The Blushing Hostess Cooks

Thing of beauty: Creative catering presentations

2010-08-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

I spotted this at an event this week: Tiny - miraculously, still crunchy - rice paper cones with a gorgeous - and thankfully still cold - tuna tartar hors d'oeuvre topped with wasabi caviar and presented in a bowl heaped with white and black sesame seeds. Like a sand beach for the tartare cones it was both a nod to the sea and a brilliant touch of flavor on the outside of the cone. Both delicious and a perfectly conceived passed nibble.

Just plain weird

2010-07-24T04:26:00.001-07:00

Yes, it is plenty pretty on the plate. And this salad certainly made use of everything coming out of the garden this week. But it is a weird salad, the object of debate around here as to whether it is decent or disgusting. I say around here, as in, in my head, where I have these discussions with myself.

Maybe, had I used a store bought balsamic glaze... I don't know. Watermelon, arugula, and feta alone are not great together. Once in a while I get carried away with a photo and I fail to realize food magazines all too often trip over themselves trying to get a lot of seasonal colors in their shots.

Watermelon, feta, and arugula salad with balsamic glaze, by Bon Appetit, pretty on a plate, not so much on your palate.

Spicy Jicama, Apple, Melon, and Tangerine Salad

2010-04-29T03:23:00.000-07:00

Just a refreshing change from lettuce-as-salad formulas which have become tiresome in every incarnation (goat cheese or not). Perfect on a hot day, with or without spicy food to go along with its cool, crunchy bite and seemingly made to go along with sultry dinners starring tamarind cocktails. Enjoy.

Spicy Jicama Tangerine Salad
serves 6
adapted from Authentic Mexican, Rick Bayless (1987, William Morrow)

1 small (1 pound or so) jicama, peeled, and cut into 3/4" dice
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 red-skinned apple, peeled, cut, and cored in 3/4" dice
1/2 small cantaloupe, peeled, seeded, and cut into 3/4" dice
3 tangerines, peeled, broken into sections, and seeds removed
About 2 tablespoons roughly chopped cilantro/fresh coriander
1 teaspoon dried chili powder
Romaine lettuce for garnish, optional

Marinate the jicama: Place the jicama cubes in a large, non-corrosive bowl, pour over the orange and lime juices, add salt, toss gently with two large spoons to combine, cover and let stand at room temperature for at least one hour.

Finish the salad about 15 minutes before you are ready to serve. Add the cantaloupe, apple, tangerine wedges, and cilantro. toss the mixture every few minutes until ready to serve. Season with the dried chili powder and additional fresh cilantro if you wish. Toss one final time and place on a serving dish atop the romaine leaves if you wish.

Pizza Caccia Nanza

2010-03-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

Garlic bread: Honestly, I saw no sign of it in Italy. I am willing to believe it exists though, mostly owning to this fine recipe for a light, crispy, yeast bread into which garlic is baked, not applied later. It made a great, new, light lunch with fresh tomato sauce, a little blanched asparagus, and a Sangiovese (which I drink unapologetically with any food I care to, at any time of day).

Pizza Caccia Nanza
Beard on Bread, James Beard (1973, Alfred A. Knopf)

This is a recipe of Edward Gobbi's, from his delightful book, Italian Family Cooking. "The literal translation of caccia nanza," says Mr. Gobbi, "is 'take out before.' When bread is made in traditional Italian households a bit of dough was reserved to make pizza. the pizza was placed in the oven and obviously cooked more quickly... Caccia Nanza is a specialty of Castel di Lama in the Marches. It is the only garlic bread I have eaten in Italy," Mr. Goob concludes. It is perfectly delicious, I might add. It is good with antipasti, or pasta, and the rather flat loaf may be cut in wedges or broken off in pieces.

- James Beard

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees approximately)
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons rosemary
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine the flour, salt, yeast, and warm water in a mixing bowl. Blend well, then turn the bowl on to a lightly floured board. Knead well, for about 15 minutes, and shape the dough the into a ball. Place it in a lightly greased mixing bowl. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place until it doubles in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Turn the dough onto the board and knead once more. Put it back in the bowl and let it rise again. Then punch down the dough and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. roll it out to 1/2 inch thickness.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Rub the surface of the baking sheet with oil. Transfer the round of dough to the baking sheet. Make indentations over the surface of the dough and insert a thin sliver of garlic and a bit of rosemary into each indentation. Pour the olive oil over the pizza and rub gently with the hands. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the garlic before serving. Serves 4 to 6.

Photos and instructions:

Put the dry ingredients into a bread-kneading stand mixer, otherwise use a mixing bowl and knead the dough by hand. Add the water, mix gently with the batter blade. When mostly combined, finish the mixing my hand. change the mixer blade to a dough hook and turn the mixer on to knead gently for 15 minutes.

Line a ceramic bowl with olive oil. take the dough in your hands and shape it into a ball. Place it in the bowl and turn it once in the olive oil.

Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place it in a draft free place to rise. It is my habit to set the oven to 200, allow it to come up to temperature, shut it off and wait 15 minutes, then place the bowl in the oven, close the door, and leave it to rise 1 1/2 hours. It will double in size.

Remove the dough from the bowl, and on a lightly floured board, knead the dough once again. I did this by hand to soften it, but by all means, place it back under the dough hook if you wish.

To knead by hand, roll the dough towards you under your palm.

Then push it away under the heel of your hand. Repeat for 15 minutes. Add a little more flour as needed if the dough becomes sticky.

Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out on the board per the recipe then transfer to an olive oil lined baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees, serve immediately.

Sopa de Tortilla

2010-03-10T11:03:00.000-08:00

Rick Bayless's work maybe be the most authentically perfect Mexican cooking references to ever hit a printing press, but that has not stopped me from bastardizing a few of his recipes to suit my own tastes. Some of the finer instructional points of Authentic Mexican leave me wondering and in some cases I have honed them to something that, in my my mind, is more direct or pleasurable at a taste or texture level.

One of those adjustments occurs with regard to Sopa de Tortilla (Tortilla Soup). One is supposed to sprinkle dried chiles pasillas over the top of the finished soup: I don't want to eat them that way, they are chewy and unpleasant at best in that form. I've incorporated them into the soup here. It makes for far better depth of flavor in a soup I have often found to be a flavor lightweight when made in the eastern United States; a disappointing relative of the darkly satisfying versions served in Mexico. I have come to crave this soup in both hot and cold states and I hope you will find it just as pleasing.

I served it just the other evening with tamarind cocktails and the pair were showstoppers. Enjoy.

Toasted Tortilla Soup
adapted from Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless (1987, HarperCollins)
4 servings

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 dried chiles pasilla, stemmed, reconstituted in 1 cup boiling water, seeded, and deveined
1 15 ounce can organic fire roasted tomatoes
1 1/4 quarts good chicken broth (I made mine and keep it frozen, Zuni's recipe here)
Salt, to taste

Tortilla strips:
4 to 6 corn tortilla, preferably stale
1/3 cup olive oil

Garnishes:
8 ounces queso fresco (Mexican crumbling cheese)
1 large lime, cut into 4 wedges

In a medium-sized skillet over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onion and whole garlic cloves and fry until both are deep golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Scoop into a food processor and add the tomato and chilies and process until very smooth (tiny dark flecks of the chilies will remain apparent, this is fine).

Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in the same skillet over medium high heat. When hot, and oil is smoking, add the tomato mixture. Stir constantly until thicker and darker in color; about 5 minutes. Scrape into a large sauce pan.

Stir the chicken broth into the sauce pan, set over low heat, partially cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste and season with salt to taste.

To prepare the tortilla strips:

If the tortilla are fresh or moist, let them dry out for a few minutes in a single layer. Slice them in half, then slice the halves cross-wise into strips 1/4" thick. heat the 1/3 cup vegetable oil in a smallish skillet over medium high heat. When hot, add the tortilla strips and fry. When golden, remove and place on paper towels to drain. Dust with salt when just out of the oil.

To garnish and serve:

Once soup is in the bowl, toss a handful of the crisp tortilla strips over the top. Garnish the bowl with a lime slice and pass the crumbled queso fresco at the table.

The Virginia ham, and related notes by Edna Lewis

2010-01-24T00:49:00.000-08:00

In further pursuit of the illusive but enchanting Virginia ham as perfected by Edna Lewis (famed Southern cook, cookbook author, and native Virginian), please find the recipes referred to today at Blushing Hostess.

Virginia Ham (from raw cure state)
In Pursuit of Flavor, Edna Lewis
Serves 30, give or take

One 13 to 15 pound uncooked Virginia ham

Take the ham from the protective bag. If the ham has a moldy outer covering, scrub it brusquely under cold running water. when the moldy outer covering has been removed, rinse the ham well and put it in the pot. Cover it with cold water and leave it in a cool spot for three days. You do not have to refrigerate it. Change the water every day.

On the morning of the third day, drain off the soaking liquid and cover the ham again with clear, cold water. Put a lid on the pot and bring the water to a boil. Watch the pot closely and the minute the water nears to a boil, turn down the heat low enough that the water just shows a bubble. Cook the ham for approximately five hours, watching it to make sure the water does not get any hotter or cooler than this bubbling point. After 4 1/2 hours, lift the ham up out of the water to see if the skin is bubbled and soft. If not, let the ham cook until the ham is soft and bubbled and ready to be remove the ham from the cooking water.

Cool the ham in a shallow pan. When cool enough to handle, cut the skin off with a sharp knife. AS you remove the skin, trim a bit of fat but leave a thin coating of fat to help hold in moisture. An edge of fat looks nice on pieces of sliced ham.

Mustard with Brown Sugar
8 servings, will keep for one month refrigerated

5 tablespoons dry mustard
1/4 cup cider vinegar
5 tablespoons corn oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 firmly packed brown sugar

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix well for 4 or 5 minutes. Set the bowl in a pan of boiling water and cook over medium heat, stirring for 15 to 20 minutes, until all the graininess disappears. Spoon the mustard into a glass jar and let it cool. Screw the lid on the jar and store in the refrigerator for at least a week before using.

Country Ham with Baked Pineapple
Serves 4

Ms. Lewis served one large slice of country ham for this dish, I use many medium slices in the same preparation cooked in the over for 45 minutes.

One large slice of Virginia ham, 2" thick, cut from the center of the ham
1 tablespoon honey
4 tablespoons butter, softened
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon dry ginger
Four or five 1/2" thick slices fresh pineapple
1 cup water

Place the ham in a wide skillet and add enough water to cover. Bring to a near-simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Lift the ham from the water and pat dry - this is important, if you fail to do this, the end result of the dish will be ham sludge). Put the ham in a buttered baking dish and brush the top with honey. Combine the softened butter, mustard, and ginger in a bowl and paint the ham with this mixture. Lay the pineapple slices on top of the ham and add the water gently around the ham. Bake at 325 for 1 1/2 hours. Arrange the ham and pineapple slices on a platter and gently spoon the pan juices over.

Still searching in darkness

2010-01-22T02:26:00.000-08:00

In response to a recent question on the Blushing Hostess website, kind reader SLE requested I post the chili recipe from the above photo.

This is a long story which I will abridge before you all un-follow and move on to a riveting food site (if you find one, let me know). I lived in Texas for a while and chili is more of a cadence for me than a recipe. Some onion, some garlic, chunks of beef, seasoning, tomato, beef stock and or beer, beans. Not that this list, nor the cadence with which I make chili is anything to write to Texans about. I know good chili: I have been in the presence of some of the greats, but I am really a lackluster example of a mediocre chili maker and I am not pretending to the chili throne. And, there was this issue of a pregnancy addiction to Frito Pie which lead me down some very bad chili path's even in Texas. Consequently, I do not really have a taster for it any longer and do not pursue the prince of chili recipes. Not when in the Southwest right now, there are some fast gun chili makers already awake with Dutch oven being readied to make a world beater of a chili and I have only been able to reach a state of assuredness that mine is, at the very least, safe to consume.

But Josh wanted chili, and knowing full well I cannot touch his Mama's, was willing to tolerate my failings in this regard to get the chili above, which was just fine but nothing more.

So, if you have a chili recipe a Texan would be proud to call their own, kindly save my Husband future disappointment by sending it to me. A native Kansan will thank you heartily.

Edna Lewis's Cheese Custard

2010-01-21T01:41:00.000-08:00

After kicking around in the pages of one of the road maps of southern cooking for another purpose, I stumbled upon this gem of a recipe which I had missed in several previous readings. The events which preceded this custard's actual appearance on my table, admittedly, had more to do with not getting out to get another form of protein, laziness, and it having been later than I thought. Should this ever happen to you, as surely it does not, I can only hope you remember this recipe as it is unlikely cheese souffle with all of its bowls and mess and process is making a return to my home any time soon; it has been happily replaced.

I serve it with a big salad and crusty hot rolls. Julia Child surely would have suggested a French white wine as she always did for egg dishes, but I say drink what you love. I recently had this custard with a Cote de Provence and salad with fig vinaigrette. It was perfect. But sometimes you might like a touch of sweet tea in honor of Ms. Lewis.

Cheese Custard
adapted from In Pursuit of Flavor, Edna Lewis
serves 4 (easily doubled)

The recipe calls for 5 egg yolks and that would indeed be in the tradition of souffle, but honestly, I have no use for 2 whites on most days and I am not whipping up meringues in my spare time. Consequently, I often use the entire egg which does make the custard less rich but goes further. I like the Gruyere only marginally and swap in literally anything that melts and is a hard cheese. I have had success with cheddar, Colby, jack, Parmesan, although cheddar with a little extra cayenne has worked best.

One medium potato, peeled and julienned, about 2/3 cup
1 cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 cup finely grated Gruyere cheese or comparable (see above)

Preheat the over to 350 and butter a small ovenproof casserole dish, set aside.

Drop the potato julienne in a sauce pan of boiling water for 3 minutes until just translucent. Drain well, place on a paper towel-lined plate and gently pat dry. The potatoes should still be firm to the touch, if not, begin again.

Put the cream in a mixing bowl with the egg yolks, salt, and cayenne. Mix well but do not beat too much air into this mixture; mix only until evenly combined. Spread the grated cheese over the bottom of the buttered casserole. Spread the blanched julienne potatoes over the top of the cheese. Pour the cream mixture over the top of the potatoes. I like to dust the top with paprika for color, this is up to you.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the custard is set and buttery cream color. Do not overcook or it will become rubbery and tough.

Gourmet's Pommes Anna

2009-12-21T05:39:00.000-08:00

Accompanying Jacques Pepin's honey-coriander flank steak of earlier this week was this delightful recipe for Pommes Anna: a potato's tribute to simplicity and precision. A perfect addition to bistro-inspired fare and a breath-taking golden beauty on a platter.

Gourmet's Pommes Anna
January, 1993
serves 4

1 1/2 pounds russet (baking) potatoes
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted

Peel the potatoes and, using a food processor fitted with the slicing blade or a mandoline, slice them very thin, transferring them as they are sliced to a large bowl of cold water. Drain the slices and pat them dry between paper towels. Generously brush the bottom and side of a 9-inch heavy ovenproof skillet, preferably non-stick, with some of the butter and in the skillet arrange the slices, overlapping them slightly, in layers, brushing each layer with some of the remaining butter and seasoning it with salt and pepper. Cover the layered potato slices with a buttered round foil, tamp down the assembled potato cake firmly, and bake it in the middle of a preheated 425°F. oven for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake the potato cake for 25 to 30 minutes more, or until the slices are tender and golden. Invert the potato cake onto a cutting board and cut it into 8 wedges.

Jacques Pepin's Pan Seared Honey Coriander Flank Steak

2009-12-19T14:03:00.000-08:00

This is a glorious, few-ingredient steak I would wager you can prep easily out of the pantry. I have made minor adjustments to the measurements which called for an enormous amount of garlic; overwhelming in the original proportions. Easy for a weeknight, you will be able to gather the marinade in a matter of moments and have a fabulous steak with in no time of arriving home.

This was dinner for pleased audience:

Pan Seared Honey Coriander Flank Steak
Pommes Anna
Mixed Baby Greens with Ginger Dressing
Artisan dinner rolls

Jacques Pepin's Pan Seared Honey Coriander Flank Steak
serves 4

Honey-Coriander Marinade

1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 cloves garlic, very finely minced
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 - 1 1/4 flank steak, about 3/4 inch thick and trimmed of all surrounding fat

Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a dish large enough to hold the flank steak for marinading. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least an hour or up to one day.

Heat a heavy skillet over high heat for at least 5 minutes until screaming hot. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Remove the steak from the gratin dish and place in the skillet leaving the marinade in the dish and reserving. Place the steak on the hot skillet and sear for 1 1/2 minutes. Turn and cook on the other side for another 1 1/2 minutes so both sides have a well-browned exterior. Place it, uncovered, in the warm oven to continue cooking for another half an hour or until it reaches the desired degree of doneness.

To serve, cut on the diagonal into very thin pieces and serve with the marinade on very hot plates.

End of The Garden Herb Bread

2009-10-19T16:22:00.000-07:00

Before I decamped New York for a visit to Florida this past spring, my Mother's landscaper and I conspired to tame an ever-widening swath of ground cover on a ledge above her pool. This weed-come-plant pretender, of unknown variety, is the sort which could be employed in wars in difficult terrain: Given two weeks, it kills everything, decomposes the evidence, and takes over small continents. It is the most obnoxious green-black evil-doer that has ever sprung from any ground of ours and I was left no choice but to conclude that rousting that infernal slayer of all flora beautiful was the only way to return peace to the home's outliers.

But the thing had staying power. Three attempts at extrication yielded only a more determined intruder, who had arrived on the scene as a "gift" from a friend of my Mom's. One wonders what sort of friend this might be, or what my sweet Mama ever did to that plant giver. In any event, the landscaper and three other sets of hands finally held a destructive rally which involved pitchforks, chemicals, and healthy dose of angry flames and then called it a day after I suggested they were only missing an excorcist.

When the war was over and the air cleared, I planted an herb garden on the spot for Mother's Day. Now, as the season winds to frost, it seems one might need a method of employing the late season herb cuttings. Just such an idea has been lurking around here for sometime, each time it props up when I am looking over the garden, I feel guilty about not trying sooner. Then I made the recipe, and the guilt went from bad to worse.

Can you blame me? The recipe sounds like a long shot at best: yogurt, mustard, cheese. You know, ick. What can I say? When I grow up I will learn to stop making assumptions. I can only hope others around here have learned from my doubt and procrastination.

End of The Garden Herb Bread
adapted from The Provence Cookbook, Patricia Wells (2004, Harper Collins)

Perfect alone and sliced fresh at room temperature, toasted with or without butter for breakfast, and fabulous as a canape base for more benign flavors. It seems odd this combination, surely, but as always, you will have to take my word for the worthiness of this food for your table.

3 tablespoons butter softened, plus more for greasing pan
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
3 large eggs at room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 tablespoons finely minced thyme
1 tablespoon finely minced sage
2 tablespoons finely minced oregano

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Generously butter a 1 quart loaf pan and set aside.

In the standing mixer bowl, cream three tablespoons, mix until butter until color lightens. Add the eggs, mix until combines. Add flour, baking powder, salt, yogurt, and mustard; blend thoroughly, stopping once to scrap down bowl. Add the cheese and herbs.

Pour batter into prepared pan. place in the center of the oven and bake until firm and golden; the center of the bread does not bounce back to the touch, about 40 minutes. remove from oven, allow to cool ten minutes, turn onto a rack and cool completely.

Serve at room temperature or toast to serve under a canape or as croutons.

Pumpkin Cake, Brown Butter Icing

2009-10-12T02:46:00.000-07:00

I eat cake for breakfast. With tea. And only when out of coffee.

Thus, I associate eating cake for breakfast with an early morning sense of disappointment and hardship. Coffee is the latch on the day; if I cannot tug the day open with it, I endure the sensation of banging my head against a (highly polished mahogany) wall all day.

