Biscotti - Learned from a class in Tuscany

 A highlight of our recent trip to Italy was a cooking class here. One of the highlights was the making of biscotti. This recipe is derived from the class recipe, but adapted to ingredients that are easier to source in the USA.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups Granulated sugar

5 eggs (3 yolks - reserve the whites, and 2 whole eggs)

3 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

1 cup whole raw almonds (unpeeled)

pinch of salt

Method

I tried this with "00" flour in one of the experiments. It didn't work well. I actually did a whole lot better with King Arthur All purpose flour. Also the texture was better when I mixed them by hand vs the stand mixture.

Turn oven on to 375F (Fan assist, 400F conventional)

Zest the orange into the sugar. 

Add the egg yolks and whole  into the sugar, and stir with a wooden spoon. 

Combine the flour and baking powder

Add the flour in 6 additions, stirring thoroughly after each addition. It starts off easy, but as you get closer to the end, it becomes quite stiff.

When all the flour has been incorporated, add the whole almonds and mix them in with your fingers.

Tuen out the flour onto a floured bench and form into 3 logs. Each log is about 2 inches wide and 3/4 inch high.

Place the logs onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush carefully with the resereved egg white.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, rotating at 10 minutes . The logs should look like this.

Once they are baked, take them out of the pan and slice on the biias into strips about a finger witdth (1/2 an inch or so). Use a serrated knife for this as you will be cutting through the almonds. A plain knife will tend to squish them.

Place them back on the sheet pan, with a cut side up. Return them to the oven (at the same temperature) for 5 - 8 minutes to dry out and firm up.

Serve with vin santo, red wine, or coffee for dunking.

The piece of cod

We recently had a spectacular vacation in Italy. From time in Tuscany (cooking class being the highlight) to an amazing time in Naples. I must say that Naples is the most invigorating, exciting, exhausting, wild place I have ever been. And we only just scratched the surface.

Given where Naples sits, a great deal of the food comes from the Mediterranean. So we ate a lot of fish and other seafood. Of course the Neapolitan street food featured too, but this posting is about flavor intensity.

Cod is (of course) not a fish one would expect to see in Naples, but for this recipe, it works well. Other firm, white fsh would work even better, but I didn't really have time to get to the fish monger - so frozen cod it was. The fish isn't the star, however. The bold combination of flavors - capers, tomatoes, olives, oregano, olive oil all baked with the fish made for a delicious, quick, easy dinner.

Ingredients

8 oz Firm white fish in 2 fillets

6 oz cherry tomatoes - cherry tomatoes have the most flavor and the right skin to flesh ratio . And they are about the same size as the olives.

1/2 red onion, diced (soaked in water for 30 minutes, then drained)

4 Tbsp capers, draind but not rinsed. I wanted to keep the briny intensity and not need to add more salt

4 oz black olives, halved

A sprinkling of dried oregano

8 oz Small Yukon Gold potatoes

Mint to cook the potatoes

Salt, to taste in the potato water.

Lots of high quality olive oil

Method

Preheat oven to 375F (Fan assist or 400F conventional).

Place the fish on a parchment lined sheet pan. Mix the tomatoes, capers, red onion, olives, oregano, and olive oil together in a bowl.

Salt cold water in a saucepan, and add the mint and potatoes. 

Cover the fish well with the tomato mixture. 

Start to cook the potatoes over a medium setting. At the same time put the sheet pan into the oven. When the potatoes are cooked (8-10 minutes after being brought to a simmer), the fish is cooked.

Serve with a nice, crisp white wine.

Vichyssoise

 This is probably not the most traditional vichssoise you will ever have, but it was pretty good! We served about 1/2 of it to a partof 6 and the rest we just dipped into as and when we felt like it. The major differences are:

• No onions - just leeks
• 1/2 chicken stock and 1/2 water
• Crunchy salt and chives to decorate

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs leeks - white and light green parts only. Washed and cut into small pieces

2 Tbs butter

3 lbs russet potatoes cubed into 3/4 inch pieces

20 oz  chicken stock (we used home made, concentrated)

20 oz water

1/2 t ghost pepper vodka (home made)

Salt

White pepper

12 oz whipping cream

Finely chooped chives

Sea salt crustals to finish

Method

Split the leeks lengthwise and chop across the grain into a salad spinner bowl. Fill the salad spinner with water and swirl. Lift the leeks out. Discard the water and repeat. This is a handy techniquefor getting all of the grit out of the leeks.

Melt the butter in a large pot, and add the leeks and a generous pinch of salt. Cook gently for about 15 minutes withot letting them brown.

Add the potatoes, stock mixture, white pepper, ghost pepper vodka. Bring to a simmer, cover,  and simmer until the potatoes are cooked (about 12 minutes). Note, the iquid should just cover the potatoes

Blend with an immersion blender until very smooth. Adjust the seasoning, rememberig that you will also be using sea salt when serving. Chill the soup and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Just befor seving, stir in the heavy cream. Serve in small bowls with chopped chives and sea salt crystals.

We served this with an Oregaon Pinot noir.

Rhubarb Passionfruit Fool

A fool is an English pudding (dessert for my US friends), consisting mostly of some kind of cooked fruit and whipped cream. A very simple idea. The 2 most common fools are rhubarb and gooseberry.

Rhubarb is incredibly sour and a little bitter, so it needs coaxing along. Also it gets very stringy. It needs to be cooked down with a sweetener of some kind. We have several syrups from Liber and Co. in Austin, so I thought it would be fun to try one of those with the rhubarb. And it was.

Ingredients

2 lbs rhubarb stalks, cut into 1 inch lengths

12 oz Liber passionfruit syrup

pinch of salt

16 oz (US pint) of heavy cream

Finely grated chocolate (any kind) to garnish

Method

Rinse and shake dry the rhubarb and place into a saucepan with a well fitting lid. Some water will stick to the stalks and that is OK. Place the pan over medium heat. Add the syrup, salt and bring the pot to a simmer. Once simmering, lower the heat until the rhubarb is soft to the touch and fully cooked. 

