Cookbooks

Not long ago, restaurants were just fun places to eat out—not the foodist temples of today. And they were often an ode to the owner’s homeland, hobby, or previous livelihood: a ski or fishing lodge, a Bahamian beach hut, a Chinese pagoda. At the top of our list is the stube, the Austrian ski shack with crossed skis hung over the mantel, beer steins, pretzel buns as bread, schnapps, and kabinnet. The menus here would invariably feature sides of mustard in glass jars, parsleyed potatoes, krauts and wursts of all kinds, and, ultimately, the schnitzel—crisp and hot and overlapping the plate like Dom DeLuise on a bar stool. We include schnitzel on the Joe Beef menu twice a year: in the spring with peas, cream, and morels, and in the fall with chanterelles, eggs, and anchovies (of course). Ask your butcher for 4 large, pounded schnitzels. Sizewise, default to your biggest pan. You can top the schnitzel with Oeufs en Pot (page 29), or with a plain fried egg with a lemon wedge alongside.

When we opened Joe Beef, we made all kinds of promises, oaths of sorts: no cranberry juice, we would wash dishes ourselves, we would stay open on Monday nights. We also said we would always have (at least) one breakfast item on the dinner menu. Of course, we are closed Mondays and never do the dishes ourselves, but we do always have one breakfast item on the menu. Oh, and we still don’t serve cranberry juice. We see foie gras the same way we see skateboarding: we had a phase, like most everyone. But then it stopped, and now it’s here and there and we enjoy it in small doses. If you come to town and want to feast on foie gras everything, make a pit stop at Au Pied de Cochon; they are good friends and do it better than anyone. Our favorite way to serve foie gras is with a breakfast-sausage patty or with peameal bacon, a well-peppered over-easy egg, and an English muffin. Add a dash of maple mustard and you’re happy, whether it’s 7:00 A.M. or 7:00 P.M. (You’ll have plenty of mustard left over, but that’s okay. It’s good with everything from salmon to corn dogs.) Remember, when you sear foie gras, be generous with salt, use a good pan, and most important, be prepared for a smoke show. Work fast and have a tray and tongs at hand before you start.

Some chefs have decided cedar-planked fish is out of fashion, but we are still making it into the 2000s for two reasons: because it’s delicious and because our friend Mathieu, who is an amazing sculptor, will sometimes show up with some pretty radical cedar boards. Before starting this recipe, it’s a good idea to fill up the sink and soak your cedar board in cold water for as long as you can. This prevents a fire and makes the board a perfect steam generator for cooking the fish.

At Joe Beef, we serve this dish with East Coast scallops, about 5 or 6 per person, with a few tablespoons of hollandaise and a nice spoonful of pulled pork on top. Such a portion is a food-cost disaster and intimidating to some*, but the scallops go down easily and they’re better topped with pork than some foamy composition. To make this dish, you are going to work on the pulled pork first, then the hollandaise, and lastly the scallops, as they take only minutes. You will end up with an excessive amount of meat, which you can use to make some pulled pork sandwiches (page 151).

The great thing about this recipe is that even if you mess it up (which is tough to do), you still have a delicious mushroom and bacon cream that you can pour on toast and call it a day. This is a classic coddled egg but with much more garnish.

We take this name from an old Iron Chef episode when the host declared “Battle Homard Lobster!” Yes, homard and lobster mean the same thing (like “minestrone soup”). Among other things that don’t make any sense: this is probably the most popular Joe Beef dish.

Nowadays, every restaurant seems to have marrow on the menu. But for decades, the after-work evenings of local chefs have usually ended up (drunkenly) in the same place, L’Express, with its infamous three large trunks of marrowbone, sel gris, and rounds of cabbage. There is something about hot marrow in a cold climate; it’s the kind of thing you want to eat when snow is melting off your boots. Essentially a thick French peasant (cultivateur) vegetable soup with marrow, this recipe is a Joe Beef winter standard. Marrowbones are always from the hind legs of the animal. You want them crosscut, which reveals a long tube of marrow. If you have purchased them frozen, thaw them in the fridge first.

This dish, which calls for a whole fresh duck foie gras, has been on our menu since day one. We like it with a thin layer of our Madeira Jelly poured on top, but almost any compote, jam, or jelly can be served alongside.

As I mentioned in Butterscotch Apples (page 231), I adore this seductive extract. If you do too, the scent of the pie as it bakes and cools will drive you mad. And I can almost guarantee that the rich flavor won’t disappoint. You can find good-quality graham cracker crusts in natural foods stores or the natural foods section of supermarkets.

I can imagine Argentinians chuckling when they hear about the recent dulce de leche craze in the States. After all, they have been enjoying this sweet, milky caramel for nearly two hundred years. Relatively new here, and often available in the specialty foods section of the supermarket, dulce de leche can be used in all sorts of ways, but we like to drizzle it on top of what could be considered the moistest, most delicious cake on the planet (I double-dare you to find a better one). The combination has a perfect salty-sweet thing happening that is like a highly addictive sensory overload. I promise, it will have you coming back for more. If it doesn't, perhaps the crumbled brittle that decorates the top will.

I love pumpkin pie so much that I've requested it as my birthday "cake" every year since I was about thirteen. I happen to have been born in October, so that helps my choice make some sense. I am also fortunate enough to be married to Dave, whom I refer to as a pie guru. The point is, I've eaten a lot of pumpkin pie, so I know what I'm talking about when I say that this is the best pumpkin pie ever. If someone feels otherwise, I am ready for a throwdown, because I can guarantee that their version does not have a grainy cornmeal crust and salty, crunchy pumpkin seeds on top. And without those elements, there's just no match.

Graham crackers are the embodiment of nostalgia. I'd always been happy with the ones in the red box at the supermarket—until I tried our homemade ones. The difference in texture is immediately apparent. These cookies are less flaky and crumbly than the store-bought version, and they have a great snappy crunch. We also use a high-quality cinnamon, which has a nice spicy quality.

When I was in Trinidad, Winnie Lee Lum showed me how to make this superb dish, which beautifully demonstrates the convergence of Chinese and Trinidadian cooking traditions. Of course, the taste was extraordinary because Lee Lum only cooks with fresh local shrimp that her husband, Tony, purchases for her. Before cooking, she rinses the shrimp in lime juice, a Trinidadian cooking practice said to remove the "fishy" taste. She prefers the Chinese custom of cooking the shrimp in the shell to protect the shrimp's succulence and flavor. Rather than rice wine, Lee Lum insists on using dark Jamaican-style rum; according to her, white rum is too harsh for cooking. This is one of the easiest dishes to stir-fry, and it is guaranteed to satisfy.

This Chicken Lo Mein recipe is extremely simple to make and has a nice peppery flavor from the red pepper flakes, white pepper, and ginger.

A few simple tips will help you make a wonderful butter crust. Make sure the ingredients are very cold—you can even chill the flour! Also, make sure not to overwork the dough—that's really the key. And enjoy! For me, the process of making the dough and assembling a pie can be such a lovely pleasure in itself.

A&M: Teresa wrote: "Seems to me beets and oranges are a classic winter salad combination that you see everywhere." But this is no run-of-the-mill beet and orange salad. Teresa explained, "My friend Sophie's dad, Jim Broderick, gave me the idea that really makes this salad great: fennel and orange rind in the dressing." She's right: this trick gives her winter salad lift and fragrance and makes you want to keep eating it.

Peach pie is such a happy pie. Maybe because peaches are in season during the summer, peach pie seems to call out for taking it easy and enjoying the day.