NOSTALGIA FOR GOURMET MAGAZINE

Chiles en Nogada, a recipe from Gourmet magazine.

I  miss Gourmet magazine. The food magazine ceased publication a few years ago, financially challenged in a digital age. I miss the terrific photo spreads, the recipes, of course, and even the ads. I liked opening up each new issue (living abroad, they arrived late in the month) and deciding which recipes I would try in my kitchen.

I never clipped recipes. I saved all the back issues. About 30 years worth. Until finally, I had to unload them to make room for other things. But first I leafed through them all, rereading some articles, clipping and saving only those marvelous “centerfold” menus for parties, holiday dinners, brunches, picnics. What a record of how menus and food styling have changed! When did tobacco ads disappear? From 1987, a “movie night” photo spread depicts those old clunky videos. In the 1970s, still determinedly French, aspics and quiche appeared over and over.  By the mid-80s, there were dozens of chocolate mousse recipes, but now there is hummus, bulgur, arugula, kale, pine nuts and the food processor.

Some of the pre-digital camera and pre-PhotoShop pictures would never make it today on FoodGawker.com ! But I loved the styling, the exuberant textiles, china, glassware, whether it was for a “formal Thanksgiving,” a “Victorian Christmas dinner” or a “weekend in the country.”

Gourmet was an inspiration to me as a food writer, too. For 30 years I wrote a monthly cooking column about Spanish food for an English-language magazine in Spain. I often borrowed seasonal ideas, ingredient themes and holiday lore from Gourmet, adapting them for Spanish recipes.

Now, as I cull the remainder of the Gourmet stash and all those centerfold pages, I am cooking through some of them before they go.

One is a whole menu for “A Beach Weekend,” from August 1987. I prepared the Pan-Grilled Salmon with Olive Oil and Basil; Summer Squash with Lemon; Barley, Bell Pepper, and Corn Salad, and Frozen Nectarine Mousse with Raspberries.

Cooking the "centerfold"--pan-grilled salmon, barley salad, summer squash.

Barley salad hardly needs a recipe--cooked barley, chopped red bell pepper, corn, chopped parsley, vinegar and olive oil.

Salmon, summer squash, barley salad--recipes from Gourmet.

The other is a recipe for the Mexican dish, Chiles en Nogada (Stuffed Poblano Chiles with Walnut Sauce and Pomegranate Seeds), from an article about chiles from September 2006.

The photo from Gourmet is--surprisingly--not so good. Still, I tried to copy the colors.

The chiles are roasted and skinned, stuffed with a mixture of braised pork, tomatoes, cinnamon, allspice, peach, dried apricots, raisins and pine nuts, sauced with a sweetened cream of ground walnuts and almonds, and served sprinkled with ruby-red pomegranate seeds. (The recipe can be found  on the database at Epicurious.com .

I have peppers in the garden—not actually poblano chiles, but similar—as well as pomegranates, almonds, walnuts.

Filling with pork, fruit, tomatoes.

Chiles are stuffed, ready for the oven.

What a ravishing dish!

CLEANING HOUSE, FINDING STUFF, REMEMBERING PLACES

Sherry ad from an old Gourmet magazine.

Needing to clear some closet space in the spare room (which is no longer spare), I started pulling out storage boxes full of papers and sorting through 25 years worth of—stuff.

First to go—no need even to sort—were thousands of pages of cookbook manuscripts and  printers’ page proofs. I’ve written eight cookbooks (five are still in print; read about the books here). How many compressed trees was I saving here?

The most recent books went back and forth to editors digitally, via e-mail. But, ten years ago, my editor at HarperCollins-New York wanted the whole printed manuscript shipped to her. It came back to me once with the copy editor’s notes and was returned to me after publication. I also received a set of page proofs. All this went to the recycle bin.

The next couple of crates I pulled down contained, roughly speaking, “files.” In the pre-Google days, when I was researching for a book, article or travel guide, it meant writing or phoning to tourist offices and collecting travel brochures about the regions I intended to visit. Along with yet more material picked up on my travels are hundreds of maps, including dozens from little towns of La Mancha, where I spent a month or more traveling around, talking to people and collecting recipes, for COOKING FROM THE HEART OF SPAIN—FOOD OF LA MANCHA. 

