Food Rockz

Back to the Basics: Apple Pie & Vanilla Ice Cream

2009-02-20T10:47:48Z

As I mentioned earlier this week, my Valentine requested apple pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert Saturday. And though I like creative food that's new to me, I also really enjoy returning to the basics once in awhile. It doesn't get more basic . . . nor more classic . . . than apple pie and vanilla ice cream. I've put many, many hours into learning how to make pies and ice cream. The fundamentals necessarily serve as the foundation of great creative cooking . . . the type of cooking I aspire to when I'm not making the classics. So here's my recipe for a basic apple pie and straightforward vanilla ice cream. I think both turned out damn well last weekend. Speaking of weekend, it's nearly here. Enjoy.

For the ice cream:

1 whole vanilla bean
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
5 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk

Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow. Then beat the milk into the eggs and sugar.
Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and, using a knife, scrape out the vanilla particles (note the tiny black vanilla specks in the ice cream in the photo above) and add them to the milk/egg/sugar mixture.
Put the sugar / egg / milk mixture into a small saucepan and place over low heat. Stir continuously until the custard thickens slightly (around 160°F) and just coats the back of a spoon. Beware, the eggs will scramble at around 168°F!
Immediately remove the custard from the heat when it reaches 160 and transfer it to a bowl, then cover it and refrigerate until cool (40°F).
Once the custard is chilled (2-3 hours in the refrigerator), whip the cream to soft peaks, then fold the cream into the chilled custard.
Follow the instructions for your ice cream machine from this point forward, freezing the custard / cream mixture in the machine, then giving it some time in your freezer to harden a bit more.

For the crust:

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), diced into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup shortening
2.5 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
6-8 tablespoons ice water
1 large egg white*, beaten

An hour or so before beginning to make the dough, place the butter and shortening in your freezer.
Process the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor to combine.
Add the shortening and process for about 10 seconds.
Distribute the butter on the flour mixture and pulse about 10 times, until the mixture has the texture of coarse crumbs with butter pieces the size of small peas.
Transfer the mixture into a large bowl, sprinkle with 6 tablespoons of ice water and mix gently with a spatula until the dough comes together. If the dough doesn't come together, add another tablespoon of water, mix, and then another if necessary.
Separate the dough into to balls, one slightly larger than the other. Flatten the balls into two 4-inch discs, wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to two days.
Roll the larger dough disc into a circle 3-4 inches wider than the pie plate on a lightly-floured surface or between two pieces of parchment paper, then line the pie plate, allowing the edges of the crust to hang over the plate. Refrigerate the crust while making the filling. .
Place an oven rack in the lower-middle position and preheat oven to 500°F.
Make the filling and then add it to the pie.
Roll the second, smaller disc into a circle 1-2 inches wider than the pie plate on a lightly-floured surface or between two pieces of parchment paper, then cover the pie with it. Press the edges of the bottom crust and top crust together and fold the edge under itself. Crimp to make a fluted edge.
Cut 4 vents in the top crust, then brush the crust with the beaten egg white.
Reduce the oven temperature to 425°F and bake the pie for 25 minutes, then rotate the pie 180°, reduce the oven temperature to 375°F and continue baking for another 30-35 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

For the filling:

6 apples (I used 3 Granny Smiths and 3 Pink Ladies), peeled and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly-grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine the apples, lemon juice and lemon zest and mix thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, flour, spices and salt and mix thoroughly.
Toss the apple mixture with the dry ingredients.
Pour the apple filling with its juices into the chilled pie crust and bake according to instructions above.

Lasagna

2009-02-18T11:23:01Z

I had the great pleasure on Saturday of cooking for a smokin' hot Valentines date, which was a lot more fun that last year's romantic dinner for one. I was cooking for a very picky eater, however, which eliminated as options my own favorite romance foods (the only meat she eats is chicken and the only seafood is well-done tuna). But this meal was about her, so I solicited food requests and that's what I made . . . meatless lasagna, apple pie and vanilla ice cream. I also threw in a salad and a mediocre squash soup. I don't really have a lasagna recipe per se. Instead, I make my standard pasta recipe (3 large eggs, 2 cups all purpose flour, a bit of olive oil or water), roll it and then cut it into wide strips and layer it with whatever I'm in the mood for. I then bake it on 375°F, covered with foil, for 30 minutes or so.

