mix, mix… stir, stir

A galette is simply a less fussy pie, but the free-form nature seems to add an element of intgrigue to the table. There is something about the just-thrown-together appearance, so rustic, and no doubt handmade, that makes a galette so appealing.

photo by David Peterman

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie baking odyssey was chosen by Michelle in Colorado Springs. I chose to feature apricots and lavender in my mini-galettes. Half an apricot wrapped with dough makes a perfect individual pastry delight. I cut out four-inch rounds of dough and then rolled them a touch larger, spread a bit of apricot jam in the center, added a sprinkle of bread crumbs in place of the graham cracker crumbs that I didn’t have, and plunked the apricot half in the center. A quick fold of the pastry up around the apricot, then a brush of melted jam over the apricot and they were ready for the oven. They looked like little sunny-side-up eggs.

Half way through the baking process a custard is poured over the galette adding a delicious sweet creamy element that played really nicely off the tartness of the apricot. I infused the butter used to make the custard with a tablespoon of dried lavender flowers for a subtle flavor enhancement. Pouring the custard on the hot galettes was a little tricky with these tiny ones because there wasn’t any open space for the custard to fill, so I lifted the apricot and spooned it in underneath. It was a bit messy and offered great potential for burning my fingers, but it did work. Because the custard is so good, next time I might slice the apricot and spread it out like a little pinwheel so more of the custard could be accommodated. In a full-sized galette this would not be an issue as there would be plenty of space between each piece of apricot for the custard to fill. The custard is runny, which might be why it is necessary to add it to the hot galette rather than adding it before baking. It is a relatively thin layer of custard so it could also be that it would just overcook if it were added at the beginning. Now I want to do some experiments to figure this out.

To tie into the lavender infused custard, I sprinkled the galettes with lavender sugar when they came out of the oven and garnished each one with a couple of fresh lavender flowers. The lavender sugar is as simple as grinding dried lavender flowers with granulated sugar in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder. I sprinkled the sugar on through a fine mesh sieve to sift out any large pieces of the dried flowers.

The mini-galettes would be perfect to serve for a brunch, afternoon tea, or dinner buffet. They look so beautiful stacked up on a serving platter and are easily eaten out of hand which makes them so great for a mingling type party. Dorie suggests they are best served the same day, and I would agree with “best”, but they are darn tasty the next day as well! You can find Dorie’s recipes in her book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

A supreme snack tip!
We all know the delights of extra pie dough baked with a bit of butter, cinnamon, and sugar, but pie dough baked with the extra custard - oh, wow! Roll out any extra pie dough and pinch up a 1/2″ rim of dough around the exterior edge to trap the custard from running all over the oven. Pour any extra custard in the dough and bake until it is golden brown and the dough looks crispy. This a spectacular treat!

 It was Iron Chef Bobby Flay vs. Gabrielle Hamilton, owner and Chef of Prun restaurant in NYC in battle Zucchini. As always there were many interesting dishes created, but one in particular hit me as a must-make. The first factor is that it looked delicious and the judges raved about it. Secondly, it looked very straight forward as in I didn’t actually need a recipe to make it work, and the kicker was the use of Harissa.  I just happen to have been given a jar of wonderful Harrissa recently.

Harissa is a hot chili paste used frequently in North African cuisines especially Tunisia and Morocco. It is commonly used as both a condiment and an ingredient. Typically it is made from dried chilies, garlic, olive oil, tomatoes, and various spices such as coriander, cumin, or caraway. There are many recipes available to make your own or you can find it for sales in specialty stores or online.

Chef Hamilton boiled a variety of zucchini and tossed them with harissa, garlic, coriander, caraway, olive oil, lemon juice, green and black olives, and fete cheese. It was so simple, and with such raves from the judges I had to recreate my own little Iron Chef America moment.

I grilled the zucchini rather than boil it and added cumin to substitute for being out of caraway. Though I am sure I have some, I dug and dug through my spices and never found it. Next time I am looking for a different spice I will no doubt encounter two or three containers of caraway.

Zucchini Like an Iron Chef
Keeping with the style of Iron Chef, don’t bother measuring. Eyeball everything like a pro!

A variety of zucchini (4-10) depending on how many people you are feeding)
Harissa
Garlic paste
Coriander seed
Cumin seed
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Fete cheese
Green olives
Black olives

Cut the zucchini into large pieces. Coat the zucchini with a bit of olive oil and place it on a hot grill. Watch it carefully to avoid over cooking and pay attention to the different rates that different varieties of zucchini cook. It should still be a bit firm when removed from the grill so that it can stand up to being tossed with the other ingredients.

Crush some coriander and cumin seeds to break them up, but don’t grind them to a powder. In a small bowl combine a good dollop of harissa, some garlic paste, splash of lemon juice, and the coriander and cumin. Mix well and set aside.

