THE BOOK OF RUTH

 

THE BOOK OF RUTH

By Ilona Saari

I love to eat.  Cooking?  Not so much.  But I do love to read cookbooks.  Well, not really “read” as I barely scan the recipes, it’s the pictures of food that tantalize my tongue… how that food is plated, the dishes used – you know, “food porn.”  Of course, I then show these pictures to my husband, who does love to cook, and ask him to work his culinary mojo.

I first met six-times James Beard Award winner Ruth Reichl (virtually) when my husband brought home “The Gourmet Cookbook,” her massive tome with the heft and weight of a family bible. The comparison is apt, since it became his cooking bible.  There are no pictures, but I’ve salivated over every meal he’s made from that book and took my own pictures.  In the past, I had often thought of writing about food, but I was a political satirist and wrote comedic essays and scripts for TV.  Food writers seemed to take their craft quite seriously… that is until I discovered the Book of Ruth.

My second virtual introduction to Ruth took place when my book group chose her 2001 memoir, “Comfort Me with Apples.”  I fell in love with her conversational writing flare that recounted how she became a food critic.  Her travel adventures that focused on the world’s cuisines were funny and informative.  I was so inspired by her stories that I started this food blog.  Ruth showed me that writing about food can be fun, often “tongue-in-cheek,” even tongue-in-cheeky.  I saw how it was possible to pen a mini-memoir about a home cooked meal or a restaurant dinner that made readers relate.  So, when I read that Ruth was going to do a book signing at a luncheon at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa’s Farmhouse, I begged and pleaded with my publisher/editor (strategic tears in my eyes) that the Ojai Quarterly send me to cover the event.  OK, no tears (poetic license), but he agreed.  That was all that mattered.

The Farmhouse is a twenty-million dollar food event venue with a huge barn-like structure that houses a large “open to the room” working kitchen and space for many tables, plus lovely grounds that can host all sorts of parties, from weddings to masked balls (that is, if anyone still does masked balls). 

Inside the barn, folks were mingling while sipping fine wine and nibbling on pink deviled eggs, buckwheat blinis with salmon roe, and tomato gazpacho passed on trays by Farmhouse servers.

 

 Internationally known chef and author Nancy Silverton, an old acquaintance of mine from my LA days, is one of the Farmhouse’s culinary ambassadors, so I was excited to see her at the luncheon to introduce her old friend, Ruth, and to mingle with the guests. 

Nancy with my publisher/editor Bret Bradigan

 Nancy & Ruth

Ruth briefly talked about her time at Gourmet Magazine and why writing “Save Me The Plums” about that era of her life, was important to her… how the publisher, Conde Nast supported her vision and never micro-managed, giving her carte blanche to push the food magazine envelope… a freedom given an editor that few, if any, publisher allows today.  She rewarded that trust by straddling the fence, continuing to give old subscribers what they wanted while bringing a new approach to the magazine that would garner new subscribers.  It was also important to her that this new book clearly demonstrate that women can be mothers while having a challenging career.

 During the Q&A after her brief talk, Ruth was asked… “If given the choice, what would be your last meal?”

 

“A meal that never ends,” she replied with a smile.

 

 

 We then started our family-style meal.  Bowls and plates of hummus, a Moroccan salad, broccoli rabe bruschetta, and borscht salad almost magically appeared on the table, along with bottles of 2017 Dampt “Cote de Lechet” Chablis Premier Cru.

 

 

 

While I wandered through the barn taking pictures, serving plates with new dishes arrived, filled with Pollo alla Diavola (Devil’s Chicken an intensely seasoned burst of flavor), grilled sea bass with salsa verde, spicy Tuscan kale, and corn pudding.  Bottles of 2017 Domaine Marc Roy Gevrey-Chambertin Pinot Noir also arrived. But, by the time I returned to my table, the sea bass was gone. I made up for it by having two helpings of the Devil’s Chicken. 

 

 

Of course, no luncheon is complete without dessert and we had two choices, luscious strawberry shortcake or a totally tarty “tart lemon tart.”

 

It was time for the book signing.  I wanted to tell Ruth how much she has meant to me as a food writer.  How she influenced my approach to food writing.  How she makes me laugh (and hungry) when I read her books, but the book line was too long, so I just said that I was a fan and thanked her for coming to Ojai.

 

As the holiday season is upon us, I had planned to leave you with a favorite Ruth Reichl holiday recipe from The Gourmet Cookbook, but as I was reading “Save Me The Plums,” what could be more perfect than her Thanksgiving turkey chili, a dish she and her staff made as a thank you for rescue workers at Ground Zero?

