Top 10 recipes of 1996:
- 1
24 medium shrimp 3 to 4 quarts fish or chicken stock 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 cup vegetable oil 6 cloves garlic, sliced 1 sprig rosemary, chopped 12 pork ribs 12 Catalonian sausages (Spanish sausage) or any pork sausage, thickly sliced 12 small chicken drumsticks or thighs or 12 chicken half breasts, cut up 1 rabbit, cut up, optional 1/4 cup tequila, rum or brandy 5 tablespoons chopped onion 3 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled, deveined and chopped 6 red bell peppers, cut in thin strips 8 small hot chiles (gueros or serranos), deveined, optional 12 small artichokes, trimmed of tough outer leaves, stems peeled Juice of 2 lemons or vinegar 3 dried ancho chiles, roasted, deveined and soaked in hot water 1 (2-inch) stick cinnamon, toasted Salt or 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder 1 pound tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped 36 small squid, cleaned 12 large shrimp or prawns with heads intact 36 clams 4 1/2 cups converted rice 1/2 pound pea pods, shelled (1/2 cup frozen peas) 2 tablespoons chopped parsley Peel medium shrimp, reserving meat in covered container in refrigerator.
- 2
Note: It’s more convenient to make the pastry cream the day before so it will be completely cooled and ready to fill the cake.
- 3
Note: Among the cobblers, slumps, grunts, crisps, pandowdies and other old-time Yankee desserts we tried in The Times Test Kitchen for a Fourth of July report by Food writer Charles Perry, wild blueberry buckle was our favorite.
- 4
Note: Few foods are cleaner-tasting than this grapefruit ice, which Times Test Kitchen Director Donna Deane developed for an early January cover story on low-fat cooking.
- 5
Note: Lucknow, a city renowned among India’s Muslims for its elegant way of life, is where this refined, highly aromatic dish comes from.
- 6
Note: New York chef Larry Forgione says that when James Beard first tasted Forgione’s strawberry shortcake, the food guru pronounced: “There can be no dessert better, only fancier.”
- 7
Note: Over the years, several Culinary SOS readers have requested recipes for soft molasses cookies; one specified the kind sold off the Helm’s Bakery trucks that used to roam the Southland.
- 8
Note: The slow-cooking Sabbath stew cholent reminded a few tasters in The Times Test Kitchen of the French bean-and-meat stew cassoulet.
- 9
Note: On the opening night of Alice Water’s Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse, pastry chef Lindsey Shere served almond tart.
- 10
Note: In her summer story about the world of gelatins beyond Jell-O, Michelle Huneven got a lesson in gelatins and aspics from French-trained chef Patrick Healy, who runs the kitchens at Xiomara and Oye!
