THE LADY OF SHALLOTS

 CROSS-POSTED at Reb's Reading Rants and Raves Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain My rating: 5 of 5 stars cw: suicide I wasn't prepared for the emotional journey I would take in listening to Anthony Bourdain read this book, originally published in 2000. Published at a time that didn't know Covid. Published at a time when sensibilities were altogether different. Published at a time, of course, when Anthony Bourdain was alive. Of course what was raw and real and shocking in 2000 is still so today--perhaps more so. But it takes on new meaning to hear Bourdain's bravado in joking about suicide, his unabashed love for the rough and tumble culinary world, and his blasé attitude toward airborne illnesses, the like of which he never lived to see. While certainly one could criticize Bourdain's own seeming acceptance of the sexism and toxicity that he says is innate to the "culinary underbelly", the fact remains there ...

 CW: enslavement/trauma Cross-posted at Reb's Reading Rants and Raves The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty My rating: 5 of 5 stars A "journey" is an apropos description for this book. I won't even attempt to quantify the percentages of history, memoir, documentary, and food writing. Twitty manages to intertwine his personal story with a history of foodways and people that inextricably connects ancestry, personhood, and food in ways that left me contemplating my own complicated feelings about food and culture. As an adoptee, with two parents who have died, I've not cared to search too much into my own genealogy--I suspect in fear that somehow the cultures and stories into which I was adopted will become "less than." If fear is in the mix, I am even more humbled because this book is at times gritty reckoning with both Twitty's own ancestral history, and this country's foundat...

 It has been a minute. Or several. I've been thinking a lot about social media this week as I watch people react to the shooting of nineteen students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. People need an outlet, and I get that...but I increasingly despair about how empty it all feels. Sometimes it is just preaching to the choir with some sort of acerbic or biting meme that finds a way to amplify our emotions. Sometimes it is directing our energy toward arguing about gun control or mental health with a few people online. I've never been a single-issue voter, but I also realized that I haven't been monitoring gun control votes very carefully, outside of when it comes time to vote for a candidate. So I looked up the information  and there were a few surprises, and some questions, but not many. I made a few donations. And I cooked. What does cooking have to do with tragedy? Not a whole lot---at least as it happens in my kitchen. I'm not World Central Kitchen . I'm ...

Cross-posted at Rebecca's Reading Rants and Raves   Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking: A Cookbook by Toni Tipton-Martin My rating: 5 of 5 stars To categorize this solely as a cookbook would not even come close to capturing this work of art. It is an exquisitely-written history that intertwines a wealth of research, nostalgia (in the best way), and a "larger vision of African American culinary history" (311) that both embraces and expands beyond soul food and the standard narrative. Toni Tipton-Martin says: And I have tried to end dependency on the labels "Southern" and "soul," and on the assumptions that limit my ancestors' contributions to mindlessly working the fields where the food was grown, stirring the pot where the food was cooked, and passively serving food in the homes of the master class. (13) There is no clichéd history here. Instead, Tipton-Martin crafts a story of urban enclaves in Los Angeles, Lo...

Warning---more prose than usual. I'll try not to do that too often. ----- I've been trying to intentionally cook vegetarian meals at least twice a week. I like MOST vegetables, but the ones I don't like, I REALLY don't like (I'm looking at you, eggplant). I also have legume/bean issues.  This makes it hard to cook vegetarian as I also want to be low-carb and my hypoglycemic-self needs some protein. So understand that it is with some measure of pride that I substituted chickpeas for cannellini beans in the recipe below.  I actually LIKE cannellini beans (one of the few), but we had none in the cupboard. What we did have was a can of chickpeas, of which I'm not a fan. But it turns out I'm even less of a fan of walking to the store in 88% humidity for one can of cannellini beans. So, I opened the can of garbanzo beans/chickpeas to make sure they were still ok (that can was there for a looooooooooong time), and here's where the pride comes in: I ...

