You Should Open a Restaurant

Pear Cake

2009-10-13T11:55:00.013-04:00

Last night I prepared what I thought would be a very easy recipe for pear cake. In fact, it is a very easy recipe, and under normal circumstances, it would have been a breeze. However, the space in which I prepared it was there to thwart my every move, it seemed. You see, I am moving and the apartment is in disarray, including the kitchen. My experience last night reminded me of the first time I used this kitchen, new to me. What a mess. I did a lot of dishes.

Despite it all, the cake turned out fabulous. It's sweet, rich, buttery, and has a touch of carmelization on the top and sides, and contains some delicious bosc pears I got in my CSA share last week. The recipe calls for small seckel pears, which I also like, but I had the boscs so there you are. Since boscs are twice the size of seckels, I used half the number pears suggested (three instead of six).

I've shared the cake with two people now and both loved it. I love it, too. It's delicious.

The other change I made was to use half whole wheat pastry flour and half all purpose, simply because I only had a half cup of whole wheat pastry flour on hand.

Cele's Old-Fashioned Pear Cake Recipe
from 101 Cookbooks

1/2 cup unsalted butter (8 oz), at room temperature, plus 2 tablespoons melted
All-purpose flour for dusting
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
6 firm but ripe small pears such as Seckel, cored and cut lengthwise into quarters

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Brush a 9-inch round springform pan with the 2 tablespoons melted butter, and dust the pan with a thin, even layer of flour, tapping out the excess. Set aside.

Whisk together the whole-wheat pastry flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat together the 1/2 cup butter and the sugar on high speed until pale, light, and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the eggs, and beat again until well combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the dry ingredients just until combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and neatly arrange the peat quarters on top, skin side up. Bake for about 1 hour, or until the top is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 10 to 15 minutes before removing it from the pan.

Serves 10.

The Botany of Desire: PREVIEW

2009-10-10T16:28:00.001-04:00

I'm a big fan of Michael Pollan. I've read The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, both of which I enjoyed immensely. I also try to catch his articles in the NY Times and elsewhere.

PBS is going to run a special based on his book, The Botany of Desire. In it, he focuses on four plants - the tulip, cannabis, the potato, and the apple - and how they have actually controlled us (humans) by enticing us just well enough to spread them around. The special will run on Wednesday, October 28th at 8 p.m.

Looks great!

[via Eat Me Daily]

Goodbye Gourmet

2009-10-05T14:59:00.004-04:00

This morning, I woke up to the news that Conde Nast is shutting down Gourmet Magazine; they will continue publishing Bon Appetit. November will hail Gourmet's last print issue but they will remain in other media markets (television an book publishing); perhaps their online presence will continue on, but somehow I doubt it. While I don't read Gourmet on a regular basis, I knew of its fame and fandom, its well-known and -branded EIC Ruth Reichel, and that this farewell is hitting some people harder than others. And now I'm wishing I paid more attention to it.

I decided to check out the Gourmet website and I must admit that a lot of it appeals to me. Thoughtful articles, appealing recipes, interesting info and reviews. They've put together a rundown of fruit desserts, from crisps to buckles, that I found rather helpful and informative, all wrapped up in a tidy short column, with links to correlative recipes. I like it so much that I want to share it. Here it is (edited slightly):

Cobbler. Fruit topped with a crust and baked. Most cobblers have a thick biscuit crust, which can either be cut into rounds (“cobbles”) or left as a single layer.

Crisp. Fruit is sprinkled with a streusel-like mixture of butter, sugar, flour, and often oatmeal or nuts that has been rubbed together (or pulsed in a food processor). A crisp is called a crumble in Britain.

Brown Betty. Similar to a crisp, but breadcrumbs are used, and they’re layered in with the fruit rather than scattered on top.

Buckle. Fruit is generally folded into (or sprinkled onto) cake batter and then covered with a topping similar to that found on a crisp; the cake batter will “buckle” as it bakes.

Pandowdy. Deep-dish fruit dessert that originated in the hearth kitchen as a way to use up leftover dough (typically bread dough) on baking days. The thick crust, which would become as hard as a cracker, was then broken up and left to soak in the cooking juices. The end result was similar to a bread pudding. The pandowdy evolved with the times, and by the 1850s and ’60s, most women had switched to a biscuit crust, which had become the default crust for all baked and steamed fruit desserts. After the 1860s, both biscuit crusts and pie crusts were used. Up until the mid-20th century, apples were the only fruit and molasses the only sweetener used in pandowdies.

I'd recommend visiting the page for links to recipes. I know I will. I make a lot of crisps, and now that it's really apple season, I think it's time to branch out.

