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What's New?
Two friends, two colleagues, two new cookbooks, both out this spring and both as good – and as different -- as can be. Ladies first.
Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners by Sara Moulton ($35, Simon & Schuster). “Having dinner together,“ Sara told me recently, “is a religion in our family.” That would be “the Husband” (Bill Adler), daughter Ruthie, son Sam, and sometimes Sara’s parents “Hump” and Betsy Moulton.  I know all the Moultons and having sat at the family dinner table a time or two, myself, I know that this family eats well, eats fresh and often simply and frugally as well. How timely, then, that Sara, a top-of-her-class graduate of the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) and for more than 20 years the executive chef at the late, lamented Gourmet magazine, should write exactly the cookbook that busy working moms hunger for whether they’re keeping all balls in the air at the office or at home. What sets Sara’s recipes apart is that they aren’t the open-a-can-of-this-or-box-of-that-variety so often dished up on TV these days. Knowing that prepared foods often contain more fat, calories, cholesterol, and sodium than is good for us, Sara cooks clean and green, not only shopping at the local farmer’s market but also belonging to CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), which connects her directly with local farmers.
The point of Everyday Family Dinners, Sara explains in her introduction:
“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what constitutes dinner. Most of
us tend to make the same ten recipes over and over again. This is boring,
and when you’re bored, you're disinclined to make any dinner at all. Broadly,
this book is a compendium of strategies to wriggle free of the straitjacket
that stipulates starch/vegetable/protein at every meal.”
That said, Sara dishes up such imaginative new strategies as “Appetizers for Dinner” (because she, herself, often prefers apps to mains) . . . “Two for One” (cooking enough for two meals with leftovers ingeniously transformed) . . . “Five-Ingredient Mains” (answered prayers) . . . “Whole Grain and Hearty” (to show Sara’s “growing appreciation for the healthfulness, variety, and flexibility of whole grains”). When it comes to the recipes (I counted 200), Sara covers all bases by including variations for vegetarians, calorie-counters, and finicky eaters (i.e. substitutions for ingredients one or more family members hate). Nor has she forgotten those on limited food budgets.
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“Times have changed since I published my last book in 2005,” Sara writes. “The current recession has inspired me to substitute less expensive but equally flavorful ingredients for the ones I might have called for in my previous books. I rely less on the supermarket in general and on prepared ingredients in particular.”
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Good thinking. Fresh, local ingredients are not only cheaper than chain-store meat, fish, fowl, fruits, and vegetables shipped from distant points of the compass but also more flavorful and nutritious. Riffling through Everyday Family Dinners, I find a decidedly foreign accent – quick, hassle-free recipes loaded with flavor. To name a few that caught my eye: Turkish Poached Eggs with Yogurt and Sage Oil . . . Chorizo-Stuffed Mushrooms . . . Polenta Crostini with Tapenade . . . Tuna Niçoise Sandwiches . . . Asian Chicken Salad with Carrot Ginger Sauce . . . Falafel Salad with Creamy Garlic Dressing . . . Chicken Bouillabaise with Rouille
. . . Hungarian Chicken Livers. But there are plenty of all-American recipes here, too, the majority given a clever Sara spin: Pulled Chicken Barbecue on Beer Bread with Pickled Cucumbers . . . “Fried” Catfish BLTS . . . Chicken Potpie Soup . . . Poached Eggs on Cheesy Grits with Corn . . . Three-Ingredient Apple Crisp, which requires only 15 minutes hands-on time. Here’s that recipe (rewritten in my website style):
THREE- INGREDIENT APPLE CRISP
Makes 6 Servings
If you don’t count the salt (and you shouldn’t), you might wonder how the heck anyone can make a delicious apple crisp with just three ingredients. The answer is by starting with granola, which comes fully loaded with oats, nuts, sugar, and dried fruit. (Is this cheating? Don’t tell anyone.) Note: You can melt the preserves in a microwave or on the top-stove in a small pan over low heat.
- 4 large Golden Delicious apples (about 2 pounds), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup apricot preserves or sweetened fruit spread, melted (see Note above)
- Pinch salt
- 2 cups sweetened granola
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease a shallow 6-cup baking dish.
- Toss apples with melted preserves and salt in baking dish, then spread over bottom of dish. Sprinkle granola evenly over apple mixture.
- Cover dish loosely with lightly greased foil and bake on middle oven rack 30 minutes.
- Remove foil and bake uncovered until apples are tender – about 15 minutes more.
- Serve warm or cold.
