MISS RUBY'S AMERICAN COOKING

The celebrated chef shares her secrets of creative cooking based on the use of regional American ingredients

Championing the "highly successful border raids" that have long enriched the eclecticism of traditional American cookery, Texas-born Bronz--owner of Miss Ruby's Cafe in New York City--here reveals her secrets for culinary happiness. While lamenting that many Americans limit native food to hot dogs, hamburgers and barbecue, she seeks a remedy in regionalism, supplying more than 200 recipes from 18 states and geographical areas. The food is as basic as mashed potatoes and as special as conch salad, bolichi (Puerto Rican pot roast), "she-crab soup," avocado ice cream, and catfish pate with crawfish tails. Along with recipes, Bronz offers homespun but sharp-witted commentaries. On Shaker-style sauteed apples with honey and cream: "This dessert is dead simple and simply good, and typical of deceptive Shaker simplicity." On Shaker-style Ohio lemon pie: "The sharpness of lemon curd pales in comparison with this intense lemon dessert. The Shakers were celibate, but unabating in their intensity." Her home cooking, however fine, shows little concern for cholesterol. BOMC Home Style and Better Homes & Gardens Book Club alternates .
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Miss Ruby's Cafe, in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, features a rotating menu of "real" American food, regional dishes from around the country. Bronz's recipes are inspired by home cooks, other restaurant chefs, and by old cookbooks she has collected. The result is sort of a community cookbook, a pleasing assortment of authentic but often updated traditional American favorites: Maryland Crab Soup, Crawfish Pie, Texas Red, Grilled Buffalo Steaks with Onion Oregano Butter. Sugar Reef, a trendy restaurant on the other side of town, serves Caribbean food that may not always be perfectly authentic but is always delicious: spicy Coconut Shrimp, "Jerk" Chicken, Fried Green Plantains, Mango Mousse. Some of these recipes have long ingredients lists, but most are not time-consuming to prepare. Although several good Caribbean cookbooks have appeared recently, it's worth adding this slightly different one, too.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.