Cut the fete cheese into half-inch cubes and set aside. Remove the pits from the olives and cut them into large pieces and set aside.

Once the zucchini comes off the grill place it in a bowl large enough to mix everything together. Add the harissa, and stir to coat. Taste and adjust seasoning adding more harissa if needed. Mix in the olives. Place the zucchini on a serving platter and sprinkle the fete cubes over the top. If you are making a large quantity, mix some of the fete in and save some to garnish the top of the dish. If all of the fete is mixed in, it turns red from the harissa and isn’t as pretty as the bright white fete.

It is a delicious way to enjoy zucchini that is so bountiful this time of year. The dish would make a great side for a buffet or to take to a pot luck because it doesn’t need to be piping hot when served. Best of all it is quick and easy to put together, but makes you look like an Iron Chef!

I am on a bit of a rhubarb kick, so I was very happy to make this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection picked by Amanda from Sprinkles on a Cupcake. When ever I make a cobbler, or crisp for that matter, I am surprised at how easy and delicious they are. I am not sure why they don’t remain front and center in my dessert mind. I guess my love for cakes and chocolate work just seems to push the humble cobbler aside, but once again I am reminded that cobblers are fantastic and I should be making them more often.

photo by David Peterman

I thought it would be nice to have picnic cobblers by making them in individual muffin paper molds. I was very pleased with how well it worked, though it was necessary to use two paper molds for each cobbler otherwise a lot of liquid seeped out. The bottoms were a bit sticky, but I think it is a nice presentation none-the-less. I found I needed to fill the cups almost full as the topping doesn’t rise a great deal and because of the small containers I cut the fruit smaller than Dorie instructs. Dorie’s recipe fills about eight of the tall brown paper muffin cups.

I think there is a great fear of rhubarb and sugar is the coping mechanism;generally so much sugar that all the wonderful characteristics of the rhubarb are completely obliterated. No so with this cobbler. The rhubarb was allowed to shine in all its tartness and glory. The cherries added a wonderful contrast in flavor and texture that was easy to distinguish thanks to the restrained use of sweetener. The addition of whole wheat flour to the topping added a nice depth of flavor and the touch of ginger was a perfect accent to both the filling and topping.

Beyond the individual portioning I made very few changes to the recipe. I used whole wheat pastry flour rather than standard whole wheat flour because that is what I had on hand, and the softer flour seemed like a good way to ensure a tender topping. I also dipped into my stash of ginger sugar to sprinkle on the topping before baking them. Ginger sugar is as complicated as saving the sugar at the bottom of a bag of crystallized ginger. It is great stuff, don’t toss it out!

I agree with Dorie’s comment that the cobbler is best served warm. The fruit is fine at room temperature or even chilled, but the biscuits really need to be a little warm to be truly satisfying. One other great thing about cobbler is it makes a darn fine breakfast. What? It’s fruit and a biscuit.

As with all the Tuesday with Dorie recipes, you can find this in Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

A perfect nibble for summer entertaining. The creamy avocado plays so perfectly against the bright tart flavor of grapefruit and rhubarb. Grapes chime in with a sweet note and a toasty crunch from almonds adds a little contrast. The bite-sized salad is brought together with the peppery bite of watercress and the cool crunch of the cucumber round. It looks and tastes like summer!

photo by David Peterman

The cucumber round as a delivery vehicle was a revelation inspired by the pressure of a ticking clock. The first time I made a salad hors d’oeuvre similar to this one, I rolled the salad in long thin strips of cucumber “noodles” and speared each one with a toothpick to keep them closed.  What a slow process that was. As I was madly preparing this salad to take to a friend’s party, I had to accept the fact that I would miss the entire event if I tried to roll the salad in strips of cucumber. I really hate to settle for a less-than option, and was quite pleased when “cucumber rounds” popped into my head. Initially I thought it was a reasonable substitute to the cucumber roll, but I am now of the opinion it is a superior presentation and I will forever save myself the effort of rolling spoon-fulls of salad in cucumber strips. 

The cucumber round allows the beautiful salad ingredients to dazzle your eyes before it even hits your palate. It can also be quickly assembled on-site when taking the canapes to a party, which is always better than trying to transport an assembled tray of hors d’oeuvres.

Deborah Madison, in her book Local Flavors, Cooking and Eating From America’s Farmer’s Markets, has a lovely avocado grapefruit salad with pomegranates and pistachios that is part of the inspiration behind my salad canapes. Additionally, earlier this year I had the good fortune to eat at Charlie Trotter’s new restaurant in Las Vegas, Restaurant Charlie, and enjoyed a wonderful asparagus, rhubarb, and nasturtium salad. The rhubarb was cut into long thin ribbons and pickled. It was delicious and made me realize I had never had rhubarb in a savory application, so I decided I needed to start playing around with rhubarb in applications beyond desserts. My Avocado Grapefruit Salad Canapes are the result of these two experiences. I hope you make them for a party this summer.

