Shelf Life

Tag: Cookbooks

  • Angela Medearis: The Ultimate Kitchen Diva

    Angela Medearis: The Ultimate Kitchen Diva

    Photograph by Penny De Los Santos-Diabetic cookbook, Author Amgela Medearis

    “People are eating African American food every day, but they don’t know it,” Angela Shelf Medearis says to me when we chat on the phone. In part, she’s talking about James Hemings who, in the complicated way of slavery, trained in the culinary arts in Paris and became a noted chef de cuisine and yet lived most of his life enslaved. Hemings either created or introduced a variety of the foods we eat now such as macaroni and cheese, ice cream, French fries, meringues, crème brulée, and French-style whipped cream.  Another dish he created that we don’t eat regularly if at all is his handwritten recipe for snow eggs–soft, poached meringue, set in puddles of crème anglaise.

              Hemings was the son of Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman and  John Wayles, the man who “owned” her. The two had six children together.  Wayles also had a more traditional family and his daughter Martha married a plantation owner named Thomas Jefferson. Thus, James was the half-brother of  Martha Jefferson who “inherited” James  (that’s so creepy I even hate writing it) when Wayles died. James was eight when they all came to live at Monticello. His youngest sister, Sally was just an infant. To make matters even more complex, after Martha died and Sally reached some type of maturity—she was probably in her mid-teens, she became Jefferson’s mistress and had six children by him, four of whom lived to adulthood.

             

    So, Sally Hemmings was Martha Jefferson’s half-sister, and her children were half-siblings to Martha and Thomas’s children. I only mention all this to show how intertwined Black and White families were and also how the foodways of both merged.

             But while Hemings introduced the Frenchified cookery to America,  

    Medearis, the founder of Diva Productions, Inc., the organization that produces her multicultural children’s books, cookbooks, videos, and audiocassettes, points out that people weren’t eating black-eyed peas before Africans arrive in this country.

              “Back then they even thought tomatoes were poisonous,” she says. “But when they shipped slaves, they also shipped  the foods they ate with them  because that was a cheap way to feed them,” she says. “The recipes for those foods traveled from one place to the other. If they stopped in the Caribbean or South America before coming here, then the recipes changed with the foods and spices available and the types of cooking techniques.”

              Medearis, a television chef known as the Kitchen Diva, has written 107 books. Many are children’s books, but she also is a cookbook author focusing on both the historic roots of African American cookery and healthy eating like The Kitchen Diva’s Diabetic Cookbook: 150 Healthy, Delicious Recipes for Diabetics and Those Who Dine with Them.

    But she didn’t start out to be a cook.

              “I only cooked enough that social services wouldn’t come and take away my children,” she says with a laugh. But her mother, after she retired, decided she wanted to market her raisin pie for some extra income.

    While her mother and sister did the cooking, Medearis who often wears feather boas during her TV appearances and on her PBS cooking show and isn’t shy about being in the limelight, did the marketing.

    But when her mother and sister decided to quit, Medearis knew she had to learn to cook if she wanted to keep her food business going.

    Now she’s so full force that celebrity chef and restauranteur Bobby Flay arrived for a Jerk Chicken Throwdown while she was marinating jerk chicken for a family get. It was for his Food Network show Throwdown with Bobby Flay. 

              Who won I ask?

    Medearis’s Jerk Chicken

              “My chicken had been marinating for hours,” Medearis replies. “He just arrived from Manhattan and threw some spices on his chicken. It burned. I beat Bobby.”

    Watch it here.

    Though she originally didn’t cook Medearis had written several loved historic research. Did I know that George Washington Carver drove a food wagon around to introduce people to healthy foods?

    No. I knew that Carver, who famously said, “There is probably no subject more important than the study of food,” was born a slave and became a botanist, author, educator and agriculturalist. He also collaborated with auto magnate Henry Ford on growing peanuts and soybeans.

    And don’t even get her started on Carver and black-eyed peas.

    “Black-eyed peas, okra, peanuts and sesame seeds, and the oil they produce, are documented contributions from Africa via the slave trade to our American cuisine,” she writes in her syndicated column. “I prepared black-eyed peas any number of ways while doing research for my first cookbook.”

    That would be The African-American Kitchen: Cooking from Our Heritage, a best seller that even now 30 years later is considered a standard on the foodways African Americans bought to this country.  The problem though was getting it published. Her award winning children’s books were published by Dutton and when she brought the idea for her cookbook, she found an editor there who loved the book. But the editor at the next level turned it down, saying he’d published an African American cookbook almost 30 years earlier and no one bought it. He didn’t think the country was ready for another.

    What’s a Kitchen Diva to do? Make a peach pie, of course, as it’s representative of both Black and Southern food history.

    “You could hardly get a peach pie anywhere back then in Manhattan,” says Medearis. Wrapping up both the peach pie and the manuscript, separately we presume, she sent both off to the publishing company.

    She got the contract.

    “That book sold so many copies it was crazy,”

    Overall, she’s written 107 books seven of which seven are cookbooks. Published in seven languages, she’s sold a total of 14 million books. But despite that, she’s not ready to stop.

    “People ask me when I’m going to retire,” says Medearis who lives in Austin, Texas. “Why should I? I’m having a lot of fun with it. I’m doing what I want to do.”

    Creole Chicken Stew

    Makes 8 Servings

    1½ tablespoons olive oil

    1 cup chopped yellow onions

    1 cup coarsely chopped carrots

    ¼ cup chopped celery

    4 cloves garlic, minced

    1 bay leaf

    2 teaspoons diced seeded jalapeño chile

    ¼ teaspoon salt

    1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

    ½ teaspoon dried thyme

    2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour

    3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

    1½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch-wide strips

    1 cup peeled cubed Yukon Gold potatoes or kohlrabi, or a combination

    1 cup diced zucchini

    1 cup halved okra or frozen cut okra

    4 cups cooked brown rice

    2 green onions, chopped, including green parts

    In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Add the yellow onions, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaf, jalapeño, salt, pepper, and thyme and sauté until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.

    Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to a plate, leaving as much oil in the pot as possible. Add the remaining ½ tablespoon of oil. Stir in the flour. Cook, stirring constantly, until the flour begins to turn golden brown, about 3 minutes.

    Gradually whisk in the broth and cook for another 5 minutes, whisking until smooth. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the chicken, potatoes or kohlrabi, and zucchini. Return the sautéed vegetables to the pan. Partially cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 30 minutes.

    Add the okra and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Serve over ½ cup of rice per person and sprinkle with the green onions.

    Kitchen Diva: Tap Your Inner Chef With DIY Recipes

    Angea Medearis, the Kitchen Diva, wrote one of her syndicated columns on creating Do-It-Yourself recipes.

    “Basically, a DIY dinner recipe is about finding a way to retain the flavors of the recipes you love while using the ingredients that you have on hand,” Medearis writes. “If you have always wanted to free yourself from the restraints of a recipe, now is the time to do it! Think of the current lack of ingredients as permission to tap into your inner chef.”

    To ease into creating your own DIY dinner recipes, Medearis suggests starting by making a pot of chowder.

    “No one really knows the origin of the term chowder,” she writes, “but whether it came from French, Caribbean, Portuguese or Brazilian cooks, the basic meaning is connected to the large pot that the meal is cooked in.”

    Medearis is a history buff paritcularly when it comes to food.

    “Chowders were introduced to North America by immigrants from France and England more than 250 years ago. Native Americans called the dish ‘chawder’.” she says noting the word interpreted as “chowder” by early settlers and fishermen in New England.

