Shauna Sever - Pure Vanilla: Irresistible Recipes and Essential Techniques

2012 by Shauna Sever
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number: 2011946058

eBook ISBN: 978-1-59474-692-5
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-59474-596-6
Printed in China
Designed by Sugar
Art direction by Katie Hatz
Photography by Leigh Beisch
Prop styling by Sara Slavin
Production management by John J. McGurk

Quirk Books
215 Church St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
quirkbooks.com

v3.1

How was your date?

Ugh he was so vanilla.

Boring. Plain Jane. Vanilla sex, Vanilla Coke, plain vanilla interest-rate swaps. Vanilla Ice, for crying out loud.

Poor vanilla. Poor underestimated vanilla. For years, the word has meant anything but interesting, complex, or exotic. And why? Its probably mostly Vanilla Ices fault, but still

Even with a history as rich as hers, poor vanilla is too often overlooked and misunderstood, a mere afterthought in recipes. Is it because weve taken this lush, soft spice for granted for so long? Been comforted and soothed by her simplicity and her quiet, sweet manner to the point that we consider her only a supporting character and never the star? Hundreds of cookbooks wax poetic about her sexy, super-popular sister chocolate, while vanilla watches longingly from the sidelines, quietly waiting for her due in the culinary world.

Personally, Ill never understand indifference about vanilla, the way some people skip right over it and hurtle straight for the chocolate. Of course, we all have moments when we need a hunk of chocolate and nothing else will do, but Ive always been a Vanilla Person. Loud and proud, I am Totally Vanilla. Ill take vanilla bean ice cream over chocolate explosion any day of the week. Even the most mundane restaurant dessert menu can excite me if a venerable crme brle is included along with the chocolate lava cake and the apple crisp. Ive never thought of vanilla as being, well, vanilla. Its high time to catapult this delicious ingredient into the superstar stratosphere where she so deserves to be!

Vanilla is the worlds most universally loved flavor, and for good reason. No flavor is more widely recognized, used, and enjoyed across the globe. Worldwide, vanilla ice cream sales consistently top other flavors at least 2 to 1. Vanilla extract is in just about every imaginable baked good. Even chocolate contains vanilla, which heightens its chocolaty flavor. Vanilla, it seems, is more versatile and dynamic than just about any foodstuff out there, and yet its synonymous with the plainest, most boring things. No fair!

This book aims to change all that. In these pages, well explore so much more than just a great vanilla ice cream recipe. Well travel through the story of vanilla, from its start as a green pod nestled inside a tropical flower to its transformation into the fragrant beans we all recognize and love. Finally, well dive into a collection of creamy, cakey, buttery, sweet, and even a few savory recipes that all celebrate the unmistakably dreamy flavor of vanillaand are anything but ordinary. Were about to lift this humble culinary background player to icon status.

.

The history of the vanilla bean is every bit as rich and complex as its flavor. It begins with the Totonac Indians of Mexico, who discovered the vanilla orchid and its precious pods more than two thousand years ago. Totonac mythology tells the tale of the anguished princess Xanat, forbidden by her father to marry a mortal. After escaping with her secret lover, the two were captured and beheaded in a bloody massacre, and in the soil where their blood fell, the vine of a vanilla orchid began to bloom. Drama! Intrigue! And thats only a tiny fraction of the fascinating history of the vanilla bean.

THE AZTECS CONQUER THE TOTONAC INDIANS, who are credited with having discovered, cured, and consumed vanilla many years earlier. The Totonacs introduce their techniques to the Aztecs, who popularize the use of vanilla throughout Mexico and Central America.

SPANISH CONQUISTADOR HERNN CORTS ARRIVES IN MEXICO. Wined and dined by the Aztec emperor Montezuma, Corts is blown away by the flavor of vanilla that he tastes in many Aztec dishes, particularly a very early, and very bitter, version of hot chocolate. Although the vanilla bean was known in Europe several years earlier, it was used only as a perfume until Corts enthusiastically brought the beans back to Spain and shared their newfound edible uses.

THE TREND OF FLAVORING BEVERAGES AND DESSERTS WITH VANILLA BEANS finds favor with the European upper class, namely Queen Elizabeth I, who is known to have a legendary sweet tooth. Vanilla establishes itself as a star flavor in custards, puddings, and cakes, especially in France and Italy.

VANILLA FALLS OUT OF FAVOR IN SPAIN, displaced by cinnamon, a cheaper and more widely available flavoring. But vanilla continues to gain popularity in France, where advanced pastry-making techniques are being developed. In fact, it becomes so popular that the French try to grow their own vanilla orchids on the French colony of Bourbon Island (now called Runion). The flowers fail to produce pods, and the mystery of how the Mexicans successfully grew vanilla for centuries remains intact.

THOMAS JEFFERSON, THEN U.S. AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE, FALLS IN LOVE WITH THE FLAVOR OF VANILLA and carries a bundle of beans home to Monticello. A gourmand and ice-cream-making fanatic with a voracious appetite for sweets, Jefferson is often credited with introducing vanilla to Americans. He impresses guests with his vanilla desserts served at elaborate dinner parties; today his vanilla ice cream recipe is stored in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.