the New Recipe Challenge: Chocolate-Caramel Pecan Tart

Ah holidays; yes! My favorite excuse to overeat sugar! I made this tart for a Thanksgiving dinner. While pumpkin pie is normally my go-to, the friend that had invited me had already called dibs on creating the most awesomest of all holiday pies. Seemed a perfect time to venture out into the great unknown. Tarts. And now, with no further adieu, Chocolate-Caramel Pecan Tart.

Verdict: DELICIOUSNESS IN SMOKY NUT FORM
Smoky nuts, salty hint, flakey crust- this is nowhere near the cloying goo of a typical pecan pie. 

I had no tart pan with removable bottom, but just threw the crust into a spring-form cake pan. At first I was dismayed to find that my crust shrank in considerably from the edges, but really, turned out to be no big thing. So don't worry about what kind of baking pan you use. 
The bit about cooking the corn syrup for 8-10 minutes... complete lie. Just watch it carefully- it turns fast. Luckily, Mama was on hand and coached me through most. Including a bit where she stopped me from scraping gritty bits of sugar back down to the goey mass. Apparently that is a big no-no in candy making, and I narrowly escaped turning my batch into a gruesome crystalline mess. Or something. 
Next Time: I doubled the salt as well- and I probably could have used even more. Other than that- I'm not changing a thing. 
Repeat factor: Very high. 

the New Recipe Challenge: Chipotle Pumpkin Soup with Chorizo & Apples

Wow, it's been a while! So hectic, much time, blah blah blah. 
Ok, now on to the good stuff; I've been pushing myself to try one new recipe a week. 
Last week I made a large batch of this Chipotle Pumpkin Soup. The recipe can be found here.

Verdict: A solid recipe, that definitely got me thinking about other directions to take this, should I attempt again. 
I usually find smoked paprika a bit heavy handed, and that was no different here. I doubled the coconut milk. The chorizo (as much as I detest cooking it, the oil, ugh) was absolutely necessary to the texture of the soup,  that fatty grease was perfect drizzled over the top! The apples were also an awesome addition- I wanted much more than what the recipe called for. The acorn squash halves functioning as bowls? Completely superfluous, but I had to. 

Next time: Double the coconut milk and omit the cheese. Change out the spices to perhaps some star anise, coriander seed, cardamom, or a chili blend a little more sophisticated. Rethink the protein addition? Halve the recipe as well. 

Repeat Factor: Yes, but doubtful in this exact form again. 

Mexican Gazpacho

Oooh boy, summer in a bowl. I made this last year, and as soon as it FINALLY started to warm up here, I jumped at the chance to make it again. I go heavier on the poblano chiles, add an extra piece of bread to the crumbs mixture and usually fry up more bread cubes to sprinkle on top as croutons. My favorite part is the mango chunks and crispy bits of radish. I brought this to a potluck party once and my friend who claimed to never really get into chilled soups said it was delicious. But to be fair, it's not really even like a soup, more like an excuse to pile a bunch of fresh stuff into an amazing salsa.

Recipe from The Spiced Life, found here.

Mayodaise and Time Clarifications

Photo from Bon Appétit

James and I decided to have a festive and indulgent breakfast this morning, or actually, perhaps I should say I decided to have a festive breakfast morning (Mother's Day! Yeah... I have a mother... I should eat steak), fueled by visions of the "fool-proof" hollandaise sauce featured in my recent Bon Appétit issue. You may remember my past hang-ups about hollandaise,  the fear and terror it creates in me, juxtaposed against my insatiable urges for the sauce. 
The process outlined in Bon Appétit claims you, yes YOU, can create easy, fool-proof hollandaise sauce in 5-minutes, using a blender and ... uh... one pan. Since James was able to do it the old fashioned method and it turned out fantastic, I figured perhaps this dumbed down version could be my personal introduction into the (previously denied) culinary world of cream sauces.

However, in case you didn't notice, the world has not imploded, pigs do not fly, hell has not frozen over and I found a way to fuck hollandaise up once again. Ok, check out the recipe:

Blender Hollandaise (from Bon Appétit)

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, plus more
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

• Fill a blender with hot water; set aside. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until foaming. Remove pan from heat. Drain blender and dry well. Put egg yolks and 2 Tbsp. lemon juice in blender; cover and blend to combine. Working quickly and with blender running, remove lid insert and slowly pour hot butter into blender in a thin stream of droplets, discarding the milk solids in bottom of the saucepan. Blend until creamy sauce forms. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and with more lemon juice. Serve immediately.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Pretty simple sounding, oui oui? Well, after the meal was consumed (errant sauce and all) I checked out the vid to see what differences in preparation must have occurred. And seriously, check it out: here it is.
  After I got over the excitement of realizing this was Eric Ripert's recipe, I watched him blend the sauce for about, oh... 10 seconds? Seriously: watch it and time it for me please. Ripert and the other dude even refer to it as "60 second" hollandaise. Ugh. You can't mess around with me and sauces! I need guidelines! Strict measurements! Hard and fast rules! The freaking printed piece called it 5-minute hollandaise! I blended that shit til I got mayo. Specifically, I blended that shit for 5 minutes. When I pressed that stop button and ventured a taste, that stuff was THICK. 
  
