Part I of II

The support and endless encouragement of accomplished women in the culinary industry is in a word or two, profoundly inspiring. Whenever I am lost, down on myself, confused, pity party for 1 please, I know I can zip an email off to Jerry DiVecchio (Sunset Magazine), Linda Carucci (Cooking School Secret for Real World Cooks), Emily Luchetti (Farallon) or Dorie Greenspan (Bon Appetit, Baking with Julia and now Baking from My Home to Yours), confident they will respond with kindness and encouragement or a kick in derriere to get out and get going. It's more meaningful, more touching, more inspiring than I can describe.

What does the Dalai Lama say - it's not the destination that's important, it's the journey - or something like that? If not for these generous, funny, thoughtful trailblazers, the journey of discouraged, searching cooks like me would resemble a pinball bouncing back and forth across this culinary world, eyes skyward pleading for direction. They are beyond generous with their time, their knowledge, their experiences and profoundly excited to see other women coming up the ranks succeeding, happy to share the stage and pass the torch.

Some of my most treasured memories in Paris are of time spent over a chocolate chaud or a vin chaud or an impromptu walk around the 6th with Dorie Greenspan. She knows everyone. Really. Everyone. It's amazing. And very fun. I try to stay in her wake, hoping some of her magical fairy dust will float back onto me. She tells me stories after stories after stories of the richest, most delightful experiences, experiences with some of the industry luminaries. Over a delicious lunch at Le Comptoir this week, Dorie shared more of her fascinating life with me. I can't begin to convey them with the humor and joy that she did but I hope they at least bring a smile to your face and a warmth to your heart as they did to mine...

I first talked with Dorie about her new, just-launched, uber-cool blog aptly named "In the Kitchen and on the Road with Dorie". Dorie was so inspired after her most recent book tour for Baking From My Home To Yours that she decided to create a blog to stay in touch and continue the dialogue with all these people that she'd met along the many stops criss-crossing the country last year as well as to connect with new people who shared her passion for baking and continue the culinary conversation.

What was your funniest cooking moment?

"Oh! The cake that got me fired!" Dorie describes it in more detail in her book (page 278) but she was fired from her very first job as a pastry chef. Dorie was cooking at a tres chic restaurant in New York City and daily she made a version of Simone Beck's (Julia Child's co-author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking) cake with whiskey-soaked raisins, almonds and chocolate. Bored of cooking the same thing every day, Dorie decided to get creative. She swapped almonds for pecans, prunes for raisins and whisky to armagnac. Sounds reasonable. Unbeknownst to Dorie, this was the restaurant's signature cake and changing it caused a small revolution upstairs in the dining room. She was fired that afternoon for "creative insubordination".

What was your biggest cooking disaster?

"When I burned my parents kitchen down...their just-renovated kitchen!" I remembered reading about the fire in the introduction of Dorie's new book (page xii) but I thought she couldn't possibly mean the entire kitchen. Maybe just a little grease fire? No. According to Dorie, her parents came home from an evening fundraiser, so very dressed up, to find Dorie and her friends sitting on the front step, heads in their hands, with firemen coming in and out of the house behind her. Dorie didn't cook again until she was married. Thankfully for us she was soon married!

What is your favorite recipe? Or is it even possible to choose a favorite recipe?

Dorie laughed and said she thinks the reason she had only one child was so that she'd never have to choose a favorite. But when it comes to the thousands of cookies she's baked over the years, World Peace Cookies get her vote as hands-down favorite. Why? Many reasons. The brilliance in the simplicity of the recipe. The deep chocolate flavor. And Grandmothers for Peace. It seems that World Peace Cookies have taken on a life of their own. Grandmothers for Peace have adopted them as their official cookie and are giving them away and asking people to bake their own and share them with other. Also, people are really responding to the name, especially now. She loved them first as Pierre Herme's chocolate sables, claiming they were as revolutionary as the Toll House cookies. Dorie included them in Paris Sweets named then Korova cookies. However it was Dorie's neighbor that labeled them World Peace Cookies, declaring if everyone ate these daily, we would indeed achieve world peace.

World Peace Cookies
-Reprinted from Baking from My Home to Yours (page 138) with permission from the author

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick + 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bits, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Sift the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachmenet, ot with a handy mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter in medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugards, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 more minutes.

Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from the flying flour and pulse the mixer at a low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek-if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more.; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at a low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough-for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don't be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days and frozen for up to 2 months. If you've frozen the dough, you needn't defrost it before baking-just slice the logs into cookies and bake for 1 minute longer.

Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you are cutting them-don't be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes-they won't look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

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Please check back next week for Part II where Dorie shares the most heart-warming stories of life in Paris and working with Pierre Herme, Daniel Boulud and Julia Child.

Happy St. Juliana's Day. Her life, or at least, her martyrdom, sounds much more interesting than St. Valentine's. She got to wrestle with the devil. She got molten metals poured over her naked flesh while tied between two pillars. She even got to act in a high drama courtroom scene in which the devil himself played witness for the prosecution. And she died a virgin. Perhaps that last bit that doesn't market itself well. She is not the patron saint of anything as far as I can tell, but at least she got her own name day. Today. When depicted in art, she is shown leading the devil, or a dragon, around by a chain. Our local bondage mavens, at least the Catholic ones, should stand up and take notice. If they can get up off their Catherine Wheels to do so.

Okay. Enough of St. Juliana. I was just trying to avoid talking about St. Valentine.

I am tired, tired, tired of his Feast Day. I'm not against romance. Not in the least. I am just against the idea of a special day reserved for lovers. I'm not thrilled about the existence of a day where unrealistic expectations of love perfection are foisted upon couples, especially newly formed ones for whom boundaries have not yet been drawn, for whom the depth of feeling towards each other has not been thoroughly examined. Then, of course, there are all those single people out there.

