The sad times—those soups and casseroles, but also the platters of little sandwiches, the anchovy paste on cardboard. People, preoccupied with the business of grief, eat a triangle or two, then drift back together, gather about those stricken. I sometimes think those aluminum trays of sandwiches float from one living room, funeral home, or church hall to another across the country, the crustless bread always white and slightly stale.
Another tray holds slices of cake; there’s always a coffee urn. We don’t really remember the food, but we know it was there. Remember the urgings:
“You have to keep your strength up. Try some soup. Mrs.—fill in any name—made it.” Good times and bad times. We reach for and provide sustenance—the abundance of food, the offerings of our hearts common to both.
EXCERPTS FROM
HAVE FAITH
IN YOUR KITCHEN
BY Faith Sibley Fairchild
A WORK IN PROGRESS
AVOCADO BISQUE
1 ripe avocado
1⁄2 teaspoon curry powder
2 cups chicken broth
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 cup heavy cream
freshly ground pepper
1⁄2 cup light cream
2 tablespoons white rum
(preferably Mount Gay)
Peel the avocado and remove the pit. Cut the pulp in several pieces and place in a blender container with the chicken broth (cold), creams, rum, curry powder, salt, and a pinch of pepper. Blend until smooth. May be made ahead and kept refrigerated. Serves four. This recipe may be doubled.
The soup is a lovely color and Faith serves it in well-chilled bouillon cups with a spiderweb garnish of slightly thinned sour cream, or thinned crème fraîche. Use a pastry tube to pipe two or three concentric circles on top of the soup, then take a sharp knife and pull it through the circles, first toward the center, then the next away from the center. A bright nasturtium in the middle adds a nice, elegant Martha Stewartish touch. Nasturtiums are edible. Avoid foxglove and the like.
CHICKEN LIVER AND
MUSHROOM PTÉ
1⁄2 pound chicken livers
1 tablespoon port
1⁄2 cup unsalted butter
1⁄8 teaspoon ground
1 medium yellow onion,
nutmeg
chopped salt
1 clove garlic, minced
freshly ground pepper
4 ounces mushrooms,
clarified butter (optional)
chopped
After cutting any gristle from the livers, heat six tablespoons of the butter in a pan large enough for all the livers and cook them quickly, approximately three minutes on a side. Remove the livers with a slotted spoon and place in the bowl of a food processor or in a blender container.
Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook until soft. Add the mushrooms and cook the mixture for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add to the livers.
Melt the rest of the butter in the pan and stir in the port. Add to the liver mixture. Process until smooth.
Add the nutmeg, then salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the pâté into a small crock. Cover it with a thin layer of clarified butter if you wish to keep it for more than two days. Refrigerate when cool. Makes about 11⁄ 4 cups.
This recipe doubles well and should be made a day ahead. It is a wonderfully rich, versatile pâté and works as well on thin toast for a dinner party as slathered on baguettes for a picnic.
POLENTA WITH GORGONZOLA
3 cups cold water
1 tablespoon unsalted
1 cup yellow cornmeal
butter
(called polenta in Italian pinch of salt specialty stores)
pinch of freshly ground
1⁄4 pound Gorgonzola
pepper
cheese
Bring the water to a boil in a heavy saucepan or Le Creuset–type casserole. Add the cornmeal, preferably stone-ground, in a steady stream, stirring constantly.
Keep stirring for approximately five minutes as the polenta thickens. Faith uses a wooden spoon. Add the cheese and butter, stirring until they are melted, about one more minute, then add the salt and pepper.
Serve immediately or keep warm in the top of a double boiler, stirring occasionally. Serves six as a side dish.
Polenta is great. It can accompany a main dish fresh from the pot. It can also be spread out in a pie plate or eight-inch-square Pyrex pan to cool, then cut into wedges or squares. These can be served with sauce or they may be fried in olive oil. Both are also delicious covered with roasted vegetables.
Many brands of instant polenta are excellent. Follow the directions on the box and, again, add the butter and cheese at the last minute. Be sure the Gorgonzola is ripe, but not overripe. If too ripe, it will give the polenta a slightly acidic taste.
MINI ZUCCHINI FRITTERS
1 jumbo egg
pinch freshly ground
11⁄4 cups milk
pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted
11⁄2 cups finely grated
butter, melted
zucchini
1 cup flour, sifted
1 shallot, minced
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons unsalted
butter
Beat the egg, milk, and melted butter together and add to the flour, salt, and pepper. Mix until smooth but do not overbeat.
Put the zucchini in a piece of cheesecloth or a clean dish towel and squeeze the excess liquid out. Sauté with the shallot in the two teaspoons of butter until soft, about three to five minutes.
