Home Made Corn Tortillas

It was pure coincidence - our decision to put together a Mexican feast just in time for Cinco de Mayo. A and I love Mexican food, but we had not been eating much of it lately because he had been spending so much time south of the border. The trips to Mexico have slowed, leading to a craving for some tacos, which was merely exacerbated by the gorgeous weather. It was like the grill was calling to us.

Our Mexican feast was also a great excuse to check out the farmer's market in Hackensack. It has super cheap produce and all sorts of latino specialties like chilies, queso blanco and parts of the cow that most Americans don't traditionally eat. Red ripe strawberries? Check. Perfect cantaloupe? Check. Pork butt... no... wait, no pork butt? The Latino market has goat intestine, but they don't have pork butt? There was something called pork "cushion" in the cooler, which the butcher swore was "definitely not" pork butt. Okay fine, but is there another part of the pig that resembles a "cushion"? Whatever. Looks like the carnitas just became skirt steak for some carne asada tacos. Yum.

Of course, it wasn't enough for me to just make tacos from scratch. It was time for me to learn how to make tortillas. I had seen ladies patting them out on the streets of Guatemala... it just didn't look that difficult. A little bit of internet research confirmed my hunch - corn tortillas from scratch are actually quite simple. Simple enough that A and I are not likely to ever purchase tortillas again. 

The tortilla dough requires just two ingredients - maza harina and water. Maza harina is a special type of ground corn meal that has been treated with limewater. Sometimes the bag says "tortilla mix" on it. A saw this and suggested that perhaps instead of "just using a mix", I should make my own maza. Yeah, if I want to spend the week drying, grinding and treating the corn. If you are a "from scratch only" cook, don't let the tortilla mix label scare you away. 

Mix them together, roll out the tortilla, through it on the griddle and about 2 minutes later you will have a tortilla. It couldn't be simpler. 

Recipe for corn tortillas and skirt steak marinade after the jump. 

Hooray for Breakfast in the Garden: Orange Nutmeg Muffins

This Saturday I am not sure what got into me, but I was on a productivity mission. In the summer, a push for productivity usually means tidying up the garden. Tidying up the garden means planting new flowers (and killing perfectly good ones that I have gotten sick of. A sometimes worries that I sound a little too gleeful when digging up an old shrub), starting the herb garden and getting everything set up for summer weekends of dining outside. 

All day Saturday was spent doing our best imitation of our parents - racing through the suburban sprawl to fight the crowds at Home Depot. When I was a child, these weekends were nothing short of pure torture. The only thing worse than having to schlep to Home Depot with my parents was having to go to Sam's. Now that I am all grown up (!), Home Depot is a place of joyous possibilities. I am not kidding. I could spend hours inspecting hoses and nozzles (and this weekend I did). Light bulbs - did you know how many different kinds there are? Every time I walk into one of those big box stores and realize that I am enjoying myself, I start to feel old. 

The best part about the Saturday clean up is that it meant Sunday breakfast would be the start of our summer meals outside. I had decided early on that muffins were in order and A made a request for his favorite - orange nutmeg - which also happens to be my go-to, no fail recipe for when I want something tasty and homemade that I don't have to think about. I would love to pretend that I created this recipe on my own, but alas, it was something I stumbled across on the internet. Molly from Orangette, I have never met you, or even commented on your blog, but I want to send you a huge thank you for inventing my go-to muffin recipe. 

The addition of cinnamon takes this recipe to the next level, yielding scrumptiously moist muffins. I like to serve them with a simple fruit salad of fresh cantaloupe and strawberries, and a glass of cold-brewed ice coffee. Paired with the FT Weekend, it makes a perfect Sunday morning meal. 

Recipe after the jump!

The Macaron Obsession Continues: Peanut Macarons

A few weeks ago, A and I were watching an episode of No Reservations called "Obsessed", which was all about chefs who were so obsessed with their craft that they had taken it to a level of perfection were food is art. The two of us looked at each other in disbelief, shocked and awed by their devotion, but also agreeing that neither one of us were likely to attain that level of perfection in anything we do. I mean, sure, I like baking and I like bread, but no, I don't have the patience, or even interest, required to determine precisely at which temperature a sourdough loaf should ferment to yield the best taste. Hell, I don't even measure the flour that I use to feed my starter - I just throw it in.

But then last night, standing in my kitchen, in an explosion of flour, egg whites and almond meal, I realized that macarons actually might be my obsession. I spend a really unhealthy amount of time thinking about macarons, when I am not actually making them. That copy of the Flavor Bible I requested for Christmas? Not to help us cook better like I claimed. No, my true motivation was a new source of inspiration for creative macaron combinations. I want to buy a stupidly expensive macro photo lens for my camera so I can photograph them better. I am content to spend hours in the kitchen (and lots of money on almond flour) fussing with the recipe. I never get bored. Instead I just want to make more.

