Lately I seem to be on a roll with chocolate mixed up with something else like bread pudding (the Chocolate Banana Croissant Bread Pudding, for instance). This time it’s a cake, made in a springform pan, with chocolate and fresh pear.

The recipe came from a restaurant in Brooklyn, called Al Di La, and I read about it over at Smitten Kitchen’s blog some time back. I printed it out and knew there would come a time to try it. If you’re interested to read about all the people who have made this cake, the pitfalls and successes, do read all of the comments. They go on, and on, and on!

The making of this cake is not difficult – you do have to whip up the eggs for many, many minutes. You would not want to do this with a hand mixer, trust me. You’ll want a stand mixer. It took about nine minutes to get the eggs to a light yellow ribbony thickness. Meanwhile you brown some butter (that’s a different technique for a cake, eh?) and once that’s done you gently mix in sugar. Then you alternately add a flour/baking powder/salt mixture with the warm-to-hot browned butter. Quickly it goes into a buttered and floured springform pan and the freshly cubed pear and chunked-up bittersweet (I had to use semisweet because that’s all I had on hand) chocolate pieces are sprinkled all over the top. That’s it. It’s baked for about 35-40 minutes (or more if you have a particularly wet batter). Some of the chocolate stays on top, but the pears all sink inside the batter.

As soon as I tasted the raw batter I knew this recipe was going to be a winner. I could really taste the richness of the browned butter. What a combo! In a cake! Browned butter is something that does take a little extra time – and I caution you – do NOT leave the stove for even a second while you’re making it or you may have burned butter, okay? Use a heavy duty pan – preferably one that’s light colored. If you use a nonstick pan, you cannot see when the butter has turned brown. Trust me on this! A stainless pan is best! I have one other great recipe here on my blog using browned butter – a Pear Crisp with Vanilla Browned Butter.

You can see the pear cubes toward the bottom in this picture. And the outer edge is just deliciously crispy. Loved that part. Then there’s the whipped cream – flavored with almond extract. Oooh, that was luscious. Everything about this cake was wonderful. The light texture of the cake (from all that whipping), the good chocolate chunks, the pears, and the topping. This recipe is a keeper.

printer-friendly PDF

A year ago: Beef and Biscuit Casserole
Two years ago: Balsamic Onion Marmalade (a condiment)
Three years ago: Buttermilk Scones (my all-time favorite scones)

Tweet

A couple of weeks ago we invited a long-time friend over, who brought her new BF to meet us. Donna brought along not only Mark, but a delicious appetizer too. This stuff is scrumptious. It’s the cream cheese that makes it, I think. Well, and the bacon. And there isn’t anything in it that’s healthy, but if you want an easy and really tasty dip that you can make a few hours ahead (in fact it should be made a couple of hours ahead of time), this is it.

Donna said she found the recipe on the internet somewhere. Ah, I found it at about.com. That site that offers lots of information. Kind of like Wikipedia, but it’s different. And they have some recipes too.

Anyway, you just mix up cream cheese and mayo, then add in the cooked and crumbled bacon, Parmigiano-Reggiano grated, a dash of garlic powder, some green onions, then gently stir in some chopped cherry tomatoes. It gets refrigerated for a couple of hours and you’re ready to go.

We really enjoyed Mark – he’s a keeper, as they say in dating circles. So is she, for that matter! Donna was one of the first employees I hired at the first ad agency I worked for. This was back, oh, 1977, I’m guessing. She only worked for me for a year, then she got pregnant and quit. But we stayed friends, through many jobs for her, through her divorce. That’s what being girlfriends is all about. Donna is a sweetheart and I love her to pieces. She’s a grade school teacher now. She e-mailed the recipe and said it was okay to share it on my blog. This, too, is a keeper.

printer-friendly PDF

Three years ago: Citrus Gazpacho

Tweet

On one hand I can count the number of times I’ve made fried chicken. And I just about never order it when we’re out. I’m totally indoctrinated with the chicken skin=fat, fat=bad. Of course, here in Southern California, very few restaurants would even serve fried chicken. But it is making a resurgence in food circles. It’s been featured in several of the foodie magazines in the last year too. So I finally succumbed.

