Kitchen Adventures

blueberry pie

Blueberrypie

Hi, remember me?  I used to write a blog about recipes and torturing my husband, back in aught-seven?  Well this year has been a tiring year, with working late, gestating a baby (due in a few weeks!) and many many meals prepared by Jon and not as many by me.  On the upside, Jon has perfected his pasta with Italian sausage, olives, and tomato sauce, and we have discovered our new true love convenience food, Palak Paneer and Punjab Eggplant from Trader Joe's.  Recipe is easy - cut open foil packet, sqeeze into bowl, microwave for 3 minutes.  Voila.

But every once in a while I get a bee in my bonnet to make some real food from scratch.  I discovered a great blueberry pie recipe last summer that I promised I would blog about, and I have been dying to make now that it's blueberry season again.  My mom coming to visit us for the 4th of July was the perfect excuse.  Normally I would mean that in the sense of, a perfect excuse to bake something special for a guest visiting, or to top off a holiday menu.  In this case, however, I mean that it was a perfect excuse for me to sit in the kitchen with my extremely swollen feet up on a chair, reading the recipe out loud while my mom followed instructions and basically baked the pie by herself.  I actually think it tastes even better this way, so if there is a good baker who loves you, try sitting with your feet up and having them prepare it for you.  If you're not that lucky, then just know that those you serve it to will be having a heavenly experience.  And it doesn't taste too bad to the pastry chef either!

There are many reasons why this pie is the greatest blueberry pie you will ever taste.  First of all, there is excellent pie crust a la Rose Levy Berenbaum, which is savory, flaky and perfectly rich.  Then, there is the layer of cream cheese filling under the fruit - it's like a smidge of cheesecake tucked in your blueberry pie.  This genius idea comes from Helen Getz, the grandmother of my favorite prissy food writer, Amanda Hesser.  And most of all, there is Helen's fantastic half-cooked filling, which mixes a deeply sweet and juicy syrup of cooked blueberries with a pint of fresh, uncooked blueberries to create an intensely blueberry flavored jelly topping packed with plump berries that burst between your teeth.

A word to the wise - you may think of this pie as a nice thing to serve for dessert.  Which it is.  But I can attest that it also makes a great breakfast.  And dinner.  Oh, and lunch too...

Greatest Blueberry Pie You Will Ever Taste
Adapted from Rose Levy Berenbaum and Amanda Hesser's grandma, Helen Getz
Ingredients:
For the crust
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
3 oz chilled cream cheese, cut into quarters
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) frozen, unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

For cream cheese filling
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For blueberry filling:
3/4 cup sugar,
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
a pinch of salt
1/4 c water
4 cups (2 pints) fresh blueberries
1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 Tablespoon butter

Instructions:
In a food processor, combine flour, sea salt and baking powder.  Process to combine.  Add the 3 ounces of cream cheese, cut into quarters and process until coarse.  Add the frozen butter cubes and process until butter is peanut size.  Add the cream and vinegar and pulse until butter is the size of small peas. 

Transfer mixture to a bowl and mix swiftly with a fork until dough holds together, about 5 minutes.  Roll into a ball and press the ball into a smooth, flat disc.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450F.  Roll out the dough between 2 pieces of lightly floured parchment paper to a circle about 1/8 inch thick.  Line a 9-inch pie plate with the dough.  Trim the edges, leaving about 1/2-inch overhang.  Fold under this overhang and crimp the edges.  Prick the base of the dough with a fork.  Line the pie dough with foil and pour in pie weights.  (You can also use dried beans or loose change.)  Bake for 10 minutes, then turn down the heat to 350F and bake for 10 minutes more.  Remove the foil and pie weights and bake another 5 minutes to dry the surface.  Let cool completely before filling.

Prepare the cream cheese filling: With a hand mixer or whisk, blend the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and heavy cream until light and smooth.

Prepare the blueberry filling: Put the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium pan.  Add the water and 2 cups (1 pint) of the blueberries.  Cook over medium heat, stirring often.  This is the most exciting part of the recipe to watch.  The liquid will turn lavender, then magenta, and then it will seize up and thicken, and after a minute or two, turn to a deep translucent blackish purple.  Take it off the heat and stir in the lemon juice and butter.  Pour in the remaining blueberries and stir until coated.

Assemble the pie: Spread the cream cheese mixture over the bottom of the cooled pie dough.  Drop the blueberry mixture over the cream cheese in large spoonfuls, then gently spread them around, trying not to mush the cream cheese layer.  There should be two distinct layers.  Chill in the refrigerator for half an hour to set.  Let it come to room temperature before serving.

Serves 8

butternut mac and cheese revisited

a closer look

One of the most popular dishes on this blog has been the butternut mac and cheese.  It's certainly one of the most popular at my house.   This dish has served us well at several Wednesday night Lost and/or Project Runway watching parties, and countless other random nights when I had a multitude of squash to use up from our farm share.  I first posted about it last January and a year later people are still trying it (despite the fact that this blog has been all but left for dead since Thanksgiving.  Umm.... sorry, guys.)  In fact my friend Dave emailed me today with his tales of success, mess, and modifications to the recipe.

He's not the only one who's been making some changes.  I have been tinkering over the past year with the recipe and I think I have finally found the perfect version.  The first modification I made was keeping some of the squash in chunks instead of pureeing it all in with the cheese sauce.  I liked the orangeness and richness that the pureed squash lent to the cheese sauce, but I missed the contrast of sweet and salty that you get from carmelized chunks of squash, which was lost in the blended texture.  So I settled on a version with half the squash pureed and half roasted in chunks.  