    “The original versions of the dish consisted of a pot filled with a mixture of fresh fish, salt pork, leftover hardened biscuits (which were used as a thickener), onions, water and whatever spices were available, writes Medearis. “A chowder is a delicious way to use the ingredients you have on hand to create a meal that does not require extensive prep or simmering for hours. My recipe for Seafood and Sweet Corn Chowder uses the basic techniques.”

    My recipe for Seafood and Sweet Corn Chowder uses the basic techniques for making a chowder, but is designed to accommodate the need to vary ingredients based upon what you have on hand or what you can purchase at the store.

    Whether you decide to make a seafood or vegetarian chowder, feel free to create your own version of this DIY dinner.

    SEAFOOD AND SWEET CORN CHOWDER

    If you don’t have all the vegetables, seafood or spices on hand, omit or substitute the ingredient with what you do have. This chowder will still be delicious without it!

    3 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil

    1/2 cup (about l large stalk) chopped celery

    1/2 medium onion, chopped

    1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

    2 garlic cloves, minced or 1/2 tablespoon granulated garlic powder

    1 1/2 teaspoons salt

    1 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

    3/4 teaspoon dried dill or tarragon, or 1 tablespoon dill pickle juice

    1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes

    2 cups chicken broth, seafood stock, clam juice, bouillon fish base or water

    1 to 2 large Russet potatoes, or 3 red skin or Yukon Gold potatoes cut into 2-inch cubes, about 2 to 3 cups

    2 large carrots, chopped

    2 cups frozen corn, thawed, or 1 (15-ounce) can whole kernel or cream-style corn, or 6 ears sweet corn, husk and silk removed, or frozen corn on the cob, thawed with kernels cut from the cobb

    2 cups heavy cream, half and half

    Whole milk or 2 (14-ounce) cans evaporated milk

    1 3/4 to 2 cups fully cooked, skinless salmon chunks, or 1 can (14 3/4 ounces) salmon, drained, flaked, bones and skin removed, or 1 to 2 cups fresh or frozen peeled and deveined shrimp, cooked peeled and deveined shrimp, or cooked crab meat (checked for pieces of shell) or a combination of the seafood equaling 1 3/4 to 2 cups.

    1. Place the butter or oil into a large saucepan or Dutch oven placed over medium heat. Add in the celery, onion, green bell pepper, garlic or garlic powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and pepper, dill, tarragon or dill pickle juice, and the cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes. Saute, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are tender, about 4 to 5 minutes.

    2. Stir in the broth, stock, juice or water, potatoes, carrots and the remaining teaspoon of he salt and pepper. Cover and bring the chowder to a boil.

    3. Reduce heat to low; stir the mixture, cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until the vegetables are nearly tender. Stir in the corn, cream or milk, and the salmon, shrimp or cooked crab meat (or a combination of seafood). Simmer on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes or until heated through.

    4. Garnish with lemon wedges, chopped parsley or green onions. Serve with toasted French bread or crackers. Serves 6

    Here’s the Jerk Chicken recipe that won the Throwdown with Bobby Flay.

    Jamaican Jerk Chicken

    Yield: 6 to 8 servings

    1/3 cup olive oil

    1/3 cup distilled white vinegar

    1/2 cup orange juice

    1/2 cup lime juice

    1/2 cup molasses

    1/4 cup soy sauce

    1 bunch cilantro, leaves chopped

    4 green onions, chopped

    2 cloves garlic, chopped

    1 Scotch bonnet chili, serrano, or Thai bird

    chiles, seeded and minced

    3 bay leaves

    3 peppercorns

    1-inch piece cinnamon, crushed

    2 tablespoons ground sage

    1 tablespoon ground thyme

    1 tablespoon ground allspice

    1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

    1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

    5 pounds chicken pieces

    Combine the oil and vinegar in a medium glass bowl. Stir in the orange and lime juice, molasses, soy sauce, cilantro, green onions, garlic, chili, bay leaves, peppercorns, cinnamon stick, sage,thyme, allspice, pepper, and nutmeg.

    Place the chicken pieces in a large baking pan and pour the spice mixture over them, coating each piece well. Cover with plastic wrap and place the chicken in the refrigerator to marinate 12 hours or overnight, turning once.

    Allow the chicken pieces to come to room temperature before grilling. Heat the grill until the coals are somewhat white with ash; the flame should be low. Place the chicken on the grill and cover with the lid. Grill for 30 to 35 minutes, turning pieces to cook evenly. Baste pieces with remaining marinade.

    For more information including recipes, https://www.medearis.com/

  • Dinner’s in the Oven: Simple One-Pan Meals

    Dinner’s in the Oven: Simple One-Pan Meals

    I’m a huge fan of Rukmini Iyer and am revisiting an old favorite Dinner’s in the Oven: Simple One-Pan Meals (Chronicle Books 2018; $19.95), featuring wonderfully easy sheet-pan recipes that always wow people when you bring them to the table. Hah! Little do they know how quick they are to assemble and cook. But we’ll let that be a secret between us.

    First of all, the cookbook is beautiful as would be expected as Iyer, who is based in London, is a food stylist and has worked for such businesses as Fortnum & Mason, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Macmillan Coffee Mornings, The British Heart Foundation, Phaidon, Quadrille Books and Kyle Books, the latter three are three publishing companies known for their cookbooks. Her other cookbooks include Vegetarian Dinners in the Oven: One-Pan Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes, the Roasting Tin series which have sold over 1.75 million copies to date, an India Express: Fresh and Flavorful Recipes for Everyday.

    The great thing about her recipes is that once made they look sophisticated but are extremely easy. But to make it even better, Iyer has composed the book so that it starts off with the easiest recipes first so you learn as you move more forward plus she shows how we can make adaptations and provides charts on how to do so.

    “The nicest thing about oven-made meals is that they are versatile and forgiving,” Iyer writes in the introduction to her book, adding that the recipes require the barest minimum in terms of effort—a little light chopping to start, then tasting and adjusting the salt or lemon juice at the end. “Most importantly, they leave you free to do something else while dinner looks after itself—have a bath, help the children with their homework, or, my preferred option, flop on the sofa with a glass of wine.”

    Iyer describes the French Tomato and Mustard Tart with Tarragon as one of the easiest and most satisfying dishes in the book in her book.

    “The paprika gives it a wonderful smokiness,” she says, “but you could easily use a combination

    of honey and mustard as an alternative. It’s that simple.”

    Spicy Chipotle Chicken Wings with Sweet Potato Wedges, Cilantro & Lime Yogurt

    Serves: 4

    Prep: 10 minutes; Cook: 1 hour

    • 1 3/4 pounds chicken wings, separated into wingettes and drumettes
    • 1 3/4 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch [2½cm] wedges
    • 2 teaspoons chile powder
    • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
    • 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
    • 3 tablespoons olive oil
    • Sea salt
    • Zest and juice of 1 lime, plus lime wedges, to serve
    • 4 to 5 tablespoons Greek yogurt
    • A handful of fresh cilantro leaves, chopped, plus more to serve

    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the chicken wings and sweet potato wedges in a large roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet.

    Mix together the chile powder, smoked paprika, brown sugar, olive oil, 2 teaspoons sea salt, and half of

    the lime zest and juice. Pour the mixture over the chicken and sweet potatoes and mix well with your

    hands to coat evenly. Transfer to the oven and roast for 40 minutes.

    Turn the heat up to 400°F and roast for a further 20 minutes, to crisp the chicken skin.

    Meanwhile, mix together the yogurt, chopped cilantro, remaining lime zest and juice, and a pinch of seasalt. Set aside.

    Sprinkle the chicken wings and sweet potatoes with cilantro leaves and serve with lime wedges and the yogurt dip alongside.

