American Ethnic : Sheila Lukins: The Single Palate

It’s October and Sheila Lukins is feeling harassed. Her first solo book is supposed to be published in April, and the galley proofs have just come back from the copy editors with a thousand questions still to be answered.

What size tomato?

What kind of apple?

How much does that fennel bulb weigh?

Now she has to go to a market, buy a bulb of fennel and weigh it. Her physical therapist is coming by four times a week to work on the muscles she screwed up by not walking correctly after a stroke. And she still has to find the time to pack for a quick trip to Paris to visit her daughter.

On top of that, she’s worried about how the book will be received. Just last spring her one-time business partner and former co-author Julee Rosso put out a solo book, “Great Good Food,” and got trashed in the press.

The consensus on Rosso’s book: Anything but great. Disappointing. Thumbs down. Cook’s Illustrated called it “a hodgepodge of somewhat contrived recipes.” The New York Times said too many of her recipes were “flawed by errors and lapses that could cause consternation in the kitchen and chagrin at the table.” Newsweek said food prepared according to Rosso’s recipes tasted “lousy.”

Rosso, who pocketed an advance reported to be $625,000, insisted that she and four assistants tested 1,500 recipes in 10 months to select the 800 used in the book. Her detractors said that was impossible. No matter, Crown Publishing won’t talk specifics but reveals that the thick paperback of low-fat recipes has been a fast seller: Since last April the book has sold about 500,000 copies.

So was the book really that bad, or was it a matter of the food establishment--the “Food Mafia,” as many call it--taking sides in the professional divorce of a couple that helped change the way America eats?

In 1977, the dynamic duo--Lukins the caterer and Rosso the marketer--co-founded the Silver Palate in Manhattan, one of the first gourmet take-out shops in the country. The highfalutin home cooking they pioneered contributed to a radical change in baby boomer eating habits. Sauteed chicken livers with blueberry vinegar, caviar eclairs, pizza pot pie and pesto by the quart were suddenly the rage from Boca Raton to Bellingham. To date, their three Silver Palate cookbooks have sold more than 5 million copies.

By the time the partnership ended, shortly after the sale of their shop in 1988, the pair were barely speaking. “We were great friends,” says Lukins, “It’s over now.”

After the breakup, Rosso moved to Michigan and discovered yogurt cheese, while Lukins began traveling and researching her “All Around the World Cookbook” for Workman, the publishers of the original Silver Palate books.

“I wish with all my heart that Julee’s book had been nicely received because everyone is going to want to see how the other one did,” Lukins says. “I’m sure I’ll be scrutinized plenty. . . . And I did not get a huge advance!”

But make a few calls to key people in the food world and you’ll find no one filing their nails in anticipation of the Lukins release, as they did with Rosso’s book. Lukins, who is 51, suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage in 1991 and, according to Pat Adrian, who buys books for the Book of the Month Club, the “Food Mafia” rushed to be loyal to her. “A lot of people were jealous of both women for a long time,” says Adrian. “(Blasting Rosso’s book) should have been a great chatty lunch at La Cirque rather than (the media event) it ended up being. After all, it’s just a cookbook. It’s not going to change the world.”

The food world has changed dramatically, though, in the 30 years since Julia Child first showed a generation of cooks how to make coq au vin . Before the gastronomic revolution, Americans cared more about convenience than quality. Cookbooks were for newlyweds--the red-and-white checkered “Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook” or, for those reaching for a higher shelf, “The Joy of Cooking.” Canned cream of mushroom soup was a staple and tuna casserole an achievement.

In the late ‘60s and into the ‘70s and ‘80s, the newly affluent and globally mobile rediscovered the cuisines of Europe and the Far East. Sensitive palates rejected Tang, Velveeta and Baco-Bits. Suddenly, they wanted osso buco , not beef stew, and mee krob instead of macaroni. Egged on by foreign chefs who opened restaurants and cooking schools in America, the baby boomers tried such esoterica as foie gras- stuffed duck hearts and lamb fillet with kiwi sauce.

The Silver Palate books made this aesthetic accessible to home cooks around the country by reinterpreting--some say watering down--the revolution with friendly, easy-to-use recipes. Finally, as the ‘80s came to an end, the pendulum swang away from haute cuisine toward simpler, less expensive regional and ethnic cooking.

