Colored Sugar - a sophisticated palette for a childhood favorite

The lack of artificial anything is usually one of the things I like most about life in Greece. But around the holidays I miss the technicolor sparkle. Cookies cut into shapes and strewn with bright sugars may not be the most sophisticated holiday offering, but they are our favorite. We used to put some dough aside for the girls to knead and roll until it was a gray mass of filth and delight all the bright green sugar in the world couldn't hide. 

Our stock reduced to only bright yellow and baby blue, I looked on the internet to see how ridiculously easy it is to make your own sugars. All we needed were simple food colorings now available at the supermarket, plain white sugar, and coarse demerara sugar.

1.Round up a few jars with tight fitting lids

2. Start with about about a 1/4 of a cup of sugar, and add a drop or to of the color you want, and shake madly. If you are using paste colors, you may need to mash them in with a spoon.

3. The colored sugar will be like damp sand- spread it out in a dish. It will crisp up and stick to the dish after about a half an hour. Loosen it with your fingers and break up the lumps and put it in a jar.

That's the basics. But we came up with fabulous colors! The golden color of the demarara sugar makes for muted, sophisticated shades. 

"Green" became Moss- That was 5 drops of green in 1/2 C demerara. For true green, to 1/2 C demarara add 5 drops green and one of blue to counteract the natural gold of the sugar.

"Red" became a deep Salmon- 4 drops red in 1/2 C demarara. Adding 1 drop of blue made not a true red but a chic bordeaux.

For a deep Aqua do the reverse- 4 blue and a green.

The pure white granulated sugars produce clear jewel tones- candy cotton pink, blue like a tiffany's box (again, with a whisper of green)

For sanding sugars with some depth, we blended shades, mixing the finer crystals with the coarser.

Sprinkle them right onto the cookies before they go into the oven, or onto white icing while it is still just sticky enough for the sugar to cling to it (too damp, and the colors will bleed).

A half hour of play and a couple of Euros have never had a more sparkling result. 

More Holiday color:

Rainbow stripe cookies taste like Little Italy

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Slightly Less Ancient Athens

"It tilts. Look."

"No no no- it's the shop that tilts. See how the old the wooden floor is? This is straight. It's the only straight thing in the shop."  We are looking at a majestic four-tired hotel tray of tarnished zinc- listing like a ship- and discussing its price. It's just a ritual; I don't care what I pay for it. The tray is the thing I have been waiting for my whole life to bring me closer to fulfillment and just never knew it- like a very, very minor version of falling in love. Considering the cut glass ice bucket, tongs, and a small silver cup that I bought that day, the tray itself was probably around 55? I could probably have got it down to 40, I think, but then it was July and it was so hot, and also I would have paid a hundred and not minded a bit- love's like that. Three-tiered trays are common enough; a four-tiered tray though, that sets a tone. We like our everyday life to have a tone. The tray is as tall as a toddler; if we lived in New York, it would barely be affordable to keep it filled with pomegranates, lemons, persimmons, and pears. 

After browsing the crustaceans at the Varvakios fish market, I passed a stall on the other side of the street with a charming mid-century amateur oil painting of more crustaceans- a lobster and two crabs. Dishes and tea pots spilled out into the street. The wooden spiral staircase at the back, nearly obscured by platters, chandeliers, accordions, phonograph records, candelabras, and clocks hanging from the banisters and walls, could only just be made out. It makes a full two revolutions before it reaches the main floor. And that main floor was shocking- a corridor and five or six rooms- some of these large galleries- are each filled with heaps of every imaginable thing, with as much order as the sacks of loot of pirates. It is tantalizing, dazzling. Dazzling and dangerous. The walk spaces are narrow, and the goods are piled so high and so deep it seems that not a tenth of them could ever be reached. The ceilings are high too, and tall windows let in some light in the distance. Were it not for this, it would feel like the vault of Bellatrix in Harry Potter, where when you touch anything it multiplies, and soon you are adrift on a swelling wave of candlesticks and water pitchers.

You expect a shop like this to be tended by an old man. Actually, it is a bunch of young guys from Egypt. I don't know how they came to have the shop. They're very genial, and seem to make a good price on the whole, throwing in presents you have at the edge of your pile (little marble dachsunds, for instance). Here are some of the things we have come home with. They make our life more sumptuous every day-

Souvenir spoons from a long-ago trip to Hungary.