Avocado Grapefruit Salad Canapes
2 thin ribs of rhubarb
1 small red onion
2 grapefruit
1 avocado
1 cup seedless red grapes
1 bunch watercress
2 medium to large cucumbers
1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted
3 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
3 Tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. water
1/4 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Slice the red onion and rhubarb very thinly and place in a small bowl with the white wine vinegar, seasoned rice vinegar, and water. Mix the ingredients together, then place in the refrigerator for about an hour to marinate.

Cut the peel and pith off of the grapefruits. Carefully cut between the membrane sections to remove the wedges of grapefruit pulp leaving behind the membrane. Cut the grapefruit sections into small pieces and place in a medium bowl. Peel and cut the avocado into small pieces (about 1/4″-1/3″ cubes) and add them to the bowl with the grapefruit. Slice the grapes into quarters and add them to the bowl along with the toasted almonds.

To make the dressing, place the orange juice in a small bowl and whisk in the olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Wash and dry the watercress and remove any thick stems. Cut the bulk of the stems off, but don’t worry about using some of the stems. Rough chop the leaves and remaining stems by cutting through the watercress just two or three times. The watercress should be in larger pieces than the other ingredients that have been chopped. Add it to the bowl of chopped ingredients.

Slice the cucumbers into rounds thick enough to be stable when picked up, about 1/8″ thick. Set aside for assembly.

Drain the onion and rhubarb then add it to the bowl of chopped ingredients. Add the dressing and toss everything together. Taste salad and add additional salt and pepper if desired.

Place a spoon-full of salad on each cucumber round just before serving.

Chocolate pudding is the happiest dessert there is. With the first spoonful conversation inevitably ceases as my full attention is drawn to concentrating on every rich creamy bite. I blissfully drift off to a happy place thoroughly savoring the smooth luxuriousness until the clinking of the spoon on the dish fores me to accept the fact that nothing more can be scraped from the bowl.

The happiness being whipped up in the kitchens of the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers this week is thanks to the excellent selection from Melissa of It’s Melissa’s Kitchen. You can find Dorie’s delicious Chocolate Pudding recipe in her wonderful book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

What is unique about this chocolate pudding is the process rather than the ingredients. Milk, cocoa powder, sugar, cornstarch, eggs, chocolate, butter and vanilla; no surprises here. The method of mixing with a food processor both before and after the thickening process is what is interesting. Dorie’s rational is that working in some air during the processing phase creates a lighter and highly velvety texture. I concur. This is a luxurious pudding. It has good chocolate flavor and an outstanding texture. It will make you happy on the inside!

Before diving into making this recipe I was thinking about how to serve it up and I really wanted some whipped cream as a garnish, but had none. Not wanting to make a special trip to the store I spotted some sour cream in the back of the fridge and I had an instant flashback to the Strawberries Romanoff dessert that was served in a restaurant I worked in as a teenager. I recall the Romanoff sauce was just sour cream blended with some brown sugar and it was stunningly delicious.

I figured brown sugar sweetened sour cream and chocolate pudding would get along just fine together. Add a touch of cinnamon and it would be a sure thing. A quick glance at the sour cream, whew, it’s not expired. On with the sauce-de-improvisation.

Many versions of Romanoff sauce are a combination of sour cream and whipping cream, but if you have been paying attention you know that I don’t have any whipping cream. I have seen versions that add a splash of booze, orange flavoring, and different spices. Here is my version that is deliciously successful on chocolate pudding and summer-fresh strawberries.

Romanoff Sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Vigorously whisk the ingredients together until the brown sugar dissolves. Add additional cinnamon to suit your taste. Chill to set, then serve a generous dollop on chocolate pudding or fresh strawberries.

I love visiting New York City, so I thought I had a pretty good baseline for the crowds and pace of city life as David and I headed off for a business trip and a few days of exploring in Hong Kong. Hong Kong re-set my reference point for city life and I now know what a crowded sidewalk is. Add pouring rain and all the people on the sidewalk each with an umbrella; that’s an experience! 

Hong Kong is a spectacular city. For as modern and fast-paced as the city is, woven between the sky scrapers and chic shopping malls is a traditional Chinese culture and way of life. It appears that the Hong Kong people move between what seems to me to be two worlds without even blinking an eye. From a six-level mall with every top cosmetic and fashion brand available you can walk just a block and be in an open market with tiny jam-packed stalls selling everything from fruits and vegetables, live fish, and dried herbs to butchered meat hanging on display in the heat of the day. It was an amazing experience.

