Monday July 6, 2009

Books for cooks

DON'T CALL ME CHEF

It’s always nice to get a little help in the kitchen. This month, professional chefs show the way through their writings.

A cookbook with just one recipe – would you buy it? According to trend watchers, more and more people are buying cookbooks not for the recipes but for insight into food culture, history and trends. If you frequent the cookbook racks at bookstores, you’ll notice there are hundreds of cookbooks — many are full of alluring pictures that stir a rumble in your tummy — to lure you. But, if you’re a regular cook you’ve probably encountered a cookbook or two (or 10) which you bought for the pretty pictures that did not quite translate well in your kitchen. A good cookbook is hard to come by and this month we’ve decided to share some of our favourites.

Roti you can count on

I LOVE bread and often try out different recipes (think: Cinnamon Raisin Loaf, Wholemeal and Japanese breads) from cookbooks. Some bread recipes have turned out tasting delicious while others, hard and disappointingly dry.

After trying out numerous recipes, I discovered that the milk bread in Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker’s The Joy Of Cooking is one of the most trusted recipes around. The cookbook is touted as one of the United States’ most-published cookbooks (since 1936) with more than a staggering 18 million copies sold.

The recipe is pretty simple and you need not be a pastry chef to bake the bread well. The combination of milk, egg and butter impart a delicate rich flavour and soft golden brown crust which tastes best straight from the oven. – Sugar and Spice

Milk Bread

Makes 15-20 buns
2¼ tsp (7g) active dry yeast
3 tbsp warm water
1 cup whole or low-fat warm milk (40-45°C)
5 tbsp melted butter or margarine
3 tbsp sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp salt
2 cups bread flour
1½-2 cups all-purpose flour

Combine yeast and warm water in a large mixing bowl till yeast is dissolved.

Add milk, melted butter or margarine, sugar, egg and salt. Mix by hand or with a dough hook on low speed for one minute. Gradually stir in bread flour.

Next, add the all-purpose flour till dough is moist but not sticky.

Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or with the dough hook on low to medium till dough is smooth and elastic.

Transfer dough to an oiled bowl and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Let dough rise in a warm place till doubled in volume, 1-1½ hours. Once dough has risen, punch the dough down and knead briefly.

At this point, the dough may be shaped into balls and arranged in a greased baking tray. Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Brush the top of the buns with melted butter or milk. Bake till the crust is deep golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped, 40-45 minutes. Remove the buns from the tray to a rack and let cool completely.

Chicks’ sticks

I HATE ice cream and am rarely seduced by chocolate, cakes or any other sweet dessert. But, hand me a savoury snack and my knees get all wobbly. If it’s a savoury and spicy snack, I get quite maniacal – calories be damned. Now, it’s really hard to choose ONE favourite recipe book as there are many I like. But I think the one that best suits my sensibilities and Eastern palette is Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian (first published in 1999). While the actress-turned-cook-turned-author can be a little too much to take on her TV shows, the recipes she shares in her many cookbooks are simply delicious. I chose this one because the main ingredient – chickpea flour – is one of my all-time favourite ingredients. And because just reading through the list of ingredients made me salivate. It’s easy enough to make and perfect to snack on in front of the TV – on it’s own, with some Indian coconut or tomato chutney and a hot cup of masala tea. Yum. – Veggie Chick

Spicy Chickpea French Fries

Makes enough for 2 or 1 large snacker
1¼ cups chickpea flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp ground turmeric
2 cups water
½ tsp whole cumin seeds
1-2 tsp green chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped
1 tsp ginger, finely grated
½ cup all-purpose flour
Bowl of cold water
Salt and black pepper
Peanut or olive oil

Oil two shallow rimmed plates and place a bowl of cold water nearby.

Sift chickpea flour, salt, turmeric and cumin powder together. Slowly stir in the 2 cups water to make a thick, smooth batter. Add the chilli, coriander and ginger and set aside for 10 mins.

