Back to reality... *le sigh*: Heirloom Tomato Tart

Well, we have been back for a little more than a week now. It is amazing how quickly you fall back into your old routine; it is almost like our trip didn't even happen. Seeing how little things changed over the six weeks we were gone just makes our trip seem even shorter. Aaron and I are already trying to dream up ways to take another extended vacation sooner rather than later.

As a summer loving foodie, returning home at the start of the fall season has particularly punishing. Sure, I should be excited about the abundance of colorful produce at the market and the ability to grill outdoors without melting from the heat. I am just not finding anything particularly inspiring. Aaron and I often look at our weekend grocery shopping as an adventure - what kinds of surprises will greet us at the store... will we find that impossible to find chili pepper that we have been searching for since last spring... are there any new types of bread in the bakery that I should try to copy? **Sure, I can admit it, we are super geeky about food. Some people find it annoying - others just try to get on the barbecue invite list :).** I'm sorry to say, after all of the exotic things we tried during our travels, even the ripe heirloom tomatoes aren't doing it for me.

Running errands on Friday, I decided I needed to snap out of it and stop whining. After all, one of the things that made our great adventure so precious was that it had to end some time. Moreover, I get about two or three (at the absolute most) more weeks of summer produce and if I don't take advantage I know I will regret it when I am on month two of eating parsnips and celery root with many more to go before warm weather arrives again. 

With that I ran to Union Square to explore what seasonal goodies were being hawked at the farmers market. We missed Hoboken's annual heirloom tomato festival, so I settled on a mixed bag of tomatoes at the very reasonable price of $3 a pound. 

Aaron's only menu request was that I used at least most of the basil growing in the back yard; we have two flower boxes full that need to be emptied before it starts to get too cold. After some searching, I came across this Epicurious recipe for Heirloom Tomato Tart and thought I would give it a whirl. The recipe seemed a bit suspicious at first (a tart with RAW tomatoes???), but it called for heirloom tomatoes, basil and other ingredients I had on hand. 

Surprisingly the uncooked tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella paired nicely with the parmesan crust. I assembled the tart just before eating it, as I worried any sitting would result in a soggy tart. I might have worried too much about sogginess because the leftovers kept beautifully in the fridge over night. 

It was a nice meal for our first real meal back at home. Farm fresh produce, western flavors... a last taste of summer... a return to reality. 

Polenta Cake with Buttermilk Ice Cream

So, I am managing to squeeze one more post in before A and I embark on the big adventure. This post is particularly important for reasons completely unrelated to our trip... it is the first time in awhile that I have successfully gotten away with ignoring the dessert ban.

It was a Friday afternoon; I had just finished my work for the day and was flipping through an issue of Bon Appetit to find some inspiration for dinner when I came across a recipe for polenta cake with plums and buttermilk icing. A quick scan of the recipe indicated that I had all the ingredients on hand and might actually be able to whip up an entire dessert before A called to check in. I had to do it. I had nearly a quart of whipping cream and buttermilk spoiling in the fridge - what a great way to knock them down... and polenta cake isn't super sweet so maybe A won't even notice I have made dessert. No plums on hand, so the pound of strawberries in the fridge would have to do. Voila, a frosty interpretation of strawberry shortcake!

All of the prep for the cake was finished in about 15-20 minutes, including measuring ingredients. It really does not get easier than that. 50 minutes in the oven... and then 15 more minutes of prep work to prepare the buttermilk custard for the ice cream... To serve I cut a thick slice of cake, garnished it with quartered strawberries and then topped it with two spoons of ice cream. That was all it took to have fresh, summery baked goods that are magazine worthy on hand all weekend.

The pound cake was dense and moist with a unique texture due to the polenta. At the same time, it was not overly sweet making it perfect for breakfast. Yes, for three days in a row I ate cake and ice cream for breakfast. My mother would probably be horrified. It was good.

Buttermilk ice cream is a little funny because the buttermilk gives it a tart flavor that is not particularly appealing on its own. Pairing the ice cream with something is the best way to enjoy it. After we had finished the cake, A and I ate the rest of the ice cream paired with fresh fruit such as strawberries. The ice cream is so easy to make that it would be great to have on hand through the summer for when you are craving a cold sweet treat.

