A Salute To Julia Reed

Southern cooks really are the backbone of American cooking. Their recipes reflect the history and ingredients that make up American cooking. Julia Reed was one such chef. She created some amazing and often fun recipes that are perfect for any US table, Southern or not.

Regular contributor , Kim Severson, a Southern based writer paid homage to this great chef in Wednesday's New York Times Food section. Ms Reed died a week ago at the age of fifty-nine of cancer. She still would have had many years ahead of her, creating interesting dishes and celebrating her heritage. She interestingly started out in political writing, with a famous article about George and Laura Bush along with pieces on Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush and former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards,a famed gambler and womanizer. Politics turned to food as she wrote articles about cuisine for Vogue,  Elle Decor and Garden and Gum magazines. It was a Southern inspired cocktail party for her Vogue colleagues that pushed her to write food articles for the New York Times. She served ham biscuits and beef tenderloins on yeast rolls, a novelty for food snob Manhattanites. Now her recipes are back in the paper. There is summer squash casserole along with hot cheese olives. Two very Southern classics , milk punch and pralines are also included.Ms. Reed was also a world class traveler and fell in love with rosemary scented steak at Nino's in Rome.  She adapted another great chef's Paula Wolfert's recipe for it.

These are fun recipes to herald in a new season.The squash casserole has a Southern  cuisine staple in it, Ritz crackers.Ms. Reed famously included Uncle Ben's Rice and Pepperidge Farm Very Thin white bread in her cookbook Julia Reed's Cookbook,  out in 2016. There is also toasted white bread in this recipe too. The star is yellow summer squash which is the main ingredient.It's enriched by eggs, whole cream and sharp Cheddar cheese and given bite with jalapenos and cayenne pepper. Serve it with Roman steak which she got from Paula Wolfert's book Mediterranean Cooking.  This is an easy make with marinating the meat in an olive oil, mashed garlic and crushed rosemary marinade and then grilling it for  a few minutes.  You could also serve her hot cheese olives which are green olives baked in a cheesy , cayenne laced dough. Of course any of these would go well with Ms. Reed's milk punch. This is a rich drink of vanilla ice cream or heavy cream mixed with a simple syrup and a heady mix of four cups of brandy and two cups of bourbon. Nutmeg is sprinkled on for some color. End with pralines. This candy is a lush mix of  dark brown and white sugars and cooked with evaporated milk. Butter and pecan pieces are added for more flavor. It's dropped as rounds onto parchment paper. These would even make nice thank you favors too. because they have to be individually wrapped once cooled.

Julia Reed was an amazing writer who brought Southern cooking to light. Thanks to her  we can taste classic American cooking.  Her recipes like her reputation, will live on.

Cooking With Dementia

The diagnosis of dementia is scary  to begin with but imagine how a cook would feel. The loss of memory means the loss of  recipes and techniques. However there is one cook who is conquering it with cooking and eating  helpful foods.

Kim Severson wrote about this cook,Paula Wolfert , who's also  the food writer suffering from Alzheimer's disease in today's New York Times Food section.Her name may sound familiar to some. She was the one who introduced tangines and couscous to a generation of American home chefs and foodies . The dementia will not deter or define her. After all she and her two small chldren were left in Morrocco by a cad of a husband.She only has two thousand dollars then and no where to go  Her drive ,which propels her today, enabled her to live with some of the Beat Generations' most notable personalities in 1959. She discovered cooking as a young bride, taking classes from the French teacher, Dione Lucas, known for her omelets. Ms. Wolfert then became her assistant , with occasional cooking gigs arranged by none other than famed chef, James Beard. That didn';t work and she followed  her then first husband to Morocco where she wandered the souks or bazaars, picking up exotic spices and recipes. In 1973 her first cookbook "Couscous and Other Good Food From Morrocco" celebrating what she absorbed in the North African country. Other books that followed were centered around the cooking of Southwestern France, Spain and other parts of the Mediterranean. Now her life is being explored in a new biography, "Unforgetable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert's Renegade Life."

The renegade spirit is what is also getting her through this difficult time too. Since 2013, Ms Wolfert has been  dealing with the problems that come with the disease Words on the page were not making sense to her while questions were now baffling her. The worst part was when he had to ask her novelist husband, William Bayer how to make an omelet. As always she didn;t take time to feel sorry for herself, she sprang into action. Ms. Wolfert  She culled knowledge from Internet research, her doctors,and from dementia patients . There were also lengthy FaceTime conversations with friends and experts. From all this she has created a diet that will  help stave off the debilitating effects of this disease.She makes bulletproof coffee,a  high-quality java that is bolstered with grass fed butter and "Brain Octane Oil", an eight carbon fraction of  medium chain triglyceride oil, the last is saturated in fatty acids. It boosts  cognitive powers She also munches on squares of dark chocolate which slow down the dementia's progress as well as eating more salmon, berries and greens along with the extracts of eggplant,tumeric and cinnamon. Carbohydrates are off the table.. They can bring on the risk of Alzheimer.s

Paula Wolfert is not just a brave cook, introducing the US to delicious exotic foods, but also a brave person. She will not let this disease define her,She is curing her self as only a chef can - with good , healthy food.

Chicken And Jam

A good meal should have one simple classic dish and one complex highly flavored one. The new York Times Food section delivered this yesterday in two recipes from two of their star writers. Melissa Clark gives us hints and instructions on how to create the perfect roast chicken while David Tanis has a great recipe for Moroccan herbed jelly. Bring them together for a dinner party for a widely varied meal, full of flavors and textures.

Novice home chefs would do well by reading  A Good Appetite in yesterday's New York Times' food section.Melissa Clark show how to easily roast a chicken. It starts with a trip to your local supermarket or butcher's shop and try to get the best, usually a free range , antibiotic bird is the best choice. Once you bring it home, then salt it.It should b brined about a day before the actual roasting. Also leave it uncovered  in the fridge so the skin can dry out a it Doing this gives the finished roast a nce golden, burnished look.For flavoring, salt and pepper  = that goes without saying - but also herbs. Try the "twiggy" ones like rosemary, bay leaves and thyme. These will release less moisture than other herbs.If you prefer a lemony flavor , then use curls of lemon rind as opposed to lemon wedges.You can truss or tie up  the legs if you want but it really doesn't male a difference. Ms. Clark recommends using a sauce such as chimichurri or Béarnaise, but personally I'd go with just the plain  chicken. A roast chicken is flavorful on it's own.

You could make David Tanis. herbed Moroccan jam to go with the roast. The recipe was taken from Paula Wolfert's 1973 cookbook, "Couscous And Other Good Food From Morocco."It's not a jam in the traditional sense, it refers to the slow cooking down of ingredients. It's a favorite dish of acclaimed chef Russell, Moore of Camino Restaurant in Oakland, California and he has put it in his newly released cookbook "This Is Camino" He has tweaked the recipe  so that instead of using foraged greens it uses the more domesticated ones such as lettuce along with parsley and carrots. Kale and broccoli rabe are also added along with celery tops and cilantro. Spice and heat come in the form of cumin and hot chiles.The jam method begins with first steaming the greens, completely drying them out and then cooking the down in  pepper infused olive oil.The process only takes ten to fifteen minutes and then you can be served. Finish with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Mr. Tanis recommends serving it with pita but if you want try it as a sauce with Ms. Clark's roast chicken if you want.

Try  Melissa Clark's roasted chicken recipe for an  elegant dish. Serve it or have it follow Dave Tanis' exotic herbed jelly .They're a perfect blend of simple and complex, great for dinner or even supper.