Also I experimented with reducing the amount of butter and in the end, I chopped off an entire tablespoon.  (OK not that impressive, but considering the original recipe I adapted it from had an entire stick of butter, I think getting it down to half that is pretty good.)   Since I reduced the butter, I also had to adjust the amount of  flour, milk, and broth in the sauce.  But I chose not to reduce the cheese amount at all, because, cmon it's mac and CHEESE.  

Over time I decided I liked a little more kick in the sauce so I increased the amount of cayenne by a 1/4 teaspoon.  

The final change I made was to bake the casserole in the oven rather than crisping the top under the broiler.  I kept on getting little burnt fringes when I did the broiler, and I find that the oven browning is more reliable plus it gives the noodles time to absorb more of the cheesy flavor.  It takes a little longer but it's worth it in my opinion.  If you roast the squash the day before it's still a pretty quick dish to make.

Dave alerted me to a caveat with the breadcrumb topping - prepared breadcrumbs do not mix well with the melted butter - it creates a pasty texture that is difficult to sprinkle over the casserole.  So stick to homemade or panko breadcrumbs.  

And now, without further ado, I present you with the final recipe:

Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
1 pound elbow macaroni
4 Tablespoons butter
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon dry mustard 
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg plus more for sprinkling
heaping 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 4 cups)
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 slice of bread - OR - 1 cup panko crumbs

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Slice squash in half and discard seeds . Peel one of the squash halves and cut into 1-inch cubes.  Spray the half and the chunks with cooking oil and sprinkle with a little nutmeg.  Place the squash half, cut side down, on a baking sheet and scatter the squash chunks next to it in a single layer.  Roast for 45 minutes until very tender.

While squash is cooking, make breadcrumbs by putting 1 slice of bread in the food processor and pulsing until it creates fine breadcrumbs.  Set aside.

After removing squash from the oven, reduce the heat to 350.

When squash has cooled, set aside the chunks of squash.  Peel skin off the squash half and discard.  Puree squash half in food processor until it has a smooth consistency.  Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Salt generously. Boil pasta to al dente - about 6 minutes. Drain pasta and set aside.

Melt 3 Tablespoons butter (set aside 1 Tablespoon) and slowly stir in the 1/3 cup of flour to form a paste.

Off heat, SLOWLY whisk in 1 1/2 cups of milk. Return to medium low heat until sauce fully blends and thickens.

Add pureed squash to the thickened sauce.

Add mustard, salt, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper. Stir in 3 1/2 cups of cheese (set aside 1/2 cup for the topping) and 1 cup of stock, alternating cheese and stock by cupfuls. Taste sauce, adjust seasonings if needed.

Combine pasta, squash chunks, and cheese sauce in a large casserole dish, toss to coat evenly.

Melt the remaining Tablespoon of butter and blend with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and the breadcrumbs to form topping. Sprinkle mixture over the macaroni.

Place macaroni uncovered in a 350 degree oven until cheese sauce is bubbling and breadcrumb topping is lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

Serves 8, leftovers freeze well if you're so inclined.  Reheat frozen portions in a 350 oven for 20-30 minutes or just nuke it.

chipotle pumpkin pie

pumpkin pie

Probably the top hit recipe of my Thanksgiving tryouts has been the pumpkin pie from the November issue of Martha Stewart's Living.  I've always viewed pumpkin pie as a vehicle for whipped cream (or in some cases, cool whip, depending on whose house you're at).  Martha knows this too, so she snuck a little bourbon into the accompanying whipped cream for extra flair.  But the pie itself is delicious too.  Mixed in with the traditional pumpkin pie spices (cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg) is a little kick of chipotle pepper!  It gives the pie a nice little heat and zing without overpowering the pumpkin flavor.  I substituted my own crust recipe (read - Russ Parson's pate brisee crust that I have been devoted to since my first pie effort) but I took up a suggestion from Martha's pecan pie recipe: substitute some of the flour in the crust with ground pecans.  A terrific nutty crust, and the presentation of this pie, with a vertical free form crust made in a cheesecake pan, is outstanding.  Worthy of the Thanksgiving table, or as in my case, just a random Tuesday when your friend Brendan the electrician comes over for a light fixture consultation and quick lunch.

Chipotle Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Crust and Bourbon Whipped Cream
Adapted from Martha Stewart and Russ Parsons
Pecan Pie Crust
Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole pecans
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick butter, well chilled
2-3 Tablespoons ice water

Instructions:
Pulse the pecans in the food processor until they are ground to a fine powder.  Measure out 1/4 cup of the ground nuts, set it aside, and reserve the rest for another use.

Cut the butter into 1/4" cubes.  Place the cubes on a plate in the freezer for a few minutes while you measure and blend the dry ingredients.

Combine the flour, 1/2 cup ground pecans, salt and baking powder in a food processor and pulse 3 times to mix.  Add the butter cubes and process, pulsing about 8 times at 1-second intervals until the pieces of flour and butter are
no bigger than peas.

Scatter 2 tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture and pulse a few times.  Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir with a fork until the dough holds together easily.  Form into a 6-inch disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.  (You can make the crust a few days ahead and keep it in the fridge, or even freeze it, where it will keep for a couple months.  Thaw in fridge before rolling out.)

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick.  Cut into a 12-inch round.  Fit dough into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch springform pan.  Tear away any dough that hangs over to creat a jagged edge near rim.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 425.  Prick bottom of crust all over with a fork. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.  Line with buttered parchment paper, and fill with pie weights or dried beans.  Bake until edges begin to turn golden, about 15 minutes. Remove weights and parchment.  Return to oven and bake until center is golden brown, about 15 minutes more.  Let cool completely on a wire rack.