    Smoky Sausage, Sweet Potatoes and Red Onions

    Serves: 4

    Prep: 10 minutes

    Cook: 50 minutes

    • 8 to 12 good-quality fresh pork sausages (approx. 13/4 pounds [800g] total) links
    • 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunky wedges
    • 2 red onions, cut into eighths
    • 6 cloves garlic
    • 4 teaspoons smoked paprika
    • A good splash of olive oil
    • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

    Preheat oven to 350°F.

    In a roasting pan, toss the sausages, sweet potato wedges, red onions, garlic, and smoked paprika with

    the olive oil. Season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

    Transfer to the oven and roast for 45 to 50 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are cooked through and

    the sausages are sticky and slightly charred. Serve immediately.

    French Tomato and Mustard Tart with Tarragon

    Serves: 4

    Prep: 10 minutes; Cook: 30 minutes

    • One 10-by-15-inch sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
    • 2½tablespoons Dijon mustard
    • 3/4 pound vine-ripened tomatoes, thinly sliced
    • 4 teaspoons finely chopped fresh tarragon
    • 1 teaspoon sea salt
    • Freshly ground black pepper
    • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

    Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the puff pastry on a parchment paper–lined rimmed baking sheet.

    Spread the mustard all over, leaving a 3/4-inch border around the edges. Arrange the sliced tomatoes on

    the mustard. Sprinkle on the tarragon, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper and drizzle with the olive oil.

    Transfer to the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges of the tart are golden brown and crisp. Serve immediately.

    The above recipes are reprinted from Dinner’s in the Oven by Rukmini Iyer with permission by ChronicleBooks.

  • Jacques Pépin Cooking My Way: Recipes and Techniques for Economical Cooking

    Jacques Pépin Cooking My Way: Recipes and Techniques for Economical Cooking

    “This is a pleasure of a cookbook full of great recipes . . .”

    Jacques Pépin, winner of 16 James Beard Awards and author of over 30 cookbooks, has taken his considerable skills and created Cooking My Way, a charming cookbook of easy-to-make recipes designed not only to save money but also time and effort. To add to its delight are his wonderful pastel drawings. It is a cookbook full of good sense, with Pépin, who has starred in 12 PBS cooking shows, sharing how he saves money without impacting the quality of the food he prepares.

    “Buying seasonally is another way to approach economy in the kitchen,” he writes in the book’s introduction. “More often than not, I create my menus at the supermarket, looking for the best, but also the least expensive, and striking a balance between the two.”

    Pépin buys fruits and vegetables in season when they are most flavorful, nutritious, and less costly. The same goes with other ingredients. When whole turkeys are on sale (or in Pepin’s words “attractively priced”) in autumn and winter, he buys them. Lamb and ham grace his menu in the springs when stores are more likely to have them on special. As for pricey seafood, summer is the best time to purchase fish and shellfish as it is most abundant during warm weather.

    It’s also important, he says, to know that first impressions can be misleading when it comes to buying ingredients.

    “For example,” Pépin continues, “the outside leaves of a head of escarole may be wilted or damaged and therefore sold at a discounted price, I will still buy it because the center, the part I want to use, is white, firm, sweet, and tender.”

    Pépin, who founded the Jacques Pépin Foundation, which is dedicated to culinary education, has lessons to impart in this book. Among these are versatility and using not only what is in season and attractively priced but also whatever you have on hand. Because Pépin doesn’t let leftover bread go to waste, there’s a recipe for Cauliflower and Crumbs in which he recommends making your own breadcrumbs using either stale or fresh bread. And there’s his unique Bread Flapjacks. It’s a savory recipe with leftover bread, egg, chopped onions, and herbs. But Pépin shows how you can turn it into a sweet flapjack dish by adding sugar and leftover fruit such as an apple or banana.

    This is a pleasure of a cookbook full of great recipes such as Flan of Green Herbs, Grits and Cheese Souffle, Sweet and Spicy Curried Chicken, and Braised Pork and Cabbage which are intriguing but simple to make is made even better by the full-color photos by Tom Hopkins, and the effort that Pépin has put into it to ensure that we cook wisely and well.

    This review originally ran in the New York Journal of Books.

  • Western Mexico: A Traveler’s Treasury

    Western Mexico: A Traveler’s Treasury

    A travel guide for the intellectually curious, Tony Burton’s Western Mexico: A Traveler’s Treasury provides an insider’s entry to this extraordinary region of Mexico. The book, published by Sombrero Press and now in its fourth edition is less about logistics and instead focuses on the myriad of reasons–historical, ecological, cultural, and/or scenic–that make each place featured in this well-written and well-researched book both special and worth visiting.

    Burton, an award-winning travel writer, educator, and ecotourism specialist, who was born in the United Kingdom and has an M.A. in geography from the University of Cambridge and a teaching qualification from the University of London, moved to Mexico in 1979 and subsequently was granted Mexican citizenship, looks for the road less traveled.

    And in this book, he encourages us to explore the smaller, lesser known community with their many local customs, seasonal celebrations, sites, and events, places that, in his words, “offer a glimpse of the Mexico behind the mask; they are places where Mexico has retained her ancient culture and her ancient traditions.”

    Providing a mix of interests, Burton opens the doors, so to speak, to such historical sites as Zacatecas, Lagos de Moreno and San Blas; artistic colonies like Ajijic; and lakeside communities including Chapala and Pátzcuaro.

    Besides that there are ecological wonders, such as Manantlán, the monarch butterflies, the old mining towns of Angangueo and Bolaños, coastal communities like Barra de Navidad and Puerto Vallarta, Angahuan and other Indian villages, and a host of others. He delves into Pueblos Mágicos, designated as Magic Towns by the federal government in recognition of their cultural, historical, and/or ecological significance, their nearness to major cities, and the facilities they offer visitors.

    This is a travel guide but of the most intimate kind. We drive with Burton along the lovely road to Tamazula, settled from pre-Columbian times, conquered by the Spanish in 1524, and a vital silver mining town and hacienda center until the mines were worked out by the end of the 18th century. As for its name, well, interestingly enough, it translates to “place of frogs.”

    Where to stay when there? Burton recommends Hotel Real de la Loma with its spacious and comfortable rooms and pool and two person tubs in the room filled from a hot-water spring at the foot of a hill. The views from the hotel are of the Tamazula River and its valley made green with sugar-cane. A good time to go for many is during the two-week Our Lady of Sagrario festival.

    We learn that Mazamitla is “one of the prettiest towns in all Jalisco. It is a graceful, charming town of cobblestone streets, adobe walls, wooden balconies, old doorways and red-tile roofs, one of Mexico’s Magic Towns. Among its many attractions are the fresh air and scenic beauty of the surrounding countryside, some fine restaurants specializing in Mexican food, and the chance to shop for fresh cream, cheese, and home-made preserves. As befits a mountain town, its inhabitants also make lovely woolen sweaters and ponchos, for sale in the local shops.”

    Burton, who has lived in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Jocotepec, has traveled widely, leading educational excursions and specialist ecological tourism groups to both well-known areas such as the Yucatán and Copper Canyon as well as little-known ones like Manantlán and Tingambato. At the former, at the Manantlán Biosphere Reserve visitors can experience the astonishing diversity of plant and animal life found in a cloud forest, one of the rarest types of vegetation anywhere in the world. In the latter, located near the major archaeological site of Tinganio, is one of the few sites in Western Mexico where there are genuine pyramids.

    Larger than the previous editions there are dozens of new destinations and each chapter contains new material, updated travel directions, and redrawn maps.

