"101 cookbooks" news and stories

Even if I weren't already absolutely enamored of cauliflower soups, I would be fawning and sighing all over this photograph of Cauliflower and Gorgonzola Soup that Heidi Swanson has posted on her food blog, 101 Cookbooks. I think it might actually be the petal-shaped bowls, but I can't be sure, since if it were foie gras in there, I doubt I'd feel the same way.

The soup is fairly simple to make, as Heidi has written in her adaptation of the original from a cookbook called A Year in My Kitchen by Skye Gyngell. I am intrigued by the idea of adding some flavor punch with blue cheese, as I have made a cauliflower soup before, but relied fairly heavily on roasted garlic for flavor.

I don't know that I would have occurred to me to use some of the presentation tricks that Heidi, of 101 Cookbooks, used for her Gingerbread Man Cookies, but I'm glad that I've seen them now. A must-have on any holiday cookie plate, gingerbread men are fun to make, fun to decorate and, as long as you choose a good recipe to start with, fun to eat. Heidi said that she revamped her standard recipe this year to use white whole wheat flour and less refined sugar, instead opting to sweeten her cookies with a coarser natural cane sugar and molasses. The cookies are spicy, but sturdy, so they can hold up to decoration. Again, instead of going with a frosting that would use refined sugar, she simply sprinkled the cookies with very coarse grained natural sugar (turbinado). The giant crystals add a sparkle, a crunch and are a nice change of pace from cookies decorated with royal icing. Her motivation for using the stick was presentation: the cookies can be stood up in a container or small flower pot filled with sugar, which looks a lot more dramatic than laying them out on a serving platter.

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In most cases, we look at finished products as Food Porn -- a colorful salad, a steaming soup, a steak with herb butter melting over the edges. In the case of food blog 101 Cookbooks, I suppose the first picture of the finished pizza topped with potatoes, cheese, and herbs in Heidi Swanson's post about pizza made of white whole wheat pizza dough is the natural pick.

However, I was totally drawn to the photo of the white whole wheat pizza dough -- perfect pillows of softly "buff"-colored dough flecked with herbs, resting, definitely qualify as "raw" porn. Heidi goes on to say that with this pizza dough, she got close to something she was looking for: "chewy, soft, and unstructured."

More on white whole wheat:
The definition of "white whole wheat"
Sara Lee's hot dog and hamburger buns made with white whole wheat

Grilled cheese? Sure, it's American cheese between two slices of buttered Wonder white, "grilled" in a frying pan, right? Not if you're Heidi from 101 Cookbooks, who grilled cheese, literally.

The cheese is called halloumi and originates from the island of Cyprus. Traditionally made from both goat's and sheep's milk, Heidi's find in San Francisco is all sheep's milk. She grilled the slices of cheese, which unlike regular cheeses, can somehow stand up to very high heats, then used the slices as a base for a green bean salad.

In summer, any dessert that involves fresh fruit is hard to resist. This is particularly true if the dessert is one made by Heidi of 101 Cookbooks. Her Champagne Summer Shortcakes combine some wonderful elements into a beautiful, end-of-the-summer dessert. The base is a buttery and ever-so-slightly salty shortcake biscuit, with a melting richness. The cakes are split and filled with black mission figs, pluots and nectarines, which have been tossed in a syrup made of honey, sugar and champagne. To bring the whole dish together, Heidi added scoop of vanilla ice cream to the side, but lightly sweetened whipped cream would probably work equally well if you prefer that ultra-light texture with your shortcake. Make sure to take a bit of each element onto your fork for each bite. And make extras, because you'll probably want seconds.

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