Big Apple "Pancake" for brunch with the sisters

My sister who now lives in Asheville, NC was in town for a brief visit, but she had time for only one meal--brunch. She and my other sister contemplated eating out but I insisted that we stay in. This way, I could try out a new recipe on them!

I had recently been perusing old archived Gourmet Magazine recipes, as a tribute to the canceled magazine. One that immediately caught my eye was their Big Apple Pancake recipe, especially since apple season is now in full swing. It sounded (and looked) delicious and my sisters are generally exceedingly patient when it comes to my trying out new recipes on them.

Well this recipe did not disappoint. It was relatively simple to execute, tasty, and a little bit different from your standard brunch fare. The one comment that my sisters had was that the product does not really taste like a pancake; it's more of a cross between a sponge cake, frittata, french toast, and a pancake. Regardless, this apple whatever-you-call-it is worth making. I highly recommend it, and I'm definitely going to keep this recipe on file for future brunches.



Below is the recipe. I skimped on the butter a bit and used 2% instead of whole milk, and the pancake still turned out splendidly. I'd like to try using buttermilk instead of regular milk next time.

Big Apple Pancake, recipe from Gourmet Magazine

Ingredients:

• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
• 1 large sweet apple such as Gala or Golden Delicious, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch-wide wedges
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Confectioners sugar for dusting

Special equipment:

• a well-seasoned 10- to 11-inch heavy cast-iron skillet or other ovenproof skillet

To prepare:

• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 450°F.
• Melt butter in skillet over moderate heat, then transfer 2 tablespoons to a blender. Add apple wedges to skillet and cook, turning over once, until beginning to soften, 3 to 5 minutes.

• While apple is cooking, add milk, flour, eggs, granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt to butter in blender and blend until smooth.
• Pour batter over apple and transfer skillet to oven.
  

• Bake until pancake is puffed and golden, about 15 minutes. Dust with confectioners sugar and serve immediately.

(Food) print media bites the dust

If you have not already heard the sad news of the termination of Gourmet Magazine, read the New York Times article.

Guisado, Cocido, or Spanish stew

My dad is leading a study abroad program in Santander, Spain this semester. Since he's been gone, at least a few minutes of each of our phone conversations have been devoted to detailed descriptions of the terrific food that he is enjoying. It occurred to me that he might share and record some of his food experiences through this blog. The following is his response to my request. This looks to be a recipe for a delicious stew that I can't wait to try. Sounds perfect for the upcoming fall and winter days here in the States! Thanks Dad!

"Here is a Spanish dish that I have been preparing for years. It is a Guisado, or Cocido; a stew. But somehow, it always tastes better here, in Spain. I am not sure if that is because of the quality of the meat or poultry one uses in it, the quality of the potatoes they have here in Spain, or the quality of the olive oil you use to sauté the meat, or even the quality of the bread crumbs with which you “dust” the meat at the end of sautéing it. In the past month I have made this at least three times, using three different main ingredients. I have used chicken, cubes of pork, and skirt of veal. Though in most supermarkets in Spain you can now buy both “corral” (free range) and “normal” chicken, I find all chicken to be somehow less processed and better. I have no explanation for this though I do not think it is my imagination. The cubed pork and skirt of veal that you use for this are some of the least expensive meats you can buy in the supermarket. But they are really very good. There is very little fat in this meat here; If you fry it without oil when you are finished the bottom of your pan will be just about as dry as when you began. When you cook the pork you can clearly see that it is white meat. The veal skirt sometimes has layers of fat running through it, and I cut this away, leaving meat that I also find very lean. This does not mean that you must cook the stew for a long time; you can have this done in about ½ hour or less. You can also use an express pot (pressure cooker) and have it done in a few minutes, once you have assembled the ingredients.

There are no measurements for this stew; use more or less of whatever you like to eat. Aside from the basic ingredients –meat, onion, garlic, a little wine, potatoes, broth—you should throw in whatever else you would like to use.