  
  Creamy, delicious, lemony mayo, but nonetheless, mayo. It was so good though, that I still poured that all over my plate and wondered how commercial mayo sucks so much.  
  
  
  
  Mayo: it's breakfast!

It's Pizza and I Helped

P-I-Z-Z-A!!!

Another America's Test Kitchen win for my tummy! Along with being obsessed with America's Test Kitchen, I watch A LOT of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. He's made me want to eat charcuterie. My mouth wants yummy cured meats with cheese and bread. Living in such a foodie city one would think that one could find such delicious foods as these, but alas, it's been difficult, unless you want to spend loads of money at a fancy restaurant, which I don't at the moment. But there's a glimmer of hope and tastiness in the deli section of Whole Foods. That's where Moni and I purchased four thinly sliced $17.99 per lb Prosciutto di Parma with the intent of combining meat and pizza to make awesome P-I-Z-Z-A! Homemade sauce, homemade dough, toppings of your choice...






We made a salad too, but who wants to see that when you have yummy meat pizza to look at.

Revelations and a slew of crappy pics

It's been so long ago that this actually happened; I think I can only talk about the major points here:

1. Tara had some savory tarts while in Spain that inspired us creatively. We created flat ones, cup-shaped and pop-tart style tarts, filled with amazing things.

2. Actual caramelized onion and/or fruit is delicious. Previously, I believe anything I've ever had that claimed to be caramelized was truly only greased up and warmed. Don't get me wrong: warm and greasy can be just what I need sometimes- but these pears! They were something else.

3. Regular pie crust dough can be used for tarts but must be rolled as thin as you can possibly stand it.

4. I can drink the crappiest champagne in the world as long as I have raspberries to muddle.

5. My phone takes the crappiest photos in the world. Especially when you have food smeared across the lens and don't realize until the end of the night.

Have mixer, will bake.

With the holidays fast approaching, I'm daydreaming of all the delicious recipes I've been stockpiling. I FREAK out come the end of the year, getting preoccupied with making sugary sweets, frothy eggnog and all sorts of roasted spicy things. It gets a little insane at times, until before I know it, Tara and I are trying to shape home made marshmallows out of cookie presses, surrounded by champagne or trying to force people to try our eggnog meringue. Getting into the spirit of things, Tara and I have begun compiling a list of all goodies we will be attempting (and possibly even failing at a few, but who cares when it involves ingredients like these.) Here's my check list so far- all from recipe sites that I really enjoy- lots of other great non-sugar related recipes on most all of them:

Dulce de Leche Marshmallows from: The Spiced Life
My marshmallow love knows no bounds. I've killed hand mixers on batches of them, experimented with espresso and cocoa mixes and am now ready to move on to the next.

Buckeyes from: Smitten Kitchen
I have made a home made peanutbutter cup thing in past years, but now I'm looking forward to trying these. They look a bit more sophisticated, but that may just be the beautiful photography that Smitten Kitchen consistently provides.

Cherry-limade Bars from: Cheeky Kitchen
The lemon bar is a CLASSIC. My cookie book's page that holds this recipe is neatly annotated by my mother's hand but is gummed down by layers of sugar and lemon. I'm not quite sure I can get behind the maraschino cherries and food coloring called for in this version, but it opens up some great possiblities that I never imagined. Layered lemon bars? Holiday colors? Yes. YES

Salted Gingersnap & Hazelnut Bark from: Bitchin Camero
I LOVE how grown up this looks. Like, Harry and David good. Like, I ordered this from some catalog just for you this Christmas. But wait, I actually made it! This is what I imagine the conversation will go like when I gift my friends sweet packets of this salted chocolate confection. Oh, and I also love how freaking EASY it sounds to make. But I leave that part out of my imaginary conversations.



French Bread Pudding from: Epicurious
Tara and I are also going to be doing a bread pudding- however, most recipes I have been looking at call for chocolate, french toast, sweet breads, caramel and other extras when all I really want is plain good bread, eggs, cream and sugar. This recipe looks simple enough to satisfy those cravings, with dried cherries to add some tartness.


