bookcooker: Main Dishes

The Paying Guests and Pork and Apple Pie

Sunday, January 24, 2016

I have been gone a long, long time. Sorry for that. Is it a particularly inspiring book that has brought me back? Not really. A fantastic recipe I have been dying to make for a while? Nope. I am not sure what it is, but the spark of inspiration to come back to bookcooker started earlier this week with the possibility of a massive snow storm. What would I do stuck inside? I would surely have work to do, but that's no fun. My closets are starting to resemble a hoarders, I could tackle those - no thank you! Curling up with my laptop and a slightly complicated recipe sounded like just the thing. So the idea was hatched, I just finished Sarah Waters "The Paying Guests" which is a novel that, while I liked OK, managed to be both overly dramatic and a little boring. The books takes place in the outskirts of London after World War I and follows a protagonist, Frances, that used to be well off and upper class and is now poor and upper class, which forces her to maintain her family's big fancy house herself. As part of her daily tasks she must make the sturdy British meals that are also featured on Downtown Abbey - pigeons, pies and stews. There is one pie in particular (or rather an unfinished one) that takes place at a particularly momentous moment in the book, and this inspired me to google british pies. The first recipe to pop up was this Pork and Apple Pie from, in my humble opinion, a treasure of British reality TV - Paul Hollywood. For those of you that don't know him, he is one of the judges on the best cooking competition show ever in human existence - The Great British Baking Show. This show is great because there is no soap opera drama, the contestants are real every day Britons, but they are also in possession of incredibly impressive baking skills. It is also fun because they make strange British desserts. Anyway, highly recommend you check it out. When I saw the Paul Hollywood recipe I was sold and determined to make a bookcooker comeback. Of course in Boston the snow storm did not come (sorry DC and NY, good luck!), but my inspiration held out.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Hello friends, I have been absent for some time again. Rather than drumming up some excuses, let's just jump right into it, k? In the midst of a neverending, gray and snowy winter, sometimes we need a little reminder of sunnier climes and warmer times. That's what these two recipes from The Lee Brothers Simple Fresh Southern are. Ironically, I actually made them before snowmaggedon hit Boston, but have not posted them until now (FYI, it is snowing right now outside my window!) The Lee Brothers are my idols. They went to my alma mater and have put out a great series of Southern cookbooks, showcasing the food of the South and of their fabulous hometown, and one of my favorites, Charleston. As is my practice, I have all of their cookbooks, today I will tell you a bit about their second book, and more casual than their first book, an opus of Southern Cooking - Simple Fresh Southern. The book has lots of modern, accessible recipes inspired by the South. I would describe the book as "sunny" - it makes you feel upbeat and provides delicious but not overwrought dishes. Special enough for company but easy enough to make most nights.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

With January comes diets, cleanses, resolutions to be better to our bodies by eating less and working out more. The gyms are crazed, spin and yoga studies fully booked and sales of quinoa and Kale on the rise. I fall prey to the January resolution every year without fail. This year I have recommitted to my fitbit, on nights I have not hit my step goal you will find me feverishly dancing around the house to rack up the steps. I also bought a juicer, which now may crowd out my coffee pot on the counter, at least until the end of the month. And here are these eggplant "meatballs" and avocado chocolate "mousse" from Mark Bittman's VB^ ("Vegan Before Six") cookbook. Bittman, the long time NY Times food writer is an evangelist for healthy and environmentally responsible eating. He always makes me feel guilty about what I am doing to my body and the planet. I bought this book back in July, but these are the first two recipes I have made out of them. As with most Bittman recipes, they worked well - just as he described, and were easy. They did not wow me, but is it possible to be wowed by eggplant meatballs? The avocado mousse grew on me. At first bite I tasted too much avocado and not enough chocolate, but two bites in I liked that balance. A real treat, not that healthy since it does have sugar and fat, but something you can feel a good bit better about when you need your chocolate fix.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

I couldn't resist making a second recipe from The Beekman Heirloom cookbook and this one pairs particularly well with the Pumpkin Cheese Bread. Here is a simple, hearty beef chili with the fall addition of fresh pumpkin. Any squash will do. I usually wing it when I make chili, rarely following a recipe and I usually use ground meat. This version uses stew beef and cooks slowly in the oven. It came out really tender and with a nice balance of spices. This has virtually no heat, however, so if you are looking for some heat, I would suggest adding some cayenne or a jalapeno. Rather than Texas Chili, I would call this the perfect New England chili and a great recipe as the days finally get a little cooler. With such great experience with these two recipes, I definitely consider The Beekman cookbook a "keeper" and will try to come back to it on a regular basis.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

While I enjoyed it, Sisterland is my least favorite of Curtis Sittenfeld's books. Her first book "Prep" was an engrossing memoir-like novel about the adolescent experience and "American Wife" was the witty, bold novelization of Laura Bush's story. With Sisterland, Sittenfeld brings us Daisy and Violent Tucker - adolescent twins of distant parents in a St. Louis suburb. Daisy (who later changes her name to Kate) is the steady boring twin while Vi is irreverent, overweight, and slightly out of control. The novel is told from Kate's perspective as a young adult, married with two young children, with plenty of time revisiting the girls youth and adolescence which fundamentally shaped their adult identities. The problem I had with the novel is that Sittenfeld chose to focus on the more sedate, less interesting sister. This resulted in book with some real lulls, especially in the middle. That said, Sittenfeld certainly brought the drama at the end, bringing some life and oomph to the book in the final pages. This simple veggie a lo mein, while seemingly boring like Kate, is a great weeknight staple with a lot of flavor, and it is a dish Kate eats on the night she decides to let herself lose a little control.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Now that April has rolled around, it is time for green things, light things, spring things. Never mind that where I am, it is not exactly warm yet... but it is getting there. For Bostonians like me, even if it is 30 degrees out, spring starts when the Red Sox start to play. Today, I am going to my first game of the season, so spring is here! When spring starts I am drawn to pretty green things at the market - peas, asparagus, spring onions, artichokes. I can't get enough green. I saw this dish in Saveur Magazine and it just seemed like spring on a plate. For now I used frozen peas, but pretty soon I will make this again with some fresh ones. This is a great dish to welcome spring and other than a little bit of cream, it is good for you too.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Every once in a while (and lately, more often) a book labelled for "young adults" breaks through to the "adult" reading world and becomes a must read. Perhaps this started with Harry Potter, continued with Twilight, Hunger Games, Divergent. For the most part the YA books I always here about are series, are fantasy of some way. The Fault in Our Stars is a YA book that has broken through but is different - it is just one time thing, and rather than taking place is some futuristic world or have teenagers changing into werewolves, it is firmly grounded in reality - the sad reality of kids with cancer. While it may seem callous, if you haven't read the book, to make some sort of food associated with a book about kids with cancer, John Green treats the subject with the seriousness it deserves, but also with wit, whimsy, romance and humor. The book is a tearjerker, no doubt, but it is also an eye opener that shows tragedy is not one dimensional.

Monday, February 17, 2014

If I could make a dish with vodka, Oxycontin and tragedy that would be perfect for Donna Tartt's engrossing and heartbreaking The Goldfinch. Tartt is one of my favorite authors - but she is rare among contemporary novelists in that she takes about 10 years per book. Undoubtedly the anticipation adds to the enjoyment of her books, and it is the anticipation that powers the reader through her hefty tomes. The Goldfinch is like those before it is long - but it is worth the effort and I different in some ways from Tartt's previous works. What I loved about The Secret History and The Little Friend was the hidden mystery and subtle but constant sinister atmosphere underlying the story. With The Goldfinch Tartt adds something else to the mix - a character that the reader really emotionally connects to - Theo Decker. Many reviewers have dubbed The Goldfinch "Dickensian" and there certainly is that spirit in this book - it spans many years, has a wide array of eccentric and interesting characters and most importantly tells the coming of age story of an orphan. Theo is a young pre-teen who lives in New York with his beautiful and engaging single mother. On their way to a parent teacher conference at Theo's school the mother-son pair stop at the Metropolitan Museum to peruse a collection of Dutch artwork Theo's mother was interested in. A huge bomb explodes during their visit - Theo's mother is killed but Theo miraculously survives. But with his mother's death (and the unreliability and absence of his father) he becomes like an orphan if not literally one. The book traces Theo's coming of age and entrance into adulthood - documenting how the trauma of the bombing and the loss of his mother scars his every moment thereafter. This welsh rarebit pictured above represents one of the rare good and comforting things in Theo's life - his friendship and eventual home with a quiet quirky antique dealer known as Hobie. More about the book and the dish after the jump.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Ian McKewan's Sweet Tooth has one of those standout food moments that bookcooker is all about. The novel, which I must admit I thought would be a little sexier 007 than it was, is about Serena Frome, a smart, pretty, wispy Cambridge girl who finds her herself working for MI5 in early 1970's London. This is not a path Serena would have found on her own - she is the daughter of a bishop and a maths major with a suppressed passion for literature and bad taste in men. It is through an affair with a much older and worldly professor that she finds herself working in the British domestic spy agency during the gloomy days of the cold war, British economic depression and the threat of the IRA. It is the older professor that also introduces her to this earthy, sexy dish - forest mushrooms with creamy polenta. Serena and Tony Canning, a professor at Cambridge were Serena is a student, spend secret weekends together at a cottage in the country. Tony teaches Serena about world affairs and they drink wine and good food that Tony cooks. This dish was particularly intriguing to me (I love polenta!) and for Serena it was a symbol of the kind of sophisticated world she thought Tony was opening up for her. Of course, since this is a spy novel, Tony was not what he seemed, he cruelly dumped Serena but she went to work for MI5 in London anyway. Rather than the exciting and sexy experience you would expect, Serena's work and life was dreary and demeaning - until she was recruited into the "Sweet Tooth" project...

