Book Club Bites Readers Edition: Lavender Peach Macarons from Lena's Lunchbox

"We had ordered the shaved ice and candied tropical fruits, the curry ice cream with mini brioche puffs, and the lemon basil profiteroles with blueberry-oatmeal brittle. But a small army of servers brought out even more: chocolate fondant sandwiched in coconut crisps, cinnamon apple churros with maple syrup tapioca, chocolates, macarons, marshmallows. Felix delivered the petit fours himself, and whispered to me, “I’m sorry for the delay with the truffles. Try the lavender-peach macarons. They’re my favorite.” Then he smoothed his bangs back and gave me an extra-long look that made my hair stand on end." - Food Whore, Chapter 14

This scene at Tellicherry was one of my favorite to write. This is Tia's first on-the-job dinner with Michael Saltz and there's something fishy about the service. So many desserts, each more delicious than the last. 

This actually happened to me when I ate lunch with Tim Zagat as an intern at Zagat Survey. We ate at Jean-Georges and the desserts kept coming, a seemingly endless parade. 

I'm so glad this scene resonated with others, including Lena of Lena's Lunchbox who made an IRL version of my fictional creation.

Aren't they gorgeous??? See below for the full recipe and check out Lena's incredibly creative and playful recipes (I'm partial to the Big Mac(aron) and the Brown Sugar Honey Cake with Carrot Ganache and Crushed Honeycomb). And -- get this -- she's only 16. Next Christina Tosi anyone?

---

photos and words from Lena's Lunchbox

baking with lavender always makes me feel a little weird. it has a lovely taste, but using even a quarter teaspoon too much can quickly make a flavor go from ‘delicately floral’ to ‘hotel soap.’ in this recipe, finely ground lavender buds add character to the simple, meringue-based macaron cookie, and any soapiness is offset by a filling of assertive cream cheese frosting and bright peach jam.

these cookies were inspired by jessica tom’s food whore! in the book, the main character works as a secret assistant to the new york times’ food critic. their cover is blown while dining at a super nice restaurant called tellicherry, and the waiter brings them plates upon plates of desserts to try to leave a good impression: curry ice cream with mini brioche puffs, cinnamon apple churros with maple syrup tapioca, chocolate fondant sandwiched in coconut crisps, and lavender peach macarons!  it was one of the more mouthwatering chapters.

read food whore and make these (4 star) macarons!

macarons (adapted from entertaining with beth)

• 3 egg whites, room temperature
• 50 g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• purple (or red and blue) gel food coloring
• 120 g (1 cup) almond flour
• 200 g (2 cups) powdered sugar
• 2 tsp dried lavender buds

filling

• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp heavy cream or milk
• peach jam

line two baking sheets with parchment paper. beat the egg whites in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until frothy, about a minute. add the sugar, cream of tartar, and salt, and turn the mixer to high speed. whip for 8-10 minutes, or until very stiff peaks have formed (think seattle space needle). add the food coloring, making the color a little darker than desired (it will fade as the macarons bake).

combine the almond flour, powdered sugar, and dried lavender in a food processor. pulse until the lavender turns to powder, then sift the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl. discard the larger almond pieces that remain in the sieve.

gradually fold the flour mixture into the egg whites with a spatula. be careful!! undermix and the macarons will be lumpy and cracked, overmix and they’ll be flat and won’t have feet. about 60-75 turns of the spatula when folding is the right amount of time. the batter should be thick but runny.

transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a medium round tip. the easiest way to fill the bag with batter is to 1) twist the end of the pastry bag nearest to the tip (this prevents batter from leaking out before you’re ready), 2) place the bag in a large drinking glass and fold it around the rim, then 3) pour the batter in. pipe one-inch rounds onto the parchment-lined baking sheets, then rap the sheets on the counter to pop any air bubbles. let the macarons sit, untouched, for 30-45 minutes. this allows them to develop a skin; when they dry out, they’re forced to rise up and not spread out, giving them the trademark macaron “feet.” they should be tacky to the touch, but not stick to your fingers. during the last 10 minutes of letting them sit, preheat the oven to 300º.

bake for 20 minutes. don’t open the oven door while they’re baking. remove and let cool on pans for 20 minutes, then remove to a rack.

for the filling, beat together the cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. after a few minutes, add the powdered sugar, then the vanilla and salt. beat for 5 more minutes. add the cream and beat for one more minute. transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip.

to assemble, pipe a circle of frosting around the edge of half of the macarons. fill the hole with peach jam, then sandwich another macaron on top. makes 30 sandwich cookies. 

