apology

Just a quick note here. An apology really. I change the format and background of this blog and THOUGHT the print color would change as well. Alas, it did not. I am not inclined to go back and repost everything in another print. SO, I know it's hard to read, but it IS worth it!
Thanks for your understanding.

More posts after thanksgiving. And more stories of cooking for work.

Tarts

TARTS are glorious! I remember my grandfather, Pepé, making fruit tarts with fresh fruit from his trees in northern California. Nectarine! Plum!
Fig! What bliss! I can still see him pressing dough into a jelly roll pan, sprinkling sugar and laying the fruit. I prefer my tarts like that, with fruit spread in a single layer over a scant amount of sugar, and I make them big.. Because they're impossible to stop eating.
Galettes, shown here, are another version of a tart. Gallete means 'a flat cake', so we can take liberty with interpretation. The dough is rolled in a round, the fruit and sugar centered and the edges folded over and 'pinched'. Sometimes I put a nougatine on top, made with an egg white beaten with sugar and sliced almonds, it bakes into a wonderful candy-like, crunchy topping, that ends up causing pushy fork fights. 
I'm giving you an easy, always reliable recipe for this crust. It is different from a Paté Briseé, what many know of as tart dough, or a short crust. This is buttery, puffy, flaky, crunchy and perfect. My husband would like just crust sometime..it's that good. From this base, you can get very creative with your fillings (or, none!) Try pear, apple ( I use this dough for Tart Tatin ), any of the summer fruits or berries. Strawberry is terrific, Strawberry Rhubarb is even better and this summer I discovered how much I adore just Rhubarb, alone, cooked down briefly in a bit of sugar! Next summer try making hand pies with this dough; squares of dough filled with fruit and sugar, then folded into rectangles.. remember these?



The basic recipe is a ratio of 3 to 2 to 1. Flour, butter, iced water..and a pinch of salt.

          Tart Dough 
3 cups flour
2 cups cubed butter, 10 oz. put in freezer for 20      minutes
1 cup cold water, with ice cubes in it..so about 5-6 oz water
1 tsp. salt
Place flour, salt, butter and half of the ice water (no ice) in food processor and pulse briefly. You want the dough chunky with butter.  add the rest of the water and pulse just until the dough starts to pull together, but not completely. Dump the dough onto waxed paper, parchment or plastic and mush into a disc. wrap this up and refrigerate for 1/2 hour before rolling out. This recipe will make one 12x18 jellyroll pan or two smaller tarts.

see the chunks of butter? This is what makes the tart puffy and crunchy, when all that fat melts in layers..mmm.

It is best to bake this dough at 400〫





A good winter tart is cream cheese and jam, preferably homemade! Use 4 oz cream cheese, or goat cheese, spread on the bottom of a dough round (1/2 the recipe) and top with any good jam you've got.

      Pear is a wonderfull fruit for fall and winter tarts. Roll out 1/2 the dough into a round, sprinkle with sugar, then add thinly sliced fruit. pull these sides of the dough in and pinch it all around. Bake these tarts for 30 min., check and bake a bit longer until a golden crust is formed. 

Tart Tatin is another way of baking a tart. Baked with the dough on top then flipped at serving.

6 oz butter
1/2 cup sugar
thinly sliced apples or pears
1/2 recipe tart dough rolled and kept in fridge until ready.

In a heavy oven proof skillet, I use a Le Creuset pan, melt 4oz butter with 1/4 cup sugar until melted and beginning to caramelize. Add sliced fruit in single layers, making a pattern if you wish, this is the top of tart! Once bubbling comences, the fruit is cooking a bit, add the other 1/4 cup sugar and bits of the 2 oz butter (If you prefer a sweeter tart, add more sugar here. )
Remove from heat, place dough round on top tucking sides INTO pan around fruit. Place pan on a baking sheet to catch overflow and bake at 400 for 30 minutes, check and bake until crust is golden. 
Let this cool a bit, while it's still warm though, loosen sides of crust gently with a knife and carefully flip out on to a plate.. Voila!

                                                

cooking for work

 I haven't been around for a bit. I have taken a job cooking (okay, personal chef-ing) for an older couple, I need work and they need home cooked meals. It's just part time, but I must work the kinks out of it. Like anything new we start, there are kinks. For instance, I didn't realized that they eat different food from each other,I can only imagine from so many years of eating out, that requires some creative balancing on my part. One eats lots of salmon and is gluten free. The other does not and isn't. Did I mention I am cooking it all at my home and delivering it to them? Well, I am. And toss that in with cooking for my family, you get it. I am working the kinks out.
It's interesting interviewing people to find out what they like. It's all so subjective. I thought everyone likes baked Macaroni and Cheese, right? Polenta? Chicken soup? Hmm. Roast Chicken? (with absolutely no fat on it, maybe.) Lentils,yes.I asked many questions and got "make that for him, he likes that"  and "I love Broccoli and Salmon.Do you want some Olive oil? It's organic." cute.

