Slow Food Feast in the Field and the Butternut Squash Gratin

A week ago, we attended the Slow Food Feast in the Field benefiting the Austin Discovery School. (In the interest of full disclosure, I won my ticket as a giveaway from the always awesome Addie Broyles, but we purchased Kurt’s ticket.) The feast was held at Green Gate Farm which is a short, ten minute drive from downtown Austin, but it was a quiet, peaceful place outside of the city’s hubbub. It was a clear, cool, fall night, and the barn sat in the shadows behind the buffet table of salad, bruschetta, and pickled persimmons. Servers passed trays of duck confit canapes and shot glasses of pureed butternut squash soup, and wine was served from a table under a big tree. The dining tables were set between planted fields and were softly illuminated by strings of lights. Hence, my photos were of poor quality, but I snapped away just the same. There was even a small trailer from which espresso was served next to the greenhouse. The meal was prepared by Chef Jesse Bloom of Ecstatic Cuisine, and the entire menu was crafted from local vegetables, meats, and wines and much of that local fare came from Green Gate Farm.


Butternut Squash Soup with Goat Milk Creme Fraiche.
Duck Confit. Asian Pear Compote.
Paired with Fall Creek Estate Pinot Grigio.

Local Greens Salad Bar with Green Garlic Goddess Dressing.
Build Your Own Bruschetta: Eggplant Caviar. Mushroom Caponata. Local Cheese. Pickled persimmons.
Paired with Fall Creek Estate Pinot Blanc.

Smoky Pork Loin. Blackberry Lavender Reduction. Local Greenery. Butternut Squash Gratin with Caramelized Onion, Walnut, and Veldhuizen Gruyere.
Paired with Fall Creek Estate Super Texan.

Mary Louise Butter's Brownies with Amy’s Mexican Vanilla Ice Cream.
Paired with Fall Creek Estate Port.

I requested a vegetarian main course, so I enjoyed a stuffed poblano pepper with black beans, corn, avocado, and chipotle lime tofu instead of the smoky pork. The meal was very well prepared and nicely served, and the warm brownie with Amy’s always-perfect ice cream for dessert was simple but delicious. The port with its hint of honey was well-matched with chocolate.

The one item from the meal that really caught our attention was the butternut squash gratin. Kurt and I, and everyone else at our table, couldn’t stop going on about it. The tender layers of squash with flavors of walnuts and caramelized onions and the lovely crispy topping had us all praising it. The next day, I contacted Ecstatic Cuisine to ask if they’d be willing to share the recipe for that incredible gratin, and Ian LeClair, the sous chef, was happy to do so. He told me the squash they used was from Green Gate Farm, the cream was from a local source, and the Veldhuizen Gruyere is made in Dublin, Texas. I haven’t made this myself yet, but I think this could easily make its way onto a holiday menu this year:

Ian’s Butternut Squash Gratin
from Ecstatic Cuisine
1 large or 2 medium butternut squash
4 cups thinly sliced yellow or white onions
2 Tbs olive oil
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried nutmeg
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
2-3 cups heavy cream
1 cup grated gruyere
3/4 cup breadcrumbs (I prefer Panko)
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

In a large saute pan, heat the oil and half the butter. Add the onions and the thyme and cook until the onions are caramelized and reduced to about 1 cup.
While the onions are cooking, peel the squash and cut off the large butt end with the seeds. Thinly slice the neck part into rounds. (Ian uses a mandoline to get nice thin slices.)
In a mixing bowl combine the flour, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Toss the squash slices in this flour mixture to coat.
Grease a 9x13 baking dish with the rest of the butter.
Arrange half the squash slices in an overlapping pattern to form a layer in the bottom of the baking dish. Spread half the onions on top. Form another layer with the rest of the squash and then top with the other half of the onions.
Sprinkle the cheese over the top and then pour the cream over the whole dish. The cream should almost come up to cover the layers.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 350 degree F oven for approximately 20-25 minutes or until the squash has mostly softened. Remove from oven and remove foil.
Mix the breadcrumbs and nuts and spread over the top of the gratin.
Return to oven and continue baking for 10-15 minutes or until topping is golden and crispy and squash is fully cooked.

