“OCTOBER” from “Like Water for Chocolate,” by Laura Esquivel
The expression of feeling through food is the central metaphor of this novel and the film that followed. In this chapter, Tita makes “cream fritters” for her sister, Gertrudis, the revolutionary general, while debating how to tell the family she is pregnant with her other sister’s husband’s child.
Baked Custard
In the story, cubes of custard are rolled in egg white and fried, but we decided to skip that step and just serve the custard with the spiced syrup. From Post food editor Kristen Browning-Blas, serves 6-8.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup half and half or whipping cream
4 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Nutmeg
Directions
In a medium saucepan, scald milk and cream (bring to a boil over medium-high and remove from heat). In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add sugar, salt and vanilla. Blend in milk.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 2-quart baking dish and pour in milk mixture. Sprinkle with a few grains of nutmeg.
Place a larger pan in the oven and fill halfway with water. Place custard dish in water bath and bake 1 hour.
Cinnamon-Orange Syrup
You can use the spices suggested here, or lemon and anise, star anise, cloves, allspice-whatever you prefer.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
5 long strips orange zest
1-inch piece vanilla bean (optional)
Directions
In a medium saucepan, heat all ingredients over medium- high until boiling. Do not stir. After syrup reaches a boil, lower heat to medium-low and simmer until it turns a golden caramel color.
Serve with custard.
Wine ideas: Smooth and creamy and not too sweet (unless you really douse it with syrup), custard can handle a rich, thick dessert wine. One of the best buys in the land of stickies are the golden, honeyed sweet muscat wines from Samos, the sunniest island in Greece, which can be had for less than $15 a bottle.
-Tara Q. Thomas
“WOMAN LOSES COOKIE BAKE-OFF, SETS SELF ON FIRE,”
by Robert Olen Butler
This story about a widowed baker captures the competition between two friends as they try to impress the judges and grieve their husbands. Many cookies appear in the story, but we chose a version of the narrator’s Peanut Butter Bouquets.
Peanut Butter Wafers
From “Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking,” makes 30 cookies. Tested at high altitude.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups flour
1 scant teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (if you use salted butter, omit the 1/4 teaspoon salt)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, room temperature
1/2 cup coarsely ground salted peanuts
Directions
In a bowl, sift flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, combine butter and sugars. Beat until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and beat until blended. Mix in dry ingredients until will blended. Blend in peanut butter.
Cover bowl and place in refrigerator 15 mintues to firm. Divide dough in thirds and form into logs 5 inches long and about 2 inches in diameter. Spread ground peanuts on waxed paper or a rimmed baking sheet and roll logs in peanuts, pressing them gently into dough. Wrap logs in plastic and refrigerate 2 hours until firm.
Place a rack in the middle of oven and preheat to 325. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Cut logs crosswise into 1/3-inch slices. Place cookies 1 inch apart on baking sheets. Bake 1 tray at a time until edges of cookies are lightly colored, about 12-15 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheet 5 mintues, then remove to wire racks.
“COOKING IN THE NUDE,” by Isabel Allende
When a woman answers a personal ad and is disappointed by her date’s looks, she decides “to prepare some last-minute spaghetti, feed him in a hurry and send him on his way before dessert … once in the kitchen, however, something about him changed … with unexpected grace and dexterity, his knives flashed as they danced over vegetables and shellfish … in a thrice had prepared a translucent cilantro-and-lemon sauce…”
Spaghetti a la Pescatore
Called White Wine Seafood Sauce in the excellent “Get Saucy,” by Grace Parisi, this recipe serves 6.
Ingredients
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 dozen cockles or Manila clams, scrubbed
2 dozen mussels, scrubbed and debearded
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup water
1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 pound cleaned small squid, bodied but into 1/4-inch wide rings, and tentacles cut in half
1/2 pound bay or sea scallops, quartered
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons finley chopped fresh Italian parsely leaves
1 teaspoon finely chopped oregano or cilantro leaves
1/2 teaspoons hot chile oil
1 pound spaghetti or fettuccine, cooked
2 minutes less than recommended time (very al dente)
Directions
Heat oil in a large, deep skillet with a tight-
fitting lid over high heat until shimmering. Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until golden, about 1 minute.
Add clams and mussels and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Add wine and water, cover and cook until most of the shells are open, 4-5 minutes.
Add remaining seafood, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until cooked through, 3-4 minutes longer.
Add cooked pasta and let it soak up some broth, 2-3 mintues. Just before serving, stir in parsley, oregano or cilantro and hot chile oil. Serve immediately.
Wine ideas: The best accompaniment to a bowl of this seafood would be a whiff of salty sea air carried across the beach on which you’re dining. When you’re miles from the beach, though, look for a wine that’s as crisp and minerally as that bracing breeze; one that has the acidity to cut through a tentacle as well as the body to caress a sweet, plump shrimp. Something like a Greco di Tufo from the volcanic soils of Campania; Feudi di San Gregorio makes an exemplary version for about $20.-Tara Q. Thomas
“THE LAST CHINESE CHEF,” by Nicole Mones
In her third novel, the author of “Lost in Translation” tells the story of a chef who grew up in a home where “remarks on cuisine would lead naturally to remarks on poetry, and eventually poems themselves would be invented, inspired by food, lubricated by wine.” When the Communists close his family’s restaurant and transfer him to an assembly-line dumpling house, he makes baozi all day: “Each glossy-white bun had to be in the shape of a tight-budded chrysanthemum, closed at the top with no less than 18 pleats.”