So, let's just say that it occurred to me how much I adore this cake recipe at a time when I was spent, leaning against the mental mahogany door, as it were. Likely, that is the reason why, even after Eddie Ross suggested on his beautiful site that this Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Icing was an easy-go'er, I still managed to add twice as much milk as it calls for.

Because it would be uncouth and graceless, I did not utter sixty expletives in as many seconds when I realized this. Though, let the record show: I wanted to.

Eddie has never failed me, however, and the recipe endured the happy folly that was two, rather than one, cups of milk. I added 1/2 cup additional flour and I must tell you, it was perfect. Just the way cake crumb should be; sticking to the back of your fork when pressed and without a single hint of dryness. Coffee or not, it was a sure indicator I was not meant to hit my head again that day.

Future coffee-less breakfasts may not be the grouchy pity-festivals for which I have surely become so beloved around Rancho Relaxo. Which will disappoint no one but the CEO of Starbucks, from whom I have now become one step removed... okay, who am I kidding?

Blackberry Balsamic Chop

2009-10-08T02:48:00.000-07:00

I am not the first to say it. Though I believe it: Better Homes and Gardens gets a bad rap with the cultured Illuminati of the blogosphere. It is not particularly high-minded, nor all that cultured, that much is certainly true. But frankly, neither am I when I just have to get dinner on the table.

I turn over every rock to find recipes which are not some slopped together taco-seasoning box meal, not only because I do not believe in packaged foods, but also because that would never fly twice with the diners at my table. Their palates are advanced. Even the little beaters. Consequently, new, distinctly-flavored, deeply good food has to hit that surface every night. To arrive there, I keep an ever-vigilant eye on magazine test kitchens (to that end, the closing of Gourmet is devastating for that reason and dozens more).

BHG will fall down on food, I speculate, four out of twelve issues a year. But when they are on, they can turn out some inspired practical dishes. This remarkable recipe which is both sweet and tangy, but remarkably varied in alluring flavors, is an adaptation of BHG's pork loin creation. It took all of fifteen minutes to prepare; I did not marinade, but you could.

I hope you enjoy it. It will be served here as often as I can get away with it; with couscous, haricort vert, and whole grain dinner rolls. Oh, and a Rioja, which I can tell you, is very nice alongside.

Blackberry Balsamic Pork Chops
adapted from this BHG recipe

4 thick-cut bone in pork chops
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp butter
2 tsp olive or canola oil
Cooking spray
1/2 cup seedless blackberry preserves
1/2 cup dry white wine or apple juice
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. Dijon-style mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. finely shredded orange peel
1/2 tsp. snipped fresh rosemary

Preheat the over to 325 degrees.

Season the chops liberally with salt and pepper. Place a large, heavy skillet on a high flame and add the butter and oil. When the pan is smoking hot, add the chops (being careful not to burn yourself). Sear to a golden crust on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Remove the chops to a roasting pan coated with cooking spray (holding the skillet aside for a moment), and place them in the oven, cook until a thermometer registers done for pork.

Place the skillet on medium heat. Add the blackberry preserves, wine or apple juice, balsamic vinegar, mustard, garlic, and soy. Heat until the preserves melt and the mixture just comes to a boil. Taste, adjust seasoning, pour over the pork, serve.

Note: I allowed my sauce to continue boiling to reduce. When the pork came out of the oven, I added the pork juices and allowed it to reduce again another minute. Delish!

If your sauce becomes too thick, whisk in a touch of water until it loosens.

The finestationery.com giveaway at Blushing!

2009-10-07T01:47:00.000-07:00

For the second week of reader giveaway's, finestationery.com the online retail home of all the most exquisite and inviting stationery one could imagine, has been so gracious as to provide this fabulous stationery gift of 50 fold over notes and this elegant and endlessly useful personalized stamp. Learn more about this product on this page at finestationery.com.

Perfect for all the thank-you's of this season of giving and beyond!

Please leave a comment below and become a Follower of the finestationery.com blog, The Finer Things to enter.

Enter here at Blushing Hostess Entertains.

San Lori's giveaway has begun!

2009-09-30T04:43:00.000-07:00

Click here to enter and be sure to note the entry instructions. Good luck and happy early holidays!

Mushrooms Newburg: Warning lights on

2009-09-27T02:37:00.000-07:00

Food blogs, and many others have have said every word they could on Junior League cookbooks, church cookbooks, and what have you. But what about golf tournament cookbooks: Shall I issue a treatise in defense?

Alright, I will skip it, this time.

I am aware of the vastly untrustworthy information contained in all of these volumes because, for the most part, they lack a test program of any sort. However, in concept at least, many of these books' ideas have merit. Many of them have dusty pizazz or some fabulous pedigree. I have contributed to them and I buy them, new and at book sales, and I use them for inspiration. No apologies: If you knew how tough in the tooth the left over turkey was that I needed to make use of, you would thank me for this resourcefulness. But since you've no way of being certain, you will just have to believe that this questionable golf tourney recipe helped me dispose of it and a huge drawer full of mushrooms, in an agreeable fashion.

And agreeable is definitely part of what we know of food in the home kitchen, is it not? In large part, we are not trained chefs, we are purposeful jacks of this trade and several others and I do think room should be made in an honest food blog for dishes which service economy, ease, and use of leftovers. I will not tell you it was the drop dead best thing I have made in this lifetime, I am only going to say that is was rich and satisfying and not the everyday use of remaining roast turkey here at Rancho Relaxo. So, welcome this dish, will you? It is serviceable, useful, and lovely. Not unlike the Hostess, come to think of it.

This may not light the culinary world on fire. But that is not my purview. I am here to get you through life pleasingly with a little grace and no wastefulness while transcending pre-packaged foods. In that vein, Mushrooms Newburg avec poulet, or any other worldly nonsense moniker of your choice.

Mushrooms Newburg Casserole
adapted from Tee Time at the Masters, Junior League of Augusta, Georgia

Once again, more of a concept here than truly a recipe. Use leftover chicken, turkey, or pork, all will be very nice and here you have general measurements for roughly 3/4 pound remaining meal, though more or less will be fine, as I've no idea at all what is in your fridge as I am not clairvoyant (though, you really should check the expiration on the salad dressing, eeeeew). Now then.

3 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 shallot, diced (optional)
Kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper
Mushrooms (fresh), 8 ounces or more would be best, cleaned and sliced
1 or 2 tablespoons cognac
3 tablespoons dry sherry
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup heavy or light cream
3/4 pound cooked chicken, pork, or turkey, shredded into bite-sized pieces
Thyme, marjoram, or any green herb you favor

Rice or toast points to serve.

In a large skillet over medium heat, saute the onion and shallot until softened and translucent, add the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent browning, only until the liquid is nearly, but not entirely, gone from the pan.

Hold the pan off the heat while you add the cognac and sherry. Place the skillet back on the burner and add the chicken stock. Cook another few minutes until the mixture thickens slightly. Now add the meat and stir to combine. Add the cream, thyme, and marjoram (or any green herb you like) and stir again. Serve over rice or toast points, think of me.

Tandoori Apricot: The Tuesday night save

2009-09-25T03:32:00.000-07:00

Tuesday is the night I struggle with dinner. I can no more explain this to you than quantum physics but I have developed an ease of use method which has truly saved me when I also have chicken, pork, or shrimp on hand. This preparation for an exotic sweet and spicy dish always gets raves and not a soul is any the wiser that I was not in the kitchen slaving, but rather, had my nose stuck in the monitor devouring every last word of Crazy Days and Nights (guilty pleasure). Don't judge me, I am immune to it anyway. Obviously.

Alright, then. Everyone ready? You will need to get on the horn and order up a bit of Tandoori Spice from Penzey's or something to that effect. Just be sure it is a good one, as you know, this is a best-in-class blog so, do right by me, okay?

Tandoori Apricot Chicken, Pork, or Shrimp

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Put the trimmed or clean protein on your board and dust it liberally with the Tandoori Spice, and then salt and pepper. Just remember Tandoori can be mild in small amounts and fiery in large, so take it easy the first time and use more next time if you can tolerate it.

Now, add a bit of olive oil to an oven-proof skillet and over medium high heat, get the oil very hot, until it just begins to smoke. Place the seasoned meat in the pan and brown on both sides, keeping the heat up to be sure it does indeed brown/ caramelize.

Just before the meat is finished, add two heaping tablespoons of good apricot preserves to the pan and a touch of water, chicken stock, or orange juice. Move it a round a bit so that the meat is coated. Place the skillet in the oven and cook the meat until it is complete finished. Slice festively and serve over rice, topped with the pan sauce.

If you wish to concentrate/ reduce the pan sauce a bit, remove the meat from the pan to a warm plate and place the skillet on medium heat on the stove, bring to a simmer and allow it to reduce by half. Pour over the meat and rice as above.

Canyon Ranch: Chinese 7 Vegetable Salad with Lemon Miso Dressing

2009-09-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

I am sharing with you my only gently adjusted recipe for Canyon Ranch's unbelievably tasty and filling seven vegetable salad because it is a fabulous easy-transport option for light-fare picnics. And since picnics will be the subject of the day at Blushing Hostess Entertains, I thought you should have this as another great option in the salad category: Home or away.

Chinese Seven Vegetable Salad with Lemon Miso Dressing
adapted from Canyon Ranch Cooks, Barry Corriea and Scott Uehlein (St. Martin's Press)
serves 4

The original recipe calls for snow peas, which I do not care for. In the interest of not adjusting the name of Canyon Ranch's recipe, I continue to call it "seven" although mine is six. Secondly, the original called for the romaine to be placed under the sauteed veg, rather than tossed with it. I prefer it all quickly tossed together and dressed as I have noted below.

Enjoy!

Sauce:
1 1/2 cups water
3 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon lemon grass, minced
2 tablespoons low sodium tamari sauce

Salad:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 1/2 cups sliced carrots,sliced
1 1/2 cups red onion, sliced
1 1/2 cups broccoli florets
(1 cup snow peas, which I omit)
1 cup sliced zucchini, sliced
1 cup yellow squash, sliced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 cup bok choy, chopped
1 1/2 heads romaine lettuce, chopped in bite size pieces

Lemon Miso Dressing (16 servings):
1 tablespoon dry mustard
3 tablespoons water, divided
3 tablespoons white miso paste
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1 12 teaspoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons garlic minced
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon fresh parsely

For the salad dressing:

In a small bowl, mix dry mustard with 1 tablespoon water until the mixture forms a smooth paste.

In a separate bowl mix miso paste with remaining 2 tablespoons water. Set aside.

In the blender, combine lemon and apple juices and vinegar. Add the mustard paste and rice vinegar. Add the mustard paste and ginger. Bled for 10 seconds on low. Add the garlic, lemon peel, parsley, and miso paste. Blend on high for 10 seconds or until smooth. Pour into a jar. Cover tightly and refrigerate up to one week.

For the salad:

In a medium saucepan, combine all the ingredients for the sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat until mixture is simmering and and allow to reduce to about 1/2 cup.

Heat the canola oil in a wok over high heat. Add carrots, red onion, and broccoli, and stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Add zucchini, squash, mushrooms (and snow peas if you are using them and stir fry 30 more seconds. Add bok choy and sauce and stir fry until until all vegetables are tender but still crisp.

Remove the skillet from the heat and very quickly, toss in the romaine lettuce. Drizzle each with 1/4 cup lemon miso dressing.

Rose Bakery's Pistachio Cake

2009-09-19T02:13:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned this beautiful book to you several times. By now you may be tired of my mentioning the Rose Bakery Cookbook but I will never tire of flipping through those thick, lush pages. Nor will the recipes, so painstakingly cornered for a Parisian Bakery which has gone so far beyond baguettes, croissant, and macaroons ever be tiresome for me to test or repeat. It has carved a path for itself Rose Bakery, and in so doing, a niche of food and spectacular sleeper recipes. The idea is that you probably will not have considered many of these recipes the way Rose creates them: But if you are like me, you might wonder why you never thought all those quick bread recipes might come to something like this cake.

I easily make use of two pounds of nuts in a week. I hide them everywhere I can, along with fish and avocados (not necessarily together) and consequently, I thought I knew every variation on nut-sneaking there was. Not so at all. Herewith, is the most devilish and masterful nut and almond sneak of all time.

Everyone who came in contact with this cake adored it, even though, butter not withstanding, it is largely healthy. And in spite of the fact that the icing is so obviously full of pistachios, which at least one of us claimed they absolutely did not care for and would never touch. Never. Never. Never.

Good? Yes, and I wish some remained.

Pistachio Cake
adapted from Rose Bakery: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery, Rose Carrarini (Phaidon)
serves 8

Rose's recipe called for 2 sticks/ 1 cup of butter, and honestly, I could not bear the thought of it. The 3/4 is fine, the whole cup is luxurious. I also tried it with the 1/4 cup replaced by the same amount of pistachio oil: Good for you, but it did not light my world on fire.

3/4 cup butter (1 and 1/2 sticks) plus more for the pan, softened
1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup ground pistachios
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

For the topping:
1/2 cup pistachios, chopped and dry toasted on the stove top
1/4 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter one standard loaf pan or 8" cake round, then line with parchment paper and butter the parchment. Set aside.

With a mixer, beat the butter and sugar until they are light and creamy. Add the lemon zest and vanilla extract. Now add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Now fold in the ground almonds, pistachios, flour, baking powder and salt.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool 10 minutes in the pan, flip it out, and allow it to cool then to room temperature.

To make the topping, gently heat the pistachios, sugar, and lemon zest together in a sauce pan over low heat, once the sugar is dissolved, pour the mixture over the cake and allow it to set while it cools.

What comforts you?

2009-09-16T18:23:00.001-07:00

Please swing by Blushing Hostess for What comforts you?, looking forward to seeing you there.

Come on over

2009-09-14T05:13:00.000-07:00

Lets talk. Please swing by The Blushing Hostess.

Cracked Chocolate Earth

2009-09-12T03:13:00.000-07:00

It is a cake. Only in the sense that when you encounter it, it was clearly born from a cake pan. But honestly, the thing has little else to recommend it as one besides the round remnant of the side of the pan from whence it quite literally sprung.

I added up the ingredients and it just does not total ten pounds but when finished, it could easily pass for a soft, ten pound chocolate bar. It is a sterling recipe when you intend to go to absolutely little, frankly - insultingly little - trouble to make someone a cake and would not dream of reaching for a cake box but all the while intend to act very put out and exhausted about the entire endeavor.

It is marvelous and near peerless in its devastatingly unhealthy grandness. Eat it and know that a nutritionist somewhere can hear a bell ringing, I suppose.

But really. I will work it off, this perilous symphony of wickedness, I promise. Can you tell me how long, roughly, it takes to work off four of these? I am concerned it may be longer that I have, entirely.

Cracked Chocolate Earth
adapted from Tyler's Ultimates, Tyler Florence (Oh! How beautiful is that man?)
Serves 8 (easy peasy)

This cake was difficult to get a decent shot of, as is often the case with chocolate, you will just have to take my word for how remarkable the cake truly is. It is inevitable and correct that it rises very high during baking, as a souffle would, and falls when it retreats from the oven. All is as it should be.

Serve it once it has cooled: I used a cake knife but Chef Florence goes for broke with a spoon and just plunges it in, souffle-style as well.

I added orange zest; chocolate and fresh orange are fabulous together. Just remember that with chocolate, adding a little orange goes a long way. Though the original recipe was without orange or flavoring whatsoever.

1 cup (2 sticks butter), diced
1 pound good bittersweet chocolate
9 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange zest (optional)

Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 inch springform pan, and set aside.

Put the chocolate and butter into a double boiler (or makeshift) and heat over 1 inch of simmering water until melted. Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl until light yellow in color. Add a little of the warm chocolate into the egg mixture to temper the eggs. Once combined, add the remaining chocolate in two additions. Add the orange zest and mix in gently.

In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture. Pout into the prepared pan and back until the cake is set and top starts to crack, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs clinging, 20 to 25 minutes. Allow the cake to stand 10 minutes, then remove the springform sides.

Serve at room temperature dusted with confectioner's sugar.

Emeril's Delmonico's Artichoke Stuffed Leg of Lamb

2009-09-09T03:48:00.000-07:00

Recently good intentions around here resulted in someone wielding a meat mallet and muttering un-pleasantries. But, it was my Mom's birthday as I mentioned here and consequently absolutely worth burdening my children with memories of the Butterflied Leg of Lamb War of 2009, as I affectionately call it now.

The struggle for this dramatic presentation was worth it. So much so that this will likely be our new Easter dinner in the future. Honestly, it does have to be a really special occasion in my book because the sum total of all these steps, juggled between the needs of a toddler and newborn, took parts of three days. But a birthday certainly is cause enough and once you eat this roast you will not go back to grilled leg of lamb so I recommend finding or making up a very special day and rolling around on the counter with a huge cut of lamb. Okay?

Moving on. This roast made such a beautiful presentation that it brought the dining room to silence when I brought it to the table: It is big, colorful, and a fabulous showgirl of a roast on the platter. I would make it again just to see a family full of dish-sized eyes and excited glances. It is a luxe thing one never sees anymore, like most of the dishes of Delmonico's, a favorite haunt of mine in New Orleans. Worth trying even once in a lifetime as you note your table of impressed guests when dinner has begun and you simultaneously realize you know how one feels when they summit a very great peak.

New Orleans-style Artichoke Stuffed Leg of Lamb with Garlic-Wine Sauce, Mint Pesto, and Baby Potatoes
adapted from Emeril's Delmonico: A Restaurant with a Past
serves 8*

You will need to make the lamb stock first. It is not available in stores generally, here is a decent recipe. If you cannot, use a high-quality beef stock. Then make and trim up the artichokes. And make some bread crumbs, before you do anything, you have a couple of hours of work ahead of you, so carve out time accordingly.

*This recipe stated it will serve 6, in fact, it served that with nearly half remaining, gyros for five the following night and still yielded a decent portion remaining, for which Puppy was very thankful. It is really quite an enormous roast.

4 medium size boiled artichokes, trimmed of leaves and cleaned, hearts only, chopped**
1/4 pancetta (or bacon) in small dice
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups fine dry (unseasoned) breadcrumbs (I made my own, see below)
3/4 cup olive oil + 3 tablespoons for the roasting pan
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon finely ground pepper
Pinch of cayenne
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Regianno
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon creole seasoning
One 4 lb leg of leg (after de-boning), butterflied and trimmed
1 3/4 pound small red (new) potatoes

Mint Pesto* (below)
Garlic-Wine Sauce (requires the lamb stock, will post this recipe shortly)

*recipe follows
** do not substitute canned artichoke hearts

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the pancetta until crisp and the fat is rendered. Remove the pancetta from the skillet and place on a piece of paper towel to drain. Add the onions to the remaining fat in the pan and cook for 3 minutes . Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds more. Add the bread crumbs, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and the cayenne and cook, stirring until the bread crumbs are lightly toasted and golden brown, about 3 minutes. Add the parsley and oregano, stir and remove from the heat. Allow to cool 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the bread crumb mixture with the diced artichoke hearts, pancetta, cheese, lemon juice, lemon zest, and creole seasoning. Add the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil and stir until well blended.

Spread the butterflied leg of lamb, boned side up, on a work surface covered with plastic wrap. Cover with a second sheet of plastic wrap and pound with a meat mallet to a 3/4 inch thickness (be patient). Spread the bread crumb mixture evenly across the meat leaving a 1/2 border on all sides. Roll the meat over the stuffing, jelly roll fashion, and tuck in the ends. Tie with kitchen twine every two inches and season the outside of the lamb with the remaining salt and pepper.

Place three tablespoons in a large roasting pan and swirl to cover the bottom of the pan. Add the meat and place in the oven to roast until brown and tender and the meat registers your desired level of doneness on a meat thermometer: About 45 minutes for medium-rare, but be careful as different parts of the roast will be cooked sooner.

Meanwhile, put the potatoes in a pot and cover with salted cold water by 1 inch. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes or until soft to a fork. Drain, and throw them into the pan with the roast to brown while the roast finishes cooking, turning them once before you remove the roast from the oven, they will be light brown and a little crispy.

