(Jamie Ford, on my Kindle). A poignant story about a Chinese-American, growing up in Seattle at the beginning of World War II. Henry falls in love with a young Japanese girl before her family is interned in a relocation camp. It a very secretive relationship because his parents would highly disapprove. The story goes back to the 40’s and forward to the 1980’s when Henry is in his 50’s and his wife (not the Japanese woman) has just died of cancer. The story pulls you in from the first page, especially when some artifacts are found in the basement of an old hotel which contain personal belongings from several Japanese families who were suddenly taken away back in 1942. You can see where it’s going, can’t you? I heard criticism of this book that it was just a little bit contrived. Halfway through I’m enjoying it very much.
(Kathryn Stockett on my Kindle); if you haven’t heard about this book, you should! It’s a novel written from the voice of the black servants and some of the people they work for, all residents of Jackson, Mississippi. In the 1950’s. The maids generally are disrespected, still have to ride in the back of the bus, and some are prevented from using the bathroom in the houses where they work. The story is about a young woman (daughter of one of the society ladies) who decides to write a book about the stories of the maids. Anonymously. But not quite, of course. So it’s not only the stories themselves, but about the society-ladies’ relationships, and about the stealth required to interview the maids and write the book. And the repercussions when it’s published. A fantastic read.
by Jetta Carleton (Kindle edition); 
by Susan Richards (Kindle edition); 
by Sally Gunning (Kindle edition)
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(Mario Batali & Gweneth Paltrow); 
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Do you have a bunch of basil plants nearing their wilting end? I never know what to do with copious amounts of basil, except for pesto, so here’s your chance. Read on . . .
It’s only been a month or so that I’ve been Tivo-ing Martha Stewart’s TV show. Considering all the problems she’s had over the last several years, her short prison sentence, losing her job as CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Martha perseveres. And that woman’s got talent, I must say. Sometimes she stumbles a bit (whether it’s from the teleprompter or just forgetting her lines I don’t know), over one thing or another, but she has managed to get a whole lot of chefs to come on her show. Not so many Hollywood stars or starlets (although she gets a fair number of those too). They’ve been doing re-runs over the summer, I guess, but likely they chose the best shows to run again.
So, one day this week she had several French chefs on board, all cooking in her roomy back kitchen, and one by one they came out to the front kitchen to cook with Martha. Another thing Martha has is lots of kitchen skills. So I have to laugh when she takes the sous-chef role and the chefs tell her what to do. My guess is Martha’s got a lot of management skills too. Seems to me I read that while she was in prison she wrote notebook after notebook of ideas for her houses and the tv/radio shows. Most likely Martha’s got those kind of brain cells that just work in overdrive. I used to read her blog, but got overloaded on composts and crafts. Some of her photos were interesting, though. Now, somebody else is CEO of Martha’s company. I continue to wonder (wish I could be a little fly in the board room) how the board and CEO share the helm with Martha’s commanding presence in the background. The shareholders wanted her ousted after she was under suspicion. Maybe one day she’ll be promoted back to CEO.
But, I digressed there. Two of the chefs on the show did chicken and one did salmon. I printed out two of those, and also this spinach and basil side dish that sounded so different. You know me, if you put some food items together that don’t traditionally go together, I’m intrigued. As I was with this recipe. Tomorrow I’ll post the recipe for the chicken. Both of these recipes are from Jean-Georges Vonderichten, the rather famous chef of about 17 restaurants worldwide (notably New York and Las Vegas). He was born in the Alsace (the German edge of eastern France) and started cooking at a young age.
Confession time: I made a whole bunch of changes to this recipe, but it was really delicious. And yes, I’ll make it again. It’s easy – and you could do this for a company meal since you can get everything ready ahead of time (except chopping the basil). It doesn’t take but a few minutes to cook. I will indicate my changes in the recipe, but I’ll give you the chef’s recipe as it was shown.
This calls for equal quantities of spinach and basil. You might think that putting that much basil with a vegetable would overwhelm, but it didn’t. Of course, I didn’t use as much as the recipe indicated either, but the basil moves from co-star billing to bit part once it’s cooked. You can tell there’s basil in it, but that’s all. And the cream gives it a lovely softness.
Creamed Spinach and Basil
Recipe: Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Servings: 4
Coarse salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
3 cups spinach — tightly packed, preferably regular spinach, not baby spinach
3 cups basil — tightly packed, finely chopped (do this at the last minute)
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 tablespoons shallots — finely chopped
2 teaspoons garlic — finely chopped
3 tablespoons fennel — very finely chopped
3 tablespoons celery — very finely chopped
1 1/2 cups heavy cream — (I used about 4 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon Serrano chile — very finely chopped (optional – I didn’t have one)
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add spinach and basil and cook until wilted. Immediately transfer to an ice-water bath. Drain and squeeze dry; coarsely chop and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and shallots and cook until golden. Add fennel and celery and continue cooking until soft and translucent.
3. Add cream and let reduce until thickened, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add spinach, basil, and chile, if using; stir to combine. Cook until warmed through. Season with salt and pepper; serve immediately.
My notes: Proportions of spinach and basil are flexible; if using baby spinach, eliminate the blanching (just cook in the pan); use just a little bit of cream if you want to reduce the fat but get the gist of the dish.
Per Serving (assuming you use all the heavy cream, which I didn’t): 490 Calories; 39g Fat (63.7% calories from fat); 11g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 23g Dietary Fiber; 122mg Cholesterol; 78mg Sodium.
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