Heat 2 tsp oil in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the cumin seeds and fry for 10 seconds. Pour in batter and stir vigorously till it boils. Continue stirring until the batter is thick and doughy and comes off the sides. Now you have to act fast. Spoon the mixture onto two shallow plates, wet your hands with cold water and press down to make two thick pancakes – they set pretty quickly. Cover and set aside for at least 15 minutes.

Sprinkle a cutting board generously with all-purpose flour and transfer the pancakes, one at a time, to the board.

Cut into strips, about 2.5cm by 7cm, and coat pieces with the flour. In a medium-sized saucepan, heat enough oil to just cover the base and shallow-fry the pieces till golden brown, or if you prefer them to be lighter coloured, take them out sooner. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and you’re good to go.

Tear jerker

WITH so many revelations about sex and drugs in the kitchen, it was refreshing to read the lovely story behind how a talented young Frenchman who started at the age of 13 – he still wore short pants and was too small to reach cookware and ingredients on the highest shelves! – became one of the most admired figures in the culinary world.

Now 73, Jacques Pépin was once the personal chef to French president General Charles de Gaulle, but declined a similar position at the White House under the Kennedy administration after he immigrated to the United States.

Having already written 21 cookbooks by 2003, Pépin hadn’t intended on including any recipes in The Apprentice, but he later agreed to do a recipe per chapter to exemplify the various periods in his life. His onion soup comes with his account of moving to Paris from his hometown of Lyon to work in various restaurants, and one in particular whose regular patrons were Sartre, Beckett, Camus and de Beauvoir.

Imagine having such literary luminaries consume your onion soup. It would have been worth every tear. – Marty

Onion Soup Gratinee

2 tbsp unsalted butter
3 onions (about 340g), thinly sliced
7 cups chicken stock (or half chicken and half beef)
½ tsp salt, depending on saltiness of stock
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
16 slices of baguette, about 1cm thick
3 cups grated Swiss cheese (about 280g)

Culinary exploration

EGYPTIAN Claudia Roden started compiling recipes while she was in exile in London in the late 1960s as a balm to her homesickness. Her first book on Middle Eastern cooking was published in 1968 long before hummus became popular.

She is my favourite cookbook author because her writing is so warm and evocative, and her research is so thorough. Her instructions are detailed and reassuring, and always yield good results.

I interviewed her once and the 30-minute allocated time stretched to almost two hours of a most engaging conversation.

Roden opens up a whole new culinary world for me; new ingredients, aroma and tastes. This chicken dish from Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon is simple to make, but smells divinely of cinnamon and the caramelised onions. Roden’s tip is to reduce the sauce at the end till it is rich and caramelised.

Check out her book on Jewish cooking. It’s an academic tome on the Jewish diaspora told through the people’s food culture and history. – Blessed Glutz

Chicken with Caramalised Baby Onions and Honey

Serves 4

500g shallots or baby onions
1 onion, chopped
4 tbsp sunflower oil
Good pinch of saffron threads
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 chicken, jointed
Salt and black pepper
1-1½ tbsp clear honey

To peel the shallots or baby onions, blanch them in boiling water for five minutes and when cool enough to handle, peel off the skins and trim the root ends.

Soften the chopped onions in the oil over a medium heat in a heavy-bottomed pan or casserole dish large enough to hold the chicken pieces in one layer. Stir in the saffron, ginger and cinnamon, then put in the chicken. Season with salt and pepper, and turn to brown lightly all over.

Add about 250ml of water and cook, covered, over a low heat, turning the pieces over, for 15 minutes or until the chicken breasts are done. Lift out the breasts and put them aside. Add the shallots and continue to cook, covered, for about 25 minutes, or until the remaining chicken pieces are tender.

During the cooking, turn the chicken pieces and stir the onions occasionally; add a little water if necessary.

Lift out the chicken pieces, and set aside. Stir the honey into the pan. Check the seasoning. You need quite a bit of pepper to mitigate the sweetness. Cook, uncovered, until all the water has evaporated, and the onions are brown and caramelised, and so soft that you could crush them, as they say in Morocco, with your tongue.

Return the chicken pieces to the pan, spoon the onions on top of them and heat through. A few minutes should be enough.