Every Tuesday we'll welcome an Author who will share a foodie type post
with a recipe or two and some book promo !
Today please help me welcome William Maltese...
* * * * * * * *
“MY LITERARY FOOD…FOR THOUGHT”
a blog on food in my books
My name is William Maltese. I’m a
full-time author and have been for most of my life. When in university, I began
writing professionally with my article “Ransom of the Inca” for “Argosy” men’s magazine,
detailing a treasure-hunting adventure I experienced in South America between
my Junior and Senior years; that story reached the stands while I was attending
Basic Training at Ford Ord, California. My enlisted-Army stint lasted three
years, culminating with an honorable discharge as an E5 (sergeant-equivalent).
After my military service, I had all intentions of advantaging my university
degree in Advertising/Marketing, but I was detoured, during a summer hiatus, by
reading an m/m book in a friend’s apartment that had me thinking, if merely as
a lark, I could write one “just as good”. I did write one, even better, and it
was immediately grabbed up by Greenleaf Press with a request for more of the same;
from which, there was no turning back. My having now reached the point where I
have over 200 traditional-press published books to my credit; so many of my old
m/m and f/m erotic novels having become collectable classics, from “The Golden
Age of Pulp-Fiction”, that traditional publisher Wildside/Borgo Press has released
a 303-page reference book, DRAQUALIAN SILK: A COLLECTOR’S AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
GUIDE TO THE BOOKS OF WILLIAM MALTESE 1969-2010,
http://www.amazon.com/Draqualian-Silk-Collectors-Bibliographical-1969-2010/dp/1434411729/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393372689&sr=1-1&keywords=draqualian+silk
entirely devoted to my work, just to help interested people keep track of my pseudonyms (over 36) and my titles.
entirely devoted to my work, just to help interested people keep track of my pseudonyms (over 36) and my titles.
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, with its mighty cold winters,
I, along with my whole family, spent a lot of time in the kitchen, warmest room
of the house, gleaning wonderful memories of my mother’s expertise at the stove,
along with the resulting comforting tastes and smells of her cooking. After my
mother’s death, it was my sister and I going through her recipe box that
resulted in the seventh of my seven cook books, MOM’S HOME COOKING (AND OTHER
THINGS), due for release some time in the summer of 2014.
From the outset, though, food has played an important part in more than
a few of my novels, in which my protagonist, in a chapter called “Through the Garden,” has intimate
relationships with a cantaloupe, a cucumber, and a watermelon. beginning with my first one, the m/m sci-fi epic, FIVE ROADS TO TLEN.
Later on, I found there was no better way to give
readers a real "sense of place" — whether local or
international —
than by mentioning indigenous foods (most of
which I’d tasted in their countries of origin).
Writing as Willa Lambert, my first SuperRomance for Harlequin, LOVE’S
EMERALD FLAME (reissued and now available from Wildside/Borgo Press),
I opened with its now famous food scene:
I opened with its now famous food scene:
Diana Green didn’t know
the man. If her expression didn’t sufficiently denote that fact, she quickly
reinforced it verbally.
“I beg your pardon?”!” she said, her
forkful of cebiche de corvine
interrupted halfway to her attractively pouted mouth.
“I’m sorry I’m late, darling,” he said
casually, as if he had known her for her full twenty-five years.
Diana felt suddenly as if she were a
character in a low-budget film. The locale was certainly exotic enough.
“I see you’ve gone ahead and ordered the
salmon trout,” he observed, flashing a wide smile. He had sensuously full lips
that now revealed a wide expanse of large white teeth. Not only did the locale
suggest some B-grade movie, but the man seemed to fit the bill, too. He had the
rugged good looks that one would possibly attribute to an actor still quite
handsome but past the attractiveness of youth.
Diana looked curiously around the room,
wondering if she was unknowingly appearing on that popular old show called
“Candid Camera,” but doubting that its crew would have been sent all the way to
Lima, Peru.
I think maybe I’ll have the conchitas made with tiny scallops and anticuchos of chicken livers,
shish-kebab style,” he decided. “What do you think?”
“Is this some kind of a joke?” That was
what she thought!
