Aren’t all bags of potato chips, no matter the size, potentially a single serving container?
Asks the woman who ate an entire bag of honey dijon Kettle chips. I feel surprisingly not guilty about it. (I did share a few with Drake, when he stopped throwing a tantrum long enough to eat them.)
I read a recommendation for the cookbook Sunday Suppers at Lucques that emphasized its menus based on seasonal produce, so I reserved it from the library. I find cookbooks some of the best things to check out of a library, since they make poor impulse buys at the bookstore. I don’t know if a cookbook’s any good till I’ve tried a few recipes, and by that time it’s usually spattered and unreturnable.
Sunday Suppers is a heavy, gorgeous book with lots of photos, and delicious sounding menus. But if I’d bothered to research the book even a little, I would have discovered how completely wrong it is for me right now.
Read through the recipe to find out what needs to be done before you begin cooking. Often there are onions to be chopped, spices to be toasted and ground, garlic to be minced, flour to be measured, and herbs to be picked.
This book is for someone who wants to devote time to the process of cooking. I’m all for the type of seasonal, local, organic ingredients it recommends. The food sounds wonderful, but it’s way down Maslow’s hierarchy of needs from where I am with two small kids.
Our house came with rhubarb plants, which come up every year regardless of what I do or don’t do in the yard. I noticed one of our three plants (two of which are green; one is red) had begun to flower. Some sites say to remove the flowers, so while I was cutting I did my first harvest.
I froze the rhubarb last year, and found it unpleasantly mushy when I went to use it later. So this year, I used it as an excuse to make Nigella Lawson’s “Spring Lunch to Lift the Spirits” from How to Eat, which includes Lemon Linguine, Green Salad, and Irish Tarte Tatin.
While I appreciate Nigella’s “everyone can do it,” laissez-faire approach to cooking, I find her recipes sometimes hard to follow (recipes should NOT be written as prose) and a little sloppy (she directs you to taste _raw_ rhubarb and adjust for sugar?), so here are my adaptations.
Lemon Linguine (serves 4)
1 pound linguine
1 egg yolk (reserve white for Irish Tarte Tatin)
1/3 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan
Zest of 1 lemon and juice of 1/2, plus more juice if needed
Pinch of salt
Freshly milled black pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
Bring 4 quarts of water to the boil. Add 1 tablespoon salt, then pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions, but set timer for a minute or more less than what the box advises.
In a bowl, whisk the yolks, cream, parmesan, zest and juice, salt and a few grinds of pepper.
Test pasta for doneness. Reserve a 1/2 cup of liquid; drain. Return to pot off heat, add butter and stir until melted. Stir in egg mixture until pasta is coated, adding liquid by tablespoons if it looks dry. Divide among plates, sprinkle with parsley and serve.
Salad Dressing (my own, not Nigella’s)
1/4 c. oil
1 Tbl. white wine vinegar
1 Tbl. lemon juice
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1 small garlic clove, minced
Shake to combine. Can be stored for three days.
Irish Tarte Tatin
2 lbs. rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/4 c. sugar
Topping (from Cook’s Illustrated’s recipes for scones):
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup whole milk
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.
Place rhubarb in pie dish; pour sugar over. Whisk first 5 ingredients of topping together in large bowl. By hand, with pastry blender, or 2 knives, mix butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps.
Make a well in the center of mixture and pour in milk. Working quickly, blend ingredients together with a rubber spatula into a soft, slightly wet dough. Knead dough a few times in bowl, then turn onto a well-floured work surface.
Pat or roll dough to 1/2 inch thick round. Place on top of rhubarb. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15 minutes. Lower oven temp to 350, bake for 30 more minutes. Remove from oven, let cool for at least 5 minutes. Nigella recommends turning it upside down, which will likely result in a burn, then serving with brown sugar and cream, or custard. I recommend cutting the top, spooning out the bottom, and serving with vanilla ice cream.
In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I modified the brownie recipe I usually use. The results were well received. I also made Mexican Coffee that turned out pretty well.
During my pregnancy, I did a lot of baking, which I thought was part of the nesting instinct. Guppy is nearing three months, but the urge to bake has not abated. I don’t know if I’m still nesting, or if I am so enamored of baked goods that the desire for them propels me beyond my lack of sleep and zillion-long list of supposedly more important things to do.
Mexican Brownies
based on New Classic Brownies from Alice Medrich’s Cookies and Brownies
FOR BROWNIES
8 Tbl. unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, coursely chopped
1 1/4 c. sugar (can use light brown, white, or a mixture of the two)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
2 lg. eggs
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 Tb. ground cinnamon
pinch ground cayenne
FOR FROSTING
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract
(1/2 c. sliced almonds-optional)
Use an 8 in. square metal pan, lined across the bottom and sides with 2 strips of aluminum foil, spray with non-stick oil.
