Hailing the Season, Part I

     Wow, has this ever been a long season.  Interminable.  I can blame a fair amount on the political and social events of our time.  I can blame it on not one but two...two! nasty head colds in a row, which have dragged me down.  Can I blame them on president elect?  I think I will chose to blame many things on that odious man, this included (stress, leading to reduced immune system, leading to increased vulnerability in the setting of the flu and cold season and voila!).
     However, the event of the season was last weekend, and so my Scrooge-like sentiments are starting to wane a bit.  That event?  Why, the Night of Beef, of course!  This was particularly touching as we presented a commemorative book to Laurie and Darren for their generosity in hosting this delightful time each year.  Also, it is more than a little bittersweet, as many of our babies are heading off to college next year, and who knows who will actually attend next year?  It's the end of an era, in some ways.
     I am trying to be hopeful that it is also the beginning of a new one.  Looking forward and all that.  Trying to imagine a new time.  In the interim, I was on dessert, and had the pleasure of surprising myself with creating two cheesecakes.  Why surprising?  I don't really care for cheesecake.  They are a bit too dense and rich for me, and I prefer a fruitier dessert.  But I don't really serve myself (well....maybe a little), and the beauty of such a dessert is that it is enjoyed by others, and can be made gluten free with little effort.  Oh, and it serves a fair number as well.  Finally, while they are a little time consuming, they are fairly easy to produce.  Oh, and they were quite good, surprise surprise.
     These cheesecakes come from 2 sources.  The first is the lemon cheesecake, which is a riff on the one in the cookbook by Dorie Greenspan called "Baking."  This one was fantastic, and while I don't want to break my arm patting myself on the back, I believe I gilded the lily a bit by scattering freeze dried strawberries on top, to great effect.

     The second is a milk chocolate cheesecake, from Cook's Country.   The only source of gluten in both of these recipes is the crust.  There is a plethora of gluten free cookie options in the city of Seattle these days, this quality being much in fashion.  So the chocolate cheesecake calls for Oreos.  No problem if there is a Trader Joe's around, they make a gluten free variety.  The lemon requires a graham cracker type crust, these are also available, in several stores.

     Don't need to keep the gluten out?  Then follow the recipes as they appear online.  However, I can definitely say that 1.  Doing it gluten free is completely indistinguishable from the other in this case; and 2.  there is probably SOMEONE who will thank you for considering them and making dessert an option; and finally 3 there is something to be said by using the freeze dried strawberries.   Adds a little what's the French saying?  Je ne sais quoi.
     The link for the Lemon Cheesecake is here:
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015672-tall-and-creamy-cheesecake
To make it a Lemon cheesecake, add the microplaned rind of 2 lemons, and juice of one, to the additions.  I added somewhere around 1/3c of lightly crushed freeze dried strawberries on top, which are beautiful and add a dainty crunch.
     The link for the Milk Chocolate Cheesecake is here:
https://www.cookscountry.com/recipes/8137-milk-chocolate-cheesecake
I made an addition of both the 2 ounces of melted chocolate for the top, as well as another 1-2 ounces of white chocolate melted in a similar manner  and drizzled on top.  I liked the contrast that it provided.
     And that, all in all, is something to help with reducing the Scrooge in me, anyway, and helping me through the dark season.

How to Move Forward Despite the Darkness

     Where to start?  Where to start?   For one, I CAN'T BELIEVE I am compelled to write about that ODIOUS MAN again!  I looked back at my posts.  Sure enough it was last November, nearly to the day, that I ranted about the Donald and Jeb.  Here I am again.  I am barely out of the fetal position mind you.  Much of the time, that position seems very appealing.
     Part of me would like to devote the next four (please-oh-please one term of damage only) years to escapist pursuits such as fantasy novels and historical television series from Masterpiece Theater.   I suspect that will indeed be one approach.
     I am also tamping down my strong desire to blame others:  the 40% of women who actually voted for him.  Women!   How is it possible to disregard the long history of sexism, misogyny and worse?  How about the many young voters who decided in protest to just not vote at all?  Are you serious?  He is speaking about gutting the Department of Education?  Where do you think your student loans come from?  Or the ones who voted for Johnson?  Did you honestly think he was a serious candidate?  He doesn't even know where Aleppo is!  How could these people ignore the bigotry, the racism, the demagoguery and think that this would not be relevant for the person who would occupy the most highly elevate job in our lang?  I quietly (or not so quietly) rage when these feelings come over me.  I am angry and I know that I am waiting.  Waiting!  The first person who starts to complain about anything that happens in the next 4 years that either voted for him or did not vote at all will surely get an earful.
     I worry about what the future holds.  I am a white woman, past my childbearing years, with a good job and insurance and all of that.  I live in a progressive city and state.  I will be fine.  But my daughter might not have the same luck.  What if she needs to avail herself of low cost insurance as she goes through her early employment years?   What if she needs to have an abortion?  Will they be available?  What if her partner is an immigrant?  Will her friends or my friends find themselves the victims of hateful speech or behaviors literally sanctioned by our president elect?  Or worse?
     My local public radio station interviewed Ijeoma Oluo this week, a local activist who is very articulate about social issues, primarily in regards to people of color.  She spoke about the implications of this election going forward.  (The italics are mine) "I think [self deception] is our number one enemy..... We've been looking at these rallies.  We've been making so many excuses this entire election season.  Every rally that was brimming with anger and hate....we made excuses every time, because we didn't want to admit that this is how our friends, our neighbors, and our community  members actually feel. And that is what defeated us....in that complacency, we let people slide.  We let people justify to themselves really abhorrent decisions..... I think one of the funny things about bigotry, one of the funny things about white supremacy in America is that it doesn't require your intention, it is something that works at a default....A lot of what we have that makes us comfortable as people is rooted in that: our status, our identity, our jobs, our property, our neighborhoods are all rooted in that. And when things threaten that... especially if you see other groups who you are used to seeing make less than you doing better, that threatens not only your security but also your sense of identity...we oftentimes view ourselves in comparison to other groups.. you feel uncomfortable and you don't have a name for it and you don't have immediate malice on the surface, all you know is that you want to get things back to the way they were.  The end result though?  Is oppression.  The end result is more patriarchy.  And it doesn't matter what your intentions are. "
     Wow.  Great food for thought for me.  I followed listening to this interview with an editorial from Scott Simon about how we live in our bubbles, and perpetually validate our world views by choosing to listen to tweets, social media feeds and the like that match our own.  And so you get a sense of complacency and reinforcement of your opinions, and perhaps fail to consider any others.  It's insidious.  I certainly am guilty of this.  I do listen to NPR.  Voraciously.  I think that helps.  But I also fill my social media feeds with the self congratulatory validations that perpetuate my own bubble.  And I know others do the same.
     So now what?  I find myself looking more at my own reality and role in the last year.  Certainly I said my two cents about many social events that have occurred, either directly associated with the blighted election season or not.  But what else?  Read my Facebook and think my thoughts.  Could I have done more?  Should I?   That is what I need to think about.  That is what we all need to think about.  And for my family?  They may well get donations to ACLU or Planned Parenthood on their behalf.   Beyond that, I need to take a hard look at my own prejudices, and face them.  I know I don't have malice.  I worry that my lack of action is tantamount to supporting oppression.
      Thank you and good night.

A Trio of Quinces

     This year has been a motherlode for quinces.  I have found a source for free quinces via a friend of a friend, and lucky me.  This might be my new favorite fall fruit.  But there is a problem:  Who knows what to do with them?
     Quince: much more a European fruit, in it's traditions, I think.  It's from the rose family, and appears to be more of a cross between apple and pear.  The taste, raw, is terribly astringent, and I don't know of anyone who tries to eat it this way.  No, it's cooked and in doing so, magically transformed into a lovely light pink, with a beautiful almost perfumed aroma.  The taste is more tart than pear, but not really like apple.  I guess we could say it tastes like quince, but that would be annoying.  ( I recall having moose for the first time in my early 20's.  The cut or the preparation is not on a par with how my sister prepares this meat, and I recall thinking that it tasted just like I would think moose would smell. Which while not profound, seems to mimic this situation somewhat)
     While there are certainly recipes for this fruit, found on the internet, it seems a bit on the under published side.  I will attribute this to the aforementioned lack of familiarity in some areas.  Indeed, I don't believe it is really grown commercially in this part of the world.  Rather, it is found in back yards of homes where a prior owner was intrepid.  This results in lucky strikes for someone like me who is just getting her feet wet with preparing this item.  I am considering going back for more.
    To that end, and because I had somewhere just short of 40lbs in a box, I found and made 3 different recipes.  These are adaptations of recipes from different sources:  one from Food and Wine, one from Sunset, and one is an adaptation of a pear jam recipe that I have made from a cookbook by Edon Waycott.   I canned all 3, even though the first 2 recipes don't speak to that.  That is the unknown factor, but I am not afraid.
     This fruit is a hard one to love.  It peels easily enough, but the inside is quite hard, and thus has the hallmark of a potential laceration or worse if handled without some caution.  Consider yourself forewarned.  Not everything can hand itself to you with ease.   I am sure there is an appropriate metaphor out there somewhere.

               

Spice Pickled Quinces

adapted from Sunset

makes 4 pints

1 cup each sugar and apple cider vinegar

4 large strips of orange zest

6 cloves

1 tsp peppercorns

2 cinnamon sticks

3 bay leaves

2 lbs quinces (4-6, depending on size)

Bring 3 c. water, and all ingredients except the quinces to a simmer in a large pot.  

While this is heating, peel, core and cut the quinces into eighths.  Add to pot. 

Maintain heat to that there is a slow simmer, and cook thusly until fruit is tender when pierced, approximately 30 minutes.

Transfer the fruit with a slotted spoon to pint jars, and then spoon in the syrup with some of the spices to each jar.  

At this point, either cover cool and chill at least 1 day, or:  seal with new lids and can in a hot water bath x 20 min. 

Quince and Cranberry Compote

adapted from Food and Wine

makes 4 pints

1 c sugar

1 c water

1/2 t kosher salt

3 cinnamon sticks

4-6 quinces, peeled, cored and cut into 1 inch chunks

4 apples, preferably fairly sweet ones, like Gala, peeled, cored and cut into 1 inch chunks

1 c. cranberries, fresh or frozen

2 T honey

Zest and juice from 1 lemon

Bring sugar, water, salt and cinnamon to a boil.  Add the prepared quince, and cook about 5 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients and cook another 5 minutes, until fruit is tender but not broken down.  

At this point, you can serve it as is (FW used it as a topping for pancakes), or:  spoon into jars, seal with new lids and can in a hot water bath x 20 minutes

Vanilla Quince Jam

adapted from Preserving the Taste by Edon Waycott

Makes approximately 9-10 1/2 pint jars

5 lbs quinces, peeled, cored and cut into 1" chunks

3 c sugar

2 vanilla beans, cut down the middle lengthwise

Place all ingredients in a large pot, and bring to a boil.  Cook at a slow simmer until the fruit has broken down, approx 30-45 minutes.  Remove the vanilla beans, and puree with a stick blender until you have a coarse mix, with some chunks remaining.  The overall texture is up to you.   Taste to make sure it is sweet enough.  Scrape the inside of the vanilla beans and add to the pot.  

