A recipe from Mark Bittman's award-winning book

I wanted to share a recipe from the James Beard cookbook of the year, Jennifer McLagan's Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient (Ten Speed Press), but I couldn't find one that was appropriate for a quick dinner. Or that had readily available recipes. My neighborhood grocery store doesn't stock duck fat. Or bone marrow. Or finely grated suet.

That said, the recipes sound delicious and I wish McLagan was a buddy of mine and could make me Bone Marrow Tacos (it is Cince de Mayo!) or Duck Breast With Blackberries or Sauteed Foie Gras with Gingered Vanilla Quince. It all sounds so fantastic, but not so doable for a weeknight fest. Still, a girl can dream.

So today, we turn to another Beard award winner: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (Wiley), which won the general cookbook category at Monday night's fancy New York gala. It's a doorstopper of a book and a good one if you're looking for something that tells you how to cook, well, everything. Mother's Day gift? Wedding present?

In honor of the winners and Cinco de Mayo, make Garlic Shrimp With Tomatoes and Cilantro and serve with flour tortillas. It's a variation on yesterday's recipe; still I like it.

Garlic Shrimp With Tomatoes and Cilantro
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, or more as needed
6 big garlic cloves, cut into slivers
1 1/2 pounds shrimp, 20 to 30 per pound, peeled, rinsed and dried
4 plum tomatoes, diced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Chopped fresh cilantro

Warm the olive oil in a large, broad, ovenproof skillet or heatproof baking pan over low heat. There should be enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan; don't skimp. Add the garlic and cook until it turns golden, a few minutes.

Raise the heat to medium-high and add the shrimp, tomatoes, some salt and pepper. Stir to blend and continue to cook, shaking the pan once or twice and turning the shrimp once or twice, until they are pink all over and the mixture is bubbly, 5 to 10 minutes. Garnish and serve immediately.

Source: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (Wiley).

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Barefoot Contessa has No. 1 '08 cookbook

I guess it doesn't matter much that I dissed Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics in a story last November. Too simple, I said. We expect more from her, I opined. Not one of the best of the year, I wrote with bravado.

What do I know?

According to Publishers Weekly, the contessa had the No. 1 selling cookbook in 2008. Her basics cookbook sold 641,741 copies. Pretty amazing when you think she's only got the one show on Food Network and it doesn't even air in the evening. It never has. The next closest book sold half as many. And that was from La Martha!

I like her a lot, but truly this wasn't my fave cookbook. I am a big fan of Barefoot in Paris I also like her show; all the recipes seem doable and really delish. The bistro-vibe is right up my alley.

Here are the other top sellers for 2008. Interesting to note: nearly all female writers, four on the Food Network.

Martha Stewart's Cooking School (317,992)
Giada's Kitchen (301,663)
The Taste of Home Cookbook (264,343)
The Best Life Cookbook by Bob Greene (245,000)
Yum-O! by Rachael Ray (243,470)
Paula Deen's Kitchen Wisdom and Recipe Journal (170,000)
Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano (129,000)
Joy's Life Diet by Joy Bauer (128,000)
Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook by Phillis Pellman Good (121,433)

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New cookbooks: Step-by-step from above

From today's cookbook booty: Cooking from Above: Classics and Cooking From Above: Italian. These are clever books that provide a "top down" view of the cooking process. It allows the reader/cook to see step-by-step how the dishes are made, all photographed straight down on the ingredients.

I sort of like it and I sort of don't. I can see how it's helpful for a novice cook to see the pan and bowl sizes and how big some of the ingredients are, especially things like slices of bread, potatoes, garlic cloves and shallots. Great to see, also, how the dishes look while cooking and when cooked. Very cool for a visual learner.

There are 60 to 80 recipes in each book and they appear very Euro/British. Fresh sardines, broiled tomatoes, lots of Indian recipes, you know, stuff like that. Both writers, Keda Black and Laura Zavan, are French. I suspect that the widespread appeal in the states for these books will be limited because of the recipes. They aren't really anything you can't get in a lot of places. That said, I like the format a lot and think it is a classy model for other books.

Here's a recipe from Classics. According to Black: "This sauce is good for pasta and as a pizza topping. It is delicious served with sliced eggplant cooked on the grills. Add 2/3 cup coconut milk and a pinch of saffron threads for an excellent stock in which cook fish or prawns." Sounds like dinner tonight.

Cherry Tomato Sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled, crushed and finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 pound cherry tomatoes
2 thyme sprigs and/or 4 basil stalks
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)
1/2 teaspoon butter (optional)

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Soften the garlic and onion for 5 minutes; do not allow them to color. Add the tomatoes, the thyme and/or basil, and salt and pepper, sugar (sugar tempers a bit of the tomatoes' acid). Mix well then let cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes over a low-medium heat.

Taste and adjust seasoning. Add the little bit of butter, which will make the sauce richer.

Makes enough sauce for pasta for 4.

Source: Cooking from Above: Classics by Keda Black (Hamlyn)

The perfect gift for Mother's Day

Shameless shelf-promotion alert: If you're looking for a gift for dear old Mom, consider buying her a copy of O Christmas Treats, my compilation of the Christmas cookie recipes we've been running in the St. Petersburg Times Taste section for the past 8 years.  Yeah, I know it's only April but those holidays will be here before you know it. To buy online, click here.

To accompany the gift, make a batch of cookies. Since it's spring, forget the peppermint and nutmeg; go for lemon flavor. Below is one of my favorite cookies from the book. They were submitted by reader Nancy Eggert of Dunedin and we ran them in 2006. Still a winner and good for year-round baking.

