Garlic Is Love

Monday, February 23, 2009

Post-Oscar debriefing

The final menu for the Oscar party deviated only slightly from what I’d planned. My friend B brought bacon salt dip, and gutless rumaki (bacon-wrapped water chestnuts). The squash soup was served sans greens, and the cheese plate was postponed. Also, no carrots.

The desserts went over well. I also had some ice cream to go with them for those who wanted.

I really enjoyed the broiled citrus topped with butter and brown sugar, in a shallow pan, broiled till browned and bubbly.

The poached pears also were pretty good. I tried a trick with them, and it worked pretty well. I did not want to spend forever peeling the pears, so I split them in half and scooped out the flesh with a melon baller. They were a little uneven, but came out fairly well.

Oh, the other thing I had was a champagne punch. This was based on a recipe I got 10 years ago but never made. I modified it a bit because there was no raspberry sherbert at the store, but otherwise it was pretty close to the original

Broiled citrus fruits
3 grapefruit
3 oranges
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter

Mix butter and brown sugar. Section grapefruits and oranges, reserving excess juice for another use. Toss sections into bowl to mix.

Spread fruit out in shallow baking dish so all fruit is in one thin layer. (can be done in advance to this point). Sprinkle brown sugar butter mix on top. Broil about 4-6 inches away from the heat for 5 minutes, or until the top is bubbly and just beginning to brown. Watch it carefully so that it does not burn. Serve warm.

Pear spheres poached in red wine
6 pears, firm, slightly underripe
1 bottle red wine
¼ teaspoon Chinese Five-spice powder
brown sugar or honey to taste, ¼ cup or more
orange zest from one orange

Cut pears in half. Using a melon baller, scoop out spheres, being careful not to hit the skin on the pears. (Can be done about a day aheadIf doing ahead, sprinkle with lemon juice and cover with plastic wrap). Add pears and the rest of the ingredients to large saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 45 minutes, letting the wine mixture reduce.

Using a slotted spoon, drain pears out of wine. Cook wine down a little bit more until it starts to get syrupy. Return pears to syrup, turn off heat. Serve warm, chilled or at room temperature. Can make a day in advance. Reheat or bring to room temp to serve.

Lemon Berry Champagne punch
Make sure all ingredients are chilled before you start.
1 bottle champagne
1 bottle rose wine
1 pint strawberry sorbet
¼ cup frozen lemonade concentrate
1 cup frozen raspberries

Mix all ingredients except for sorbet and raspberries. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop ice cream into punch. Stir to combine. Add raspberries and serve.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Oscars Party Planning

Out of the trifecta of the Emmys, Grammys, and Oscars, the Oscars are my favorite. And not just because my good friend B and I host a party every year. There’s simply something glitzy and glamorous about them in a way that the other two awards shows aren’t, and I like that. It gives me a chance to put on airs, and show off a little bit.

Just putting the finishing touches on my Oscar party menu. I’m part of a year-round CSA and I got a turkey from some family friends in the area, so I have a ton of food on hand to play around with and use for the menu planning. Not only is it thrifty, since all the food’s already paid for, being a localvore is uber trendy right now.

Here’s my menu as it stands right now. I’ll post the final version the Monday after.

Roast Turkey with sage and garlic gremolata
Celeriac and New potato mash
Butternut squash soup with kale and assorted greens
Italian garlic bread
Orange maple ginger glazed carrots
Cheese plate: Smoked cheddar and jalapeno Monterrey
Poached pears in red wine sauce
Warm baked citrus fruits

Until then, please, enjoy some Oscar links, courtesy of Mahalo. These links will be updated to-the-minute on Oscar night.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Improv Recipe: Tangy, creamy, quickie custards

I’ve been having some bad luck with egg-based desserts lately. Well, not bad luck so much as laziness backfiring on me. I haven’t been measuring ingredients.

Yeah, cooking catastrophe waiting to happen, I know. Two pumpkin custards in a row never set on me, and when I tried to wing it and estimate the amounts of a chocolate mousse, which didn’t go well.

But I had some leftover eggs from a souffle I'd made, half a carton of heavy cream, and I wanted custard, and I didn't want to have to find a recipe for it or be bothered with "measuring."

So I knew I was tempting fate here. However, I had learned from my previous mistakes and discovered a few rules:

1. Use a water bath, and use hot water. Doesn’t have to be boiling, but microwaving a cup of water until it’s good and steamy will work.
2. The ratio of eggs to other stuff is important. More eggs is better if you want a custard to thicken properly. When unsure, err on the side of more eggs. You might get something closer to sweet quiche, but at least it will be solid.
3. Baking the custard in smaller containers will help even cooking and setting. One large container will take forever to come to temperature and will cook unevenly. Several smaller containers will prevent this from happening
4. Add less liuqidy ingredients when you can. I added a half a cup of strained greek yogurt (essentially sour cream) to the custard mix to help thicken it up before I put it in the oven.
5. Use a trusted recipe. Even if you’re not measuring your ingredients, it will give you a proper ratio of eggs to liquid.

With these precautions, I successfully made an improve custard, which was quite good. The greek yogurt gave it a denser body and a nice tang, a little like a cheesecake.

Improv custard for two

3-4eggs (at least 3 egg yolks and 3 egg whites)
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons maple syrup
pinch of salt
½ cup of greek strained yogurt (or sour cream is fine)
¼ t cinnamon

Beat eggs until uniform and lighter yellow. Add other ingredients and mix until combined. Pour into ramekins or custard cups. Put cups in a high-sided baking pan or baking dish that will fit both of them without touching.

Microwave 4 cups of water on high for 2 minutes or until steamy. Be careful not to boil. Pour water around cups, but don’t get any into the custard.