Oh, you single people might tell yourself, "It's just a silly Hallmark holiday. It means nothing to me."and That may be well and true, but I won't believe you.

I used to say the same thing, even on those Valentine's days that coincided with my being in a relationship. That is, until one signal year when I found my boyfriend giggling in the kitchen with a young ballet dancer. At 7:30 in the morning. In the house we had bought together seven days earlier. On Valentine's Day.

Bitter, party of one? Oh, that's me.

Well, not so much any more. Today, it's just a funny/sad story. But it certainly didn't help to cure me of my VD depression.

In an effort to alleviate the above-mentioned funk. I did a bit of research on antidepressant foods. How to self-medicate without, um, medication? Here's what I came up with. A Valentine's Day cure, if you will.

The ingredients are basic and all shown to be very helpful in combating depression. Thank you, Forbes Magazine, for your article on antidepressant foods...

Salmon is very high in omega-3 fatty acids which not only help the body fight against heart disease and some forms of cancer, but are now showing great promise in fighting depression and stress.

Beets contain uridine, which can increase one's levels of cytidine in the brain. Cytidine, in turn, affects the level of dopamine. Dopamine, as you runners might already know, affects mood. In a good way.

Walnuts are a good source of alpha linolenic acid (one of the omegas). You don't need to eat a whole bowlful, either-- an ounce will do nicely. These dear little nuggest also help fight heart disease and, on Valentine's Day, one's heart needs all the protection it can get.

Molasses also containes uridine. Remember my posting last month about molasses? No? Well, I wrote one. I just didn't know why I enjoyed writing it so much. Now I know.

Here's the recipe-- a combination of all four ingredients. It's very easy to make. We'll call it:

Michael's Valentine's Day Plate of Armor

Ingredients:

1 1/3 to 1/2 pound salmon filet. You are eating this alone, aren't you? Chose a really fatty salmon like King. You need all the fatty acids you can get.
4 beets- red, golden, chioggia-- take your pick. Save the green tops, too
1 ounce walnuts-- toasted. I like mine tossed with sugar and salt fresh from the oven.
1 ounce feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon mustard (I used a sweet and hot style)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (champagne or white wine vinegar will work, too.)
1 teaspoon shallot, finely minced
4 tablespoons olive oil for vinaigrette, plus one tablespoon for pan roasting the salmon, one tablespoon for roasting beets.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:

Roasted Beets:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet or Pyrex baking dish with aluminum foil.
3. Wash beets thoroughly and trim both ends
4. Pat beets dry with paper towels, then lightly coat with olive oil and a little salt.
5. Place beets on baking sheet and roast in oven for 45 minutes or until done. Obviously, smaller beets will take less time than larger ones, so please exercise judgement.
6. Remove beets from oven when done (to test, poke one with a paring knife. If the knife slips in easily, the beets are done).
7. Let cool.
8. To remove skin, gently rub beets (one at a time, of course) between paper towels. If you've roasted them properly, this should be easy. If you haven't, I just don't know what to tell you.
9. Dice beets into your favotie, easy-to-carve shapes and set aside.

For Molasses Vinaigrette:

1. in a small bowl, add molasses, vinegar, mustard, shallots and salt (as much as you like, to help balance the sweetness of the molasses). Whisk bravely.
2. Slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking as you do so.
3. Adjust flavors to suit your own tastes.
4. Set aside

Salmon:

1. Rub salmon with salt on both sides-- skin and flesh.
2. In a size-appropriate saute pan, heat one tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat until very hot, just not quite smoking.
3. Add salmon filet to the pan, skin side down. Cook for about two minutes over the heat. Do not try to move the salmon. Let it stick. It will give in. It will release its grip on the pan.
4. Throw (or place gently, whatever your mood) salmon into the still-425 degree oven for approximately five minutes or as long as you want, depending upon how well done you like your salmon. I like mine a medium rare. Actually, I like my salmon raw, but this recipe calls for a more thorough cooking.

Beet Greens:

1. Throw well-cleaned beet greens into saute pan that has one tablespoon of olive oil already heating in it. Throw in a pinch of salt, too.
2. Cover and steam, moving the greens about now and then, for about 5 to 7 minutes. Many people might argue that greens need to cook for longer, but I don't think that is necessary in this case. We're going for nutrients here, not slow-cooked-with-bacon goodness. They're still good this way. Just try it.

To assemble:

1. While salmon is roasting, warm the already-cooked beets and toss with vinaigrette (Better whisk the dressing again, because it will have separated by now).
2. Shake excess liquid from beet greens and place on a platter. Add vinaigrette-tossed beets, walnuts and feta (I like it with a bit of Feta, but you may leave this out if the whole fish-and-cheese combination makes you squeamish, which it shouldn't, by the way. Think tuna melt.) Grind a little pepper, sprinkle a little salt.
3. Slide salmon on top and drizzle the dish with the vinaigrette. Eat while hot. Actually, the dish is fine (minus the greens) to eat cold, too.
4. Think happy thoughts.

Just think how healthy you'll be after eating this dish. Whether you're now ready for a healthy relationship is another matter entirely. If that thought has suddenly depressed you (again), eat some chocolate. A lot of chocolate-- that's an antidepressant, too.

P.S. Apropos of nothing, there has been a meme flying about the food blogosphere called Five Things About Me. Call it fun. Call it annoying. Whatever you decide to label it, it's ended up a great way for me to find out about other food bloggers out there. Click or don't click, it's up to you.