Chinoiserie assembled over the course of three visits- they have a lot of it.

We have these tissue-thin etched glasses in two sizes, for water and for wine.

This cream pitcher has a matching sugar bowl. They have a satisfying weight.

No one ever cradles a tea cup and says "Do you remember when that thunderstorm came out of nowhere, and we rushed into Ikea, drenched and laughing, and you found these in plain sight with thousands of others exactly alike?" When you are in a city that has such a story as Athens, it inspires you to have one too, one for everything- to seek things that have stories of their own. 

The Bazaar is directly across from the Varvakios market, on your left as you cross Athinas St. They keep the hours of the market, and then some. After you shop, go for a chai. A sweet slice of Lahore is just a street or two away.

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Fabulous Meringue Mushrooms Outshine the Bûche.

Even if you have enough time, stamina, ingredients, and patience to complete a festive holiday table with a grand Bûche de Noël, the one thing you surely do not have enough of is refrigerator space. A Bûche is not complete without this surprisingly simplest ornament. But the ornament without the Bûche? A semi-avante-garde tromp l'oeil delight! A tower of these and a tower of holiday mandarins, some espresso and cordials, and everyone will feel festive, indulged, and light as a feather. And you can make them whenever suits you- they take about 10 minutes of actual work, another hour or so drying in the oven, and 10 minutes of child-friendly kitchen play to assemble.

We will need:

4 egg whites

200 g/ 1 C sugar

pinch salt

tiny dash vinegar

vanilla

a chocolate bar (50 g/2 oz. should be plenty)

non-stick parchment

a zip-lock bag

About egg whites- so many dishes (creme patisserie, eggnog) will call for yolks. Just slip the whites into a jar- 3 or 4 is what you need for most recipes- label how many, and pop them in the freezer. When you need them, put the closed jar in a dish of water- they will be ready to use in about half an hour. You are never far from a beautiful airy dessert (like this pavlova, or these coffee meringues) when you have a jar of whites in the freezer,asI happily did this morning.

Beat the egg whites with the salt and vinegar and when it starts to foam up, start gradually adding the sugar, and keep beating until it is glossy and dense. Turn the top of a lip-lock bag over like you would the neck on a turtleneck sweater and fill with meringue-

This keeps the seal clean. Turn the edge back up, seal the bag, pressing as much air out as possible, and sip off one of the corners to make a small opening. Pipe "stems" by touching the tip to the paper, and squeezing lightly as you pull up. Make caps by squeezing as you hold the bag in place close to the paper. They will all have peaks:

Put some water in a dish, wet your finger, and smooth out the tops:

Dust them randomly with cocoa powder, sifted through a strainer:

Place in a very low oven- 90 C/200F- with a fan if you like. Leave them until they are dry enough to  remove from the paper. 

Melt the chocolate over simmering water or on low power in the microwave. Paint the bottoms of the mushroom caps, and place the stems on. You can make a small indentation with your finger to place the stem upside down, so the flat side is showing. We did half of each.

Smear any drips of chocolate on the carps to look like dirt. Let the chocolate set, and keep in a box wherever you have room until you are ready to put them out.

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Hot Me a Toddy Please.

No one's complaining about a November where we ate lunch outside several times and didn't turn the heat on once. But a cold snap before the holidays is just what everyone wants- an excuse to light the fireplace (every night!), and warm up- inside and out- with hot cocktails. They're just the thing to sooth a chill, sweeten the voice, and huddle around a fire. Our three house favorites now? One from our new world (Crete), one from our old world (my grandparent's house, and one we just made up that we can't get enough of.

Rakomelo (from "raki"- distilled spirit of grapes, and "meli" = honey)-

With a the classic holiday cookie- Kourabie.

This widely available in the winter at cafe/bars and casual mezze places throughout Greece.

2 shot glasses full of honey, and 4 of raki/tsicoudia

3 or 4 whole cloves or a cinnamon stick

Gently warm together and serve in a small clear glasses.

