hour in total. If the tart’s golden and cooked on top but still wobbly, remove it from the oven and don’t worry – it will set as it cools. Leave the tart to cool a little.

9. When you’re ready to serve, remove the tart from its tin, trimming and tidying the pastry edge if needed, lay a few sprigs of thyme on top and serve warm (but not burning hot) with a crisp salad.

On Martha, he used American measurements, but my copy is from England so you have to ask Martha for conversions.

Or, you could pick up your own copy, which is what we would suggest. Ottolenghi has a nifty blog and he talks about his trip to New York, so, do check it out.

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

2011-05-28T15:33:00.005-04:00

We have been spending a lot of cookbook time recently with Yotam Ottolenghi. Ottolenghi is an Israeli-born English chef. He has a a series of restaurants in England and this cookbook was all the rage. The cooking is not defined by a particular region though the influences are very Mediterranean and Middle Eastern. There is a lot of emphasis on vegetables and grains. He loves bold, bright flavors and cares about the ingredients. Of a philosophy of food Ottolenghi says:

"We take our food extremely seriously. We make everything – be it marshmallows, an elaborate upside down pear cake or a French bean salad - right from scratch. We don’t buy anything other than raw ingredients, and we only produce things that we would want to eat ourselves. We don’t use colouring or preservatives, we don’t freeze and we don’t refrigerate for long periods. We buy mostly local produce (that is, British and European), very often organic, and we cook to feed and to share, applying the same instincts as a home cook. But we are also perfectionists; testing and re-testing each dish until we get it just right; creating and maintaining beautiful and serene dining environments."

In 2002 he oped Ottolenghi, which was like a small deli and today there are 2 restaurants and three carry-outs. One of our favorites is a sweet potato gratin, so we are always on the lookout for chefs who make our humble favorite in new ways. This is a very interesting twist on our fave. the potatoes are rather thick and the skin is kept on. They are baked in a standing position for about an hour, then the cream is added for another half hour.

Sweet Potato Gratin

6 medium sweet potatoes
2 1/2 cloves garlic
250 ml heavy cream
5 tablespoon fresh sage
2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas mark 6. Wash the sweet potatoes (do not peel them) and cut them into discs 5mm thick.

In a bowl, mix together the sweet potatoes, sage, garlic, salt and pepper. Arrange the slices of sweet potato in a deep, medium sized oven-proof dish by taking tight packs of them and standing them upright, next to each other. They should fit together quite tightly so you get parallel lines of sweet potato slices (skins showing) along the length or width of the dish. Throw any remaining bits of garlic or sage from the bowl over the potatoes.

Cover the dish with foil, place in the oven and roast for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and pour the cream evenly over the potatoes. Roast, uncovered, for a further 25 minutes. The cream should have thickened by now. Stick a sharp knife in different places in the dish to make sure the potatoes are cooked. They should be totally soft.

This is a great way to solve that problem of getting the potatoes fully cooked. By standing them up, the potatoes have a nice visual look, too.

We liked this cookbook so much, that we could not wait for his next book to arrive...

Fannie's Last Supper

2011-05-18T13:52:00.005-04:00

I admit I am not a great fan of Chris Kimball. He boarders on the obsessively geeky and I find him a bit dry and didactic. That being said, all his obsessiveness has come up with some pretty cool ideas. I never make pumpkin cheesecake without first draining the canned pumpkin on paper towel and I would have never thought of that if not for Mr. Kimball.

When I saw that he had written a book about re-creating a menu from an old cookbook, well I had to read it. I love nothing better than gleaning elaborate menus form period publications and bringing them to fruition. If ever there was a place for Chris Kimball's fussiness, it is in re-creating a meal from Fannie Farmer's 1896 Cookbook.

Don't be discouraged by some of the lukewarm reviews of this book. Many people were initially critical of Kimball for tweaking the recipes. That is what Kimball does. He is Mr. Tweaker. There is no way that you can give Chris Kimball a recipe and not have him screw with it all day long and into the next.

Everything that Kimball changed was changed for a reason that he explained. The book is fun history of cooking, Boston, manners and Victorians. And for all the things he could have easily cut corners on, like using prepared gelatin, he went the distance like making his own gelatin from calves feet. Along with a rather funny explanation of how he went about finding calves feet. Here is his recipe if you are so inclined.

Homemade Gelatin From Calves Feet

This was a much less smelly and also an easier proposition than we had thought originally. Yes, you do need to purchase split calves' feet, but the good news is that this gelatin base can be used to thicken a great many jellies or puddings. We decided to use this gelatin in our lemon jelly but used regular powdered gelatin in the other two jelly molds. We did detect a slight aftertaste to the calves' foot gelatin, and did not want the flavor of the spatlese or rhubarb jellies to be affected.

4 calves' feet, split in two
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice, from 2 lemons
1 cup white wine
Water

1. Soak split calves' feet in cold water for 1 hour; drain. Transfer soaked feet to 17-quart stockpot, cover with water and bring to boil for 10 minutes; drain. Return feet to stockpot, and add sugar, lemon juice, wine and 6 quarts of water to cover. Bring to boil, and reduce heat to maintain gentle simmer; simmer for 4 hours. Remove and discard feet; skim fat; strain liquid through fine mesh strainer. Let cool to room temperature. Transfer to refrigerator; chill overnight.

2. When it firms up, remove any fat from the top, wash the surface with warm water to remove all traces of grease. Lift out jelly, without disturbing sediment at the bottom. Use per recipe for Lemon Jelly Mold.

Yields about 3 quarts

Kimball even went so far as to procure and assemble an authentic Victorian cast iron stove into his Boston brownstone. It sounds exactly like a gigantic fire waiting to happen. In the end the whole thing was filmed for PBS. I never saw the documentary, but the book was delightful. I admit I read the selections on finding and refurbishing the stove first.

This book is a delight for those of you who are interested in the Victorian era and really I don't hold it against him that decided to make a zippier desert. Really! I am sure Fannie would have been proud.

Check out more recipes and info at Fannie's Last Supper.

Bake & Decorate

2011-04-29T13:03:00.004-04:00

Today was the Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. (I am sure that you forgot and are just now amazed that it happened without you. Never fear, it is being shown over and over and over again throughout today ad probably for the next few months.)

Still, it is only fitting and proper that we feature a cookbook by the baker who is in charge of the Wedding Cake. Fiona Cairns has written a a lovely little baking book called Bake & Decorate. The Book came put before she got the Royal gig, so in true marketing fashion, she will be releasing a new book just in time for Christmas.

Here is Fiona with finished Wedding Cake.

This cake adorns the cover of Bake & Decorate. Care to speculate what is on the cover of the next book?

Pansy Wreath Cake

175g unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the tin
175g self-raising flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
175g golden caster sugar
the zest, finely grated, and juice of
1 large unwaxed lemon
For the topping
the juice of 1 large lemon
100g white granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Lightly butter an 18cm, 7.5cm deep, round springform tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Sift the flour with a pinch of salt into a bowl and set aside.

Melt the butter in a small pan and set aside to cool slightly. Using an electric whisk or mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together until very light and fluffy (about five minutes). Blend in the melted butter; then very gently fold in the flour and zest. Finally, slowly fold in the juice.

Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cake springs back to the touch, or a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Meanwhile, make the crunchy topping by mixing the juice and sugar together. Immediately the cake comes from the oven, prick tiny holes all over it with a fine skewer or cocktail stick. Pour the lemon syrup evenly all over the surface. Leave to cool completely in the tin.

To decorate
150g icing sugar, sifted
purple food colour
20-25 crystallised small violas and pansies
50g bag white royal icing

Place the cake upside down on your serving plate or cake stand. Tip the icing sugar into a small bowl and add 1½-2 tablespoons of water and a tiny amount of purple food colour. The icing should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Spoon it over the cake and allow it to drizzle down the sides. Arrange the violas and pansies in a circle, using the royal icing to affix them, if you like, then place a few in the middle of the cake.

Check out Prince William's cake here.

Eating Royally --REDUX

2011-04-29T12:24:00.005-04:00

With the wedding today, we felt that we should revisit Eating Royally. Mainly we felt we should re-visit it because between the pages of this book rests the recipe for Prince William's Grooms Cake.

The actual cake is being made by McVitie's Cake Company. It is being made with the "secret" royal family recipe. McVitie's has been making cakes for royal weddings and christenings since the wedding in 1893 of the Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George V and Queen Mary. They made the 60th wedding anniversary cake for the Queen and Prince Phillip in 2007. The United Biscuits Group , who now owns McVitie's says about 1700 McVitie's Rich Tea Biscuits and over 16kg of chocolate will be used in the reception cake.

Darren McGrady, the author of Eating Royally and the chef to Princess Diana included the no-bake chocolate cake in his book. Though The United biscuit Group will not confirm that it is the recipe, it is just too close to deny.