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Warm Beet Salad with Parmesan Dressing

I’ve made it my mission to convert those who think they don’t like beets. With red, golden, and Chioggia, roasted, raw, and fried, there are so many ways to enjoy the humble beet that I think beets deserve a second chance or third or fourth. When Leela at She Simmers mentioned the beet challenge, I decided right away I had to contribute something. I almost always roast beets whole and then peel and chop them. More often than not, my roasted beets end up in a salad of some sort. I spotted this warm beet salad in the May issue of Living magazine. It’s very simple to assemble, and the flavors were eye-poppingly good. One more item of business: the pretty plate in the photo above was sent to me as part of a fun plate swap organized by Cheryl at A Tiger in the Kitchen. My new plate came from Heather at BodaciousGirl. Thanks Cheryl and Heather!

The beets were roasted with a splash of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Once removed from the oven and cool, they were peeled and sliced. A vinaigrette was made with shallots, Banyuls vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil. I was intrigued by the use of Banyuls vinegar, and I have another recipe that recommends it as well, so I splurged on purchasing a bottle even though it’s an expensive vinegar. It’s a French vinegar made from sweet wine, and the flavor is milder than typical red wine vinegar. Its taste is closer to wine than vinegar usually is but there is some acidity. Certainly, this salad would also be delicious with a vinaigrette made with another red wine vinegar, but the flavor of the Banyuls was very nice here. The vinaigrette was set aside while the parmesan dressing was made by warming cream, adding shredded parmesan, and stirring until smooth. There was supposed to have been some thyme in the cream and parmesan mixture, but my plants failed to survive the summer heat, and I forgot to buy thyme at the grocery store, so I skipped it.

The salad was assembled by placing the sliced beets on a platter, the warm parmesan cream dressing was spooned onto the beets, and then some arugula micro greens, and any baby greens could be used here, were strewn about on the warm dressing. Those greens were drizzled with the shallot vinaigrette, and last but certainly not least, some chopped pistachios were added. This could be the dish to change the minds of all the beet haters out there. If it’s the earthiness of the beet root that they object to, then they should taste beets with this simple, warm, parmesan dressing. The richness blends with the flavor of the beets in a lovely way, and the greens and vinaigrette perk up the salad and keep it from being too heavy while the pistachios add crunch and one more layer of flavor. I already like beets, but trust me, this is a really, really good beet salad.

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Beer, Pretzel, and Cashew Caramels

I mentioned the beer-themed food blogger potluck the other day, and when I first heard about this theme, I was immediately inspired to attempt these beer caramels. I had seen beer and pretzel caramels on Serious Eats, and I wondered if I could adjust the caramel recipes I’d used before to include beer and still have a good resulting texture. I’ve previously made two types of caramels from Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert. The first was fleur de sel caramels which were firm but still chewy. The second version was honey pecan caramels which were softer, a little sticky, but deliciously tender and chewy. Both types were made with two cups of cream for the liquid, and I decided to experiment with one cup of cream and one cup of beer. I chose Maredsous which is a richly-flavored, malty, Belgian-style dubbel ale. When I stopped by the grocery store to buy beer and pretzels, I found Utz brand pretzels. We’ve been watching Mad Men, we’re halfway through season two, and I didn’t realize the Utz brand chips seen in a couple of episodes was in fact a real brand. I love that logo, and the Utz pretzel wheels were the perfect size to use in these caramels. With all the ingredients collected, I got to work. My first attempt ended in failure, but the second try resulted in a very edible confection.

Let me explain what went wrong the first time. I followed the same instructions for the fleur de sel caramels but used half beer and half cream. The beer and cream mixture was warmed in a small saucepan while sugar, corn syrup, and salt were melted and then brought up to 305 degrees F in a three-quart saucepan. When the sugar mixture reached 305, the heat was turned off, butter was added, and the beer and cream were stirred into the larger pan. My first lesson during round one, as I’ll call it, was that a three-quart saucepan is not large enough for this mixture with beer in it. The recipe notes, and I remembered from past caramel experiences, that there is a lot of sputtering and bubbling when the cream is added, but with beer, there’s even more bubbling. I quickly grabbed a larger pan and transferred the hot, bubbling mess. That mixture was then to have been brought up to 260 degrees F, and at that point, it was removed from the heat, vanilla was added, and it was poured into a prepared pan in which I had placed pretzels. I left it to cool and set until the next day when I discovered the caramel was rock hard. Not only did it require some serious force to break off a piece, there was no chance of being able to chew it.

