The Upper East Side is an oasis of sun-dappled streets, brownstones, Beaux-Arts buildings, art, boutiques, and little dogs in Gucci sweaters. There are few grocery stores and many restaurants. This is the neighborhood of perfect teeth, multiple divorces, a man of a certain age with a woman his daughter's age, strollers for twins and triplets, formalities, the air kiss, the handwritten thank-you note, open-face sandwiches, jodhpurs, little black dress, strapless ball gown, pearl necklace, health insurance. If everywhere else is Kansas, the Upper East Side is Emerald City.
Parsley Cresswell knows she won't be living there forever. Who can afford it? In the meantime, she enjoys her proximity to museums and visits the birds in Central Park. A watercolor sun sets over the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. The air cools, runners speed by up on the runners' path. Private school children shiver on a park bench and pass around a pack of Gauloises. An eastern screech owl poised on the railing of the reservoir screams to its mate, and it's dinnertime on the UES.
When most neighborhoods, such as Spanish Harlem to the north, take on the heady smell of home cooking, the Upper East Side has the waft of garlic roasted in restaurant kitchens. The air fills with the bicycle bells of take-out delivery. Parsley will be walking down the street at dusk and the smell of potatoes and a roast makes her think, "Mmmm, A French person must live here." People eat well. Upper East Siders keep vast collections of take-out menus, and frequently have dinner in restaurants.
Parsley Cresswell used to eat a lot in restaurants. Now she's dusting off her old kitchen skills. The UES is not the best place to learn to cook again. You won't find a Fairway for miles. Parsley prefers to shop at mom-and-pop stores anyway. "It's impossible to save money here," she explains to her accountant.
The neighbors have lost a third of their assets with the Dow's collapse. While they are not quite insolvent, even some penthouses are in foreclosure. (Parsley, would you like some cheese with that whine?) Her beloved Upper East Side: already a relic of a bygone era! These are demanding times, but also exciting, as people hone their talents for entertaining. Home cooking is where it's at, even here in the lap of luxury. People are making exquisite food. Once you develop a taste for gravlax you never lose it. Parsley heads off to the 24-hour greengrocer on Madison Avenue to gather ingredients for her perfect dinner.
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Her favorite thing to make? Reservations. Thanks to the Bush economy, Parsley Cresswell cooks for herself in her tiny studio, where she used to only crash. She hosts afternoon tea and BYOB gatherings there. In between events, in between freelance editing work at magazines, she can be found in the aisles of Dean & DeLuca nibbling free food samples and attending wine tastings at Best Cellars.
The Upper East Side Cookbook by Parsley Cresswell includes a lot of mushrooms, potatoes, and onions—not only are they ingredients we all can afford, but because they are good for you. Some of her recipes include meat. Vegetarianism is the way to go, clearly—better for the waistline and for longevity—though Parsley is a strict vegetarian only during Lent.
As we await navigate the recession, her philosophy and even her recipes have something to teach. The recession could be a blessing in disguise, making us greener—for instance, riding bicycles more often. Parsley has a bike. She rarely waits for a taxi on Fifth Avenue anymore, and instead takes her bike or rides the 2 Limited bus. For entertainment, she studies the guitar. Replacing the gym, she has become an avid naturalist. She eats like a bird. Parsley worked in the twentieth-century fashion world (Elle, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, W), and she’s still on a diet, which is excellent for a time of slender means.
Parsley Cresswell is more Restaurantgirl than Orangette. Who better to teach self-reliance than a single woman living on the Upper East Side, eking out a living in the lap of luxury?
"As a midwesterner, I look to the East Side as the real New York, and that bias is only amplified by reading about Parsley Cresswell and her kitchen adventures. She is a deep dish, indeed."
Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
The Upper East Side Cookbook: Setting the Table in a Time of Slender Means
$15. Available through Amazon and Kindle.
Please write to parsleycresswell@yahoo.com
Recipes from The Upper East Side Cookbook, copyright 2008
Wild Mushroom Custard Pie
Forage for mushrooms in Central Park. Oyster mushrooms growing on trees between May and September may be safely eaten, however, skip the ones that grow near tree roots and on the lawn.
4 T butter
1 lb or more mixed wild mushrooms, any combination
1 shallot or some red onion, minced
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
ground nutmeg
1 sheet commercial short-crust pastry
1 egg
8 ounces soft fresh cheese, such as Ricotta or Gorgonzola
1/2 lemon
1 T half and half
Grated nutmeg
2 tsps fresh tarragon or thyme, minced
Melt 2 T butter and oil in heavy pan. Sauté onion or shallot until softened. With remaining butter and mushrooms and sauté. Mix in chopped parsley. Cool.
Unroll and drop pastry onto a buttered baking dish and prick all over with a fork. At 350° F, bake pastry shell about 15 minutes til browned.
