So it was my dad’s birthday on Saturday and my mom and Gillian and I decided we had to make something for him. I immediately thought classic chocolate double cake and Gilly agreed but my mom told me it wasn’t what my dad likes best. My dad is a funny eater because he will eat normal foods, the foods everyone else eats, but until he finds the best of the best of that type of food, he won’t enjoy it as much as the rest of us. I could eat a piece of brie at a party and be completely satisfied with the Costco brand, so will my dad but until he gets the Point Reyes Brie, he won’t enjoy it that much. It reminds me of his fiftieth birthday. My dad, my brother and I went to Florida to spend a week fishing and boating. We bought a Key Lime pie for the night of his birthday but my brother forgot to put it in the fridge before we went out to dinner. It was quite sloppy when we got back but my dad ate it anyways. In an effort to get the full experience of the Key Lime pie in Florida, he bought another the next day. That night we played poker and made bets for the stakes. My brother made the stakes including jumping in the water at night after watching JAWS and drinking a half cup of olive oil. Of course, he had overestimated his poker-playing skills or underestimated my skills and ended up performing both bets. We also made a bet for my dad that he wouldn’t be able to refrain from having a piece of Key Lime pie that night. He lost the couple of hands and we tried to hold him to the bet. He, however, did not hold to the bet. So, I decided to make Key Lime pie for this birthday. It of course included numerous West Wing episodes and maybe a procrastination of homework. Wow, this was a really big ramble but enjoy my recipe for Key Lime pie.
Shortbread Crust (I love this crust for the pie because the butter of the crust is a better contrast to the nice acidic taste of the Key Limes. I think the graham cracker crust is too sickeningly sweet.):
1 ¼ C. all purpose flour
1/3 C. sugar
1 t. grated lemon zest (I used lime zest in the spirit of the pie)
¼ t. salt
8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter (cold if using a food processor, which I suggest you do, and softened if doing by hand)
1 large egg yolk
Process or whisk together in a bowl the first four ingredients. Add the butter and process until coarse crumbs or use a pastry blender by hand. Add the yolk and either process just until the dough just starts to form into a ball or blend vigorously with a spatula. Its harder doing it by hand and I had to put the bowl in the freezer for a couple of minutes, then form a ball and put back into freezer for a couple of minutes. Roll the dough out with some loose flour between two sheets of wax paper about 3 inches larger than the 9, 9.5, or 10 pie pan. The pan should be buttered and floured. Don’t use too much or too little flour or you will get dough that falls apart or one that sticks. Don’t bother crimping the edge, prick the bottom and sides with a fork and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven until golden brown for 18-22 minutes. Watch it to make sure it doesn’t burn which it can easily. After it done, brush it all over with an egg wash of just a yolk and a pinch of salt. Put back in the oven for another minute so the egg sets and creates a seal for the filling. Let cool completely on a rack.
Key Lime Pie Filling:
1 15 oz. can sweetened condensed milk (I can only ever find the 14 oz. so just use that and make sure you really get all of it out with a rubber spatula)
4 large egg yolks
½ C. fresh Key Lime juice (I estimated about ten key limes will get you this amount but buy twelve just in case. I find them at my local grocery store sold by the bag of 14. If you can’t find them use limes. I think the Key Limes are really tart, which I like.)
3 to 4 t. grated lime zest
1 C. heavy whipping cream
1/3 C. powdered sugar
Whisk together first four ingredients until a thick mixture forms. Pour filling into crust and bake in a preheated 325 degree oven until filling resembles gelatin or about 16 minutes. Cool completely on rack, then refrigerate until cold or for 1 day. Right before serving whip the cream and slowly add the sugar until soft peaks form. Spread over filling and garnish with sliced limes. Have fun and stay in school!
