The Right Tool for the Job

There are disagreements among the arbiters of etiquette--but, of course, polite ones. For instance, “Letitia Baldridge’s Complete Guide to the New American Manners for the ‘90s” (Rawson Associates: 1990), written by a woman who was Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House chief of staff and who wrote several of the Amy Vanderbilt etiquette guides, tends to rule more frequently in favor of efficiency and convenience at the table than does “Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior” (Atheneum: 1982). “Miss Manners” (Judith Martin, a Washington Post columnist) holds that efficiency in food consumption is boring and piggish, but she would probably never dream of telling Letitia this to her face.

Speaking of Tongs

The snail shell is held, using the left hand, either with special snail tongs that fit the shell or in a napkin. The meat is removed with a small fork. When the snails have been removed and the shells are cool enough to handle, Letitia Baldridge approves of picking them up in the fingers and sucking out the juice, or turning them upside down and sopping up the juices with a piece of bread speared on a fork. Miss Manners does not approve of either technique . . . when other diners are watching. (“That is why you see her turning discreetly away from you at the table, and also why you hear her offering to clear the snail dishes from the table”).

Give It a Twirl

Catch four or five strands of this unruly food in the tines of your fork and twirl them into a neat bundle. This sounds easier than it actually is. Baldridge accepts the practice of using a soup spoon, instead of the surface of the plate, to twirl the spaghetti against in times of distress. Miss Manners disagrees (her exact comment is, “Bite your tongue!”), holding that this use of a spoon is wrong in our country as well as in Italy. They agree that any strand that hangs out of the mouth should be discreetly sucked in rather than spit out. Quietly, of course. In China, it is considered correct to slurp one’s noodles audibly, but of course the Chinese have to eat extremely long noodles on their birthdays and have no choice.

SALSA DI POMODORO (From “La Cucina di Lidia,” by Lidia Bastianich)

2 1/2 pounds ripe Roma tomatoes

1 cup minced onion

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

8 fresh basil leaves, minced

With point of paring knife cut out and discard stem bases of tomatoes, removing small cones about 1/4 inch deep, then lightly cut X shapes on opposite ends of tomatoes.

Bring water to boil in large saucepan. Drop in tomatoes and cook 5 minutes. With slotted spoon, transfer tomatoes to colander. Run cold water over and slip skins off with fingers.

Lightly saute onion in olive oil in nonreactive saucepan. Add tomatoes, crushing each directly over pan as added. Add reserved juice, if tomatoes have been seeded. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add basil before serving. Makes about 2 1/2 cups, or about 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

164 calories; 100 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 11 grams fat; 15 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 2.07 grams fiber.

Finger Food

If asparagus is not overcooked, the correct, old-fashioned technique is to use your fingers. Pick up one spear at a time by the base, dip the opposite end in sauce and eat from the bud end, discarding the bases in a neat pile. If asparagus is overcooked and limp, or entirely covered with sauce, it must be cut up with knife and fork.

The Most Dangerous Course

Here we have total disagreement. Baldridge favors the “continental” style of using the knife and fork, where the fork is held (tines down) in the left hand throughout the meal and not only holds food down to be cut with the knife but brings it to the mouth. As she points out, this is more efficient than the American style, because the knife does not have to be put down and the fork does not have to change hands with every mouthful, and because the knife can serve as a “pusher” to move food onto the fork. It’s also more efficient at dessert, when the dessert spoon serves as a “pusher” for the dessert fork. Miss Manners, to whom any sort of “pusher” suggests a coarse desire to stuff one’s face, emphatically disagrees: “American table manners are, if anything, a more advanced form of civilized behavior than the European, because they are more complicated and further removed from the practical result, always a sign of refinement.” She “does not approve of native Americans changing their habits in order to appear fashionably foreign. Nor does she accept their excuse that the foreign method is more efficient. Efficiency in food service or consumption is not desirable.”

