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FOOD FOR THOUGHT By
Wanda A. Adams
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| • | Prepping is key for a successful campfire cookout |
The other night, I and some friends gave a 90th birthday party for my friend Harriet.
I've enjoyed so many great meals at Harriet's house, and I love cooking with her. It's not everyone who can share a kitchen happily, but we're like sisters when we're cooking, moving smoothly around each other in a kind of culinary ballet.
Once, I went to Seattle and brought back a huge box of seafood from the Pike Place Market, and we gave an all-seafood dinner.
And there was the time that Harriet labored alongside me all day as we prepared a Passover seder for another friend, Hildreth, an elderly widow who had expressed the wish to experience a seder again. The events of that evening, full of tradition and good food and laughter, enriched Hildreth's life at a time when she didn't have much to cheer her.
There have been so many evenings outside on the lanai of Harriet's house, eating and laughing and talking politics and eating some more. Harriet, who grew up in the Midwest and is a great meat-and-potatoes girl, has a magical way with flank steak, broiling it and serving it with good sourdough bread and sweet butter and red wine. Sounds simple, but when I do it, it's just not as good.
Our favorite of Harriet's dishes is the one we call "Harriet's Potatoes," a recipe from Food & Wine magazine so simple it's silly, but it has taken me a long time to learn to make it as well as Harriet does.
These decadent, special-occasion-only scalloped potatoes are made with Boursin cheese (try Safeway). The trick is using the right kind of potatoes ("new" potatoes, not Russets) and slicing them very thinly (a mandoline or food processor is necessary).
HARRIET'S POTATOES
Lightly butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and arrange a layer of potatoes in it, overlapping slices neatly in rows. In a saucepan, combine cream and cheese and melt over very low heat, whisking to combine. Pour half the mixture over potatoes and top with salt and pepper and chopped parsley. Make another layer of potatoes and pour remaining cream-cheese mixture over. Top with more salt and pepper and minced parsley. Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour, until potatoes are tender and liquid is absorbed; top should be lightly browned.
Makes 8 servings.
Send recipes and queries to Wanda A. Adams, Food Editor, Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Fax: 525-8055. E-mail: wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.
For more information about our 150th anniversary cookbook, call 535-8189 (message phone; your call will be returned). You can order the cookbook online.
