What We’re Reading

New food and drink books that have us salivating

Happy days are here again, and we’re ecstatic at the thought of entertaining more than ourselves. Finally! With parties back on the table À Table is an especially welcome treat. A beautifully designed book on eating the French way, the recipes here are approachable and inspired (Coq au Vermouth, Mussels with Rosé and Heirloom Tomatoes), accompanied by lush photography. Fans of David Liebovitz will like this one, by ex-pat Rebekah Peppler. Another way to get a dose of France right now is to flip through Plat du Jour. The cover and endpapers alone, in French Country floral, will transport you straight to the Continent. Author Susan Hermann Loomis is a hand-holder, like Julia Child, helping the American cook master everyday classic French cuisine. She’ll get you through a Potato & Chive Soufleé and a Normandy Seafood Stew, honest. Both books make excellent gifts.

On the drinks end, we’ve got a new favorite in John deBary’s Drink What You Want, with witty concoctions (Corpse Reviver Number Blue) and snappy prose (chapters include Feeling Lazy, Feeling Fancy, Feeling Desperate). The retro illustrations provide eye candy relief from the Instagram pics of so many modern drink books. On the other hand, when gorgeous photos are what you want, definitely turn to Beautiful Booze. The highly styled drinks from Natalie Migliarini and James Stevenson first gained an Insta following and then deservedly became a book with their best drinks compiled into a handsome volume you’d be happy to have in your bar library.

When wine is your cocktail-hour beverage of choice, Wine Time is a nice little book to have around.  Filled with recipes for simple bites that pair perfectly with wine, you’ll get plenty of ideas here to elevate your hors d’oeuvres repertoire. The book and a bottle of vino make a thoughtful house gift.

Last but not at all least on our warm-weather reading list are a pair of books by Marnie Hansel and Jen Stevenson, The Picnic & Summer: A Cookbook. Both are delightfully illustrated, with bright recipes and breezy writing. Summer: A Cookbook has a beach-y feel (99 Ways to Use a Sand Pail) with recipes for portable feasts like Beer-Boiled Peel & Eat Shrimp and Mermaid Soba Noodles with Miso Dressing. The Picnic is chock full of useful tips for carry-out eating (Practical Porters), and recipes that will make you want to eat outside immediately (a dozen different deviled eggs!). Though they cover similar territory, these books are also a lovely pair. It’s hard to read them without smiling.

New Strategies for Summer Entertaining

I threw a dinner party last night, the first time I had cooked for more than two since March. It was a trial run, just one other couple, and I called it for a night that the weather would cooperate for easy outdoor dining. Here are the socially acceptable practices that made it work, little tips and tricks I’ll use again as the summer stretches out. 

1. For hors d’oeuvres I eliminated everything communal: no more bowls of chips and dip. No more slice-your-own cheese. Instead everyone got a little espresso plate with 3 crackers and a couple of olives. A central cutting board held cheese, already sliced, each piece pierced with a toothpick. In this vein I can also imagine serving cured meats, smoked mussels, or anything else that can be skewered. I can see toothpicks will be my friend this season.

2. I plated the dinner in the kitchen, and carried the dishes to our outdoor dining table. No more family style, which is the way I usually serve. The change actually forced me to prepare more precise quantities rather than my usual too-much. Each person got two soft shell crabs, a side of rice pilaf, a tong-full of dressed salad greens, and a half dozen asparagus spears. Everyone ate everything on their plates, no one seeming too hungry or too full.

3. Each couple sat together at opposite ends of the table. We took off our masks to eat and talk. As the night grew darker we pushed back from the table which created more space as we talked over candle light and more wine. Citronella candles: clearly another friend.

4. Speaking of the wine: We kept it on ice outside and designated one person the pourer for the evening. In the old days it would have been Help Yourself, but now the fewer people touching the same surface the better.

5. Dessert was brought by my guests, a flourless chocolate cake that was sprung from its springform at the table, sliced and served on more small plates (BFF!).