With an immersion blender, blend the mixture until it is completely smooth. Allow to cool completely

Meanwhile, whip the cream to soft peaks. Combine the fruit and cream by gently folding the cream into the fruit. 

Serve in a small bowl with a little grated dark chocolate for contrast.

A Mocktail Summer

 Thos who know me know that Madame teaches in London in the summer. While she is away, I "play in the kitchen" experimenting, riffing on ideas that require time and are sometimes a bit messy. This year is no exception. There is enough research out there that suggests that in general alcohol is not terribly good for us. This is being impressed on us by our excellent physician. However, we do like to have a contemplative drink at the end of the day. Enter the mocktail. The trouble is that most of the exlixirs, bases, and other products that go into mocktails generally don't deliver for us. They are eother too inspid, too light, too sweet, too everything - except tasty.

So with the challenge set for the summer of 2023, I reached out to Mr. all things cocktail and flavor, J.M. Hirsch of Milk Street. A simple request, one might think. Cutting to the chase, he recommended that I at lkeast look at the book, "Zero", by the folks behind the amazing Chicago restaurant called Alinea. I swear they must all own stock in exotic ingredients. I ended up buing angelica root, black cardomom, verjus, lots of (really expensive) vanilla pods, gentian root, dried fruits of all kinds, pineapples - to use the bark, not the flesh, bananas for roasting, chamomile, juniper berries, glycerine, all of the above for making the "back bar" items.

The point of this book is really that when we are making the back bar items, we may want to think like a chef rather than like a bartender. In other words we want to find ways of making the base concoctions taste and feel really good. And then bring expert bar-tending, flavor blending skills to bear on making drinks that use these basic items. Well, suffice it to say, I am no expert, but the blending - once the back bar items were made is definitely a big part of the fun.

For me the key gas been not to attempt to recreate the specific taste of any spirit, but to acquire the feeling. So the "gin" substitute doesn't taste like gin, per-se. But when made into a cocktail with some lime juice and a sugar cube, one ends up with something that feels like a daiquiri.

I was much more interested in just making the back bar items, and then playing mixologist - and learned a few universal truths.

• Balance is critical
• Bitter
• Sweet
• Sour
• Salty
• Deep flavor is critical
• Herbs
• Barks
• Fruits
• Temperature is critical
• The drinks are best served cold
• But allow them to warm gradually to release their full potential
• Serving method is critical
• Shaken with ice, and strained into a coupe - a little dilution helps
• Over ice with a mixer - more refreshing, but with less complexity

I made the following back bar items

• The gin replacement
• The American whiskey replacement
• The tequila replacement
• The orange liqueur replacement
• The bitter amaro replacemnt
• The Jamaican rum replacement
• The sweet vermouth replacement

Many of the items are best prepared sous-vide. The recipes do say what to do if you can't do that for one reason or another.

I have found that sweet/tart fruit juices (pomegranate, lychee, guava) with a squeeze of lemon or lime bring out the flavors of these quite nicely. the bitter amaro is incredibly strong, so it defintely needs to be used sparingly.

All in all, lots of fun being had. I am excited for Madame to return and to experience the science projects.

A "Quick" Vegetable gratin

Vegetable gratins are full of pitfalls. The vegetables cook unevenly, there is too much liquid so they end up sloppy, toppings are uneven..

So to overcome these we need to think about cooking in "layers" or stages. This recipe details the stages and techniques.

Ingredients

1 Medium Italian eggplant (aubergine), peeled in stripes and cut into 1/2" thick rounds

1/4 Cup extra virgin olive oil (divided use)

1 Tbs Aleppo pepper

2 Medium yellow onions coarsely diced

1 Red bell pepper cut into 1/2" pieces

1 1/12 lbs cherry tomatoes

1 Russet potato (coarsely grated - lke for hashbrowns)

4 Oz Melty hard chese (Cheddar/Gruyere) grated

Salt/Pepper to taste

Finely chopped chives for garnish/decoration

Method

Preheat the oven to 425F (Fan). Rack in the middle

Microwave the eggplant slices until they are soft and much of the water has been driven off. Meanwhile lighly oil a gratin dish.

Seperately saute the onions and red pepper using a little oil, Aleppo pepper, and salt ad pepper. The onions should become translucent, but not browned.

Place the eggplant slices in a single layer in the bottom of the gratin dish. 

Rinse the grated potatoes to remove the surface starch. Microwave the grated potatoes to mostly cook and dry off as much water as possible. 

Meanwhile, cover the eggplant with the sauteed onions/peppers. Sprinkle the tomatoes over the onions. Place the gratin dish into the oven, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. This will cause the tomatoes to wrinkle and soften.

MIx the grated potatoes with the grated cheese. Salt the gratin and then cover with the grated potato/cheese.

Return to the oven and cook until the internal temperature of the gratin reaches 200F.

Switch the oven to broil, and brown the potato/cheese topping until it is nice and crunchy. Sprinkle the gratin with the chopped chives.

Serve with a crisp dry wine and a side salad

Hassdelback or Hasselhack

Our supper club meets periodically. On this occasion the menu was crab bisque, salad, venison, hasselback potatoes, green beans, cheesecake. And, it was all amazing.

I was voluntold to do the Hasselback potatoes. I had never heard of such a thing, so went off to do research. Once you have finished the cutting they are really easy. But the cutting does require more precision knife work than I am used to. At least it provided the motivation to sharpen my knives.

Ingredients (for 10 people)

10 Medium potatoes. I used Yukon Golds, but tried russets and sweet potatoes while practicing

1 stick butter - I used salted, but if you use unsalted you will need more salt

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Yes, I know, it's a volume measure, don't hate me)

1 Head of garlic broken into invividual cloves

1 Bunch thyme

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Make a bath of lightly acidulated water (a quart or so with the juice of a lemon). This stops the potatoes browning after they have been cut.

