Posts Tagged ‘cookbooks’
Look Out! These recipes are for White Food.
Lafcadio Hearn House in New Orleans.
Made of potato, coconut, cream, egg whites, milk, sugar and almonds, these concoctions suggest the type of bland, colorless food that the No White Food blog plans to avoid.
But these delicacies are something special — collected and transcribed by the writer-adventurer Lafcadio Hearn who lived in New Orleans from about 1877 to 1890 and wrote for several newspapers.
The recipes are transcribed just as he wrote them, with unusual spelling and style. You won’t find precise measurements or involved processes here.
My particular favorite is the recipe for Syllabub, a beverage used as a restorative after illness or fatigue. Apparently Hearn’s landlady would cosset him with a nourishing syllabub when he was under the weather.
Historic plaque for Lafcadio Hearn house in New Orleans.
Potato Puffs
Very nice potato puffs may be made by mashing seven or eight potatoes smoothly, and mixing in with them two well beaten eggs, two tablesspoonfuls of melted butter, also well-beaten, and a cup of milk. Pour it into a pan and bake in a hot stove.
Potato Croquets
Take 6 boiled potatoes – cold mashed potatoes will do – add three tbsp of grated ham, a little pepper, salt and chopped parsley, also, the yolks of three eggs; form into balls, dip in egg and roll in bread crubs; fry in hot lard; garnish with parsley.
Custard Coconut Pudding
Grate one cocoanut…take a quart of milk, four eggs, and a cup of sugar. Beat sugar and eggs light, then stir in the milk, and last the cocoanut and such flavoring as you may prefer. Pour this into a deep pan lined with paste; put fancy strips of paste across it and bake lightly. (Note, “paste” in this context is pie pastry.)
Blanched Almonds
Pour boiling water on them and let remain in it a few minutes. Remove the skins, throw the almonds into cold water, drain them from the water, but do not wipe them. Let dry and store or use in other recipes.
Coconut Candy
Four cups of water, 2 -1/2 c. fine white sugar, four spoonfuls of vinegar, and a piece of butter as large as an egg; boil till thick, or about 3/4 hour. Just before removing stir in one cup of desiccated coconut, and lay in small, flat cakes on buttered plates, to cool and harden.
Inventing New Orleans, by Lafcadio Hearn. Book Cover.
Syllabub
Take the juice of a large lemon, and the yellow rind pared thin; one glass of brandy, two glasses of white wine, and a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar. Put these ingredients into a pan and let them remain one night; the next day add a pint of thick cream, and the whites of two eggs beaten together; beat them all together to a fine froth, and serve in jelly glasses.
Source: La Cuisine Creole, Lafcadio Hearn’s Creole Cook Book. Pelican Pulishing Co, Gretna, Louisiana. 1990
Abundance of fresh tomatoes.
When I miss Italy — and anyone who’s lived there or eaten at the family table during a visit — will miss Italy, then this is the kind of food I create. Simple, fast and marvelously flavored. Don’t compromise on the ingredients. That means : no industrial tomatoes that lack flavor, fresh mozzarella that comes in its liquid, not a plastic shroud, and fresh fish.
Excerpts from Cucina Rustica, by Viana La Place & Evan Kleiman , Wm Morrow & Co.,1990.
Bruschetta al Pomodoro e Rucola
Grilled Country Bread with Tomatoes and Arugula, Serves 4 to 6
All over Italy, grilled country bread topped with a mixture of chopped tomatoes and arugula is the most commonly served type of bruschetta. However, we strongly associate this antipasto with Rome during summer, when Bruschetta al Pomodoro e Rucola can make a meal, served with a firm, fresh piece of mozzarella di bufala.
3 large red, ripe tomatoes, blossom ends removed, diced
2 small bunches arugula, stems removed, coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 thick slices good-quality country bread
2 garlic cloves, peeled
Extra-virgin olive oil
In a small bowl gently mix together the tomatoes and arugula. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. Grill or lightly toast bread. Rub with garlic cloves. Spoon tomato-arugula mixture over each slice of bread. Generously drizzle olive oil over the Bruschetta.
Pasta con Tonno alla Siciliana
Pasta with Fresh Tuna and Mint, Serves 4 to 6
A variation on a Sicilian dish in which a chunk of fresh tuna is stuffed with mint and garlic and braised in tomato sauce. In our recipe the tuna is diced and quickly sautéed, then added to the sauce to finish cooking. Paper-thin slices of garlic and chopped fresh mint are added at the last moment and cooked very briefly so that their flavors stay strong and bright.