Spoon into 1/2 pint jars, seal with new lids and can in a hot water bath x 5-10 minutes.  

Tex Mex Cornbread, or my Tribute to Steve

     Today is one of happy coincidences.  I ran into my old friend Steve in the hallway at work today.  He and I go (egads) back to the late 1980's when we used to eat dinner together and talk politics.  Because of him, I obsessively read Harper's magazine cover to cover each month, in order to stay coherent and not seem like an imbecile.  I don't know if it worked, but while we don't see each other as often as I like, he is a fond friend.  He definitely has raised my consciousness and I feel like I am a better person because of him.  I was mortified, after we spoke today, to discover that it was his birthday as well.  Mea culpa.
     This, particularly after he so very kindly complimented me on my prose here on this blog.  He reads my blog!  All this time, I assumed that I had a couple readers, but no one consistently.  I am perhaps mistaken.
     Well that's 2 coincidences.  Another seems thematically similar.  I pulled cornmeal out the other day with vague plans for cornbread with chili.  The chili got made, but I didn't budget enough time for the cornbread, so it got deleted.  But I have been obsessing about an idea.  This is for not just cornbread, but souped up cornbread.  Cornbread with Additions, we could call it.  I found a starting point in a recipe from Crescent Dragonwagon online.  She populates my cookbook shelf in the form of a valued tome called Soup and Bread, but this is a variant.   I can say that she has never failed me yet.   Her recipe calls for corn, cheese and chilies to be added to her cornbread.  That didn't quite cut it for me.  I wanted it to be more robust.
     I added sautéed onion, red peppers, a finely chopped tomato (last one from the garden no less).  The corn was frozen, and I substituted cayenne for the jalapeño that I didn't have.  After that, it was more or less the same.  Ahem.  And here is another lucky coincidence.  The onions caramelized.  The cayenne caused a very gentle heat.  The cheese melted and created a certain something.  There was this lovely crust on the bottom.  This is a cornbread that transcends the ordinary.  Paired with beans, I had a delightful and thoroughly pleasant meal.  I would say something to tie this back to Steve but I would embarrass both myself and him.   So I won't.  But I will offer this recipe as a tribute of happy coincidences to him, and hope to see him again soon.

Tex Mex Cornbread with Additions

serves 4-8, depending

adapted from recipe from Crescent Dragonwagon, evidently published in Fine Cooking

1 1/2 T butter

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

1/4-1/2 red pepper (about 1/4-1/3c) finely chopped

3T jalapeno, finely chopped (or 1/4 t cayenne if you don't have any)

1 small tomato, finely chopped (2T chopped)

1 c stone ground yellow cornmeal

1c flour

3/4t salt

1 T baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

1 egg

2 T sugar

1/4c vegetable oil

1 1/4c buttermilk

1 c grated cheddar cheese

1 c corn

Oven at 375F.  

Saute onions and peppers in butter until translucent, over medium heat.  Add tomato, and corn, if it's frozen.  I would suggest a 10" cast iron pan for this.

Mix cornmeal, flour, salt, powder and soda together. 

Mix egg, sugar, oil and butter milk together.  

When the oven is hot, add the dry and wet ingredients, mix until just combined.  Stir in corn and cheese.  Quickly and very lightly stir into veggies in the pan (it doesn't matter if it's not well mixed) and bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.  

Prepare for your own happy coincidence.  

Gilding the Lily, or Blueberry Dutch Baby

     Mornings are coming earlier these days.  Yes yes, I know, they aren't ACTUALLY coming earlier, it's just that it is darker, and more painful to rise.  Midweek, getting going and the associated breakfast are all silent and quiet affairs.  In fact, I don't even eat breakfast until I make it to work, as the idea of eating anything at 6AM seems depressing, not to mention time consuming.
     On the weekend however, I can sometimes take a bit more time, and make something that involves thinking.  Or a recipe even.  I stumbled across this one a few weeks ago, in a back issue of Sunset.  I think it was credited to a restaurant somewhere, but didn't write that part down.  It's a revelation, really.  I have been making Dutch babies for years, they are a standard on the weekend repertoire.  But this one has a duh factor to it.  Add blueberries, and watch the whole thing lighten up and taste even better.  This is a breakfast version of gilding the lily, as it were.
     The recipe also instructs you to make a lemon curd, which would likely be very nice.  I haven't had lemons, or the patience to stand at the stove for an extra 20 minutes to make lemon curd, but find that it's quite tasty without this step.  If gilding the gilded lily is the goal, by all means, make lemon curd too.  I had poached pears with this today, and that works just fine too.
     One other step the recipe gives is to let the batter sit for a few hours, or even overnight.  I have never done that, and there are two possibilities:  I am missing an epiphany, a key step and I have never noticed; or, it's not necessary.  I am leaning on the latter.

Blueberry Dutch Baby

serves 2-4, depending on what else is being served, and how much you are inclined to share

Adapted from recipe found in Sunset Magazine

3/4 c flour

1T sugar

1/4t salt

3/4 c whole milk, or if you don't store this, 2/3 c 2% milk and fill to 3/4 line with cream

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2T butter

1 c blueberries, fresh or frozen

Whisk the dry ingredients.  Whisk the eggs, vanilla and milk, and then add to the dry ingredients, whisk again until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 450F.  When it is hot, take a 9" pan, and heat on the stove.  Add the butter, and when melted, swirl around to coat the base and up the sides approx 1-2".  

Pour the batter in the pan, and scatter the blueberries on top.  

Bake approx 15 minutes, until puffed and golden on the edges.  

This recipe would work well in 2 smaller pans, if presentation is something you are desiring. Other berries or stone fruits would probably work well too.  

