I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.
Lucinda Scala Quinn is the Executive Director of Food and Entertaining at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. She writes a column for Living magazine, she hosts the weekly food radio show EatDrink, she's a co-host on EveryDay Food on PBS, and her new show Mad Hungry is on weekdays on the Hallmark Channel. I had the opportunity to speak with her by telephone earlier this week and ask some questions about her career, her books, and family holiday traditions.
-How long have you been with MSLO?-
I started with the company in 2001 in the television department. I've worked with the magazine and EveryDay Food, and eventually arrived in my current role.
I spent a lot of time there as a child with my family and have so many great memories from Jamaica that I wanted to write about it. I started writing the book ten years before it was published, and the topic wasn't represented at the time. The original book included 150 recipes. In 2006, it was revisited. An abridged version with just 50 recipes was created with new photos and that wasLucinda's Authentic Jamaican Kitchen.
-In your book Mad Hungry, you mention that parents should "pay as much attention to your child's eating habits as you do to their grades." Can you talk about that and explain how you've done that with your family?-
I really believe wellness starts with what you put in your body. We have concerns about health but don't always think so much about what we eat. This is just as important as all the other issues we worry about when raising our children. My goal was to raise our children to be good eaters and then good cooks.
-Your family must look forward to some great food traditions each year at this time. Can you share some of your family's favorite things you cook for the holidays?-
They really like these mini meatball sandwiches I make. My mother used to make them on Christmas Eve, and now I make them at holiday time. I always make them in advance and have them frozen for easy meals. I also make eggnog on the night when we decorate our tree. On Christmas Eve, I honor the Italian side of my family with Italian food, and on Christmas Day, I make English food in honor of the other side of my family. I do like to indulge in special ingredients for the holidays, but it's mostly about being all together.
-What's next for you? Will there be a Mad Hungry, Two book? And, can you share what's coming up on the Mad Hungry show?-
I am actually working on a second book under the Mad Hungry title. It should be released in the fall of 2012. On the Mad Hungry show, we're working on some less heavy dishes for January, and then we'll cover topics like the freezer is your friend. We're already looking forward to shows for the next holidays like Valentine's Day and Easter. There are always great tips and so many ideas to share.
-And, of course, while talking with Lucinda, I also had to ask what are you reading?-
Lucinda:
I read an advance copy ofBlood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton from New York's Prune. It's an edible memoir with fantastic food writing. She's a passionate cook with authentic experience, and she has an extraordinary way with words.
Another book I really enjoyed was Arabesque by Claudia Roden. It's about an area of the world where the food is delicious, and it's full of great photos. Roden always does an incredible job of covering cooking of the Middle East. She's a food writing mentor of mine.
Thank you for participating, Lucinda. Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.
I'm always drawn to a cornmeal-lime cookie, but I'm not always happy with what I get. Some versions tend to be dry and often the lime is barely discernible. Well, I can stop trying every version that comes along, because I've found one that delivers big in texture and taste. These cookies are from the new book Flour, and I told you I'd be mentioning it frequently around here. They bake up puffed and light with a tender, almost cake-like crumb, they have great cornmeal flavor, and the lime is both noticeable and delicious. The thick glaze that's brushed onto each cookie adds a sweet, tart layer on top with bits of lime zest adding decoration. I made some of these at the recommended size of about one quarter cup of dough per cookie, and I made a some at a smaller size. The smaller sized cookies worked fine and still had the same tender texture. What I really should have done was double the recipe, and next time I definitely will.
Making the cookies started with the standard creaming together of butter and sugar. Lime zest was added with eggs and vanilla followed by a whisked-together mix of flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. As I mentioned, the cookies were formed from one quarter cup scoops of dough, and the scoops were slightly flattened with the palm of my hand. Do you use an ice cream scoop for placing cookie dough on baking sheets? I started doing that years ago, and I use scoops for muffins too. Some scoops break easily or the sliding arm that glides through the scoop seems to constantly pop out of its track. If you've ever had that problem, I may have the solution for you. Food scoops work better than ice cream scoops, and they come in all different sizes. I used the 2.07 ounce scoop here. The large cookies baked for about 25 minutes, and the slightly smaller ones I made baked for about 20 minutes. The glaze was made with confectioners' sugar, water, fresh lime juice, and lime zest. Once the cookies were cool, the glaze was brushed onto the tops, and they were left to dry.