Preheat oven to 400. Position rack in lower third of oven.
Melt the butter and chocolate gently: in double boiler, in glass bowl over low-simmering water in small saucepan, or in microwave at 50% power. Stir frequently until mixture is melted and smooth.
Remove from heat. Stir in the sugar, vanilla, and salt. Check to be sure mixture is not hot, then add the eggs, one at a time, stirring until each is incorporated before adding the next. In small bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon and cayenne. Stir flour mixture into chocolate mixture, and beat with a wooden spoon until the batter is smooth, glossy and comes away from side of bowl, about 1 minute. Bake for 20 minutes, or until brownies begin to pull away from side of pan. Surface will be dry but inside will be gooey, so don’t bother with a toothpick test.
While brownies bake, prepare an ice bath: Fill a roasting pan or large baking pan with ice cubes and water about 3/4 inch deep.
When brownies are ready, remove pan from oven and set it immediately in ice bath, taking care not to splash water on brownies. Cool brownies in ice bath. (Medrich calls this the Steve ritual, and this step is critical in producing brownies that have a firm crust but creamy, fudgy center. You may use this method with other brownie recipes: bake for 20 min at 400, put in ice bath. I like the simplicity of this recipe.)
Make topping:
Whisk sugar, cream and butter in heavy small saucepan over low heat until mixture is smooth and comes to boil. Remove from heat; mix in vanilla. Cool 10 minutes. Whisk until thick enough to spread. Spread over brownie. Sprinkle with almonds, if using. Let stand until topping sets, about 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and keep chilled.)
Lift foil handles and transfer brownies to cutting board; remove foil. Cut into 16 squares. Store airtight for 2 to 3 days.
The holiday season is winding down, and our last guests left yesterday, so it’s time to return to a regularly scheduled life. Having guests on and off, plus holidays, plus days with the grocery store closed meant a lot of food planning–what we’d eat, where we’d get it, plus any cooking and cleaning involved. Things turned out pretty well for us, though, and I will definitely do some of the things again next year.
Christmas Eve we had dinner with our neighbors, and were included in their annual food tradition of chili. Neither my husband nor I would have ever considered kalamata olives as a chili garnish, but it worked and was good. We brought salad and cupcakes, and adults and kids ate well and enjoyed.
Christmas morning I departed decisively from the tradition of my family, who always have strawberries and biscuits. It was long in coming, but I realized a few months ago that I don’t like strawberries that much. I find them sweet and insipid; give me a darker, more complex berry on anything other than a summer strawberry shortcake. So instead I went for savory rather than sweet, and we had my bacon/egg/hashbrown/cheddar scramble.
Christmas night we got take-out Chinese, though it took a bit longer than I’d anticipated to find a place that was open. Luckily Great Wall on France was there for us, and the leftovers served us for days.
In a belated Christmas dinner with family, I spent an assload* on a beef tenderloin from the Wedge, striking anxiety into my husband G. Grod, who then was responsible for grilling (and, we hoped, not ruining) the expensive cut of meat. Like last year, it turned out great–flavorful on the outside and a very tender medium rare on the inside, thanks to the detailed directions from Cook’s Illustrated. We also had salad and twice-baked potatoes with cheddar and broccoli, with leftover cupcakes for dessert.
For New Year’s Eve, we had friends over. I’m not sure how many hours (three? four?) it took to make the lasagna Bolognese, but six of us demolished it in about twenty minutes, and I still remember it fondly. We had salad, a New French Bakery baguette, and pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream for dessert.
For New Year’s Day, we had bratwurst and sauerkraut from Ukrainian deli and the sausage masters at Kramarczuk. This was a great, easy way to have the traditional pork and cabbage. My mother-in-law also made black-eyed peas with bacon, a southern tradition.
There was lots of cooking and lots of dishes, but also lots of good food as we experimented with what will become the family holiday food traditions for our family. We set some good precedents this year.
*That’s an homage to poor, dead, Phil Hartman from News Radio.
When I read about red velvet cupcakes with peppermint white chocolate frosting on the food blog Je Mange La Ville (sorry no link; the site is down), I determined to make them for Christmas. I don’t know why, but something about red velvet was compelling, even though I know it’s all food coloring.
The original recipe for cupcakes and frosting was from the cake doctor, and involved a mix for the cupcakes. I don’t do mixes. (OK, OK, I do use those Annie’s microwave mac & cheese mixes for my son Drake, and have been oddly addicted to them myself during the pregnancy, but other than that, no mixes.) The author of Je Mange pointed out a red velvet recipe at Epicurious, so I decided to check that out, search for others, and compare. What I found was that red velvet recipes weren’t all that consistent. Some called for 2 ounces of red food coloring, others for just one, some called for cake flour, others didn’t, the amount of cocoa varied widely, etc. Also, most of them said to mix the red food coloring with the cocoa to form a paste. That’s silly, I thought. Why not add the food coloring with the liquid ingredients and the cocoa with the dry? When my cupcakes came out strangely variegated, bright red with brownish streaks, I thought, OK, maybe not so silly.