Hot Buttered Rum-

My grandfather George- of meticulous and refined hand and tastes- made hot buttered rum batter in ample supply for holiday entertaining.

125 g/ 1 stick butter

225 g/ generous 1 C brown sugar

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

whisper of ground cloves

tiny pinch of salt (to be honest, this appears in no recipe I have ever seen, but he may have used salted butter, and this almost undetectable amount of salt enhances the butter's presence tremendously)

For each cocktail, use two tablespoons of batter, 2 shots of dark rum, and 125 ml/ 1/2 C boiling water.

This is classically served in a mug. I do not like mugs, and use these handle-less Japanese tea cups instead.

Tea-time-

Like the using tomato juice or fresh orange juice makes it somehow ok to have a drink at 11 am (the bloody mary, the mimosa- brunch's civilized companions), using tea makes it perfectly ok to enjoy this before dark (it's winter; the sun sets at 5- the start of any civilized cocktail hour.) 

You will need to have made a batch of crystallized ginger to enjoy this drink- a spectacular result for a very simple activity.

Brew strong black tea. To each cup, add a shot of bourbon and a shot of the thick spicy syrup left over from making the candied ginger. 

This goes straight to your lungs and makes your voice sound, and feel, great. Serving in a fancy tea cup underscores the drink's respectability.

(I know this supposed to be all about entertaining and pleasure, but I'd swear any one of these keeps a chill from turning onto a cold. Wishing you health and joy.)

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Still Life for Lunch, Truffles for Breakfast.

How to indulge in a month of celebrations with modesty and zeal? Crudites (and champagne). There is nothing austere about eating a still life for lunch. You want at least six things to make a lavish plate, several of them, despite the name, not raw. A little love brings out fabulous things. (Also all that endless chewing makes you feel like a goat, and it is very hard to say anything at all, clever or otherwise).  A few simple steps make a platter that's all glamour, all virtue:

Radishes- This is the most fun- branch out from retro roses to every botanical excess. A sharp knife and some ice water (opens the petals of your flowers, and shaves off a little of the radishes' bite), and it's Chihuly in a bowl.

Cauliflower- Boil in 2-3 cm salted water with some vinegar and peppercorns added (stems in the water, crowns above) for about 5 minutes, until they barely yield to a sharp knife. Strain and chill quickly- put them out on the terrace.

Broccoli- The same, but salt only. Watch carefully- the steaming brings out a vibrant emerald tone. Too much, and it turns army green and tastes like school lunch. Cut off the stems and peel them- throw them in first to give them a head start.

Carrots- Never just raw. There are two things you can do. Chilling them in a mixture of one part vinegar to two parts water, plus salt and if you like some peeled garlic cloves and peppercorns (take out the garlic after 20 minutes or so unless you want them strong), transforms them from crunchy to crisp- much more delicate texture, and nice enough to enjoy on their own like a pickle. The other thing to do is treat them as above, but for a shorter time- just a minute or at the most 2- with some vinegar in the water, and maybe a garlic clove also.

Green beans- probably frozen (!) in winter- nonetheless a fresh tasting addition. Treat as carrots, but cook long enough so that they become tender and lose any raw flavor (but not until they are limp). Vivid color!

Fennel- Slice very thin wedges with the stem on, holding them together- this way each bite has some of the tender inside.

Cucumbers- Prepare at the last minute so they don't dry out or go limp. Spears are fine, but leaving them half peeled (try a zester) and sliced on the diagonal gives them a fresh look and a pleasant bite.

To these add what you like- conventional choices like celery stalks, cherry tomatoes and red pepper strips. It's a little messy but you'll have several platters worth of crudites- each one a meal that feels more like a cocktail party and leaves you svelte enough to have truffles for breakfast.