    Divided into parts, one and two are within three hours of driving time from either Guadalajara (Mexico’s second city) or nearby Lake Chapala, a popular retirement center for Americans and Canadians making them perfect for day trippers.

    Parts 4 to 9 are longer journeys such as the trip to Jungapeo, where director John Huston filmed scenes from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre starring Humphrey Bogart. Here, in this small village, you can stay at Agua Blanca Canyon Resort which dates back to the 1940s. According to Burton, it is a charming spa-hotel with just 20 rooms arranged in the Purépecha Indian style around three sides of the greenest lawn in Mexico. Its pools and lawns overlook the deeply carved valley of the River Tuxpan.

    “Many butterfly visitors, after the cool and dusty atmosphere in the fir forests want nothing more than a long soak in a warm tub and this is the ideal place,” he writes.

    And, of course, there are the Monarch butterflies. Every winter, some one hundred million monarch butterflies fly into Mexico from the U.S. and Canada. On arrival they congregate in a dozen localities high in the temperate pine and fir forests of the state of Michoacán.

    For me, a definite-not-to-be-missed is Zitácuaro, where my culinary hero Diana Kennedy lived. Famous for her cookbooks on Mexican cuisine, she made her home outside of Zitácuaro. And here again, is how deep Burton drills down into his destinations. Kennedy lived near the Rancho San Cayetano, a small, exclusive hotel on the road towards Huetamo and the Del Bosque reservoir.

    “The San Cayetano’s charm lies not only in its comfortable rooms but also in its first rate cuisine,” he writes, asking if there could be a better recommendation for the food served there than the fact that Diana Kennedy regularly brought friends to dine in the hotel?

    For aficionados of Mexican food, there are several outstanding restaurants to put on the list of where to go.

    “Neither of my two favorites is well known to tourists, hence their inclusion here,” writes Burton. “Next to the gas station in Pátzcuaro, where the highway from Morelia and Quiroga enters the town, is the Camino Real restaurant where the Tarascan soup, a local specialty which is a bean-based version of tortilla soup, has to be tasted to be believed. Whatever you choose in this unpretentious restaurant, you will not be disappointed,” he writes. “The Camino Real has a sister restaurant, the Real del Cobre, in Santa Clara del Cobre.

    My other favorite is an hour’s drive away, in the unpretentious town of Tacámbaro. Near the entrance to the town is the Hotel-Restaurant El Molino (The Mill), housed in a museum-piece nineteenth century flour mill, complete with grinding wheels. Simply and artistically decorated and furnished, this hotel-restaurant’s fixed-price comida features slightly finer cuisine than that of the Camino Real, with more subtle sauces and a more varied menu.”

    Whether your interests are in art, architecture and/or archaeology; fiestas and folklore; unusual sights and natural wonders, or in Indian villages and indigenous handicrafts, Burton’s book is your guide to Western Mexico’s many hidden treasures.

    Burton, author of many books about Mexico including If Walls Could Talk: Chapala’s historic buildings and their former occupants; Lake Chapala: A Postcard History; and Mexican Kaleidoscope: Myths, mysteries and mystique, is currently editor-in-chief of MexConnect, Mexico’s top English-language online magazine. He says the inspiration for writing this book came about with the “realization that it was impossible for me to personally introduce readers to many of the places and things I consider most rewarding to find and appreciate. Of the truly spectacular, I have yet to find anyone who ever forgets the magic of visiting the Monarch Butterflies in one of their overwintering sites. By sheer good fortune, I happened upon them the first time in 1980, several years before their locations became widely known or any organized tourist excursions to them had begun.”

    Burton encourages opening up to new places and experiences.

    “With an open mind ‘gems’ can be found everywhere in Western Mexico,” says Burton. “My greatest hope is that my book encourages readers to explore and find their own hidden gems.”

  • Three Charming Villages on the shores of Lake Chapala

    Three Charming Villages on the shores of Lake Chapala

    Born in the United Kingdom, Tony Burton, a Cambridge University-educated geographer with a teaching certificate from University of London, first traveled to Mexico after spending three years as a VSO [Voluntary Service Overseas] volunteer teaching geography, and writing a local geography text, on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. From there his travels took him to Mérida in summer 1977, where he spent several weeks backpacking around southern and central Mexico, returning two years later to teach at Greengates School in Mexico City.

    Over the next seven years, Tony traveled extensively throughout Mexico, visiting every state at least once, and organizing numerous four-day earth science fieldwork courses for his students. He co-led the school’s extensive aid efforts following the massive 1985 earthquake.

    From Mexico City, he moved to Guadalajara, where he continued to organize short, residential fieldwork courses for a number of different schools and colleges and began organizing and leading specialist eco-tours for adult groups to destinations such as Paricutín Volcano, the monarch butterfly sanctuaries, and Copper Canyon.

    An award winning author, he’s written numerous books about Mexico including his latest Lake Chapala: A Postcard History (Sombrero Publishing). It’s part of a series he’s written on this region which is located about an hour south of Guadalajara. The 417-square-mile lake, Mexico’s largest, located in the states of Jalisco and Michoacán is situated at an elevation of  5,000ft in the middle of the Volcanic Axis of Mexico and is known for its wonderful climate, laid-back ambience, and is a popular destination for both travelers and ex-pats looking for a charming, low-key place to relocate. The three main towns along the lake are Chapala, Ajijic and Jocotepec. In an intriguing aside, Tony met his wife Gwen Chan Burton when she was working as at the director of the pioneering Lakeside School for the Deaf in Jocotepec. Gwen writes about the school and all that it has accomplished in her book, New Worlds for the Deaf, also published by Sombrero Books.

    Tony’s other books about this region include Western Mexico A Traveler’s Treasury, illustrated by Mark Eager, now in its fourth edition; Mexican Kaleidoscope: Myths, Mysteries and Mystique, illustrated by Enrique Veláquez, and Foreign Footprints in Ajijic: Decades of Change in a Mexican Village. I’ll be covering them in upcoming posts.

    Because I’m always interested in foodways, Tony was kind enough to share a copy of an undated Spanish language project put together by students from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional School of Tourism titled “Gastronomy of Jalisco.”  It includes numerous recipes from the region including one for the famous Caldo Michi of Chapala (the recipe is below).

    I had the chance to ask Tony, who currently is the editor of MexConnect, Mexico’s leading independent on-line magazine, about Lake Chapala: A Postcard History as well as the time he spent in this beautiful region of Mexico.


    How did you first become familiar with Lake Chapala?

    I first visited Lake Chapala in early 1980, on my way back to Mexico City from the Copper Canyon and Baja California Sur. Little did I imagine then that it would be where I would later fall in love, get married, and have two children!

    What inspired you to write Lake Chapala: A Postcard History?

    There is no single overwhelming inspiration. I realized, while living at Lake Chapala and writing my first books about Mexico, that a lot of what had been previously written was superficial and left many unanswered questions. In the hopes of finding answers, I decided to trawl through all the published works (any language) I could find, which resulted in Lake Chapala Through the Ages (2008), my attempt to document and provide context to the accounts of the area written between 1530 and 1910.

    My next two books about Lake Chapala—If Walls Could Talk: Chapala’s Historic Buildings and Their Former Occupants, and Foreign Footprints in Ajijic: Decades of a Change in a Mexican Village—focused on the twentieth century history of the two main centers for the very numerous foreign community now living on ‘Lakeside.’ Part of my motivation was to dispel some of the myths that endlessly recirculate about the local history, as well as to bring back to life some of the many extraordinary pioneering individuals indirectly responsible for the area becoming such an important destination for visitors.

    Lake Chapala: APostcard History is my attempt to widen the discussion and summarize the twentieth century history of the entire lake area. Its reliance on vintage postcards makes this a very visual story, one which I hope will appeal to a wide readership, including armchair travelers.



