Masher
Onion, luminous flask
- by Laura, February 19, 2009
Nope. No photo here.
You see, my Nikon digital camera (only a couple years old) is shot to hell, and it’s really cramping my blogging style. But I’m getting annoyed at my dependence on the photo. As a writer I love words. Why aren’t they enough? Do readers always need the encouragement of the image, the entertainment? Well not today dear friends.
Nancy frequently tells me that modern photography and digital life overwhelm us visually--but we don’t really see or think because the images are pre-defined and closed. There is no place for the human to enter. She’s spoken to me a lot about the open-ness of Pierre Bonnard’s exhibit currently at the Met in New York . I hope Nancy will share some of her insights on this amazing show with so many food images. Painting is a tonic for modern life.
For the same reasons, literature is too--with its open gestures and suggestions, the room it leaves us for imagination. That’s why today, I’m posting Pablo Neruda’s poem “Ode to an Onion.”
I dare you to read it aloud (in English or, even better, the original Spanish, which follows). And then I challenge you--any of you out there--to send a photo of an onion that rivals this. Here goes:
Ode to an Onion
Onion,
luminous flask,
your beauty formed
petal by petal,
crystal scales expanded you
and in the secrecy of the dark earth
your belly grew round with dew.
Not to be Forgotten
Green Granny’s Leftovers
- by Laura, February 19, 2009
Bread Pudding
A nice pudding may be made of bits of bread. They should be crumbled and soaked in milk over night. In the morning, beat up three eggs with it, add a little salt, tie it up in a bag, or in a pan that will exclude every drop of water, and boil it little more than an hour. No pudding should be put into the pot, till the water boils. Bread prepared int he same way makes good plum-puddings. Milk enough to make it quite soft; four eggs; a little cinnamon; a spoonfu of rose-water, or lemon-brandy, if you have it; a tea-cupful of molasses, or sugar to your taste, if you prefer it; a few dry, clean raisins, sprinkled in, and stirred up thoroughly, is all that is necessary. It should bake or boil two hours.
--The American Frugal Housewife
Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy
By Mrs. Child,
Twelfth edition, Boston, 1833
Frugality is the buzz word these days. So I’m sharing a recipe from my favorite frugal housewife of all time, Lydia Maria Child. (For modernized version of this recipe, follow the jump.) She was a novelist and abolitionist, but she wrote cookbooks to pay the bills. She came to her power during the “New Republic,” when Americans believed they’d need to be thrifty and virtuous to survive as a new nation. Lydia offers ideas for using up heart and lungs of cow, pigsfeet, tripe, and all the rest of those budget cuts. To pull off these dishes required some skillful cooking, good techniques, and often the use of herbs from the garden or wine. Lydia was also a fabulous gardener, pickle-er, and philosopher. She believed women should be educated. But she didn’t want them to let good food go to waste. What’s interesting is that her real passion was the abolition of slavery. And when she wrote about it, she was blacklisted and fired from her magazine job. Society at that time was more interested in its women being frugal--fussing with leftover scraps--than being vocal about issues like equality.
Well all those battles were long ago fought. And the ideas of frugality were ultimately swept aside and then brought back again--during wars and depressions--as needed--times such as now.
In the food world of recent years, the basic M.O. of our cooking “teachers,” —and by this I mean celeb chefs, food writers, and food show hosts—has been to tell us we must use the VERY best quality ingredients we can possibly find--whether imported porcini from Italy or the sweetest grass fed lamb. In this way, doing good shopping (say at the farmer’s market or Whole Foods) sure enough leads to a delicious dish. The only problem is that sometimes I think this is not really cooking, but shopping. Consider the simplest meal--wild salmon at seventeen bucks a pound, and, say, organic greens steamed and tossed with sea salt and expensive olive oil… roasted yukon gold potatoes with rosemary.... You don’t need to do much to these ingredients to create a good meal for four. You just need to plunk down about $27 bucks at Whole Foods. This adds up for a family.
