Innehållsförteckning för December 2016 - January 2017 från SAVEUR

Standing on chairs, the kids are tall enough now to peer into the wide castiron pan and watch as the batter hits the bubbling butter. William, 5, helps measure the flour—and helps himself to whatever bits of raw batter and blueberries he can scoop, lick, or steal. Julia, 3, tenderly arranges the berries on the face of the pancakes as they rise, placing them according to a pattern of her own devising, sometimes hitting her mark, sometimes the floor. The pancakes are pretty O.K. We love them beyond reason. Family food traditions are like that: They don’t have to be special to feel special. I’d like to report that there are other sacrosanct routines we adhere to at our house—but the truth is there aren’t. Not yet anyway. We love…

“What were you cooking?” a neighbor asked. For hours, the rich aroma of beef braising in wine had wafted from the kitchen, under the door and into the hallway of the Manhattan apartment where we were working. Tenants waiting for the elevator had, apparently, begun to salivate. Pot roast has that effect. Just about every carnivorous culture has a thing for braising meat, the universal method of transforming tough-but-tasty cuts into succulent morsels. Patience, more than fancy cuts, is what you need to melt connective tissue and amp up umami, the distinct meaty flavor that results when protein breaks down into glutamic acid. When done right—long and slow, with lots of patience— braising brings lesser cuts into the spotlight. And when applied to a crosscut beef shank (most shank meat…

Today the forecast calls for China dust,” our interpreter says cheerfully. A lingering smog often chokes this eastern coast of Korea, though for now the air is bracing, clear. It’s December and we’ve set off predawn from the beach town of Busan, driving north through national parks, past Pohang (a steel town called the “Pittsburgh of Korea” with a Steelers soccer team to match) and ending up in the village of Jukjang-myeon. Our van turns down a long gravel driveway, and we are greeted with the pleasant perfume of burning oak. Hooni Kim, a Korean-American chef, jumps out to stretch his legs and points at a large building in the distance. Smoke curls out of an open window. “This is the sign that doenjang season has started,” Hooni says, walking…

One evening, my 4-year-old daughter piped up, asking if she could do something to help with dinner. I was dicing carrots at the time, and a frying pan was crackling, so my first instinct was, no, but thanks. Then, I thought, well, why not? So I set up a cutting board. One of the unarticulated pleasures of parenting is that you have to continually teach really basic things. It requires that you reverse engineer something you do without thinking—dicing, operating a garden hose, balancing on a bike—and then explain it with the cartoon clarity of an Ikea assembly pamphlet. So, I sliced the carrots lengthwise for flat-side stability. I showed her how to crimp her fingers out of range and to listen for that rewarding clunk when the steel cleaved…

Since I throw only one big party a year, and since I’ve been throwing it for 20 years, you’d think I’d be more organized. But I’m not. I usually don’t know who’s coming until a couple of days before the party—and I’ve been known to change the menu the day of. New Year’s Eve dinners are like that chez us in Paris. Our longtime, very Parisian friend, Bernard Collet, a photographer and my Emily Post guide to French customs, says that what always reminds him that I’m American is my habit of inviting strangers home for dinner. Preparty jitters often have me worrying that this jumble of old friends and new won’t work. But it does. Always. Perhaps it’s the magic of the changing year or maybe it’s the spell…

In Cartagena’s Old City, heat presses into alleyways and sunlight streams over cobblestones. People move languidly and salty ocean breezes slip past handsome colonial buildings. Ducking the high-noon humidity, city dwellers seek respite in cool bakeries. There is saying here that goes something like this: “All a man needs are pan y Kola Román.” Bread and Cartagena’s beloved, omnipresent soda. Despite its frivolous appearance—tapered glass, flashy logo, crayon-pink hue—Kola Román is deeply embedded in the rituals and identity of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. “It’s become knitted into our society,” says Sergio A. Londoño Zurek, a descendant of the Kola Román founder and the keeper of his family’s archives. “This is an important part of our culture, and an important part of Cartagena.” In 1834, while on his way to Peru, Manuel…

Seventeenth-century English writer and gardener John Evelyn called chestnuts “lusty food for rusticks,” an apt description for their toothsome, savory flesh and those determined enough to harvest it. Chestnuts appear fleetingly each autumn, their meat unlocked only once their interior armor has been scored, roasted, and flayed by nimble fingers. In France, Italy, Japan, and Turkey, sweet chestnuts (distinct from the inedible horse chestnut) are celebrated every October and November when they drop from trees to the cool forest floor, collected and turned into everything from flour to purée to marrons glacés (candied chestnuts). In parts of southern Europe, even wild boars feast on the fallen seeds,unwittingly flavoring their flanks and bellies for meat eaters. If you fancy yourself a rustick, grab a (very specific) pan and get roasting. For…

SERVES 4–6 Active: 1 hr. 30 min. • Total: 5 hr. 30 min. (plus optional chilling time) A low and slow braise is the best way to transform tough cuts of meat into fork-tender morsels. This version, made with a crosscut whole beef shank, is cooked in white wine and rich homemade beef bouillon layered with vegetables and aromatics for added complexity. Crunchy roasted radishes and a funky flaxseed, herb, and vinegar relish balance the pot roast’s richness with acidity and texture. FOR THE BEEF: One 4½-lb. bone-in beef shank Salt ¼ cup plus 3 Tbsp. canola oil 10 garlic cloves, peeled 8 large shallots, peeled and sliced ½ inch thick (3½ cups) ½ lb. shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and quartered (3½ cups) 3 dried ancho chiles, halved and seeded 2…