    What were some of the challenges you encountered in writing this book? Was it difficulty finding the numerous postcards you included? And doing the extensive research that went into the book? Are there any intriguing stories about hunting down certain postcards and any “aha” moments of discovery when writing your book?

    The main challenge was in deciding how best to structure the material. Because of the originality of what I’m doing, it is impractical to follow the advice that writers should start with a detailed plan and then write to that plan! In my case, after collecting the information and ideas that exist, the challenge is to select what can be teased and massaged into a coherent and interesting narrative.

    Because the postcard book is the product of decades of research, I had ample time to build my personal collection of vintage postcards, through gifts, auctions and online purchases.

    There were many significant “aha” moments in the process: some concerned the photographers and publishers responsible for the postcards and some the precise buildings or events depicted. While I’m saving some of these “aha” moments–because they are central to a future book–one was when it suddenly dawned on me that wealthy businessman Dwight Furness was the photographer of an entire series of cards (Figs 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, etc.) that relate to my next response.



    If you could go back in time to visit one of the resorts that is no longer there that you featured in your book, is there one that stands out and why is that?

    Ooohhh; I’d love to go back to about 1908 and stay at the Ribera Castellanos resort (Chapter 6) during its heyday. While staying there, perhaps I could interview owner Dwight Furness, his wife and a few guests? Apart from a few ruined walls, Furness’ postcards of the resort are pretty much the only remaining evidence of the hotel. And perhaps one night I could invite local resident and prolific professional photographer Winfield Scott and his wife to dinner to hear their stories?

    How long did it take to write Lake Chapala?

    The writing took less than a year; but only because of the many prior years of research.

    Since I often talk about food and travel, are there any culinary specialties in the Lake Chapala region?

    Long standing culinary specialties of the area include (a) Lake Chapala whitefish (b) charales (c) caldo michi. And, when it comes to drinks, there is a very specific link to postcards. The wife of photographer José Edmundo Sánchez, who sold postcards ( Figs 7.5, 7.6 and 7.7) in the 1920s from his lakefront bar in Chapala, is credited with inventing sangrita, still marketed today as a very popular chaser or co-sip for tequila. (Chapter 7, page 74).

    Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about your book?

    I hope readers find the book as fun and interesting to read as it was to write!

    MICHI BROTH

    Ingredients:

    • 2 tablespoons corn oil
    • ¾ kg of tomato seeded and in pieces
    • ¼ onion in pieces
    • ½ kg carrot, peeled and cut into diagonal slices
    • ½ kg of sliced ​​zucchini
    • 4 or 6 chiles güeros
    • 100 gr. chopped coriander
    • 2 sprigs of fresh oregano
    • Salt to taste
    • 2 ½ liters of water
    • 1kg well washed catfish, yellow carp or red snapper

    PREPARATION: Heat the oil and stew the vegetables in it, add water and salt to taste, let it simmer over low heat until the vegetables are well cooked, then add the fish and leave it for a few minutes more until it is soft.

    Sangrita

    I had the opportunity to stay at Tres Rios Nature Park, a 326-acre eco-resort north of Playa del Carmen and was first introduced to sangrita during my stay. I took several cooking lessons and learned to make a dish with crickets, but that is a different story. Chef Oscar also talked to us about the history of sangrita. The Spanish name is the less-than-appetizing “little blood” but hey, when you’re learning to grill crickets, you can deal with a name like that. The drink, as Tony writes in his postcards book, originated in Chapala in the 1920s.

    Here is the excerpt:

    ”In the same year the Railroad Station opened, Guillermo de Alba had become a partner in Pavilion Monterrey, a lakefront bar in a prime location, only meters from the beach, between the Hotel Arzapalo and Casa Braniff,” he writes. “The co-owner of the bar was José Edmundo Sánchez. Regulars at the bar included American poet Witter Bynner, who first visited Chapala in 1923 in the company of D H Lawrence and his wife, Frieda. Bynner subsequently bought a house near the church. When de Alba left Chapala for Mexico City in 1926, Sánchez and his wife—María Guadalupe Nuño, credited with inventing sangrita as a chaser for tequila—ran the bar on their own. After her husband died in 1933, María continued to manage the bar, which then became known as the Cantina de la Viuda Sánchez (Widow Sánchez’s bar).”

    Sangrita is typically used as accompaniment to tequila, highlighting its crisp acidity and helping to cleanse the palate between each peppery sip. According to Chef Oscar, the red-colored drink serves to compliment the flavor of 100% agave tequila. The two drinks, each poured into separate shot glasses, are alternately sipped, never chased and never mixed together.

    Here is Chef Oscar’s recipe and below is one from Cholula hot sauce which originated in Chapala. Tony has a great story about that as well. More in my next post on his books.

    For one liter of Sangrita:

    • 400 ml. orange juice
    • 400 ml. tomato juice
    • 50 ml. lemon juice
    • 30 ml. Grenadine syrup
    • 20 ml. Worcestershire sauce
    • Maggi and Tabasco hot sauce (mixed up) to taste
    • Salt and pepper to taste

    Mix together all the ingredients and serve cold. Suggested duration of chilling : 3 to 4 days.

    Cholula’s Sangrita

    • 1/4 cup (2 ounces) fresh orange juice
    • 1/4 cup (2 ounces) fresh grapefruit juice
    • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
    • 20 pomegranate seeds
    • 3 fresh sprigs of cilantro or to taste
    • 1/2 stalk celery
    • 3 teaspoons smoked coarse sea salt or sal de gusano, divided
    • 1 tablespoon Cholula® Original Hot Sauce

    Place all ingredients except salt in blender container, with about 1 cup ice cubes. Puree until smooth.Strain twice though a fine mesh sieve, discarding any solids.

    Rim shot glasses with sea salt. Serve sangrita cold in rimmed shot glasses alongside your favorite tequila.

  • Tapas: Classic Small Dishes from Spain

    Tapas: Classic Small Dishes from Spain

    Tapas—delicious tidbits served on tiny dishes that originally served as lids for glasses of wine or sherry—are meant to be just two mouthfuls and were until recently free for those ordering spirits. All that has changed with the increasing popularity of tapas, writes Elisabeth Luard, an award-winning food writer who spent 15 years living in Spain who brings this expertise and experience to her latest cookbook, Tapas: Classic Small Dishes from Spain (Grub Street). But that doesn’t change the enchantment of getting to try many bites of an assortment of delicious foods.

    Courtyards of Córdoba

    Describing tapas as embodying a way of life, Luard tells about her experiences of moving with her novelist husband and their four children to a remote Andalucian valley and learning to appreciate the pleasures of this thoroughly Spanish way of eating.

    “Long before the fashion for open kitchens in Michelin-starred restaurants, the humble provider of tapas cooked to order and set everything out on display,” she writes in the introduction of her book.

    There was a lack of entertainment at the time—they moved there in the 1960s—but there were tapas and wine to be found in the small towns of Andalucía with their Moorish influences and names like Pelayo, Valdepenas, and Puerto de Santa Maria, or the bigger cities such as Algeciras, a bustling seaport. Here, they could enjoy dishes of tapas, drink the local wine, and socialize.

    “Since we did not live in a village, we would make our way to our chosen locale and do the rounds,” she continues. “If we turned east down the road towards the Atlantic, we could have spider-crabs and sea snails in a bar set into the Moorish battlements of Tarifa, and the go on further, to the chozo down by the beach at Punta Paloma, for deep-fried quail and the fattest crispiest chips in Spain.”

