It all started with an innocent Facebook post: “Eat your heart out, Julia Shanks.”
My friend Dave had made a soup he was exceptionally proud of, and wanted to share a photo with me. Somehow his words got minced, and friends assumed he challenged me to a cook-off.
Dave accepted the challenge. Or I did? However it happened we decided to face off on April Fool’s Day.
The rules were set: We each prepared a three-course meal featuring common ingredients: goat cheese for the appetizer, pork for the entrée and strawberries for dessert.
The judging was fierce, and I just barely eeked out a win. What put me over the top was my dessert: Chocolate Mille Fuille with Chocolate Mousse and Minted Berries.
Chocolate Mille Fuille
15 sheets of filo dough 1 ½ tbs. cocoa powder 1 ½ cup sugar 1 cup melted butter
¼ cup sugar 3 egg yolks 1 egg 7 oz. heavy cream 10 oz. melted chocolate
1 qt strawberries 1 tbs. freshly chopped mint 1 tsp. vanilla ¼ cup sugar, or to taste
1. For the filo sheets. Lay them out, and keep them covered with a damp towel at all times to keep them from drying out. Take one sheet at a time. Cut it in half. Brush it with melted butter and sprinkle cocoa powder and sugar on top. Fold into quarters and place on a buttered cookie sheet. Repeat this process until you have 30 squares. Bake for 10 minutes at 425, or until golden brown.
2. For the filling: Combine eggs and sugar in a bowl, and place over simmering water. Stir until sugar dissolves and the temperature is approximately 110 degrees. Remove from heat and whip until mixture is cold. In a separate bowl, whip cream until soft peaks. Fold cream into egg mixture. Gradually stir chocolate into base.
3. Wash strawberries. Cut into quarters. Toss with mint, vanilla and sugar.
4. To assemble: Put a chocolate filo square on a plate. Put a spoon of custard in the middle and top with another filo square. Garnish with strawberries.
Cultures around the world have developed tasty strategies to repurpose leftovers and give them new life. Across Asia, day-old rice becomes fried rice, in Italy risotto becomes arancini, and in Ireland, boiled dinners become bubble and squeak. I have even turned leftover 4th of July fare into a hearty Bolognese sauce. When done right, leftovers taste fresh, not stale.
Last night, I was invited to a friend’s house for dinner. When I asked what I could bring, he promptly replied, “Dessert.”
I considered my options – run to the market and pick something up, or figure something out with what’s in my pantry. I spied a stale baguette on the counter and recalled another ingenious use of leftovers – bread pudding.
Ironically, a search for bread pudding will yield recipes that call for brioche or other specialty bread. It seems antithetical to purchase fresh bread to let go stale. But since I was bringing the dessert to a friend’s house, I took a cue for this idea, and jazzed up the pudding to make it seem as an intentional creation and not an afterthought. Chocolate and dried cherries were the perfect antidote.
Shhh… don’t tell Paul. Chocolate Bread Pudding with Crème Anglaise A classic bread pudding can easily be made by omitting the chocolate and using raisins instead of dried cherries
3 cups milk ¼ teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 3 cups stale bread, cubed 3 eggs 1/3 cup white sugar 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon cinnamon ½ cup apple sauce ½ cup dried cherries ½ cup chopped chocolate 4 tablespoons butter Crème anglaise
1. In a pot, heat milk with salt until small bubbles form around the edges of the pot. Add the cocoa powder and bread and let sit for 10 minutes. 2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350. Put butter in a 9” x 13” pyrex dish to melt while oven is preheating. 3. Mix together the eggs and sugars until well combined. Add the vanilla, apple sauce, dried cherries, vanilla, cinnamon and chocolate. Stir in soaked bread. 4. Pour batter into buttery pyrex dish. 5. Bake for 45 minutes, or until set. Let cool. 6. Serve with Crème anglaise.
I hope you’ll forgive me as I add another dish to my already full list of Ten Favorite Restaurant Dishes. Just because I’m an accounting professor doesn’t mean I can count.
I’m not really a dessert person – I don’t like making them and I’m not a particular fan of eating them either – though there are a few I enjoy. Last night, I made an exception in honor of my friend’s birthday.
We were eating at Hungry Mother in Cambridge – an interesting blend of traditional southern flavors prepared with local New England ingredients, served in a causal, fine dining atmosphere. They’ve received many accolades and are booked solid every night of the week.
The limited dessert menu had the usual suspects – chocolate, fruit and cake. What stood out was the Salted Caramel Cake served with Anglaise and Candied Bacon. They put my two favorite ingredients, salt and bacon, and turned it into dessert. How could I not order it???
