Happy, Happy Birthday

Yesterday my uncle wished me a happy birthday and told me that he hoped I didn't have to make my own cake. I replied that making my own birthday treat is the only way to ensure that I get to enjoy exactly what I want. This year, that was Momofuku's Crack Pie.

At Momofuku's Bakery and Milk Bar in New York City they sell this ooey-gooey pie for $44 each. Making it at home cost much, much less than that (and you get two pies).

I cooked this over two days, making the oat cookie for the crust one day and finishing the crust and the filling the next morning. The result is a really sweet creamy filling in a slightly salty cookie crust. A delicious contrast.

Happy Birthday to me!

Click here for a link to the recipe in case you want to try this deliciousness at home.

Stone-Fruit Clafouti

Recently, while perusing one of my favorite blogs, Serious Eats, I came across a photo of something called a clafouti. Having heard only vaguely about clafoutis, I decided to do a little searching to find out just what it was.

What I found was that it sounded like a delicious cross between a custard and a pancake that could be made with just about any seasonal fruit you could imagine. Writers would go on and on about what a delicious treat a clafouti could be, most adding that it is best served warm but a slice served cold out of the fridge for breakfast was equally good.

When it came time to make something for a recent potluck my thoughts turned to clafouti. This, I thought, would be a great use of some of the lovely stone fruit that I have been getting in my CSA box.

From my research it seemed that clafoutis all contain the same basic things, some kind of fruit (cherries are most traditional), eggs, flour and dairy, but there seemed to be quite a bit of variation in ratios and flavoring.

I started with a recipe from Orangette and then shaped it to my liking. Here's the ingredients:

3 Santa Rosa Plums, cut into eighths
2 Flavor Grenade Pluots, cut into eighths (I know there are three in the picture, but it only took five pieces of fruit to fill the bottom of the pie dish)
3 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup creme fraiche
3/8 cup heavy cream
1/8 cup rose syrup

I started by heating the toaster oven to 350 degrees (no need to heat up the big oven on a warm day). Next I lightly buttered a 9-inch pie plate, the added all of my fruit, skin side down.

Next I whisked together the eggs, sugar and salt for about a minute, until they turned from yellow to pale yellow (this was the hardest part, I hate whisking). I added the rest of my ingredients and continued whisking for another minute or so, until there were no lumps remaining and the batter was light and fluffy. Then I poured this over the pears and popped it into the toaster oven.

Forty minutes later I checked the clafouti. It was all puffed up (and set) in the middle and the edges were nicely browned. I opened the toaster oven door and let the gorgeous smells waft into the living room while we finished dinner.

How was it? Well, I thought it turned out very nicely. Still warm from the oven, it had a nice contrast of the tart fruit and the slightly sweet custard with just a hint of the rose syrup showing through. My potluck guests seemed to enjoy it as well. I won't get to try it out cold from the fridge though (since my guests ate the whole thing). I guess I'll have to make another one.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Crisp

I have been sick for over a week. Really sick. Like, canceled my clients, stayed in bed, got winded when I crossed the room, eventually needed antibiotics because I have a bronchial infection, sick. For the first four or so days, the only things that sounded good to eat was ramen soup, white rice and mac & cheese. Even when things started to sound better, I was too tired to cook.

Today, I finally had some of my energy back. So, I took a look in the fridge to see what I could find to work with, and found that, sadly, a lot of my CSA box (including the fava beans I was so excited about) had turned not so good. Instead of cooking, I was left with cleaning out the bad food from the fridge. A few things are still good (the potatoes, carrots and zucchini are in fine shape). But a lot had to go. I took a look at the rhubarb and the strawberries and decided that may be salvageable in cooked form. I thought about a pie or a tart, but making crust sounded hard. The easier (and just as tasty) option seemed like a crisp.

Here the ingredients for the filling:

4 stalks of rhubarb, chopped
1 pint of strawberries, quartered
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoon flour

I started by chopping by rhubarb and strawberries, cutting off and discarding the parts that were too far gone.

I put the fruit in a bowl, along with the sugar and flour, gave it a good toss and then set it aside while I worked on the topping.


Here the ingredients for the topping:

1 cup slivered almonds, toasted and then cooled
1/2 cup oats
2 Tablespoon flour
2 Tablespoon sugar
4 Tablespoon butter
a pinch of salt

I mashed together all the topping ingredients using my fingers (you could use a fork, but fingers is easier). The nuts were still a little warm, so the butter got a little meltier than I would like, but it worked out okay.

