Judy and Joseph Fell are intelligent, hyperactive and outspoken, the sort of people who might rather talk than eat.
Happily, that`s not true.
Food and wine ”is our principal indulgence,” Joe Fell explains one evening as he opens a bottle of 1970 vintage Taittinger Champagne that ”just might be over the hill.” (It wasn`t.)
She loves to cook, finds it relaxing, a ”creative change of pace.” He is a passionate collector of wines and a student of breadmaking, a man who by his own admission is ”not given to doing things half way.” They like sharing. They like their home. They like people ”in small doses.”
Inevitably, they entertain. When they do, it is a joint effort.
Some of their entertaining is work-related. Joe Fell is an art dealer with an unusual specialty: He searches out, restores and sells antique carpets to an international clientele. She is a clothing designer who markets her creations in a boutique in the same charming antique North Clark Street building where he displays his carpets.
”We have our parties at the office,” Judy Fell says. ”At home (a 100-year-old updated farmhouse in Lake View) we generally ask only one or two other couples, and they are far more likely to share our food and wine interests than to be business acquaintances.”
”It`s very difficult to bring together people who don`t know one another unless there is a common interest,” Joe Fell interjects.
(Two verbal people who`ve been married for more than two decades, the Fells don`t compete or repeat in joint conversations. Instead they move in and out of each other`s thoughts and sentences.)
”People do entertain to further their own agendas,” Judy Fell continues. ”We tend to entertain in hopes of having a nice, relaxed, pleasant evening.”
Somehow, a good deal of panache is woven into these evenings as well. The unstudied ease with which the Fells act, react and interact sets a mood that usually leads to intense conversations on a variety of subjects. This spontaneity, in turn, springs from two guiding principles: Menus for company are extensions of meals they cook for themselves, and they divide chores in a sensible, nonarbitrary manner that makes entertaining without hired help seem effortless.
As Judy Fell puts it, ”When it`s only the two of us for dinner, the differences are not great. I do what I do well, and Joe does what he does well. That extends through everything, even cleaning. Sometimes we make pizzas together. He makes the dough, and I make the topping. In the yard he cuts the grass and prunes. I do the flowers.”
”My principal responsibilities are wine and bread,” Joe Fell explains.
”They both take a lot of time, especially washing and polishing wine glasses and allowing bread to rise properly. I also do some of the shopping, and lately I`ve begun to make some of the desserts.”
He grew up in rural Iowa, eating products grown on the family farm or nearby, including ”really good bread.” He remembers baking a few times while living in San Francisco in the 1960s, but says he has ”gotten serious about it only in the past few years.” Serious means baking two or three loaves at least once a week to formulas he has developed. Some is eaten fresh, some is frozen. Nothing comes from the store.
Once a date is set and guests have been invited, they prepare this way:
To begin, they confer three or four days in advance to discuss the guests, seasonal factors, wine choices, available food.
According to Judy Fell: ”We ask each other if we know of any specific food likes or dislikes our guests might have, what we served if they have been here before, how interested in wine they are. If they like wine, we are certain to have a red wine course and/or a cheese course. Usually, Joe picks the wines first, then I suggest various dishes to go with them.”
Such preliminaries leave ample time to turn upright any older wines so sediment will settle and to defrost the organically raised meat or poultry they buy directly from a farm. Judy then writes a menu for reference but no step-by-step checklist.
Dessert may be done ahead, but Joe`s bread will be made fresh the day of the dinner. (He gets up early on mornings when company is due so his bread can rise and bake by midafternoon, leaving the oven free for Judy`s cooking.)
Vegetables and salad ingredients usually are purchased and prepared the day of the dinner, too.
They entertain almost exclusively in the evening, usually Sunday or Monday, when both their businesses are closed. Except at holiday time, when a group may be asked, the Fells prefer to have only one or two other couples at the 4-by-8-foot black cherry wood table Joe Fell designed and built in his basement machine shop. (The high-ceilinged oblong dining room, with its soft yellow walls and wood floor, is warm and cozy, having more than a few suggestions of Art Deco style. Chairs of Italian leather, purchased at an auction of law-office furniture, surround the table. Original posters from the 1933 Chicago World`s Fair are on the walls.)