Remove the roast from the oven, transfer the potatoes to a bowl to keep warm and cover. Then cover the roast in the pan tightly with foil, and allow it to rest for 15 minutes.

Transfer the lamb to a cutting board, remove the twine, and slice in 1 inch thick slices or so. Arrange the meat on a platter and place potatoes around the slices. Garnish with fresh herbs if you care to.

Mint Pesto
makes 3/4 cup

This is a beautiful sauce but several of us do not care for mint in large doses. I substituted half parsley for the mint and it was still overwhelming for them. The original recipe appears here so that you may make your own choice. The recipe also called for the potatoes (and haricort vert I omitted from the outset) to be coated in this mint pesto which would have rendered them inedible here, but mint lovers should douse the potatoes liberally as it is a fabulous pesto.

2 cups fresh packed mint leaves
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (or walnuts, which is what I had handy and they were great)
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine the mint, nuts, cheese, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor and process until well-chopped. With the machine running slowly, add all the oil through the feed tube and process to make a smooth paste, scraping down the sides as needed. Adjust the seasonings to taste and transfer to an airtight container to store until ready to use, within five days.

Garlic-Wine Sauce
makes 3/4 cup

Do not, under even emergency lamb-roasting circumstances omit this sauce. It is critical to this dish and so amazing I would eat it over toast for breakfast if there had been any remaining. Not kidding.

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped fresh or dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 cups lamb stock

Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Add the shallots, garlic, rosemary, and thyme, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the salt and pepper and stir well. Add the red wine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook at a brisk simmer until the sauce is reduced by half, about 10 minutes.

Reduce the heat to low and add the remaining butter, a few pieces at a time, whisking to incorporate, adding more butter as the previous pieces are incorporated into the sauce.

Remove from the heat, adjust the seasoning to your taste, and serve immediately. You can either pour it directly over the roast or place it on the table in a sauce boat, which is what I chose.

I photographed the climb for you, and chose to leave out the garlic wine sauce-making photos until another post because this is enough for one post! Anyway, lets go to the photos because even as Emeril says: I really make the food (on this site)!

I made the bread crumbs from some three day old bread I had lingering post-making Vicksburg Tomato Sandwiches.... hummmm, delish. Oh! But I digress.

I threw them in the food processor.

And when I had a good mix of both fine and coarse crumbs I threw them on a baking sheet and toasted them at 300 degrees until golden. This recipe is not suited to box crumbs, so I really had to do this.

Here I have my boiled artichokes which I trimmed and diced for the stuffing. See?

I diced them and set them aside for the stuffing.

Then I made the pesto.

Into the processor went the mint (and parsley, in my case),

then garlic, cheese, nuts, and oil.

Hello, there, Gorgeous.

Then I felt I deserved a little break.
Phew. Stop for a little breakfast.

Then to the stuffing in earnest:

That is the mise (prep) for the stuffing: Bread crumbs, onions, cheese, lemon and zest, and spices. The pancetta was already cooking (rendering) in the pan.

See? I let it drain over there somewhere. Then I added the onion to the remaining fat in the same pan and let cook/ soften for three minutes or until I stopped yammering on the phone and remembered what I was doing.

Then I added the crumbs and spices.

Right. Just like that.

I let it cool. In a big bowl finally, I added it to the artichoke, cheese, pancetta, lemon, and lemon zest and stirred it up really well as you see above. Stuffing is done! Wow, it's only been like two and half days! Sooo great. Alrighty then:

Then the butterflied leg went down between two pieces of plastic wrap and I fiercely beat it. But to get it to the suggested 3/4 inch thickness took my strapping Husband, so when you do this get help or have at the ready the biggest mallet or bully club you can lay hands on. Or a cop, yes, a cop would be very helpful in this situation.

Once I was recomposed to a perfect lady, I took the plastic away and placed the filling on the meat just like so, leaving a 1/2 inch border on all sides.

Now then, I took the butchers twine (which I totally remembered to ask the butcher for and did not have to go back to the market looking for later, or anything like that) and tied it around and around. Holy cow! This was right about the time I was wishing I had gone to culinary school, or yachtsman school, and not a humanities school where they dropped the ball on knots altogether. I had to skewer mine as well because there was just stuffing and lamb sticking out all cattywompus everywhere and I needed to take matters in hand. I was not going to be beaten by a piece of meat.

Then I stopped. Rested. And we ate lunch of mozzarella, farm stand tomatoes, my garden basil, and balsamic vinegar sandwiches with rustic chips. Delish.

Back to work!

I hung around for a while, playing with my children and making a menace of myself in the kitchen garden and after a while I went back inside and coated the roasting pan with olive oil and threw the roast into the oven at 400 degrees until the meat thermometer registered done on all parts of the roast, about 45 minutes or so. After it had cooked for 30 minutes, I tossed the boiled potatoes in next to it and they crisped up nicely (my Grandmother's old "roasted potato" trick).

I removed the pan from the oven, covered it tightly with foil and allowed it to rest for 15 minutes.

On to the board it went and I cut in 1 inch bias slices or slightly larger. Like so.

Beg pardon? Yes! I was doing an end zone victory dance. Oh, how beautiful is this thing? If you think for one second I did not take a cell phone picture of this thing and send it to everyone I ever met including the air conditioning repair guy, you are new here.

How did I do, Peeps?

KILMANJARO, People!!

You made it to the bottom! Great! Now head on over and enter the Blushing Giveaway for
Barefoot Contessa's Back to Basic's! Here.

Barefoot Contessa Giveaway at Blushing Hostess

2009-09-05T14:37:00.001-07:00

Be sure you drop over to Blushing Hostess before September 11, 2009 to enter the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basic's book giveaway, a perfect gift for this perfect readership.

Stop obsessing

2009-09-03T18:10:00.001-07:00

That is what I tell myself about this Delita butter I recently uncovered at the market. It is not inexpensive but it is salty and piquant and constitutes my latest bad habit. Consequently, not unlike Starbucks, they could charge twenty dollars for it and I would still have to pay it: It is addiction.

Beet soup with Hot Potato

2009-09-01T03:01:00.000-07:00

Morning gorgeous readers (oh, you are, you are). As promised, I am here to fill your coffers with the recipes from my A Birthday Dinner menu over at Blushing Hostess. It was a fabulous meal and I cannot recommend these recipes more highly.

To begin, I served an adaptation of Rose Bakery's Cold Beetroot Soup with Hot Potato. It was well into the nineties that evening and I thought this soup would bring a nice balance to the main course which was quite heavy.

I dare say, if one does not care for beets but is willing to try anything by the spoonful once, they would be so pleasantly surprised that the texture here is very much like a cold melon soup and the contrast of lemon and red wine vinegars takes the beet-ness out of the beast, er, as it were.

Onward, then.

Chilled Beetroot Soup with Hot Potato
Serves 6
adapted from Rose Bakery Cookbook: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery

I should say, right up front, that Rose cautions you to be sure you make this soup the day before. Indeed that would truly allow the flavor to deepen and set but, I made this sometime around the time when vampires rule the night the morning before and it did not fail me. I never use water for soup and always make my own stock, though Rose did call simply for water in their recipe and to use either lemon juice or vinegar, I found I like the brightness of both.

2 onions, diced
2 sticks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 pounds beets, diced and peeled
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
8 cups chicken (or vegetable stock if you prefer) stock
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons superfine (caster) sugar
6 medium potatoes, washed and not peeled
sour cream to garnish if you care for it

Place the onions, celery, carrot, and beet in a large saucepan and cover with the chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper. bring the mixture to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for two hours or until the beet is completely softened. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.

Transfer to a food processor and puree until very thin. If the soup is too thick for your taste, add a bit of water.

Chill the soup overnight.

The next day, add the lemon juice, vinegar, and sugar. Taste and adjust the seasoning accordingly. The soup must have a sweet/sour balance.

In a large pan covered with salted water, boil the potatoes until soft. Remove and halve them. Pour the could soup into bowls, put two hot potato halves in the middle of each bowl and add a spoonful of sour cream, if you like.

Melon, lime, ginger

2009-08-24T11:46:00.001-07:00

There is nothing I dislike more than produce these days. I am considering picketing both my local megamart and farmers market (which stocks "local" produce; local to Chile, Argentina, and Mexico specifically, but not here - maybe I no longer understand the definition?) over the utter tastelessness of their fruits and vegetables.

It makes my heart ache to remember the fruit and veggies I knew when I was a child and to think of the cardboard-tasting organics I am feeding my girls now. Will no price I am willing to pay bring anything decent home any longer? Seriously, this is deplorable. I speak to my daughter about the way food that came from my Mother's garden looked at smelled, and it bears no resemblence to the imposters in the crisper. I am pointing fingers at the produce industry: You abuse human beings as migrant labor to farm food that is not worth eating anyway. Stop the waste, both human and plant. Just go straight out of business: I know how to use a seed packet, jokers, okay?

I digress. I was saying: I grossly overpaid for a tasteless cantaloupe and honeydew at the local Fresh Market and once the depth of palate insult had sunk in, I had to rifle through the bookshelf to find this Breakfast Lunch Dinner, The Many Small Meals of Rose Bakery. Vaguely, I recalled, it had a recipe for something with melons. Melon recipes, beyond those involving cured Italian meats, are not that easy to come by; I had this Rose Bakery gem I tucked way mentally in case of just this event.

Rose Bakery is a staggeringly beautiful book, a memoir of feeding Paris its breakfasts: Images of the bakery and dishes tucked in like postcards from the city of light next to recipes more nostalgia around dinnertime for those who know the bakery than instructions. The recipes are heavenly simple but the results always delicious, visually appealing, and outstanding. It is a book I would take into battle and would easily recommend as a wonderful gift for any book or baker.

Having said that, I have to confess to truly bastardizing this recipe because they clearly were dealing with a melon with some flavor. Mine only looked like melons, but tasted like ice. Consequently, this is a technique and not a recipe in earnest as the amounts are dependent on how flavorful and sweet your melons are and your preferences: I like a lot of lime. If you do not, use less but do not omit the citrus: It is the very key to the kingdom. Should lime not appeal, Rose Bakery uses lemon and if you prefer it, I trust you will be just as pleased as I was with lime.

Enjoy this salad with crossiants and fine butter for breakfast or cheese souffle and a bit of French bread at lunch.

Melon, Lime, and Ginger Salad
adapted from Rose Bakery
serves 8

1 honeydew melon, seeded and cut into 1 inch dice
1 cantaloupe melon, seeded and cut into 1 inch dice
1/2 cup superfine sugar, more or less to taste
1 teaspoon ground ginger, more to taste
Juice of two limes, more or less to taste

Now, here is what you do: Put the ingredients in a bowl just as above. Stir gently but thoroughly. Put the bowl in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes. Serve.

Heritage recipe: Cherry Bounce

2009-07-31T19:03:00.000-07:00

Often used as ice cream or cake topping, this recipe for Cherry Bounce appeared in the 1933 publication of Eliza Leslie's, Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cake, and Sweetmeats.

Cherry Bounce

Take a peck of morella cherries, and a peck of black hearts. Stone the morellas and crack the stones. Put all the cherries and the cracked stones into a demi-john, with three pounds loaf sugar slightly pounded or beaten. Pour in two gallons of double rectified whiskey. Cork the demi-john, and in six months the cherry bounce will be fit to pour off and bottle for use but the older it is, the better.

Double Blueberry Muffins

2009-07-28T02:47:00.000-07:00

Morning ya'll.

I thought we would wake up today with Gale Gand's recipe for Double Blueberry Muffins. What do you think?

Do you require any further endorsement?

Heritage recipe: Indian Pudding

2009-07-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

The following recipe was printed in Amelia Simmon's, American Cookery, in 1796, among the first cookbooks published in the United States.

"Indian Pudding"

3 pints scalded milk, 7 spoons fine Indian meal, stir well together while hot, let stand till cooled; add 7 eggs, half pound of raisins, 4 ounces butter, spice, and sugar, bake one and a half hour.

Old Bay giveaway winner

2009-07-17T04:51:00.000-07:00

Congratulations, Amy you have won the Old Bay Anniversary gift! Please email your mailing address and contact information to cccoughlin@aol.com and your prize will be sent to you.

My Last Meal

2009-07-16T01:33:00.001-07:00

We had the meal I would pick as my final one, should the question ever arise, at 29 South in Fernandina Beach the other night. I am gathering my thoughts.

Country Captain: A health-minded revision

2009-07-12T03:50:00.000-07:00

Since I have recently mentioned the Baked Chicken Salad casserole recipe which I prize. I thought I might also update you on another recipe of equally prized stature in my collection: Country Captain. You remember, surely, that I discussed the New York Times recipe with you here.

If you have not made the recipe yet, now is the time. And note when you do, that I used both spinach that I folded in and allowed to wilt, as well as tiny chopped dried cranberries in this interation and I was even more pleased than the last time through. This is a great place to hide nutrients like depth charges. Not, that I would do something sneaky like that to Twinkle Toes.

* A reminder: There is only a few days left to enter the Old Bay reader giveaway here. Be sure to leave a comment.

Irish Famine Blight, Again

2009-07-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

My Godmother kindly passed on this link to an important article regarding potato and tomato crops in the Northeast. Though, it is an important bit of information for food gardener's everywhere.

Vidalia

2009-07-09T03:44:00.000-07:00

Following recipes is not all upside. I wish it were. I want them all to work because I am hungry, do not care to waste, and would not have undertaken if I did not intend to finish and succeed. That said, it is back to the Lipton french onion dip for me.
I happen to love that dip, dessicated onions and all. And I like it far more that my recent foray into Deviled Vidalia Dip or at least the dip produced by the recipe in Jean Anderson's, A Love Affair with Southern Cooking.

I just do not believe dip should be cloyingly sweet such as this. Even though one begins with a huge pile of sliced onions, only half of which are Vidalia (obviously to cut the sweetness off at the knees), after the hour long carmelization process (which really pulls the sweetness to the fore of the Vidalia), all you taste is the sweet note of the Vidalia and the sharper balancing onion is no longer apparent. The addition of mustard and sweet vinegars does not help sensation of tooth-rotting sweetness.

In order to make the dip consumable, I made it into canapes and hit them, alternately, with hot sauce or a sprinkle of hot paprika. They made the dip bearable and the photos possible.

I did get a great lesson in patience out of the creation of this dip, however. This was my onion pile when I began.

They are sauteed slowly, persistently. One hour later, this is what I had.

They helped to make these photogenic, candy-like canapes. All was not lost.

Profile: Chef Scotty Schwartz

2009-07-08T03:15:00.000-07:00

I am lucky to present to you an interview with Chef Scotty Schwartz today. Chef is the owner and executive chef of Blushing Hideout, 29 South, in Fernandina Beach, Florida, the Jacksonville area's Best Restaurant for the past three years running.

Chef Schwartz was formerly the Executive Chef at several of Atlanta's best restaurants and has received numerous achievement awards and accolades, including Gourmet Magazine's top chef list, featured Chef to the Olympic Games, and has cooked for the James Beard House and Foundation. His achievements are too many to recap here and you are best to experience these talents by dining at 29 South rather than reading about them, but to encourage you to do so, here is a profile in American cooking courage: As I have noted before (here and here), I hope you eat Scotty Schwartz's food, not only because he runs the best restaurant in Jacksonville, or because he is one of the greatest chef's whose food you will eat reasonably, and not because of all the love on his plates; Go because the guy cares about the American family and looking after them in every item that enters his kitchen. Go because the good guys are too few, and Sysco too huge. Go, because, for just once in your life, you should know what it is to have both your belly and heart feel good about a meal. The families supported by 29 South and Chef Schwartz's tireless attention to humanity will thank you, and so will I.

There is one question I forgot to ask Chef, however: How do I get invited to employee-family dinners? I was in the restaurant front-house gig for a long time and never once saw a thank you of this caliber.

Q:How did you get into the food business?
A: I didn’t get into medical school and always loved food. Decided to go to culinary school to take some time to figure out what I was going to do with my life and it just fit. I can’t draw or paint or even play a radio but food became this artistic outlet and for me it was easy. I excelled in every aspect of it…school, my apprenticeship, my role as a chef. I was one of the youngest chefs in town when I got my first kitchen in Atlanta and I proved myself with many bumps and bruises along the way.

Q: How would you describe your style?
A: Old school with a modern kick. I’m not sure now. I have evolved over the past 17 years and so has my food. Working in top kitchens in the 90’s it was all about architecture and little to do with taste flavor or sustainability. We ordered food from all over the world for no other reason than we could get it. So what if that vegetable was never meant to be eaten in the winter? Find that one place in the world it was growing and ship the mother. Carbon footprint…please. If it wasn’t growing have someone in a lab or greenhouse create a hybrid that would. Taste was almost second to the need to constantly be the cutting edge. Charlie Trotter was a god and if he cooked with marinated cat tongue we all had to do it. It was a great time for chefs because we came out of the cave. People asked for the chef and not the cook. The idea that XYZ is an acquired taste became the norm.

One day I was sitting in the kitchen and I was cooking an employee meal for the staff and people loved it when I cooked e-meal not because it was served with a foie milkshake but because it was usually simple, delicious no frills food. It hit me that for years I cooked with my ego and not my heart and soul and that I was a follower instead of the great chef I wanted to become. I began to embrace a simple approach to food. The west coast is a little odd at times but thank god for Alice Waters and the simple revelation that if you start with a great ingredient and baby it the least you will get is something very good. This is when I started cooking. This is how I cook. This is my style.

Q: What professional achievement are you most proud of?
A: There are awards, titles, memberships to ancient culinary fraternities, invitations to cook for the who’s who in the culinary world. All of that is worthless in the grand scheme of things. Nothing compares to the pride I feel for earning the respect of my peers, fellow chefs, restaurateurs, employees, patron etc. by serving good honest food. Food that makes someone stop, close their eyes and think this was worth the trip and I can’t wait to share this with my friends. You gave me the best award when you mentioned your experience in your blog. That’s what I’m proud of.

Q: How do you develop dishes and plan menus for 29 South now that you are growing your own produce?
A: Can’t cook with my ego anymore…mother nature writes the menu. We have an amazing climate for growing, and with the amount of product available at our doorstep we had to farm and buy locally. We drive hours to get eggs from our hens because they are the best we can procure. We have a pig farmer that raises Berkshire pigs for us to our specs. We make our own bacon, cure our own corned beef and, yes, pick our own strawberries. Cooks need to see where the food comes from. They need to get their hands dirty. People in this area think I’m insane. The say “You go to all of that trouble and you pay as much or more than we do”. More chefs should support local farms, even if it is just one ingredient it would make a major impact. There is nothing better than shaking the hand of the family that raised your pigs. The impact of that can be seen in the pride our staff has in selling and preparing our food.

Q:Tell me what tool - besides a knife and your hands - no kitchen should be without?
A: A staff. Just kidding. I use a micro plane quite often. I love my mixer, most of all the grinder attachment.

Q:Most essential and versatile ingredient not found in every pantry but worth seeking out?
A: Truffle Salt, dill pollen, fennel pollen and chestnut honey are my favorites.

Q: Best meal you ever ate?
A: French Laundry is up there with Charlie Trotters. Both were worth the pilgrimage but it might have been a dinner at my mom’s house. Hard to say.

Q: When you go out to dinner, where do you go?
A: The Spotted Pig in NYC, I crave it fortnightly. Regionally, Biscotti’s, B.B.’s Bistro Aix and now Orsay.

Q: Cookbook no cook should be without?
A: Simple Food by Alice Waters, The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. For those new to cooking anything by the Barefoot Contessa, the recipes always work.

Q: Food or eating experience no one should miss?
A: Dine at a Michelin 3 Star restaurant at least once in your life. It will teach you how serious we are about food and at the same time that we take ourselves way too seriously.