Saturday's lasagna was comprised of marinara sauce, spinach, broccoli, mozzarella, ricotta, Parmesan, Romano and some fresh basil thrown on top after baking. Though I don't have a lasagna recipe beyond these general instructions, I do have a recipe for my super-simple marinara. I use this not only with pasta dishes, but also as a pizza sauce. This recipe makes enough for a 9"x13" lasagna.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
28oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes
splash of red wine
½ teaspoon sugar
salt & pepper

Heat the olive oil in a heavy bottomed skillet or pot.
Sauté the onion and the dried oregano until the onion is begins to brown.
Add the minced garlic, cook for 30 seconds.
Add a splash of red wine and then the tomatoes with the juice from the can, crushing the tomatoes by hand as you add them, then add the sugar.
Cook for about 15 minutes, then remove from heat and blend. Finally, season with salt and pepper.

TCHO, San Francisco's high-tech chocolate

2009-02-16T15:25:39Z

In case you weren't aware, I like to play with chocolate. A friend in San Francisco sent me this article, TCHO, San Francisco's high-tech chocolate, from Saturday's edition of the San Francisco Chronicle and I like it, so I'm sharing it. (Thanks, Joe.) (Photo by Lea Suzuki of the Chronicle) The article's about some new techie chocolate makers in San Francisco named Louis Rossetto (left) and Timothy Childs. They're overseeing the process of true chocolate "making" from cacao tree to finished confection and seem to have great intentions. I like their obsessive approach to food and want to taste their product! Here's a link to the TCHO Web site, where you can order some and learn more about the company.

Crustless Onion & Cheese Quiche

2009-02-13T14:16:07Z

This is a not-particularly-great looking recreation of a great dish that I taught at my weekly cooking class last Monday. In the class, we made a Swiss chard, onion and cheese crustless quiche and it was delicious. I didn't bring my camera to the class, but I wanted to post the recipe because it's so easy to make and so easy to modify with additional ingredients and flavors. So last night I made a dish similar to the one we made Monday . . . in order to photograph it . . . but I didn't have any chard or other cooking greens. The dish looked a lot better on Monday with some additional color. At any rate, yeah, this is a great foundational recipe.

I should mention at this point that a "crustless" quiche is, perhaps, an oxymoron. A quiche is a pie and pies have crusts. Julia Child, in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, has a section on quiche and the moves on to gratins, which she describes as a quiche without a crust . . . but then goes on to provide a bunch of gratin recipes with a much lower ratio of eggs to other ingredients . . . suggesting that gratins aren't simply the same quiche recipes minus the crust but, instead, substantially different concoctions. Muddling the matter even further is the fact that in this recipe I made a pseudo crust out of breadcrumbs, so the food could more easily be removed from the pie plate after baking . . . which worked really, really well, I should say. At the end of the day, I don't really know what to call this . . . and I think labels are less important than the foods behind them. So I'll call this a crustless quiche, knowing full well that someone with nothing better to do might protest such a label.

Back to the adaptability of this recipe. The foundation of this recipe consists of the eggs, milk and cream. I encourage you to make it as described here, if you feel like it . . . or throw some Swiss chard or other cooking greens in with the onions and add that to the recipe . . . or sauté the onions with some bacon . . . or add some ham . . . throw in some mushrooms . . . add your favorite spices . . . whatever floats your boat. Consider this a master recipe. If you know how to make a quiche out of 4 eggs, a cup of milk and a cup of heavy cream, then you can throw in whatever else you're in the mood for . . . or whatever else is in your fridge that needs to be eaten.

