Monday, March 27, 2000
Ann Nurse's Famous Baked Ham
Walking into Ann Amendolara Nurse’s house in Brooklyn is entering a world you didn’t know existed anymore, certainly not in a city. The unheated entry room, a former porch, is a larder filled with bushels of produce, whatever the season bears, and I don’t know what else except that I always expect a hanging sausage or ham to knock me in the head. It is just food storage, a tangible, aromatic overflow, a sort of metaphor for her overflowing personality, but it is also art the way Ann arranges it. [more]
Monday, March 20, 2000
Hammantaschen
Tonight is the beginning of Purim, which you might call the Jewish version of Mardi Gras. (Then again, you might not.) It is, in any case, a big party day. You are supposed to listen to the story of Esther, which tells the story of a young and beautiful queen of ancient Persia, who, with her wise cousin (perhaps uncle) Mordechai, outsmarts the evil prime minister, Hamman. As the story is read in synagogue, one is supposed to make a lot of noise every time the name of Hamman is mentioned. And it is actually written that you should get inebriated – at least drunk enough that you can’t tell the difference between the good guys and the bad. Children, and even some adults, don costumes for the parties and parades, and there is a special food of the day, hammantaschen, which are triangular pastries/cookies filled, traditionally, with either prune butter or poppy seeds (mohn). These days, there are all kinds of fillings, including, naturally, chocolate, and hammantaschen are, in New York at any rate, available in bakeries that are not at all necessarily Jewish. [more]
Thursday, March 16, 2000
And I'm Still Here
Congratulate me. This year marks my 30th year as a professional food journalist – editor, writer, broadcaster, cookbook author -- and lately cooking teacher, too. [more]
Wednesday, March 15, 2000
My Family's Passover Walnut Cake
Do you know the old joke about Jewish holidays? They are always late or early, never on time. [more]
Monday, March 13, 2000
Irish Soda Bread, Zeppole di San Giuseppe
I know a nun who can rattle off a special baked good for almost any saint’s day you mention. However, as neither a Catholic nor much of a baker, I only know two saintly baking associations, and both are this week. St. Patrick’s Day is this Friday, March 17, and the Feast Day of St. Joseph is this Sunday, March 19. I know you all know that if Irish Soda Bread has a special day then it’s St. Pat’s. However, you might not know that on St. Jospeh’s Day southern Italians make a special zeppole. [more]
Friday, March 10, 2000
More Wine Buys
The musical line “Drink to me only with thine eyes …” flashed through my mind when I saw the bottle of Swanson Rosato 1998, a rose wine made from the Italian Sangiovese (Sahn-joe-vay-zay) grape in Napa Valley, California. It’s a strikingly strawberry colored wine packaged in clear glass so you can see it in it’s full red glory. If you enjoy the color of wine almost as much as its flavor and beneficial effects to your mood and health -- as well you should -- you will love this one. [more]
Wednesday, March 8, 2000
Green Goddess Dressing
Senior moment! Senior moment! I know both perfectly well, but I could not for the life of me think of the recipe for or the story behind Green Goddess Dressing today while taking extra calls after the program. You’ll hear the call one day soon, when I take a day off and my producer Mike Hayes plays tape. But I promised the listener I’d put it up on my web-site as soon as I got home. So here it is. [more]
Monday, March 6, 2000
Book And The Cook in Philadelphia
I’m exhausted. If I ever I had fantasies of running a restaurant (and I truly have not), one night at the Sansom Street Oyster House in Philadelphia would have cured me. I was there on Friday for Philly’s Book and the Cook Fair and we had 240 reservations for the dinner chef Cary Neff cooked from my book Naples At Table. I am still hoarse from talking to everyone, although my feet have somewhat recovered from standing and running around the room from 5 to 11 p.m. And I was not even the man in charge, David Mink, the Oyster House’s owner, nor was I the guy behind the stove, Cary, who, except for last-minute of grilling fish and cooking pasta, seemingly cooked all the food himself – I mean single handedly. [more]
Thursday, March 2, 2000
Chef Central: Books and Tomatoes
Last night I was at Chef Central in Paramus, New Jersey, talking (what else) about What To Cook When You Think There’s Nothing In The House To Eat, which, as I have noted before, has just been re-published after having been out of print for several years. I left behind autographed copies of “What To Cook … ,” as well as Soup Suppers and Naples At Table, in case you live nearby and would like one, or would like one of my cookbooks to give as a Mother’s Day gift. [more]
