BOOK/A TABLE - A Simple Supper

When I’m fed up with take-out options (and delivery fees!) and don’t crave anything in particular, but still feel the need to be fed, I start freezer-diving, sifting through the bergs of various meats to see what’s available for supper. Following the selection of a worthy protein, I then try to utilize one of the cookbooks lining our kitchen shelves to find a recipe that features ingredients we already have on hand. 

In these last minute instances, I don’t want to run out to the grocery store of course or make anything overly complicated: chicken breasts from the freezer and my good old reliable Barbara Pym Cookbook won a recent round.

I ended up making fragrant Chicken Tarragon, served with a side of canned lentils, and unboxed some Jell-O chocolate pudding for a finish. It was as simple as you’d suppose, and oh-so-tasty.

The lentils can be prepared with a bit of simmered white wine or broth, garlic, and a bay leaf thrown in, but if you have time and the inclination, try these gorgeous Lentilles du Puy. Should you wish to think outside of the Jell-O box, look to this Mousse au Chocolat.

From Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women, Mrs. Bone speaks most vividly of The Dominion of the Birds, that apocalyptic scenario where our avian friends end up ruling the roost: “I very much fear it may come to that...I eat as many birds as possible,” said Mrs. Bone when we were sitting down to roast chicken. “I have them sent from Harrods or Fortnum’s, and I sometimes go and look at them in the cold meats department. They do them up very prettily with aspic jelly and decorations. At least we can eat our enemies.”

Chew on that. Delicious!

 

 
Chicken with Tarragon
Ingredients
One chicken, cut into 8 pieces (I just used two chicken breasts)
3 tablespoons butter or oil
One small onion, chopped
One tablespoon flour
One glass white wine
Half cup chicken stock
Finely chopped tarragon leaves to taste (dried worked out well)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Sauteed chicken pieces in butter or oil until lightly browned. Removed to a platter and keep warm period in the same pan, sauteed chopped onion, stir in flour, and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Add wine, stock, tarragon, and seasonings. Cook to reduce somewhat. Return chicken pieces to pan, cover, and simmer in sauce 20 minutes. To serve, place chicken pieces on a platter and pour sauce over.

BOOK/A TABLE - French Onion White Bean Soup

Cooking is often one disaster after another, Julia Child once said (or something like it) and I was reminded of that very notion while making this vegetarian French Onion Soup from The New York Times. The melted butter for the crouton sauce curdled when I added mustard and when I opened the thrifty portion of shredded Gruyère cheese I’d been harboring in the fridge, I discovered the underbelly had gone green. 

French Onion Soup without cheese? Quelle horreur!

I threw out the curdled mess and brushed my croutons with plain melted butter instead and skipped the cheese all together (I wasn’t going out shopping for more). However, despite these setbacks, the dish turned out to be quite full-flavored, even without the cheese! The use of white beans laced with thyme is a genius idea and I heartily suggest you try it. 

The meal was just for me and my husband, not a panel of judges (or unruly acquaintances), so it would have hardly mattered if I’d just decided to scrap the whole thing and ordered pizza instead. I would have preferred to have made this particular recipe as written, but the point is that guests rarely need to be any the wiser of your culinary disasters. 

In other words: what happens in the kitchen stays the kitchen. 

And as I’m currently poring over Emile Zola’s L’Assommoir, how could I not include this quote from it? 

“‘Coo!’ remarked Coupeau when they reached the first floor landing, ‘it don’t half niff of onion soup! Somebody’s been having onion soup, that’s certain!’” 

Perhaps, Coupeau. But I doubt very much it was made with white beans! Do enjoy. 

French Onion White Bean Soup
By Hetty Lui McKinnon
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
For the Soup
2 tablespoons salted or unsalted butter
4 medium yellow onions (about 2 pounds), thinly sliced
1 teaspoon thyme leaves (from 4 to 5 sprigs)
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
4 cups vegetable stock
2( 14-ounce) cans white beans, such as cannellini or butter beans, drained

For the Gruyère Croutons
2 tablespoons salted or unsalted butter
1 teaspoon Dijon or whole-grain mustard
1 teaspoon thyme leaves (from 4 to 5 sprigs), plus more for garnish
Salt and pepper
½ pound bread, such as sourdough or ciabatta, cut into 1-inch chunks
3 ounces Gruyère cheese, finely grated

Preparation
Step 1
Prepare the soup: Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high. Once the butter has melted, add onions, thyme, sugar and 1 teaspoon salt, and stir to combine. Cover and cook, stirring every 2 minutes, until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 20 minutes. If the onions start to burn, reduce heat to medium.

