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| No Starving Artists The muse is well fed at Regina's table By Emily Kaiser Through tortoiseshell glasses, Regina Maksutova's blue eyes focused on an orange shell filled with cranberry preserves as she positioned it next to a roast duckling, just so. "Tak, Emilechka, take it to the table," she instructed me in her lilting Russian accent. Several nights a month, Regina creates a lavish meal of Russian specialties in her Manhattan apartment for friends and fellow expatriates, many of whom are musicians, actors, or dancers. This evening she was hosting a dinner party for trumpeter Valery Ponomarev and the young members of his jazz quintet. "I began my life with a jazz musician," she says (her first husband was a jazz saxophonist), "and now it feels as though I am coming full circle." Regina has planned two first courses: bazhe (chicken in a rich Georgian pecan-walnut sauce) and poached salmon and sauteed shrimp mixed with ginger, garlic, and fresh horseradish sauce. Dessert would be apple cake and, per my special request, chocolate-covered prunes stuffed with hazelnuts. My parents met Regina when they lived in Moscow in the 1970s, and ever since I was a child I have known her to be a patron cook of artists. She was born in Moscow, in 1940, to parents who were great lovers of the arts and later encouraged their daughter to attend art school; but Regina chose to study English instead, becoming an interpreter for the Washington Post's Moscow bureau in the 1960s. She did, however, find a way to fulfill her parents' wish: by befriending and nourishing all artists who crossed her path. "My job is to feed artists; they are always forgetting to feed themselves." Regina learned to cook from her grandfather, a French-trained chef in St. Petersburg before the Bolshevik revolution. While enduring communism as a canteen manager at a Kiev railway station, he taught his granddaughter his old recipes. Many lessons were confined to paper since the restrictions of the Soviet regime made some ingredients almost impossible to find. Regina's second husband was the actor Mikhail Kozakov, who has been called the Russian John Barrymore. In the late 1960s and '70s, because of her connections to visiting foreign correspondents and her husband's fame, she fed such luminaries as Joseph Brodsky, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Robert De Niro. Regina eventually divorced her husband, and in the late '80s De Niro helped her emigrate to the States. At tonight's dinner the musicians seated themselves at the dining table and happily wolfed down the bazhe. Some vodka was found, and soon we were making the first of many toasts. In the twinkling candlelight, Regina was once again nourishing art with the flavors of her past. Bazhe 3 lbs. chicken thighs and legs, separated 1. Put chicken, onions, carrots and parsnips in a large pot, cover with water, and season to taste with salt. Bring to a boil over high ehat, skimming any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until chicken is cooked through, 20-30 minutes. Remove pot from heat and set aside to let chicken cool in stock. Transfer chicken pieces to a large deep serving platter in a single layer. Strain stock, discarding vegetables, and save for another use. 2. Working in 2 batches, put pecans, walnuts, garlic, basil and cilantro into a food processor and puree to a fine paste. Transfer nut-herb mixture to a heavy medium pot. Stir in lemon juice, wine, syrup, vinegar, curry powder, and herbes de Provence, then gradually add 6 cups cold water, stirring until sauce is smooth. Cook sauce over medium heat, stirring often, until hot. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 3. Pour hot pecan-walnut sauce over chicken and set aside at room temperature to let flavors commingle for 2 hours, or cover and refrigerate overnight. Bring to room temperature before serving. Garnish platter with a large sprig of basil, if you like. |
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© 2001 - 2008 Emily Kaiser |
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