My friend Susan’s mother passed away recently, just two weeks shy of her 99th birthday.  With her went the secret to some of the best brownies I’ve ever eaten.

Sylvia Cohen was a charming, gracious and accomplished woman who graduated from Radcliffe in an era when few females went to college. As was expected at the time, she gave up her personal ambitions to raise three children and support the academic career of her husband, Nathan Cohen, who went on to become dean of the School of Social Welfare at UCLA.  She was a lifelong defender of social justice and surely wouldn’t have considered her brownies a significant contribution to the world.

Yet her incomparable brownies came up time and again as her family remembered this remarkable woman last month.  Although Sylvia had shared her recipe freely, no one else had ever achieved the voluptuous texture that she did using the most common ingredients: Baker’s unsweetened chocolate, margarine, sugar and flour.  Her brownies were dense, moist and incredibly silky with a generous portion of walnuts for a crunchy counterpoint.

“It was the consistency that was so amazing,” Susan recalls.

Some things are clear.  Everyone knew that Sylvia undercooked her brownies.  As soon as they came out of the oven, she topped them with waxed paper, bundled them in a towel and whisked them into the freezer.  When they were cooled, she trimmed off the edges, keeping only the fudgy center, before returning them to the freezer.  In later years, she served them straight out of the freezer, which only seemed to improve their already irresistible texture.

But why couldn’t anyone else get the same results?  I’ve made variations on the recipe several times in the last couple of week and I suspect, in part, it may be an issue of ingredients. No one I know still cooks with margarine, much less the same brand Sylvia preferred.  Some family members think she might have used Imperial, the brand with a crown on the box.

Flour, too, can make a great difference.  A moderate protein flour, such as bleached all-purpose Gold Medal, delivers a more tender crumb than the higher protein unbleached flour that many cooks use today.

Technique and experience also are critical.  Chocolate is a delicate ingredient and needs to be treated gently, warmed just enough to melt.  Alice Medrich, who knows chocolate better than anyone, calls for melting chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set in a wide skillet of barely simmering water so you can monitor the temperature of the water easily.

Perhaps just as important, only Sylvia knew what her brownies should look like when they were done.   By trial and error, I finally decided the edges should be set and look a little dry while the center should have lost most of its gloss and be just firm enough to touch lightly.  A toothpick stuck in the center should come out very moist.

Baking at the right temperature is essential, too.  Since ovens vary widely—mine runs almost 50 degrees colder than what it says on the dial— it’s a good idea to use a thermometer to ensure the correct setting.

In the end, it seemed foolish to try to replicate Sylvia’s brownies.  I’m not going to cook with margarine, nor do I want to use ordinary baking chocolate when there’s so much better quality available now.  Instead, I took her brownies as inspiration for a new recipe made with the best ingredients I could find.  I also opted to wrap the baked brownies tightly in heavy duty foil rather than a towel before stashing them in the freezer.  They fit better that way.

If the texture isn’t quite the same, the flavor is remarkable.  Good chocolate—I like Scharffen Berger unsweetened—contributes a fruity note and faint undertones of cinnamon while brown sugar brings a new layer of complexity.

These brownies are my tribute to Sylvia, who proved once again that good food makes great memories.

Spring may be on its way, but the farmers markets where I live are still dominated by winter vegetables.  California asparagus has arrived in some markets, it’s true.  Yet even if it shows up where I shop this week,  there’s no question it will be expensive.  I’ll wait until the quality goes up and the price goes down.

In the meantime, we’re taking a new perspective on cold weather produce at our house with this roasted vegetable salad tossed in a sprightly vinaigrette.   I spotted this combination of brussels sprouts, squash, and broccoli in a salad displayed at Carried Away, an Aptos take-out shop, a couple of weeks ago and was tantalized by the concept.  It sounded so good, I just had to make my own.

The results were every bit as tasty as I’d imagined.  Roasting caramelizes the natural sugars in the vegetables, adding a little sweetness.  At the same time, it brings out the nutty, savory flavors of the sprouts.    The butternut squash becomes soft and yielding while the brussels sprouts and broccoli retain a little crunch. Read full article »

Every year I’m a sucker for those gorgeous days in mid-February filled with the promise of an early spring.  Then the sun goes back behind the clouds and it starts to rain again.  I have to remind myself that it’s still winter.

This is the perfect season for stracotto, an Italian take on a slow-cooked pot roast, steeped in red wine, mushrooms and aromatic vegetables.

My introduction to this gutsy and soul-warming dish came in the beautiful cookbook, “Organic Marin,” by Tim Porter and Farina Wong Kingsley (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 20080).  A fund-raiser for Marin Organic’s school lunch program, it’s filled with mouth-watering photographs and appealing recipes from some of Marin County’s best restaurants. The braised chuck roast was the contribution of Piatti Ristorante & Bar in Mill Valley. Read full article »

The one thing you can count on at the farmers market this time of year is plenty of root vegetables.  Carrots and turnips, potatoes and parsnips are everywhere.

These cold weather vegetables are especially good right now, firm in texture and deeply flavorful.  The carrots are particularly sweet.

I usually just roast root vegetables alone or with a chicken.  They’re great simply peeled, cut into fairly uniform chunks, tossed in olive oil with whole cloves of garlic, and baked in a 400 degree oven for about an hour.  Mix up whatever looks good at the market with a little chopped rosemary and you have the best of winter on your dinner plate.

Lately, though, I’ve been simmering a variety of root vegetables together and mashing them with butter and yogurt for  the most comforting of side dishes.  It’s even good  as a light lunch all by itself. Read full article »

It’s not Valentine’s Day without chocolate as far as I’m concerned. No other food can match its sensuous pleasure, slowly melting on the tongue and flooding the palate with the rich, dark, almost sinful flavor of cacao.

We’re talking pudding here, but a pudding unlike any you ever knew in childhood.  This is a pudding so dense, so smooth, so deeply chocolate that it  bears little resemblance to the bland desserts of the school cafeteria.  The addition of top quality bittersweet chocolate and an extra jolt of caffeine from freshly brewed coffee make it a grownup treat, indeed. Read full article »