So now we are sitting at JFK airport in the "oasis lounge" awaiting our departure. With a stroke of luck, we were able to move our flights up a day and minimize the number of connections. Let's just say it was a scramble to make the flight - I ended up needing to cancel my last meetings of the day and leave the office early so that I could dash home and tend to laundry, old food in the fridge, the trash, kill my sourdough starter (I nearly shed a tear, but who was going to feed the beast for the rest of the summer while I was away) and all of the other glamorous chores that must be done before you close up your house for a month.

Next stop - Singapore!

Recipes for the cake and ice cream below!

Blueberry Pie with an Almond Crumble

I finally managed to break the dessert moratorium this weekend under the guise of preparing for our upcoming July 4th barbecue.  Ordinarily I don't prepare for parties this far in advance, but all of A's college roommates are descending on us for the 4th with expectations of a feast, and we will be out of town the weekend before. After racking our brains for a theme, we have settled on traditional American (yeah, creative I know) and plan to serve bacon cheeseburgers with homemade buns, grilled corn, and a number of other goodies. In a few weeks I will try to get a post up featuring the entire menu with prep instructions. 

On top of all that, I have an entire dessert buffet to pull together. Red velvet cupcakes and macarons are on request, but will need to be prepared just before the event. I am concerned about running out of time, so I have decided to pull together some blueberry pies just in case. Fruit pies are great for events like this where you are concerned about prep time, as they can be prepared weeks in advance and then frozen unbaked. Then you just pull them out and bake them when you need them. I have used the pre-made frozen fruit pies for Thanksgiving for years. It is the only way to serve a wide variety of pie when a multi-course family feast is on order. 

The frozen mini-pie method is particularly well suited to bakers who love having homemade desserts on hand but don't have tons of people to feed. With the mini-pies, you can bake your pie one serving at a time. 

After putting together all of the mini-pies, I had enough pie dough and filling left-over for a three inch version. Thank god, because wouldn't it have been tragic if I had to prep all of those pies and then had nothing to enjoy once finished? Needless to say, the "bonus" pie didn't last more than an hour. A and I devoured it... and the fatwah on desserts was over for one weekend. Though it was back in effect on Sunday, I do have the rest of the prep for the barbecue to look forward. Is it possible that me, the hater of winter and all things cold and snowy, might actually be looking forward to the holiday season? 

Recipe after the jump!

I am a macaron master: Hazelnut, white chocolate and coffee macarons

I have finally mastered the macaron. Okay, so maybe I haven't exactly mastered it, but I am close enough that I can pretty much make a batch of decent cookies on demand, whenever I want. Music to A's ears... my phone call on Friday afternoon announcing that I would no longer need to make macarons every weekend. I had finally found the right recipe and honed my technique to the point that I can produce reliable macaron shells at any time. Other home bakers out there who have tried to make macarons will understand just what a triumph my success was. (This funny write-up describes the macaron obsession accurately.)

A few weeks ago, my Pierre Herme macaron cookbook arrived from France. After a few days studying and translating the recipes, I had decided that it was time to pull out the mixer and start separating some eggs. At first, I found his recipe a little intimidating due to its call for the use of a thermometer. All of my past attempts at macarons had involved the French method, while Herme recommends using the Italian method. The difference is that the French method involves whipping egg whites and sugar into a stiff meringue and then incorporating the dry ingredients. With the Italian method, it is necessary to prepare a hot sugar syrup that is then poured into the meringue to produce a stiff Italian meringue that almost has the texture of marshmallow.

The Italian method involves a few extra steps, but it yields much more reliable results. Perfectly smooth shells with fluffy feet and, most importantly, no air-pocket inside. Another bonus - overmixing is not as much of a problem as it is with the French method. In fact, in my trial and error, I found myself undermixing more often than overmixing. If the batter looks lumpy, keep mixing. If you see beaks forming on the tops of your shells as you pipe them out and those beaks refuse to sink into the shell after a few seconds, keep mixing.


You might ask after seeing the photos... why do they have a funny blueish-green tint? Honestly, I was so convinced that I would fail yet again, that I thought this would be a good time to play with food coloring. I added some blue dye just to see what would happen. Of course this would be the time that the batter cooperates, leaving me with beautiful, but oddly tinted cookies.

A little hazelnut garnish on top gives these a little something extra.



Here is the recipe I used, adapted from Macaron, by Pierre Herme:

Macaron Shells
yield: approximately 36 sandwiches or gerbet

60 grams hazelnuts
110 grams egg white, aged
300 grams powdered sugar
150 grams almond meal
37 grams water

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove hazelnuts from oven. Place nuts in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin.

Whisk the almond meal and 150 grams of the powdered sugar together in a small bowl. Add 55 grams of egg whites to the top of the mixture. DO NOT mix in the egg white. Set the mixture aside.

Mix 150 grams of powdered sugar and the water in a small sauce pan. Put 55 grams of egg white into the bowl of a mixture and begin whipping to create a stiff meringue. Begin heating the sugar/water mixture on medium high heat to create a simple syrup. When the syrup reaches approximately 245 degrees, remove it from the heat and slowly add it to the meringue by pouring the hot liquid down the side of the mixing bowl as the mixer is still running. Continue to beat until the mixture cools.

Fold the almond/sugar/egg white mixture into the meringue, using firm strokes at first to incorporate all of the dry ingredients. Continue to mix carefully until the mixture has the texture of cold honey. If you lift the batter up with the spatula, it should fall off slowly in thick ribbons.

Transfer the batter to a piping bag and pipe onto a parchment or silpat covered baking sheet. Sprinkle hazelnuts over the tops of the shells. Let the piped shells rest for approximately thirty minutes, or until they are dry to the touch. Bake in a pre-heated over at 345 degrees for 15 minutes, or until the shells show slight color.

Remove from the oven and let the shells cool for a few minutes, then slowly remove them from the parchment paper and move them to a rack to cool completely.

Coffee Ganache
200 grams white chocolate
200 grams heavy cream
10 grams coffee

Melt the white chocolate over a hot water bath. Meanwhile, bring the cream to a boil over medium-high heat. Once the cream is boiling, add the coffee and remove the mixture from the heat. Cover and let steep for a few moments until the coffee has infused some flavor into the cream. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and mix into the melted white chocolate. Pour the chocolate mixture into a glass dish and cover with plastic wrap so that the plastic is touching the surface of the chocolate. Refrigerate until the chocolate has a firm yet creamy texture.

Buttermilk Pudding with Fresh Berries

This weekend I had to set aside some time to test recipes for the holiday party. Though much it has not been written about on this blog, the past few weeks have been a flurry of selecting and testing recipes as I assemble the final menu. A, who usually loves my baking, is actually starting to get burned out on the volume of sweets coming out of the kitchen. I keep promising him that once the holidays are over, I will make an effort to cut down on the sweets.

For much of the menu, I plan to rely a few of my most reliable recipes - marzipan cupcakes, cheesecakes, apple tarts, etc, because they all have a "comfort food" feel that should fit the New England cold. They also tend to be a little "heavy" if you eat to much at once. I needed something light and fruity to round things out. Panna cotta felt like a good place to start. Internet research led me to a recipe for berries and buttermilk pudding on Epicurious. Though not exactly panna cotta, it looked close enough.

I had never made panna cotta/pudding from scratch before. If I had known just how easy it would be, I think it would have been part of my standard repertoire. THe entire recipe, from start to finish, took less than half an hour. If you are pressed for time, you can prepare the pudding a day ahead of time, and then cook the strawberry sauce the day you plan to serve it. The Epicurious recipe claimed two be 4 servings, but I thought it was better broken down into 8 servings. For the topping, any fresh berries will do.

The pudding itself has a very light texture with a slightly tangy flavor. It should make a nice complement for the rich sweets that I plan to serve on the dessert bar.

Bagels, Homemade Mascarpone, and Olive Tapenade

Early last week, I think maybe Monday or Tuesday night, A and I had a conversation that went something like this:

A: You know, we haven't had bagels in a really long time. Maybe we should do bagels next week.
Me: I didn't know that you like bagels. I eat them all the time, but never bring them home.
A: I love bagels!
Me: Okay, I'm sure I can make bagels. I will make you some next weekend.

A paused for a moment, looking at me a little strangely.

Me: Wait, you didn't think we would buy bagels from a store did you?
A: Well... kind of?
Me: How long have we been married? You think I would buy something that I could bake and pass up the opportunity to try a new recipe?
A: I wasn't sure. Maybe?
Me: Ugh, don't worry. I won't make a mess of the kitchen.

And with that, the matter was settled. Bagels would be made for Sunday brunch.

Of course bagels alone wouldn't be enough - I needed to prepare something to put on them. It was another traveling week for A, so during the week I was left alone to play in the kitchen. Lately I have been looking into making home-made cheese (more on that in a later post) and found some easy instructions for home-made mascarpone. Perfect! Who needs Philadelphia when you can make your own Italian version.

A craving for olives helped me finish the menu. Olive tapenade would be the perfect compliment to the mascarpone and is super easy to make. Wolfgang Puck's black and green olive tapenade is my go-to recipe. It is simple and flexible. The recipe specifies picholine and Nicoise olives, but the recipe tastes just as good with any other marinated olive. I have used Kalamata and Manzanilla olives with good results. Leftover tapenade can also be turned into a puttanesca sauce... just add a sauteed onion and some canned diced tomatoes.

I turned to the Bread Baker's Apprentice for my bagel recipe. I had never baked bagels before, so I thought that Peter Reinhart's almost fool-proof recipes would be a good place to start. He provides a formula for a chewy, "New York" style bagel that is boiled first, then baked. He claims that the secret to getting the flavor right is to "alkalize" the water with baking soda before boiling the bagels.


Since it was my first try, I stuck with plain bagels. I figured I should master the plain recipe first so that I don't waste toppings and inedible product. Overall, my first bagels were a success. A enjoyed them, and told me he would never consider purchasing bagels again. I was almost satisfied (being a perfectionist can suck at times!). The internal texture and flavor was good, but the outside of the bagel was a little chewier than I would have liked. I think more research on perfecting the bagel is needed!

Something savory for a change...

I have been gone for awhile. A ran off to Mexico for a few weeks for work, taking the camera with him to document the festivities for a friend's bachelor party, and leaving me unable to update the blog. I suppose I could have written some posts sans images, but what fun is a blog without pictures? At any rate, it is October now (how time flies!) and I am back.

Fall has arrived and the unseasonably cold weather makes it feel as if winter is really just around the corner. It was the first weekend that A had been home in a long time and the first weekend in months that we had nothing scheduled. The two of us were looking forward to relaxing at home and finally indulging in some home cooking. The chill in the air brought a craving for comfort food - something warm and hearty. A wanted a stew - heavy on the meat and potatoes. Stew isn't really my thing, so we decided to compromise with a veal and porcini ragu from Epicurious.

The lazy weekend meant plenty of time for adventures in the kitchen, so we decided to take things up a notch and break out the pasta maker (a perfect wedding gift that has been woefully underused, sorry E). I have made pasta a few times before with moderate success... moderate success meaning that the dough held together but could not really be shaped. Since we had all day to experiment, we decided to go bold and try the fresh pasta recipe in the French Laundry Cookbook.


Needless to say, the recipe came together perfectly. After I finished kneading and set the dough aside to rest, I declared that if this pasta works, Thomas Keller is a genius. A reminded me that many people already considered Thomas Keller to be a genius and that the outcome of my pasta would have no impact on his reputation.

At any rate, for a first try, the pasta turned out beautifully. The dough rolled out easily, with minimal breakage, and remained moist until it I was finished cutting. I got a little overzealous with the machine and tried to roll almost the entire recipe as a single sheet of pasta. Next time I will definitely cut things down - it will make my life much easier.

I can't wait to try this again in a few weeks!

Here is the fresh, uncooked pasta:



Here is the pasta, cooked and sauced with veal and porcini ragu (I usually add extra meat and sausage):



And of course what is pasta without bread to accompany it: