rhubarb galette

Amy found this recipe in Sunset Magazine and sent it my way. She was quite taken by the presentation with the bright, red rhubarb baked as whole stalks, and really it did look beautiful baked up like that. We're always chopping the rhubarb into teeny-tiny pieces or saucing it, but never EVER just leaving it whole, to appreciate it's natural looks.


It was a great way to quickly make a rhubarb dessert and it's less sweet than your standard rhubarb concoction.

• Rhubarb Cardamom Galette
• Recipe from Sunset magazine
• 1  sheet (9 to 10 oz.) frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 1/3  cup  granulated sugar, divided
• 1  tablespoon  packed brown sugar
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground cardamom
• 2  tablespoons  flour
• 12  ounces  rhubarb (about 8 thin or 3 thick stalks)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425° with a rack set on lowest level. Unfold pastry onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, the brown sugar, cardamom, and flour. Evenly sprinkle sugar mixture over pastry.

Trim rhubarb 1 in. shorter than pastry, then split lengthwise into 1/2-in.-wide pieces. Lay pieces parallel across the pastry square, leaving 1/2 in. border of pastry. Sprinkle rhubarb with remaining granulated sugar.

Bake galette until edges are golden brown and puffed, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve with sweetened whipped cream or ice cream.

spicy citrus fish

as I have mentioned, Mark Bittman knows what is up. I was looking for new and exciting ways to prepare fish and this one really struck my fancy. I served it with halibut from the market cooked on the grill. This salsa is so refreshing and flavorful,it would be good with all types of fish or even atop grilled chicken, shrimp or pork tenderloin.


It's got a bit of a kick to it, even though I didn't use the full-strength habanero peppers Mark recommends, I tried it with one serrano pepper and one fresh jalapeño pepper, both chopped - ribs, seeds and all.  If I were to make it again, I would probably try to decrease the spice by either using just one jalapeño or just one serrano.  


This citrus-salsa comes for traditional Mayan cuisine and is known as xec 
(pronounced "shek"), it's traditionally made with bitter oranges, grapefruits and lemons.  I tried it with one orange, one grapefruit, a lemon and a lime.

Here's the recipe in it's full, shining glory:


Fish with Spicy Citrus Salsa
Mark Bittman, the Minimalist

1 small grapefruit

1 orange

1 lime

1 large lemon

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1/3 cup red onion, minced

1/2 habanero, jalapeño or serrano pepper, seeded and minced

Salt to taste

2 tablespoons oil

1-2 halibut fillets, 4 to 6 ounces each, preferably skin on (and scaled).

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Cut orange and grapefruit in half horizontally and section it as you would a grapefruit; do this over a bowl to capture all its juice. Remove seeds and combine flesh and juice in bowl. Repeat with lime and lemon. Stir in cilantro, onion, pepper and salt. Set salsa mixture aside.

Put oil in a nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium high heat. A minute later, add fish, skin side down; season top with salt. Cook until skin begins to crisp, 3 or 4 minutes, then transfer to oven. Cook another 3 or 4 minutes, or until a thin-bladed knife meets little resistance when inserted into thickest part of fish. Serve fish with xec, immediately.

Yield: 4 servings.

empire state of eating

On August 20th, Dan and I packed our bags and traveled to New York for a little end of summer hurrah.  We saw lots of sites, we ate lots of eats, AND while touring the great city of NY we got engaged!! It just the best little vacation we could have asked for. Here are some highlights of the trip, mostly relating to the food because that's what I took pictures of, but other cool stuff happened, so there's some of that mixed in there too.

Dinner at Marlow and Sons, Williamsburg  Brooklyn, NY. Marlow and Sons was a true gem hidden out in Brooklyn.  Each day they write a brand new menu on a chalkboard (for all to see), and on a piece of receipt paper (for all to hold), based on fresh ingredients that they gather from the local farmers markets.  Everything we tried was fresh and delicious. salad, homemade pasta, sea bass.  