Step 2
Meanwhile, make the croutons: Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Place the butter in a large bowl and microwave on high for 30 to 45 seconds (or melt over medium heat in a small pot or skillet). To the butter, add the mustard and thyme, season with salt and black pepper, and whisk to combine. Add the bread pieces and toss very well until coated. Transfer the pieces to the lined sheet pan, spreading them out into a single layer, and scatter the cheese on top. Bake until golden, 16 to 18 minutes.

Step 3
Uncover the onions and add the balsamic vinegar and soy sauce. Stir the onions vigorously to deglaze the pan. Stir in the vegetable stock and the beans. Cover and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes. Season with salt and lots of pepper.

Step 4
To serve, ladle the soup into bowls, top with the croutons and scatter over thyme leaves.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

“Emotions would be half starved if there were no candlelight.”

—Desperate Remedies, Thomas Hardy

BOOK/A TABLE - A Love Letter

A new version of Wuthering Heights is fast upon us in time for Valentine’s Day. I hear the movie is ‘loosely-based’ on Emily Brontë’s novel, focusing rather more on the love affair between Cathy and Heathcliff as adults, as depicted by its stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. 

I’ll see it of course, but in the meantime, I’d like to bring up a little-discussed aspect of Miss Brontë’s romances—namely, her love affair with books! In Chapter 17 of Wuthering Heights, she writes via the character of Mr. Lockwood:

“No books!” I exclaimed. “How do you contrive to live here without them? If I may take the liberty to inquire—Though provided with a large library, I’m frequently very dull at the Grange—take my books away, and I should be desperate!”

Yes, where would we be without books, without love? Desperate!

I love that Wuthering Heights exists in the world because Emily Brontë dared to imagine it. This post is a love letter to her, then, flung across the moors of which she dreamed long ago. But I will always keep this gentle, final paragraph from Wuthering Heights close to my heart:

“I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers, for the sleepers in that quiet earth.”

Enjoy this remarkably simple chocolate raspberry clafoutis, mostly done in a blender, and meant to inspire romance in every heart! (The heart-shaped cocotte from Le Creuset may be found here.)

Chocolate Raspberry Clafoutis
Adapted from Gourmet 

Ingredients
12 oz fresh raspberries
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup whole milk
1/2 stick unsalted butter (melted)
3 large eggs
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
3-3.5 oz bittersweet chocolate (chopped)

Method
Preheat to 400°F. Toss berries with sugar. Blend milk, butter, eggs, brown sugar, flour, cocoa, and salt. Pour batter over berries in a baking dish and bake for about 35 minutes, then top with chopped chocolate.

P.S. I recently ordered this gorgeously painted, gilt-edged deluxe edition of Wuthering Heights from Harper Muse! Other titles include The Secret Garden, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and The Great Gatsby.

Chicken Financiere

I have kept datebooks since 1988, daily jotting down where I’ve been, who I was with, and what dishes I made, along with a list of books I’ve read that particular year. Naturally, this can open a flood gate of memories...recently “fact-checking” something from 1997, I came across an entry that included Chicken Financiere. I was reminded that my friend Armando had come from Caracas for the week to celebrate my 30th birthday (it was also a reunion of sorts) and I’d wanted to make a home-cooked meal to welcome him.

The grocery landscape in Manhattan was quite different back then (before Fresh Direct, Whole Foods, Wegman’s, and the rest) and often entailed foraging through several markets and perhaps a specialty shop to find all the necessary ingredients. It’s funny to think how I must have dragged Armando halfway across town to find Castelvetrano olives and chicken livers for my Financiere.

I had met my handsome Armando and his best friend one delicious summer evening while walking through Times Square in 1992. They were visiting and I had just moved to town. They stopped me in the street, asking if I knew of a decent bar nearby. Of course, I did. One bar turned into several others and by the end of the wonderful evening, we wrote our home addresses down (remember that?) with a promise to keep in touch.