This lack of consistency is why I’m such a fan of the recipes of Cook’s Illustrated, where they test the daylights out of a recipe, then come up with a master. When I cook from their recipes, I get outstanding results. Alas, they have never seen fit to do a red-velvet cake recipe, and I think I now know why.
I used the Epicurious recipe mostly, leaving out the extra water and increasing the cocoa by a tablespoon. The recipe made 23 cupcakes, and they took far longer to bake than the indicated time. What resulted were fine, but by no means outstanding, cupcakes. They were a disturbing bright red, so if I made them again I would only use 1 oz food coloring. The texture was good though the outsides were a bit tough, and they had a faint, pleasant cocoa flavor.
The frosting turned out better, but the white chocolate tasted over the top. After sampling several of them, I am convinced that a better holiday dessert would be a dark chocolate cupcake with a simpler peppermint frosting, either cream cheese or buttercream. Additionally, baking 2 dozen cupcakes at once didn’t work. While I’m all for more cupcakes, I think it would be better to use a smaller recipe that yielded just a dozen cupcakes, or bake a larger batch one dozen at a time.
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing more than once and expecting different results, than I’m not sure why my husband G. Grod and I keep taking our son Drake out to restaurants. Amnesia? Hope? Insanity? The Convention Grill is one of the most kid-friendly restaurants on earth both in menu and atmosphere. It is an old-style grill that primarily serves burgers, fries, shakes/malts, and sundaes. Prices are reasonable, service is matter of fact, and quality is good. Yet even in such a place, our two-year-old Drake will not eat, will not sit still, and does not have the patience to last a few minutes, much less the time it takes for a meal to be ordered and consumed. Other parents assure me that this is normal and will pass, but it saddens me that Drake is so immune to the charms of eating out. I, however, am such a sucker that the temptation of a cheeseburger (american cheese, pickles, lettuce, mayo, mustard and ketchup), those fries (as long as they’re not underdone; I loathe a soggy fry), and a hot fudge sundae with bananas and whipped cream will every time cloud my judgment and make me believe that maybe, just maybe, this time Drake will be OK. He refused his burger and fries, though he mysteriously was able to hang out long enough to partake of the sundae.
In my continued attempt to dine out in these last few weeks before our second child arrives, I made plans with my friend Queenie at Bakery on Grand. Queenie likes duck, and Bakery on Grand was purported to do it well, so off we went.
We started with the pate appetizer. While very good, I might have preferred a warm appetizer on the cold, snowy night. She and I then split two duck entrees. The roast duck was savory in a pan sauce with asparagus and mashed potatoes. The crisped leg was rich and served over a confit and garnished with sausage. Uncharacteristically, I was going to pass on dessert, but Queenie ordered a poached pear in pastry with caramel sauce and warm cream, which I ate most of. It was just too good to abandon. And the duck leftovers made an outstanding lunch the next day.
My family was in town last week, and when I’m on my game as a hostess (which is not always the case during this rather challenging second pregnancy) one of my goals is to make sure my guests eat well of their favorite foods. With my sister, we went out for sushi to Origami. On a weeknight the restaurant wasn’t crowded. Service was attentive and thoughtful. In spite of varied advice on the safety of sushi during pregnancy, I wasn’t feeling brave enough to risk raw fish, so I ordered miso soup, the Encounter (a roll of cooked salmon, scallops, and veggies that is then tempura dipped; yum), a salmon skin roll and futo maki. Never let it be said that pregnant women can’t eat well at a sushi restaurant. My sister had three kinds of tuna, all of which were excellent, a Hawaiian fish special and the sockeye salmon nigiri. My husband had the Hide roll, tuna, yellowtail, and sockeye salmon nigiri. The food was delivered in a timely but not rushed manner, the presentation was beautiful, the amount of wasabi on the nigiri was just right, and the quality of the food and the fish was excellent. My husband and I used to live within walking distance of Origami. While it’s good for us to be farther away on our one-income, soon-to-be-two-kid family budget, I do miss it a lot, and this visit was a reminder of how lovely a restaurant it is.
My father likes to eat frog legs, so when he visited last week, I made plans for Cave Vin, at 55th and Xerxes in South Minneapolis. The restaurant wasn’t full, but a table of ten’s orders slowed the kitchen down quite a lot. Following the advice from this review, we focused on appetizers rather than entrees, and among my dad, my husband and I we tried the mussels, frogs’ legs, steak tartare, calamari, frites, the lamb entree, the beet salad and the spring greens salad. All appetizers were excellent. My dad was well pleased with the battered and sauteed frog legs, the bread and the frites were excellent, and there was plenty of good stuff to dip them in–the aioli from the frites, and the garlic butter with either the mussels or the frog legs. Dad and husband split a very nice, reasonably priced bottle of wine, and we were so full (and dinner took so long) that we skipped dessert. Our server was friendly and helpful, the lighting was low and the noise wasn’t high. Aside from the slow delivery of food, it was a very good experience.
