An Untraditional Moussaka

Adapted from The Way to Cook by Julia Child (Knopf, 1989)

Julia says this can be served warm, tepid, or even cold, but cold doesn’t sound appealing to me at all — certainly not on a frigid winter’s night, which is when this is truly delicious.

Serves 6

The Eggplant

2 firm shiny purple-skinned eggplants, 1 to 1½ pounds each
Salt
Olive oil

Wash and dry the eggplants; don’t peel them. Cut the eggplants into 1-inch cubes. Salt the cubes lightly, and let them sit in a colander on a plate or in the sink for 15 to 20 minutes. Pat the eggplant dry with paper towels.

Sauté the cubes in a large frying pan or saucier until they release their liquid and start to brown, adding more olive oil as necessary as you go along. Using a slotted spoon, remove the cubes of eggplant to a long piece of aluminum foil, making three equal piles of eggplant cubes.

The Meat

¾ cup washed and dried parsley sprigs, chopped
1½ cups minced onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, pureed
3 cups leftover roast lamb or beef, cut into 1-inch chunks and processed briefly in a food processor so the pieces are still chunky, or 1½ pounds raw ground lamb or beef
2 cups canned tomatoes (plum tomatoes are good), drained and sieved through a food mill
¾ cup red wine or dry white French vermouth, such as Noilly Prat
⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
1 large egg, beaten
Salt and pepper

Over medium heat, sauté the minced onion in a frying pan or saucier with the olive oil. When the onions are tender, after about 6 minutes, add the garlic, and cook for about 1 minute more. You don’t want the garlic to burn and get bitter.

Raise the heat to medium-high, and add the meat, letting it brown lightly. Add the tomatoes, wine, parsley, allspice, and salt to taste. Lower the heat, and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring often, until the mixture holds its shape softly in a spoon.

Taste, and add more salt if necessary along with a little black pepper. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the beaten egg, and set aside.

Visually divide the meat mixture into two equal portions for layering.

Assemble the Dish

In a baking casserole (I use a Pyrex dish with round sides and a flat bottom), put down a layer of eggplant cubes followed by half of the meat mixture. Add another layer of eggplant, the rest of the meat, and a third layer of eggplant. Set aside while you make the sauce for the topping.

The Sauce

3 tablespoons butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
1 cup grated mozzarella or Swiss cheese
A pinch of nutmeg
½ cup grated Swiss cheese

To make a white sauce, melt the butter in a 2- to 2½-quart saucepan or fait tout (also known as a Windsor pan — a saucepan with sloping sides). Add the flour, and with a wooden spoon blend it into the butter. Cook the butter and flour together for 2 minutes to make a roux without letting it color.

Remove the pan from the heat, and when the roux stops bubbling, add 1½ cups of the hot milk all at once, whisking constantly. When the sauce is smooth, add the remaining ½ cup milk, and stir until smooth again. Season lightly with salt and white pepper, and simmer for 3 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat, and blend in the mozzarella or Swiss cheese until the sauce is smooth. Taste for seasoning, add the pinch of nutmeg, and stir it into the sauce.

Spoon the hot sauce over the top of the eggplant and meat layered in the casserole. Shake the casserole gently to let some of the sauce sink down through the layers.

Scatter the ½ cup grated Swiss cheese over the top as evenly as possible, and bake in a 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes, until bubbling and lightly browned on top.

Let the casserole cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Warm, Soft Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Jean-Georges Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman (Broadway Books, 1998)

These are the famous individual molten cakes created by Jean-Georges Vongerichten. I make them in 6-ounce Anchor Hocking custard cups that were my mother’s.

113g butter (1 stick), plus extra for buttering the cups
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate*
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
50g sugar
2 teaspoons flour, plus more for dusting

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Butter and flour four 4-ounce custard cups. Turn them over to remove the excess flour, then butter and flour them again.

Melt the chocolate and butter together using the Alice Medrich method below. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside.