Every summer day, cheesemaker Stéphane Henchoz and his 55 cows have a routine. It begins at 5:30 a.m. in his seasonal chalet high in the Swiss Alps, when Henchoz wakes up and turns on the 20-watt bulb in his kitchen. (Utility wires are nonexistent here at 5,800 feet, so a small generator provides the power.) After a breakfast of bread and heavy cream that he eats straight from the pot, Henchoz heads off to round up the cows. The animals graze and sleep farther up the mountain, in meadows blanketed with shaggy wild grasses and iridescent wildflowers, some of which grow knee-high. Once Henchoz and his border collie have guided the herd back into the stables, he and his girlfriend, Natasha, begin milking. They fill a huge copper vat that…

Marquise au Chocolat SERVES 8–10; Photo P.108 Active: 30 min. • Total: 6 hr. 30 min. This dessert—a fudgy, frozen or semifrozen chocolate mousse that’s sometimes coated in ganache, then sliced— likely came from the 17th or 18th century, when royal pastry chefs lived large. I like to crumble in Speculoos cookies, like Biscoff brand, before freezing, to add crunch and pretty golden flecks, but anything that works with chocolate—from candied ginger to rumsoaked raisins—is fair game. It’s at its best when semifrozen or thawed but still chilly. For the marquise: 13 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped 1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces 4 large egg yolks, at room temperature ⅓ cup plus 3 Tbsp. sugar, divided . tsp. fleur de sel, or a pinch fine sea…

My father, James Edisto Mitchell, painted the sea. His most compelling canvases were the abstract ones, nothing but water and light, capturing in oils an offshore vortex that only blue ocean mariners witness. He served in the merchant marine during WWII, insisted his five children tie a proper bowline, and, in his later years, intimidated younger competitors who lacked the same sharp eye for wind shifts during sailboat races in Narragansett Bay. Dad was also what I call a performance cook, usurping my mother in the kitchen when hungry shipmates or fellow artists showed up, preparing certain closely guarded recipes (onion soup, spaghetti sauce, and shrimp stew among them) with a No. 12 cast-iron skillet, stockpot, and knives no one else was permitted to touch. “Jesus H. Christ,” he would…

One night in September, in the kitchen of a Manhattan event space called the Lighthouse, David Bouley sliced into a black mission fig. Nearby, Daniel Boulud and Emeril Lagasse fussed over a tray of subrics d’epinards, a spinach dish that split the diff erence between a souffl é and a croquette. Le Cirque’s Mauro Maccioni agitated a porcini risotto with rosemary, poached figs, and squab confit, while Argentine chef Francis Mallmann rolled back the skin on a salt-roasted striped bass with a serving fork, peering at the enormous fish over a pair of owlish reading glasses. It was a peculiar scene. About a dozen renowned chefs cooked side by side; the windowless kitchen was crowded with more multimillionaires in white than a summer wedding in Sag Harbor. The dishes were…

Chocolate Ganache Tart with Sea Salt and Espresso Beans SERVES 8–10; Photo P.51 Active: 45 min. • Total: 1 hr. 30 min. (plus cooling time) A touch of egg is the simple, secret ingredient in this luscious tart’s filling. Just a little gives the combination of chocolate and cream a sliceable, fudgy consistency. The crumbly cocoa-laced crust can be pressed right into a fluted pan, no rolling pin required. Swap out espresso beans for toasted nuts, chopped brittle, granola, or crushed peppermint candy. Just don’t eliminate the sea salt; it adds a bright, irreplaceable contrast to the decadent filling. FOR THE CRUST: 1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter, softened ¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar 2 large egg yolks 1¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour 2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder ¼…

MAKES ABOUT 4 CUPS Active: 35 min. • Total: 5 hr. 35 min. (plus optional overnight resting) Unlike stocks, which are often incorporated into dishes like sauces or stews, bouillon—which comes from the French verb for “to boil”—is a fortified broth that can stand on its own. This version, which starts with beef broth, is enriched, thickened, and deeply flavored by simmering beef short ribs for several hours. We add a touch of soy sauce and tomato for umami. Use it as a braising liquid, then reduce it into a rich, shiny sauce. 2½ lb. bone-in beef short ribs Salt 4 cups low-sodium or unsalted beef broth 1 Tbsp. soy sauce 1 large, ripe tomato (8 oz.) 1 Season the short ribs all over with salt. If possible, allow to…

Birch Syrup and Soy Sauce–Glazed Roast Duck SERVES 6—1 Active: 20 min. • Total: 55 min. (plus overnight marinating) My take on traditional teriyaki uses a bit of birch syrup in addition to mirin (sweet rice wine). Compared with maple syrup, birch is more feral—darker, less sweet, and more acidic—and I prefer it for cooking. It also doesn’t hurt that we can harvest it at home: Every spring we tap the silver birch trees in our yard and boil down the syrup over a wood fire. You can find birch syrup online, or use maple. (If doing so, omit the teaspoon of sugar.) ½ cup soy sauce ¼ cup birch syrup ¼ cup mirin One 2-inch piece ginger, finely grated (2 Tbsp.) 1 tsp. sugar Two 3- to 4-lb. ducks,…

The garden is all but abandoned in the mild winter months here at La Torre di Montecarlo, a small, beloved inn and trattoria outside of Lucca, Tuscany: overgrown black kale, white cabbage heads that have toppled over and begun to decompose, a cracked turnip surrendered to the worms. But we—me, the chef Elisabetta, who goes by Betti, and Didi, her hound-spaniel mutt—are here for the wild stuff, the native herbs and leaves that you might dismiss as weeds if you did not know better. They sprout up, uncultivated, along with the vegetables that Betti’s mother lays out in orderly rows each season. With a single stroke, Betti deftly cuts around the base of a cluster of borage leaves. She pulls several other species too, a mint with a strong peppery…