At Home with May and Axel Vervoordt

I have two words for you -- food porn.   At Home with May and Axel Vervoordt is a big old book of food porn. I am not saying it is wrong.  I am just saying it is!   Frankly, no one loves food porn more than me.  Clearly, if you were hanging out in Belgium and May Vervoordt says come on over for quick bite, you would go.   The food would be great.  The food in this cookbook is nice and tasty.  There are a lot of ingredients that sit squarely on the spice rack.  There is not a lot of meat.  The food is surrounded by dreamy castle shots and rich place settings. A reasonably accomplished home cook could pull off anyone of these recipes and be the toast of the kitchen.  I don't mean to complain, but lets review.

If you lived here:

If your husband was a noted antiques dealer and decorator whose clients list included Bill Gates and Sting:

If you has access to a vast array of dishes and china and whatnot's: 

 If you oversee a staff nearing 100 including your chef:

My best guest is that you could set a nice table with nifty grub for family and friends.  It is not a criticism, it is just a fact.  You might pick a nice dessert like this one.

Pears With Citrus Fruits and Cinnamon

 
4 small pears
1 orange
I lemon
2 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon chopped fresh gingerroot
1 pinch of saffron powder
½ cup agave syrup

Peel the pears and cut them in half lengthwise. Cut the orange and lemon into ¼ inch strips, retaining the skin.

To make the syrup, boil 2 cups water. Add the cinnamon stick, ginger, saffron, lemon and orange strips, and let infuse for 10 minutes. Poach the pears in this liquid, heated to 175-195 degrees, for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the pears to cool in the pan.

Remove the pears from the pan. Strain the juice. Pour the juice over the pears and serve.

May likes them with a nice chocolate dessert or with one's morning muesli.  Yes it is basically poached pears.  But it is poached pears with lemon and ginger and saffron and agave syrup.  Poached pears fit for the finest trailer park or 50 room castle.  Enjoy.

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Heart of the Artichoke

David Tanis is a chef. Granted he is the head chef at Chez Panisse, which has a more laid back, ingredient vibe than say... The Four Seasons, but he is still a head chef so you have to think, big old complicated recipes. Here is where Tanis is brilliant. The recipes really do feature the food. The clean, only slightly fussed with, fine ingredients that one really wants to eat. Heart of the Artichoke is Tanis' second book. It follows up on his first book A Platter of Figs which shares the same clean edible and "cookable" recipes.

While I am the first to embrace immersion circulators and having a huge tank of liquid nitrogen in my kitchen, there is something remarkable to be said for some one who can look a a beautiful pile of green beans (how pedestrian) and turn them into Green Bean Salad with Pickled Shallots, a dish that is one the one hand so simple and on the other so complex and beautiful, not to mention it a dish that even the most challenged cook cold pull off with total aplomb.

Don't get me wrong, while I adore the Stand Around Melon with Mint, your basic melon balls with mint sprinkled on the top, there are some very involved recipes, like Pho with its nearly thirty ingredients. But for the most part, these recipes are easy to do and would make even the most finicky eater happy.

How could I resist my favorite poached pears. Tanis says that he often finds poached pears in spice end up coming off like a really bad mulled wine. Here he takes a light and delicate approach.

Spiced Pears in Red Wine

8 slightly under ripe small Comice or Anjou pears
1 (750-ml) bottle medium-bodied red wine, such as Côtes du Rhone
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 whole cloves
A wide strip each of lemon and orange peel

1. Peel the pears top to bottom with a sharp vegetable peeler, leaving them whole, with stems attached and the core intact.

2. Put the pears in a large wide nonreactive pot (enameled or stainless steel) in one layer. Stir the wine and sugar together in a bowl to dissolve the sugar, pour over the pears, and add the aromatics. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Poach the pears for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted encounters no resistance. Remove from the heat and let cool, in the poaching liquid, overnight.

3. The next day, with a slotted spoon, transfer the pears to a platter. Heat the poaching liquid over high and boil down until it is reduced by half. Strain this syrup into a bowl and let cool.

4. Use a paring knife to cut a small slice off the bottom of each pear, allowing them to stand up straight. Stand the pears in a deep rectangular glass or plastic container large enough to contain them in one layer.

5. Pour the cooled syrup over the pears. Refrigerate for up to several days. Serve chilled, putting each pear in a soup plate and spooning over a little syrup.

Today is a steamy, muggy summer day. What a lovely end to any meal.

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Pears

My favorite fruit is the pear. As a child we lived in many a cold and inhospitable climate. There were weeks of long frozen days and nights. Each year, my Father’s sister sent a box of pears from Harry & David. They came in a thick two-part cardboard box that was almost as exquisite as the pears. Each pear was wrapped in a lovely deep forest tissue paper. Pears are the best fruit to mail as they ripen off the tree. When the pears arrived, they were hard green globes that needed days to sit and ripen. It was almost more than one could bear, waiting for those pears to ripen.

Linda West Eckhardt wrote a small, exquisite book, Pears, about my favorite fruit (well, she didn’t actually write it because of me, though I like to claim it). Pears are extremely versatile. The make great desserts, they are the best in preserves and chutneys, they provide a lovely accompaniment to meats, and they are an unexpected side dish. On of my favorite was to use pears is to lighten up a potato gratin.

My love of pears is matched by my love of mashes and purées. Most cooks limit their mashes to potatoes with a bit of milk. Don’t get me wrong, I love mashed potatoes, but there are a myriad of other choices. Try this one the next time you have pork.

Pear and Spinach Purée

2 pounds spinach, stemmed
2 large dead-ripe Comice or Bartlett pears, cored, peeled, and quartered
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons half-and-half
Salt and freshly ground nutmeg to taste
1/2 small ripe Comice or Bartlett pear, cored, peeled, and cut into a fan shape with the stem intact, for garnish

Fill a 4-quart soup pot with water and bring to a rolling boil. Drop all the spinach in by the handful and stand and watch the pot. Yes, it will boil, at which moment you should instantly dump the spinach into a colander and run cold water over it until it is cool. Use your hands to squeeze out all the excess water. Place the spinach and pears in a food processor fitted with the steel blade or in a blender and purée.

Melt the butter in a 12-inch skillet until it foams, then add the spinach purée. Cook and stir until it begins to boil, then add the half-and-half and season with salt and nutmeg.

Serve in a cut glass crystal bowl, swirling the top. Garnish with the fanned pear half.

Serve this up as a side dish and your family will rave.

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