Add the zucchini mixture to the batter and drop the batter onto a well-greased, hot griddle in rounds, approximately two and a half inches in diameter. Turn when golden brown. Makes thirty-six fritters.
Straight from the griddle, these are a nice accompaniment to a main course, fanned on the plate with grilled meat or fish. For Faith’s wedding hors d’oeuvres, spread the room-temperature fritters with salsa topped with a dollop of sour cream, or smoked salmon, sour cream, and a twist of coriander or dill.
The combinations are limitless, though, and these fritters may be made ahead and frozen.
OATMEAL CHOCOLATE GOODIES
1⁄
1
2 cup milk
⁄2 cup unsalted butter
1⁄2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons cocoa
1⁄2 cup peanut butter
powder
3 cups oatmeal
Bring the milk to a boil and add the sugar, cocoa, and butter. Stir until the butter melts. Turn the heat down and cook for one and a half minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla and peanut butter. Stir and add the oatmeal. Mix well.
Drop teaspoons of the mixture onto a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Refrigerate until firm. Makes four dozen cookies. Store in a tin, the layers separated by waxed paper, in the refrigerator or in a cool place.
Small children, and other free spirits, enjoy mixing the oatmeal and dropping the mixture onto the wax paper with their hands.
LIZZIE’S SOUR CREAM BROWNIES
1⁄2 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ounce (1 square)
1⁄2 cup flour, sifted
unsweetened chocolate pinch salt 1 ounce (1 square)
1⁄4 cup sour cream
semisweet chocolate
2⁄3 cup chopped walnuts
2 eggs
(optional)
1 cup sugar
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and lightly flour an eight-inch-square pan. Melt the butter and chocolate in the top of a double boiler. Cool to room temperature.
Beat the eggs and sugar together until they form a lemony ribbon. Add the vanilla. Fold the chocolate and butter into the egg mixture. Then fold in the flour, salt, and sour cream. Add the nuts if using.
Bake for thirty minutes in the middle of the oven.
Do not overcook. Let cool
for thirty minutes before cutting. Cooking at 325°F will give you very moist brownies, which Faith likes to do sometimes.
This is a very rich, dense brownie, similar in texture to flourless chocolate cake. It’s sinfully good with ice cream on top. Makes sixteen good-sized brownies. You can’t double the recipe; you have to do it in two batches.
Note on the Recipes:
As with all of Faith’s recipes, heartwise substitutions can be made—Egg Beaters, margarine, low-fat milk and low-fat sour cream, for example. Also, the rum and port may be eliminated or nonalcoholic rum and sherry flavorings used.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Elizabeth Samenfeld-Specht for her cookie and brownie recipes; Dr. Robert DeMartino for his medical advice; my agent, Faith Hamlin, for her years of support; and my editor, Zachary Schisgal, for his regard for language—and plot.
Our home was burglarized in 1995, cleaned out in much the same way as Faith’s. Friends and family provided loving gestures—none more than my husband, Alan, and son, Nicholas.
About the Author
KATHERINE HALL PAGE is the author of thirteen previous Faith Fairchild mysteries. Her first book in the series, The Body in the Belfry, received the Agatha Award for best first mystery novel. She also won an Agatha Award for her short story “The Would Be Widower,” and The Body in the Lighthouse was nominated for a Mary Higgins Clark Award. She lives with her husband and son in Massachusetts. You can visit her website at www.katherinehallpage.com.
Praise for Agatha Award-winner KATHERINE HALL PAGE
and
THE BODY IN THE BOOKCASE
“A best bet.”
Portland Oregonian
“Peopled with entertaining and resourceful characters and sprinkled with mouthwatering recipes.” Dallas Morning News
“Page’s take is tightly written, with strong characterizations and delightful descriptions of its New England setting. The author braids her various storylines neatly and briskly, right up to the enticing conclusion.” Publishers Weekly
“Page’s literary concoction is satisfying and surprisingly delicious . . .
The plot is clever and the characters ring true.” Los Angeles Times
“An expert at the puzzle mystery.”
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
“Katherine Hall Page has found a great recipe for delicious mysteries: take charming characters, mix with ingenious plots, season with humor.
Bon appetit!”
Nancy Pickard
Other Faith Fairchild Mysteries by
Katherine Hall Page
from Avon Books
THE BODY IN THE BASEMENT
THE BODY IN THE BELFRY
THE BODY IN THE BIG APPLE
THE BODY IN THE BOG
THE BODY IN THE BOUILLON
THE BODY IN THE CAST
THE BODY IN THE FJORD
THE BODY IN THE KELP
THE BODY IN THE VESTIBULE
THE BODY IN THE MOONLIGHT
Available in Hardcover
THE BODY IN THE BONFIRE
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Body in the Bookcase ff-9 Page 26