Chef rediscovers joy in creative cooking

Creative ideas abound in "A Return to Cooking" (Artisan, $50) by Eric Ripert and Michael Ruhlman, including many for the home cook.

Ripert, executive chef and partner of Le Bernadin, the Manhattan restaurant renowned specially for its fish, bases the book on his own rediscovery of the spontaneous pleasures of cooking, away from the restaurant.

On visits with a group of friends to four different regions -- Sag Harbor, N.Y., Puerto Rico, California's Napa Valley, and Vermont -- he "cooked the landscape" in a home kitchen, using local foods in season, getting back in touch with the basics.

On the visit to Puerto Rico, Ripert came across two great, easily made condiments, pique and ginger oil, which he says go everywhere.

The text refers to pique as an amazing concoction, as natural as the air with the spirit of fire. You will need a heat-proof, narrow-necked bottle to make it in; let it ferment for one week. Then pour it on rustic stew, on beans, rice or over fish. "It's a colorful flavor, sweet and hot and full of life."

Pique

2 1/2 cups of water

6 ounces pineapple skin (from 1 pineapple)

8 tiny green hot peppers, such as Thai chilies

4 tiny red hot peppers, such as Thai chilies

1 garlic clove, peeled

1 oregano sprig

1 teaspoon peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Pinch of fine sea salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or as needed

Combine the water and pineapple skin in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Take off the heat and infuse for 5 minutes, then strain. Discard the pineapple skin.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Submerge a heatproof bottle in the water to sterilize it. Remove with tongs and let dry on a rack.

Make a 1/2-inch slit near the stem in each of the hot peppers. Add the peppers, garlic, oregano, peppercorns, sugar and salt to the bottle. Cover with the pineapple-infused water. Slowly add the olive oil. The olive oil should completely cover the pique; if it does not, add more to cover.

Leave the bottle open for 1 week on your countertop, covered loosely with cheesecloth. Throughout the week, bubbles will rise to the top. After a week, the bubbles will have subsided. Seal the bottle and refrigerate. Pique should keep for up to a month.

Makes 1 quart.

"Ginger oil is something that everyone should have in reach as part of one's seasoning array," according to "Return to Cooking."

It's one of the flavor boosters "that make your dishes sparkle, that push an ordinary dish to a new level."

Ginger oil, like any flavored oil, is an essence, a powerful but not overpowering flavor. "You have to be careful when using it -- too much and the dish can taste soapy -- and you wouldn't want to saute with it. But as a flavoring device at the end of cooking, it's magical. Or use it as seasoning on raw fish. It's beautiful on salad, on vegetables. Add it to soups and stews, such as pot-au-feu. Drizzle it over rice. It gives a dish that Why-do-I-like-this intrigue."

Ginger oil

1/2 pound ginger, peeled and minced

1 cup canola oil

Put the ginger in a clean jar and add the oil. Let stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours, or refrigerate overnight, before using.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Makes 1 1/2 cups.