- This is my mother’s handwritten recipe for Trader Vic’s Indonesian Rack of Lamb, written on notepaper from The Suicide, a play she was in on Broadway in 1980. My family went through a period of making this a lot, with both lamb and chicken; I made it for a large houseparty with my college friends the weekend Reagan was shot. The paper is covered with cooking stains. One interesting facet: the numbers on the right represent Mom emending the quantities after making it, in order to push it towards the flavors she wanted. Note the ambivalence about using supermarket-bought A-1 Sauce– she’s not sure whether to add 2 or 3 teaspoons of the pre-made sauce when first writing the recipe down, and then, after making it once, obviously decided “Screw it, it works. Three.”
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September 12, 2012 at 8:52 am
Susan D
Thanks for posting this recipe! After seeing a picture of your mother in her kitchen, I wondered what sort of recipes she made.
This is awesome!
September 12, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Matt Hall
Mom took lessons in Chinese, Mexican and Moroccan cooking, and could grapple happily with Julia Child and James Beard at will. She’s listed in the Acknowledgments page of Diana Kennedy’s justly famous cookbook, “The Cuisines of Mexico.” She cooked a ton of stuff from that book, and I still use it to this day. It’s never stopped being a great cookbook.
November 30, 2012 at 11:13 am
Melody Clark
I still have her recipe for cold veal and mayonnaise. It sounded horrible, but she promised me it was wonderful. I’ve never had the guts to find out. BTW, it was a blast from the past to see your mom’s handwriting after so many years. I still remember her printing on her envelopes to me — Air! lol
December 2, 2012 at 9:18 pm
Matt Hall
Vitello Tonnato is actually quite fantastic, though I understand it doesn’t sound like much in description. It’s not simply mayonnaise, or should I say it’s not just mayonnaise– it is cooked veal served room temp in a sauce of mayo and tuna fish (thus, the tonnato). To make it right you have to make your own mayo, and basically you could put homemade mayo on floor tiles and they would be magically transformed into deliciousness. Then you add cooked tuna (yes you can use canned–I’ve done it both ways, and they both work) which basically adds a backbone of interesting briny saltiness to what is otherwise a pretty bland dish. Sprinkle with capers and a little parsley. Perfect for languid summer afternoons with a crisp white wine.