Market style corn on the cob, chile rellenos and pozole rojo at La Palapa Cocina Mexicana. Everything was good here, but we talked about the corn on the cob for like two weeks after eating it. It was THAT good. We made it twice last week for dinner. The corn was grilled and covered in lime, mayo, chile piquín and queso cotija and served with extra limes on the side.  I highly recommend it.

Cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery.  Andy Samberg endorses these cupcakes. Luckily, I know a girl who makes a mean replica of this frosting in Seattle, so I don't have to travel to NYC for my next buttercream covered treat.  You can find the frosting recipe here.

Ramen at Momofuku. Endless noodles and smoky broth.

Coffee at Ninth Street Espresso in the Chelsea Market. coffee in the big city comes in tiny cups. someone liked the "moose" on Dan's shirt.  thank you. compliment accepted.

And for some non-eats photos and enjoyable times:

Many hours of artful enjoyment at the MoMA.

hangin' in the subway. and people watching. lots of people watching.

Eating lots of food in Chinatown.  Riding the escalator on the eve of our engagement, after being given the pleasure of viewing a 300+ person wedding that occurred in the Chinese restaurant's dining room. it was a hilarious experience. made me wish all Chinese restaurants had weddings and escalators. Oh yeah, and our waiter told us we ordered too much food, and then refused to bring us rice as a result of our gluttonous order.  

 

"I’m just a small town girl who moved to the big city with big dreams… just to find out, the only way to make it in the big city… is to shake it. And that’s what I do — at the Coyote Ugly." Yeah, we went there. Not as cool as you may think, and they weren't pouring shots directly into people's mouths like in the movie.

While shopping I came across an underwear brand named after my brother and dad, Todd and Terry.  Those sailors sure look like they're having fun dancing. 

 

the Friends apartment building.  not really because it wasn't filmed there, it was filmed in L.A., but something was based off of this. so it's cool. trust me.

    

In summary,I could spend one million more days in New York and still find tons more places to explore and delicious meals to eat and that is why we need to plan another trip back :). 

the key to this pie is the lime

key lime is and will always be one of my favorite pies. it offers unparalleled sour flavors and refreshment in one chilled and delicious dessert, and it's so much different than your average fruit pie. it's a great summer treat, or after summer treat, if you need a pleasant reminder of the sun. It was not until two years ago that I first attempted making it at home, before then I'd always opted for the frozen Trader Joe's version, which is also good but it's just not the same as homemade. it's my brother Todd's favorite dessert, and so I made this recipe for his birthday a few years back.  I've made it many time since, it's the best recipe I've found for the job. It incorporates sweetened condensed milk, which I almost never cook with, to balance out the tangy lime in the filling, and instead of whipped cream it's topped with sour cream for a little extra zinger. The filling is fluffy and light, while still being creamy, and of course the lime does just what it's supposed to do by keeping the whole thing as sour and tangy as ever.  

the snail and his key lime pie.

Lime Pie

Recipe courtesy of Emeril 

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 tbsp. butter, melted

2 (14 oz.) cans sweetened condensed milk

1 cup key lime or lime juice

2 whole eggs

1 cup sour cream

2 tbsp. powdered sugar

1 tbsp. lime zest

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a bowl, mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter with your hands. Press the mixture firmly into a 9-inch pie pan, and bake until brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before filling.

Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. In a separate bowl, combine the condensed milk, lime juice, and eggs. Whisk until well blended and place the filling in the cooled pie shell. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes and allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Once chilled, combine the sour cream and powdered sugar and spread over the top of the pie using a spatula. Sprinkle the lime zest as a garnish on top of the sour cream and serve chilled.

a pie for your travels

these pies are miniature. and cute. and totally free-form. making them quicker to bake than a whole pie, much less exact and portable enough for a summer picnic or road trip. you can make them as small or as large as you'd like, if you make them larger you can slice as you would a pie. AND, you can use this method for any fruit filling peach, blackberry, strawberry-rhubarb, apple, you name it.   

CHERRY GALETTES

For the filling:

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 cup water

6 cups cherries, pitted, and halved (bing or sour cherries)

1/4 cup sugar (increase to 3/4 cup if using sour cherries)

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 tsp.  butter

Combine 1/3 cup cornstarch and 1 cup water in a saucepan on the stove.  Bring to a boil, stirring with a whisk until mixture has thickened. Mix cherries, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in a large bowl and stir.  Add thickened cornstarch mixture and combine with the fruit.