    Flowers flowerpot on the walls on streets (Calle Velazquez Bosco). Cordoba, Andalusia, Spain

    Saturday night was typically when Luard and her husband and their four children would plan where to go for tapas. Once they arrived it was typical for bartenders to be ready to recite the list of tapas when asked “Que hay para tapar?” or “What is there to pick on?” And the answer to that depended upon not only local ingredients but also the kitchen equipment as well. That might include a plancha—the flat metal griddle used to grill sardines, prawns, thin slices of tuna, swordfish, and pork fillets marinated with garlic and paprika, a cazuela—a shallow earthenware casserole, or a metal tin filled with white-hot charcoal that dates back to the days of Moors.

    Luard provides a plethora of recipes that she hopes will encourage us to get the tapas habit and once that happens, she suggests we raise our glasses together in the traditional Spanish toast, “Salud, amor y pesetas!” Here’s to health, love and wealth!”

    Flowers flowerpot on the walls on streets (Calle Velazquez Bosco). Cordoba, Andalusia, Spain

    And with her recipes, all simple to make including such small plates as croquettas de atun (tuna croquettes), pinchitos morunos (Moorish kebabs), filetes con cabrales (steaks with blue cheese), and a variety of omelettes, the salutation will be a joy to make.

    The following recipes are from Tapas by Elisabeth Luard.

     Fried Baby Artichokes

    (Alcachofitas fritas)

    • 6 baby artichokes
    • Olive oil for shallow frying
    • Sea salt
    • 1 lemon, quartered, to serve

    Wipe the artichokes and trim the stalks off level with the base. With a sharp knife, peel off the rough outside of the stalks and cute them in half lengthwise. Halve the artichokes and nice out the hairy little choke.

    In a frying pan heat enough oil to half-submerge the artichokes when placed cut-side down in the pan. When a faint blue haze rises from the surface of the oil, put in as many artichoke halves as the pan with accommodate in a single layer.

    Fry until the leaves are prettily bronzed and the choke tender, turning them once. Continue until all are ready, leaving the stalks until the end.

    Drain on kitchen paper, sprinkle with salt and serve with the quartered lemon.

    Eat them with your fingers, from the choke towards the leaves as far as is tender.

    Grilled (broiled) Mushrooms with Garlic and Rosemary

    Champinones a la parrilla

    • 8 ounces mushrooms
    • 1 to 2 fat garlic cloves
    • 2 tablespoons olive oil, finely chopped
    • Salt and pepper
    • Bread squares, to serve

    Wipe the mushrooms and trim the stalks level with the caps. Discard the trimmings. Arrange the mushrooms stalk upwards on a grill or broiling pan or griddle.

    Sprinkle the mushrooms caps with the chopped garlic, rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper.

    Grill (broil) the mushrooms fiercely until the juices run and the caps are spitting hot. Serve on squares of fresh bread, each speared with a cocktail stick.

    This review previously ran in the New York Journal of Books.

  • Celebrating Ancient Grains: Heritage Baking Cookbook

    Celebrating Ancient Grains: Heritage Baking Cookbook

                A history major and bread aficionado, Ellen King became intrigued by the abundance of grains once available and commonly grown in the United States that had, since World War II, completely disappeared from the marketplace and which often didn’t seem to exist anymore.

              “I spent some time in Norway and bread was about all I could afford to eat,” says King, who earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in history and then attended the Seattle Culinary Academy and worked in several Seattle restaurants before she moved to Evanston, Illinois. Shocked at finding that Chicago didn’t have the types of breads she yearned for, she began a search for heirloom grains and began making bread the old fashioned way—using natural wild yeasts as an ingredient, mixing and turning the dough by hand for several hours and then injecting steam for a crisp crust while it bakes in an imported European oven.  

              But that wasn’t enough for King, who in 2013 opened Hewn Bakerywith partner Julie Matthei in Evanston, Illinois and is the author of Heritage Baking: Recipes for Rustic Breads and Pastries Baked with Artisanal Flour with Amelia Levin (Chronicle Books).  For her hand foraged breads she wanted to harken back to the grains of a century or so ago instead of using the homogenous flour currently turned out by big corporate mills.

              What good was opening a bakery if I couldn’t find good ingredients, King remembers thinking. Partnering with farmer Andrea Hazard who was interested in growing heirloom grains, the two finally connected with Stephen Jones, a wheat breeder and the Director of The Bread Lab at Washington state University. Jones, who earned a PhD in Genetics from the University of California at Davis, suggested she and, a farmer who was interesting in growing heritage wheat, read old farming journals to find out what varieties that were grown at the turn of the last century.

              “There are literally over 10,000 varieties of wheat,” King says. “One person told me 100,000.”
              The names are romantic–Rouge de Bordeaux, Turkey Red and Marquis. But the seeds seemed ephemeral.  Take Marquis, a hard red spring wheat first introduced in Canada in 1895.  It was among the most widely grown wheat in the United States between the 1910s through the 1930s. During the 1920s, Marquis accounted for 59% of the wheat produced in Wisconsin. By the time King went looking for it, Marquis was no longer grown and she couldn’t find the seeds.

              But her years during historical research paid off.  Countless queries led to a college professor who had 2.2 pounds of Marquis wheat. Planting the seeds  King and Hazard were able to produce 30 pounds the first year. Now they hope to have 3000 seeds which will yield enough to both make bread and save seeds.

              “That way we can grow more and share with other farmers,” she says.

         Selecting a loaf of bread from Hewn is like taking a step back into history. The menu of hand-forged breads made from organic, locally sourced re-discovered wheat varieties include those made with Turkey Red, a heritage variety of wheat grown in Wisconsin and Kansas   Lower in gluten the bread has a nutty flavor and Red Fife–a heritage variety of wheat grown and milled in Wisconsin.

         Why did these varieties disappear, I ask King.

         “After World War II the cherished varieties fell out of favor,” she says. “And when we did that we lost the uniqueness of each region where the wheat grew and we lost the flavor. Along with the homogenization of our wheat, we added fertilizers and products like Round-Up and made bread less healthy.”

         It was all about efficiency and mass production.

         “General Mills flour is always exactly the same and large scale baking needs that consistency,” she says. “At Hewn, I invest in people, not machinery. For us, it’s about training the baker in how to treat and understand the flour.”

         Just as wine connoisseurs can recognize the terroir of grapes, King can do the same with wheat. And though heirloom produce like tomatoes, squash and peppers has become a major player in farming, she says wheat varieties are still lagging.

         But she enjoys the challenge of finding farmers who are growing them.

         “There are more and more people doing it,” she says. “I met this guy who is growing Pedigree Number 2. At first I couldn’t find any one growing Red Kharkoff anywhere, but now I’m connecting with a farmer in Washington state who is growing it and all sorts of grains. It takes time, but it’s worth it—it’s better for the soil, for the environment and for our health. It tastes great. And also, it’s history.”

    Heritage Corn and Berry Muffins

    Excerpted with permission from Heritage Baker by Ellen King

    Note: Most of the recipes in Heritage Baker require preparing a starter which is a process that takes several days. King recommended that beginners start with one of her muffin recipes as they are the simplest to make. She also notes that the flavor of flint corn is rich and pronounced but if you can’t find Floriani, any flint corn variety from your region will work well for this recipe. You can also, more easily, substitute regular or coarsely ground cornmeal which is found in supermarkets. Be sure to avoid finely ground cornmeal. Brands available in grocery stores like Bob’s Red Mill offer coarse ground coarse meal and a variety of flours. There are several places in Michigan where you can order specialty heirloom flours.

    Country Life Natural Foods in Pullman, Michigan is a wholesaler but also sells in small amounts. They offer mail order and delivery. 641 52nd St., Pullman, MI  800-456-7694.

