Lynne Rossetto Kasper

I love the Splendid Table radio show on American Public Media stations. Lynne Rossetto Kasper is a cool host with such down-to-earth, solid kitchen advice, and her producer Sally Swift is a godsend to cooks everywhere. The callers are thoughtful and witty, and there are some serious recipes given out on the show that have long made my favorites list.

If you haven’t heard the show, you can listen online at their website, where the number of recipes along with whole menus, are staggering and should satisfy harried everyday cooks as well as the weekend kitchen warriors who go into culinary overdrive. This time of year, there’s a whole section on cookies – ho ho ho! – and party bites, along with seasonal favorites.

Cookbooks for readers and cooks

Today, they’ve come out with the list of books from this year for giving that the staff recommends. They’re a diverse group of reads: some cookbooks, like Cook This Now by Melissa Clark; some cooks’ stories, such as Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton; and some to give fodder for debate, like Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit.

All would be welcomed by serious food lovers and at the website where the books are listed, you’ll find others from NPR that qualify as top contenders on a cook’s bookshelf this year.

The Splendid Table

Listen to the show Saturdays at 2 p.m. on WPBI-90.7 FM-HD or 101.9 FM in the Palm Beach County area. Listen from Broward to Dade County on Saturdays at noon on WLRN 91.3 FM-HD. On Sirius Satellite and International radio, listen on Saturdays at 7 p.m. or Sundays at 5 a.m. Other listings are on their website.

One of my 35 crammed shelves of cookbooks. /photo Jan Norris

Got cookbooks?

If you’re a long-time cook like me who reads cookbooks like others read novels or travel guides, you’ve got shelves of cookbooks in your house – under the bed, in the kitchen, the bathroom, the office, filling up an unused cat bed, and stacked in closets. You get rid of some now and then, but find yourself picking up the ones for 50 cents (I can’t believe I found a stall full at the WPB Fairgrounds Flea Market last week!) that you can’t pass up on a bet.

Old Amish cookbook from my collection /photo by Jan Norris

You find bookstores like Chuckles Bookstore in Hobe Sound on Bridge Road that has a room full to browse. And those old comb-bound community cookbooks at every church sale and thrift shop – well, no contest. One-in-a-million finds for recipes like souse, or whoopie pies long before anyone had heard of them – or the obscure Cheerwine cake are to be had, usually for 25 cents.

Yes, most cookbooks – new and used – are now available thanks to the Internet. But you have to shelve them, hunt down favorite recipes in them, then print them out, and spread out the sheets on the counter – and kill a lot more trees and contribute to the carbon footprint on earth by having them shipped to you.

The physical books are no better on a kitchen counter, they’re often awkward – they get food splattered and you can never find what you want in them rapidly – especially if the primary recipe sends you to a secondary recipe in the back of the book – I hate that.

Cue the new generation of readers

Amazon’s New Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire and Nook Color eBook, are new in the market this year.

Do you need one? Not if you’re a page-turner and care that the photo is right there beside you as you follow directions and stick to one cookbook per recipe. And you aren’t a curious cook. And if you’re neat as a pin in the kitchen and never splatter.

But if you’re the type who searches recipes on the web, or browses secondary recipes in cookbooks, or emails your cousin in the middle of cooking, or would love to take your cookbook library wherever you go, then consider one of these wifi-enabled readers. We’re not talking tablets here – these are readers first, and wifi/browser, email and apps secondary.

But – for under $200 compared to the $450 and up for the tablets – they’re a deal breaker for many.

The World Wide Web of cookbooks

Both have wifi, so when a recipe calls for clarifying butter, you can zip out to Google and find out how long the butter should cook and separate before you pull it off the fire. Or email your sister and tell her if mom used vanilla in her Thanksgiving Sweet potato casserole.

