The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Sixties Cookbook (11 page)

4 Red Delicious or other sweet red apples, cored and cut into ½-inch dice

4 large celery ribs, cut into ½-inch slices

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Green lettuce leaves, for serving

1.
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally, until the walnuts are toasted and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely.

2.
Whisk the mayonnaise, sour cream, and poppy seeds together in a medium bowl. Add the toasted nuts with the apples and celery and fold together until combined. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 and up to 4 hours. (The acidity of the dressing will keep the apples from discoloring.)

3.
Arrange the lettuce in a serving bowl and heap the apple mixture in the center of the bowl. Serve chilled.

KITCHEN TIME MACHINE

To make this a more substantial main course salad, add 2 cups cooked and cubed chicken and 1 additional tablespoon each of mayonnaise and sour cream. In the Sixties, you would have had to cook the chicken yourself (see Chicken Divan,
page 102
), but supermarket rotisserie chicken works perfectly.

MANHATTAN CLAM CHOWDER

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

Manhattan clam chowder differs from its New England namesake in that it has a tomato base instead of cream. A healthy soup chunky with vegetables and a tomato-y tang suitable for dieters, it’s also a very democratic soup. You might find it listed both as the “soup du jour” on the menu blackboard at the neighborhood bar and grill, and as a specialty of the house at tony seafood palaces. Homemade is best.

2 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch dice

4 bacon slices, coarsely chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

3 medium celery ribs with leaves, cut into ½-inch dice

1 medium carrot, cut into ½-inch dice

½ cup (½-inch) seeded and diced green bell pepper

3 cups bottled clam juice

1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice, juices reserved, chopped (see Note)

½ teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 (1-pound) container shucked clams with juice

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

1.
Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and partially cover the saucepan. Simmer until the potatoes are barely tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2.
Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp and browned, about 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain.

3.
Add the onion, celery, carrot, and green pepper to the fat in the saucepan. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the clam juice, tomatoes with their juice, thyme, and bay leaf and stir well. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and partially cover the saucepan. Simmer to blend the flavors, about 25 minutes.

4.
Stir in the clams and their juices with the bacon and potatoes. Cook just to heat the clams and potatoes, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

5.
Ladle into bowls and serve hot, sprinkled with parsley.

NOTE:
Here’s a low-tech way to chop tomatoes. Pour the contents of the can into a deep bowl. Reach into the bowl and crush the tomatoes through your impeccably clean fingers until the tomatoes are broken into pieces about the size of a quarter or smaller. That’s it.

BLENDER GAZPACHO

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

In the Sixties, the cold Spanish soup was all the rage with the fashionable crowd in Manhattan. It was exotic, refreshing, and seasonally delicious. To streamline the chore of chopping so many vegetables, even Spanish cooks used a blender.

3 large ripe tomatoes

1 large cucumber, peeled

1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil, preferably extra-virgin

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

2 cups canned tomato juice, preferably tomato-vegetable juice

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and green bell peppers and croutons, for toppings

1.
Cut the tomatoes in half through their equators, and gently squeeze to remove the seeds. Slice the cucumber lengthwise and scoop out and discard the seeds with the dip of a spoon. Coarsely chop the tomatoes and cucumber.

2.
In batches, puree the tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, onion, garlic, oil, and vinegar together with the tomato juice. Transfer to a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours or overnight.

3.
Place the tomatoes, cucumber, green peppers, and croutons in individual serving bowls. Ladle the soup into soup bowls and serve chilled, letting each guest add toppings from the serving bowls as desired.

VICHYSSOISE

MAKES 6 TO 8 SERVINGS

Here’s another popular cold soup from the period, this one French in name but American in origin. Vichyssoise (pronounced VEE-shee-swahz, with a hard “z” on the end) was invented by Louis Diat, the chef at the Ritz-Carlton in Manhattan. He recalled cooling a potato and leek soup with cold cream during the summer when he was growing up, and named the soup for the French town of Vichy. It’s a perfect soup for the cool host or hostess because it must be cooked well ahead of serving, leaving you less to stress about on party day.

4 large leeks

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

5 cups canned reduced-sodium chicken broth

1½ pounds baking potatoes, such as russet or Burbank, peeled and cubed

½ cup heavy cream

Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Sour cream, for serving

Finely chopped fresh chives, for garnish

1.
Chop the white and pale green parts of the leeks, discarding the green tops. You should have 3 packed cups of chopped leeks. Transfer the leeks to a bowl of large water and agitate them in the water to dislodge any grit. Let stand for a few minutes, letting the grit sink to the bottom of the bowl. Lift the leeks from the water, leaving the grit behind. Spin the leeks in a salad spinner to remove excess water.

2.
Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the leeks and onion and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the broth and potatoes and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and partially cover the pot with the lid. Simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes.

3.
In batches, with the lid ajar to avoid a geyser of hot soup, puree the soup in a blender, transferring the puree to a bowl. Stir in the cream, then season with salt and pepper. Let cool until tepid. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight.

4.
Just before serving, taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Ladle into soup bowls. Top each serving with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of chives and serve chilled.

SIXTIES SECRET GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH

MAKES 4 SANDWICHES

Think grilled cheese sandwiches are the same now as they were in the Sixties? Not according to our source, the former grill cook at a popular midcentury diner. They used white bread and American cheese, but shunned butter for a not-so-secret Sixties ingredient: mayonnaise.

4 slices white sandwich bread

8 slices American cheese

About 2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1.
Using 2 slices of bread and 2 slices of American cheese for each sandwich, make 4 sandwiches. Spread a thin schmear of mayonnaise on the outsides of the sandwiches.

2.
Heat a large griddle or two heavy skillets over medium heat. Place the sandwiches on the griddle and adjust the heat to medium-low. Cook until the underside is golden brown, about 2 minutes, adjusting the heat as needed so the sandwich doesn’t cook and brown too rapidly. Turn and cook until the other side is golden brown, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer to plates, cut in half on the diagonal, and serve hot.

CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

As pop artist Andy Warhol’s 1962 painting
100 Soup Cans
affirms, the early Sixties was the age of canned soup. Campbell’s first ready-to-serve soup flavor was tomato, and it remains one of its three most popular soups to this day. While cracking open a can is perfectly acceptable when you’re alone, it’s hardly a way to treat company. Try this simple, homemade tomato soup recipe (especially with our Sixties Secret Grilled Cheese Sandwich,
page 61
), and you might just retire your can opener.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium celery rib, chopped

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 cups canned reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice, juices reserved, chopped (see Note,
page 57
)