And how could I share it? Given that it was David’s birthday, the polite thing to do would have been to offer a bite. But I found myself inching the plate closer to me, a spoon in my left hand and my right arm draped around the plate creating a protective barrier from anyone trying to get a taste.
The salt infused into the caramel perfectly, adding depth to the burnt sweetness. And while it was sweet, it wasn’t cloying. The layers of cake were yellow and moist. And a sweet, smoky, salty slice of bacon was the proverbial cherry top.
Thanks to David for indulging me my piggy behavior and for taking the photo.
Most cooking techniques involve some form of fat or oil. Marinades have oil, sautés and stir-fries require a thin layer of fat in the bottom of the pan, and broiling works better if the food has a thin sheen to protect and also help brown the exterior. Steaming and poaching are low-fat methods that usually require no added fat.
But back to the fat…the question becomes, which fat do you use when? And how can you effectively substitute if you do not have the required ingredient on-hand?
There are three ways that fat/oil is used in recipes: as a cooking medium, as a flavor enhancer and as a moisture additive (I just made up that term). Each way requires a different way of looking at the issue.
Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire Most of you have heard of smoke points, right? This is the temperature that oil begins to smoke… not to be confused with the flash-point, the temperature when oil will catch fire. So when choosing oil for sautéing, frying or other high heat cooking you want to choose an oil with a high smoke point – oils with lower smoke points turn bitter and lose their lubricating qualities when over-heated.
In general, refined oils have a higher smoke point than unrefined. This holds true for olive oils as well. What does this mean for your cooking? Using extra-virgin olive oil for high heat cooking destroys the flavor. It’s a waste of a high-priced, high-flavor oil. Better to use 100% pure olive oil, which is from the second or third pressing and has a higher smoke point.
Many people use olive oil for cooking because of its purported health properties. It’s ratio of mono and polyunsaturated fats make it a better choice for raising HDLs and lowering LDLs. Canola oil is rivals olive oil in this area.
Similarly, butter has a higher smoke point when it’s clarified. The milk solids in butter (which make up 5%-15%) burn at a much lower temperature than the butterfat. By removing the milk solids, butters smoke point increases to 400F.
Oils for High Heat Cooking Peanut, Canola, 100% Pure Olive, Clarified Butter, Grapeseed.
I use canola oil when I don’t want any flavor from the oil. When I’m frying banana spring-rolls, or another dish where I know it will absorb the flavor of the oil, I use clarified butter. I avoid peanut oil because (1) I’m allergic to nuts and (2) lots of other people are too, and it becomes a hidden allergen.
I save the extra-virgin olive oil for salad dressings and low-heat cooking where I want that distinctive flavor.
Banana Spring Rolls with a Drizzle of Chocolate and Ginger
Spring Rolls 3 bananas 6 tbs. brown sugar ¼ cup clarified butter or plain oil 12 spring roll wrappers melted dark chocolate
1. Cut banana in half lengthwise, and then in ½ again width-wise 2. Lay a spring roll wrapper on a work surface with a point facing towards you. Put a piece of banana on the wrapper a little bit off center, and ½ tbs. brown sugar on top. Roll the spring roll like a burrito – pull the sides over and then roll it up. 3. Repeat process to make 11 more spring rolls 4. Heat oil or butter in a large skillet to medium high. Cook spring rolls until brown and crispy on all sides. Serve with crème anglaise and a drizzle of melted chocolate.
Crème Anglaise 3 egg yolks 1/4 cup sugar 1 cup half -n- half 3 slices of fresh ginger
Scald half -n- half with ginger. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar. Slowly add half -n- half, stirring constantly. Return to heat and continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula until the custard thickens. Remove from heat immediately. Strain out ginger.
My adopted blogger Katie from Eat this. favors honey in her cooking because it’s an unprocessed sugar source. And Tupelo honey, which is derived from bees buzzing around the Florida Tupelo trees, is considered to be one of the best in the world. She deftly describes its virtues here, so I won’t repeat. But suffice it to say, it’s delicate flavor is delightful.
Katie very graciously shared a few bottles with me. Of course, the first thing I had to make was honey cake. Though I typically only eat it at Rosh Hashanah, I love it year round.
Honey Cake This recipe comes from Joan Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America. I modified the ingredients by using raisins instead of the recommended almonds. Also, I did not have a bundt pan so I used a 9-inch square pyrex dish. I baked it for the first 30 minutes at the recommended 350, and then an additional 40 minutes at 325.