Lately, I have deviated from the standard recipe and started experimenting with different types of nuts. For easter, I tried pistachio, which was delicious. This week - peanut, for a decidedly American macaron. Sure, other cultures eat peanuts, but peanut butter and peanut flavored sweets strike me as pretty unique to American culture. I guess the Euros have nutella, but hazelnuts just aren't the same as peanuts. 

For this batch, I subbed 55 grams of almond meal for ground peanuts, and then sprinkled some crushed peanuts on top to give a visual hint of the flavor. The flavor was pretty striking, with the peanuttiness giving these macs a very different taste that the traditional almond based cookies. I filled them with a peanut gianduja cream, which made them taste almost like gourmet Reese's peanut butter cups. 

While the filling tasted great, the texture was not perfect. I used all natural peanut butter, which for some reason did not set in the chocolate as I expected. After an hour of stirring, the milk chocolate and peanut butter mixture was still too runny to pipe onto the cookies. Adding powdered sugar still did not thicken it enough. Also, I was lazy and did not temper the chocolate, which meant that there was a tiny bit of bloom after the macs cooled. Next time around, I think I will use more typical peanut butter, as the texture will probably lend itself to a better gianduja mixture. 

Recipe for the macarons after the jump!

Easter Supper for Eight: Taking full advantage of spring produce!

Easter weekend marked the first real spring weekend in New Jersey. A few months ago, our friends were kind enough to invite themselves over for easter supper (haha!), so A and I were left with no choice but to pull together a spring-themed feast.

A handled the shopping. Initially, I thought this was a great idea, as it gave me time to grab lunch with one of my girlfriends. Then A got home. I walked into a kitchen filled with more produce than I had ever seen in my life.

- Honey, what is all this?

- You told me to get baby vegetables, so I got everything that could have been considered a baby.

- You what????

- Well, yeah, and I hope that nobody else is planning to buy baby vegetables today because I bought everything they had.

- But we just needed carrots, and a few other root vegetables. Did you get baby beets?

- No, I didn't get beets. But I did get fresh baby corn, baby artichokes, baby fennell, baby turnips, baby potatoes, fiddleheads...

- You bought fiddleheads? But why? We don't even know how to cook those.

- They are baby ferns. I told you, I bought everything they had that was baby.

Seriously? All I could do was shoot him my best "exasperated wifey look" and make a mental note to never let him do the shopping alone again. With hindsight, I must admit, it is a good thing he bought every vegetable they had because everything got eaten. Once the last guest had left, there was scarcely a leftover to be seen.

Here is the menu:

Goats Cheese and Olive Tapenade Crostini

Manchego Crostini with Romesco Sauce

Fresh Fava Bean, Baby Corn and Feta Salad

Grilled Leg of Lamb with Tomato and Fennel Vinaigrette

Roasted Baby Vegetables

Sauteed Asparagus and Fiddleheads with Chanterelles

Strawberry and Orange-Scented Mascarpone Tart with a Port Wine Reduction

Homemade Vanilla and Cinnamon Ice Cream

Pistachio Macarons with Pistachio Gianduja

Guests J-squared (ha!) brought a lovely fig and orange toast with goats cheese that I somehow did not manage to take photos of! Probably because it got eaten too quickly.

Prep for the party took about a day and a half. While none of the recipes were particularly difficult, the sheer volume of vegetables meant several hours of sousing. A decided after peeling 3 lbs of asparagus that we might not ever serve asparagus again. While I do enjoy it, I am okay with sacrificing asparagus if it means I never have to peel them again. Tossed with fiddleheads, chanterelles and tarragon, they were lovely, but probably not worth the trouble.

Crostini is definitely our new go-to appetizer. It is very low stress, as the spreads can be made in advance, and the bite-sized pieces are crowd pleasers. For the two varieties we made this weekend, the romesco sauce was leftover from a week night dinner (shh!) and the olive tapenade can be prepped up to a week ahead of time. Garnish with your favorite cheese (in our case goats cheese for the olive spread and manchego for the romesco sauce) and you are good to go. For the bread, I pulled together a batch of pain a l'ancienne from the Bread Bakers Apprentice, a must have book for anyone who is interested in making bread at home.

The weather was very much in our favor - bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. If anything, it was almost too hot! A tossed some lemon and mint into a pitcher of water to keep everyone refreshed, and offered up sun-screen to accompany glasses of white wine.