Now, Lukins is hoping mainstream America is ready for Peloponnesian lamb shanks and Moroccan marmalade, but she’s not sure. Her publisher thinks so--it has announced a first printing of 350,000, believed to be a record for a cookbook. “A huge amount of my pride is involved in this book,” says Lukins. “I just didn’t want this book to be another clone (of the others). Those books are great, fun, and fine but they are what they are. I wanted to do something different.”

Yet, the book is unmistakably in the Silver Palate format, down to the little drawings (although Lukins wasn’t the illustrator on this book, as she was on the others) and boxed sidebars. Even the ethnic-inspired recipes are reinterpreted for the American kitchen, in Silver Palate fashion. There are very few ingredients called for in the book that aren’t readily available in Omaha.

But then Lukins did not intend to go around the world and bring back the strictly authentic recipes of each country. Instead, she took the best of what she found and created food. “I don’t know what it’s called,” she says, “I guess it’s Sheila’s cooking. I didn’t go looking for chefs’ recipes or into people’s homes to cook. Paula Wolfert does that and I would never try to rival her.”

One thing she is secure about: The recipes work. “Every cookbook has a couple of mistakes, you just can’t help it,” she admits. “But you can’t forgive an entire book that doesn’t work. What’s the point of having cookbooks?”

In other words, she’s confident of her cooking ability. But she didn’t start out that way. Lukins was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Connecticut. She attended high school in Westport, a.k.a Martha Stewart-land.

“I was there before she was,” says Lukins.

By the time she was well into her 20s, Lukins was married and had a degree in art education from New York University. Her first job out of college was inking patterns for McCalls. The only cooking she did was to throw something together at the end of a long, tedious day.

That changed when her husband, Richard, who ran a security business, was transferred to England. A bored housewife, Lukins enrolled in cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu to occupy her time. The following year, Richard was transferred to Paris, and Lukins signed up for more classes. “That’s the way to learn,” she says. “In Paris I took cooking lessons and French lessons during the day and then cooked for my darling husband at night.”

Back in New York and raising two daughters in the Dakota Apartments (John Lennon’s last address), a bachelor in the building called one night in a panic. He had invited a group over for dinner and the superintendent’s wife, who usually cooked for him when he had guests, was on vacation.

“I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll cook you dinner,’ ” Lukins remembers. “So as was the fashion in the mid-’60s, I cooked moussaka, a Greek salad, some stuffed grape leaves and sent it over. I charged him $50 plus the cost of the food. He ended up with a great dinner and I wound up with $50.”

She also wound up with a new career. One of the guests at the bachelor’s dinner party was Gael Greene, restaurant critic for New York magazine. Greene loved the party food and mentioned it to her friend, Joan Kron, who immediately called Ellen Stern, who at the time wrote the “Best Bets” column for the magazine.

“It was New York telephone at its best,” says Lukins now. “Ellen Stern ran a half-page picture of me and my kitchen with a headline: ‘Eat, Drink and Be Murray.’ ” The article portrayed Lukins as a bachelor’s best cook. “I got 200 calls from single men,” she says. Six months later, the Other Woman Catering Co. was born. A year later, Lukins teamed up with Julee Rosso to open the Silver Palate. The two met when Rosso, an advertising executive for Burlington, hired Lukins to cater a press breakfast introducing Oleg Cassini sheets.

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It’s April, “Sheila Lukins Around the World Cookbook” is about to hit the stores and Lukins’ mood has lifted considerably. She’s almost giddy. Vanity Fair, a magazine known more for its profiles of Roseanne Arnold, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, has just printed a flattering article on her. She even cracks a few jokes at her own expense. Doing research for the book, she persuaded the curator at the Carmen Miranda Museum in Rio de Janeiro to open one of the glass showcases so her husband could take a picture of her posing with a life-like mannequin of her longtime idol. She sent the snapshot, along with several other photos, to illustrate her book. But the publishers rejected it because Lukins had pulled up her T-shirt and revealed her bellybutton.

She’s proud of her figure, and why not? She’s taken off almost 30 pounds (going from a size 12 to a size 8), partly from the stress of traveling to 33 countries in two years. The water in Russia made her sick. Bad shrimp in Bangkok gave her food poisoning. While she was in South America, there was a cholera epidemic. Terrorists bombed Bombay during her visit there. To get to Cuba, she had to fly in a pre-World War II prop plane via Jamaica. And she missed out on the best food in Russia when Gorbachev was ousted just as she was headed to Georgia.

