Adele Prokash Bruno

(1896-1982)

Adele (called Dell by her sisters and Nanny by the grandchildren) was Ralph and Larry's mother. Her parents (Rosa and Jacob Prokesh) were from Rumania and owned a dress manufacturing company. Her mother was the clothing designer and (and the financial brains of the business) who travelled annually to Paris to pick up the latest styles, trends, and fabrics.

Adele was a wonderful cook and a master baker who used to make three tiered 14 layer cakes for weddings in the family. Many of her recipes were handed down through Ralph who used and adapted them (not the baking).  I think the 14 layer cake recipe came from the original “Joy of Cooking” by Irma Rombauer that Nanny gave me as a wedding gift.  She said, “It’s the only cookbook you’ll ever need.”  Even though I have picked up many cookbooks over my lifetime, I still go back to “Joy” when I have to know how long to cook a turkey or find a traditional recipe for apple crisp.

Adele was a strong minded, independent, and some say occasionally stubborn woman who during World War II worked in a factory that produced airplane motors. She did careful measurements of parts using fine micrometers. She worked all her life, and in later years worked in New York City as a bookkeeper in the fabric industry. She also was a stylish New Yorker, a wonderful hostess and an interesting woman who played ragtime style piano and for a while had a job playing background music in theaters for silent movies.  Her grandchildren always looked forward to visits with her.

RECIPES

SOUPS
Go to the soup recipes on Ralph's page

CHOPPED CHICKEN LIVER

There are two "family secrets" to Nanny's amazing chopped liver recipe. It's amazing because people who hate liver often still get hooked on eating this chopped liver as an hors d'oeuvre with a nice glass of wine (or, as Nanny used to enjoy, a glass of good scotch).

Here are the two secrets (never tell the second one or people won't think it is "authentic"):

    1. Saute the onions slowly for a long time until they are gently caramelized and dark brown with some black (but not burned and dried out) pieces.

    2. Don't use rendered chicken fat (horrors!). Instead, caramelize the onions and once they are caramelized, sauté the  liver lightly with them in either butter or light olive oil.  Once they and the eggs are chopped/smashed/blended* up, add a small amount of mayonnaise to moisten it to taste.

Here's the simple recipe:

    Sauté a lot of thinly sliced onions slowly until they caramelize to a very dark brown.
    Add the chicken livers and sauté until cooked through, but don't overcook and let them get real dried out.
    Add hard boiled eggs chopped up.
    Then smash* everything (I use a fork) together and add some mayonnaise
    Salt and pepper to taste

For proportions, use a couple of chicken livers + 1 medium onion + one hard boiled egg. Feel free to change the proportions to taste or to whatever you have. Nanny used to add a little bit of tarragon, but not everyone loves that. If you don't add much, it does add good flavor without being obvious.

*Although you can try using a food processor to break up the liver and blend everything together, it's really better to squash everything up with a fork or hand food chopper.

Nanny's 7-14 layer cake

The secret to this one is to have thin cake tins. They make them so that the edges are maybe 1/4" high, like on a cookie tin. If you can't do that, I guess you can use regular sized cake tins and slice the layers horizontally with a thin long knife (but you need to have a steadier hand and eye than I do). Even if have the thin tins, you probably won't have enough for 7 layers, so just keep filling and cooking them and popping them on to waxed paper (as described below) until you have enough.

Eating this cake is a lot like eating thin slices of chocolate separated by thin layers of cake. Pretty good.

Chocolate icing

Sponge cake

PIE CRUST

CHOCOLATE FROSTING

return to Menu of Cooks