In another bowl, beat the eggs, yolks, and sugar with an electric mixer until light and thick.

While the chocolate mixture is still warm, pour in the egg mixture and whisk in the flour just until combined.

Divide the batter among the prepared cups and place them on a quarter sheet pan. Bake for 6 to 7 minutes.

Remove from the oven and turn each custard cup upside down onto its own plate. Let sit for 10 seconds, then lift one corner of the cup and the cake will fall out. Serve immediately.

NOTES

To melt chocolate in a water bath using the Alice Medrich method:

Use a stainless steel bowl and a skillet a few inches wider than the bowl.

Roughly chop the chocolate and combine it with the butter in the bowl.

Bring a shallow layer of water in the skillet to a simmer.

Set the bowl in the skillet and stir frequently until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test. Do not let the water rise above a simmer.

Remove the bowl from the heat and proceed with the recipe.

*Jean-Georges recommends Valrhona; I use Guittard.

Make-Ahead Zabaglione with Berries

Adapted from Make It Ahead by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter, 2014) 

My friend Sharon, who is a pastry chef, and I would often meet at Girasole on the Upper East Side for dinner. After our main course, we would always order what we really came for— the Zabaglione. Only once was it cold rather than hot, and that night it was the best we ever had. When the bill came, the waiter said “Dessert is on the house. Everyone else in the place ordered it after they heard you two swooning over it.” And rightly so. This is just as scrumptious.

7 large egg yolks, room temperature

½ cup caster (superfine) sugar
¾ cup dry Italian Marsala wine (dry Florio is easily available)
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
¾ cup cold heavy cream
Berries of your choice

If you don’t have a copper zabaglione pan, make a double boiler using a heat-proof bowl—glass or stainless steel—placed over a pan of simmering, not boiling, water. Into the bowl place the egg yolks, sugar, and Marsala wine and whisk constantly so the eggs won’t scramble. 

The mixture will thicken and expand in volume, and the froth will disappear. As soon as this happens, and the whisk leaves a trail in the mixture, remove the pan from the heat, and whisk in the vanilla and almond extracts. 

Remove the pan from the heat, remove the bowl from the pan and stabilize it by putting it in another pan (not over water), setting that aside for 30 minutes so it can cool to room temperature, whisking once or twice while it cools.

Now it’s time to whip the cream. I use a hand-held beater and a stainless steel bowl I keep in the freezer with an extra pair of beaters in it specifically for whipping cream. If you are going to use a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment. 

Beat the cream just until firm peaks form. You do not want it to get grainy.

Use a rubber spatula to very gently fold the cream into the cooled Marsala/egg mixture. 

Very gently and carefully put this mixture in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for a few hours or overnight. 

To serve, add berries of your choice to the bottom of individual small bowls or glasses and top with the cold Zabaglione. Serve right away.

Financiers

Adapted from My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz (Ten Speed Press, 2014)

Makes 20 individual almond cakes with browned butter

When I was young, every other year my mother and I traveled to England to visit her parents, my English grandparents, and we would stay all summer. In the kitchen there were always currant scones and a single-layer cake—what I now suppose was an uncut Victoria sponge—which was my favorite to have with a cup of tea. The cake had a flavor—indescribable—but on every visit, I would have my first bite and be reminded, Oh, that’s a taste I like.

I never learned how to make it, and I never got the recipe. Over the years I tried many promising recipes, but I never found that exact taste. That is, until I made these tea cakes. And just like that—there it was: that indescribable taste, the taste of England.

75g almond meal (I grind my own almonds, being careful not to reduce them to powder)
130g powdered sugar
60g flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
115g butter, cubed (to be made into brown butter)
Egg whites from 4 large eggs

Melt the butter over medium heat in a skillet, preferably stainless steel. It will sputter a little, then calm down. Being careful not to let it burn, continue cooking until it turns deep golden brown and smells nutty. Remove the skillet from the heat and let it cool slightly.

