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Lee Bailey

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Mar 12, 2019
Category: Food and Wine

Before there was Martha Stewart, there was Lee Bailey.

He started small. A shop. Then a department at Henri Bendel. Then books. Very successful books — “Lee Bailey’s Country Weekends” won the Tastemaker Award for Best Cookbook in 1983 and has sold more than 150,000 copies in hardcover.

Unlike Martha Stewart, Lee Bailey cherished his privacy. Although he was constantly entertaining friends at his Manhattan penthouse and his house in the Hamptons, he didn’t make a big deal of his dinner parties. “Casual” was his mantra. He didn’t go overboard on hors d’oeuvres at cocktail time and then he served dinner late — I have the feeling his guests were lit before they finally sat down at his table.

He had two animating ideas for entertaining.

1) Please yourself first: “Good parties are, at least partially, a frame of mind. Start with the assumption that the whole point is for you and company to enjoy yourselves.”

2) Lighting matters: “If you put together a group of guests who don’t know one another very well, turn all the lights up while the group is getting acquainted over cocktails. Bright lights make people more talkative. Then turn the lights down somewhat after the party gets under way. This works; I’ve tried it.”

Well, maybe there was a third thing. Here’s Nora Ephron, writing in 2000:

“Most people serve three things for dinner — some sort of meat, some sort of starch, and some sort of vegetable — but Lee always served four. And the fourth thing was always something playful and unexpected. A shallow dish filled with tiny baked apples. A casserole of lima beans and pears cooked for hours in brown sugar and molasses. Peaches with cayenne pepper. Sliced tomatoes with honey. Grits. Savory bread pudding. Spoon bread. Spoon bread! Whatever it was, that fourth thing seemed to have an almost magical effect on the eating process. You never got tired of the food because there was always something else on the plate that seemed simultaneously to match it and contradict it. You could go from taste to taste; you could mix a little of this with a little of that. And when you finished eating, you always wanted more, so that you could go from taste to taste all over again. At Lee Bailey’s, you could eat forever.”

The books are artful — Bailey was one of the first writers of home entertaining books to include a photograph with each recipe. And the recipes were not overly complex — on the afternoon of a dinner party, Bailey often took a nap.

Lee Bailey died in 2003. Julia Turshen knew him from childhood and has written a vivid tribute — and, in her own cookbook, has carried on his basic philosophy.

The good news: Many of his books are out of print. That means you pay a premium price for a new copy — but you can get a used copy on Amazon for a few dollars. I commend them all. [To buy “Lee Baileys Good Parties” from Amazon, click here. To buy “Lee Bailey’s Country Weekends,” click here. To buy “Lee Bailey’s Soup Meals,” click here. To buy “Lee Bailey’s Long Weekends: Recipes for Good Food and Easy Living,” click here. To buy “Lee Bailey’s Dinners At Home,” click here.]

Recipes? I thought you’d never ask.

CELERY AND APPLE STUFFED ROAST CHICKEN

Serves 6.

2 2.5 lb. chickens
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 cup butter, softened
1 handful celery leaves
1 large cooking apple, peeled and cored

Gravy:
1 Tbsp. butter, softened
2 Tbsp. flour
1 cup chicken stock, heated
1 Tbsp. chopped chives

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash and dry chickens, mix salt and pepper into softened butter. Chop apple and celery leaves. Alternately stuff chickens with softened butter and apples and celery leaves. Reserve a bit of butter for tops of chickens.

Place chickens breast side up on rack in roasting pan. Smear rest of butter over chickens. Bake an hour and 15 minutes, basting occasionally. Remove chickens to warm platter.

To make gravy, mush butter and flour together to make paste. Pour fat out of roasting pan and add hot stock. Swirl around and scrape up crispy bits in pan. Thicken with the flour butter mixture and cook until thickened, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chives.

CHARCOAL MARINATED CHICKEN BREASTS

Serves 6.

6 boneless chicken breast halves (or 3 whole breasts, boned and halved)
3 medium garlic cloves, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons grainy mustard
1/4 cup cider vinegar
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 large lemon
6 tablespoons olive oil
Black pepper, to taste
Endive leaves (for garnish)
Watercress (for garnish)

Put the chicken breasts in a nonreactive baking dish (glass or ceramic is ideal).

In a medium bowl, mix the garlic, salt, sugar, mustard, vinegar, and lime and lemon juices. Blend well. Whisk in the olive oil, forming an emulsion, and add the pepper. Pour the marinade over the chicken, and refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours. Turn it once.

Remove from the refrigerator, and allow to come to room temperature before grilling.

Preheat a gas or charcoal grill. When ready, grill chicken breasts for about 4 minutes per side (longer if you are using chicken with the bone in), or until done. (Check for doneness by pressing on chicken with tongs. The firmer the chicken, the more well done it is.) Do not overcook, as it will toughen them. Note: The chicken also may be cooked under the broiler for the same amount of time.

Garnish with endive and watercress, and serve hot or at room temperature.

BEEF STEW

Serves 8.

4 pounds boneless rump pot roast or chuck pot roast, cut into 1 x 2-inch chunks
2 cups hearty red wine
½ lb. pancetta, cut into ¼” dice
2 tbs. olive oil
2 large onions, thinly sliced
7 carrots, scraped and sliced ¼” thick
¼ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken or veal stock
3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tbs. tomato paste
1½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. black pepper
1 lb. white mushrooms, sautéed

Place the beef in a crockery bowl, add the wine, cover, and marinate, refrigerated, for 3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Place olive oil in a Dutch oven and add pancetta. Sauté until golden on medium heat. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Drain the meat, reserving the marinade. Dry the meat well and brown it in batches over high heat. Set aside.

Add the onions and carrots to the Dutch oven and sauté until wilted and beginning to brown, about 7 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Pour out any oil that may be in the Dutch oven. Melt butter over medium heat in the Dutch oven and stir in flour. Cook, scraping the bottom of the pan, using a whisk, until the roux turns a dark golden brown. Add the tomato paste and stir for a minute. Stir in the stock. This will foam up, so stand back. Simmer a minute or two, then stir in the garlic, salt and pepper. Add the sautéed vegetables, meat, bacon, and reserved marinade. Bring to a boil quickly on top of the stove.

Cover and bake until tender, about 2 hours. Allow to cool, then refrigerate overnight.

Remove the stew from the refrigerator an hour before reheating. Lift off the congealed fat and discard. Reheat in a preheated 325-degree oven, covered, until bubbly, about 45 minutes.