While that's cooling make the filling:

Chipotle Pumpkin Pie Filling
Ingredients:
flour for dusting
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon chipotle-chile powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

Instructions:
Whisk together granulated and brown sugars, spices, and salt in a large bowl.  Whisk in eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin, followed by the evaporated milk.  Pour filling into pie crust and smooth top.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes.  Let cool completely on a wire rack.  (Pie can be covered loosely with parchment and then foil, and refrigerated for up to 3 days.)  Unmold pie.  Serve with bourbon cream:

Bourbon Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon bourbon
1 teaspoon sugar

Instructions:
Whisk cream until soft peaks form.  Add bourbon and sugar and whisk gently to incorporate.  Serve immediately.

Serves up to 12.

stuffing for two

bacon sage apple stuffing

I've been test driving some Thanksgiving recipes lately.  Most of them are for dining with a big group, as that's how most of us spend the holiday.  In fact, it's how I myself will be spending the holiday, in New York with all my in-laws and my mom.  But for the test drives it was just me and Jon eating, so I wanted to make a small enough amount that we wouldn't be eating leftovers until actual Thanksgiving.

One dish I wanted to try out was the Bacon-Sage-Caramelized Onion-Apple Stuffing from The New Best Recipe.  But we're going to be cooking the turkey unstuffed this year, so I needed to practice the outside the bird version of stuffing, which when you think about it shouldn't really even be called stuffing, since it's not stuffing anything.  My dad's family calls it "dressing."  In fact almost everything except the turkey and mashed potatoes was called "dressing" at my grandparents' house.  Cranberry dressing (that cranberry jelly that retains the shape of the can).  Oyster dressing (non-stuffed stuffing, with oysters in it).  Regular dressing (without oysters).  The only thing that "dressing" did not refer to was salad dressing, because they didn't serve salad on Thanksgiving..  But there were things that were called salad, even though they were not.  Like jello molds made of lime jello, pineapples and cottage cheese. 

I don't think I'll be adopting that particular Morgan family tradition, but I will go ahead and use the d-word for my downsized bread casserole.  This recipe turned out absolutely delicious.  As they say on Iron Chef, anything with bacon is pretty much guaranteed to be good.  And caramelized onions are one of my other go-to flourishes that I try to sneak into every recipe, so it was bound to be good.  A new Thanksgiving favorite.  Now I only hope my in-laws will like it as much as Jon and I did!

Bacon-Sage-Caramelized Onion-Apple Dressing
Adapted from The New Best Recipe
Ingredients:
4 slices hearty white bread, left out overnight to stale (or toasted for 25 minutes in a 300 degree oven) and diced into 1/2 inch cubes.
3 slices bacon, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch strips
2 medium onions, sliced thin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 2 cups)
pinch of ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped fine
1 Tablespoon fresh sage leaves, cut into thin strips
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 Tablespoon butter, plus more for greasing pan.

Instructions:
Cook the bacon in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp and browned, about 12 minutes.  Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.  Discard all but 1 tablespoon of the rendered fat.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the onions and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Cook the onions unil golden in color, making sure to stir occasionally and scrape the sides and bottom of the pan, about 20 minutes.  Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook, stirring more often to prevent burning, until the oinions are deep golden brown, another 5 minutes.  Add the apples and cook 5 minutes.  Transfer the contents to a bowl.

Add the pepper, parsley, and sage to the bowl and mix to combine.  Add the bread cubes.

Whisk the egg together with the broth in a small bowl.  Pour the mixture over the bread cubes.  Gently toss to distribute the ingredients evenly.

Transfer the mixture to a well-buttered small casserole or baking pan.  Dot with pats of butter.  Cover with a piece of foil that has been smeared with butter.  Bake in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes, remove the foil, and
continue to bake until a golden brown crust forms, about 15 minutes longer.

Serves 2

a fall soup duo

cauliflower leek soup and truffled winter squash soup

Finally, after weeks of inexplicably sweltering October nights, there's a chill in the air and the nights are drawing in.  Perfect weather for soup.  Soups are such a great fall and winter dish because they're hearty and bellywarming yet  most are fairly healthy, plus they don't take much effort.  Add some bread and cheese and a nice salad and you've got dinner.

Soups are also a fun food to make because they are easy to experiment with and fairly easy to correct if by any chance your experiment doesn't turn out perfectly on the first try.  My personal soup formula is sauteed aromatics+featured vegetable+enough chicken broth or water to cover.  Simmer for 30 minutes, add seasonings, and puree.  Add extra water if needed, taste, and correct seasonings.  Serve with a sprinkling of minced fresh herbs or a drizzle of olive oil or if you have it, white truffle oil.  And there you have it.  Here are two of my recent masterpieces following this formula.  The cauliflower soup is similar to the classic French soup, Potage Parmentier, except with cauliflower substituted for the potatoes.  It's just as satisfying as the original, in my opinion though.  The slow cooked cauliflower has a unique, earthy flavor that pairs perfectly with the fresh flavor of the leeks.  The squash soup is just absolutely heavenly  The rich taste of roasted squash, combined with the caramelized onions is delicious, and the touch of earthy white truffle aroma is what takes this soup from yummy to divine.

Cauliflower Leek Soup
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
2 leeks, thoroughly washed and rinsed to remove grit, and sliced into 1/4 inch slices.
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
3 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon minced chives or parsley
1 teaspoon olive oil

Instructions:
Melt butter over medium heat until foaming has subsided.  Add leeks and cook until soft, stirring occasionally.  Add cauliflower and chicken broth, plus up to 4 cups more of water to cover vegetables.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low, simmering for about 30 minutes.  Puree, either using an immersion stick blender or in batches in a conventional blender, until very smooth.   If needed, add more water  until the soup reaches your desired consistency.  Taste the soup and add more salt and pepper as needed.  Ladle into bowls and top each with a sprinkling of minced chives and/or parsley and a drizzle of olive oil.