Armando and I still do keep in touch (it was his birthday a few weeks ago), but alas, he and his friend do not. I later learned they had a big fight (over me!) that night we all met in Times Square and parted ways, never to speak again. I was sorry to hear the news at the time, but after all these years...I delight in the idea that I inspired such a heated rivalry.

Do enjoy!

Chicken Financiere
Adapted from cdkitchen
Serves 4

Ingredients:
3 1/2 pounds chicken, cut into 8 pieces
salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 chicken livers
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup minced scallions, white parts only
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4 medium white mushrooms, chopped
2 1/2 cups beef stock
1 cup red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh parsley
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 cup large green olives, pitted and sliced

Directions:
Rinse chicken, pat dry, and season with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, brown chicken for about 6 minutes per side. Remove and set aside. Add livers to skillet and cook for about 30 seconds per side. Remove and set aside.

Pour off fat, add butter, and melt over medium-low heat. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture turns golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Add scallions, garlic, and mushrooms and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 2 minutes more. Whisk in stock, wine, tomato paste, and parsley. Increase heat to medium, bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Add olives, chicken, and livers to the sauce. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until juices run clear, about 25 minutes.

Divide chicken and livers between serving plates, coat with sauce, and serve. Garnish with additional parsley if desired.

A Bee Sting in a Blizzard

I nearly went mad when a friend mentioned her Bee Sting Cake over dinner the other night. Talk of the German cake (bienenstich - bee sting, get it?) stuffed with vanilla pudding cream and topped with honey buttery almond goo sounded so staggeringly delicious I had to try and make it myself. Since a blizzard was upon us and I wasn’t going anywhere, I shut off my phone, put on these Bach fugues and set to work. Without further preamble, let’s begin!

Bee Sting Cake is a stunner for sure, and not terribly difficult to achieve. I think the biggest challenge was trying to slice the thin cake evenly in half. You definitely want a good 10” serrated knife and patience. If you have problems cutting the cake evenly, remember the bottom layer will be covered with filling and the top is camouflaged by all the honey buttery almond goo. I managed to keep the cake intact, but if any of it falls apart in the process, just cut and paste, and your guests will be little the wiser—too busy ooh-ing and aah-ing with their eyes closed to notice anyway!

Organization was key, at least for me. I think it’s a good idea to put out your bowls, pans, and measured ingredients ahead of time (maybe keep the milk and heavy cream in the fridge until needed), so you’re not rushing wild to find that darn palette knife, that roll of parchment somewhere, etc. 

Place the items you’ll need in three separate groups for the three stages of the recipe: the making of the cake, the topping, and the filling. There is some downtime between the stages, so if you’re feeling reckless you can sort through your cookware and ingredients then. 

My comments below are in italics. And note the little bee ornament I perched on top of a slice!

German Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)
Adapted from internationaldessertsblog.com
Yield: 9 slices

Ingredients
Cake
1 1/2  (additional 1/4 cup, if needed) all-purpose flour 
2 TB [30g] sugar
2 tsp [1/4 oz / 7g] fast rising yeast (a.k.a. one packet)
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1/4 cup [57g]  melted butter 
1/3 cup [75ml] milk

Topping
1/2 cup [113g] butter
1 TB honey
5-6 TB sugar (see note below)
1 1/2 TB heavy whipping cream
1 TB vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla extract (go with vanilla extract)
3/4 cup [80g] sliced almonds

Filling
2 cups [400ml] heavy whipping cream
3 Tbsp vanilla pudding powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla extract (go with the vanilla extract)

Pinch of salt  

Instructions

1. Mix flour, sugar, yeast, and salt together in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add melted butter, egg, and milk. Mix with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms into a ball. If the dough is sticky, add a little more flour until it no longer sticks to your fingers.

2. Knead dough 5-7 times in the bowl until it looks and feels smooth.

3. Cover dough with a towel and let it rest for 30 minutes.

4. Pre-heat oven to 350F/176C.

5. To make the honey almond topping, melt butter, honey, sugar, and vanilla sugar in a saucepan over medium low heat. Once the butter has melted, add the cream and then mix until the sugar is dissolved.

6. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in sliced almonds (and vanilla extract if you’re using this instead of vanilla sugar). Keep the topping warm until you're ready to use it.

