3 Transfer mixture to medium bowl of electric mixer. Add eggs one at a time and beat at high speed until mixture becomes a smooth paste.
4 Drop batter by tablespoonful on baking sheets, placing 2 inches apart. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 375°F and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Do not open the oven during cooking, except during final minutes if needed to check on puffs. Puffs are done when they are well browned, and moisture can no longer be seen on the tops. Transfer puffs to wire rack to cool.
5 To make the custard filling: Sift together sugar, cake flour, and salt. In medium saucepan, heat milk over medium heat. Whisk flour mixture into warm milk and heat, stirring, until thick and bubbly, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
6 In a separate medium bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs until frothy. Add milk mixture to eggs, and mix well. Return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium heat for 3 minutes.
7 Remove from heat and transfer mixture to clean bowl. Whisk in vanilla. Rub butter on piece of plastic wrap and place wrap butter side down on top of the custard (to prevent a skin from forming). Chill thoroughly in refrigerator.
8 In separate bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat cream on high speed until thick. Fold whipped cream into custard.
9 To assemble the cream puffs: Use a serrated knife to slice the top third from each puff. Remove any excess “skin” from inside of puff. Fill with about 2 tablespoons of filling, until full but not overflowing, and replace top. (Any extra filling is wonderful on fresh fruit.) Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar if desired. Serve immediately (see note).
Julia Glass
Dennis Cowley
SELECTED WOEKS
The Widower's Tale (2010)
I See You Everywhere (2008)
The Whole World Over (2006)
Three Junes (2002)
On My Characters Every piece of fiction I write begins with a single character, one who generally occurs to me out of the blue so I'm never really sure where he or she came from. Of course, that character is always in a pickle of some kind. The trouble may come from inside or outside the character, but trouble there always must be. That's the genesis of the story. Other characters “sprout” from the first one — mates, children, parents, coworkers — and often I'm surprised which ones grow in importance. For instance, The Whole World Over began as a “he said, she said” tale about the marriage of Greenie Duquette and Alan Glazier. Two characters I created only as foils to this couple — Walter, the restaurateur for whom Greenie makes desserts; and Saga, the woman who's struggling with a damaged memory and who captivates Alan — loomed far larger than I originally intended. Basically, they stole my heart. That's what I love about forging ahead into the territory of a novel without a map in hand. Only when I've written several chapters do I begin to see where the journey may end.
Readers Should Know
The lion's share of writing fiction is, for me, the day-dreaming that takes place during the margins of my daily life: traffic jams, long lines at the post office, showers, walking the dog, idling through the produce aisle. That's when I make essential decisions about my characters' choices and relationships, about what accidents will befall them. I may go two or three weeks without getting any of these imaginings down on the page, but finding space for this interior process every day is crucial. You cannot write good fiction without spending significant time alone, marinating in your own thoughts, listening to those accidental inner voices, and nurturing the souls who populate your stories. You must be unreachable by phone, untethered by an iPod, and steeped in a private silence. Our culture is increasingly impoverished by a collective dependence on media gadgets and all electronic forms of communication that saturate our minds in facts, opinions, political prophecies, and the so-called news. We may be living in a golden age of invention, but that kind of creativity is not synonymous with, or a substitute for, imagination.
Readers Frequently Ask People express amazement that I can so intimately portray people who seem so different from me — most notably, a gay Scottish man (Fenno, the central character in Three Junes). I explain that I always have a great deal in common with my main characters. Like Fenno, I adore books, I lived in Greenwich Village, and for much of my youth I was overly cautious when it came to taking emotional risks. Like Greenie Duquette, I love to immerse myself in making people happy by feeding them. At the time I wrote The Whole World Over, I also had a verbally precocious young son and lived in a very small apartment with makeshift sleeping quarters. That old chestnut “write what you know” goes only so far, however. Without setting challenges for oneself — stretching far to know what you want to know about human nature — the imagined world would quickly become predictable, the experience of writing myopic. In every new story, I take on at least one character or experience I'm initially doubtful I can pull off (but definitely want to). Take the make-believe governor of New Mexico in The Whole World Over; Clement Jardine's work with endangered grizzly bears in I See You Everywhere; and, in The Widower's Tale, an illegal Guatemalan immigrant who works as a gardener.
Influences on My Writing Daniel Deronda, the last novel by George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Anne Evans), made me realize I wanted to write fiction. I was in my late twenties then, working primarily as a painter (even though I was paying the rent with my editorial and writing skills). The heroine of that book, Gwendolen Harleth, remains my favorite character in all the literature I've read, primarily because she is utterly contemptible at the outset, and yet wins (and breaks) the reader's heart by the end of the story after she faces the complex consequences of her vain, foolish choices. I found the experience of this emotional transformation haunting and provocative. Yes, Eliot's language is gorgeous, her characters rich, and her plotting brilliant, but this novel's gift to me was a profound understanding of how great fiction exerts its power by instilling empathy. It teaches us viscerally, again and again through endlessly diverse stories, how to stand in the shoes of people we might otherwise ignore, dismiss, or condemn. It opens our eyes and hearts to worlds beyond our own. What can be more important than that?
