I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.
Caramel apples are as classic as fall treats get, and caramel anything always gets my attention. However, biting into a big, gooey, caramel-coated apple can be a little messy, although that doesn’t stop me. Here, the same flavors were brought together in the form of an ice cream sundae eaten neatly with a spoon. The ice cream is packed full of tart, apple flavor with just a hint of an edge from the added cognac, and the caramel topping with pecans makes it a frozen caramel apple delight. This is from My Favorite Ingredients, a book I can’t seem to put down for long. The ice cream is very appley and not too decadent as it’s made with five pureed apples, a little cream, and no eggs. Of course, the caramel ups the decadence quotient, but I think caramel is always worth it in that regard.
The size or weight of the apples wasn’t specified, but I used three smaller, local apples and two larger fujis from the grocery store. They were peeled, cored, chopped and pureed in a blender with lemon juice, cognac, and some sugar. Once smooth, two-thirds of a cup of cream was added and blended into the mixture. That went into my ice cream maker to churn. The caramel sauce was made with sugar and water which was cooked in a saucepan until it reached a nice, amber color. Cream was added which makes it spatter violently, and then it was cooked while stirring until smooth. A little sea salt was added directly to the sauce. Toasted, chopped pecans garnished the sundaes, and I can never resist adding a few flakes of sea salt on top of caramel.
This dessert took Kurt by surprise. After his first bite, he proclaimed it to be very good. Then, he further commented on how nicely pronounced the appleness was in the ice cream. The fresh apple flavor really came through even with the caramel sauce on top, and those two things together, in a messy treat or a tidy one, are just meant to be.
Pickled pumpkin has such a nice ring to it, and that’s what this was supposed to be. The page for this salad had been marked since March when I first got the book My Favorite Ingredients. I had waited months to try it, and when I had an extra butternut squash and some tomatoes on hand from our CSA, I went for it. With a mix of both winter squash and tomatoes, it’s a perfect cross-over season dish. I’ve enjoyed everythingI’ve triedfrom this book. Interesting flavor combinations and simple, seasonal dishes keep me coming back to it. The chapters in the book are organized by ingredient, and this salad is from the vinegar chapter. The butternut squash was pickled in red wine vinegar, and the salad was finished with aged balsamic. The vinegars were balanced by the sweetness of the squash and slow-roasted tomatoes and the beautiful, creamy, fresh burrata.
To begin, you should pop the tomatoes in the oven since they slow-roast for three to four hours. Of course, this can be done in advance, and the tomatoes can be stored in the refrigerator. Halved tomatoes were sprinkled with salt and pepper and roasted at 250 degrees F until shriveled with concentrated flavor. For the pickles, sugar was combined with red wine vinegar, a bottle of dry, white wine, some bay leaves, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, a bunch of thyme, and a hot chile. The mixture was warmed until the sugar dissolved while the butternut squash was seeded and sliced. The peel was left on the squash to keep the thin pieces intact while cooking. The squash slices were placed in the pickling liquid where they simmered for about an hour and then were allowed to cool. I picked the squash pickles out of the liquid and strained the liquid back over the pickles before storing them in the refrigerator. Readying the tomatoes and pickles took some time, but it was mostly waiting time. Then, putting together the salad was a breeze. The dressing for the salad was a mix of fresh oregano leaves chopped with some salt and combined with lemon juice and olive oil. The pickled squash and roasted tomatoes were arranged on plates and topped with burrata, that was drizzled with the oregano dressing, and then aged balsamic was dribbled on the plate.
This was my kind of salad since I like just about any kind of pickle. The butternut squash slices had softened a little but retained some texture, and you could cook them more or less to achieve whatever level of crispness you prefer. As they were, they provided nice textural contrast with the roasted tomatoes and burrata. And, there were plenty of leftover pickles. They're great for snacking straight out of the refrigerator.
I waited and waited for perfect tomatoes and juicy, ripe nectarines to arrive and for my own basil to grow. All those things came to be last weekend, and I was able to put together this lovely, summer salad. Once again, this is from the book My Favorite Ingredients. I wasn’t kidding when I said I marked several pages. As you see in the title, this salad is intended to include prosciutto, and Kurt’s portion did indeed have some in it. I don’t eat red meat, so I left it off my plate, but Kurt commented that having a little prosciutto is never a bad thing. For the cheese, I was torn between a very nice buffalo mozzarella and burrata. In the end, I used a little of both in the salads. The tomatoes, nectarines, and cheeses were drizzled with basil oil with garlic, and then everything was dotted with aged balsamic. Just the other day, I brought home an eighteen year aged balsamic from Con’Olio which is a locally-owned olive oil and balsamic vinegar shop with incredible varieties of both, and this was a perfect use for it. This is exactly the kind of dish in which quantities and exact ingredients don’t matter so much, but the quality of each item on the plate is everything.