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

1/2 teaspoon soft butter
8 ounces McVities rich tea biscuits
4 ounces soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
4 ounces dark chocolate
1 egg, beaten
8 ounces dark chocolate for icing
1 ounce white chocolate for decoration

1. Line the base of a springform pan with silicone paper, and butter the sides. Break the biscuits into almond-sized pieces and set aside.

2. Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl. Melt 4 ounces dark chocolate and mix with butter, add the beaten egg and mix well. Add biscuits and coat well.

3. Pour into the pan, making sure the bottom is well covered as this will be the top of the cake when it is unmoulded. Let set in a fridge for three hours. Let partially warm outside of the fridge while 8 ounces dark chocolate and white chocolate are melted. Flip cake and drizzle chocolate on top.

Now you too, know the secret.

As for the formal Wedding Cake, Fiona Cairns is in charge. Check out the post here.

For more Royal Wedding info head over to Lucindaville for Etiquette and a Tiara or Two!

Goat Meat Milk Cheese

2011-04-25T13:00:00.004-04:00

It seems such an obvious statement: 70% of the red meat eaten in the world is goat meat. Duh. And yet, it never crossed my mind. I have eaten my share of goat meat...OK, clearly not my share as 70% of my red meat hasn't been goat. I have had a substantial amount of goat cheese.

Now one might think that writing a cookbook about a protein we Americans (and I use the term lightly) use sparsely would give the authors and air of superiority. We have all picked up those "holier than thou" cookbooks when the author manages to be condescending and didactic all at the same time. Well, Goat: Meat, Milk, Cheese by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough is not in that category. The authors are accessible and funny and informative... did I mention funny? If you never even look at a goat, you will get a big kick out of this book. (And if have read as many stuffy and overbearing cookery books as I have, you will be thrilled at the light yet thoroughly authoritative prose.) And where else, one might ask, will you ever find a cookbook that mentions, even in passing, Derrida?

The main problem with goat (aside from its slightly gamy aroma) is that the darn thing is bony. But hey, you eat quail and fish and they are bony. Got meat is also a mere 244 calories for a 6-ounce serving and less than half the fat of its nearest low fat challenger -- chicken. this could definitely start a Jenny Craig trend.

The book covers that gamut from sweet to savory or rather savory to sweet. There are stews, curries, moles and there are blintzes and brownies (my very favorite brownie is one swirled with goat cheese) and several preparations for cheesy concoctions like fondue and dip. Here is an accessible recipe for goat cheese dumplings. How can you beat that.

Baked Spinach-And-Goat-Cheese Dumplings

One 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
8 ounces fresh chevre or soft goat cheese, at room temperature so that it’s very creamy
4 ounces hard, aged goat cheese, such as goat Gouda, finely grated and divided
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cup semolina flour, plus more for rolling the little dumplings
1 tablespoon finely minced chives or the green part of a scallion
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon goat butter (or unsalted cow butter, if you must)
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup regular or low-fat goat milk (or cow milk, if you must)
2 tablespoons dry white wine or dry vermouth

1. First, grab the frozen spinach in small handfuls and squeeze as hard as you can over the sink to get rid of as much excess moisture as you can. Put the bundles in a big bowl and use a fork to separate the spinach back into bits and threads.

2. Whisk in fresh chevre or goat cheese, half the grated hard goat cheese, the egg yolks, semolina flour, chives, salt, lemon zest, black pepper, and nutmeg. You want a creamy but somewhat stiff mixture, because you’re going to form it into balls.

3. Sprinkle a little more semolina flour onto a clean, dry work surface. Pick up a little bit of the spinach mixture, a little smaller than a golf ball. Roll this in the semolina flour to form an oblong ball, sort of like a football but without the pointed ends. Set aside and continue rolling more, adding more flour to your work surface as need be (but not too much, or the balls will turn gummy). You’ll end up with about 24 dumplings.

4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add 5 or 6 dumplings. Lower the heat so the water barely simmers. Poach for 10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer dumplings from the pot to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish or an oblong roasting pan. Then add 5 or 6 more dumplings to the pot and repeat the poaching process again — and again — until all the dumplings are done and in the baking dish or roasting pan. Why not just toss them all into the water at once? Because they’ll crowd the pot and stick together. You want enough space so they can bounce around freely in the simmering water.

5. Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees.

6. Melt the butter in a small saucepan set over medium-low heat. Whisk in the all-purpose flour. Whisk over the heat for 30 seconds. Then whisk in the milk in dribs and drabs, a little bit each time to form a paste — and then more at a time, although never more than a slow, steady drizzle. Once all the milk is in the pan, whisk in the wine, raise the heat to medium, and whisk until bubbling and slightly thickened, just a minute or so.