Monday, January 29, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
6 hour Comfort
I will often ask my mom what she wants me to make for dinner and the first thing she will say is "Nothing, if you mess up the kitchen!" Well, no matter what, I am going to say that I won't make any mess and I ask her again. She will say 80% of the time that she wants comfort food. So I go to the Jewel at like 3 pm on Sunday and I probably spend an hour and a half there. I have to ask the help desk three times where they moved the crème fraiche, and then I have to deal with the lady that works at the meat counter after the butcher has gone. So I ask her for a certain pound roast, prime. She says that she can't cut it but I can wait for the butcher to come back tomorrow? I don't understand, does this lady need permission to pick up a knife?! Anyway, I pick up some sushi and Kettle Cheddar Beer chips to eat while I'm cooking, then two pints of Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Swiss Almond for my mom and my sister (and yeah, they will finish them in a night: my family has a soft spot for ice cream, well actually my family has soft love handles for ice cream). I get home and I have to yell up to my sister, who is taking her 5:00 nap to help me get the groceries inside and put away. Even though it wouldn't be hard for me to do it myself, I start to feel really out upon if no one pitches in. I turn on West Wing or FRIENDS and get to work. If everyone was home this is what I would get. Andrew would walk in, complain about how long it was taking and eat all the ingredients. Last year, while cooking Thanksgiving I had made these pan-roasted balsamic pearl onions that I had to heat and individually peel each one. They had taken me about 45 minutes and while they were cooling in the colander, Andrew came in a stated popping them like well, popcorn. Caroline would enter the kitchen and ask if I needed help. I might or might not say yes, but if I did say yes, she would start to help and then take over the entire dinner. I would become the sous-chef in five minutes for the dinner I prepared. My dad would come in and start hounding me about the writing exercises I did for my blog and why I don't write my recipes or changes to recipes down. My mom would come in, get excited about the smells but become suddenly exhausted when she saw the sink and she would say she was going to take a nap. And Gilly, oh Gilly would stumble into the kitchen and yell, "oh, I HATE SOUP! And this is a white soup! Peter, you know I don't eat white foods! Why didn't you make Macaroni and Cheese?" Well, incidentally Gilly's fine palate usually hits the spot. One of my favorite comfort foods to make is Ina Garten's Mac and Cheese with Gruyere and tomatoes! Have fun and stay in school!
-Sea Salt
-Olive oil
-1 pound elbow macaroni or cavatappi (I have used both and to be honest, I liked the elbow better, but I think that was just because I didn’t find a good cavatappi, use the best pasta you know!)
-1 quart milk (I use whole because it makes such a better tasting béchamel sauce, and I mean with this meal, who are you kidding, you’ll start you diet on Monday instead!)
-6 T. unsalted butter (never use salted butter in your recipes unless it calls for it, I took AP Chemistry, and while I got a C one quarter, I know that salt produces chemical reactions in your food when you are not ready for it too, and you want to be able to control the seasoning you put into your food. I know this because once I got reprimanded at the store, which I haven’t talked about, and no one wants to disappoint the boss, Erin, ‘cause she so nice! (God what a brown-noser I am.))
-12 oz Gruyere cheese, grated 4 C. (find the best Gruyere you can find! The more expensive, the better! Emmantalier is good (if that’s how you spell it))
-8 oz extra-sharp Cheddar, grated 2 C. (I like Irish 6 yr cheddar)
-½ t. fresh ground pepper
-½ t. nutmeg (fresh grated is the best but remember only the outer shell of the seed or whatever is nutmeg, the inside is mace (hooray Kendall College for that tip).
-¾ pound fresh tomatoes (Plum are the best choice, juicy and full o’ flava)
-1 ½ C. fresh white bread crumbs, 5 slices crusts removed (get the bad for you, not natural bread because it is the best for this kind of thing, even though my family never eats it and I don’t know what to do with it when I make this, maybe someone could give me a suggestion, always learning!)
-2 T. butter for the crumbs
Preheat to 375 degrees
Drizzle olive oil in large pot boiling water, add pasta, and cook according to directions on the package (cook very al dente because the pasta will cook a little longer in the oven). Drain well.
Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan (I put the stove on medium and I know its hot when there are lots of little bubbles around the edges/my finger gets hot when I touch it, wow new concept!)
