The Essential James Beard Cookbook (7 page)

MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

Editor: This recipe is from Helen Evans Brown, Beard’s frequent collaborator. Serve these as an appetizer with drinks or a main course with rice and Asian greens. If you want a dip for these, go retro with soy sauce, hot Chinese mustard, and/or duck sauce.

1 pound ground pork

½ cup drained minced water chestnuts

2 tablespoons minced scallions, white parts only

1 large egg, beaten

1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger

1 tablespoon soy sauce

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ cup dried cracker crumbs, as needed

Cornstarch, for rolling the balls

Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Mix the pork, water chestnuts, scallion, egg, ginger, soy sauce, and salt in a bowl. Mix in enough cracker crumbs to make a mixture that can be easily shaped into balls. Form into walnut-size balls. Roll the balls in cornstarch. Pour enough oil into a large heavy-bottomed saucepan to come halfway up the sides. Heat over high heat until the oil registers 350°F on a deep-frying thermometer. Working in batches, add the pork balls and deep-fry until golden and cooked through, about 2½ minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels. Serve the pork balls hot on toothpicks.

RILLETTES OR RILLONS

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

The difference between the two is that the rillettes are ground or pounded, the rillons left in small dice.

1¼ pounds fresh pork fatback, finely diced

1 pound pork shoulder, trimmed, finely diced

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

Toast or sliced crusty French bread, Dijon mustard, and cornichons, for serving

Mix the ingredients in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan and barely cover with water. Cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat until the water has evaporated and the meat is very tender and swimming in the melted fat, about 3 hours.

Remove the bay leaf. Strain off and reserve the fat. Return the meat to the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until crisp and brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Rillons are left as they are. For rillettes, let the meat cool until tepid, and then grind in a food processor. Pack the meat into pots, bowls, or jars. Pour in the reserved melted fat to cover the meat by ½ inch. Refrigerate overnight. Serve cold with the bread, mustard, and cornichons.

Editor: Fresh pork fatback (not to be confused with salt pork) is available at Latino and Asian butchers. You may be able to order it from your supermarket meat department because it is usually trimmed from the commonly available pork loin roast. To dice the pork and fatback in a food processor cut them into 1-inch pieces and freeze an hour or so, or until very firm. In batches, pulse until diced in a food processor fitted with the metal blade.

GRAMMIE HAMBLET’S DEVILED CRAB

MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

This is far and away my favorite of the many versions of this most traditional of American dishes. I often serve a small helping as a first course before broiled or roast meats. [
Editor: Polly “Grammie” Hamblet was the mother of Beard’s lifelong friend Mary Hamblet. His autobiography with recipes,
Delights and Prejudices,
was dedicated to Mary.
]

2 pounds crabmeat, picked over for cartilage and shells

2½ cups coarsely crushed cracker crumbs

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

1 cup finely chopped celery

1 large green bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, finely chopped

1 cup finely sliced scallions (white and green parts)

½ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

½ cup heavy cream

1½ teaspoons dry mustard

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Dash of Tabasco

Combine the crabmeat, 1½ cups of the cracker crumbs, the butter, celery, bell pepper, scallions, parsley, cream, mustard, salt, and Tabasco in a large bowl and toss lightly. Spoon into a buttered baking dish, top with remaining 1 cup crumbs, and bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top is delicately browned. Serve at once.

VARIATION

DEVILED CLAMS:
Substitute 2 cups steamed minced clams or drained chopped canned clams for the crabmeat.

GRAVLAX

MAKES ABOUT 12 SERVINGS

For this dish, native to Scandinavia, the raw salmon is cured with salt and sugar, a process that, like the action of lime or lemon juice on fish, “cooks” the flesh and gives it a most exciting and interesting flavor.

For the Gravlax

Two 1½-pound center-cut salmon fillets

²
⁄
₃
to ¾ cup kosher salt

¼ cup sugar

1 to 2 tablespoons coarsely ground black peppercorns

Large bunch of fresh dill, stems removed

For the Sweet Mustard Sauce

¹
⁄
₃
cup vegetable oil

4 tablespoons German-style prepared mustard (not hot, but very spicy)

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill

1 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

1 bunch fresh dill, for garnish

Buttered pumpernickel bread slices, for serving

To prepare the gravlax: Using tweezers or pincers, remove all of the tiny pinbones from each fillet. Place one fillet, skin side down, in a large dish or casserole in which it can lie flat. Combine the salt, sugar, and peppercorns and rub the flesh of the salmon very well with half of this mixture. Place the dill sprigs on top. Rub the rest of the salt-sugar-peppercorn mixture into the flesh of the second piece of salmon and place over the dill, skin side up, sandwiching the fillets together. Cover the salmon with aluminum foil, then put a board or a large plate on top and weigh this down with canned goods. Refrigerate for 36 to 48 hours, turning the salmon over each day so that it cures evenly, and basting with the liquid that accumulates from the curing process. Each time, weigh it down again.