Whisk the almond meal, powdered sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Stir the egg whites into the dry ingredients, then gradually stir in the butter until fully incorporated.

Cover the bowl and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400°F, non-convection.

Butter the wells of 20 indentations of a mini-muffin pan and fill each indentation ¾ full with batter.

Rap the pan on the counter a few times, then bake for 15 minutes, or until the financiers spring back lightly when touched.

Remove the pan from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before tilting the financiers out of the pan.

Crème Caramel

Adapted from The French Chef Cookbook by Julia Child (Alfred A. Knopf, 1968) 

This is the cookbook filled with recipes from Julia Child’s original television show, The French Chef, produced at WGBHin Boston. The first time I made this, I was astonished at the resulting lovely crème caramel.

The equipment you will need is a 2-1/2- to 3-quart mixing bowl, a whisk, a caramelized mold or dish (see instructions below), and a pan of just-boiled water.

5 large eggs
4 egg yolks
¾ cup sugar
3-3/4 cups simmering milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a 2- to 3-quart mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and yolks together. Gradually beat in the sugar. When the mixture becomes foamy, beat in the hot milk very slowly in a thin stream. If you are using vanilla, beat it in now.

Strain the mixture into your caramelized mold or baking dish.

Set the dish in a pan of water that has previously come to a boil and bake in the lower third of the preheated oven. You want the water in the pan never quite to simmer throughout the cooking process; do not let it boil.

The custard is done when a knife plunged into the center comes out clean. Expect this to take about 40 minutes.

To serve warm, move the dish to a pan of cold water. Turn a warm (meaning not cold) serving dish upside down over the custard, then reverse both to unmold.

To serve cold, cool to room temperature before refrigerating for several hours. Unmold to serve.

NOTES

How to Caramelize a 6- to 8-cup Mold or Baking Dish

In a small saucepan, bring ½ cup sugar and 2-1/2 tablespoons water to a boil, turning the pan by its handle until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid is clear. Then boil, turning the pan frequently, until the liquid has turned caramel brown. This will take 2 to 3 minutes.

Immediately pour the hot caramel into your dish, turning until all sides are covered. When the caramel stops running, put the dish upside down on a plate.

Griddlecakes or Pancakes

Adapted from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, Twelfth Edition, edited by Marion Cunningham (Alfred A. Knopf, 1979)

The Twelfth Edition of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, edited by Marion Cunningham, is my favorite all-purpose cookbook. She did go on to edit a Thirteenth Edition, but by that time she had given up hope on Americans turning to metric measurements and eliminated them, so I continue to use the Twelfth Edition.

Makes about 12 to 16 pancakes

1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 egg
140 g all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
A splash of club soda or seltzer
Vegetable oil, for greasing the griddle

Beat the egg in a small bowl. Melt the butter and add it to the egg, mixing quickly so the heat of the butter does not begin to cook the egg.

In a medium bowl, combine the milk with the egg and butter mixture.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the milk mixture all at once and stir gently until just combined; a few lumps are fine. Add a small splash of club soda or seltzer and stir briefly.

Heat a griddle or frying pan over moderate heat and grease lightly with vegetable oil. When the surface is hot, ladle the batter onto the griddle (about 3 tablespoons per pancake).

Cook until bubbles form on the surface and the undersides are lightly browned. Turn and cook the other side until golden.

Serve hot.

Note: I use a 1½-ounce ladle (about 3 tablespoons) for each pancake.

Sugared Shortbread

Adapted from Amy Casey, via New York Times Cooking (The New York Times Company, 2012)

Makes about 16 cookies

In 2012, The New York Times invited readers to submit their favorite cookie recipes, and Amy Casey—who writes the blog Amy Casey Cooks—contributed this unusual shortbread, later adapted by Melissa Clark. It uses melted butter and a small amount of rice flour, which gives the cookies a delicate, sandy texture—almost crystalline—especially with the generous coating of sugar on top and bottom.