6. Indoors wasn’t off limits but our guests minimized their time in the house. In the bathroom we replaced cloth towels with disposables, and added liquid soap and hand sanitizer.

I can see the summer before me and it makes me smile. More guests, more dinners, more strategies for safe and smart socializing to reveal themselves as we go.

The Satisfying Pleasure of Making Your Own Stock

With the holidays behind us and short days of winter here I seem to be making stock all the time. The tip-off that I’ve got a stock going is that there are aromatics in the air.

I’m going about my business, which is what you can do when you’re making stock, because the simmer takes most of the time. Besides the smell, I like the process--essentially turning water into wine. Well, not wine exactly, but a grounding base for the soups, stews, braises, and risottos that will get us through to spring. Homemade stock is just that: not a broth to eat on its own, but an honest building block that’s much deeper in flavor than the mass-produced boxes and cans on the supermarket shelves.

My go-to stock recipe is a one-pot boiled affair using chicken wings which, due to their density of cartilage, produce a rich, gelatinous broth. It’s a tried and true starting point for most recipes calling for chicken stock. I’m a big fan of gourmet soup mixes, where everything is pre-measured and you know you’re getting high quality legumes, the right amount of spice, and good directions for simple add-ins like onions or a can of tomatoes. If water is called for, I always add broth instead--it just makes the whole dish taste better.

I also like a roasted stock for a darker, heartier flavor, like this one that takes advantage of the carcass from another night’s roast chicken dinner. Here the carcass is simmered with pre-roasted wings and vegetables to produce a broth that’s a perfect base for the split pea soup from Healthy Gourmet Kitchen, to which you can add a ham hock for warm and smoky result.

Finally, I like to have a vegetarian option in the freezer for meatless meals (post-holiday detox, etc.). Recently I made an amazing Thai-ish broth with lemongrass and star anise punching up the usual aromatics, courtesy of cookbook author Nigel Slater writing in The Guardian. The house smelled so good that day it was ridiculous.

I always feel crazily accomplished when I fill containers with stock to sock away in the freezer for another day. Frozen stock lasts for six months (mark the date with tape on the container) but it’s unlikely you’ll have it that long, especially with a stash of soup mixes in your pantry.  (A quart of homemade stock along with a soup mix makes a nice gift for a neighbor, too.)

6 Creative Uses for Bitters

Those little bottles: who can resist the gorgeous labels? The flavors? The very idea that they could sit on your own bar shelf at home? But what, exactly, to do with them? If you're stumped, we've got a bitters primer for you, and a few good ways to use them, too. 

1. Be in the know: Bitters 101

• Bitters is the end result of a months-long process of macerating, distilling, and filtering neutral grain alcohol with botanicals such as seeds, herbs, roots, barks, leaves, flowers, fruits, or vegetables. 

• The resulting extract is highly aromatic and potent which is why you only need a dash--or drop--or two at a time. Think vanilla, in baking. 

• Bitters add flavor, complexity, and balance to a cocktail. They temper the harshness of the alcohol and even out the sweetness of, say, a simple syrup or sweet vermouth. 

• There is alcohol in bitters, but a very small amount in the few drops called for in most recipes. 

• Small batch, uniquely flavored bitters are booming these days in cocktail bars, restaurants, and with home cocktail enthusiasts, too. 

• For deep dive into the subject, pick up a copy of the book Bitters, by Brad Thomas Parsons. It's a handsome volume, complete with history, recipes, and lore. Makes a nice gift along with, of course, a pretty bottle of bitters.

2. Ask a bartender. 

That's what we did after staring down a bottle of Crude Attawanhood #37, a small-batch bitters flavored with cherry, cinnamon, and cloves. Brendan Dillon, owner of the exquisite cocktail bar Hamlet & Ghost in Saratoga Springs, came to the rescue and invented this holiday-inspired drink for us, so now we can all make it at home. And we do. Get the recipe for > Hamlet & Ghost's "Spice is Nice"

3. Make a Creamsicle.

I tried Alton Brown's version called Orange Delicious, which is served up in a glass instead of on a stick. I swapped out Vintage Orange Bitters for the vanilla, and it really was delicious. Very easy, and pretty enough for a dinner party. 