You can search for a similar recipe in another cookbook after you’ve found one in your cookbook library – accessible from anywhere in the “Cloud” — if you’re on a Kindle Fire. Gmail is no sweat, either, so consult your Italian bro and both of  you can stream the A+ movie Big Night (1996) to cook a timpano along with Tony Shaloub and Stanley Tucci. Or watch my favorite of all time movies, Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory – ABC Stage 67, starring Geraldine Page.

Barnes & Noble NOOK Color eBook

The new NOOK Color eBookreader is similar, though tied to Barnes & Noble – for book readers, this is probably a first choice. Best part: Check out any book on Barnes & Noble’s vast lists for free. That means you can browse cookbooks in your pajamas before you buy.

Since cookbook readers are typically travel and culture readers, you have those book genres at your fingertips as well. So when I’m reading Patricia Wells’ The Paris Cookbook, I can call up a map of Paris to see what area the recipe is from – or the restaurant or market she mentions. Isn’t the web grand that way?

I want other suggestions for books – I like the Barnes & Noble reviews from other cooks, many of whom I recognize.

Readers and sticky fingers in a kitchen

What about using these things in a kitchen, though? They rely on touch-screens – and good cooks have sticky and oily and fishy fingers.

Cooks who touch faucets and knobs and mixer handles already know the value of plastic wrap – one layer of plastic wrap on these things as you cook prevents dough trails and sticky egg whites from gumming up your kitchen. You can spend bucks on a fancy Kindle Fire Anti-Glare Screen Protector 2-Pack with Cleaning Cloth by Marware – Lifetime Warranty that protects the screen, but a roll of Saran Wrap does just as well and can be replaced every 5 minutes if you need to, for less than a penny each time. (And it will wrap your faucet handles, your light switch, oven knobs, mixer handle, cover your counter top, help roll out pie crusts and more.)

So wrap your reader (or tablet) in one tight layer of plastic wrap (Saran Wrap is heavier than most), and prevent any mishaps. Your touch makes works just fine through the wrap. Tip: Tape the wrap to the back using duct tape, and it’ll be waterproof, too – that dog bowl is miraculously always right under you when you drop it – I know from experience.

(Crazy boater’s electronics tip: If you’re ever using this on a boat, beach, pier or cooking in the Everglades – do the same thing. Wrap it in plastic, then put it into a zip-locked bag, blown up before you seal it. It will not only float, but keep the thing from from drowning. Bigger hint  – duct tape a neon orange plastic flag on one side of the bag, so you can see it bobbing in the water. Write your name on the bag with a permanent pen so if some honest person finds it, you’re back in business – if they haven’t used a fish hook to snag it, that is.)

Share your reviews as a cook

If you have one or the other of these readers, feel free to comment below and tell us what you, as a cook, like about them.

And if you recommend any cookbooks, speak up, too!

Full disclosure: Both of these can access my cookbooks,Florida Morning Glory and Sweet Southern: A Heritage of Beloved Desserts. They make great stocking stuffers. Little in size, big in recipes!

Pickled egg variations /photo courtesy eggpub.com

After Easter, my childhood neighbor, Mrs. Arda Smiggen, made pickled eggs with leftover Easter eggs. My dad could eat a jar of them, unfortunately. I remember the pink eggs on her counter whose insides matched the pink refrigerator in her kitchen that my dad had painted for her.

So I smiled when someone brought me a copy of a pickled egg cookbook – it brought back colorful memories.

Violet Mae Steele Clayton must have been a pip of a country gal. Her cookbook, called Ultra Violet’s Pickled Egg Cookbook is peppered with tales of her pranksterism, most involving laxative foods passed along to unsuspecting diners.

Clayton was from the country in Missouri, helped with a junk hauling business, ran a bakery, a restaurant, a stock car track, rode a Harley Davidson 80, and frequently voiced her opinion, requested or not.

She also was fond of and known for her pickled eggs. 41 recipes (who knew there were so many variations on the theme?) for pickled eggs are in the book, along with numerous stories of Violet, her husband and many friends. A good sprinkling of Missouri history tidbits, including tales of the James-Younger gang are added.