First prepare the potatoes. The trouble with these is that the slices have to be really thin, and you don't want to cut all the way through the potato. The photographs below demonstrate with a russet but I used the same approach with the yukon golds.

You do want to make sure that when you cut the yukon gold in half, you do it lengthwise and keep maximum thickness. This makes the rest of the slicing a whole lot easier.

Cut the potatoes one at a time. Put a potato, cut side directly onto the counter between 2 chopping boards. The longer side of the potato is parallel with the cutting board edges.The chopping boards will act as a gauge to prevent you slicing too far. 

This is the hack mentioned in the title. Most recipes suggest using wooden spoons, but they are too fiddly for me.

Slice the potato crosswise, very thinly - for an average sized Yulon Gold potato, I was getting around 16 slices. Put the potatoes into the acidulated water.

In a microwave safe bowl put the thyme, crushed garlic cloves, butter, oil, salt, pepper. Microwave at 50% power for a couple of inutes, and then leave to infuse.

Set an oven rackto the lower middle. Preheat the oven to 425F while the oil/herb/butter/garlic mixture is steeping.

Place the potatoes, flat side down, onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Reheat the oil/herb/butter/garlic mixture and brush over the potatoes, trying tto get liquid between the slices. At this stage that will be difficult, but as they cook, the potatoes will open up.

Put the baking sheet into the oven and set a 20 minute timer. After 20 minutes, baste the potatoes again with the oil/herb/butter/garlic mixture. This time it is easier to get it between the slices. Turn the oven down to 400F. 

Baste twice more at 15 minute intervals. Again working as much of the oil/herb/butter/garlic mixture into the slits as possible.

If you are baking in a non-fan assisted ovent, you may need to rotate the pan. I would do it after the second oven basting.

Experiments with dough

I have long wondered about what happens when you make really high hydration doughs. Two events inspired me. One was the excellent cold "pizza" sold here in the Dallas area by Popolo Reds - a focaccia style bread with an intense red sauce topping. The other was an episode of Milk Street, where Christopher Kimball mae a "pizza" with a high hydration dough. Because I like to tinker, I though I would mess with some ideas and see what happens.

The key to all of this was using a very wet dough (anything up to 100% hydration) and working the dough hard. Because it almost a batter, rather than a normal bread dough, I decided to use the paddle beater in my stand mixer and not the dough hook.

I found that following the Milk Street version, the tomatoes really didn't cook enough, so I modified that recipe by roasting the cut tomatoes for 15 minutes before topping the dough and baking.

I ended up making 2 different kinds - both of which still need some tweaking for the toppings. But I am very happy with the technique. So thank you to Bob Shema and Christopher Kimball for the inspirations.

Ingredients - Dough

600 gm Bread flour

600 gm Water at room temperature

8 gm Active dry yeast

13 gm salt ( i make this a little saltier than the usual 2%)

30 gm Extra virgin olive oil (divided use) - rough measure

Method - Dough Preparation

Put the flout into the bowl of the stand mixed, with the paddle beater attachment. Activate the yeast by adding to the water. If you use instant or bread yeast, this step is unnecessary - the yeast can be added directly to the flour. Add the salt to the flour and mix thoroughly. Gradually add the water and oil while mixing slowly. Once the water is all added, increase the speed of the mixing to medium. The dough will look awful for a long while (10 + minutes). Then it will start to come together and leave the sides of the bowl. Once it has left the sides, continue mixing for 10 more minutes. It should be smooth by now, and fully kneaded.

Leave the dough in the bowl, and cover to rise. Anything up to 2 hours depending on kitchen temperature. 

Once it has risen, gently degas it by oiling your fingers and running your fingers around the bowl releasing the dough. It will sink.

Once you have degassed the dough, cover again and place the bowl in the refrigerator. Leave the dough in the refrigerator overnight

When you are ready to bake, remove the bowl from the refrigerator. Tip the dough into two oiled 1/4 sheet pans and spread it as best you can into the corners. The dough will shrink back, but that is OK. It will sit in the pan for a while and gradually spread. When working the dough, always oil your fingers. The dough is incredibly sticky. The oil will help prevent sticking.

Ingredients - Topping 1

I of the 1/4 sheet pans of dough (above)

16 oz  (450 gm) Cherry tomatoes (Note the switch to imperial measurements - that's how things are sold in the USA for the most part)

16 oz (450 gm) Sweet seedless black grapes

2 tsp Dried oregano

1 tsp Kosher salt

1 tsp Black pepper (coarse grind, fresh)

2 tsp Aleppo pepper

Oil to drizzle

Method - Topping1

When the dough has warmed to room temperature (an hour or so after coming out of the refrigerator), stud it in rows with the cherry tomatoes and grapes. Push the tomatoes ad grapes into the dough. Preheat the ovent to 450F (with fan assist).

Sprinkle the tomatoes/grapes evenly with the organo, salt, pepper, Apeppo pepper, and some olive oil. Allow the dough to puff up around the tomatoes/grapes. Once the dough has puffed up, put the pan into the preheatedoven. Turn the heat down to 400F and bake for around 30 minutes.

Slide the focaccia out of the ban onto a cutting board and allow to cool for a few minutes before cutting. Eat hot or at room temperature.

Ingredients - Topping 2

1 of the 1/4 sheet pans of dough (above)

16 oz (450 gm) Cherry tomatoes

16 oz (450 gm) mushrooms

12 sprigs Thyme

2Tbs Unsalted butter

2tsp Kosher salt (divided)

1 tsp Black pepper (coarse grind, fresh)

Oil to drizzle

Method - Topping 2

Slice the mushrooms. Microwave for a few minutes to drive off the moisture. Mix the thyme leaves into the mushrooms, add the butter, half the salt. Microwave again until the butter is incorprated.