I've made Roasted Cabocha Squash soup, so good, with toasted cumin and coriander seeds infusing the milk, not cream, for the base ( even though she once felt sick from squash soup somewhere, I knew my chances where slim, but I tried convincing her it was the cream that made her sick, not the Squash.) A short grain rice pilaf with shitake mushrooms, slivered bok choy, garlic, ginger, and grilled red onions. served with grilled Salmon ("oh, I'll eat both peices, I don't think he'll eat any"). Today I brought over a very veggie filled Minestrone Soup, with rice pasta. and Chicken roasted with cherry tomatoes and olives (skin removed, all fat drained off.) I used those same roasted tomatoes in the creamy polenta I made along side, a tiny bit of parmesan for flavor (cheese is on the not liked list). Organic Broccoli sauteed in olive oil with garlic. 
They were not home when I dropped off the food, so the verdict is out.
One thing I know for sure, flourless chocolate cake is in the near future!


Tart dough and tarts are coming. Promise!

Zucchini Orange Marmalade Bread...

     Zucchini, the prolific vegetable.I'm pretty sure we've all had more than our share of zucchini at one point in our lives, either from our own gardens or friends. If you haven't, then you've heard the rumors. Come august and september they start rolling in, and our creativity goes to work. First it is ratatouille, to use those amazing tomatoes and eggplant that are also overflowing our counters. Then grilled zucchini with everything you eat... I made grilled ratatouille this year. Next we freeze some, pickle some, make relish from some.. oh, then we bake. Or, it happens in a different order, but it's all the same. So much zucchini. I admit, it was not a problem for me this year. we went away in august for ten days..a word to gardeners, it is unwise to go away when the veggies start bursting without a totally reliable person to safe guard your jewels.. everyday..we had a gate left open here and our dogs where over there and the deer found an easy path in. They ate everything they wanted and trampled the rest. many plants kept on growing and producing, very single minded they are. the zucchini did not survive. I was okay with it. I wish our county allowed hunting, as a friend of mine who lives in Oregon pointed out, he gets to eat the animals his garden inadvertently fed.

So I found myself BUYING zucchini at the farmers mkt. not knowing anyone who had an overabundance this year, because I had to grill more..and bake more!
Cookbooks, food blogs, family heirloom recipe boxes are loaded with zucchini bread recipes. Basic zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini bread (with or with out chocolate chips), zucchini nut bread. So how about zucchini orange marmalade bread? I started following the recipe from the Tartine cookbook while in my last stint baking professionally, I don't own the book (if you feel like donating a copy that would be just fine!), but I love the cakey bread it makes, so I recently created my own version and I'm sublimely satisfied with it.

                              Zucchini Orange Marmalade Bread


This can be made in 2 loaf pans or muffin tins. This will be consumed rather rapidly. I double it.

 preheat oven to 350〫and grease loaf pans or muffin tin.

3 large eggs
3/4 cup oil ( light olive or canola, safflower)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup orange marmalade

3 cups grated zucchini
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp.baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt


Beat eggs in a large bowl. add oil, sugar, marmalade and vanilla. whisk together well.
In  small bowl whisk flour with baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Add dry ingredients to wet and add zucchini. mix well.
Pour batter equally in to prepared pans, I like to sprinkle the top with sugar.

Bake loafs for about 60 min and muffins for 25. Turn pans halfway through baking. check by inserting a skewer or tooth pick into center, if it comes out with a few crumbs, or clean, it's done. Don't eat it immediately, it's very hot!

well, THAT was easy !  see the specs of marmalade? I like lots of rind in mine.

farm field trip

This is GARLIC! started early enough under a hoop house it will be ready for harvest in february. now is the time for us to plant garlic starts in our gardens for early summer harvest. if you never have, do try it! get garlic cloves from a friend who grows it or a reliable organic supplier, planting store purchased garlic is iffy. use single cloves and bury them a few inches down, covered with a mulch, they will winter nicely, may even have green shoots appear before heavy snow fall, such a pretty sight! next spring the garlic scapes will grow tall, curl around and flower. the scapes, or topsets can either be left on, to flower, or cut off, to be used in cooking! there are arguments for doing both. if you leave the scapes on , it may create a better storing bulb. if you cut the scapes off when they're young, the the bulb may grow bigger, the theory being that the energy in the plant is now transferred to the bulb. I try both. but I never grow enough garlic to have it last long, seems everything I cook needs it. I start using garlic right after picking when the flavour is so strong and the cloves are juicy! It's great for smashing with olive oil and spreading on fresh baked bread.