I moved on to round two. The other recipe I’ve used before, honey pecan caramels, suggests taking the sugar and cream mixture to a final temperature of 248 degrees F, and that’s what I did the second time. I used the same ratio of one cup beer to one cup cream. I used sugar, corn syrup, and just a little honey which was brought to the same 305 degrees F before the butter and warmed cream and beer mixture were added. For round two, I smartly started with a five-quart pan. When the final mixture reached 248, I turned off the heat, added vanilla, and poured it into a prepared pan with pretzels and cashews. Somewhere between round one and two I decided some nuts would go well with the pretzels. I also added a sprinkling of sea salt on top. After sitting overnight, the caramels had become firm enough to cut but were still tender and chewy. They were the same texture as the honey pecan caramels I had made before. This was success with beer in a caramel. As for the flavor, I wasn’t sure how noticeable the beer would be to someone who didn’t know it was there. I detected a maltiness, and there was a hint of a little something extra in these caramels, but there wasn’t an overwhelming flavor of beer. After they sat for a day, I thought the beer flavor had become more noticeable, but it was still subtle. The color was darker than that of other caramels, and the pretzels and cashews were nice additions. This was a fun, learning experience and an interesting use of beer in a sweet treat.

Beer, Pretzel, and Cashew Caramels
Adapted from honey caramels recipe found in Pure Dessert
1 cup small pretzels, such as round Utz wheels
1/2 c roasted, salted cashews
3/4 c light corn syrup
1/4 c honey
2 c sugar
1/4 t salt
1 c cream
1 c beer such as a Belgian-style dubbel
3 T butter, softened
1 T pure vanilla extract
1-2 t sea salt

-line bottom and sides of a nine-inch square baking pan with foil and spray foil with cooking spray oil; place pretzels and cashews on foil in pan and set aside on a heat-proof surface
-combine corn syrup, honey, sugar, and salt in a heavy five-quart pan set over medium heat and attach a candy thermometer; stir occasionally with a wooden spoon until mixture has melted; cook without stirring until temperature on candy thermometer reaches 305 degrees F
-while syrup mixture comes up to temperature, place cream and beer in a small saucepan over low heat just until warm
-when sugar and syrup mixture has reached 305, turn off heat, add butter and stir to combine; carefully stir in cream and beer mixture; it will boil and sputter and then eventually calm down; turn the heat back on to medium-high and continue stirring until mixture is smooth; allow this to cook while stirring occasionally until temperature on thermometer reaches 248 degrees F
-turn off the heat, add vanilla, and stir to incorporate; carefully pour this mixture over the prepared pan with the pretzels and cashews and allow to cool slightly; sprinkle with sea salt and leave to cool and set for several hours or overnight
-invert caramel onto a cutting surface and remove the foil; flip the caramel right side up and cut into desired shapes with a serrated knife so as not to crush the pretzels; cut caramels can be wrapped in cellophane or parchment paper

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Beer Braised Chicken Stew with Biscuits

You would think I would have learned from the last two food blogger potlucks I attended, but no. Another potluck was held on Sunday, and I really thought that this time I’d just nibble on a few things and not leave completely stuffed. The theme for this potluck was beer, and the event was held at 512 Brewery. So, not only did I lose track of how many incredible dishes I sampled, I also sampled several delicious beers. More info about the potluck can be found at Foodie is the New Forty and at Relish Austin. I had a couple of ideas for dishes made with beer, and one was savory and the other was sweet. I’ll post about the sweet one soon. First, I wanted to try braising chicken in beer, and I imagined the flavorful, slow-cooked meat and vegetables would work well in a pot-pie kind of dish. I mostly followed the recipe for Ina’s Chicken Stew with Biscuits from Barefoot Contessa Family Style after the chicken was cooked. This was an experiment because I had never before braised chicken in beer and wasn’t sure if that would incorporate too much beeriness or not enough or if the chicken meat would be an odd brownish color. I decided to give it a whirl and find out the answers.

