Meet (Some of) the Borzoi Cooks!

A commenter asked us to introduce ourselves, and so here we are. The spring weather has inspired me to present ourselves baseball card-style, with all the vital stats for the writers of the Borzoi Cooks column below. To sweeten the deal, each Borzoi Cook is holding up an item from the Union Square Greenmarket, and I’ll give you some tips for that fruit or vegetable, as culled from Marian Morash’s Victory Garden Cookbook. This cookbook is an oldie but a goodie, with over 800 recipes featuring ingredients from your backyard. Also included are some basic gardening tips and vegetable/fruit shopping tips for non-gardeners like me. Consider it a Mastering the Art of Garden Cooking.

So without further ado, here are a few of the Borzoi Cooks:

Hillary Tisman
Advertising/Promotions Manager
Previous Posts: A Hanukkah Feast that Would Make Joan Nathan Proud
Favorite Dishes: Bread in all shapes and sizes, roast chicken and vegetables, spaghetti carbonara, anything with almonds and/or pears
Favorite Authors: Don Delillo, Bret Easton Ellis, Philip Roth, Michael Ondaatje, Paul Auster, Haruki Murakami, Jane Austen, William Faulkner, J.D. Salinger

Basil
1. Fresh basil, along with garlic, is the essential ingredient in pesto.
2. For a French take on pesto, use basil, garlic, tomato, and Parmesan cheese to make pistou.

Claire Kelley
Academic Marketing Assistant Manager
Previous Posts: Making Ratatouille, James Beard’s Oatmeal Bread
Favorite Dishes: Fannie Farmer’s Pumpkin Pie, Lidia’s Spaghetti alla Carbonara, and of course, Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon
Favorite Authors: Jhumpa Lahiri, Lorrie Moore, Richard Yates, Thomas Merton, James Joyce, Jeanette Winterson, and Haruki Murakami

Carrots
1. To store carrots, remove their tops and place in a perforated plastic bag or in the refrigerator vegetable compartment for up to 2 weeks.
2. Parsnips and carrots have the same sweet flavor. Substitute carrots in parsnip recipes.
3. Use puréed carrots to thicken sauces.

Jessica Freeman-Slade
Assistant Managing Editor
Previous Posts: Attempting Boeuf Bourguignon, Judith Jones’s Summer Feast, Mastering the Art of French Coping, Jason Epstein’s Chicken Pot Pie, Maryetta’s Oatmeal Bread, Borzoi Cooks’ Passover with Joan Nathan’s Brisket
Favorite Dishes: Perfect roast chicken with lemon and thyme, roasted carrots and asparagus, and poached eggs over garlicky kale and onions (my fall-back dinner when there’s no energy for big-time cooking)
Favorite Authors: Adam Gopnik, Lorrie Moore, Joseph O’Neill, Toni Morrison, Junot Diaz, Zadie Smith, Sarah Vowell, Isaac Bashevis Singer

Jerusalem Artichokes
1. Store in wet sand in a damp cellar with a temperature of around 34º. For short-term storage, wipe them off without washing and place in a perforated plastic bag in the refrigerator, where they’ll keep for at least 2 weeks before softening and shriveling.
2. Try Choke Chips with cocktails. Slice chokes paper thin and drop into hot fat. Fry just to brown, drain on a paper bag, salt, and serve.
3. Add mashed cooked chokes to soups or stews to thicken them.

Stephanie Bowen
Assistant Editor
Previous Posts: Quick Apple Cake, Butter Cookies, Pat Conroy’s Apple Cobbler
Favorite Dishes: Any and all carbs (I am the Atkins Diet’s worst nightmare!), goat cheese and pesto pasta, French bread pizza, curry and rice, pineapple, strawberries, scones with clotted cream and jam, key lime pie
Favorite Authors: Jane Austen, Roald Dahl, J. D. Salinger, Barbara Kingsolver, Madeleine L’Engle, Jorge Luis Borges, Anna Quindlen, too many to list!