Decorate the dough with rows of cherrytomatoes and mushrooms (as above).

Proceed withthe baking and serving as above.

Bread with Yudane

 My friend Stev Whorf has been on a bread making trail for several years now. He turned me on to Yudane. Previously Cooks Illustrated had demonstrated Tangzhong. The results sounded so good that I had to try them. And I loved the results. I actually used the Cooks Illustrated Tangzhong methos but with proportions that were closer to Yudane proportions.

The purpose of Tanghzong and Yudane is to allow the flour to absorb more water - resulting in a lighter, softer crumb. But I also wantd to bake this in a pan, and not freeform. Typically when making sandwich loaves, I use a 55% hydration (for every 100gm flour, 55% water). But for this I wanted to go up to about 70% hydration. If I bake a 70% hydration dough in a pan, it becomes too airy and loose.

Yudane is usually a 1:1 ratio of water to flour (100% hydration). Tanghzon is much wetter  often as much as 1 part flour to 4 parts water (400%). So the trick is to figure out the ratios so that the final loaf is at 70%.

The easy way to do that is to weigh out the flour and water into their own containers (at the 70% hydration ratio), and then take the relevant amounts from each to make up the Yudane/Tangzhong. More in the description below.

Ingredients

600 gm Bread flour (divided use)

420 gm Water (room teperature, divided use)

6 gm Active dry yeast

1 tsp sugar (a small rough measure just there to wake up the yeast)

12 gm salt

A little olive oil

Cooking spray to grease the bread pan

10gm Butter, metled

Method

Weigh the flour and water into separate bowls. Into a icrowave safe bowl, take 60 gm of the flour and 120 gm of the water. Whisk these together to make a smooth slurry/paste. Set aside.

Into the rest of the water, dissolve the sugar and add the yeast. This is really only to wake the yeast up, and make sure that it is still active.

Put the flour/water mixture into the microwave and microwave it for 30 seconds. Remove, the mixture, stir/whisk and repeat the microwaving. Do this a couple more times - until the flour has gelled.

Remove the gel from the microwave and allow to cool. 

Add the cooled gel to the flour in your stand mixer. Mix with the dough hook to incorporate the gel into the flour.

Once the gel is incorporated, add the remaining yeast/water/sugar mixture with the mixer still running. Once the water is all added, mix for another 30 seconds or so. Then add the salt and knead the dough for at least 10 minutes. The dough will evetually leave the sides of the bowland become cohesive. 

Once the dough is fully kneaded, scrape down the dough hook and turn the dough ball onto the counter. Knead by hand to form a ball. Oil the bowl with a little olive oil, place the dough back into the bowl, and cover (I use a chopping board as a cover at this stage).

Leave the dough for a couple of hours (give or take depending on kitchen temperatre) until it has about doubled in size. Once it has doubled, degas the dough by running your fingers around the dough ass in the bowl and lifting the edges of the dough.

Cover the bowl (this time I use a shower cap) and place into the fridge overnight.

When you are ready to bake, remove the bowl from the fridge, take out the dough and work it gently into a rectangle, the size of your bread pan. You will want to latten it out to make as thin a layer as possible before roling it into shape. This will help it come up to temperature evenly.

Lighty oil the bread pan nd place the dough into it, gently.

Once it is settled into the pan, cover (the trusty shower cap again) until it has risen sufficiently - almost doubled in height. This will take at least 3 hours - depending on kitchen temperature. Coming out of the fridges the dough is really cold.

At this point turn the oven to 350F to preheat. It doesn't matter if you let the dough rise a bit longer at this stage.

Slit the top of the loaf with a lame or razor blade, brush with the melted butter and bake for 40 minutes in the pan. Remove from the pan and bake another 10 - 15 minutes.

Allow to cool before slicing.

Extras

For one of the loaves, I used a thin cream (aka half and half in the USA) to make the Yudane/Tangzhon. That means that I had to do some elementary school arithmetic. Because I wanted 120 gm of liquid for the paste, I reduced the water to 300 gm. I made the paste in eactly the same way. Yes, I realize that the ratios aren't quite right (the fat in the creak displaces some of the water), but it didn't affect the outcome. I have to admit, I couldn't be bothered with absolute precision at this point. Everything else was the same.

The resultant bread is delicious. The crust was nice and crunchy and a bit better browned. The crumb was really soft and yet tight. Ideal for toast and jam.

 

Cocktail Naming

 I have been making a lot of cocktails lately. Mostly experimental - and some experiments are not as good as others. My inspiration comes from JM Hirsch and his excellent book, "Pour Me Another". Not so much for the specific recipes, but more of the minimalist mindset that Mr. Hirsch applies. And by minimalist, he really wants each componet to pull its own weight in the drink, and for no one flavor to aggressively overshadow the others. For example, citrus zests feauture when making sours, not the really heavy lemon juice acidity.

Since these cocktails were all new creations, or variations on existing drinks, we just had to have a cocktail naming party. 10 people, 4 cocktails to name, followed by dinner.

I batched the cocktails, and we had small tasting pours (followed by refills as necessary ?!

#1 Pucker-Up Kiss

This cocktail is a rum punch variant. It does use the juice of a lime, but the rum is strong enough to carry it. It is definitely a tart drink - very little sweetening involved.

Ingredients

2 Oz Appleton Estate Signature Rum

1 Oz Lime Juice

3/4 Oz Grenadine (Liber)

6 kosher salt crystals

8 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Method

All ingredients into a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Strain into a coupe.

Another way would be to stir into a rocks glass with one large clear-ice cube. Rub edge of the glass with lime zest and serve with a lime twist.

#2 Golden Sophia

This is a (sort of) Negroni variant. Instead of the Campari, I used an Amaro. Orange bitters gave a ice hint, and the dehydrated blood orange was a great garnish/complement.

