What We Eat When We Eat Alone - Deborah Madison [72]
4. Return the pan to the stove and turn the heat to high. Add the last bit of butter, let it melt, then add the vinegar. Stand back—the fumes will be strong! Let the vinegar and butter sizzle together while you let it flow this way and that over the surface of the pan. After about 45 seconds, pour it over the frittata. Enjoy it hot from the pan, or tepid.
Meals with a Motive
“Men, do yourself a favor and have more than one menu that you can execute, and let the seduction phase include more than a steak dinner and a bagel for breakfast.”
Peggy Knickerbocker, writer
While we may eat alone and even enjoy it, there are times when we don’t want to sleep alone and times when we have someone in mind to sleep with. That’s when there’s a motive to the menu, and what’s amazing is that suddenly those who have been otherwise happy eating cottage cheese have a pretty good idea of what makes a better menu for seduction—and even how to cook it.
Peggy Knickerbocker observes that most men have two dishes—one to get her in the sack and one for the next morning.
“And that may be all the repertoire he thinks he needs,” she says, “but I can give the man a hint or two: Women are very impressed when a man can cook, and especially when he can cook well. For one, it shows a desirable trait for domesticity. And a man looks attractive moving confidently around his kitchen. So, men, do yourselves a favor and have more than one menu that you can execute, and let the seduction phase include more than a steak dinner and a bagel for breakfast. There can be many menus. For the same woman.”
Men do look great moving around the kitchen with purpose and a measure of skill, and we are impressed when a man can—and does—cook. It shows there’s another side to him, one you haven’t met yet. Plus, real cooking, as distinct from opening something and shoving it in a microwave, is an activity that involves all the senses for the purpose of delighting all the senses, and what could be better than that?
“You have to finish with a piece of meat, preferably something you pick up and lick,” says the male author of this menu. “But you have to have some foreplay, too. Risotto for a first course—you have to have courses. You can make risotto with whatever you have. I like butternut squash.”
So far, so good. Courses are important. You don’t want to rush things, and producing a series of dishes says that here’s a man who’s mature enough to go slowly. “And,” our seducer adds, “risotto alone is a slow dish that takes lots of stirring and gives time for sipping and anticipation.”
“So, here we go,” he continues. “She’s here. It’s nice to start with a cold glass of Prosecco—it makes her feel like you’re a pro—or Spanish cava. Or we might have sherry with toasted almonds while waiting for the risotto.” There’s nothing quite as compelling as the aroma of toasting almonds, or any nut, for that matter.
“But back to the risotto, put some oil and butter in a pot and add chopped onion. The rice goes in. White wine. Sage from the garden and the squash. Stirring is a shared experience.
“After the first course, grill the chop and from now on, it’s no utensils. Eat the chop and a salad with your hands. Finish with fresh figs. Crack open some walnuts. Aged Gruyère, perhaps a pear.”
I’m impressed! Fresh figs? Walnuts in their shells? (He must be from Northern California.) A pear? A silky French butter pear perhaps to set off the embedded crystal nubbins of goodness in the cheese. Fingers move carefully as they pick out the pale walnut meats lodged in jagged shells. Teeth sink into the seeded flesh of the fig. Tongues lick the juice from the pear as it wanders over fingers. This is a very sexy meal.
“But if you want to have sex, you don’t want to eat too much,” cautions the practical Peggy. “One time I had a boyfriend and I didn’t know if