4. Toss into a salad.

I love salads that have a sweet/bitter balance: toasted hazelnuts, thinly sliced fennel, mixed greens, herbs, and chunks of tangerine. Try bitters in your vinaigrette for a change. We used Dashfire Vintage Orange No. 1 Barrel-Aged Bitters to kick up the citrus just a tad. Vins are nice with celery bitters, too. Get the recipe for Orange Bitters Vinaigrette.

5. Mix a mocktail.

I got good at making mocktails when my dad went off alcohol but not off partying. He'd show up to cocktail gatherings and dinners fully ready to partake but wanted to go light on the booze. To satisfy I started stocking our home bar with a selection of flavored bitters, syrups, and mixers. Here, King Floyd's Cardamom Bitters is the secret sauce, pardon the expression. I add it to a sweet almond syrup and top off with a spicy ginger beer. This one's become a favorite, especially when served with an umbrella. [Note: there is a trace amount of alcohol here from the bitters and Amaretto in the syrup.] Get the recipe here.

6. Just add bubbles.

A few drops of bitters stirred into soda water and served with a fruity garnish can hold its own at any cocktail party. "Bubs and Bits," as it's known in the drinks biz, can be as versatile in taste as the bitters you choose: clean, smoky, floral, spicy. Shop our selection here and find a flavor profile you (or a friend) like. Instead of the obligatory bottle of wine, consider bringing an attractive bottle of bitters and an upscale sparkling water to the next dinner party you're invited to.

5 Things to do with Truffle & Salt

A pinch of these fine shavings of Italian black truffle mixed with quality sea salt adds a luxurious zip to so many savory dishes. Below are 5 good reasons to have this little jar at arm's reach. A little goes a long way so this small jar of Truffle &  Salt should last a nice long time.

1. Niki Segnit, author of The Flavor Thesaurus, says infuse any potato dish with the taste of truffle and their harmoniousness is clear. So I tried Truffle & Salt in a potato leek soup last week and she was right. These two earthy flavors played so nicely together that my soup was decidedly less humble than potato leek soups past. Get the recipe here.

Potato Leek Soup with Truffle & Salt

2. Always on the hunt for a new way to roast chicken, I tried Alison Roman's juicy Slow Roasted Chicken with Buttered Tomatoes which she adapted for the New York Times from her new cookbook Nothing Fancy. I used Truffle and Salt rather than her suggested Kosher salt and results were amazing. Fat releases and carries the flavor of truffle and this dish had plenty of it from both the chicken juices and butter. My substitution didn't mess with the fennel, oregano, and tomatoes that give this chicken its soul, and it played up the garlicky quality, which I considered a bonus. The 10 guests I served were not disappointed we were having chicken, again.

Slow-Roasted Oregano Chicken With Buttered Tomatoes by Alison Roman for the New York Times

3. A pinch of the right seasoning can bring out the true flavor of a simple ingredient, which is exactly what happened when I added a sprinkling of Truffle & Salt to a pot full of sautéed Swiss chard. Truffle is a loud flavor, especially black truffle, and especially the Italian kind like the ones in this jar. Add some to celeriac (pureed), cauliflower (roasted), cabbage (boiled), or mushrooms (sautéed) to coax their true flavors to the fore.

4. Do a Google search for eggs and truffle and you'll get 18 million results, confirming just how popular this pair of ingredients is. Riffing on Ina Garten's Truffled Scrambled Eggs, I used plain unsalted butter and swapped a ½ teaspoon of Truffle & Salt for her full teaspoon of salt. It works. It's good. It's a nice change if you're in an egg rut.

Ina Garten’s Truffled Scrambled Eggs

5. I would stop short of mixing Truffle & Salt into anything sweet, but for a salty treat, my friend Steve swears by sprinkling it on popcorn. Fresh popped truffle-and-salt-flavored popcorn, a drizzle of melted butter, a good movie, and a glass of wine?  Sounds like a pretty perfect plan.