Poires Belle Hélène

Adapted from How to Eat by Nigella Lawson

You probably already know how I feel about Nigella Lawson. She is my number one living- person-I-don’t-know that I’d like to have lunch (and dinner) with. How to Eat is a book that will nourish you all by itself. It is a tome as voluptuous as Nigella herself. I keep daydreaming about taking a flat in London for two weeks, armed only with this book, trolling around town buying things like double cream and self-rising flour and caster sugar and Cumberland sausages and coming home to cook, of course with the occasional foray to the River Café and Sally Clarke’s in between.

This is a good recipe and a fabulous way to eat pears, especially considering the truth of what Nigella says about them. "When they’re good, they’re wonderful, but I am beginning to think Ralph Waldo Emerson was being optimistic when he wrote, 'There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.' ” So give this one a go. You’ll like it.

For the Pears

4 – 6 firm pears, Bartlett work well here
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup superfine sugar or vanilla sugar*
1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract if not using vanilla sugar

Peel, halve, and core the pears and sprinkle them with the lemon juice to stop them from discoloring. Put 1¼ cups water, the sugar, and the vanilla bean, if using, in a wide shallow pan that can hold the pears in one layer. Bring the water the boil, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves, then lower the heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the vanilla extract now if you are not using the vanilla bean or vanilla sugar. Put the pears into the liquid, cut side down, and raise the heat so the liquid boils up and covers the pears. Spoon the syrupy liquid over the pears if necessary. After about 30 seconds, lower the heat, cover the pan, and simmer for 10 minutes; turn the pears, cover the pan again, and simmer for another 10 minutes. Continue simmering the pears until they are cooked and translucent; they should feel tender but not mushy when pierced with a cake tester. The amount of time it takes to cook them depends upon the pears. Remove the pan from the heat, keep covered, and cool.

For the Chocolate Sauce

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
½ cup strong black coffee or 1 teaspoon instant coffee dissolved in ½ cup boiling water
½ cup superfine sugar
½ cup heavy cream

Break the chocolate into small pieces and put into the top of a double boiler with the coffee and sugar, and melt over low heat, stirring occasionally. Add the cream, and keep stirring until the sauce is very hot.

Serve the pears with best-quality vanilla ice cream (your own or Haagen-Dazs) and the chocolate sauce.

*Vanilla Sugar

This is easy to do and worth the little effort it requires as you end up with gloriously scented sugar to use in desserts.

Chop a couple of high-quality, moist vanilla beans into 2-inch pieces, and put into a screw-top jar. Fill the jar with a cup of superfine sugar. Let it sit at least a week. As you use it up, pour fresh superfine sugar over the pieces of vanilla beans. Stop using the same beans once they no longer give out their sweet scent.

Siamese Chicken Curry

Adapted from The Frog Commissary Cookbook by Steven Poses, Anne Clark, and Becky Roller

When I was living in Alexandria, Virginia, I was given a copy of the new Frog Commissary Cookbook and a packet of Thai green curry paste by someone who regularly went to Philadelphia on business and ate at The Commissary. I have been making this dish ever since. It is not an authentic Thai dish. The chef/owner at Frog stirred some curry paste that was in the kitchen being used by line cooks from Thailand to make staff meals into a classic French Béchamel, and this dish was created.

The book is out of print, which is unfortunate because it is interesting to read and has good recipes that are easy to execute if you follow the directions carefully. It is usually available used.

Béchamel Sauce:

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
Dash of white pepper
1 cup half and half or milk

Curry:

1½ cup broccoli flowerets
1 pound of carrots cut into matchsticks
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ oz Thai green curry paste
12 oz boneless chicken breasts (or thighs, if you prefer), cut into bite-size pieces
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons soy sauce
¼ cup peanuts, dry roasted or honey roasted

Hot cooked white rice (I now use basmati.)

Make a Béchamel with 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour, ¼ teaspoon salt, dash of white pepper, 1 cup half and half.

Blanch the broccoli and carrots in plenty of boiling water for 1 minute. Drain, and set aside. 

Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet or saucier. Stir in the curry paste, and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken, salt, and sugar. Stir-fry until the sugar begins to caramelize. 

Add the garlic, and cook until it's fragrant, but don't let it burn. Add the soy sauce, and continue to stir-fry until the liquid has almost all evaporated, and the chicken is cooked through.

Blend in the Béchamel. When the sauce is smooth, add the broccoli and carrots, and heat through.

Sprinkle peanuts over the top and serve with hot cooked rice.

Beef Stew

Adapted from Beat This! by Ann Hodgman

Serves 4


This is not elegant food, but it is, after all, beef stew, and a good dinner to have during the winter when you want to eat at home and don’t have time to make a big production out of cooking. 

Ann Hodgman says that adding chopped mushrooms to the recipe would probably be a good idea, and I think so too even though I have never tried it. I also think it would be good to sauté thick slices of mushrooms, sprinkle them with chopped fresh parsley, and serve them on top of the stew, but that might be more trouble than you want to go to if you're making this for dinner to begin with.

Beef Stew

Adapted from Beat This! by Ann Hodgman

2 pounds beef chuck meat in cubes
6 carrots cut into thick slices
2 large onions, chopped coarsely
1 large baking potato, cut into stew-size dice (I use Russet, but Yukon Gold should work)
1 bay leaf (I use Morton & Basset)
1 teaspoon dried marjoram, crushing the leaves between your fingers as you add them to the bowl
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 10-ounce can Campbell’s Tomato Soup (It does not have high fructose corn syrup.)
½ can red wine

Preheat the oven to 275°F. Combine the beef, carrots, onions, potato, and bay leaf in a large bowl. Sprinkle the seasonings in, and mix well.

In a small bowl, combine the soup with the red wine and pour over the stew ingredients. Mix well.

Put everything into a lidded casserole or pot that can go into a 275-degree oven. Cover the casserole or pot first with a tight layer of foil and then with the lid.

Bake the stew for 5 hours. After the first 2 hours, check it every half hour or so to make sure there’s enough liquid left in the pot. There probably will be. Remove the bay leaf before serving.  Leftovers reheat well, but you may have to add a little liquid.