The food in Hong Kong is fantastic. I especially enjoyed the myriad of street stalls and the noodle shops at the infamous night market. Starting off with one of my favorite bites, the fish balls, or octopus balls in the case of the sampling I had. It is a rather sweet batter that has a variety of vegetables and octopus pieces mixed in. They are golden crispy on the exterior, but soft and moist inside. Brown and white sauces were drizzled over the top and a sprinkling of seaweed strips completed the dish. It was so delicious and the most amazing part was the cost of about $2.00 US.

During my pre-trip planning I read about a Hong Kong style waffle, Gei Dan Jai, that sounded so interesting it was on my list of items to track down. It was not a difficult item to find as they are sold at many of the street-front food stands. They are quite thin and very crisp on the outside with a little layer of doughy-creamy texture on the inside, but the bubbles are hollow. The stand I visited (more than once) offered  chocolate or vanilla. They are not overly sweet and were a bit reminiscent of a waffle cone. The batter is very thin and poured from the pitcher into a two piece mold that is then closed and flipped around to distribute the batter. To my thrill and excitement I found the kitchen supply store section of Hong Kong (Shanghai street) and was able to purchase my very own waffle iron. The only hitch is I have no recipe for the batter, but I have managed to find a few online. My first test recipe wasn’t quite right, but experimenting until I come up with a waffle that resembles what I ate is a challenge I fully accept.

Coffee milk tea sounds very odd, but is so delicious. From what I know this drink is also rather unique to Hong Kong. It is served both hot and cold and now that I have been home it has become my new morning beverage.

I almost missed experiencing the pizza. We were walking along a little street not far from our hotel and I barely glanced at the food in being sold from a tiny hole-in-the-wall spot, but a newspaper clipping hanging on the wall next to the food display caught my attention with the word “pizza.” I stopped, backtracked, and glanced over the article describing, well, raving about, this Northern-Chinese Pizza. I believe the dough is what associates this pizza with the Northern region of China. I made my purchase after establishing that the topping was pork and we continued our walk. As I savored this absolutely delicious pizza I was feeling very pleased with myself for making this spontaneous purchase. The crust was very tender with a slight sweetness and the kind of crispy crunch that makes pizza so satisfying. The flavors were a world away from Italian pizza, but the gastronomic satisfaction was every bit as high as a perfect Italian pizza.

A few other places we ate fantastic food:

Mak’s Noodle Ltd. 77 wellington Street, Central, H.K. This is a very famous noodle house and according to a news article placed under the glass of our table Anthony Bourdain recently visited filming an episode of No Reservations.

Yung Kee Restaurant 32-40 Wellington Street, Central, H.K. This is a restaurant very famous for their roast duck. It was delicious! We were told we could probably get a table if we arrived by 6:00-6:15 p.m. and sure enough we got right in. By the time we left, the place was packed with a huge number of people waiting for tables, so go early!

The Metropolitan Park Hotel, Kowloon is a very nice, extremely reasonable hotel in a great location. It is in Mongkok, near subway and train stations, Night Market, Ladies Market, very large wet market, and away from the general tourist crowds. Splurge for the executive room if you can and the buffet breakfast is very good (both Chinese and American food).

Enough for now. Soon I will post about the day I spent at Martha Sherpa’s Cooking School!

I have just returned from Hong Kong and what better way to embrace being home than by making a blueberry pie? I think it is even more all-American than apple pie. It is my all-time favorite pie and the version in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours is classic and perfect.

The local berries haven’t quite hit yet in the Northwest, so I turned to the freezer selection and went with one bag of wild blueberries and one bag of standard farmed blueberries. The wild berries are tiny little gems that gave my pie a fantastic texture. The filling was beautifully set and though flour was used as a thickener, I think the smaller berries played a big part in the structural integrity of the pie.

Though Dorie’s pie stays true to the berrie by only adding a bit of lemon, sugar and a pinch of salt, the enlightening aspect of the recipe is in the use of breadcrumbs. No soggy bottom crust here! Plain breadcrumbs sprinkled over the crust before adding the filling - brilliant!

Though Dorie didn’t venture into the spice cabinet for this pie, I couldn’t help myself. I added a quarter-size piece of crystallized ginger, snipped into very fine threads, to the berries and sprinkled the crust with crystallized ginger sugar. If you haven’t been collecting the ginger sugar at the bottom of the container of crystallized ginger you are missing out! It is wonderful to use when you want to sprinkle on a touch of flavor.

Thanks to Amy of South in Your Mouth who made the recipe selection for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking group; I have been in pie heaven! I have only shared two slices of this pie. I am going to go have more pie now.