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Gourmet's recipe guru, Ian Knauer, cooks here
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Ian Knauer. -
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In her inimitable way, Ruth Reichl nearly steals the show in the foreword of Ian Knauer's cookbook.
The editor of the now-defunct Gourmet talks about hiring Mr. Knauer to idiot-proof the magazine's recipes (he had no culinary training prior to this job, so he could stand in for Average Joe Magazine Reader), then promoting him to food editor after he turned a "marauding woodchuck" from his farm into a pate that wowed the staff's high-class foodies.
The climax of the foreword comes when Ms. Reichl describes the day Mr. Knauer visited a halal slaughterhouse, picked out a goat and watched it proceed from hoof to goat chops. He coauthored a spread for Gourmet that included enough recipes to use up every morsel of that animal.
What: Ian Knauer speaks and demonstrates recipes at the Ladies Hospital Aid Society Fall Luncheon.
Date: Weds., Nov. 14.
Time: 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Place: LeMont Restaurant, Mount Washington.
Details: Mr. Knauer will demonstrate fall recipes. A silent auction of vintage handbags will benefit the society's Orchid Fund, which provides financial assistance for hair replacement for people dealing with hair loss from medical conditions.
Cost: $75 per person, or a table of 10 for $650.
Tickets: Call 412-648-6106 or e-mail costantinomj2@upmc.edu.
Event information: lhas.net.
Information about Mr. Knauer or to order signed copies of his cookbook: ianknauer.com.
It "takes a brave man to carry a warm goat carcass into the Conde Nast building," Ms. Reichl wrote, "and an even braver one to waltz into an elevator occupied by Vogue's editor-in-chief Anna Wintour."
Though Ms. Reichl might try to grab the spotlight, Mr. Knauer steals it back from her in the rest of the book, "The Farm: Rustic Recipes for a Year of Incredible Food," a simultaneously earthy and chic look at farm life and homegrown food.
Pittsburgh's Ladies Hospital Aid Society secured Mr. Knauer for a local appearance just as he seems poised on the brink of stardom. He's a name in the food world, but he's more likely to be a household name in 2013 with the upcoming debut of his PBS television show, also titled "The Farm."
That goat-in-the-elevator story neatly encapsulates Mr. Knauer's life -- equally divided between urban and rural.
After the shuttering of Gourmet in 2009, Mr. Knauer spent a year living on the 40-acre farm in Pennsylvania's Chester County that has been in his family for many generations.
He grew up spending weekends there, the eldest of 24 cousins picking strawberries with his grandfather as a youngster and later grousing about mowing the expansive lawn as a teen.
During his year in residence, he and his sister Cecily planted a vegetable garden. He developed recipes, preparing simple dishes with fresh produce and preserving much of the bounteous harvest for the winter. The results are a beautifully photographed cookbook that preserves both cuisine and family heritage.
He has since moved to the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border, about an hour drive from the farm and a two-hour drive from New York City, the better to retain both his urban and rural connections. We talked to him three days after Hurricane Sandy pelted the East Cost; he was still without power and contemplating a trip to the farm for more firewood.
There's no staff maintaining the farm, nor are there now any permanent residents. But there are enough cousins to keep the place in shape, and it occasionally serves as a landing place for people in transition -- as it was for him, so it was for a cousin who lived there last summer while finalizing a house purchase. A cousin recently took up the kitchen linoleum; Mr. Knauer's father routinely replaces slate on the barn roof.
"Everybody has their specialty," Mr. Knauer said.
So what's his?
"Dinner," he said.
He purports to be far better at cooking than farming, though he may be overly modest, seeing as how the family has ceded control of the vegetable garden largely to him.
"I make a ton of mistakes in the garden, but luckily, it's big enough" to yield lots of one crop even if another fails.
He might even get the opportunity to warn viewers away from his mistakes in his TV show, which he sees as a "teaching tool," an angle he feels is largely lacking in today's food TV centered around big stars.
Each episode of his show will follow ingredients from beginning to end. For instance, in the milk episode, he milks a cow, makes homemade cheeses and yogurt, and then demonstrates recipes using the cheeses.
"The point of the show is to understand where ingredients come from," he said.
That's sort of the point of the book, too, although it's far more colorful than just sermonizing about food origins. In essays sprinkled throughout the book, he describes his frigid plunge into the pond after a grueling day in the garden, the sentimental value of the rows upon rows of his grandmother's canned goods that ultimately outlived her, and the salty sweetness of the only sandwich his grandfather ever made for him: butter and bologna. You get the feeling he's living through his food.
In a sense, that's what the whole Knauer family is doing, at least a bit.
"Everybody in the family is proud of the book because it represents how we live and what we eat," he said. "It ignited a spark that was dormant in the family."
Pumpkin cake with bourbon-caramel sauce
PG tested
I made the cake (not the frosting and bourbon sauce) and it turned out quite nice. Even the pumpkin puree from our big porch pumpkin turned out good -- not stringy at all, although in color and flavor it's definitely milder than Hubbard squash. I think the cake would be just fine with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a glass of milk -- no frosting or sauce required.
-- Rebecca Sodergren
For the cake
- 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup Cooked Pumpkin Puree (see below)
- 3 cups sifted cake flour (sifted before measuring)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 cup walnut pieces, toasted
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/3 cup bourbon
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Large pinch kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/2 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon light or dark brown sugar
Make the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 13-by-9-inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and brown sugar with an electric mixer until it comes together. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Beat in the pumpkin puree (the mixture will look curdled). In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add half of the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture, mixing until it is just combined. Mix in milk, then the remaining flour mixture. Fold in walnuts and maple syrup.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake until a tester or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool the cake completely in the pan on a rack.
Make the sauce: Before you start, make sure anything flammable is moved away from the area near your stove.
Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Cook, swirling the skillet for even browning, until the caramel is a golden amber color, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the bourbon and carefully ignite by tilting the skillet toward the flame (or, if you have an electric stovetop, use a kitchen match). Let the alcohol burn off completely, then immediately add the cream and salt. Simmer the sauce until the caramel is dissolved and the sauce is thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and whisk in the butter.
Make the frosting: Beat together the cream cheese, butter, maple syrup and brown sugar with an electric mixer until it is fluffy, about 2 minutes. Spread the frosting over the cake.
Just before serving, make a pool of sauce on the plate, then top with the cake and serve.
-- "The Farm: Rustic Recipes for a Year of Incredible Food" by Ian Knauer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, $30)
Cooked pumpkin puree
- 2 pounds pumpkin or winter squash
- 2 cups water
Halve the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds, then peel with a vegetable peeler or sharp knife. Cut the pumpkin into 2-inch chunks. Bring the water to a boil with the pumpkin in a heavy medium pot. Cook the pumpkin, covered, until it is very tender and starting to fall apart, about 20 minutes. Transfer the pumpkin to a food processor, discarding any remaining water in the pot. Puree the pumpkin until it is smooth, then return it to the pot. Bring the pumpkin back to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until it is thick, 35 to 45 minutes.
Let the puree cool to warm. Use immediately or freeze portions in small Ziploc bags. They keep for at least 6 months.
-- "The Farm: Rustic Recipes for a Year of Incredible Food" by Ian Knauer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, $30)
First Published November 8, 2012 12:00 am