Barbecued Pork Buns
“The best food can rest on the simplest ingredients. And there is nothing higher in its way than a fragrant, light-as-a-cloud meat bun,” says the narrator. This is a long process but worth the effort, and would be fun to make in a group. Adapted from “Classic Chinese Cuisine,” by Nina Simonds. Makes about 36 buns.
Ingredients
Basic yeast dough:
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups warm water (110-115 degrees, usually the hottest tap water works)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
6 cups flour
2 tablespoons peanut, safflower or corn oil, plus more for greasing the bowl
2 teaspoons baking powder
Barbecued pork:
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine or sake
1 tablespoons ketchup
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds boneless center-cut pork loin
Bun sauce:
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon ketchup
1-2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed into 1/4 cup water
Directions
Dough: Dissolve sugar in water, stir in yeast. Let mixture sit 10 minutes until foamy.
Place flour in a large bowl, add yeast mixture and oil. Using a wooden spoon or the paddle attachment on a stand mixture, mix into a rough dough. By hand: Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 8-10 minutes, adding flour by the tablespoon if sticky. In mixer: Switch to dough hook and mix on medium to medium-high speed about 8 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic.
Lightly grease a large bowl. Place dough in bowl and turn so all sides are oiled. Cover bowl with a damp cloth and let rise 4 hours in a warm area. (At this point, you can cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature and allow to rise up to 3 hours.)
Uncover dough, punch down and make a well in the center. (If you run out of time after punching down the dough, and it has not yet been refrigerated, you can cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Allow to come to room temperature before adding baking powder.) Place baking powder in the well and gather up edges of dough around it. Knead to incorporate evenly.
Pork: In a medium bowl, combine all marinade ingredients. Remove fat and gristle from pork loin. Cut meat into strips about 3 inches thick. Place in marinade and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight, turning occasionally.
Preheat oven to 350. Arrange meat on well-greased baking sheet or roasting pan, cover with marinade. Bake 30-45 minutes. Cool and shred or cut into 1/4-inch pieces. Heat a wok or skillet, add all sauce ingredients except cornstarch and water, and bring to a boil. Add cornstarch mixture, lower heat and stir until thickened. Add chopped pork and toss to coat. Cool.
Buns: Separate dough into two sections. On a lightly floured surface, form each piece into a long roll about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Cover one roll with a damp towel. Cut the other roll into 3/4-inch segments. Place all but 1 segment under damp towel. Flatten segment into a 3-inch circle, with the edges thinner than the middle.
Place 1 tablespoon pork in the center of the dough wrapper. Gather the edges into pleats, pinching as you work around filling. Pinch and twist the final pleat closed. Place finished buns at least 1 inch apart on steamer trays that have been lined with wet cheesecloth or parchment paper punched with holes.
Fill a wok with water level with the bottom edge of steamer tray and heat until boiling. Place 1 tray of buns over boiling water, cover and steam over high heat 15-20 minutes, or until buns are puffed and springy. Remove and steam remaining buns. To reheat, steam over high heat for 10 minutes.
Wine ideas: Barbecued pork buns are perfect pocket food for eating on the run. The idea of pairing wine with them is, frankly, a little strange. But if you go to the trouble to make pork buns from scratch, why not serve them with a flourish, like a glass of wine? The challenge is finding a wine that won’t overwhelm the soft, bland dough, will stand up to the rich meat, and can deal with the sweetness of the sauces. The answer: a rich style of champagne, like Gosset, or a fruity prosecco, like Ombra ($15). -Tara Q. Thomas
“W IS FOR WANTON” from “An Alphabet for Gourmets,” by M.F.K. Fisher
In this chapter, the essayist muses on the best way to seduce and not seduce a man. To culminate in the “flowering of mutual desire,” she would serve Scotch, a clear soup, “light curry of shrimps or crayfish tails … soaked in rich milk,” and a dessert based on chilled cooked fruits. She goes on to brag that she could “easily invent a menu that would floor him like a stunned ox” by serving “one too may martinis, that is, about three … rich, salty Italian hors d’oeuvres … ragout of venison or squabs stuffed with mushrooms and wild rice, and plenty of red wine, sure danger after the cocktails and the highly salted appetizers,” and a venomous dessert of kirsch-soaked figs with heavy cream. “I would, to put it mildly, rest inviolate.”
Thai Green Curry
The green curry paste contains chile, lemongrass, galangal (a pungent root), garlic and lime. It’s sold in grocery stores and makes a great shortcut to authentic Thai flavor. Serves 4.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste
1 can coconut milk (light or regular)
1/4 cup fresh basil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup fish sauce
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 small onion, sliced thin
1 yellow tomato, cut into wedges
1 red tomato, sliced in 1-inch pieces or cut into wedges
1 peach, cut into wedges
1 mild chile pepper, cut into strips
1 jalapeño, chopped (optional)
1 pound shrimp (or chicken strips or tofu cubes)
Cooked jasmine rice
Directions
In a medium saucepan, combine curry paste and coconut milk. Simmer 5 minutes. Add basil, brown sugar, fish sauce, stock, onion, tomato, peach and peppers. Cook 10 minutes. Add shrimp and cook 5 minutes more, or until shrimp are done. Serve over rice.
Wine ideas: “By preference, I would serve a moderately dry champagne from the curry on through the last course,” writes M.F.K. Fisher. I love Thai green curries, and I love wine. And I have spent years trying to convince myself that I love Thai green curries with wine. Rieslings work well – especially the very low-alcohol ones with a sweet edge from Germany – as do some dry, floral oddities like Ironstone’s Symphony, a hybrid of muscat and grenache gris. But nothing feels as satisfying as the soft, sudsy bubbles and low alcohol of a cold beer – a simple one like Singha. -Tara Q. Thomas