Writing as Willa Lambert, in my
second SuperRomance for Harlequin, FROM THIS BELOVED HOUR (since reissued and
available from Wildside/Borgo Press):
The menu was printed on
disposable place mats, and Jenny found herself automatically searching for hamama, although she had no intention
whatsoever of ordering pigeon. What she finally did decide upon was molokhhia—an exclusively Egyptian dish
she had tried several times previously and liked. She had never been able to
find out what name was given to the strange flat leaves that, cut up, were
laced in the light meat broth to make the dish. They vaguely resembled grape
leaves, but she had been told they were related to the mint family. The thick
soup that resulted, however, had not a trace of mint in its strong flavor.
After making sure that it came from the
sea instead of the river, Peter ordered samak—the
fish of the day—which turned out to be sole. Although the restaurant had made
its name with the tourist trade and could likely be trusted, Peter, like Jenny,
had learned that fish from the Nile, especially if caught as far downriver as Cairo
And, of course, in my third
SuperRomance for Harlequin, LOVES GOLDEN SPELL (since reissued by
Wildside/Borgo Press):
They were served hotchpotch of curly kale, a hearty Dutch
stew of cabbage, potatoes, sausage, salt, butter, pepper and chicken stock. The
stew was anything but pedestrian, served as it was from a large delft soup
tureen into matching soup bowls and accompanied by a 1947 South African
Cabernet Sauvignon from the country’s Groot Constantia vineyards outside Cape Town
“Koeksisters,”
he identified their dessert. “It translates ‘cake sisters,’” he said, no doubt
encouraged by the focusing of her eyes. “Braided dough, deep fried and then
chilled in a syrup of water, sugar, cream of tartar, ginger, cinnamon and
glycerin.”
In my m/m adventure novel SS MANN
HUNT for Green Candy Press (since reissued and available from ManLoveRomance
Press), all about a possible Nazi war criminal’s disappearance in the South
American jungle and accompanying smuggling of archeological artifacts:
Jim points out the
selection: scrambled eggs (of the powdered variety), bread (with a golden and
flaky crust), peaches (from a can), honey (from a jar), jam (from a tin), and
bananas (from a plant less than six yards from where we sit in the Brazilian
Matto Grosso); wild pig (baked all day in a pit lined with plantain leaves and
red-hot rocks); rodent capybara (basted in its own thick juices; bite-size
pieces of succulent monkey (on small wooden skewers).
I don’t say so, because it’s my own
particular hang-up, but the very idea of eating monkey conjures macabre visions
of cannibalism reminiscent of those conjectured by one of the few journalists
who hadn’t jumped on the bandwagon to smear Sebastian Mann’s name and
reputation. The reporter had put Sebastian Mann, with the rest of the lost
Kenner-Mann-Lexly expedition (my father included), into the communal cooking
pot of hostile natives.
Certainly, I took the advantage of
food in my best-selling SLOVAKIAN BOY for Green Candy Press (since reissued in
Kindle format from ManLoveRomance Press),
http://www.amazon.com/Slovakian-Boy-William-Maltese/dp/1931160309/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373219&sr=1-1&keywords=slovakian+boy+by+william+maltese%2C+MLR+Press
http://www.amazon.com/Slovakian-Boy-William-Maltese/dp/1931160309/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373219&sr=1-1&keywords=slovakian+boy+by+william+maltese%2C+MLR+Press
about a young Slovakian innocent’s rise
to movie-stardom in the world of international porn.:
INGRIDE:
Pavel has this thing for
my cheese-flavored halusky—can’t get
enough of it. He’ll eat himself sick if given the chance.
I tell this to all the local girls who are
interested in Pavel. And what local girl isn’t interested in Pavel? Pavel is
such a charming boy. Such blue eyes, so polite, such a gentleman.
If I were younger and unmarried, I’d kept the
secret of my holusky to myself. I’d
take full advantage of knowing how to use it to get to Pavel through his
stomach. He’s such a great catch.
These days, girls don’t realize just how
important food is to any man. Girls should forget all they’ve ever heard about
sex being so all-important. Men tire of sex, at least as far as having it with
their wives. I tell you for a fact, my Zlatko doesn’t have sex with me nearly
as often, or nearly as passionately, as he once did. But does he still get
exuberant over my holusky? Oh yes!
Does he still approach my francusky pagac
with unbridled lust? Oh yes!