Melt 6 T. butter in large (4 quart) pot and add flour. Cook over low (don’t burn the flour!) for 2 minutes stirring (constantly) with a whisk. While whisking add hot milk and cook for a minute or more, until thickened and smooth (okay, this is crucial, milk must be hot and you must keep stirring, you will feel when it gets thicker, it also gets a deeper color and will look like very melted white chocolate). Take off the heat and add the cheeses, 1 T. salt, pepper, and nutmeg (Tip for grating/thin slicing the cheese is put it in the freezer when you get home until you need it for grating, it makes grating softer cheeses easier and it won’t do anything to the flavor or anything, just don’t let it freeze). Add cooked pasta and stir well, pour into a 3-quart baking dish.
Slice tomatoes ¼ inch thick and arrange on top. Melt remaining 2 T. butter and combine with the bread crumbs you can make by food processing the bread, and sprinkle on top of tomatoes. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until sauce is bubbly and pasta is browned on top.
-Sea Salt
-Olive oil
-1 pound elbow macaroni or cavatappi (I have used both and to be honest, I liked the elbow better, but I think that was just because I didn’t find a good cavatappi, use the best pasta you know!)
-1 quart milk (I use whole because it makes such a better tasting béchamel sauce, and I mean with this meal, who are you kidding, you’ll start you diet on Monday instead!)
-6 T. unsalted butter (never use salted butter in your recipes unless it calls for it, I took AP Chemistry, and while I got a C one quarter, I know that salt produces chemical reactions in your food when you are not ready for it too, and you want to be able to control the seasoning you put into your food. I know this because once I got reprimanded at the store, which I haven’t talked about, and no one wants to disappoint the boss, Erin, ‘cause she so nice! (God what a brown-noser I am.))
-12 oz Gruyere cheese, grated 4 C. (find the best Gruyere you can find! The more expensive, the better! Emmantalier is good (if that’s how you spell it))
-8 oz extra-sharp Cheddar, grated 2 C. (I like Irish 6 yr cheddar)
-½ t. fresh ground pepper
-½ t. nutmeg (fresh grated is the best but remember only the outer shell of the seed or whatever is nutmeg, the inside is mace (hooray Kendall College for that tip).
-¾ pound fresh tomatoes (Plum are the best choice, juicy and full o’ flava)
-1 ½ C. fresh white bread crumbs, 5 slices crusts removed (get the bad for you, not natural bread because it is the best for this kind of thing, even though my family never eats it and I don’t know what to do with it when I make this, maybe someone could give me a suggestion, always learning!)
-2 T. butter for the crumbs
Preheat to 375 degrees
Drizzle olive oil in large pot boiling water, add pasta, and cook according to directions on the package (cook very al dente because the pasta will cook a little longer in the oven). Drain well.
Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan (I put the stove on medium and I know its hot when there are lots of little bubbles around the edges/my finger gets hot when I touch it, wow new concept!)
Melt 6 T. butter in large (4 quart) pot and add flour. Cook over low (don’t burn the flour!) for 2 minutes stirring (constantly) with a whisk. While whisking add hot milk and cook for a minute or more, until thickened and smooth (okay, this is crucial, milk must be hot and you must keep stirring, you will feel when it gets thicker, it also gets a deeper color and will look like very melted white chocolate). Take off the heat and add the cheeses, 1 T. salt, pepper, and nutmeg (Tip for grating/thin slicing the cheese is put it in the freezer when you get home until you need it for grating, it makes grating softer cheeses easier and it won’t do anything to the flavor or anything, just don’t let it freeze). Add cooked pasta and stir well, pour into a 3-quart baking dish.