Serves 6

Truffled Winter Squash Soup
Ingredients:
1 large winter squash - butternut, kambocha, pumpkin,or kuri squash.
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for brushing squash
1 onion, diced
8 sage leaves, finely chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoons lemon zest (1 lemon's worth)
1 teaspoon white truffle oil

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut the squash in half and scoop out seeds.  Brush squash halves with olive oil and place, cut side down, on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.  Place baking sheet in oven.  Roast for about 50 minutes or until very tender.  Remove squash from oven and allow to cool.  Peel skin from the cooked squash and discard.

Heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil in a large stock pot and add diced onions.  Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until very tender and starting to caramelize. 

Add the sage leaves and cooked squash to the onions.

Add 4 cups chicken broth and stir to blend.  Add 2 cups of water.  Turn heat to high to bring soup to a boil and then reduce heat to simmering.  Cook for 20 minutes, then add lemon zest.

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup or else blend in a stand blender in batches, then return to pot.

If needed, add more water until soup is the consistency you prefer, and heat until simmering.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

To serve, ladle soup into bowls and drizzle with white truffle oil.

Serves 6

oven fried chicken

oven fried chicken

There's nothing like some comfort food when you're feeling blue.  Which is why it was a good thing we had plenty of oven fried chicken leftover after our little Cubs playoffs party last Saturday.

I have been deluged with squash from our farm share lately, and the game seemed like a good excuse to whip up a big batch of butternut mac and cheese.  And of course we had to have coleslaw.  And what goes with coleslaw and mac and cheese better than fried chicken?  (Answer: possibly barbecued pork.  But I didn't think I could talk Jon into spending all day smoking pork so chicken would have to do.)

Since I'm still pretty "chicken" (GET IT???) to go all out and deep fat fry, and trying to at least put a cap on, if not reduce, the newlywed weight gain, I decided to go with the oven baked version.  I turned to my trusty "The New Best Recipe" cookbook from the folks at Cook's Illustrated.  Their recipe has 3 big secrets:

1. Use skinless chicken legs
2. Brine the chicken in seasoned buttermilk
3. Melba toast crumbs for the base of the coating. 

I would not have thought of doing any of these and I must say, these tips were completely genius.  I adapted the recipe to use boneless thighs since that's what they had at Domonick's, and I also scrapped their Melba toast crumbling technique as it's annoying and a waste of a plastic bag.  Actually my only complaint against this cookbook is, they are WAY into using ziploc bags.  Like at least 2 per recipe.  I'm trying to cut down on the amount of non-biodegradable waste I contribute to landfills, and besides, I tried their crappy put-the-toast-in-a-bag-and smash-it-with-a-mallet method and it sucked.  It takes forever and the bag I had kept splitting.  Better to toss the toast in a food processor and give it a few whizzes until it's good and crumbly. 

Aside from that annoyance, though, the recipe was terrific.  The chicken was tender, juicy and very flavorful, and the coating was tasty, crispy, and a beautiful nutty brown color.  And this recipe has only about 200 calories and 10 grams of fat per chicken thigh, which is not health food by any means, but looks pretty good compared with 330 calories and 24 grams of fat for a piece of good ol' Kentucky Fried.

Now let's hope the Bears start doing better or I may have to resort to the deep fat fryer.

Oven Fried Chicken
adapted from The New Best Recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons paprika
1 head garlic, cloves separated
3 bay leaves, crumbled
7 cups lowfat buttermilk
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
5 ounces garlic flavored melba toast (about 1 box)
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dried thyme
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions:
In a gallon-size zipper lock plastic bag, combine the 1/2 cup salt, sugar, paprika, garlic cloves, and bay leaves.   With a flat, heavy object, smash the garlic into the salt and spice mixture thoroughly.  Pour the mixture into a large nonreactive bowl, stockpot, or Dutch oven.  Add the buttermilk and stir until the salt is completely dissolved.  Immerse the chicken in the brine and refrigerate until fully seasoned, 2 to 3 hours.  

Remove the chicken from the brine and shake off the excess; place the chicken pieces in a single layer on a large wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet.  Refrigerate uncovered for 2 hours.  (After 2 hours, the chicken can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated up to 6 hours longer.)

Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with foil and set a large wire rack over the pan.

In a food processor, pulse the melba toast until the mixture resembles coarse sand with some pebble sized pieces.  Move crumbs to a shallow dish or pie plate and and drizzle the vegetable oil over them; toss well to coat.

In a second shallow dish or pie plate, mix the eggs, mustard, thyme, 3/4 teaspoon salt, pepper, oregano, and cayenne pepper with a fork.

Working with one piece at a time, coat the chicken on both sides with the egg mixture.  Set the chicken in the melba crumbs, sprinkle the crumbs over the chicken and press to coat.  Turn the chicken over and repeat on the other side.  Gently shake off the excess and place the chicken on the rack in the pan.  Bake until the chicken is a deep nutty brown and the juices run clear, about 40 minutes. 

Serves 4 (or 8 with a hearty side of mac and cheese)

chocolate fondue with pecan shortbread hearts and fresh fruit

chocolate fondue with shortbread and fruit

Special occasions call for special desserts. 

Recently, Jon and I celebrated the first anniversary of our wedding.  We had very romantic plans, which included holing up in our apartment all day drinking "butterbeer" and reading the latest Harry Potter book released the day before and then dinner at a neighborhood sushi restaurant.  But the evening would not be complete without a fancy dessert.

