LtDan'sKitchen.com

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Peaches

I grew to love peaches quite late although I still have a love/hate relationship with the fruit. The first time I had them was when I was about 7 years old. My uncle who works for the customs brought us a couple of canned peaches as a present for the family and everyone loved them except for me. To me, they were slimy and nasty and reminded me of snot so I spat it out. It was not until I was in high school when imported canned fruit cocktail invaded our grocery stores that I was reintroduced to them. By then, I have overcome my prejudice and through peer pressure, I grew to love them. During my time in Atlanta, the capital of the peach state Georgia, peaches were in abundance but I could never find the right time to buy them when they are gloriously ripe. You either find them too young or too ripe. The only time I ever bought fresh peaches that were perfectly ripe was in Florida but even then, that single moment of luck was never repeated.

Peach Cobbler or Peach Melba are probably the two most common ways of using peach in a dessert but I am more partial to Peach Charlotte Russe or Peaches and Cream. Both desserts are fairly similar since the latter was derived from the former as my way to present the dish in the more familiar cake form. Peach Charlotte is very similar to the Mango Ice Box cake from back home where the cake base are ladyfingers sandwiched by a cream-based frosting and slices of fresh fruits (be it peaches or mangoes). The discovery of the Charlotte came about due to my frustration with the mangoes available here in the US. Most come from Mexico and although they look similar, the flavor and texture are quite different. You always end up with something that is very stringy and is never sweet, definitely not suitable for making cakes unlike their counterparts back home. The closest and most available substitute for this elusive ingredient is the canned peach.

Charlotte Russe is usually assembled in a springform pan to form a round cake using precisely pieced ladyfingers and surrounded by more ladyfingers in a picket fence design, sometimes tied with a ribbon to finish off the cake. The parts of the cake are held together by a cream custard mousse and flavored with fresh or canned peach slices. It is very much an Easter or a spring cake. I personally don't do it this way since it is a bit too frou-frou and instead opting a simpler version by assembling it in a 9x13 baking pan. If you intend to give it away as a gift though, I think that the original form of the cake will be the perfect way to present it. I just think that without the ribbon, this whole cake will fall apart so I never make it as such.

Peaches and Cream came about as my way to translate the flavors of the Charlotte but in cake form. Since I need more stability for the cake, I prefer to use a sponge or a chiffon cake as the cake base with pastry cream as the glue that holds both the cake and the fruit filling together. I use the same cream custard mousse to finish off the cake and the overall effect is similar to that of another favorite from back home, the Crema de Fruta cake. As a side note, for those who have access to really good mangoes, switch out the peaches for the mangoes and I think you will have a winner for your next dinner party.

*Charlotte Russe with Peaches - Adapted

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1 cup milk

4 eggs separated

½ cup sugar

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp vanilla extract

2 cups heavy cream, whipped

2 batches of ladyfingers, recipe follows

2 32 oz canned peach slices

1. To make the cream custard mousse, soften gelatin in milk on top of a

double broiler.

2. Beat the egg yolks and add to milk together with ¼ cup sugar and the

salt. Cook over simmering water, stirring constantly, until mixture is

thickened and smooth. Stir in vanilla. Cool, stirring occasionally to

prevent crust from forming.

3. Beat egg whites until foamy. Beat in the remaining sugar, 1 tablespoon

at a time.

4. Fold egg whites and 2 cups whipped cream into the custard mixture.

5. Arrange a tight layer of ladyfingers in a 9x13 dish. Pour ¼ of the

custard mixture and top with peach slices. Level the peach slices with

another layer of the custard mixture. Repeat the process until you end

up with a top layer of the custard mixture.

6. Keep cool in the fridge until ready to serve.

**Ladyfingers - Adapted

4 egg whites, large

2/3 cup of sugar

4 egg yolks, large

7/8 cup scant all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 17-inch-by-l2-by-4-inch baking sheets

with baking parchment. Fit large pastry bag with a plain 1/2 inch

round tube.

