The Pat Conroy Cookbook Read Online Free Page B

times. Do you have any theories about why all her husbands have turned out to be gay?”     • SERVES 6 TO 8
    2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
    2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
    ½ cup sugar
    ½ cup fresh lemon juice
    ¼ cup finely chopped mint leaves
    1 cup melon balls (preferably a mix of cantaloupe, honeydew, and/or similar kinds), plus additional (optional)
    FOR THE DRESSING
    1 cup yogurt
    ¼ cup honey
    ¼ cup fresh lime juice
    1. Place the gelatin, 1 cup of the orange juice, and the sugar in asmall pan and heat until the gelatin and sugar are dissolved. Do not let the mixture come to a boil.
    2. Remove the gelatin mixture from the heat and add the lemon juice, the remaining 1 cup orange juice, and the mint.
    3. Put the pan over a bowl of ice water and stir for a few minutes until the gelatin begins to thicken. Fold in the melon balls. Pour into a 4-cup ring mold and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
    4. Unmold and fill the center with additional melon balls, if desired. To make the dressing: Mix all the ingredients together and serve with the ring and melon balls.

    BAKED FISH DAUFUSKIE Nathalie baked this recipe for me in her condo in Atlanta soon after I graduated from her cooking school class. She named the dish after Daufuskie Island, where I had once taught eighteen black children in the first year of teacher integration in South Carolina. The children would often bring me gifts of deviled crab, boiled shrimp, or roasted fish their mothers sent wrapped in aluminum foil. That was the year I learned of the glory of fresh fish. “That fish was swimming yesterday evening, Mr. Conroy” Sallie Ann Robinson told me after giving me a piece of sea bass her mother had baked. Thirty-three years later, that same Sallie Ann Robinson would write her own cook book,
Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way
, which was published in 2003 by the University of North Carolina Press.      • SERVES 4
    4 grouper fillets or other firm-fleshed white fish such as red snapper, sea bass, or mahimahi
    1 medium red onion, sliced
    ½ cup mayonnaise
    2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
    1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
    Paprika
    1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
    2. Put the grouper fillets in a greased baking dish and cover with sliced onion. Combine the mayonnaise, mustard, and lemon juice in a small bowl and spoon the mixture over the fish and onion. Sprinkle the top with paprika. Bake for 10 minutes per inch of thickness. Finish under the broiler for a couple of minutes to brown.

    WHITE CHOCOLATE-PISTACHIO COOKIES             • MAKES 50
    2¼ cups all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    ½ teaspoon salt
    ½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
    1 cup light brown sugar
    ½ cup granulated sugar
    2 large eggs
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1 cup white chocolate chips
    1 cup chopped unsalted pistachios
    1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together.
    2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and blend well. Carefully add the flour mixture until well blended. Stir in chocolate and nuts by hand.
    3. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Allow to cool slightly on the sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

W hen I first began cooking, I had no idea that it would lead me to a forking path of minor literature that would provide me with as much reading joy as F. Scott Fitzgerald. Because I began with the astringent, no-nonsense Monsieur Escoffier, who seemed to know all things about all foods and did not suffer fools easily, it took me a long time to ease out of his authoritative embrace. In the kitchen, Escoffier is every bit as intimidating as Marcel Proust is at the writing table. What surprised me was how much pure delight I took in reading recipes I could never even think about fixing myself.
    I began