About 4 hours before the fish is done, make the sweet mustard sauce: Put the oil, German mustard, sugar, vinegar, and dry mustard in a small bowl and beat well with a whisk until it has the consistency of a thin mayonnaise (the mustard thickens the liquid). Mix in the dill and refrigerate for 3 to 4 hours before serving to allow the flavors to mellow.

At the end of the curing time, remove the fish from the liquid, scrape away the dill and seasonings, and dry the fillets well on paper towels. To serve, place on a carving board (I like to put a bouquet of dill at one end, parsley at the other, as a garnish) and slice thickly on the diagonal, detaching the flesh from the skin as you do so. Serve with the sweet mustard sauce and buttered rye bread as an appetizer or a main course for luncheon or supper, or with other fish dishes on a cold buffet.

BRANDADE OF COD

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

A specialty of Nîmes in Provence, this gloriously garlicky, creamy paste is without doubt one of the greatest and most exciting of all salt-cod dishes. Serve it warm in a mound and eat with fried toast as a first or main course.

1 pound poached salt cod (see instructions
here
), finely flaked

²
⁄
₃
cup olive oil

¹
⁄
₃
cup heavy cream

2 garlic cloves, crushed

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Fried toast, for serving

Remove any bits of bone from the flaked codfish. Heat the oil and cream separately in small saucepans. Pound or work the fish and the garlic to a paste, either with a mortar and pestle, a blender, a food processor, or a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, adding the warm oil and cream alternately by the spoonful as you do so. When the oil and cream are completely absorbed and the mixture has the consistency of mashed potatoes, season with the pepper and heap in a serving dish. Serve warm, surrounded with triangles of fried toast (bread fried in olive oil).

SEVICHE

MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

This spicy Latin American dish of pickled fish “cooked” in lime juice is delicious served with cocktails or as a first course. If you wish, substitute tiny raw bay scallops, raw crabmeat, or raw red snapper fillets for the sole. You may also add slices of avocado and whole kernel corn (sliced from freshly cooked ears) to the sauce.

1½ pounds firm sole fillets, cut into thin strips about ½ inch wide

1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup finely chopped scallions, white and green parts

¼ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons finely chopped canned, peeled green chilies

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1½ teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Dash of Tabasco

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

Arrange the fish strips in a baking dish and pour the lime juice over them. Refrigerate for 4 hours, by which time the citrus juice will have turned the fish opaque and made it firm. Drain off the lime juice; combine the remaining ingredients (except the fresh cilantro) and pour over the fish, tossing the pieces lightly in the mixture. Chill for a half hour, then sprinkle with the chopped cilantro and serve. [Editor: Substitute 1 tablespoon jalapeño or serrano chiles for the canned chiles, if you wish.]

SAUTÉED MARINATED FISH

(ESCABÈCHE)

MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

Escabèche
is the Spanish word for “pickled,” and this is the kind of recipe where you start with a basic idea, then play around with your own variations, altering the flavors in the marinade as you see fit, perhaps adding 1 or 2 finely chopped garlic cloves, increasing the amount of mild green chilies or using a little hot chopped fresh jalapeño or serrano chile (in which case omit the Tabasco) or some freshly ground black pepper, and maybe some paper-thin slices of red onion. You can have it slightly on the sweet-sour side, or acid, or bland, or hot. Escabèche is ideal summer food, because of its refreshing quality, whether you serve it as a first course or as a main dish with a green salad or rice salad or onion and cucumber salad.

For the Fish

2 pounds firm fish fillets (sole, flounder, cod, or salmon), cut into even diagonal strips

All-purpose flour

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Kosher salt

For the Marinade

½ cup olive oil

¹
⁄
₃
cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1 tablespoon red or white wine vinegar

¼ to
¹
⁄
₃
cup thinly sliced canned, peeled green chilies

¼ to
¹
⁄
₃
cup finely chopped onion or ½ cup chopped scallions (white and green parts)

Grated zest of 3 oranges