*29 South is not a sponsor of Blushing Hostess and has in no way compensated for this or any mention at Blushing Hostess.
** Reservations are the best way to assure a table.
** You can now follow the adventures of 29 South through the key pad of Nan on the restaurant's new blog, Ecoculinaire.

Calphalon at Rue La La

2009-07-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

The private sale on Calphalon Cookware starts today at 11 am at Rue La La, you are invited, click here.

Baked Chicken Salad

2009-07-06T03:48:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Charleston and was reminded of a dish I once had at the potluck luncheon the ladies I worked with once had. It is once in a great while, even there, in the traditional old south, that I would see Baked Chicken Salad, let alone a recipe in a newspaper. Even in a place where history is very much part of daily life, this dish is a dinosaur. But such a good relic, I promise you.

Not unlike the cold chicken salad recipe I have long guessed at, Baked Chicken Salad is a southern heirloom recipe with which families do not part. In the south, they believe in secrets.

Someone inevitably comes along claiming to lay bare all manner of secret things, don't they? And just as inevitably, it is close, not exact. It is hard to say whether this is the product of a hostess deliberately leaving out a detail or the writer putting their own take on the dish. Either way, I find Southern recipes the hardest to trust and pin down accurately. In this same category, unfortunately, is one of the few Baked Chicken Salad recipes I found in print, by Jean Anderson. It is a good recipe for something delicious but it is not what I remember and I if I am making it, clearly I want the dish I love. I have attempted to recreate it for you using Ms. Anderson's recipe as a loose guideline.

*A reminder: Do not forget to enter the Old Bay reader giveaway by leaving a comment here.

Baked Chicken Salad, a Casserole
Serves 6
Adapted from Jean Anderson's, a Love Affair with Southern Cooking

I serve this casserole, as all southern casseroles, with hot buttered rice. Carolina, long grain, or brown rice.

3 thick slices, smoked bacon
1 large onion, chopped
1 large celery rib, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 medium garlic clove, finely chopped
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup rich chicken stock
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 cups cooked chicken (or turkey)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley (optional)
1- 4 ounce jar chopped pimentos, well drained
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1/2 cup pecans, toasted, and finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small chunks and kept chilled

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 2 quart casserole with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

Cut the bacon up into small pieces. Place in a large heavy skillet over medium heat and cook until bacon is rendered. Add onion, garlic, celery, and carrot and cook until softened, about ten minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and cook, stirring for one minute. Add the evaporated milk and chicken stock and sit to combine. Cook, stirring constantly, for five minutes or until the mixture boils and thickens to a sauce consistency. Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the mayonnaise, pimentos, parsley, chicken, and heavy cream. Taste, re-season as needed.

Spread this mixture out in the casserole and sprinkle panko evenly over the top followed by the chopped pecans. Dot the top with the tiny butter cubes.

Cook in the oven 30 minutes or until bread crumbs and pecans are evenly browned and the edges are bubbly.

Something Blue

2009-07-02T03:21:00.001-07:00

For this Fourth of July, I am sharing with you one of my most precious secrets. Okay, two. In return, I hope you will remember to enter both Blushing Giveaway's this month: Old Bay and Garden & Gun Magazine. Both are fabulous and great (free) additions to any kitchen or read list.

The first secret is that I spent four months of my life professionally pursuing the perfect pie - three of those on the crust alone - under the tutelage of a woman who spent her entire adult life in the same study. These are some of my discoveries:

1. While nutritionists prefer we not do so, partially hydrogenated fats do contribute to making a perfect crust.
2. If you are going to make your own crust, Julia Child's recipe is the best, hands down.
3. Pillsbury also makes a nice crust.

Those are not secrets. But this is: Every fruit pie needs a method of stabilization for the fruit. In order to prevent it from becoming to runny, raising the crust and then falling away from it, or leaving water in the bottom of the crust, it needs to have a sponge-like ingredient. Some use flour, which works well if you can test the fruit to see how much you will need. Others use tapioca, which has a texture some do not care for. Others - and I cringe - use cornstarch. My secret: Almond meal and a little pastry flour.

I find almond meal is an effective sponge and does not add a noticeable textural issue to a pie. I use a pastry flour because the lighter the flour, the less heaviness, as I have already had to surrender a bit to the almond meal. Some of that almond flavor will be there, but it is no more noticeable than using vanilla extract in any other baked good.

Worth a try once, especially if you have always found fruit pies too mushy, as I did once.

Blushing's Blueberry Pie
Serves 8

1 1/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca*
*or almond meal depending on your textural preference
2 tablespoons light white flour (White Lily or pastry)
6 cups fresh blueberries or 3 (10-ounce) packages frozen (not thawed)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Pastry dough for a double-crust pie
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Put a large baking sheet on oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.

Whisk together sugar, almond meal, and flour and toss with blueberries and lemon juice in a large bowl of ziplock bag (my choice).

Roll out larger piece of dough (keep remaining piece chilled) on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round. Fit into 9 1/2" deep pie plate. Trim excess dough, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Chill shell while rolling out dough for top crust.

Roll out remaining dough on a lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pin into an 11-inch round. Cut out 5 or 6 small holes with small decorative cookie cutters or use a small knife to slash steam vents toward center. Or, even better, get out your Grandma's pie bird to place in the pie (how I wish I had one!)

Spoon filling with any accumulated juices into shell, dot with butter, and cover with top crust. Trim top crust with kitchen shears, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold overhang of top crust under bottom pastry and press against rim of pie plate to reinforce edge, then crimp decoratively and brush with egg wash.

Bake pie on hot baking sheet in oven 30 minutes, then cover edge with foil to prevent overbrowning. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F and continue to bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 45 to 50 minutes more.

Cool pie completely on a rack, about 3 hours.

29 South: Contemporary Southern with Integrity

2009-07-01T02:51:00.000-07:00

When I discuss restaurants, it is in the spirit of Duncan Hines (the founder of the food firm by the same name, which interestingly, did not do cake mixes until it was purchased by a conglomerate) who was a travelling sales man for many years and having compiled a list of great restaurants from his travels, began to add his list to his Christmas cards to friends every year. This was their gift, you see, they always knew where they could enjoy a great meal. Indeed, while his name is best known for box cakes, he was first the precursor to Zagat. In that same way, I hope always to provide you with an excellent resource should you ever go where I have gone.

Now, Jacksonville, my occasional home, is a great town, one you should visit, but not a food town. A lifetime in New York, Charleston, and Boston could turn a person angry when they arrived here. But that person should go to Corpus Christi and then stop complaining: Armed with that knowledge, I am my own best attitude adjustment when I become frustrated for food fixes while in Jacksonville.

There are, so far, exactly two chef's in these parts who have their act together (I am actively seeking more, so email me, Lordy, please email me.): The first is Scotty Schwartz (I have discussed Chef Schwartz here previously) at from Blushing Hideout, 29 South, in Fernandina Beach, Florida. The second is Matthew Medure (who makes a lovely duck and has divine wines, but his Ponte Vedra location is a tad too New York hipster self-conscious for my taste). There you have it. It is the largest city by land mass in the United States and it just dabbles in eating. This seems odd and wrong, given that it is likely the only thing anyone here does three times a day.

I have had a lot of middle of the road experiences in Jacksonville. Not good, not bad. Also, not memorable. Since it is an easy piece to the freshest food and longest growing season in the country, the food should sparkle with just-out-of-the-field flavor and deep hues. But, most places here take a delivery truck of middling product once a week and their chefs and managers seem to be phoning it in for all the interest anyone on the floor takes. I concentrate on this issue to get your attention, get you into good doors, keep you out of places that should shutter, and convince Scotty Schwartz to take them over. Thereby finally improving the food black hole here: It speaks volumes that 29 South has been Jacksonville's number one restaurant for three years now, but it is not in, or even near, metro Jacksonville.

Will he have it? Hard to say. It is a huge plan, this Scotty Schwartz restaurant domination thing. But when I consider the vastly indifferent meals I have had at the hands of some very high profile chefs, I can hardly believe my suggestion is entirely unrealistic. As you will see from these photos, Chef is committed to the quality of his food and not unlike several of the Blushing Hideouts, he is growing his own produce there. I hope you enjoy the garden photos interspersed throughout this piece - that is your dinner you are viewing. I love about this restaurant that I can see the food growing going into my babies on my way down the street and that the farm and produce partners enjoy an encouraging mention on the 29 South website.

On the other hand, maybe keeping oneself grounded with the knife and food and the garden and not over-branding is what makes chefs great, because shooting food television is lastly about cooking.

I read a lot of recipes but cherish those with the notes a chef or cook most. It was similar in corporate life: Many of the documents I learned the most from were those which included the scribbled margin notes of my mentors. They are a window into their talent, experience, and perspective. In cooking, perhaps even more so, there is just something about the notes of the person who has labored over a perfect prize and a grand girl of a recipe, especially when they have perfected a regional blessing with their own individual stamps. I hope this recipe of Chef Scotty's will come to mean just as much to you (and as further recommendation, the reason I requested it initially is that it is one of the three foods my little girl consumes willingly.)

I only lightly edited the recipe for you today, mostly for spacing on my page, because as time goes by, and you make this at home, and I tell you about Chef Scotty in an interview follow up later this month, I think you will be glad to have this just as he wanted it; with his own voice speaking to the cadence of a great chef's hands making a dish that which not be great without him.

29 South makes a lot of contemporary, thoughtful, upscale dishes which I will highlight for you in no time. It also makes a humble dish of a pulled pork sandwich into a glorious cathedral to smoked pork. When you visit that lovely, haunting beach town, Fernandina Beach, and look for a place to eat lunch, dinner, or brunch, I hope you will go first to 29 South. In the interest of full disclosure: 29 South is not a sponsor of this blog and I eat at 29 South more often than Chef is aware; I am his customer, you see. And the best way to continue to enjoy a really great business is to tell everyone and help them to flourish, especially when they are one of the good guys, whose integrity is apparent in the house and on the floor.

Please be certain to set both Blushing Hostess Cooks and Entertains to your subscriptions for a interview with Chef Scotty this month; such a great mix of candor and humility. And check out the new 29 South blog penned by Nan, Ecoculinaire.

29 South's Pulled Pork Sandwich
courtesy Chef Scotty Schwartz, 29 South, Fernandina Beach, Florida

Pork:
The Rub
¼ Cup Brown Sugar
¼ Cup Kosher Salt
2 Tbs Cracked Black Pepper
¼ Cup Dark Chili Powder
2 Tbs Instant Espresso
Combine in a Zip lock bag and shake well
1 Boston butt or Shoulder Roast (at 29 South this is from our Berkshire Pigs at DelKat Farm) please buy from a farmer you know.
Rub Pork well with the spice mixture. I mean rub as if you are giving it a massage. Then let sit for at least 2 hours. Place in a smoker with your favorite wood (we use Applewood for the sweet and mild flavor but sometimes I throw in a little hickory for umph) and cook over indirect heat. BBQ is Low and slow so keep your smoker around 200 degrees. Smoke the pork for 6 hours then cover the roast tight with foil and place in a pan in a 200 degree oven for 6 more hours. If you are having fun on the grill you can leave it there to finish wrapped in foil. The Pork should fall apart at the touch when finished. Set the pork aside to cool slightly while you make the sauce.

Sauce:
¼ Pound Diced Slab Applewood Smoked Bacon. We make our own at the restaurant with Dell’s Berkshire Pigs We use everything on those pigs! If we could make Berkshire Pig Ice Cream we would.
1 med onion diced brunoise (tiny dice)
2 Cups Ketchup…make your own when you have too many tomatoes in your garden. Is there anything more decadent than Heirloom Tomato Ketchup?
½ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup apple cider vinegar.
¼ cup cheap bourbon
Render the fat from the bacon and saute the onions till translucent. Combine the remaining ingredients and simmer to develop the flavor and thicken. About 20 minutes. Don’t be afraid to add your own touch to this. A great chef once said “You are the boss in your kitchen” add what you like and call it your own.

Apple Shallot Compote:
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 pound fresh shallots, peeled, with roots intact
1 pound sliced red or golden delicious apples
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons good red wine vinegar
¼ cup water
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Melt the butter in a 12-inch ovenproof saute pan, add the shallots sugar, and toss to coat. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, tossing occasionally, until the shallots start to brown. Add the vinegar, water, thyme, apples, salt, and pepper and toss well. Cover and braise the shallot apple mix until tender. Remove the cover and cook to reduce the braising liquid until thickened to glaze the shallots and apples. Remove from heat and season, to taste, sprinkle with parsley, and serve hot on the sandwich or chicken or lamb or quail or squab or foie gras or…

Slaw
Shredded Napa Cabbage tossed in 29 South House Vinaigrette:
½ cup champagne vinegar
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 cup of canola oil
½ cup of olive oil
Place sugar and vinegar in a pan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for two minutes. Remove from heat. Place in a blender with mustard. While blending, slowly drizzle in olive oil and canola oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Build the mother of all pork goodness:
Toss shredded pork in the sauce and place on a Kaiser roll or brioche bun (recipe to come later ok, ok if you need it see below)
Top with Apple Shallot Compote and a pile of Slaw.
Precariously place the top of the bun on this mountain of love.
Pile homemade fries tossed in fresh garlic and rosemary salt on the side and serve.

Brioche Rolls - Barefoot Contessa Style
1/2 cup warm water (110 to 120 degrees F)
1 package dried yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
6 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
4 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon milk, for egg wash

Combine the water, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (If the bowl is cold, start with warmer water so it's at least 110 degrees F when you add the yeast.) Mix with your hands and allow to stand for 5 minutes until the yeast and sugar dissolve. Add the eggs and beat on medium speed for 1 minute, until well mixed. With the mixer on low speed, add 2 cups of the flour and the salt and mix for 5 minutes. With the mixer still on low, add 2 more cups of flour and mix for 5 more minutes. Still on low speed, add the soft butter in chunks and mix for 2 minutes, scraping down the beater, until well blended. With the mixer still running, sprinkle in the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Switch the paddle attachment to a dough hook and mix on low speed for 2 minutes. Scrape the dough into a large buttered bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Grease 2 sheet pans. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and divide the dough into 8 4-ounce balls (rolls) and place on the sheet pans. Cover the pans with a damp towel and set aside to rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
When the rolls have risen, brush the top of each with the egg wash and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the tops spring back and it sounds slightly hollow when tapped. Turn the rolls out onto a wire rack to cool.

Josh and I did made the recipe, of course, and I am happy to share these photos with you:

How beautiful is this shoulder, I ask you?

Your pork, once the fat cap is removed and the meat is pulled, will look like this.

While I would have loved to make the bread for last weekend's picnic, I did not have it me - new baby exhaustion. But the pork sandwich is also divine on soft focaccia.

I definately suggest you try it at home, it is an amazing sandwich even when not seated on the pretty porch at 29 South.

Moroccan Chicken, without much Moroccan

2009-06-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

Firstly, some housekeeping: Do not forget to enter the Garden & Gun giveaway at Blushing Hostess Entertains or the Old Bay giveaway here at Blushing Hostess Cooks. Both are worth a second to leave your name.

Perhaps the most ringing endorsement of this dish is the photo I did not show you: The two year old hand that reached on to the plate to swipe a piece of chicken as I was taking this picture. That shot is in her baby book, and privately dear to me. This chicken will be very dear also as it is officially the fourth thing my Daughter eats.

This recipe appeared in Bon Appetit's Fast, Easy, Fresh column recently and it is two of three: easy enough and fresh. One hour to put it on the table though, in a working household, though, is unfortunately not fast. And while the magazine is referring, maybe, to 25 minutes of active time in their assessment, I differ in opinion: At the very least, you need to keep an eye on the simmer rate and turn the chicken occasionally.

They call it braised. I venture to guess some cooks will disagree as it is forced which is indeed the very antithesis of a braise.

Now, calling it Moroccan is a rough approximation. Likely, to be more genuine, had you preserved a couple of lemons two weeks before and used as many fresh warm spices as you could here, it would have smacked of more authenticity. Preserved lemons are just washed, cut and jarred lemons covered in kosher salt and allowed to sit in the fridge for two weeks at least. Do a few at once and you are in better stead. As it is, the dish is merely continental - not that there's anything wrong with that.

Try it if you have a hour; hoping you are happily surprised that your children love it.

Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives and Lemon
Adapted from this Bon Appetit recipe
4 servings

2 lemons
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large red onion, halved, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 4 1/2-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, skin removed
1/2 cup green olives
Accompaniment: Toasted garlic bread croutons and a huge spinach salad.

Cut 1 lemon into 8 wedges. Squeeze enough juice from second lemon to measure 2 tablespoons; set wedges and juice aside. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sprinkle with salt and pepper; saute until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Add the next 5 ingredients; stir 1 minute. Add broth and bring to a boil.

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper; add to skillet. Add lemon wedges. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, turning halfway through, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer chicken to a cutting board and debone, place on your platter in some pretty fashion.

Add olives and 2 tablespoons lemon juice to skillet. Increase heat to high and boil uncovered to thicken slightly, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over chicken.

Happy Anniversary Old Bay and a giveaway

2009-06-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

It is Old Bay Seasoning's 70th anniversary and in honor of this milestone, Old Bay has generously offered to provide a Blushing Hostess reader with an Old Bay gift basket laden with seasoning, recipes, and a pile of signature gifts. I don't know about you, but I would not approach a crab or lobster without Old Bay; as you know, because I am certain you have my lobster-stuffed mushroom recipe committed to memory by now.

Here is what we'll do: One entry if you leave me a comment. Two entries if you leave me a comment linking back to this post and mentioning the Blushing Hostess blogs. The winner will be drawn at random on July 15th. Tell your friends.

Underwhelmed

2009-06-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

Pals.

I find it impossible to be light and charming when I desperately want a restaurant to go away. After a year and much thought about this piece I have concluded I am on the right path if only to get the restaurateurs' attention. Bear with me, maybe we will achieve improvement.

Slider's is a wood-panelled seafood place in Neptune Beach, Florida. It has a prime location right on the main street of that tiny village, one block off the ocean. Sliders enjoys a pretty dining room, an old salt's bar in the same room, and a large outdoor patio in a town that can afford to eat good food.

It is unfortunate then, that Slider's, not unlike its contemporaries in Tropical Caribe and Sun Dog, food and drinks are just absurdly miserable. I mean, appallingly bad. So poor that I guess it certainly an embarrassment even to their hopelessly middling wait staff and thoroughly clueless hostesses.

Here then, one years worth of painful thoughts on the place suffered at the hands of guests who seem to adore Slider's:

1. Grossly overcooked rubbery shrimp; an assault on the freshest local specialty.

2. Protein portions of fish in the fish taco equalling roughly two ounces of grilled fish.

3. Ever decreasing portion amounts of food not worth making any portions of.

4. Bad wines. I mean, weapons grade swill. Obviously unsuccessful attempts to poison yours truly.

5. Preposterous bench seating in the middle of the room which is often missing the cushions: Totally awesome for thinner women who have just given birth.

6. Lobster tails so overcooked they were charred to their shells.

7. Flavorless, poorly conceived dishes lacking seasoning and any consideration towards varying flavors.

8. Really the last straw: Last night I ordered a glass of "sangria," which arrived in a huge fountain soda glass. When I said to the waitress I had never seen sangria served that way, she said, "Oh, that's because they cover it with a shot of Sprite."

To which I replied, having known a few sangria's, "Excuse me? Did you say Sprite?"

"Yes." She said.

"That's disgusting." I said under my breath. And it was. What is with that anyway? I will venture to guess it a means of making the more costly ingredients go further which seems to be the cornerstone upon which this business was founded: Taste, quality, and return customers be damned.

The place it rarely packed. It does business, but given the location and clientele, it could be a world-beater. It is like an unloved child of a restaurant run by non-foodies whose care towards both ingredients and preparation lacks commitment, interest, discipline, and knowledge. Just avoid it, and the places of its ilk out there if want to have a decent experience going out to dinner in Neptune Beach. Until I see this place fold or a sign that it is under new management, this recommendation will stand: I have no interest in food cooked by the unimpassioned or cocktails made by soda jerks.