Bake at 300 degrees until just set in the center. Check after 40 minutes for doneness. You want the edges to be set but the center to be a little wobbly. Turn off oven, leave custards in oven for at least 30 minutes, up to an hour. Serve warm, or cover and refrigerate.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Accidental Awesomeness

Last night I had a hankering for an Amaretto Sour. As I was getting out the sugar, the container of Tang caught my eye.

Lemon juice is sour. Tang is sour. Sugar is sweet. Tang is sweet. Why not kill two birds with one stone and use tang instead? I thought.

I mixed, added a little more sugar for good measure, then, remembering an article from Imbibe magazine about eggs in drinks being trendy, tossed in an egg white to increase the drink’s frothiness.

I shook and shook. At one point, I poured the drink, but noticed the egg had not combined completely, so I poured it back in and shook again.

When I finally poured it out, it was a lovely light orange. I had made not an Amaretto Sour, but a Creamsicle.

The result surprised me, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected. I’d known from previous fiddling that a key ingredient that gives the Orange Julius its creamy froth was an egg-based product. Of course, if you are worried about salmonella, or pregnant, or thinking of becoming pregnant, or have a compromised immune system, or think the idea of putting a raw egg white in a drink is icky, you can get pasteurized eggs or you can powdered, pasteurized egg white at the grocery store. The powdered egg white will be somewhat gritty, so fresh egg is really best.

The Creamsicle
This really needs to be shaken well
2 oz Amaretto
1 teaspoon Tang
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 egg white (or 2 teaspoons powdered egg white)
ice
cocktail shaker

Put ice in cocktail shaker. Add the rest of the ingredients. Shake vigorously for at least two minutes. Strain into a highball glass.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Oscar Party Time

Cross-posted at my other blog, The Manic Scribe.

Oscar nominees were just announced today.

I'm a huge Oscar fan. Not so much for the movies but for the social aspect.

I usually do an Oscar party with my good friend B. Last year I skipped it. I hope to get back into the tradition this year. I like to realy glam up the food I serve, but this year, I am just about partied out. Not to mention that I should be more budget-consious than I have been due to the current economic doldrums.

However, I've got a turkey in the freezer and half a lamb's worth of meat. And I've got a steady supply of root and leaf vegetables coming in weekly from my CSA. So I think I'll be able to put together a nice spread for my guests that won't break my budget.

Hm. Maybe I'll even ask them to bring some canned goods to donate to charity, make it something more than appletinis and red carpets.

Gratin Fail; Cast Iron Win

Got a slew of root vegetables from the winter CSA that just started on Jan 8. Tried to make a gratin, which would have beek OK, except for a few issues.

One, I had not sliced the veggies thin enough. Also, since I made the gratin in advance and cooked it from the frigde, I wound up undercooking the thing.

Two, I'd forgotten to salt the layers. Now, the layers also contained some bacon, and I salted the liquid that I added halfway through baking. It was just a touch undersalted when all was said and done. Next time I'll use my common sense and actually stick a fork in the damn thing to make sure it's done.

In other news, I seasoned the cast iron skillets I got for Christmas/My Birthday. They're still in the oven, actually. I'm not 100% sure what I will cook in them. I've got a crowd coming over for my birthday this Saturday, but we're going out to dinner. I'll have to think of something really special to break in the pans.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Happy New Year!

You know it's been a busy year when I don't have time to cook. I LOVE to cook. It's relaxing and therapeutic to me. But I simply haven't had time. Thus, the blog has suffered.

It was a great, but busy, 2008. Several trips out of state for family and for fun, picking up a second job, and getting my first ranking in aikido has kept my life full, but tiring.

I knew on an intellectual level that I was tired for the latter half of the year, but it was only after a good 5 days at my parents, with nothing to do but sleep in late, go shopping, read a book on wine and scarf down Company Potatoes, that I got perspective on how relaxed I felt, and how stressed I was before.

Coming back to reality, I know that I've still got a lot on my plate, but I've tasted the fruits of relaxation, and they will be a part of my diet from now on.

As a symbolic gesture of this, I actually cooked something fancy, from a recipe even, Sunday night. Pears poached in red wine sauce. The lovely thing about this recipe is it's very elegant, but can be broken up into several parts, many of which can be done in advance. It's a good example for me how I can still find ways to cook and relax in 2009 and keep a better balance of work, rest, and play.

Poached pears in wine sauce

Hardware
large, somewhat shallow, saucepan, big enough to fit all pears
Vegetable peeler
spoon or ladle
measuring cups

Software
1 bottle fruity red wine
1/2 cup fortified wine, such as port wine, or sherry (or 1/2 cup sweet wine plus a shot of something strong like vodka or rum).
1/2 cup sugar
4 pears, the ones with the green skins, slightly underripe if you can get them that way.
2 Tablespoons chai loose leaf tea (emphatically not the powdered stuff. It has to have twigs and pods and nibs in it. Can substitute 2 T mulling spices plus a 1 inch section of orange rind)

Keep stems on pears, but peel them. Cut off bottoms of pears a little bit so they stand upright. Heat all other ingredients in saucepan over low heat until sugar is just melted. Add pears. Heat mixture until boiling, then back heat down to a low simmer. Cook 30-40 minutes, turning pears every 10 minutes or so. Baste the pears with the liquid each time you turn them.

Remove pears, then turn the heat up and cook the syrup down until it is reduced to about a cup. Be careful here to make sure the syrup doesn't burn. When bubbles start to "stack" on top of each other, you're good to go.

Strain syrup, pour syrup over pears in a container with a tight-fitting lid. Bring to room temperature before serving. Serve by placing each pear, standing up, then spoon some syrup around. Can add whipped cream or ice cream if you want.

The coolest thing about this recipe is how the pears turn from pale green to ruby red as you cook. Talk about alchemy. Yum.