When I was a teenager, I used to spend hours reading through my mother’s cookbooks. (OK, I still do that. When I’m over at my parents’ house my mom and I will curl up on the couch with a pile of cookbooks between us. My husband thinks we are weird.) I liked the ones with gorgeous photos (The Best of Gourmet, 1987), or glimpses of my mom’s childhood (Better Homes and Gardens Junior Cookbook) but my favorite reading cookbook was hands down the Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook. Its detailed drawings, urbane quotations, and side snippets about canapés and life in New York City added up to glimpses of a glamorous life where people dined at Le Cirque, dug clams in the Hamptons and ate shad roe at catered parties.
Years later, I moved to New York, and although the Silver Palate was long gone (save for a somewhat sad line of raspberry vinegar and hot fudge sauce most readily available in the food section of Filene’s Bargain Basement), I was eager to sample that glamorous New York. Sadly, I found I did not like Shad Roe, I knew nobody willing to share their grand Hamptons house, and my apartment was far too small for the type of party that merited catering. I did eat at Le Cirque though – it was mildly disappointing – my duck was overcooked.
What I had from that glamorous New York of the early 80’s was the cookbooks themselves – the Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook and its sister, the original Silver Palate Cookbook. Full of recipes with retro appeal that contain those hallmarks of glamorous 80’s food – lots of olive oil, lots of garlic, lots of capers, and lots of complexity without a lot of esoteric ingredients. (As a side note, when did the 80’s become retro? Was it around the time when the Cosby Show started airing on Nick at Nite? If I still enjoy watching the Cosby Show without irony, does that mean I’m old? I still want to be Claire Huxtable when I grow up. Only with fewer children.)
Chicken Marbella may be THE classic Silver Palate recipe. Chicken pieces are marinated (in a lot of garlic, olive oil and capers, of course) with olives and prunes, and then braised in white wine (a nice Chardonnay – is that not the quintessential drink of the 80’s?) The thing is, although the flavors are BIG and BOLD and not really trendy (where is the miso?) it’s a classic for a reason. Despite how weird the combination sounds, Chicken Marbella is delicious – it hits the right balance between salty, sweet and tart. And it’s a total breeze to make as well. Full Article
