The Last Word
Adapted from Cocktail Codex
This is a lovely drink with a complex herbaceous flavor from the green Chartreuse.
3/4 ounce gin
3/4 ounce green Chartreuse
3/4 ounce Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
Add the gin, Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, and lime juice to a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake until cold.
Julia Reed's Corpse Reviver No. 2
I personally prefer Mathilde Orange XO.
Adapted from The Comfortable Kitchen by Alex Snodgrass and Cocktail Codex by Alex Day, Nick Fauchald, and David Kaplan
Thyme 75
For one drink
1 ounce Plymouth Gin
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce thyme simple syrup*
4 ounces cold dry sparkling wine (Prosecco, Cava, or Champagne)
1 thyme sprig for garnish
Shake all the ingredients except the sparkling wine with ice then either strain into a flute or a couple and top with the sparkling wine. Stir gently with a barspoon to mix the sparkling wine with the cocktail. Garnish with a sprig of thyme.
Adapted from Gabrielle Hamilton and The Cocktail Codex by Alex Day, Nick Fauchald, and David Kaplan
The Negroni
For one drink
1 ounce Plymouth Gin
1 ounce Sweet Vermouth*
1 ounce Campari
Garnish with a half wheel of orange
Shake or stir the ingredients together and either strain into an old fashioned glass over ice or go rogue and serve straight up.
Gabrielle Hamilton uses Noilly Prat in America, Martini in Italy (because it's available everywhere), and Antica Carpano if she having more than one because it's softer and less bitter, which is actually the point of an appetite-stimulating pre-dinner aperitif. (She does not recommend Dolin.) The Cocktail Codex boys without hesitation recommend Antica Carpano. I usually use Martini.
Adapted from The Cocktail Codex
Fresh Gimlet
For one drink
2 ounces Plymouth Gin
1 ounce fresh lime juice
3/4 ounce simple syrup*
Garnish with 1 lime wedge
Shake all the ingredients together then strain into a coupe. Garnish with a lime wedge.
*Simple Syrup
From The Kitchn
Simple syrup is equal parts sugar and water.
250g filtered water
250g white sugar
Heat the water by itself, but do not bring it to a boil. Add the sugar and mix until the sugar is dissolved. Cool completely and store in a jar in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 weeks.
I drink a fresh gimlet because I avoid Rose's Lime Juice, which comes in a plastic bottle and has high-fructose corn syrup and dye in it - things I avoid.
The Cocktail Codex by Alex Day, Nick Fauchald, and David Kaplan and The Book of Cocktail Ratios by Michael Ruhlman are the two cocktail books I turn to. And I owe a big hat tip to John Maddox who really fueled my interest in cocktails.
Some Basics to Start
Simple Syrup
From The Kitchn
Simple syrup is equal parts sugar and water.
250g filtered water
250g white sugar
Heat the water by itself, but do not bring it to a boil. Add the sugar and mix until the sugar is dissolved. Cool completely and store in a jar in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 weeks.
Orange Liqueur
It's easy to make this harder than it has to be. If you make cocktails at home, you will most likely have already made the decision about what orange liqueur you like best - Triple Sec, Curaçao, Cointreau (a brand of Triple Sec), Grand Marnier (not exactly but similar to Curaçao) and a lot of others. If you want to do a deep dive into this, check out Serious Eats on the subject.
I personally prefer Mathilde Orange XO.
All citrus juice is fresh.
Only use Luxardo Cherries. It's worth going for broke here. Remember the spoon will have delicous syrup on it. Dip it into some lucky person's drink.
Cocktails I Make at Home
Adapted from Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibanez
This can be served with chips or used as a condiment.
This recipe is one where the use of a Microplane Medium Ribbon Grater shines. It allows you to grate the onion back and forth so the onion and its juice goes right into the meat mixture. You have the flavor of onion without little perceptible pieces of it in the meat. I also do this when I make meatballs.
I use a regular rasp Microplane to grate the garlic. In this recipe, it MUST be grated, not minced. This also works well for meatballs.
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| Left is a Microplane Medium Ribbon; Right is a Microplane Rasp |
Hungarian Stuffed Green Peppers
Adapted from The Hungarian Cookbook by Susan Derecskey
6 green bell peppers
Salt
1/4 cup rice (I use basmati because that's what I always have on hand.)
1 egg, lightly beaten
A pinch of pepper
1 pound chopped meat, either beef or pork (I always use beef.)
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram, crushed between your fingers as you add it
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
A whole onion cut in half, peel removed (Cutting it in half makes it easy to grate.)
1 clove of garlic
About 3 cups tomato sauce*
Steamed or boiled potatoes, for serving
*I don't buy canned tomato sauce. I buy cans of cherry tomatoes and put them through a food mill, but you can use canned tomato sauce for this.
