Category: Edna Lewis

Cornbread, Black-Eyed Peas, and A Very Good Chocolate Cake: Miss Lewis Is With Us Today

Perhaps you’ve had a wonderful 2017; then again, you might be of the opinion that the year has been a bad one. I, as often as I can, try to remind myself that good and bad are intermingled, twined, eternally debating and by turns battling it out for dominance, good on top for a while, then losing to bad, which takes its place at the top for a time. Then there are those days and nights during which good and bad share the roost. Those might seem strange periods, but the wise among us know it’s aways that way.

I imagine 2018 will bring more of the same, as human years always have. Our minds either figure out how to assimilate and understand the dualities of good and bad, and stay above lazy despair or vapid elation, or fight against the bad, a struggle that — and these latter types of minds, in my opinion, never realize that their crusade for “their” good results in the killing of the self — is futile and cripples the struggler, often mortally.

Wake up and smell the coffee in 2018.

The first day of a year, as arbitrary as that day might in actuality be, is a good time to decide which mind you want to have. It’s January 1, 2018, and I’m thinking of Edna Lewis, who had a great mind and soul. I’m thinking of her because Angela made A Very Good Chocolate Cake yesterday, and today I’m making cornbread. The recipes for both come from Lewis, a woman with whom I wish I had been able to share a table at least once, a beautiful woman with soul and spirit and grace and talent who conquered New York City with her food and hospitality. She also: made a dress for Marilyn Monroe; worked with Dorcas Avedon (Richard’s wife) as a dress copier; and, perhaps most famously, presided over the kitchen at Café Nicholson, where she served Truman Capote, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Diana Vreeland, and Marlene Dietrich, to name but a few of the many who found nourishment for their bodies and souls at her table. If you know Miss Lewis, celebrate her memory by creating something from one of her cookbooks. If you do know not know of her, now’s the time.

Angela (and Edna Lewis) did this.

I’ve made A Very Good Chocolate Cake many times, and have enjoyed hearing from others who made it at my urging, or after reading this. I’ll go ahead and persuade you to make it, because it is nothing but good.

The Brockhaus Montrose Homecoming Served It Forth

The lobsters had been prepped, the dessert (ginger ice cream and Edna Lewis’s Very Good Chocolate Cake) was ready, and Chris and I were discussing plating. It was Saturday, November 12, and The Brockhaus was making another appearance in Montrose, cooking in the house where its Houston chapter began, back in September 2014. At 3 p.m., and all was well. It turned out to be a homecoming worth savoring.

The Brockhaus

The guests would arrive at 7, and we’d serve them some Champagne and a chance to chat before dinner. (Judy and Russ and hosts Jared and Caroline were Brockhaus veterans, but the other attendees were new to us, and one another.) The porch overlooking the pool was the perfect spot for mingling.

The Brockhaus

Norma and Gary and Melanie — our team for the evening, from The Culinary Institute LeNôtre — were on the way. (Their work was instrumental to the evening; a kitchen is only as good as its team … there’s no room for deadwood, something that was drilled into me at Amador and Arzak.) Chris and I went over the schedule one final time, divided the tasks, and continued prepping, I taking care of the crab cakes, Chris dealing with the Billi Bi components. Angela entered the scene and began her planning.

The hours — as they always do — flew by, and the evening progressed. The guests talked and drank, the kitchen ran smoothly, and the plating and service hummed. The conversation emanating from the table flowed, the wines (selected by Jeremy Hart, of Banville Wine Merchants) pleased. All was as it should be in that bungalow in Montrose. The courses went out on time — the lobster and ribeye were highlights — and 11:30 arrived without a hitch. Quail, crab cakes, tuna, ginger ice cream … we thank our guests and partners, including Chantal, whose products we love to use.

Until next time, here are some images of The Brockhaus Montrose Homecoming (November 12, 2016):

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Very Good Chocolate Cake (Thank you, Ms. Lewis)

Whenever I make “the cake” I am invariably met with something along the lines of what Angela uttered on first tasting a piece of it: That’s the best cake I have ever had.