½ medium onion, finely chopped
4 eggs*
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1.5 cups cheese, grated (we used Keswick Creamery's Vermeer cheese*)
1 teaspoon nutmeg, grated
Salt & pepper
1-2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Sauté onions until soft, about 5 minutes. (Also sauté any other ingredients you'd like to add that would benefit from a sauté before baking.)
Beat eggs lightly. Add milk, cream, cheese, nutmeg and season with salt and pepper. Fold in onion (and whatever else you're adding).
Butter the inside surface of a deep dish 9” pie plate and then coat with breadcrumbs.
Pour the egg mixture into the pie plate, then bake for 30-40 minutes, until no liquid seeps from the quiche when you poke it with a fork. The eggs will puff the dish up while it's baking, so if you're entertaining and want to impress the people you're feeding, carry the quiche directly from the oven to the table before it deflates!

Blackberry Ice Cream with Coffee-Cocoa Soil and Chambord Cream

2009-02-10T10:29:31Z

Over the course of the last week I've been blogging every couple of days about the five course spread I made for some friends on January 31. I've previously blogged courses one through three. I neglected to photograph the fourth course, which was lamb rib chops on two purees--acorn squash and red potato--with sautéed Brussels sprout leaves and beet and horseradish "confetti," which I made by grating fresh horseradish and beets and then dehydrating it in the oven at 170°F. The course both tasted and looked great, so I sort-of wished I'd photographed it . . . but whatever.

The fifth and final course of the meal was this blackberry ice cream on coffee-cocoa "soil" with Chambord cream. I borrowed the coffee-cocoa "soil" recipe from David Barzelay over at Eat Foo who, in turn, adapted it from a Sam Mason recipe. I made the Chambord cream by adding some Chambord black raspberry liquor to some heavy cream as I whipped it. And I made the blackberry ice cream by adapting a recipe I made last summer to accommodate the fact that I only had two cups of blackberries. I bought the blackberries at the Dupont farmers market from an ingenious farmer/vendor who froze some of last summer's harvest to provide a taste of summer in the dead of winter. I thought this course worked really well. The saltiness of the soil is a pleasant surprise and the black raspberry liquor in the paired nicely with the ice cream. Here's the ice cream recipe:

2 cups blackberries*
1/2 cup sugar
5 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk

Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow. Then beat the milk into the eggs and sugar.
Put the sugar / egg / milk mixture into a small saucepan and place over low heat. Stir continuously until the custard thickens slightly (around 160°F) and just coats the back of a spoon. Beware, the eggs will scramble at around 168°F!
Immediately remove the custard from the heat when it reaches 160 and transfer it to a bowl, then cover it and refrigerate until cool (40°F).
While the custard is chilling, puree the blackberries in a food processor, then strain to remove the seeds and other solid matter. I use a wire mesh strainer like this one, stirring and pushing the puree through with a rubber spatula. Chill until ready to use.
Once the custard is chilled (2-3 hours in the refrigerator), whip the cream to soft peaks, then fold the cream into the chilled custard and, finally, fold the blackberry puree into the mixture.
Follow the instructions for your ice cream machine from this point forward, freezing the custard / cream / berry mixture in the machine, then giving it some time in your freezer to harden a bit more.

NY Times on the Growing Trend of Small Farms

2009-02-09T11:35:35Z

The New York Times published an interesting article Saturday on the growth of small farms in recent years: Farm Living (Subsidized by a Job Elsewhere). The article, in a nutshell, reports the fact that the number of small farms in the U.S. is growing again in recent years after decades of declining numbers. The diversity of folks operating farms is also increasing. The unfortunate catch is that it's very difficult to make a living as a small farmer and, for this reason, many small farmers have off-farm jobs.

I often fantasize about having a hobby farm some day . . . and I envision it as a hobby farm for two reasons. First, I really, really love my present occupation and see myself continuing to do the work I do for a few more decades--but I'd be happy to do it part-time, rather than full time. Second, as this article reports and as I know from my relationships with some local farmers, it's incredibly hard to make a living as a farmer and I don't want to take the pay cut. It's this second point that's unfortunate. Because I love my present occupation so much, I'm not directly effected by this second point. But those who do want to make a living farming should be able to make a comfortable living farming . . . and our national agricultural policies need to be changed to make this possible. For example, we need to end subsidies to mega corn farms . . . subsidies that undermine our entire agricultural system by fueling the growth of already-huge farms that qualify for the subsidies and making it difficult for small farmers (who want to grow food for people, instead of corn for cars and cows) to compete in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, I have little faith that the Obama administration's face of "change" in the field of agricultural policy--Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa and now U.S. Secretary of Agriculture--has much interest in ending subsidies to the agri-corn interests that run politics in his home state. Surprise me, Sec. Vilsack . . . surprise me.