Crack egg into a bowl, gently beat with fork, add cheese, juice of half a lemon, grated nutmeg, and fold in mushroom mixture. Spread evenly in hot pastry shell. Sprinkle with fresh tarragon or thyme. Bake 20 minutes or so. Serve hot, with Dijon mustard.
Popover for Two
Here’s a good breakfast recipe easy enough to memorize. A cast iron frying pan is required – and hot pads.
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
Lemon zest
Grated nutmeg
Confectioners’ sugar
Mint sprig
Seasonal fruits
In a cast iron frying pan melt half the butter. Blend the other ingredients, grate nutmeg on top, and bake 15 minutes at 450. Dust with confectioners’ sugar. Garnish with a sprig of mint. Serve with sliced, seasonal fruits.
Bird's Nest Nut Bars
To some people, bird-watchers are nut bars. Parsley Cresswell used to think that, before she took up bird-watching herself. With the expert tutelage of Knish and Salchicha Caliente Stillman, whom she met on a Birding Bob walk in Central Park, Parsley finally “got it” regarding birds. This recipe, dedicated to them, can be shared with birds and squirrels.
1 cup sunflower seeds, toasted; 1 cup pumpkin seeds; 4 T nut oil; 4 T honey; 1 free-range egg white; zest of an orange or lemon (optional); 2 T flax seeds; 2 T sesame seeds; ½ teas salt
Toast sunflower seeds in frying pan. Stir honey, whipped egg white, and zest together. Mix sunflower and pumpkin seeds with other dry ingredients. Add honey – egg white – zest mixture and stir. Spoon, then press slightly, into a very greased 9” x 9” pan. Bake 15 minutes at 350. When cool, cut into bars with a sharp knife or break into brittle pieces. Wrap in Saran Wrap and store in the freezer.
Leftover Chicken Curry a la Georgia O’Keeffe
Parsley greatly admires Georgia O’Keeffe’s spartan ways. At the age of 90 O’Keeffe collaborated on a cookbook, giving the recipes for her mainly vegetarian cooking.
2 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 stalk celery or two, diced
1 T whole wheat flour
1 cup milk or unsweetened soy milk
1 cup or more chicken, cut up
½ cup chopped parsley
1 hard-boiled egg, chopped
1 teas curry powder
Dash of cayenne or Tabasco
Salt
Parsley as garnish
Pour oil into frying pan, add onion and celery. Remove, and add flour and milk and whisk til smooth and cook until thickened. Then add back the onion, celery, chopped hard-boiled egg, chicken, parsley, and curry powder. Let simmer for 2 minutes, and serve with rice. Garnish with parsley. Other diced vegetables, such as red or green peppers, can then be added, or defrosted frozen petite peas.
Adapted from A Painter’s Kitchen: Recipes from the Kitchen of Georgia O’Keeffe, by Margaret Wood, Red Crane Books: Santa Fe, 1991.
Chickpea Soup Last Supper
The creator of The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci, was born illegitimate and poor. He was a “compassionate vegetarian,” and wore linen and never leather or fur. Even when a guest of his wealthy benefactors, he abstained from eating meat. Chickpeas was a favorite ingredient to be found in the hand-written cookbook he left behind.
1 lb chickpeas
1 teas virgin olive oil
1 teas cinnamon
20 crushed peppercorns
3 pints hot water
2 teas sage
2 teas rosemary
2 T parsley, chopped fine
Salt and pepper
1 teas virgin olive oil
Soak the chick-peas overnight. Rinse and drain them and place without water in a pot. Mix separately the oil, salt, cinnamon, and twenty crushed peppercorns. Mix with the soaked chickpeas, then put the pot back on the fire, adding the 3 pints of hot water. Add, stirring: sage, rosemary, and parsley. Let it boil down somewhat. Before serving, drizzle in drops of olive oil.
Adapted from Famous Vegetarians & Their Favorite Recipes: Lives and Lore from Buddha to the Beatles, by Rynn Berry; Pythagorean Publishers: New York, 1993.
Quinoa Carrot Parsley Loaf
1 bunch organic carrots
1 cup quinoa
2 cups boiling water
Pinch of cumin
1 teas salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
1 cup Swiss (or other) cheese
10 basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400. Butter a Pyrex loaf pan.
Finely chop carrots and steam, with a pinch of cumin, salt and pepper.
Rinse quinoa. Add to the steamed carrots, with 2 cups boiling water, and simmer until liquid is absorbed, around 20 minutes. Quinoa grains will unfurl.
Mix quinoa and eggs, parsley, cheese, basil, and salt and pepper to taste, then pour into Pyrex loaf pan.
Bake for 40 minutes. Check to see that it is set and golden brown. If not, give it 5 or 10 minutes longer in the oven.