On our way to see a movie last Saturday, my husband G. Grod and I were behind the last car to get into the parking garage. We stared in disbelief at the sign that now read “Full.” Our original plans were to see a twilight matinee, have dinner at an inexpensive restaurant, and be home early to relieve the babysitter. New plans involved a different parking lot (old reliable: the little lot between Hell’s Kitchen and the old location of Big Brain Comics on S. 10th Street–$5 at night and on weekends), eating at the bar in a more expensive restaurant, and a full-price movie at The Heights theater, which features live organ music prior to movie showings on Friday and Saturday evenings.
We got seats at the bar at Vincent as soon as it opened at 5:30 p.m. The tables in the bar area were all reserved, unsurprising on a Saturday in the holiday shopping season. G. Grod and I shared the appetizer of pan-seared scallops over braised leeks in orange sauce, the Vincent burger, which I’ve praised before, has been most eloquently described by award-winning local food critic Dara Moskowitz:
This burger–and at $11.75 I know you’re already skeptical, but trust me, it’s worth it–this burger is a miracle.
To make it, the chefs at Vincent first braise short ribs overnight in a complicated stew of tomatoes, tamarind, Worcestershire sauce, and lots more. (This is a recipe chef Vincent Francoual picked up when he cooked at former New York City super-important restaurant Lespinasse.) The chefs then pull these short ribs off the bone, make a little patty of that short rib meat, add some smoked gouda to that, build a sirloin burger around it, and then just grill the heck out of it till it tastes like it’s been outside on a fire, when it hasn’t.
This miracle burger then gets tucked into a light, eggy bun that is best described as some meeting point between brioche and a Kaiser roll, a roll further dressed with a thing the restaurant modestly calls French cocktail sauce–a mayonnaise gussied up with more kinds of secret ingredients, including sherry vinegar and minced cornichons. The Vincent burger comes with all the fancy-restaurant accompaniments you hope for: sliced tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, leaf lettuce, wisps of onion.
Every bite of this burger is rich, profoundly meaty, as full of flavor as a symphony is full of sound. Like any great dish, it conquers several dimensions: In terms of flavor, the roasty qualities of beef are accented by the sweetness of the bun and the cocktail sauce, while the salt and smoke of the cheese give meaning to the fresh and light of the toppings. In terms of texture, though, the burger is exceptionally accomplished: The soft and stringy texture of the short ribs plays off the melting texture of the cheese, which teases out the more muscular texture of the burger. You know, it’s not easy for a burger to remain fascinating through every bite, but this one is.
We finished with the chocolate-caramel tart, which was garnished with Earl Grey chocolate sauce, and accompanied by a coffee sabayon, an ethereal foam encased in a chocolate wafer cylinder. The server and we agreed that the sabayon was the best part, and worth saving for last.
Even though we split an appetizer, entree, and dessert, the check, along with parking, a full-price movie, and the babysitter, totalled more than we would have liked. Since our original plans were thwarted, though, I thought we did pretty well.
I travelled to visit family for the holidays for about 18 years. It took that long for me to realize that holiday travel is usually more expensive, and always more stressful, than travel at off-peak times. I enjoy visiting with family a lot more when it happens at my convenience, and not by the national calendar.
The past few years my husband G. Grod and I have sought out other friends who are also on their own in Minnesota. This year, we split the cooking and celebrated with our neighbors from down the street and their two boys. We ate at normal dinner time, allowing the two-year olds their naps. Best of all, when the two-year olds decided they were done at the table, they got down and played with each other, leaving the rest of us to enjoy the dinner.
No one felt strongly about having a turkey, and no one wanted to cook one, so instead I made a Dr. Pepper glazed ham. We also had mashed potatoes, a sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, spinach salad, pumpkin pie, and bittersweet chocolate mousse cake.
Alas, I forgot to take photos before we ate, and my attempts to photograph individual servings later just looked gross and weird, so a verbal description will have to do. Everything turned out well, but the corn pudding (from the latest issue of Cook’s Country), made with cheddar cheese, heavy cream and a hit of cayenne, was particularly nice. The six-year old pronounced the mousse cake “yummy, yummy, yummy”. I’d never made the recipe before (it’s from Cook’s Illustrated), and it involved separating eight eggs, then whipping the egg whites and folding them into chocolate, and baking the cake in a water bath. Folding egg whites has always intimidated me, but the recipe turned out well, and the chocolate was a nice complement to the pumpkin, since of course I had to have both desserts.
