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.
While I was making dinner from Sunday Suppers at Lucques, I noticed a simple, summery dessert that I could whip up at the same time. And, coming to think of it, I never do that. I never set out to make a meal including dessert all in one go. Dessert, or most of it depending on what it is, is always made in advance, but this one really is easy enough to prepare right along with dinner. It’s a custard with creme fraiche that’s poured over berries and then gratineed under the broiler. Once browned, it can sit patiently at room temperature while you enjoy your main course. Now speaking of that browning step, I’ve noticed that organic sugar doesn’t behave quite the same as regular sugar. In this case, confectioner’s sugar was suggested, and I used an organic brand, and I don’t think it browned as well as it could have. Deborah Madison confirmed the fact in her book Seasonal Fruit Desserts that for browning or bruleeing, regular sugar works better, but I’m not sure why that is. At any rate, these little desserts only sit under the broiler long enough to become bubbly and a little browned, so it didn’t matter much here.
An easy custard was made with warmed milk slowly whisked into a mixture of egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch. That was returned to a saucepan and thickened. Butter and salt were added while it was warm, and then the custard was chilled in the refrigerator for a bit. Once cool, creme fraiche was folded into it. In the book, the dessert is made with raspberries, but I had blackberries, and any kind of berries or really just about any fruit would work. In the intro to the recipe, sauteed apples or pears with dried fruit is suggested for a winter version of this. The blackberries were tossed with a little granulated sugar and then scattered in ramekins in my case. The dessert can also be made in one, larger gratin dish. The custard was spooned over the berries, more berries were placed on top, confectioner’s sugar was sifted over each ramekin, and they were placed under the broiler for about seven minutes. I dusted them with a little more confectioner’s sugar before serving.
What you get is a warm, vanilla pudding with a partially browned, set surface, rich, tangy flavor from creme fraiche, and warm, juicy berries. If you wanted to do what I usually do which is to have dessert mostly ready long before I start tackling dinner preparations, you could just refrigerate the gratins until you’re ready to broil them right before serving. Either way, it’s a simple dessert that has me looking forward to other seasonal variations.
When I was looking for an interesting meal idea last week, I turned to the summer chapter of Sunday Suppers at Lucques. I found this Nicoise-style salad that could be made with several things I had on hand with just a few minor changes. First, in the book, it’s made with grilled halibut, but I used wild salmon instead. The dish also includes haricots verts, cherry tomatoes, and fingerling potatoes. I had different versions of each of those vegetables from my CSA and the farmers’ market. I received green beans last month, and they had been steamed and frozen, so I thawed them rather than buying haricots verts. I had bought local, yellow pear tomatoes, and I had just received some pretty, purple potatoes in my last CSA box. The tomatoes were to be sauteed in anchovy butter, and my stash of salt-packed anchovies came in handy as did my homegrown basil and thyme. This meal had all the components of a standard Nicoise salad, but the elements were tweaked in ways that added great flavor.
First, the fish was seasoned with lemon zest and thyme and then grilled which was flavor-boost one. Next, the potatoes were roasted rather than boiled, boost number two. The cooked green beans and roasted potatoes were sauteed in olive oil with shallots and then tossed with spinach, olives, and lemon juice. Eggs were soft-boiled here which left them extremely tender and lovely. Last, the tomatoes were warmed and softened with melted butter and minced anchovy. The buttery tomatoes became a sauce that was spooned over the grilled fish which sat on top of the spinach salad, and it was crowned with sliced green and opal basil.
Nicoise salad has always been a favorite meal kind of salad of mine, but this one was a cut above the usual. The roasted potatoes with bits of surface crunch and the added shallot, olive oil flavor and the sweet, salty bite of bursting tomatoes in warm anchovy butter elevated this version. And, the soft-boiled eggs were rich and a little delicate and just seemed special. Yes, this was a very good way to make a Nicoise salad.
Because of David Leite, we all tested a certain chocolate chip cookie technique having to do with leaving the dough in the refrigerator for 36 hours before baking. David is a James Beard Award-winning food writer, and his site, Leite’s Culinaria has won several food blog and food web site awards as well. He writes for the New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, Bon Appetit, and many other publications. His new book, The New Portuguese Table, won the 2010 IACP First Book/Julia Child Award. Now, David is busy working on a book proposal for a new cookbook. I asked him: what are you reading?
David:
Right now I'm finishing upThe Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. What intrigued me was the premise: Rose, an ordinary young girl, suddenly begins tasting in her food the emotions and hidden secrets of the person who made it. The novel is set into motion with Rose's shuddering at her mother's desperate sadness after dipping into the lemon cake of the title, which she made for Rose's birthday. Later she correctly intuits her infidelity because, after years of empty-feeling dishes, she suddenly bites into an uncharacteristically hopeful and sunny forkful of dinner.