For fathers and Brits

2009-06-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

On this Friday evening just passed, Josh and I were lucky enough to attend a cocktail party hosted by the officers of a British Naval vessel visiting this port. Admittedly, I am a stand-away observer to my Husband's career (for a number of healthy reasons) and I was struck by the contrast evident with the officers with whom Josh serves. I dare say, and here is where it will be really great if he forgets to read a few posts, these British they are charming, social, (dare I say it?) fun, and not the least bit self-conscious regards their own social graces which are (and you could say I am a tough judge) pitch perfect anyway.

This is a phenomenon I have noted in my own travels between the UK and US in more situations than just this recent gathering. But I knew it perhaps innately as well, as indeed, my own Grandfather, Harold "Red" Turnbull was a master of our spoken language in a formal way with a far more broad vocabulary than I have found conversationally in the US otherwise (but do not please, for one second, believe I lack patriotism). He was a comfortable, warm person whose voice never belied a mite of nervousness in dealing with his fellow man. He was the kind of man you wanted to know: A gentleman, yes. A friend, always. But a Brit, you see, through and through and in my experience, different than the American assumptions of both those terms. He was, as they say, comfortable in his own skin in way too many are not here and now. Why? I only wish I knew. But I hung about with Grandpa, and visited the UK with him, and I can tell you assuredly, there were more like him there. I have found none like him here.

It had something to do with being absolutely certain he was okay, right with the world. He always looked swell, and never thought very much about it because swell was his natural way. He smoked and drank a little but not with any interest or real commitment. And he sang or hummed all the live long day. I mean: He was a charming man. He smiled, even when he was burdened he never laid it on your plate with even a frown.

He was the sort unafraid to talk to a powerful person, a beautiful woman, or a scoundrel and he took the same, "Very pleased to meet you" tone with one and all. He had a British accent but beyond that, no affectation (which I have always thought was self-concious glaring terror anyhow). When you called Grandpa Turnbull and asked something of him, no horses would be spared to be at your side in a time of need. He was a good man. The kind of person who never would say he had something he had to do, wonder what was in it for him, or had to stop to change his clothes thinking maybe he could look better. He just came: With his broad, handsome smile, earnest handshake, old tweeds, and without judgement. And he lent a hand to human beings. He and my Mother have always been known for this quality, this open kindness, humanitarianism, understanding, decency.

I loved him. He was my best friend for more years that I know. When he was leaving us, I flew home from Charleston. It was a cold spring day and his exit took grace, elegance, and shimmer from my days in ways I still uncover and which causes much heart to stall in a bit of agony.

This past Friday, I had a conversation with a British officer hailing from not far away from where Harold Turnbull began his life in Hartlepool, England and I caught mesmerizing glimpses of him in the accent, the easy certain elegance, and the even-handedness of a British officer we are now lucky to know. How I miss our man and the sound of his voice. But how lucky I was to get to speak with Dave and be reminded of him. I can only hope he keeps in touch as we have asked as I thought it such a gift, especially on this Father's Day weekend.

Rather ghostly coincidence, is it not?

Spicy Cuke and Apple Pickles

2009-06-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

How is this for long, hot Southern summer in a jar?

As I went to review my photos just now, I wanted lemonade and a pimento cheese sandwich with these pickles. Now we're talking. Where is Frank Stitt when I need him? Because caring for two babies who never, ever sleep at the same time, is grueling. It is a wonder I was able to finish this four minute recipe.

To get there, you will need to start here:

Okay, you caught me gratuitously using shots of green things. And making gratuitous Frank Stitt mentions. I do love that color: What is not wrapped up in those shades?: Green fields, healthy eating, spring, summer, the smell of freshly cut grass? Sunday dinners with four vegetable dishes? Is there a better color? I think not. And I do love the man's book, not to mention his pimento cheese. You try it, then tell me I am wrong.

On to the spicy pickles which you should eat with sandwiches and meats at every hour of the day and night. If you have not had a Korean kimchi or spicy pickle before, this is a great place to start. I do not go in for extra trips to the grocery or Asian market consequently I have substituted things I have guessed can be found in many kitchens; chances are you could make these right now without much of an effort. I suggest you do and break your lunch out of the turkey on wheat mold.

And yes, I know apples are not usually pickles. But "pickle" is a term for the method, not a cuke in vinegar and therefore, apples make perfectly acceptable pickles. Come, step out there, order your roast beef with apple pickles at the deli and see what Tony says... then send him here.

Spicy Cuke and Apple Pickles
Serves 6
Adapted from this Gourmet recipe

Honestly, I sliced the cukes and called it a day and they were great. You can go through the process below, in fact, if you do, you will be my hero. Mine were great without. You can use thai chiles and ginger root but you need not worry if you work from the spice rack, they will still be ssweet and spicy all at once.

1/2 pound Japanese or Kirby cucumbers
1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
1/2 pound Granny Smith apples
2 cups water
1/3 cup rice vinegar or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon very thin matchsticks of peeled ginger or 1 teaspoon ginger powder
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of Korean hot red-pepper threads (optional) or 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Slice cucumbers crosswise 1/8 inch thick and toss with sea salt. Let stand 30 minutes, then rinse well and squeeze out excess liquid with your hands.

Halve apple half lengthwise and cut out core. Slice crosswise 1/8 inch thick.

Toss apple with cucumbers and remaining ingredients and marinate, chilled, turning occasionally, at least 1 day.

Pickles keep, chilled, 3 days.

Asparagus Vichyssoise and the Meltdown

2009-06-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, there has been an operating difficulty: Namely, my hard drive was fried this past Thursday. Both the photos of my consomme cups which I was to deal with over at Blushing Hostess Entertains and the Asparagus Vichyssoise recipe I was to share with you are potential victims, I will not know until I can review the contents of the last back up whether any of this transfixing asparagus and porcelain discussion could be saved. Please don't cry. So, no pictures today, ok?

I want to give you something to appreciate in the meantime. Carol at Alinea survived quite a plane incident last week, making my hard drive issue look like an ice cream cone on a Sunday afternoon. Have a visit with my fellow food blogger and please comment to let her know you are glad she is still here. And she did finally get to have dinner at Alinea...

Greens and french toast

2009-05-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, two combined concepts gave me a new jumping off point for a wealth of possibilities. If ever there was a fresh, savory, tasty spring brunch dish, this is it: Sauteed spring greens over savory french toast. I love this dish perhaps more than any of those I have tested for this site. The concept here has limitless range. In future recreations, it could have grilled or slow roasted vegetables, different combinations of spices, grilled chicken or fish, or the addition of hot sausage in the saute. So many things are possible. This is a creativity- reinvigorating dish and I am pleased to share it with you.

Sauteed Spring Greens over Savory French Toast
Serves 6
Adapted from this concept and this recipe

Lovely with a young, green Sauvignon Blanc and a stunning view.

1/2 pound asparagus tips, washed and cut into 2 inch pieces
2 teaspoons coarse salt for the blanching water
1 large bunch broccoli rabe, washed and trimmed of stems
2 teaspoons sugar for the blanching water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced fine
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, half-and-half, or milk
1/2 cup grated fresh Parmigianno-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 tablespoons of your favorite dried herb/s in any combination
12 slices 1-inch-thick sturdy bread such as sourdough loaf or Tuscan pane
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups arugula washed
French gray sea salt for dusting over top of finished dish

Fill a large pot with water and set over high heat add 2 teaspoons salt. When the pot reached a rolling boil, add the asparagus. Cook 2 minutes or until the asparagus is bright green and with a slotted spoon remove to a paper towel lined plate. Do not discard the blanching liquid.

Add the 2 teaspoons sugar to the pot, stir to dissolve the sugar, and be sure it remains at a boil. Add the broccoli rabe to the pot and cook 3 minutes. The leaves will be wilted and the crowns bright green. With a slotted spoon remove the rabe to the plate with the asparagus. Set aside.

In a large skillet over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon each butter and olive oil, allow the butter to melt and stir quickly to combine. Add the garlic and cook, stirring occasionally for 2 minutes. Do not allow the garlic to color or scorch. Add the asparagus and broccoli rabe to the skillet and cook for 5 minutes, tossing or stirring gently occasionally. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, Parmesan, herbs, and salt.

Place the bread slices in a shallow baking dish large enough to hold them in a single layer. Pour egg mixture over bread; soak 10 minutes. Turn slices over, and soak until bread is soaked through, about 10 minutes more.

Return to the asparagus and broccoli rabe mixture and gently toss in the arugula. It will wilt happily into the mixture. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place a wire rack on a baking sheet; set aside. Heat 2 tablespoon butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Fry half the bread slices until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to wire rack; place in the warm oven while cooking remaining bread.

Repeat with remaining butter, oil, and bread. Keep in oven until ready to serve. Heat remaining onion mixture in a small skillet until warm. Serve French toast warm, topped with reserved asparagus, broccoli rabe, and arugula mixture top with shaved Parmesan and gray sea salt, if desired.

A place to launch

2009-05-26T11:30:00.001-07:00

The other day, I was excited. In a world of expected dishes when someone can do something with food at home that is healthy, creative, and outside the box, it reminds there is so much more yet to learn and reinvigorates my cooking.

My Sister-in-Law, Amy, does not give herself credit when it comes to her ability to study or work with food. But she has a keen sense for flavor and lightness when reading recipes and chooses the bright lights of the fresh food revolution. My heart breaks for her a little that she is not cooking in area with year round fresh produce, like much of California. And as Amy hones her skills, I could easily imagine her in the bountiful day markets of France or Italy. In our corner though, with six-months of winter in metro New York City and most of the food grown elsewhere, the produce has left any freshness behind in its crate from South America. But she manages to find the gems always, in the recipes and the ingredients.

She made, and my brother helped to grill, a dish recently from a Donna Hay cookbook. It called for chicken and vegetables to be marinated at room temperature and then grilled. Once cooked and while still warm, they were tossed with arugula and topped with an arugula mayo. It tasted as pretty as it looked. No joke, these are photos of the food placed in front of me, there is no styling involved:

Amy served it with garlic bread which was a perfect accompaniment for a family of carb addicts.

This dish and the bread got me thinking: First, about what a great dish it would be in any number of variations: Oven roasted veggies in the winter. Sauteed blanched greens. With dense grilled fish. Marinated in olive oil with za'atar spice. Grilled portobello instead of chicken. And so on. It has a huge food universe of possibilities.

Similarly, I have had on my mind a Martha Stewart recipe for savory french toast which has been bothering me for its expected-ness. It is another idea with endless possibilities. Why kill it dead by dragging out the expected bacon? Yawn. Sigh. Snore.

Some other creation should be born of Amy's great start and this French toast bore... their moment of greatness awaits.

I'm not a Make-Ahead Ninja

2009-05-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

But you already knew that.

My Husband has called from very far away places on this planet while floating around in his big grey tuna can and asked me why I have to go to the grocery nearly every day. It's French, I say. And he will sigh. In truth, it has to do, with either my fierce determination that all our food be fresh or my insatiable food reading habit. Maybe I also cannot stand a $400 tab but, in the end, he is right, we will spend it so we might as well get on with it. But I come from frugal stock, even if we are only kidding ourselves (which is a completely free preoccupation, I might add). So understanding that I am totally incapable of providing certain types of info to you, I have to hand you off to other bloggers who can comment on things like group monthly cooking experiments, for example.

I read this post at Like Merchant Ships like a stranger in a new world. It might be interesting to you too. And also my Husband, who will surely tell me his Mom was absolutely a ninja at make ahead food, which is okay by me because I write blogs and consider myself a blog ninja. Enjoy.

Historical interlude: Benedictine

2009-04-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

You probably thought I was going to tell you about a B&B cocktail. Certainly that is the most widely known Benedictine in the food and beverage world. But we are here to discuss the lesser known champ: The dip or sandwich dressing which is said to have been created in Louisville, Kentucky at Benedict's restaurant and also going by the name Benedictine. With the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby dead ahead of us, why, what better time than the present?

I will grant you two things right off the bat: First, I have not made it. I have my hands full and anyway, I am tied up with the staggeringly serious and pivotal testing of banana fritters. If I don't figure that out, what will become of us?

And secondly, you might say it reads like a Paula Deen recipe. I would not call you a fool for saying so either, it sho' ain't heath food, baby. But look, it is a celebration of the contesting of the greatest horse race on earth (if horse races can indeed be called, "great"), and it is best to put your party in good stead with attention to the matters of history when it comes to event planning.

Before you furrow your brow and wonder why I did not post on the Hot Brown (just stand by) and the Julep (can you hear me snoring? Sorry!) I could have done as I am perfectly capable of mixing one right now with the early mint in the beds and snapping a few inspiring shots but you would have rightly called me a tearing bore and never come again. So, what have we to lose for trying something less well known and consequently, more exciting? Not to mention how thrilled I am this feeds my my great fascination with food coloring once again morphed into a faux-elegantista among the cocktail nibbles: Shameless food coloring vamp that I am, I am always looking for a place to sneak it in and still hear everyone tell me how marvelous and erudite I am! Oh, how I giggle smugly inside.

Alright, enough of that drivel. Let's get on with it...

By the way, my entertaining notes on the Derby and uniquely sparkling perspective can be found here and here.

Benedictine
I have had this recipe in a notebook long enough that it looks abused. No clue from whence it spring, if it belongs to you, stand up and take a bow.

1 large cucumber
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons grated onion
1/4 tsp salt
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
dash green food coloring (totally not optional)

Peel, grate, and drain cucumber. Combine with remaining ingredients in food processor. Serve as is or as a sandwich or canape spread. Thin with sour cream to make a dip for vegetables.

Henkels at Rue La La

2009-04-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

Great news for cooks. Rue La La has a wonderful sale on Henkels knives until tomorrow. For example, the utility knife above is normally $100 and is $49 on Rue La La. Email me under "Profile" then "Contact" if you need an invitation to this private shopping service.

Happy Easter and Passover

2009-04-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

A little of our Easter celebration here.

Give 'til it hurts

2009-04-09T06:28:00.000-07:00

What a lovely gift for the cook who loves to experiment: A salt collection including six fine and exotic salts from around the globe. If you have never experienced the magic of a fine finishing salt, this might be a great place to begin. Available here.

Cadence

2009-04-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

This method is all I can do and absolutely the best I can do for you all at once when it comes to food: Ease, economy, and a meal staple which is both comforting and satisfying as well as elegant and attractive. If you can do only one thing well in the kitchen, it should be roast chicken. It will always be greeted warmly at any table and will yield hundreds of other dishes. I should send you no further into the world without this knowledge.

It will take a couple of hours requiring no more of you than a few initial steps but it is not a quick fix nor as easy as anything out of a make-dinner-simple brightly colored pre-made food box. Like anything else, it is half skill and half feel but once your hands know the cadence and your vision knows the desired outcome, it will be the easiest big finish meal in the arsenal. It has always been a Sunday chicken in our house owning only to the length of the cooking time, not to any difficulty in process.

If you simply must have a recipe then I suggest a book which was once recommended by a chef like this "I don't care if you have no money and you don't have a place to live, buy this book, " it is Barbara Kafka's Roasting and there is not a recipe in it that is not money in the bank.

Since this is a method for roasted chicken, it requires a ferociously hot oven. High heat is the very definition of roasting in my book. 350 degrees will yield you only a dry baked chicken. Be sure your oven is very clean beforehand or keep the fire extinguisher handy.

Into the roasting pan, throw a bag of carrots peeled and cut into large pieces and three medium onions cut in very large wedges (if the onion is cut small or chopped it will scorch and ruin the whole kaboodle). Coat with olive oil, then season generously with salt and pepper. Toss them about the pan until coated and be sure the entire bottom of the pan is covered in oil so the chicken will not stick.

Take a large roasting chicken and rinse it outside and in. Coat the skin generously with softened butter, then season the bird outside and in with salt and pepper. Don't be shy. Truss the bird if you know how, if not, don't.

Place the bird in a 450 degree oven and roast for about one and half hours or until the thermometer pops. Begin checking the thermometer after one hour. If, after one hour, the skin is very golden, cover the pan with foil or a baking sheet, continuing to check quickly every 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked.

Some of the veggies may be too dark to eat, salvage all remainders as they make a wonderfully tasty side dish, although not slimming.

I hope this serves you well to the end of your days.

Now for a fabulous giveaway of Tricia Lowenfield's children's book Be Kind, Be Sweet, here at Blushing Hostess Entertains. And don't miss the tablescape of Eve's crudite table there as well for the tablescape anniversary!

And be sure to catch Kimba's DIY party at A Soft Place to Land here, full of projects I am precluded from being involved in owing to being a menace with tools!

Tuscan Salad

2009-04-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

There are many things about Tuscany that will remain with you until the end of your days but perhaps none so easily accessed daily as their masterful way with good clean foods and unmuddled flavors. One of my favorite salads from the years my work took me to sweater vendors there was something not far from the below. It will not replace a trip to Tuscany but it will be a wonderful addition to your repertoire.

I would sooner see you leave out the artichoke than replace it with canned or frozen.
They are a lot of work, certainly, but the rubbery and tart canned version and the watery frozen suspects are no form of replacement. The salad will be just as lovely but perhaps a bit less filling without.

Tuscan Salad
Use enough of each to accommodate servings and preferences.

Being certain to carefully rinse the white beans and to toast the pine nuts is critical to the quality of this salad. Take no short cuts.

Wild Arugula
Freshly cooked and trimmed artichoke hearts
Rinsed cannelli beans
Dry toasted pine nuts
Huge shavings of excellent quality parmiggano-reggiano
Lemon Vinaigrette

Seafaring tales

2009-04-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

Firstly, yes, that is a Ritz cracker. I love them and I don't care what is in them: But please don't tell me. There are just some thing's I am not supposed to know.

Secondly, I love Legal's Clam Chowder enough to import it. Also, their coconut shrimp and a pinot noir which were part of my Saturday afternoon Boston shopping loop after Newbury and on my way into Saks and before I became addicted to the guilty pleasure of the burger in the quiet of the Oak Room after a week of fashion house insanity. But I really digress.

For a short while I had fresh (then) chopped clams in the freezer and since it was winter and I am now at least one hour from Legal's, which is now everywhere it seems, I googled the recipe and made it myself. It was fabulous and just as good without my shucking my own clams (stop it) or buying salt pork (seriously, come on).

Blue Cheese Gougères

2009-04-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

And so we come to my new favorite nibble, the Blue Cheese Gougères from Cooking Up a Storm, a book which I have suggested - downright begged - everyone to buy and possess. I cannot publish my adapted recipes from this deeply moving and thorough volume and anyone who does is no friend of mine: To give them out would mean one fewer books sold and NOLA needs the profits. But I can, at the very least, point you to my favorites that you will have this reference when you get your own copy.

I promise you, finer nibbles you will rarely find. I used a salty Danish blue because it needed to stand up to a heavyweight bordeaux. I was a concerned about this combination but anxious to try out the recipes from this book. Neither the depth of the wine nor the pungent saltiness of the puff let me down. I have long made Julia Child's gougères for company and in an emergency, say, when I incinerated the Apple, Bacon, Butterscotch app from Alinea at Home. But this is my new game, so long plain Jane.

I hope you enjoy the book, give it to friends as Hostess gifts, to your Mom for Mother's Day, to your hairstylist...

Chimi for Amy

2009-04-01T13:10:00.000-07:00

I hoped I would get this on to the site last week before my Sister-in-Law, Amy, made it for a dinner party. I wish I had because when she told me she did not think it tasted like mine - but was still wonderful - we would have recognized that I forgot to tell her about the scallions. Well, Amy, here you are and now it is complete.

This is not a traditional chimichurri. If it were, it would be cilantro and parsley (and certainly it still could be, just split the parsley and add an equal amount cilantro) however, not everyone enjoys cilantro. I learned from a visit to Bouley test kitchen here in New York, that excellent parsley is its own reward. Too often it is labelled tasteless and left unused while cilantro chimi's and basil pesto's proliferate. It should be more highly considered: Parsley's more delicate flavor allows for more versatility in use of this sauce.

