Lemon poppyseed

Consider it a bit of sunshine on a Wednesday afternoon.

Distinction

"After another five years of magazine and newspaper writing, cookbook work, and tasting menus, I had acquired an additional fifteen pounds. My heart, my gut, and my blood sugar were unimpressed by the four-star pedigree of many of those extra calories. To them, there was no distinction between a Ferran Adria tasting menu and a Colonel Sanders Variety Bucket."

Peter Kaminsky in "Culinary Intelligence: The Art of Eating Healthy (and Really Well)" 

Chill-y

Benefits of broth

When the weather cools, I think about soup. Not the tomato-based soups I tend to make, the ones I have with oyster crackers or crusty French bread. But the Asian broths my mother makes, the ones that simmer on the backburner in her Chinatown kitchen.

She starts a pot from scratch, building flavors with each step, each new ingredient, adjusting seasonings along the way. One day, it is a pot of watercress soup, for example. On another, it is seaweed. Some days, pressed for time, my mother works with handfuls of ground pork, slivers of tofu and cans of store-bought broth. She improvises.

In "Classic Chinese Cuisine," Nina Simonds describes the prominent place soup has on dinner tables in traditional Asian households.

"Whereas soups seem to play a rather restricted role in western cuisine," she tells us, "in China they have a much broader calling... In a family-style meal, soup is served along with the other dishes to provide nourishment and to function as a beverage."

According to cookbook author Fuchsia Dunlop, in Guangdong and other parts of southern China, it is usually eaten at the beginning of the meal and helps to whet the appetite.

Growing up in Oakland, my sisters, brothers and I were always instructed to finish our bowls of soup first. Only then could we proceed with the rest of dinner. Like classmates who had to eat their vegetables if they wanted dessert, we needed to empty our soup bowls if we wanted rice.

But in Chengdu and other parts of southwest China, Dunlop explains in "Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking," soup is generally "served at the end of the meal, and its function is to cleanse the palate after the intense, heavy flavors of a typical Sichuanese meal."

Soup, Simonds says, aids digestion and improves circulation. "Some soups have been used for centuries to treat certain ailments... Stocks simmered with assorted Chinese herbs were administered for a number of maladies."

Even now, she notes, new mothers often have a "chicken soup flavored with ginger in southern China and sesame oil in Taiwan" every day for a month after childbirth in order to restore balance and energy in their bodies.

Teresa M. Chen further examines the benefits of broth in "A Tradition of Soup: Flavors from China's Pearl River Delta." She provides substantial background information.

"The Chinese soup tradition started back in the old country where people knew many lean times," she writes in the introduction. "With humble ingredients, the Cantonese prepared a flavorful soup stock, to which practically anything on hand could be added."

Stock ingredients might include pork neck bones, for example, or chicken rib bones. For vegetarian soups, bases can be made with soybean sprouts, white turnips or Napa cabbage. These items are naturally sweet.

Frugal – and smart – cooks know instinctively that seemingly ordinary things can be useful, too. "Leftovers such as the carcass of a roast duck or a roast turkey, trimmings from a lobster or shrimp shells can all be turned into soup stock," she continues.

"Wealthy households and restaurants expanded the possibilities by using a whole chicken, a whole fish or a whole hunk of pork to make stock. After cooking for hours on end, with medicinal herbs and complementary ingredients, the broth would be strained and served hot."

Chen talks also about technique and kitchen equipment, and offers a comprehensive guide to both fresh and dried soup ingredients, including seafood and seaweed, oxtails and watercress, and a variety of Chinese herbs. She makes these accessible.

She interviews senior citizens at a community center in California's Central Valley, women and men who, like my mother, understand and appreciate the nutritional value soups afford. She collects and highlights their time-tested recipes.

Nursing a head cold and a seriously sore throat not long ago in Las Vegas, I look to hot and sour soup for comfort. Miles away from my mother's extensive home cooking, I rely on a restaurant at the hotel in which my friends and I stay. I make do.

Like sweet and sour pork, for example, or beef and broccoli stir-fry, hot and sour soup has been on menus in Chinese restaurants across the country for decades. Unlike other Asian broths, though, it is relatively heavy, thickened with cornstarch. It contains slivers of meat, shiitake mushroom and tofu.