Thank you so much Lena!

See more Food Whore-inspired recipes here. Do you have a Food Whore-inspired dish you want to share? Email me at jessica@jessicatom.com and I'll feature you here.

Book Club Bites: Cauliflower Soup with Balsamic-Olive “Caviar”

People have asked me why there aren’t more modernist cuisine (aka molecular gastronomy) dishes in Food Whore. You know, foams and clouds, things made with aerators and anti-griddles. I find that type of cooking extremely fascinating, but looking back, I must have subconsciously only included dishes I know and understand. I’ve never experimented with sodium alginate or soy lecithin. Never made a consommé with a centrifuge.

But there is one exception -- “potato pearls with black, green, and crimson ‘caviar’ in a cauliflower cream nage”, which pops up in Chapter 14. You can easily make “caviar” using agar-agar, a plant-based gelatin that’s available in health food stores, gourmet shops, and Asian markets. It looks fancy, but it’s not. And the process is so fun. 

INGREDIENTS

A video posted by Jessica Tom (@jessica_tom) on Oct 15, 2015 at 8:08am PDT

“Caviar”
8 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Kalamata olive brine
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 grams powdered agar-agar
vegetable oil

Soup
1 head of cauliflower (about 1.5 lbs)
2 shallots
1 large white onion
5 cups of water
olive oil
salt
ground pepper 

Fill a tall glass with vegetable oil and place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Briefly boil the balsamic vinegar, olive brine and fish sauce with the agar-agar, until dissolved. Using a pipette, drop the liquid into the cold oil. The drops will immediately solidify and turn into spheres. (If yours don’t, try chilling your oil longer or using a taller glass. The droplets need to cool and congeal by the time they reach the bottom of the glass). Refrigerate until ready to use.

In a large pot, heat olive oil and sweat chopped shallots and onion on low for about 15 minutes. They should be translucent and not brown (you want the soup to be as white as possible so the “caviar” will visually pop).

Add diced cauliflower and water and boil on medium-high for 20 minutes, until cauliflower is very soft but not sulfurous (as overcooked cauliflower is prone to be). Add one tablespoon of butter and blend on the highest setting your blender has. You want the soup very, very smooth.   

Let the soup cool for 10 minutes, so the “caviar” doesn’t melt. Spoon the “caviar” on top. Serves 4-6.   

Book Club Bites: Sweet Potato Flowers

What was your first fine dining “wow” moment? Perhaps it was a duck confit, made from a recipe that hasn’t changed in generations. Or an elaborate 30-component dessert. Or a simple bite of the world’s best ingredients.

In Food Whore, Tia's eyes are opened by a simple amuse bouche: a sweet potato flower with sesame-honey stamens.

Unlike some of the other dishes in Food Whore, which are based on real-life dishes I’ve seen or eaten, this one came entirely from my imagination. I’m no restaurant chef, and if you’re making this as a snack for your friends or family, you probably don’t want to spend restaurant-level time on this. So here’s my at-home version of Tia’s fine dining bite. The inside is soft, while the ends are crisp like chips. If you’re timing this to the book -- this dish appears in Chapter 11!

INGREDIENTS

sweet potatoes (this recipe will make enough seasoning for 4-5 potatoes, but you can make fewer)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons paprika
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon cayenne

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Slice the sweet potatoes very thinly, preferably with a mandolin (I used the 1.3mm setting). On a non-stick baking sheet, fan 7 sweet potato slices into a circle.

In a bowl, mix egg, oil, salt, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and cayenne. Mix well then dab onto the sweet potatoes with a silicone brush (or even your fingers) until evenly covered. Make sure sure to get where the slices meet, too.

Place in oven and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the slices are slightly golden and very pliable. Remove from the the oven, then raise heat to 400 degrees.

Once cool enough to handle, pick up the circle and detach two of the slices so you have a broken circle. From one end, curl the perimeter of the circle, holding at the base and letting the top fan outwards like petals. Use two toothpicks in an X shape to secure the bottom.

Once you’re done, replace all your flowers on the baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes, or until the ends of the flower “petals” are crisp. Remove and let cool. Before serving, remove toothpicks. 