2. Place egg whites in bowl of electric mixer and whip until soft peaks
    start to form. Slowly add 2 tablespoons of the sugar and continue to
    beat until stiff and glossy. Transfer to another bowl. Add yolks to
    mixer bowl and stir in remaining sugar. Whip until thick and very pale

in color and remove bowl from stand.

3. Sift flour and baking powder together onto a sheet of wax paper.
    Fold half the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Fold in the flour,
    and then fold in the remaining egg whites. Add the vanilla and mix
    just until incorporated. Transfer mixture to pastry bag and pipe out
    onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes or until the tops are

golden brown.

Peaches and Cream

To prepare this cake, I made sponge cake and baked the cake in a 9-in round baking pan and I also used pastry cream flavored with 2 tbsp of rum using the recipes from joyofbaking.com. I also used one recipe of the cream custard mousse as detailed above to frost the cake. To assemble, cut the cooled cake in half crosswise and take the lower layer as the base and spread with half the pastry cream and top with the peach slices. Top with the second layer and repeat the process. Cover the sides with the custard frosting using a spatula and pipe the remaining mousse into rosettes on both the top and lower edges of the cake. Let cool for at least two hours before serving.

*Women's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery Volume 3, Fawcett Publications, Inc., New York, 1966

** www.allrecipes.com

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

1000 views

My blog had just reached a milestone. I have had 1000 views since I started and I figured it is time to celebrate this moment somehow. After all, I never thought that I'd last this long but I did. With about 40 posts and probably about 60 recipes, that's not too bad. This definitely deserves a donut or two! Or maybe, it is time to give in to my urges and indulge in a log of Brazo de Mercedes (arm of Mercedes), a truly macabre-named dessert but is sinfully delicious (see picture).

Thank you to those who keep visiting my blog and here's to 1000 more views and maybe even more recipes.

-Dan

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Trout and Chips

Cedric went fishing a couple of weeks ago and he gave me most of his catch to cook for dinner. Their main catch was brook trout and a couple of rainbow trout. Fresh from a pond close to town, it does not get any better than this. Trout is actually something new to me as the only pond fish I ever learned how to cook is the tilapia. However, unlike the tilapia, trout is very slimy when fresh. It feels almost salamander-like and the scales are very fine. The flesh is slightly pinkish when cooked similar to that of salmon and is quite tasty. It is usually filleted and pan fried in butter but being an Asian, losing the head and the bones is short of sacrilegious to me. So both stayed and the fish was cooked whole.

Inspired by one of the probably most common food in Britain, I made my own version of fish and chips. The fish part are the trout seasoned with salt and pepper and coated with cornflour before pan frying in butter and olive oil. The chips are homemade fries of both regular potato and sweet yams. Seasoned simply with salt and pepper and a bit of paprika, it went well with the fish. To balance the flavor, I made a bastardized version of tartar sauce which I prefer over the original recipe. All in all, it was a simple and satisfying dinner.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Weekday French-Italian Dinner

We had friends over for dinner last night. Nothing special really (except for those who were invited) but it was a dinner planned as a thank you to Jesse for helping me move my larger furniture into the new place and to have additional friends come over and join us for dinner as well. Being it a weeknight, I had to come up with a menu that was easy to prepare without sacrificing the quality and the flavor. Racking through my recipe sources, I decided to start with a warm soup and Escarole and White Bean soup (I was torn between Lidia and Giada's versions of the dish) seemed like a good idea until I realized that escarole is not available right now in my local grocery store. In the end, I had to settle for Julia Child's Cream of Leek and Potato soup with one major modification where I used scallions and a white onion to replace the leeks. I'm not a big fan of leeks, sadly. A very simple soup, you'll be surprised that the only flavoring was salt and pepper and yet the flavor has a subtle complexity. Vegan sour cream (you'll understand why I used the vegan variety in the next paragraph) was added to finish the soup and we were on our way to a good start.

The main course had to serve a dual purpose of serving guests who are meat eaters and a guest who was both vegetarian and lactose intolerant. Browsing through Lidia's recipe collection, I opted for the Tagliatelle with Wild Mushroom Sauce for several reasons. First, the base for the sauce includes olive oil, butter and white wine. The butter was easy to replace with vegan butter sticks and the white wine with vegetable broth since one of the guests is also pregnant. Wild mushrooms are available frozen in my grocery store so that made my life a lot easier. The pasta itself was tagliatelle which I still had extra from the dinner last Sunday so that also saved me some time. To dress the pasta, cheese was needed and once again, rice cheese saved the day. I held off on the pecorino romano that was required and served it alongside the pasta dish for those who didn't have any lactose problems.

For the meat lovers, I went for Lidia's Chicken with Olives and Pine Nuts and I have to say, this dish is very very yummy even I was surprised. The other unusual thing with this dish is how it was prepared. I have never cooked chicken this way but it was quite effective and makes this dish a one pot dish which is an added bonus. Just be patient with it and it you'll be rewarded with an excellent dish that took only about 10 minutes to prepare and the rest of the time was spent leaving it alone while it cooked gently on the stove.

We finished the dinner with three versions of Sophia Loren's tiramisu. One was the regular version, the other was made with Tofutti - better than cream cheese vegan cream cheese and the last one that was alcohol and caffeine free. It was indeed a good way to end a weeknight dinner while looking forward to the weekend coming up ahead. Everyone was pretty tired and ready for bed after dinner so we skipped the after-dinner coffee or tea option. While we started with Chardonnay for the first course and switched to Pinot Noir for the main course, we decided to finish off the open bottle of red before we called it a night. Thank you Lidia, Sophia and Julia for the recipes. It was muy delicioso!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Antipasti - Rice Balls

This was created as a result of trying to salvage extra Bolognese sauce with ingredients that were on hand in the fridge and my cupboard. I think this is one of those really simple dish that presents as something very elaborate to make. It was actually very easy to make and the end result was surprisingly very good. Served as an antipasto, this is definitely something you serve when warm. I served it plain but a good marinara sauce will probably be a good condiment for this delicious morsel.

Based on Lidia's recipe, I followed everything to a tee except for the Bolognese sauce ( I had to add the peas though) as I already have one on hand. I do hope you give it a try. It is very very good albeit a bit messy to make.

Tagliatelle Bolognese

Tagliatelle bolognese is a dish I have made only twice. Once when I was in Atlanta and the second was today. It is a favorite of my friend from Argentina, Ines, who now resides in Montreal. For a pasta dish, it is a fairly involved process so I make it only for special occasions. I also took it a step further and made fresh pasta instead of buying dry tagliatelle which just really enhances the flavor of the dish. I was happy to realize that Lidia actually has a recipe for fresh tagliatelle so I used her recipe and it came out perfectly. A lot of work, but totally worth it.

The main recipe for the bolognese sauce is from Tyler Florence. I have to admit, he seems such a nice guy on TV but I've made a couple of his recipes and they always came out flat. More often than not, his recipes take a lot of work and the flavors are usually just okay. This is an exception to the list of recipes that he authored and one that is fairly good. The trick to making this sauce is to have a lot of time to prepare it. It is better if you can do it the day before you need to serve it as the flavors have the chance to blend and develop. You make way more sauce than you need for the amount of pasta called for in the recipe but you can eat the sauce with a crusty bread and you're set.

*Tagliatelle Bolognese - Adapted

2 oz dried porcini mushrooms

1/4 lb pancetta or slab bacon, finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

2 bay leaves

2 sprigs rosemary

1 1/2 lb ground pork

1 1/2 lb ground beef

2 cups condensed milk

1 (28-oz) can crushed tomatoes

2 cups dry red wine (I used Merlot)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 lb fresh tagiatelle pasta

Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving

1 handful fresh basil leaves

Fresh ricotta cheese

1. Reconstitute the mushrooms in 1 cup hot water for 20 minutes until

tender.