The soup, Chen explains, "was brought to Hong Kong in the 1950s" by the Sichuanese and by those "who had been in Sichuan during the eight-year Sino-Japanese War, which ended with the end of World War II." It was subsequently "brought to the United States by those who passed through Hong Kong in the 1960s" and shortly thereafter captured the American palate.

At the table, when my friends select noodle dishes and rice plates for lunch, I ask for hot and sour soup. I have one bowl and another bowl and another slowly and deliberately. It is potent and works wonders. The ginger acts as a recuperative tonic while the white pepper and vinegar deliver a heat and intensity my body seems to need.

With over-the-counter medicine my friends swear by, the cough drops I suck on throughout the day like candy and the tall cups of chamomile tea I drink religiously, they help to shock my system back into shape. They set me straight.

(A version of this essay appeared originally on www.culinate.com.)
 

Sweet chocolate

It is a frog of a chocolate cake. But dang if it doesn't taste pretty good.

"Behind the Kitchen Door"

For all its talk of organic foods and sustainability, the restaurant industry pays little mind to the health and welfare of its own low-wage employees. 

In "Behind the Kitchen Door," Saru Jayaraman draws attention to servers, bussers, runners, cooks and dishwashers across the country "struggling to support themselves and their families under the shockingly exploitative conditions that exist behind most restaurant kitchen doors." 

 

Jayaraman, co-founder and co-director with Fekkak Mamdouh of the advocacy group Restaurant Opportunities Center United, recalls instances where wait staff at eateries in Washington, D.C., for example, or New York City handled food when they were sick. 

One woman had pink eye; another man had contracted H1N1. Neither had sick days to use or medical insurance. Not only did they prolong their illnesses by working, they put their customers' health at risk. 

Though the author cites studies and statistics aplenty, it is stories like these that effectively illustrate her points. 

She also addresses racism in restaurants, where "workers got darker – literally! – as you walked from the front door to the kitchen, and the darker the workers' skins, the less money they were likely to earn." 

In this persuasive volume, Jayaraman champions employee causes and argues fervently against discrimination, giving restaurant owners, diners and readers considerable food for thought.

(A version of this review appeared originally at Publishers Weekly.) 

Au chocolat

"Time passed, and my courses arrived. On a typical night at the Pudding, I might order an appetizer of shrimp rolled in brown-butter bread crumbs on skewers, so the oil wouldn't spread on your hands. For an entree: squab with black lentils and bacon, only in the pink light of the dining room the lentils weren't black, but blue - a deep, inky blue. And for dessert, I might ask for my favorite treat: candied violets on a lace doily. My teeth cracked open each crystalline blossom, and I could smell the sheets of wax paper they came in mingled with the sugar."

Charlotte Silver in "Charlotte au Chocolat: Memories of a Restaurant Childhood"

Hot dog diggity

In the cleverly titled volume "Man Bites Dog: Hot Dog Culture in America," Bruce Kraig takes a look at the American hot dog phenomenon, giving the history and folklore behind the foodstuff that became "quintessential public dining treats - long before the rise of hamburgers - sold on streets, at fairs and festivals, at picnics (weenie roasts) and in fast-food venues."

Not surprisingly, sections on how hot dogs are actually produced, with descriptions of "high-speed choppers" used to blend meat trimmings, spices and other ingredients "into an emulsion or batter," can be less than appetizing. Talk of industrial sausage machines and the "hazards of butchery" also proves difficult to digest. 

But chapters on the simple pleasures of eating hot dogs and the ways they can be served pull readers back in. 

A fully-loaded Chicago dog, for example, "has mustard, bright green relish, chopped onions, tomato slices, pickle slices and small sport peppers jammed onto the bun." And currywurst, first popular in Germany, is "covered in a sweet-hot sauce" and "served on paper plates." 

Photographer Patty Carroll includes numerous images of old-school hot dog stands and pushcarts, helping to illustrate this sometimes disturbing but always bright tribute to an American food classic.  

(A version of this review appeared originally in Publishers Weekly.)