Joe slices bread, pours wine and helps serve. Judy moves to the adjacent kitchen to finish each course but is near enough to follow the conversation at table and join in now and then.
As for clearing the table, guests ”can pick up plates,” Judy Fells says, but so smoothly are the courses orchestrated that the opportunity never seems to present itself.
She grew up in a family of cooks and food lovers, cooked complete meals for herself even when, as an aspiring actress, she lived in a tiny apartment in New York City. ”I learned,” she says, ”that when you really love to cook, you need to cook for other people as well as yourself. But I can`t cook foods I don`t like. I can`t sew things I don`t like, either.”
Her cooking has ”a French slant” (as does her husband`s extensive wine collection) but makes frequent excursions into an American regional and Austrian repertory of recipes. Confident enough to try out new recipes on company, she draws inspiration from an eclectic collection of cookbooks and restaurant dishes tasted here and during trips to Europe. Her food is homey, relying on flavor and quality ingredients to make an impression. There is a noticeable lack of elaboration, and fussy presentation is verboten.
All that should be apparent in the menu that follows. The wines Joe Fell chose are not currently on the market, but more recent vintages of these wines, or others from the same communes, can be found in local wine shops. In serving wine to company, he has one general recommendation. ”In my experience,” he says, ”most white wine is served too cold, and most red wine is served too warm. A fine white Burgundy, for example, should be cool, not cold. A great Bordeaux should be served at cellar temperature (about 66 degrees), not at the temperature of a warm dining room.”
MENU
Joe`s bread
Red-pepper mousse with fresh tomato sauce
Wine: Pinot gris, Trimbach, 1983
Crisp oven-roasted capon with new potatoes and baby squash
Wine: Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge, Marc Morey, 1980
Cheeses
Wine: St. Emilion, Chateau Troplong-Mondot, 1966
Jerry`s High Fashion Fruit Surprise
Wine: Muscat Beaume-de-Venise, Vidal Fleury
Coffee
Much of this meal may be prepared before guests arrive. Both the red-pepper mousse and the dessert need to be chilled. Place the potato packet in the oven as soon as the temperature is turned down for
the second stage of cooking the capon. Place the vegetable packet in the oven when the capon comes out. Remove and open both packets only after the bird is carved. For an aperitif, serve champagne or a dry white wine.
RED-PEPPER MOUSSE
Four servings
3 red bell peppers
1/2 teaspoon paprika, Hungarian or Spanish, as fresh as possible
Salt
1/2 lemon
1/2 tablespoon ( 1/2 envelope) gelatin
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup whipping cream
Vegetable oil
Fresh tomato sauce (recipe follows)
1. Place peppers over gas burner or under oven broiler. Cook and turn until entire skin is charred. When cool enough to handle, peel off charred skin under cold running water. Remove stem and seeds.
2. In blender or food processor, puree peppers. Place a fine sieve over a bowl. Pour puree into sieve and rub with wooden spoon to force puree through. Add paprika and salt to taste.
3. Squeeze juice from the 1/2 lemon into small dish. Sprinkle gelatin over lemon juice. In small saucepan bring 1/4 cup water to a boil. Add softened gelatin and stir until dissolved. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. Stir gelatin into red-pepper puree. Place mixture in refrigerator or set it in bowl filled with ice and water and stir until chilled but not cold enough for the gelatin to set.
5. Whip cream to soft peaks and fold into chilled puree. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Pour into four oiled molds or custard cups and chill until firm. Serve with fresh tomato sauce.
FRESH TOMATO SAUCE
About one cup
2 big, very ripe red tomatoes
4 leaves fresh basil
2 branches fresh thyme
1 tablespoon fresh parsley leaves
Pinch sugar
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Salt, freshly ground pepper to taste
1. Plunge the tomatoes into simmering hot water for 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and peel them. Cut tomatoes in half, remove seeds and squeeze to extract water. Cut into chunks and reserve.
2. Tear basil leaves into small pieces. Rub thyme leaves from branches and pull parsley leaves from stems.
3. Place basil, thyme and parsley leaves in bowl of a food processor or blender. Mince, then add tomato chunks, sugar and vinegar. Process until smooth, then pour into a sieve set over a bowl. Push through as much of the mixture as possible, using the back of a spoon. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until shortly before serving.