   

Dessert continued the spring theme. Two of our guests, D and J, gave us an ice cream machine as a wedding gift a few years ago. As such, whenever they come over, I make it a point to whip up a batch of fresh ice cream. Today was no different, and I looked to my favorite recipe for vanilla bean and cinnamon ice cream. A and I had run out of serving dishes, so the ice cream was served as a "palette cleanser" in mini-martini glasses. It looks like we were being fancy, but really, we just didn't have any more dishes.

The ice cream was followed by a decadent strawberry mascarpone tart. I made the mascarpone myself, and added sugar, lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, orange juice and vanilla to flavor it. The entire tart was drizzled with a port glaze before serving.

 

We closed the meal with pistachio macarons because I just don't think I can host a party without them anymore. For the macarons shells, I used the same recipe I have referenced before on this blog, but subbed in ground pistachios for half of the almond flour. I also added green food coloring. For some reason these macs had much softer texture than those I have made in the past. Maybe it was the pistachios?

All in all, it was a successful event. Maybe hosting easter supper could become a tradition for us. I honestly think I enjoyed it more than our annual barbeque.

Honestly, there is just too much here for me to write-up all of the recipes. Recipes taken directly from other sites are linked above. After the jump, recipes for the pistachio gianduja, fava bean salad and the ice cream. If you want other emails, leave a note.

The Daring Bakers Challenge, March 2010: Blood Orange Tian with Honey, Saffron and Cinnamon

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

I was pretty excited when I saw the reveal for the March challenge. Tian. I had no idea what a tian was... and I still don't really understand what it is. Consulting various online food dictionaries indicated that tians are commonly considered to be some sort of mixed vegetable casserole, a definition that did not match the challenge recipe. Our hostess, Jennifer, selected a recipe for what was called an "orange tian". The desert comprised of thin pate sable crust, covered in a thick layer of whipped cream, topped with a final layer of citrus segments and drizzled with caramel sauce.

Definitions aside, this was yummy, and I think I will definitely be making it again... or at least I will be making this type of tian again. I am embarrassed to admit how much of the dessert (and dessert components!) I inhaled before A made it home. It took him just minutes to polish off the leftovers when he did arrive.

As part of the challenge, Jennifer required that we stick to citrus and attempt to supreme said citrus. It was a little messy, but definitely a skill I needed to master. Sadly, the perfectionist in me has now decided that citrus for salads will no longer be quickly chopped... going forward only cleanly supremed segments would suffice.

I deviated from the original recipe a bit. I am a little burned out on oranges (my husband eats about 9 of them a day meaning that there is always an orangey scent in our home), but lemons and limes aren't really my thing. Grapefruit - too winterey. Blood oranges were the only solution as they offered a sweet flavor and striking color for my dessert. With some help from the Flavor Bible, I opted to add honey, cinnamon and saffron to the blood oranges to give the dish a little something extra.

Pate sable is really just a giant sugar cookie. In fact, in the end I decided not to mold all four of my tians in favor of eating the crusts like cookies. For this dessert, any old pate sable recipe will do. Just roll the dough out before you cook it and cut it into rounds with the mold you plan to use for building your tian. The dough should be fully baked before constructing the tian.

Assembling the tian can be a little tricky, particularly since the ring mold has a tendency to slide around as you arrange the citrus layer on the bottom. The citrus slices are particularly juicy, as it is best to allow them to soak in their juices (and a bit of caramel sauce) overnight after they have been supremed. I placed my orange segments in a circular pattern, starting from the edge of the mold and spiraling inward until the entire bottom layer was covered.

When you have finished arranging the citrus, spoon a thick layer of stabilized whipped cream on top until the cream reaches the edge of the mold taking care to ensure that the cream is spread evenly. (Note: to stabilize whipped cream, mix a small amount of dissolved gelatin into the cream as it is being whipped) Take a one of the pate sable rounds and spread thin layer of marmalade on the top. Place the round on top of the mold, marmalade side down, pressing gently to secure.

Once all of the tians have been constructed on the sheet, move the sheet to the refrigerator and chill the desserts for several hours or until the cream has had time to grow firm. (My kitchen was hot, so I had to move mine to the freezer. When you are ready to serve the desserts, remove them from the refrigerator, place them crust side down on a plate and gently remove the mold. (Full disclosure: easier said than done!) Drizzle with orange caramel sauce and enjoy!

Of course in the end, if you have trouble with assembly, it makes a lovely trifle. Just crumble up the crust, and fill a glass with alternating layers of crust, cream, citrus sections and marmalade. Garnish with a slide of orange.