Second-term pie

Whether we are better or worse financially, philosophically, socially or emotionally, we still need pie. And pie is what we have, without the meringue.

Sweet Potato Pie
from White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford

Dough

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. lemon zest
2 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups flour

Filling

3 sweet potatoes
4 sticks cinnamon
5 star anise
1 orange, quartered
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Custard

3 cups crème fraiche
4 whole eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt

Honey meringue topping

3 egg whites
2 cups honey, reduced by half

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For the pie dough: Cream the sugar and butter. Add the dry ingredients and gently mix. Incorporate the vanilla extract, lemon zest and egg yolks. Form into a ball and let rest in the refrigerator.

Roll the dough to fit a 12-inch tart pan. Top with parchment paper and cooking beads and bake blind for 12 minutes. Set aside to cool.

For the sweet potato puree: Bake the whole sweet potatoes and all the aromatics on a sheet tray at 350 degrees F until tender. Scoop the meat and pass through a chinoise. Set aside to cool. In the meantime, mix the custard base and fold into the cooled sweet potato puree.

Pour into the cooked tart shell and finish cooking until set, about 35 minutes.

For the honey meringue topping: Whip the egg whites until stiff and incorporate the hot reduced honey. Top the cooked sweet potato pie and broil until the meringue gets a toasted color. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Lemon cake

"The room filled with the smell of warming butter and sugar and lemon and eggs, and at five, the timer buzzed and I pulled out the cake and placed it on the stovetop.

"The house was quiet. The bowl of icing was right there on the counter, ready to go, and cakes are best when just out of the oven, and I really couldn't possibly wait, so I reached to the side of the cake pan, to the least obvious part, and pulled off a small warm spongy chunk of deep gold.

"Iced it all over with chocolate. Popped the whole thing into my mouth."

Aimee Bender in "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake"

A cupcake day

Any day when cupcakes are involved is a good enough day.

Weihachten in Deutschland

"There is no better place in the world to celebrate Christmas than in Germany. No country I know takes it more seriously. And no other place on earth is still able to infuse the holiday with such a sense of solemn tradition and beauty. Weihnachten in Deutschland still retains a sense of the sacred and the divine.

"Maybe it starts with the run-up to Christmas, the four Advent Sundays beforehand filled with endless afternoon teas with friends, crunching through all manners of homemade Christmas cookies or moist Stollen or dense fruit bread. 

"Perhaps it's because tradition here dictates that the Christmas tree not be decorated until the day before Christmas Eve, drawing out the thrill until the very last moment. 

"Maybe it's the brass bands at Christmas markets or the Christmas markets themselves, all lit up and smelling of warm Gluhwein and sausages. 

"Or perhaps it's the candlelight. In Germany, people still put candles, lit candles, with actual flames, on their trees instead of electric lights. (A bucket of water for emergency dousing lurks behind every tree.)"

Luisa Weiss, in "My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes)"

More kale

Kale and White Bean Soup
from "Fine Cooking in Season: Your Guide to Choosing and Preparing the Season's Best"


1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 ounces very thinly sliced pancetta, diced
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 medium to large bunch kale, washed, thick stems cut away and leaves sliced across into 3/4-inch-wide strips
1 tsp. coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 cups homemade or reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup cooked or canned cannellini, navy beans or other white beans, rinsed and drained
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Heat the olive oil in a 4-quart low-sided soup pot or Dutch oven over medium to medium-high heat. Add the onion and pancetta and saute until the onion is softened and both are browned, about 12 minutes.

Add the garlic, stir and saute until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Add the kale and stir thoroughly to coat the leaves (and to de-glaze the pan slightly with their moisture).

Season with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper.

Add the broth, stir well and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, lower to a simmer and cook until the kale is almost completely tender, 10 to 25 minutes.

Uncover the pot, add the beans and simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add the lemon juice and turn off the heat. Ladle the soup into four shallow bowls. Makes 4 servings.

Blue Bottle eggs

Because we need food to go with those cups of coffee.