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 large onion, peeled and cut into medium dice
2-1/2 pounds tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped
1 pound fresh tuna, cut into 1/2-inch-thick-steaks
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 pound imported conchiglie rigate
Place 4 tablespoons of the olive oil and the onion in a large sauté pan. Cook over low heat until the onion is tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add the tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat, partly covered, until juices thicken and a sauce forms, about 15 minutes.
Cut the tuna into 1/2-inch dice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Place the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a separate medium-sized skillet. Turn up heat to medium, add tuna, and toss until tuna is cooked on the surface but still pink at the center.
When the sauce has thickened, add the tuna, mint, and garlic, and cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, or until tuna is just cooked.
Cook the conchiglie rigate in abundant salted boiling water until al dente. Drain the pasta well. Place in a serving bowl. Add the sauce and toss gently. Serve immediately.
Selected Reading List::Literary Non-Fiction, Biographical and Autobiographical Writing with a Culinary Focus
Aresty, Esther B. The Delectable Past. Simon and Schuster. 1964.
Beard, James. Beard on Food. Alfred A. Knopf, 1974.
Behr, Edward. The Artful Eater. Atlantic Monthly Press, 1992.
Bemelmens, Ludwig. La Bonne Table. Simon and Schuster, 1964.
Brillat-Savarin, Anthelme. The Physiology of Taste or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy. Translated by M. F. K. Fisher. Arion Press, 1994. (original translation copyright 1949, The George Macy Cos. Inc.)
Clark, Robert. James Beard, A Biography. HarperCollins, 1993.
Colwin, Laurie, More Home Cooking, A Writer Returns to the Kitchen, HarperCollins, 1993
Conrad, Barnaby, Absinthe: History in a Bottle, Chronicle Books, 1988.
Critchley, Laurie and Helen Windrath, editors. Feast! Women Write About Food. Distributed by Trafalgar Square, N. Pomfret, VT. The Women’s Press, UK 1996.
Cronin, Isaac. The Mindful Cook. Finding awareness, simplicity, and freedom in the kitchen. Villard, 1999.
David, Elizabeth. An Omelette and A Glass of Wine, Lyons & Burford, 1997
David, Elizabeth. South Wind Through the Kitchen. The Best of Elizabeth David. North Point Press, 1999.
Davidson, Alan. A Kipper With My Tea, North Point Press, 1990
de Pomaine, Edouard. Cooking in Ten Minutes
Dorenberg, Andrew and Karen Page. Dining Out. John Wiley & Sons Inc. 1998
Dumas, Alexandre. Dumas on Food. Selections from Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine. Translated by Alan and Jane Davidson, Oxford Univ. Press, 1987.
Fisher, M.F.K. Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me, Journals and Stories, 1933-1941.
Pantheon Books, 1993
Fisher, M.F.K. The Art of Eating 50th Anniversary Edition, Wiley Publishing, 2004.
Fletcher, Angus, Colors of the Mind.
Gray, Patience. Honey from a Weed, North Point Press, 1986.
Harrison, Jim. The Raw and the Cooked. Grove Press, 2001
Jenkins, Steven. Cheese Primer. Workman Publishing Co., 1996.
Kummer, Corby. The Joy of Coffee: The Essential Guide to Buying, Brewing and Enjoying. Chapters Publishing, 1999.
Leibling, A. J. Between Meals. North Point Press, San Francisco, 1986
MacDonald, Betty. The Egg and I. Penguin Books, 1956.
Murray, Catherine Tripalin, editor. A Taste of Memories from Columbus Park.
Reardon, Joan. M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child and Alice Waters: Celebrating the Pleasures of the Table. Harmony Books, 1994.
Romer, Elizabeth, The Tuscan Year.
Root, Waverly, The Food of France, Vintage Books, 1992.
Schwabe, Calvin, Unmentionable Cuisine
Simeti, Mary Taylor. Pomp and Sustenance- 25 Centuries of Sicilian Food, Henry Holt, 1991.
Tannahill, Reay. Food in History. Three Rivers Press, 1973.
Thorne, John with Matt Lewis Thorne. Serious Pig – An American Cook in Search of His Roots. North Point Press-FSG, NY 1996.
Thorne, John with Matt Lewis Thorne. Pot on the Fire – Further Explits of a Renegade Cook, North Point Press, 2000. Box 778, Northampton, MA 01061.
Thorne, John. Outlaw Cook, 1992
Thorne, John. Simple Cooking, 1987. He also publishes a newsletter called Simple Cooking.
Todhunter, Andrew. A Meal Observed. Alfred Knopf, 2004.
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri and Maurice Joyant. Translated by Margery Weiner. Henry Holt and Co. 1996
Welsch, Roger. Cather’s Kitchen.
West, Michael Lee, Consuming Passions-A Food Obsessed Life, HarperCollins, 1999
Wolfert, Paula. Cooking of Southwest France.
From garden to table.
No White Food 