And the answer is yes, I cooked them a tad too long. But, it didn’t make a whit of difference to the taste – they were tender and juicy. The coating was crispy and tender.

My only trouble was I couldn’t control the temperature of the deep fat. I used my tall-sided Le Creuset pot (recommended, or a Dutch oven) because it would splatter less that way and help hold the oil temp. I have a candy thermometer and it perched on the edge of the pan with no difficulty. But the temp on the thermometer was either way up or way down. I think I didn’t have enough oil in the pot, so the temp meter wasn’t submerged sufficiently. I finally gave up and just used my gut feel about it. The recipe was quite specific about what temp the finished thigh or drumstick meat should be – 175°. Well, in trying to cook enough for 11 people I had no time to be testing temps.

Trusting the folks at Cook’s Illustrated as I do, I had turned to their America’s Test Kitchen TV cookbook and found a long, explanatory recipe. The recipe is not available online except by premium membership. I did change it slightly, but not noticeably.

First thing was to snip off all the excess fat from the drumsticks and thighs (top left). Then I made the buttermilk marinade (oodles of garlic, top right, and the finished mixture in a plastic bag, bottom right). I managed to snap one photo of the first batch of frying drumsticks (bottom left).

The chicken pieces are marinated for 2-3 hours, is all. But the marinade contains a lot of mashed garlic, sugar, salt, paprika, and crumbled bay leaves. It’s a cross between a marinade and a brine (there was a lot of table salt in it!). The pieces are removed and placed on a rack to drain for awhile. Then they’re dipped into flour, then an egg/baking soda/baking powder/buttermilk mixture (different than the marinade, which is tossed out), and again back into the flour before being plopped (carefully) into the boiling fat. You were supposed to maintain the oil temp at 325. And if you cooked only 3 pieces at a time you were able to maintain that fairly well.

Initially you heat the oil to 375° because once you add the room temp chicken it lowers quickly to 325°. If you let the oil reheat briefly between frying batches, you hopefully won’t have too much trouble. BUT, the whole process (marinating, draining/drying, dipping, draining again, and frying) will take you a fair number of hours (up to about 6). None of it is intense (well, except the frying part – I got a bit frantic then), but there just are a number of steps to making it.

What I changed about the recipe was the volume of the marinade/brining. It called for 7 cups of buttermilk for 4 pounds of chicken pieces. I had 5 pounds and divided the chicken between two freezer bags and was fine with half that marinade quantity. So I’ve changed the recipe below.

And the result? Well, as I mentioned above – it was VERY juicy and tasty. I know there is some magical temperature that if you deep fry, you’ll have almost no absorption of oil. I’d guess that’s at about 350° or as low as 325°. I don’t know if I hit that number or not. I’d like to try making this again when I’m not so pressed for time (I made this for a lunch we had, and there weren’t enough hours from the time I started the marinating in the early morning to getting it all done by 12:30 when our guests arrived).  I did slip the fried chicken into a 200° oven (on a rack over a tray) for about half an hour before we served the lunch at about 1:00. They kept perfectly warm. According to the recipe, maintaining that deep fat temp is key to the success. If I were to make this very often, I’d need to invest in a deep fryer. But since fried chicken is a big treat, I won’t be doing that! I could try it in my electric skillet – it has fairly high sides. Maybe I’ll just have to do that . . . and I’ll let you know.

printer-friendly PDF

Two years ago: Chicken with Poblano Peppers
Three years ago: Balsamic Fig Sorbet

Tweet

At a restaurant near us, they offer an absolutely luscious little tart – a single serving tart with a flaky crust, a chocolate pudding interior (rich, likely made with heavy cream and dark chocolate), fresh bananas, then topped with real whipped cream. The first time I had it, I really thought I’d died and gone to heaven. It’s just off the charts delicious. I haven’t had it in a couple of years – but I crave it now and then. I just don’t indulge my craving. But I think the flavors that are in that tart are mostly in this dessert. That’s probably why I saved the recipe.