7. Pour this sauce over the dumpling balls in the baking dish or roasting pan. Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese over the dish. Bake until the sauce is bubbling and just beginning to brown, about 15 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before serving.

Mark my words, before long you will be seeing nifty goat trucks dotting the food scene and at least one NYC restaurant that offers up all goat, all the time. And you will have Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough to thank.

Sunday's Kitchen: Food & Living at Heide

2011-04-13T10:17:00.003-04:00

Let me preface this by saying that Australia has never held any great thrall with me. I suppose if Oprah paid my way to go and visit I might board the plane. That being said, I love Donna Hay and Stephanie Alexander. It was because of Alexander that I ran across Sunday's Kitchen: Food & Living at Heide as she wrote the foreword.

I knew nothing about Sunday Reed but it seems she and her husband, John, we big art patrons in Australia. They purchased a house they called Heide, short for "Heidleberg" and began inviting artist friends to stay there. They wanted a self-sustaining farm with gardens and animals and orchards and they worked for years to make their house magical.

Agnes Goodsir, Portrait of Sunday Baillieu Quinn, Paris 1929

Along the way, Sunday Reed cooked for friends and family and few people who sat at her table forgot the event. Stephanie Alexander met the Reeds once and always remembered the encounter. Heide was made a museum after the Reed's deaths (Sunday died ten days after John). Two curators at the museum, Lesley Harding and Kendrah Morgan produced an exhibition that looked at life at Heide when Sunday was running the house and cooking. They found recipes that Sunday used and several of her annotated cookbooks and produced a book that is part cookbook, part biography, part art history and all fun. It is both warn and scholarly, not always an easy feat. Here is their description of the exhibition:

This exhibition explores life behind-the-scenes at Heide, the celebrated haven for progressive modernist artist and writers. Heide was the home and personal Eden of John and Sunday Reed, two of Australia's most significant art benefactors. Settling on the fifteen acre property in 1935, the Reeds transformed it from a run-down dairy farm into a fertile creative space. They extended their hospitality and resources to now-famous artists such as Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, Joy Hester and Charles Blackman and developed a culture of collaboration, eclecticism and idealism which helped change the course of Australian art.
At the centre of activity was Sunday Reed, a passionate cook and gardener, who ensured the artists she championed received sustenance for the body, not just the mind. Drawing on her experiences in the south of France, she established two abundant kitchen gardens and developed a ‘garden to table’ approach to cooking, enhanced by fresh milk, cream, butter and eggs all produced at Heide. This emphasis on subsistence living, coupled with a self-styled domestic aesthetic, became an inspirational model for those in the Reeds’ wider circle.

Sunday Reed was greatly influenced by the time she spent in France. Much of her cooking came with a French influence. One of her specialities was chocolate mousse. It is an extremely simple recipe but the finished product is lovely.

Chocolate Mousse

115g chocolate
4 eggs, separated

Melt the chocolate, allow to cool a little, then work egg yolks in well. Whip the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the chocolate mixture a little at a time. Pour into a glass dish and chill.

Well, I admit, I knew nothing about the Reed's or Heide but I am convinced that really need to visit. Oprah, are you listening?

365 Cakes and Cookies

2011-04-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

Marion Harland was a prolific cookbook author and recipe writer at the turn of the twentieth century. She had the kind of name recognition that lent itself to selling books, so featuring some of her recipes and adding her name to a cookbook was a good way to give a book a leg up on sales. We have often written about cookbook trends and the “recipe of the day” style was popular during this era.

365 Cakes and Cookies was published in 1904. It is a testament to the bakers who used books like these that they were able to get edible cakes and cookies form the scant instructions. Of course, at the time the book was compiled, there were few commercial bakeries, so baking was a task that most cooks knew how to accomplish.

Here is today’s recipe:

April 11 – Pistachio Biscuits

Make a batter with 3 eggs, 1/2 cupful of powdered sugar, 1/2 cupful of flour and the grated rind of 1 lemon. Put the mixture by teaspoonfuls on the baking sheet, upon which has been spread a greased paper. Dust with granulated sugar, and when baked, cover the tops with white frosting and sprinkle with chopped pistachio nuts.

It’s funny that this type of book is explicit in there being 365 recipes. What happens during a leap year? Alas, it is the one day of the year when there are no cakes or cookies. So if your Birthday is April 29th there will be no cake. Sorry.