FOR THE CRUST:

2 2⁄3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

2⁄3 cup vegetable oil

6 tbsp. cold milk

Preheat oven to 400°. For the crust: Sift together flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Measure oil into a measuring cup, then add milk, but don't stir together. Pour oil and milk into flour mixture. Stir until dough just holds together. Divide dough into four sections, shape into 4 balls, and flatten slightly. Roll out each ball between two sheets of wax paper into 6" rounds. 

Place about 3/4 cup of fruit filling in the center of each piece of crust, and fold edges up over fruit to make a barrier.  Back for about 30-45 minutes, or until fruit is bubbling and the crust is golden brown.

rolling in the dough

I was recently introduced to homemade pasta made by the infamous Pasta Attachment on Lily's KitchenAid, two of her fabulous wedding gifts. We shared a meal together, the pasta and I, gazed into each other's eyes and the rest is history. 

I left Lily's that night, and came home to find the pasta maker I had recently been gifted, it's of the hand-crank variety, but a pasta maker nonetheless. Using this new gift, the next week was filled with four nights of homemade pasta in various preparations topped with many a sauce. It was beautiful. Just beautiful. These photos below are the noodle fruits of my labor of pasta-maker-love. The sweet sweet product of eggs, flour, a little basil, and a lot of mixing, followed by rolling rolling rolling, followed by machining. A lot of machining. It is truly a process, and because I used a machine to do much of the work, this isn't even considered "homemade" pasta by old world Italian standards. Yes, I'm an impostor, I know.  

If you haven't already tried your hand at making homemade pasta, I highly recommend it. It opens up so many possibilities for dough thickness, shapes and flavors. In fact the possibilities are so endless that you might find yourself too overwhelmed to experiment at all. Don't let that happen. Take this new task in stride. Start small, like with a plain spaghetti or fettuccine, and then think about the other flavor options. 

Oh yeah, and want to know the coolest part about this project? This pasta maker was purchased from JC Penney circa 1980 (possibly earlier) for $19.99, my mom gave it to me for keeps this year and it's the best. It's in its original box with price tag and all. The same machine will now set you back between $60-100, but it's worth it.  Otherwise a rolling pin, a ruler (to measure the dough's thickness) and a sharp knife can get the job done.     

the rolled dough ready to be cut

like magic, the dough turns to spaghetti

spaghetti, basil spaghetti and fettuccine

INGREDIENTS:

1 and 1/4 cups fresh basil leaves

3 cups flour

3 eggs

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon water

2 teaspoons olive oil

Place the basil in a food processor, cover and process until finely chopped. Add flour, process until blended. Add eggs, water, and oil. Process 15 - 20 seconds or until dough forms a ball. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 - 10 minutes. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Divide into fourths. Follow your pasta maker's instructions on rolling the dough to the desired thickness.  

a pizza pie

thank you for your patience during this blogging hiatus.  I have been wrapped up in other activities, eating meals mostly out and not doing so much of the cooking. I have been visiting the farmers markets weekly and stocking up on mounds of fresh produce and then consuming it, but the cooking I've done as of late has been more of just an assembly of those ingredients, which creates good and edible food,  just not exactly the sorts of things that have recipes that might inspire others to get working in the kitchen. And so I find myself with almost a month gone by and no new posts. eeek.  not cool. baby steps to more cooking and more sharing.  this is the first of such baby steps.  a pizza creation, which will either bring you disgust or joy at the combination of toppings employed. especially if you are firmly "not a caper person", of which I can name three, you know who you are. herb trader joe's crust, capers, pineapple and red onions. sounds gross. tasted good. preconceived notions are often deceiving. nothing like a little life lesson tucked in a recipe blog. whatevs, like I said, baby steps.

If you do choose to make this the list is simple, herb pizza crust, any red sauce, grated mozzarella, sliced red onions, pineaple chunks and capers. and you've got yourself a meal.