The ham not only allowed for leftovers for both families, but I used the scraps and the bone to make my first-ever split pea soup, which turned out nicely plus made for another few meals. This thanksgiving I was grateful for good food, and for friends to share it with. And for not having to leave my house.
Dr. Pepper Glazed Ham
from Cook’s Country, Dec/Jan 2006
1/2 c. Dr. Pepper
3/4 c. light brown sugar
2 Tbl. fresh orange juice
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 spiral-sliced, bone-in half ham, 7 to 10 lbs., pref. shank end
1. Bring Dr. Pepper, sugar, orange juice, and mustard to a boil in medium saucepan. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until mixture is syrupy and measures 3/4 cup, about 8 minutes. (Glaze can be refrigerated for up to 2 days; reheat when needed.)
2. Remove ham from packaging and discard plastic disk that covers bone. Place ham in plastic oven bag, tie bag shut, and trim excess plastic. Set ham cut side down in 13 by 9 inch baking disch and cut 4 slits in top of bag. Let stand at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours.
3. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 250 degrees F. Bake ham until center registers about 100 degress in instant-read thermometer, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours, about 14 minutes per pound.
4. Remove ham from oven and roll back sides of bag to expose ham. Brush ham liberally with glaze and return to oven briefly until glaze becomes sticky, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven, brush entire ham again with glaze, loosely cover with foil, and let rest for 30 to 40 minutes before serving.
Savory Corn Pudding
from Cook’s Country, Dec/Jan 2006
1 Tbl. unsalted butter, softened for greasing casserole dish
6 c. frozen corn
1 1/2 c. heavy cream
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 Tbl. sugar
1/4 tsp. cayenne
3 Tbl. chopped fresh basil
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 quart casserole dish with butter. Bring large kettle of water to boil for water bath. Bring 2 qts. water to boil in large saucepan for corn.
2. Add 1 Tbl. salt and corn to boiling water and cook for 1 minute. Drain in colander and dry with paper towels. Pulse 4 c. corn in food precessor until rough puree forms, about ten 1-second pulses. Transfer to large bowl and stir in remaining whole corn, 1 tsp. salt, cream, eggs, cheese, sugar, cayenne, and basil until combined.
3. Pour corn mixture into casserole and transfer dish to roasting pan. Pour boiling water from kettle into roasting pan until it comes halfway up sides of casserole dish. Place roasting pan in oven and bake until pudding is set and a few brown spots appear around edges, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove casserold from water bath, transfer to wire rack and let set for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
To make ahead: Corn can be cooked, processed, and mixed with the whole corn, salt, cream, cheese, sugar and cayenne up to 2 days in advance. Refrigerate until ready, then stir in eggs and basil when ready to cook.
Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse Cake
from Cook’s Illustrated 11/2002
Because it is available in most supermarkets and has scored highly in past tastings, Hershey’s Special Dark is the chocolate of choice in this recipe. Other bittersweet chocolates will work, but because amounts of sugar and cocoa butter differ from brand to brand, they will produce cakes with slightly different textures and flavors. When crumbling the brown sugar to remove lumps, make sure that your fingers are clean and grease-free; any residual fat from butter or chocolate might hinder the whipping of the whites. If you like, dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar just before serving or top slices with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Makes one 9-inch cake, serving 12 to 16
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 12 pieces
1 teaspoon unsalted butter , softened, for greasing pan
unbleached all-purpose flour for dusting pan
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate (such as Hershey’s Special Dark), chopped
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate , chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
8 large eggs , seperated
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar (4 1/2 ounces), crumbled with fingers to remove lumps (see note)
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter sides of 9-inch springform pan; flour sides and tap out excess. Line bottom of pan with parchment or waxed paper round. Wrap bottom and sides of pan with large sheet of foil.
2. Melt 12 tablespoons butter and chocolates in large bowl over large saucepan containing about 2 quarts barely simmering water, stirring occasionally, until chocolate mixture is smooth. Cool mixture slightly, then whisk in vanilla and egg yolks. Set chocolate mixture aside, reserving hot water, covered, in saucepan.
3. In clean bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites and salt at medium speed until frothy, about 30 seconds; add half of crumbled brown sugar, beat at high speed until combined, about 30 seconds, then add remaining brown sugar and continue to beat at high speed until soft peaks form when whisk is lifted (see photo, below), about 2 minutes longer. Using whisk, stir about one-third of beaten egg whites into chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold in remaining egg whites in 2 additions using whisk. Gently scrape batter into prepared springform pan, set springform pan in large roasting pan, then pour hot water from saucepan to depth of 1 inch. Carefully slide roasting pan into oven; bake until cake has risen, is firm around edges, center has just set, and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers about 170 degrees, 45 to 55 minutes.
4. Remove springform pan from water bath, discard foil, and cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Run thin-bladed paring knife between sides of pan and cake to loosen; cool cake in springform pan on wire rack until barely warm, about 3 hours, then wrap pan in plastic wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 8 hours. (Cake can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.)
