Evans - Fearless cooking for company: Michele Evans most requested recipes

Published by TIMES BOOKS, The New York Times Book Co., Inc. 130 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10011

Published simultaneously in Canada by Fitzhenry 8c Whiteside, Ltd., Toronto

Copyright 1984 by Michele Evans

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Evans, Michele.
Fearless cooking for company.

1. Cookery. I. Title.
TX715.E884 1984 641.5 83-40088
eISBN: 978-0-307-80111-1

Coordinating Editor: Rosalyn T. Badalamenti

v3.1

Contents

Copyright

Introduction

The serious cook is always delighted when company applauds a meal with words like superb, delicious, and bravo, but the ultimate compliment received at any table is the question: May I have a copy of that recipe? How to cook fearlessly for company came to me many years ago one evening after a dinner party when a departing guest paid me that ultimate compliment, and requested copies of the recipes for several of the dishes Id served. I closed the door, exhilarated. It was then I realized that cooking for company could always be rewarding and fearless for the cook if most of the dishes served were selected from an exclusive collection of requested recipes: recipes that could be counted on.

This book includes ten years of most requested recipes, my own and those of family, friends, and gracious chefs in restaurants from around the world who have all generously shared their secrets. Now I always ask for the recipe for an outstanding dish, no matter where the setting or what the circumstance. At worst, you flatter the cook, and, at best, you gain both a friend and a new addition to your kitchen library. Some of these most requested recipes are adaptations from the works of talented food enthusiasts and professionals who have inspired me over the years with their extraordinary creativity and skillful executions. Some are based on references to foods, cooking styles, and techniques of different countries and periods in the pages of novels, historical literature, and travel books. But as a cooking instructor at the London Cordon Bleu once suggested, we often find our most prized recipes by being open to food wherever we are. From my earliest cooking experiences in Great Bend, Kansas, where I was born, to Texas, Istanbul, Peking, Kyoto, and Veniceand to Southampton, New York, and St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands, where I do much of my writing and testingstaying open to food has been a constant source of education and pleasure. Some of the best cooking ideas are found as we travel. Exposure to different styles and cultures, the mood of adventure, a more leisurely approach to diningall bring us in contact with foods that can serve as perfect highlights when cooking for company. All it takes is a healthy curiosity and a notebook.

In St. Thomas recently, I discovered Roti at a lunch wagon parked next to the old fort in Charlotte Amalie. Roti is a flat bread from Trinidad. It has evolved into a dish of a spicy thick curried ragout, which is rolled up in a giant crpe and served with chutney. I tasted one and asked the native St. Thomian cook of that rolling restaurant for the recipe. He beamed with pride and gave me an oral account. After some experimentation, his recipe for this unusual delicacy developed into one of the most requested recipes in this book.

The tendency to assume that cooking for company is always elaborate and time-consuming is unfortunate and often inhibiting. The fearless cook never shrinks from a special dish that requires careful planning and skilled preparation, but many dishes that please company most are both easy and quick.

This collection ranges from nearly instant dishes made from fresh and some prepared foods to elaborate presentations that require time and totally fresh ingredients. In either case, never look the other way when a short cut allows you to save time and effort without sacrificing taste and quality. We can be as proud of the food processor and canned whole cranberries as we can of the fresh fruits and vegetables that we plant, pick, and peel ourselves.

Included is a special section of cooking for crowds, with recipes and menus that serve 12 or 24. Cooking for crowds often dictates the serving of roasts, baked hams, and salads, but there are other unusual and tempting crowd-pleasers.

All entres in the book are accompanied by serving suggestions, with capital letters signifying recipes that are in the book.

Some recipes may appear basic, but they are included to remind the reader of fundamental procedures, techniques, and timing. For example, the recipe for the classic Cooked Asparagus is included to remind cooks that asparagus must be peeled before cooking, and usually cooked no longer than 6 minutes.

The first chapter, Mise en Place (or putting everything in its place), suggests ways of organizing the preparation of a recipe in the most efficient manner possible. Organization is as important to the home cook as it is to the chef in the largest restaurant kitchen, and it is one of the critical keys to good anxiety-free cooking for company.

Whether you entertain often, only on special occasions, or whenever the mood strikes you, I hope that these recipes will become part of your own treasured collectionrecipes that your company will ask for, and that you will pass on with pleasure.

Mise en Place

The French phrase mise en place means, literally, putting things in their place. Chefs often use the term when assembling the food, equipment, and utensils and completing any procedure necessary before beginning to cook a dish. Lets do the mise en place, theyll say.

Organization is vital in efficient good cooking. In the end it always saves time and, inevitably, affects the quality of the dish. Every recipe in this cookbookor any cookbookshould be completely read through before shopping, mise en place, and cooking a dish.

The mise en place includes setting out all the ingredients in proper amounts, getting the pots, pans, knives, bowls, utensils, and equipment needed ready and close at hand to use. If an ingredient needs to be chilled, softened, or heated in advance of the actual cooking, thats mise en place. Plates and bowls might require chilling or warming or a baking sheet may need to be greased. Mise en place also means dicing, slicing, cubing, chopping, husking, seeding, shelling, grating, and grinding. When a recipe reads Melt the butter and add the chopped onions, the onions should already have been chopped.