Book Club Bites: Dacquoise Drops

Even if you’re not particularly food-obsessed, you probably have one. A bite, a dish, a sip that changes your life somehow. Perhaps an oyster started a lifetime of risk-taking. A restaurant meal introduced you to your soulmate. A family dish opened generations of stories.

For Tia, her dish was a plate of cookies. Dacquoise drops connect her with her family, give her national recognition, and finally put her face-to-face with Michael Saltz.

The cookie is light but sturdy -- a stiff meringue made even more hardy with four types of nuts. I love them with a nutty, milky coffee. Pro tip: save a packet of silica gel from some kale chips or freeze-dried fruit. They’ll help keep your cookies crisp.

RECIPE:

Bring 4 egg whites to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In an electric mixer, whisk egg whites on high until foamy, about 1 minute. Add 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar and mix until fluffy, about another minute. Mix ⅔ cup of powdered sugar with ⅔ cup of granulated sugar. Add to egg mixture one tablespoon at a time while on medium-high speed. Continue to whisk until shiny and stiff (a peak stands up straight and doesn’t fall over). Gently mix 2 ¼ cups of chopped nuts (a mixture of pecans, pecans and cashews) and 1 cup of almond flour.

Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon meringues onto tray with two tablespoons, leaving about an inch between drops. Turn off oven and leave in there for at least two hours and up to overnight. Makes 40 cookies.

Book Club Bites: A Michael Saltz Manhattan with Jalapeno-Infused Bourbon

One of the main characters in Food Whore is Michael Saltz: a manipulative, secretive creep who lies to Tia to get his way.

And yet. It was important to me that he wasn’t a cartoon villain. We can spot overt power plays and runaway egotism a mile away. It gets more complicated when the person appeals to a desire within you.

For Tia, that’s recognition and making it in NYC. Michael Saltz offers that in an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime arrangement. Except there’s a catch…

This is a classic Manhattan, with a little twist: jalapeños and ancho chilis infused in the bourbon. Manhattan (the city and the drink) will always sting. We know that. Here, it burns. I used two dried peppers to one fresh one. Why? This is a flash-infusion. If you use all fresh peppers, it will take longer for the flavors to infuse into the bourbon. The dry peppers absorb the liquid more readily, releasing their flavor.

Like Michael Saltz, this is a glamorous, sophisticated drink that packs more of a punch than you might expect. Sip carefully.

RECIPE: Using a vegetable peeler, peel the skin off half an orange. Place inside a mason jar with two dried ancho chilis and one red jalapeño (ie: a green jalapeño that has ripened and turned hotter). Pour 8 oz of bourbon (half a standard mason jar) and let steep at room temperature for at least one hour. After 24 hours, pick out the peppers.

In a cocktail shaker, add ice and 2 ounces bourbon and 1 ounce sweet vermouth. Shake, strain, and pour into a short glass. Spritz the oil of one orange peel into the glass and add with maraschino cherry. Repeat three more times until the bourbon is done.

Book Club Bites: Salade Nicoise

There’s an important scene in Food Whore where Tia is feeling lost. Her personal life and secret life with Michael Saltz are starting to clash and she’s not sure how she'll sort it out.

Her friend asks her to grab a bite and they go to a nice-ish deli near Washington Square Park. You know, one of the ones with a decent salad bar. As she’s thinking, she absent-mindedly adds items to her container: arugula, tuna, mustard, olives… until she makes an accidental Salade Niçoise.

“I mixed and tasted and went back for other ingredients until the tuna salad was near perfect. It was filling and bracing and pickled. It didn’t taste like bodega food at all. The simple act of cooking and tasting calmed me like nothing else.”

Surprise, surprise, I also love Salade Niçoise. The appeal is its remarkable harmony. Every player is assertive: fragrant tuna, briny olives, meaty haricot verts, plush hard-boiled eggs, spicy arugula. And yet together, they harmonize. The salad surely doesn’t need cheese or bacon, both auto-tune for salad, ways to increase tastiness by masking the ingredients. This is hearty and flavorful, with each component keeping its integrity. 

In my mind, the defining characteristics of a Salade Niçoise are: boiled potatoes, blanched haricot verts, Niçoise olives, hard-boiled eggs, and high-quality tuna. Other people may want to put anchovy in there, but to me, olives and tuna add enough saltiness. Once you have those ingredients, you can really play around with the rest. The recipe below doesn’t have precise proportions -- just mix and match, salad-bar-bodega style.

