Category: Cooking

Lemon Tart for a Busy Day

This recipe is borrowed directly from the fabulous Smitten Kitchen. If you aren’t a regular reader of Deb’s blog, you should be! Her recipes, both original and adapted from others, are inventive and thoughtfully-tested. She has just the right combination of laissez-faire about non-essentials, with a dose of perfectionism about making sure a recipe will actually turn out.

I love how simple this recipe is–one whole lemon (peel and all), whole eggs, sugar, and butter are the 4 main ingredients. Nothing to juice or zest! My only significant edit was a splash of Grand Marnier liqueur to the lemon filling. After all, what isn’t glorified by the touch of Grand Marnier?

  • 1 lemon
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 stick (8 Tbs) unsalted butter, cut into large pieces
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 Tbs cornstarch
  • 1/4 tsp salt (I used about half that since I used salted butter)
  • Splash of Grand Marnier to taste
  • 9 inch pie or tart shell, parbaked.

Preheat oven to 350. Make sure you didn’t forget to parbake the pie shell like I did once. Place pie shell on baking tray lined with foil in case of spills.

Remove ends of lemon, cut lemon into thin rounds and remove any seeds. *If* the peel looks thicker than 1/4 inch, peel half the lemon. Otherwise, use with whole peel. Toss lemon rounds, sugar, and butter into food processor and blend until smooth. Unless you really want substantial lemon rind chunks in your teeth, blend until very smooth.

Add eggs, cornstarch, salt, and Grand Marnier. Blend till smooth.

Pour filling into pie shell and bake for 35-40 minutes in the center of the oven.

You may need to cover the tart with foil during some of the baking to prevent excessive browning. This was the only part of the recipe I’m still working out the details on, but watch it, cover if browning too fast for your liking, and jiggle to check if it’s set. When it no longer does a shimmy-shake in the center, it’s done! Warning: this tart is addictive.

 

 

Financiers and a Bébé

 

What ho! After a quiet spring filled with lots of new things–like figuring out how to tend a fussy newborn while stirring a pot on the burner, how to stay sane during 2 am feedings, and wondering how anything so tiny can have so much personality–I’m back, +1 and plus a recipe. Mundum, please meet Francis Henry Athanasius Abraham. He’s all smiles 90% of the time, and only fussy for the important things in life, like demanding more milk, pretty please and thank you. In fact, one could quite accurately say that he does indeed cry over spilt milk.

But excited as I am to introduce Francis, the reason I finally got back to Ye Olde Blog is that I made financiers. No, not the investor kind. The kind with browned butter and crispy edges, a tender interior and subtle almond flavor. The Best Kind. I was quite surprised to find out that they’re quite easy to make, and am curious to try variations now. (Hazelnut financiers, anybody?) I used David Lebovitz’s recipe from My Paris Kitchen, and highly recommend it. I also recommend getting your babies to take longer naps than mine did when I thought I had a free window of nap time to make this recipe. But I digress.

Alright, here’s the recipe. Financiers are usually made in small rectangular molds, but I used madeleine molds because I don’t yet have the kitchen arsenal of a Michelin restaurant. Any similarly sized mold should work fine–just watch and adjust the cooking time. Madeleine molds took a couple minutes less than Lebovitz called for.

  • 3/4 Cup almond meal or almond flour
  • 1 Cup powdered sugar
  • 6 Tbs all purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 8 Tbs unsalted butter, cubed
  • 3 large egg whites (1/2 cup total)
  • Whisk dry ingredients together.

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat, and stir frequently until the butter turns a rich golden brown, akin to maple syrup, and accumulates little dark bits in the bottom. It will melt, foam and probably sputter before it changes color. Look for a heavenly smell, like salted caramel, as it finishes. (More foam may accrue while it browns.) Take off heat and let cool.

The batter should have a smidge of gloss

Meanwhile, stir egg whites into dry ingredients. Once butter has cooled (think warm not hot), stir in to batter and thoroughly combine. Cover and refrigerate for 1-24 hours.

 

Preheat oven to 400 F. Oil or butter molds, and fill with mounded tablespoons of batter. Firmly tap the tray on the counter to reduce air bubbles. Bake 12-15 minutes until they begin very lightly browning at edges and center springs back to touch. Cool a few minutes in the pan, then transfer to cooling rack. Store up to 5 days in an airtight container.

Apple-Ginger Panache Crumble

“The ginger is the thing wherein I’ll catch the essence of the zing…” So might Hamlet have said were he making this recipe. But it’s true–the thing that turns this from a perfectly average crumble to a really great crumble is the zing of the crystallized ginger (well, and the citrus, I think). My sister-in-law made it sans crystallized ginger and with less butter, and found it mediocre. Use abundant butter, and make sure you have all requisite spices too.