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Pad Thai that's Quicker than Take - Out

This well-balanced fresh/hot/tangy Pad Thai is a nice break from the heavy holiday flavors of the season. It is also the most reliable recipe for anything I have ever made. Is it perfect? I don't know- but it tastes like really good take-out every time. Writing recipes for savory dishes, especially for people who may not have grown up eating a certain dish, I measure meticulously and assume nothing. That's the idea with recipes- they can just give nudge, an inspiration, if you are comfortable with the dish. If you're not, they can give you a reliable paint-by-numbers result. I never actually measure and follow to the letter Western, Middle-Eastern, and South Asian recipes. Any further east, and my intuition blanks out completely. The balance of flavors is elusive. Fortunately, my mother has this very tattered and treasured cookbook-

 - do exactly as the directions say, measure with measuring cups and spoons, and it will be as good as take-out. I have made this dish dozens of times and it always comes out exactly the same- less tempermental than an all'arrabbiata. The only changes to the original recipe are that I have removed things that I cannot easily get and have learned to live without- the dried shrimp and the fresh bean sprouts (too bad!)- If the dish is poorer for that I cannot tell. It is always fabulous. Also, I put on way more crushed peanuts than she calls for- they make the dish. And I left out the pork too, and added fresh or frozen shrimp. I wouldn't dream of tampering with the sauce or anything else. I have had no trouble finding these ingredients in Thessaloniki, and none of them are particularly expensive.

We will need:

1 package of wide rice noodles- "rice sticks" 400 g/ 14 oz.

500 g/ 1 pound shrimp (cleaned and tail-on are nice)

60 ml/ 4 tablespoons oil

4 cloves garlic

1 yellow onion

2 small dried chiles

30 ml/ 2 tablespoons fish sauce 

30 ml/ 2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground black pepper (measure- it's a lot and provides some heat)

45 ml/ 3 tablespoons ketchup

1 bunch cilantro, leaves only, chopped

4 green onions, chopped

2 handfuls salted roasted peanuts, crushed with a rolling pin

This dish is not difficult- it comes together all at the last minute though, and a mis en place makes it a lot more fun to assemble:

In other words, get everything ready like it is a cooking show-  prepare the fresh things, make the sauce, crush the peanuts, and soften the noodles.

Get out a large strainer and have it ready in the sink. Boil a large pot of water, drop in the rice noodles, stir at once to make sure they are all submerged, and keep stirring for just 60 seconds. Drain and rinse with cold water- the  noodles will be pliable but by no means ready to eat. Blend the sugar, salt, pepper, fish sauce, lime juice and ketchup and set aside.

Saute the garlic, onion, and red chilies in the oil until they just begin to soften, then add the shrimp, stir-frying for a two or three minutes- test one to make sure it is opaque inside. Add the noodles and the sauce, stir frying for another 2 minutes, until noddles are soft. Shower with the scallions, cilantro, and peanuts, and serve hot.

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Two is Company, Twenty-One is a Crowd, and Not Every Grand Meal is a Dinner Party

.

...even if there is a meal, and it feels very much like a party (certainly a happening). There are festive occasions, especially in our home life, that are not about the meal. Last weekend was like that- at the *club, a show, and at home, one of our daughters directing a short film with a cast and crew of a dozen (our other daughter is in and out grabbing whatever is around to eat as she sings and has concerts). That is a lot of people who need a good meal before they get back to making music or movies or whatever.

I almost always cook something for the bands. If I know them I make Touluouse Lautrec cake, and sushi. Otherwise vegetarian snacks- hummus is on every hospitality rider and I feel so sorry for them eating hummus day after day- it just isn't that lively of a dish- that I make a really nice one. They also always want chips and salsa, so I make that too. Knowing the show was coming up and also knowing that we would have 13 film school students in from dawn to midnight, I got a kilo of chick peas, soaked and cooked them up, chilling them in their broth in the refrigerator. I also had sacks of carrots, red peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes- imperfect ones that they have at the end of market day. To this was added little. (The film crew and cast also had a cake but it is so delicious and reliable it must shine on its own- coming next.)

This is not a time for souffle- patient dishes that are ready in a hurry but don't mind waiting until a take is finished or sound check is over are perfect. 

Here's what you need for one band and one film crew-

1 kilo chick peas

1 bag of carrots

1 bag of cucumbers

2 or 3 red peppers

2 or 3 kilos of tomatoes

1 kilo of pasta

1 bunch parsley

1 bunch dill

1 bunch cilantro

3 lemons

2 limes

a jar of tahini

The Hummus:

1/2 k cooked chick peas, drained

1 bunch parsley

1/2 bunch dill

2 lemons

1/2 jar tahini

1 garlic clove

salt

Chop the garlic fine, then add a teaspoon of salt
and smash back and forth with the plat side of your knife-
it will quickly make a smooth paste.

