Previous Features
Featured Chef Rose Levy Beranbaum
Bio
We welcome Rose Levy Beranbaum, celebrated cookbook author and television host of Baking Magic on PBS, to the Kuhn Rikon website as our Guest Chef. Her many books include The Cake Bible (William Morrow, 1988), a culinary classic and best-seller currently in its 34th printing. Other award-winning books include Rose's Christmas Cookies (Morrow, 1990) and The Pie and Pastry Bible (Scribner, 1998). Her newest book, The Bread Bible (W.W. Norton & Company, 2003), continues her tradition of providing comprehensive recipes and guidelines to bring the best in baking techniques to the home cook.
For more information on Rose Levy Beranbaum, visit her blog at www.realbakingwithrose.com
Interview
Was good cooking an important part of your home life when you were growing up?
Honestly: Not! Eating was more about nutrition than flavor. My mother was a dentist and preoccupied with health. My grandmother did the cooking and the only seasoning she used was salt, pepper, and garlic. It was the same exact menu every week: Fish on Wednesday, roast chicken on Friday, canned sardines and then spaghetti with ketchup and butter on Sunday nights. Food bored me for the most part.
Who are the people who have influenced you the most?
My grandmother wasn't much of a cook, but she was an excellent story teller and craftsman. She taught me to cross stitch and embroider. Every summer she sent me off on vacation with my mother with two embroidery projects. My parents were both also craftsmen-my father working in wood as a cabinet maker, my mother in ivory as a dentist and orthodontist. And then there was my great uncle Nat (Nathan George Horwitt), a Peter Pan of a man-a raconteur, inventor, graphic designer, and creator of the Movado museum watch. He founded the New England mycological society and taught me all about wild mushrooms. He made life seem like so much fun and filled with possibilities.
As a best-selling cookbook author and culinary expert, you travel the world. Where have you been lately?
Paris and Barcelona in Febuary; in March on my way to the Chicago Housewares Show - then Deer Valley Utah for a ski trip, and then IACP in Seattle. Home the first of April to celebrate my birthday with friends arriving from New Zealand.
Please tell us about your latest cookbook.
I'm really excited about it. A full generation will have passed since my first cake book "The Cake Bible." This book will be my first comprehensive four color cookbook so the reader will be able to see exactly what each cake looks like. It's a great challenge and privilege to get to do a book of this quality.
After writing so many cookbooks, what is it like to host a PBS cooking show?
It's like my recipes are characters in a play that have come to life. There's nothing like actually demonstrating and showing the special techniques that words alone cannot describe as fully.
You are famous as an expert on baking. Do you like to cook too?
I cook dinner whenever I'm home 99% of the time. I love home cooking-the process-the flavor-and the control over what goes into it and what goes into my body. It's easier to control quantity when you know you can eat the rest for lunch the next day instead of overeating that night. Also I love wine and it's more affordable to have wonderful wines at home.
What do you like about pressure cooking?
The feasibility of making the full complex flavors of traditional slow-cooked recipe in such a short time, mkaing it possible to enjoy them even during a busy work week.
When did you first try pressure cooking?
When I got married years ago my mother gave me the pressure cooker she received as a wedding gift in 1944 and which she never had the courage to use! It was the old style one with no safe guards to prevent overheating unlike today's models. I used it for years before I got the Kuhn Rikon one that made me feel so safe unlike my mother's!
What is your favorite pressure cooker recipe?
My favorite pressure cooker recipe is Grandma Sarah's Lamb with Prune Glaze. This unusual combination of lamb and prune is so succulent and gloriously flavorful it was my favorite recipe growing up and still remains one of my top ten. It has illicited rave reviews such as: 'The best thing I've ever put in my mouth,' or 'It was so good, so I didn't want to share!' You'll find this recipe below.
Are there new kitchen tools that you find especially helpful?
I'm a total equipment nut! I delight in good design and tools that enable me to perform cooking techniques with greater ease and better results. I love Kuhn Rikon's serrated vegetable peeler, and the Jar Gripper Opener which is a hand and wrist-saver. I love new technology such as silicone - the brushes, spatulas and bakeware. As a coffee lover I'm thrilled with the new devices that produce foam to rival those of the most experienced barristers. Infrared thermometers are terrific for temperature control. I love kitchen scales for weighing ingredients rather than measureing by volume. I even delight in discovering a good quality plastic wrap.
What is your next project?
A quality cake mix.
More Info
Grandma Sarah's Lamb with Prune Glaze
Grandma simmered the meat in a large pot on top of the stove for at least an hour and a half but in the pressure cooker, this recipe cooks to a perfection of melting tenderness in only about 30 minutes.
I like to serve this glorious dish with a spicy zinfandel or bold red cabernet (though Grandma certainly didn't).
3 cups (18 ounces) pitted prunes, firmly packed, divided
1/2 cup ruby port
3 tablespoons flour, preferably Wondra
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
A big pinch cayenne pepper
5 pounds lamb shanks cut into thirds (2 to 3 inch pieces)
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 ribs celery (including leafy portion), thinly sliced, about 1 cup
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, leaves
1 large bay leaf
1 1/2 cups water
16 - 1 1/2 inch red skin potatoes (18 ounces), scrubbed (if using larger ones, cut them in half)
Using a 6 quart pressure cooker or larger
In a medium bowl, place 1 cup of the prunes and pour the port over them. Cover tightly and allow to sit for a minimum of 1 hour up to over night, turning once or twice to bath them in the port.
In a gallon size heavy-duty platic bag, combine the flour, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper and shake to mix. Add a few pieces of lamb at a time and toss to coat with the flour mixture until all the lamb is coated. If any of the flour mixture remains, set it aside.
Heat a large heavy frying pan, preferably cast iron, until hot. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and when a film appears over the oil, add only as much lamb as will fit without crowding.
Brown the lamb on all sides, in batches, over medium high heat, about 8 to 10 minutes or until browned on all sides, adding more oil as necessary to keep the lamb from sticking. Remove the lamb to a bowl and set aside.
In the same pan, add any remaining oil and saute the onions and celery until the onions are golden-brown and the celery wilted. Sprinkle on any remaining flour mixture, stir in the garlic and cook, stirring for about 30 seconds. Then spoon the mixture into the pressure cooker. Top with the prunes in port and the lamb. Add the thyme, bay leaf, and water.
Cook at full pressure for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, steam the potatoes about 20 minutes or until tender.
Release the pressure. The meat should be firm but tender. (If you prefer falling off the bone rather than firm, I don't - I prefer a little texture and bite to the meat - cook for 30 minutes instead of 20.)
Remove the meat to a large serving plate. Cover it with foil to keep it warm. Tilt the pan and skim off any fat from the top of the liquid. Mash the cooked prunes into the liquid and add the remaining prunes and the cooked potatoes.
Bring to a boil, and reduce the liquid until very thick, stirring often, about 5 to 10 minutes. Spoon the potatoes and prunes onto the meat and film any remaining sauce over it for a rich burnished color and fabulous flavor.
Optional: for extra depth of flavor, caramelize 1/4 cup of sugar until deep amber and pour it over the meat before cooking.
Serves 6-8