 

 

Ruth Reichl’s Thanksgiving Turkey Chili recipe:

 

Ingredients:

 

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

3 canned whole chipotle chilies in adobo

1 bottle dark beer

2 pounds tomatillos (husked, rinsed & quartered)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 large onions, chopped

½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

2 teaspoons fresh oregano, finely minced

2 jalapenos, diced (if you don’t like heat

   remove the seeds)

3-1/2 pounds ground turkey

1-1/2 cups chicken broth

8 large cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole

Salt

1 bay leaf

2 cups cooked white beans

1 4-ounce can diced green chili peppers

Cream sherry

Balsamic vinegar

Sour cream

 

 

Directions:

 

1.      Toast the cumin seeds in a dry skillet until they’re fragrant.  Allow to cool, then grind to powder.

2.      Puree the chipotle chilies with the adobo.

3.      Put the beer into a medium-sized pot, add the tomatillos, bring to a boil, and turn the heat down to a simmer.  Cook for about 5 minutes, until the tomatillos are soft.  Strain the tomatillos (reserving liquid) and puree in a blender or food processor.  Pour back into the pot with the beer.

4.      Slick the bottom of a large casserole with a couple of tablespoons of oil, and sauté the onions until they’re translucent.  Add the cilantro, oregano, jalapenos and cumin and stir for a couple of minutes.  Break the turkey into the mixture and stir until it just starts to lose its raw color.  Add the pureed tomatillos and beer, the chipotle puree, the chicken broth, and the garlic, along with a couple of teaspoons of salt and the bay leaf, and simmer the mixture for about an hour and a half.

5.      With a large spoon, smash the now-soft cloves of garlic and stir them into the chili.  Add the white beans and diced chili peppers and taste for salt.  At this point I like to start playing with the flavors, adding a few splashes of cream sherry, a bit of balsamic vinegar, or perhaps some soy sauce or fish sauce.  Heat for another 10 minutes.

6.      Serve with sour cream.

Serves 8

JUDITH BOHANNON - My Forever Friend

 

JUDITH BOHANNON

My Forever Friend

She Did It Her Way

 

Richard and I were blessed to be invited to the beautiful life celebration for Judy at the Harmony-Gold Studios theater, hosted by the Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she taught theater, acting and directing to students for decades.  Hundreds of former students and colleagues, friends and family gathered to honor her extraordinary life and work…  Tears flowed as a video portrait played on screen, emotional tributes were given and former students acted in scenes of plays she had directed. 

I met Judy in 1973 on the set of the television pilot movie, “Nightside” starring John Cassavetes, Alexis Smith, written by the legendary columnist, Pete Hamill and directed by Richard Donner.  Judy was an actor’s actor. I wasn’t.  I wasn’t even an actor, period.  At the time, I was working as an ‘agent in training’ for the then theatrical agency, International Famous Agency (IFA) which morphed years later to ICM Partners.  After wrangling an early payment for the producer, Bert Leonard, from the network, he asked me if I’d be interested in being an extra in the show as a thank you. Thinking it would be a fun way to spend a few hours, I jumped at the chance.  Who wouldn’t want to be in a scene with Cassavetes?

The ”call” for the extras was at the crack of dawn, literally, on a below freezing February morning.  The shoot was in the Landmark, an 1848 bar and grill in Manhattan at the time being remodeled for the 20^th Century and covered in a huge blackout tent so that the interior would give the illusion it was night (hence the title “Nightside”). We were ushered into the tavern and placed around the interior.  Judy (then Judy Fields), Morgan Fairchild (then using her real name, Patsy) who were just starting out, had both been hired as extras for the day, and the three of us were placed right in front of the bar.  The assistant director liked our “hip, single girl look” and wanted us in the foreground.  We were given glasses filled with colored liquid to resemble cocktails and told to just talk amongst ourselves as the scene was being shot.  We did.  But, as I mentioned, it was a below freezing day and there was no heat as yet in the tavern. Consequently, you could see our breath when we talked.  We figured out a way that the camera wouldn’t pick up on that and spent the next fifteen hours talking to each other and trying not to shiver.  Yes, fifteen hours!  In below freezing temperatures!  With no coats! Cassavetes wanted all the extras to look like we were just patrons in a cool bar, enjoying friends and drinks. During our lunch and dinner breaks, we huddled together in our winter coats as we continued to talk and eat our boxed catered meals.