1. Cut the meat into the size pieces that you want. If you are using chicken do not take it off the bone. Just get a good, sharp, heavy knife and cut right through it if you want small chunks (in the markets—the ones with individual venders specializing in one kind of food at each post; also in lots of supermarkets, though not in quite a professional a manner—you can still watch the butcher with huge, heavy knives working on a butcher block cut the chicken any way you like; unfortunately we have lost this in many smaller cities and towns in the USA). I take the skin off the chicken to cut down on fat.

2. In the bottom of a deep pot heat up about a tablespoon of oil; enough to coat the bottom. I get the bottom of the pot hot first and then add the oil. Put in as much cubed (the size of the cubes is up to you) onion as you want (probably at least ½ a medium onion for ½ chicken).

3. When the onion begins to get translucent throw in as much fresh chopped garlic as you wish (you can also use a garlic press if you don’t like chopping the garlic; even dried garlic, though be careful not to burn it). Then throw in the meat. Sauté until the meat starts to get brown.

4. When the meat begins to brown give it a good dusting with bread crumbs. Be careful not to burn the bread crumbs. You can use flower also, but I think the recipe is better with bread crumbs. Ultimately, this is going to thicken up the sauce. I am not sure why I add it at this point and not at the very end, to the sauce; I suppose the bread crumbs absorb the flavor of the meat and add flavor as well as thickness to the sauce. But if you forget the bread crumbs you can still add them at the end. I really don’t think flour or starches are as good as bread crumbs (but matzo meal works pretty well also).

5. Pour in some broth. I don’t think it really matters what kind; remember this is just plain old home cooking. I have never tried using fish broth with meat but I have used chicken broth with both pork and veal when that is all that I had around. It tastes good to me.

6. Now add the ingredient that makes all cooking good: wine. How much? Just tip the bottle over the pot and give it a shot. If you are serving several people I would use up to ½ cup. Probably, most recipe books will tell you to use white wine. But I have always used red wine because that is what I keep around the house. Maybe the best advice is to just add a little of whatever you are drinking at the time you are cooking. I do not suggest keeping a bottle of wine around the house just for cooking since, red or white, you are liable to drink it when you really need a glass of wine and there is nothing else around. You can probably use beer or cognac instead of wine; but why cook cognac when you will surely want to drink it and it is not as plenty as wine?

7. Add any spices you wish. Recently I have used just salt and pepper to taste (a few good, fresh, whole white peppers, only because that is what I have had around the kitchen). I add the salt at the end because I am never sure how salty the broth already is.

8. Add potatoes cut in chunks, as for all stews. Of course the time to add the potatoes and other ingredients depends on how long you think it will take the meat to get cooked and soft. If you sauté the meat for a while you can add the potatoes almost immediately. If you make this recipe in a pressure cooker (express pot) remember that the potatoes will cook in just a few minutes. I often throw all of the ingredients in together almost immediately after the meat, as soon as I have each ingredient cut up. Sometimes the potatoes will come out a little soft but I have never had them turn into puree and they are always good.

9. Add any and as many vegetables as you wish to add (do add some; but probably not enough to overpower the meat). Carrots are great. In Spain, big, sweet, red bell peppers are just wonderful! I always add them. The Spaniards also sell long thin green peppers for frying (some supermarkets call them “Italian peppers”); I do not fry them but just add them raw. Recently I have had good buys on zucchini and keep it around; I add a little of that. I recently have been keeping raw soy beans that I have soaked and will throw some of them in. Some tomato works well or some tomato puree –around a tablespoon or as much as you want, but not too much to turn it into a tomato sauce—is very good in it. I keep cooked garbanzos around and sometimes throw in a few of them. Whatever you have around and want to get rid of. For the principal ingredients –meat and potatoes and the major vegetable(s)-- I suggest good fresh vegetables; but if you have a little of something that is on its way out, throw it in.

Now cook on a low heat.