Mushroom Risotto (with Italian Sausage Variation)

2009-02-06T11:12:43Z

The third course for Saturday night's dinner was this mushroom risotto. I made the dish Saturday as a warm-up for the cooking class I'm teaching on Monday nights at ArtSpace DC. My guests on Saturday night, as well as the folks in my class on Monday, all seemed to like it . . . and I thought it was great both times . . . so I'll share the recipe here. On Monday night, we made two batches in the class, one of which incorporated Italian sausage, so I'll include that as a variation here. Also, you can substitute vegetable stock for the chicken stock if you want to make this vegetarian . . . but I think homemade chicken stock does wonders for this dish. (I used homemade stock at home and store-bought chicken stock in class.) Enjoy the weekend, folks.

This recipe serves 6-8 as a side dish/small course or 4 as a main course.

4 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock, if you want to skip the sausage and make this a vegetarian dish)
2 cups water
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup fresh mushrooms (I used hedgehogs*)
½ cup dried porcini mushrooms, re-hydrated
(for sausage variation, 1 lb. Italian sausage, casing removed)
1 small onion*
2 cloves garlic*, minced
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup (packed) grated Parmesan
Salt & pepper
¼ cup flat-leaf Italian parsley (or some other green herb), chopped

Place the 4 cups of stock and 2 cups of water in a saucepan over med-low heat. As soon as it begins to simmer, turn the heat down to the lowest setting to keep the liquid warm. This is simply a step to reduce the cooking time of the risotto when you add these liquids.
To prepare the dried porcini mushrooms: Combine ½ cup of dried porcini mushrooms with 1 cup of water and set aside to soak.
To prepare the fresh mushrooms: Ideally, you want to time this to have the mushrooms done cooking at the same time as the risotto, so try to start it about 5 minutes before the risotto is done. Another option is to cook the fresh mushrooms early and then stir them into the risotto at the very end to reheat them. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet. When butter stops foaming, add the fresh mushrooms and cook until soft. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper. Serve them on top of the risotto, or set aside until the risotto is done.
To prepare the risotto: Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. (For the sausage variation, when the butter stops foaming, add the sausage and sauté until browned.) When the butter stops foaming, add the onion and sauté until translucent, about 6 or 7 minutes.
Next, add the Arborio rice and cook until it is translucent around its edges, around 4 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
Add the white wine and cook until the wine is fully absorbed by the rice, about 2 minutes.
Add about 2 cups of the pre-heated stock/water mixture (don’t worry about measuring it). Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the liquid is absorbed, about 5-10 minutes.
Add the re-hydrated porcini mushrooms with their liquid. (If the porcinis are dirty, you may want to strain the liquid through cheesecloth.)
When making risotto, you should at this stage begin checking grains of rice for doneness. I prefer my risotto soft (not mushy) with a little bit of resistance from the center of the rice—al dente. Some like it softer and soupy, some like it more firm. Follow your heart and mouth on this one.
Proceed by adding additional pre-heated stock/water by half-cup increments, stirring and waiting for the liquid to be absorbed, testing for doneness, and adding another half-cup if necessary. If you run out of stock/water before the risotto is done, don’t panic . . . just add some water.
When the risotto is cooked to your preferred degree of doneness, add the cheese (and fresh mushrooms if they're cold and you want to reheat them) to the risotto, stir, salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately. Top with the sautéed fresh mushrooms and flat-leaf Italian parsley or something else fresh and green.

Where to Sign Up for a CSA

2009-02-04T18:59:23Z

The Washington Post published a great article today on Where to Sign Up for a CSA for folks living throughout the Chesapeake Bay region, so I figured I'd share it with you. Actually, it's more of a list than an article, with a brief description of what a CSA is, followed by a long list of farms in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia that sell shares . . . including share price, length of season, actual dates of season, pick-up points and contact information.