Wash the peppers, cut off the top, and core the inside doing your best not to puncture the bottoms. Parboil them in lots of boiling salted water for 5 minutes. This will soften them and make them less bitter.
Parboil the rice for 10 minutes.
Put the egg and a pinch of pepper in a bowl and beat with a fork. Add the meat, a little salt (no more than 1/2 teaspoon), rice, dried marjoram, and fresh parsley.
Take the onion half and using a Microplane Ribbon Grater, grate half or a quarter (based on the size of the onion) of that into the bowl.
Using a regular rasp Microplane, grate the garlic into the bowl. (Grate the garlic; do not mince it. If you don't have a rasp Microplane grater, leave it out.)
Mix everything lightly with your hands; the less you handle the meat, the better. Put the meat mixture into the peppers. Do not pack it in, and do not fill right to the top of the peppers.
Put the peppers into a baking pan, put the tomato sauce around them, and bake in a 325°F oven for 1 hour.
Serve with steamed (what I use) or boiled potatoes.
Cucumber and sour cream salad goes well with this dish.
When Walter was growing up his mother made lecsó, a typical Hungarian dish made of tomatoes, bell peppers, and onions - essentially a tomato, pepper, and onion stew - to which she would add Magyar Lecsó Kolbász - a Hungarian smoked and cooked garlic sausage, which I am able to order from The Hungarian Meat Market in Fairfield, Connecticut. I do this once a year so I have enough sausage in the freezer to make this hearty dish during the cold months of winter. Judging from the ingredients - peppers and tomatoes - I don't think that in Hungary this is actually a cold weather dish, but it just seems right as the golden season of fall arrives, and the first mornings of frost appear, to eat this dish.
I use high-quality canned tomatoes and red bell peppers for this dish. There is no fresh garlic in the dish because the sausages are very garlicky on their own.
Lescó
Adapted from The Hungarian Cookbook by Susan Derecsksey
8 red bell peppers, sliced into strips about a half inch wide, not rings
1-1/2 large yellow onions, chopped
Olive oil
2 to 3 tablespoons sweet HUNGARIAN paprika
3 (three) 400g cans of tomatoes, either Italian DOP or Cento Cherry Tomatoes, put through a food mill
2 links of Magyar Lesco Kolbász, cut into 2 cm slices
Full fat sour cream, for serving
I use my 6-quart All Clad "stockpot" here because it is wide rather than deep and makes it easy to cook the onions and peppers.
Cover the bottom of your pan with olive oil, about 1/4 inch. Add the chopped onions and sauté slowly without letting them brown. Add the sliced peppers and stir to coat with the olive oil and onion. Next add the paprika, starting with 2 tablespoons, and stir. You want to use a low heat here because you want the paprika to bloom, not burn. Then add the third tablespoon of paprika and cook for a few more minutes, 3 to 4 is good.
Add the tomatoes and a little salt. Partially cover the pan, and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently to make sure the heat is not so high the bottom will scorch. After 30 minutes, add the sliced sausage and cook for another 20 minutes. Taste for seasoning.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream on top, rice and cucumber salad. Green beans lightly tossed with olive oil and salt go well with it too if you would also like a vegetable.
Unless the weather is warm, I have to go out of my way to have fresh tarragon on hand, but I make it my business to have it when I am going to make this recipe because I think it adds a lot to the dish.
I do not devein my shrimp, but if you are in the habit of doing so, by all means do it here.
Shrimp Salad
1 pound extra large shrimp (21-25 shrimp per pound), peeled
2 cups cold water
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice and another tablespoon fresh lemon juice (usually 1 large lemon is enough)
1 teaspoon salt
Reserved halves of the lemon, cut into quarters
5 sprigs of parsley
About 1 teaspoon minced parsley leaves
3 sprigs fresh tarragon leaves
About 1 teaspoon minced tarragon leaves
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons finely minced shallot
1 stalk celery minced
Salt and pepper to taste
When you're done cooking the shrimp, you will need a medium bowl filled with ice water at hand, so you should get this ready in advance, being prepared to add more ice if you have to when the shrimp is done.
To make the dressing, whisk the mayonnaise, shallot, celery, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, minced parsley, minced tarragon in a medium bowl. If you make this in advance, cover the bowl and refrigerate it.