Will Pavel always come back to a wife who
can give him his favorite Liptov-region goat-cheese halusky? You bet! He’ll keep on coming back to her, too, long after
he’s grown tired of having sex with her. He’ll keep on coming back to her even
after he’s unable to get his sausage up for anyone or anything.
I’m making my halusky right this minute. I do so as much for Pavel as for the
busload of Danes who are scheduled to stop by for wine tasting and a good
Slovak meal. I look forward to that glazed look of pure pleasure Pavel gets on
his face whenever he sees me set my halusky
down in front of him. Such an expression of joy! Such excitement in his
eyes. Such passion in the way he licks his lips and makes little—decidedly
sexual—sucking sounds.
Oh, if only I were younger! If only I were
single. If only Pavel could be persuaded to look at me with the same ardor with
which he eyes my halusky!
Remembering, too, that exotic
locations aren’t the only ones to benefit from the ability of food to provide a
sense of place, I, in the first novel in my Stud Draqual Mystery series, taking
place in New York City, A SLIP TO DIE FOR, published by Prowler Books, London, (since reissued by
Wildside/Borgo Press)
http://www.amazon.com/Slip-Die-Draqual-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0025VLD8K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373360&sr=1-1&keywords=a+slip+to+die+for+by+william+maltese%2C+borgo+press
http://www.amazon.com/Slip-Die-Draqual-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0025VLD8K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373360&sr=1-1&keywords=a+slip+to+die+for+by+william+maltese%2C+borgo+press
included:
We were interrupted by a
waiter wheeling in six serving trays. My time and patience were both getting
pretty short, and I realized I might have to excuse myself before Stan had
finished eating. I was wrong. He was not only voracious but fast. He had cut
through a duck pâté, oysters on the half shell, cream-sautéed mushrooms, three
veal cutlets, and a medallion of beef before I had speared my last lettuce
leaf.
Stan talked with his mouth full but
managed to enunciate perfectly around the grind of his teeth and the pop of his
jaw. I perked up considerably when he began to tell me how Dan had recorded
highly incriminating smut about Clem Rollins which he, Stan, had no intentions
of ever making public by publishing or otherwise, no sirree! He was only
anxious to turn over the tape to Clem—anytime, anywhere. No need for hired hit
men, for Christ’s sake!
“I wish I’d never heard it,” he said after
inhaling some cheesecake which he decided to order after all. Then he started
on a serving of chocolate mousse.
I checked my watch.
“Just ten more minutes while I have my
pie,” Stan promised.
[Just by way of aside, Book #2 of
my Stud Draqual Mystery Series, THAI DIED, published by Green Candy Press
(since reissued as a Kindle by ManLoveMan Press),
http://www.amazon.com/Thai-Died-William-Maltese-ebook/dp/B004I1KSIQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373421&sr=1-2&keywords=thai+died+by+william+maltese has references to Thai food].
http://www.amazon.com/Thai-Died-William-Maltese-ebook/dp/B004I1KSIQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373421&sr=1-2&keywords=thai+died+by+william+maltese has references to Thai food].
Anyway, you get the idea. It was,
in fact, because of my incorporation of food and cooking in so many of my
novels, and my penchant for eating “local” whenever abroad, which was a good
deal of the time when I was first starting out, that had Wildside/Borgo Press initially
approach me about doing my series of wine books (WINE TASTER’S DIARY)
Spokane
and Pullman , Washington
and cookbooks for them. The latter presently comprise: THE GLUTEN FREE-WAY: MY WAY (with Adrienne Z. Hoffman)
http://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Free-Way-My-Guide-Cooking/dp/1434457192/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373813&sr=1-1&keywords=the+gluten-free+way%3A+my+way
…BACK OF THE BOAT GOURMET COOKING (with Bonnie Clark)
http://www.amazon.com/Back-Boat-Gourmet-Cooking-Pool-Side/dp/1434411540/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373846&sr=1-1&keywords=back+of+the+boat+gourmet+cooking
… GET-REAL
VEGAN DESSERTS (with Christina-Marie Wright)
http://www.amazon.com/Get-Real-Vegan-Desserts-Recipes-Rest/dp/1434445992/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373933&sr=1-1&keywords=get-real+vegan+desserts
…Last but not least, my cookbook published just this last year, EVERYDAY GOURMET: A MEMOIR,