The time to sign up for a 2009 CSA is right now . . . so get on it, friends.

For those of you unfamiliar with CSAs, the term is an acronym for "Community Supported Agriculture" and here's how it works. People like you buy a "share" or a "half-share" of a farm's bounty for the upcoming season. The farm, in turn, harvests food weekly during its specified CSA season and divides it up into boxes for all of its share holders. Some of the farms deliver to various neighborhoods, while others require you to pick up your box up at the farm. Shareholders get fresh, locally grown/produced, seasonal vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy, etc. The farmers, in turn, get much needed $$ at the beginning of the season, when they need it most, as well as a predictable demand for their harvest. Everyone wins.

Friends of mine who own/operate the restaurant Food Matters in Alexandria are on the Washington Post list . . . and they change things up a bit by running their own CSA distributing goods from several of the local farmers they buy from--so shareholders get great variety and several farms benefit from the $$.

I love the CSA concept and I'm not alone. I read an article in the Washington Post last month about a fishing community in Maine that's using the same concept to distribute its catch. BUT I'm not a CSA member for two reasons. First, I live alone and haven't been sufficiently motivated to find a nearby friend to split a share with. Second, I live within a 10 minute bike ride of 5 or 6 farmers markets during the Spring-Summer-Fall (only one of them's open in the Winter) . . . and I love the social aspect of seeing friends at the markets and talking to/buying from lots of different farmers.

Nevertheless, I wholeheartedly support the CSA model and I'd love to hear about your CSA experiences and recommendations.

Avocado Moose

2009-02-03T23:55:11Z

The second course of Saturday night's dinner was a play on "mousse" . . . a faux avocado mousse topped with sous vide cooked moose. The avocado component was a "faux" mousse because real mousse is an egg-based dish and there's no egg in this dish. Instead, it's just avocado pureed with some lemon juice, champagne vinegar, salt and pepper. The moose was hunted by my brother-in-law in Alaska. It was a top round steak, which is a cut that's generally a little tough and often cooked awhile. I threw caution to the wind and cooked it sous vide style for 30 minutes at 150°F. Why? I don't know. It was an experiment, but it turned out well. I took this photo the day after and the meat had turned a bit gray overnight, but it was nice and pink when served. Also on the plate is some balsamic vinegar and the plate is topped with fresh, grated horseradish. I was batting two for two going into the third course. And the wine was flowing!

Seared Scallop with Rainbow Chard & Beet-Horseradish Foam

2009-02-02T10:38:31Z

I had a few friends over for dinner and Saturday and I went all out . . . five courses, all of which, I think, turned out pretty well. We started with this seared scallop on a bed of sautéed rainbow Swiss chard, topped with a beet-horseradish foam . . . or maybe it's more appropriately called an "air" . . . I'm not sure. I need to get my fancy culinary terminology straight. I don't have a recipe for this dish, but it was so simple that no recipe's needed.

I sautéed the greens in some olive oil with a bit of salt and pepper. I made the foam by first grating some fresh horseradish and beet into a small pot. I added about 2 cups of water, brought it to a boil and then removed it from the heat. I covered it and let it steep for about 15 minutes, then strained out the solids and chilled the infused water in my fridge for a couple of hours until I was ready to serve the dish. I combined the chilled, infused water with about a tablespoon of lecithin in a large bowl and blended it with my immersion blender, skimming the blades of the blender on the top of the liquid to incorporate the air necessary to make the foam. Then I simply skimmed foam off the top of the bowl with a spoon and plated the dish. Both the beet and the horseradish really came through in the foam. Foams my be out of style . . . yesterday's news . . . with professional chefs, but they're a lot of fun for meals at home. Most folks aren't used to home cooking that looks like this, but it's really, really simple to do. Lecithin is sold as a nutritional supplement at Whole Foods, GNC and other health and nutrition stores. It stabilizes foams made from cold liquids . . . and the only limitation on flavors you can infuse into water is your imagination. Try it.