This recipe must be eaten with decent bread. You can use a normal baguette made of white flower and even that will be pretty good. But a more artisan bread will be much better. I expect that what makes the artisan baguette or “bar” better is the less refined flower and hand kneading; it does not come out as fluffy and is more chewy; the quality of a good rye bread in the USA though I do not think rye is the right flavor; not for my taste. Perhaps a good pumpernickel bread, even if it does not have a hard crust. They call such a baguette a peasant or farmer’s bread, or a Roman bread. You can also get a Galician bread, which can be round. There are also breads of various numbers of cereals that are very good. You should preferably have a bread with a good hard crust and that is not too light.

You must also have a good wine with this (though not necessarily an expensive wine) and I don’t think a white will work (though I am always partial to reds, anyway). I naturally prefer Spanish wines because they are the ones I know. The wines from Rioja are famous, but recently I have been enjoying very good wines from Navarre, Rioja’s neighboring region. In the USA you can try Red Guitar, for example. I have also been enjoying some wines from Valdepeñas (the central region; Castilla-La Mancha) made with Tempranillo grapes, though I cannot recall any labels for these wines in the USA. But you can find them. Solaz is good brand name; I do not think it is considered a Valdepeñas but is still from the region of Castilla –La Mancha.. Aldi sells a good wine from Cariñena also. Cariñnena wines are a little less full bodied for my taste, but still good. I have not had Sangre de Toro from Cataluña in many years but it would probably be great with this. Another good one that is very inexpensive, made of a blend of grapes, if I recall correctly, is called Catalunya, produced by Barbieri. Don Hugo, which is around the same price las Catalunya, is sold as a very inexpensive wine in Spain also (though here you can still get cheaper wines that are also pretty good). Of course, there is also Aldi’s Winking Owl, which for the money probably cannot be beat. If you do not want to buy a Spanish wine a Malbec will no doubt work.

Vegetarians can probably try this recipe by substituting a good, meaty vegetable for the chicken, pork, or veal and using vegetable broth and adding more garbanzos. But please, do not try tofu. There is a limit to just how forgiving this recipe will be.

Peanut butter pie at Elmo's Diner

For several years now, people have been telling me about the peanut butter pie at Elmo's Diner (downtown Carrboro, NC), saying things like, "You have to try it!," or "It's the best pie ever," or "It's the only pie that I like."

Despite these rave reviews, I had yet to try a slice until last night. After a long walk through town we were itching for something sweet. We were about to step into the grocery store to buy a pint of ice cream when the Elmo's Diner sign caught my eye: "Let's get some peanut butter pie instead!" I said... and that we did.

To be perfectly honest, most slices of pie that I try in restaurants are true disappointments. The crust is rarely worth eating and the filling generally tastes as if it has been sitting, neglected, for several too many hours (or days in some cases). Considering those two factors alone, the Elmo's peanut butter pie was a treat. The crust was made of graham crackers, and while nothing too unusual, it was actually tasty and managed to avoid the usual fateful problem of a flaky-crust-gone-wrong. The graham cracker crust also served to offer a nice textural contrast to the smooth peanut butter filling. The Elmo's diner folk are smart, too: they avoided the problem of having their pie waste away to a mediocre near-expiration quality by sticking the whole thing in the freezer. Our slice was served frozen, dominated by a creamy cold peanut butter filling, drizzled with also frozen chocolate, and topped with a dollop of light whip cream that serves as a lovely counterbalance to the cold and sweet peanut butter filling.

My review is not without criticism, however, First and foremost, the filling was entirely too sweet. Such sweetness nearly overwhelmed the peanut butter flavor on which we should have been focused. Secondly, the quality of the chocolate drizzles could have been superior, perhaps more rich and, again, less sweet.

All in all though, this is a pie that is worth trying. Not as good as homemade pie but in a pinch and when faced with a sugar craving, a slice is well worth the relatively low $3.50 price-tag and the trip out to Elmo's.