When Jon and I went to Portugal on our honeymoon last summer, we bought a special bottle of late bottled vintage port to save and drink on our wedding anniversary.  As that occasion approached, I wanted to make a special dessert to enjoy it with.  As a complete wine (and port) ignoramus, I turned to the internet for food pairing suggestions.  I found recommendations for tons of foods from strawberries and peaches to ripe figs to dark chocolate to shortbread.  Being my usual gluttonous self, I decided to make it all. 

A couple days before the anniversary, while Jon was squirreled away in his home office working feverishly on his garbage can project, I stealthily baked up a batch of Martha Stewart's pecan shortbread.  Making shortbread is actually a lot like making pie crust, except it's easier because you don't have to preserve the large chunks of butter that create the flakiness in pie crust; you just blend the whole mixture in the food processor until it forms a dough.  The thoroughly blended texture of shortbread dough is what creates the nubbly, crumbly texture of proper shortbread cookies.  Instead of cutting the cooled shortbread into bars, I decided to use cookie cutters to make heart-shaped shortbread cookies, which I hid in a covered brownie pan on top of the refrigerator.  They turned out great - crispy, buttery, salty-sweet and rich - and the plentiful crumbs and odd shaped bits got saved in the freezer for an ice cream topping.

After we walked back from our anniversary dinner a few blocks away at Sushi Wabi, I made Jon wait on the porch while I sliced up some strawberries, mango nectarines, green figs and plantains, and melted some Ghirardelli chocolate and cream together in a bain-marie.

As we sat on the candlelit porch and drank our port - which was rich and strong and sweet, a perfect combination with the dark, silky chocolate fondue, the juicy, tender fruit, and the nutty little shortbread hearts - I thought about a time two summers ago when I sat in the same candlelit spot drinking champagne, enjoying a romantic Friday evening with my boyfriend, completely unaware of the engagement ring lurking in his pocket.

If only I'd known, I would have made dessert!

Chocolate Fondue and Pecan Shortbread
Both recipes adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

For the shortbread:
1 cup pecan halves
1 cup (spooned and leveled) all-purpose flour, plus more for preparation
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup cold (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the fondue:
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream

Serve with a selection of other accompaniments - some suggestions:
fresh or dried fruit of your choice
gouda cheese
candied ginger
marshmallows
brownie squares
pound cake

Instructions:
For the shortbread (can be made up to a week ahead):
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving an overhang on all sides.

In a food processor, pulse pecans until finely chopped. Transfer to a bowl; set aside. In processor, blend flour, sugar, butter, and salt until moist clumps form. Add reserved pecans; pulse 2 or 3 times, just to incorporate.

Press dough evenly into the bottom of prepared pan (if dough is sticky, dip fingers in flour). With a floured fork, prick dough every 1/2 inch. Bake until lightly golden, 30 to 35 minutes.

Cool 5 minutes in pan. Use foil overhang to lift shortbread from pan onto cutting board. With a heart-shaped cookie cutter, carefully press out cookies.   Store cooled cookies in a covered pan until ready to serve.  (You can save scraps and crumbs in a sealed plastic bag or container to sprinkle on ice cream or fresh or grilled fruit.)

For fondue:

Combine chocolate and cream in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Using a wooden spoon, stir occasionally until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Divide among 2 small bowls or ramekins; serve immediately with shortbread cookies and other accompaniments.

Serves 2-4 with lots of leftover cookies.

peach caramel lattice crust pie

sliced pie

So there's this thing with mothers and daughters.

Linguist Deborah Tannen says: "There is a special intensity to the mother-daughter relationship because talk -- particularly talk about personal topics -- plays a larger and more complex role in girls' and women's social lives than in boys' and men's. For girls and women, talk is the glue that holds a relationship together -- and the explosive that can blow it apart. That's why you can think you're having a perfectly amiable chat, then suddenly find yourself wounded by the shrapnel from an exploded conversation."

For her book, You're Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation, she interviewed dozens of women of varied geographic, racial and cultural backgrounds, and had informal conversations or e-mail exchanges with countless others. The complaint she heard most often from daughters was, "My mother is always criticizing me." The corresponding complaint from mothers was, "I can't open my mouth. She takes everything as criticism."

This sheds light on what happens when my mom and I get in the kitchen together.  The most recent instance was
when I went down to visit her a few weeks ago and thought it would be fun to bake a pie together with nectarines we bought at the farmer's market.  For the filling, I used this recipe from Bon Appetit, which calls for " 3 1/2 pounds firm but ripe peaches, peeled, halved, pitted, each half cut into 3 wedges."  So as we begin preparing the ingredients, my mom asks, "Do we have to really peel all these peaches, or can we just blanch them and slip the skins off?"  Now if I had been alone and thought to google peeling peaches for pie, I would have found that this is a time tested method for easily peeling stone fruit.  But since it was my mom suggesting it, what I heard was, "Are you really going to be so prissy and ignorant as to peel this fruit by hand??"  So of course I had to get all, "Mom!!!  Can we just go by the recipe???"  Yes, that's right, I made my poor little mom, who has arthritis in her thumbs by the way, peel 3 1/2 pounds of nectarines with a little veggie peeler out of pure defensiveness.

And that's nothing - you should have seen what happened over Christmas! 