Sunday, November 17, 2013

B.A. Shapiro's The Art Forger is a fun thriller about a piece of art that was stolen as part of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist. For those of you that don't know the story, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a gem of a museum in Boston located in a charming old mansion. The works that populate the Museum are the collection of a rich eccentric and ardent art collector, Isabella Stewart Gardner, who established the museum in 1903. In 1990 thieves dressed as Boston police officers entered the Museum and stole 13 art works (including works by Rembrandt, Manet, Degas, Vermeer). For decades the robbery went unsolved - just this year the FBI announced they knew who the thieves were, but the location of the stolen art remain undiscovered. Here in Boston this theft has been the stuff of urban legend - with rumors swirling that Whitey Bulger was behind the theft. With this backdrop, B.A. Shapiro creates a fictional account of one woman's connection to a work allegedly stolen as part of that heist (a fictional painting by Degas entitled "After the Bath). The novel's heroine, Claire Roth, is a struggling artist who has been blackballed by the art world because of a scandal in her past. To make ends meet she does copies of Degas paintings for a website called "reproductions.com". One day a sexy and successful art dealer, Aiden Markel, asks her to make a reproduction of one of the Degas' stolen in the Gardner heist - in return she will get a lot of money and more importantly a one woman show at his gallery. From here Shapiro quickly sweeps the reader into a suspenseful and interesting mystery. An explanation of the pad thai, pictured above, after the jump and below.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

I must admit, there is no pesto mentioned in Jess Walter's wonderful novel Beautiful Ruins. The novel takes place both on Ligurian coast in the 1960's and in modern day Los Angeles. Obviously, there is not much food in the Los Angeles part, but more disappointingly (only for purposes of this blog), there also is not much food in the Italy portions of the book. The only mention of food that really stuck with me was the description of an unappetizing fish head soup. Don't get me wrong, I love dishes made with "trash" ingredients, and I love a good culinary challenge, but fish head soup was not doing it for me. So I googled around a bit, and it seemed like, in the middle of summer, a classic Ligurian pesto was in order. More about the simple pesto and the book after the jump.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Even though the temperature hovered in the 90s last weekend here in Boston, it is officially still spring, and therefore I am not woefully late with this tasty spring dish, that I made months ago and in my blogging rut, failed to post. While fall is my favorite season, spring is the time I get most excited about new produce - asparagus, peas, spring onions, and then strawberries, rhubarb. While the bounty of summer is the star, spring produce is more exciting because we (at least here in New England) have been suffering through a long drab colored winter. The brilliant green of spring produce is rejuvenating! So this asparagus and salmon bruschetta was definitely rejuvenating back in April when I made it, and now that I see it in June, it seems perfect to suit summer as well. This is from the original Ottolenghi cookbook, which has the most beautiful photography. I must admit I have flipped through it more times than I have cooked from it, but with the success of this dish, I will dive in more. The salmon is poached in the oven with wine and spices and comes out moist and flavorful. This is a different and special brunch dish that is also very easy to make.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