The filling had exuded a bit of liquid (which I expected, that's what happens when you put sugar on berries), so I gave it a final stir and split it between two ramekins.

Then I distributed the topping over the berries.

I put the completed dishes on a small baking pan (in case they bubbled over).

Then popped them into a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. I knew they were ready when the topping was nicely browned and the filling was bubbly and thickened.

How was it? Well, if you are only going to cook one thing all week, this is not a bad way too go. Sweet and tart, and even better with a scoop of vanilla on top. Plus, lucky me, the husband deemed this "too tart" for his tastes. So I get to enjoy it again later. My reward for feeling lousy for days.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Inspired by Bakerella I made myself some delicious Birthday treats.

Clockwise from the top left the flavors are:

chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting in chocolate bark

white cake with peanut butter and Nutella in vanilla bark topped with chopped peanuts

chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting in chocolate bark topped with chopped pecans

white cake with cream cheese frosting in vanilla bark

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yummy, yum, yum!

Dinner For Friends

Friday night I had the opportunity to make dinner for a few friends to celebrate two of their birthdays. I always like to try out a new thing or two when I cook for friends as they are generally a forgiving group if something doesn't turn out right.

I presented a few menu options to my friends and they picked this one:
Fettuccine Bolognese with Homemade Egg Pasta
Chopped Salad
Garlic Bread
Lemon Creme Brulee with Fresh Blueberries

I wanted to make a classic Bolognese sauce so I turned to Italian Classics from Cook's Illustrated.

You can look up the recipe, but basically the sauce is made up of equal parts minced carrot, onion and celery (4 tablespoons of each) with equal parts ground beef, pork and veal (a half-pound each). This gets browned then you add milk and let it simmer until it is gone, then add white wine and let it simmer until it is gone, then add tomatoes and simmer for what seems like forever. All in all it was simmering for about 8 hours. I served this over some homemade fettuccine.

Check out my mad knife skillzs.









And the finished product.














The chopped salad I made is a copy of the Pagliaccio salad from Pagliacci's Pizza here in town. About a year ago I asked them is they would share the recipe for the dressing. The person who responded to my request said that they could tell me what was in it, but not the amounts. After a little tinkering I have created a reasonable facsimile. Here's the recipe I came up with.

Chopped Salad with Dijon-Tarragon Dressing
1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 cup mozzarella cheese
4 ounce salami, diced
1 recipe Dijon-tarragon dressing

Toss together all ingredients with enough dressing to coat.

Dijon-Tarragon Dressing
1 clove garlic
2 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon fresh tarragon
1 2/3 cup olive oil

Add all the ingredient except the oil to the work bowl of a food processor. Pulse to chop. Turn processor on and add oil in a steady stream until incorporated. Keep at room temperature for 2 hours. Refrigerate for up to 1 week.


I bought a par baked foccaia bread (I was feeling too lazy for bread baking, especially after the fresh pasta making) and made an olive oil and herb topping with minced garlic, rosemary, sage, basil salt and pepper. This smelled divine as it was cooking (and received a very picky four-year old's thumbs up, high praise indeed).

I used the recipe for creme brulee from Cook's Illustrated but, knowing that I was going to pair it with the fresh blueberries from the CSA box this week, I added the zest of a lemon and a little squeeze of lemon juice to the cream as it was steeping (because I love lemon with blueberries).



















Yum.

















Since I had some extra egg whites (since the Creme Brulee only uses yolks) I did the only responsible thing. I made Meringues. But not just Meringues, Five-Spice Cocoa Meringues.

I started with the recipe from Epicurious for Cocoa Meringue Kisses but with a few tweaks. I added about two teaspoons of five-spice powder and since I didn't have cream of tarter, I used lemon juice instead and since I used lemon juice instead of cream of tarter I added about a tablespoon extra of sugar. I toyed with adding some cayenne to the mix but since a four-year old was to be one of the guests I didn't think that was a great idea (but I do think it would have been fantastic). I baked them for 35 minutes. They were crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Here they are.
Again, yum.














Dinner (and dessert) was all great! And of course the company was delightful. I'm always so glad to be able to share my gifts with people in my life (and judging from the raves, they are happy for that too).

I'm so glad that I had the forethought to make lots of extra sauce so that I can eat it again (perhaps tonight). And, oh my, I just remembered that I have extra creme brulee in the fridge. Gotta go!