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LIFESTYLE

In the Kitchen with Terry Paulding

Terry Paulding
Guest Author
March 2008

Sometimes, my job is just too much fun. In the space of two weeks, I’ve catered ribs, chicken, potato salad, baked beans and cornbread for a swim team banquet, made a Cajun birthday feast including crawfish, gumbo, my favorite peppery greens salad, and homemade rum-raisin ice cream profiteroles. I’ve also run a Tapas team building event with 86 cooks making both classic and inventive Spanish dishes and another smaller corporate event with Italian food, and catered an African feast for a fundraiser held at the Oakland zoo. I love to research recipes for things I don’t know how to make—I’m a fairly good Cajun cook but had never made a big crawfish boil before. And, I’d never tried cooking African food before. As I did my research, I realized that it is getting easier and easier to find just about any recipe you want on the Internet. A simple key word search will bring up an almost infinite array of possibilities. I think I read 10 different recipes for my crawfish boil before I figured out exactly how to prepare 30 pounds of the wriggling little beasts. And, some sites have reader ratings, a very helpful feature.

Even with all the new resources, I still go back to favorite dishes often. The Cajun salad above harks back to my culinary school days, where our American Cuisine teacher introduced it— although I’ve made some changes over time. Right now, there are such awesome greens at the farmers market, that it’s the perfect dish— and you can adapt it with different ingredients as they become available, too. It works especially well with assertive greens like arugula, spinach and cress, but when I made it recently, I found pea shoots at the farmers market, and threw them in as well. And, spying a basket of kumquats, I decided to slice those up in the salad, which turned out to be a great addition. You can use simple toasted pecans, or try my method for making the slightly spicy candied nuts—which are great by themselves as well. Just remember to store them in an airtight container, or they will lose their wonderful crispy texture.

Terry’s Special Spiced Pecans

1 lb. pecans

• 1 egg white

• 1 tsp. kosher salt

• 1/4 tsp. (or more to taste) cayenne pepper

• 2 drops vanilla

• 2 Tbs. sugar

• 3 Tbs. dark brown sugar

• cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the nuts, let sit for 20 seconds, then drain.

Combine the egg white, spices and sugars. Mix well. Toss in the nuts, and stir around to mix thoroughly. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, and spread the nuts on it. Bake for about 8-10 minutes, until the nuts are browned. They will crisp as they cool. Once cooled, break them apart and store in a zip bag or airtight container.

Terry Paulding is President of Paulding & Company, a Creative Kitchen, 1410 D 62nd Street in Emeryville. Visit her website at www.pauldingandco.com.