I had this big plan to make a 5 course Italian-style seafood feast for Christmas Eve dinner and then roast a duck for Christmas.  The duck recipe involved boiling the duck in a ginger broth the day before and then letting it chill in the refrigerator overnight before crisping the skin in the oven the next day.  So on December 24, while my mom and I were shucking oysters and preparing smoked salmon hors d'oeuvres and searing scallops to go over a balsamic frisee salad and cooking linguine with clam sauce and sauteeing garlic green beans and baking crab-stuffed shrimp, I also had to boil a duck.

Did I mention the duck was frozen?  The recipe had instructed us to defrost the duck in the refrigerator the day before.  But after 24 hours in the fridge, that duck was still rock hard.  No biggie, since I was going to boil it anyway, but it did present a challenge extracting the packet of giblets and innards from the cavity.  I used a combination of warm water and tongs to pry the bird open a few centimeters and wrench out the plastic packet before slipping the duck into the pot of boiling water.  About 20 minutes later, in the midst of my seafood machinations, I came across the packet in the sink.  "Orange Sauce for Duckling," it said on the front.  "OH SHIT!!" I yelled.  "That wasn't the giblet packet it was some dumb sauce!  So now the giblets are probably still in there and the plastic packet is going to melt in the boiling water and wreck the whole thing!!"  I grabbed the tongs and started fishing inside the boiling duck for the errant giblets.  

Have you ever tried extracting a hidden packet of organs from the cavity of a duck submerged in boiling liquid?  It's not easy let me tell you.  "Just take the duck out of the pot, Robin!" my mom shouted.  "But it's all wet and hot, it will fall apart if I try to take it out!  I have to just do it like this!"  I grabbed a silicon oven mitt and tried to grab hold of the duck to stabilize it.  "Robin, get your hand out of that pot!" she yelled.  Now in hindsight I can see that my mom actually had much better common sense than I did in this situation.  But in that moment I did not want to hear criticism of an endeavor that was already on the brink of failure.  "Mom just GET AWAY FROM ME AND LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!" I yelled.  And then, you won't believe this, but my mom actually spanked me on the butt.  Furious, I gripped the duck harder and plunged my tongs deep into the cavity.  Just as I realized that it was empty, there was apparently no giblet packet at all, boiling water and duck fat surged over the rim of the silicon mitt and down my hand.

Fortunately my injuries were treatable with aloe and some bandaids and did not merit a trip to the ER.  Cause that would have thrown my whole cooking schedule off for the night.

Compared with that episode, in the incident of the peach-bitching, we both came out relatively unscathed.  And the pie was totally worth it.  In fact, I think I'd willingly scald my hand for this pie.  The caramel sauce is an absolutely divine touch.  And on this my mom and I both agreed: this was the best peach pie we'd ever eaten.

Peach Caramel Lattice Crust Pie
Crust recipe from Rose Levy Berenbaum
Filling recipe from Bon Appetit via epicurious.com
Ingredients:
Pie Crust:
2 2/3 cups (13 oz) all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
6 oz chilled cream cheese, cut into quarters
16 Tablespoons (2 sticks) frozen, unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch cubes
4 Tablespoons heavy cream
4 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Filling:
1 cup sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon (scant) ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
3 1/2 pounds firm but ripe peaches, peeled, halved, pitted, each half cut into 3 wedges
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons whipping cream
3 tablespoons all purpose flour

Instructions:
For pie crust:
In a food processor, combine 2 2/3 cups flour, sea salt and baking powder.  Process to combine.  Add cream cheese and process until coarse.  Add the frozen butter cubes and process until butter is peanut size.  Add the cream and vinegar and pulse until butter is the size of small peas. 

Transfer mixture to a bowl and mix swiftly with a fork until dough holds together, about 5 minutes. 

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and divide into 2 equal halves.  Roll each piece into a ball and press the ball into a smooth, flat disc.  Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Place foil-lined baking sheet in bottom of oven to catch any spills.

Roll out 1 pie crust disk on lightly floured surface to 13 1/2-inch round.  Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 1 inch.  Fold edges under and crimp decoratively, forming high rim (about 1/2 inch above sides of dish).  Chill crust 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, line another baking sheet with parchment paper.  Roll out second pie crust disc on floured surface to 13 1/2-inch round.  Cut into 3/4-inch-wide strips.  Place strips on prepared baking sheet.  Chill while baking crust.

When well chilled, line crust with foil; fill with dried beans, pie weights, or even spare change.  Bake crust until sides are set and pale golden, about 35 minutes.  (While it’s baking, you can prepare the filling, below.)

Do not turn off oven.  Transfer crust to rack; remove foil and beans/weights/change.  Separate the egg, setting the yolk aside.  Beat the egg white to blend, and brush it over the warm crust.  Cool completely.

For filling:
Combine 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl. Add peaches and lemon juice and toss gently to coat. Let stand 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in medium saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat; boil without stirring until syrup is deep amber, occasionally swirling pan and brushing down sides with wet pastry brush, about 11 minutes.

Remove from heat.  Add butter and cream (mixture will bubble vigorously); stir caramel until smooth.  Strain juices from peaches into caramel; cool to lukewarm.

When filling and crust are cooled, add caramel and flour to peaches in bowl; toss gently. Transfer filling to crust, mounding in center.

Prepare lattice crust.  You can do this two ways. 

The easy way is, arrange 6 of the chilled pie crust strips diagonally across the top of the pie, then place the remaining 6 pastry strips diagonally in opposite direction atop first 6 strips.

Of course, since my mom suggested this, I had to do it the hard way instead: for a woven lattice crust, arrange 6 dough strips in 1 direction across top of pie, spacing apart. Working with 1 strip at a time, arrange 6 more strips in opposite direction atop first, lifting strips and weaving over and under, forming lattice.  (Pillsburybaking.com has a great diagram showing the easiest way to do this, as well as tons of other pie crust decorating tips.) 