I noticed a look of surprise that came upon each person who tasted these cookies, and they surprised me too. They're simple cornmeal-lime cookies, but they're different and better. That light texture and the great flavor make them the best of their kind that I've tried. I know I'll be baking these repeatedly, but first I have to find out what else there is to discover in this book.
I had high hopes for this breakfast cake. With tart cranberries, sweet maple syrup, and lots of pecans, I imagined this was going to be a keeper. This is from the new book Flour by Joanne Chang, the pastry chef and owner of the two Flour Bakery and Cafes in Boston, and I received a copy to review. This was one of those books that had me turning pages and walking toward the kitchen at the same time. It's full of irresistible looking treats and informative tips in each recipe. Chang's background includes an education in applied mathematics and economics, but her love of pastries inspired an eventual career change. She worked in other restaurant kitchens, including a stint in New York with Francois Payard, and then opened her own bakery in Boston. Her philosophy is one of "simple things are best" because even complex pastries start with the basics. Hence, the name Flour for her bakery. Those simple things throughout the book range from breakfast treats to cookies, cakes, pies, and tarts, and then there are other sweets and breads. I have a feeling I'll be mentioning this book frequently around here. I've already baked two items from it, and both were very well-received.
For this breakfast cake or pound cake or whatever you'd like to call it, maple pecans were made by warming pure maple syrup and toasted and chopped pecans in a saucepan. The goal was to stir the mixture and allow the pecans to absorb the syrup. Then, the pecans were cooled while the batter was mixed. Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and butter were mixed, and the instructions include the amount of time for mixing with a stand mixer and a hand-held mixer depending on what equipment you are using. I like a thorough recipe like that. Then, in a small bowl, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and more maple syrup were whisked together before being added to the flour mixture. The liquid ingredients were added in two parts, and again mixing times were given. Last, fresh cranberries and the maple pecans were folded into the batter, and the batter was scraped into a parchment-lined loaf pan. It baked for just over an hour and filled the house with maple goodness all the while. Once it cooled, the cake was removed from the pan and topped with a thick maple syrup and confectioners' sugar glaze.
In the notes for this recipe, Chang writes that "the cake tastes remarkably like pancakes," and it really does. The maple flavor permeates the cake, and the pecans and cranberries accompany it well. I was so thrilled with the cake when I first tasted it, I declared it Christmas breakfast-worthy. And, if you have any left for the day after Christmas, it just gets better.
Great food happens when friends cook together, and when those friends have interesting backgrounds with influences from multiple cultures, especially great food happens. Such is the case with Claudia Shaw-d’Auriol and Domenica Yang. Both are from Hong Kong and have traveled and lived in cities in the west. In their new book, Delicious, which I received to review, the two present some of their favorite dishes for first courses, mains, and desserts. The chapters are clearly organized by firsts, seconds, and thirds, and the cuisine spans the globe from east to west. That being said, this is not complicated or fussy, fusion food. In fact, this is dinner party food that will both please and impress without causing the cook undue stress. Let me give you some examples of possible menus you could build from the book: start with herbed pancakes with mascarpone and smoked salmon, followed by stuffed quail with wild rice, with a dessert of fried apples with toffee sauce, or start with mini shrimp toast, followed by caramelized pork belly, with a dessert of fruit tempura with passionfruit ice cream. As I was choosing the first item to try from the book, the Chinese turnip cakes caught my eye as did the duck breast with soba, and taglierini with caramelized scallops and rosemary beurre blanc, but in the end, I decided on the fish in lemongrass cream.
