Layered Foods

Almost all of the Grandkids

The kids and grandkids and friends with kids have all left the building and the house is so quiet I could scream.  You get used to a certain level of noise, especially with Byxbees, and when it stops you miss it.  We had a ball with Kent and Valley and their 3, plus the 2 grandkids who live nearby.  We did a lot of cooking and a lot of laughing and it was a grand visit.  At one point we had a s’mores feast and one of the grandkids made a double, which was very hard to eat and it started me wondering about why we all love to layer food.  I don’t care if it is a triple-decker club sandwich or a five-color Jell-O mold, everyone seems to love to layer food - and the more layers the better.

When I was a kid, we didn’t have lots of layered food. My mother was not into Jell-O molds or lasagna and I’m reasonably sure that layered dips hadn’t been invented.  I was, however, exposed to one layered food and that was Seven Layer Cake.  Every time our lovely Aunt Gigi would come to visit us from New York City, she would take the train from Grand Central Station and she always stopped at Schrafft’s to pick up some treats. Schrafft’s was a great NYC restaurant that started as a chocolate store and they made the very best Seven Layer Cakes in the world, which Gigi knew we all adored.  She would walk in the door laden with white boxes tied with white and red string and we were all bursting with excitement to see what goodies she had for us.

As I got older and started eating outside the home, I became exposed to lots and lots of layered food.  I can remember my first moussaka in some restaurant in Milwaukee, which was followed by a sticky sweet baklava.  I remember going into New York and finding a really old family restaurant in Little Italy where I had lasagna, which must have had six or seven layers of pasta and filling, all for two dollars a plate.  Who knew that I would also have room for a layered Tiramisu.  I thought it was the finest thing I had ever eaten until I tried Cindy’s.  Pat Lucas, a dear friend and neighbor in Winona Minnesota taught me a great deal about cooking, especially Italian and French, and she once made an Italian Torte appetizer that was similar to this one which knocked my socks off.  She also used to make a great variety of French Verrines, which were as beautiful as they were delicious.  I have since learned that almost every culture has some sort of national dish that is layered and classified as comfort food, regardless of how difficult it might look to make. I have also figured out that most savory layered food is quite economical, which is why every culture has one.  Here are two from Japan, one easy and fun to eat, the other a real pain to make but delicious to eat.

One of the most fun evenings I ever had was when Cindy and I did a high-end bar crawl around the bars in the fancy hotels surrounding lower Central Park. Our goal was to find someone who could make a perfect Pousse Café, that ethereal after dinner drink of layered liqueurs.  We finally succeeded at Doubles, the bar in the Sherry Netherland Hotel.  Now that was a night to remember! 

Layered Vegetable Lasagna

From bottom: eggplant, onion/garlic/sweet potato

Here are two photos of my recent addition to my layering concepts. I had one sweet potato and two eggplants from the garden.  I caramelized some garlic and onions - lots of them actually - then just browned the sliced sweet potato and eggplants.  I made a quick filler with two eggs, yogurt and shredded Parmesan, which I seasoned with oregano.  Then it was just layering in an oiled bread pan: eggplant, onion/garlic, filler, sweet potato, repeat.  I topped it all with shredded mozzarella and baked it for forty minutes.  Nothing fancy, but it looked and tasted like a million bucks.  The beauty with this type of dish is that I could have added or substituted almost anything - seared tofu, bits of meats, sautéed spinach - the list is endless and it is just a question of what you have to work with and what you enjoy eating.

Now the challenge. Take a look at this site and tell me if you know of any layered food that isn’t shown in the photos.  I find it mind-boggling.   Ciao, Wm