Corn, tomato, and cheese pie

A friend recently sent me a link to a terrific blog, titled "nothing-in-the-house," which is fully devoted to (and dare I say 'inspired by??') the art of pie baking. Well, reading the blog has completely reignited my somewhat expired love/passion/obsession with pie baking. It's been really fun, actually, rediscovering my interest and getting excited about making pies again!

So I've been dreaming all week of making a pie...meanwhile the weather has begun to feel like fall, making it an even more perfect time for baking (and eating) pie. I'd seen the recipe for a tomato corn pie on the smitten kitchen blog earlier in the year and been intrigued. And so with my new found inspiration I looked up that recipe, adapted it a bit, and made my own version.




Well, the pie turned out so well! We shared it with our 2 sisters and there is not a crumb left of the pie.

The original recipe that peaked my interest can be found here. However, I altered the recipe quite a bit and so I've written my version of the pie recipe below. I hope that you will be inspired and try baking this, or perhaps another type of pie.




Ingredients:

For the crust:
1 cup whole wheat flour (I used bread flour b/c that's what I had but I'll bet pastry would be better)
1 cup white pastry flour
sea salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
A little over 1/4 cup olive oil
Water as needed

For the filling:
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
Corn from 2 cobs, coursely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh basil
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup goat cheese
1/4 cup mild cheddar cheese, grated
salt to taste
paper to taste

For the crust:

Prebake oven to 375 degrees.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the olive oil, followed by the buttermilk, and mix into flour. Slowly add water while stirring, until the mixture forms a nice ball that is not too sticky. If you add too much water, just add a little extra flour to the mix. Divide the dough into 2 equally sized balls. Wrap one ball of dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for later. Roll out the other ball on a lightly floured surface until it measures a 12 inch circle. Carefully drape the rolled out dough over your rolling pin and transfer it to a 12 inch pie dish. Place lightly oiled aluminum foil over the crust, and pie weights or dried beans on top of the foil. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. Remove the weights and foil, lower the heat to 350 degrees, and then bake the dough for another 10 minutes. Remove the dish with the bottom crust from the oven and allow to cool. Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees.

Layer the filling ingredients in the your bottom crust:

First, empty the contents of the can of tomatoes in the dish. Next, sprinkle the chives and basil on top of the tomatoes and sprinkle salt and pepper on top of the herbs. Follow this with the coarsely chopped corn, and then spread the ricotta and goat cheeses on top of the corn. Finally, sprinkle on the grated cheddar cheese. Roll your second ball of dough into a 12 inch circle and pinch into place as the top crust. Cut 3 or 4 slits in the top dough layer for ventilation. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the dough is brown, the filling is bubbling, and the smells emanating from your kitchen are causing your tummy to growl and your mouth to water.

How to kill a lobster

We recently drove up to Vermont and Maine for a much needed vacation. Of course, we performed the requisite food touring-- visited four amazing bakeries, 2 local farms, including this one, and ate our fair share of woopie pies, which appear to be a New England staple.

But our food tour would not have been complete if we had not also explored the local lobster scene. Our first night of lobster consumption took place at an amazing dive of a place, Beal's Lobster Peer, and I would recommend it to anyone who happens to fine themself near Bar Harbor. This is a no frills type of joint-it's all about the lobster. As the name implies, it's located right on a peer and you can only imagine that the lobsters that you will soon be happily chowing on were perhaps only a few days ago crawling on the floors of the ocean of which you have an amazing view as you enjoy dinner. Anyways, at this restaurant, you walk in and are immediately faced with a long line of hungry people in front of which stands an open tank that is full of live lobster. Once you make your way to the front of the line, you give your order (soft or hard shelled lobster were the basic choices in our case), the person taking your order then quickly picks up a lobster, places it in a mesh bag with a tag that presumably contains your order information, and at that point, say a prayer for Jimmy the lobster because his destiny has been fully determined. Indeed, soon after your order is placed the lobster is submerged in a large metal tub of boiling hot water--rest in peace, dear lobster friend. About 10 minutes later, one of the kind employees of Beal's calls your number and you pick up your tray containing the whole boiled lobster, butter sauce for dipping, and whatever sides you've chosen (corn and the cob, scallops, and fries in our case). Then remember to get napkins because the eating part is a messy operation. Admittedly I only had a few bites of lobster that night. It was delicious though. The meat was chewy, tender, sweet, and so flavorful that it was truly remarkable that the only cooking performed was a short submersion in boiling water.

