‘Best Recipes’ pulls together best from ‘03-04

I have a habit of reading through Wednesday’s IN Food section, drooling over delicious recipes and then completely forgetting to clip them out.

The next day, the newspaper is in the recycle bin and I’m eating leftover chicken. Again.

“The Best American Recipes” solves my absentmindedness. It’s a 300-page collection of the best recipes published in newspapers, magazines and on Web sites in the last year. The 2003-04 collection pulls from Gourmet magazine, The New York Times and dozens of other publications, including some cookbooks. Recipes are as down home as Creamy Scrambled Eggs for a Crowd and as sassy as The Easiest, Sexiest Salad in the World.

Authors Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens say they tested thousands of recipes to settle on the 100 or so in “The Best American Recipes.”

I tested five, starting with some buttermilk scones. Personally, I’d capitalize the BUTTER in the word buttermilk here. The recipe calls for three sticks of it. If your arteries can handle it, though, it’s worth it.

The scones were simple, flaky and tasty, and required nothing more than a bit of jam spread inside. They’re the perfect morning meal for houseguests if you want to give your company the bed-and-breakfast treatment.

As simple as the scones were, my next recipe, pomegranate-braised brisket with onion confit, was not. The recipe serves eight, but it’s just my husband and me at home so I cut everything in half. That might have been the root of my problems.

I ended up scorching the brisket into one tough hunk of meat. Despite the jaw workout, the pomegranate juice gave the meal a unique flavor and the onion confit was delicious. I ended up spreading the leftover confit on crackers for a snack the following few days. (Confit is a preserve you make by cooking food slowly. It’s a sort of condiment for meat and poultry.)

The best recipe I tried from the cookbook was a wedge salad made from iceberg lettuce. You’ve probably tried this in a restaurant. You’re served a large section of a head of lettuce topped with dressing, in this case homemade blue cheese, and served on a cold plate. The wedge’s iceberg lettuce is a refreshing break from the woodsier—albeit more nutrient-rich—lettuces I’ve been eating the last few years. Best of all, it’s simple. A few whacks with a big knife and it’s ready to eat.

The dressing paired perfectly with the salad, but I threw a few candied walnuts on top to satisfy my sweet tooth.

“The Best American Recipes” also had great versions of chocolate-chocolate chip cookies and black beans. Since I studied abroad in Costa Rica 10 years ago, I’ve searched high and low for a good black-bean recipe. The nutritious legume is a staple there. This recipe calls for two strips of bacon, all but confirming my suspicion that my host mama threw in a little lard to make her beans taste so good.

Instant Black Beans

From Elaine Louise in “The New York Times”

2 strips bacon, chopped

6 ounces garlicky sausage, such as chorizo, linguiça, or kielbasa, diced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 (15 1/2 -ounce) cans Goya black bean soup

1 cup hot water

1/2 bay leaf, finely chopped

Fry the bacon until crisp in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the sausage and sauté until browned, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes more. Add the soup, water and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered until the mixture has thickened, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Yield: 4 servings

Nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate.

Buttermilk Scones

From “The Foster’s Market Cookbook” by Sara Foster and Sarah Belk King

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

24 tablespoons (3 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 -inch pieces

1 1/4 cups buttermilk, plus more as needed

1 large egg beaten with 2 tablespoons milk, for the egg wash

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease two baking sheets.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and cut it into the flour using a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles cornmeal. (Or use a food processor fitted with the metal blade to cut the butter into the flour mixture by pulsing 10 to 12 times. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl to continue. Do not overwork the dough.

Add the 1 1/4 cups buttermilk and mix until just combined and the dough begins to stick together. Add additional buttermilk, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the dough seems too dry. It should just hang together but not be at all wet or sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll or pat it into two 6-inch rounds about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut each round in half, then cut each half into 3 triangles (pie-shaped wedges) and place them on the baking sheets. Brush the tops with the egg wash.

Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

If you want to add a little something to the basic recipe, toss 1 1/4 cups toasted, chopped pecans into the dry ingredients before adding the buttermilk.

Yield: 12 scones

Approximate nutrition per scone: 423 calories, 24 grams fat, (14.7 grams saturated fat, 51 percent fat calories), 6 grams protein, 45 grams carbohydrate, 80 milligrams cholesterol, 1.3 grams dietary fiber, 266 milligrams sodium.

The Wedge

From “Desperation Entertaining!” By Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross

Dressing:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

Salad:

2 heads iceberg lettuce

To make the dressing: Stir together the mayonnaise and sour cream in a small bowl. Stir in the Worcestershire and blue cheese. Mash the chunks of cheese against the side of the bowl to break them up some. The dressing can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 1 week.

To make the salad: Remove and discard the core of each head of lettuce. Rinse, shake off excess water, and dry with paper towels. Cut each head into quarters, so you end up with eight wedges.

To assemble: Arrange each lettuce wedge on a salad plate. Spoon over about 2 tablespoons dressing, or more to taste. Serve immediately, passing extra dressing at the table.

Some tips: Use small- to medium-size heads of iceberg. Iceberg tastes best if it’s crisp and cold, so don’t let it sit out too long before making the salad. If the dressing seems too thick, add a tablespoon or so of red or white wine vinegar.

Yield: 8 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 176 calories, 16.6 grams fat, (5.4 grams saturated, 83 percent fat calories), 3.7 grams protein, 4 grams carbohydrate, 26 milligrams cholesterol, 1.9 grams dietary fiber, 234 milligrams sodium. self end