It’s been a couple of years ago that I read Haalo’s recipe for this dessert. And I tucked it away in my to-try file. It just sounded right for the gathering of friends we had over the other day. We didn’t want much quantity of dessert, but I wanted chocolate! My DH went grocery shopping for me. Had I been there I’d have known the croissants he chose (from a local bakery – they’re delicious – but they’re very small) would not be enough. I didn’t want him to make another trip, so I made do with 4 small croissants.

You can see that I didn’t quite have enough croissants, or filling. Haalo made hers in a round cake pan, so perhaps I’ll try that next time. Push any banana pieces down into the custard (they get kind of hard if they float to the top). The dish is baked for 30-40 minutes – about. Look to see if the center of the custard is still jiggly – if so, add another minute or two until it’s barely firm. Cool, then cut into squares (or spoon scoops if you use the round pan) and serve.  I served 11 people (small portions) from this little dish. Delicious. And decadent. But so very tasty!

printer-friendly PDF

A year ago: Brown Sugar Berry Shortcakes
Two years ago: A San Francisco weekend with my daughter
Three years ago: Butternut Squash Soup with Jalapeno and Ginger

Tweet

Just looking at that photograph makes me salivate. This salad is SO good. Over the years I’ve made similar salads several times, but never one quite this great. This has Italian origins, and was a way for families to make use of stale, leftover bread. Italian bread – like French bread, has no preservatives or other ingredients that help it store for more than a day. It’s just flour, water, salt and yeast. So once the bread is cut it stales quickly. By the next day such bread had little use. But the Italians are very frugal this way. They find ways to elevate leftovers. Therefore, panzanella was born. Way back when, I suppose.

This version is a little different – it’s grilled. Ina Garten, in her recipe, has a way with food too. She took a delicious, but simple salad and elevated it to something better. Much better. I may never make plain (ungrilled) panzanella again.

Here’s what I did – I followed Ina’s recipe to a T. Although my DH bought a different kind of fresh bread, but that was fine. He grilled red, yellow and orange bell peppers, and some red onion slices. Meanwhile I chopped up a hothouse cucumber and a huge heirloom tomato, salvaging all of the juices. You want all the juices. I made the dressing (Dijon mustard, fresh garlic, good olive oil – Ina made a point of mentioning good olive oil, champagne vinegar) and chopped the tomato over the bowl. A few capers are added, and you let the cucumber, tomatoes and dressing marinate for awhile.

Once the peppers and onions were done, they were allowed to cool off, then I cut them into long strips and chopped pieces. They went into the bowl with the dressing. Then my DH grilled the ciabatta bread. I cut it in half, slathered it with a little bit of olive oil, and they went onto the hot grill too, just until they got toasty black in some places. Ideally you want dry, stale bread. But not totally dried out. Like overnight stale. You can also put the bread in an oven for a bit. But I loved the grilled bread. Once grilled it was a bit hard to cut – finally I began tearing it up rather than cutting.

Into a huge bowl your bread goes and you pour the dressing/tomatoes/cucumber mixture over the top. Do drizzle it all over – you don’t want the top few pieces of bread to absorb most of the dressing. Stir as you pour, if you can. Toss it like crazy. Add fresh basil, salt and pepper and you’re done. Serve it right now. I mean immediately. The longer it sits the more the bread gets soggy. You’ll find you like the few bread pieces that still have some crunch or crisp to them. We did have a few cups of leftovers which we enjoyed for dinner. And actually the bread was fine. Not crisp, but it was still very tasty. I highly recommend this salad!

printer-friendly PDF

Three years ago: Pineapple Salsa

Tweet

When I sent my DH grocery shopping (in case you’re new to my blog, my hubby loves to go grocery shopping, so I let him do about 90% of it – actually I’m happy he wants to), I told him to buy some Tuaca. Huh? he said. What’s that. I just said it’s a liqueur. When he got home he said, with a rather strident voice . . . do you know how much that stuff cost? No, I didn’t. $25.00 he said. But I’m going to use just 1/2 cup, honey. That mollified him a little!