240g all-purpose flour
36g rice flour (not sweet rice flour)
62g sugar, plus more for sprinkling over the top
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
227g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Heat the oven to 350°F. If using convection, bake at 325°F. When baking cookies, it is a good idea to wait about 20 minutes after the oven reaches temperature so the heat is steady and accurate.

Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment. A sheet sized for a half-sheet pan, cut in half, works perfectly and gives you handles on two sides, making it easy to lift the shortbread out after baking.

Whisk together the all-purpose flour, rice flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and press it evenly into the bottom. I use a blending fork at first, though you can also pat it in with your hands, then smooth the top with a small offset spatula.

Sprinkle the top generously with sugar and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until pale gold. Cut into pieces while still warm. A bench scraper makes this especially easy. Using the parchment handles, lift the shortbread from the pan, transfer it to a rack, and let it cool completely before eating.

Notes

This recipe is a small miracle. It comes together in minutes, requires no mixer, and produces a shortbread that is both simple and memorable.

I keep jars of the dry ingredients already measured so all I have to do is add melted, cooled butter.

Melting Chocolate the Alice Medrich Way

Adapted from Seriously Bittersweet by Alice Medrich (Artisan, 2003)

Alice Medrich came up with a particularly effective way to melt bittersweet, semisweet, and unsweetened chocolate with butter—in a water bath. The key detail is the use of a stainless steel bowl, which heats and cools quickly; glass takes longer to heat up and then stays hot, continuing to cook the chocolate even after it is removed from the bath.

She emphasizes three rules when melting chocolate:

Avoid moisture — even a small amount can cause the chocolate to seize.

Chop the chocolate — this helps control and even out the melt.

Stir frequently — and adjust the heat so the water never goes beyond a simmer.

To melt chocolate in a water bath:

Use a stainless steel bowl and a skillet a few inches wider than the bowl.

Roughly chop the chocolate and combine it with the butter in the bowl.

Bring a shallow layer of water in the skillet to a simmer.

Set the bowl in the skillet and stir frequently until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test. Do not let the water go beyond a simmer.

Remove the bowl from the heat and proceed with your recipe.

Hungarian Fried Chicken (Rántott Csirke)

Unlike traditional "Southern" fried chicken, this is made with a bound breading like the one used for schnitzel or chicken cutlets. You can use a whole chicken cut up or individual pieces. I like to use drumsticks, preferably Bell & Evans Organic Premium, which are very plump.

The amount of the ingredients will depend on how many pieces of chicken you are making. The following is what I use for 6 pieces of chicken.

6 pieces of chicken
Salt
1 cup rice flour (not sweet rice flour)
2 eggs, beaten and strained
1 cup plain dried breadcrumbs

Salt the chicken the morning of the day you are going to cook it and place it on a rack set over a quarter sheet pan, uncovered, in the refrigerator.

One to two hours before cooking, set up your breading station. Dip the pieces of chicken into rice flour, then into the beaten and strained egg, then into the breadcrumbs. Once the chicken is breaded, place it on a plate and return it to the refrigerator until you are ready to cook.

Heat 2 inches of grapeseed oil in a wide, deep pot — not a frying pan. I use an All-Clad 6-quart stockpot (which is not a traditional stockpot, as it is not narrower than it is tall). A Le Creuset 5- or 7-quart pot would work well, too.

Add the chicken pieces and cook over medium heat, turning often and regulating the heat so they brown evenly without burning. I judge doneness by watching the color and removing one piece to check with an instant-read thermometer. I consider it done when it reaches 165°F. This should take about 20 minutes.

This is delicious hot or cold.

My friend Walter’s beautiful mother, Gizi, was from Budapest. She was a fantastic cook. She taught me how to make chicken paprikás and goulash, and this is how she made rántott csirke, Hungarian fried chicken, except that I substitute rice flour for the original all-purpose flour. When I later read Culinaria Hungary, I saw the same method there, which confirmed that this is the traditional way.