Ingredients

2 Oz Light Gin - By light I mean one where the Juniper is not too forward. We used Citadelle

1/2 Oz Amaro Vigo

2 Oz Red Vermouth (Dolin in our case)

4 Dashes Orange Bitters

6 Kosher Salt Crystals

All ingredients into a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Strain into a coupe. Garnish with dehydrated blood orange sections.

Another way would be to stir into a rocks glass with one large clear-ice cube.

#3 Pink Pleasure

Yes, I know that this sounds rather obscene. But by this time the group was feeling no pain. It was quite a strong drink . And it has to be shaken

Ingredients

3 Oz Light Gin

1/8 tsp Habanero Vodka (a home made infusion)

1/2 Oz. Grapefruit Cordial

1 Oz Lillet Blanc (White Vermouth)

4 Dashes Peychaud Bitters

1 Egg White

6 Kosher Salt crystals

Method

All ingredients into a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake very vigorously for 30 seconds. Strain into a coupe.

#4 Not Marianne

By now the creativity was in full spate. You really do have to like ginger for this one!

Ingredients

3 Oz Wild Turkey 101 Rye

1/2 tsp. Grated raw Ginger

1 Oz Ginger Liqueur (Domaine de Canton)

1.2 Oz Fiery Ginger Syrup (Liber)

8 Dashes Angostura Bitters

6 Kosher Salt Crystals

Method

All ingredients into a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake very vigorously for 30 seconds. Double strain into a coupe to remove the grated ginger..

Ginger cake with ginger buttercream

It was Madame's birthday and we did a special event for people who could walk home. For once we had a party catered. And beautifully done it was by Sharon Hage. But I wanted to make the cake. After all, I can't help myself - meddling in the kitchen.

Madame's favorite flavors in a cake are ginger/spicy - almost ginger bread like. So I scoured recipe sources - including old handwritten recipes from my grandmother and mother.  I came up with this (note, I weigh most ingredients and use metric measurements - except for the spices, and leavening):

Ingredients - Cake

210 gm butter (unsalted, high butterfat - I used Kerry Gold

Small pinch of salt

75 gm Black treacle (like molasses, but not as pungent)

200 gm Dark brown sugar

230 gm Golden Syrup - commonly used in British cooking

4 Large eggs

250 ml whole milk (I made this using 2% and 1/2 and 1/2)

410 gm All purpose flour

4 tsp Double acting baking powder

3 tbsp Ground ginger

3 Cloves - ground fine

1/4 tsp Anise seeds - ground fine

1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp Ground black pepper

200 gm crystallized ginger roughly chopped into bite sized pieces

Ingredients - Ginger Butter Cream

220 gm butter (unsalted, high butterfat)

3 or 4 grains Kosher or sea salt

440 gm Powdered sugar

3 tsp Ground ginger

3 tbsp Liber brand ginger cocktail syrup

Method - Cake

Preheat fan assist oven to 320F (350F if not using fan assiste feature). 

Grease 2 8" cake tins, and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.

In a saucier or other suitable saucepan warm the butter, treacle, sugar, salt, golden syrup over low heat until the butter is melted. Leave to cool. 

Meanwhile whisk together the flour, baking powder, ginger and other spices. Put the eggs and milk into a large mixing bow and whisk to combine.

Once the pan has cooled, pour the contents into the egg/milk mixture and whisk to combine. When well combined, whisk in the flour. Do this all at once, no need to be overly gareful here.

When the flour is incorporated, stir in the crystallized ginger incorporating it all through the batter.

Divide the batter equally between the cake tins. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes. Rotate the pans (even in my fan assist oven, I do this as a safety measure). Bake for another 15 - 20 minutes - until a toothpick inserted comes out with no crumbs.

Leave to cool in the tins. Turn out onto a cooling rack and level the tops if they are slightly domed.

Method - Butter Cream

Make sure the butter is at cool room temperature (65- 68F). In a stand mixer beat the butter until it is thoroughly soft. Add the salt and powdered sugar a large spoonful at a time. This prevents the sugar from flying everywhere.

Once the sugar is fully incorporated, add the ginger syrup and beat for a little longer.

Assembly

When the cake is thoroughly cold, peel off the parchment paper from the base of each layer. Place the first layer on your stand (or plate, or whatever). Spread a thin layer of the buttercream (about 1/3 of the total buttercream) evenly over the bottom layer. Put the second layer on top, aligning with the bottom layer. Spread another third of the buttercream on the top. And then pipe small rosettes on top using the remaining butter cream. Allow to cool, and serve.

Note: Licking the buttercream bowl and beaters is mandatory once the cake is iced!

Caramelized nectarine, pecan, and Feta salad

Instruction from Madame, "I need a salad to take to a ladies evening, please". These ladies like to eat, so just plucking a few leaves from  our Gardyn (hydroponic veggie grower) and knocking up a qhick vinaigrette wasn't going to cut it. Hence this salad - a way to really boost up the flavor of the nectarines. The basic thought came from this recipe

Ingredients

2 Nectarines, cut in half lengthwise, pitted and then cut into 12 pieces each.

1/4 cup Sherry vinegar

1 t white sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Simple vinaigrette 2 parts good quality oil/1 part suitable vinegar - I used red wine vinegar. Sherry would have been too strong. 

Handful of pecan halves, halved

1/2 jalapeno sliced very thinly

3 T red onion diced finely and soaked in water to remove bitterness

Lettuce greens washed dried, and torn into small, bite sized pieces

3 or 4 oz Feta broken into large pieces (i.e. not crumbled)

Method

Place the sherry vinegar, sugar, salt into a non stick skillet over medium heat. Bring to a boil, and then add the nectarines. Stir to coat. Continue to stir as the pan dries. The nectarines should be coated on all sides. The pan should end up dry and sticky, leaving some light caramelization on the nectarines.

Chill the nectarines.

