'The Way We Cook'

For 20 years, folks in the Boston area have sampled and saved recipes from the widely popular Sunday food column of the "Boston Globe Magazine."

Now we can all share in the excitement with "The Way We Cook: Recipes from the New American Kitchen," the first cookbook from the magazine's food writers, Sheryl Julian and Julie Riven.

Every 8th week, the pair visits a home cook from the New England area to collect one great dish from their repertoire. Sometimes they visit with restaurant chefs, picking the chef's brain for what he or she cooks at home. Other times -- and most often – they raid the kitchens of normal folks who, over the years, have become their friends.

After 20 years worth of recipe hunting, they were able to compile more than enough dishes to use for their new cookbook — taking three years to complete it. The result of their labor of love is a cookbook, they say, that speaks to the way Americans live and eat today.

A trained chef, Julian began at the "Boston Globe" some 20 years ago as a food writer for the column she now edits with Julie Riven. Riven, also a trained chef, started writing for the "Boston Globe" as a freelance writer and food stylist 11 years ago.

The two visited The Early Show Tuesday to share a couple of simple recipes from their cookbook.

Recipes

Smothered Steak Sandwiches

Riven says she was raised eating, at times, these steak sandwiches. The meat is cooked first (broil it, as we do here, or grill it), then it's sliced and tucked inside crusty bread with onions cooked in a tomato sauce seasoned with brown sugar and Worcestershire.

Ingredients

1 flank steak (1 1/2 pounds), or one 1 1/2 to 2 pound skirt steak
olive oil, for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 large Spanish onions, thinly sliced
1 cup (8 ounces) canned tomato sauce
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 long French baguettes

Turn on the broiler. Place the flank steak in a broiling pan. With the tip of a paring knife, score the steak in a very shallow crosshatch pattern on both sides. Sprinkle the steak with oil, salt and pepper.

Broil the meat about 8 inches from the element for 5 to 8 minutes, turning it and seasoning the other side with oil, salt and pepper halfway through cooking. The meat should be quite pink (or rare, if you prefer that) when it's done.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the oil and cook the onions over medium heat, stirring often, for 10 minutes, or until they soften.

Then stir in the tomato sauce, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Cook the mixture over medium heat for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Slice the baguettes into thirds and open each one to make a sandwich.

When the meat is cooked, transfer it to a cutting board and slice it on an extreme diagonal. Tip all the juices on the board into the tomato sauce and stir.

Set a bottom piece of bread on each of six dinner plates, add some steak slices, then some of the tomato sauce. Set the sandwich tops on the sauce and serve.

Greek Cypriot Village Salad

Real Greek salads are made from romaine lettuce, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers and bell peppers, all chopped finely and tossed with a lemony dressing, olives, and feta cheese. In the Greek villages of Cyprus, where this version comes from, the salad also includes a sprinkling of sumac (a spicy red powder ground from sumac berries, sold in Middle Eastern markets) and aromatic dried oregano that grows wild in the hills.

Sheryl Julian and Julie Riven says they received the recipe from Agni Charalambous Thurner, who was raised in Kakopepria in Greek Cyprus and now lives in Belmont, Mass. She still makes the salad often. She suggests using either dried basil or mint in place of the wild oregano. Romaine lettuce, she says, is chewier and has more flavor than iceberg lettuce, which is so often used in this country to make Greek salad.

1/2 head romaine lettuce, cored and chopped
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
4 pickling cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and chopped
3 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1 teaspoon sumac (optional)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons dried basil or mint
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1/4 cup olive oil

In a medium bowl, combine the lettuce, scallions, cucumbers, tomatoes and green pepper. Add the olives and feta cheese. Sprinkle with the sumac, if using. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, basil or mint, salt and pepper. Drizzle in the oil 1 teaspoon at a time. When half the oil is added, pour in the remaining oil in a think, steady stream, whisking constantly until the dressing emulsifies. Taste for seasoning and add more salt, pepper, or herbs, if you like.

