Benson Matthew - New England open-house cookbook: 300 recipes inspired by the bounty of New England

Open House

Sarah Leah Chase

Food Photography by MATTHEW BENSON

Workman Publishing New York

To the men in my family who have anchored my life in New England:

My husband, Nigel, for being the oyster opener, griller, and lobster cooker in our house and for bringing me that first cup of strong black coffee in bed most mornings.

My father, Dr. Raymond Chase, for his love of both the land and sea, Seth Thomas clocks and Eric Sloane barns, and for educating me in the finest of New England schools.

My brother, Jonathan, for being my closest comrade in all things related to food and family.

My son, Oliver, for telling me a chicken dinner I served him at the age of three was fabulous and for luring me to soccer matches, Little League games, tennis tournaments, and skiing adventures in nooks and crannies of New England I otherwise would have never explored.

My uncle, Paul Madden, for teaching me about whirligigs and weather sticks and always sharing the most engaging and amusing stories about people, places, things, and of course memorable meals.

At this moment I cannot begin to express my great thanks without thinking of the popular adage a picture is worth a thousand words. All five of my previous cookbooks published by Workman were charmingly illustrated by artists. While I have written many thousands of words to accompany the recipes in this book, it is the food photography and colorful New England snapshots that truly make the recipes and the locales that inspired them sparkle in ways that enchant far beyond what words can convey. Great gastronomic gratitude and appreciation goes to food photographer Matthew Benson and the highly talented team assisting himchef and food stylist Chris Lanier, prop stylist Sara Abalan, and Workmans photo director Anne Kerman. My longtime photographer friend Cary Hazlegrove has sometimes harked back to her Southern upbringing by calling me girlfriend. I must now return the favor, for Cary is indeed a girlfriend of the finest kind and one whose exquisite photos of Nantucket and places hither and yonder never fail to bring me and so many others profound joy. Carys generosity garners boatloads of thanks with additional tugboats going to her Nantucket Stock Photography colleagues.

The words, recipes, and photography that have gone into conveying my love of New England could not accurately reflect my heartfelt sentiments were they not pleasingly and palatably organized. Mind you, such is no mean feat, but one that was indeed ingeniously executed by designer Jean-Marc Troadec.

I might still be lost in my opening chapters or up to my neck in a fine kettle of Portuguese Kale Soup were it not for having Apple wizard Scott Reyburn come to my technical rescue time and time again at a moments notice.

A host of fellow New England food lovers, family, and friends contributed to the recipes in this cookbook and I have sung your praises in the extensive headnotes and sidebars peppered throughout New England Open-House. In the limited space I have here, I wish to give a shout-out to those whose time and expertise is unsung: production editor Carol White, copy editor Barbara Mateer, typesetter Annie ODonnell, and photo researcher Michael Di Mascio. When all is said, done, designed, proofed, and publisheda book must sell and another huge round of thanks needs therefore to be bestowed on Workmans marketing and publicity team, most notably Jessica Wiener, Selina Meere, Molly Kay Upton, John Jenkinson, and Jack Masterson, and the whole sales staff.

The person with whom I have worked most closely throughout the entire cookbook writing processgoing from my kitchens chopping block to professionally printed pageis my editor, Suzanne Rafer. There has been a ton of upheaval in the world of publishing since my career in cookbook writing began in 1985 and I am as lucky as I am awed to have had Suzanne Rafer as my steadfast editor and friend for thirty years! Sometimes, I wonder how Suzanne does it all and would be remiss if I did not mention how fortunate we both are that the lovely Sarah Brady is Suzannes assistant.

Finally, the world of food is one filled with enormous fun, indulgences, and lively friendships among colleagues. My culinary and personal life has most certainly been so enriched through my kinship with Ina Garten. Simply put, I must thank the warm and wonderful Ina for just being Ina.

By Ina Garten

I will always remember the first time I met Sarah Chase. It was the late 1980s and I owned a specialty food store in East Hampton, New York, called Barefoot Contessa. At the end of the summer, my husband, Jeffrey, and I took a little vacation to Nantucket. The thing that excited me most about that trip was that we could visit a specialty food store on the island that Id heard so much aboutQue Sera Sarah.

We walked into this charming store with all the smells of warm muffins and freshly baked pies that you would imagine wafting from the kitchen. There wasand I remember this as though it were yesterdaya beautiful young blonde woman at the counter, standing behind an enormous bowl of homemade granola. Jeffrey just happened to be wearing a Barefoot Contessa sweatshirt, and Sarah recognized the name. She introduced herself and I think we both knew at that moment that we had found a kindred spirit. Weve been great friends ever since.

Sarahs amazing Nantucket Open-House Cookbook and Cold-Weather Cooking were published in 1987 and 1990, and I loved them from the moment that I opened them. All the recipes are both simple and elegant, which is what I admire in cooking, and each had a wonderful twist to make it special. Every recipe is something you really want to eatSoft Scrambled Eggs with Lobster, French Bistro Chicken, and Orzo and Roasted Vegetable Salad. All the ingredients were easy to find, and when you prepared a recipe, it came out perfectly every time. What else could you want from a cookbook? These were the cookbooks of my dreams.

After we got to know each other, Sarah came to visit me in East Hampton. I took her on a tour of my worldthe specialty food stores, cheese shops, and farmstands. She particularly loved the farmstands with local produce and took lots of Long Island corn back to Nantucket. We spent hours discussing the best way to make scones and what we look for in chicken soup. We swapped stories of catering private partiesthe good, the bad, and the harrowing days that any caterer has. I always love our time together because Sarah is lovely and smart, and we share a lifelong love of cooking. Ive been cooking for forty-five yearsthirty-five of them professionallyand I havent lost any of my passion for it. Clearly, neither has Sarah! Her later cookbooks, Pedaling Through Provence Cookbook and Pedaling Through Burgundy Cookbook, are both equally extraordinary and I cherish the personal stories and the recipes.

Those of us who love Sarah and her recipes have waited for this New England cookbook for years. Her roots are in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, and her passion is clearly in this cuisine. Each chapter is filled with stories about all the extraordinary local ingredients available in New Englandof course, the fresh lobster, clams, and oysters we associate with the seaside, but also Sarahs own particular favorites along the coast. She introduces us to a local lamb farm in Barnstable on Cape Cod, a creamery in Narragansett that makes a unique Salty Sea Feta, and all the gorgeous New England farmstands that she loves. The recipes in