5. To unmold cake, remove sides of pan. Slide thin metal spatula between cake and pan bottom to loosen, then invert cake onto large plate, peel off parchment, and re-invert onto serving platter. To serve, use sharp, thin-bladed knife, dipping knife in pitcher of hot water and wiping blade before each cut.
I have a friend who lives in Eagan, a Twin Cities suburb. I never envied her locale. It takes me a few highways to get there, and I have to travel at off-peak times, or I’d be stuck in traffic. Plus it’s a normal suburb: there’s not much to walk to and it’s full of chain stores and restaurants. When I read a review of Brianno’s, though, some envy began to nip at my brain. And when I tried it with my friend, the envy emerged full blown. Brianno’s is a gem to have close by. I took a closer look at the neighborhood I’m in, and there’s nothing to compare. I’ve got a family restaurant that’s sometimes good, a friendly coffee shop, a bad new pizza place, and a couple good Indian places that are not too far. What I do not have is a kick-ass Italian grocery and deli, with to-die-for sandwiches, which I will refer to as hoagies, because I moved here from Philly*.
I browsed Brianno’s shelves and freezers. They had every kind of dried pasta shape imaginable (my food coop doesn’t even carry farfalle) and cases full of pre-made foods: ravioli, lasagna, soups, and more. I restrained myself to the takeout order I’d come for, a full-size eggplant parmigiana hoagie, a half of a classic Italian hoagie, and a small size Caesar salad.
I imagined that I’d eat a quarter of the Italian hoagie, a quarter of the eggplant, the half salad, then split leftovers with my husband for lunch the next day. I was barely able to leave a bit of the Italian hoagie undevoured. It was a perfect blend of Italian meats and cheeses, with a vinaigrette on a great bun. The dressing on the salad was unexceptional, but the croutons were crisp and flavorful. The eggplant parmigiana was enveloped in a rich, meat-full sauce. Unfortunately for my husband, who took it to lunch the next day, the eggplant hoagie didn’t keep as well as my sliver of Italian hoagie did.
When I lived in Philly, I had a hard time finding a good hoagie. I lived in a little town just outside the city and there was nothing close. The best hoagies I had were from a place called The White House in Atlantic City, a trip that was both far and usually involved gambling. The trip to Eagan is shorter, and casino-free. I’d still give a lot to live closer to a really good hoagie shop.
*For your edification, here is the note about sandwich terminology from http://dictionary.com, excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition.
Regional Note: The long sandwich featuring layers of meat and cheese on a crusty Italian roll or French bread goes by a variety of names. These names are not distributed in a pattern similar to that of other regional words because their use depends on the business and marketing enterprise of the people who create the sandwiches and sell them. Submarine and sub are widespread terms, not assignable to any particular region. Many of the localized terms are clustered in the northeast United States, where the greatest numbers of Italian Americans live. In Maine, it is called an Italian sandwich, befitting its heritage. Elsewhere in New England and in Sacramento, California, it is often called a grinder. New York City knows it as a hero. In the Delaware Valley, including Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, the sandwich is called a hoagie. Speakers in Miami use the name Cuban sandwich. Along the Gulf Coast the same sandwich is often called a poor boy. In New Orleans, a poor boy is likely to be offered in a version featuring fried oysters.
In the spirit of the upcoming food fests, here is my favorite easy pumpkin pie recipe. It turns out perfectly for me every time. Blend, pour, bake, cool, ta-da!
1 15-oz. can pumpkin
1 1/2 c. milk, or 1 13-oz. can evaporated milk
1/2 c. biscuit/pancake mix or 1/2 c. flour plus 3/4 tsp. baking powder
1 c. sugar
2 Tbl. butter, melted then cooled
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch glass or Pyrex pie plate.
Place all ingredients in blender; blend for 2 minutes. Pour mixture into pie plate and bake for about an hour, or till center is set and tester comes out clean. Cool. Serve with vanilla or ginger ice cream, or vanilla or maple whipped cream.
In my old, pre-child life, I used to attend yoga class on Sunday mornings at the nearby gym. I skipped breakfast beforehand, since conventional yoga wisdom says not to eat or drink for 2 hours before class. After class, I’d arrive home ravenous, and my husband G. Grod would have prepared me a double short latte, scrambled eggs, and bacon. I loved those brunches.
These days, I am no longer attending yoga classes on Sunday. But yesterday I had a craving for the breakfast in any case. I made my own scramble this time. I started by baking the bacon, which I find is a much more reliable method than pan frying. (G. Grod disagrees with me on this.) I then fried up some frozen hash browns, grated some Swiss cheese, emptied the hash browns from the pan, and added 2 eggs I’d stirred with 2 tablespoons of milk, some salt and pepper. The eggs scrambled in a flash since the pan was so hot, then I turned off the heat and added the hash browns, cheese, and 2 slices (or was it 3?) crumbled bacon back to the pan, folded them together and, voila, I had a perfect scramble, with the ideal blend of breakfast ingredients all in one plate. By scrambling the eggs first and adding the rest later, I didn’t have goopy, undercooked bits of egg, or soggy additions.