3 ½ cups flour 2 ½ tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda ½ tsp. salt ¼ tsp. cream of tartar 1 cup sugar 1 tsp. cinnamon 3 eggs, separated 1 tbs. lemon juice zest of 1 lemon 1/3 cup oil 1 cup honey 1 cup black coffee ½ cup raisins
1. Sift together flour, baking powder and soda, salt and cream of tarter into a bowl. Make a well in the center and add the sugar, cinnamon, egg yolks lemon juice and zest, honey, oil, coffee and raisins. Incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry.
2. Whip the egg whites until stiff. Gently fold into batter. Pour into a greased 10 inch tube pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Yep, that's Dina picking up a plastic bag of green stuff from a prearranged drop-off. Not suspicious at all, nope.
Hopefully, my neighbors don’t call the cops on her. This is Cambridge, MA, after all. And we know what could happen. Despite all the controversial media, I left a bag of mint on the front porch for Dina. I think I’m safe, though, since my neighbors also partake of my bounty of herbs: I regularly find 4-year old Oliver in the mint patch having a little snack.
Lord knows, I can’t possibly consume all the herbs on my own. I enjoy what I can throughout the summer, and freeze more for the winter. But even still the garden produces more than I can enjoy. I joke that I’ll start a farm-stand at the end of my driveway and peddle my excess herbs (and vegetables).
On Saturday evening, Dina returned for dinner with Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. Seems like a fair trade, don’t you think?
This recipe comes courtesy of www.epicurious.com. It sounds like the same as the one Dina used.
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream 2 cups heavy cream 1 cup whole milk 2 cups packed fresh mint leaves 2 large eggs 3/4 cup sugar 3 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)
In a blender blend cream, milk, and mint until mint is finely chopped. In a saucepan bring cream mixture just to a boil and cool 15 minutes. Whisk in eggs and sugar and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened and a thermometer registers 170°F. (Do not let custard boil or it will curdle.) Pour custard through a fine sieve into a bowl. Chill custard, its surface covered with plastic wrap, until cold, at least 3 hours, and up to 1 day. Chop chocolate. Freeze custard in an ice-cream maker. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and stir in chocolate. Put ice cream in freezer to harden.
Most people think of March 14th (3/14) as “Pie Day”… a word food play on the number represented by the Greek letter Pi: 3.14. To me, March 14th is my sister’s birthday. So in her honor, I made a carrot cake.
I used the recipe from the Blue Moon Cookbook. This is one of those old, Junior-League style cookbooks from Montgomery, Alabama. The Blue Moon Inn inspired the cookbook and the recipes. My mom remembers the place as a “private dining room.” It was more like a private club that opened only for special occasions and parties. My mom’s graduation party was there, as was the rehearsal dinner before her wedding to my dad (they just celebrated their 43rd anniversary!). The restaurant closed a few years later, so my sister and I never had a chance to eat there. Nonetheless, we treasure the cookbook. The bread pudding is a staple at our Thanksgiving dinner. And I’ve been making the carrot cake for as long as I can remember. The book oozes culinary history – from the style of recipes (aspic and spinach ring mold) to the ingredient specifications. The recipe for carrot cake, for example, specifies the brand of oil (Wesson) not the type (vegetable). Other recipes specifically call for Hellman’s mayonnaise, Frito’s Corn Chips and Accent.
Over the years, I’ve tried experimenting with this recipe, but discovered that it’s perfect just the way it is… with one exception: it needs ½ tsp. salt. This year, I made a few other modifications. Halfway into organizing the ingredients, I discovered that I only had 1 cup of oil in the house (and it wasn’t even Wesson, it was the Whole Foods 365 Canola). I knew from past experiments that an all butter substitution created a dense cake, so I melted 1 stick of butter with the oil hoping for a better outcome. And since I was heating the oil anyway, I opted to infuse it with a Tahitian Vanilla bean.
The other modification resulted in trying to use up leftovers rather than shop a second time. The traditional recipe calls for a cream cheese frosting. Since I had sour cream only, I made vanilla butter cream and folded in the sour cream to give it a bright tang.
Happy Birthday, Liz! I love you very much and feel so blessed to have you in my life.
Here’s the original recipe (with the salt addition)…
Blue Moon Carrot Cake
3 cups shredded carrots 1 ½ cups Wesson Oil 2 cups sugar 4 eggs, well beaten 2 cups flour 1/2 tsp. salt 2 tsp. cinnamon (I used Vietnamese) 2 tsp. baking soda 2 tsp. baking powder 1 cup chopped pecans (I used raisins instead) 3 cups grated carrots
Mix Wesson oil and sugar and beat well. Add eggs. Sift together dry ingredients twice and add pecans (or raisins). Grease and flour 2 – 9” cake pans. Fill pans and bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes. Cool. Remove from pans and ice with the following icing.