The book’s country-corny, representative of a time in rural America when serving Ex-Lax in place of chocolate was typical of harmless pranksterism. Basic rules for pickling and hard-boiling and peeling eggs are here, too, but some of the recipes are sparse as to direction – it’s a good idea to have a foundation for pickling before you launch into the recipes.

Here are a couple of Violet Clayton’s recipes, courtesy of the publisher, Rexdale Publishing. (To order Ultra Violet’s Pickled Egg Cookbook by Carl T. Shepherd, go to rexdalepublishing.com – it’s $6.95 plus shipping.)

More recipes can be found at Eggpub.com – which is part of an English tavern. Apparently, the Brits love those eggs, too.

Smokin’ Hots Pickled Eggs

• 6 cups apple cider vinegar
• 10 hot red peppers
• 1/2 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1/2 tablespoon cardamom seeds
• 1/2 tablespoon whole cloves
• 3 tablespoons peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon whole allspice
• 1/2 tablespoon mace
• 2 dozen hard-boiled eggs, peeled

Put all ingredients except eggs in a non-reactive saucepan and bring to a boil; boil for 10 minutes.

Pack the peeled eggs into a sterile glass jar or container; pour the pickling mixture over the eggs to cover. Cover jar or container and refrigerate or keep in a cool place for 2 weeks before serving for best results.

Makes 24 eggs.

Aunt Belle’s Pickled Eggs

• 2 dozen hard-boiled eggs, peeled
• 2 (16-ounce) cans whole or sliced beets
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 6 cinnamon sticks
• 24 whole cloves

Put eggs and beets in a sterile glass jar. Combine all other ingredients in a non-reactive saucepan. Cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 2 to 3 minuts. Pour hot pickling liquid over eggs and beets in jar. Seal and marinate for 1 week in a cool place or in refrigerator before serving.

Makes 24 (pink) eggs.

Poodwaddle.com

There are a number of other clocks on that site if you click around – including world population. If you’ve ever been to Epcot at Disney World, you’ve seen the population clock spinning there – surrounded by all the Disney fans. Hard to ignore how fast it spins.

Read all about it

Many good reads about food and population, resources, sustainable agriculture and aquaculture -  and how they all come together, are truly food for thought.

Pollan

Michael Pollan’s books are the most recent. Check out one of his first, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. This treatise on sustainability questions how we can support animal farming and ranching, over growing crops that feed many more per acre. It was followed by In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. His latest, Food Rules, An Eater’s Manual, gives a balanced approach to what our diets – and food production principles – should be.

Others of note are Food, Inc. – made into a movie that had all who saw it question how “industrial” or corporate food companies and their practices. It’s subtitled, “How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer – and What You Can Do About It.”

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser, tells most of us what we already know. It’s also a movie. (You can rent it for $2.99 and watch it on your computer.)

Lappe

Back in 1971, when a big organic awakening was part of the “back to the earth” movement, Frances Moore Lappe’ penned Diet for a Small Planet. Today, it’s been reprinted millions of times, and has had an updated 20th anniversary edition. Cookbooks and others that have spun off.

Garbage is money — and food

It’s a horrible statistic. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture reports that Americans from the farmers to the consumers, throw away 11 billion pounds of edible fruits and vegetables every year. Another study focusing on consumers only, shows that 12 percent of everything we buy as food is thrown away. It’s incomprehensible and should give most of us with a brain just a little pause.

Almost all of us over-shop, especially when shopping for a specific recipe. But others of us over-shop when doing the normal grocery-buying. Why? Because we shop without a menu or a plan, whether we do it weekly or daily or somewhere in between.

Enter the 7-Day Meal Planner

Nicholson is a dietitian and a food writer from Atlanta and can knock out a gourmet dinner for 20. But her real strong suit is knowing intuitively how “real” people eat. They do buy fresh fruit and vegetables – more and more – but sometimes eat frozen and canned vegetables. They buy meats on sale and sometimes rely on the cheaper cuts. They use bottled pasta sauces, dried pastas and shredded cheese. They buy frozen stir-fry vegetables in combination packages.