Fill a medium saucepan with 2 cups cold water and add the shrimp, 1/4 cup lemon juice, reserved lemon quarters, parsley sprigs, tarragon sprigs, whole peppercorns, sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook the shrimp over medium heat, stirring often, until shrimp is no longer translucent. The water should be just bubbling around the edge of the pan; you DO NOT want a rolling boil. This usually takes me about 8 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
Drain the shrimp into a colander and transfer the shrimp to the ice water leaving the lemon halves, herbs, and spices behind. Chill for about 3 minutes. This should be long enough for them to be thoroughly chilled. Remove the shrimp from the water and pat dry.
Cut each shrimp in half lengthwise and then each half into half again. Add shrimp to the dressing and combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.
There are lots of good books on making your own ice cream, but I recommend three as essential. The first two books are Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home and Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream Desserts, both by Jeni Britton Bauer.
Jeni Britton Bauer developed her technique for making ice cream using cream cheese as the stabilizer, which is uniquely practical for the home cook.
The third book is Hello, My Name is Ice Cream by Dana Cree. This book explains the science of ice cream in basic understandable language. It is endlessly usable, thorough, and interesting.
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| Container I Chill Ice Cream Base In |
In Top Foodies Choose Their Favorite Recipes of All Time (The Guardian 29 January 2006), Ruth Rogers chose this as hers. She is the founding chef of London’s River Café and has an interesting podcast called Ruthie's Table 4. She said this is what she most often makes when guests come to her home for dinner.
The special taste of the sauce depends largely on the way the garlic is handled. It must be sliced very thinly, sautéed only until it becomes just faintly colored and then allowed to simmer slowly in the tomato so that it can release all its sweetness. Raw basil at the end contributes a fragrant fillip. Make sure the basil does not undergo any cooking. Marcella Hazan
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| Italian Tomatoes from Gustiamo |
Ruth Roger's Simple Tomato Sauce
Adapted by Ruth Rogers from Marcella’s Italian Kitchen by Marcella Hazan
For ½ to 1 pound of pasta
Marcella suggests spaghetti, spaghettini, fusilli, penne, rigatoni, or ziti.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 medium garlic cloves, peeled and sliced very thinly
400g (14 ounces) tinned Italian peeled plum tomatoes, cut into large pieces, with their juice (It’s always best if you use tomatoes from Italy.)
Salt to taste
Black pepper
10 fresh basil leaves, torn by hand into small pieces
(I don’t use any grated cheese with this sauce, but, of course, you can.)
Put the oil and garlic in a saucepan and turn the heat to medium. When the garlic becomes colored a pale gold, add the tomatoes and turn the heat down to very low. Cook, uncovered, until the oil floats free of the tomatoes - about 20 minutes.
Add salt and grindings of pepper and cook for another two to three minutes, stirring from time to time.
Off the heat, stir in the torn basil leaves. Serve on your choice of pasta.
After trying many recipes and different methods for soft-boiled eggs, this is the one I like best. Calling them soft-boiled is really a misnomer as they are not boiled at all, but steamed.
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| Egg Toppers |
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| Salvatore Ricotta |
The best ricotta I ever had was from Salvatore Brooklyn. I once went to a Williams-Sonoma store in NYC to see a demonstration by Betsy Devine of how she makes it at Salvatore, and that was when I decided I would be able to make my own. You can see the thick texture, which is what I was - and am - aiming for.
The recipe I use is adapted from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's recipe in his seminal work, The Food Lab, but there are other good recipes for you to check out - FOOD52 and Smitten Kitchen, who also likes Salvatore. If you don't have or use a microwave, Jennifer Perillo's recipe on FOOD52 is the way to go. It is the first recipe I tried so I know it works!
I often use 3 cups whole milk and 1 cup heavy cream unless I want to make it extremely rich in which case I use 2 cups whole milk and 2 cups heavy cream.
I put my 4 cups of dairy in a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup. I add 1/2 teaspoon salt, either kosher or Italian fine sea salt, and 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar. Kenji says you can add the same amount of lemon juice; however, since the white vinegar is consistently 5 per cent acid, I find it unfailingly reliable so that is what I use.
I heat the milk and cream mixture in the microwave until the temperature reaches 165°F on an instant-read thermometer. In my microwave, which is small, this takes about 8 minutes.
At this point, I remove the cup from the microwave and stir it gently for about 5 seconds. It is already separating into curds and whey.
I transfer to a fine sieve that I have lined with a white mesh vegetable bag. It can certainly be lined with cheesecloth.
I cover the top with plastic wrap and let it reach the desired consistency. The more it drains, the "dryer" it will be.
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| My Ricotta |
I use a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup for this.
To 3 cups whole milk and 1 cup heavy cream or 2 cups whole milk and 2 cups heavy cream if you want it to be very rich, add 1/2 teaspoon salt, kosher or (for me Italian) sea salt and 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar.