BASQUE CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH CHERRY PRESERVES
Makes 8–10 servings
Adapted from Food and Wine (October, 1998)
The heroine of my second novel, The Whole World Over, is Greenie Duquette, a pastry chef whose signature dessert is an elaborate coconut cake. It will come as no surprise to readers that I have a treacherously irrepressible sweet tooth, but sadly I rarely have time to make complicated desserts.
This chocolate cake is outrageously rich, pretty when garnished, and easy to make. (The sour flavor of the crème fraîche is essential; don't substitute whipped cream.)
Note: I find that the surface of the cake cracks slightly, making the cake fragile, so I cool it in the pan on a rack. When ready to serve, I cut the pieces straight from the pan, then plate and garnish them in the kitchen.
12½ tablespoons unsalted butter
5½ ounces bittersweet chocolate
3 large eggs
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup black cherry preserves
Crème fraîche, for serving
1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter and flour a 9″ round cake pan.
2 In a heavy medium saucepan, combine the butter and chocolate. Melt over low heat, stirring frequently, until smooth, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.
3 In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer and beat the eggs with the sugar at high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the flour and beat at low speed just until combined. Fold in 1/3 of the melted chocolate, then gently fold in the remaining chocolate; do not overmix.
4 Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a tooth-pick stuck into the center comes out clean. Place the cake on a rack and let cool.
5 Meanwhile, in a saucepan, warm the cherry preserves over moderate heat. Cut the cake into wedges (see note)
and serve with the cherry preserves and crème fraîche.
TOURTE DE BLETTES (APPLE, SWISS CHARD, AND PINE NUT PIE)
Makes 1 (10- or 11-inch) pie; 8–10 servings
Adapted from The Cuisine of the Sun: Classical French Cooking from Nice and Provence by Mireille Johnston (Fireside, 1990)
My first novel, Three Junes, features several meals lovingly prepared by chef Dennis McLeod, brother to Fenno. Though he's Scottish, Dennis is married to a Frenchwoman and owns a restaurant in Provence. Readers never get to visit the restaurant, but I'm certain Dennis would serve this unusual pie, a favorite of mine that always earns raves. It is a savory-sweet dish, a marriage of healthy and indulgent, and the perfect centerpiece for a brunch. It tastes good warm, cool, or even cold, so you can make it well ahead.
Note: While the pastry should be made by hand, I use a food processor, taking care not to overmix.
FOR THE PASTRY
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
About 1 tablespoon salt
FOR THE FILLING
4 large Golden Delicious or Granny Smith apples
3 tablespoons raisins
2 tablespoons dark rum or dry apple brandy, such as Calvados
1 cup Swiss chard, ribs removed, blanched for a few minutes and thoroughly drained (you can substitute about 2 pounds fresh spinach, blanched for 1 minute)
4 tablespoons pine nuts
½ cup confectioners' sugar, plus 3 tablespoons for sprinkling (optional)
¼–½ pound bland cheese, such as Gouda or mild Cheddar, diced
2 large eggs, beaten
Grated peel of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons currant jelly
1 To make the pastry: Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor (see note). Pulse repeatedly only until coarsely blended. Turn the dough onto a large floured board and press away from you with the heel of your hand to complete the blending. Shape into a ball, cover with a clean cloth, and leave for 2 hours at room temperature.
2 To make the filling: Peel and core the apples and cut two of them into small cubes. Put the raisins and liquor in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer 2 minutes.
3 Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter a large (10″–11″) pie dish.
4 In a large bowl, mix the Swiss chard (or spinach), apple cubes, raisins, pine nuts, confectioners' sugar, cheese, eggs, and lemon peel.
5 Divide the pastry into two unequal parts, the smaller about a third the size of the larger part. On a floured surface, roll the large part into a circle (as thin as possible) and lay it in the buttered pie dish; it should hang over the edges a bit. Prick all over with a fork. Spread the jelly on the bottom and add the filling. Slice the remaining two apples and mound evenly over the filling.
6 Roll out the remaining dough and fit carefully over the top of the filling. Trim and crimp the edges. Prick the surface with a fork or make a decorative vent at the center. Bake 30 minutes, or until golden. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar, if desired.
BLACK BEAN CHILI WITH CAYENNE-GLAZED TOFU
Makes 8 cups
Chili recipe adapted from The Greens Cookbook by Deborah Madison (Bantam, 1987)
To atone for the indulgences of the other recipes I've offered, here's an extremely healthy recipe that would meet with the approval of Zip, one of Clem Jardine's many colorful boyfriends in I See You Everywhere. Zip loves to cook, but there's a catch: everything is aggressively virtuous, from the “hijiki salads, brown rice breakfasts, and daikon root stews” that drive Clem crazy to his “black bean chili with tiny cubes of roasted tofu glazed with cayenne,” which she knows she will miss if she leaves him. My favorite black bean chili comes from Greens, the legendary San Francisco vegetarian restaurant; the toasted herbs give it an exceptional flavor. The added cubes of tofu roasted with a cayenne glaze are courtesy of Zip.
Note: Wear plastic or rubber gloves while handling chiles to protect your skin from the oil in them. Avoid direct contact with your eyes and wash your hands thoroughly after handling.