But most people have limited and merely average ingredients. You need a lot more skill to turn ordinary materials into a good meal. Herein are the TRUE COOKS, in my opinion. And all the more if you can pull it off 6 or 7 nights a week. But of course this sort of ordinary cooking has been less interesting during the last couple decades when we simply buy instead.
These days, I find it a little funny to watch
Read more »
Artist's Notebook
Chocolate and the Art of Tiernan Alexander
- by Nancy, February 05, 2009
“Chocolate Pot” ceramic, copyright 2008 Tiernan Alexander.
Photo credit: Tiernan Alexander.
Brrr, it’s definitely hot chocolate time in the east. Here is a beautiful contemporary interpretation of a traditional Mayan chocolate pot, the kind once used to serve hot chocolate, by my friend the ceramic artist Tiernan Alexander. I love the way Tiernan has referenced the aged surface and gourd-shaped bodies of ancient chocolate pots without copying them. The deliberate imperfections in her vessel are almost painterly and eloquently evoke a sense of history and the passage of time. I caught up with Tiernan recently for an interview and asked her about why she made the pot and her interest in ancient hot chocolate vessels. And got her favorite old recipe for hot chocolate.
Jellypress: Tiernan, what made you want to reinterpret an ancient chocolate pot?
TA: Chocolate had an incredible history in Central and South America. There are ritual and traditional pots made from ceramics, coconut shells, wood, and gourds. These days you see the gourd shaped pots used mostly with South American Yerba Mate tea, but I have also seen the little gourd pots and dippers used at chocolate and atole stands in the streets. (Atole is a cornflour based drink that is often combined with chocolate into a thick hot drink called Champurrada.)
Jellypress: You told us that you took the above photo at a spring festival where they were serving a fruit drink, but that in winter, hot chocolate is served in a similar way. Tell us more about your experience buying hot chocolate and how they serve it.
Masher
Under the Orange Tree with my Sister
- by Laura, February 04, 2009
I went to Florida last weekend to visit my parents who moved there a year ago. My mom had recently had a hip operation, and it was hard on them both, so I went hoping to bring some cheer. We had a lot of laughs, but on the last day it was hard to say goodbye.
The weather was about 60 degrees, and the climate and quality of sunlight was astounding to me arriving from New Jersey, where we’ve had the coldest winter I can remember in a long time and so much snow. This tree is in the backyard of my sister Lisa and her husband Kayhan. They live near my parents. One of my favorite moments of the weekend was stopping by their wonderful house (with two palm trees bent together in the shape of a heart out front--I kid you not) and finding their orange tree in full bloom in the back. I’ve visited before, but never this time of year when the citrus are in season. Here are Lisa and I together.
Notice my hand clutching a bag. I came home with my suitcase filled with these oranges and a bunch of Meyer lemons too. They blew me away--full of flavor and juice, full of brightness. Thank you Lisa and Kayhan!
Masher
Thing of the Day - Nancy’s Art Featured in the Montclair Times
- by Nancy, January 30, 2009
If you haven’t had time yet to see my art exhibit including lots of jellypress art at Orbis Bistro in Montclair, there’s still time, and you can read all about it here.
Not to be Forgotten
My First Sea Urchin
- by Laura, January 26, 2009
I’ve never been one for the “look-at-all-the-fabulous-food-I-get-to-eat” approach to food writing. Many of my lunches are quick affairs--a melted cheese or salad eaten hastily at the kitchen counter. I’m a working girl and the deadlines call me back to my office.
However, somehow my life took an interesting twist recently when Lou brought me into the circle of the lunch club. It’s a quiet under-the-radar group that meets very occasionally. Perhaps I’ll reveal more in time. Or perhaps not. (I’m worried, in fact, that even this post may jeopardize my good standing.) It occurs during the off hours of a certain beautiful restaurant in town, hosted by a beautiful chef and attended by some wonderful cooks who bring gifts. Okay, that’s all I’m saying. Except that recently, at one of these lunches, I had the good fortune to taste my very first sea urchin.