I was a skeptic until I tried it, but the freshly-grated nutmeg really is superior to the stale stuff that sits in your spice jar for several years! Now I get excited whenever a recipe calls for nutmeg–even though it’s not one of my favorite flavors on its own. Unlike with front-and-center spices like cinnamon or vanilla or ginger, you don’t usually want your tasters to say “oh, this has a nutmeg flavor!” Think of nutmeg like makeup foundation. If it’s the first thing you notice on a woman’s face, her makeup has failed her. It should be there, discretely enhancing and blending with the more panache-ey elements like blush or lipstick.  Or, to switch metaphors, while cinnamon and vanilla are like the showey violin and cello in a string trio, nutmeg has the humility of the viola–making the music hang together while everyone says “mmm vanilla bean!”

This recipe is adapted from pages 221-2 of the Smitten Kitchen Every Day: Triumphant and Unfussy New Favorites cookbook, which you really should be buying everyone on your gift list in hopes that they’ll love it so much they’ll gift you a copy too next birthday. Because this is the kind of cookbook the world needs more of: cleverly innovative, diverse, and utterly approachable. Deb Perelman calls this recipe “Wintry Apple Bake with Double Ginger Crumble.” I like to call it “Apple-Ginger Panache Crumble.” If a crumble could speak with panache and take a dramatic bow after introducing you to its flavors, this one would. And it’s at its best day 2. So if you make it for guests, be sure to make extra.

Filling:

  • 3 large, firm, tart apples (I used winesap)
  • Zest and juice of half a lemon
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 5-7 gratings of fresh nutmeg
  • A pinch of ground cloves
  • 1 Tbs Grand Marnier (feel free to improvise with other liqueurs, but I love the bright citrus against the mellow apples)
  • Contents of half a vanilla bean (or 1.5 tsp vanilla extract)
  • 3 Tbs granulated sugar
  • Pinch of salt

Topping:

  • 2/3 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 cup almond meal
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 Tbs (or more) minced crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 375

Peel, core, and slice apples into 3/4-1 inch wedges. Arrange in 2.5 quart stoneware baking dish. (The original recipe uses a 9×13 inch baking dish, which would probably work just fine too, though the apples and topping will be a little less densely-packed.) 

In a small bowl, combine remaining filling ingredients and mix well. Pour over apple slices and toss to coat.

Melt butter in large bowl or saucepan and stir in sugars. Stir in remaining topping ingredients. Clumps should form quickly, but if not, just add a smidge more flour until they do.

Sprinkle clumps over apples, and voila! pop it into the oven. Cook until apples are fairly tender to the poke and topping is lightly browned, about 30-40 minutes. Serve warm with softly whipped cream.

 

(Perelman’s recipe says 40-45 minutes, and maybe my oven or the adjustments in dishes made a bigger difference than anticipated, but mine was done much closer to the 30-40 minute mark, and that was even with turning the temp down when it starting browning faster than I wanted it to.) 

Braised Red Cabbage, AKA Quasi-Choucroute

Once again, I utterly failed at snagging photos of this recipe, so you’ll have to make do with a hasty partial shot of the assembled dinner including the cabbage in question. To be honest, this is one of my more approximate from-memory recipes as I didn’t realize how delicious and worth-saving it would be till after I had thrown it together with the odd jumble of ingredients I had on hand!

I served it with simple boiled potatoes, bison wieners and a Greek lamb sausage that happened to be on sale at Whole Foods. While none of the ingredients were exactly traditional and the cabbage isn’t technically pickled like choucroute/sauerkraut, it made a delicious hearty dinner reminiscent of the Alsatian Choucroute Garnie I grew up loving in France! Don’t forget the butter and mustard on the table when you serve it!

This recipe is adapted from both of these Saveur and Martha Stewart recipes.

  • 4 oz bacon
  • 1 head red cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup pickled red onion (optional)
  • 1 shallot, diced (you could replace both the pickled onion and the shallot with a diced medium onion of any type)
  • 1 apple, diced (I used honeycrisp)
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup honey
  • Salt and pepper

Cook bacon in dutch oven on medium high heat until bacon is cooked and fat rendered, then add cabbage, red onion, shallot, apple, vinegar, and honey. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook covered on high heat for about 10 minutes. Turn heat down to low and cook for an hour, until all ingredients are tender and flavorfully melded. Serve with boiled small potatoes and sausage (preferably something German). Make sure to provide butter, salt, and a robust dijon mustard on the table!