And so, though I hardly knew ye, Gourmet, I'll miss you. I hope Bon Appetit can fill the void, at least a little bit. Perhaps some "out of the box" thinking will emerge and Gourmet will be thrown a life saver.

EDIT: This interview with Conde Nast's President-CEO Charles H. Townsend brings to light some of the thought processes behind the shuttering of Gourmet. I had to laugh, though, when he said, "No, zero." in response to the question, "Are there any more shutdowns to come?" In this economy, I just can't take him at his word. People should really learn not to make promises they can't absolutely keep.

Image (Cover of February 1974 issue of ''Gourmet'' magazine) scanned by Wikimedia Commons User MakeRocketGoNow

Lacto Fermentation

2009-10-04T21:42:00.003-04:00

On Saturday I attended a class on lacto fermentation, led by Jessica Prentiss, Sarah Klein, and Maggie Gosselin; Jessica did most of the teaching. She is a big proponent of lacto fermented food, and I learned a lot from the class. She demonstrated how to make lacto fermented kimchi, traditional sauerkraut, rotcraut (red cabbage sauerkraut), sauer ruben (turnips), fermented greens (!), sea vegetables and cabbage (!!) and a tomato chutney. Such a variety - it's amazing what you can ferment!

Now, why preserve food by lacto fermentation? Well, by preserving them this way, you are, of course extending their life, as well as increasing their nutritional value. Lacto fermented foods are high in enzymes, and are a source of probiotics, the stuff that helps keep your intestinal flora healthy and digestion working smoothly. Also, ferments are high in vitamin C - we know that captain James Cook took sauerkraut on voyages to prevent the development of scurvy in his crew.

Fermented foods are rooted in the traditions of northern folks, people that live where it gets cold and snowy and only three growing seasons; you rarely find fermentation traditions in southern, tropical areas. These tropical areas have a whole slew of enzyme-rich foods, like papaya, for instance. You'll find strong fermentation traditions in places like northern and central Europe, as well as Korea.

This time of year - early autumn - is the best time of year for fermenting. We are leaving the warmth of summer and heading to the cooler seasons where we rely on our larder/pantry for most of our food. Fermented foods are a perfect fit.

One of the neat things we came away with from the class was this great food wheel (pictured above). It clearly outlines what is in season in the NY Metro area all year and during certain seasons. I love the drawings - the wheel is very functional as well. I plan to use it this year to guide me to what is in season (beyond what I already know).

The class lasted almost 3 hours, and I came away with a lot of info and some recipes. More in a future post.

Preserving

2009-10-01T10:45:00.000-04:00

I'm really a fan of preserving these days. A couple of weeks ago I utilized a number of preservation techniques, including:

pickling
lacto fermentation
freezing
salt preserving

A couple weeks before that, I canned in a water bath 15 pints of crushed tomatoes. I also made 2 pints of oven dried tomatoes. The oven dried tomatoes are delicious! Dried slowly at low heat for about 6 hours, flavored with thyme, salt, pepper, and olive oil, resulting in concentrated flavors. They will be great this winter. And I'll have some tasty olive oil after the tomatoes are gone.

The pickling involved petite green beans, flavored with jalepeno and onion, in a salt-vinegar brine. They are spicy! I fermented a jar of beets and radishes - they should be very flavorful (and perhaps a bit spicy, too) and go great with things like beans, grains, and roots this winter.

I froze a bag of grated summer squash (for a future quickbread), and roll of parsley and basil (separate, not together). What do I mean by a roll? Basically the leaves are washed and dried and put into a freezer bag, compressed into a roll, wrapped up and frozen. It compacts into quite a narrow roll, compared to what it was like on the stem. When I need any of these herbs for soup or whatever, I just take out the roll and cut off an end, which should yield a lot of herbs.

For the salt preserving, I layered kosher salt and rosemary leaves in a pint jar, compressing it all as I went along. The benefit of this, aside from having rosemary all winter, is that I'll have rosemary salt, which I can use on roast chicken.

In this economy, it is a shame to let anything go to waste. Thank you human history for developing all these preservation methods.

I've been told many times...

2009-09-30T10:29:00.001-04:00

“You should open a restaurant.”

Friends over the years have been fans of my cooking and baking, so they've suggested this from time to time. I have no wish to open a restaurant (well… actually a tiny one, but it’s inconsequential), but I love to cook. And I love to cook for my friends, family, and even strangers (who, they say, are friends you just haven’t met). I’ve not had much opportunity to entertain in my own home (cramped quarters, typical NYC kitchen), but that will change soon.

This is a chronicle of my cooking, baking, preserving, and eating pleasures. Welcome!