\

Gizi

Signora Bianca - A Pre-dinner Aperitif

Sometimes you don't want a "serious" cocktail. This is lovely before dinner. It’s just the right balance: the vanilla and herbs have space to bloom, and the lemon cuts through beautifully.

1.5 oz Carpano Bianco + 1.5 oz soda + lemon twist 

Slow Roasted Chicken

Adapted from the February 18, 2014 issue of Bon Appétit, where it appeared as “Herb Faux-Tisserie Chicken” attributed to Carla Lalli Music

I struck gold when I found this recipe. This method produces a beautiful golden chicken with tender meat that is delicious the first night and shreds beautifully for Chicken Tetrazzini the second.

2 teaspoons fennel seeds (I often use Fennel & Salt by Casina Rossa*)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 lemon, quartered
1 head of garlic, halved crosswise
A few sprigs of fresh thyme (nice if you have it; I usually don’t in winter, but in summer it’s right outside in the garden)
1 4-pound chicken, preferably pasture raised—or at least the best one you can find

Preheat the oven to 300°F conventional or 275°F convection (what I do).

Coarsely grind the fennel seeds and crushed red pepper. I use a spice mill (really a small coffee bean grinder that I use for spices); you can certainly use a mortar and pestle. Combine this with the salt, pepper, and olive oil to make the spice mixture.

Stuff the chicken with the lemon quarters, both halves of the garlic head, and the thyme sprigs, if you have them. Rub the chicken all over with the spice mixture.

Place the chicken in your cooking pan. I use a 10-inch cast iron skillet with a shallow rack, but a rimmed baking sheet will do. Definitely avoid anything deep.

Bake until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 165°F. This will take 2-1/2 hours (convection) to 3 hours (conventional). Allow the chicken to rest for at least 10 minutes before carving.

This is, to me, the  perfect roast chicken recipe. Since what I want is juicy breast meat sliced for dinner the first night, and the rest of the chicken picked clean for chicken tetrazzini the second, high-heat cooking that results in a bird that is lovely to look at but has dry breast meat doesn’t work for me. 

*Instead of the fennel seeds and salt, I often use Fennel & Salt (Sale Marino & Finocchio) by Casina Rossa. It is a combination of sea salt, fennel, black pepper, white pepper, turmeric, oregano, curry, laurel, thyme, pimento, and juniper. It comes as a coarse mixture, but I blitz it in my spice mill and keep it in a jar with a perforated lid. I think it’s delicious on pork as well as chicken.

Chicken Tetrazzini

Adapted from America, the Beautiful Cookbook (HarperCollins, 1990)

Serves 4 to 6
I cut it in half for 2

Amy made this when she had her catering business in Atlanta. The original recipe calls for sherry, but I use Rainwater Madeira because Madeira has a more stable shelf life than sherry. Chicken stock makes sense, but I use Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base because it is very umami, and I always have it on hand. I also like to finish the dish with toasted slivered almonds for crunch.

5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon unsalted butter for the baking dish
1 tablespoon unsalted butter for the almonds
1/2 pound mushrooms (I use cremini)
1/2 pound spaghettini
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups stock (I use Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base)
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons Madeira
A big pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Salt
2 cups pulled-apart chicken (or turkey if it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving!)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a small ovenproof pan, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the slivered almonds and toss to coat. Bake for 5 minutes, stir, and bake for 5 minutes more. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Butter the bottom of a shallow baking dish.

Heat both the stock and cream to warm, not boiling, in separate vessels.

Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet and cook the mushrooms until golden. Turn off the heat.

Boil the spaghettini in salted water until tender. It will continue to cook later in the oven but not for a very long time, so don’t undercook it too much to compensate.

