Top Women In Food

Did you see Slashfood’s Hottest Women in Food list last month? It’s a fine list, but kind of obvious with the stunning (and new mommy) Padma Lakshmi at the top of the list. (Could this be Daddy?)

I don’t disagree with any of their choices and I’m thrilled they included Paula Deen (although at number 10), Jaden Hair, consummate blogger behind Steamy Kitchen, and Sunny Anderson, who I think is a genuine sweetheart and darn good cook.

I’m not so worried about whether they’re hot or not, or even whether they’re currently active in the cooking world (or any other), but here’s MY list of The Top NINE Women in Food. (I was rooting around for hours trying to think of number ten and I just couldn’t think of someone that matched these nine.)

BTW, Slashfood does say that Julia Child is so far above anyone else that she’s on her own list. I make no such bones and put her at number one.

For some reason (;-) MY list skews a bit older than Slashfood’s. And really, my list is as much about COOKBOOKS, as it about cooks. But that’s how I know these ladies, through their recipes as much as through their biographies or personalities.

My Top Nine Women in Food

1. Julia Child – She excelled on the written page and on television. I also loved her “performances” with other chefs. Her riffs with Jacques Pepin were beyond charming AND educational and I loved how Emeril always bowed and scraped when she was in the kitchen.

2. Irma Rombauer Beck – I often consult The Joy Of Cooking for its version of a given recipe. It’s sheer size and comprehensiveness makes it unusual NOT to find what I’m looking for. Also I have 4 editions of it, so I’m bound to find anything I’m looking for.

3. Madhur Jaffrey – The original Padma Lakshmi. But instead of being simply a television host, she is a bona fide MOVIE STAR, as well as a restaurateur and cookbook author. Her Indian and vegetarian cookbooks are classics. It was from her that I first learned to roast cumin, which is reason enough for her to be on this list.

4. Maida Heatter – She was one of my earliest favorite cookbook authors and wrote so glowingly of brownies, cookies and pies that I would RUN into the kitchen to try her recipes. And it’s not just her chocolate desserts that are outstanding, her Santa Fe Lemon Pie is prize worthy.

5. Sheila Lukins – I don’t need to say anything other than The Silver Palates Cookbooks to tell you why she has to be on my list.

6. Lidia Bastianich – Lidia goes into the kitchen and shows us how to cook HER food with a minimum of fuss and frippery. Along the way, she’s opened numerous restaurants, appeared countless times on television and written some glorious books.

7. Rose Levy Beranbaum – Is it an exaggeration to call her the Einstein of baking? Even if it is, the The Cake Bible is my reference for all things baked.

8. Ina Garten – She makes everything look so easy and reminds us to use “good” ingredients. Plus her recipes seldom fail AND I love her shiny hair.

9. Rozanne Gold – Her 1996 book, Recipes 1-2-3, was the original 30 Minutes Meals. She's the author of many cookbooks, and I’ve been making several of her recipes for DECADES. They’re delicious, reliable and FAST.

Honorable Mentions – Penelope Casas and Deborah Madison.

Thoughts?

MY Curried Butternut Soup Versus Ina’s Curried Butternut Soup

I wish I were here…

But HERE I am instead. (Press PLAY)

It's definitely soup weather.

I decided to make one of my favorite soup recipes – Curried Butternut Soup. Ina made her version a few weeks ago. I find it so interesting that the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe and mine use exactly the same ingredients (although in different quantities), but our two methods couldn’t be any more different.

The difference starts at the beginning. Ina uses ½ teaspoon of curry powder and I use TWO TABLESPOONS worth. Ina uses 4 cups of stock, (her recipe actually says 2 to 4 cups. 2 is not nearly enough) I use SIX cups. As a result of that, mine is a normal soup texture, Ina’s is super thick (way TOO thick, I think).

Ina roasts her peeled and cubed butternut, in the oven with the onions and apples. I halve my butternut and cook it in water in the oven. Thus, I avoid peeling the pesky butternut and cutting up the super-hard squash.

Ina puts the roasted vegetables through a food mill or in the food processor, stirs in the stock and calls it a day. I cook the onions and apples with the stock for half an hour (cooking the curry powder separately first), THEN blend it with the cooked butternut. 

But I love Ina’s idea of ROASTING the butternut. It’s brilliant, if you don’t mind the extra prep work of peeling and cutting.  

So I made my soup, except that this time I roasted the vegetables. The funny thing is that it wasn’t the butternut or onions that tasted much different. It was the apples! ROASTING them really intensified their tart flavor. They were what I could really taste in the soup. 