CREME BRULEE NAPOLEON (From Michel Richard of Citrus)

1/2 cup golden brown sugar

Custard

Pastry

Strawberry Sauce, on H25

2 pints strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced

Creme fraiche or sour cream, at room temperature

Sieve brown sugar over Custards. Broil at least 6 inches from heat source until sugar melts. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Run small sharp knife around sides of both pans of Custards to loosen. Cut each pan into 6 (3-inch) creme brulee squares. Reserve remainder for another use.

Line large heavy baking sheet with parchment paper. Place 6 Pastry squares on prepared baking sheet, spacing evenly. Top each with 1 creme brulee square, using wide metal spatula. Arrange some strawberries in single layer over each. Place 1 pastry square atop each.

Top each with another creme brulee square. Arrange strawberries in single layer over each. Place 1 pastry square atop each.

Transfer desserts to large plates. Spoon sauce around each. Stir creme fraiche until smooth and slightly runny. Swirl some on sauce on each plate.

To create white hearts that link in circle on sauce, spoon 1/4 teaspoon creme fraiche onto sauce on 1 plate, forming small round. Repeat 11 more times, forming 12 creme fraiche rounds. Run tip of knife through center of each to create linking hearts. Repeat with remaining desserts. Serve immediately. Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

1,300 calories; 193 mg sodium; 865 mg cholesterol; 88 grams fat; 122 grams carbohydrates; 16 grams protein; 1.69 grams fiber.

Custard

3 cups whipping cream

3/4 cup milk

2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise

14 large egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

Bring cream, milk and vanilla beans to boil in heavy large saucepan. Remove from heat. Cover with lid and let mixture steep 30 minutes.

Remove vanilla beans. Scrape seeds from vanilla beans into cream mixture. Whisk yolks and sugar in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in cream mixture. Strain.

Divide custard evenly between 2 (11 3/4x7 1/2-inch) glass baking dishes. Place each dish in large baking pan. Add enough hot water to pans to come halfway up sides of dishes. Bake at 300 degrees until knife inserted in center of custards comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool. Cover and chill until firm, about 4 hours. Can be prepared 2 days ahead.

Note: Do not use low-fat or nonfat milk.

Pastry

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup toasted almonds, ground

8 sheets frozen filo dough, thawed

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and almonds in small bowl. Place 1 filo sheet on work surface (keep remainder covered with kitchen towel). Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons nut mixture.

Top with second filo sheet. Gently press down on filo so layers adhere. Generously brush filo with butter. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons nut mixture. Top with third filo sheet. Gently press down on pastry. Generously brush filo with butter. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons nut mixture. Top with fourth filo sheet. Gently press down on filo. Trim and cut stacked filo into 9 (3 1/2-inch) squares. Place squares on prepared baking sheets, spacing evenly.

Repeat layering and cutting with remaining filo, butter and nut mixture. Brush top of pastry squares with melted butter. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over. Bake at 350 degrees until light brown, about 4 minutes.

Preheat broiler. Lightly sift powdered sugar over pastry squares. Broil until golden brown, watching carefully, about 20 seconds. Cool pastry on parchment. Can be prepared up to 6 hours ahead. Then store airtight between sheets of parchment at room temperature.

You Can’t Take It Anywhere

Miss Manners prefers the “typewriter” method of eating corn on the cob in neat rows from left to right (but she declares it a social error to say “Bing!” at the end of a line). Baldridge believes in seasoning and buttering a few rows of corn at a time, rather than holding an entire cob dripping with butter; these also sound like horizontal, rather than vertical, rows, though she does not specify. Both consider corn on the cob suitable only for a family dinner, picnic or outdoor party. If you’re serving guests indoors, Baldridge counsels cutting off the kernels in the kitchen and serving them in a bowl, buttered and seasoned.

