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March 10, 2003

The Desert Island List

One day I amused myself by deciding what ten foods I would pick to take with me to a desert island. A few months later, I discovered that two authors had asked this same question of a number of leading chefs and printed their lists in a book. No two lists were alike. Many included salt, but since island equals ocean, you’d have available all the salt you could ever use.
It’s difficult to decide without asking a few questions. Is there fresh water available? Do any fruits, vegetables or berries grow on the island? May I take seeds? How long is the stay? What cooking equipment will be available? Is there fuel for fire? What about refrigeration? With no guidelines, you simply have to make up your own.
If you want to join in the fun, jot down your list before you read mine!

1. whole milk, not homogenized or pasteurized
The most valuable item on the list, as cream, butter and cheese would be “free”.
2. onions
I couldn’t imagine cooking without them. Garlic I could live without, or any particular herb or spice (even pepper), but not onions.
3. pork
With all that salt from the ocean, you could cure bacon and ham as well as having fresh pork roasts, chops, spareribs.
4. potatoes
My favorite comfort food, and this desert island business is going to call for a lot of comforting!
5. eggs
Hard-boiled eggs would come in very handy for forays into the island.
6. & 7. wheat flour and sugar
Hope there’s a Dutch oven. Whether to include yeast or baking powder? Assume there is some nice wild yeast floating around for sourdough starter.
8. tomatoes
Vine-ripened, but canned diced tomatoes would do.
9. citrus fruit
Lemons, oranges and grapefruit would be nice, but first choice would be lemons for their acidity. They’ll have to stand in for vinegar.
10. the world’s finest chocolates
Everyone needs to have a little luxury, especially us poor stranded ones. One might tire of foie gras, truffles, caviar and champagne, but never chocolate.

Perhaps you noticed there’s nothing green on this list. In a month or two, lettuce or spinach or herbs would probably be on the top of my “things which should have been included” list. Other things I would miss are oil and vinegar, mushrooms, raspberries, green beans, eggplant, nuts, and wine for cooking.
Even if you had every food, there would still be one thing missing: someone to cook for. If you’re ever passing by my island, stop by for brunch. We’ll have eggs benedict on sourdough bread, grilled tomatoes, orange segments and chocolates. Bring your own coffee!

Cherotree French Bread

***Signature Dish

With a little practice, you will be able to prepare four loaves oven ready in 20 minutes as I do. Americans often prefer this style of French bread to the more authentic: it’s crusty rather than chewy. We allowed one loaf per 4 or 5 persons with meals.

1/2-cup warm water, scant
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 packages dry yeast
1 pound unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup very warm water, scant

Measure ½ cup warm water into a measuring cup and add sugar and yeast. Let stand until bubbly, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, measure flour and salt into food processor fitted with steel blade. Get out your pastry cloth or flour a board, and butter or spray two French bread pans.
Add warm yeast water to food processor and turn on processor. While it is still running, slowly add very warm water. As soon as the dough ball forms, turn dough out onto floured surface. (If dough looks moist on top and sticks to the sides of the processor, you may have to knead in an additional 1/2 cup of flour by hand.) Knead briefly and divide dough in half. Form long thin loaves to fit your pans, attempting to keep the surface smooth.
Using a firm, diagonal movement, slash the loaves several times with a razor blade. Cover loaves loosely with waxed paper and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
Place a pan of hot water (foil pie pans are fine) on the bottom shelf of oven which has been heated to 450 degrees. Set bread on shelf directly above water and bake 10 minutes. Lower heat to 400 degrees and bake another 15 minutes. Bread should be brown on top and sound hollow when tapped with knuckles. Remove immediately from pans to racks.
If serving immediately, and bottoms of loaves are not brown, set loaves directly on oven shelf for a few more minutes. If serving later, reheat for 7 minutes at 350 degrees, directly on oven shelf. For easy slicing, let loaf stand a few minutes. Turn on its side and slice on the diagonal using a good serrated bread knife.

Oven temperature: 450 degrees for 10 minutes
400 degrees for 15 minutes

Note: if you have time to let it rise before shaping, do so. The flavor develops more and you may use less yeast.

Ruth’s Eggs Benedict

Could you find a more untraditional Eggs Benedict? French bread instead of English muffins…”fried” eggs instead of poached…bacon instead of Canadian bacon or ham…and a Hollandaise sauce without a double boiler!
My version evolved as a result of having so much French bread left during the restaurant years, and the fact that bacon is always in the refrigerator but Canadian bacon and ham are not. About the only thing you can do ahead is poach the eggs, if that’s what you prefer, and cook the bacon and then you’ll just end up re-heating them anyway. This is perhaps the most difficult dish I know to orchestrate so everything is ready at the same time; I’ll tell you how I do it.

4 slices bacon per person
2 to 4 diagonally cut slices of French bread per person (depending upon size)
2 eggs per person

Hollandaise Sauce (for two):
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, salted or unsalted)
2 egg yolks
1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste
Salt, a sprinkling
Freshly ground pepper

Cut the bacon crosswise into 1/2 inch slices and fry in a small skillet over medium heat, until the fat has cooked out of the bacon. Drain on paper towels and set aside. Discard fat.

Lightly toast the bread on a baking sheet under the broiler. Both sides. Now, turn off the oven. Arrange the bread in the serving dishes, heatproof if you have them, and place the dishes on the lower shelf of the oven. This will warm the dishes—I use soup plates—and keep the bread warm as you proceed.

Place all the Hollandaise ingredients in a small saucepan. If you do this ahead, keep the pan in the refrigerator, but not longer than 20 minutes or the egg yolks will dry out. Place the saucepan over low heat and stir, almost constantly, with a fork. You stick the fork in the butter and sort of push it around the pan so the egg yolks won’t cook first. Mean-while, standing at the stove, you “fry” the eggs to the desired doneness in a non-stick pan with a bit of butter. If you don’t want to turn them over, you may add a tablespoon or two of water and cover the pan. The fat will splash up on the eggs and cause a film to form over the yolks so they don’t look naked.

Remember to keep stirring the Hollandaise. When done, it will start to thicken; you can use a rubber scraper to keep up the stirring when the butter is all melted. Take the pan off the stove. Add more lemon or salt, if necessary; it should be very lemony.*

Now, quickly, place the eggs on the bread and pour over the Hollandaise. Top with the bacon pieces and serve immediately. Hope you already set the table.

*If your Hollandaise starts to curdle, you can place the pan in cold water or simply add a tablespoon of cold water or heavy cream to the pan and stir like crazy. Still curdled? Scrape all the contents of the pan into a bowl and add a fresh egg yolk to the pan. With a whisk, gradually stir in the curdled contents over low heat. This time you’ll know when to stop.