Why fifteen hours?  The night before Cassavetes had the producer fire Donner and took over as director.  And his vision was a meticulous one.  At the end of this five-minute scene, the huge gilt mirror hanging over the bar was to crash to the ground.  I don’t remember why, but the lead up to the crash was endless, since Cassavetes couldn’t crash the mirror ‘til he liked what he shot.  Alexis Smith, the “owner of the bar,” was a trouper.  So were Judy, Patsy and I.  It’s John Cassavetes after all!   We three learned a great deal about each other in those frigid hours and I came down with bronchial pneumonia.  After the two-hour pilot was “in the can,” it aired as movie-made-for-television, but was never picked-up as a series.  Welcome to television.

Both girls (and we were girls, just in our twenties) were also pursuing commercial work, as well as soap work, so I was able to get them meetings with the head of IFA’s commercial department and both became clients of the agency.  I lost contact with Patsy soon after, but Judy and I became friends for life.  She called me one of her "Leo girls" as two of her best friends were also Leos.

I loved the circus. Went every year growing up and even ran away to Ringling Bros. when it was at Madison Square Garden at age 11, so when Phillipe Pettit moved to Manhattan and (Judy’s former boyfriend when she had lived in Paris, if I'm remembering correctly), they reconnected and we practically lived at the circus when it was in NYC after Phillipe became the star of the Red Circus (or was it Blue - Ringling Bros. had two circuses which traveled the country).  We were in our late twenties, single and free. And I loved going with her to see all the glitter and to watch Phillipe perform - afterwards, he often took us out to Maxwell’s Plum, his favorite eatery/bar in Manhattan and we'd drink (well, Judy rarely drank anything but coke or a glass of champagne), eat, talk and laugh a lot. It was after she had moved to LA and Phillipe was living in her apartment in Chelsea that he wire-walked between the World Trade Center skyscrapers – at the time the tallest buildings in the world. I was in LA to celebrate my 30^th birthday and was staying with Judy that day.  We knew he was going to do it if the wind wasn't too bad. It was, but he decided to do it anyway and we waited, holding our breath, until friends called to say he made it (pre-internet days).

Phillipe finally left the circus, but Judy didn't stop going ‘til years later as she met a European circus teeterboard performer and they became involved. Again, I would often go to the performances with her. It was a magical time.

But, before Judy moved to LA, she introduced me to Tom Groenfeldt, who also became a lifelong friend.  At the time he was a reporter for the Bergen Record in New Jersey, and an amazing photographer who took many of Judy’s headshots, “fashion” and “action” shots for her portfolio.  He also took many pictures of me with Judy and me alone.  Judy and I called us the Three Musketeers.  Tom became our personal photographer/documentarian.  He even took my wedding pictures when Richard and I married years later.  Two of Tom’s amazing shots of Judy that were included in the memorial pictorial film of her life were taken by him when the three of us went on a mini-vacation to my mom’s home in Connecticut and the lake nearby.  Judy in my pink and blue Betsy Johnson maxi elephant tee shirt dress and Judy in her bikini stretched out on the lake dock.

Two more Tom photos -- Judy looking gorgeous washing her hair in the lake and the two of us at a Fifth Avenue street fair in Manhattan... 

 

 

Baron, her beautiful Irish setter, watched over the three of us.  He and I even bonded even though I’m a bit afraid of big dogs.  One picture Tom took of Baron and me shows how close I became with him that still surprises many of my friends.  I loved him.

 Judy embraced Richard with open arms when he came into my life in 1978 and hosted an engagement party for us in her cozy garden apartment in Chelsea after we finally made up our minds to get married after five years living together.  She made her beef stroganoff for the forty or so people who happily crowded in.  She even invited my mom who came down from Connecticut. While she was still in NY, I often picked out clothes for her auditions and cut her hair and then cut her hair again at times after we moved to LA for Richard’s and my television careers.

We spent years supporting each other - laughing and crying together - dining with each other, going to movies, theater and just hanging out – it was an “in sickness and in health” forever friendship.  She was an incredible actor and I managed her for a few years, introduced her to various producers I knew from my years at IFA when she first hit Los Angeles.  She directed one of Richard’s plays at the Colony Theater starring her dear friend, Art Tedesco, and supported Richard’s work always.  She loved the way he writes and went to his readings and helped cast them with actor friends she thought would do justice to his characters.

We, of course, never missed her fabulous Christmas parties, and she only missed ours when she was in Kentucky.  She never missed, however, our big Oscar parties or birthday parties.  And often came to dinner – just the three of us.   She tried to get me to audition for commercials to no avail, but loved it when I was on-camera as a guest designer for HGTV.  She supported and loved the mystery books I wrote even though it wasn’t a favorite genre. 

When we moved to Ojai ten years ago, we didn’t get to see each other very often and I’m forever sad that I didn’t visit her in her new home.  She’d visit us when she was nearby at a dog show and came up for big parties we hosted here.  As she became more ill, she would tell me over the phone or via email that all was going well.  She protected me from the pain she was in and I love her for that, but am so sorry I wasn’t there for her when she needed me.  The last time we talked just after her 78^th birthday and just before mine (we were only a month apart in age) she excitedly told me about her trip to Europe, the plans she made and the places she was going to.  She lived life to its fullest until the end and she did it her way.

I love you Judy Bohannon and will miss you always.

 

 

MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK - Bangers & Mash

 

MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!

It’s that time of year.  Foliage and football.  Cold, crisp air that visualizes your breath (well, on those fall/winter days when it’s not 100 degrees in Ojai).  Soup and stew weather.  Carved pumpkins and pumpkin pie.  And, how can we forget bangers & mash?  Huh?

This time of year, I often flashback to a trip to London just before Thanksgiving.  Being a 60’s kid, that’s not all I flashback to, but I digress.  It was cold and damp in London (or is that redundant?) and, after spending a day shopping on Portobello Road, I needed to warm up, so I wandered into a pub (a genuine British pub – not today’s trendy gastro pub, but a “pub grub” pub).  Sitting by a roaring fire, sipping ale, a waitress whizzed by carrying a plate covered with appetizing sausages, a huge mound of fluffy mashed potatoes and something green. When she came for my order, I pointed to a woman now ravishing those sausages and said, “I’ll have what she’s having.”  Soon, I, too, was savoring sausages that tasted like nothing I’d ever had before.  They certainly weren’t Jimmy Dean’s… or wieners or knockwurst or bratwurst, oh my.  So, being a fledgling foodie at the time, I asked my waitress, who cheerfully answered: “Bangers!” OK.  New to me.  But, ever the diligent researcher, I soon discovered that the term bangers goes back as early as WWI, when meat shortages forced folks to use more water than meat as filler when making sausages.  This made them pop when heated, thus, “Bang.”  Traditionally they are served with mashed potatoes, onion gravy, fried onions and peas (the something green). I feel ever so British when I have them, eh wot?

The dish has become my cold weather comfort food, but where does one find bangers in California’s sunny Ojai valley?  Westridge ho, the wagons!!!  Well, in my case, my hybrid SUV.  And, lo and behold, right there in the midtown store among the display of freshly made sausages in the meat section, ready to be tossed into a pan and live up to their name… bangers!  Timing is everything as Max Badger, the market’s young sausage maker, told me.  He rotates the sausages he makes each day, but did assure me he’d make bangers to order.  His entire sausage display is very impressive.  Among the choices that day: traditional Italian sausages, pork or chicken with garlic & basil, Bratwurst made with Guiness stout, Andouille Cajun and, during the holidays, Max told me, he’ll create some French apple, cranberry sausages.  Stuffing, anyone?

Of course I bought his bangers as fast as he made them for me.

Bangers & mash for dinner.  I never have to leave Ojai. Good thing I belong to a gym!

I'm sure y'all have a Westridge market with a creative butcher in your own town.  So, as colorful foliage appears and the cool autumn air smells, well, like autumn air, enjoy a perfect bangers and mash dinner.

 

  BANGERS AND GRAVY

2-4 Banger Sausages

Olive oil for sauteing
1 cup white onions, chopped
Sherry to deglaze
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup low salt Chicken broth (or Chicken stock)
1/2 cup whole milk

Flour for thickening

Heat a large skillet. When hot, add the Olive oil and swirl. Add the bangers and cook through on all sides until done – about 10-15 minutes. Remove them to a plate and place a loose, aluminum foil tent over them. With the pan still hot, add the onions and cook them until browned, occasionally deglazing with a little sherry. When the onions are almost done, add the garlic and continue to cook for 1 minute. Add the Chicken broth (or stock), milk, and combine well. Sprinkle in small amounts of flour, until the gravy thickens. If it gets too thick, thin with more milk or chicken stock.