From the White House to Your House

Newton resident Clara Silverstein, author of  "A White House Garden Cookbook," was a food writer at the Boston Herald for 13 years. But she got her start in journalism at the tender age of eight.

“I made up a newspaper called The Doggie Gazette,” laughs Silverstein. “It was about all the dogs in the neighborhood. I had a love column, even. I guess I was meant to be writing at some point!”

But Silverstein has come a long way from her K-9 gazette -- in 2008, she was approached by a publisher with a couple of book proposals, but the one that stuck out was the idea of a cookbook based on First Lady Michelle Obama’s new garden at the White House.

So, Silverstein was off with a group of press to the White House, where she visited the garden twice and had a chance to ask Mrs. Obama and White House chef Christeta Comerford a few questions. 

Her original concept was just to follow the garden through spring, summer and the fall harvest of 2009. But Silverstein found that even with the awful blizzards that winter, the White House garden was able to produce a crop of herbs that, in fact, made it into the cookbook and brought the publication’s scope to almost an entire year.

Growing up in Richmond, Virginia and bussed into a middle school mostly populated by black students (the basis for her first book "White Girl: A Story of School Desegregation"), Silverstein never thought she’d be a food writer. 

After graduating in from Wesleyan University 1982 with a degree in American Studies, Silverstein took a year off to travel Europe and eventually moved to Boston.

Her first job here was freelancing for the Boston Phoenix, which then led to jobs writing for weekly papers.

In 1991, Silverstein started writing for the Herald. Her column “was everything but restaurant reviews."

"I did features about chefs, I wrote about new products, I had a news column, and I did the column where people wrote in and ask for recipes,” she says.

In 2005, Silverstein left the Herald to devote herself full time to writing cookbooks. Her work had caught the attention of New England Soup Factory owner , who asked her if she’d like to co-author a cookbook. "" came out in September of 2007.

But before that, Silverstein had been working on another project inspired by the questions her readers at the Herald would ask. Less than a month after the Soup Factory cookbook was pubilshed,  "The Boston Chefs Table: The Best in Contemporary Cuisine" was released. 

“I realized that there hadn’t been a cookbook that put all the Boston restaurants together,” Silverstein says. “I felt like there wasn’t a showcase for all of these really talented chefs.”

While adapting and converting recipes for this book, Silverstein discovered that she had an unusual gift.

“It’s kind of a subtle skill, but I can take a recipe and translate it for the home cook,” Silverstein says.

"A White House Garden Cookbook" was published in May of 2010, and a recipe for pesto from the cookbook can be found below. It contains cilantro, parsley and honey -- all items that were grown/produced in the White House garden,

Now Silverstein is looking to build on her first love, American History. She is pursuing a Master’s Degree at UMass Boston and is considering teaching jobs at the college, high school or even junior high school level.

But her love of food remains unabated.  She mentions that her goal for this winter has been to try to make a different soup every week. You can check out her website and purchase her cookbooks at or at Amazon.com.

Makes about ½ cup

This bright green spread is a distant cousin of the basil-themed pesto that you probably recognize from Italian cooking. It puts herbs and seasonings together in a blender, but there the resemblance ends. Cilantro has a flavor all its own, enhanced by peanut butter and honey. Toss a spoonful of this spread with pasta, or spread it on grilled chicken. Later in the summer, slice up some fresh tomatoes and make a sandwich with the pesto.

Ingredients:

1 cup cilantro leaves

½ cup parsley leaves

1 clove garlic

2 tablespoons peanut butter

1 tablespoon honey

3 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 tablespoons water

Salt, to taste

Dash Tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. Wash the cilantro and parsley leaves; set them on a clean dishtowel or on paper towels to dry.

2. Peel the garlic. Put it in a blender or food processor. Add the peanut butter, honey, cilantro and parsley. Turn on the motor and, with the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil until the mixture blends together. Drizzle in the water, a tablespoon at a time, if it still seems too thick and stubbornly sticks to the sides of the blender.

3. Put the pesto in a bowl. Stir in the salt and Tabasco, if using.