By Mark Kennedy | The Associated Press
Many years into their marriage, Stephen and Evie Colbert suddenly became co-workers. And that is why, in a roundabout way, we have their first cookbook.
During the pandemic, Evie helped keep her husband’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on the air at CBS while the couple hunkered down in their South Carolina home.
“Evie was my crew and my only audience and my only guest. And it turned out we worked together well,” Stephen Colbert says. “We said, ‘We’ve always wanted to do something together. I think the thing to do would be a cookbook.’”
What emerged is “Does This Taste Funny?: Recipes Our Family Loves,” a collection of tried-and-true Colbert clan dishes like Spicy Lemon Chicken Thighs or Panfried Spot Tail Bass that also opens a window into their lives.
“It had to be a personal story because we’re not professional cooks. It’s all about our personal experience,” says Stephen Colbert.
The dishes range from a simple teriyaki-flavored pork loin — good for busy parents on a weekday for dinner — to an extravagant Beef Wellington, a fillet steak with mushrooms and prosciutto, wrapped in puff pastry, then baked.
It is a cookbook that also charts a love affair, celebrates extended family and rejoices over places visited — idiosyncratic and yet universal. There are four different recipes for fudge — each boasts it is the definitive one — submitted by the Colbert siblings.
A trip to a San Francisco restaurant in late 2007 inspired the recipe in the book for a clam chowder that is brothy, vegetable-forward and has plenty of clam meat.
“I don’t even know if the soup was as good as I remember it. We were just young parents with a moment away and big frosty glasses of sancerre,” says Stephen with a laugh. “Everything was tasting pretty good.”
Friends and family were tapped for their favorite dishes, like deviled eggs from Evie’s dad and chicken l’orange from Stephen’s mom. There are also photos and stories of their three children.
“For Stephen’s career, we purposefully kept our children out of the limelight, and when we sat down to do this, we realized, ‘Oh, we’re involving a lot of family. How do we feel about that?’ And it felt like a wonderful way to be personal,” says Evie. “It felt very much like a collective project that way.”
Many of the dishes lean on the South, which is natural since both grew up in Charleston, S.C. There are Lowcountry recipes for pickled shrimp, pork belly sliders and red rice, a dish Stephen says he enjoys making the most.
“At my little elementary school growing up, we had it just about every day. And it was fantastic. And this recipe comes closest to that really jammy, salty, smoky red rice I grew up with.”
Going back even further is Stephen’s Kindergarten Soup, which he learned to make helping the cook at Martin Luther Kindergarten. It calls for celery, carrot, onion, tomato, okra, corn, butter beans, green beans, peas and beef. The cookbook includes a photo of 5-year-old Stephen’s drawn recipe.
“It is the first recipe I ever learned. And my mom did hang up that recipe in her kitchen and take it down and make it every so often,” he says. He now laughs at its plainness, a yesteryear where it was “iceberg lettuce and salt and pepper for flavor.”
The Colberts have upped their sophistication levels since then, of course, including in the cookbook a recipe for duck breast with fig-orange sauce.
“People are afraid of duck, but it is really, really simple. Start in a cold pan, render it out. Save that duck fat for the potatoes you’re going to want with this later. Throw in some fig jam or any jam in with a little orange juice. It’s fantastic,” Stephen says.
Making the cookbook reconnected the couple to their roots. “It put us back in touch with all the food we grew up with and the people who taught us how to make these recipes,” says Evie, who still refers to recipes as receipts, the way her mother did.
One of her favorites is the flounder stuffed with crab meat that she grew up with. “I was really happy to rediscover that recipe. It was one that I had sort of forgotten about. And when I worked on the cookbook with my mother, we talked about that recipe. And so we had to get her approval on when we made it.”
Jokes Stephen: “Some of these recipes had to be released from their national security designation.”
The book ends with breakfast recipes. “If the party goes well, hopefully you’re spending the night,” he says. “The breakfast is the reward.”
While the pair clearly enjoy each other’s company, things in the kitchen weren’t always so smooth. They both point to the “spoon story.”
When they were married in 1993, someone gave them a nonstick Calphalon pan. Evie hadn’t grown up with nonstick cookware and used a metal spoon with it.
“So Stephen and I are married, and he walks into the kitchen one day and he says, ‘You’re using a metal spoon on a nonstick pan.’ I really thought he was going to say, ‘I’m sorry, we have to get divorced,’” Evie says.
“I believe I offered you a wooden spoon,” says Stephen.
“That didn’t go over well,” she replies.
“Boy, the look on her,” he says, laughing. “She’s almost over it. She’s so close to forgiving me.”
This red rice dish, explained below, has its origins in South Carolina.
“My love of red rice started at Stiles Point Elementary School on James Island, S.C.,” Stephen said. “The cafeteria served it just about every day, and that was fine with me. I’ve had a lot since then, but this comes closest to the deep savory sweetness that those lunch ladies somehow whipped up in barrel-size batches.
“I came up with this version after food writer Alison Roman and I made her caramelized shallot pasta sauce on ‘The Late Show.’ There was something about the aroma, both jammy and tangy, that told me it would make a killer rice. I love being right.”
Evie points out the dish’s history.
“Red rice is a classic Southern receipt, and another example of the enormous influence of West African culture on Lowcountry cuisine,” Evie says. “I have been making the version from the ‘Charleston Receipts Cookbook’ for decades. But that calls for bacon and bacon grease, and I don’t mess with that anymore. Thankfully, Stephen substituted smoked salt and anchovies, and ta-da! Even better than the original!”
Makes about 6 cups or 8 servings
1/4 cup olive oil
6 medium shallots, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
2 teaspoons smoked salt, such as Bulls Bay (see Notes), or as needed
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
One 2-ounce tin anchovies, drained
One 4.5-ounce tube double-concentrated tomato paste or 1/2 cup regular tomato paste
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 cups Charleston Gold aromatic rice or other long-grain rice
3 cups water (see Notes)
A few tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1: Heat the olive oil in a heavy 3- to 4-quart saucepan or a Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 8 minutes. Season with the smoked salt and pepper. Stir the anchovies into the shallots and keep stirring until they melt away. Add the tomato paste and red pepper flakes and cook until the paste turns a nice jammy red, about 4 minutes.
2: Stir in the rice and water and season with more salt. (Dip a finger in to make sure it’s seasoned to your liking.) Heat the water to a boil, give the rice a big stir, and reduce the heat to a very low simmer. Cover the pan and cook, undisturbed, for 12 minutes.
3: Cut off the heat and leave the cover on for an additional 8 minutes. Then (and only then!) lift the lid and fluff with a fork.
4: Sprinkle the parsley over the top and serve.
Notes:
• Bulls Bay smoked salt starts out as sea salt harvested from the waters of Bulls Bay on the South Carolina coast. Oak-smoking gives the salt its particular hearty flavor. Bulls Bay salt can be found online atbullsbaysaltworks.com.
• Different types of rice may need different amounts of water. Use the cooking instructions on the package of rice as a guide. Because the tomato/shallot jam is semi-liquid, you may find that you want to reduce the amount of water
Recipe adapted from “Does This Taste Funny?: Recipes Our Family Loves” by Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert (2024; reprinted with permission of Celadon Books, a division of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.)