Pick the leaves off of one large bunch of parsley and half a bunch of dill, and put them in the bowl of the food processor with about half of the chickpeas (take them out with a slotted spoon- we want none  of the liquid in this dish but we need it in another), the zest of 2 lemons, their juice, a clove of garlic mashed carefully with salt into a smooth paste (we need more garlic/salt paste for the salsa- mash 2 at once and set the rest aside), and about half of a jar of tahini. Puree until smooth and a beautiful light green color and taste, adding salt, lemon, tahini, etc. as you like and being conservative with more garlic- raw garlic gains in intensity. Serve dusted with sumac- which is beautiful and tangy.

What makes it nicer? The herbs for one- color and bright fresh flavor missing from legumes and seeds. And the lemon zest lifts the flavor higher and leaves a floral perfume, not just tangy zing. 

Just a little vinegar in each jar s enough- fill to the top with water.

For the carrot sticks- do them first so they can sit in water with vinegar (1:8), salt, and a garlic clove- they are transformed from (stodgy)crunchy to (suave)crisp. Leave them for over 6 hours though and they are almost too flavorful to enjoy with the hummus (but very fine as a cocktail pickle- I have them often in the refrigerator).

The Salsa:

4-5 tomatoes

2 peppers

1 onion

1 clove garlic

1 bunch cilantro

1 or 2 limes

2 small cucumbers

I loved using the blowtorch for the gazpacho the other day, and all my favorite restaurant salsas have some char to them. Basically, this is the gazpacho, minus most of the oil and all the bread and water, plus cilantro, lime zest and juice, and some dried red chilies. 

Slice an onion fairly thinly, and blacken with a torch along with 2 sweet peppers of any color, 4 or 5 tomatoes, some garlic mashed with salt. Puree everything in the food processor along with a very large handful of cilantro leaves, the lime juice and zest, ground black pepper and crushed dried chilies- going slowly (start with a half) and adding more as you like. The sweet smoke of the vegetables and the brightness of the cilantro and lime are very nice together. No photo- it was whisked off to the club the moment it came out of the blender. But you can imagine what it looks like. Make yours as smooth or as chunky as you like.

The Pasta:

1/2 k /1 lb chick peas, cooked until done, with all of their cooking liquid

1/2 C olive oil

2 onions

4-5 cloves garlic

1 1/2 k/ 3 pounds tomatoes, grated

fresh herbs-sage, thyme, oregano

1- 1 1/2 k pasta, any shape you like (we used 3 different shapes)

The liquid should be much more than the chick peas,
and should still reach just over halfway up the sides so there is room for the pasta..
The dish expands enormously.

Take our your largest and deepest pot. Chop the onions and saute in the olive oil until soft, add the garlic, and stir over the heat until golden. Drain the chick peas- keeping the liquid (full of almost gelatinous body, like a homemade chicken stock). Add the chick peas, salt to taste, black pepper, and a small handful of herbs. Stir a moment to let the chick peas absorb some aroma, and add broth and the tomatoes. There should be a lot of liquid- another 2 times the depth of the chick peas. And the seasoning should be bold- we are adding a lot of starch to soak up the liquid and all the flavor. It will sit patiently at a low simmer for as long as you need it to. When you are 10 minutes away from serving, add the dry pasta to the pot and stir often. The finished dish should be a lively springy pasta (not too very soft) with the chick peas and some brothy sauce- add some water or tomato when it cooking if it seems to need more liquid, or if more people gather. Serve with more fresh ground pepper and grated cheese, a rough one, like dry myzythra (ricotta salata). This is a generous dish, satisfying many.

Plan:

There's a reason there are no photos of the kitchen while all this was being made- vegetable peels, onion skins, herb stems flying everywhere. The dishes use a lot of the same ingredients so the most efficient way is to just fly into it and do one grand clean up when the pasta is on the stove. Start with the hummus so it has time to chill and then do the salsa so you can get the food processor out of the way. Cut up the carrot sticks and some cucumber spears and chill them. Start the chick peas and tomato broth and grate a lot of cheese. It will be ready in ten minutes after the pasta is added, but as there is so much it will stay hot a very long time. Clear a large table and put out all of the mismatched bowls and forks and spoons that you own and know that they certainly will be enough, and that no one will go hungry. 