After reading through this post, I don't think I have done a good job at all of describing this dessert. Recipes for a few of the components are posted below. For the rest, ask if you have questions... or... as this is a Daring Baker's challenge and not my own creation, I am sure that others have posted better descriptions on their sites.

Marmalade recipe and orange caramel sauce recipe can be found after the jump!

Screw winter: Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart

Today definitely felt like the first day of spring here in Hoboken. Sure, I suppose it could still snow a few more times before winter is truly over, but the cloudless skies and warmish weather made me forget that snow was still falling just a day or two ago. It is melted now - even the giant mountains of it that plows had pushed to the corners of parking lots are gone. Andstill more exciting than the beautiful weather are the golden crocus bulbs that are poking their way out of the soil.

Sounds idyllic right? It could have been, except for the sounds in the background of drunken revelers that marks the first weekend in March for all Hoboken residents. Yes, today was the annual Hoboken St. Patrick's Day Parade, a drunken orgy where twenty-somthings from the tri-state area descend on my town to "get wasted", vomit, and get in fights. No chirping birds for me - I get whooping ex-frat boys instead. Kill me now.

The stream of green t-shirts passing by my window left me inclined to start the day in a rotten mood. Apparently the kids these days prefer to wear "kiss me I'm shitfaced" over "kiss me I'm Irish". Further annoying me, A had left me home alone for the weekend while he dealt with work in Mexico. Poor lonesome me, holed up in the apartment all day so as to avoid the aggressive drunks outside. It makes me feel so old, as just a few years ago, I might have joined in on the festivities. Ok, maybe not.

Screw winter! Screw the town! If I can't go outside and enjoy the first real day of spring weather, spring would come to me via the kitchen. Time to rebel against seasonal vegetables! Comfort food is in order! I want basil... and chives... and cheese... maybe even a tomato or two. Surely in these "modern times" I should be able to find at least one decent tomato.

Tomato and goat cheese tart seemed like the perfect solution to my mood. Non-seasonal, cheesy goodness. Of course it would be better to hold off on this recipe until summer, but at this point, even mediocre tomatoes would make me feel better than another meal of root vegetables.

Goat cheese and tomato tart was a dish that I discovered last fall, before I started keeping this blog. It was a recipe that I put together after studying a number of different goat cheese tart recipes, both from Epicurious and elsewhere on the web. Specifically I was looking for a savory brunch dish that had components you could do ahead, so as to minimize active prep time in the morning. With this recipe, the tomatoes and garlic can be roasted a day ahead and stored in the fridge. The tart crust can also be prepared and placed into the tart pan ahead of time. If you really want to get ahead, you could probably saute the shallots and mix the custard a day early too. This only leaves pre-baking the crust and assembling/baking the tart the day that you serve it.

Recipe after the jump!

Daring Bakers Follow-Up: Ladyfingers, or Savoiardi

Making the ladyfingers was by far my favorite part of the February tiramisu challenge. I enjoyed it so much that I thought it merited a separate post. I don't really have anything special to say about them, other than a recommendation that if you ever need ladyfingers, you make them yourself instead of purchasing them. 

The recipe required by the Daring Bakers comes from Cordon Bleu at Home. I did think that the cookies tasted just slightly eggy (is that a word?), especially after they had sat out for a while. Fresh out of the oven however, they are deliciously soft and sweet. In the summer, I could imagine serving them as an alternative to tuiles on ice cream. 

The recipe struck me as very similar to macarons, only with egg yolks added and regular flour instead of almond meal. The technique is similar - whip up a stiff meringue and break it down carefully when you add the dry ingredients. Too make ladyfingers, you need the following: 

3 eggs, seperated

6 tablespoons/75gms granulated sugar

3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tbsp corn starch

6 tablespoons confectioner's sugar

Start by whipping the egg whites into a meringue. Once soft peaks begin to form, gradually add the granulated sugar, and continue to beat the whites until they are stiff. Next fold in the egg yolks until the mixture is blended and pale yellow. 

In a separate bowl, blend the cornstarch and flour. Then sift the flour into the eggs and gently fold it in, being careful not to deflate the mixture too much (just like macarons!). The mixture will be shiny, but not smooth, and quite frankly kind of gross looking when its ready. 

Transfer the batter to a piping bag and pipe out into strips about 3-4 inches long. Sprinkle the piped batter generously with about half of the powdered sugar and allow to sit for about 5 minutes. Then sprinkle with the remaining powdered sugar and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes on a baking sheet covered in either a silpat or greased parchment paper. 

Though the recipe says that these will keep for a few weeks in an air tight container, as I mentioned above, they definitely taste the best straight out of the oven. While still good after they have been sitting for awhile, I would not recommend eating them without some sort of accompaniment at that point.