I’ll admit that entertaining isn’t my strong suit. I wistfully look at cookbooks that break down exactly how to plan a dinner party, sharing multicourse menus that promise you can do it all in one afternoon. And by the time guests arrive, you’ll have changed out of your T-shirt and sweatpants, wearing your best outfit, and enjoying drinks and appetizers with guests, knowing that everything in the kitchen, which is all cleaned up, is ready to serve. You’ve done it. All you need to do now is to enjoy yourself. Some books have the nerve to insist that there’s nothing better than getting everyone to come into the kitchen, grab a wine glass, and “join in the fun” of preparing dinner. I’m a dictator in the kitchen and don’t want anyone in there with me, if they’re just there to “have fun.” We’ve got dinner to work on…and there’s a reason they call it “work.” When someone’s coming for dinner, the panic starts a few days before, planning the menu, and the shopping. Because I am insane (I realize insane + dictator may not be a very appealing combination for potential guests, but these days, here we are), there is one store where I get onions and garlic, another where I buy my lettuce, and another that has the kind of plums I like, that will be ripe by the time I need them. I get a sustainable seafood delivery once a week, so that needs to be organized and ordered in advance, if fish or shellfish are on the menu. If I’m going to serve meat, I either get it at my local natural food store, which sells meat that’s responsibly raised, and they only have it on certain days. If they don’t have it, I hoof it over to the butcher shop that’s a twenty-minute walk, but it’s worth it because the guys who work there are très beaux, and when you walk in, they dazzle you with their extra-friendly welcome, so it’s worth the trek. The meat isn’t bad, either. Even if I’m just serving a simple appetizer, a main course, salad, cheese, and dessert, I start first thing in the morning while Romain is huddled over his coffee, wondering what that crazy man in the kitchen is doing. By the time dinner rolls around, to be honest, my goal is to go to bed. Since it’s Paris, people arrive between 8 and 8:30, and I try to get dinner on the table by 9, although we have friends who don’t serve dinner until 10pm or later. By then, all I want is to be horizontal.
Sometimes I have to make dinner when friends come to Paris, because they don’t heed my advice that reservations nowadays need to be made at least a week in advance, especially if you want to eat out on Friday or Saturday night. Most just want to be a free man (or person) in Paris, unfettered and alive, but even if Joni Mitchell just walked into Septime, the toughest reservation in Paris, (or Serena Williams walked into L’Oiseau Blanc), they wouldn’t get a table.
So when a good friend was coming for dinner recently, and yes, it was on a Friday, and the three restaurants I was hoping to get into were, of course, fully booked, I offered to make dinner. I made a batch of hummus after I picked up a jar of chickpeas at the natural food store, then rode my bike over to Utopie to pick up a poppyseed-hazelnut baguette, and grabbed some small eggplants at one produce store to grill, a head of lettuce at the other produce store that had the lettuce I like, and a few slabs of tuna at a new poissonnerie in our neighborhood (which involved a very interesting and lengthy discussion with the owner of the shop, whose wife is Japanese, who explained why he keeps the best grades of fish in the refrigerator, which keeps the fish fresher, not on ice like they normally do at seafood shops). Then I stopped at the fromagerie to get some cheese.
The upside is that when you have really good ingredients, which I’m (obvs) picky about, you don’t have to do a lot to them. One entertainment-friendly cue I have embraced is always having ice cream on hand, in this case, Fig leaf ice cream and Plum sorbet, so dessert was mostly done. I roasted some figs that I’d picked in Provence, which I plucked from one of the bags I’m storing in the freezer, but needed something to go with dessert. I have plenty of cookies in my repertoire, but I’m embarrassed about the high stack of cookbooks on my desk that I’ve bookmarked with recipes I want to try. One book dates as far back as 1976, so I’m pretty behind.
One newer book was Will This Make You Happy, which bills itself as a “narrative cookbook” (think: memoir), by baker Tanya Bush about navigating her life as a budding baker. This includes a disappointing, yet informative…and formative, internship in Tuscany, working at a cooking school, and hopscotching through rocky relationships. She eventually finds her footing in baking, and her book has recipes such as Soba Cha Panna Cotta, Dark Chocolate and Coconut Birthday Cake, and Toasted Croissant Ice Cream. I didn’t have a lot of time to spare and was intrigued by her Spicy Olive Oil Ginger Cookies, partially because a spice cookie is welcome with any fruit dessert, and partly because I had all the ingredients on hand, so I didn’t have to do any shopping.
An intriguing thing about these cookies is that they use olive oil rather than butter, so you don’t have to wait for butter to come to room temperature and can make them right away. They do need time to rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, but then, you just roll them in sugar and bake.
After I baked the cookies and they cooled, I tasted one. I was a bit déçu that I didn’t find the spices punchy enough, and was wondering if I needed to make the recipe again, dialing up the spices. I reread the recipe, which called for a generous 2 tablespoons of ground ginger and 4 teaspoons of cinnamon. That gave me a chance to use the very special, and very expensive, cinnamon I got in Taiwan, although I did swap a teaspoon of ground cardamom for the nutmeg, so maybe that was the culprit.
But the more I dug into the cookie, the better it got. And by the time dessert rolled around that night, the flavors were spot-on and the spice level hit its stride. Even better, the next day, I found that the flavors developed even further, making the cookies extraordinarily delicious, with just the right level of spiciness. And the chewiness increased as well. After all that panicking, things eventually worked out and they were the perfect chewy, chunky, spicy cookie.
Spicy Olive Oil Ginger CookiesMakes 12 cookies Adapted from Will This Make You Happy by Tanya Bush The original recipe was written in metrics, and that’s what I used when making these cookies. (I’ve included Tanya’s conversions here.) More and more people in the U.S. are baking with scales, which provide more consistent results. If you don’t have a scale, consider getting one. Tanya’s instructions said to flatten the cookies to 3 inches (7,5cm) in diameter before baking, but I prefer them a bit thicker and flattened mine to 2 inches (5cm). If you like thinner cookies, go ahead and flatten them to her dimensions. Turbinado sugar (called cassonade in French) are free-flowing, large crystals of natural sugar, which add a marvelous crunch to anything they touch, including these cookies. But you can roll the cookies in granulated sugar if you don’t have turbinado. The cookie dough 150g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar 50g (scant 1/4 cup, packed) light brown sugar 90g (1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon) light or mild molasses 65g (5 tablespoons) extra-virgin olive oil 1 large egg, preferably at room temperature 1 large egg yolk 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 280g (2 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons ground (dried) ginger 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cardamom or a scant teaspoon of ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 50g (1/4 cup) chopped candied ginger For baking and finishing the cookies 60g (1/4 cup) turbinado or granulated sugar Flaky sea salt, such as fleur de sel or Maldon (optional)
Note: On a standard American half-sheet pan, which is about 13 x 18 inches (33 x 46cm), you should be able to get six cookies on the baking sheet. I baked these in my compact oven so used a European-size baking sheet pan, which is smaller than American baking sheet pans, and baked five cookies on the baking sheet, as shown in the photo in the post. Invite your friends and earn rewards
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