The simple truth about the work of the food writer Paula Wolfert is that when you cook one of her recipes, it's the start of a partnership. In a decade's time I expect to be still cooking the dish of mustard greens with black-eyed beans and rice which we tried recently from her newest book, Mediterranean Grains and Greens, just published.
Every so often I return to the brilliant dishes she uncovered in her classic book, The Cooking of South West France - duck breasts baked in salt; lamb with garlic and white beans; straw potato cake with braised leeks - and the same is true of all the food in all her books: the couscous recipes in Good Food from Morocco, the wealth of ideas in Paula Wolfert's World of Food or The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, the endlessly surprising Mediterranean Cooking.
Some people find the lengthy recipes as labyrinthine and complex as a David Mamet film or a late Beethoven string quartet. For some reason, they dislike the exhaustive analysis of different subjects - in the new book it is the best way to cook polenta, for example - and they feel that Wolfert's obsession with the peasant food of the Mediterranean, in particular what she calls "women's food", is nothing more than an American Aga-saga for food lovers.
But just look at the following three recipes, selected from her various books, and you will see that Wolfert's taste is unerring, whether she is adapting a truly fantastic recipe for creamed spinach, discussing Moroccan food, or just looking at a different, simple way of cooking chicken. Cook these dishes, and you will find that the reaction is always the same. "Where did you get this recipe?" people ask, and beg for a copy of it. You may get seriously fed up giving people copies of the recipe for Chicken with Orange.
You also may tire of the exhaustive detail of her books, or the dewy-eyed, romantic exploration of the Mediterranean, but you can never tire of food which is so pure, so delicious, so convincing.
Provencal Tian with Creamed Spinach
675g (1/2lbs) young flat-leaf stemmed spinach leaves,
5 tablespoons butter,
450g 15oz) chopped onions,
1 1/2 cloves garlic,
salt & freshly-ground black pepper,
1/2 tablespoons flour,
250ml (8fl oz) milk,
heated grated nutmeg,
12g (1/2oz) grated breadcrumbs,
1 teaspoon olive oil
Wash the spinach thoroughly; discard the stems and bruised leaves and drain in a colander.
Heat 3 tablespoons butter in a 30cm (12in) saucepan until bubbling. Add the onions and cook, covered, over medium heat for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, roughly chop the spinach.
When the onions are soft but not brown, stir in the spinach, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Raise the heat a little and cook for 10 minutes while stirring, until the spinach has expressed its moisture and is very liquid. Cover the pan, tip it, and drain the liquid into another pan. Reduce the liquid to half of its volume and reserve.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a heavy saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute without browning. Pour in the reduced liquid and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Gradually stir in the hot milk and nutmeg, and bring to a boil, stirring. Once boiling, fold in the spinach.
Preheat the oven to 190C/375 F/Gas 5. Place the spinach mixture in an oiled 25cm (10in) earthenware tian, or casserole dish, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, and drizzle with oil. Bake for 20 minutes, until the crumbs are browned and the tian is bubbling. Cool for 15 minutes and serve warm.
Chicken with Oranges
(From Mediterranean Cooking, HarperCollins)
Serves 4
A 3lb chicken, quartered,
4 teaspoons sharp mustard,
salt and freshly ground black pepper,
2 tablespoons olive oil,
half onion, finely chopped,
1 cup orange juice, quarter cup brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 375F/190 C/Gas 5. Smear the chicken quarters with mustard and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the quarters skin side down in one layer in a baking pan. Add olive oil, onion, and orange juice. Set in the oven to roast, basting often with pan juices, for 20 minutes.
Turn the chicken quarters over, skin side up, add the sugar, and continue roasting and basting until the chicken is tender and golden brown.
Pour the pan juices into a saucepan. By way of boiling, reduce to a thick sauce, stirring. Spoon part of the sauce over the chicken. Serve hot and pass the remaining sauce in a sauceboat.
Orange, Lettuce and Walnut Salad
(From Good Food From Morocco, Grub Street)
Serves 6
1 head cos lettuce,
3 oranges,
2 tablespoons lemon juice,
2 tablespoons granulated sugar,
pinch of salt, cinnamon,
1 tablespoon tpsp orange-flower water,
30g (1oz) chopped walnuts
Wash the lettuce and section into leaves, discarding the tough outer ones. Drain and wrap in a dish towel to dry. Store in the fridge until needed. Peel the oranges, using a small serrated knife and employing a seesaw motion, cutting away both peel and white inner membrane. Section the oranges by cutting out each segment, leaving behind all the membranes from the orange flesh. As you work, lift out each segment and place in a small mixing bowl. Squeeze the juice from the remainder of the orange over the segments to keep them moist. Cover and keep chilled.
Make a dressing by mixing the lemon juice, sugar, salt, half teaspoon cinnamon, orange-flower water, and 2 tablespoons of the orange juice. Blend well, then taste - the dressing should be sweet.
Just before serving, shred the lettuce and arrange in a glass serving dish. Pour the dressing over and toss. Make a design around the edges with overlapping sections of orange, then sprinkle the salad with the chopped walnuts and dust with cinnamon. Serve immediately.
Mediterranean Grains and Greens by Paula Wolfert (Kyle Cathie, £25). Wolfert's web site is: www.paula-wolfert.com