Wine Taster’s Diary (series Book 1 & 2)
William Maltese's Wine Taster's Diary:
In Search of the Perfect Pinot G! Australia 's
Mornington Peninsula
and cookbooks for them. The latter presently comprise: THE GLUTEN FREE-WAY: MY WAY (with Adrienne Z. Hoffman)
http://www.amazon.com/Gluten-Free-Way-My-Guide-Cooking/dp/1434457192/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373813&sr=1-1&keywords=the+gluten-free+way%3A+my+way
…BACK OF THE BOAT GOURMET COOKING (with Bonnie Clark)
http://www.amazon.com/Back-Boat-Gourmet-Cooking-Pool-Side/dp/1434411540/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373846&sr=1-1&keywords=back+of+the+boat+gourmet+cooking
http://www.amazon.com/Get-Real-Vegan-Desserts-Recipes-Rest/dp/1434445992/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393373933&sr=1-1&keywords=get-real+vegan+desserts
Dinner with Cecile and William
http://www.amazon.com/Dinner-Cecile-William-Cookbook-Charles/dp/1434445267/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393374047&sr=1-1&keywords=dinner+with+cecile+and+william…Last but not least, my cookbook published just this last year, EVERYDAY GOURMET: A MEMOIR,
http://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Gourmet-Memoir-William-Maltese/dp/1479400556/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393374085&sr=1-1&keywords=everyday+gourmet%3A+a+memoir
is one of my favorites,
detailing the very first times, and wheres, I happened to taste a few of my
favorite dishes. From which, in closing, I’ve chosen to share with you the
following excerpt, as well as the recipe that goes with it:
EATING THE VOLCANO
The following chocolate
mud-cake recipe comes to you via my South American host who served it up to me
one evening over coffee at his home outside of Lérida, Colombia, not all that far (as the
crow flies) from the resulting tragedy of Nevado del Ruiz; the dessert having resulted by way of
culinary in memoriam.
A second point of
interest is how Colombia ranks as the third South American country, after
Brazil and Ecuador, by way of cacao bean production, but since its demand exceeds
its locally produced supply, it ends up importing 30% of its yearly cocoa
consumption. Therefore, any chocolate served up to you in Colombia has a one in
three chance of not being indigenous to the country in which you’re eating it.
That brings us to how
this dessert ideally doesn’t end up being made from South American cacao beans
at all but from those originating in Africa ’s
“Gold Coast” and packaged as the Xoçai Healthy Chocolate Nuggets® with which
I’d gifted my host before he turned them over to his cook for incorporation in
the resulting final recipe.
As a hearty advocate of
Xoçai Healthy Chocolate®, which is cold-pressed, rather than heat-processed,
thereby retaining far more of its vital nutrients than ordinary chocolate
(candy), I’m always gifting my friends and relatives with the product as well
as making conscious efforts to pass on whatever recipes can successfully be
adapted for it.
[For more information on
Xoçai chocolate, and for purchasing it, for cooking and/or eating purposes, go
on-line to—-
—and click on SHOP NOW].
Nevado del Ruiz Barro
Pastel
10 Xoçai Healthy Chocolate Nuggets®
½ c butter
1 TBS red wine (Merlot a good choice)
1 tsp vanilla
1 c confectioner's sugar (plus some additional for “dusting”)
2 eggs, plus 1 additional yolk
6 TBS flour
1 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven 425°F. Butter 4 six-oz custard soufflé cups. Melt the Nuggets and the butter in a microwavable bowl on high
until butter is melted (about 1 minute).
Whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in wine, vanilla, and 1 cup confectioner's sugar until
blended. Add the eggs, plus one additional yolk.
Blend in the flour and cinnamon. Divide mixture evenly between the buttered cups.
Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, until edges are firm but center is
still soft. Let stand for 1 minute. Loosen edges with a knife. Invert on to a dessert plate. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar. Serve immediately. Serves 4
NOTE: This is a great
dessert to serve with coffee. That said … I recently experimented eating it
with a red wine (7 Deadly Sins Zinfandel), a white wine (St. Chapelle Soft
White), and Champagne
P.S. If you’d be interested in trying the William Maltese
Vegan Spice Cake, named after me, go to:
P.P.S. And wherever you shop, ask for “William Maltese
Hottie Spice” mix.
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