Tastes of Summer

Coconut cupcakes from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa.  World's Best All-American Potato Salad from inside the back cover of an old Gourmet. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, the revised version says 1/8 cup. Not enough. Jack it back up. And only Best Foods please - mayo is not health food. If you want health food eat tofu. Don't screw up my potato salad.

This is the potato salad that's now famous in East Hampton. If you've been lucky enough to be invited to lunch at Jane's. Or to one of her friends with whom we've shared the recipe. I hear it's gone viral.

I do so miss Gourmet magazine. I love the way Ruth Reichl writes, I would turn to her page first. And every issue would be dog-eared with recipes I wanted to make. Many of my favorite recipes came from Gourmet.

Not so Bon Appetit - they nagged you about health food (if it tasted good we'd all be eating it - we're not stupid and we don't have a death wish), they published the simplest of recipes, nothing interesting or surprising. No delicious prose about foreign lands and the smells and tasted of the bazaar, or the mountain foods of the Massif Central. Ho hum slam-it-on-the-table recipes. Why bother recipes. Although Bon Appetit has finally stopped preaching and started giving us really good recipes. And stories! Not easy recipes, we can get those anywhere. Delicious. Are you listening, Adam Rapoport? Way to go. Keep it up.

Watermelon salad with arugula and feta. It's all the rage now, but when Gourmet first published it (and I first started serving it) it freaked people out...until they tasted it. Yum. Fabulous with a grilled steak. Speaking of steak...

Bistek a la Fiorentina. 

This is the simplest most delicious grilled steak. Ever.

       1 porterhouse steak for every two people you plan to serve. Or three if they're wimps.
          (The best you can get, not from the supermarket. From Lunardi's. Or Rockridge Market Hall's Marin Sun Farms).

       Kosher salt. No substitutions.

       Pesto. Preferably home made. About 1/2  a cup.

       Lemons - about half a lemon per steak plus a few more to garnish the platter.

Heat your grill (gas or charcoal) to medium heat. When grill is hot:

Liberally sprinkle the steaks with kosher salt. This will form a crust, a good bit of the salt will come off when grilling, so this is not the time to be salt-conscious. Lay it on. You're eating steak, for God's sake. But don't do this step until just before you are putting the steaks on or it can pull the moisture out.

Grill the steaks to medium-rare to medium. No I don't know how long this will take - it depends on your grill.

Remove from grill and let rest at least 10 minutes. No Cheating!! I don't cover with foil because I like the crispness and I don't mind if it's not hot hot hot. But if you're that kind of person feel free to tent.

Slather the steaks with pesto, squeeze half a lemon over each steak, then slice (about 1/4 inch thick) and arrange on the platter with extra lemon halves and extra pesto in a little dish. Or drizzled over. And the bones! There's always at least one gnawer at our house.

Light some candles, put Pink Martini on Pandora, and relax. It's summer!

Entertain Like A Gentleman

If you know anything about me you know I am the queen of Cocktail Party food. Not that we throw a lot of cocktail parties (a condition I plan to remedy thanks to the book MixShakeStir and St Germain Elderflower Liqueur) but we do have a lot of parties...and I firmly believe there are three cardinal rules for cocktail parties:

RULE 1. Finger food. If you have to cut it, plate it, wrestle with it, or might end up wearing it, forget it.

RULE 2. Libations. With and without alcohol, for your friends who go to meetings and your friends who go to grammar school. Just because they don't drink doesn't mean they can't pretend to be grown-up. Just like the rest of us. Shhh. Don't tell.

RULE 3. Music. I first learned about this from the Barefoot Contessa - she introduced me to Pink Martini. I learned more from Laura Cunningham - when she opens her restaurant pay attention. Make a reservation. Make several. She brought ballet to the waiters at the French Laundry. She brought Jobim to me.

So I opened the new book, Entertain Like A Gentleman by David Harap, and it fell open to the chapter on Cocktail Party Finger Food. He got me before I read a word.

He has  recipe for a cocktail called Death in the Afternoon. Even if you're not a Hemingway fan this is intriguing...

Next, the book opened to the shopping list section in the back. Brilliant! How many times have you forgottent he hazelnuts for the Christmas Truffle Tart because you forgot to write them down? Me too.

If you don't entertain a lot this is a great starter book, and the recipes (well some of them) are quite sophisticated.  The Duck Prosciutto, for instance, or the Beet Grapefruit Salad. I won't be trying the Chipotle Marshmallow Crispy Treats any time soon, but he has 25 rules for stress-free entertaining that cover the basics, definitely geared toward guys. How many women need to be told what to wear to their own party? Or that it should be neat and clean? (Disclaimer: I am not a gentleman. I am not a guy.)

So if you are looking for a few hints for a party, get this book. If you are looking for a completely planned out party right down to the shopping list, get this book. If you are an experienced party giver this may not be the book for you, and I'm not sure I would recommend it as a hostess (or host) gift, but as a birthday or a housewarming gift? Yes.