Actress-turned-infomercial host Victoria Principal is also partly responsible for Lukins’ weight loss. “I remember someone coming into the Silver Palate kitchen one morning and telling us that Victoria Principal said she never , never , never ate cheese,” says Lukins. “We laughed, but since then I’ve never , never , never eaten cheese” (though cheese does show up in her cookbooks). She’s cooking healthier too. She has practically eliminated red meat and dairy products from her diet, eating mainly fresh fruits and vegetables, pastas and grains, fish and chicken. She keeps five bottles of olive oil and three kinds of vinegar near her stove. “What do I need butter for?” she says.

Does this mean her next project might be a book on low-fat cooking? Like the one her former partner did?

“Oh please,” she says. “I don’t know what’s the big deal about low-fat books. They make me sick.”

Still, health is a big concern now for Lukins. Her life almost ended in 1991 when a blood vessel in her brain burst without warning. It took two operations and weeks of therapy before she was able to leave a wheelchair. “I’m happy not to be dead,” she says. She hasn’t driven since the hemorrhage and takes anti-seizure medication to control tremors that occasionally occur in her left hand. “There was a time I was crying plenty, but I have had quadrillion hours of therapy,” she says. “I’m OK now.”

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One week later Lukins’ book comes out and it’s already received its first review. Cook’s Illustrated tested 30 recipes from the 450 in the book. Its verdict: “We were underwhelmed.” Plus, the reviewer brought up the Rosso book in the first paragraph. Afterward Lukins is subdued and never mentions the story. But she wonders aloud if her name will be linked with Rosso’s forever. “Will anyone ever write a story about me without mentioning her ?” she asks.

“I know everyone will compare the two books,” says Nach Waxman, owner of Kitchen Arts and Letters bookstore, gossip central to the New York food world. “The Julee business will do no good for Sheila’s book. Well, Simon and Garfunkel made it--separately. Of course, all everyone has wanted to do since is put them back together again.”

Lukins has been around a long time, though, and she’s philosophical about the world of cookbook publishing. “When you put yourself before the public and say, ‘this is my work, here it is,’ ” she says, “I think they look hard.”

With her book in the stores and more reviews to come, Lukins can only wait and see what the consensus on her solo project will be. And maybe, a few books from now, her work will be reviewed without the mentions of her past life as half of a famous “foodie couple.” For now, she is content in the knowledge that she has done the best book she could . . . on her own.

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When Lukins was asked to name her favorite recipe in the book, without hesitating she answered, “Peloponnesian lamb shanks.” She recommends serving them with orzo or a vegetable couscous. The fresh mint stirred in just before serving adds not only color but great flavor.

SPICED PELOPONNESIAN LAMB SHANKS

4 (1-pound) lamb shanks

1 teaspoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, cut in half lengthwise and slivered

1 cup beef broth

1 cup dry red wine

2 tablespoons honey

4 large cloves garlic, lightly bruised

2 (3-inch-long) cinnamon sticks

4 fresh sage leaves

Dash ground cloves

1 cup seeded and coarsely chopped ripe plum tomatoes

1 1/2 cups pitted prunes

1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves

Sprinkle lamb shanks with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in large heavy casserole over medium heat. Add shanks, 2 at time, and saute until well browned, about 8 minutes per side. Remove lamb and pour off fat.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to casserole and place over low heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes.

Return lamb shanks to casserole. Add beef broth, red wine, honey, garlic, cinnamon sticks, sage and cloves. Bring to boil. Cover casserole and bake at 350 degrees until meat is soft, about 1 hour.

Stir in chopped tomatoes and prunes and cook uncovered until both are blended into sauce, about 45 minutes longer. Before serving, stir in fresh mint. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

687 calories; 916 mg sodium; 118 mg cholesterol; 33 grams fat; 59 grams carbohydrates; 34 grams protein; 1.96 grams fiber.

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Lukins first came across the Indonesian version of chicken noodle soup in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan (Borneo), where cinnamon and cardamom are essential ingredients. This is her interpretation.