Lemon Crinkles
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, room temperature
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup flaked or shredded coconut
Granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix butter, sugar and egg thoroughly. Blend in lemon rind and extract. Mix together flour and next four dry ingredients. Add and blend well. Stir in coconut, and roll in 1-inch balls. Dip tops in sugar.

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet, sugar side up,  for 10 to 12 minutes.

Makes 3 dozen.

Submitted by Nancy M. Eggert, Dunedin

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It's Earth Day! Watch your kitchen waste!

On Earth Day 1971, a bunch of eighth-grade pals and I snubbed the bus and rode our bikes to school on some pretty busy streets in Santa Clara, Calif.

The word “green” was not part of our vocabulary then; still we felt the sentiment keenly. The first Earth Day was 1970 and kicked off the modern environmental movement.  It would be a few months before Marvin Gaye’s "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" became our anthem. And maybe a year or two before we started wearing Earth Shoes.

Today, on the 40th Earth Day, I am not sure we are in tons better environmental shape, but we are certainly talking about it a lot. Here are five just-released food books that tell us how easy it is to make our kitchens and menus green.

TITLE: Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen by Kate Heyhoe (Lifelong Books, $17.95)

GENERALLY SPEAKING: Not to get too cute, but this book just may help you reduce your “cookprint.” Heyhoe, founding editor of Globalgourmet.com and Newgreenbasics.com, compares cooking techniques and equipment to help you save energy in the kitchen. For instance, go for small appliances over big (toaster oven vs. oven) when you can. Make sure the dishwasher is full before running. Use cloth and sponges instead of paper towels. I like this book as a wake-up call to the waste that goes on in cooking, and it’s not all about food. Cooking Green isn’t sexy, but what a font of information. Plus, the recipes are sophisticated and with a global favor.

THE VIBE: Your mother was right; turn off lights and don’t let the water run.

HOW GREEN IS IT? Printed on 100 percent “post-consumer waste recycled paper” with vegetable-based inks.

ONE GOOD TIP: A kitchen exhaust fan sucks up grease and fumes, so fewer airborne particles settle on kitchen surfaces. This means less greasy dust and less need for cleaning over time. But don’t run the fan longer than needed, to conserve power.

Buy this cookbook for a wedding present

I love to give cookbooks for wedding presents and a new one by Richard J. Perry is a good candidate for this year's nuptials. (I love that word. It's funny to say.) "The Good Home Cookbook"has more than 1,000 recipes and would be a great basic book for anyone on your list who likes to cook or wants to learn. There are no photos but I don't find that a stumbling block in a book with such diverse recipes as Baked Fish Provencale Style, Parsnip Fritters (I hear you rolling your eyes. Stop it.) and Black-Bottom Pie. Not to mention a whole chapter on cocktails!

On a day as cruddy as today has been in the Tampa Bay area, I can only think of making soup tonight. It's been raining since the early a.m.

Barley-Mushroom Soup
2 tablespoons oil
1 pound mushrooms, trimmed and finely chopped
2 medium celery ribs, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
8 cups vegetable, chicken or beef broth
2/3 cup pearl barley
2 tablespoons dry sherry or Madeira wine
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large soup pot or saucepan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, celery, carrots and onion and saute until the onion and mushrooms are well-browned and the liquid has mostly evaporated, about 15 minutes.

Add the broth and barley. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, partly covered until the barley is tender, 40 to 60 minutes.

Stir in the sherry and parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Serves 6 to 8.

Source: The Good Home Cookbookby Richard J. Perry (Stewart, Tabori & Chang)

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Cookbook photos fib sometimes

Those beautiful color photographs in cookbooks inspire us. They also make us feel less than worthy when our efforts don’t look the same.

Thus was the story with Baked Eggs in Ham Cups from Gale Gand’s Brunch! For more ideas on how to serve this dish for Easter brunch, read here.

Two eggs sit pretty in fluttery ham cups, a bit of pesto peeking through white, nestled next to a roasted cherry tomato half. So the photo in the book shows.

When we tested the recipe, we didn’t have such luck. In fact, two large eggs, which is what the original recipe calls for, spilled out of the muffin cups before the 12-cup tin went into the oven. Then the volume of ingredients caused the ham cup to splay when it was removed from the tin. Perfectly edible, but hardly like the photo. The photo above shows the results we got using two eggs, then one.

Here’s the deal, use one egg, as we eventually did. Make a few extra and if you have big eaters, they can have two.

We made 10 cups — seven with two eggs — and only one held firm with double eggs. We even looked for medium eggs at two grocery stores, thinking that might help. Out of luck, again. Large was the smallest size.

We look at cooking as a big experiment. Different ingredients, equipment and ability creates different results. We don’t easily give up, though, even when the finished product isn’t ready for its closeup.
This show-stopping recipe was worth the effort.

Baked Eggs in Ham Cups
Unsalted butter, for tins
4 1/16-inch-thick round ham slices, about 5 inches around
2 teaspoons pesto
4 large eggs
8 cubes fresh mozzarella
4 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Butter 4 compartments of a metal muffin tin. Fold each ham slice into quarters, insert the point end in a buttered muffin cup, and let it open — it will have a ruffled look. Place 1/2 teaspoon pesto in the bottom of each ham cup, then carefully crack 1 egg into the cup. Tuck 2 mozzarella cubes and two cherry tomato halves into each cup on top of the eggs and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. (Remember that the ham and pesto both lend saltiness to the dish.)

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the egg white looks set but the yolk is still a bit runny. Remove the ham cups from the muffin tin and serve on individual plates or lined up on a platter.

Makes 4.

Source: Adapted from Gale Gand’s Brunch! (Clarkson Potter, 2009)

Photo by Scott Keeler, St. Petersburg Times

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