In the book, this dish is called sea bass in lemongrass cream, but I found fresh and lovely-looking turbot at the fish counter at Whole Foods and went with that. Turbot is a white-fleshed fish with a high oil content ensuring great flavor and big flakes when cooked. To begin the dish, lemongrass was steeped in fish stock. I was thrilled to use some lemongrass from my garden before the cold weather wipes it out for the season. The fish stock with lemongrass was combined with a cup of sake and simmered until reduced by half. Then, cream was added and allowed to simmer to warm through. Before serving, the lemongrass was strained from the sauce. The fish was simply seasoned with salt and pepper, seared on top of the stove for a few minutes per side, and then finished in a hot oven for an additional four minutes or so. To serve, I placed the fish fillets on top of some sauteed spinach, poured the sauce over top, and garnished with chopped red chiles and parsley.
I’ll come clean and admit that I really don’t know one sake from another and should take the time to gain a better appreciation of it, but I did really enjoy its flavor in the cream sauce. The simmering mellowed the sake’s alcoholic edge, and the lemongrass added citrusy, bright flavor. Of course, cream never hurts a sauce, and the mixture was as nice with the fish as it was with the spinach. I love it when I can pull together an interesting and delicious meal so easily, and this book will be a great source for more of that.
When I heard about the International Holiday Cookie Recipe Exchange hosted by Adrienne at Gastroanthropology and Lori at Fake Food Free, I jumped at the chance to take part. The two organized this event in which cookie recipes were shared by email among fellow food bloggers from around the world. The recipe I received was from Astheroshe of Accro. She explained that her mother always baked these cresecent cookies for Christmas, and they were one of her favorites. She noted that they can be made with any nuts, but her mother's version always included walnuts. The recipe looked very familiar to me because my grandmother used to bake a very similar cookie in a round shape rather than a crescent, and hers were always made with pecans. I've had my grandmother's recipe tucked away for years and had never gotten around to using it. So at last, thanks to Astheroshe and by way her mother's recipe, I finally made grandma's powdered sugar pecan cookies.
The recipe is a simple one starting with room temperature butter being creamed with confectioner's sugar before adding flour, salt, vanilla, a little bit of water, and finally chopped nuts. My grandma's recipe calls for twice as much sugar as Astheroshe's mother's recipe, so I split the difference. I also have a recipe for Mexican wedding cookies which are very similar, and that used even more sugar. For my taste one quarter to one half cup in the dough itself is enough. Clearly, the shape can be whatever you prefer. I followed Astheroshe's instructions to shape crescents by hand. I used a mounded tablespoon of cookie dough, rolled it into a cylinder between my hands, and then shaped that into a crescent with thinner ends and a thicker middle. The cookies have no baking soda or powder, so they don't rise or spread on the baking sheet. After they are baked and cooled, they are tossed in more confectioner's sugar for a snowy, festive look.
These were as good as grandma's cookies, and they're the kind of cookie that gets better after a day or two if you're lucky enough to keep some around that long. I suppose this means I've officially started my holiday cookie baking for this year. One cookie is done, and there are, at least, a few more to go.
Pecan Crescents
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar (plus and additional 1/2 cup for coating cookies)
1 1/2 teaspoon water
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup toasted pecans, chopped
-Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
-Cream butter until light, add confectioner's sugar and cream again. Add flour, water, and vanilla, and mix to combine. The dough will be dry. Fold in chopped nuts.
-To shape each cookie, roll a mounded tablespoon of dough between your hands to form a small cylinder. Bend cylinder and pinch ends thinner to create a crescent. Place cookies on a parchment- or silpat-lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Let cookies cool and then roll in the additional confectioner's sugar to coat.
In 1998, Yotam left his career in academia and journalism in Israel to study at the Cordon Bleu in London. He has worked as a pastry chef at London restaurants including Baker and Spice before opening the extremely popular Ottolenghi with Noam Bar and Sami Tamimi. There are now four locations of the restaurant in London and at each, the focus is on uncomplicated, seasonal food with bold flavors. Yotam also writes a weekly column called The New Vegetarian for the Guardian Saturday magazine. He and Sami Tamimi wrote the Ottolenghi Cookbook which was released in 2008. His new book Plenty, which I'm much enjoying, is a collection of his vegetarian dishes from the Guardian column, and it was released earlier this year. The American version of Plenty will be available in February. I knew I'd hear of some interesting titles when I asked Yotam what are you reading?