I heat the milk and cream mixture in the microwave until the temperature reaches 165°F on an instant-read thermometer. In my microwave, which is small, this takes about 8 minutes. You can certainly do this on top of the stove.
At this point, stir it gently for about 5 seconds. It should already be separating into curds and whey.
Transfer to a fine sieve lined with a white mesh vegetable bag or cheesecloth.
Cover the top with plastic wrap and let it reach the desired consistency. The more it drains, the "dryer" it will be.
This is something I have basically been making since I was twenty years old, and my grandmother made it long before that. Since it goes with so many side or starter dishes, I often make it for company. We usually eat this once a week.
I have been making Marcella Hazan's iconic Bolognese sauce for years, and it is, I believe, authentic. I have even used it to stuff inside my grandmother's crespelle, turning it into canneloni. But as delicious as it is, it is not very saucy, and sometimes something saucy with an umami depth of flavor is exactly what I'm looking for. And that ragu is what I found in The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater. (If you haven't discovered Nigel Slater yet, I think Appetite would be a good place to start.)
Because I want this to be saucy, I have increased the amount of tomatoes, originally 1 cup to a 400g can of Italian tomatoes, and decreased the amount of meat, from 1 pound to 1/2 pound. I order pancetta from Heritage Foods, and use the recommended 3 ounces for this recipe.
I have been led to believe no self-respecting Italian would even think about serving Bolognese sauce over spaghetti. But English people do, Nigel Slater does, and now sometimes so do I. But this sauce is especially good on rigatoni - or maybe even better mezzi rigatoni - because it snuggles inside the tubes.
And PLEASE find a source for Italian tomatoes and Italian pasta that is cut with bronze die and slow dried, such as Pasta Setaro or Faella. The difference is noticeable.
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| I order these from Gustiamo |
I highly recommend cracking open a bottle of particularly delicious red wine to use here. It contributes that depth of flavor I mentioned above to the sauce and is lovely to drink with this dinner.
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| A half bottle of Amarone |
Really Good Ragu
Adapted from The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater and FOOD52
In Italy pasta is sauced very lightly so this would be enough for 1 pound of pasta there; I use it for 8 ounces. I love pork, but I always use beef in this recipe.
4 tablespoons butter
About 3 ounces pancetta cut in 1/4" cubes
1 small to medium onion, chopped
2 plump cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery, peeled and chopped
4 ounces cremini mushrooms, chopped the same size as the onions, carrot, and celery
1 bay leaf (I use Morton & Bassett)
1/2 pound ground beef - the best you can get
1 400g can of Italian whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
1/4 cup red wine (good enough that you will drink it with dinner)
3/4 cup stock (I use Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base to make it.)
Freshly grated nutmeg - a little
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup heavy cream (Use a light hand.)
Freshly grated Parmesan, to taste
Don't leave out the bay leaf or the nutmeg; they add a lot to the sauce. Remember to be parsimonious with the cream; you don't want the sauce to be creamy.
Melt the butter then cook the pancetta without letting it color to render some of the fat - 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the onion and garlic; then the carrot and the celery; then the mushrooms. Cook over medium heat, stirring often.
Turn up the heat a little and add the meat, breaking it up. Cook for about 3 minutes without stirring so the meat starts to brown. Stir again. Add the tomatoes, red wine, stock, the bay leaf, a grating of nutmeg, and a little salt and pepper.
Turn the heat down till the sauce is gently moving. Partially cover the pan. Let it cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally, checking the liquid to make sure it does not dry out.
Pour in the heavy cream slowly and with a light hand. Stir. Let it cook a little longer - for 15 to 20 minutes, keeping in mind you do not want it to get thick.
Taste for seasoning.
I usually serve this over rigatoni or mezzi rigatoni (but sometimes I use spaghetti) with grated Parmesan but use whatever pasta shape you like.
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated
There is excellent American caviar now available. I have tried Paddlefish and Hackelback and enjoyed both very much. However, at my liquor store Spirited in Lenox, Massachusetts, I am usually able to find lightly salted Spanish grey mullet roe called Mujjol "caviar." It is very well priced and delicious served with sour cream on a salted potato chip accompanied by a shot of very cold vodka or a glass of Champagne. It is worth looking out for and would work well here. Of course, Beluga caviar would work well here, and a little would go a long way.
Caviar & Egg Mold
When I moved to the country and bound myself to a 40-minute drive to the food store, I resolved that I would make all my own ice cream and all my own bread, and since 2015 years I have done just that. There are lots of great books about ice cream, but there are four I prize in my library and recommend to anyone who wants to go on this journey.
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| Ice Cream Chilling in an Ice Bath with Gel Packs Instead of Ice Cubes |
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| David at the Accademia Gallery in Florence |