I’ve made basil oil before, but this version was a little different. The basil wasn’t blanched this time, and the raw leaves were pureed with chopped garlic. Once they were minced, olive oil was added. For the salad, I used nectarines and an heirloom tomato which were simply cut into wedges, and I added yellow cherry tomatoes which were cut in half. The nectarines and tomatoes were tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. The mozzarella and burrata were cut into big pieces and plated, the nectarine and tomatoes were spooned on and around the cheeses, the basil oil was spilled on top of it all, and the aged balsamic was dribbled here and there. I added a few basil leaves, and Kurt’s salad was adorned with prosciutto.
It is really just a caprese salad with added hits of sweet and salty from fruit and cured meat. But, when the ingredients are as good as they can be, it’s a salad that’s perfection. I couldn’t decide which cheese I preferred. Both were excellent with the mix of things on the plate. I did decide that this could be my dinner day in and day out for the rest of the summer.
Last month when I started telling you about My Favorite Ingredients, I mentioned the cherry chapter in the book and how I was looking forward to the start of the season. Well, it is upon us, and I now believe there is no quantity of cherries in my refrigerator that would be too much. Pickled cherries is the first recipe in that chapter, and I’d been thinking about them for weeks. I imagined vinegary, sweet, little bites of fruit with hints of spice served alongside a soft cheese with some personality. Also, there would have to be some bread and maybe a really good beer to accompany the cherries and cheese. As soon as I found cherries in town, I set about pickling them, let them sit all of one week as I couldn’t wait another day, I baked some bread, visited my favorite local cheese shop, and the plan became a reality. I chose Leonora cheese from Spain which is a soft-ripened, aged goat cheese, and I grabbed a bottle of Saison Dupont otherwise known as my new favorite, summer beer. It all came together as a snack that makes the word snack seem inadequate.
To pickle the cherries, they were washed and left with pits and stems intact. Sugar was dissolved in red wine vinegar and bay leaves, cloves, and peppercorns were added. The mixture was brought to a boil, simmered for ten minutes, and allowed to cool. The cooled syrup was poured over the cherries, and I stored them in the refrigerator. The longer they sit, and they can remain refrigerated for up to one year, the more wrinkly the cherries will become. Since I couldn’t wait longer than a week, mine were still mostly plump.
In the book, pickled cherries are used in a warm pheasant salad with tardivo and toasted hazelnuts. That sounds like a wonderful fall dish, but I don’t think I’ll have any cherries left by then. Maybe I can come up with something more summery for a salad with notes of bitterness for balance. Something with arugula could work or possibly grilled romaine. While I think about that, I’m ready to make the cherry cordial and the brandied cherries from the book, and then I might have to pickle some more before the season ends.
Have you seen the book My Favorite Ingredients? I saw it mentioned a few times here and there, and then when I finally had a look at a copy of it, I had to bring it home. The book is by Skye Gyngell, and she is the head chef at London’s Petersham Nurseries Cafe. She describes her cooking as produce driven in that she takes inspiration from what is at its freshest and what flavors would complement that ingredient best. Her intention is to not interfere with the ingredients too much, to let them taste of themselves. That results in recipes that are very doable and very delicious when made with produce at the peak of its season. Each chapter in the book focuses on one ingredient, and it is shown in several different types of dishes. In the asparagus chapter, there’s a beautiful dish involving a tomato dressing and creme fraiche, one simply prepared with ginger and garlic, and a gratin of white asparagus. I’m really looking forward to cherry season, because the chapter about cherries has a cherry cordial and brandied cherries I want to try. There are chapters for tomatoes, nuts, fish and shellfish, vinegar, apples, cheese, and more. I currently have six pages marked, and those are just the recipes with ingredients that are in season right now. The dish you see here today is from the garlic chapter, and I had locally-grown garlic to use from my CSA. It was minced and then mixed with yogurt to make a tangy, flavorful sauce for a spicy, fried egg.
First, the yogurt was mixed with the minced garlic and salt and pepper, and that was left to sit so the flavors could mingle a bit. Next, butter was browned with a few sage leaves in it, and I used leaves from my new sage plants in my garden. When I read this recipe with browned butter with sage and garlic yogurt, I knew this was going to be good. The browned butter was used to fry the eggs, I used some beauties from a local farm, and sliced red chiles were added as well. To serve, a dollop of garlic yogurt was placed on the plate, the egg and some chile slices were added, and that was topped with the sage leaves and a little drizzle of brown butter.
This couldn’t have been simpler, and the flavors couldn’t have been more right. Rich, nutty, brown butter with earthy, herby sage and cool, savory, garlicky yogurt all to accompany a nicely fried egg with a hint of chile heat was, well, a pretty good breakfast to say the least. I’ll probably be mentioning this book a lot, and since I’m eyeing the crab cakes with corn puree and chili oil as I type this, that just might appear next.
, a book I can’t seem to put down for long. The ice cream is very appley and not too decadent as it’s made with five pureed apples, a little cream, and no eggs. Of course, the caramel ups the decadence quotient, but I think caramel is always worth it in that regard.