I think you'll find this sauce is equally as deserving of a place on your table and a keeping place in your fridge. We keep it in the original consistency as described below, using it as a healthier alternative to mayo on sandwiches and burgers. We thin it to make vinaigrette's, and add it to casseroles and pasta sauces. I think once you have a great herbal sauce love which is not too overwhelming in flavor, you can enjoy it constantly and it is worth the once a month blender wrestling to always have it at the ready. Enjoy.

Chimichurri
Makes about 3/4 cup
I normally double this recipe because it has so many uses, but this yield will go a very long way.

1/2 cup best quality olive oil, more as needed
Juice of 1 lime, more to taste
2 large bunch parsley, stems removed
4 green onions (scallions), roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon honey, more to taste

In the bowl of a blender, combine the olive oil, lime juice, and as much parsley as will fit. Blend one minute, occasionally stopping to scrape down the bowl, until it reaches a pesto consistency. Add the remain parsley, green onions, garlic cloves, red wine vinegar, salt pepper, and honey. Blend again completely processed to sauce. Taste. Adjust salt, pepper, and honey to taste. Refrigerate. It is best after an hour or two in the fridge to allow it to marry.

You may think this out with more olive oil while still in the blender or later if you like a thinner consistency to use for marinades or vinaigrette's. We use the original thick, spreadable consistency for sandwich spread to replace mayonnaise. A slightly thinned version is used for a serving sauce over Argentinian rubbed grilled meats. It is also lovely combined with mayo for burgers and sandwiches if you do not mind the calories.

We need your help

2009-03-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

Read this. Donate here. Hunger is unacceptable. Please help now. The Hostess thanks you in advance for getting involved.

Feedback please

2009-03-31T04:25:00.000-07:00

Morning, Pals.

I have a number of emails now which request I include the approximate cost of the dishes
on the site for an easy reference in these difficult times. I will try to increase to this level of detail. Keep in mind this is only a general estimate and the difficulty will be in representing
the cost of bulk purchased pantry items, but I will try to get as close as I can.

Be well,
The Hostess

Be courageous and brave

2009-03-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

I know the posts are sparse these days. No excuses, that is the way it has to be for a bit. The pendulum will swing again, not to worry.

Before you feign allergy or claim to detest beets, these innocent root vegetables, I beg of you to listen to reason: It was the vegetable boiling cooks who were wrong, and the beet greens, come to think of it. But not the beets. They wanted to ascend to their moment of greatness. They were cheated by hordes of boil-and-butter talentless hacks, okay? That is neither you or I and we should aim to put this fine root back in the good graces of all comers: Both brilliant and suave people like you and I and talentless hacks, as we should always aim to be charitable and patient with beet-defaming ignoramuses.

Herewith, a recipe of charity for the beetless masses. Fair beets, your moment of greatness awaits.

Beet and goat cheese salad with lemon vinaigrette
Serves 4

This is a great, visually appealing, make-ahead salad if you need it to be. I often double or triple the dressing recipe as I use it constantly and it keeps beautifully. I have tried this salad with the cooked beets from the produce section of the store and found the salad became abysmal. You really must get the freshest beets you can and deal with them yourself, short cuts will be fatal.

3 pounds red or golden beets, greens and stems removed
1 recipe Lemon Vinaigrette (follows), used over beets to taste
2 ounces good quality goat cheese, crumbled
Pine nuts, dry roasted for garnish

Beets
I have two methods for cooking beets, use the one you find agreeable:

1. Place the stemmed unpeeled beets in a large sauce pan, cover with water, and boil half an hour or until a fork inserted in the largest part of the beet enters easily.
2. Place the stemmed unpeeled beets in a baking dish, add enough olive oil to coat
and roll them to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees half an hour or until a fork inserted in the largest part of the beet enters easily.

When beets are cooked, remove them from the boiling water or the oven and set them on a plate to cool. When you can handle them, remove the bulb-end with a knife and then peel the beets. Cut into slices 1/3 inch thick or so and lay decoratively on a rimmed serving dish. Set aside while you make the dressing.

Lemon Vinaigrette
3/4 cup or 6 servings

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1 teaspoon Country Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (or cider in a pinch)
1/2 cup good olive oil
1 teaspoon honey, more to taste
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine the lemon juice, mustard, and vinegar in a bowl and whisk vigorously. Add the olive oil in a small amounts whisking thoroughly all the while adding. When it is combine/emulsified, add the honey and whisk to combine. Add the salt and pepper. Taste and adjust honey, salt, and pepper as you wish.

Assemble the salad: Spoon dressing gently over the cold beets. Refrigerate for at least one hour or as long as overnight. When you are ready to serve, garnish with crumbled goat cheese and toasted pine nuts.

Devil-ish

2009-03-15T04:31:00.000-07:00

I know. It looks kind of dreamy. All soft vanilla buttercream and alluring devils food cake. That is the trouble with food photography, it can be a deceiving art. The only unimpeachable teller of truth in this food journalism thing is the mouth.

In the case of a touted recipe for Charleston Devils (miniature devils food cakes), from the first and arguably greatest junior league cookbook of all time, Charleston Receipts, my mouth wishes to advise you it was less than beguiled with these devils. In fact, it wishes you to know that unless you wish to while away the dessert course on tasteless, dry, cardboard one might skip this recipe or else alter it until it is hardly recognizable.

The book was published in 1959. Where chocolate cake is concerned, we've come a long way since. But it sure sits pretty for its close up.

Reckless natives

2009-03-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

( The famed Sunnyfield Farm, Bedford, New York, a favorite subject of Slim Aarons photos... while it looks tranquil, it is located on an insanely trafficked double yellow in the village... )

Don't get the idea that this entire corner of Westchester is rural and sparsely populated. On the contrary, Bedford is, I assure you, quite obnoxiously overpopulated and just chock full angst and traffic. Which is why, when the neighbor does stuff like this, (I think to make readers around the world think that this is some sort of quaint, tranquil suburban paradise of gentlemen farmers and old-school Wasps) it makes me laugh just a little. In reality, when the town began to approve any old structure to be built on just a thumb size lot, and pitched that silly five-acre zoning thing, the place just went straight to hell in many ways: The first was the quiet of our old roads which run concurrently in many spots with our bridle trails. The second was appreciation for anonymity and grace.

(This is the main street in Bedford Village, one of the three Bedford hamlets. Once a quiet small town street, it is now plagued with traffic back ups morning and evening. )

Anyway, all that amounts to a lot of fiercely unpleasant stuff: Our old cemetery in which so many local family members are buried being photographed to commercialize Halloween by the same offender, and an ugly lawsuit (which I never truly understood entirely) that polarized just everyone in these parts and sparked literal protests in town (with canape service, naturally).

I only mention all this because the riding-my-horse-to-breakfast-at Richard-Gere's-new-restaurant thing still cracks me up. I mean, this isn't pastoral Kentucky here, Pals, this is a human-jammed corner of the metro New York City region. And trust me, having grown up on those trails, this was an ill-advised and perilious adventure.

Okay, I just needed to get that out there because it has been making me itchy.

On the upside though, we went down the road here to Bedford Post, that new restaurant - on my "horse" - also known as a Volvo SUV which I nicknamed Sea Biscuit II for the occasion- and had brunch there. "The Barn" as they call it, is a cafe where they serve all manner of casually attired types breakfast and lunch and have a sort-of takeout cafe at the same time:

Honestly, for all the chatter and jive about the place, it is really no better for dining hereabouts as any of it's competitors and frankly, the staff seems completely stumped about where to go and what to do with regard to this mystifying food-service scenario they find themselves in. But my food - poached artichoke and egg on crispy polenta cakes with chimichurri sauce - was table-slapping good (no, I totally did not, but I wanted to), while Josh's "eggs benny," (annoying) was just a middle-of-the-roader:

Which is, coincidentally, also where you can find the kooky neighbors riding their steeds on any given day...

Memo to Bobby Flay

2009-03-07T03:33:00.000-08:00

To: Bobby Flay, Chef-partner Bar Americain, Midtown West, NYC
From: Blushing (and might I add, Disgusted) Hostess
Re: Sommelier and hand washing procedures

Chef, this is not the sort of thing I would expect or excuse more from an employee of a burger joint in a truck stop off 95. In fact, I like to think, having a bit of experience in this area, that the one thing all food purveyors have in common at the end of the day is their commitment to a sanitary environment.

I said I like to think that, but the New York City Board of Health is forever setting me straight: Why, as recently as a few months ago Mario Batali's Del Posto was temporarily shuttered for pest violations: They could minimize their carbon footprint but apparently could not force their bug collection to do the same. So, I don't go there anymore: Marked once and for all in my mind as filthy, no matter what the BOH assures in the papers.

I suppose it was lucky then, that on this past Wednesday night when my Husband and I ducked into Bar Americain, that soaring luxe jewel in your crown, that it was after dinner when I went to the ladies room and there encountered the sommelier leaving the loo. She stood right next to me as I scrubbed at my hands with soap. She rubbed at her eye makeup with her fingers, adjusted her hair, and left never having washed her hands.

I was disgusted but not altogether surprised. She had been at our table and offered to help with the wine but, as BH readers will remember, I had a baby only ten days before and was finally able to have a cocktail (Champagne) and an after dinner drink (Brandy Alexander - which, Chef, I prefer creamy). My husband is a single malt drinker. Consequently, we declined her offer choosing instead to pick a by the glass selection of red wine for the main course: I had the Malbec which was very nice and a suggestion of our waiters, and Josh had the Cab which was, for our taste, weapons-grade swill.

The food was great but there was very little of it: About a tablespoon of food arrived for my Crispy Squash Blossoms, granted they are out of season in New York so the flight costs must be staggering! But we enjoyed the tuna tartare and green tomato and fava beam salad; the steak was just okay which is disappointing when one considers the cost. But the real charmer turned out to be the horseradish steak sauce which was rich and piquant. It will linger in my memory.

For years I worked in this neighborhood, one block away. If I were still toiling away at 53rd and Seventh, I would have enjoyed bringing vendors and colleagues there. And since it is so well located for the theaters, which I have long complained had strictly pedestrian quality restaurants, it would be a great destination before a show as it was for us on our way to see Will Ferrell.

But for naught. I cannot, will not abide by unsanitary conditions, especially when returning home to a two week old child who is just building a store of immunities great enough to fight off the inexcuseably poor hygenics of irresponsible restaurant employees.

And a note to the sommelier: You never know who is at the sink next to you, could be the health inspector...

Sweet Baby Girl

2009-02-26T17:26:00.001-08:00

Friends,

Our second precious Daughter arrived Monday at 5:55 pm. She is a perfect blessing and as with our first Daughter, we are moved and humbled by the miracle we have been fortunate enough to welcome into our lives.

I remain so grateful for your kind thoughts at this time in our family's life. We'll take a short break here as these days are too short and go by too fast.

Be well,
The Hostess

Cheese in carriage

2009-02-16T13:51:00.000-08:00

Sometimes. you just cannot get what you want by any means of looking at a menu and hoping it turns up. I cannot tell you how long that I - a New Yorker raised in a time not long ago when all manner of Italian restaurant proliferated - missed one simple thing about all the shuttered Milanese places that evaporated a decade ago when we healthed-up and stopped all that batter-frying-and saucing: I cannot tell you, but it has been a long, long time. Long before this pregnancy, so it does not owe to some Rao's craving that can never be satisfied.

Mozzarella en carroza: (Feign Brooklyn accent) You know this guy? Eh?

It means "cheese in a carriage" in semi-literal translation. And in digging around for this post, I found a dozen convoluted recipes involving tucking meat and basil and all manner of other beside-the-point inclusions (read as: ill-advised interlopers). I just don't need horse feathers and gobbledygook in my cheese sandwich. Keep it. At this late stage in the game, one week from the due date, I have no patience for absurdities or misdirected refrigerator creativity.

Bread. Stuffed with cheese. Breaded. Fried. Served with sauce. You want to make something of it?

Mozzarella en Carozza
Serves 4

8 - 3" slices of Italian bread
8 - 1/4" slices fresh mozzarella
1 egg
1/4 cup olive oil
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
Kosher salt

Accompaniment: Marinara or Lemon Caper Butter Sauce

Slice gently into the center of each slice of bread to create a wide pocket as follows:

Stuff one piece of fresh mozzarella into the pocket of each of the 8 slices of bread. Fold it over and tuck it all the way in if you need to or trim a little off to be sure cheese is, for the most part, completely encased. Repeat with all remaining slices:

In a small bowl, combine the egg and milk. Place the bread crumbs in another small bowl. Dip each stuffed slice of bread into the egg mixture first turning once, then into the bread crumbs turning to coat completely:

Meanwhile, heat the oil over medium heat in a heavy skillet large enough to hold four slices at a time. Fry each slice four minutes on each side or until they have a golden crust on each side and the cheese is melted:

Remove bread to a towel-lined plate and season with salt immediately.

Serve over small spoonfuls of marinara or lemon sauce:

I lost track of everything

2009-02-11T16:02:00.000-08:00

Update: Images inserted, finally...

I can't... oh, I won't... no, no, I don't want to remember this day. I don't know how I will ever forget it though. You know, on this day when Congressional leadership questioned the CEO's of various banks which received 165 BILLION duckets about what became of the money we gave them. It seems the American dream took a hard left at prosperity and dropped off an ugly cliff of greed leaving behind all notion of Doing The Right Thing and We're All On The Same Team. Bonuses for throwing businesses down the toilet. While I hear people saying how sweet a deal that is, in my corporate life I would never have wanted that check: I would not have been able to live with myself. I worked for shareholders who believed in us and a family which built a 4 billion dollar concern from the ground up with their own hands, hearts, and minds. You know, much the same way all the tax dollars these banks stole was amassed in Washington to begin with.

Here at The Hostess, I generally stay out of things, it helps to know ones place. But I acquiesce this once and tell you the above because it is the reason I got a bit befuddled, even discombobulated, and cannot find certain things I need to download photos of this "delightful" - my Mom's word, not mine, so you know I'm not selling you some bridge at Merrill Lynch's corporate headquarters - Country Captain recipe as published recently by the New York Times. They also published photos, gratefully.

I love this recipe for a handful of reasons: Because I lived in Charleston and miss it terribly. Because it is rich, bouncy, and unexpected at the same time it manages not to put you off with unusual ingredients. And it was ready in a flash. Which was great because it gave me time to chase the resident Akita who found yet another way to free himself from the "dog containment system" which is more like an "Akita amusement device." Ah. How do I love this precious rescue dog I found as a baby with his feral pack under the porch of a historic site? How do I adore the way he thanks me for... okay, I digress. He's a good dog but for the running, bounding, and leaping off the property, and he too loved this groovy chicken one dish meal, Country Captain.

In case you are wondering where the saintly Corgi was while all this was happening: Right by the stove, watching the food intently as always...

Country Captain
adapted from this New York Times recipe
Serves 4

Some souls here in Blushingdom do not eat chicken on the bone. I substituted cutlets and, while the thighs the recipe called for would have been more juicy and moist, the cutlets did just fine.

Serve with rice as is the Low Country tradition: I use brown but it's a free country.

Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons butter
4 chicken cutlets, 1/2 pound each at least
4 slices bacon
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 medium green pepper, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons curry powder
3 tablespoons currants
1 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes and their juices
3 tablespoons slivered almonds, toasted

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the flour, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper and the thyme in a bowl. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat until it foams. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture, shaking off excess, and fry, in batches if needed, until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and drain off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat in the skillet.

Return the skillet to medium heat, add the bacon and fry until crispy. Transfer to a plate. Once cool, crumble and set aside.

Add the onion, pepper, garlic, curry powder and 1 tablespoon of the currants to the skillet and sauté over medium-high heat until soft and fragrant, about 7 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and their juices, bring to a boil and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spread 1 cup of the tomato sauce in the bottom of an ovenproof casserole large enough to hold the chicken snugly in one layer. Arrange the chicken on top. Pour the remaining sauce over and around the chicken. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for 5 minutes more.

Top with the crumbled bacon, remaining currants and slivered almonds ( I threw this under the broiler for 5 minutes then as I forgot to toast the almonds to begin with, it worked perfectly). Serve with rice.

Blushing Rule #9: Raw onions must be soaked in milk

2009-02-02T20:41:00.000-08:00

Onions. If they are going to be served raw for any reason, even if they are sweet onions, must, must be soaked in milk for ten minutes, drained, and gently dried before serving. If you fail to remember to do this and you carelessly toss those onions into a salad or dip, you could seriously hurt someone. Someone... like the Hostess, who may never ever again eat another raw onion.

Do drop in

2009-01-28T10:10:00.000-08:00

At Blushing Hostess Entertains for a few thoughts on Sandra Lee and Andrew Cuomo.

Baked, crunchy, and change-worthy

2009-01-19T15:38:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the day. I am happy and nervous all at once. Being a crunchy-food-when-anxious eater, my first thought was of these great, Southwestern-inspired egg rolls. Try them once, they will become a freezer staple: In case of visitors, impromptu cocktail gatherings, or hunger.

Chili chicken egg rolls
Makes 16, 4 servings for a first course, 8 for passed hors oeuvres

You can place a half cup of cup, whathaveyou, of any cooked veggie in this recipe, add more cheese, use sour cream instead of mayo and make any number of changes and still have a great snack or party nibble. Just have more wrappers ready as additions will make more servings. As you can see from the photo, I added left over grilled corn to these and it was delicious. I have served this with jalapeno, lime, Asian chili, and honey mustard sauces all with pleasant results.
These can be frozen before cooking for make-ahead party food.

Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1/3 cup shredded cheddar and/or monterey jack cheese
1 - 4-ounce can diced green chilies
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Goya adobo
1 package egg roll wrappers

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine chicken, sour cream, cheese, green chiles, adobo, and cumin. Mix well to combine.

Place and individual egg roll wrapper on a flat surface. Place a small amount of filling in the lower third of each wrapper. Fold over the bottom corner of the wrapper and tightly roll up for one turn and then fold in the sides. Dip your finger in water and run it along the corner and edge. Tightly roll up the rest of the way, sealing the edges and seam shut.

Place rolls on the sprayed baking sheet then spray the top of the rolls lightly with cooking spray. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until golden brown.

Lion in Winter

2009-01-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

This is the brilliant, gem-like hue of blood oranges topping a curd made from blood orange and lemon: Winter citrus at its most vibrant and hope-affirming. The glints of brilliance and sparkle in the flesh of a blood orange suggest there is a warming sun and fruit growing somewhere: In places I miss so at this time of year.

I had ideas about trying out another of Simon Hopkinson's recipes with my precious pile of blood oranges but I finally became so fed up with the flavor-issue there that I elected to experiment with blood orange as a curd instead following the recipe I developed for the Lime Curd Tart in September. After dessert has concluded, it is a toss up of those who miss the shortbread crust (me) and everyone else who tried this dessert.

I will try it again with the crust to be sure but I am certain in the meantime that I am recommending to you a cheeky, lively little dessert all on its ruby-twinkling own. I served this with a Blood Orange Caramel Syrup and an almond lace and chocolate cookie. The cookie probably caused my nostalgia for the shortbread crust. The caramel syrup was cloyingly and irritatingly sweet, not worthy of quoting here even for purposes of consuming it over ice cream. Ah, but the curd, the curd is a keeper.

Blood Orange Dessert
Serves 6
adapted from my own tinkering with the genius Lime Curd Tart recipe of these same pages

4 blood oranges at room temperature
Grated zest of two of those same blood oranges
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
4 large eggs at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt

Remove the zest of 2 blood oranges with a microplane. Squeeze the oranges to make 1/2 cup of juice and set the juice aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter with the sugar and orange zest. Add the eggs 1 at a time, and then add the orange and lemon juices and salt. Mix until combined.