RECIPE:

Dressing: Using a mortar and pestle, grind three cloves of garlic with one tablespoon of salt until pasty. Add to a bowl along with ⅓ cup of olive oil, 1 minced shallot, the juice of 2 lemons, 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, and black pepper to taste. Whisk and set aside.

Boiled Components: If you have the time, you might as well cook everything in the same pot of boiling water (as opposed to having three pots at once, which is somewhat wasteful and adds a lot of unnecessary heat to your kitchen -- critical if you’re making this in the summer).

Add water to a large saucepan and heavily salt. Bring to a boil. Add purple potatoes and four eggs. After 7-10 minutes (depending on how you like your eggs), remove the eggs and cool them off in a bowl of ice water. Add trimmed haricot verts and cook for 2 minutes. Remove and add to another bowl of ice water. Check potatoes with a fork -- the cooking time depends on the size. Remove when a fork easily slips in, with no “crunch” sound.

Before you assemble, cut the eggs in halves or quarters. Cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces.

Classic Components:
Tomatoes - I like Kumato because they’re sweet and not too tart. But any tomato will do. Cut into wedges.
Radishes 
Cucumber - English or mini. You want a compact cucumber that isn’t too watery.
Olives - I used oil-cured black olives because they are one of my favs. But Niçoise olives are the classic.
Herbs - scallions, basil, chervil

Wildcard Components:
Beets
Fiddlehead ferns
Microgreens - here, I used mustard micro greens
Pickled Cipollini Onions

Assembly:
On a large plate, arrange a bed of arugula. Add your other ingredients. Top with high-quality olive oil-packed tuna. My favorite is this yellowfin tuna from Ortiz. You can buy it at Whole Foods or Zingermans. (True, you can’t find imported Spanish tuna at a bodega salad bar. But just go with it.)

Drizzle with dressing and serve.

Book Club Bites: Pomegranate Lemon Bars

Lemon bars were one of the first things I baked -- from a box, of course, and I’ve repressed the exact procedure. Was it curd on top, or some sort of cornstarchy-sludge? Did I make it, or did I squeeze it out of a baggie?

It took me years to figure out that lemon bars aren’t hard to make at all. You probably have all the ingredients right now: flour, sugar, butter, and lemons. But for the best lemon bars, you need a lot of lemons.

I’ve experimented with other flavors: lime, lemon-grapefruit, and now this: a pomegranate lemon bar. I like the berried base that underpins this dessert. Citrus is a top-note flavor, while pomegranate is a mustier, base note player.

Plus, pomegranates are often on my mind so I had to incorporate them into a recipe. There’s a pomegranate on the cover of Food Whore but pomegranates don’t appear in the text of the book. Not once.

So why did I suggest a pomegranate for the cover? Well, they’re juicy, luscious, sexy -- all things I wanted my book to be. Not really in terms of scenes (don’t get your hopes up for back-to-back sex scenes), but more on a sentence level. Sentences can move with a sensual quality.

Also, I summoned some middle school Latin and loved the connection to Persephone and Hades. Do you remember that story? Basically, Hades tricks Persephone into eating a couple pomegranate seeds, sentencing her to a life in the underworld. Because of her love of food, she makes a deal with the devil.

And that… the pomegranate… is basically my book.

RECIPE: (adapted from Ina Garten’s lemon bar recipe)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bring 1 cup of pomegranate juice to a simmer and reduce on low for ten minutes. Turn off heat and let cool.

In an electric mixer, cream 2 sticks of room-temperature butter and ½ cup of granulated sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups of flour and ⅛ teaspoon of kosher salt. Slowly add to the mixer on low until just incorporated. Remove dough and roll into a ball on a well-floured surface. Press onto a 9” x 13” baking sheet, then chill for 15 minutes.  

Poke holes into the dough with a fork (so it doesn’t bubble up), then bake for 15-20 minutes until very lightly browned (keep in mind that it will get baked again with the curd, so no need to go all the way now).

For the filling, whisk 6 extra-large room temperature eggs, 3 cups of granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of lemon zest, ¾ cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice, ¼ cup of the reduced pomegranate juice, and 1 cup of flour. Pour over the crust, then bake for 35-40 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.
​
Cut into squares (or triangles if that’s your fancy). In a food processor, powder ⅓ cup of dehydrated strawberries. Sprinkle on top with powdered sugar.