CRISP OVEN-ROASTED CAPON
Six to eight servings
1 capon, 5 1/2 to 6 pounds
Herb-and-spice salt (recipe follows)
2 or 3 branches fresh tarragon or 1/2 tablespoon dried tarragon
1 stick cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup dry white wine
1. Allow capon to come to room temperature. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Scatter generous amount of herb-and-spice salt in the cavity of the bird and rub more over the skin. Insert tarragon branches in the cavity. Truss or tie the bird, if you wish.
2. Position capon on rack, breast up, in roasting pan and place in hot oven. When the skin begins to brown, after 10 to 15 minutes, rub butter stick over the capon`s breast, removing after about 2 tablespoons have melted.
3. After 35 to 40 minutes, depending on the brownness of the skin, lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Cook an additional 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven and cover loosely with a tent of foil wrap. Let rest 10 to 15 minutes before carving. Carve on cutting board or platter with a rim to save the juices.
4. Pour juices from roasting pan through strainer. Skim fat from juices. Pour white wine into roasting pan. Bring wine to a boil while using a wooden spoon to scrape any solids from the bottom of the pan. Pour into saucepan along with roasting-pan juices, carving juices and solids from the strainer. Stir together and spoon some over each portion of carved chicken.
HERB-AND-SPICE SALT
About 3/4 cup
2/3 cup salt
1 heaping tablespoon thyme leaves
1 heaping teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Thoroughly mix salt, thyme, pepper and cloves in a 1/2 pint jar with a tight-fitting cover. Reserve for use on roast poultry or pork.
ENVELOPE POTATOES
Four servings
Foil wrap
12 to 16 new potatoes, washed and thoroughly dried
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary or thyme
Freshly ground black pepper
1. Cut a 3-foot length of foil and fold in half. Place potatoes in middle of the foil, then scatter the herb and pepper over them. Bring ends of the foil together and roll until potatoes are snuggly covered. Fold sides to form a tight seal. Bake in 375-degree oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Envelope vegetables: Follow the above instructions, using any baby vegetable or cutup zucchini. Season with a compatible herb, such as basil or dill, and pepper. Bake in 375-degree oven for about 15 minutes or until tender but still firm.
JERRY`S HIGH-FASHION FRUIT SURPRISE
Four servings
(Fruit should be ripe but not overly soft. Fresh meringues, purchased from a bakery and crumbled may be substituted for the meringue topping.)
1 banana, peeled
1 bunch black grapes, pulled from their stems
1 mango, peeled and pitted
1/2 papaya, peeled and seeded
1 orange, peeled and sectioned
1 kiwi, peeled
1/2 lime
For the sauce:
1 package (10 ounces) frozen raspberries, thawed
1/3 cup granulated sugar
For the topping:
1 cup milk
2 eggs, separated
7 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
1. Cut the fruit into bite-sized pieces or slices, place in a glass serving bowl. Squeeze juice from lime and sprinkle over fruit.
2. For sauce, in food processor or blender combine raspberries, their juice and 1/3 cup granulated sugar. Puree. Pour over fruit and toss to mix. Refrigerate, covered, for 3 hours.
3. For the topping, in a small saucepan scald the milk. In a metal bowl beat together egg yolks, 3 tablespoons of sugar and flour. Slowly beat hot milk into mixture. Return to saucepan and stir over low heat until mixture thickens. Pour back into bowl and stir until mixture cools.
4. Whip the cream to soft peaks. Refrigerate.
5. In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup water, cream of tartar and remaining 4 tablespoons of sugar. Bring to a boil, cover pan and cook for 3 minutes, then boil uncovered until syrup reaches 238 degrees on a candy thermometer. Meanwhile, whip the 2 egg whites with pinch of salt until stiff but not dry. Very gradually beat hot syrup into egg whites. Continue beating until cool. Pour into an 8-by-8-inch baking dish and spread to make an even layer. (If you wish, place under broiler until top is lightly browned.)
6. To finish dessert, fold whipped cream into egg yolk mixture; pour over fruit. Cut meringue into squares and place atop fruit and sauce. Serve in shallow bowls or rimmed plates.