Slice tomatoes ¼ inch thick and arrange on top. Melt remaining 2 T. butter and combine with the bread crumbs you can make by food processing the bread, and sprinkle on top of tomatoes. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until sauce is bubbly and pasta is browned on top.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Muffins with Mucky
We started with blueberry muffins. My grandmother, Mucky, couldn’t do much else with me but bake so we started with blueberry muffins. Mucky would read from the recipe and I, six or seven years old, would run around the kitchen proving my knowledge of the whereabouts of the baking powder or the flour (each, strangely in a different part of our kitchen/eating area). We mixed it all together excitedly and dumped uneven mounds into ungreased muffin pans. Mucky usually ate and drank two things during the day. She ate plain bread and drank hot water. She made hot water the old-fashioned way in a saucepan on the stove. So when we made blueberry muffins we put on some water at the same time and went outside to the basketball hoop. I attempted to make a basket while Mucky praised me for my efforts for about an hour. We returned inside and the water was boiling violently. Mucky took it off the stove, poured it into a mug, still boiling, and started drinking right away. We took out the muffins and put them on a plate. They had baked but had hardly risen. We forgot the baking powder because Mucky had Alzheimer’s and I was just so excited about the blueberry muffins. The following is one of my families favorite recipes adapted from a recipe of Sconset Café in Nantucket.
(16 muffins)
1 ¼ C. sugar ½ C. raisins or I have used cranberries and currants
2 ¼ C. flour ½ C. shredded coconut + ½ C. pecans (I love slivered almonds)
1 T. cinnamon 2 C. grated carrots (about 3-4 large carrots) or Zucchini!
2 t. baking soda 1 apple shredded (with a cheese shredder, I use granny smith)
½ t. salt 8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained of the syrup
3 eggs
1 C. vegetable oil (safflower oil is good for you and doesn’t change the taste)
1 t. vanilla (My mom is so crazy about vanilla she uses it for all the candles in her bathroom and even has these weird vanilla angels that she hangs in her room that if you sniff their big silk butts, it smells of vanilla, yeah good memory, anyway I use 1 T. for my mom)
Sift together sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. I add ½ t. grated nutmeg for a great resulting flavor.
Then add the fruit, carrots, nuts and stir to combine.
Whisk the wet ingredients in another bowl and pour it into the dry ingredients. Mix well.
Spoon batter into muffin pans, ( I would use muffin papers unless you want a really clean look, which, these are great muffins to bring to a meeting, I should know because my mom has me make them a lot for her meetings) fill to the brim. Bake in 350 degree oven for 35-40 min. Use a toothpick to make sure they’re done. Cool in pan for 10 min. These muffins are huge so you really need to make sure they are done, and they need to be properly cooled in the pan and then onto a rack so they don’t fall apart. The tops may stick to the pan so gently slide a knife under them after taking them out of the oven but before letting them cool for the first 10 minutes. Sconset Café suggests letting them ripen for 24 hours but I usually can’t wait. Have fun and stay in school!
(16 muffins)
1 ¼ C. sugar ½ C. raisins or I have used cranberries and currants
2 ¼ C. flour ½ C. shredded coconut + ½ C. pecans (I love slivered almonds)
1 T. cinnamon 2 C. grated carrots (about 3-4 large carrots) or Zucchini!
2 t. baking soda 1 apple shredded (with a cheese shredder, I use granny smith)
½ t. salt 8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained of the syrup
3 eggs
1 C. vegetable oil (safflower oil is good for you and doesn’t change the taste)
1 t. vanilla (My mom is so crazy about vanilla she uses it for all the candles in her bathroom and even has these weird vanilla angels that she hangs in her room that if you sniff their big silk butts, it smells of vanilla, yeah good memory, anyway I use 1 T. for my mom)
Sift together sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. I add ½ t. grated nutmeg for a great resulting flavor.
Then add the fruit, carrots, nuts and stir to combine.
Whisk the wet ingredients in another bowl and pour it into the dry ingredients. Mix well.
Spoon batter into muffin pans, ( I would use muffin papers unless you want a really clean look, which, these are great muffins to bring to a meeting, I should know because my mom has me make them a lot for her meetings) fill to the brim. Bake in 350 degree oven for 35-40 min. Use a toothpick to make sure they’re done. Cool in pan for 10 min. These muffins are huge so you really need to make sure they are done, and they need to be properly cooled in the pan and then onto a rack so they don’t fall apart. The tops may stick to the pan so gently slide a knife under them after taking them out of the oven but before letting them cool for the first 10 minutes. Sconset Café suggests letting them ripen for 24 hours but I usually can’t wait. Have fun and stay in school!
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