Next, make the sauce. I use what is known as a Windsor or fait-tout pan, which has slanted sides; a saucier also works well. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring the whole time. Whisk in the warm stock, raise the heat, and cook for 2 minutes, again stirring constantly. Add the cream and Madeira and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens. This will take about 8 minutes. When thickened, add the nutmeg and salt to taste, if you need it, which you may not because of your stock.

Spread the spaghettini over the bottom of the baking dish. Pour half the sauce on top. Spread the chicken and mushrooms over the sauce. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese. Bake until golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Before serving, sprinkle the toasted slivered almonds on top. If you’re plating individually in the French style (service à l’assiette), sprinkle the almonds over each portion.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Thin & Crisp

Adapted from David Lebovitz, who adapted it from Pastry Love by Joanne Chang (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019)

Makes about 24 cookies

If you like thin, crisp cookies similar to Tate's, these are for you. If you like soft pillowy cookies, they are not.

225g butter (I use Kerrygold salted) at room temperature
200g caster (superfine) sugar — I order mine from Kalustyan’s
100g firmly packed light brown sugar (I use Domino’s)
1 large egg, at room temperature
45g water  (I use water from the tap)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
245g flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
280g dark chocolate chips (I use Guittard 63%)

Start by beating the egg in a small bowl. Add the water and the vanilla extract and beat again. Set aside.

Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Add the chocolate chips and toss.

Beat the butter and sugars for about 5 minutes in a stand mixer on medium speed until light and creamy. Yes, set a timer.

Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula.

Turn the mixer on to low and beat in the contents of the small bowl — the egg, water, and vanilla mix.

Stir in the contents of the medium bowl — the flour, baking soda, and chocolate chips — and mix until thoroughly combined.

I always refrigerate the dough overnight, dividing the mixture into two metal bowls because it’s easiest to roll them into 45g balls when the dough is cold. I leave one bowl in the refrigerator while I roll the dough from the first bowl.

Bake on parchment-lined half-sheet pans in a 350°F oven, or 325°F convection (I use convection), for 13 to 14 minutes. Fourteen minutes works in my oven. I bake 3 cookies per sheet.

Remove the cookies from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Note: There are two people whose baking recipes I especially trust and like — Alice Medrich and David Lebovitz. Since I started to bake cookies, they have been the people I turn to. Alice’s Double Oatmeal Cookie is our “house cookie.” On my kitchen shelf that holds my very favorite — and often dog-eared — cookbooks sit Alice’s Flavor Flours and David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen, his not-just-baking book. David Lebovitz can be found on Substack.

Lescó

Adapted from The Hungarian Cookbook by Susan Derecskey (Harper & Row, 1972)

When Walter was growing up, his mother made this — a traditional Hungarian dish of tomatoes, peppers, and onions — with slices of Magyar Lecsó Kolbász, a smoked and cooked garlic sausage. I order it from the Hungarian Meat Market in Fairfield, Connecticut. Judging from the ingredients - peppers and tomatoes - I don’t think this is actually a cold-weather dish in Hungary, but we eat it all year round. Still, it always feels just right on the day of the first snow.

Serves 4

8 red bell peppers*, sliced into strips about ½ inch wide (not rings)
1½ large yellow onions, chopped
Olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pot by about ¼ inch)
2 to 3 tablespoons sweet (Hungarian) paprika
3 (400g) cans whole peeled tomatoes (Italian DOP or Italian cherry tomatoes), passed through a food mill
2 links Magyar Lecsó Kolbász, sliced into 2 cm rounds
Full-fat sour cream, for serving

I use my 6-quart All-Clad “stockpot” here because it’s wide rather than deep, which makes it easier to cook the onions and peppers evenly.