I’m not sure if I’d do that again, though. Peeling the butternut is such a pain and this is such an extraordinarily good soup WITHOUT roasting it that I might keep it simple. 

That’s part of the fun of cooking – playing around with ingredients, using them or cooking them in a slightly different way. Now that I think about it, that’s one of the draws of Chopped. It’s fascinating to see what 3 different chefs will do with the same ingredients.

So here’s my recipe, including the directions for baking the butternut. Feel free to try out different cooking methods and let me know what works for you.

Curried Butternut Soup

Click here for printable recipe.

3 lbs. butternut squash

1½ tbls. olive oil

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced

3 onions, sliced

2 tbls. curry powder

6 cups stock

1 bay leaf

Freshly ground black pepper

To finish, if desired, 1½ cups nonfat plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Slice squash in half lengthwise. Place in shallow baking dish. Add water just to cover bottom of dish. Bake for one hour until squash is tender. Remove and discard seeds and scoop out flesh. You should have about 4 cups.

Heat olive oil in large heavy bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven. Add apples and onions over medium heat. Stir until pan is sizzling, then cover and turn down heat to low. Cook until onions are completely soft, at least 15 minutes. 

Stir in curry powder and cook over low heat for 3 minutes. Add stock, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Simmer, covered for 30 minutes. Purée with butternut squash in blender or food processor. (The blender does a better job at getting the mixture smooth.) Return to saucepan. Heat and serve. 

Pass the yogurt separately or garnish each serving with a big spoonful.

‘Mexican Made Easy’ - COLD Butter In A Crumb Crust(!) Storing Breadcrumbs (Urgent Information) And Cutting Onions

Mexican Made Easy with Marcela Valladolid

Cuddle Cuisine

Butternut Squash Soup with Chipotle Cream

Chile Crusted Rack of Lamb

Sweet Strawberry Tartlets

Marcela Valladolid seems to have a sound culinary background, but, I’m being honest here, she seems so darned young and so lacking in authority that I have to wonder why the FN chose HER to give a show to. Oh wait, is that WHY? Because she IS so darned young?

I never thought I’d say this, but I actually felt kind of sorry for Ingrid Hoffmann after watching an episode of Marcela's new show Mexican Made Easy.

Does this mean that the Food Network thought that Ingrid was just too old to do the Latin thing on their network? I’d like to think that Ingrid’s show didn’t survive (I’m not even sure if it was officially cancelled), because viewers thought it was just too much of a mish-mash of culinary traditions, and that simply adding lime juice to something doesn’t makes it Hispanic. But Ingrid WAS very accomplished as a television host. Let’s see how Marcela does...

The first sentence from Marcela - “You have to make sure the butter is RALLY RALLY cold.” Actually, she only said Rally once, but it sounded like a cross between a Valley Girl’s singsong cadence and…well, actually, THAT IS what it sounded like – a version of Valspeak. Her Spanish, incidentally, is absolutely beautiful.

Okay, let’s get to the cooking. I missed the first show, but in the second show she starts with strawberry tarts, and Marcela, thankfully, makes her own pastry – hence the “rally” cold butter. Oh wait, she’s using it for a CRUMB crust. Why wouldn’t she just have melted the butter? That is RALLY different.

Have you ever NOT used melted butter in a crumb crust? Hers actually didn’t look any different than a usual one. Hmm, I looked at over a dozen crumb crust recipes from books and online and NOT ONE used cold butter. Every single one, whether it used graham crackers, ginger snaps, vanilla OR chocolate wafers, all used melted butter. What could possibly be the reason for using cold butter in a crumb crust?

That’s not the only query in my mind as I watch her. Marcela reminds me of someone, some young actress that if I could only think of who she is, you would instantly get what she’s like.

I remember now. Oh! This isn’t good. Remember on Entourage, the stalker-type, kind of obnoxious, too-thin girl that E was involved with? The character’s name is Ashley. I haven’t seen most of this season, so I don’t know if he finally dumped her, but I guess she must have been a very good actress, because I couldn’t stand her!

Anyway, THAT’S who poor, sweet Marcela reminds me of and I find it hard to watch her now. THIS is who I’m talking about. That really is unfair of me. I have to shake that off right now!

Oh boy, I made the mistake of looking at Marcela’s blog and NOW I think just the opposite. She seems absolutely darling, even if she does have on too much eye make-up. She’s making me go all over the place. I think I’ll stick to the cooking and forget the Valspeak and Maybelline.

Marcela is making individual strawberry tarts with that crumb crust. She likes to use Maria biscuits, but you can substitute graham crackers with no problem, she says.

Marcela loves her mother’s idea of adding a bit of sugar to the strawberries, so they make their own juice. (I wish MY daughter would give ME credit for ideas that have been around since the beginning of time.)

