Pontificating on Cooking

April 9, 2009

Sorry this is a little late. I got distracted by my Easter cooking and forgot to publish the post. On the up side, I have a great new simple green bean recipe that we will be doing for class shortly and the Cheddar Dill Biscuits from the April '09 Gourmet Magazine were a huge hit. (I substituted chives for the dill. As much as I love dill, it just didn't go with the menu.) I also did a well received mushroom puff pastry appetizer that I will post the recipe for shortly. As much as I loved what I made, my sister, the baker, stole the show with unbelievable lemon meringue, banana cream and dutch apple pies.

Hope everyone had happy cooking over the holidays.

NOTES FROM “CLASS”

Since there was no class this week, some pontificating instead.

Cook Books: In my humble home cook opinion, the best book for beginners, which should be a staple in any kitchen regardless of experience, is the Joy of Cooking. This is a book I guarantee your grandmother had. In fact both of mine had copies from the mid ‘40’s. (I had one of these precious antiques once. Unfortunately, my father adversely possessed it. That’s ok, eventually it will be mine again, although given the family genes for longevity, I have quite a wait.) The beauty of this book is it has classic home cook standard recipes along with explanations of cooking terms, weights and measure conversions and easy to follow step by step directions. This book is great regardless of your skill level.

If you want to master the right way to cook and classic cooking techniques there is nothing like Julia Child’s two volume Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Jacque Pepin’s Complete Techniques, (unless you are lucky enough to find copies of La Methode and La Technique, but I believe these “bibles” are now out of print.)

A personal favorite for outstanding recipes for basic but elegant meals is Julia and Jacque Cooking at Home. This book is based on their PBS series of the same name. Most of the recipes can be accomplished by those with basic cooking skills and result in an impressive meal.

Web pages: If you’re looking for recipes…Epicurious.com. They have a searchable index which includes recipes from Gourmet and Bon Appetite magazine back into the 90’s.

Cooking shows: Well the PBS series are by far the best for basic cooking techniques and things you’ll actually do at home. Personal favorites include Jacque Pepin’s Fast Food My Way and America’s Test Kitchen. I also routinely scour the PBS listings for reruns of any of Julia Child’s shows. I’ve been known to spend an entire Saturday watching the marathons that crop up every now and then.

Roasted Plums

Roasted Plums with Marscapone Cream:

6 plums halved and pitted
melted butter (about 1/2 a stick)
sugar
1 cup heavy cream

1 cup marscapone chees

2-3 Tbs sugar

1-2 Tbs Marsala

Preheat oven to 375. Place plums cut side up in a lined baking pan. (High sides like a casserole is best as the plums might roll.) Brush plums with butter. Sprinkle sugar over plums. (Adjust sugar based on sweetness of plums.) Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until soft and juices are running.

Whip cream with 1 Tbs of sugar. In another bowl beat mascarpone until soft. Fold whip cream into mascarpone. Add 1-2 Tbs of Marsala based on taste preference. Adjust sugar as needed based on taste and sweetness of plums.

You can also use honey in place of Marsala. Eliminate sugar in whip cream and beat honey into cheese. Adjust as necessary for taste preference.

***I made this last night with fairly hard plums and they took 30 minutes to bake. I brushed on more butter at 15 minutes to prevent them from drying out.

Tomato Goat Cheese Tarts

By request for those more advanced folks. This is the recipe for the tarts pictured on the right.

Tomato Goat Cheese Tarts:
(Base recipe from Gourmet, September ‘98, but I've tweaked it a bit.)