Most cookbook authors are hopeful you’ll find one or two recipes in a book to justify its expense. Many have egos involved and don’t offer suggestions for substitutions, short cuts or budget-friendly foods. They write for a gourmet cook – in reality, a small percentage of the population. Many of those buy books to read – not to actually cook from.

But Nicholson writes for busy mothers juggling a family of four or six. She writes for the fixed-income retirees, looking to stretch their food dollars. She writes for the crazed professional who eats out of take-out cartons for three days and goes out the rest of the time, or the newlyweds who haven’t got a clue where to start planning and cooking every day.

In short: She writes for everybody who has a kitchen and wants to make it more efficient, more cost-effective and as a bonus, healthier.

How to plan meals

Nicholson

First, Nicholson walks the reader through meal planning and explain why it’s so beneficial. In her casual, witty style (she refers to her husband throughout as “the Virgo”) she explains her formats – most of her recipes go together in 30 minutes or less. She teaches the readers how to come up with their own menu plans that fit their households, food preferences and budgets.

The premise behind meal planning is to make a dinner become more than one meal, a few times a week, either by making two of something or using leftovers differently. She combines not just homemade foods, but those supplemented with store-bought things like desserts or salads.

In Part 2 of the book, she offers an entire year of weekly menu plans, with her tested recipes. She describes it as “365 days of no-stress menu planning.” The menus are arranged seasonally – making best use of what’s in the market and likely on sale. It’s smart and thrifty to pick the week that corresponds to the real calendar year, or one near it, to cook from.

Recipes are short, smart and have nutrition information for every one of them. There are plenty of meat-based recipes, but just as many vegetarian ones – and all can be converted either way with her suggestions.

Part 3 details all the tips – from cutting back portions, to substitutions for ingredients that make it all come together, shopping in bulk, during sales, buying generic, and buying the correct amounts. She then lists foods for better health. Also here are great last-minute recipes that she calls her 10 “emergency” recipes. Finally – for our cooks across the pond, she gives a metric conversion chart for measurements and cooking temperatures.

From a newspaper column

The book is based on Nicholson’s popular 7-Day Meal Planner newspaper column, sadly, circulated in fewer papers today because of the print media’s decline. It was one of the most popular food features that appeared in The Palm Beach Post. Readers continue to email me to find back recipes that appeared in that column.

The book pulls all 52 weeks of recipes in one place, and the reader can pick and choose and combine to their tastes, time and budgets. It’s almost a guarantee that cooks of all types can find recipes here, and if they follow her advice and plans, they’ll save enough from their food budget to make up the cost of the book and put money in the bank.

This is a two-thumbs up book.

Meatloaf for everyone

Nicholson includes this recipe as one of her emergency go-to ones – based on her own mother’s recipe. It freezes well – make two or more at a time!

Mom’s Meatloaf

• 1 medium green bell pepper, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 pounds lean ground beef or turkey or vegetarian substitute – or a combination
• 1 whole egg
• 3 egg whites
• 4 cups flake cereal (bran, cornflakes), crushed
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 8-ounce cans no-salt added tomato sauce

Microwave the bell pepper and onion in a small glass container on high 4 minutes. Drain; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the onion, pepper, ground meat, whole egg, egg whites, cereal, pepper and 1-1/2 cups of the tomato sauce. Mix thoroughly but lightly.

Divide the mixture into two round loaves with an indentation in the center (use a glass or your fist, pressing into loaf). Brush both tops with remaining tomato sauce.

Wrap one loaf in heavy duty foil; label and freeze for up to 3 months. (To defrost, remove from freezer and place in refrigerator the day before cooking.)

Place the second loaf in a shallow glass baking dish with a rim; cover with with waxed paper. Microwave on high 9 to 12 minutes or until internal temperature is 160 degrees. Let stand 5 minutes. (Alternately, bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until done throughout.)