April got away from me, and then May has too. Blogging has taken a back seat to other things, and I hope that soon my blogging focus will be reignited. I am not sure of this exact cause of lagging blogging, but work has certainly been a big part of it. I have working on one of those cases that is running on a fast track, so it has been intense so by the end of the day it takes a lot out of me. I have also been in a bit of a reading rut, I have been working on Richard Ford's Canada for about a month now, and have refused to give up on it even though it hasn't really caught my attention, I am taking it on the plane with me today on a quick trip to New Orleans, and if I am not engrossed after the flight, I may just throw in the towel. [Note: that was several weeks ago, I did end up abandoning the book but hope to pick it up and try again] A book which did catch my attention however was Nell Freudenberger's The Newleyweds. The novel tells the story of a marriage born of the internet age - a young Bangladeshi woman, Amina, and almost middle aged IT guy from Rochester, George. The two meet over the internet - through a website called AsianEuro.com. Not a romantic start, and this is not a romantic novel. The Newlyweds is an affecting portrait of a woman struggling between two cultures and trying to define her life's path for herself. More after the jump.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Here is part two of my The Paris Wife post, much better for you than a Death in the Afternoon cocktail - trout stuffed with ham and onions. While the Paris Wife is set mainly in Paris, as with anything having to do with Hemingway, the real heart of the story involves Spain. It was on a trip to Spain, to watch bullfighting, that Hadley and Hem's marriage really started to go wrong. Hemingway, tempted by what was new and by someone who would fawn over him anew, flirted dangerously with a beautiful British aristocrat. This woman became the inspiration for the character Brett in The Sun Also Rises. Following this trip, Hem came home to write that book, and everyone on the trip with Hem and Hadley ended up as characters in the book - everyone except Hadley. While on this trip, in Pamplona, while Hadley naps in the hotel, Hemingway ventures around the city and comes back raving about an amazing trout dish he had just had - the best fish he has ever eaten - river trout stuffed with ham and onions. This seemed like the perfect dish to make for the book - representing some good parts of the Hadley/Hem relationship - their love for the outdoors, they joy in sharing the things they love with each other. This was a snap to make but certainly packs some special occasion punch.

Friday, March 8, 2013

It turns out that this beef pie with stout and stilton that I made for my entry on the first two books of the Song of Ice and Fire series (A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) is not only perfect for the book, but now that we are in March, a perfect St. Patrick's Day kind of dish since it has Guinness and seems like something you would it in a pub in Ireland. There has been a lot of space in the blogosphere devoted to the food of George R. Martin's brilliant fantasy series - A Song of Ice and Fire, and my little addition here is likely much less imaginative or true to the novels than others, but it is damn tasty. Contrary to my usual practice, I saw the TV version of Game of Thrones before I read the book - so for both the first and second book in the series (there are currently five books). This meant I knew the major plot points (and there is a real doozy at the end of the first book), but it really didn't lessen my enjoyment of the books. These are big, hefty complicated books - the kind of books that have maps and an index of the characters in them. They are the kind of books you also can get lost in - and I mean lost in a good way - after reading for a half hour you look up and are not quite sure where or when you are? When a book is over 600 pages, it is also nice when it is divided in digestible chunks, and Martin's chapters are each told from the perspective of a different character - each has their own story to tell and two narrators may be in the same room or may be on different continents - so each chapter is its own little novel. I have just started the third book, just as the third season of the HBO season is going to premiere. I haven't decided yet whether I will plow through and wait on the series or put the book aside and just watch the series first. The problem is I am dying to know what happens next, and the TV will tell me sooner....

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Vegan Cheese is definitely not my thing, but I knew I had to use it when I finished reading Lauren Groff's incredible Arcadia. The book is about a commune called Arcadia in upstate New York, and specifically a little boy who grows up in the middle of it - Bit Stone. I was really happy to see the book make a few Best of the Year lists, because I really really loved it. Through the eyes of young Bit, Groff depicts the ups and downs of commune life. B While living on the commune can be a challenge, Bit is surrounded by nature, by other kids (the "kid herd"), and by people who love him. The book is essentially divided in thirds - the first part is when Bit is a young child and then a teenager, the second part when he is an adult living in New York City with a child of his own, and last, Groff fast forwards to the future of 2018, where the world is a much bleaker and more dangerous place. Each of these three parts are really different. The most transportive section is the first, where the narrative is not quite straight and as a reader you really feel you are seeing the world from little Bit's perspective. Bit is a vegan, and dinner in his family trailer with his father Abe, and mother, Hannah, was often Abe's soy cheese enchiladas. I knew I couldn't make soy cheese the centerpiece of these enchiladas, so instead these are filled with a wonderful vegetable medley of onion, corn, shitakes and butternut squash. I kept the soy cheese to a minimum, sprinkling a but on the top - and I must admit, while it wasn't great, it wasn't so bad either.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