Yotam: Two books that I love:
The first isThe Perfect Egg which is a collection of short stories and anecdotal food memories and recipes, all told beautifully and animatedly by the Italian architect and essayist, Aldo Buzzi. The book is illustrated by the brilliant Saul Steinberg.
The second is Saraban, a recently published book about Persian food and the society that created it and lives it. It is a travel piece and a recipe book with the most astonishing photography from modern day Iran.
Thank you for participating, Yotam. Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.
I realize I'm sort of repeating myself here, but it couldn't be helped. Butternut squash and greens are just meant to be together. The bitter greens balance the sweet squash, and I've been getting, well let's just say, a steady supply of butternut squashes from my CSA this fall. So, once again, I have for you a savory dish with that perfect pairing. I was hoping to find a dish using butternut squash that would be good for brunch, and I found just the right thing on Epicurious. This first appeared in last November's Bon Appetit in Molly Wizenberg's story about creating a vegetarian main course for Thanksgiving. It's a rich and hearty, savory bread pudding with roasted squash, sauteed greens, lots of cheddar cheese, and a custard accented with dijon mustard and white wine. It would have been very fitting on the Thanksgiving table, but it was just as nice for brunch the weekend before.
First, the squash was peeled, seeded, cubed, and roasted. I actually roasted the squash the day before and stored it in the refrigerator. Then, a baguette was cubed and soaked with the custard mixture of eggs, whole milk, white wine, dijon mustard, and salt and pepper. The recipe calls for half and half, but I lightened it up just a bit by using whole milk instead. As the bread sat to soak, fresh greens that had been coarsely chopped were sauteed with minced shallots. Kale was the recommended type of greens here, but I used the broccoli greens I had just received from my CSA. Everything was layered in a baking dish, starting with half of the bread mixture, then half of the kale, and half of the roasted squash. That was topped with shredded cheddar cheese, and the layers were repeated. The assembled bread pudding was covered with parchment and foil, and it baked for about 20 minutes. The foil and parchment were removed, and it baked an additional 20 minutes.
Bread puddings are so versatile, and they make fantastic one-dish meals for brunch. This one was delightfully full of vegetables, and I've already gone on about how much I enjoy squash with greens. The melted cheese in the center and the browned cheese on top just made it even better. Now, I need to decide how to use the four more butternut squashes that are sitting in my kitchen this week.
followed by Lucinda's Authentic Jamaican Kitchen
in 2006. What inspired you to write about Jamaican cooking?-
, you mention that parents should "pay as much attention to your child's eating habits as you do to their grades." Can you talk about that and explain how you've done that with your family?-
by Gabrielle Hamilton from New York's Prune. It's an edible memoir with fantastic food writing. She's a passionate cook with authentic experience, and she has an extraordinary way with words.
by Claudia Roden. It's about an area of the world where the food is delicious, and it's full of great photos. Roden always does an incredible job of covering cooking of the Middle East. She's a food writing mentor of mine.
, and I told you 
work better than ice cream scoops, and they come in all different sizes. I used the 2.07 ounce scoop here. The large cookies baked for about 25 minutes, and the slightly smaller ones I made baked for about 20 minutes. The glaze was made with confectioners' sugar, water, fresh lime juice, and lime zest. Once the cookies were cool, the glaze was brushed onto the tops, and they were left to dry.
which was released in 2008. His new book 
, which 
which is a collection of short stories and anecdotal food memories and recipes, all told beautifully and animatedly by the Italian architect and essayist, Aldo Buzzi. The book is illustrated by the brilliant Saul Steinberg.
, a recently published book about Persian food and the society that created it and lives it. It is a travel piece and a recipe book with the most astonishing photography from modern day Iran. 