For crust:
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons ice water
Dried beans or pie weights
In a food processor pulse together flour, cornmeal, and salt. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add ice water and pulse until incorporated and mixture just forms a dough. Press dough evenly into bottom and up sides of a 10 inch round tart pan with a removable fluted rim. Chill crust about 20 minutes, or until firm.
While crust is chilling, preheat oven to 375°F.
Line crust with foil and fill with pie weights or beans. Bake crust until edge is set, 10 minutes. Carefully remove foil and weights bake crust 5 minutes more, or until just dry. Remove crust and cool in pan on a rack. Crust may be made 1 day ahead and kept, loosely covered with plastic wrap, at room temperature.
For Filling:
1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves
7 ounces mild soft goat cheese, softened
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, well softened
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 onion (plus 1-2 Tbs butter and 1 tsp sugar)
3/4 pound cherry tomatoes

Sauté onions in butter until caramelized. When onions are translucent add sugar to assist in carmelzation. Set onions aside to cool while making custard.
Chop basil. In a bowl whisk together basil and remaining custard ingredients and season with salt and pepper.
Spread onions in bottom of tart shell. Pour custard into crust, spreading evenly. Halve tomatoes and arrange, cut sides up, in one layer on custard, pressing lightly into custard. Season tomatoes with salt and pepper and bake tart until custard is just set, about 25 minutes. Cool tart to warm in pan on rack. Tart may be made 1 day ahead and cooled completely before being chilled, covered, in pan. Tart can be served warm or cold. (I like it best at room temperature.) Reheat in 350 oven if desired.
I find the smaller the tomato the better. Those that get to quarter size tend to give off too much liquid and can prevent the tart from setting up properly or boil out their centers making an unattractive presentation.

Pasta Dinner

April 2, 2009

MENU

Pasta with Meat Sauce

Baby Greens with Mustard Vinaigrette

RECIPES

Home Made Pasta Sauce:
(A.K.A. Per favore no more prego)

1 onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
2 carrot chopped
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 lb ground meat (beef or beef/sausage)
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 cup red wine (approximately a ¼ bottle)
1Tbs Italian seasoning (or to taste)
salt and pepper to taste


Sauté onion, celery and carrot in olive oil until soft. Add meat and brown. Add garlic and sauté for a minute. Add tomatoes (with juice), sauce, red wine and seasoning. Bring to boil. Reduce to simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes. Test seasoning at 15 minutes and adjust as necessary. Serve over 1 Lb of your favorite cooked pasta and parmesan cheese. (Any shape will do. Although, small sizes and angel hair are not the best as the sauce is chunky.)

Any red wine will do. However, my general rule of thumb is, if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it. Bigger reds like cab, zin and shiraz are best.

You can omit meat for a marinara sauce.

You can substitute whole sausage for the meat. Brown sausage before starting the vegetables and remove them to a plate. (You do not need to clean the pot or remove any fat. Just reduce olive oil based on the amount of fat left in the pan.) Then follow the recipe adding the sausages back in when the tomato sauce is added. They will finish cooking as the sauce simmers. If using pre-cooked sausage, add whole or in pieces after the sauce has been simmering for 15 minutes. (As they are already cooked they only need to warm through.)


Mustard Vinaigrette:

1 heaping Tbs Dijon mustard

2 Tbs diced shallot or red onion

1 Tbs red wine vinegar (taste and add more if necessary)

Juice of ½ a lemon

1/3 cup olive oil

Couple grinds of pepper

Pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients in bowl, taste and adjust as necessary. This dressing is best if it sits for at least 15 minutes to let the flavors meld. It can also stay in the fridge for a week or two. (It does get stronger as it sits.)

You can substitute any vinegar or oil you like.

NOTES FROM “CLASS”

Why the pots sparkle so…A clean pot is essential to good cooking. This means inside and out. Any spots or residue left inside the pot will affect the taste of the food you cook and you don’t want Palmolive flavored potatoes. Any bits of burnt on food you don’t scrub off will create hot spots. This is especially true of spots on the bottom of the pot. These bits of burnt on remainders will heat up faster than the rest of the pot and will not distribute heat evenly. This will create a hot spot in the pot where food will cook unevenly and probably burn. The solution is simple. SCRUB. Get an SOS pad and some cleanser and scrub the bottom of those pots until they shine. It’s actually very satisfying in the end. Trust me. Do not use cleanser or SOS on the inside of non-stick pans. It will ruin the non-stick coating.

This brings us to the next point. Don’t use metal utensils in a non-stick pan. It scratches the non-stick surface. Once the surface is scratched it loses it non-stick capabilities. It also releases the Teflon into the food you’re cooking. My favorite scientist says it’s not enough to kill you, but better safe than sorry.