My friend Leslie is teaching a class on Bûche de Noël – the classic French Christmas Treat. In preparation, she wanted to do a trial run to test the timing of the class, and also to get pictures for the class posting.
We all know, I’m not a good baker and more a salt-head, than a sweet tooth. Nonetheless, I have a secret dream of being a star, cake decorator. I even bought a cake turn-table for when the urge strikes. Probably once a year, I make a few pounds of butter cream, a couple of cakes and decorate to my heart’s content. They look like pouffy wedding dresses reminiscent of the 1980’s (read: overdone and not particularly fashionable), and I never eat them, but it’s fun. That being said, I couldn’t miss an opportunity to watch and learn, so I offered to take pictures (just for her, I SWEAR!)
According to Wikipedia:
One popular story behind the creation of this dessert is that Napoleon I of France issued a proclamation requiring households in Paris to keep their chimneys closed during the winter, based on the notion that cold air caused medical problems. This prevented Parisians from being able to use their fireplaces, and, thus, prevented them from engaging in many of the traditions surrounding and involving the hearth in French Christmas tradition. French bakers, according to the theory, invented this dessert as a symbolic replacement around which the family could gather for story-telling and other holiday merriment.
The cake, which ultimately looks like a tree log with mushrooms, can be made with either a vanilla or chocolate sponge cake and filled with chocolate or vanilla buttercream. The cake is lighter than traditional genoise which makes it easy to roll. This cake batter is so light that it can only be used as a sheet-cake and can’t stand up to a layer cake. The mushrooms are made with Italian Meringue.
Before you can even think about assembling the cake, you must assemble all the parts: cake, filling, icing/glaze. For the garnish: rosemary sprigs to look like pine needle covered in ice and meringue mushrooms. The special equipment is limited to a piping bag with a round tip, a “decorating triangle” (used to texturize the icing to look like bark) and a good icing spatula.
For the Cake and the other components:
Cake 6 large eggs, separated 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 12 tablespoons sugar 1/4 cup cake flour, sifted 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Whip the egg yolks with sugar until they are thick and pale. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites sugar to stiff peaks. Fold the whites into the yolks. Sift the cocoa powder and flour onto to the egg mixture and gently fold to combine. Bake on a sheet tray for 15 minutes at 400F.
The filling is less persnickety. You can use a traditional buttercream or a modified version of simply beaten butter with white chocolate. The filling can also be used to glaze the outside of the cake or you can use a chocolate ganache:
Ganache 1/2 cup whipping cream 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped 2 tablespoons light corn syrup 1 tablespoon rum or other favorite liquor
Heat heavy cream over medium heat until bubbles form around the edge. Remove from heat. Stir in remaining ingredients. Continue to stir until chocolate dissolves.
For the mushrooms, make a French meringue.
½ cup egg whites 1 cup sugar ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar.
Dissolve sugar in egg whites over a pot of simmering water, whisking constantly, and heat until 110F degrees. Remove from heat and then whip until stiff peaks. To make the mushrooms pipe out mounds to be the caps, and pipe up 1” stems. Bake at 200F for 45 minutes and the 175 for another 30 minutes to dehydrate. When they are dried, you can brush the bottom of the mushroom caps with melted chocolate. Using a small paring knife, cut a little indentation into the base of the mushroom cap. Use chocolate or icing to glue the stem into the cap.
To make pine needles, dip rosemary sprigs in beaten egg whites, then roll in granulated sugar.
Assembly Ice the sheet cake. Roll it lengthwise, and roll the seam to the bottom. Slice the cake, 1/3 portion, on a bias to create two pieces – on that is twice as long as the other. Put the longer piece on a serving platter. Take the smaller piece, and align the angled side along the longer piece. This should give you the basic shape of a log. Ice the whole cake to cover the seam, but leave the ends un-iced to show off the roll. Run the decorating triangle along the outside to texturize.
I spent the Jewish New Year with Dina and her family. Dina, living up to her usual standard, created an impressive and delicious Concord Grape Tart. The recipe comes courtesy of Martha Stewart… but the decorative flourishes are all Dina.