Cover the bottom of the pot with about ¼ inch of olive oil. Add the chopped onions and sauté slowly over medium-low heat, without letting them brown. Add the sliced peppers and stir to coat with the oil and onion. Stir in 2 tablespoons of paprika, letting it bloom gently over low heat — don’t let it burn. Add the remaining tablespoon of paprika and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes and a little salt. Partially cover the pan and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking. After 30 minutes, add the sausage and cook for 20 minutes more. Don’t cook it longer — you want the sausages to heat through without leaching all their flavor into the sauce. Taste for seasoning.

I serve it with a dollop of sour cream, rice, and cucumber salad — either one made with sour cream or one with a sweet and sour dressing. Green beans, tossed with olive oil and lightly salted, go well too if I want to add a vegetable.

*The traditional peppers for lecsó are light green Italian frying peppers, but since they’re hard to find, I use red bell peppers. There’s no fresh garlic here — the sausage provides plenty. If you can find sweet paprika from Hungary (not just Hungarian-style), use it. I order mine from Kalustyans.

If You Only Want One Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking from the Beloved Greenwich Village Restaurant by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi with Anna Kovel (Knopf, 2022)

This won’t be the most beautiful chocolate cake you’ve ever made—but it just may be the best. In fact, it could be the only one you’ll ever need.

Please read the notes at the end at least the first time you make this!

Serves 8 to 10

170g unsalted butter (plus a little more for the pan)
Cocoa powder to dust the cake pan
200g bittersweet chocolate, broken into smallish pieces (see notes)
6 large eggs, separated (see notes)
200g sugar (I like to use golden caster sugar if I have it—ordered from Kalustyan’s)
¼ teaspoon fine salt

Preheat a regular oven (not convection) to 350°F.

Butter a 9-inch springform pan and dust it with cocoa powder the same way you would normally flour a cake pan. Tap out the excess.

Melt the butter and chocolate together. I use the Alice Medrich Water Bath Method from The Kitchn (see below).

In a clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy, then gradually add 100g of the sugar and the ¼ teaspoon fine salt. Beat until the whites form stiff, glossy peaks—silky but not dry. I use a copper bowl and electric hand mixer for this step. It will probably take a little longer than you expect; be patient.

In another bowl (large enough to hold everything later), whisk the egg yolks with the remaining 100g of sugar until they are thick and light. I use an electric hand mixer. Even if your yolks start out very golden, they will lighten.

Slowly stir the cooled but still liquid chocolate/butter mixture into the yolks. It must be cool enough and stirred constantly so you don’t cook the yolks. Mix thoroughly.

Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the chocolate–egg yolk mixture. Leave some white streaks—this won’t feel natural, but it’s important for texture.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. In my oven, 40 is enough. The cake will puff up dramatically, then sink as it cools. It may even resemble the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter. That’s fine.

Cool completely before removing the sides of the pan.

Serve plain or with thick whipped cream. The cake will be very chocolate-y, but light, not dense.

NOTES

– It’s easiest to separate eggs when they’re cold, so I often do that straight from the fridge. Then let them come to room temperature before you begin making the cake.

– When separating and beating eggs: a tiny bit of white in your yolks is fine. But even a speck of yolk will prevent the whites from whipping properly. So it’s best to beat your egg whites first while your tools are clean and dry, then move on to the yolks.

– You’ll be folding the whites into the yolks, so beat your yolks in a bowl big enough to eventually hold everything.

Alice Medrich Water Bath Method for Melting Chocolate
Adapted from Alice Medrich via The Kitchn

Put about an inch of water in a wide skillet (I use a 10-inch All-Clad). Place a heatproof bowl—stainless steel works well—with the chopped chocolate and butter into the skillet. Bring the water to a simmer, then turn off the heat. Let the chocolate and butter melt undisturbed. When it’s mostly melted, stir gently until smooth.

Medrich writes:

With this method you can see everything—you can see when the water is starting to simmer (it will rattle the bowl, too!) and you can turn off the flame. You can’t see what’s happening inside a double boiler. Of course, you always have to be careful, no matter what your method, because you don't want water to get INTO the chocolate, but this is the easiest way I know how to keep track of everything.