Those who, like I, have lived their lives in sad ignorance of the sea urchin can see in the photo above that it is a spiny creature. Beneath those porcupinelike bristles is a shellfish, and you have to crack through underneath and then use a spoon to scoop out just a tiny sweet dollop of meat, which in this case (should I tell you this?--oh, okay) is the sex organs.
But really--just think of it as a cousin of the oyster. It has the salty fresh liquor of the sea. A great delicacy nowadays, though Lou tells me he ate them as a kid in Queens when his family had little money and his Italian mother was accustomed to using all aspects of fish that other people threw away. I’ve been looking around for a Chinese recipe for sea urchin, or a Japanese recipe. Something old. No luck so far.
Anyway, it’s been more than a week since my first encounter with the first sea urchin. I took its body home and have been letting it dry out on the porch. I keep wondering why it made such a big impression on me. My childhood had very little of the natural world, except our visits to the ocean at the New Jersey shore, where we were always happy in the salt and sand and bright light reflecting off the water, and I wonder if that’s why I love the taste of all things of the ocean? In her “A Book of Middle Eastern Food” (1970), I think Claudia Roden captures this feeling of humans coming to the sea and its creatures with a sense of joy. Just beautiful.
“Hunting for ritza (sea urchins) is a favourite pastime in Alexandria. It is a pleasure to swim out to the rocks, dive into the sea and discover hosts of dark purple and black, spiky jewel-like balls clinging fast to the rocks, a triumph to wrench them away, and a delight to cut a piece off the top, squeeze a little lemon over the soft, salmon-coloured flesh, scoop it out with some bread, and savour the subtle iodized taste, lulled by the rhythm of the sea.”
Masher
Nancy’s Solo Art Exhibit
- by Nancy, January 19, 2009
Say congrats, because I’m having a show of my artwork, including lots of the pieces that grace Jellypress. Here’s a photo of me standing in front of the original banner painting hanging in the exhibit. Pretty exciting. And this exhibit is especially delicious because you can see all my kitchen and food-themed pieces as well as eat some wonderful food. It’s at one of my favorite restaurants in New Jersey, Orbis Bistro at 128 Watchung Avenue, Montclair. The exhibit will up for a month, January 20th through February 20th, and you can see it Tuesday through Sunday evenings (call for rez 973-746-7641) and enjoy some fabulous food too. It’s run by an accomplished and highly talented chef, Nancy Caballes - yep, two Nancys, double the fun. Laura introduced me to Nancy, and it was a real meeting of the minds.
Here’s the warm dining room (it’s got fabulous floor to ceiling windows) at Orbis with some of my work hanging. Orbis Bistro opened in December 1998 in a storefront at the corner of Watchung Avenue and North Fullerton in Montclair. Nancy confessed a love of cupcakes to me, and so of course I had to bake some for her. Check ‘em out - my tried and true Silver Palate Cookbook carrot cake recipe baked as cupcakes with Martha Stewart mascarpone frosting:
When I gave them to Nancy she literally jumped up and down with joy shouting “Cupcakes! Cupcakes! Cupcakes!” My sentiments exactly. We saved some room for them after we lunched on some of Nancy C’s over-the-top delicious Panko bread crumb coated chicken cutlets and green salad.
Orbis is worth the trip whether you’re near or far. So come on out, brave the cold, see some art, splurge on a painting or drawing to take home if you’re so inclined or simply enjoy the beautiful atmosphere of food like art — and art of food.
Masher
My Kitchen Door
- by Nancy, January 16, 2009
Here is a new painting I did of the door that leads into my kitchen from the back yard. Portal. Boundary. The painting has such a sense of place that I often feel it looks more like the kitchen door than the real door. It’s the entry we use most in our house. If you are family or friend, if you belong here, you’re coming in the back straight into the kitchen. That’s the place, after all, where we live.
