Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times (43 page)

• Add a garlic clove at the beginning. Try adding ½ cup roasted red peppers (or canned pimiento) and a little cayenne at the same time.

• Vary the kind of acid you use: fresh lime or orange juice or any type of vinegar. If the acidity is too strong when you’re done, beat in a little warm water.

• Add 2 or 3 anchovy fillets at the beginning.

• Add any fresh herbs you like. Start with a small amount and taste, adding more at the end if you wish. If you’re using a machine, they will turn the mayonnaise green. If you’re working by hand, you will have herb-flecked mayonnaise.

• Add horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, or spices or spice mixes to the finished mayonnaise, tasting as you go.

Tartar Sauce

Combine 1 cup mayonnaise with ¼ cup minced cornichons or other pickles, 2 tablespoons minced shallot, and horseradish to taste.

Aïoli

Combine 1 cup mayonnaise with 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic and a pinch of saffron. Let rest for an hour or so before using.

MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP

TIME: 10 MINUTES

THIS IS A
rich cocktail sauce, laced with butter but made spiky with vinegar and horseradish. Make it as hot as you like and serve it warm or cold. It is a natural partner for poached, grilled, or otherwise cooked shrimp.

Combine the ketchup, vinegar, and butter in a small saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter melts. (At this point, you can keep the sauce warm for an hour—but make the heat as low as possible.) Add horseradish to taste.

MAKES 8 TABLESPOONS (½ CUP)

TIME: A COUPLE MINUTES

COMPOUND BUTTERS
can be stored, well wrapped, in the freezer for two or three weeks.

Cream the butter with a fork, integrating all the ingredients, using about ½ teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Taste and add more of any ingredient you deem necessary.

VARIATIONS

Compound butters can be made with any seasoning you like: mustard, garlic, ginger, chiles, vinegar, or citrus juice and zest, just to name a few. In good weather, you can easily experiment with adding the fresh herb of your choice—chervil is especially nice, as are dill and parsley.

MAKES 8 TABLESPOONS (½ CUP)

TIME: A COUPLE MINUTES

Cream the butter with a fork, integrating all the ingredients. Taste and add more of any ingredient you deem necessary.

MAKES 8 TABLESPOONS (½ CUP)

TIME: A COUPLE MINUTES

Cream the butter with a fork, integrating all the ingredients, using about ½ teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Taste and add more of any ingredient you deem necessary.

MAKES: 8 TABLESPOONS (½ CUP)

TIME: A COUPLE MINUTES

SUGARED STRAWBERRIES

STRAWBERRIES WITH BALSAMIC VINEGAR

STRAWBERRY FOOL

STRAWBERRIES WITH SWEDISH CREAM

COEURS À LA CRÈME WITH STRAWBERRIES

EASY SUMMER PUDDING

CITRUS WITH HONEY AND MINT

MACERATED FRUIT

POACHED CHERRIES

DRIED FRUIT POACHED IN PORT

BAKED PEARS

SAUTÉED BANANAS

FIFTEEN-MINUTE FRUIT GRATIN

GRILLED FRUIT SKEWERS WITH GINGER SYRUP

LIME GRANITA

PINEAPPLE-GINGER SORBET

COCONUT SORBET

COOKIE DOUGH

OLIVE OIL COOKIES WITH RED WINE AND ROSEMARY

APPLE CRISP

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

FLAN

GINGER POTS DE CRÈME

CRANBERRY CLAFOUTI

MAPLE BREAD PUDDING

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 20 MINUTES

THIS RECIPE AND
the four that follow share one basic requirement: in-season, preferably locally grown strawberries. In the event that you can’t find strawberries that match that description, substitute any other berries—blackberries, blueberries, raspberries—that are at their peak.

Look for strawberries that are dark red, inside and out. The sugar will juice up any strawberries and make them sweeter of course, but it cannot work miracles.

Toss the strawberries with the sugar and let sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes, or until juicy. Serve, if you like, with whipped cream or ice cream.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 15 MINUTES

HERE’S A STRAWBERRY
dessert that not only is delicious and intriguing but also can compete with plain fruit in lightness. Strawberries are sugared to juice them up a bit, then drizzled with balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with a pinch of black pepper. The result is so elegant that you’ll find it in great restaurants from here to Emilia-Romagna, the home of balsamic vinegar. It’s an ideal dessert after a heavy meal. Serve, if you like, with a few crisp cookies or a slice of pound, sponge, or angel food cake.

This will not hold for any length of time; you can sugar the berries an hour or two before you want to serve them, but no longer.

1.
Toss the berries with ¼ cup sugar and let sit for 10 minutes or longer. Do not refrigerate.

2.
Sprinkle with the vinegar; toss gently, then taste and add more sugar or vinegar if necessary. Sprinkle with the pepper and the mint if using, toss again, and serve.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 20 MINUTES

A SIMPLE TRADIONAL,
and super-rich dessert.

1.
Slice about two-thirds of the berries and toss them with ¼ cup sugar; set aside. Puree the remaining berries in a blender with ¼ cup sugar. Force the puree through a sieve to remove the seeds. Taste; the puree should be quite sweet. If it is not, add a little more sugar.

2.
Beat the cream with the remaining 1½ teaspoons sugar, until it holds soft peaks. Beat in the puree, then fold in the sugared berries. Taste and add more sugar if necessary. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to an hour.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 15 MINUTES

THIS MIXTURE OF
sour and whipped cream is akin to crème fraîche, but I find it more delicious. It’s killer on strawberries.

1.
Whip the sweet cream until it holds soft peaks, then fold it into the sour cream; add sweetener to taste.

2.
Put the berries in 4 bowls or stemmed glasses and top with the cream.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 24 HOURS, LARGELY UNATTENDED

“HEARTS OF CREAM,”
a lovely, classic dessert and one that takes very little attention or work.

1.
Use a fork or blender to cream together the cream cheese, yogurt, vanilla, and half the sugar. (If you use a blender and the mixture is too thick, add a little heavy cream or milk.) The mixture should be quite smooth. Put in a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth or a clean dishtowel and place over a bowl. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

2.
About a half hour before serving, toss the strawberries with the remaining sugar and let sit at room temperature. Turn the cream
cheese mixture out onto a plate and divide into 4 portions or put some of the mixture in each of 4 bowls. Mix the berries, if you like, with a little more sugar.

3.
Serve the coeurs à la crème topped with the berry mixture.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 20 MINUTES, PLUS OVERNIGHT RESTING

FROZEN POUND CAKE
is fine for the summer pudding (homemade is better, of course, though not one in ten people will know the difference), but fresh berries are essential.

1.
Rinse the berries, then combine in a saucepan with the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water. Cook gently, stirring occasionally, just until the berries soften and yield their liquid, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool.

2.
Meanwhile, cut the pound cake into roughly ½-inch-thick slices. Line a rounded bowl with just over half the slices of the pound cake to a depth of about 4 inches; pack the slices so they leave no (significant) gaps. When the berries are cool, strain them, reserving the liquid. Spoon the solids on top of the pound cake and drizzle with about half the liquid.

3.
Cover with the remaining slices of pound cake, again packing them close together. Drizzle with all but a few tablespoons of the remaining liquid (refrigerate the rest).

4.
Find a plate that will just fit in the bowl and press it down on top of the pudding. Weight it with a few cans (or whatever you can find that will do the trick) and refrigerate overnight.

5.
To serve, run a knife around the edge of the pudding and invert onto a plate. Cut slices and serve with cream.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 1½ HOURS, LARGELY UNATTENDED

THIS DESSERT—
the kind of thing that Jell-O is supposed to imitate—is unusual these days, but it’s easy and delicious, a nice use of fruit that’s available year-round.

1.
Over a bowl, cut the grapefruit in half and section as you would to serve it at the table, being sure to catch all the juice; you want small pieces with little or no membrane or pith. Peel the navel oranges and tangerines, then, over the same bowl, trim off most of the white pith that clings to their surface. Separate into sections and cut into small pieces if necessary, again being sure to catch all the juice. Strain the fruit. To the reserved juice, add the squeezed juice of the juice oranges.

2.
Toss the fruits with the honey and mint and put them in 4 small bowls. Put the juice in a small saucepan and sprinkle the gelatin over the surface. Wait a couple of minutes, then warm the mixture over low heat, stirring to dissolve the gelatin. Cool slightly, then pour the juice mixture over the fruits in the bowls.