Pour the mixture into a 2-quart saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 10 minutes. The lime curd will thicken at about 175 degrees F, or just below a simmer. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Fill cups with the warm orange curd and refrigerate until set: At least 3 hours though more is best. Serve once set with sweetened whipped cream and fresh blood orange segments made from the remaining oranges.

Indecision

2009-01-12T17:11:00.000-08:00

There is the occasional recipe about which I cannot decide: Pass over mentioning it here or chance that it does not appeal to a wide variety of palates, like my own.

As palates go, I like to think mine is educated and broad. This dish did not offend me but I like food to demonstrate flavors of excellence, not a muddiness of chicken, lemon, and parsley, glued together with some cream. I was suspicious of this recipe from the outset because it serves 4, is made with a non-committal stock, bouillon cubes (there are reasons people don't use the stuff any longer), and requires 2/3 cup of cream. When soups include this much tasty fat, warning signs go up that the premise of the base is not flavorful enough. For me, this is one of those soups.

It did not light my winter on fire but in looking over my notes, there will be a lemon-lover who will find this soup a welcome addition to their repertoire, and a person felled by a cold who will appreciate the soothing properties here when made by someone (with several hours kill to make the soup and then to do time with the endless number of kitchen items which need cleaned when the soup is complete) quite well and energetic on their behalf.

The author of the book from whence this recipe springs is reputed to be a world class British chef and to know just everything about fine, simple, British fare. His books in turn are, if the dust jackets are to be believed, highly respected by some people thought highly respectable in the culinary field. Still, I find the flavor of his cooking just not punchy enough on the whole though the book is marvelous for its memoir-like qualities at the top of each chapter and worth owning for, I have concluded, few other reasons. Two of the desserts I have tested have been disappointing (one of them down right preposterous). It has been a long time since I could say I am over a cookbook entirely but, this one is more trouble than it is worth for me from a recipe standpoint, yielding too little flavor than should be derived from all these dish-washing cycles.

Lemon Chicken Soup with Parsley and Cream
adapted from Second Helpings of Roast Chicken and Other Stories, by Simon Hopkinson
Serves 4

I did not love the component of this flavor-base enough to tinker with it for a week. If you are a lemon and chicken soup person who prefers a more flavorful soup, these ideas may help to make a champ of this hopeless middler: Use a really fine, homemade chicken stock, even a double stock, possibly. Rather than pitching all the veg in and stewing them literally to death, consider sauteing them in the pot in a bit of butter, then adding the chicken and warm good stock while omitting the cubes altogether.

12 chicken wings
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 leek, trimmed, sliced, and washed
1 medium onion, peeled and stuck with 3 cloves
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon thyme
1 small bunch flat leaf parsley, leaves removed and reserved, stalks roughly chopped
1 cup white wine
2 small lemons
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons white rice
2/3 cup heavy cream

Put the chicken wings into a deep pot, add the bouillon cubes and enough water just to cover the wings. Slowly bring to a boil, periodically clearing the scum off the top with a spoon. Reduce the heat to a simmer, continue to skim the surface.

Add the vegetables, parsley stalks, bay, thyme, and the wine. Return to a simmer, skimming the top once again. Turn the heat to low and cook 45 minutes more.

Strain the broth through a sieve and into a clean pot beneath. Allow to settle for 10 minutes. Remove and discard the skin from 6 wings and take the meat from the bone. Chop and put into a small bowl. Set aside. Discard the remaining wings and vegetables. Lift the fat from the surface of the broth with a couple of paper towels and return to the stove. Remove 1 tablespoon lemon zest from the lemon. Add to the broth, taste to adjust seasoning, Add the rice to the broth along with the chopped chicken. Cook for 10 minutes longer. Remove from the heat and allow to cool ten minutes. Meanwhile, juice and strain the lemons.

Puree the soup in a blender in two or three parts with about one third of the parsley leaves and two thirds of the lemon juice until very smooth. Strain with a sieve into another clean pot and return to the stove. Add the cream and the rest of the parsley, finely chopped. Reheat gently over low heat. Taste to adjust seasoning again and add the rest of the lemon juice if you care for it.

Second Helpings of Parsley Gnocchi in Parmesan Cream

2009-01-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here is my lunch. It snowed, sleeted, rained, and hailed all day. Nature railing her worst at us. Because of this bit of environmental temper, all bets were off for my good intentions outside the house. I turned toward a recipe I had planned on taking for a spin for a few days now: Simon Hopkinson's recipe for Parsley Gnocchi in Parsley Soup as published in his second beautifully-written cookbook.

Let me tell you briefly about this book: It is startlingly well-written and conceived for a cookbook. Half-memoir and half-recipe book, it takes short and painless journeys through a handful of topics and offers three recipes only on each topic. The recipes are short, quick reads and seem quite straight-forward.

While they may be straight-forward, the two-and-a-half I have thus far attempted are long and require a great many steps - and pots. Nothing against the book or the writing which will easily tote you away to the England of Hopkinson's youth. I am only being up-front with you: This stuff will take some time. Carve out a morning or a whole afternoon.

My second recipe attempt which (unwittingly at the outset) also became my third, became so lengthy in time and process, I gave up on making the soup portion of the recipe and proceeded to make Hopkinson's cream sauce from a different gnocchi recipe in order to just finally have done with the thing, as we were all hungry for lunch. It was a pleasant right turn, I am pleased to report. As for the soup, there were so many gnocchi from this dough that we will be dining on the soup for dinner and you shall have the results of that experiment probably before you can even finish loading all the steps in process to this first feat of stove-ery.

In the meantime, should you have a snow day, parsley, cream and some patience for lengthy method, here's your snowy day project.

Parsley Gnocchi in Parmesan Cream
adapted from Second Helping of Roast Chicken, by Simon Hopkinson
Serves 4

If you are also referring to the book, this is a combination of the Parsley Gnocchi in Parsley Soup recipe and the Piedmontese Potato Gnocchi in Parmesan Cream recipe. The method to prepare this dish accompanies the photo tutorial below.

For the Gnocchi:
14 ounces of potatoes, russet or Idaho, peeled
1 egg
1/2 cup parsley leaves, finely minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 - 1 cup all purpose flour

For the Parmesan Cream Sauce:
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

First, steam the peeled potatoes over 1 inch of wildly boiling water (I had little russet potatoes on hand) until a fork easily pierces the center of a potato. Remove the steamer basket and shut the burner off. Place the steamer basket over the burner for a minute to take off a bit of water remaining on the spuds. Remove and set aside momentarily.

Remove the leaves of the parsley leaves from the stems. Use the stems for something else or discard.

Finely mince the leaves on a large cutting board. Leave on the board and spread the leaves out a bit until they form a 10 inch length or so on the board, see below:

Now, sprinkle over the kosher salt.

Place the potatoes in a food mill or ricer and mill until as fine as you are able to get them, allowing the milled potato to fall over the minced parsley and salt on the board.

Scoop the remains out of the mill and on to the top of the pile as well. Mash all the remaining pieces to minuscule with a fork until all the potato is softened and no large lumps remain. Continuing to blend with fork, get all evenly combined. Form the batter into a small mound and make a small well in the center:

Break the egg into the mound.

With a fork, beat the egg soundly inside the well.

Now sprinkle 1/2 cup flour over the top of all, reserving the remaining to use if you need it to lessen the stickiness of the dough or to flour the board for rolling out the gnocchi.

Beginning with the egg inside and working with a fork at first, then your hands, combine all the ingredients into a dough. It should only be a bit sticky once combined. If it is a little more wet, add and combine one sprinkling of flour at a time, kneading gently, until a dough much like a that for a biscuit is formed.

Separate a chunk from the dough mound of about half the size of your palm. Gently dust your board with flour and begin to roll the chunk into a long rope-like cylinder, about 3/4" in circumference.

With your knife cut the dough-ropes into 1" lengths.

With a dinner fork, hold a gnocchi at the top of the fork and using your thumb, roll the gnocchi down the length of the fork in order to form a grooved pasta roll.

As each is finished, place them on a flour dusted sheet pan. Repeat the roll/ cut/ fork process with all the remaining dough. Allow the pasta to rest at room temperature for at least an hour though longer would be best.

When ready to cook, bring a large pot of water to boil with a bit of salt. Gently drop all the gnocchi into the pot, trying not to also pitch in the flour from the pan. Some of the pieces will rise to the top right away. Be patient, you need all of the pasta to rise to the top as below and once they do you must cook for 30 seconds longer:

Your pot should look like the above with all the pasta at the top, then cook half a minute more. This will not take long: maybe two or three minutes in total. Remove the pasta from the water.

Meanwhile, into a small sauce pan, place the cream, Parmesan, and salt. Stirring occasionally, allow to heat until the Parmesan melts and steam rises from the surface. Do not boil.

Place the pasta in a bowl and pour the Parmesan cream over. Garnish with fresh parsley leaves, grated Parmesan, and/or a little gray salt, depending on your tastes.

Dear Blushing Hostess, Please be assured...

2009-01-06T14:57:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned, Chums, I isolated two highly lovable products over the holiday season and was unable to point one out to you because you would think I was some sort of daft cow living in a mental fictional ice-cream flavor wasteland because the corporate site failed to take ownership of the ice cream flavor about which I am so jazzed. It still does not. But, here I have proof in writing that I am not sending you postcards from the tea party in the rabbit hole...

Dear Blushing Hostess,
Thank you for your email regarding HÄAGEN-DAZS® Caramelized Pear & Toasted Pecan Ice Cream. We appreciate the time you have taken to pass your comments on to us.
Please be assured that we are manufacturing this flavor. Your comments have been forwarded to our Web Team.
We at HÄAGEN-DAZS® Ice Cream appreciate your interest in our company and our products. We value our consumers and we thank you for the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
Sincerely,
Nicole

There you have it. Caramelized Pear and Toasted Pecan Ice Cream. We located it locally in Westchester. You may be in luck and spot it at the grocer too. If not, you are up a creek without a float as the website will leave you wanting. Right, dead horse... okay, moving on.

Now, here is what you can do: Take your slices of cake, say, Breton Butter Cake, Greek New Years Cake, all manner of vanilla butter cake iced or otherwise, and serve it with this ice cream and my brown sugar sauce. I also like to throw some chopped candied pecans over the top. It becomes quite a decadent treat and it is an unexpected burst of pear and pecan when the cake is a quiet buttery solider and everyone thinks you've hauled out the vanilla cake with vanilla ice cream - ah, stop! I would never do that.

So, here it is then. Little effort for a hugely grand dessert sauce, the sort they once made at home in the blink of an eye but no longer. For what excuse, I'll never know.

Brown Sugar Sauce
Serves 8

When this sauce is made instead with light brown sugar, they call it butterscotch. You could do that too. And you sprinkle a bit of Fleur de Sel over as well. No telling what you might think of now that the ease of this dandy is placed in your hands.

1/3 cup corn syrup
5/8 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, place corn syrup, brown sugar, butter, and salt. Bring to a boil and watching constantly, allow to boil until it reaches the consistency of a heavy syrup. Remove from the heat. Allow to cool fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally to allow the heat to escape and facilitate cooling. Add the cream and whisk in quickly. Serve. Can be very gently reheated over low heat more than once if needed.

Heretical Suggestion #2

2009-01-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

It was my intention to advise you on two great products I discovered over the holidays. I was foiled in plan to do so by the odd development that one of the aforementioned genius products is not mentioned on the company website at all. Perhaps it was a test and they have not committed electronically-speaking to ownership of the item in whole, just in the part requiring their banner on the carton at the supermarket. A tad annoying, quite frankly. I have contacted the appropriate corporate agency and expect to have this squared away in no time.

Moving on, I think the world of a new mixer made by Canada Dry (no, indeed, the Hostess is not paid to mention products, in fact, she pays to enjoy them!) called Green Tea Ginger Ale, but not with any intention of using said product as a cocktail mixer. I think it would muddle a cocktail unforgivably though it is fantastically tasty. Rather, I see it as a potentially new and sprightly punch sensation.

Charleston Receipts. To my mind, the preeminent Junior League cookbook is as iconic for its status as a chronicle of both historical Low Country food ways over two centuries as for its position as keeper of all the once-secret recipes of generations of well-known Charleston hostesses, their family names nearly as iconic in that fair city as the book itself. In recipes dating as far back as 1890 or possibly even earlier (things can sometimes get a bit murky in the recording, for example: "... as served at the Club's last dance some years ago", this book was first published in 1950, it is hard to say how old some old recipes are...) and making up to 650 servings (I kid you not), green tea is included as an ingredient in no fewer than seven punch recipes:

St. Cecilia Punch
Charleston Light Dragoon Punch
Otranto Club Punch
Cotillion Club Punch
Champagne Punch
Regent's Punch
Frost Punch

Green tea of the sweetened Lipton bottled drink is not what these recipes are after. Keep in mind; this was 1890, in some cases. No, more like freshly brewed and cooled actual green tea. But - and here is where my old pal Libby (of the finest Charleston stock) calls and threatens to confiscate my copy of Charleston Receipts again, having lost her patience "for good, this time, you heretic.", after the Red Velvet Cake recipe posted herein... I am just saying if one were to swap in the Green Tea Ginger Ale for the gun powder green or green tea... Who knows, it could lead to merriment in Charleston all over again. One should just be careful to call their creation by another moniker so as not to muck up the accuracy of these recipes to their given local names, or Libby will have both our heads.

Happy New Year! Now for bit more luck

2008-12-31T16:22:00.000-08:00

First for a bit housekeeping, please note that Blushing Hostess will not recap the year that was -out there, or here on the page. The Hostess is not a fan of u-turns. It was what it was, was it not?

Let's move on.

Secondly, though we will spend this New Year in the north, we are not without the southern traditions imparted us over our time in the Carolina's, North Padre, and Florida. It is with a nod to all that the South is that I fondly remember the first time I was served Hoppin' John, just after New Years: I had just relocated to Charleston from New York and after hearing this, a kindly gentlemen brought a small bowl to the table Josh at which we sat at Poogan's: "For good luck." he said, and quietly stepped away. Hoppin' John, was the name of the black-eyed pea dish he placed before me. In Low Country and some say, Gullah, tradition, Hoppin John, a dish of black-eyed peas braised with a little onion, some water, and a ham hock, is traditionally served on New Years to ensure luck in the coming year. While the dish we had that day was delicious, my subsequent attempts to recreate it ranged from disappointing to unpalatable. It was past time to arrive at a recipe of my own which, while non-traditional, still meets the general requirement and tastes - you know - more like something delectable with our traditional New Year's Day pork roast than, say, grout. I'm very pleased with this result, finally. There is still time to get to the store before New Year's supper. Make it a good one, a lucky one, ya'll...

Hoppin' John
Serves 4

2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, minced
1/4 lb. smoked kielbasa, in 1/2" dice
4 cups canned black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
Water to cover beans by about 1 inch, 6 cups or so
1 smoked ham hock or ham bone
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a deep, heavy bottomed pot, set over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook 10 minutes or until translucent. Do not brown. Add the kielbasa, cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the black-eyed peas and hock or bone, then the water to cover by 1" or so. Allow the pan to come to boil, then turn it down to a bare simmer until the liquid is reduced to the consistency of a sauce. Taste and add seasoning if you like. Serve immediately removing the bone or hock or refrigerate up to a day with the bone or hock still in the Hoppin' John, reheat with this also, and remove just before serving.

All the good luck you can get

2008-12-30T16:22:00.000-08:00

A Greek New Years morning tradition, this marvelous cake, Vaselopita, has a (chocolate) coin buried deeply in the batter and baked into the cake. The lucky bloke who gets the coin will have good luck for a year. Not to mention a slice of this soft, airy, almond-y wonder.

I tried to stay true to the original recipe but I would not mind a taddy bit of orange zest added at the folding stage of the batter for a little spark with my luck. I like sparky luck - what can I tell you? Entirely up to your palate. Also, I will confess a strange addiction to you now so we can get it out of the way and you can truly know who you are dealing with: I love Del Monte canned pears that are very very cold and still in their syrup. If I had these handy, I would have adored them with this cake. Laugh if you want to, but they have a fascinating and satisfying texture like none other.

Finally, as you will note, this cake and recipe are Mother-tester, baby approved.

Only the best luck for you, Pals...

Vaselopita, Greek New Year's Cake
Serves 12
Bon Appetit, December, 2001

1 cups (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for greasing pan
2 cups sugar, plus more for dusting cake
3 eggs, separated
2 eggs
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting pan
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 foil wrapped chocolate quarter coin
1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds (about 2 ounces)

Beautiful crumb on this cake, don't you think?

Preheat to 325°F. Butter and flour a 10 inch springform pan or close (the springform is not critical).

In the bowl of the mixer cream butter with 2 cups sugar on medium low until fluffy. Gradually beat in 3 egg yolks, 2 whole eggs, water, vanilla, and almond extract. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in small bowl, whisk to break up any lumps. Gradually mix dry ingredients into butter mixture (batter will be very thick). Transfer batter to a large bowl, set aside.Using clean, dry beaters, beat egg whites on medium until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Press coin into cake. Sprinkle with blanched almonds.

Bake about 1 hour 10 minutes or until the center of the cake springs back to your touch. After 50 minutes you can dust the top of the cake with sugar for a little sparkle. Cool completely in pan on rack. Run knife around pan to loosen. Invert onto plate. Invert again to have almond-side up. Serve or wrap tightly and store at room temperature.

The ol' book by it's cover lesson, again

2008-12-28T16:19:00.000-08:00

As you may have guessed, I collect a great many things, among them cookbooks. I have a criteria for choosing these books: I prefer them to be illustrated, I like to be reassured by reviews in various food publications and/or blogs, and I like them to be specific: Ingredients in a list. Accurate amounts. Painfully clear method.

I know the other type, written by chefs for chefs. They will expect you to be able to make marchand de vin sauce to add to a recipe, for example. They use phrases such as, "add some stock." Leaving me annoyed an muttering aloud, "Could you be a tad more specific?" or spending hours hunting the most reliable and delicious recipe for marchand de vin because I did not go to school for mother sauces, okay? Liberal arts, and I am not ashamed of it. For a cook who learned my kitchen skills from Mom, Grandma, and endless reference tools, these generalizations are daunting, never mind my great attachment to formulas which makes things infallible and safe.

Consequently, I have looked over Larousse Gastronomique a half dozen times and decided we would agree to disagree: A book meant for another sort of cook. A cook destined to own more Patricia Wells than Larousse. Then my Mom gave me the boxed set for Christmas and I nervously opened the text in front her, certain what I would find but turning out to be thoroughly incorrect: The updated edition has general amounts for the most part, as well as some defined method and cooking times. I was thrilled that all of these long-trusted recipes were finally within reach. I am pleased to share one with you now: Fabulous. Just a whisper of smoky saltiness. Not like any deep winter wine-drenched roast I have ever known. I wish I had tried sooner.

Find the recipe and photo tutorial below. But be forewarned: This is beef, braised in dark red wine, this is not sexy to look at but it is on the palate.

Daube of Beef a la Bearnaise
Serves 6
Adapted from Larousse Gastronomique

2 pounds boneless chuck beef roast
1/2 pound uncured bacon
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
3 bay leaves
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
3 carrots, sliced on bias in 1" cubes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bottle good red wine
1/4 cup brandy or cognac
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 pound pancetta (or Bayonne or serrano ham)
2-3 cups beef stock

For optional buerre manie to thicken the sauce:
2 tablespoons softened butter
2 tablespoons flour

Cut the beef into 2 inch cubes. Do not trim the fat, include it in the cubes. Season the beef cubes liberally on all sides with kosher salt, pepper, and thyme. Roll each seasoned cube in a piece of bacon just large enough to wrap around once. Place the rolled beef cubes in casserole dish large and deep enough to fit all the rolls in one layer and and allow at least 1 inch marinade above the level of the rolls.

On top of the beef rolls spread the carrots, onions, and minced garlic evenly, Lay the 3 bay leaves scattered on top. Pour the bottle of wine over the meat, then the brandy. Give the liquid portion on top a gentle stir just to combine the brandy and wine, leaving the vegetables and and beef untouched below. Allow to marinate at room temperature 2 hours.

