Browsing the Cookbook Collection: Selections from Three

THE QUESTION OF BOUILLABAISSE: R.W. Apple Jr. was a legendary international correspondent for The New York Times, and he was fond of food. So he wrote a book, "Far Flung and Well Fed," published in 2009, in which are collected his stories taking us on a tour of many of the restaurants he visited. Stops include the fancy and the back alley eateries of North and South America, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Europe, and Asia and Australia. Much attention is devoted to bouillabaisse, to which Apple affords a full chapter including a recipe. He comments: "Controversy clings to bouillabaisse like barnacles to a ship. Is it a soup? Perhaps not, because the broth and the solids are eaten separately. Is it a stew? Perhaps not, because a stew by definition is cooked very slowly, and bouillabaisse must be boiled furiously to achieve an amalgamation of olive oil with water and wine. It is best described as a fish boil ..."

   Here is Apple's recipe.

PINEAPPLE BEEF STEW? Although Grandma was a stickler for convention, I think she might have tried this one. I found it in a 1985 cookbook put together by the PTA of Mabel Rush elementary school in Newberg OR. It is an interesting recipe that is both basic and unique, including brown sugar and pineapple chunks, no potatoes. It calls for a cup each of carrots, onion and tomato sauce. A pound and half of stew meat browned in cooking oil. A quarter cup of vinegar, same of brown sugar, 4t cornstarch added to 1/2 cup water. One tablespoon Worcestershire. After all has thickened add 20 oz. can of pineapple, heat through and serve.

A FAMOUS OYSTER STEW: What America Eats by Clementine Paddleford is a classic cookbook from the 1960s that starts in New England and traverses the whole country, region by region, offering anecdotes along the way as well as local recipes. She spent 12 years compiling the book.

   One of Paddleford’s stops that I found interesting was the Grand Central Station Oyster Bar in New York City, responsible for the consumption of some 25,000 oysters per day in season. Near as popular as oysters on the half shell, Paddleford says, was the stew. She modifies a recipe for home consumption:

   Oyster Stew:

   28 oysters, 6T butter, 2t Worcestershire sauce, ½ t celery salt, ½ t paprika, 1 cup oyster liquor, 1 cup milk, 1 cup light cream, salt to taste. Pick over the oysters for shell bits, melt 4T butter in a saucepan, add Worcestershire, celery salt and paprika, then oysters, bring to a simmer, add liquor, bring to a boil, add milk and cream, give a few stirs, return almost to boil, put in bowls, add a dot of butter.