The black dirt you see here is in the western region of New York state, bordering the top of N.J. this is Pine Island N.Y., it was once the bottom of an ancient glacial lake. the owner of the farm said, "Basically we are farming in a big bowl of compost." I love that statement! How fortunate they are. the soil is very rich in organic matter and naturally ocurring peat keeps it moist, the soil actually bounces when jumped on!  the edibles they grow are incredibly flavourful, as the soil nutrient content changes, there is a noticeable change in the taste of the produce.

I was interested in the use of home made green 'hoop' houses (picture below.)  pieces of pvc piping was pounded into the ground on either side of a growing area and down the lenght, to act as footings for smaller piping which was arched from one footing to the other. this was covered with a medium weight plastic sheeting. all plants growing in these hoops houses are also covered with remay, a light weight row covering fabric, for the winter. some of these hoops  houses are only a couple of feet tall, while several are very spacious. this practice of hoop houses can easily translate to a home garden, an alternative to or in conjunction with cold frames. using remay as additional warmth layers is important for protection of the night temperatures, but also when the daytime sun warms up the hoop house condensation forms and can damage the plants,
like freezer burn. the temperatures in the houses need to be regulated, by raising sides or ends of the plastic. molds can form from too much damp warmth, creating disease and rot. in the cold of the winter, from january to february the plants will not grow, so start now if you're considering it for winter eating! good things to try are cold tolerant greens; lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, bok choy,
carrots (for spring eating), some perennial herbs like parsley, oregano, lovage, chives, scallions. there is nothing quite like picking fresh veggies in the middle of a snow! 

THERE will be more recipes coming in the next few days : proper pastry dough for tarts, fresh starter for bread, yummy dinner choices!

Apple Cake because it's fall

Here is fall, in all it's orange, yellow, crimson glory. three weeks ago I was resisting this change in weather because it requires giving up some of my favorite foods. green beans (purple, yellow too), eggplant, tomatoes (though ours were long gone to the early 'late blight' this year). I've pulled all my carrots and planted seed for an early spring crop, I'm still working on cold frames.. in a very lazy way! I have very few beets in the ground and the broccoli rabe, which bolted long ago, we are eating our way through before its dead. the celery is still standing tall as well as the kale, leeks and some swiss chard, a great treat! it was a terrible summer for vegetables. with all the rain and cool cloudy days and our local deer problem it was a trial to get things going and keep them healthy. all that work makes me mourn even more the end of what little bounty I was reaping daily. deer ate all our winter squashes, strawberries, melons, some pole bean plants (right height!), the lima beans.. it was disheartening. all this damage even with deer fencing! but I do so look forward to starting all over again...
We are situated in a time and place that is embracing the local farm to table movement. we have a farm that's still functioning in a limited capacity after 250 years! What they don't grow they source local as they can. so I know when my garden fails me (or I fail my garden)  I have back up that is not the 'big name inserted here' food store. we have a newly formed farm alliance as well, the aim being to repurpose county land to feed our population as locally as possible. in a time when billions of people are going hungry and millions of pounds of food is wasted every year it is a refreshing thing indeed to go back to what comes naturally to us as people. FEEDING OURSELVES. our selves.
 What's fresh and local in the fall, here in the north east it is apples, pears, squashes, root veggies, some hardy greens, brussel sprouts..mmm, we'll get to those another day.
In the spirit of it all I pulled together an apple cake the other evening. part yummy apple cobbler crust and apple pie filling. while the concept is not original (if you've been following this blog you know my position on original recipes), I have my own version, of course.


                                         Apple Cake
8 -10 good cooking apples, tart green apples are nice too.

lemon juice

2 cups flour
1/2 cup steel cut oats
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
pinch of salt
6 oz COLD butter (1 1/2 sticks ) or 2 TBLsps more if crust isn't holding, cut in cubes

pinch of cinnamon, cloves, allspice, if you want. I prefer my spices in the crust, although that's not the norm for apple pies.



 *in place of oats you can use chopped nuts like pecans or walnuts, or a bit of both, cut the flour down by 1/4 cup.

Preheat oven to 350〫butter a 9 inch spring form baking pan.

Core and slice thin, 8 of the apples,you may peel them if you want, I like the skins. do the others later if you need them. set them aside in a bowl and sprinkle a bit of lemon juice on them, 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar, and what spices you'd like here if you wish.
In a food processor (or by hand) mix flour, oats, (nuts), sugar, salt, (spices if  using here). add 1/2 the cold, cubed butter pulse (or rub in with your fingers) until blended, add the rest and a bit more if needed. It is okay for this crust to be a bit crumbly, but not dry. dump crust into prepared spring form pan, reserving 1/2 cup, press dough into bottom and up sides of pan to the top. layer apples into the crust, slicing more if necessary. fill the pan and mound apples a bit on top. Sprinkle with remaining crust.
Cover the bottom and top with aluminum foil (this cake leaks butter out the bottom sometimes!) Count on this taking at least an hour to bake, it depends on the apples used. bake for 45 minutes, check it by inserting a knife into apples, if they aren't soft, put it back in the over for another 20 minutes, check again. when they are soft, take foil off and bake another 10 minutes. let cool, the apples are HOT. 

To serve, release the spring mold and carefully slide cake onto a large plate. (or, leave it on the spring mold bottom, then put the ring back on to store cake in fridge..if there are left overs!) enjoy!











 



 

 

Winter Squash Lasagna with a sage and pancetta bechamel. OH.

  In my initial post, on sharing, I had roasted a 'new to me' winter squash, just labeled 'sugar squash' at the farm stand where I bought it (let me know if you have another name for it!).very much in my fashion, I am always cooking something for a future use, I saved the squash for an all out glorious Sunday Lasagna. at some point I will post my lasagna with ragu recipe, but for now I want to discuss the making of LASAGNA.
In italy lasagna comes in many forms, the north uses bechamel, parmesan or romano, and a meat sauce (bolognese), the south uses ricotta and a combination of cheeses including mozzarella, and meatballs or sausage, this being the one americans are familiar with. like all of europe, the next town over has it's own special way of making it..and so on.
   If you have never made lasagna with bechamel then you MUST! I do not like ricotta in my lasagna anymore (of course, if YOU made it for me I certainly would enjoy it!) bechamel is creamy, rich and a fabulous place to infuse flavors that might get lost in the sauce part of the lasagna. it is also made with stuff usually on hand, no need to stand over the ricottas thinking "sheesh, this is so expensive.and what big agribuisiness owns this company? how are the cows treated? the organic stuff is a mortgage!" ect.. Most of us have organic milk in house ( but 1/2 and 1/2 is so great for bechamel!  hint ) and flour, butter, garlic.
In this recipe I sauteed pancetta with the butter and garlic, allowing it to turn golden, then scooped it out and set aside. with the milk I added chopped fresh sage and white wine, once it was cooked I added the pancetta back, turned off the heat and let it infuse until I was ready . I think regular bacon would be terrific for it's saltier flavor too. this lasagna is not for the faint of heart or extreme cholesterol count!
Traditional lasagnas also have many layers, with small amounts of filling in between. I usually have 6 or 7 layers! and it's amazing. 


         Winter Squash Lasagna with Sage Pancetta Bechamel


 2 small/medium winter squashes
several cardamom pods (or 1 tsp ground cardamom)
1/2 cup milk
                preheat oven to 400〫 while oven is heating cut tops off squashes and seed them. put 1/4 cup milk and a cardamom pod or 2 in each squash (or 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom in each). Roast squash for 1- 1 1/2 hours, until flesh inside is soft. meanwhile,
prepare the bechamel. (when squash is finished, lower oven temp to 350〫)

3 oz pancetta or bacon, chopped
3 oz butter
1/2 cup flour

2 cloves garlic smashed and chopped
2 cups milk 
2 cups 1/2 and 1/2
at least 1/4 cup white wine (to taste)

3 oz grated romano cheese
a small bunch of fresh sage chiffonade (roll them up together and cut thinly)
8 oz grated mozzarella 

2 large onions, halved and sliced thinly
olive oil
Lasagna sheets (I prefer the no boil type, if you're using regular noodles, put a pot of water on to boil and cook them while making the bechamel. drain, put noodles back in pot with cold water on them) you will need 18-20 sheets