The filling for the tarts is cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and her mother’s SECRET addition. Oh good, I have a feeling her mother is this awesome Mexican cook, turning out fresh chalupas at the drop of a sombrero.

I wonder what the secret ingredient could be. Hmm, Maybe a bit of Tequila? THAT would be different. Mexican vanilla? Too obvious. Oh I know!!! She probably adds Mexican crema, which is a Mexican version of crème fraiche or sour cream. Let’s see what it is.

WHAT??!! The secret ingredient is…POWDERED WHIPPED TOPPING! I don’t even know what that is. Cool Whip in powdered form, maybe? You’ve got to be kidding me.

Marcela says when asked how she gets the pie to be so fluffy and airy, her mother says she just whips it for an extra 5 minutes.

Sorry, but that white powder sprinkled over the cream cheese and sour cream looks really suspect as she beats everything together. Marcela folds in the strawberries and some of their magical juice. She spoons the filling on the tart shell and tops it with a fresh strawberry.

Next she’s making butternut soup. I wonder if some Knorr soup mix will go in at the end.

She roasts a halved butternut on a baking sheet with a bit of oil, salt and pepper for 45 minutes at 400º F. Meanwhile, she chops an onion, coarsely, and adds it to chopped carrots, celery and garlic with salt and pepper. She cooks it for not very long then adds the scooped out flesh of the butternut. She adds enough chicken stock to cover the vegetables, stirs well and the recipe says to cook it for 30 minutes until the vegetables are very soft.

I would prefer to completely soften the vegetables before the stock and squash goes in. The onions are incomparably sweeter that way.

Marcela makes a Chipotle Crema to go with the soup. See? I guess I mentioned crema a bit early. Marcela dices one chipotle very finely and mixes it with sour cream, salt and pepper. She purées the soup with an immersion blender and then seasons it (without tasting).

Marcela serves the soup with the chipotle crema and some pumpkin seeds. She tastes it and approves. Where’s Mama, anyway? That’s what we need. Ingrid’s show only became bearable with Mama.

Marcela starts her lamb main course by dissing her sister, saying if SHE can make this, then anyone can.

I shouldn’t get up in arms about that. I talk smack about other people’s cooking abilities ALL the time. No member of my family will step foot in my kitchen while I’m there. Too bad, they could really learn something. ;-)

Anyway, apparently her sister didn’t inherit the cooking gene. Marcela grabs her own homemade bread crumbs from the pantry. Hold on! Fungi Alert!

That’s great that she made the bread crumbs from scratch, but I would NEVER make bread crumbs in advance and keep them in the cupboard. Commercial ones have “secret” things added to them, so they don’t go off, but homemade breadcrumbs are a potential breeding ground for mold. You can bag them up and store them in the freezer or just make them and use them.

BTW, this chef has some thoughtful reasoning about why you shouldn’t use the CRUST in your homemade bread crumbs.

Back to the lamb, Marcela starts the crust that will go on the outside. She chops her shallots beautifully. That tells me a lot, but I don’t want to repeat my chopping-onions-the-classic-way-got-me-my-first-restaurant-cooking-job story. THIS is what I have to say about THAT. (Use Control-F to find the paragraph right after “I want to digress just a sec.”)

Marcela adds the chopped shallots to butter in a sauté pan. She says the trick to instantly stop crying from onions is to stick your head in the freezer. That’s great, but I have a bottom freezer now and by the time I cleaned out all the bread (and breadcrumbs), nuts, butter and ice packs, the crying would be long over.

You can also try a tiny dribble of water from the faucet. (Catch it in a pot, so you don’t waste it.) Apparently the acid from the onion is attracted to the moistest thing around, including your tear ducts. BUT if you have a faucet running, it’ll go to that. I still think the BEST way to cut down on crying is to keep your onions in the fridge. There’s a bucket full of tears difference between chopping a room temperature onion and a cold one.

I like that Marcela makes clear not to brown the butter as she sautés her shallots. She adds the fresh bread crumbs from that airtight container. I’m SO worried about those breadcrumbs. I can feel a few mold spores around the edges that she hasn’t caught. PROMISE ME that you won’t keep your freshly made breadcrumbs in the pantry.

Marcela stirs the breadcrumbs around in the butter to brown them. Then she adds ancho chile powder. Thank you Food Network, for telling us that this is “Ground Up Poblano Peppers”. I actually mean it (THIS time), I think it’s good they told us something useful for once.