Makes 2 meatloaves; 4 servings each.

Per serving: 310 calories, 28g protein, 14g fat, 5g saturated fat, 16g carbs, 103mg cholesterol, 163mg sodium, 3g fiber.

Belinda Hulin, cookbook author and food journalist

Belinda Hulin, food journalist from Louisiana, has a new book, Roux Memories: A Cajun-Creole Love Story with Recipes, that catalogues recipes and parts of lifestyles lost when hurricanes Katrina and Rita ripped through her childhood area around Lafayette, La.

Recipes from more than 40 years of life in Cajun country – crawfish gumbo, cracklin’ cornbread, dirty rice, king cake, pralines and jamabalaya are only a smattering of examples of the recipes she has tested.

Here’s a short piece about how the book came together and a special memory from her:

“Chicken and sausage gumbo is a south Louisiana classic, but truth to tell, my mother always preferred seafood gumbo. So I actually perfected the chicken and sausage gumbo recipe myself, back when I was first living on my own. I needed something distinctively Cajun that could still stretch to feed all my friends. It had to be relatively cheap to produce and equally at home when paired with iced tea, “drinkable” (read: cheap) wine or beer. And it had to feel substantial.

“Over the years, this has become one of my signature winter dishes because it isn’t ordinary, but it does qualify as comfort food. There’s also a bonus: During the long, slow process of preparing the gumbo, the house smells amazing and the kitchen gets warm and steamy.

My mother’s recipe box on the stairs

“I rescued my mother’s recipe box, which was casually stashed on a high step of the staircase before the family evacuated in advance of Katrina. While flipping through the box, I felt this overwhelming sense of relief. The box held my cousin Bertha’s famous (in Scott, Louisiana, LOL) peanut brittle recipe and her syrup cookies, which I adore. It also had recipes for Cousin Hazel’s fresh coconut filling, the birthday cakes my mother made for us and our friend Ms. Sarah’s pralines, among others.

“I especially loved finding my late father’s chili recipe–which calls for 25 pounds of beef! Seeing all those recipes, and remembering the people and places, made me smile at a difficult time.

“But after going through the box, I started to think about all the recipes that weren’t in there. For example, my grandmother’s unusual beef boulettes and the corn maque choux and smothered okra dishes I loved as a child, and my Mom’s baked stuffed redfish. And I realized that I needed to finally get those things written down, for the day when I couldn’t just ask my mother to make them.

“It took me about a year to put the recipes together. Most of the dishes are things I’ve been cooking or eating all my life, so it was mostly a matter of getting a recipe on paper that matched the taste I love. In some cases, I sent emails to cousins and friends asking for instructions. For some recipes I started with what I knew of the oral tradition – asking my mother and others what they most remembered about a dish and how their mother or grandmother prepared it – and then I’d develop, test and retest to get a workable recipe.

Fifth cookbook

“This is my fifth cookbook, but truly, this one is a labor of love. Like many ethnic cuisines, Cajun and Creole cooking is largely an oral tradition. Unfortunately, when something like a major hurricane happens, you realize that your extended family may not always be there to share the story.”

Check out Roux Memories: A Cajun-Creole Love Story with Recipes, and another favorite from the area, Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans – other recipes rescued from cooks after Katrina.

Recipe

Here’s the Chicken and sausage gumbo recipe from her new book – make it and freeze the extra in one-night portions; eat it over rice.

Chicken and sausage gumbo

• 1 whole chicken and 4 chicken breast halves
• 10 to 12 cups water
• 4 bay leaves, divided
• 6 cups strong chicken broth
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 cups granulated flour
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt or to taste
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1 pound andouille or smoked sausage, sliced
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, cored and diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoons file powder
• 1/2 cup sliced green onions
• Tabasco sauce to taste

In a large pot, combine chicken, chicken breasts, water and 2 bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Simmer until chicken is done, about 35 minutes. Remove the chicken and chicken breasts and set aside to cool. Strain cooking liquid into a large soup pot or Dutch oven and add 4 cups chicken broth. Bring liquid to a boil.

