My mother promulgated a great sense of celebration and specialness to her children's birthdays. This was related to the fact that when it came time for her own mother, a child immigrant whose real birthdate was lost in a Ukranian shtetl, to choose a date for her birth, she chose the same day as my mother's. Growing up I always rather liked the idea that my mother and grandmother had the same birthday, but my mother absolutely hated it, and felt that her special day had been "stolen" by her mother. Consequently, doing what many parents do to heal themselves, we were always given fabulous birthday parties with lots of guests, gifts, and most of all, spectacular tiered birthday cakes, baked & decorated by my mother herself, cake decorating being her chosen artistic outlet. As an adult, I would never consider going to work on my birthday unless it was totally unavoidable, and usually try to pack the day doing things that I love - nice meals, friends, shopping, a spa visit, etc.
Last week I started mulling over what I would cook for a special fantasy birthday dinner, and with my chef de barbeque's assistance it came to pass in an abbreviated but most satisfactory form:
Menu
Fromage d'Affinois & Asiago fresca with panzanella crackers
Gazpacho Andaluz
Popovers
Bistecca alla Fiorentina
Vegetables en brochette
Al Di La's Torta di Pere (Bittersweet Chocolate & Pear Cake)
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| The man of mystery himself- Mr. Vincent Price |
The gazpacho recipe is my adaptation of one served at Botin, a restaurant in Madrid founded c. 1725. Yea these many long years ago (well, about 30 years ago) I actually ate gazpacho at Botin, but the recipe comes via a truly delightful vintage 1960's cookbook- A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price. Yes that Vincent Price, star of many a bloodcurdling B monster movie, who evidently was quite a gourmand when he wasn't sipping blood. The cookbook is a compendium of recipes from what were at the time some of the world's most illustrious restaurants, many of which, sadly have closed their doors- from dinner at Tour d'Argent in Paris to breakfast on the Santa Fe Super Chief. Probably the most amusing recipe is the one for frankfurters from the newly opened (at the time) LA Dodgers stadium, Chavez Ravine.
Gazpacho Andaluz
serves 4-6.
6 slices white bread, cubed
3 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded & chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 quart tomato juice
1 clove garlic
2 Tb wine vinegar
1/2 t. cumin
salt & pepper
3 Tb olive oil
Garnishes
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 lg. tomato
1 cucumber
Baguette slices rubbed with garlic and olive oil, and toasted. (Recipe here.)
Layer the bread and chopped vegetables in a large bowl. Pour tomato juice over all. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Puree the soup in a food processor with the garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and cumin. Correct the seasonings. Chill for at least 2 hours.
Chop garnish vegetables and mix together. Sprinkle on top of each serving of soup. Serve cold with baguette croutons.
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| Hard to match the satisfaction of pulling these babies out of the oven! |
Palo Alto baking goddess Flo Braker's recipe. Declared by our guests to be better than Neiman's (Marcus, that is.) To prevent sticking, be sure to generously butter the muffin cups and extract the popovers asap.
2 eggs
1 c. whole milk at room temp
1 Tb melted butter
1 c. flour
½ t. salt
Adjust the oven rack to the lower third of the oven; and preheat the oven to 400°. Generously grease 6 popover cups or a large muffin size tin with butter.
Combine the eggs, milk, melted butter, flour, and salt in a blender or food processor; process for about 40 seconds. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times and blend until the mixture is completely smooth.
To make by hand, whisk together the eggs, milk, and butter in a large bowl. Add the flour and salt and beat until very smooth.
Pour the batter into the cups or tin, filling each ½ to 2/3 full. Bake until the popovers are puffed and golden brown, 35-40 minutes. Do not open the oven door during baking or the popovers will collapse.
Serve with butter and jam of your choice.
Makes 6-8 popovers. (Flo Braker; SF Chronicle, 1993.)
Bistecca alla Fiorentina
We have gorged on many wonderful specimens of this fine thick cut Porterhouse steak. The one eaten at Mamma Gina in Florence in 2007 has been memorialized on our computerized photo frame, and more recently a nice one was shared among three of us at perennial favorite Cantinetta Luca in Carmel last July. This recipe is courtesy of Saveur magazine, issue #157.
Serves 4
2 (1½″- 2 " thick) bone-in porterhouse steaks (3½ lb.) at room temperature
¼ cup olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 sprigs rosemary
Lemon wedges, for serving
Heat a charcoal grill or set a gas grill to high; bank the coals or turn off burner on one side. Brush the steaks with half the oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the steaks on the hottest part of grill, flipping once, until browned, 4-6 minutes. Using rosemary sprigs as a brush, baste the steaks with the remaining oil. Cook to desired doneness, 4-6 minutes more for medium rare, or until an instant-read thermometer reads 125°. If the outside starts to burn before the steak is fully cooked, move to the cooler side of the grill until done. Let steaks rest 5 minutes; slice against the grain along the bone. Serve with lemon wedges.
Vegetables en brochette
For 4 people. Just made this up on the fly.
4 small zucchini, ends removed & cut in 1" chunks
8-10 large mushrooms, stems trimmed & cut in half vertically
8 (or more) 1" diameter boiling potatoes
1 red bell pepper, seeded & cut in 1 1/2" squares
1 green bell pepper, seeded & cut in 1 1/2" squares
olive oil for brushing
salt & pepper
6-8 12" wooden skewers, soaked for 1 hour in water
Parboil the potatoes for about 20 minutes until they are just cooked. Alternately thread the vegetables on skewers. Brush with olive oil and cook on the grill along with the meat, turning once or twice. cooking time is about ten minutes.
Al Di La's Pear- Chocolate Cake from Smitten Kitchen failed quality control- too done on the outside and underdone in the middle. Having had an underdone cake disaster earlier in the week, I went overboard, or rather, overbaked. Will try it again soon using a tube pan. Instead I offer a tried and true family recipe
Nadine’s Cheesecake (photo to follow)
While people from the East Coast usually say this isn’t rich enough, it's rich enough for us! The legend in our family is that this recipe was the origin of Saralee’s cheesecake. In the 1940's a member of the family from Los Angeles that started Saralee was hospitalized in Fresno, and my grandmother didn't know her well enough to justify buying her flowers, so she baked her a cheesecake instead. When the woman recovered she asked for the recipe, and little did my grandmother know what would become of it!
1 1/2 boxes vanilla wafers
1/2 c. butter, melted
3/4 c. sugar
3 Tb flour
1/4 t. salt
24 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
6 eggs, separated
2 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. sour cream
Preheat the oven to 325°.
Crumble the vanilla wafers into crumbs and mix with the butter. Press them onto the bottom and sides of a 9 1/2” springform pan. Refrigerate.
Blend the sugar, flour, salt, and cream cheese together until well mixed, then add the egg yolks, vanilla, and sour cream. Blend well, until smooth.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, and fold them into the cream cheese mixture. Pour the batter into the crumb-lined pan. Bake 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 hours, until nicely browned on top. The cake may crack a little. When done, cover the cake with a clean dishtowel and leave in the turned off oven until it has cooled. Refrigerate until serving time.
Sprinkle top with powdered sugar before serving.
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