Comme une choucroute…

Crème de la Bastille

Ok, so originally this was a recipe for a classic American baked potato soup. But the recipe, in an attempt to be healthy, used a head of cauliflower and two potatoes. As I was making it I realized this would probably turn out a similar soup to the classic French Cème du Barry soup my dad used to make, so I did a little scouting via the Google and my dad’s recipes and in the end the soup morphed into some Franco-American hybrid creation. Quite a tasty hybrid, too!

Crème de la Bastille, or just Potato Cauliflower Soup

Crème du Barry is supposedly named after the Duchesse du Barry, one of Louis XV’s mistresses.

The Duchesse du Barry, famous for extravagant gowns and jewels.

Given its resemblance to the aristocratically-named Crème du Barry, but with the added rustic element of potatoes, it only seemed fair to give the name a 1789 proletariat twist. This is the soup that results when elegant Madame la Duchesse du Barry meets the peasantry and says “let them eat soup!” (Incidentally, after writing that I found out she was herself in fact a victim of the vile Mme. Guillotine!)

If you want a more American name, you could call it Baked Potato and Cauliflower Soup. But where’s the pizazz in that?

This recipe is adapted from “Too-Good-to-Be-True Baked Potato Soup,” in Gina Homolka’s The Skinny Taste Cookbook.

  • Crème de la Bastille:
  • 2 Russet potatoes
  • 1 Head Cauliflower, cut into florets
  • 1-2 Shallots, diced
  • 2 Tbs Butter
  • 2 Cups Chicken Broth
  • 1 1/2 Cups Milk
  • 1/2 Plain Greek Yogurt (or sour cream)
  • 1/2 Cup Whipping Cream
  • 4 Tbs Chives, chopped
  • 1/2 Tsp Grated Nutmeg (Freshly-grated is glorious if you have some whole nuts!)
  • Abundant grated cheese to garnish. I used a mixture of classic sharp cheddar and Swiss Gruyere.
  • 6 slices of well-cooked bacon, chopped, for garnish

Poke each potato all over with a fork and microwave them for 5 minutes. Turn them over, and microwave for an additional 3-5 minutes. Let cool, then peel and chop the potatoes. (The original recipe also suggests baking the potatoes for an hour at 400 F, and had I had the time, I would have done it that way. But rest assured, the microwave-bake will work just fine for a soup. Just don’t tell your microwave-conspiracy-theory friends. I also left some skin on when I peeled the potatoes. Texture and vitamins and all that.) 

Fill large pot with about 1 inch water and bring to boil. Place cauliflower in steamer basket, and steam until tender, 5-8 minutes. (Using a small steam basket and pot, mine took probably less than 15 but more than 5 for sure. I know, watching the clock isn’t my forte.) Remove cauliflower and drain. Set aside.

Return pot to stove and heat butter till foaming. Add diced shallots, cover, and sweat (think like a lower-temp sautée where you don’t want to caramelize the shallots) in butter over medium-low heat until tender.

Add cauliflower to pot along with potatoes, broth, and milk. Bring to boil. Use immersion blender (careful not to splash as it will still be very hot!) to blend until smooth. Add yogurt and whipping cream, as well as chives, salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste, reserving some chives for garnish. Stir well and bring to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Adjust seasonings one last time. Dole out and garnish each bowl with cheese, bacon, and chives. Bon appetit!

 

 

Pears Poached in Red Wine and Spice and Everything Nice

Lightly adapted from THIS Epicurious recipe.

  • 1 bottle of red wine (I used an American Cabernet Sauvignon)
  • Juice of 1 orange
  • Zest of 1 orange
  • 1 cup white sugar*
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 star anise
  • 4 pears, firm but ripe
  • Dark chocolate to drizzle, optional
  • Vanilla ice cream, optional

In a medium large to large sauce pot, combine wine, orange juice, zest, sugar, and spices. Stir well and bring to simmer. Gently place pears in simmering liquid, and simmer till tender, about 20 minutes. Remove pears to a separate dish and continue simmering down the liquid (aim for a vigorous simmer) till reduced to about 3 cups. (The original recipe says this will take an additional 20 minutes after removing the pears, but my liquid simmered down more slowly, so play it by ear–or taste!)

Once liquid is reduced, place pears back in liquid and let cool. To serve, warm pears in the poaching liquid. Place one pear in a bowl, ladle a half cup of liquid around it, and drizzle with melted dark chocolate if desired. The original recipe called for ice cream, and had I remembered to buy it, I definitely would have used it! Just add a scoop of ice cream and serve before it melts! Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint, or cinnamon stick, or star anise.

*The original recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups sugar, but this was waaay to sweet for my taste. However, if your pears are less sweet, or you prefer very sweet desserts, feel free to use the original quantity!