To serve, place the vinaigrette in the bottom of your serving bowl, and pile the greens on top. Then add all of the rest of the ingredients, except the Feta.. Just before serving toss the sald, bringing the dressing up from the bottom and over the salad. Serve individually with a small block of Feta on top.

Tomato "Tarte Tatin"

 This dish is taken (and only very modeslty adapted from America's Test Kitchen's recipe). It is the first recipe in the linked video here. I used more tomatoes than the recipe called for. And at my local store, the Romas were bigger than Elle used in the video. Also, I used the convection feature of my oven, so the first time the tomatoes were a little overcooked. But I have not made it half a dozen times, and I think it is a keeper.

The whole skillet (handle and all) will go into the oven, so make sure you use an oven safe one. Even though the dish has tomatoes, my carbon steel skillet is sufficiently seasoned that the mixture can go in to it. 

Ingredients

A bit more than 1/3 cup of sherry vinegar

2 T white sugar

1/2 t kosher salt

1/2 t finely, freshly ground black pepper

8 sprigs of thyme, minced very finely. I have also used dried Greek Oregano.

1T butter

2 medium shallots, minced very finely

2 1/2 lbs Roma or plum tomatoes. As Elle says, do not attempt to use beefsteak or other large round varieties

Store bought puff pastry (I use Dufour), rolled/shaped to a 10" round and chilled

Method

With shelf on a middle rackm start the oven to preheat at 400F (conventional, 375F fan assisted). I keep a pizza stone permanently in the oven.

Place the sherry, sugar, salt, pepper into a 10" oven proof skillet. Heat over medium heat to dissolve the sugar and salt. Reduce a bit (Elle says, about the same consistency as maple syrup).

Meanwhile, prep the tomatoes. Core them, cut them in half lenghtwise and remove and discard the jelly and seeds. You should have just the flesh and skin.

Once the sherry has thickened sufficiently, add the butter and allow to dissolve. Then the shallots and thyme. Allow to cook for a few minutes until the shallots have softened a bit.

Put the prepared tomatoes into the pan, and toss to coat. Arrange the tomatoes skin side down in the pan. You want it to be quite crowdwed in there.

Bake the tomatoes in the preheated oven for 45 minutes - 1 hour. At least check at 45 minutes. The tops will have shrivelled and darkened and there should be no liquid. Do be careful when opening the dooor of the oven as there is a lot of steam.

Take the skillet out of the oven. Drape the pastry round over the tomatoes. Dock the pastry with a fork (I didn't do this one time and it way over puffed!)

Place the skillet back in the oven for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan as much as possible - and bake for 15 more.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool while still in the pan. (Elle says 8 minutes, mine varied from 10 - 20 minutes).

Turn out onto a cutting board or servimg plate. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Steamed White Fish

 Some friends came over for dinner one evening and we co-cooked. He taught me a technique that I have since tried on my own - and I love it. It's a simple one pot dish using your choice of hrbs/spices and a firm non-oily white fish. I used red snapper for this version.

In the original dish we used Asian spicing - fenugreek seed, coriander, cumin, and turmeric. For this version, I used a fennel bulb, garlic, ginger, and aleppo pepper. So this is more about technique than recipe. I used the same technique both times.

Ingredients

1 inch of ginger, peeled and grated

3 cloves of garlic, made into a paste (using a garlic press would be fine)

3 medium shallots, minced very finely

1 fennel bulb diced finely - pieces should be the same size as the shallot

2 T olive oil

1 1/2 lbs plum tomatoes, cored, halced and sliced into strips

1 1/2 lbs white fish, boned and skinned

1 handful of fresh tarragon (divided use)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Mix together the ginger, garlic, aleppo pepper and a little salt. Rub half of this mixture onto the fish and leave for about 15 minutes.

In a 10" skillet, heat the olive oil, and when hot add the remaining ginger/garlic paste and stir for a minute or so. Add the shallot/fennel and soften for about 5 minutes. Do not allow to brown.

Add the tomatoes  and most of the tarragon to the pan, cover and allow to soften for 10 minutes over low heat. Layer the fish on top of the aromatics. Cover again, and steam on low heat for 8-10 minutes - depending on the size of the fish. 

Serve over rice with tarragon leaves as a garnish, making sure that you scoop up some of the juice from the pan and drizzle over the fish.

Smoked turkey and green pea soup

If you are lucky enough to have a smoked turkey carcass lying around (or in our case friends who had one and didn't know what to do with it), you can make a terrific green pea soup with it. Just make sure that there is some meat on the carcass too.

Ingredients - Stock

1 smoked turkey carcass stripped of most of its meat

Enough water to submerge the carcass (at least 1 1/2 US Gallons) 

Ingredients - Soup

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 large yellow onions (not sweet, but more like Spanish or Bermuda onions), finely diced

1 whole celery head, stalks finely diced

1 lb carrots, finely diced

2 (or more to taste) hot chile peppers, finely chopped. I used 2 Thai chilies from the garden

2 lbs split green peas

3/4 US gallon smoked turkey stock. (Possibly more if the soup gets too thick)

1 1/2 lbs smoked turkey meat, taken from the carcass

3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

salt/pepper to taste

Method - Stock

Place all of the carcass into a stockpot and cover with water. Simmer over low heat for at least 3 hours. Strain (I stored ours in a 1 gallon milk container). Note there are no other flavorings in the stock.

Method - Soup

Putt the oil into a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions celery, and carrots, and hot peppers. Cook gently for about 10 minutes until the onions are translucent.Take care not to brown the onions. While sweating the vegetables, you might want to add a little salt to draw out some of the moisture.

Rince and drain the split peas, checking to make sure that there are no rocks or other undesirable elements. Add the peas to the pot and then add 3/4 gallon of the stock. Bring to a simmer stirring often. Simmer for 20 - 30 minutes - until the peas have lost their raw texture, but still have a little bite.