Ingredients Makes one 9-inch pie • All-purpose flour, for work surface • 7 1/2 to 8 cups Concord grapes, rinsed • 1/2 cup sugar • 4 1/2 to 5 teaspoons cornstarch • 1 large egg
Directions
1. On a lightly floured work surface, roll 1 piece of pate brisee into a 15-inch round. With a dry pastry brush, sweep off the excess flour; fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate, pressing it into the edges. Trim to a 1-inch overhang all around. Crimp edge as desired. Cover with plastic wrap; chill pie shell until firm, about 30 minutes. Repeat process for rolling out dough. Using a 4-inch grape leaf cookie cutter, cut out 4 leaves from dough. Transfer to a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
2. Remove skins from grapes by pinching the ends of each grape, reserving both the pulp and skins separately, discarding any accumulated liquid.
3. Place pulp in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook until the seeds separate from the pulp and the pulp breaks down, about 6 minutes. Strain mixture through a sieve into the bowl with the reserved skins; discard solids. Let cool to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Remove grape mixture from refrigerator. Stir in sugar and cornstarch. Pour into prepared pie shell. Beat egg with 1 tablespoon water. Brush edge of pie shell with egg mixture, reserving any remaining mixture. Transfer pie to oven; bake 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, and continue baking until filling jiggles when shaken, about 30 minutes. Transfer pie to a wire cooling rack; let cool overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Remove reserved grape leaves from refrigerator and brush with remaining egg and water mixture. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire cooling rack; let cool.
6. Before serving, place grape leaves on top of filling.
It first occurred to me to make fresh ricotta when I was approached to teach a class at Williams-Sonoma. I was going to demonstrate how to make fresh mozzarella (which I learned at Restaurant Nora ). To give the class a theme, we decided on “Homemade Cheeses.” I had never made ricotta before, but I was a quick learner.
Since then, I’ve revised my theme to “The Ultimate Homemade Lasagne.” With the exception of the parmesan, I can make everything from scratch: pasta, Bolognese, ricotta and mozzarella. I can even use the tomatoes and basil from my garden! It’s truly rewarding to do it! The satisfaction of making a meal entirely from scratch, but also how deliciously amazing lasagna can be… the ultimate homemade is really a different beast.
Ricotta is the simplest recipe of the whole process. And it doesn’t require any special ingredients: just milk, cream, salt and lemon.
Combine ½ gallon of whole milk with 1 pint of cream and 1 tablespoon of salt in a large pot, stainless steel pot. Bring it to a simmer over medium heat.
While the milk is heating, squeeze enough lemon juice to yield ½ cup. Line a colander with cheese cloth or coffee filters.
When milk starts to simmer, stir in lemon juice. Stir just enough to combine. The more you stir, the smaller the curds (which is a bad thing). Let sit for 20 minutes to let the curds separate from the whey. They whey will be a translucent, white liquid.
Scoop out the curds into the colander and let drain for about 1 hour, or until the curds are dry. Keeps for about three days. Yield: 3 cups.
Serving suggestions:
Mix with basil and serve with crackers as an hors d’œuvres
Use as a filling for raviolis or cannelloni’s
Use as a filling for cannolis
Make a sweet ricotta tart
CROSTATA di RICOTTA
Crust 1 cup sifted all purpose flour, plus extra for “dusting” 6 tbs. butter, room temp 2 egg yolks 4 tbs. sugar 4 tsp. Marsala 1/2 tsp. freshly grated lemon peel 1/4 tsp. salt
Ricotta filling
2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese 1/4 cup sugar 1 1/2 tsp. flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. freshly grated orange peel 2 egg yolks 3 tbs. raisins, rinsed and drained 2 tbs. slivered, blanched almonds or pine nuts
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Make the crust: In a large mixing bowl make a well in the flour. Drop in the butter, egg yolks, sugar, Marsala, lemon peel and salt. Mix the ingredients together, but don't overwork the dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it is about 1” around wider than the pan, and about 1/8" thick.
4. Lightly butter the sides and bottom of a 9 1/2" false bottom pan. Carefully, press the pastry into the bottom of the pan and around the sides. Be careful not to stretch it. Trim excess.
5. Combine cheese with sugar, flour, salt, vanilla, grated orange peel and egg yolks; beat until they are thoroughly mixed. Stir in the raisins. Spoon the filling into the pastry shell and smooth with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle the top with slivered almonds or pine nuts. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 1/2 hour, or until the crust is golden and the filling firm. Remove from oven and let the pie cool before serving. Garnish with fresh strawberries, if you like.
. I modified the ingredients by using raisins instead of the recommended almonds. Also, I did not have a bundt pan so I used a 9-inch square pyrex dish. I baked it for the first 30 minutes at the recommended 350, and then an additional 40 minutes at 325.