If you had told me prior to last month that I'd ever get excited about cauliflower, I would have given you that face...you know the one. And if you don't, let's just move on. Working my way through Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen Every Day  (although admittedly I have not yet used it EVERY day), I came upon her recipe for roasted cauliflower, with the ultra sexy title of CAULIFLOWER WEDGE (pages 42-43). But I like the understated title because it holds a secret... THIS IS THE BEST CAULIFLOWER YOU WILL EVER HAVE. Ok, so maybe it is *my* favorite cauliflower. It doesn't have to be yours. It is light and flavorful, and you can still taste the sweetness of the cauliflower. And it looks pretty on the plate! Part of what makes this recipe so great is these: Those are fried capers. I'm certain if you put fried capers and parmesan on just about anything you can eat it! Except eggplant. There is no helping eggplant. The recipe calls ...

Honeydew is always hit and miss with me, usually because it is either too sweet (overripe) or not ripe enough. I came across this recipe from Rikki Snyder  (via Pinterest) however and was intrigued, because I was looking for something that would accommodate honeydew at almost any level of ripeness. It did not disappoint! I did find that I didn't have the patience to use the melon baller on the entire thing, so that's why you see chopped honeydew in my salad. I'm sure there is some home economics maven out there who is incredibly disappointed in me. I'm sorry. However, I did find the strength to make just enough for a wonderful cocktail of my own devising:   I made this with gin (Sapphire (TM))--I'd use Hendrick's (TM) next time---I muddled the honeydew and it is basically a G & T with muddled honeydew.  Very subtle. And the thyme garnish? Well, I've become a big fan of garnishing my cocktails with whatever herbs I have on hand. I had a nice marti...

First, the sole and the slaw: I had some frozen sole filets in the freezer, and was desperate for a quick and easy recipe, but something a little better than just butter and onions.  Enter Baked Sole with Lemon .  Now, I'm a little wary of About.com--perhaps unfairly--as I find one particular About.com site on a topic about which I think I'm rather authoritative, to be full of inaccuracies and astonishingly sophomoric given the supposed "credentials" of the "guide."But that is not of great import at the moment as we are talking about food--not this other subject that shall remain nameless. I really loved this recipe for the good balance of butter and lemon. I made two adjustments (for pragmatic what-I-had-on-hand reasons): shallots instead of onion (a common substitution here at The Lady of Shallots), and cilantro mixed in with parsley. The real annoyance with baking sole (or any other thin, flat fish) is that you basically have to watch it carefully ...

Well, I've been gone for a bit, and in the meantime I've been grieving the loss of my mother -- who passed in the beginning of June -- and trying to figure out the best way to get life back on track.  Cooking and eating seems to be a good place as any to start (to say nothing of the fact that I spent a month in LA subsisting off of martinis and snack foods--indulgences of grief). I've enjoyed using Pinterest for recipes because I am seduced by the photos.  Truly.  But I've started a board of the recipes that I've actually cooked, and I add little mini-reviews.  You can check it out (and follow, if so inclined) here . Now while martinis and snack foods are simply delicious, my personal trainer is going to make that weird face she makes when she's trying not to call me out on being lame. So, at least I can counter it with the fact that I a) am cooking again and b) eating healthy food! Below you will see Grilled Salmon Kebabs .  These get 4/5 stars from me....

This is primarily a cooking blog, but I've decided to start a new feature I will call "Memorable Meals." This will feature the occasional amazing meal I encounter at the many wonderful restaurants here in the greater Boston area. Our inaugural post features Journeyman Restaurant in Somerville, MA. Initially, the back alley entrance and low curbside profile kept this Somerville's best kept secret, but Journeyman has fast become a foodie Mecca with critical acclaim from a wide variety of sources. The food is prepared so expertly that even the most timid eater will want to step outside the box of culinary convention. The menu changes weekly, so if you are of the "variety is the spice of life" mindset, you will love this place. We chose the 5 course menu with pairings, which exists in both a vegetarian and omnivore version. A party of two is ideal here, especially if you are both omnivores. I went with the vegetarian version, but found that the staff was fl...