INDONESIAN CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

(Soto Banjar)

4 cups chicken broth

3 cups water

4 large flat-leaf parsley sprigs

2 fresh cilantro sprigs, roots and stems lightly crushed

1 whole chicken breast, rinsed well

3 medium waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/4 pound shallots

4 large cloves garlic

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 (3-inch-long) cinnamon stick

Coarse salt

Freshly ground pepper

2 cups cooked angel hair pasta

3 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1 lime, thinly sliced

Combine chicken broth, water, parsley and cilantro sprigs in medium-sized soup pot. Bring to boil. Add chicken breast. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until chicken is just cooked through, about 30 minutes. Do not boil. Remove chicken and let cool slightly. Shred meat from bones in 1 1/2x1/2-inch pieces, discarding skin and bones. Set aside covered.

Strain broth and return to pot. Add potatoes to broth.

Cut half shallots and half garlic lengthwise into very thin slices. Heat oil in medium-sized non-stick skillet over low heat. Add sliced shallots and garlic and cook stirring, until lightly golden and crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Reserve for garnish.

Finely mince remaining shallots, garlic and ginger together with cardamom. Add to skillet and cook uncovered, stirring over low heat until aromatic, 3 to 4 minutes. Add shallot mixture to broth along with cinnamon stick and salt and pepper to taste. Cook covered over medium heat until potatoes are tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove potatoes from broth with slotted spoon.

To assemble, lay out shallow soup or pasta bowls. Arrange chicken, pasta, eggs and potatoes in section in each bowl, to make 4 wedges.

Heat broth until piping hot. Adjust seasonings to taste. Discard cinnamon stick. Ladle broth into bowls. Sprinkle with fried shallots, fried garlic and cilantro. Float lime slice in center of each bowl. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

522 calories; 949 mg sodium; 204 mg cholesterol; 22 grams fat; 50 grams carbohydrates; 30 grams protein; 0.76 gram fiber.

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Baking the ribs first cooks off some of the fat so ribs will not scorch when finished on the grill. Be sure to make the jerk sauce at least an hour ahead so the flavors can meld before marinating.

JERK PORK RIBS

1 (3 pound) rack pork ribs, cut into 2- to 3-rib portions

2 cups Jamaican Jerk Sauce

Coat ribs with Jamaican Jerk Sauce, rubbing sauce in well. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350 degrees 45 minutes, occasionally turning and basting. Remove from oven and grill over medium hot coals until browned and cooked through, about 25 to 30 minutes, turning ribs 4 or 5 times and basting with Jamaican Jerk Sauce. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

622 calories; 1,720 mg sodium; 123 mg cholesterol; 51 grams fat; 11 grams carbohydrates; 30 grams protein; 0.35 gram fiber.

Jamaican Jerk Sauce

6 green onions, green parts only, thinly sliced

2 large shallots, finely minced

2 large cloves garlic, finely minced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced

1/3 Scotch bonnet or habanero chile, seeded and finely minced, or to taste

1 tablespoon ground Jamaican allspice

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

1 teaspoon coarse salt

1 tablespoon dark-brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

In bowl combine green onion tops, shallots, garlic, ginger and chile. Set aside.

In another bowl combine allspice, peppers, cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme, salt and brown sugar. Whisk in orange juice, vinegars and soy sauce. Slowly drizzle in oil, while whisking constantly. Add green onion mixture. Stir to combine. Makes 2/1/2 cups.

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In Turkey, the boreks weren’t filled with lamb, as Lukins expected, but rather bastirma, a cured beef covered in spices. When Lukins came back, she made her filo pies with pastrami, a cousin of bastirma.

PASTRAMI BOREKS

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 Italian frying peppers, stemmed, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch dice

1/2 pound pastrami, excess fat removed, cut into 1/4-inch dice

1/4 cup shallots, coarsely chopped

4 plum tomatoes, cored, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch dice

2 teaspoons dried oregano

Salt

Coarsely ground pepper

1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 cup clarified butter

1 pound filo dough

Heat oil in skillet over low heat. Add peppers and cook, stirring until tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Add pastrami and shallots and cook 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and oregano. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Stir in parsley and cool mixture to room temperature.

Clarify butter by melting over low heat in small sauce pan. As soon as melted, remove from heat and set aside about 5 minutes. Using spoon, carefully remove and discard foamy white butter fat that has risen to top. Spoon or pour off clear liquid and reserve. Discard solids that remain on bottom of pan.

