A Mouthful of Stars

Rarely does a cookbook fly under our radar.  Somehow, A Mouthful of Stars by Kim Sunée was one of those books. The good news is, we found it!  Sunée has lead an interesting life.  As a young child, she was adopted from Korea. She grew up in New Orleans.  She lived in Sweden, spent nearly a decade in France, she even owned a poetry bookstore!  Her memoir, Trail of Crumbs, was a best seller. 

Sunée took a look at all those various places that she had live in, traveled through, and eaten well. She dives into food in these areas and offers up a series of recipes featuring local foods presented in new and exciting ways. The book is a tour of the world, a travelogue in recipes that visits the places near and dear to the heart of Kim Sunée.

In surfing the web, we ran across this recipe. Nothing makes us happier than a good pots de crème. Since we gravitate toward the savory, this recipe hit the spot.

Cheese and Thyme Pots de Crème

¾ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon black peppercorns, crushed
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 to 3 thyme sprigs
2 egg yolks
2½ ounces Comté or Parmigiano-Reggiano, finely grated
¼ cup hazelnuts or walnuts
Freshly ground black pepper
Toasted baguette slices and endive spears to serve

 

1. You’ll need 2 ovenproof glass jars, such as short widemouthed (4-ounce) Mason jars, or ramekins. Place the jars or ramekins on a baking sheet; set aside. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. 

 

2. Heat the cream in a medium pot over medium-high heat to a very low boil. Add the peppercorns, garlic, and thyme sprigs. Turn off the heat and let steep for 15 minutes. Strain the cream through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.

3. Combine the egg yolks, infused cream and the cheese in a bowl and blend until well combined. Divide the mixture evenly between the ovenproof glass jars; it will probably fill the jars about three-quarters of the way. Bake for 25 minutes.

4. Lightly toast and chop the nuts. Sprinkle the nuts and pepper over the custards and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes. The custards should be slightly jiggly in the center but mostly set. Let rest for a few minutes before serving with toasted baguette slices and crisp endive spears.

Glad we found A Mouthful of Stars.

La Cuisine

During his peak in the 1960’s and 70’s Raymond Oliver was the most famous chef in France. In 1969 his masterpiece, La Cuisine, was published in English. The book is rather like Julia Child’s The Art of French Cooking. It weighs in at nearly 1000 pages, replete with hundreds of photographs. The photographs feature Oliver illustrating many techniques from making puff pastry to how to skin, draw and bone a rabbit. There are photographs of various table settings, many complete with cigarette holders and ashtrays, giving the book a profoundly dated quality.

Oliver was the chef at what many believe to be France’s first truly grand restaurants, La Grand Véfour. Begun in 1784 under another name, the restaurant was dormant for many years until in 1947. Oliver re-opened it to wild acclaim. Andre Malraux , Colette, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre were frequent diners as was Jean Cocteau, who designed one of the first menu.

The son of a chef, Oliver was a master at finding old and dated recipes to update. He invented new recipes, and perfected time honored classics. Like Julia Child, he took the television air waves demonstrating cooking techniques for a generation of French women.


This recipe works as a side dish, an appetizer, or even an entrée for those pesky vegetarians who often show up to dinner. I love to see vegetables traditionally served cold, cooked and vice-versa. Oliver suggests cooking the dish in a good sized charlotte mold. I prefer to cook it individual little charlotte molds or in ramekins.

Potato Cake with Avocados/Gâteau de Pommes de Terre et d’Avocats

Peel the avocados, cut them in halves, remove the stones, and mince the pulp.
Heat 4 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet, add the avocados, and sauté them over high heat for 2 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon and keep them hot.
Peel and mince the potatoes. Sauté them in the same skillet, adding the oil if necessary.
Season with salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes, or until three-quarters done.
Butter a 6-cup charlotte mold and make alternate layers of potatoes and avocados, beginning and ending in potatoes.
Melt the remaining butter and sprinkle it over the top.
Bake in a preheated 375 F. oven for 20 minutes.
When the cake is done, unmold it on a hot serving dish. Serve immediately and very hot.

4 large avocadoes
7 tablespoons butter
2 pounds potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper

La Grand Véfour is still operating in Paris. In 2008, the restaurant lost one of its three Michelin stars, creating headlines around the globe.

Cocktail Food

Every publisher and their wicked stepchild subsidiary has published a mixology. One publishing company, Mud Puddle Books was founded with the sold intention of publishing out of print drink books. But once we have all these drinks mixed what do I nibble on? Cocktail Food: 50 Finger Foods with Attitude by twins Mary Barbor and Sara Witeford serves as a friendly accompaniment to the staggering number of “drink” books that flooded the market like cheap Merlot.

Cocktail Food is filled with easy, straightforward recipes beautifully photographed. The recipes have catchy little names like, Spear Ecstasy which is blanched asparagus and a dipping sauce. Easy? Yes! Have you done it before? Yes. Does the photograph show you a cool way to present it? Yes.




Bold innovation this cookbook is not. But everyone has that moment when friends are dropping by and you have beer and you have wine but you are at a loss for what else to have. Pick up Cocktail Food. It’s a no brainer. Frankly, the recipes are beyond tedious and there are very few recipes in the book that you couldn’t “make” by simple looking at the picture. While the snacks are familiar, the ideas they inspire should make your cocktail hour THE place to be.

Caprese Skewers

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into twenty-four 1/2 inch cubes (fresh mozzarella is best)
24 small (or 12 large, cut in half) cherry tomatoes, preferably Sweet 100’s
24 small to medium fresh basil leaves
24 five inch bamboo skewers


Combine balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1/8 teaspoon of the pepper and 1/8 teaspoon of kosher salt in a small bowl using a whisk. Set aside.

Toss the mozzarella with the reaming 1 teaspoon of olive oil and the remaining pepper. Season to taste with kosher salt, if necessary, depending on the taste of the mozzarella.

to assemble: slide one cherry tomato onto a skewer. Fold 1 basil leaf in half; slide onto the skewer. Add one piece of mozzarella. Repeat until all the ingredients have been used. Place skewers on a plate and brush with balsamic vinaigrette. Transfer to a platter and serve immediately.

do-ahead tips: The balsamic vinaigrette can be prepared 3 days in advance and refrigerated. Assemble the skewers and cover with plastic wrap up to three hours in advance. Do not refrigerate. Serve as directed.

I do think this is a nifty little book, but seriously, how tedious is that recipe. You can make the damn skewers in less time than it takes to READ the recipe. Few people have a measuring spoon calibrated for 1/8 teaspoon. The 1/4 teaspoon of pepper is DIVIDED during the recipe. They specify mozzarella CHEESE as opposed to what, mozzarella candy?

I adore the direction to: “Repeat until all ingredients have been used.” I’m going to stop making skewers with three tomatoes left and dump them in the compost? Is there any wonder that I wish recipes writing would return to the common-sense style of Elizabeth David.

Caprese skewers are a riff on a caprese salad; mozzarella, basil and tomatoes dressed in vinaigrette. Make a vinaigrette with equal parts olive oil and balsamic vinegar, about 1 tablespoon of each and season with salt and pepper. For two dozen skewers you will need equal amounts of bite-sized tomatoes (grape or sweet 100’s work nicely), basil leaves, and cubes or small balls of mozzarella roughly the same size as the tomatoes. Dress in the vinaigrette and thread on skewers: one tomato, a leaf of basil and finally the cheese.

You didn’t even have to get out you 1/8 teaspoon measuring scoop! After all that, I need a drink!