Summing Up: This is Sara’s best cookbook to date, a global collection of gotta-try recipes that has me licking my chops. And because this is a “Sara book,” the pages are lavishly illustrated and larded with professional tips. Sara even profiles ingredients you may not know and at the back of the book, provides a list of sources where the more unusual can be found.
 Pig: King of the Southern Table by James Villas ($34.95, Wiley). Whenever Jim Villas steps up to the plate – dinner plate – I know I’m in for a treat. Arguably America’s finest food writer, Jim is knowledgeable, passionate, opinionated. Moreover, he’s fearless when it comes to choosing a cookbook subject and utterly unafraid to speak his mind. All of which make for a delicious read. Who but Jim could produce a page-turner out of a subject like pig? Who but Jim could write so lyrically about souse meat and sausage? Who but Jim could discuss the nuances of barbecue in a way that makes sense? And who but Jim could convince us that there’s a heap of good eatin’ in hog jowl and pig’s feet, chitlins and pork belly? In his preface (titled “A Passion for Pig”), Jim writes:
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“For nearly five centuries, the noble pig has sustained the South through development and prosperity, grief and joy, and defeat and recovery, a veritable symbol not only of survival but also of the
gastronomic excellence that has come to define so many of the distinctive dishes that grace the Southern table. President Harry S. Truman . . . may not have been a legitimate Southerner, but no doubt
he won over the hearts of Rebs from Maryland to Mississippi when he once declared that 'no man should be allowed to be president who does not understand hogs'."
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No one, I suspect, understands hogs better than Jim Villas except maybe some old-time-y hog farmers who know and name their animals. Before getting down to recipes, Jim covers the hog from head to tail. He gives us a Southern Pig Primer and a Southern Pig Glossary. He discusses the kingly Smithfield hams and not-so-kingly country hams, then dives into such controversial subjects as Southern barbecue.
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“It has been said that Southerners never agree on religion, politics, and barbecue,” Jim writes, “and all you have to do to see tempers flare on the last subject is to attend one of the outlandish barbecue champion cook-offs held annually in Lexington and Raleigh, North Carolina; Owensburg, Kentucky; Memphis, Tennessee; Vienna, Georgia; and Lord knows where else.”
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Of course, the proof of any cookbook lies in its recipes and the 300 that Jim serves forth are the best you’re likely to find for pork and ham in all their forms. Among those I’m eager to try: Great Smokies Pork, Leek, and Wild Mushroom Soup . . . Sherried Ham Mouse . . . Spinach, Country Ham, and Egg Salad with Warm Red-Eye Dressing . . . Cajun Chicken and Sausage Gumbo . . . Maw Maw’s Mustard Pork Chops and Dumplings in Cider . . . Savannah Pork Loin Baked in Milk . . . Corky’s Memphis-Style Barbecued Back Ribs. I could go on and
on. Instead, I’ll close with the recipe I aim to make as soon as plump, sun-ripened German Johnsons (my favorite tomato) show up at the farmer’s market. Note: I’ve rewritten Jim’s recipe so it’s consistent with my website style.
BAKED COUNTRY HAM-STUFFED TOMATOES
Makes 8 Servings
Come summertime, Southerners love to stuff large, ripe, home-grown tomatoes with everything from shrimp or chicken salad to herbed rice and meat mixtures to fresh corn and other relishes, but one of the most unusual and delicious versions I ever tasted is this baked one with country ham and fresh basil, created by my own mother. To prevent the stuffing from being too juicy, just be sure to cook the tomato pulp till it loses most of its liquid. Mother has always served these tomatoes as a side dish to large pork roasts, but I find they make a perfect luncheon dish with deviled eggs and a basket of beaten biscuits.
- 8 large large, firm, ripe tomatoes
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
- 2 medium onions, finely chopped
- 1 cup finely chopped lean country ham
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil leaves
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
- Preheat oven to 400° F.
- Core tomatoes, then carefully scoop out pulp and save. Stand hollowed-out tomatoes in a large shallow baking dish or on a rimmed, heavy baking sheet.
- Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a heavy medium-size skillet over moderate heat, add onions and ham, and cook, stirring often, until onions are soft but not brown – about 7 minutes. Add basil, pepper, and reserved tomato pulp and cook, stirring frequently, until almost all juices evaporate – about 8 minutes.
- Fill tomatoes with ham mixture, dividing amount evenly and pressing lightly with a fork.
- Sprinkle tops with bread crumbs, again dividing evenly. Quickly melt remaining butter in a small saucepan and drizzle over bread crumbs.
- Slide onto middle oven rack and bake uncovered until tops are nicely browned – about 20 minutes.
- Serve hot.
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