Lay filo pastry sheets on clean dish towel. Keep covered with wax paper and dampened dish towel so filo does not dry out. Place 1 sheet of filo lengthwise on clean work surface. Using pastry brush, lightly cover surface with clarified butter. Cover with second sheet of filo and brush again with butter. Cut filo into 6 (3-inch-wide) strips.

Place 1 teaspoon of filling in center of each strip. Fold corner across filling, then continue to fold triangle, as if folding flag, to end of strip. Tuck ends under. Place triangles as you finish them on baking sheet. Brush with butter. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve hot. Makes 48 triangles.

Each serving contains about:

83 calories; 135 mg sodium; 15 mg cholesterol; 6 grams fat; 6 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0.06 gram fiber.

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Be sure to tuck in a little mint and cilantro when you wrap the spring rolls in lettuce leaves. The contrast of the coolness of the lettuce against the hot spring rolls is refreshing.

THAI CRAB SPRING ROLLS

3 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup peanut oil

1 cup green cabbage, finely shredded

1 cup snow peas, finely slivered

1/2 cup leeks or green onions, slivered

1/2 cup mung bean sprouts

Fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon minced, peeled fresh ginger

1/2 pound fresh crab meat, picked over for shell and cartilage

1 teaspoon Thai Fish Sauce

1 teaspoon soy sauce

Dash chile oil

1 tablespoon cornstarch

5 spring roll wrappers, 8 inches square

2 heads Boston lettuce, leaves separated, rinsed and patted dry

2 cups fresh mint leaves, plus few mint springs for garnish

3/4 cup Indonesian Soy Sauce

Heat 1 tablespoon peanut oil in large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add cabbage and saute 3 minutes, tossing constantly. Remove cabbage to bowl. Add 1/2 tablespoon oil to skillet. Add snow peas and saute 3 minutes. Add snow peas to cabbage. Vegetables should be tender-crisp. Add another 1 1/2 tablespoons oil to skillet. Add leeks, bean sprouts, 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, garlic and ginger. Saute 2 minutes. Stir in crab meat, fish sauce, soy sauce and chile oil. Add to cabbage and snow peas mixture. Toss well. Set aside.

In small bowl mix cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water.

Cut spring roll wrappers diagonally in half from point to point and then in half again so that there are 4 triangles from each wrapper. Place triangle on clean work surface. Place 1 tablespoon crab mixture in center, about 1 inch from edge. Fold ends of long side in toward center over filling. Brush opposite tip of wrapper with cornstarch mixture, then roll spring roll toward tip and press lightly to seal. Repeat process until all filling has been used.

Heat remaining 1/2 cup peanut oil in non-stick skillet over medium heat until hot. Fry spring rolls in small batches about 2 minutes per side, until golden. Drain on paper towels.

To serve, arrange lettuce leaves on side of large serving plate and hot spring rolls on other. Pile mint and 1/2 cup cilantro in center. Garnish with whole sprigs of mint and cilantro. Serve with Indonesian Soy Sauce for dipping. Makes about 20 spring rolls.

Each spring roll contains about:

101 calories; 76 mg sodium; 11 mg cholesterol; 8 grams fat; 5 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 0.35 gram fiber.

Thai Fish Sauce

1 (2-ounce) can anchovies, drained

2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed

1/2 teaspoon dark-brown sugar, packed

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups water

Place anchovies, garlic, brown sugar, salt and water in small saucepan. Simmer over medium-low heat 10 minutes without stirring.

Remove from heat, cool slightly, then strain through double layer of cheesecloth. Store covered in refrigerator up to 2 weeks. Makes about 3/4 cup.

Indonesian Soy Sauce

1/3 cup dark-brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoon light molasses

1 teaspoon finely minced, peeled fresh ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

Place brown sugar and 1/3 cup water in small saucepan and cook, stirring over low heat 1 minute to dissolve sugar. Increase heat to medium and cook at slow boil until mixture thickens slightly, about 2 minutes.

Reduce heat to low and stir in soy sauce, molasses, ginger, coriander and white pepper. Simmer about 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Sauce may be stored tightly covered in refrigerator up to 2 months.

* BOOK REVIEW: How well do Lukins’ recipes work? H10