2. Puree the mushrooms (including the liquid), pancetta, onion, celery

stalks, carrots, garlic, together in a blender or food processor.

3. In a heavy-bottomed pot add olive oil, bay leaves, the herbs and cook

gently until fragrant. Add the vegetable puree and continue to cook

for a further 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Raise the heat a bit and add the ground pork and beef; brown until

the meat is no longer pink, breaking up the clumps with a wooden

spoon. Add the milk and simmer until the liquid is evaporated.

5. Carefully pour in the tomatoes, and wine and season with salt and

pepper. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the heat and cover.

Slowly simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring now and then, until the

sauce is very thick. Taste again for salt and pepper.

6. When ready to serve, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add

the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until "al dente". Drain the

pasta well and toss with the Bolognese sauce. If using fresh pasta,

it takes only a few minutes to reach the al dente stage so do keep an

eye on it.

7. Serve with a good scoop of fresh ricotta cheese and garnish with

some shredded basil, grated Parmigiano and a drizzle of olive oil.

* Adapted from Food Network Channel, Tyler's Ultimate:Ultimate Winter Comfort Food episode

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Polpette in Umido

Meatballs are one of my favorites. The only sandwich I eat at Subways is the Italian meatball sub. When I make spaghetti, it has to be with meatballs and large chunks of Italian sausages. I also survived as a graduate student at Michigan State eating 5$ ten pound bags of frozen meatballs cooked a million different ways to avoid hitting the meatball wall. It kind of reminds me when I survived on cans of pork/beef/bacon and beans as a college student by rotating the three different variants. Same goes for the canned Century brand tuna with their asado, adobo, hot and spicy and laing flavors.

Growing up back home in Bacolod, I experimented with numerous recipes of meatballs inspired by the Del Monte kitchen in their Kitchenomics segments on national television. The idea behind this gimmick was to use any Del Monte products in creating dishes that are both nutritionally and economically balanced. One recipe that I tried out was making meatballs with grated cassava an an extender. You basically replace the meat with the starchy and fibrous root crop that is very similar to tofu in that it absorbs any flavors you add on to it. It was quite good I have to say but my cooking adventure ended when I went to college where a functional kitchen was not available for my use. By the time I started working right after graduation, skimping on ingredients was not a big issue anymore but by then, my interest has moved on towards making lasagna.

My current meatball made from scratch recipe is of the Italian flair. I adapted this recipe from an episode of Michael Chiarello's Easy Entertaining show on the episode Retro Italian Feast. Suffice it to say that it has Parmesan and dried italian herbs (thyme, parsley, oregano and basil) added into the mix and is cooked two ways: first by frying and then followed by poaching.

*Meatballs - Adapted

1 lb ground beef

1 large egg

2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil leaves

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup fine dried bread crumbs, Italian flavored

1 clove garlic, minced

Grey salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 cups water

1. In a large bowl, mix together the meat, egg, cheese, parsley,
oregano, thyme, basil, onion, bread crumbs, and garlic, and season
with salt and pepper.

2. Add 1 cup of the water. Knead the water into the meat mixture with
your hands.

3. Knead and roll meatballs into about 1 1/2-inch balls. Fry in a pan in
olive oil over low heat until just browned.

4. Place them in shallow saucepan on a stove and add 1 cup of water
over them, and cover. Turn heat to medium, and steam for 35
minutes.

I served the meatballs as a soup based on Lidia's recipe for Polpette in Umido but I used the recipe above for the meatballs. I just added some chicken broth and topped the soup with shredded cheese and chopped parsley and served with crusty bread. It was a simple yet hearty soup.

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