Every Saturday morning, Public Broadcasting blossoms with cooking shows: Victory Garden, Graham Kerr, Cooking with Julia, Jacques Pepin's Kitchen, Cooking in Europe, and Home Cooking. Each show offers its own style, from Kerr’s nutrition orientation to Pepin’s French delectations. You may remember Frugal Gourmet, too, but he apparently took a long trip up some river and is no longer seen on the air. Hardcore stove geeks can even stay up late on the same day to catch Chef!, our favorite caloric Britcom.
For July’s Shoestring Gourmet we are going to offer our favorite interpretations of PBS Saturday morning cuisine. Our hosts will be Jim Morgan and Syd Golston, and we will once again gather at Syd’s home in Tempe. We will be meeting at 6 p. m. on Saturday, July 12. This time, please do not call Ursula for reservations. Call Syd at 345-2161 or Jim Morgan at 831-2170 by Thursday, July 12. While I think of it, you may be wondering why we insist on knowing who will be there by Thursday. It’s simple: most of our theme cooking involves exotic ingredients that take some searching out. Each of our cooks has to know, by the middle of Shoestring week, how many to cook for.
At our June Shoestring, our theme was beautiful presentation. Jane Khatiblou led off with an appetizer of molded salmon molded into a fish. Jim Morgan followed with a glazed pate that incorporated a painting. Diana Toone and Ray Pisar prepared nam sod, a Thai pork appetizer with ground chili with lime and spicy peppers.
Ursula Gore’s main course was fettucine with whipped cream, and bacon-wrapped pork fillets with cognac sauce. Ken Brown brought out his gazpacho featuring cilantro, parsley, celery, black pepper, and a soupcon of prickly pear. Syd accompanied this with a delicate preparation of mashed sweet potatoes.
The desserts got even prettier. Syd Golston made strawberries snowed with powdered sugar, and Ray and Diana a mixed fruit and nut tray. From Ursula Gore, we got a large kiwi-banana-grape-strawberry torte. Susan, our newest Shoestringer, baked a three-layer brownie accompanied by a mixed fruit plate.