While the peas are simmering, shred the turkey meat into small chunks - a bit larger than the carrots. They need to be able to fit onto the spoon. Set the turkey aside.

Whn you think the peas are cooked, taste for doneness and seasoning. This is when I dd the majority of the salt/pepper. Knowing that both the stock and the meat will be a bit salty.

Once the peas are at the texture you want them, use the stick blender to smooth out the soup. For a hearty soup, stop short of pureeing completely. For something more elegant, puree all the way and then pass through a strainer.

At this point add the turkey and the rice wine vinegar for balance. You may want to add a bit more liquid at this stage

Either heat the soup through and serve immediately or refrigerate and reheat just before serving. 

Avocado ginger coconut soup

 This is a recipe based on this month's Fine Cooking magazine. The result was very good, but I used too much lime juice, so it got the "We can serve this to people if you reduce the lime juice" accolade from Madame. The texture is very thick and creamy. It is best served cold - after being in the fridge overnight. 

We had it for dinner one evening, and then I had it for lunch the next day - where I tweaked it to tne down the lime juice. The tweaks will be in the description at the end, not in the main recipe

Ingredients

2 Cans full fat coconut milk (equivalent amount of home made - i.e. 3 1/2 cups #1)

1 stalk of lemon grass, roughly chopped

1 Makrut leaf (Thai Lime) roughly chopped

3" knob of ginger, washed and sliced very finely. No need to peel as it will be discarde

Handful of basil leaves

1 Thai hot pepper

Juice of 4 small limes

4 Avocados - dual use

1 Peach, diced

Salt to taste

Croutons or other crispy things to garnish

Method

Place the coconut milk, lemon grass, makrut leaf, and ginger into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for a couple of minutes, and turn the heat off. Add the basil and allow the mixture to cool (ideally at least an hour).

Strain out all of the solids and discard them. Slice the hot pepper and add to the liquid. Peel and deseed the avocados. Mash 3 1/2 of the avocados and add to the coconut liquid, along with the lime juice. Blend until smooth. Add salt to taste at this stage. Chill the soup in the fridge for at least an hour, preferably 2 or ovrnight.

Serve the soup garnished with the remaining avocad, diced and the diced peach and coroutons.

The Promised Tweaks

If, as ours was, your soup is too acidic tasting (i.e. too much lime in our case), then that can be mitigated with some mirin and (surprisingly) balsamic vinegar. Even though balsamic vinegar does add some extra acidity, it also adds sufficient sweetness to counterbalance the lime. Weird, I know. 

Gougere Sandwiches

 These are 2 words that don't often go together. We had a Covid-19 post vaccination celebration recently. The eppaetiver dish were small gougeres (about 2" in diameter). Gougeres are choux paste, cheesey puffs that are a dish from Burgundy. And, by the way, they go really well with white wines from the region.

I had made around 20 of these little delights, so of course there were left overs. Knowing that they go stale quickly, it became quite a dilemma as to what to do. And then it occurred to me, that they would make great sandwiches - small bites, obviously. But nonetheless, open them up, put some filling in them, reheat in the microwave for 15 seconds (if you want them warm), and voila, delicious sandwiches. - albeit small, so one has to eat a few.

Ingredients - Gougere

4 Fl oz water (1/2 cup in the USA)

4 oz butter (1 stick in the USA)  + butter for greasing baking sheet, unless using parchment

1 tsp Kosher salt

1 Cup bread flour

4 eggs, beaten

7 oz. Gruyere cheese (divided use)

1/2 tsp. Dry mustard 

1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

A few grinds of black pepper

Method - Gougere

Melt the butter very slowly in a saucier. When the butter is almost melted, add the water, and bring the mixture to the boil. Once the water is boiling, immediately dump all the flour and the salt into it, and beat with a wooden spoon until the flour/water/butter become a cohesive mass. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until there is a white, floury film on the bottom of the pan. This will probably take at least a minute.

Transfer the flour to the bowl of a mixer, and allow to cool until the temperature is below 165F. This is to make sure that the eggs don't scramble wehen they are added. Add the eggs a little at a time.  Beat each egg in thoroughly before the next addition.

Grate 4 oz of the cheese coarsely, and the other 3 oz finely. Add the mustard, pepper and nutmeg to the coarsely grated cheese. 

Once the eggs have been incorporated, incorporate the cheese/mustard/nutmeg/pepper mixture into the dough, and mix thoroughly.

The dough can rest in this state for at least a couple of hours.

When you are ready to bake, heat the oven to 425f allowing at least 20 minutes of preheating.

Form the dough into 1" balls, and roll them in the finely grated cheese. Arrange them on a prepared baking sheet, flatten them slightly, and bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 - 20 minutes - until golden brown.

When they come out of the oven, slit the sides of each pastry to allow steam to escape. They will have puffed and spread out a bit, so will be quite light. You don't want them soggy.

Sandwiches

If   you are fortunate enough to have leftovers, then store them in a plastic bag - after they have cooled. To make sandwiches, using these as the wrapper (instead of bread, croissants, etc.) fill them  with whatever sandwich filling you want. You do want to make sure that there is a small omount of a spread of some kind, otherwise they can be a bit dry. We filled ours with a leek/tomato saute, some leftver roast lamb. 30 seconds in the microwave and they are delicious.

Sous-Vide-Que

 I didn't make up this term. It really is a thing. I figured it would be fun to try. I really like BBQ, especially the king if Texas BBQ, brisket. I am used to starting briskets late at night, leaving them in the smoker for 12-15 hours depending on size, thickness, etc. I am able to keep te smoking going because I use a Primo, the US brand of kamado style "grill". So proper BBQ pitmasters will look down their noses at a charcoal based, wood enhanced smoking apparatus, I can produce pretty decent BBQ quite consistently - without having yet another piece of equipment.

But I digree.

The Sous-Vide-Que technique changes the norms considerably. First off, the initial cooking is done low and slow sous-vide in a water bath.