               In a heavy bottomed pot, melt butter. Saute pancetta and garlic until golden, letting the butter become nutty flavored, but not burnt (it will look like your making ghee, a bit foamy.) scoop pancetta and garlic out, as much as you can. add flour,whisking while it cooks for 2 minutes,making a roux. slowly add milk, 1 cup at a time and whisking any lumps out.* Traditional bechamel recipes call for milk or cream to be heated separately before being mixed into the roux, I have never found any difference except more dishes to do.
do this for the 1/2 and 1/2 as well, then add the wine. Let this cook and thicken stirring frequently. stir in the grated romano, sage and pancetta. set the bechamel aside off the heat, make sure to stir it once in a while so a skin doesn't form.
  Heat olive oil in a large frying pan with a lid. Put in onions, turn heat to meduim, cover , sweating the onions with the goal of caramelizing them. stir them often to keep them from sticking. once they start getting a golden tinge, keep the lid off and stir until browned. These onions will be in the lasagna layers.
  Scoop the flesh from your roasted and hopefully cooling squash, stirring the milk in and removing cardamom pods. mash this up well in a bowl.

 assemble your lasagna;  you have a bowl of squash, bechamel, mozzarella, sauteed onions and lasagna in front of you. paying  attention to how much squash and bechamel you have,  place 3 sheets in pan, if using no boil you will be leaving room at the ends for expansion. cover with a thinish layer of squash topped with a layer of bechamel, lay 3 more sheets of noodles, layer bechamel, onions and mozza cheese. then 3 sheets of noodles and squash, bechamel..you continue on this way using your judgment on the amounts,until you've used all the ingredients up. generally I end with a smear of bechamel and some mozza on top. cover with foil, taking care to keep it off the cheese! 

baking times are different depending on the type of noodle used. the no boil takes longer.
bake for 40- 50 minutes with the foil on, check if its cooked  by inserting a knife in the middle, if it meets any resistance then bake longer. once soft, take foil off and bake another 15 min.  Pre boiled noodles take less time, bake for 30 min with the foil and 20 with out.

serve with a big green salad!

NOTE: just found out the squash is also, or most commonly, called Kabucha (nope, not the fermented tea!)
but it does taste chestnut like!

 

Peanut Butter Cookies

lets talk peanut butter. i've been searching for a great PB cookie recipe for years, and so far i have had to fiddle with every single one, disappointing ! well, fiddling is what makes a recipe ones own, since everything has been done before (accept that weird nouvelle cuisine foam flavor stuff? whipped air flavored with kidney and colored with squid ink is not for me, thanks.)
back to my rhapsody, i love peanut butter. sticky, creamy, oily, sweet, gooey peanut butter. i have a friend who belongs to a small cooperative farm here and they grew peanuts for the first time this year. i experienced jimmy carter the peanut farmer as president, he was from the south, where it's warm, i had no inkling they could be grown up here! so next spring i'll try them, if only for a single jar of homegrown and ground goodness!
( but i'll use store bought to bake with.) here's the latest addition :

peanut butter cookies
it helps to have a stand mixer or hand mixer for these. i admit, my kitchen aid professional series stand mixer, at 1 year old, burned out a motor and i have been too lazy, and rather annoyed, to have it fixed (it wasn't under warranty because i make bread in it.. more on that!)
pre heat oven to 350〫 oh, this make quite a good bunch!

12 oz softened butter (3 sticks)
1 1/2 cups peanut butter, creamy or chunky
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
3 lg eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 3/4 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 tsp. baking soda
options: peanuts, chocolate chips, maybe crystallized ginger bits ?

in a large bowl, cream the butter, PB,and sugars together until smooth and lighter,add eggs one at a time then vanilla, scrape sides of bowl with a spatula, beat a bit more.
in another bowl mix all the dry ingredients, i use a whisk to totally incorporate.
with a wooden spoon or spatula, stir dry ingredients into wet a little at a time so flour doesn't end up all over. stir until all the dry ingredients are mixed in, add your optional stuff if desired. at this point i separated the batter in half, one was plain (for my husband), the other got 60% cocoa choc.chips (for me and the girls)
refrigerate batter for at least a 1/2 hour, it makes it easier to scoop.
line 2 baking sheets with parchment (I always use parchment)
scoop large spoonfuls, like a soup spoon, of batter on to sheets leaving ample room for them to spread, i got 8 on a sheet (3 rows of 2 scoops and 2 in the center spaces).
bake for 15 min, changing position of baking sheets at about 8 min.. they're done when the edges are browned and centers still a bit soft..or how ever you like them !
*I thought about replacing some of the flour with cocoa powder, for chocolate peanut butter cookies;
if you decide that's what you really want then replace 1/2 cup of flour with good quality cocoa, and increase the sugar by 1/2 cup. then let me know how they are please!