Line the bottom of your braising dutch oven or slow cooker with the pancetta or ham.
Set it near the stove. Remove the rolls from the liquid on to paper towels and pat dry. Dredge the rolls in flour and in a large saute pan over medium-high heat add olive oil and butter and heat until butter is melted and bubbling. Sear each roll to brown on all sides. You will have at least two batches. Transfer the browned rolls to the braising vessel lined with ham until all the rolls are in.

Strain the marinade to separate liquid from vegetables. Place vegetables in the pan from which the rolls have just removed and saute the vegetables until lightly browned. Transfer them to the braising vessel to lay on top of the beef and bacon rolls.

To the marinade, add 2 cups stock, stir to combine, and pour over the vegetables and beef. If it does not cover all the contents, add more stock until it just covers all.

If using a dutch oven, preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Place the pot over medium heat and bring to a boil. Turn it down to a simmer for one half hour. Transfer the pot to the oven and cook for at 5 hours or until the beef separates easily to the tines of a fork. Remove from heat, skim off any fat on top using a baster or a separator (this step is imperative). If you choose to thicken the sauce make a buerre manie of 2 tablespoons softened butter evenly combined with 2 tablespoons flour, combine with a fork. Strain or ladle most of the sauce into a saucepan and set over medium heat. Before it boils, add the butter/flour mixture to the sauce pan and stir to dissolve. Allow the sauce to come just to a boil for one minute, then remove from the heat. Stir for one more mixture then add back to the beef in the braiser. Stir gently to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve. Lovely with buttered egg noodles or potato and parsnip puree.

Photo tutorial:

You will need a two pound boneless chuck steak and about 1/2 pound streaky bacon. I prefer to use pre-sliced, if you are of a mind to cut your own slab accordingly, by all means...

Cut the chuck into 2" cubes and season liberally with kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and fresh or dried thyme leaves.

Wrap each seasoned beef cube in a slice of bacon just long enough to go around once. I did not find I needed to secure with toothpicks though you may to decide to do so. Place the rolls in a single layer in a dish for marinating which will also allow enough room for additional marinade.

Cover the meat evenly with the onions, carrots, garlic, and bay.

Pour the red wine and brandy on top, stir the liquid portion gently just to combine the two. Allow to marinate at room temperature for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, remove the rolls from the marinade to paper towels and pat dry. Dredge each roll in flour.

Brown on all sided in a large saute pan in butter and olive oil set over medium high heat. Transfer the rolls to the dutch oven or slow cooker lined in ham, you will have at least two layers. Set aside. Place the saute pan back on the heat.

Meanwhile, strain the marinade liquid from the vegetables.

Place vegetables in saute pan and saute over medium high heat until lightly browned at the edges. Add the vegetables to the dutch oven on top of the meat.

Add the beef stock to the marinade and stir to combine. Pour over the vegetables and meat in the dutch oven or slow cooker. If it does not cover all the contents, add more stock until the liquid just covers all.

If using a dutch oven, preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Place the pot over medium heat and bring to a boil. Turn it down to a simmer for one half hour. Transfer the pot to the oven and cook for at 5 hours or until the beef separates easily to the tines of a fork.

Ladle or strain most of the liquid from the beef and vegetables and allow fat to settle on top of the gravy, remove the fat in a a separator as above or with a baster. If you prefer a thin sauce, add the gravy back to the meat. If you wish to thicken the sauce, place the gravy into a saucepan set over medium heat and warm gently. Now follow the steps for buerre manie:

In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons softened butter and 2 tablespoons flour.
Add this to the gravy in the saucepan and stir to dissolve completely. Allow it to come to a boil and boil for only one minute, remove from the heat. It will look like this now:

Stir off the heat for one more minute then add back to the meat and vegetables. Stir gently to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve.

Now, your work is through.

Egg nog revisited

2008-12-27T16:37:00.000-08:00

And so it has come to pass that Christmas, 2008 is in the books. And the remains of the day are causing perilous balancing acts in the refrigerator. Anything could happen. That haddock could take a header into the stock during any one of the six daily enthusiastic openings for baby's milk alone. I hate to think of the mess that would ensue if there was a top shelf topple-down: shrimp into egg wash, over the champagne bottles, and on into the crisper to coat the mushrooms. I envision myself cleaning and washing for a full day but never again looking at anything on the left side of the fridge as if it could be clean: This is the sort of thing that could cause a compulsive to buy a new one and start over. I can't risk it.

In there, I have an inexplicable amount of left over cooked rice and a half gallon of un-spiked egg nog. After a bit more rustling, I also have a great deal of heavy cream (without a gallon on hand the holiday is cancelled) and half and half (we are black coffee drinkers but some people around here act as if their coffee causes them to use a quart a day but it is forever going 'round the bend three quarters full. Offensive.)

I digress. The point this happy refrigerator idiot is attempting to make is that in some order or another, this is rice pudding. For years I read rice pudding recipes and became increasingly stupefied at how complicated it seemed. Le Cordon Bleu at Home set me straight regarding how easy rice pudding really can be: Turns out The Hostess is not the only happy idiot who writes rice pudding recipes.

This is no measure of genius, Chums. You get some rice, you throw it in a sauce pan with a mixture of heavy cream, milk, some sugar, and vanilla until it comes an inch or two above the rice level. The milk and cream need to simmer gently and reduce until it becomes a very thick sauce. Allow this to cool and fold in some whipped heavy cream, maybe nutmeg, cinnamon, whatever strikes you.

Here is the thing, however. Recipes are suggestions in cooking and you should do what feels good. It felt good to find a use for all that egg nog. I boiled down the rice in nog and a little milk. It was already sweet and needed little sugar. A tiny bit of nutmeg and an hour of simmering later while I made the bolognese for dinner, and a new rice pudding king was born.

Only, this serves 6. Which leaves four servings to return to the fridge. But it is far more delicious than cold, plain rice. Even better than my old rice pudding love from Le Cordon Bleu. Win some. Lose some.

Egg Nog Rice Pudding
Serves 6

3 cups cooked rice
5 cups egg nog
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or one vanilla pod seeds extracted
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon.
1 cup heavy cream, whipped, divided as 1 cup for the pudding, 1/2 cup for garnishing pudding

Over medium heat in a heavy sauce pan, add rice, egg nog, whole milk, and vanilla. Bring to a bare boil and turn down heat to allow this mixture to simmer until reduced to a thick sauce just coating all the rice. Stir in nutmeg and cinnamon if you like, if not omit them without fear. Allow this mixture to cool for 1/2 hour stirring occasionally to allow pudding to release heat.

Take 1 cup whipped cream and gently fold into the pudding. Divide into 6 serving cups. Chill.

Top with spoonfuls of remaining whipped cream, dust with a little freshly ground nutmeg or cinnamon. Serve.

Christmas Mousse

2008-12-26T17:30:00.000-08:00

My parents generously took us to dinner on special occasions throughout our lives: Birthdays, sacraments, graduations. We were lucky children to have dined at restaurants here in Westchester like Crabtree's Kittle House. as the food and memories were untouchable and have stayed with me so vividly even now, in some cases nearly three decades on.

The Kittle House, as it is called locally, is a rambling old structure which includes the original tavern rooms, the inn, and in the back, the expanded dining room and gardens below. It has always managed to be embracingly cozy, familiar, and twinklingly well-dressed all at once. No other dining room of its ilk in this corner of the room holds the same loving sparkle for me. And the dessert long served there, the Triple Chocolate Mousse, has been a favorite of mine since childhood.

It was a nostalgic attachment to this tower of sweet mousses which lead me to attempt this feat for dessert to be served at my Mother's house on Christmas Eve. I used Alton Brown's Chocolate Mousse recipe and repeated the task three times: First with dark chocolate, then milk, finally with white chocolate. I used no liquor as I do not care for that edge in my food. In the milk and white chocolate layers I replaced the liquors called for with the same amount of milk, in the dark chocolate later I used equal parts heavy cream and strong coffee. This is a fine recipe to use as it is one of the easiest gelatin preparations I have found. However, while it was so rich as to definitely need the Melba sauce I served along side, I missed the eggy-mousse-iness of a traditional French preparation.

Because the method was gelatin-based, the dessert also required more than an hour at room temperature before serving to allow the layers to loosen to a consistency which even resembled that of a true mousse: After three days of prep and the use of piles of costly real ingredients, I would have been very disappointed had I not placed it out on the counter at the start of dinner and ended up with something a kin to a chilled Jello dessert.

On the whole, it was delicious, deep, elegant, and would present beautifully in any sort of glass or stemware. But next time I would go for the real mousse: As long as it takes and as fragile as it can be. It would have satisfied the craving of the little girl in my soul.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T19:32:00.001-08:00

A celebration is afoot. Christmas-test recipes to come. Merriest of Christmases and holidays to you all.

Snow falling on corgi

2008-12-20T16:24:00.000-08:00

Nearly a foot of snow fell on us through the night. I was all set to photo the paddocks beyond the hollow but was not able to trudge out the back. The dogs enjoyed it immensely, however.

It occurred to me to just quit all the trudging, scraping, shoveling, waving at the plow gentleman, and wiping snow from my hair and come inside for something a bite of something settling, toasty, and unburdening. I've worked on this cream scone for some time. Make it with ease as it will be painless and simple. Do egg wash and sugar it because it will sparkle in any light. Afternoon tea is only a few lesiurely steps away.

Cream Scones
Makes 10 scones if knife cut, 6 if biscuit cutter is used

2 tablespoons butter for greasing cookie sheet parchment
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the egg wash and sugar sprinkle:
1 egg, beaten with a fork
2 tablespoons sugar for sprinkling over

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lay parchment on a baking sheet and grease parchment with butter. Combine the first four (dry) ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add strawberries, cream, and vanilla extract. Mix until a dough is formed. Pout onto a flat surface. Split the dough in two halves. Roll the first half of the dough out to a 1 inch thickness. Cut out scones with a round cookie cutter, or do as I do and just cut rough squares with a knife - no need to be too particular about it if you don't care to be. Place shoulder-to-shoulder on the greased parchment.

Brush eggwash neatly over the top of each biscuit. Sprinkle sugar gently on top of each. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

A bit of homemade merry

2008-12-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

Cocktail Hacker, one of my favorite spirit and mixcology blogs, has a seemingly limitless breadth of drink-related information. I was most interested to see their recent post, Homemade Irish Cream -Bottled Awesome spring up on Google Reader because our cousins Eamon and Peggy were kind enough to bring homemade Irish cream to us on the evening of the holiday party. This homemade liqueur was sampled and then enthusiastically polished off by our family and guests.

As you know, the Hostess is pregnant and therefore cannot drink, however, people who know Irish cream tried Peggy's version and greatly it prefer to any bottled version they have ever had. If you have a mind to try a homemade version for yourself, Cocktail Hacker shares this recipe which I have made an addendum to in order that the almond extract called for be used sparingly, if at all, because it can be overpowering.

Homemade Irish Cream
Makes 5 cups
adapted from Cocktail Hacker

1 3/4 Cups Jameson's Irish Whiskey
1 - 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 Cup whipping cream
4 eggs (or egg beaters)
2 Tbsp chocolate syrup
2 tsp instant coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract
(1/4 tsp Almond Extract, optional)

In a blender blend all ingredients except almond extract until smooth. Taste. If you like it as
is, you are finished. If you care for almond, add the 1/4 teaspoon almond extract.
Store in a refrigerator for up to 1 month.[Notes]This recipe yields about 5 cups of Irish Cream.

Tostones hors d'oeuvres as winter bears down

2008-12-16T12:06:00.000-08:00

We are awaiting a real winter storm. This could be snow day territory. But I realize that just because sledding with my toddler in a winter that threatens but never really gets underway is at the forefront of my plans, you might have a holiday party on your mind. And it is my sworn duty to help you and to get you to the best party possible, taking into account corrections to my own party work here which I will make the next time.

Tostones. I loved this idea when I saw a photo of this concept in Martha Stewart Hors d'oeuvres. The book does not mention, as it should, that this nibble is even more laborious and slow than most as tostones must be blanch-fried, pressed, then fried again. The pork must be slow cooked or braised. And when all that is behind you, the assembly is no walk in the park.

I loved these little bites but in the future will use one tostone on the bottom rather than create mini-sandwiches as the tostones are very dry. In researching this post, I notice all sorts of short cuts have been applied to the original ML recipe, consequently, you have options to speed this up if you wish. While I made the jerk sauce I used you can certainly buy it or your favorite barbecue sauce. I leave it to your taste to decide if you prefer pulled pork (as I do), chicken, (which ML Hors d'oeuvres called for) or beef (as featured in Gourmet) and whether to use jerk sauce or a traditional gently spicy BBQ sauce. Whatever combination you choose, be sure to trial run these as a too-sweet sauce would cause the flavor to be cloyingly sweet with the chutney.

Pulled Jerk Pork on Tostones with Mango Chutney
80 pieces, $26.00 or $.33 a piece
8 hours, 2.5 hours active

6 lb. pork shoulder ($10.00)
Kosher salt and frehly ground black pepper
2 cups jerk sauce, purchased or homemade ($4.00)
Tostones, below ($9.00)
1 8 ounce jar Major Grey's Mango Chutney ($3.00)

For the tostones:

8 large unripe barely ripe (yellow-green) plantains ($6.00)
about 4 cups canola or peanut oil for frying ($3.00)
Kosher salt

With a sharp small knife cut ends from each plantain and cut a lengthwise slit through skin. Peel off skin gently. Cut plantains crosswise into 3/4" slices. In a 12-inch nonstick skillet heat 1/2 inch oil over moderate heat until just hot enough to sizzle when a plantain is added. Fry plantains in batches without crowding, until tender and just beginning to turn golden, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. With tongs. transfer plantains paper towels to drain.

Remove skillet from heat and reserve oil. With the bottom of a heavy saucepan or a wide solid metal spatula flatten plantains to 1/4 inch thick (about 3 inches in diameter). Into a bowl of warm salted water dip flattened plantains, 1 at a time, and drain them well on paper towels.

Heat reserved oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking and fry flattened plantains in batches, without crowding, until golden, about 3 minutes. With tongs transfer tostones as fried to paper towels to drain and season with salt.

These will keep in an airtight container, refrigerated overnight. Take them from the fridge, place in a single layer on a baking sheet and reheat at 200 degrees for ten minutes or until warm.

For the pork:

Season the pork liberally with salt and pepper. In the basin of a slow cooker place the pork shoulder and pour over the jerk or barbecue sauce. Following your cooker's instruction per pound and cook roast until meat easily pull away from the bone. Remove the meat to a bowl and place cooking liquid in a separator. When settled, pour off and discard the clear part/ fat. Place remaining liquid in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Simmer until reduced to one third the original amount. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Pull the pork from the bone while also discarding large fat deposits. With a knife, dice as finely as possible. Pour the reduced sauce over the meat and stir gently to combine. Set aside.

This will keep two days, refrigerated, in an air tight container. Remove from the fridge a half hour before assembling.

To assemble:

On top of each tostone, place a small spoonful of pulled pork followed by a 1/2 teaspoon Major Grey's Mango Chutney. Serve immediately.

Dori assembling the tostones sandwiches just before the party began.

The Tenderloin Season

2008-12-14T18:01:00.000-08:00

Last evening, both my Mother and I attended holiday parties. At both parties, and at ours last weekend, a lovely beef tenderloin with toast was served. It seems we see more of it in this season though it is an intimate dinner party interloper as well throughout the year. Below is the recipe I used this past week, I have always felt that excellent cuts should not be adulterated and therefore, I use as little doctoring as possible to allow the rich beef to come to the fore.

Last night, however, at my friend Jennifer's holiday party, she served a glorious tenderloin which was somehow finished in Worcestershire and horseradish. Not only was it raved about but the meat seemed glazed to a luxe mahogany shade. I will try to wrest the recipe from last evening's blushing hostess. She did a wonderful job, as always. Visit Entertains for pictures.

Beef Tenderloin Sliced on Caper Butter Toast with Horseradish Sauce
Each tenderloin will yield at least 50 thin slices, count 2 per guest
On average, about $70 each or $2.25 per nibble serving
1 hour including toast prep

1 whole beef tenderloin, about 6 to 8 pounds ($9.99 lb, Stew Leonards)
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 loaves baguettes, sliced on bias and toasted with caper butter it will use about 1 cup ($3.00 each for the bread, $3.00 for the butter = $9.00 total)

Deli-style prepared horseradish sauce ($4.00)

Heat the grill to medium high heat. Remove the meat from the refrigerator 1/2 hour before you are going to grill it. Brush it with olive oil and season it very generously with salt and pepper. Grill the tenderloin, turning frequently, until the meat is rare or medium rare, about 8 to 10 minutes per pound or until a meat thermometer reads Rare/ 120 degrees. Remove to a platter and let it rest for 15 minutes. Slice the beef into thin slices.

To serve, arrange tenderloin slices on a large platter. In a basket, neatly arrange the caper butter toasts. Place a bowl of horseradish sauce alongside.

Insomnia and Rosemary-skewered nibbles

2008-12-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

I may have mentioned (perhaps even harped) on the fact that I have been mind-haltingly preoccupied with a home we were all set to buy until an issue of the sellers caused the closing to have to occur in two days and without an inspection by our own person. To add to the fun, there are labrynthine hoops through which I must jump, all while I cannot track down my Husband who is floating around happily ignorant in an oversized grey tunafish can somewhere far west of here. I do not feel comfortable, Friends. with this whole set up. This deal is getting to be like a visit to Crazy Town: Where people have years to a sell house but wait until 70 days before the capital gains date and don't expect us to inspect pivotal things we buy which they have let go in every sense, in the name of escaping sums due to Uncle Sam which are the well-publicized and long standing result of dragging one's shiny patent Ferragamo's.

I know better than to deal with this. Educationally speaking, I know one or two things about contracts and can honestly say about them that I have never read one that was not hopelessly lopsided with benefits to one and clear losses to another. I am not going to be the loss girl here. I am shod in Tod's and prepared to go toe to toe but have decided that is an unnesssecary life-force expenditure and have elected instead to just call and explain (which is the utter truth) that our people are not ready to deal with their people 'til next week. Thus shushing the capital gains chatter once and for all. A house is a house is a house in the end and building attachment to inanimate objects one does not own is inadviseable and not one of the Hostess' flaws.

Time to start sleeping again and generating recipes you can use, the rest of this is nonsense needs to just pass into history.

Just a reminder then, that the plan wherever able, is to advise you the cost of the ingredients as we bought them and an estimate cost per piece in order to assist you in planning, budgeting, and executing your own parties...

Rosemary-skewered Mini Antipasto
Makes 80 pieces
$26 or $.33 per piece
1 hour

2 large bunches fresh rosemary (4.00 for both, I do not recommend Trader Joe's go to the herb bins in produce in a real store)
2 pounds bulk cured sausage (like sopressetta or dry salami), cut into 3/4" chunks ($12.00)
2 pounds bulk provolone cut into 3/4" chunks, or 3 lbs small fresh mozzerella balls in water, whole ($10.00)
1 recipe balsamic vinegarette or your favorite best-quality Italian-inspired vinegarette

If you intend to marinate the salami and provolone, pour the vinegarette into a shallow 8" dish. Place cheese and salami in the dressing, cover and refridgerate for a couple of hours at least.

With kitchen shears, cut the rosemary branches into 4" lengths. Strip the leaves from the lower three inches of the branches by grabbing the branch from the point you want to strip leaves and gently pulling backwards down the branch to free the leaves, leaving only the crown at the top. Save the leaves for another use (dry or freeze). Place the skewers in cool water until ready to use if within an hour or two, otherwise refridgerate in water.

To make the antipasto skewers:
Place a piece of salami on the skewer followed by a piece of cheese. You may resubmerge in the dressing, covered for a couple of hours until serving.