*Principal (John Spencer Blues Explosion last Saturday, the 5th)

** Dinner for Morrisey (I made it on a hot plate next to the bar): steamed broccoli, steamed carrots, potatoes mashed with salted butter. Black-eyes peas salad for Nouvelle Vague. Tricky cooks for himself. I don't think Lemmy ate anything special. We ordered in for Isaac Hayes. He was majestic. 

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Hot Mussels in Red Sauce with Ouzo- a Messy, Sumptuous Summer Dinner Party.

Sleepy August is a perfect time for a casual dinner party with your friends who are still in town. Mussels strike the right balance, casual, messy, sumptuous and copious. There's no point inviting fussy people who are afraid of getting dirty- food can be a lusty messy business. This meal certainly is- red broth sloshing around, blue-black mussel shells crashing into bowls. Candlelight would make it all look very bacchanalian/romantic. But we had ours in the light of the afternoon; I love a table strewn with the chaos of a good meal. There's no shame in a dirty tablecloth- it's the bedroom hair of table settings. 

It can be very festive to serve lots and lots of one fabulous thing. Saline, brothy, spicy, tender, and curiously sweet- this is that thing. It is not complicated; it simply needs a big pot and lots of big bowls for serving, and for tossing the pretty blue empty shells into. 

Mussels are the ideal combination of very festive and very inexpensive. I suppose they make for poor leftovers, but I don't know- we've never had any. A kilo for 2 is not really enough. if you are going for the mood of abandon, get a kilo per person. I find slightly less to be fine- 3 kilos for 4 people, 7 kilos for 9, etc. They are a lots of work to scrape clean and de-beard. If you are making them for more than 4, you will find that many hands make for pleasant work. The best dinner parties start in the kitchen. 

With steel wool and a short knife (and perhaps gloves), attack the outsides of the mussels, scraping them clean of barnacles and plant matter. Do not remove the "beard"- this that is attached to the middle of the flat side of the shell. Do that just before cooking. 

For every kilo of mussels, we will need 2 cloves of garlic and 2 fat tomatoes. Slice the garlic and grate the tomatoes. We will also need dried red chilies, to taste- one for every 2 kilos makes a spicy enough dish. You could add more at the table. The mussels provide their own salt. 

For 4, we will need: 

3 kilos of mussels

a half glass of olive oil 

6 large tomatoes

6 cloves of garlic

1 or 2 dried red chilies 

ground black pepper to taste 

a shot of ouzo 

An ouzo tasting at Eva Distillery, Lesvos.
 I loved the Sertiko.

Grate the tomatoes on the large holes of a box grater and set aside. In your largest pan, heat the olive oil and saute the sliced garlic until it begins to turn golden. Add the chilies, then the tomatoes and let them cook down a little, for 10 minutes or so. The mussels make lots of their own broth. 

Any mussels that are not tightly shut at this point should be tossed out. Add the clean and de-bearded mussels to the pot. The mussels in the hot red sauce will open nearly at once. Try to lift them to the top and work the closed mussels to the bottom. They are done when they are open wide, and then they begin to shrink. The goal is to have wide open, fully cooked but still fat mussels. 

Add *ouzo to taste- the sweet anise flavor plays well with the brininess of the mussels and the heat of the chilies. 

Lay the table with soup spoons, forks, bowls for the discarded shells, and lots of napkins. Serve in shallow bowls with lots of broth. You'll want bread, and maybe a little slightly under-cooked pasta to throw into the bowls and soak up the sauce. To drink, these are nice with anything- red sauce/red wine, more of the ouzo with water and ice, or cold beer. 

These will keep everyone at the table for a long time, and there is nothing more festive than that. 

*I had a intimate, vivacious introduction to the complexities and delights of ouzo at the Eva Distillery in Levsos. I will be writing with warmth about the culture of ouzo in itself soon. With anything spicy or anything salty form the sea, it is the most refreshing companion. 

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