I know Marcela is the Mexican cooking expert (supposedly), but I absolutely would have handled the ancho chile powder differently. I would have softened the shallots, THEN added the chile powder and cooked it on low, low, low for 2 to 3 minutes and THEN added the breadcrumbs. The mixture would be evenly ancho-ed, and there would be a more rounded, rich flavor with less rawness. THAT is how to treat warm spices – cumin, coriander, curry, turmeric, chile powder – in any sautéing situation.

Marcela stirs in a bit of fresh thyme and adds salt and pepper. She gets the crumbs golden brown, but not TOO browned, because they’re going in the oven. Good point.

She takes the breadcrumbs out of the sauté pan and sets them aside. Then in the same pan, she adds oil to brown the lamb. She heats the oil to “RALLY hot”. She seasons her rack (I couldn’t resist) with salt and pepper and sears the skin side of the lamb to a nice brown.

Marcela gives a nice explanation that searing the meat before it goes into the oven allows the meat to form a crust. That keeps the juices inside and the result will be “ONE JUICY RACK” of lamb.

Marcela spreads a layer of Dijon over the lamb and “packs on” the bread crumbs. She pours out the extra oil from the pan and put the rack back in, crumb side up, and puts the pan in the oven at 400º F for 25 minutes.

Commercial for Minute Rice. I can’t decide if the “Have you heard?” commercial is like a really bad sitcom or a really pathetic informercial. Office co-workers are sitting around a lunch table discussing the benefits of healthy eating, targeting one pudgy guy in particular who’s trying to lose weight for his wedding.

Great, but WHY would you buy brown rice in an over-packaged high-priced microwavable container (I NEVER microwave in plastic) when you could make a pot of brown rice at the beginning of the week and just pack it up separately. How about in these little Pyrex dishes with lids? But I still wouldn’t put the plastic lid in the microwave. Rice doesn’t need a lid to reheat anyway.

Back to Marcela…She takes the lamb out of the oven, exclaiming, “That, TO ME, looks like love at first sight.” Oh, this is supposed to be a romantic dinner, by the way. She sets it down to rest while she makes a mint sauce.

Eww, she mixes mint jelly and beef broth and a few sprigs of fresh mint. She heats up half a can of beef broth with some mint jelly. She chops up the mint and adds it at the last minute with salt and pepper. That really looks awful. Don’t ruin that nice lamb with that. She slices the lamb and dips a chop right into the sauce.

I would get a GOOD mint jelly, just serve that and make a little reduction from the juices in the pan for a sauce.

I would have reserved just a bit of that shallot and sautéed it around in the pan in which the lamb was cooked. And how about a sprinkle of that wonderful ancho chile powder? (I would have cooked it for 2 minutes on low, low, low, of course.) Then just a splash of some wine, brandy, even orange juice or balsamic vinegar…bring it the boil and scrape up all the stuff in the bottom of the pan. THEN add a bit of stock, reduce and voila, no minty, jellified sauce necessary.

I was going to write about all 3 of Marcela’s shows, but lookie here, she gave me too much to write about. I love when that happens. My next post about Marcela will include her Chocoflan recipe, which looks really interesting and seems to have quite a few problems based on its reviews on the Food Network website. Adiós por ahora.

Could Paula Deen Cut The Mustard As An American Idol Judge?

So what do y’all think about Paula Deen sitting in as a guest judge for American Idol?

I don’t really watch AI, until maybe the last 5 minutes of the last show. But I think Paula’s unique brand of Southern comfort and communicating could be a great addition to the show.

I do worry, though, about any platform for Paula that doesn’t involve loads of ham, fried tidbits and sugary treats being served at the end of every half hour. How WILL Paula make it through the slog of taping a show that doesn’t involve food? Maybe she’ll hide some ribs in her handbag or a pecan tassie under her belt.

Fat Tuesday And A Recipe’s Provenance

Oy! For Fat Tuesday, all I wanted to do was to make the gorgeous pea pancakes that my great buddy, Cynthia, featured on her blog this week. She and I share the practice of NEVER posting someone else’s recipe without permission, so she had a link to the recipe.

I was all ready to make them, but the cooking of the sugar snap peas didn’t seem nearly long enough to me, so I was searching around for OTHER pea pancake recipes. It’s such an unusual recipe, I actually didn’t expect to find anything, but boy, did I!

Here’s the fabulous recipe that Cynthia used and that I intended to use, posted in June of 2009.

Now look, HERE is Chef Melissa Clark’s recipe from her book Chef, Interrupted published IN 2005. Almost exactly the same.

To be fair, the blogger did change ¼ cup of flour to 4 tablespoons of flour.

THERE’S JUST ONE PROBLEM: A quarter cup of flour IS 4 tablespoons of flour!