I wanted to be sure that I was in fact braising and not stewing or roasting, so I first referenced Ruhlman’s The Elements of Cooking. After a quick look at his definition, I knew that I needed to lightly coat the chicken pieces with flour, briefly sear the pieces, and then add enough liquid so that it would not evaporate as the chicken cooked but not so much that the chicken would be submerged. I used four bone-in breasts and two thighs, and in the roasting pan I used, two and a half 12 ounce bottles of Boulevard Oktoberfest beer was the right amount. After searing the chicken, I added small potatoes, whole shallots, and big chunks of carrots and celery before pouring in the beer and covering the pan. Also, from Elements, I learned that braising should happen at a temperature no higher than 300 degrees F, and that’s the temperature at which I set my oven. After an hour and a half, the chicken was cooked through and had reached 165 degrees F. The next step for a successful braise is to let the meat cool in the braising liquid. This is why I started this process early. I left everything in the dish with the braising liquid and placed it in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, I removed the meat from the bones and chopped the vegetables into small pieces for the stew. Good news: the chicken meat had not turned an ugly brown at all, and it was as tender as can be.

For the stew, the sauce was made with five cups of stock. Again, I wasn’t sure if the braising liquid, which was all beer, would be too beery for the sauce. It had been flavored with the chicken and vegetables while in the oven, but I decided to use only four cups of it and one cup of plain chicken stock so as to hedge my bet. Some finely chopped shallots were browned in 12 tablespoons of butter with some finely chopped sage and rosemary, and then three-fourths of a cup of flour was added to form a roux. The stock and braising liquid were stirred into the roux to form the sauce, and after thickening, one quarter cup of cream was added as well. The chicken, potatoes, carrots, and celery were added with a package of frozen peas and some chopped parsley. Once well mixed, that all went into a baking dish which was placed in a 375 degree F oven for 15 minutes. Then, the stew was removed from the oven and topped with biscuits that were made with parsley in the dough. After brushing an egg wash on the biscuits, the stew went back into the oven for another 30 minutes.

After all my worrying about the dish tasting too beery, in the end, the flavor from the beer was actually very subtle. I could smell the beer in the dish, and the flavor was there but it was nicely mixed with the chicken and vegetables and biscuits and herbs. This whole process may seem labor-intensive, but each step was very easy. The original recipe in Barefoot Contessa Family Style suggests quickly roasting chicken breasts and using them as soon as they are cool enough to handle. However, if you’d like to try a beer-themed meal, I highly recommend a slow braise with a medium-bodied brew and letting the meat cool in the pan. It smells amazing as it cooks, and the texture of the meat is as good as it gets.

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Chocolate^2 Chip Espresso Cookies

If there is such thing as a sweet tooth, I would like to suggest that there may also be such thing as a coffee tooth. Going with that assumption, my coffee tooth has been acting up lately, and that led me to this recipe for double chocolate espresso cookies from Demolition Desserts. The cookie dough was made with cocoa powder and finely ground espresso, and dark chocolate and white chocolate chips were added. You might think a dark, chocolaty, coffee-flavored cookie like that would be slightly bitter, but this one wasn’t. I suspect it’s the brown sugar that smoothes out the flavors in the dough. The tender, almost-cakey texture is a nice surprise about them too. You can use any ratio you wish of white to dark chocolate chips, and I went with a whole cup of white to one-third cup of dark chocolate.

In the recipe, the suggested method for preparing the dough is to stir it by hand with a large wooden spoon. I prefer the hands-free method of tossing everything into a mixer, so I went that route. The flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and ground espresso were sifted while the butter and dark brown and granulated sugars were mixed. One egg, vanilla, and salt were added to the butter before the flour mixture was mixed in just until combined. I folded in the white and dark chocolate chips, and then the dough was refrigerated for 30 minutes. Small, one-inch balls of dough were formed and baked for about ten minutes.