I had enough travel brochures to open a tourist office. These all went to trash, though, I have to confess, I enjoyed looking through them and remembering places I’d been. Nowadays, anything I need to know, no matter how obscure, can quickly be located on the internet. But I love printed stuff.

There were also clipping files—reviews of my books; tear sheets of articles I wrote for various magazines and newspapers; articles by other writers pertinent to my subjects; printed menus from restaurants all over Spain. One file contained clippings from Gourmet magazine of articles only about Spain. I got rid of the magazines-- dating back to 1964!—but not before first cannibalizing them for “keepers.”

That picture at the top was a keeper—an ad in Gourmet from unknown year. There is also a marvelous four-page color spread, “Three Spanish Dinners,” from January 1966 (the very month I arrived in Spain), with some excellent recipes. And, a wonderful article from July 1964, “Málaga, Mi Málaga,” by Frederick S. Wildman, Jr. Málaga is “mi Málaga” also.

Here’s what Wildman (I never met him, although our paths might have crossed) wrote about the food of my region: “The food of the province of Málaga is as original as the face of its countryside.” He made note of the fruits and vegetables, almonds, olives, pork sausages, serrano ham. “But the glory of Málaga is certainly its fish.” One of his recipes is for “Sopa de Rape de Málaga.” Although poorly translated as “skate soup,” (rape, pronounced rah-pay in two syllables, is monkfish, not skate), it is a typical Málaga recipe.

Sopa de rape--monkfish soup, a Málaga specialty.

Here is my version. You could use dry Sherry, such as Tio Pepe, or white wine.

Monkfish Soup
Sopa de Rape

Whole monkfish.

Monkfish (also known as angler fish) is one of the least attractive specimens in the market, but very, very good eating. A grey color and without scales, the monkfish has a huge head and slim tail, a little like an enormous tadpole that  never got around to turning into a frog. It is easy to cut fillets off the center spine. The flesh is firm and sweet-flavored and can readily be substituted in recipes that call for lobster. Firm-fleshed, It doesn’t disintegrate when cooked in soup. Slices from the tail are very good grilled or braised with sauce.

This recipe calls for a whole fish—the head is used for making stock. If this is not possible, use any prepared fish stock and monkfish fillets. Shrimp can be added as well.

Serves 4.

1 monkfish, 3 to 4 pounds
8 cups water
Bay leaf, oregano, thyme, parsley and celery
Salt and pepper
1 onion, cut in half
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup almonds, blanched and skinned
3 cloves garlic
2-3 slices bread, crusts removed
1 sprig parsley
Pinch of saffron, crushed
¼ cup dry Sherry or white wine
2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons salt


Have the angler fish cleaned and the head separated. Remove the back bone, leaving two fillets. Cut them into bite-size pieces. Cover and refrigerate.

Put the water to boil in a pot with the herbs, half of the onion and salt and pepper. Add the head, bones and any trimmings from the fish and bring again to a boil, skimming off froth that rises. Cook for 30 minutes. Strain the stock and reserve it. Pick any flesh off the head and bones and discard head and bones.

Heat the oil in a soup pot or heat-proof casserole and in it fry the almonds, peeled garlic, sliced bread and sprig of parsley, just until almonds, garlic and bread are toasted. With a skimmer, remove them to mortar, blender or mini food processor.

Chop the remaining half onion. Sauté the onion in the remaining oil. Add the tomatoes and fry for 15 minutes. (This sofrito can be used as is or puréed in a blender or passed through a sieve.)

In the mortar or blender, grind the toasted almonds, etc., with the saffron, and salt, adding the Sherry or wine to make a smooth paste. Stir this into the tomato mixture, add 6 cups of the reserved stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the pieces of monkfish and simmer another 10 minutes until fish is cooked.

Monkfish soup is thickened with ground almonds.