May 17, 2010
- 1 1/2 sticks butter
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 3/4 cups almonds, ground
- 1/ 3/4 cups flour, or a bit more
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 jar raspberry jam
- 1/3 jar red or black currant jam
- grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and the egg yolk. Mix in the ground almonds and as much flour as you need to make a very stiff dough. Mix in the cinnamon. Refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour.
Separate 1/3 of the dough from the rest and roll out the larger piece to fit into an 8-inch cake pan. Put the dough into the pan and brush a little egg white (if you’ve saved it from the dough) over it.
While that dries, mix together the 2 jams and add the rind and juice of the lemon. Mix well and pour into crust.
Make strips with the reserved dough and cover the top of the pie with a lattice. Brush with egg white. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Sift a little confectioner’s sugar over the torte as it comes out of the oven.
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May 17, 2010
Serves 5
This is one of those recipes that was enormously popular in the sixties and then sort of vanished. But the combination of potatoes with the richness of cream and the snap of anchovies is quite remarkable, and lately I’ve been making this a lot. It is best with russet potatoes.
- 5 potatoes, thinly sliced
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 1 can anchovies
- 1/2 stick butter
- 1 1/2 cups Half and Half
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a baking dish. Put in half the potatoes, then the onions, then the anchovies then the other half of the potatoes. Dot with butter and bake for 10 minutes. Add half of the cream and bake for 10 more minutes. Add the rest of the cream and bake for one half hour more.
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May 17, 2010
Aunt Birdie was 102 when she died in 1980. But she was still making her famous potato salad, and it was still wonderful. This is a very spare salad – quite unlike the mayonnaise version you may be used to – but it brings out all the sweetness of the potatoes. It gets better as it sits; I like it best on about day 3.
- 3 pounds small potatoes
- Pepper and salt to taste
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1 or 2 onions
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Boil potatoes in jackets, when cool enough to handle peel and slice.
Cut onions and mix into the potatoes. Season with salt, pepper and sugar. Over this add oil, mix.
Dilute vinegar with a little water, bring to a boil and add this while hot over the potatoes. Mix well.
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May 17, 2010
Hard to believe now, but when I wrote the book in 1971, Pesto seemed extraordinarily exotic. My editor had never heard of it. I still think it’s one of the most delicious things on the face of the earth.
- 2 cups basil leaves
- 2 large cloves garlic
- 3 tablespoons pine nuts
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt and 3/4 teaspoons pepper
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Put all the ingredients except the cheese into a blender and blend until well mixed.
Stir in cheese.
This keeps well in the refrigerator if you seal the top with a layer of oil. This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups.
Notes: This is pre-food processor recipe, but it’s a LOT easier to make with a food processor than a blender. It’s helpful to grind up the garlic first, then the pine nuts and finally the basil.
If you’re using this for pasta, add about 3 tablespoons of sweet butter at the end, and stir in some of the pasta cooking water to thin it out before tossing it all together.
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May 17, 2010
Serves 4
This is essentially Jewish French toast. In our house it has always been the traditional breakfast on Christmas mornings. My first husband, Doug, called it “fried cardboard,” but he loved it. Everybody does. I’ve found that it’s one of those foods that even the pickiest child will eat.
If you are feeding children, be sure to let them be the ones to break up the matzos, which make a very satisfying noise. And if you want, you could add a little more butter. My mother always said that lots of butter was the secret to matzo brei, and I won’t disagree. Brei, incidentally, rhymes with fry…
- 5 matzos
- 1 stick butter
- 5 eggs
- salt
Break matzos into a colander into small pieces. Run under the tap and moisten well. Drain.
Melt butter in a large skilled. My mother says the secret of matzo brei is lots of butter, so if in doubt, add more. Beat eggs in a bowl. Add matzos and mix well. Put into pan and cook, stirring constantly, until eggs are set. Salt to taste.
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