Gifts for Cooks: 'My New Orleans: The Cookbook'

A New Orleans cookbook? First you write about roux. That's what John Besh did; it's naturally the first recipe in "New Orleans: The Cookbook," outlined on a page titled "Thoughts on Roux." But it's as much a story about how he makes roux his way as it is a recipe. And the 374-page book might be as much an epic about one man's culinary journey as it is a cookbook. 

There are more than 200 recipes, as well as stories about crawfish boils and Mardi Gras parades; histories of Louisiana citrus and Ponchatoula strawberries; and anecdotes about friends and family (revolving around the joys of duck hunting, for example, or, more somberly, the tribulations brought on by Hurricane Katrina). Throughout are lush photographs of not only food but portraits (nuns at a fishing rodeo, say) and landscapes (the waters of Lake Ponchartrain). Besh, who grew up in southern Louisiana, attended the Culinary Institute of America, cooked in Europe and now has a growing empire of restaurants in New Orleans, also includes plenty of cooking tips, such as what to look for in grits (minimal processing) for his jalapeno cheese grits. The recipes are a reflection of New Orleans' culinary history: gumbos and etouffees; red beans and rice; caldo; Jaegerschnitzel (hunter's chops). Many are modern takes, using traditional and/or local ingredients: strawberry and Creole cream cheese ice cream; an elegant cauliflower and crawfish soup; salad of grilled bobwhite quail with chanterelles.

The book is loosely organized by season (as in shrimp, tomato, blackberry or oyster season -- and gumbo weather) and highlighted by celebrations, the times when families and friends orchestrate big get-togethers: birthdays, Mardi Gras, Easter, Thanksgiving, Reveillon, even St. Joseph's Day. And the book itself reads like a celebration. 

-- Betty Hallock

Photo credit: Ditte Isager/EdgeReps/"New Orleans: The Cookbook" by John Besh, Andrews McMeel (2009)

Gifts for Cooks: 'Rose's Heavenly Cakes'

If your grandmother’s gingerbread recipe is just a list of ingredients on a stained index card, you might find it daunting that the gingerbread recipe in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s new book is two full pages, including her standard chart and in fairly small type. But, be assured, because Beranbaum is really just holding your hand all the way through.

“Rose’s Heavenly Cakes” arrives, full of color photographs, just over two decades after the “Cake Bible” made Beranbaum the baking guru whose recipes are used by home and professional cooks alike. In the intervening years, she has come up with a book full of gorgeous new cakes in line with changes in her own tastes, which have moved toward simpler, less-adorned desserts.

She investigated cakes made with oil instead of butter, and likes them. Beranbaum loves cold banana cake with cream cheese frosting; made with butter, the cake becomes too hard and dense, she said by phone from her New York home. But with oil, it’s perfectly moist and tender. Her apple upside-down cake is elegant and so light. And that gingerbread takes the standard up many notches.

She has a chocolate cake, using what she calls a “groundbreaking technique”: adding unbeaten --  rather than the common stiffly beaten  -- egg whites. “The texture is amazing. The cake is fudgy and light,” she said.

Beranbaum, who notes that she has been thinking about baking for 40 years, doesn’t take much for granted. It’s as if she were in your kitchen, answering every little niggling question as you tackle apple caramel charlotte or Lemon Canadian crown cake: How long should I preheat the oven? If I use all-purpose rather than cake flour, how much should I use? Her “Highlights for Success” at the end of the recipes are the product of her meticulous efforts at recipe testing and her knowledge of the science of baking.

"Rose's Heavenly Cakes" by Rose Levy Beranbaum, $39.95. 

-- Mary MacVean

Cover photo by Benk Fink

Gifts for Cooks: 'Momofuku'

The cult of Momofuku may be based in New York, but it is wide-reaching; fans of chef-personality David Chang's fried chicken, ssäm (Korean-style "burritos") and ramen are legion. And now there's the closest thing to a bible for those who worship at the altar of his pork buns: the "Momofuku" cookbook by Chang and Peter Meehan, published in October.

The book features recipes from Chang's restaurants, Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssäm Bar and Ko, and tells the story of his rise to culinary stardom, from the depths of a Tokyo ramenya whose proprietor wore "not-so-tighty not-so-whities" (and that's about all) in the kitchen to his days working the garde manger station under Andrew Carmellini at Café Boulud to opening his own first restaurant, Noodle Bar, where part of his initial marketing strategy was to lure hot girls from a Japanese strip club in Midtown as patrons. Chang, Japanese strippers or no, has since built an empire; Momofuku Milk Bar opened last year and Ma Pêche debuted this month.    

The recipes and photos in "Momofuku" are pork-heavy (bacon dashi!) and hunger-inducing: the steamed pork buns filled with succulent pork belly; big bowls of fiery-red kimchi stew with rice cakes and shredded pork; pan-roasted asparagus with slow-poached egg and miso butter. Most of them are complicated, multi-component recipes. A pan-roasted, dry-aged rib eye is one of the recipes that actually looks easy to make. "But it's not easy," writes Chang, who doesn't abstain from using profanity in the book, "because cooking a piece of meat that costs maybe $40 or $50 takes [...]. If you [...] it up, you [...] up a piece of meat that costs a lot of money."

For anyone who has tried to get a reservation at 12-seat, tasting-menu-only Ko through its irritatingly bossy online reservation system and failed, the Ko chapter in the book -- with recipes for shaved foie gras with lychee and pine nut brittle, for example -- might be the closest you'll come to eating there. 

