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Another recipe from Ina. This lemon cake appears in Barefoot Contessa Parties! There were several ripe lemons on our tree, so it seemed like a good time for lemon cake. I actually skipped the lemon sugar syrup step, and the cake was still moist and perfect. It gets even better after a day or two.
-This is a recipe from the March issue of Cooking Light. I revised it as follows:
1/2 c low-fat plain yogurt
3 oz goat cheese, softened
1/4 c sliced leek
1-14 oz can artichoke hearts, rinsed and drained
1/3 c grated Pecorino Romano
2 t fresh lemon juice
2 t lemon zest
1 T chopped chives
Salt and pepper to taste
- rinse and drain the artichokes well and squeeze excess liquid from them
- combine yogurt, goat cheese, Pecorino, and leeks in a food processor and process until smooth; add lemon juice and zest and pulse to incorporate; add artichokes and pulse to roughly chop; transfer mixture to a bowl and stir in salt, pepper, and chives; chill until ready to serve
Halibut with Lemon Pepper Sour Cream Sauce
--This recipe is from the March issue of Bon Appetit and was intended for salmon. Here's my rendition:
For marinade:
2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 t lemon zest
2 T olive oil
1 T finely chopped leek or shallot
-combine all ingredients in a shallow glass dish
For sauce:
3 T sour cream
1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 t lemon zest
1 T finely chopped leek or shallot
Salt to taste
Lots of pepper
-pre-heat oven to 425°
-place two halibut fillets in shallow glass dish with marinade and chill for 15 minutes to one hour turning every eight minutes or so
-heat additional olive oil in a sauté pan over high heat; season halibut with salt and pepper and place presentation side down in sauté pan; let cook without touching for 3-4 minutes; (a spatter screen is handy here); turn fillets and place sauté pan in oven for 3-4 minutes depending on thickness of fillets
-serve with seasonal vegetables and drizzle sauce over top
Sauteed Farmers' Market Spring Vegetables (oyster mushrooms, asparagus, carrots, leeks)
Meringues Chantilly
--This is from Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Make at Home by Ina Garten. (I should have cut the recipe in half since it makes 12.) I used a little less sugar than was listed for the meringues and the whipped cream because the berries were perfectly sweet. Unfortunately, I didn't have a large star tip for piping, so the meringues have a smooth edge, and they browned just slightly in the oven but were extremely delicious.
under Lexi's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies. These cookies spread a lot, meaning more than any cookie has ever expanded on a baking sheet, as they bake. They need lots of space around them so as not to bake into a solid cookie sheet. I place just five mounds of dough on each sheet pan, and it's not a bad idea to chill the sheets with dough mounds for a few minutes before putting them in the oven. I used a three tablespoon scoop for mounding the dough and left the cookies in the oven for twelve minutes rather than eight as directed in the recipe. Also, parchment paper or silpats are necessary to easily remove the baked cookies from the sheet pans. One last tip is that these cookies are very big and need time on a cooling rack to crisp. This all makes them sound somewhat fussy, but they're really not and they're definitely worth the effort.
On the last day of winter, it seemed like a good time to finish off the pumpkin ravioli that I had made weeks ago and left in the freezer. Back when winter started, I roasted a big, blue pumpkin that had the brightest orange flesh, puréed it, and put it to a couple of different uses. One of those uses was pumpkin-cinnamon rolls which are a big favorite of Kurt’s and mine. Obviously, the pumpkin was also used for ravioli, and some of it remains in a tub in the freezer. The filling for the pumpkin ravioli included puréed pumpkin, a scant amount of toasted bread crumbs, an egg, shredded parmigiana reggiano, and a few scrapes of nutmeg on the microplane. I made a standard pasta dough with flour and eggs, and mixed it in a food processor rather than by hand. (My pasta-making education came from Marcella Hazan via her excellent book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, but I took the liberty of using the food processor to speed things up a bit.) I rolled out the pasta into sheets with a hand-cranked Imperia machine, and plopped the filling by the teaspoonful along the length of the sheets. Then, folded the sheets in half lengthwise over the filling and cut the ravioli with a fluted pastry wheel. The fresh pasta was boiled briefly and topped with browned butter, fried sage leaves, and a few curls of shaved parmigiana reggiano and was delectable. Kurt and I agreed that is our preferred way to prepare pumpkin ravioli, but it is very rich. It makes a great first course or primo. The remaining ravioli went into the freezer, and we enjoyed the browned butter and sage topping again a few weeks later. Last night, to use the rest of the ravioli before Spring arrived and made pumpkin seem out of place for dinner, I tried serving them with a gorgonzola sauce. I made a béchamel with finely chopped sage and melted gorgonzola and parmigiana reggiano into it. The ravioli were topped with the sauce and sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts and a little more parmigiana. This version of the ravioli was also delicious, and freezing the ravioli works fine, but nothing can beat the taste and texture of fresh pasta on the day it's made.
Mint Chocolate Brownie Bars:
