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04/30/2007 Archived Entry: "This and That, Plus Strata Recipe"

SCHEDULE REVERSAL
There’s been a slight change in scheduling for my interview of Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso, authors of The Silver Palate Cookbook, who are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their book’s publication.

We will be at the Barnes & Noble in Freehold, New Jersey, 3981 U. S. Highway 9, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 8, not May 9, as was until recently listed in the appearance schedule on my website. Call 732-409-2929 for directions or more information. Both “The Silver Palate Cookbook” and my cookbooks will be available for purchase and personalized inscriptions.

On May 9, instead of May 8, we will be repeating the evening, at 7:30 p.m., at the Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble, 1972 Broadway, at 66th St., in Manhattan. Call 212-595-6859 if you need more information.

Twenty five years in print is an astounding record for a cookbook. Hardly any cookbook stays in print that long. “The Silver Palate Cook Book” is a true classic. I think that it has endured because the book was way ahead of its time in attitude and flavors, introducing the American public to ingredients and dishes that we now consider part of our American patrimony. A new edition, with color photos, has just been published.

A NEW WEBSITE
My dear friend Rozanne Gold has just launched her own website, rozannegold.com. As I am sure you know, because I talk about her all the time, she has written 10 cookbooks, nine of which are collections of recipes that use only three ingredients, not counting water, salt, and pepper. But you can read all about Rozanne and her awesome accomplishments – she is not merely a cookbook writer -- on the site, as well as find some of her favorite recipes there, including one of my favorites, a pineapple flan. Don’t fail to look at all the pictures of Rozanne either. I’m even in one of them.

GREAT POINT!
Erica Marcus, the food writer for Newsday on Long Island (who also happens to be my cousin and friend), has just returned from Umbria. In her posting on the newspaper’s website, mainly about what she ate in Umbria, she makes a great point about the difference between eating in Italy and eating in the U.S.
If you’d like to read the whole essay (it’s not very long), go to The Newsday website.

COOKING STEAK AT HOME
My friend Michael Whiteman, the legendary restaurant consultant and creative mind behind Windows on the World (in both its first and second incarnations), as well as the revived Rainbow Room, wrote me a note about cooking steak at home. I should say that Michael is a very good home cook, too, and that I can’t wait to try his method, which combines the broiler and a black iron skillet, perhaps even two.

“You can have it both ways. Get your cast iron pan hotter than hell while you're preheating the broiler. Pop the steak in the pan, then, with inch-thick oven mitts, slip that mother under the broiler. Some mavens put a layer of salt in the pan, which seasons the meat and helps prevent sticking. The benefit of this method is that you don't smoke up the kitchen and you get a better sear on the meat's surface.

“If you have two cast iron pans, then preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Get both pans impossibly hot on top of the stove. Put the steak in one pan. Put the other pan, bottom side down, atop the steak. Find someone strong enough to pop both pans into the oven. Cook until you suspect it might be done.”

A CLASSIC RECIPE
One of you recently asked me for a recipe for a “strata,” which she ate in a restaurant. It sounds like an Italian dish, but it isn’t. The word is Latin, meaning layers (plural) and it means the same thing in English. The dish is completely American, and so-called because it layers bread and filling. A strata is, to put it basically, a sandwich baked in custard. It puffs up in the oven, so when you eat it you will think it is a cross between a soufflé and a grilled cheese sandwich. That is if you make it in its simplest form, filled with nothing but cheese.

When I was a food writer at Long Island’s Newsday, in the pre food-mania days of 1969 to 1979, tuna strata was all the rage. I found, however, that among my friends warm tuna dishes were not to everyone’s taste. We were young. Memories of our 1950s mom’s tuna-noodle casseroles were probably too recent. Instead, I would fill my strata – a great brunch or lunch dish – with a crabmeat salad made with nothing more than finely minced celery and Hellmann’s mayonnaise. It was a big hit. Somehow, I can’t find that recipe in my files, but, given the recipe below, you can figure it out if you care to.

In my 1992 book “What To Cook When You Think There’s Nothing In The House To Eat,” which only recently went out of print (but it is still available as a used or remaindered book from “other sellers” on Amazon.com), I offered two recipes for strata. One is filled with jam, an unusual sweet strata for late-night sweets cravings. The other is similar to the cheese version below. But they are both single-serving recipes – one sandwich baked in custard – as an emergency meal. You can even make a strata with stale bread.

I hadn’t made or eaten a strata in so long, I used the question about it as an excuse to prepare one for lunch the other day – a simple, basic one with only cheese. Everyone agreed it was a perfect dish for a Mother’s Day brunch, as well as our lunch. For Mother’s Day, accompany it with a salad, or, better, some asparagus, the vegetable of the moment, or precede it with another seasonal treat, a whole artichoke to dismember petal by petal and dip into melted butter or, again better, a lemony vinaigrette. Now you’ve made this very down-to-earth dish quite elegant. For dessert, take a look at Rozanne Gold’s three-ingredient pineapple flan. That would make this a two-custard meal, but the strata and the flan are so different, you won’t even realize it.

By the way, one of my strata sandwiches was left over. I refrigerated it and reheated it the next day in a 350-degree oven for less than 10 minutes, until just heated through and the cheese melted again. It was great, although not as soufflé-like as when freshly baked. A strata can be assembled the day before it is baked, but for maximum effect, it should be baked just before it is served.

Cheese Strata
Serves 4 to 6

2 tablespoons butter, melted
12 slices white bread
8 to 10 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
Dijon mustard (optional)
3 eggs
2 cups whole milk

Brush the bottom of a 13- by 9-inch baking pan with some of the melted butter.

Lightly brush 6 slices of the bread with the rest of the butter, placing them in the pan buttered side up.

Evenly distribute the shredded cheese on the bread. Top with another slice of bread, as if to make sandwiches. If desired, lightly spread the top slices with mustard, placing them in the pan mustard-side down.

Beat the eggs with the milk until well-blended. Pour slowly over the sandwiches in the pan, making sure all the top slices are well moistened. Let stand at room temperature for at least 15 minutes. Or refrigerate for as long as overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until puffed up and lightly browned.

Let stand 2 or 3 minutes before serving.

Variations: Anything you put between two pieces of bread to make a sandwich can be turned into a strata. Use your imagination.