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Gabriele Stabile / "Momofuku" by David Chang and Peter Meehan

Gifts for Cooks: 'Get Cooking'

Mollie Katzen’s new book is aimed at young people who know precious little about how to cook – which doesn’t mean they’re ignorant about food. Quite the contrary.

“They know what spaghetti carbonara is but they don’t know how to get the scrambled eggs into the pasta,” she said.

“Get Cooking”speaks to people who “have grown up without seeing their mom in the kitchen or their dad making dinner” and who now want to cook, Katzen said in a telephone interview.

There could hardly be a more understanding guide to the kitchen basics than Katzen, who as a young person herself decoded the world of vegetarian cooking with her iconic Moosewood books.

“Get Cooking 150 Simple Recipes to Get You Started in the Kitchen” (the title is longer than some of the ingredient lists) was inspired in part by her 25-year-old son and his friends who are living on their own and trying to eat well and on the cheap.

“’You should write a book for me and my friends,’” he told her.

For the foodie at heart

From jewelry maker Vera Balyura of VeraMeat, a "buttered" silver knife to wear on a chain around your neck. Makes quite a statement,  as the fashionistas like to say. Subtle, but effective, in conveying the message that you do, indeed, like to eat and that you are not prone to stint on the butter.

Look closely: The butter poised at the knife’s tip looks as if it’s about to slide right off.

To complete the ensemble, silver earrings in the shape of scallop shells, perhaps? French butter knife necklace, $120. Shell studs, $68. Balyura's jewelry is also available at ReForm School in Silver Lake (3902 Sunset Blvd.); (323) 906-8660.

-- S. Irene Virbila

Join us on Twitter @latimesfood 

Photo: VeraMeat

Save your money, skip the hype, and make it a D.I.Y. V-Day

Is there a holiday that causes more anxiety than Valentine's Day?

The pressure is on to come up with something decadent, romantic, luxurious...but all of that can be pretty expensive.

How about something different this (manufactured) holiday? Instead of overpriced flowers and cards, costly boxes of candy, or an hour-long wait for a pricy restaurant meal, how about a homemade card and a home-cooked meal, eaten by candlelight?

Make it extra special by topping it off with something sweet: Here's a photo gallery look at some recipes -- some chocolate, some not -- that should do the trick. Among them: The Tortona chocolate cookies at Massimo's Delectibles in Marina del Rey. A reader, Joan Harelick of Brentwood, wrote to Culinary S.O.S. to ask for the recipe:

"I’ve never tasted anything like them...I’m drooling just writing this letter to you!"

Massimo's was kind enough to share the recipe with Times Test Kitchen Manager Noelle Carter. More S.O.S. requests here, and more dessert recipes here.

--Rene Lynch

Photo credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

San Francisco's Scharffen Berger plants to close

More bad news from the front lines of the recession. Beloved San Francisco chocolate maker Scharffen Berger will shut down its two Bay Area facilities, current owner Hershey Co. announced Tuesday. The San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday that Scharffen Berger's selection of sweets "will no longer be locally made" and that "Hershey already makes the majority of its Scharffen Berger products at its newly upgraded plant in Robinson, Ill." Still, 150 people up north will be affected by the dual plant closings. 

And while most tourists buying last-minute gifts from SFO International Airport (one of the many places bittersweet Scharffen Berger products were available in the greater San Francisco area) for friends certainly won't know the difference now that the chocolate will now be made in Illinois, Bay Area fans of Scharffen Berger have a right to lament the loss of what was becoming a cherished San Francisco brand to rival the Ghirardelli Chocolate Co.

From the Chronicle:

Scharffen Berger was founded in 1996 by Robert Steinberg, a family-practice physician in San Francisco and Ukiah, along with a former patient, winemaker John Scharffenberger.

The pair experimented in Steinberg's kitchen, using everything from a mortar and pestle to a hair dryer to create their chocolate. Production started in a South San Francisco plant but was moved to the larger, 27,000-square-foot Berkeley factory in 2001.

"It was home grown. They really changed the way people regarded chocolate in this country," said Deborah Kwan, a public relations consultant for the company from the time it opened until 2003.

-- Charlie Amter

Photo: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Root beer is back — and craftier than ever

Not too long ago, you were lucky if you could find more than a couple of brands of root beer.

Today, if you look around, you can choose among old favorites, regional brands that have become available here and a raft of novel brews that expand the very definition of root beer. (For good or ill. When you add sage to your recipe, my friend, I just don't think you're really making a root beer anymore.)

Read more here.

Photo credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

For those quiet moments... bacon bath salts

Long day?

Stressed?  Tired?

Need to relax?

How about a warm, quiet, bacon-scented bath....

Escape to bacon-land with No. 18 on my list of "1,001 things to do with bacon," courtesy of Jill Harness. The salts are easy to make, following Jill's step by step guide, requiring just a little Epsom salts, borax, liquid smoke and salt pork or bacon (salt pork renders more fat than bacon).

Of course, Jill also sells the salts pre-made (this may be safer for those of us who might eat the pork before the recipe's finished -- don't laugh, you know who you are).

Relax, then take a look at where the rest of the list stands:

A Champagne (or sparkling wine) for every occasion

Let's agree to set aside the grim recessionary landscape for the moment: The time has come for bubbles.

There is simply nothing like a glass of sparkling wine to set this season apart. Welcoming, smile-inducing, instantly festive, bubbles give every holiday occasion a lift.

Of course, not every occasion is the same: The wine for the office party, the New Year's party and the family toast aren't necessarily going to come from the same bottle. Nor should they.

So here's Patrick Comiskey's guide to breaking out the bubbly this holiday season, along with a where-to-buy guide.

Credit: Mariko Jesse / For The Times