Well, I will say it is among the five best cakes I have ever had, and it very well could, on any given day, indeed be the best.

A cake with a fine and beloved pedigree

A cake with a fine and beloved pedigree

Coffee and chocolate

Coffee and chocolate

I made one last night, my mother assisting (she had never made this one, and wanted to learn the recipe). I call it “the cake” for two reason. One, because it is my favorite cake to make. It is delicious. And because the recipe comes to us from one of my favorite cooks and chefs of all time: Edna Lewis.

A Grande Dame of American Cooking

A Grande Dame (Estate of Edna Lewis)

Ms. Lewis was born in Virginia and left this life in Georgia, in 2006, at 89, after spending years in New York (where in 1949 she helped found Café Nicholson, which for a time was “the” place to eat, according to frequent diners Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Marlene Dietrich, and Richard Avedon, among many others, famous and not so famous).

After New York, Ms. Lewis headed back home, to the South, making stops to cook in, to name but two locales, Charleston and Chapel Hill.

She was quoted in a 1989 interview with The New York Times thusly: “As a child in Virginia I thought all food tasted delicious. After growing up, I didn’t think food tasted the same, so it has been my lifelong effort to try and recapture those good flavors of the past.”

She made people very happy (Estate of Edna Lewis)

She made people very happy (Estate of Edna Lewis)

Here is her recipe for a cake with so much more than merely good flavors. It is found in The Gift of Southern Cooking (Knopf, 2003), which Ms. Lewis co-authored with Chef Scott Peacock. You should make this cake, and you should learn as much about Edna Lewis as you can.

Sitting pretty

Sitting pretty

Very Good Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

THE CAKE

2 cups granulated sugar; 
1 1/2 cups cake flour; 
1/2 teaspoon salt
; 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
; 1 cup double-strength brewed coffee
; 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped; 
2 eggs, at room temperature; 
1/2 cup vegetable oil; 
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature; 
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

THE FROSTING

1 cup heavy cream
; 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter cut into 1/2-inch pieces; 
1/3 cup granulated sugar; 
1/4 teaspoon salt; 
1 pound semisweet chocolate, finely chopped; 
1/4 cup hot double-strength brewed coffee; 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

To make the cake: Sift together sugar, flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. Pour the hot coffee over the finely chopped chocolate, and allow chocolate to melt completely.

In a separate bowl, whisk together until well blended eggs and vegetable oil, followed by the sour cream, vanilla, and coffee-chocolate mixture. Stir this liquid mixture into the dry ingredients by thirds, stirring well after each addition until completely blended. Divide the batter evenly between two buttered and floured parchment-lined 9-inch cake pans. Drop each cake pan once onto the counter from a height of 3 inches, to remove any large air pockets, which could cause holes or tunnels in the baked cake layers. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until the cake springs back slightly when gently tapped in the center or a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove immediately to cooling racks, and allow to rest for 5 minutes before turning out of the pans.

To make the frosting: Heat the cream, butter, sugar, and salt in a heavy saucepan until the butter is melted. Add the chocolate and cook over very low heat, stirring constantly, just until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and blend in coffee and vanilla. Transfer frosting to a bowl to cool, stirring occasionally, until it is of a spreading consistency – about 1 hour, depending on the temperature of the kitchen. (If your kitchen is very warm, move the frosting to a cooler area to cool and thicken, but do not refrigerate or chill over ice water. Chocolate and butter solidify at different temperatures, and harsh chilling could cause the frosting to separate and turn grainy.)

To assemble the cake: When the frosting is of a spreading consistency and the cake layers are completely cooled, put one cake layer on a serving platter, bottom side up, and frost the surface thickly. Top with the other layer, bottom side down, and frost the top and sides. For best results, allow the cake to sit for 2 or more hours before slicing. Store, covered, at room temperature.

NOTE: For the richest, darkest frosting possible, resist the urge to whisk or beat to cool faster. Excessive stirring incorporates air, which will cool and set the frosting more quickly, but will also dilute its dark color and flavor. And because it takes a little while to cool to the proper consistency, have all of the ingredients ready and make the frosting as soon as the cake layers are in the oven to bake.

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