AND his changing of 2 tablespoons of whole milk and 1 tablespoon of heavy cream to 3 tablespoons of half and half really didn't fool me one bit.

He also changed the garnish of ½ cup crème fraiche to 1 cup.

Strictly speaking, changing 2 or 3 ingredients OR changing the method SUBSTANTIALLY does qualify as changing a recipe, but he didn’t even make enough of THOSE changes. And, come on, it’s obvious he used Clark’s recipe. It’s certainly obvious enough to warrant an “adapted from”.

My friend, Tom writes about this too. He likes the term "inspired by", but, of course, he's talking about recipes that he's changed extensively.

All this blogger guy (who identifies himself as a private chef) would have had to say is that he came across a recipe from Melissa Clark’s book and that he adapted it.

I found it in only two clicks and I really wasn’t trying to trip him up. He has some gorgeous food on his blog and great pictures and he does give credit to other cooks sometimes, but he made THIS recipe sound like HE thought it up and that kind of stinks.

Needless to say, I made Melissa Clark's version, but, frankly, I didn’t exactly follow the method from EITHER recipe.

I blanched the sugar snap peas for 3 minutes, instead of 2, and I puréed all the ingredients together, instead of bothering to mash the peas separately with a fork. After topping them with sour cream, I finished some with prosciutto and some with smoked salmon.

Celebrate Chinese New Year With…Cucumbers

Cucumbers? Yup, that’s what I said. Truthfully, I have no idea if cucumbers have a special meaning in Chinese lore. But for decades, I have making this fabulous Chinese cucumber salad that is at home as much in a Chinese banquet as it is at a barbecue.

It comes from Craig Claiborne’s Chinese cookbook with Virginia Lee, The Chinese Cookbook.

Craig is part of a triumvirate of my personal cooking heroes – Julia, James and Craig’s books all inspired and instructed me and still do. Virginia Lee, herself, was part of a trio of Chinese cooking teachers in the U.S. in the second half of the previous century. Lee, Grace Chu (I studied with Madame Chu – wowee zowee – a story for another time) and Joyce Chen were the first three standout Chinese cooks and authors who brought Chinese authenticity to the American table. More about Madame Chu here.

Back to The Chinese Cookbook. This book is full of wonderful, although not always easily accomplished, dishes. Chinese COOKING may be quick, but the mis en place is not.

The chopping must be precise, many ingredients in small quantities must be mixed together in advance and then often remixed as the often used cornstarch becomes concrete-like in the bottom of the bowl. Plus bringing together a Chinese meal of many dishes is often challenging and reminds me of why the best Chinese cook I ever knew never actually sat down with us.

Having said all that, this Chinese Cucumber Salad is a wonderful addition to many different meals. It's spicy and cooling at the same time.

This recipe has a lot of interesting techniques – cooking the cucumber pieces, sautéing vegetables in sesame oil, which is usually used for finishing and, of course, the finicky shaping of the cucumber pieces.

The funny thing is that the way I shape them is NOT the way Craig and Virginia Lee instructed in their original recipe. It came about from my misreading of the rather obtuse directions. I decided I liked MY way better anyway.

Chinese Cucumber Salad

Adapted from from The Chinese Cookbook by Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee

3 cucumbers, peeled

1 tsp. Kosher salt

3 slices ginger, each cut in half

½ jalapeno, shredded

1/3 red pepper, shredded

5 tbls. sugar

5 tbls. red wine vinegar

1 tbl. low salt soy sauce

2 tbls. sesame oil

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

Cut the peeled cucumber into 1 inch pieces.

Using a melon baller, scoop out the center section of seeds, leaving the bottom intact.

Square off the cucumber rounds, although you may skip this step and leave them as they are.

Place in a bowl with 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt. Mix well. Let sit for one hour.

Stir together 3 tablespoons of sugar with all of the red wine vinegar and soy sauce. Set aside.

Drain and rinse cucumber pieces well. Bring a medium pot of water to the boil. Turn off and add cucumber pieces. Time exactly 15 seconds. Drain cucumber and place back in rinsed-out bowl. Mix with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

Heat sesame oil in small saucepan over medium high heat. Add red pepper flakes. Take off heat just as the flakes start to turn brown, no more than a minute. Strain oil into small frying pan.

Heat oil over medium high heat. Add the ginger, jalapeno and red pepper pieces and stir fry for 30 seconds.

Add the vinegar mixture, stirring it as you pour it in and cook for 1 minute.

Pour the vinegar and vegetable mixture over cucumbers in bowl. Chill for at least an hour.

Using a slotted spoon, place cucumbers and vegetables into a serving dish, removing ginger pieces if you wish. Serve.