FOR THE CHILI
2 cups black turtle beans, soaked overnight (or 4½–5 cups cooked black beans)
1 bay leaf
4 teaspoons cumin seeds
4 teaspoons dried oregano
4 teaspoons ground paprika
½ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 chile negro or ancho chile, for homemade chili powder (or 2–3 tablespoons commercial chili powder)
3 tablespoons corn or peanut oil
3 medium yellow onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon salt
1½ pounds ripe or canned tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped; juice reserved
1–2 teaspoons chopped chipotle chiles
About 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar to taste
4 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
Cayenne-Glazed Tofu (see recipe)
FOR THE GARNISH
Poblano or Anaheim green chiles, or 2 ounces canned green chiles, rinsed well and diced
½–¾ cup grated Muenster cheese
½ cup crème fraîche (or sour cream)
8 sprigs cilantro
1 To prepare the chili: Sort through the beans and remove any small stones. Rinse the beans well, cover them generously with water, and let them soak overnight.
2 The next day, drain the beans, cover them with fresh water by a couple of inches, and bring them to a boil with the bay leaf. Lower the heat and let the beans simmer while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
3 Heat a small heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds. When they begin to color, add the oregano, shaking the pan frequently so the herbs don't scorch. As soon as the fragrance is strong and robust, remove the pan from the heat and add the paprika and cayenne. Give everything a quick stir; then remove from the pan (the paprika and cayenne only need a few seconds to toast). Using a mortar and pestle or spice mill, grind into a coarse powder.
4 Preheat oven to 375°F. To make the homemade chili powder, put the negro or ancho chili in the oven for 3–5 minutes to dry it out. Cool it briefly; then remove the stem, seeds, and veins. Tear the pod into small pieces and grind it into a powder in a blender or spice mill.
5 Heat the oil in a large skillet, and sauté the onions over medium heat until they soften. Add the ground herbs, chili powder, garlic, and salt, and cook another 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, their juice, and about 1 teaspoon of the chipotle chiles. Simmer everything together for 15 minutes; then add this mixture to the beans, and if necessary, enough water so the beans are covered by at least 1 inch. Continue cooking the beans slowly until they are soft, an hour or longer, or pressure cook them for 30 minutes at 15 pounds of pressure. Keep an eye on the water level and add more, if needed, to keep the beans amply covered.
6 When the beans are cooked, taste them, and add more chipotle chiles if desired. Season to taste with the vinegar, additional salt if needed, and the chopped cilantro.
7 Prepare the garnish: If using fresh green chiles, and you have a gas range, roast the chiles over an open flame until tender and blackened on all sides. If you have an electric range, place the chiles on a broiling tray covered with foil and broil, turning occasionally, until skin is blackened and blistered on all sides. Place chiles in a small bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let sit for 5 minutes. Remove stems, peel off blackened skin discard the seeds, and dice.
8 Serve the chili ladled over a large spoonful of grated cheese. Top with slices of Cayenne-Glazed Tofu (see recipe), and garnish with the green chiles, crème fraîche (or sour cream), and a sprig of fresh cilantro.
CAYENNE-GLAZED TOFU
Makes 8 servings
1 pound firm tofu
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon warm water
½ teaspoon
salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper, or more to taste
1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Drain the water from the tofu. Slice into ½-inch thick pieces, and then cut into smaller rectangles (approximately 1″ × 1½″). Set aside on a paper towel while you make the glaze.
2 In an oven-safe glass pie plate or baking dish, mix together the honey, oil, water, salt, and cayenne. Place the tofu into the glaze and turn a few times to coat. Lay the tofu flat in one layer. Place in the oven and bake for 12 minutes. Carefully remove the dish from the oven and turn the tofu to coat again.
3 Place the dish back in the oven and bake for 10 more minutes. Remove the dish from the oven and again turn the tofu, positioning it with a different point up to get even browning. Bake for 10 more minutes.
Amy Greene
Amy Smotherman Burgess
SELECTED WOEKS
Long Man (2012)
Bloodroot (2010)
Inspiration So much of my inspiration comes from the Appalachian landscape, the farmland and mountains and creek banks of home. I spent most of my childhood playing outdoors, exploring the wooded hills around our house. In Bloodroot, Byrdie talks about loving the land as much as she does any of her kin, and that's very much how I feel about East Tennessee.
The Intimacy of Writing Longhand I wrote the first draft of Bloodroot longhand, spending hours shut away in my bedroom with a notebook and pen, emptying the story from my head onto paper. I've always written like this, going back all the way to first grade. Somehow I feel more of an intimacy with the story and the characters by putting pen to paper rather than sitting in front of a computer screen confronted with a blinking cursor.
Readers Frequently Ask I'm often asked if I did research before writing Bloodroot, and the truth is that I didn't. The story began with an image of a woman with black hair and vivid blue eyes living in the mountain woods with her twins, hiding from some kind of danger. I was interested first in exploring the characters, unsure whether or not a story would evolve. Finally I just picked up my pen and wrote, appropriating the voices of the people I've known and loved my whole life for my characters.
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