Masher
One Badass Cookie — Snowball Cookies
- by Nancy, January 12, 2009
Here I am with my snowblower which refuses to start at the moment, and my reward for all the shoveling I had to do as a consequence — this week’s One Badass Cookie, my Great Aunt Dotty’s Snowball Cookies. There are certain desserts that my ex, a chef, and I used to refer to as “secret weapons.” These were the ones that we baked off in big batches and then froze to pull out on those days when we couldn’t stand eating another healthful thing. The snowball cookies fit in that category which made a lot of sense if you think about it since real snowballs are weapons too. Speaking of which, my eleven-year-old son got me smack on the ear with a big icy one last night. Mom didn’t have much of a sense of humor about it. The snowball cookies are great though, but if you want to make them, baker beware. They are proven irresistible. Once you start, you cannot, I repeat, cannot stop eating them. A cookie that comes with a warning — now that’s One Badass Cookie. Read on for the One Badass Cookie Tip of the Week, the recipe, and more photos of these sugar-frosted walnut packed gems.
Masher
Thing of the Day
- by Nancy, January 10, 2009
Laura wrote in her last Thing of the Day post about her kids’ toys strewn around her kitchen and often landing in the cooking pot. So here’s my whimsical little kitchen troll who inhabits my counters, and a poem to go with her (with sincere apologies to the fabulous W. S. Merwin.)
So . . . that was the way it was, and in the fragrant light
that came in at the window, she was standing
still, that way, seeing nothing but the light
just the empty kitchen, with the smell of the over-ripe banana . . .
see also: Thing of the Day
Hands On
We Love Feedback
- by Laura, January 09, 2009
How great it is when I get feedback on a story or recipe. I always initially cringe with some apprehension. Did I get it right? Did it work? (Self doubt never entirely goes away, does it?)
Well, I’ve been really happy because t he pandolce story I wrote in December got some wonderful responses. Why this particular story? Don’t know. Perhaps because the idea of natural leaven has a certain magic to it--the wild yeast around us, the idea of a lump of living dough that gets passed down from one generation to the next--"mother yeast.” It’s just such an old technique. Or maybe it was simply that love so many of us have for Italy.
Ken Albala sent me this wonderful post from his blog about how he read my pandolce story in Saveur, and it inspired him him to make his own pandoro with a starter--and no recipe. The results look gorgeous, and he makes it so easy. Check it out. (Ken is an award winning writer and food scholar who tells me he plans to build a backyard bread baking oven this summer--and plans to do it all by hand.) You can see his story and pandoro picture here.
http://kenalbala.blogspot.com/2008/12/pandoro.html
Valerie Tassa from San Francisco initially wrote me asking where she could find fresh citron--not so easy in the U.S., but she triumphed, and found these, which she candied
to make this gorgeous thing,
.
and yes, she is a ravioli fan, too, and boy was I touched to find out she made Tessie and Adalgisa’s recipe from my book. Gosh.
Masher
Thing of the Day
- by Nancy, January 06, 2009
My ex-boyfriend, who broke my heart, mailed me something inconsequential that I left in his apartment along with a chatty little card. I found his coffee in the freezer. Did I send it to him with a chatty little card? No, I served it to my new beau.
He said, “I thought you only drank decaf. Why do you have real coffee?”
“To serve to you,” I replied.
see also: Thing of the Day
Masher
One Badass Cookie — Raisin Cookies
- by Nancy, January 05, 2009
Photo credit: My son, Max, one badass photographer
One Badass Cookie is proud to present its first Reader’s Recipe of the New Year! Congratulations to my friend, Michele Kishita of Philadelphia, Pa. for sending in her mother’s Raisin Cookies. Michele told me that her mother baked these cookies during Michele’s childhood and that they were so delicious she craved them all her life. Though her mother left her the recipe, Michele rarely bakes and hadn’t had the cookies in years. When I mentioned this to my own mother, she gasped in surprise. “Do you know?” she told me, “Those are one of my favorite childhood cookies too and I lost the recipe. I’ve been looking for it for thirty years.” So Michele dug out her mother’s original recipe, pictured below, and I started baking. I was thrilled to send a big container of the finished cookies to both Michele and my mom. A taste that lasts a lifetime — now that’s One Badass Cookie! I also found this link to a sister cookie that sounds fabulous too for those who like a bit of spice and zest with their raisins. Read on for the updated version of Michele’s recipe, more photos and the Badass Cookie Tip of the Week. Does it work? You bet your badass it does!