Burnt Sugar Lollipops from: Fig & Kindle
These rustic candies look so unassuming. I imagine all the better to appreciate all the differing degrees of caramelization. I can see these wrapped up in stiff cellophane and brown bows.


Hooray for the holidays! Time to dust off those rolling pins and start stocking up on refined sugars. YES. What are YOU guys making for Thanksgiving/Christmas/whatever?

Hold on a minute, summer

I love fresh corn. And cherry tomatoes. I could eat those all day long come summer. Tried out a corn pancake recipe from Smitten Kitchen this morning. I'm not particularly into pancakes- they've got nothing on waffles, IMHO. But man, these fresh corn ones were doing right: very light and fluffy, savory and soft, with chunks of fresh corn folded throughout. Smitten Kitchen suggested they may pair well with fresh tomatoes, so I made a topping of cherry tomatoes, some more fresh corn (lightly sauteed in the breakfast sausage juice), tons of basil, green onion and a pinch of salt, sugar and thyme. I took one bite and kind of freaked out. James added syrup to his plate, but I did fine without.
I will def be making these again. They would be a prime candidate for upping the savory factory- perhaps some green onion or shallots would be good thrown into the batter...

The Wonders of Paris' Garden (part 1)

I'm holding down the home steady for Paris, which means aside from feeding his carnivorous kitties, and plants , I also am caring for his community garden lot, which is full of goodies! I picked some of the swiss chard, which is getting a bit too big. I have a couple ideas for cooking it, but I started with a simple little soup.

swiss chard
Potatoes
carrots
mushrooms
rice noodles
chicken broth
usual yum yum spices
lots o garlic
fresh thyme!( I love having Paris' herbs available)


It turned out super yummy, but even though I added the swiss chard last, it was still a bit over cooked. The next day I heated the rest of it up(mostly potatoes and broth left). I put it in this cute little bowl, found through the vigorous cleaning of Paris' apartment, and then I put the rest of the chard in, closed the lid, and let it just sit for a bit.

It was just right! but I wish I had more rice noodles to add.

stay tuned for the Wonders of Paris' Garden part 2!!

Soup fit for summertime

Natalie wasn’t feeling well recently, and normally what makes her feel better is my chicken soup. However, with the temperature in the 80s, how can I made a hot chicken soup that doesn’t feel out of place in the summer?

Normally I like my soups with potatoes, rice, pastas, and other hearty ingredients. I decided to go lighter for the summer. I made a standard chicken broth, shredded some of the chicken breast in it.

Then in the bowls I was serving it in, I sliced up some fresh chard, spinach, and thinly sliced broccoli. Then I poured the hot broth and chicken over it, topped it with some cilantro, some slices of avocado and a few slices of tomato. When I gave it to Natalie, the green veggies under the broth were just barely cooked, and when a bit of lime was squeezed over it, it tasted really fresh!

I don’t normally think of soup in the summertime, but this was pretty damn good!

Rachel screams for homemade ice cream

Not that it's been that warm here (haha... in your face, Feli!), but we couldn't wait to try to make some stuff with our new ice cream maker. First time we tried, the maker's bowl didn't get cold enough in our freezer, and we ended up with warm custard. Had to pack the freezer with some ice and salt in order to get a hard freeze.



Spiced Banana. Like a banana eggnog, almost.


Mixed Berry frozen yogurt.

the midnight meat train

James got me a meat grinder attachment for Christmas (so romantic!) and we've been pretty excited about making some deluxo burgers. Our first was chuck steak burgers, with lots of blue cheese crumbles melted on top. SO GOOD. Patties had a tendency to crumble very easily though- Maybe meat was so lean that there wasn't enough fat to hold them together? Really very good though. My mouth is kind of watering just thinking about them.


The other day we ground up some new york steaks (I think? they were on sale, whatever they were) and topped them with roasted garlic, avacado and grilled poblanos. I also added an egg to the patties, hoping the combat the crumbly texture. Then I got carried away and added another egg (you know me, all about the eggs) and then before I knew it, the patties were cooking in some sort of omelet substance and were more crumbly than before. Still an ok burger though. Also, a bit too well done, but it's a learning process. All good. All good.

Aaaaaand I checked out Foster Burger the other day, where I haz burger w/pork back fat added to the patty. Which led me to the conclusion that what MY burgers need is some duck fat! (Did you know you can order this shit, get it mailed to your door? the duck fat, that is. NOT the foster burger.)
Side note, while at Foster Burger, James had a burger with pickled beets and an egg on it. I took a pic, lost it, and then stole a pic from their facebook so you can see the crazy bastard for yourself.