Given how infrequently I bake, I'm always astonished when I try something that involves baking and it comes out perfectly the first time.  I found myself with some leftover buttermilk, and started with a search on AllRecipes.com.  Then I realized I also had fresh strawberries from the Farmers Market and whipping cream. There is absolutely no way I could have passed on the opportunity to make Buttermilk Strawberry Shortcake . I made no adjustments to this recipe , except to add about a teaspoon of vanilla extract in with the buttermilk. I have no complaints---the biscuits were airy, but full of taste and and texture, the strawberries were sweet but not overly sugared, and it really is one of the best strawberry shortcakes I've ever had. Just in case you need more encouragement, here's another angle:

I have been cooking. Promise. But finding time for cooking is not the same thing as finding time for blogging, unfortunately. For Christmas Eve dinner I adapted a recipe for pheasant with wild-rice stuffing from the City Tavern Cookbook and applied to it to three Cornish hens. I think it was ok, but the burgundy marinade was probably a bit overpowering for the hens. Here they are ready to be roasted: Finished product: The most ambitious part of that endeavor was my first try at homemade demi-glace. I'm not a patient person, and demi-glace requires patience. Let's just say that. I think mine was too watery, but it did taste good. What I'm really excited about, however, is the iPad I received for my birthday. I've used it several times already, along with the AllRecipes.com iPad application , which I really enjoy. Of course any user-upload site for recipes can be hit or miss, but I do find that the reviews on AllRecipes usually tell the tale pretty well. (Sidenote: If y...

Mission Street Food: Recipes and Ideas from an Improbable Restaurant by Karen Leibowitz My rating: 5 of 5 stars First, let me start with some full disclosure. I know one of the authors of this phenomenal book. That said, we haven’t seen each other or talked to each other in over twenty years. Karen Leibowitz and I went to elementary school together, and for a short time, even took tennis lessons together. Through the wonders of the internet, and some gentle stalking research, I learned that Karen has been busy—you know, the usual: getting a doctorate while starting a wildly successful restaurant/concept/model for humanity in the meantime. Oh, right. And then there’s this book. And do not be fooled—yes, it has recipes, so one might call it a cookbook. But “cookbook” doesn’t begin to touch this amazingly honest, engaging, inspiring, and creative narrative about two people, their friends, their perseverance, their sheer luck, and the joy to be had in both dreams and realities...

Reb's Granola It is rare when I find something to be outrageously expensive (like a small box of granola for $9) that I decide to go ahead and make my own. I usually just go without. The other morning, however, I was determined to make my own granola because I had a recipe from one of my favorite books ( The Craft of Baking ), and a whole cabinet full of various nuts and dried fruits which I needed to empty. Is it hard? No. Is it time consuming? Yes. This explains only a SMALL fraction of the markup, I assure you. I doctored the recipe a bit, so we can say it is largely based on the original with a few modifications. Anything I modified or added is in italics. Reb's Granola (based on Karen DeMasco's "Toasted Nut & Honey Granola") INGREDIENTS: 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes 2 1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats 1/3 cup hazelnuts, roughly chopped 1/2 cup slivered almonds 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil* 2 tablespoons honey 2 tablespoons packed dark ...

I love lamb. And I've cooked it in almost every form (chops, roasts, kofta...) EXCEPT rack of lamb. I've had this fear, you see, because I always remember the very elaborate crown roast my parents made once for a dinner party long ago. At any rate, now that the school year is over, I decided it was time to get over that. So, as usual, if I want a recipe I'm almost guaranteed to like, I turn to Ina Garten. Here's Ina's Lamb Persillade recipe (also found in her Barefoot in Paris cookbook). It truly was easy. I undercooked it a bit much (I like med rare), but the leftovers were fantastic, broiled in the toaster oven. Just cut how many you want to eat for lunch and broil them (if your original rack was rare...otherwise, I'd just heat them). I served it with two other Ina Garten recipes: Pasta with Pecorino and Pepper (which may be my all-time favorite easy pasta recipe because it goes with so many other dishes) and her French String Bean Salad ( How Easy is That...