Oh, lovely food, we said. Then we gobbled it down. (With a nod to Mrs. Wishy-Washy.)
Last night a friend watched our son Drake so my husband G. Grod and I could go to dinner. We tried again at 112 Eatery, which was fully committed on our anniversary last month. Last night we got there early and were seated immediately. 112 is a small space with only a few reservations to be had. One must either take a reservation at an off time (5 pm and 10 pm were available when I called), book far in advance, or take one’s luck on walk-in seating. Yesterday’s early arrival was key to our success, because by 6:15 every seat was taken.
I have eaten at 112 several times already, but G. Grod had never been. Based on portions, I suggested we share an appetizer, each get an entree, and split a dessert. The appetizer I’ve gotten before and enjoyed was the romaine salad with roquefort dressing garnished with breadcrumbs. Because there’s some disagreement on the safety of blue cheeses during pregnancy, I decided to try something different, so we got the lardon/foie gras salad, which was just as unhealthily oxymoronic as it sounds. Lardons, like thick chunks of bacon, are fried, then tossed with frisee greens and rice wine vinegar and served next to sauteed foie gras. G. Grod defied me to remind him of anything we’d eaten that had ever tasted better. I thought of two things (one, “duck three ways” from a tasting menu at Cosmos restaurant in Minneapolis, and another from a tasting menu at a restaurant in the Black Forest in Germany). Both also involved foie gras, so I think I see a trend in what we favor.
As per my usual, I ordered the small portion of the stringozzi pasta with lamb sugo sauce. This is a red sauce with lamb simmered until it’s soft, then shredded, served over thick, squiggly, house-made noodles. Each time I’ve ordered it, I think, “Oh, the bowl’s too small” until I can barely finish it, and then I’m amazed that I’ve just consumed something that’s so delicious, so savory, so filling, and that only cost $8.
G. Grod got the deceptively plain sounding “French cheeseburger”, which is a half pound of ground beef and onions topped with a slab of soft brie on an English muffin. He also got the french fries, served in a cone, perfectly done, and accompanied by a lovely aioli that caused us to completely ignore the ketchup. He couldn’t finish the burger, though he tried, which left me on my own for dessert.
In the past I’ve ordered the chocolate pot de creme, which has been rich, smooth and with a satisfying punch of chocolate. I wavered between the new version on the menu which is “spicy”, and the pumpkin flan. Our server, who had an enthusiastic knowledge of the menu that he communicated very well, swayed me to the new version of the pot de creme. As he’d promised, the heat of the spices was subtle, but built, and was an especially good complement to the chocolate now that the weather is cooler and autumnal. The texture, though, was no longer smooth like a pudding, but thick and more like a ganache than a custard. I preferred the new flavor but the old texture, which lent a heaviness to the end of an already quite rich meal. I could finish barely half of it.
I’ve gone back to 112 Eatery because it has excellent quality food and menu choices, as well as friendly and knowledgeable staff. While it’s possible to spend a lot there, it’s also possible to eat grandly and spend little. My only quibble is how difficult it can be to get in, yet I don’t blame the owners, who are a husband and wife. They’ve got a small, excellent restaurant, with a small menu that they execute nearly flawlessly. It deserves all the accolades and crowds that it draws. I hope it’s around for a long, long time, so I can keep going when I have the chance.
Unless, of course, they don’t. Friday night I had what seemed very much like a gall bladder attack, after indulging in the Modern’s famous pot roast, which includes fork-tender meat, garlic mashed potatoes, melting carrots and veggies, all topped with a dollop of horseradish sour cream. Our family is pretty familiar with gall bladder symptoms, since G. Grod had them on and off for years before having his gall bladder removed earlier this year. Fortunately I had a prenatal checkup already scheduled for this week. When I described symptoms and said that this was the second time this had occurred during the pregnancy (the first at about 12 weeks), I was swiftly given more blood tests and signed up for a gall bladder ultrasound.
The good news is that I received an all clear–none of the tests showed anything to be concerned about. The bad news is that no one knows why I have had two episodes in 8 weeks that seem so gall-bladder-y. The best guess is a virus. I am worried, because I feel as if I’m waiting for a shoe to drop, wondering if I’ll have another episode. I am relieved, though, since I had lurid visions of having to undergo the same surgery that G. did, only at 20+ weeks pregnant.
In the meantime, I’ll follow the usual pregnancy advice to eat several small meals a day. I’ll also avoid especially rich or fatty foods, at least at night. Alas, no more post-dinner ice cream. I’ll have to fit it in after lunch, I guess.