Bender's spare but evocative language kept me highlighting passages and descriptions on my iPad: Of Rose's father: "He always seemed a little like a guest to me." Of the school nurse:"She was the chaperone of broken bones." Most telling, of her mother, who clearly favored her son: "She was the best with activities: I cherished this time with her, warmed like baby chicks by the orange-red coils of the wall heater." Bare-boned, gorgeous, sad.
Thank you for participating, David. Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.
Cinnamon rolls are one of my many weaknesses. They are excellent breakfast sweets just as they are. Lately, however, I’ve started seeing more and more varieties of rolls like sticky lemon rolls, coconut pull apart rolls, and butterscotch sticky buns. And, did you see Foodblogga’s blueberry sweet rolls last summer? Then, I just saw another version of blueberry cinnamon rolls on Health Nut a couple of weeks ago. I started getting ideas about changing things up with a slightly more wholesome sweet roll made with sourdough and whole wheat flour, and Texas-grown blueberries are everywhere I look lately. Blueberries on their own would have been great, but I thought using both blueberries and raspberries would give these some Fourth of July spirit.
I followed a recipe for sourdough cinnamon rolls using half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour. The recipe states the commercial yeast and vital wheat gluten are optional. I added the yeast but not the gluten. The dough also included sourdough starter, water, sugar, powdered milk, melted butter, and eggs. With less butter, no cream cheese, and whole wheat flour, these were virtuous sweet rolls compared to the last ones I made. I let the dough rise for a few hours, and then rolled it into a big rectangle. I spread on two tablespoons of softened butter and scattered the berries, one half pint of each, that had been tossed with a little sugar and lemon zest and a tablespoon of flour. The dough was rolled up and cut into smallish pieces. I went with shorter rolls this time in an attempt to limit the calories per roll. They were practically guilt-free. I let them sit in a baking pan, covered with plastic, in the refrigerator overnight, and baked them the next morning. Once baked and cooled, I made a simple glaze with confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice to swirl on top of each.
The pretty berries and lemony glaze made these seem more decadent than they were, and the whole wheat flour gave them some nuttiness. Veering off the cinnamon path was a good change of pace. Now that I’ve dabbled with berries in sweet rolls, the lemon, butterscotch, and coconut varieties are in my sights.
I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting where you’ll find some seriously well-made bread.
I was invited to attend a class taught by Chef David Bull at the Central Market cooking school, and the topic of the class was vegetarian dishes and wine pairings. David Bull doesn’t usually focus on vegetarian cooking as you can see in his dinner menu at Bolla at the Stoneleigh Hotel in Dallas, but he’s always happy to prepare vegetarian tasting menus upon request and there is always a vegetarian option or two on his menus. During the class, Bull spoke about textural contrast in food and recognizing ingredients for inherent flavors and balancing them. He also demonstrated some interesting knife techniques like holding the handle up and the point down when slicing avocados to prevent the slices from sticking to the blade. He created seven dishes for the class: avocado mousse with sprouts jicama jalapeno and grapefruit, cucumber summer rolls with yellow curry and coconut, white gazpacho with red grapes soy milk and toasted almonds, tomato and watermelon “tartare,” watercress salad with Texas peaches and buttered brioche, daikon noodles with green beans, and potato gnocchi with oven roasted tomatoes and black olive oil. (gazpacho, peaches, summer roll, and gnocchi are shown below)
This fall, Bull will be opening two new restaurants in Austin. Congress will be a fine dining, dinner-only restaurant, and Second at Congress will be a more casual spot with patio and terrace seating serving brunch, lunch, and dinner. Connecting the two will be Bar Congress serving appetizers and cocktails. Bull mentioned he’s working with farmers to determine how much of the menus can be sourced locally. You can also find Bull’s cuisine in an interactive format. His online cookbook is called Bull’s Eye on Food, and you can search recipes by title, type, or ingredient. Once you choose a dish to prepare, you can enter the number of people you’ll be serving, and the quantities in the ingredient list will be re-calculated for that number. It will also generate shopping lists and even send the list to a smart phone. The other nice interactive feature of this book is that new recipes are added all the time. The vegetarian dishes prepared for the class were added just after being presented.
