'Hero Food' focuses on healthy ingredients

'Hero Food' focuses on healthy ingredients

COLIN CLARK

White peaches with pistachios, honey and ricotta

Top chef Seamus Mullen takes readers on a seasonal journey, from winter in Barcelona to summer in Vermont, as he reveals the secrets of his kitchen and his life in a new cookbook.

Hero Food, out Tuesday, recounts his discovery of his 18 hero foods, on which he relies to live a healthier lifestyle. The award-winning chef was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis a few years ago.

I do not believe that what we eat can cure illn ess, but I do believe that eating well and mindfully can improve our sense of well-being, says Mullen. I know theres no silver bullet, but I have discovered that some foods can make dramatic differences.

Among his favorites: sweet peas, good eggs, mushrooms and stone fruit.

My goal is to provide delicious alternatives to incorporate in your daily meals. Much of this stuff we already know, but we dont always know what to do with it.

Mullen, formerly of Boqueria fame, is the chef/owner of Tertulia, the seasonal Spanish Greenwich Village eatery with great buzz that is up for Best New Restaurant at the James Beard Awards next month.

Tertulia is the realization of a longtime dream, Mullen says. A restaurant that fulfills my vision for food and hospitality without compromises.

The book is broken up into seasons Winter in Barcelona, Spring on My Rooftop, Summer on the Farm and Autumn in Vermont that trace his life from boyhood in rural Vermon t, through his introduction to the foods and culture of Spain, and to his home and restaurant in New York.

Like Tertulia, Hero Foods blends the chefs passion for pairing farm-fresh ingredients with a strong, authentic Spanish twist.

I fell in love with Spain by accident, Mullen says.

And were sure glad he did.

Recipe: White Peaches, Pistachios, Honey and Ricotta

Serves: 4

Ingredients

When white peaches are in season (which seems to only last about five minutes in New York), nothing is more truly summer than the one perfect peach I have every year. Once they start showing up in the farmers market I greedily buy them, and while I enjoy every white peach I eat, I really only ever have one perfect peach a year. When I find it, I scream and jump for joy. Its pure hedonistic indulgence. Luckily all those less-than-perfe ct-but-still-delicious peaches have value, too.

There is a lovely, traditional Catalan dessert called mel i mat, just fresh cheese drizzled with honey. Sometimes it might have fruit, too, but usually its just cheese and honey. This is a little homage to the perfect peach by way of Catalunya. Using a sharp mandoline to slice the peaches gives you sweet slivers that fall off like flower petals. She loves me, she loves me not ...


2 or 3 firm white peaches, plus a yellow one

Juice of 1 lemon

1 pound fresh ricotta cheese

4 tablespoons honey

cup shelled pistachios, toasted in a dry, hot pan for 30 seconds

2 tablespoons fruity olive oil

Instructions

1. Quarter and pit the peaches, then slice into thin curls on a mandoline. Toss with the lemon juice in a bowl.

2. Divide the ricotta among 4 dessert bowls, driz zle a tablespoon of honey on each, and toss on a handful of toasted pistachios. Top each with a few curls of the peach slices and a drizzle of olive oil and serve.


From Seamus Mullens Hero Food: How Cooking With Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $ 35).