Welcome to our farewell May discussion; how did it come and go so fast?
This week I ended up across a geranium-and-herb centerpiece, talking food with a dining companion. Her first question was about reductions, made to serve with meat. “I heard a chef say he began with 4 gallons of stock and reduced them to a pint. I would like to know how to do that, and I guess also whether it is worth the trouble.”
To her left another guest started wondering about what to serve for dessert to “people don’t like, or can’t eat, cake – and don’t want a lot of calories.”
The meal ended with praise for bacon-braised cabbage, and that diner shook her head about how to prepare cabbage- served hot, instead of in the predictable coleslaw. “Is there a way to make special-occasion cabbage, or is it something you simply cook to death and serve with meat?”
Marge Pasch, in her letter recorded below, asked for “someone take me in hand and tell me how to judge what to do to change a regular recipe so that it could work with gluten-free flour or some other ingredient.”