And after a prodigious amount of time in the circulator, it is chilled (in my case for almost a week still in its bag, in the fridge) and then smoked at 275f until the internal temperature is about 150f.

There some surprising bonuses - the liquid remaining in the bag (and there is a lot of it), becomes some of the meatiest beef stock. So a basis for pho perhaps. The process in the circulator is entirely hands off. The ping pong balls here are in place to slow evaporation.

However, even though 150f was recommended to me, I would do it very differently next time. As we can see in the finished product,

 the fat seam is not fully rendeerd. Cleary 150f was too low a temperature. Next time I will multi-temp the circulator. 115 for the first 12 hours and 165 for the remaining 12 hours. Shorter time, higher temperature. The lower temperature is the tenderizing temperature; the higher temperature is the "cooking" temperature.

The other downside for me is that I can't do a whole brisket. So I have to do it it in 2 passes. First the flat and then the point. Surprisingly the flat came out better - but that was, I suspect, because it has less fat in seams inside, so didn't need as much rendering.

Is this recognisable as Texas BBQ? No, not really. Is it good? Yes, but could be a lot better.

Ingredients

1 Whole beef brisket, divided into the point and flat

1 tsp kosher alt per pound of meat

3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper per pound of meat

Method - Part 1, Sous Vide

Season the meat liberally, all over with the salt and pepper. Place the point in a vacuum bag, and the flat in another. Leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours, preferably longer.

Set up the circulator at 150f and immerse one of the bags. Note, if you have a big enough container and a powerful enough circulator, you *might* be able to do both at the same time. If not, do them one afer the other, spaced 36 hours apart.

Put some kind of anti-evaporation device on top of the water, and cook for 36 hours at 150f. When done, remove the bag from the circulator, and chill fairly rapidly. If you are going to smoke it immediately, chill in an ice water bath. It needs to go into the smoker cold, otherwise it will dry out.

Method - Part 2, Smoking

Set up your smoker to cook at 275f. Make sure that you have plenty of white smoke coming off it. Meanwhile, slit the bag and collect any meat juices - there will be a lot. Reserve these for pho, a pan sauce or something. Don't throw them out. There is masses of flavor.

Put the meat into the smoker and smoke until the internal temperature is 145 or so. I had been advised not to let the meat temperature rise above the temperature of the circulator. I am not convinced by that advice.

Arnabeet (Lebanese "Fried" Cauliflower)

 We had this at a Lebanese themed dinner last week. It was so good that we just had to recreate it. Instead of frying it, we did it in the oven - a rocking hot oven at that.

The home version was (almost) as good as the version we had out. In this posting, I am going to describe what we did, and where we might make an adjustment.

Ingredients

3T Tahini

2T Olive oil

2T Tomato paste (we used a home made smoked pepper/tomato mixture)

1 T smoked paprika

1 t corn starch

1 medium head of cauliflower cut into florets. The larger florets shold be halved, 

Juice of 1 lemon

Small bunch of cilantro

Arils from 1/4 pomegranate

A little more tahini for drizzling

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 500F. I used the fan setting in mine, but realized that I needed to turn it off while the cauliflower was in the oven. 

In a large bowl combine the tahini, olive oil, tomato paste, paprika. Then mix in the corn starch.  

Toss in the cauliflower and work by hand to make sure it is thoroughly coated. This mixture was actually too much for our 1 3/4lb Caulflower. We could have coated 2. That meant that the cauliflower didn't crisp up quite as nicely as w weould have liked, so I suggest that you play a bit with the proportions.

Wrap a sheet pan with aluminum foil - to make for easier clean up. Spread the coated cauliflower onto the pan, grind some pepper over it, and place in the preheated oven. Check for domeness after 15 minutes. If not to your liking (in our case with a little char), put back in the oven for a few more minutes

To serve, pile onto a plate, toss with lemon juice and garnish with minced cilantro and the pomegranate arils. Sprinkle some finishing salt (e.g. Maldon), and serve piping hot. In our case with a Gewurtztraminer.

Leftover Chuck

In this previous post, I described cooking a piece of beef chuck sous vide. We of course ended up with more than we could eat at a single sitting. So what to do next? I could consigne it to freezer bags, freeze it so that it could be dumped three years later, or better still could find creative uses for it.

It became a voyage of discovery with a really good outcome. The other key idea is that if you have hot potatoes, you can dress withem with a flavorfull vinaigrette style dressing, the potatoes absorb the dressing and become really flavorfull. So why not do it with carrots too?

Ingredients

6 Small Yukon Gold potatoes - of roughly even size

6 small (width of your ring finger) unpeeled, but washed carrrots, cut into 1/2" thick rounds 

3 scallions, white and light green parts only, sliced finely

2T Pickled jalapeno peppers

1 Roasted red pepper, sliced into small strips

3T Pine nuts, toasted

8 Grape tomatoes

4 Radishes, quartered

1 Hot pepper ( we used a fish pepper from the garden)

1/4 cup vinaigrette (we made some using a candied tomato, roasted pepper, olive oil base)

1/2 head of butter lettuce, chopped

8 oz cooked beef chuck, sliced very thinly

Method

Microwave the carrots and potatoes on high until they are soft. The carrots took 90 seconds, the potatoes 3 minutes. As soon as they come out of the  microwave, place in a bowl with the vinaigrette. Add the scallions , hot pepper, pickled jalapenos and leave to set.

Meanwhile, warm the meat gently in a saute pan over low heat. You are not cooking it, just making sure that it has a good texture.

Plate the dish by putting lettuce around the inside edge of each bowl, leaving a small well. Into the well  put the potato/carrot mixture into the well. Srinkle some of the toasted pine nuts over the potatoes. Arrange the sliced peppers, radishes and tomatoes over the top. 

Arrange the thinly sliced beef in spokes on top. Drizzle with a little high quality olive oil and sherry vinegar.

Serve with a robust red wine.