Until today I’d never tried Tuaca (pronounced too-ah-kah). And because I didn’t know much about it except that it’s vanilla scented, I went online to read up about it. Tuaca was originally produced by the Tuoni and Canepa families of Livorno, Italy. The liqueur is sweet and golden brown in color. Its ingredients include brandy, essence of orange, and vanilla. Vanilla is the dominant flavor.

The recipe supposedly dates back to the Renaissance. A legend claims that it was created for Lorenzo the Magnificent. Well, whatever its source, it’s a lovely flavor. It’s sweet, but not sickeningly so like some liqueurs can be. It’s more like a flavored brandy than it is B&B or Drambuie type. I did taste it – a tiny sip just so I’d know what the stuff tasted like – it’s nice.

For this lunch we did the other day for six couples (an old friend/couple came to town on a visit so we had a friends-reunion kind of thing), I wanted to serve something lighter, summer fare, for a drink. Some folks in the group don’t drink, so we had ice water and soft drinks. And I didn’t think that many people would want sangria – but, oh yes they did! I didn’t have enough of this. Wish I’d had at least double the amount – I’d have had no trouble getting rid of it – maybe I’d have had some leftover, which would have been nice. Very, very nice. Guess I’ll just have to make it again. Sooner rather than later.

I scrounged around in my to-try recipe file and found three sangria recipes that seemed interesting, so I took some ideas from each of them. Some of our guests don’t drink red wine, so I made it with white (Sauvignon Blanc). But then I added some other nice stuff: Limoncello, the Tuaca, fresh orange juice, a little sugar, some cinnamon sticks and then fruit stuff. I chilled everything the night before and muddled the fruit, sugar and wine for an hour or two before our lunch. Then I added some 7-up just before serving – not a lot, just enough to give it some spritz. And served it in that pretty pitcher you can see up top.

All of it lovely. I think Tuaca will keep on your liquor shelf for a looooong time, so even though it is an investment, you’ll be able to use it for years to come. Limoncello won’t keep quite as long, but almost. If you don’t want to invest in either of those liqueurs, add a little jot of vanilla and some lemon juice. But do make this.

printer-friendly PDF

A year ago: Heirloom Tomatoes
Three years ago: Shrimp and Bread Skewers with Romesco Sauce

Tweet

For the Indian-inspired dinner I did a few nights ago, I decided to try to find a salad dressing that would complement the vegetable coconut curry and the Caribbean rice dish. A green salad is not something very well known in India, I surmise, but lots of people who have moved from India to English-speaking countries have dressing recipes on their blogs. Actually most of them were simple, French type vinaigrettes. That wasn’t what I wanted. So when I happened upon this recipe, from the website Food Reference, I thought it sounded good. With turmeric, cumin, ground coriander, garlic, lemon juice and EVOO. It’s concocted in the food processor, then it will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator, so the recipe says.

Making half a recipe (using a base of 1 cup of EVOO) I didn’t have any idea how many servings it made, so I’ve estimated. With the inclusion of the turmeric, it makes a bright orange mixture, as you can see above.

This recipe does contain a little bit of sugar, and I think a salad with some fruit added would do nicely here. I had ample fruit in the curry and the rice, so I didn’t use any. I’d think some apple would be lovely, or even orange segments. And some almonds too. This dressing may not be something that appeals to everyone, but it really did do nicely with the curry. You can also use this as a marinade for meat too. I haven’t tried that – if I do (and I have enough left over to try it) I’ll write an addendum here.

The dressing – because of the inclusion of the spices – has some graininess to it. I suggest you stir it well, but then let it sit for about 30 seconds or so before actually adding it to a salad. That way the spices will mostly sink to the bottom. I think it’s the turmeric that contributes most of that.

printer-friendly PDF

A year ago: Tomato, Blue Cheese and Saffron Vinaigrette

Tweet

Don’t we all know that rice can be so boring sometimes. Even though I’m retired and spend plenty of time in the kitchen, sometimes just cooking rice seems like a nuisance. I always want to doctor it up somehow. Plain, ordinary rice does next to nothing for me.