Interestingly- I do not eat that many burgers. I feel like I need to put that out there. Just so you know. Also, I know Paris has been grinding some meat of his very own- including a fascinating encounter with ground chicken. What up, Paris?

Whole wheat

Made a whole wheat bread last night, contains all whole wheat, some brown rice and sweetened with honey.  Took the directions from Crust and Crumb and it turned out pretty well!

Last post today, I swear!

Last Saturday I made my first loaf of bread! Not earth shattering, complicated, or even wheat, but still, my first attempt. The important thing is, it was good! Very encouraging. I did use some quick rise recipe, which involved the bread rising just for a couple of hours in its pan. Which was perfect as I had a lot of Fable to play and couldn't really take a lot of breaks just for some silly bread.

THIS IS THE ONLY CHRISTMAS PIC I HAVE

Ok now, fast forward a few months. Christmastime! Tara and I once again indulged in eggnog for about 3 days straight until Mama refused to get us more eggs. Well, I guess there is some debate as to whether it was really eggnog or not, as we like to add a banana into the mix and some people are in hot opposition (HATERZ) but whatevs. Anyway, we wanted to get creative with our last batch, and so what you see here is the fruit of our hard labor. Egg meringue nog! We whipped up egg whites and then folded the rest of the ingredients in after. Here it is pictured, floating on a brandy shot. YUM! James declined a full serving, Memo was polite and drank some and Mama proclaimed it was the most disgusting idea ever. Way to kill our creativity, Mama! This reminds me of the horse drawing all over again.

Getting eggy

Last Sunday I took a break from my waffle journey and made some french toast instead. It turned out to be not too far really from my forays into waffles, as I was determined to make the eggiest french toast ever. I read up on some recipes, and decided to sort of try this recipe of Baked French Toast, off of Epicurious.com. Reviews and descriptions of the recipe described it as an extremely rich, custurdy, bread pudding sort of thing, but I wanted bread fried in eggs (who doesn't!) and I also wanted to amp up the spice, and cut down on the sugar (smother the bread in marmelade? really?) Anyway, with some sausages and fruit it turned out perfect: eggy spicy bread brightened up with citrus.


Halfway depleted pan of bread marinating in eggs. I added lots of orange zest and let the bread sit for half an hour in the mixture, turning the pieces occasionally to get them good and soppy.



I think my recipe went something sort of like this:
5 Pieces of a hearty rustic white bread (I used Grand Central's Como)
1 1/3 cup milk (approx)
3 egg yolks
1 egg with white
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tb cardamom
orange zest from 1.5 large oranges

Topping:
orange slices
maple syrup
fresh ginger

Mix all the liquid and spices. Cut bread in half and spread in deep dish and allow to soak in liquid for half an hour. I was worried I didn't have enough liquid and added some more milk (hence my "approx" above.) Turn bread slices occasionally to keep soaking. Fry up in butter.

I sliced up the oranges and grated tons of fresh ginger into them and let them sit for a while too. I added just a tiny bit of maple syrup to try to justify this as a breakfast, but it totally wasn't needed. The oranges on top of the bread added some extra nice sweet, spicy juiciness to the whole mess. Oh, and of course, you can just fry up those unused egg whites for some scrambled eggs. Lucky you; egg whites are a healthy choice! har har har

Making your own corn tortillas!

Making your own corn tortillas is not that hard, and tastes far better than the store bought ones.

You will need:
Masa Harina (look in the Mexican section of your grocery store)
Salt
And one of these things (a tortilla press):
Mix together some masa and water with a little bit of salt. Use your hands. If it sticks to your hands it is too wet. Keep adding small amounts of flour until the mixture can form a ball and does not stick to your hands. Kind of like play-dough.

Open up the press and place an opened plastic bag over it. Place a small ball of dough on the side with the handle.
Close up with the ball of dough between the plastic and press down.
Try to get it flattened evenly, I sometimes rotate it and re-press to get it uniform. Open it up and peel it from the plastic. Now place it on your comal or griddle, set to a medium heat.

Let it cook and flip it when I allows itself to be flipped. If you have to force it off the cooking surface, it still needs to be cooked on that side. If, by the time you can flip it, it is burnt, your stove is too hot. Repeat for the other side until it looks done! Make a bunch and wrap in cloth to keep them warm and soft!

I topped mine with some simmered pork, salsa and slices of avocado. They tasted awesome.

Special thanks to Natalie, who was my hand model in these photos.