Gently press ends of strips to edge of baked bottom crust to adhere. Trim overhang. 

Mix the egg yolk you set aside earlier with 2 teaspoons water and brush lattice strips (but not crust edge) with egg yolk glaze. 

Mix together 1 Tablespoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon to make cinnamon sugar, and sprinkle it over the egg-washed strips.

Bake pie 35 minutes.  After 35 minutes, tent pie loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning and continue to bake pie until filling bubbles thickly and lattice is golden brown, about 25 minutes longer.  Cool pie on rack.

Serves 6-8 and creates mother-daughter harmony and possibly global peace.  Or at least global peach.

guest blog: granny's carrot and bologna sandwich

OK, you may have noticed I've been a bad, bad blogger lately.  I've been cooking and photographing like a fiend, but I haven't managed to post about any of it for almost a month!  I have peach and blueberry pies I want to tell you about, a delicious almond cake, grilled shrimp and zucchini with couscous, a pear and fennel salad, and a scrumptious barbecue sauce.  But while I'm cooking up some entries about all that, I will tide you over with this guest blog from my father-in-law, David.

carrot and bologna sandwich

"On rainy Friday mornings, growing up, we could always count on Granny having packed our metallic Superman school lunch boxes with her carrot and bologna sandwich, with a hearty smothering of brown mustard. Granny was a diminutive woman who wore granny shoes and didn't smell.  I think those are wonderful things to remember about her. I can't honestly recall if my twin brother, Alan, loved my Granny's carrot and bologna sandwich as much as I did. If he didn't he must have been a jerk. I'll have to ask him. I do know he didn't smell either.

OK...here goes:

Granny's Carrot and Bologna Sandwich
Ingredients:
3 slices of beef bologna, (spring for a couple of bucks and purchase a good brand)
2 slices of white Wonder Bread
carrots, whole or baby
brown mustard

Instructions:
Place three slices of bologna, one at a time, on one slice of
white bread. (Bologna should cover slice but should not  sit on top
of each other.  Warning: for the novice, this may take some
practice... be patient.)

Slice carrots and place on bologna.  (Not a bad idea to have some
bandages available nearby.)

Spread brown mustard on second slice of bread, to taste.

Place second slice of bread over carrots and bologna to complete
sandwich.

Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!

Serves 1"

bing cherry pie

cherry pie

As I've noted in this blog before, I've always been intimidated by baking.  It's one of those things that's most easily learned by direct observation, and my mom never baked much.  She's a fantastic cook, as is my dad, but her baking efforts were usually limited to her signature sourdough baguettes, which she made weekly for much of my childhood.  Dessert at my house was either fruit or ice cream.  Or on special occasions, my dad's chocolate mousse.

In the effort to conquer my fears, I've been baking cakes, breads, muffins, and lemon bars for the past few months.  But I always tiptoed around that most daunting of all baking tasks, the pie.  I figured I could make a filling OK, that's practically like cooking.  You chop, you season, you taste as you go.  But the crust was another story - that's baking at its most unpredictable and perilous.  Cookbook writers are always ready to tell you the pitfalls of piecrust-making errors - if you handle it too much the crust will be tough.  If you do don't use shortening the crust will be bitter.  If you do use shortening the crust will have no flavor.  If you blend the butter too thoroughly the crust will be dry.  If you use too much water the crust will be soggy.  If you don't use enough water the crust won't be flaky.   It's enough to turn anyone off pie making.

Despite the MANY!  WARNINGS!  NOT! TO RUIN! MY PIECRUST! BY DOING! ANYTHING AT ALL! and the complete lack of practical experience or having ever watched someone make a pie crust, I mustered my courage and decided to give it the old college try.

But first, I spent a couple days reading and pondering the pie crust chapter in Russ Parsons' great kitchen science book, "How to Read a French Fry."  He does a great job of demystifying the process of making a good pie crust.  According to Russ, the key to good pie crusts is finding the balance of letting the flour and water form that magical baking protein known as gluten (the stuff that provides the internal structure of baked goods), but also getting the fat - whether it's shortening, margarine, lard, butter, or anything else - to create some gaps in the gluten structure that will puff up into flakiness when you put them in the oven.  He goes into a whole dissection of which flours have the best protein content for pastry crust, and which fat is most superior and ends up with the conclusion that all purpose flour (or a blend of 2 parts all purpose and 1 part whole wheat flour) and butter are best.

He chooses butter mainly for its flavor, since it's actually the most persnickety to work with.  Butter is very soft at room temperature so it's important to keep it well chilled and not touch it too much to keep those gap-creating chunks from melting before your crust hits the oven.  Handling your crust too much can also create too much gluten and make it tough.  There are other things you can do to your crust to keep it from getting tough.  Sugar, vinegar, and lemon juice all help to inhibit gluten formation, as does resting the dough (in a refrigerator) before rolling it out.  And of course, only cut in the fat until it is in chunks the size of peas.  This pea-size designation is in like every pie crust recipe I've ever read.

Armed with this knowledge, I felt ready to try a making a pie.  I went to the store to see what kind of fruit was available and found Bing cherries on sale.  These are not the cherries normally used for pies, but I felt confident that I could harness the power of the Internet to find a recipe using them.  And lo and behold, I found the Bada Bing Cherry Pie, a recipe by Sheila Lukins for Parade Magazine.  You know, that fluff features insert that comes in the Sunday paper and your mom cuts recipes out of it?  The magazine that unknowingly names their cherry pie recipe after the strip club on The Sopranos?  The combo of strip club name and cherry pie seemed extremely titillating, so I had to try it.  Fortunately, it was listed on epicurious.com, so I could not only read the recipe, but also see what all the other home bakers had to say about it.  Some loved it, but others thought that it could use more cherries, less cinnamon and less orange juice and zest.  That worked out perfectly for me, since I had way more than enough cherries and no oranges.  I sat in front of the TV watching Freaks and Geeks episodes on DVD with my husband and pitting cherries until I had about 10 cups worth (I was making 2 pies).  I made a lemon juice-cornstarch slurry, added sugar and almond extract and mixed it together with the cherries. 

