Recipes

   I am not a recipe writer.  But I once cooked every weekend, almost always from recipes: Craig Claiborns first New York Times Cookbook won cheers at my table.  I have never made anything from a Marcella Hazan cookbook that wasn't delicious. I cooked from Michael Fields Cooking School book and Simca's Cuisine too. Julia's three page recipes were intimidating but I mastered a few of them too and over the years collected three shopping bags full of tangled clippings I can't bring myself to throw away.

   In the olden days everyone stole recipes, or perhaps we should say…forgot where they got their favorites…. added an ingredient and called it their own. I am probably guilty of that larceny myself.

   But the recipes here are dishes I did cook and still do.  I might add more as I collect them from my friends who cook all the time.

Reader Noodles

When Fred Deutsch complained at l’Ami Louis in Paris that the recipe for pommes béarnaise in his favorite Patricia Welles cook book produced nothing like the real thing – a lush, rich, crispy potato cake with a ton of chopped raw garlic and parsley sprinkled on top, he got the answer. "You don’t think I’d give her the complete recipe, do you?" Louis Gadby responded. Deutsch writes: "So I invited myself into the kitchen to watch the chef in action. That was a big mistake for me. It seems the recipe did not call for just three tablespoons of chicken fat (as Welles wrote) but for more than two cups of goose fat. I made it once that way for the family. What a difference that fat makes. Here’s how to do it..."