I believe credit has to go to Richard Sax, whose book Classic Home Desserts (Houghton Mifflin, 1994) includes a closely related recipe, Chocolate Cloud Cake.  

Cocktail - The Classic Martini (Vic's Way)

Plymouth gin, ice-cold, served straight up with three olives—and just a nod to France

Finalized after a spirited back-and-forth with ChatGPT.

2½ oz Plymouth Gin
A whisper of Noilly Prat dry vermouth (rinse the glass, or wave the bottle in the direction of the shaker)
Ice
3 green olives (Gordal*, Castelvetrano, or classic pimento-stuffed)

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the Plymouth gin. Rinse a chilled martini glass with Noilly Prat, then discard the excess (or, if you’re Churchill, forget the vermouth entirely and merely glance toward France).

Shake the gin vigorously until the shaker is so cold it stings your fingers.

Strain into the prepared glass. Garnish with three olives.

*I have recently discovered these delicious green olives from Spain.

Raspberry Sauce and Raspberry Coulis

When I make a flourless chocolate cake and am pulling out all the stops, I serve it with both Crème Anglaise and a raspberry sauce. Either of the following raspberry sauces works beautifully. Each one is excellent served over vanilla or sweet cream ice cream. 

Raspberry Coulis

Adapted from Above and Beyond Parsley: Food for the Senses by The Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri (Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri, 1992)

1½ cups fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries
¼ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup Chambord

Puree all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Strain to remove the seeds. Chill before serving.

Raspberry Sauce
Adapted from Chocolate (Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library) by Lora Brody (Time-Life Books, 1993)

315g (2½ cups) fresh or thawed frozen unsweetened raspberries
125g (½ cup) castor (superfine) sugar
¼ cup Chambord

Puree all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Strain to remove the seeds. Chill before serving.

Flourless Almond Cake

Adapted from From Baklava to Tarte Tatin by Bernard Laurance (Rizzoli, 2016)

Serves 6 to 8

This bakes into a thin disc meant to be served simply with whipped cream. I usually add a splash of Amaretto (Luxardo is the brand I like) to the cream before whipping it. (It's also lovely with sweet-cream or vanilla ice cream.) It isn’t very cake-y the way brownies aren’t chocolate cake—so don’t be surprised when people ask what it is.  

This is best made the day before you plan to serve; if you’re baking the same day, make it early. 

This recipe uses whole UNBLANCED almonds that you grind yourself—finer than meal but not as powdery as commercial almond flour. If you want to try toasting the almonds, do it ahead (350°F for 10 minutes, turning once at 5 minutes), and let them cool completely before grinding. I don’t taste a big difference, so toasting isn’t necessary.

For a very small 6-inch cake, halve the recipe.

120g unsalted butter, melted and cooled but still liquid 
A little softened butter for coating the pan
200g unblanched unsalted whole almonds, raw or roasted 
¼ teaspoon salt
100g confectioners’ sugar, sifted (I sift through a coarse sieve, not a flour sifter)
100g granulated sugar (I like Domino’s Golden Sugar)
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325°F, not convection.

Generously butter the sides of an 8-inch cake pan and line the bottom with parchment cut to fit. There’s no need to butter the parchment.

Pulse the almonds in a food processor until finely ground but not powdery—less fine than commercial almond flour.

In a large bowl, combine the ground almonds, salt, sifted confectioners’ sugar, and granulated sugar.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla, then add to the dry ingredients along with the cooled, still-liquid butter. Mix until smooth and the butter is fully incorporated—the batter should be quite thick. Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a small offset spatula.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out (sort of) clean. (In my oven, 40 minutes is just right.) Unmold quickly: after 2—but no more than 5—minutes, run a small straight metal spatula or thin knife around the edge. If it seems to be pulling, wait a minute and try again. Invert to release; if it hesitates, hold it upside down for a moment and it will let go.

Cool before serving.