06/18/2007

Telling stories through recipes

New cookbook includes reflections on life

By
Record-Eagle features editor

Record-Eagle/
Douglas Tesner
Author Marie LaPointe Hanis cooks up a batch of Roasted Red Pepper Curry Sauce for dinner at home. The sauce will be placed over rice.

Marie LaPointe Hanis of Williamsburg has penned a new book that is several parts recipes to one part essay.

According to the introduction of "The Rustic Gourmet: Earthy Elegance from the Woods of Northern Michigan” (Golightly Press, $19.95), Hanis started compiling material for the book in the 1980s when she was cooking and caretaking at Beaverdam, a hunting and fishing club near Vanderbilt.

"Cooking for the club members, who generally consider themselves a rather discerning group, I was challenged to make meals a satisfying and memorable part of their stays,” writes Hanis, 52. "This meant incorporating regional offerings: fish and game, morel mushrooms, wild berries, as well as just-plucked herbs and vegetables from my massive garden.

"I found, in doing this, that most basic ingredients, thoughtfully and skillfully combined, rendered uniquely pleasing results.”

Hanis grew up on the east side of Detroit and that part of her history comes through in some of the essays that accompany the chapters. Themes about riding the bus downtown or of going to Tigers games are mixed with others about her days cooking at Beaverdam, or of her experiences as a single mother.

Hanis was 21 when she first married in 1976. She and her husband moved to the Gaylord area, where they owned and operated some rental cabins. That was a prelude to their next project, relocating in 1980 to operate the Beaverdam Club in the Pigeon River Forest.

When Hanis and her husband divorced six years later, she moved back to the Gaylord area and got work as a dental assistant. Her two boys were just 3 and 5 years old then, and she started writing a guest column for the Gaylord Herald Times.

"I wrote a lot about living out in the Pigeon River Forest and raising kids as a single mom,” she said. "That was pretty much the focus of it — single parenthood.”

Hanis remarried, and the family moved to West Branch and eventually to Traverse City.

"I was looking for a change in career and had always loved cooking and was working on this cookbook collection I started when I was a caretaker out at Beaverdam,” she said. "It renewed my interest in that and I decided to go to culinary school.”

As she continued freelance writing, she enrolled in the culinary program at Northwestern Michigan College. That was followed by an internship at Windows restaurant.

"Probably the most important thing I learned was how to do what I had been doing, only better,” she writes. "And I learned early on, from wise and experienced instructors, that if it is a good idea, it's being done, and if it isn't being done, then it's probably not a good idea.”

One instructor in particular imparted a few pearls of wisdom that have remained with her.

"He said, 'You own the recipe, it doesn't own you,'” she said. "And something else he used to say, 'Face your fears, if there's something you're not so sure about, experiment with it.'

"It really helped me a lot, the formal schooling ... a lot of the technique as far as reductions and sauces, things I sort of instinctively knew how to do but didn't have the guidelines. It made me a better cook.”

Meanwhile, Hanis continued to work on her book when she could.

"I always had such a strong interest in writing, then combined with my cooking interests, I got the idea of doing an essay collection and cookbook combining the two,” she said.

Then her husband of 12 years got stomach cancer. He died in 2003.

"That was enormous,” she said. "But after that, getting back to working on the cookbook kind of became my therapy. It kind of sustained me, really. So I started working seriously and became determined to finally get it done.”

With Jenkins Group in Traverse City, Hanis has produced a book that she hopes people will find to be as enjoyable to read as it is to use in the kitchen.

Take her Sour Cream Muffins a la Harwell, in which she describes listening to a Tigers game in the kitchen with her mom way back when.

"We were reviewing a muffin recipe as Detroit outfielder Jerry Lumpe approached the plate,” she writes, "and just as we were reading, 'The batter will be lumpy,' Harwell announced, 'The batter will be Lumpe.' With dropped jaws, we gaped at the radio, then the mixing bowl, and then each other.

"The muffins, of course, were a hit.”

Recipes are arranged in sections, from breads and soups to appetizers, salads, poultry, seafood, wild game, desserts and more. Some are of her own development, while others are dishes she's adapted.

Hanis also offers tips, definitions, and here and there, her personal take on what makes a certain dish work.

"I knew that a memoir would not be that much of a commodity and I wasn't really interested in telling my life story so much as I was writing a cookbook,” she said. "And I do believe food tells stories, and that people appreciate stories that come through food.”

"The Rustic Gourmet” is available in bookstores around the area. For more information, visit www.therusticgourmet.com or call 499-4157.

Sour Cream Muffins a la Harwell

• 1&3/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 2 T. sugar
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1 c. sour cream
• 2 T. milk
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients (first five listed) together in a bowl. Mix sour cream, milk and egg in a separate bowl and combine with dry mix in a few swift strokes, around 10-20 seconds. The batter will be lumpy. Fill well-greased muffin tins and bake 25 to 30 minutes, until done.

— "The Rustic Gourmet: Earthy Elegance from the Woods of Northern Michigan”

Cherry Pie Bread

• 2 c. water, 105 degrees
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 T. shortening or butter
• 2 T. sugar
• 1 T. salt
• 6 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 large can cherry pie filling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Dissolve yeast in water. Add butter, sugar and salt. Add enough flour to form soft, well-mixed dough. Knead, adding flour as needed for a smooth, elastic dough.

Place in a greased bowl, cover, and allow to rise until doubled. Punch down and turn out onto large, floured surface. Flatten dough into a rough sheet. Spread with cherry pie filling. Using a spatula or large, dull bladed knife, chop and turn dough, forming rough chunks. If this makes an unholy mess, you're doing it right. Fill greased bread pans with chunks approximately halfway, and bake for 35-40 minutes until done. Cool slightly before removing from pan. Allow to cool completely before slicing. Makes two loaves.

Cheese bread variation: For a brunch loaf, substitute 6 whole unbeaten eggs and 2 c. of shredded cheddar cheese for cherry pie filling. Again, it will be very messy, with chunks of whole but broken eggs, dough and cheese.

— "The Rustic Gourmet: Earthy Elegance from the Woods of Northern Michigan”

Wine-Poached Pears

• 4 pears, peeled, stems left on (shave a slice from the base of each pear to keep upright)
• 1 bottle semisweet red wine
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. honey
• 1 strip orange zest
• 1 strip lemon zest
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 clove

Place wine, sugar, honey, orange zest, lemon zest, lemon juice, cinnamon and clove in a deep saucepan (just large enough to hold 4 pears). Add pears and bring to a simmer. Cook gently, uncovered, until just tender. Remove pears and set aside. Boil the poaching liquid until reduced by half. Cool and strain over the pears. Refrigerate until well chilled (3 hours minimum). Serve with wine syrup spooned over. Makes 4 servings.

— "The Rustic Gourmet: Earthy Elegance from the Woods of Northern Michigan”