It has taken me a little longer than I would have liked to start my pumpkin party, but better late than never! Part of the delay is that I was crippled by indecision - there are so many wonderful things to make, how would I ever decide! I was particularly stumped on what to choose to make on the sweet, side, so I am kicking off this week or so of many pumpkin recipes on the savory side. Without further delay, I give you Dorie Greenspan's pumpkin stuffed with everything good, and this really is a gift. This pumpkin, oh boy, let me tell you about it - it is filled with beautiful french bread cubes, lots and lots of Gruyere and cheddar cheese, garlic, oh yes, lots of garlic, and you know what else? bacon, yup. Oh, and how is this lovely pumpkin finished off? with a little glug of heavy cream. Yes! This pumpkin is pretty insane, obviously over the top rich. I tried to make it a little less guilty by adding a whole bunch of steamed swiss chard, and it added a nice counterpoint to the richness loaded on richness. Without the bacon, this would be a great vegetarian main for thanksgiving, truth be told, I would probably rather eat this than turkey, and I love turkey. If the pumpkin a bit of an afterthought in light of all that goodness? Perhaps, but the right way to eat this is to dig into the sides and mix the soft pumpkin immediately into the stuffing. If it weren't for the bacon, cream, bread and cheese, I would eat this every week during the fall. Alas, this dish is so good I can't let myself eat it more than once a year, and I am already thinking about next year...

Friday, October 5, 2012

I fear the name of my post really reveals my age. I am sure there are lots of you twenty somethings out there that have no idea who Peter Brady is, much less what he has to do with pork chops. For those of you readers who are generally in the vicinity of my generation (who enjoyed the Brady Bunch every night in reruns) or of the generation before mine (who enjoyed it in prime time) you may remember the Brady Bunch episode where Peter Brady became famous for utterly the phrase "pork chops and applesauce" with a funny voice and accent (I believe he was trying to imitate Humphrey Bogart? What was this episode about anyway?) Text can't do it justice check it out here. From when I saw that episode as a kid (probably 10 times!) to now, whenever I think about pork chops, I hear Peter Brady's weird voice in my head. Until recently, I was into pork chops at all. And still, to be fair, I never order them in a restaurant, never have a real craving for them. In fact, the only way I ever eat pork chops is prepared as depicted in the photo above - thin porkchops smothered in a sweet and sour apple sauce. This is my savory contribution to apple fest, boneless pork chops cooked with a shallot and apple pan sauce. Yum!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl is another good e-reader choice. I kept reading about this book all spring and summer - a breakout hit that occupied the best seller lists and was generally considered the "it" book of the summer. Rather than wait for the paperback as is my normal practice, I downloaded the book late in the summer and read it, feverishly, over a couple of days. Since it was such a hot book, there is a lot of talk on the internet about the book and to some extent a bit of a mixed bag review-wise - some people really liked it and other thought it was a bit of a letdown. I was surprised by the negativity - I really liked the book - it was a great addictive summer read (though I admit the ending was not as stellar as the rest of the book) - though nothing more than that. One thing is for certain - this book, which paints the picture of a truly horrible, scary marriage of two truly horrible, scary people, made me wonder - what is underneath the surface in all the seemingly normal and happy marriages out there?

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

For me, J. Courtney Sullivan's Maine was a particularly well suited summer read. The book is about a family house in Cape Neddick, Maine and the trials and tribulations of four of the women who are part of the dysfunctional family, the Kellehers, that own the house. As it turns out, my family owns a summer house a stone's throw from Cape Neddick, Maine, and I must admit that our family, like all families, has its share of dysfunction. With that background, I was understandably excited about the book, and while I liked it a lot, it did not totally live up to my expectations. My real complaint is that the book took too long for all the characters to get up to Maine - once they were there and interacting I really enjoyed the book, but I think Sullivan took too long to tell us everyone's back stories. More about the book after the jump. The seafood salad pictured above is my go to dish for when I have friends visit me in Maine. It is both fancy, because of the lobster, but very easy and down to earth as well, and it screams Maine in the summer. At least in the Northeast, lobster prices are low this summer, so for your labor day weekend, make this dish as a goodbye kiss to summer.

Welcome!

Grab a Button

Search This Blog

Share

Recipe Index

Archive

Followers