I sampled and enjoyed all of the dishes from the class, although the wine pairings didn’t uncover any new favorites for me. The white gazpacho was surprisingly good because of how well-balanced it was. I expected something a bit on the sweet side, but instead it was crisp, cool, a little tangy, only slightly sweet, and was delightful with the almonds on top. The cucumber rolls were fresh, crunchy, and light. I considered making those with some added stick-like pieces of tofu. And, the watercress salad with peaches and buttered brioche with a peach puree and red wine vinegar sauce was outstanding. That would be a beautiful brunch dish. Last, I was thrilled to watch the gnocchi being prepared as I’ve lived in fear of attempting to make it myself for so long. I think I’m almost ready to try it now. But, the dish I had to try right away to make at home was the tomato and watermelon "tartare." It was summery and brightly-flavored with hints of savoriness from shallots and red onion. The goat cheese dressing was delicious as was the pistachio vinaigrette, and when the two were swirled together with a bite of the tartare, it was excellent.
While demonstrating this recipe, Bull explained that he was including chef’s techniques and that a home version could be simplified. I chose to make a simplification or two; I admit it. I didn’t bother preparing the tomato concasse. I left it unpeeled and just seeded it. I did make the watermelon rind pickles, but my julienne on them and on the celery pieces could have been thinner. I was happy with the ring-molded shape of the salad, and pressing excess liquid from the contents of the mold, as instructed, is necessary for it to hold together well. Then, it’s very pretty on the plate with a sprinkling of chopped pistachios and the dressings drizzled here and there. The complete, chef-version of the recipe is below.
recipe re-printed with Chef's permission Tomato and Watermelon "Tartare" with Goat Cheese-Pistachio Vinaigrette
tartare: 3 heirloom tomatoes
1 1/2 c seedless watermellon, small diced, rind reserved for celery salad
1 tablespoon shallots, brunoise
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
-prepare the tomatoes concasse by blanching them, shocking them in cold water, peeling the skins, seeding them, and then dicing them.
-in a small mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients and season with salt
pickled watermelon rind:
1/2 cup watermelon rind, peeled and all red fruit removed, julienned
1/4 cup champagne vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
-combine the vinegar and sugar in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. reduce mixture by half and chill completely.
-pour the chilled mixture over the watermelon rind in a bowl and allow to sit for 20-30 minutes.
-remove the rind and drain the liquid. reserve the rind for the celery salad.
celery salad: 1 cup celery hearts, loosely packed
1/2 cup celery, finely julienned
1/2 cup pickled watermelon rind
1/8 cup red onion, fine julienne
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
-in a small mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients.
goat cheese dressing:
1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon sea salt
-mix all ingredients together in a small mixing bowl until completely. should be the consistency of yogurt.
pistachio vinaigrette:
1/4 cup pistachios, toasted, salted, and ground
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
lemon juice, to taste
-toast pistachios in a 350 degree F oven for about six minutes. remove from oven, season with salt, and grind them in a food processor until finely crumbled. reserve some ground pistachios for garnish.
-mix the remaining pistachios with the rest of the ingredients in a small mixing bowl until completely combined.
assembly: -place the tartare into ring molds and press with a clean kitchen towel (or paper towel) to release some of the juice. unmold the tartare onto plates.
-top tartare with celery salad and toasted, ground pistachios.
-drizzle the goat cheese dressing and pistachio vinaigrette around the plate and serve.
It sounds like these should have beer in them, doesn’t it? Well, the original version from Baked bakery in Brooklyn is made with brewer’s malt blended with chocolate that’s swirled into the dough. In the book Baked, the recipe was adapted for home bakers to use malted milk powder and chocolate malted milk balls instead. These are flavor-packed blondies with chocolate chips and toasted walnuts included as well. It’s suggested that they be served warm with a scoop of ice cream, and that’s a very good idea. I chilled them to make them easier to cut, and I might have tasted a bit while cutting. It was for research purposes, though, to confirm the ideal serving temperature. Yes, room temperature or warm is better for serving than cold in this case. The chocolate and malt aren’t as rich-tasting when cold. These blondies taste like a chocolate chip cookie in bar form, but that would be a chunky, malted, rich, and very special chocolate chip cookie.
For the chocolate malted milk balls, you are instructed to coarsely chop them in a food processor. That results in some biggish pieces, tiny pieces, and some powder. Since only three quarters of a cup is used, I might quarter them by hand next time. It will be tedious, but I think the uniform chunks would be better in the blondies. To start, flour was sifted with baking powder, salt, and malted milk powder. Then, butter was creamed with brown sugar, eggs and vanilla were added, and the flour mixtures was slowly added to form the dough. The chopped malted milk balls, chocolate chips, and chopped walnuts were folded in to finish it. The dough was spread into a parchment-lined baking pan and spread evenly. It baked for 25 minutes, it cooled on a rack, and then I refrigerated it overnight.
I always fall for the flavor of malted milk, but with everything going on with these blondies they’re hard not to like. I took these cookie bars to a birthday party so they weren’t left sitting around the house tempting me. That does mean I’ll have to make them again so I can go ahead and cut them while warm from the oven to enjoy with scoops of ice cream.
Since I started asking this question of different people from the food community, I have received completely varied answers with one exception. Kim Severson’s new book Spoon Fedwas recommended in two responses. Kim has been writing for the New York Times for the past six years, and prior to that, she wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle. Her resume includes time as an editor and reporter at The Anchorage Daily News and writing for daily newspapers on the West Coast. She has won four James Beard awards for food writing. On her site, you can keep up with Kim’s latest work and share your own kitchen stories. I asked Kim: what are you reading?
Kim:
I am readingHog and Hominy: Soul Food From Africa to America by Frederick Douglass Opie. It’s a terrific examination of the history of soul food in America. I wrote a story for The New York Times about food in the Bronx, and one of my editors suggested it. The book starts with folk traditions and cooking in West Africa and takes you all the way through Malcolm X and bean pies and the healthy soul food revolution in the 1980s.
I am also re-readingFor You, Mom, Finally by Ruth Reichl. It came out in paperback with a different title, which wasNot Becoming My Mother. Ruth really hated that title. It’s a very sweet book, full of insight and angst both from a daughter’s perspective and a writer’s perspective.
Last, I have a copy ofGreat Recipes from The New York Timeson the pile. The women who run Omnivore Books in San Francisco gave it to me recently. Raymond Sokolov, who was the food editor at the Times in the 1970s, put it together. It’s really kind of a fun, fussy history lesson, what with all those recipes for pheasant and vegetable charlotte.
Thank you for participating, Kim! Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.
, I noticed a simple, summery dessert that I could whip up at the same time. And, coming to think of it, I never do that. I never set out to make a meal including dessert all in one go. Dessert, or most of it depending on what it is, is always made in advance, but this one really is easy enough to prepare right along with dinner. It’s a custard with creme fraiche that’s poured over berries and then gratineed under the broiler. Once browned, it can sit patiently at room temperature while you enjoy your main course. Now speaking of that browning step, I’ve noticed that organic sugar doesn’t behave quite the same as regular sugar. In this case, confectioner’s sugar was suggested, and I used an organic brand, and I don’t think it browned as well as it could have. Deborah Madison confirmed the fact in her book Seasonal Fruit Desserts
that for browning or bruleeing, regular sugar works better, but I’m not sure why that is. At any rate, these little desserts only sit under the broiler long enough to become bubbly and a little browned, so it didn’t matter much here.
, won the 2010 IACP First Book/Julia Child Award. Now, David is busy working on a book proposal for a new cookbook. I asked him: what are you reading?
by Aimee Bender. What intrigued me was the premise: Rose, an ordinary young girl, suddenly begins tasting in her food the emotions and hidden secrets of the person who made it. The novel is set into motion with Rose's shuddering at her mother's desperate sadness after dipping into the lemon cake of the title, which she made for Rose's birthday. Later she correctly intuits her infidelity because, after years of empty-feeling dishes, she suddenly bites into an uncharacteristically hopeful and sunny forkful of dinner.
, the recipe was adapted for home bakers to use malted milk powder and chocolate malted milk balls instead. These are flavor-packed blondies with chocolate chips and toasted walnuts included as well. It’s suggested that they be served warm with a scoop of ice cream, and that’s a very good idea. I chilled them to make them easier to cut, and I might have tasted a bit while cutting. It was for research purposes, though, to confirm the ideal serving temperature. Yes, room temperature or warm is better for serving than cold in this case. The chocolate and malt aren’t as rich-tasting when cold. These blondies taste like a chocolate chip cookie in bar form, but that would be a chunky, malted, rich, and very special chocolate chip cookie.
by Frederick Douglass Opie. It’s a terrific examination of the history of soul food in America. I wrote a story for The New York Times about food in the Bronx, and one of my editors suggested it. The book starts with folk traditions and cooking in West Africa and takes you all the way through Malcolm X and bean pies and the healthy soul food revolution in the 1980s. 
by Ruth Reichl. It came out in paperback with a different title, which was 
. Ruth really hated that title. It’s a very sweet book, full of insight and angst both from a daughter’s perspective and a writer’s perspective. 
on the pile. The women who run Omnivore Books in San Francisco gave it to me recently. Raymond Sokolov, who was the food editor at the Times in the 1970s, put it together. It’s really kind of a fun, fussy history lesson, what with all those recipes for pheasant and vegetable charlotte. 