IN THE KITCHEN by Ann Harwood: Most chefs have been interested in innovation in their cooking in recent years. However, many of the older recipes and menus can teach great cooking techniques.
Since the mid-1980s, innovation has more often than not been the main interest of chefs, restaurant menus and food publications.
And this is not at all surprising. After all, why print a recipe for meat loaf, for example, when so many people either know how to make it or consider it an out-of-date food idea? If you are going to print one, it had better be with Southwestern seasoning and chipotle sauce or lemon grass!
Sometimes, however, I think we are all too eager to throw out the old simply because we assume new is better.
But I think many of the older recipes and menus teach us great techniques, teach us a lot about how to cook. As I was not allowed to cook, even to dry dishes in my mother’s and grandmother’s kitchen, the preparation of food was an interesting mystery to me. To say that I was a complete novice at the stove when I returned from my honeymoon at the ripe age of 21 is not an understatement.
After my first dozen or so culinary disasters, my mother sent me a copy of "The Settlement Cookbook," which I still have. I read it assiduously. I was determined to master this cooking thing. I would get an A in cooking, by gum.
After managing to create an edible meat loaf and pot roast, I began to relax. And then I really became interested in cooking. My young husband and I moved to California where fresh vegetables and fruits abounded. I got a subscription to Sunset magazine.
And I began reading and collecting cookbooks. My early idols were Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, Pierre Franey, Michael Field and Paula Peck. I poured over the writing about food and eating by James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher and Elizabeth David.
Some of my favorite recipes to this day are from those first years of food research and experimentation: a wonderful raspberry sauce, the best way to roast turkey, a fine cold sauce verte with fresh herbs, a salmon mousse always served as an appetizer by my New York friend Lois Orlin, wonderful poached Bosc pears with chestnuts and caramelized custard sauce, a Grand Marnier sauce for oranges with candied peel.
The recipes are so well conceived and work so well there is no need for innovation. They don’t need improvement. The people who developed them often were extremely well trained and understood the principles and techniques of fine cooking.
The recipes here are inspired by some from the 1960s. If you follow the instructions carefully, draining off cooking fat for example, you will not have as much fat as you think in the meal. The recipes are long, as was the style, but can all be prepared up to finishing a day or so ahead.
MUSHROOM CROUSTADES
(Adapted from Michael Field’s Cooking School)
Earlier in the day:
2 tablespoons very soft butter
24 slices fresh, thin-sliced firm white bread
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat insides of 24 mini-muffin tins with butter. Using 3-inch plain or fluted cookie cutter, cut round from each slice bread. Carefully fit bread into muffin tins. If you have small wooden pestle or small round bottle slightly smaller than bottom of muffin tins, use it to force bread gently in. You want a perfect little cup.
Bake croustades about 10 minutes, until lightly browned on rims and outsides. Remove from cups and cool on wire racks.
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
½ pound mushrooms, finely chopped
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup heavy cream*
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley
1½ tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives
½ teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Butter
Melt 4 tablespoons butter in large nonstick skillet over moderate heat and cook shallots, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes, without letting them brown. Stir in mushrooms, mixing in well. Cook, stirring from time to time, until they release all their moisture and then the liquid cooks away. Remove pan from heat.
Sprinkle flour over mushrooms and stir together thoroughly until not a trace of flour is visible. Immediately pour in cream and, stirring constantly, bring to boil. It will thicken heavily. Turn heat down to barest simmer to cook a minute or two and remove any taste of raw flour.
Remove pan from heat, stir in seasonings, fresh herbs and lemon juice. Taste, transfer to bowl to cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving time.
At serving time:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use small spoon to fill croustades, mounding filling slightly. Sprinkle each one with a tiny bit of cheese and dot with butter. Arrange on cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Bake for 10 minutes in oven, then briefly under broiler to brown, but watch carefully, as they burn easily.
*Now that we all try to cut back on the fat in our cooking, you can try whole or even skimmed milk instead. I think the rounded, sweeter flavor of Lactaid skimmed milk is more successful than regular skimmed milk in "cream" sauces.
CHICKEN MARENGO
(Adapted from Michael Field’s Cooking School)
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 pound boneless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into 2-inch pieces
3½ tablespoons butter
¾ cup finely chopped onions
¼ cup finely chopped shallots
1 medium clove garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
½ cup dry white wine or dry vermouth
1½ cups brown beef stock or broth (NOT consommé or bouillon)
2 2-inch strips lemon zest
1 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
Bouquet garni (4 sprigs parsley, 1 celery top, 1 bay leaf tied together)
¾-1 pound fresh mushrooms, left whole if small, quartered if medium, sliced if large
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh parsley
In large nonstick skillet, heat olive oil until very hot. Sauté chicken pieces, a few at a time, transferring them as they brown to 4- to 5-quart casserole.
When all meat is browned, discard fat. Add 2 tablespoon butter to skillet and add chopped onions and shallots. Cook over low heat, scraping up all browned bits, about 10 minutes until onions are soft and quite brown. Add garlic and continue to cook another minute or so until garlic is cooked but not brown.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 500 degrees. Sprinkle chicken pieces with flour, pepper and thyme and toss meat well in the mixture until all chicken is well coated. Place casserole in upper third of oven for about 10 minutes, turning meat over every few minutes until pieces are slightly crusted and all trace of gummy flour has disappeared. Remove casserole from oven and reduce heat to 325 degrees.
Back to skillet. Pour into onion mixture the wine and broth. Again, scrape in any brown crust in pan. Bring to boil over high heat and let cook a couple of minutes. Pour all into casserole, using rubber scraper to scrape skillet clean.
Mix meat, onions and stock together gently but thoroughly, then stir in chopped tomatoes, lemon pepper and bouquet. Cover and place in center of oven to cook 50 minutes. Check every once in a while and turn meat to be sure it isn’t sticking.
At some point during the 50 minutes, melt remaining 1½ tablespoons butter in large nonstick skillet and add mushrooms. Cook briskly about three minutes, turning almost constantly with large spoon. Add mushrooms to casserole along with any liquid in skillet. Cook casserole until chicken is tender, probably just another 10-15 minutes.
Using tongs, fish out lemon zest and bouquet and discard. Ladle contents of casserole into sieve set over three-quart saucepan. Return meat and mushrooms to clean serving casserole. Tip saucepan and spoon off as much fat as you can. Discard fat. Boil sauce to reduce it by half or until it is lightly thickened and intense in flavor. Taste to be sure. Pour sauce over chicken and mushrooms. There should be just enough to moisten without drowning. Just before serving reheat on stove and sprinkle with parsley.
Serves 8
Note: This can be made the day before up through the second to last paragraph. Chill, covered, until serving time when you will reheat and sprinkle with parsley.
Ann Harwood is a columnist for The Princeton Packet. For more stories from The Princeton Packet, go to www.princetonpacket.com.