These cookies are found at the beginning of the book with a few other versions of the chocolate chip variety like the chocolate chip cookies xs. This particular chocolate chip espresso cookie is also used in the chocolate chip mania dessert found on page 35 of the book. For that, the cookies are baked as minis and are stacked on top of a blondie with brown sugar-chocolate chunk ice cream and chipped cream with dark and white chocolate sauces. That sounds like a great way to satisfy a sweet tooth, a coffee tooth, and a chocolate tooth all at once, but for now, the cookies by themselves made me and my coffee tooth very happy.

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Cider-Glazed Apple Muffins with Blackberries

Is it just me, or have there been an awfully lot of tempting apple cakes out there lately? I’ve wanted to try them all, but I knew what would happen if I had an entire, big apple cake in this house. It would disappear too quickly, and I would need to spend a lot more time in running shoes. When I found this recipe for apple muffins, it seemed like a perfect compromise. Kurt loves muffins for breakfast, and a few could go into the freezer for a later date. The other part of this story is that one of those cake recipes that is tempting me involves apples and blackberries. When I found some fresh blackberries from Mexico at the grocery store, I had to add them to the tops of these muffins. I found the recipe on Epicurious, and it’s from the September 1997 issue of Gourmet.

My only changes to the original recipe were to bake the muffins at regular size rather than as mini muffins and to top them with blackberries. I left the apple chunks slightly bigger than one-quarter inch pieces and didn’t chop the walnuts fine either, but no big changes. While the muffins were baking, apple cider was simmered until reduced to a syrup. When the muffins were removed from the oven, they were poked on top with a skewer and then brushed with the syrup.

With apple chunks, walnuts, apple cider, and blackberries in the muffins, these were full of delicious. The syrup glaze on top kept the muffins moist and gave them a little shine. The walnuts were particularly nice with the flavor of apples and cider. This was a practical choice for satisfying my apple cake craving, but that doesn’t mean I won’t change my mind and bake a big, full cake in the very near future.




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South of the Border Irish Insomniac

My bottle of Kahlua was wondering why I hadn’t used the rest of it, so I searched around for something that included it. I found an interesting cocktail in Viva Margarita, but I didn’t really like the name for it in the book. It’s made with espresso, tequila, and Baileys Irish cream in addition to the Kahlua, but the name ‘Tijuana speedball’ didn’t seem to do justice to all those great flavors. I wanted to call it ‘an Irishman woke up in Mexico’ but decided that sounded like the beginning of a joke, and I didn’t have one to go with it. Friends and family all tried to suggest other possible names, but nothing seemed quite right. I gave up just now, and went with the name you see above. Send me a better idea if you have one.

Throughout the book, the drink recipes are written for either one or two drinks. In this case, it was for one. I made slight changes and will give quantities below for two drinks as I made them. The suggested garnish was to float espresso beans on the top surface with some cinnamon. Instead, I finely chopped chocolate-covered espresso beans and sprinkled that on top with a dusting of cinnamon. Because this is a chilled cocktail, I brewed the espresso in advance and left it in the refrigerator for about an hour.

The hint of caramel from the Kahlua and the smooth Baileys added just enough sweetness to the espresso and tequila. A small, six ounce serving was just enough for a caffeine jolt with a kick, and the dusting of cinnamon and crushed chocolate-covered espresso beans on top was delicious. I’ll definitely be mixing more of these, but what should I call them next time?

Espresso, Kahlua, Baileys Cocktail That Needs a Better Name:
1 ounce tequila
1.5 ounces Kahlua
1.5 ounces Bailey’s Irish Cream
3 ounces espresso
Cinnamon
3-4 chocolate-covered espresso beans, finely chopped

Add a handful or two of ice to a cocktail pitcher (or shaker) and then pour the tequila, Kahlua, Baileys, and espresso over the ice. Stir (or shake) to blend and chill. Strain mixture into two six ounce cocktail glasses and sprinkle tops with cinnamon and chopped chocolate-covered espresso beans.

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