    DeZwaan Windmill on Windmill Island in Holland, Michigan sells stone ground cornmeal and flour. Click here for more information about their products.

    Ingredients for some of the grains in King’s book such as flint corn can be found online, at specialty stores or at farm markets.

    Janie’s Mill in Askum, Illinois offers a wide variety of flours including Organic Black Emmer, Organic Einkorn, and Organic Red Fife Heirloom Flour as well as other products such as Whole Organic Spelt Berries, Organic Bloody Butcher Cornmeal, and Organic Turkey Red Flour among many others.

    Batter:

    • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
    • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
    • 1/2 cup heavy cream
    • 1/3 cup sour cream
    • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
    • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
    • 13/4 cups sifted heritage flour, such as White Sonora or Richland
    • 1/2 cup fine-milled Floriani Flint or other heritage cornmeal
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
    • 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
    • 1 cup  strawberries, quartered, or blueberries

    Streusel Topping:

    • 1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
    • 1/2 cup stone rolled heritage oats
    • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature

    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 12-cup muffin pan.

    To make the batter, stir together the granulated sugar and eggs in a large bowl until combined. Stir in the heavy cream, sour cream, and vanilla, followed by the melted butter. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir just until combined.

    Using a wooden spoon, very gently fold in the berries. Do not overmix. Using an ice cream scoop, spoon the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups; the cups should be three-quarters full.

    To make the streusel topping, combine the brown sugar, oats, and butter in a small bowl. Using a spoon or your hands, stir until the mixture becomes crumbly. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of the topping over each muffin.

    Bake for 25 minutes, or until a metal skewer or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, or freeze in a resealable plastic bag for up to 3 months. To reheat, set on the counter until thawed and warm in a 325°F oven for 10 minutes.

    Hewn in the News:  Food & Wine magazine featured Hewn as one of the Best Bakeries in America and in the article The Best Bread in Every State. Hewn was listed among the Best Bread Bakeries at the Food Network, and as one of the Best Bakeries in Chicago by Thrillist. Click here to listen to their recent interview on the WBBM Noon Business Hour.  Click here to read Midwest Living Magazine’s “Best of the Midwest.”  Click here to watch  Steve Dolinsky’s recent segment on the bakery on NBC5 Chicago.  To learn more about their expansion to Libertyville, click here.

    Photos by John Lee reprinted with permission by Chronicle Books. Additional photos by Siege Food Photo, Kailley Lindman and Julie Matthei

  • Tasting History: Explore the Past Through 4,000 Years of Recipes

    Tasting History: Explore the Past Through 4,000 Years of Recipes

    “even if we never make these dishes of ancient times, Miller’s book is a fascinating read.”

    “They say ‘history is written by the victors,’ but in my experience, history is written by those who write stuff down, and food is no exception,” writes Max Miller in the introduction to Tasting History, his new cookbook that delves into the foods we’ve eaten throughout millennia.

    Four years ago, Miller had little interest in cooking. But when a friend became sick while they were vacationing and they watched seasons of a cooking shows while overindulging on nachos, that all changed. Developing a passion for baking, he soon was taking his cakes and pastries to Walt Disney Studios where he worked. Besides sharing his creations, Miller also explained the origins of the recipes. Suggestions from friends influenced him to start a YouTube show titled “Tasting History with Matt Miller.” Shortly after, the pandemic hit, Miller was furloughed from his job, as were many others, and his show became a hit to all those stuck at home.

    Now Miller has taken it to the next level with this deep dive into food history that includes original recipes and Miller’s adaptations for home chefs as well as photos, original drawings, anecdotes, and cook’s notes.

    The recipe for this stew is easy, but even if a person could, though it’s unlikely, find the fatty sheep tails, another ingredient—risnatu—has no definite translation, though Miller says it’s commonly agreed upon that it’s a type of dried barley cake. He solves both those problems in his adaptation of the recipe by providing appropriate substitutions that honor the dish’s origins but make it available to modern kitchens.

    But even if we never make these dishes of ancient times, Miller’s book is a fascinating read. As we get closer to our own times—the book is arranged chronologically—we find dishes that are more recognizable such as precedella, a German recipe originating in 1581 that instructed cooks to “Take fair flour, a good amount of egg yolk, and a little wine, sugar and anise seed and make a dough with it.”

    Of course, modern pretzels don’t typically have wine and anise seeds in them, but Miller provides a recipe using all those ingredients so we can get the same flavor profile as the precedellas that were baked almost 500 years ago. It is indeed tasting history.

    Miller has culled recipes from around the world. The book also includes the foodways of medieval Europe, Ming China, and even the present with a 1914 recipe for Texas Pecan Pie that Miller describes as “a time before corn syrup came to dominate the dessert.” His adaptation of the original recipe uses sugar since corn syrup didn’t begin to dominate until the 1930s. The 1914 recipe also calls for a meringue topping, an addition not found in modern pecan pies. So even within a short time span of just over 100 years, Miller shows us how a recipe has evolved though he assures us, we’ll like the 1914 version best.

    This article previously appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

  • If Walls Could Talk: Lake Chapala’s historic buildings and their former occupants

    If Walls Could Talk: Lake Chapala’s historic buildings and their former occupants

    Now one of the most popular retirement area for Americans and Canadians, the Lake Chapala Region, nestled in a valley almost a mile high in Mexico’s Volcanic Axis,  has long been a draw for ex-pats and vacationers, lured by its almost perfect climate and beauty.

    In his book If Walls Could Talk: Chapala’s historic buildings and their former occupants about Mexico‘s earliest international tourist destination (also available in Spanish), award-winning author Tony Burton shares his knowledge and interest in a region where he has spent more than two decades. Burton, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society who was born and educated in the United Kingdom, first visited Mexico in 1977. That visit was obviously a big success as he returned and for almost 18 years lived and worked full-time in Mexico as a writer, educator and ecotourism specialist.

    He met his wife, Gwen Chan Burton who was a teacher of the deaf and then director at the Lakeside School for the Deaf in Jocotepec, one of the three main towns lining the shores of Lake Chapala. Though they now reside on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, the Burtons continue to revisit Mexico regularly and he is currently editor-in-chief of MexConnect, Mexico’s top English-language online magazine.

    The other two towns, each with its own distinctive vibe, are Ajijic and Chapala, native villages resettled by the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1500s. “This book looks at how Chapala, a small nondescript fishing village in Jalisco, suddenly shot to international prominence at the end of the nineteenth century as one of North America’s earliest tourist resorts,” writes Burton. “Within twenty years, Chapala, tucked up against the hills embracing the northern shore of Mexico’s largest natural lake, was attracting the cream of Mexican and foreign society. Thus began Lake Chapala’s astonishing transformation into the vibrant international community it is now, so beloved of authors, artists and retirees.”

    The book, organized as a walking tour, covers not only existing buildings but also pinpoints the spots where significant early buildings no longer stand but their histories still weave a story of the town. It’s only a partial guide, explains Burton, noting that an inventory prepared by the National Institute of Anthropology and History identified more than eighty such buildings in Chapala including many not easily visible from the road but hidden behind high walls and better viewed from the lake.

    Among the famous people who lived in Chapala at some point in their careers was author D.H. Lawrence, probably best remembered for his risqué (at the time) novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

    In 1923, Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, rented Casa de las Cuentas (House of Rosary Beads), a house that dates back to the 1800s. At the time, a one-story abode with a half-moon entrance and heavy wooden gates, it was located at 307 Calle Zaragoza, a street formerly known as Calle de la Pesquería (“Fishing street”) so named as it was where the local fishermen repaired their nets and hung them out to dry. It was while living on Calle Zaragoza that Lawrence wrote the first draft of The Plumed Serpent, published in 1926. The novel is described as “the story of a European woman’s self-annihilating plunge into the intrigues, passions, and pagan rituals of Mexico.”