I like to use an old jelly jar to cut out round cookies.
Masher
Thing of the Day
- by Laura, January 03, 2009
Toys in the Kitchen
Stuffed guys on the kitchen counter again,
furry ones, just below those
spoons dangling on the hook
and ready, for measuring
coffee.
Graphic novel --little boxes of outrageous behavior-- and
plastic wrestler dudes entangled.
Dried up garlic bits,
origami lotus flower,
transformer in vehicular form.
I am old to this game, thirteen years now,
and the little one nearly 8.
Tonight, a Lego warrior came
so close to the frying pan.
I knew it would come to this someday.
When I was done, I just threw him and let
his pair of ragged claws scuttle across the crumbs.
Not to be Forgotten
Champagne Cocktail from 1862
- by Laura, December 30, 2008
Champagne Cocktail.
(Pint bottle of wine for three goblets.)
(Per glass.)
Take 1 lump of sugar.
1 or 2 dashes Angostura bitters.
1 small lump of ice.
Fill the goblet with wine, stir up with a spoon, and serve with a thin piece of twisted lemon peel. A quart bottle of wine will make six cocktails.
--Jerry Thomas
Bar-Tender’s Guide or How to Mix Drinks, 1862
What Is it About Bubbles?
Nancy called me all excited about her bubbly recipes--bubbly as in the champagne granite and champagne truffles she found from her wild young days as a pastry chef in NYC.
“Laura can you do a “Not to Be Forgotten Recipe” for champagne? And can you write a few lines and be a little deep, okay?
Sheesh. I’m still recovering from ravioli.
This recipe for champagne cocktail comes from the 1862 Bar-Tender’s Guide, book, which many experts say is the very first cocktail book ever published. It will come as no surprise to most of you that Americans first gave the world the invention (if you can call it such) of the cocktail. You can’t imagine the French adding sugar and ice and bitters to their beloved sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France, now can you? That said, this sure does seem very simple and fun, and I’m curious, just so long as the bubbles are still there.
Which brings me back to the champagne itself and its most important element: those bubbles, which get created after the wine is already made and then bottled. The trick is that a little yeast gets added to each bottle creating a second fermentation process. The yeast gets to work, eating up sugars and creating alcohol and gas--trapped inside the bottles. After a short time, the yeast dies away, but the fizz remains. Voila. Bubbles.
“What is it about bubbles?” I asked Nancy. “Why do we like them so much? And why on New Year’s Eve?”
“Because, bubbles are ephemeral,” she replied. “They represent that we are only beautiful and young once. Then it all pops . . . like a bubble.”
And then she sent me to this beautiful painting by Clara Peeters, a 17th century Flemish still life painter, who, using a convention of the era, painted an actual bubble into the air about her head in her self portrait. Take a look.
The bubble is to the right of her face against the back wall. The gold and coins scattered on the table are symbols of material wealth--not to be compared with spiritual wealth. She holds a watch to remind us that time is passing. And the flowers also suggest fleeting beauty.
“Check it out,” said Nancy. “Her strong forearms a and ruddy hands give her away. She’s an artist, not a pretty doll. The expression is serious. This is an artist posing herself and allowing us to gaze at her as an object in order to make her point. Very brave.”
So I say here’s wishing you some fun though ephemeral bubbles for New Years Eve, and more enduring happiness for 2009. And here’s to Clara too, brave painter.
Happy New Year. Now go get the champagne. Be ready. The fun has already started.
see also: Bubbly Recipes
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A James Beard Award winning book that tells a history of American women through food, recipes, and remembrances. Recipes and illustrations from prehistory to the present day.
Laura's memoir about a search for a recipe, happiness, and mythic Italy--with many unexpected adventures along the way.
In this culinary memoir, Nancy Ring combines funny and poignant stories of love and work with warm remembrances of a family that celebrates food with gusto and cherishes memories with passion...