I was all set to set aside my filling and get to work on the pie crust (yes I was procrastinating making it) when I reread the comments and noticed some people said it was too runny, and that they would add more cornstarch next time.  I know cornstarch well enough to know that you can't just dump it into a bowl of food, you have to blend it with liquid first.  So I scooped some lemon/sugar/cherry juice out of the bowl and added a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch to it.  Weirdly, it kind of frothed up.  "Hmmm, I must have reached like the saturation point of cornstarch or something," I thought.  I dumped the mixture back into the bowl of cherries and stirred, and then the whole bowl started foaming like crazy.  "Wait a minute!" I shouted aloud.  "That wasn't cornstarch, that was baking soda!!  Fuck!  I just ruined my whole pie!!!!!"  Jon, who was in the kitchen washing dishes, said calmly, "Just rinse it off, babe," and handed me the colander.  I obediently dumped the whole mess into the colander and sprayed it with water until the foam had disappeared.   Take two went a lot smoother, and soon I had a big bowl of cherry filling sitting in the fridge as I embarked on the piecrust.

I was so afraid of my butter melting too small and the crust being tough, that I put my butter in the freezer for a few minutes after cutting it into chunks.  This seemed to work out well - when I added it to the flour and blended it in the food processor, it quickly arrived and the pea stage.  The weird thing about making pie crust, if you've never seen anyone do it before, is that after you cut the butter in and add the prescribed amount of ice water (which is tiny - about 2-3 tablespoons), it looks like a big bowl of crumbly powder.  It does not look like something that by any stretch of the imagination, is going to become dough.  I was afraid if I kept on blending it in the food processor, my butter chunks would get cut up too small, so I dumped it into a bowl and began stirring madly with a fork.  And magically, after about 4 minutes the chunks suddenly started getting bigger and bigger and soon I had a whole ball of pie dough!

Amazingly, the rolling and pie forming process went pretty smoothly and soon I had my first pie baking away in the oven.

I brought the pies to a party at my friend Whitney's house.  My friend George, himself a veteran pie-baker, was impressed with my newbie efforts.  I started telling him about my trepidation about making pies and the chapter I'd read about the science of gluten and fat molecules.  "Wow," he said, "I never knew there was so much engineering and psychology involved in making pie!"  Well, of course!  Or to put it more eloquently, I will quote Russ Parsons on the subject: "Whatever you're doing to that piecrust, do it carefully and with confidence.  Remember, pastry senses fear."

Bada Bing Cherry Pie
adapted from Sheila Lukins for Parade Magazine and Russ Parsons "How to Read a French Fry."
Ingredients:
Pie Crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks butter, well chilled
4-6 Tablespoons ice water
1 egg white

Filling:
5 cups Bing cherries, pitted
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon's worth)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup sugar
pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions:
Cut the butter into 1/4" cubes.  Place the cubes on a plate in the freezer for a few minutes while you measure and blend the dry ingredients.

Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a food processor and pulse 3 times to mix.  Add the butter cubes and process, pulsing about 8 times at 1-second intervals until the pieces of flour and butter are no bigger than peas.

You can do the next step in the food processor, but I preferred to switch to a large bowl and mix the water in by hand.  Scatter 2 tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture and stir gently with a fork.  If after a few minutes of stirring it still appears dry and crumbly, add up to one more tablespoon of water, a teaspoon at a time, until the dough holds together easily.

Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into two equal pieces.  Form each piece into a 6-inch disk.  Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.

To prepare the filling, mix together the lemon juice and cornstarch, stirring until the starch is completely dissolved.  Add sugar, cinnamon, and almond extract and stir well, then pour mixture over (pitted) cherries and stir well to combine.

When the crust is finished chilling, preheat the oven to 450F.

Roll it out the dough into 2 circles about 1/8" thick.  Press one circle into a 9-inch pie plate and use a fork to poke holes in the bottom. 

Using a slotted spoon, spoon in half the cherries.  Use a ladle or small measuring cup to gather some of the filling liquid and pour over cherries until you can see the liquid between the cherries at the edge of the pan. 

Moisten the rim of the crust with water and cover with top crust.  Trim off excess and turn the top crust under the bottom where they meet.  Flute the pie crust - to do this, slip your thumb under the crust and use your two index fingers to push the crust down on either side of it.  Repeat at 1 inch intervals around the whole rim of the pie. 

Cut 2-3 vents in the top crust to allow steam to escape.

If you like, you can roll out the scraps and cut out cherry, stem, and leaf shapes to decorate the pie. 

Blend one egg white and 1 Tablespoon water together and carefully brush over surface of pie with a pastry brush.

If you are baking in a disposable aluminum pan, place it on a baking sheet before putting in the oven.  This will make it easier to remove without bending the plate and cracking the pie crust.

Place pie plate (on a baking sheet if needed) in the middle of the oven and bake for 10 minutes at 450.  After 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 350 and bake another 45-55 minutes until the pie is golden brown. 

Carefully transfer the pie to a rack and let cool until it reaches room temperature, then serve.

Serves 6-8 and also it tastes great for breakfast the next day!