After that first night of lobster eating we were feeling pretty comfortable with lobster consumption--confident enough, in fact, to try cooking some on our own. We stopped in Portland Maine and bought 4 lobsters at a harbor-side store. For 10 dollars, a kind employee packed our live lobsters on ice and sea kelp in a styrophome cooler.





We then made the 5 hour drive from Maine to Conneticut. The experience of riding with the 4 lobsters in the back of our car is worth mentioning; since every 20 minutes or so of the drive I very cautiously peeked back at the cooler, which was surprisingly quiet and still. Each time I took this peek I experienced a strange mixture of fear, sadness, and excitement.

It was only when we arrived that we began to feel very nervous about the execution that was about to take place-we had to do the killing ourselves this time. After some research we determined that there are 3 schools of thought on methods for killing a lobster: 1.) use a knife to rapidly slice through the body, so that the death is short and sweet 2.) plunge into boiling water, as done at Beal's-this is the quick and dirty method, or 3.) place the lobster in cool salt water on the stove top and slowly raise the heat until the water is boiling, thus sensetising the lobster to the heat. The males amongst of were adament that the first option was the superior of the three. As such, excecutor number 1 took a large knife and sliced through the body of the lobster. Well, let me tell you--this did not go as planned.



The lobster continued to squirm after the first cut, then after the second, the third, and then fourth. So much for a fast and humane death for that lobster. Finally, still unsure as to whether the lobster was dead or not, we plunged that first poor lobster's broken body into boiling water. We went with option 3 for the remaining lobsters: we submerged each in salt water, slowly raised the temperature until the water was boiling, let the water boil for 5 minutes, and then left them to simmer in the water for an additional 15. I do think that this is the best option for killing a lobster--we didn't hear a peep out of the lobsters.

I am very glad that I did this, that I cooked my own lobster. Having said that, I don't know that I will ever do it again. The entire experience is extremely carnal and I do think that, at the end of the day, I am more of a vegetarian at heart.

Chocolate chocolate biscotti...Why work when there's chocolate?

At 3:00 today I found myself falling asleep on my computer as I attempted to research the top air polluting industries in the state of North Carolina. I know, sounds riveting, but sometimes the computer glare gets the better of me.

Well, I woke myself up with a bit of internet food gazing, which mainly involves visiting some of my favorite food blogs. Such browsing roughly equates to a small dose of food porn, and on this day it turned into an even larger distraction because I couldn't keep myself from trying out one of the recipes.

I stumbled upon a recipe for chocolate biscotti here, on David Lebovitz's blog. Seriously, how was I to resist the temptation after seeing his picture of the product? Now, he calls these cookies "chocolate biscotti," but I personally think that the more appropriate title for them is "Chocolate chocolate biscotti," since they're made with cocoa plus chocolate chips. Then, I'd add a third chocolate to the title if I opted to dip the baked product in melted chocolate, which he appears to have done, judging from the photo that he posted.

Up until today, I'd always used Mark Bittman's recipe from How to Cook Everything to bake biscotti. Lebovitz's recipe is different from Bittman's, mainly in that it doesn't call for butter. Instead, the liquid ingredients consist of only egg, and vanilla and almond extracts. Normally I love the flavor of butter in anything, but this recipe is great because lack of butter allows you to focus on the CHOCOLATE. These are very rich, damn good, and go straight to a chocolate-lovers heart. Well worth the distraction, I'd say.

Here's a picture of my biscotti, and you can find the recipe on David Lebovitz's blog.