    Over the decades, after the Lawrences moved out, subsequent changes were made to Casa de las Cuentas including  the addition of a swimming pool in the mid-1950s when artist Roy MacNicol and his wife, Mary, owned the home.

    While Lawrence’s writings were considered by some as scandalous, MacNicol’s life had its scandals as well. Burton describes him as “colorful” in that he was married multiple times and was involved in many escapades as well as lawsuits.

    Mary, embracing the local culinary traditions including the use of flowers in cooking, authored Flower Cookery: The Art of Cooking With Flowers.

    It wasn’t the work of a dilettante as reviews of her book such as this one on Amazon shows.

    “Flower Cookery is recipes, but far more than recipes,” writes one reviewer. “The book is organized by the popular name of the flower in question. Each section is introduced with quotations from literature, philosophy, and poetry that feature the blossom. This is followed by the recipes, interwoven with mythology, stories, and aphorisms about the flower, the plant from which it grows, its symbolism, and the culture or society in which humans discovered the value of the plant or blossom. The recipes include original favorites as well as recipes collected from historical sources and contemporary sources around the world. Here is just the tiniest sampling of the riches in the book.”

    Burton shares her Christmas Cheer recipe from when she lived at Casa de las Cuentas.

    Christmas Cheer

    10-12 squash blossoms with stems removed

    2 eggs, beaten

    2 to 3 tablespoons water

    Flour, enough to thicken mixture about one tablespoon

    Salt and pepper

    1 cup neutral oil such as grapeseed, canola, or safflower

    Wash and dry squash blossoms on paper towels, making sure to remove all the water. Mix remaining ingredients except oil to make a smooth batter. Place oil in a large, heavy skillet to 350-375°F. Dip blossoms in batter and fry in oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot.

    As for the house, it was renovated again in the early 1980s and is now Quinta Quetzalcoatl, a lovely boutique hotel.

    If Walls Could Talk is one of four books that Burton has written on the Lake Chapala region. The other three are Foreign Footprints in Ajijic: decades of change in a Mexican Village; Lake Chapala Through the Ages: an anthology of travelers’ tales  (2008), and the recent Lake Chapala: A Postcard history. All are available as print and ebooks on Amazon.

    The above maps, both copyrighted, show Chapala 1915 [lower map] and 1951 [upper map].

    In all, he’s planning on adding several more to what he currently calls the Lake Chapala Quartet, these focusing on the writers and artists associated with the area.  I asked him  to describe the region so readers who have never been there can get an idea of what it is like, but it turns out the Burton is NOT a traveler who meticulously plots every moment of a trip before he arrives. Instead, he tells me that part of the fun when traveling is to not know in advance what places are like and instead to see and experience them for yourself.

    “That said,” he continues, “the various villages and towns on the shores of Lake Chapala are all quite different in character. The town of Chapala, specifically, is a pretty large and bustling town. It is growing quite rapidly and has added several small high end boutique hotels in recent years, as well as some fine dining options to complement the more traditional shoreline ‘fish’ restaurants. The many old–100 years plus–buildings in Chapala give the town a historic ‘air’ where it is relatively easy to conjure up images of what it was like decades ago. By comparison, Ajijic, now the center of the foreign community on Lake Chapala, has virtually no old buildings and more of a village and artsy feel to it, though it also has very high quality accommodations and more fine restaurants than you can count.”

    Other structures still standing include the Villa Tlalocan, completed in 1896 and described by a contemporary journalist as “the largest, costliest and most complete in Chapala… a happy minglement of the Swiss chalet, the Southern verandahed house of a prosperous planter and withal having an Italian suggestion. It is tastefully planned and is set amid grounds cultivated and adorned with flowers so easily grown in this paradisiacal climate where Frost touches not with his withering finger…”

    Also still part of the landscape is Villa Niza. One of many buildings designed by Guillermo de Alba, the house, according to Burton, was built in 1919 and looks more American than European in style. Located at Hidalgo 250, it takes advantage of its setting on Lake Chapala and has a mirador (look out) atop the central tower of the structure, which affords sweeping panoramic views over the gardens and lake. De Alba’s strong geometric design boasts only minimal exterior ornamentation.

    Burton, who specializes in non-fiction about Mexico, related to geography, history, travel, economics, ecology and natural history, has written several fascinating books about the history of the Lake Chapala region.

    In If Walls Could Talk, Burton invites you to walk with him through time as you explore the city.

  • Salamati: Hamed’s Persian Kitchen: Recipes and Stories from Iran to the Other Side of the World

    “for the adventuresome home chef, Allahyari offers a world of flavors.”

    In mortal danger for his beliefs, Hamed Allahyari and his pregnant girlfriend fled their homeland of Iran, first spending two months in Indonesia and then, after grueling hours long by truck over badly paved back roads and then days crammed aboard a boat another five months on Christmas Island before being granted asylum by the Australian government. Once there, life remained extremely difficult for the young couple who were now parents of two young children, and though Allahyari had been a chef and restauranteur in Iran, no one was interested—or so it seemed—in Persian cuisine.

    Unable to find work Allahyari began volunteering at the Resource Center, an organization that provides support, legal advice, and other assistance including meals to refugees and people seeking asylum.

    “Every day they feed 250 people a free lunch,” Allahyari writes in the introduction to his cookbook Salamati: Hamed’s Persian Kitchen: Recipes and Stories from Iran to the Other Side of the World. “I started cooking there two days a week, making Persian food for people from all over the world: Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Miramar, Sierra Leone, all kinds of places, and most of them had never tried Persian food before. But when they tried it, they liked it. They talked to me about it, asked me about it, and it made me happy.”

    Culinary Connections

    At the recommendation of others, Allahyari also began teaching cooking classes, demonstrating how to make such dishes as Zeytoon Parvadrah (Olive and Walnuts Chunky Dip), Yogurt and Cucumber soup, Sabzi Pofow Ba Mahi (Fish with Herb Pilaf) Sabzi Pofow Ba Mahi (Fish with Herb Pilaf), and Persian Love Cake. Over the years, Allahyari taught more than 2500 people how to make Persian food. Now, he caters and is chef/owner of SalamiTea, a restaurant located in Sunshine, an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Melbourne. The name is a play on “salamati,” the Persian word meaning both “health” and “cheers.”

    Salamati is more than just a cookbook, it’s also a memoir and homage to the country he had to flee. The introduction to the featured recipes in his book might offer a personal connection to the dish, a description of a unique ingredient that helps define it and bring out its best flavors—though he also offers a substitute for such items as Persian dried limes, which might be difficult to locate outside of a major city, and/or puts the food in context with the scenes to Iran.

    “This dish is traditionally served in Iranian shisha shops, the cafes where older men gather to smoke water pipes, drink tea and solve the problems of the world,” he writes about Ghahve Khunee Omelette (Street-Food Tomato Omelette). “Shisha shops don’t really serve food but inevitably people get hungry while they’re hanging around, so it’s become traditional for staff to whip up a quick tomato omelette for customers and serve it with bread, raw red onion, herbs and lemon. If you want one, all you ask for is ‘omelette.’ There’s no menu as such.”

    Not all the recipes are easy but for those who don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, there are enough simple ones to get started. Full-color photos of each recipe show what the finished product will look like. And for the adventuresome home chef, Allahyari offers a world of flavors.

    This review originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.