7. Place a sheet of parchment paper in an 8x8 inch (20x20 cm) baking pan so the edges hang over the sides. Press dough into the pan and then prick dough several times with a fork.

8. Pour the topping onto the dough and spread evenly. Bake for about 30 minutes (check at 25 minutes and then bake 5-7 minutes longer as needed). The topping will be golden brown when done.

9. Let the cake cool in the cake pan for a few minutes. Grab the sides of the parchment paper and transfer the cake to a wire rack. Let the cake cool for 10-20 minutes.

10. When you can comfortably touch the cake with your fingers, use a long serrated knife to cut the cake lengthwise in two thin layers.

11. Transfer the top layer to a cutting board and use the same serrated knife to cut the top layer (the one with the topping) into nine pieces. It’s MUCH easier to cut this top layer when the cake is still a warm rather than waiting to cut it when you're ready to serve it (if you wait until after the cake has chilled, you’re likely to squish the filling out the sides when you cut it). Let the bottom and top layer pieces cool.

12. While the cake cools, prepare the filling. Pour the heavy cream into a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the pudding powder and vanilla sugar (or extract) and first beat to soft peaks. (When the filling beats to peaks that sink back down.) Taste the filling and, if desired, add more pudding powder or vanilla. (Stir, don’t beat, any added powder or vanilla in, so as not to beat the filling too much.)

13. Place the bottom cake layer on a plate. Spread the filling on the bottom cake layer using a palette knife. Then carefully place the nine top layer pieces on the cream filling, piece by piece. Cover or wrap cake in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour or until the filling is set.

14. When you’re ready to serve the cake, let it warm up for a few minutes before slicing and serving. Be careful not to not press down too hard on the top layer when cutting the bottom layer because the filling will spill out.

15. This cake is best eaten the day you make it. (I thought it was pretty tasty the next day too.)

At The Kids' Table!

While I was in New Hampshire over the holidays I unearthed my very first cookbook, liberating it after so many years from the dank (and as I’ve long suspected, haunted) cellar in my parents’ house.

Easy to Make Good to Eat (1976) by Martha Olson Condit, available exlusively through my first grade Scholastic Book Club, offered a bunch of interactive recipes intended to get children and their folks involved with cooking. 

I figure at least a few of you have wee ones and may sometimes find yourselves wracking your brains for ways to entertain them. Over the years, I’ve offered some kid-friendly suggestions here, including recipes for hot dog octopuses, sloppy joes with blackeyed peas, and of course, how to eat jellybeans for breakfast. For the worst thing I ever made when I was a kid, click here. 

And now, a peek into Easy to Make Good to Eat! Apart from shakes and open-face sandwiches listed in the cookbook, I totally remember making these Mini Pizzas (and my first fondant as well, but we needn’t go into that here). So, I recently whipped up a couple pizzas wrought from English muffins, ketchup, and a few Kraft Singles lurking in the fridge (they never really expire). 

You know what? Still delicious!

And a bonus for the adults—these Mini Pizzas absolutely slay late-nite munchies. 

Mini Pizza
Adaptred from Easy to Make Good to Eat by Martha Olson Condit

Ingredients:
English muffins
Ketchup
Slices of American cheese
Oregano
Somes grated Parmesan cheese

This is what you do:

Ask a grown-up to turn the oven on.
It should be set at 350 degrees.

1. Take 2 muffins. Use a fork to split them. You will have four pieces. Toast them. Put the pieces on the cookie sheet. Keep the cut side up.

2. Do these things to each piece of muffin:
Spread 1 tablespoon of ketchup over it. Put a slice of cheese on the ketchup. Sprinkle 3 pinches of oregano over the cheese.
Shake some Parmesan cheese all over the top.

3. Use a pot holder in each hand.
Put the cookie sheet in the oven.
Wait for 10 minutes.
Use your pot holders. Open the oven door.
Look Has the cheese melted? Yes.
Then the pizzas are done. Put the cookie sheet on the cutting board.
Use the spatula and lift one pizza out and put it on a plate
Put two pizzas on a plate.

Ask a grown-up to turn the oven off.

Now you know how to make a good ‘filler-upper.’ It is pretty too.

Do enjoy and oh yes, whatever you do any time you set a table, by all means make it pretty!