The cookbooks are overflowing the shelves, but everytime I tried to whittle them down, the “throw” pile is very short (”Lo-Carb Cuisine” and “English Suet Puddings” were easy picks).  There are some that I would never part with; here are two of them.

Growing up, my cooking guru was James Beard – mostly because his were the cookbooks on my mom’s shelf, so it’s kind of a second-hand influence. My own shelf now boasts copies of James Beard’s American Cookery, James Beard’s Menus for Entertaining (where his advice that entertaining should never be “chi-chi” has served me well), and Beard on Bread.

The latter is probably still the best introductory bread-baking cookbook available in print. If you read it through like a novel (the best way to read cookbooks) and then prepare all the recipes from start to finish, you’ll learn a lot and probably end up a very good baker.

Some of my students don’t or won’t bake because they don’t like to measure things. I don’t know what this means – is their creative spirit being crushed by the oppressive demands of measuring cups and baking times? Or are they too pressed for time to do anything that precisely?  Personally, I think it’s a lot of bunk; you’ll never be a serious cook until you’ve tackled some of the basics of baking.  And if you shun the art because you can’t afford the calories, then learn it for the bread and other savories, like pizza or quiche or cornbread that are table staples.  And pass the other goodies on to friends and co-workers.

Enough ranting. The cost of the book is worth the price just for the Cream Biscuits recipe. I’ve seen this appear in more recent cookbooks, but Beard is not credited, and I’m sure they’ve been around a lot longer than Beard as well. This recipe allows the baker to skip the “cut the shortening in” step that mystifies newbies. They are so easy that we use them in our kids classes, and do a scone variation that’s a favorite.

When my parents moved from their home of forty-odd years to a smaller place, my mother gave me her copy of Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book. This is a first-edition, folks; it came out in 1950. It’s hard-bound with a cloth cover, a bit faded, but still in great shape. It has those nice, heavy, glossy pages and lurid colored photographs that were cutting edge fifty years ago but are just scary now. There are little drawings sprinkled throughout the text that rival ones in the New Yorker for whimsy (my favorite: three little peanuts, wearing hats and grins, dancing atop the recipe for Peanut Brittle Tapioca.)

Oh, yes, the recipes! Lumberjack Macaroni. Ring of Plenty with Creamed Tuna and Peas in the center. Tongue a la jardinière from a page devoted to the preparation of variety meats (brains, chicken-fried heart, etc.). What struck me when reading this cookbok is that, while our tastes have changed radically in regards to appetizers, entrees, and the like, the recipes for cakes and cookies have remained pretty much the same. Some of the cookies I bake every Christmas can be found in these pages.

But I treasure this copy because of the handwritten recipes inside the front cover, sedately written out in beautiful Palmer script by my mother. There’s her name and the date (“3/54”) in the upper corner, followed by a recipe for Orange Blossom Punch (noted “Best one!”). It calls for a sugar syrup, orange, grapefruit, and lime juices, and a bottle of maraschino cherries and the juice they’re bottled in. Just before serving this tasty brew, you glug in some ginger ale and fling an ice ring into the bowl. The recipe yields 25 servings, but the proportions are paltry. It’s a pretty ho-hum punch, but here’s the kicker (scrawled in not-so-sedately at the bottom of the recipe in big, block letters): TO SPIKE — ADD 1/5 BLENDED WHISKEY. Ha! This is a perfect illustration of my mother: underneath that proper exterior, Party Girl lurks. Just like a lot of homemakers in the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook era, I’m guessing.  Honey, put down that egg-beater and have a little punch!

Last year, I was asked to teach a kosher cooking series called The Cooking Enthusiasts at Temple Beth Shalom in Framingham. A shout-out to good friend/great cook/rabid foodie Lori B., who cooked up the idea – she applied for and got us a very generous grant from the Metrowest Jewish Community Fund. (MJCF is supported by a grant from the combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston. The grant program is managed by Jewish Family Service of Metrowest in partnership with a team of Metrowest community volunteer leaders.) And then she proceeded to make the series happen, from soup to nuts. I basically just showed up on time and did the teaching thing.

The global theme continues this year; the students in the pic prepared felafal during the Israeli Street Food Class. Coming up is a Mexican kosher class on Wednesday, May 9. Having covered Northern African cooking last year, we’ll go Pan-African this year on Wednesday, May 30, with recipes like Ethiopian injera and West African jollof rice on the menu.

These hands-on classes run from 6:00-9:00; cost is $36 per person. Classes take place at Temple Beth Sholom, 50 Pamela Road, Framingham. Financial aid is available. To register or for more information, call me at 508-904-6589 or email loribornstein@rcn.com.

The Summer 2007 Class Schedule is up. Just click on Class Descriptions to go to information on dates and times. To register for classes, send an email to info@culinaryunderground.com or call 508-904-6589.

There are lots of grilling classes and, of course, the Kid’s and Teen Camps this summer. Here’s hoping you’ll join us for classes this year.

Birthday Cake Workshop, Sunday, April 22, 10-3

There are still spaces available in the Birthday Cake Workshop. In this class students learn to bake a from-scratch layer cake (the best kind!) and simple frostings that are easy to work with. Students will learn professional techniques for frosting layers, as well as instruction in how to use a pastry bag. Then we add some delicious fillings and easy, natural decorations for a memorable celebration cake. To give you an idea of what I mean by “natural” decorations, I baked a butter cake (choosing square layers for fun), used a fresh strawberry filling between the layers, and topped it with a simple, almond-flavored buttercream. Then, I tinted some frosting with green coloring paste and decorated with vines and leaves around more fresh berries. The tartness of the fresh berries offset the sweetness of the cake and frosting. The result: a pretty cake without a lot of work or decorating expertise.

Indian Cooking, Thursday, April 26, 6-9:30 PM

There are still some spots left in the Essential of Indian Cooking class so register soon. I love Indian food; it’s one of the triumvirate of great world cuisines; the other two are classic French and Chinese being the other two (of course, that’s just my opinion). This class introduces students to the techniques and flavors of Indian cooking – we could hold two classes a week for a year on Indian cuisine and only begin to scratch the surface of its diversity and complexity.

Since it’s so cold and rainy tonight, I made Saag Paneer – spinach with paneer, which are fresh cheese cubes. Paneer can be purchased, but it’s easy to make. I baked some ricotta cheese in a square pan, then cut it into squares and lightly sautéed them before folding them into cooked, spiced spinach thickened with tomatoes and yogurt. I know some of you are screwing up your noses, but for true Indian foodies and spinach-lovers, it’s a great vegetarian meal.

Summer 2007 Class Schedule

The Summer 2007 Class Schedule will be complete and up on the website on Friday of this week. Summer classes will begin the week of May 22 and will continue through mid-August. There will be plenty of grilling classes on the menu – if the sun every reappears.

Kid’s Camp and Teen Camp Dates

I have set dates for the Kids and Teen Cooking Camps for 2007. There are two sessions for children ages 8-12 this year. Kid’s Camp/Session One will be held June 26-28; Kid’s Camp/Session Two will be July 24-26. The Teen Cooking Camp will be held August 7-11 this year. The last day will be an “Iron Chef” challenge – last year’s challenge was so much fun, we just had to repeat it.

For years, I prepared Chinese food for Easter – usually dumplings and Szechwan duck, with a strawberry frangipane tart or other fruity dessert. It just seemed appropriate for spring, somehow, and didn’t leave me with weeks of leftover ham. (Dorothy Parker’s famous definition of eternity – two people and a ham – is spot on.) But in recent years, I’ve been whipping up a family favorite: chicken potpie.

Now, New Englanders will think I’m referring to chicken pie – chicken and veggies in gravy, topped with a biscuit or pie pastry. They will be wrong. For Pennsylvania Dutchie like me, chicken potpie is homemade noodles poached in chicken stock, with pieces of potato and chicken rounding things out. This is my mother’s signature dish, and she always served it with corn and sweet pickles on the side. (It was in college that I discovered that most people didn’t serve noodle, corn, and potatoes at one meal.) There was usually a salad with hot bacon dressing as well. My mother would have to make tons of noodles; we’d devour them and then collapse into a semi-conscious state known as the “potpie coma”. Good times, good times.
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During my years as a personal chef, I cooked a lot of kosher meals for clients, including the annual Seders. Passover cooking is a challenge to any cook, especially when it comes to desserts. No leavening means no flour or baking powder, so cakes, cookies, and the like rely on matzo meal or matzo cake flourm and are leavened by separating eggs and folding the beaten whites into the batter. Many bowls to wash! Most people I know just pick up desserts from a kosher bakery or the grocery store, like those seductive little coconut macaroons that come in the round cans – coconut, chocolate, almond, chocolate chip. Good to have around, but there always seem to be a lot of them languishing in the can as Passover week wears on. One year, a client asked me to do something with them (hiding or trashing them was implied). I threw them in the food processor, pulsed them until fine, then mixed in a little melted margarine, pressed the mixture into a pie plate as for a crumb crust, and baked it briefly. Cooled and filled with a non-dairy frozen ice cream, it was a big hit with her matzo-weary kids. I also prepared a dairy version with a no-bake yogurt-cream cheese filling, topped with fresh fruit. The chocolate version of the crust is especially good; I think it’s sweet enough as is, but feel free to add some sugar.

Passover Coconut Macaroon Tart Shell
(1 – 9” pie shell)

1 10-oz box coconut macaroons, any flavor
2-4 Tablespoons sugar (optional)
2 Tablespoons melted butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Toss macaroons into the bowl of the food processor; pulse until fine, about 30 seconds. Drizzle in melted butter and pulse 5 or 6 times, or until mixture clumps together. Transfer mixture to a pie plate. Use fingers to pat dough into an even layer, pressing up the sides of the dish to the edge. Bake for 10-15 minutes to set. Remove and cool completely before filling.

The Very Basic Cooking Series begins again this week. This series is the core of Culinary Underground classes, a place for students who have had no experience or limited experience in the kitchen to begin their culinary journey. (Some students only plan to journey as far as the next family holiday, others plan to use it as a stepping-stone to a professional career; either way, you’ve got to start somewhere.) For beginning cooks, nothing is more frustrating than having a recipe fail and not knowing what went wrong. Or the recipe results were fine — the food just lacked flavor. This series focuses on techniques and some of basic science involved in cooking. Information helps when you’re playing detective with a recipe that’s gone south, or if you’re trying to improve a recipe.

Here’s a simple example of what I mean. During the soups and sauces component, students learn to make homemade stocks. I love a good vegetable stock because it’s easy to make and doesn’t require the long simmering vital to meat stocks. However, it can be anemic if all you do is throw some veggies and water in a pot and boil away. How do you build flavor in a vegetable stock? The best way is to caramelize the vegetables. (more…)