Volume 1, Issue 1
“Cooking Ex-Libris” is a CasaFestiva.com series exploring new recipes from my own cookbooks. Enjoy!
By Katy Budge
As a fan of homemade broth, I obsessively squirrel away any and all kitchen scraps into the freezer for “everybody in the pool” stocks. However, after a late summer dinner of rotisserie chicken and grilled corn dinner, I was tempted to go in the opposite direction.
That dinner gave me enough broth-to-be leftovers to be a concoction unto themselves, so I went with minimal ingredients and cooking. Some diced onions gently sautéed to translucence in salt and olive oil, a bit of minced garlic, the chicken carcass, nibbled corn cobs, and water. No browning, no hard boiling, not even a bouquet garni!
The result was clear yet silky, subtle yet flavorful. This could not be the basis for just any soup. It did languish in the freezer for a couple months until the perfect dish came to mind – egg drop soup!
The Recipe
For a recipe, I turned to page 98 of The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook (Atheneum 1966) by Gloria Bley Miller. According to the signature and date on the flyleaf — my aunt purchased this cookbook for $20 in 1969. She lived in Okinawa for several years, and maintained her love of Asian cultures throughout her life, so it was understandable that she would have this particular tome.
Its publication might raise a few eyebrows today, given that it was written by a white woman who lived in New York. And probably also because of its boastful claim on the front flap that “Here, at last, the culinary wisdom of centuries of Chinese culture has been distilled, selected and adapted for American families who like to entertain and serve superb food to friends and guests.”
My, my, my.
Still, it is a pretty informative book, and impressed Craig Claiborne enough that he suggested it for his “Recommended Cookbook Library”. There is exhaustive information on ingredients, cooking techniques, and equipment. Certainly due diligence was done by Ms. Miller, who seemed quite well-meaning and accomplished in her efforts. I did learn some intriguing things about Chinese food in general, not least among them that the cook cuts the food, not the diner, because knives are considered barbaric and not suitable for the table.
Another telling remark was the one opening the main body of the book: “Chinese food has been called the diet of the future because it is high in nutrients, low in calories and invariably well-balanced. Meat does not predominate, vegetables do.” On the very next page, the author notes that “Sweets are negligible.”