When I was reading the cookbook this came from, Secrets from a Caterer’s Kitchen (by Nicole Aloni), it intrigued me. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I was researching what to make for a luncheon I’m doing for 5 couples in a few days and went through this cookbook with more than a passing glance. This was the first recipe I paused over. It had all kinds of spices (not herbs) in it. And the top note said she, the author, who used to be a Hollywood caterer, served this so often she knew it by heart. She suggested it went well with a curry. That led to reading another recipe, and that’s how I came to make the curry dinner last week. (I’m doing a different menu for the luncheon.)

This recipe isn’t Indian, but the Indian culture uses many of the same flavors as cooks in the Caribbean, so they must have a natural affinity. The dish contains cinnamon, curry, saffron, cardamom, ginger, Serrano chiles, red onions, the diced bananas and can be garnished with peanuts and cilantro. All those flavors sounded so good to me. The recipe uses white rice, but I thought the brown worked well with this. Once I made it (earlier in the day) I could hardly keep my tasting spoon out of the pot. It tasted SO good. Therefore, if you’re searching for some new, novel way to make rice, this is it. You don’t have to serve it with curry – it would make a great accompaniment to grilled chicken. I just don’t think it would go with an American-style barbecue sauce type of protein. And if you have any leftover – we didn’t – it would be wonderful with some milk for breakfast. I might remove the onion, but the rest of it would be a great morning meal. Trust me on that one!

printer-friendly PDF

A year ago: Corn (everything you always wanted to know)
Two years ago: Peaches and Nectarines (everything you always wanted to know)
Three years ago: The BEST Bean Salad

Tweet

You know about cravings, right? I get them often for chocolate. But this time I just got a hankering for some Indian food. We could have gone out to eat it, but I decided I wanted to make something. I’d been looking for another recipe for a luncheon I was planning and as I was leafing through one of my cookbooks, Secrets from a Caterer’s Kitchen, (by Nicole Aloni) I saw this recipe for Vegetable Coconut Curry. I read the ingredients – tons of fresh vegetables in a coconut milk gravy. It didn’t look hard.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet

This isn’t a new recipe to this blog. But just in case you’ve recently come to reading my posts, I just have to tell you about this vegetable. Again. It’s so good. It’s awesome. And this is the ideal time of year to make it – when fresh corn is available. We still have white corn at our corner farmstand, and it’s SO sweet and delicious. I made a HUGE batch of this and we ate it for our dinner. Just this. A big honking plate of it, each.

The ingredients are: fresh zucchini, fresh corn, red onion, some charred pasilla (poblano) chiles, some heavy cream, a little butter and oil and salt/pepper. That’s it.

Top left are the chiles sitting on a rack directly over the gas burner. Charred quickly over high heat – just enough so the skin was black all over. Then I popped them into a plastic bag (middle photo) and let them steam in there for about 15 minutes. Then I was able to remove the charred skin (easily). Don’t rinse them, but do remove the skin, then cut off the stem and remove the seeds. Then I cut them into strips (top right). And there on the bottom you can see the ingredients – except for the cream.

I have made this using part cream and part fat-free half and half. It’s not as good, of course. I’ve also made it with all fat-free half and half, and I’ll tell you for sure that wasn’t anywhere near as tasty. Since this was all we were having, I used the good stuff. Indulgent, I know. My DH didn’t remember when I made this last and he just about picked up the plate so he could lick off the dregs of the cream on the plate. The onions are cooked separately in a little oil and butter. Then you cook the zucchini and when it’s just about cooked through, you add (back in) the onions, the corn and the chiles. And the cream. It does need some salt and pepper too. The pasilla chiles (also called poblanos) were on the spicy-heat side. Much more than usual, so in my batch I used three of them, along with a pound of zucchini and the corn from about five ears. And one big red onion.

Obviously, I highly recommend you make this. It’s one of my favorites, a Rick Bayless recipe. I’ll repeat the recipe here so you won’t have to go to the last post I did about it three years ago.

printer-friendly PDF

A year ago: Julie and Julia (the movie)
Two years ago: Roasted and Stuffed Poblano Chiles”>

Tweet