Going without, or not: Chocolate Buckwheat Cake

     My neighbor Brandis cannot have wheat.  I view this as a challenge.  I don't mind cooking gluten free.  I do mind eating food that tastes like fake whatever.  Or has textures or flavors that are....how you say?  Less than inviting.   For me to have buy in for cooking without, it has to taste like something I would make anyway, and the gluten free (or whatever) feature is a happy coincidence.  I think I achieved that last night.
     We had a lovely dinner at my neighbor's house yesterday.  The salmon with basil cream sauce and the warm mustard green salad were amazing.  ( I am hoping she can work out the recipe for the salad, for a post here).  I volunteered for dessert, and then cast about for something new.  Gluten free desserts are plentiful, you just need to adjust the dial a bit to get the right radio frequency.
     This one, I know I know, is going to get a few raised eyebrows.  It uses buckwheat flour (my friend Katie already gave me a harrumph when I told her about it.  No, really:  it's like a flourless chocolate cake, but lighter and not so rich tasting.  I don't end up feeling like I am going to have palpitations from the sheer chocolate intensity.  I don't feel like I can only eat a little sliver as it is too rich.  Don't get me wrong.  I like flourless chocolate cake, but it is a very intense experience.   Not for the faint of heart and all that.  This cake is just as lovely, but less.....intense.  It has a slightly nutty quality from the almond and buckwheat flours, but I PROMISE!  It's not stodgy or hippie, or frankly fake/gluten free tasting.
     Speaking of my friend Katie, it's obvious that she needs to give me a few lessons in chocolate work though:  I tried for chocolate curls on top and they look like a holy mess.  I should have followed my instincts and used sieved cocoa powder instead.  I was able to temper the chocolate just fine, but the curls came out looking like I was using thick steel plates of clunkiness.  My apologies.  I will say they made lovely scooping options for those who couldn't stay away from the whipped cream (ahem Robb and Bryce).
     This recipe is lifted directly from Smitten Kitchen.  I made no adjustments, as it was delicious as it was.  I believe she got the recipe from La Tartine Gourmande, so accolades given all around.  You can find the recipe here:  Chocolate Buckwheat Cake.
     I won't reprint it, as I haven't monkeyed with it.  I will say this:  I used a vanilla whipped cream on top and some ham handed chocolate curls.  But I would say it would taste just as good with whipped cream and either cocoa or berries on top as well.  Oh, did I mention that this recipe can be prepared in less than an hour?   Yet another reason to get out the mixing bowls and have at it.
     You beat the eggs and sugar to double the volume, then you fold in melted chocolate and

butter, fold in the flours and bake for about 25 minutes.  Then, it's cool and decorate as you see fit.

Letters from Abroad, or Paella

     I am cooking for a crowd this week.  There are 11 people staying at my sister's place here in Southeast Alaska for a big event tomorrow and everyone wants dinner.  The event?  Re-dedication of the Kasaan clanhouse on Prince of Wales Island.  I am so looking forward to this!  In the meantime....Cooking for a crowd can be a bit of a challenge.  Individual meringues?  Not very practical.  A roast is though.  So are sourdough pancakes (this is Alaska: that sourdough is 100 years old and originated north of the Arctic Circle!).  We consumed a whole cake for dessert the first night, lemon tart last night.  The salmon was a hit.  It's moose kebabs on the barbecue tonight. 
     Dinner last night was the best so far.  We made paella.  This was done Alaska style, using marinated wild turkey, shrimp and chorizo sausage.  Oh my.  I confess that I brought some items up from Seattle.  Getting chorizo is a challenge in rural Alaska.  So are beefsteak tomatoes.  But the recipe is entirely worth repeating and if you serve a Spanish wine, and finish with a stellar lemon tart (my sister uses Richard Sax's The World's Best Lemon Tart (linked here if you scroll down:   http://forums.finecooking.com/cookstalk/im-looking-recipe/lemon-tart ) and a rousing and very competitive game of Clue you will be able to (almost) duplicate the experience we had last night.
     Paella is fairly forgiving:  in Spain it takes the form of the region, with rabbit, chicken, seafood and/or sausage being added depending on how close you are to the sea and what's available.  This rendition uses all of that, and isn't likely very strictly authentic, but it's great eating none the less.
The extra step of marinating the turkey surely added more flavor dimensions, and is worthwhile, but if you are pressed for time, or if picking shot out of the wild turkey takes too long, skip it!

Paella for a Crowd

serves 9 to 11, and see notes for a scaled down version

1 wild turkey (wing) or 1 chicken breast, shot removed and cut into 1/2 to 1" pieces

2T garlic, chopped finely

2T chopped oregano

2t salt

pepper to taste

1-2 t vinegar

Mix, let marinate while you go on a hike

5T olive oil

2 c finely chopped onions

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/2 red pepper, chopped

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1 t paprika

1 large ripe beefsteak tomato, or about 1 1/2 c chopped tomato

1 t sugar 

3 1/2c rice.  Karen had Jasmine, but Arborio is traditional

1/2 t saffron

1 c dry white wine

5 1/2 c chicken broth

8 links chorizo

1 1/2 lbs shrimp, peeled 

1/2 c chopped parsley

1-2T chopped oregano

1.  It's easiest to have all ingredients chopped and prepared.  Mix wine with saffron while you are chopping, set aside.  You will need a a very large paella pan, or 2 fairly large shallow pans, and divide ingredients between them.  

2.  Saute onions, garlic, peppers in oil until onions are translucent.  Add paprika.  Add chorizo, marinated turkey and saute for a few minutes.  Add rice and saute for a few minutes.  Add tomatoes, sugar and then saffron infused wine, broth.  Bring to a simmer, cover and reduce heat to low.  Cover and cook until the moisture is absorbed.  When the moisture is absorbed, place the shrimp on top of the mixture, cover and continue to cook until the shrimp is no longer translucent.  

3.  Sprinkle parsley and oregano on top prior to serving.  

Notes:  Scaling down for 4 to 6

I would leave the chicken portion roughly the same

I would reduce the onions to 1 to 1 1/2 cups

Use 2 c rice, and 4 cups wine + broth

Use 4 chorizo links, 1 lb shrimp and possibly reduce the parley, depending on how much you like it.  

Plum Cake, or a Lucky Mistake

     I have been spending a lot of time putting up bounty lately.  Summer tomato sauce, tomato basil soup, blueberries and plums into the freezer, and so on.  I have been (mostly) staying ahead of said bounty, but the plums have caught me unawares.  I thought I had a bit more time, but evidently not.  And with a vacation looming, I am feeling guilty guilty guilty.  But the freezer is filling up, and I still have more.
     The other thing I have been doing is watching all of the episodes of The Great British Bake Off.  I even succumbed to accepting a (cough) pirated thumb drive with the elusive 3rd season yesterday.  I cannot reveal my sources.  GBBO is an incredible obsession.  This cooking/reality show where one home baker gets eliminated each week is all the rage in Britain, and PBS has taken it on, but has mysteriously only started with Season 4, calling Season 1, and making obsessives like me go crazy trying to find You Tube versions of the first 3 seasons.  All this has forced me to pursue a life of crime.  It's for a good cause!  I aspire to avoid soggy bottoms and improve my piping skills.  One never knows where this might lead!  But first, the plums.
     I had a solution for a couple cups of of them today, which has Bryce eating thirds for breakfast and demanding that I bake another cake.  I found a couple recipes for fruit filled cakes, one on Food 52, one in Alana Chernila's latest book, The Homemake Kitchen.  But the first called for peaches, the second for rhubarb.  Not my fruit problem right now.
     So, I ended up largely going with a Food 52 version, but made what would later be called a happy mistake.  Alana's version calls for 8T of butter, Food 52 for 6.  Oops, I used the 8T and had to adapt my recipe even more than I was expecting.  Also, frankly it was too sweet.  I already cut the sugar a bit, but would cut it even more.  The result:  a tender buttery cake with a crunchy top, that had NO trouble being consumed for breakfast.  Even though the fruit sunk to the bottom (a sin in Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood's eyes, but who cares?  I'm not on that reality show!) it is definitely worth a repeat.

Summer Plum Cake

heavily adapted from Food 52's version of Simple Summer Peach Cake

2 c. plums, pitted and sliced 1/2" thick

2T sugar

1/2t nutmeg

         

8T unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 c sugar (consider decreasing somewhat)

1 egg

1/2 c buttermilk (or thin yogurt, or clabbered milk, I used clabbered milk)

1/2 t vanilla

1/4 t almond extract

1 c + 2 T flour

1/2 c almond flour

1/4 t salt

1/4 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

Turbinado sugar

Toss plums, 2T sugar and nutmeg together, and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a 9" square baking dish

Cream butter and 3/4c sugar together, add egg, then buttermilk.  Add extracts.  

Whisk dry ingredients together and add to butter mixture, stir until combined.  Scrape into prepared pan and spread out batter.  

Drain the plums (juice will not be used), and place them over the surface of the batter, press them slightly into the batter.  Sprinkle with Turbinado sugar.  

Bake 40 minutes, or until golden brown on top, pulling away from the sides, and a cake tester/thin knife/toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool x 10 minutes, then let the crowds at it!

Zucchini re-invented

     We celebrated a 17th birthday yesterday.  Actually, this was a relatively low key event, in that the only thing that really occurred was a dinner.  However, it allowed me to pull out a few stops and create a menu that turned out to be a winner on all fronts.  The weather also cooperated, and we ate outside.  Considering the size of my house, this is a plus.

      I was given requests for hummus, flat bread and beef kebabs.  The rest was up to me.  I built this menu around that:  

Appetizers:  toasted almonds, salted pistachios, olives and marinated mozzarella balls

Dinner:  Bengali Shish Kebabs

              Hummus and Felaveri (Syrian Flatbread)

              Bulgur with almonds, green olives and raisins

              Tomato, pepper and cucumber salad 

              Zucchini Carpaccio

              Pavlovas with whipped cream, lemon curd and seasonal berries

     The entire meal went together fantastically.  The kebabs are Steven Raichlen's, the bulgur and tomato salad are riffs from Ottolenghi.  The zucchini dish was Patricia Wells.  This all underscores that, while I rely on online sources for some of my cooking, I also have a fairly sizable cookbook collection.  Okay, it's perhaps a hobby of mine, maybe even an obsession.  I have pared down over the years, and I don't have a roomful.  But they do take up a couple long shelves in my kitchen...

     Sometimes, you don't know what you want.  You know you want a certain style or region of cooking, and maybe even an ingredient (or maybe not).  Cookbooks give you gestalt.  Flavor.  Themes.  Sometimes they can take you in a direction completely unexpected.  I find that harder online.  Several sites try to help, but it isn't the same.  Perhaps that makes me a traditionalist.

     The zucchini is a great example.  I had a fair number of them (it being the season) and I had my fallback plan to grill them.  But thumbing through Patricia Wells' Vegetable Harvest gave me the winner.  I would never have come up with this on my own.  I would not have thought to research online for raw zucchini recipes.  Yet here it was.  

     This dish is inspired.  You need a mandoline.  This recipe relies on multiple super thin slices on the longitudinal of zucchini, marinated in a lemony vinaigrette.  This would be hard to uniformly achieve without one of these devices.  A steady hand and a vegetable peeler might be able to do it.  Her recipe then goes on to pair this with avocado.  I found that to be superfluous and skipped it.  I also forgot about the lemon thyme, but would add that the next time.  What gilds the lily here are the chopped salted pistachios.  The texture of the velvety zucchini with the mildly salty crunch of the nuts was nothing short of sublime.  Ask the guests, they were all converted.  

Zucchini Carpaccio

Adapted from Patricia Wells

Serves 4-8

In a small jar:

1T freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 t sea salt

1/4 c best quality olive oil

Shake to combine, set aside.

Using a mandoline, cut 2-4 zucchinis (see notes) into very thin lengthwise slices.  

Place on a platter and pour the lemon mixture over, making sure to coat all slices.  This should be done gently so as not to break them into smaller pieces.  

Let marinate at least 30 minutes, but an hour is best.  

At serving time, sprinkle 1/4 c chopped salted pistachios over the top.  Sprinkle with coarse salt to taste.  Garnish with a few sprigs of thyme.  

Notes:  This is a great example of where it is better to use a smaller zucchini.  Nothing longer than about 6-8", or larger than 1 1/2" across for these zucchinis.  I am not confident that a forgotten torpedo would be an acceptable option.  

Also, this is also a great example of where the ingredients are fairly simple, so using a really good olive oil is better, as it is a main stage player.  

Patricia Well's recipe as it is originally written can be found on Food 52.  It uses pistachio oil (might be a great one to try), and adds avocados.  I'm still not so sure about that.  She would also individually plate this recipe, which would be fine, but serving it on a larger platter also was lovely.  

     

Where Science and Art Meet, or Orange Honey Buns

     I love my daughter's school.   It spurs such creativity, and in the most interesting places.  As it is an arts-based curriculum, that means that art can take many forms and be found in many forums.  In her first year, there was this project in her geometry class that utilized a portrait and something about how to create it with triangles and rhomboids and such.  This year, she needed to use art to illustrate an issue that had to do with the constitution, such as a SCOTUS case.  She picked a case from Georgia about whether a gay couple had the right to privacy in their own home.
     Then there is her chemistry class this year.  This teacher really runs with it.  He asked them to create projects that illustrate chemical principles like alcohols and esters.  She had to create a board game that spoke to all of the material they learned.  And her final project was something about showing chemical transformations.  For Bryce, this did not involve a drawing or painting, something that she would be the first to say she doesn't have much skill in doing in any case.  No, she decided that food is art, and she made bread.
     Specifically, I taught her to make rolls.  These would be easier to transport, and divvy up and would not require a bread knife (a weapon, and thus verboten!).  I confess I sort of stole this opportunity to riff a little.  We agreed on rolls, and she wanted something with white flour, not whole meal flour.  From there I started thinking about rolls that are more like challah.  That led me to a few recipes (Smitten Kitchen's, The Hot Bread Kitchen).  Those appeared worthy, but didn't match my vision.  I wanted something sweeter, with a more pronounced flavor.  This is what ensued.
     These orange honey buns are rich, buttery and sweet.  The orange is almost a perfume.  I envision this as part of a brunch or breakfast.  Or tea time.  Even better, a great science-meets-art project, where the chemical changes in bread, sugars and yeast are a delicious way to show how we use chemistry in the kitchen every day.

Orange Honey Buns

makes a baker's dozen

1/2 c honey

5 T unsalted butter

zest of 1 orange

1/2c orange juice

         1.  Melt butter and honey in a saucepan over medium heat.  Let cool.  Add orange juice and zest, stir to combine. 

2 1/4t yeast (I use your standard active dry yeast, but bread machine yeast would be fine too)
1/2 c warm water
1 t sugar

          2.  Mix in the bowl of a stand mixer, unless you want to get your arm workout.  Let sit 5 minutes.

5c flour (+/-, you might need a bit more).
2 1/4t salt
2 eggs

After the yeast has had a chance to proof in the bowl, add 2 cups flour and start beating with the dough hook of the stand mixer.  Once incorporated, add the honey/butter mixture (make sure it's only warm and not hot).  Beat to incorporate, then add the eggs.  Continue to add 2 more cups of the flour and the salt,  and mix to form a dough.  It will probably be fairly sticky.  At this point, continue to add flour in 1/2 c increments, until it is no longer really sticky.  Continue to knead with the hook, and add small amounts of flour as needed although I found that no more than 1/2 c extra was required.  It should be a smooth, satiny dough that pulls away from the bowl as it mixes.  (I am sure this can all be accomplished by hand, but as this recipe starts off fairly sticky, it will take a dough scraper and some patience to get this to all come together.)

Use about 1-2 t oil to coat a large bowl, and turn the dough into this when finished kneading.  Flip so the top is oiled, and cover with a towel.  Set in a warm place to rise until doubled.  This will take 1-2 hours.  You know it's proofed enough when you can poke a finger in 1" or so, and it stays depressed.  Punch down, turn over and let rest.
Prepare your pans:  You will need 2 baking sheets, and I use parchment paper.



This dough will make 13 buns, about the size of a large plum or 1/2 of a peach.  Form into round buns, and place about 2" apart on the pan.  Cover and let rise another 1 hour or so, until doubled.  Again, you should be able to gently poke into the bun and it will leave a depression.   When you are about 3/4 of the way there, start pre heating your oven to 350F.
Egg wash:
1 egg with 1T water:  beat until uniform, and when the rolls are ready to go into the oven, brush with the wash.
Optional:  sprinkle each roll with Demerara or Turbinado sugar.
Bake for 18-20 min.  Remove to a rack to cool.

Spring Bounty with Yotam

     My friend Mark came over for dinner last night.  Ostensibly to discuss the desk he is going to build for me, it was also a great opportunity to cook.  Mark is one of the people I know who loves to cook, is good at it, and is quite omnivorous.  This allowed me to select a menu that sounded great, but was also a bit challenging to throw together perhaps, as I knew that I wouldn't have to do all of the work.
     Who better to utilize for such a menu than Yotam Ottolenghi?  His cookbooks are full of beautiful photos and great stories.  The recipes rarely disappoint either.  For some reason, I don't dip into them often enough, a habit I shall have to change.  Admittedly, this menu took a fair amount of labor to throw together, but could easily have been broken up into pieces, had I been more organized.
     It started with lamb chops, a recipe I have from some other source which I don't recall.  These are reliable and delicious, coated in garlic and herbs and grilled quickly.  The other dishes were from Jerusalem and Plenty More:   Chermoula eggplant with bulgur and yogurt, and Spiced chickpeas and fresh vegetable salad.  To finish:  a roasted rhubarb dish with sweetened labneh.  All are excellent!
     I love cooking with someone else who knows their way around a kitchen.  I set Mark off on the chickpeas and chopping while I did the eggplant.   It also helps to have excellent ingredients.  The eggplant and tomatoes are from the store, but the rhubarb, and herbs are from the garden.  The yogurt is Ellenos, which I confess I have become addicted to.  Other yogurts are embarrassed to be in it's presence.
     I think what makes Ottolenghi's recipes excellent is the really creative combinations of flavors.  You don't just roast the eggplant, you baste it with a spiced oil mixture first.  You don't just throw bulgur on top, you mix it with green olives and golden raisins and herbs.  You don't just chop some cucumbers and tomatoes, you make a lemony vinaigrette and then sauté some chickpeas in spices to warmly accompany it.  The rhubarb was inspired.  A prefect combination of sweet and tart and crunchy.
     The Chermoula eggplant recipe can be found online.  It would be easily made gluten free by substituting quinoa.  (I think rice might be too large a grain).  I quadrupled the cilantro.  I would use smaller eggplants, the longer skinnier versions, for ease, as the larger globe version is a bit much.  So, using 2 globe eggplants easily makes enough for 6-8 when served as part of this menu.  Then again, it was designed to be an entree.

     The chickpea recipe is also online.  The only adjustment I made was in deference to the clock:  I used a can of beans, and didn't cook my own.  It worked just fine.  May lightening not strike me.

    The lamb and rhubarb recipes are found below.   The rhubarb is easily made ahead of time.  It lends itself to modifications.  My suggestion:  Make the whole batch of recipes for a fantastic meal in late spring and wait for the accolades to flow in!

Baked Rhubarb with Sweet Labneh 

adapted from Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi

This recipe serves 4

1 pound rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2" pieces

7T muscat or other sweet dessert wine (orange juice would work as well)

5 1/2 T sugar

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, and seeds scraped

1 lemon:  you want the rind, 1/2 shaved in strips, 1/2 tested

3T shelled unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped

1 1/2c plain Greek yogurt

3-5T powdered sugar

Place the rhubarb in a baking pan that fits them all snugly.  Place the lemon strips, vanilla and seeds around them, sprinkle with sugar and then wine.  Bake at 400F x 20, until tender but not mushy.  Set aside to cool.

Mix yogurt with powdered sugar to make it slightly sweet, or to taste.  Add lemon rind, chill until ready to serve.  

To serve:  Place yogurt in a serving dish, top with rhubarb, spoon some of the cooking juices on top, then sprinkle with pistachios.  

Thyme Rubbed Lamb Loin Chops

serves 4, or more if you are making all of the recipes

2 garlic cloves

salt

1 1/2t thyme leaves

1/2 t red pepper flakes

1 T cider vinegar

2T extra virgin olive oil

8 x 1" thick lamb loin chops

Prepare grill for direct cooking over medium high heat. 

Mince and mash garlic to a paste with 1/4t salt, add the remaining ingredients and coat the chops.  This can sit a short while if needed.

Oil grill rack, and grill the chops, covered, until grill marks appear, approx 6 minutes total for medium rare.  Let rest x 5 minutes.  

Possibly the Best Dessert (at least in a long while)

     I had a group of folks over for dinner yesterday.  The entire meal was admittedly amazing, and almost every scrap was eaten (always a good sign).  You can never predict these things.  Sometimes I make too much food, sometimes the food is not as memorable.  Sometimes the company doesn't gel as well.  Who knows.   Suffice it to say this one was a hit.
     The menu bears repeating, and all components are worth making again (coming around again on the guitar, as I like to say).  Chicken and beef lemongrass marinated satay skewers with peanut sauce.  Coconut rice.  Asian slaw.  The first two can be found on FineCooking, and I didn't mess with the recipes.  The Asian slaw was adulterated a bit, in terms of the vegetable ingredients, but I didn't do anything with the dressing.  I think it would benefit from some chopped roasted peanuts, but was otherwise delicious.  This was also found on FineCooking.
     It was the dessert that was, in my mind, inspired.  I had a vision.  It's spring, and from the garden come only a few things just yet, but one is rhubarb.  The other is eggs.  Those girls are laying a lot of eggs.  The daughter has been requesting custard for a while.  I kept trying to envision how I would do this:  a custard with a sauce?  How would the sauce work, as I didn't want to fiddle with unmolding the custards, and in fact, was thinking brûlée.  Then it struck me: a layered arrangement.
     I would like to say this was an original idea.  Turns out it's not.  I found a few versions of this online, but I have never heard of it.  One referenced Jamie Oliver.  So maybe it's an English thing.  But not in this part of the world.  So I am going to do my part to spread the word.  I knew the dairy and rhubarb combination was good already, as I have made a meringue pie with a rhubarb layers.  Why does no one speak of this method?  Society surely needs this.
     The rhubarb is roasted, which concentrates and caramelizes the sugars,  and is also a completely unattended way of cooking it.  This can be done ahead of time, and brought to room temperature when you are ready to use it.
    The custard is basically the same one in Richard Sax's book Classic Home Desserts.  That is, it's the same with the exception of the fact that he doesn't have a brûlée recipe, just a Pots de Creme.  But when all these elements:  rhubarb, custard, brûlée are combined, the results are well worth it.  Additionally, this sort of brilliant dessert is mostly made ahead of time, and in steps, making it a great option for a multi course meal.

 The rhubarb before the custard is added

 I used Turbinado sugar in this recipe, as the versions I saw insisted this was the key.  It is NOT.  It doesn't brûlée well, and gets somewhat granular.  Plain white sugar does a more even job.  

Rhubarb Creme Brûlée

serves 6

Adapted partially from Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax

10 oz rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1/4-1/2" pieces

6 T sugar

juice of 1/2 tangerine, or about 3T fresh orange juice

          

1 c. cream

1c. milk

1 vanilla bean, split down the middle, or 1 1/2t vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/3c sugar, plus extra 

Lightly oil a 13 x 9 baking pan, and roast the rhubarb at 375F x 1 hour.  It should be very soft and lightly caramelized.  Remove from the oven and stir together, adding the 6T sugar and the tangerine juice.  Set aside to cool, or chill until ready to use, then bring to room temperature. 

Heat the cream and milk, add the vanilla bean, allow to infuse x 30 minutes, then remove.  Beat the eggs and yolks and sugar together, and add the heated milk to this carefully so as not to curdle it.  Scrape out the inside of the vanilla bean and add.  If you are using extract instead, add it at this time.  

Strain as you pour this into a large measuring cup or other vessel that makes it easy to decant it.  

Place the rhubarb into custard cups, about 2-3T per cup, depending on the size cup you are using.  

Using an inverted teaspoon to prevent the rhubarb from displacing or mixing with the custard, pour the egg/milk mixture over the spoon and into the custard cup until within 1/4" of the top.  

Place all of these cups into a large baking pan (13 x9) and pour hot water in the pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the cups.  Bake at 300F x 25-30 minutes, or until the custard is nearly set, with only a slight jiggle in the center.  Remove from oven and cool.  

When ready to serve:  sprinkle a fairly generous amount of white sugar over each custard and using a blow torch, caramelize the sugar until it is melted and turning amber.  Allow to set briefly, and serve. Await accolades.  

Notes:  If a blow torch isn't available, this can be done in the oven under broil.  I haven't tried this, but I have heard it is possible.  

I only used the tangerine because it was available.  

I made a double custard recipe, and served this the second day with a rhubarb compote, as I had custards without the rhubarb underneath.  This is also brilliant, if you want an alternative way to present this.  

Single Serving Pie, or What To Do With Extra Crust

     I am in an energetic and enthusiastic cooking and baking phase.  This seems to coincide with the acquisition of a few items....a couple new cookbooks, my new Kitchenaid, the ever improving status of my kitchen-in-remodel.... all have convened to create a higher level of inspiration than in previous months.  It could also be that the days are getting longer, making all items of greater interest to me.
     The Kitchenaid is a great forward move.  I have had the same previous mixer for about 20 years, and it was a bit inadequate from the get-go.  This new one has more power and can take the volume of 2 loaves of bread dough.  What do do?  I must put it though its paces.  So this weekend has been filled with a batch of cinnamon swirl bread, pie dough, cookies (Bryce's endeavor) as well as a chocolate cake with frosting for the Hoover Boys (this is the name I have given Bryce's friends who come over to play D&D.  I love having them and they are very friendly and polite.  They can also eat a frightening amount of food).  All have been excellent.
     Today's efforts, however, are worthy of mentioning here.  I made the pie dough for 2 reasons:  First, as mentioned above, to text the behavior of the Kitchenaid.  It's big enough, I should name her.  Freda?  Sounds good.  But I didn't actually need both crusts, only 1 for dinner yesterday ---a quiche.
So today I was faced with a request to make a pie, so that Bryce could bring a piece to school for a friend.  This posed the complicating question of how it would hold up on the bus and in the backpack.  Which is when I recalled that I had these small tartlet pans that I had never used.
     The pans have always intimidated me, as I have never actually baked with these before.  But they would solve the transport and durability question.  The next issue was the recipe.  I riffed a recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking for an Alsatian Apple Tart, with great success.

     Basically, this uses pie crust---please don't consider using store bought, in simply isn't tender enough or flavorful enough, in a tartlet pan.  It is filled with thinly sliced apples, with a custard poured on top, and then baked.  They were delicious.  It would probably work with a tart crust as well.  It would work with pear as well.
     I am sure it would work as an entire tart, as written, but I had other goals in mind....

Alsatian Apple Tartlets

based on the recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking

makes 6-8 tartlets

1 pie crust, chilled.  (I used the recipe from Alana Chernila's book, The Homemade Kitchen)

2-3 sweet-tart apples

1/3-1/2 c heavy cream

1 egg

3 T sugar

pinch salt

freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350F.  Lightly oil the tartlet pans.  Roll the crust out and cut into rounds the same size as the pans, and fit inside, trim the excess.  Repeat until all the dough is used.  I broke rules and re-rolled the scraps with no real discernible negative effect.

Peel, quarter, core and slice the apples thinly.  Neatly place into each pan, filled about 80-90%. 

Beat egg, sugar, salt and cream, in a container with a spout, and pour over each filled little apple collection.  The apples will sit proud of the cream somewhat.  

Grate a small amount of nutmeg on top. 

Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes, until custard is set and crusts are golden.