This is the last of my Seafood Extravaganza posts (three total). This one is a lot shorter than the last . This recipe is, once again, from Barbara Lynch's Stir cookbook. This is a fantastic recipe (not reproduced verbatim here) and next time I'll be a little more liberal with the red curry paste...it was subtle and wonderful, but I'll be happy for a little more kick) Vinaigrette: chopped shallot , white wine vinegar , Thai red curry paste , grapeseed oil , crème fraîche Shrimp is lightly sauteed in olive oil, haricots verts are blanched, and hazelnuts are toasted in oven and chopped when cool (skins rubbed off with paper towel after toasting---neat trick!). Toss everything together with some sliced radishes and cilantro , and the dressing!

I have wanted to use a recipe from Barbara Lynch's Stir cookbook, almost as much as I've wanted to go to her restaurant, No. 9 Park . Most of the recipes aren't weeknight-type meals, but this one looked like something I could handle. I bought some great pork chops from Stillman's at the Turkey Farm at the Somerville Winter Farmers Market , along with some apples as well. I'm actually not a big fan of apples with pork chops, usually, but the caramelization did the trick here! Mmm....caramelized apples... Due to copyright, I won't give the amounts, but the ingredients are as follows: Pork Chops with Caramelized Apples, Celery, and Spiced Walnuts grapeseed or canola oil (I used grapeseed) pork chops, about 1 1/2 in thick salt and pepper Honeycrisp or Granny Smith apple (I used the latter) sugar (for caramelizing) unsalted butter (for caramelizing) chopped fresh thyme celery stalks, sliced very thinly on the diagonal whole parsley leaves (1/4 cup...quite a lot--...

I wouldn't classify myself as a huge carnivore, but when I do eat meat, I like it to be good quality meat. I buy most of our meat at our local farmer's market which a) keeps us from eating too much meat due to the expense and b) makes me much more conscious of the meat's quality, how I cook it, etc. These pork chops come from Stillman's Farm , and they were, like everything I've ever purchased from Stillman's, absolutely amazing. So, when meat is fresh and of high quality, I tend to go for minimalist recipes that enhance the meat's own flavor (sometimes a challenge with pork). I had some fresh sage that I picked up at the Farmer's Market, and so a little googling brought me to Josh Friedland's wonderful blog, The Food Section . Friedland summarized the recipe for the pork chops from Suzanne Dunaway's Rome at Home . I followed his directions with one tiny addition: white wine in addition to the lemon juice. I did need more liquid after the fi...

If you haven't read How to Read a French Fry and Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science by Russ Parsons, Food Editor for the Los Angeles Times , you really should. Understanding the science behind cooking is half the battle and makes it a lot easier to experiment when you have some inkling of what might happen when you cook with a certain oil at a certain temperature. Chemistry aside, Parsons also includes some VERY tasty recipes--including the White Bean crostini (p. 191). Pasta pomodoro, heirloom tomato salad & white bean crostini The white bean puree is incredibly easy, and the only "special" ingredient is white truffle oil. Parsons writes helpful hints, as in this caution about truffle oil: "Too much, and it smells like hair tonic." I haven't finished reading the whole thing, but I've used several recipes from this book and recommend it! Parsons' writing is very accessible, "user-friendly" and humorous!

MUSTARD-ROASTED FISH Source: Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients by Ina Garten (New York: Clarkson/Potter, 2008), p. 136. As I've mentioned before, this is one of my absolute favorite cookbooks (received last Christmas as a gift from my wonderful aunt). I had hesitated with this one because I tend to find cream sauces and the like too rich for my palate (and my digestive system). However, Ina Garten has yet to fail me, and since I ate rather conservatively for Thanksgiving, I figured--why not? Well, the trick here folks is the crème fraîche. Don't get me wrong--low-calorie this dish is not. But the crème fraîche balances the mustard flavor perfectly so that it doesn't overwhelm the fish (she suggested snapper, I used tilapia) and it is much lighter than using traditional heavy cream or whipping cream. The fish almost poaches in the sauce, rather than roasts, so if you are looking for a crispy fish recipe, this is not it. The fish wa...