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine oil and flour. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture turns a dark reddish brown. Remove from heat and add 1/2 the onions. Stir until onions begin to brown around the edges, about 1 to 2 minutes. Carefully add the roux to the boiling broth. Stir to blend and reduce heat to medium. Add remaining bay leaves. Simmer 11/2 hours.

Add salt, black pepper, cayenne, white pepper, thyme and sage. Add sliced sausage and continue to simmer 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let the pot stand 10 minutes, untouched. Skim off the sausage fat that rises to the top of the gumbo.

Turn the heat back to medium and stir in remaining onions, celery, green pepper, garlic and half the parsley. Simmer until vegetables are tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove chicken from bones. Cut chicken meat into bite-size pieces and stir into the gumbo. Simmer 10 minutes. Stir in file powder, remaining parsley and green onions. Serve in bowls with steamed rice and pass the Tabasco.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Cook’s gift: A Life in Food Cookbook

The Chesterfield Hotel in Palm Beach is part of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection, and it’s based out of England.  Beatrice Tollman is president and founder of the hotel group of small luxury properties, and she’s just published a cookbook based on her memoirs.

A Life in Food

Tollman has traveled around the world, learning recipes as well as kitchen techniques (teaching herself by tasting every dish in progress, she says), and adding them to her family favorites. Many made their way into the hotel menus, and the book tells how they are adapted from a family  recipe to a commercial kitchen.

Recipes are easy and ingredients are fairly common. She writes that “comfort food has alwas been my specialty.”

Books are $45, and can be found at the Chesterfield Hotel in Palm Beach,  363  Cocoanut Row, (561) 659-5800 – or any Red Carnation property around the world.

It’s a charitable purchase: All money raised from the books goes to two UK charities, the Starlight Children’s Foundation, granting seriously ill children wishes, and The Tick Tock Club, which supports research for kidney disease.

Cornbread puddin’ a cheesey, corny dish

The Divas of Dish – Pam Brandon and Anne-Marie Denicole – know how to make stellar dishes that don’t break the bank or the clock. Here’s there version of a corn pudding, taken one step further.

They write: “This decadent mix of fresh corn, heavy cream, eggs, pepper-jack cheese and prepared cornbread will inspire both gratitude and second helpings. Make the bread a day ahead (a boxed mix is easiest) then compile and bake the cornbread pudding Thanksgiving Day.”

 Cornbread Puddin’

Serves 8

• 1 tablespoon light olive oil
• 1 small Vidalia onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 3 ears corn, kernels removed
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 4 cups crumbled cornbread (see note)
• 2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese, divided
• Coarse salt and cracked black pepper, to taste

Note: Prepare 2 boxes of corn bread mix as per box instructions to achieve 4 cups crumbled bread.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil. Sauté the onion, red pepper and corn until softened; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and cream. Add the cumin, coriander, crumbled cornbread and 1-1/2 cups of the cheese. Season the mixture with salt and pepper and pour into a greased 8x8x2-inch baking dish. Sprinkle the top with remaining cheese and cover with foil.

Set the pan in a water bath (a larger pan of hot water that comes to within ½ inch of top of baking dish). Bake 1- 1/2  to  2 hours, or until the pudding is firm in the center. (Insert a butter knife and if it comes out clean, the pudding is set.)

To brown the cheese on top, remove the foil and drain the water bath. Raise the oven temperature to 450 and cook for about 5 minutes, checking often, until casserole is golden.

Diva note: To double this recipe, use a 9-by-13-by2-inch baking dish.

The Divas of Dish write columns for various publications and have a cookbook I recommend: Culinary Confessions of the PTA Divas.

Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes, by Guiliano Hazan

Guiliano Hazan comes from good stock: his famous mother, Marcella, taught Americans to cook Italian, and he’s run with the mantle. He’s known to viewers of the Today show, and well known among cooking students as the recipient of the 2007 IACP award for  Cooking Teacher of the Year. His school is in Verona, Italy

In his new book, Hazan teaches cooks that long hours over a stove or prepping ingredients aren’t always the way to coax flavor from foods, nor put company-worthy dinner on the table.

Organization, a good pantry and simple combinations of foods full of flavor are key.

Do you cook pasta properly?

I appreciate the notes and tips that good authors include – things they don’t assume that everyone knows. Hazan starts with a very basic instruction page on How to Cook Pasta, with five simple steps I’ve paraphrased here:

1. Use a lot of water (apparently, the most common mistake). Six quarts to a pound of pasta is about right.
2. Salt the water — but not until it comes to a full boil – and use more than you think needed so the pasta won’t be bland. Hazan recommends two tablespoons per six quarts.
3. Boil, uncovered, until al dente — not crunchy in the middle, but not soggy, either. Chewy, if you will. The only way to figure it out is to taste it when you think it’s about right, since cooking instructions vary too widely to depend on package instructions.
4. Don’t add oil. Stir while cooking a few times and keep it at a rolling boil. It won’t stick as long as you’ve got enough water.
5. Drain the pasta – but do not rinse! Rinsing removes the starch that allows the sauce to properly cling to the pasta. Tosso the pasta immediately with its sauce and serve at once.

Shapes plus sauces mix and match – carefully

Along with a few soup recipes (the egg drop with zucchini, Amalfi style is tasty), the book is focused on pasta and pairing the dozens of shapes with the right sauce. That, too, isn’t something many get right. The shape of a noodle dictates which, and how much of a sauce will stick to it — thus, in the front of the book, Hazan also describes the two kinds: flour and water, and egg pastas. He then covers the many shapes, and lists their ”ideal pairings” — the sauces he’s provided that match up.

A pantry list is also given, and though fairly short, Hazan stresses quality, even in convenience foods. The one ingredient that was a surprise was his use of a bouillon cube rather than canned broth. He explains it only as a preference and says that he thins it down with a great deal of water to “approximate Italian broth.”

Unusal combos

Some of the dishes he’s put together for this book have interesting flavor profiles, such as fusilli with zucchini and mint, or the most unusual, spaghetti with melon (in this case, cantaloupe). Hazan references a meal he had as a child in Venice that his mother picked up and began cooking at home. He now surprises guests with it. (Recipe below).

A linguine with crab and arugula is upscle enough to serve to guests — it’s another one from the Amalfi coast. He makes a version of a dish I have made with different noodles — Tagliatelle with chickpeas. Fresh tomatoes, olive oil and garlic with onion are all that’s needed other than canned beans — it’s a simple, hearty dish that, with a salad and bread, makes a terrific quick meal. For traditionalists, there are spaghetti carbonara, or a fettucine Alfredo, or tagliatelle with a simple meat sauce.

The book’s filled with enticing color photos and if I have any complaint it’s the typeface – it’s a little small for glancing over at while sitting on the counter next to me as I worked.

Spaghetti with melon

• 1 3-pound canteloupe
• 3 tablespoons butter
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound spaghetti (or linguine)
• 2 teaspoons tomato paste
• 1-1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Fill a pot for the pasta with about 6 quarts of water; place over high heat and bring to a boil.

Cut away the rind of the melon down to the orange flesh. Cut the melon in half; discard the seds, and cut the melon into 1/2-inch dice. Put the butter in a 12-inch skillet and place over medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted completely, add the melon and season generously with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the melon begins to break down and most of the liquid it releases has evaporated, about 10 minutes.

Add about 2 tablespoons salt to the boiling pasta water, add the spaghetti and stir until all the strands are submerged. Cook until al dente.

Add the tomato paste and lemon juice to the melon and stir well. Add the cream and cook until the sauce thickens and reduces by about a third, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat. When the pasta is done, drain well, toss with the sauce and the Parmigiano-Reggiano and serve at once.

Makes 4 servings.