#49 in my movie challenge for the year, Serenity, written and directed by Joss Whedon, was a movie that I got to see IN a movie theater and WITH my husband! A friend watched Drake while we went out to celebrate our anniversary with dinner and a movie. We were reminded that trying to squeeze in dinner and a movie is a challenge, and one that usually makes both events a little less enjoyable. This was true even before we had a child. The timing of movies is such that unless we can make an earlyish show and go to dinner afterward, we have to rush through dinner and off to the movie. Doing one or the other generally ensures that the experience can be savored at a more leisurely pace.
I was unable to make a reservation at my first choice of restaurant, and they had no walk-in tables or room at the bar when we arrived just after 6 p.m. We went across the street to the restaurant we used to frequent when we lived downtown, and were effusively greeted by our favorite waiter. We shared a savory wild mushroom and pistachio pate, served with cornichons, spicy mustard, cranberry chutney and toast. Then I had the sozai plate, a savory mixture of organic brown rice, natto miso, beans, steamed broccoli, arame sea vegetable, marinated tofu, daikon pickle, red cabbage salad and baked yams. G. Grod opted for the chicken with mole verde sauce and salad with prickly pear dressing. I hoped to try the cardamom and something rice pudding that I heard the server mention at an adjacent table, but in order to make our movie, we had to skip dessert.
But back to the movie. Serenity was good fun. It is both a continuation of Whedon’s cancelled television series Firefly, as well as a stand-alone ship-based sci-fi movie. Serenity is a sci-fi B movie at its zenith, with good effects, good production, and good writing. I think one would err, though, to consider it as an A movie, and that’s why I think some of the reviews have been middling. This is a movie that is too good for TV, but still solidly good enough for the movies, though it’s not high art. It’s swashbuckling entertainment, and worth seeing on the big screen.
G. Grod and I live far from our families, so we don’t have the luxury of dropping Drake off at a relative’s house. Luckily, we’ve made good friends in the year we’ve lived in our new house, one of whom offered to swap childcare with us once a month. For politeness’s sake I said I had to check with G. Grod, but he agreed as readily as me.
We considered dinner and a movie, but the movie times were tight, and we wanted to take our time over dinner. Then we had to decide where to go. I assembled a list of six different restaurants, then emailed my favorite local food critic for her opinion, since she has been invaluably helpful in the past. Alas for us and good for her, she was out of town on her honeymoon, so we were on our own. We narrowed our choices down to two restaurants. One, Restaurant Alma, we had not been to in a long time, but is not far and very nice. It’s expensive, but that’s based on the high quality of its mostly local, organic ingredients. The other option was a French restaurant that had just opened the previous Monday. It also was expensive, and its menu sounded exquisite. Eventually we decided on the restaurant we’d been to before. We have too little time and money to act like we’re on the cutting edge of fine dining. Let others with more resources test out the new place, and let the staff and kitchen work out the kinks in the first couple weeks. We’ll go if we get the confirmation of a good review.
G. Grod and I both had a three-course, prix-fixe menu. I started with fresh buffalo mozzarella slices layered between slabs of roasted squash and garnished with dabs of herbed olive oil. G. had a beef terrine with spicy mustard. Next, I had orzo and lobster in a white wine and butter sauce. The orzo was done perfectly, tender and each grain separate, with the lightly sauced lobster chunks as a complement. G. had orecchiette pasta with spicy sausage and fall greens. For our entrees, I chose the pan seared Kobe beef garnished sparingly with black truffle hollandaise, and roasted celery root and carrots. G. had the sauteed scallops in a red wine rosemary sauce. We hemmed a little over whether to get dessert at all, or whether to share, but eventually could not agree on one, so got one apiece. G. got the chocolate tasting plate, with a dark chocolate terrine, rum chocolate cashew truffle, chocolate sea salt cookie, and caramel ice cream. While it sounded delicious, I felt I needed something a little less heavy, so I had the buttermilk panna cotta with dried cherries, which was sweet and light and tangy and bright. It was a lovely finish to a lovely meal. Each dish of each course was small and perfectly executed. The sauces and garnishes always allowed the high quality of the main ingredient to shine. The timing was steady, but neither rushed nor too slow. The service was attentive but not intrusive, and my water glass never ran dry.
We returned home just after Drake had gone to bed, so we visited with our friends and their daughter, then watched our movie. It was a lovely meal, and a lovely night, made all the more lovely for the kindness of friends who enabled it, as well as its rarity, which allowed us to savor it.
I’ve long been a fan of cupcakes, and their popularity is reaching a fever pitch. Most big cities now have a bakery solely or largely devoted to them. Cupcakes are small, portable, finger food with the potential for good design and great taste. The twin cities have the simply named Cupcake, and I can confirm their wares are delicious. There’s at least one blog, Cupcakes Take the Cake, about them, too. Thanks to Blogenheimer for the link.