Before serving, sprinkle the salad with a few spoonfuls of the dressing, toss gently but thoroughly, and add enough of the remaining dressing to moisten the greens lightly. Serve at once.

Strawberry Shortcakes

Shortcakes Ingredients

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 tablespoons sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 1/4 cups whole milk

Set the oven at 425 degrees F, with a rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in a food processor and pulse once, just to combine.

Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the sugar and pulse once. Remove the processor lid and sprinkle the milk over the flour. Pulse just until the mixture forms large clumps; do not let it come together to form a dough.

Dust a counter with flour. Turn the clumps out onto the counter and cut through them half a dozen times with a pastry scraper or a blunt table knife until they come together to form a dough. Gently, with you hands, shape the dough into a ball, then flatten the ball to make a cake.

With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough to a 3/4 -inch thickness. Use a 3 1/2 -inch cutter to stamp out 5 rounds, setting the cutter down each time as close to the previous cut as possible.

Collect the scraps, re-roll the dough, and stamp out 3 more rounds. You can collect the scraps again and stamp out 1 more round (this is for the cook). Set them on the baking sheet.

Sprinkle the shortcakes with sugar. Bake in the center of the oven for 18 minutes, or until they are lightly browned.

Transfer them to wire racks to cool while you prepare the filling.

Filling Ingredients

2 quarts fresh strawberries, hulled
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream, softly whipped with 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Halve the strawberries, and if they're large, cut the halves in half again.

In a medium bowl, layer the berries with the sugar. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 20 minutes to 1 hour.

Holding a serrated knife parallel to the counter, split the shortcakes in half. Spoon berries onto the bottoms of the cakes, add whipped cream, and set the tops on a slant. Serve at once.

Rosemary Biscuits with Smoked Turkey and Cranberry Relish

Sheryl says she often makes rosemary biscuits to serve with soups or roast chicken. A sweetened version of the dough is used to make Strawberry Shortcakes. Chopped rosemary is added to the dough in the food processor, and the dough is rolled into a rectangle, cut with a knife into small rectangles and sandwiched with smoked turkey and cranberry relish.

For the Rosemary Biscuits

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups whole milk

Set the oven at 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a food processor, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Pulse once just to combine.

Add the butter and pulse just until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the rosemary and sugar and pulse just to mix them in.

Remove the processor lid and pour the milk over the flour. Pulse the mixture just until it forms large clumps. Do not let it come together to form a dough.

Dust a counter with flour. Turn the clumps out onto the counter and cut through them half a dozen times with a pastry scraper or a blunt knife until they come together to form a dough. With your hands, gently shape the dough into a square. Then flatten the square.

With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough to a 1/2 -inch thick, 8-by-10 inch rectangle. Make 2 lengthwise cuts and 4 crosswise cuts in the dough to form 15 biscuits (left). Set them on the baking sheet.

Bake the biscuits for 25 minutes, or until they are golden brown. Transfer them to wire racks to cool. While the biscuits are baking, make the relish.

Note: To make in advance, let the biscuits cool completely (don't split them for sandwiches). Cover them with a clean kitchen towel. They'll stay fresh for half a day. To serve hot, wrap the biscuits in foil, shiny side inside. Warm them in a 350 degree F oven for 10 minutes, or until hot.

Cranberry Relish Ingredients

1 cup fresh whole cranberries
grated rind of 1 orange
1/2 cup sugar

In a food processor, chop the cranberries with the orange rind and sugar. Transfer to a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil. Turn the heat to low and cook the cranberries just until they are softened and give up their liquid. Transfer the relish to a bowl. Set aside until ready to use.

To Assemble

8 thin slices smoked or roasted turkey breast

Split the biscuits in half. Spread a little of the relish on half of a biscuit. Top with a small slice of turkey breast. Close the sandwich. Repeat with the remaining biscuits and serve.