Cooking with "Stir" by Barbara Lynch

[pam claughton]

My sister surprised me yesterday with a new cookbook, STIR, by Barbara Lynch. It was a surprise because I didn't know she had a cookbook coming out. I've already read the book completely and can't wait to dive in and try some of these recipes.

If you don't know who Barbara Lynch is, she's a well known Boston chef, who worked under Todd English at Olives (and maybe Figs too), then Galleria Italiano, before opening No. 9 Park. She has several other restaurants now too, but No. 9 is the one people rave about. It's famous for delicate, homemade pastas. I've only tried one recipe in the book, when it was printed a few years back in Food and Wine magazine, the Veal Ragu over Pappardelle, and it was delicious.

I've had several of the other dishes though, the tomato tart and one of her signature dishes, the prune stuffed gnocchi with foie gras sauce. That is amazing.

I think the first dish I may try is a soup, leek and potato with scallops and olive potato chip garnish. She recommends using the local Cape scallops, which are in season now for a few more weeks.

Any other suggestions if anyone is familiar with the book?

[syoung68]

I got it for Christmas and love it. I already made the roasted tomato and cheese appetizer because it was just way to easy to pass up.

[Chris Amirault]

Just got this and am enjoying it. The beet and blue cheese salad was a bit of a miss for us with a Bayley Hazen blue from Jasper Hills, but her gnudi was fantastic, which I made with her homemade ricotta. My shaping and fork indentations need work, but they were excellent with a simple browned butter and sage sauce.

What else are people making with it?

[inductioncook]

The explanations in the book are very good and it is awfully well written. The pasta/"bolognese" pictured on the cover is a very fine recipe, as is the whole gnocchi section.

[torolover]

Let's keep this "stir" cookbook thread alive! I've tried the Seared Scallops with celery root. Amazing!! What else have people tried?

[santo_grace]

A little over a year ago I was told by my manager to pick a conference to attend. I had the choice of Boston, Orlando, or San Diego. I jumped on the one in Boston since it had been a number of years since I had been, and the Red Sox were in town, so my husband and I made a weekend of it. While we didn't make it to No. 9 Park (our expensive dinner was at Oya), I was lucky the hotel was within walking distance of Sportello and Drink. I went to Sportello for dinner by myself and liked it so much took my husband for lunch when he got into town. We were also happy to go to Drink before we hopped in a cab for our dinner at B&G Oysters. Ms. Lynch contributed to a very nice weekend in Boston.

I bought Stir on my second trip to Sportello. For our New Year's Eve dinner we served the chestnut bisque, iceberg wedge, tomato tarts, and prune gnocchi with foie gras sauce. I don't usually source so many of the our NYE dinner recipes from one place, but everything was pretty easy to make and was all delicious. I did cheat and didn't make the gnocchi for the prune filling, and instead made them as raviolis. Given my lack of experience making gnocchi and time needed to prep other courses, it just wasn't going to happen.

We also don't always test all of our recipes beforehand, but we did with these. This was my first time roasting chestnuts and it was much easier the first time I made the soup because we peeled the chestnuts while still fairly hot. You can not let them cool too much.

Also, my foie gras sauce did break, but the suggestion of adding hot water brought it back together.

Thanks for resurrecting this thread. I just pulled Stir out again and am looking forward to making some summertime recipes. Cool corn soup with mushroom, scallion, and lemon sounds perfect.

[mukki]

My gnudi recipe hunt is over. Lynch's ricotta gnudi are delicious. I make them with Calabro ricotta and often have a batch in the freezer for a quick lunch with browned butter and sage.