Celeriac
1. Do not freeze or can celeriac. Trim its fibrous roots and store it, unwashed, for 1 week in the refrigerator, or layer celeriac in sand in a cool cellar, where it will hold for a month or two.
2. Add small chunks to winter stews.
3. Combine leftover celeriac and cooked mushrooms, finely chop. Stuff into raw mushroom caps, broil in oven, and serve as an appetizer course or vegetable.

Florence Lui
Editorial Assistant
Previous Posts: Maryetta’s Oatmeal Bread, Thanksgiving with the Borzoi Cooks, Making Ratatouille, Shopsin’s Pancakes
Favorite Dishes (to make): Homemade pizza, which is so easy and can be made in endless variations; slow-roasted Hong Kong style BBQ pork; spaghetti and clams (the juice in the clams does all the work for you); savory and homey pies/tarts like chicken pot pie and quiche (really anything with a buttery and flaky crust), and, as of late: ramp risotto
Favorite Books: Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled, Woolf’s The Waves, Adam Phillips’s On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored, Proust’s Swann’s Way, Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Janet Malcolm’s In the Freud Archives, Balzac’s Lost Illusions

Mushrooms
1. Slice thinly and toss with cooked fettuccine or linguine, light cream, butter, garlic, and asparagus.
2. Marinate with Brussels sprouts to make an attractive cocktail snack. It will hold well in the refrigerator for 2 days. To make the marinade, bring olive oil, lemon juice, water, salt, pepper, garlic, bay leaf, oregano, basil, thyme, and parsley to a boil, then let cool.

Mary Buckley
Assistant Manager of Advertising and Promotions
Previous Posts: The Borzoi Cooks Take on Chocolate Mousse, Julia vs. Lidia, Down Home with the Borzoi Cooks, Strawberry Shortcake
Favorite Dishes: Baked yams, homemade chocolate chip cookies, salmon with glazed teriyaki sauce on the grill
Favorite Authors: Lorrie Moore, Kenny Shopsin, Amy Greene, C. S. Lewis, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Horseradish
1. Make beet relish: grate and mix with grated beets. Add Dijon mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, and vinegar. Fold in yogurt and sour cream.
2. Horseradish cream is a nice topping for cold asparagus. To make, whip heavy cream into soft mounds and fold in finely grated fresh horseradish. Season with lemon juice, a pinch of sugar, salt, and pepper to taste.

Clarissa Cortland
Sister
Previous Posts: Down Home with the Borzoi Cooks, Shortcakes [cameo]
Favorite Dishes: Any type of risotto (the cheesier the better!), Pad see ew (Thai), Any entrée that incorporates mango or coconut, Fried Chicken & waffles, Roasted beets, Buttermilk pancakes
Favorite Authors: Milan Kundera, Dave Eggers, Jeffrey Brown, Oscar Wilde, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Muriel Barbery

Burdock Root?
Here’s the story: none of us remember what this root vegetable is. It looks like a pale white, enormous carrot. Our best guess is the burdock root, which is a popular ingredient in Asia. Burdock root is very crisp and has a sweet, mild, and pungent flavor. If, however, you think we’ve got this root pegged all wrong, leave us a comment!

…and of course, it can’t be always about the vegetables:

Pamela Cortland
Assistant Marketing Manager
Previous Posts: Down Home with the Borzoi Cooks, Shortcakes, Julia vs. Lidia, The Borzoi Cooks Take on Chocolate Mousse, Strawberry Shortcake
Favorite Authors: Bohumil Hrabal, Tom Gauld, Orhan Pamuk, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Karen Russell, Zadie Smith, Lynda Barry

Ginger Cookie
1. Cookies are an essential ingredient in good times.
2. Leftover cookies should be eaten immediately.

Stay tuned for Part II, featuring The Rest of the Borzoi Cooks!