David Lebovitz's Blog, page 32

Creme Brulee

When it was on the cusp of popularity in the U.S., I sort of introduced crème brûlée to a restaurant where I was working at the time, and, predictably, they took off. So much so, that most of my nights were spent torching crème brûlée as fast as I could. Finally, I put an end to that (popularity is overrated), and that was that.

There was also a chef in the kitchen who was irked every time I started up the torch to caramelize the custards, saying “That’s not cooking.” I’m not sure how putting fire to the top of something to cook it was different from putting a fire under something, such as a skillet or saucepan on a stovetop, but since I was known for getting into trouble for talking back to people, I didn’t say anything.

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Carnitas

What to do when people call you thirty minutes before you’ve invited them for dinner? It’s something I don’t understand. If you’re anything like me, during those precious few minutes before everyone arrives you’re racing around (probably not entirely dressed…) trying to get everything together so you can at least attempt to give the appearance that you’re relaxed when they arrive. 

There are a couple of rules in Paris about dinner parties. The first is that you never, ever show up on time. Twenty to thirty minutes late is normale, and if you show up earlier you just may catch your host in their unmentionables. (Which may or may not be such a bad thing, depending on who invited you.)

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Salted Butter Caramel Sauce

This is my favorite, go-to salted butter caramel sauce. There are no real tricks or fancy techniques. And while staying in friend’s houses, I realized I didn’t have my usual arsenal of equipment so was limited in what I could make. This post raised the ire of some, who thought it wasn’t polite to bring cooking equipment when staying with others, but if you’ve tried to dice an onion with a paring knife that cuts like a butter knife or make a cake in an oven that has two settings; on, and off, you realize that good equipment does make cooking and baking easier.

I begged off baking anything because I’m in the midst of working on a book and wasn’t up for a scavenger hunt for ingredients and tools, which can happen in the countryside in France, when even food shops are closed, as everyone deserves a break. (Except for writers.)

While I am sort of on vacation this summer, when Romain made my ridiculously easy Chocolate Idiot Cake, and I was able to pull myself away from my writing to make add this sauce, to serve alongside.

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Republic of Booza

I’m always interested in ice cream, no matter where it’s from. But probably the most intriguing one I’ve ever come across was booza, an ice cream thickened, not with eggs or cornstarch, but with sahleb and mastic.

Republic of Booza was opened by Jilbert El-Zmetr and Michael Sadler, along with two business partners, in Brooklyn, New York, bringing this ice cream stateside. Jilbert owned a booza company in Sydney, Australia with his sister, and through one of his business partners, met Michael, an Oxford scholar, who studied Arabic and was traveling through the Middle East when he discovered this style of ice cream.

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One-Bottle Scotch Cocktail

Some people get irked when they want to make a cocktail recipe, and as they gather the ingredients, they find that some things are hard to get, or too expensive, and before you know it (as I do, very well), you’re doing a scavenger hunt across town, sleuthing out some elusive ingredient.

Enter The One-Bottle Cocktail, by Maggie Hoffman. Before I saw the book, from the title, it sounded like a cocktail that you make by the bottle (called batching), so you have a “one-bottle cocktail” on hand. Which sounded like a good great idea, to me.

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Plum Sorbet

When I wrote the first edition of The Perfect Scoop. I only allowed myself to use the word “refreshing “ once, which I’m pretty sure I did. When you write a book, there’s a tendency to include everything that you possibly can, but a number of things can nudge them out, such as having photos, which everyone loves. So although I included Plum-Blackberry Swirl Ice Cream, Plum Granita, Plum Ice Cream, Plum-Raspberry Sorbet, Plum-Rasberry Swirl Ice Cream, and a Plum-Berry Compote (whew!), I didn’t include a Plum Sorbet recipe.

It probably didn’t include it because I would have had to use the word “refreshing” to describe this distinctly tart-tangy Plum Sorbet, which tastes like the best of summer is one remarkably colorful scoop. Since this recipe is on the blog, I’m gonna invoke the “Do whatever you want, it’s your blog” rule and go ahead and say that this is, indeed, very refreshing.

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Plum and Rhubarb Crisp

I’m not sure if I just returned from lunch, or if I was privy to a top-secret breeding ground for a race of super lovely people, that also happen to be amazing cooks.

When I walked into the home of Rachel Allen, who’d invited a few of us traveling through Ireland for lunch, I was stunned by A) The stunning kitchen, b) The stunning view, and C) The wonderful people.

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Eggplant and Yogurt Spread with Saffron

When Anissa Helou told me she was writing a book on the foods of the Islamic world, I was surprised, and a little curious. I didn’t know much about the food, but I am always drawn to the flavors, and ingredients used: Lots of vegetables, olive oil, pulses, grains, olives, spices, handmade cheeses and flatbreads, fresh fish, and grilled meats. In short, the kind of food I could live on, and sometimes, I do.

A few years ago, Anissa invited us to dinner in her loft when she was living in London, and started with a spectacular, but simple, puree of eggplant and labneb with orange saffron juice resting in pools over the top. I was familiar with Eggplant Caviar, Moutabal, and Baba Ganoush, but the idea of mixing eggplant with tangy fresh cheese was a revelation.

She gave me the recipe, which I’d planned to make since that evening, but it got buried in the bulging folder of recipes called “Recipes to Make” that’s part of a larger stack of folders in my kitchen, and office, that keeps growing and growing and growing.

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The Quarter and Eighth Sheet Pan

Of all the favorite finds I’ve come across in the last few years, one (or two) of my favorites have been these mini sheet pans. Most professional bakers use what are called full sheet pans, or half sheet pans. They’re inexpensive, so there’s always a good-sized stack of them in any restaurant or bakery, and they can pretty much stand up to anything, although in restaurant kitchens, they’re prone to abuse, like when I was a line cook and threw a stress-induced tantrum and whacked one on the edge of a counter, buckling it in half.

I manage to straighten it out fairly well, and put it back. And that pan kept going, and going, and going. (In fact, it’s been nearly twenty years and I wonder if it’s still in rotation in that kitchen?) But every time it made its way to the top of the stack in the kitchen, I slyly moved it back to the bottom.

There are all sorts of sheet sheets out there, but the kind I like, and the ones that restaurant cooks and bakers use, are rimmed, aluminum baking sheets, which are sometimes called jelly roll pans, since the high, rolled-edge rims let you bake a sponge cake in them. (They also keep the pan in check by preventing warping.) Not sure how many are used for making jelly rolls these days, but I use mine for everything from making a one-pan chicken dinner, to toasting nuts.

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Green Salad with Peas, Green Beans, and Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

I love a big salad, especially in the summer. Actually, a big bowl of greens, one that includes lots of crunchy things, is one of my favorite things at any time of the year. My default dressing is a French vinaigrette, which is sometimes slightly creamy, courtesy of a large dollop of Dijon mustard, but it’s fun to swap out another dressing from time-to-time for decidedly different results.

Buttermilk dressing isn’t something one finds on menus in France, although buttermilk (lait ribot and lait fermenté) are available in most supermarkets and in épiceries that sell Middle Eastern foods. It’s popular in Brittany where it’s served in bowls alongside crêpes and buckwheat galettes, similar to café au lait, which is also served in a bowl. The coffee is meant to be sipped from the rim of the bowl (unless I’m doing it wrong…) although I’m never sure when I’m at a crêperie, if I’m supposed to lift the bowl of buttermilk up and drink it right from the bowl, or use the spoon provided?

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