(From Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes, September 2009, Stewart, Tabori & Chang. Hardcover, 176 pages; $27.50.)

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Baking Kids Loveby Cindy Mushet and Sur La Table

The kitchen is one heck of a great classroom — and with all the interest in cooking and baking, kids take to it a lot easier and with much more enthusiasm than adults might think.

This cookbook, subtitled “Reconnecting Families, One Treat at a Time,” at first glance seems advanced — some adults I know still couldn’t get it. But a precocious 10- to 14-year-old is going to get a great deal out it — not just confidence (cooking is a great confidence-builder in everyone), but learning math and measurements, some physical science and not a few art skills.

Kid tested and approved

The author used her 11-year-old daughter as the tester, so she was able to include recipes that kids actually will eat – though which few don’t like sweets?

There are kid-cute names for recipes, like Rattling Bones and Fingers, Johnny Appleseed Crumble, and Gone Bananas Chocolate Chip Cake.  Recipes run the gamut of baking from sweet cakes and cupcakes and cinnamon buns, to Gotcha Focaccia and Monkey Bread. (A master mix dough for the cinnamon buns makes pretzels and a pizza crust, among others.)

There are a number of tips and notes attributed to Bella that we surmise had an adult editor helping with, but they’re solid tips no matter who’s giving or receiving them.

The book is smart enough for adults, however: there are recipes that are going into my repertoire – a pumpkin gingerbread Bundt cake, and a Nutella chocolate tart.

Reading skills, not to mention techniques (whipping egg whites to just-soft peaks while beating in sugar) are definitely for an older child – and supervision is key to safety when hot ovens, hot stoves and melted chocolate is around.

Easy for some, inspiring for all

But a few recipes –  peanut butter cookies for one — are simple enough for younger kids if they can read, or their parent can read to them.

Tips in the front of the book, and technique explanations, are smart and have some illustrative photos to help visualize the process. The recipes are lengthy, but steps are numbered clearly and each has a photo of the finished product.

More than anything, it’s inspiring to read – with a child. If it gets parent and child in the kitchen together, or around a table together, we’re all for it.

Pumpkin gingerbread

Pan preparation:

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/3 cup unseasoned, fine, dried breadcrumbs

For the cake:

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 can canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
• 1/2 cup canola or corn oil
• 1/2cup unsulfured light molasses
• 1/2 cup water

To finish:

• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Tools:

• Measuring cups and spoons
• 10-inch Bundt pan
• Sie3eve
• 1 large and 1 medium bowl
• Whisk
• Silicone spatula
• Toothpick
• Oven mitts
• Cooling rack
• 10 to 12-inch flat serving plate or cake stand

1. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter the Bundt pan or spray it with pan spray, then dust with the bread crumbs.

2. Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves and salt into the large bowl. Push through any lumps with your fingers.  Whisk to blend evenly.

Put the egg, sugar and pumpkin in the medium bowl and whisk until well mixed. Add the oil, molasses and water and whisk until smooth and blended.

Pour the liquid ingredients onto the dry ingredients. Whisk gently at first, and then, as the mixture blends, whisk faster until you have a smooth batter and don’t see any more dry patches.

3. Using the silicone spatula, scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the top feels firm and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Using oven mitts, transfer to the cooling rack and let cool in the pan for 20 minutes. You need to turn this cake out of the pan while it is warm, but not hot.

4. Place the serving plate upside down on top of the cake. Hold the plate and pan together like a sandwich, then flip them over (together). Be sure to ask an adult for help if this is too tricky. The cake will fall out of the pan onto the plate. Lift off the pan. Serve the cake warm or cool completely.

Just before serving, place the powdered sugar in the sieve and hold it over the cake. Tap the side of the sieve gently as you move it slowly over the top, showering it evenly with sugar.

Makes a large 10-inch Bundt cake.

(From Baking Kids Love by Cindy Mushet and Sur La Table, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2009. Hardcover-spiral binding, color photos, 118 pages; $20.)