Catalan Eggs with Braised Greens and Tomato Sauce
from James Freeman and Caitlin Freeman's "The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee: Growing, Roasting and Drinking, with Recipes"

Tomato Sauce

3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 14-ounce can tomato puree, or about 1 1/2 cups pureed fresh tomatoes
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Greens

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 pounds chard, chicory, kale, escarole or a combination, cut into ribbons about an inch thick
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
grated hard cheese, such as Parmesan or Pecorino Romano
4 poached eggs

To make the tomato sauce: Heat the olive oil in a medium nonreactive skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and saute until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Then add the tomato puree and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes taste and smell sweet and less acidic, about 20 minutes for canned tomatoes or 10 minutes for fresh. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To make the greens: Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Carefully add the greens, watching out for popping oil. If using a mixture of greens, start with the sturdier greens, such as kale, and add more tender greens, such as chard, a minute or two later. (Escarole takes even less time.)

Stir to wilt the greens evenly and make more space for more greens. Cook until the greens are emerald green and wilted but still crunchy, 5 to 7 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To assemble: Divide the greens evenly among 4 plates, making a nest of each. Put a poached egg on top. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Then spoon the tomato sauce over each. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.

Slowing down

"No matter what I cook, I always take with me the core lessons that traveling and cooking in Italy have taught me: a respect for flavor and quality, the habit of supporting communities of artisan food producers, and the craft of cooking, from making pasta to curing meat.

"Yet the most important lesson is appreciating the value of spending an entire day (or three) cooking one meal, and then slowing down to savor every bite."
 
Matthew Accarrino in "SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine"

Skating

"To get to work, some days I'd skate uptown first and cut back through Central Park, sailing through the aromas wafting from the chestnut-roasting vendors, the hot dog and shawarma carts, the syrupy burnt sugar of the peanut and cashew men.

"Other days I'd dip down into the thirties so that I could skate through Koreatown, with its smells of kimchi and its modest barbecue joints in the shadow of the Empire State Building...

"If I worked the early shift, I'd take off after lunch service and skate down the east side of the island, stopping in the Indian groceries to wander through the spice aisles, once in a while treating myself to something unfamiliar, like the pungent, gummy asafetida, which went from having a truly objectionable stink when raw to a pleasant garlic-meets-leeks vibe when cooked.

"One week I'd try yellowtail sushi in the East Village, and the next week I'd save up money to sample the tamarind-dipped crab rolls at Vong..."

Marcus Samuelsson in "Yes, Chef: A Memoir"

Passion for pie

"On Thanksgiving, I discovered pie. Until then, I had only known apple pie, but Neda's grandmother baked rhubarb, sour cherry, pumpkin, and peach, taking each out of the oven just when the fruit was bubbling around the edges. Not surprisingly, it became my favorite holiday and the beginning of a lifelong passion for pie."

Donia Bijan, in "Maman's Homesick Pie: A Persian Heart in an American Kitchen"

Boo

Because it is Halloween.

 

To cook

"As I said, you don't have to cook. You can get through life perfectly comfortably without lifting so much as a wooden spoon. Fine. Do that.

"What I want to say is that if you do decide to go through life without cooking, you are missing something very, very special. You are losing out on one of the greatest pleasures you can have with your clothes on.

"Cooking can be as passionate, creative, life-enhancing, uplifting, satisfying, and downright exhilarating as anything else you can do with your life. Feeling, sniffing, chopping, sizzling, grilling, frying, roasting, baking, tasting, licking, sucking, biting, savoring, and swallowing food are pleasures that would, to put it mildly, be a crime to miss out on.

"Add to that the buzz, the satisfying tingle that goes down your spine when you watch someone eating something you have made for them, and you have one of the greatest joys known to man."

Nigel Slater in "Appetite: So What Do You Want to Eat Today?"

Live things everywhere

cutting greens

curling them around
i hold their bodies in obscene embrace
thinking of everything but kinship.
collards and kale
strain against each strange other
away from my kissmaking hand and
the iron bedpot.
the pot is black,
the cutting board is black,
my hand,
and just for a minute
the greens roll black under the knife,
and the kitchen twists dark on its spine
and i taste in my natural appetite
the bond of live things everywhere.

Lucille Clifton, quoted in Kevin Young's "The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink"