Long Island Larder: The Right Stuff
"What do women want?" has become so repetitive in men's magazines, women's magazines now copy with "What do men want?" On and on it goes - as if gender alone determined such a thing.
In my experience, different people want a lot of different things totally unrelated to their sex, gender, whichever term pleases you. But advertising still seems to be cemented into pitches to male or female audiences. And this, I rather think, is why so much stuff gets returned to the stores after Christmas.
Who is to know that Iron John wouldn't really rather have a new Cuisinart than a chainsaw? Or Darling Jenny a little electric hand-sander/drill combo to work on her yardsale furniture coups?
Harking back to "in my experience," the guys I know are getting to be a lot more familiar with the kitchen layout than their good wives. (As one of them recently commented, "in self-defense.") Though in fact, more and more men are taking to the kitchen range simply because they like cooking with a greater range of imagination than slamming a steak on the barby.
True, outdoor grills did permit men to retain their macho image while fussing around with the cooking, and a lot of women who had abdicated the traditional role had the good sense to let them do it.
I do wonder, though, if in 20 years or so women will be complaining that they've been left out of the dinner-decision-making process. (My own dream is to be totally excluded from the plumber, electrician, pool guy, yard-maintenance, appliance, TV, and telephone-repairman selection and arranging-for process.)
I actually enjoy shopping for food - what to cook for dinner will never bore me; hardware stores and housewares shops are places that fascinate me, and despite my panoply of kitchen equipment, there's always some gadget or pan or new book that beguiles me.
All this is by way of leading into A Cook's Christmas Wish-list, be the cook male or female, young or old. Dedicated cooks will want to try out almost anything they haven't tried before, and the hesitant but wannabe-good cooks will be inspired by things they might never have bought for themselves.
Cook's Garden of Wishes
An imported (German or Swiss) V-slicer: This has four blades that make thin or thick slices, julienne slivers, or french-fry shapes for vegetables, and an optional extra shredder for cooked potatoes (or raw ones) or semi-soft cheeses. This shredder makes the best potato pancakes or roesti ever. Costs about $30.
A professional meat-slicing knife (German or French) with a blade about 12 inches long, indented but not serrated, for slicing ham and large roasts. Prices range from $40 to $60.
Full tang, stainless steel serrated knife (German or French) with 10-inch blade that cuts through tough things like heads of cabbage, artichokes, rough country breads, and almost any foodstuff.
Serving platters: Old ones, new ones, decorated or white, especially a long (23-inch) narrow, white porcelain one for fish, pork loins, or a series of roasted game hens. Porcelain or ceramic, to withstand oven heat up to 350 degrees.
More Wishes
Willow basket for storage, containing a selection of Oxo kitchen gadgets with big, soft-grip handles, especially the vegetable peeler, ice cream scoop, and four-inch pizza wheel (which is useful for much more than pizza).
Heavy-gauge steel cake molds, or a Charlotte mold with non-stick finish from France - $15 to $20. These will make any cake-mix look professional and elegant.
Ingredients: Fine bittersweet chocolate, Callebaut or Valrhona; vanilla beans or vanilla extract from Madagascar, glaceed and dried fruits and berries, French flageolet or green lentils or exotic dried beans, fine olive oils, best quality white and red wine vinegars (unflavored), truffle oil, truffles!
Whole roasted French chestnuts in jars, orange and rose flower water, first-quality spices and herbs (try Kalyustan on Lexington Avenue) from high-turnover specialty shops, a whole side of smoked salmon, cheeses, special flours for pasta, pastry, and bread and the pans to bake them in, sea salt from France and England, very concentrated meat glazes (glace de viande) to facilitate sauce-making, a basket of heirloom apples or a basket of different kinds of fresh pears, French mustards, imported honeys, sugars like Demarara, or very coarse white crystals for sprinkling on cookies.
The Makings, Not The Made
In short: give cooks stuff to cook with, not cakes, cookies, jams, and candies that someone else has already made!
Of course, few discerning cooks would be displeased with a mousse of foie gras, a tin of truffles or a fresh one, a little pot of caviar, or a gift certificate for some of the goodies at D'Artagnan in Jersey City, purveyors of game and fresh magrets and goose livers, wild turkeys and ducks (duck fat and demiglace are a cook's delight).
If your cooking friend is really adventurous, he or she might like a gift certificate for kangaroo, ostrich, 'gator, rattlesnake, or caribou from Game Sales International in Loveland, Colo.
For Wine-Lovers
For wine mavens:
A metal wine bucket and stand. Most of those tricky terracotta or insulated plastic coolers don't work - the wine is never cold enough and you can't put a champagne bottle in them - tragic.
Wine bottle coasters. These are pretty and practical. You can find them in antique shops as well as new in housewares stores - give with a fine bottle of wine, perhaps an after-dinner port or Sauternes. Wine coasters save table linens from the kind of stains that make hosts' chins tremble when they say, "Oh, it's all right."
Decanters and wine pitchers for informal meals don't have to be crystal, or even clear glass. Many of the ceramics are amusing and/or pretty for wine.
One can never have too many glasses. Best are wine glasses that can go into the dishwasher, double old-fashioned-size tumblers, and, with the resurgence of the martini, some proper martini glasses (which can, in fact, be used for other things if they're the large size).
Cookery Books
Books: These are some of my favorites, some new, some old that will take a bit of digging to find. What's not available at local bookshops, like Book Hampton and Canio's, can probably be located at Kitchen Arts & Letters, 1435 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. Nach Waxman, the owner, knows all there is to know about cookbooks new and old.
Julia Child's "The Way To Cook" (Knopf) explains how to do just about everything, and the recipes are infallible. I'm on my second copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and "In Julia's Kitchen," both of which I've bought for gifts too many times. "Baking With Julia" is the new book that bears her name, though it is really a compilation of work by the chefs who appeared on her TV show - the master baker Nick Malgieri, with whom my daughter studied, is foremost among them.
Patricia Wells's "At Home in Provence" (Scribners) is a new favorite. This American expatriate has truly grasped the essence of French cooking and eating, and her warm and direct style makes the book a pleasure to read. No silly stuff here; just great simple traditional cooking, sensibly updated and presented for modern tastes. Lovely but not overdone photographs.
"Simple French Food"
Richard Olney's "Simple French Food" is a classic and still in print, thank heaven. His latest book, "Lulu's Provencale Table," was published by Harper's a couple of years ago and is also readily available and also a prize.
Shirley King's new book, "Pampille's Table," is a translation and adaptation of the recipes in the French classic written under the pseudonym "Pampille" by Mme. Marthe Daudet in 1919 and called "Le Bon Plat de France," which can still be found if one wanted to give both as a set for French-speaking American cooks.
John Thorne, author of the terrific "Outlaw Cook," has a new book written with his wife, Matt, called "Serious Pig" (North Point Press). This is a collection of essays and recipes with gastronomical writing to appeal to anyone with an interest in the table, cook or not.
Madeleine Kamman, cooking in structor and restaurateur extraordinaire, wrote several marvelous cookbooks, of which my favorite, falling-to-pieces, edition is "When Frenchwomen Cook" (Atheneum).
David's Legacy
Elizabeth David, the grand dame of British food writers who died two years ago, left a legacy of splendid books and I recommend them all. Her last one, "An Omelette and a Glass of Wine" (Penguin), is my favorite. Filled with anecdotes and essays as well as recipes, it's a bedside book to enjoy forever.
Deborah Madison, former chef at the Greens restaurant in San Francisco, wrote "The Greens" cookbook, possibly the best vegetarian cookbook ever and one I consult often for new ideas in vegetable cookery.
Cook's Magazine: any of their bound editions of the year's magazine in hard covers. Also, any serious cook would be happy with a subscription to the magazine. Bon Appetit is better than ever and Food & Wine seems to have a felicitous new look and viewpoint with a change of editors.
Eating Well: this magazine publishes cookbooks, too. The one I use most is "Recipe Rescue," which updates and lightens traditional dishes without ruining them.
Mangia: a witty and useful computer program for cooks, it organizes your recipes, provides a format to create your own cookbook, and offers several cookbooks on separate disks as well. I have to admit, my own newly revised "Good Cheap Food" is among them, as well as that '60s hippie classic, "The Tassajara Cookbook" and a good selection from the former Cook's magazine, resuscitated as Cook's Illustrated.
Under Pressure
Lorna Sass, a cookbook author who used to specialize in historical cookbooks, is a fairly recent convert to the pressure cooker. Her well-received "Cooking Under Pressure" has been followed by the drearily titled "Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure." Her taste runs to more brown rice, pine nuts, and weird versions of chili and gumbo than suit me, but the directions are sterling.
However, this is a book well worth having for the accuracy of its cooking times in the so-called "New Generation" pressure cookers, more of a boon to hurry-up cooks than the microwave can ever be.
Microwave ovens will not produce a decent stew or braise a pot roast or make a good bean casserole - pressure cookers will do a two-hour job in 15 or 20 minutes.
The late Roy Andries deGroot wrote the best pressure-cooker book of its era a number of years ago, and I still use it. However, it was tested with the old-fashioned jiggle-top American cookers, so times have to be monitored and adjusted.
Short-Order World
A pressure cooker. I don't know when I'll ever be able to convince people that the sleek new European pressure cookers present no threat to the safety of the cook and turn out beautiful food in a fraction of the time normally required for the kind of home-cooking we seem to be losing.
In a short-order world (as most restaurant cooking seems to be these days, too) of reheating take-out junk, the new pressure cookers like the Belgian DeMeyere, the Swiss Kuhn Rikon, Italian Magefesa, and the beautiful Fagor from Spain would make a great present for cooks who care about real food. A 6-liter or 8-liter size is best because no pressure cooker may be filled more than three-quarters full.
Most of these cookers cost $100 or more and Zabar's has a huge selection. Williams-Sonoma carries the Fagor. The new cookers can have the pressure released right on the stove via a top-mounted valve that is not removable (therefore losable).
The new pressure cookers are great for canning small batches of jars, useful as plain soup pots, and not in the least bit dangerous. I can't think of a greater boon to cooks who don't get home from work until dinnertime.
Unfortunately, the cookbooks that come with these wonderful pots are terribly unimaginative - written by the engineer's grandmother, no doubt. So one has to adapt favorite recipes to the short cooking times in pressure cookers, but this isn't too hard to figure out once you get the hang of it.
Give some cook a merry little Christmas!