Shell Game

With the left hand, steady the crab’s body on the plate, and with the right, twist off the claws and set them aside. Use a crab cracker to break the body into pieces small enough to hold. Extract the meat with an oyster fork or nut pick; the meat is brought to the mouth with a table fork. Then pick up a large claw in the left hand and crack it with the cracker held in the right. Again, the meat is extracted with a small fork and eaten with a large one. The soft materials in the body cavity (the green tomalley and the coral, or roe, found in some she-crabs) are eaten last. A plate should be provided for the shells. Baldridge recommends wearing a lobster bib in a restaurant; Martin thinks the lobster bib looks foolish and proves God meant us to eat crabs and lobsters in the privacy of our homes.

ZUPPA DI PESCHE (From Antonio Tomassi of Ca’Brea)

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

2 cups tomato sauce

1/4 pound monkfish fillet

Salt, pepper

1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley

6 bay leaves

1/4 pound John Dory fillet

1/4 pound turbot fillet

1/4 pound orange roughy fillet

1/4 pound halibut fillet

1/4 pound red mullet fillet

1/4 pound rock cod fillet

1 pound Manila clams

10 head-on shrimp

Saffron

6 ounces dry white wine

8 cups fish stock or water

1 whole steamed Dungeness crab

Pour olive oil into large earthenware casserole. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon chopped garlic. Dot with few tablespoons tomato sauce. Cover with monkfish. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon parsley and 1/2 teaspoon garlic. Dot with tomato sauce and place bay leaf on top. Repeat procedure with remaining fish.

Place clams and shrimp on top. Dot with remaining tomato sauce, garlic and parsley. Sprinkle saffron threads on top. Pour wine over casserole; add stock until covered by 1/2 inch.

Cook over medium heat 15 to 20 minutes. Cut crab into quarters and add. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Nutritional information on H25.

Dipping Do’s and Don’ts

It does not matter whether you pick up a piece of sushi with your chopsticks or your fingers. What does matter is what you do next. The sushi should be dipped into the soy sauce fish-side down; The rice should never be dipped into the soy sauce. The sushi then goes into your mouth fish side down.

SHRIMP SUSHI

32 peeled, deveined cooked shrimp

Vinegared Rice for Sushi

32 (1/2x4-inch) nori strips

Soy sauce for dipping

Wasabi

Split shrimp in half along underside almost all way through, so it will flatten. Lightly press shrimp flat.

In palm of moistened hand, shape 1 tablespoon Vinegared Rice for Sushi into cylinder. Place 1 shrimp on top. Wrap nori strip around shrimp and sushi. Lightly moisten ends of nori and stick to sushi. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Cover and chill until serving time. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi. Makes 32 sushi.

Note: Nori strips are available in Japanese markets.

Each piece contains about:

23 calories; 88 mg sodium; 11 mg cholesterol; 0 fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0.02 gram fiber.

Vinegared Rice for Sushi (Sushi Meshi)

2/3 cup short-grain white rice

1 1/4 cups water

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Wash rice well. Rinse several times, stirring with hand until rinsing water is clear. Combine rice and 1 1/4 cups fresh water in heavy saucepan. Let soak 30 minutes.

Place over high heat and bring to boil, covered. Reduce heat to very low and simmer 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and leave rice in covered pan 15 minutes to steam. Do not lift lid. Cool to room temperature. Then place in wide shallow container.

Combine rice vinegar, sugar and salt in saucepan and place over high heat. Heat just until sugar is dissolved. Sprinkle rice with vinegar mixture.

Quickly and lightly cut and toss rice with wooden rice paddle or spoon. Fan rice when tossing to achieve gloss. Vinegared rice should be used immediately. Otherwise cover with damp cloth and use within few hours. Makes 2 cups.

This recipe for Strawberry Sauce is from the Creme Brulee Napoleon on H16.

Strawberry Sauce

2 (10-ounce) packages frozen sweetened strawberries, thawed

Puree berries in blender or food processor. Strain through sieve set over bowl to remove seeds. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, about 1 hour. Can be prepared 2 days ahead.

Each serving contains about:

401 calories; 697 mg sodium; 73 mg cholesterol; 22 grams fat; 8 grams carbohydrates; 27 grams protein; 0.69 gram fiber.