First Flavor of Fall ~ APPLES!

Well, as inevitably happens every year, fall is once again upon us. I particularly love this time of year when the weather turns cooler, Thanksgiving is just around the corner and the fall produce starts coming into season.

One of my favorite autumnal items is the apple. It can be incorporated into sweet dishes, savory dishes, side dishes and main courses. This fall fruit has no limits. In fact, there are over 7500 cultivars of apples, each unique in texture, flavor and practicality.

The apple is known for its role as the forbidden fruit, but in recipes there is nothing forbidden about it. I was recently challenged with finding several uses for the mountain of apples conglomerating on my dining table and I diligently set about this task. I started off with apple sauce which is an easy and delicious way to use up a bunch of apples, especially ones that are slightly bruised.

All I do for the sauce is dice up the apples, put them in a pot with a bit of water (about 2 cups) and let it simmer until soft (stirring often). After about 30-40 minutes the apples are falling apart, but if they need a little help, I break out the hand blender and whiz it to perfect consistency.

The best thing about apple sauce is that's it's great on its own, but it can also be used as a fat substitute in many baking recipes. But now that you've made a huge vat of apple sauce, how are you going to use it all before it goes bad?!?! By freezing it of course! You can freeze apple sauce in rigid plastic containers or ziploc baggies in 1 cup (or any amount you typically use) amounts and just thaw when you're ready to use. That way you have fresh, homemade apple sauce at your beck and call.



My most sinful apple concoction was what I call French Toast Tatin. It's a combination of French toast and the French tart Tatin, made with apples, butter and brown sugar. I layered freshly baked Challah bread (an eggy bread very similar to the French brioche) dipped in a light egg wash onto the plate and drizzled apples sauted in butter and
brown sugar on top. Then, I cooked down the remaning butter and brown sugar to form a syrup. The result was falltastic and I will definitely be repeating it for a future brunch party.
To make your own: See below for the Challah recipe, but you can buy it at a bakery...as well as the rest of the french toast recipe.

RECIPE

Challah

3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 more egg separated
4 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup water

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl if doing by hand) mix together the two eggs plus one egg yolk, water and melted butter.
Add in the flour mixture. Kneed 5 minutes (10 minutes if kneeding by hand).
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and let rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours (until doubled in size).
Press down lightly on the dough to degas and let rise again for 45 minutes.
Divide the loaf into a large piece and a small piece (the small piece being about 1/2 the size of the larger piece) and divide each of these pieces into three.
Roll out the thirds of the larger piece into 16" strands and braid them together.
Do the same with the thirds of the smaller pieces. Place the smaller braid atop the larger braid.
Brush the loaf with the remaining egg white and let rise for 60 minutes (until increased in size by a third). In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Bake the loaf in the bottom third of the oven for 20-25 minutes.
Cool the loaf on a cooling rack until completely cool.

Pommes Tatin (or sauteed apples)

Three apples sliced into 1/2 inch thick slices
1 stick (12 tbsp) butter
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Melt butter on medium high heat.
once the butter starts to brown, add the apples slices and coat in butter.
Sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the apples and mix in.
Saute the apples until golden brown and tender to a fork.
Top your favorite french toast recipe (or pancakes) with this apple goodness and enjoy!

SLOW ~Anatomy of a meal in the Santa Ynez Valley

Last Sunday, Full of Life Flatbread hosted an inspired and inspiring culinary event. It was their first ever private dinner and everything, I mean everything, centered around local produce. The reason for celebration was the recent release of Douglas Gayeton’s photographic journey in book form – “Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town”. Gayeton’s photo montage follows him through a food culture with a rich history and the farmers entrenched in thousands of years of tradition.

Doublas Gayeton's Book and reason for celebration

Those of you who know me, know of my fondness for Flatbread’s cuisine. Their attention to sustainability as well as uncanny prowess for surprising and delicious flavor combinations made substantially from locally-sourced ingredients never fails to astound me. I knew from the get go that this event would tickle my taste buds, what I didn’t know was that my taste buds would never quite be the same.

Clark, owner of Flatbread, and his staff set out to create a culinary experience both inspired by the book’s implicit philosophies and the local ingredient offerings of the Santa Ynez Valley, where Flatbread resides. Just as the book takes us behind the scenes of a meal – to where the ingredients came from and the people behind the harvest - Flatbread’s feast would make us sit back and ponder the dish’s process, beyond the fork to mouth relationship.

Enhancing the experience even further was the motley crew of diners, thrown together in a family-style setting, breaking bread with stranger and family alike. There were winemakers, fashion designers, family folk, magazine publishers and retired horse ranchers. The single commonality between all 28 guests was an undeniable and passionate love for good food.

We were a tough crowd and Clark had a challenge ahead of him if he was to wow us all. He was ready and packing some heat though, starting us off with beautiful table set in rustic simplicity adorned with homemade breadsticks, San Luis Obispo-grown breakfast radishes, fresh butter and salted almonds. Palmina Winery was there, pouring profusely throughout the meal and started us off with their Malvasia Bianca (2008).

The Splendid Table

Once the guests had settled into their seats and the author had arrived (post-toddler incident), Clark served up some of the largest figs I have ever seen. The figs were roasted to gooey perfection and topped with smoked blue cheese and bacon. I could have stopped here and been completely, utterly, abundantly satisfied (they were so good I took a second, despite having five more courses to go), but the Flatbread crew was having none of it…

Roasted figs - a love affair begins...

Next came the coal-roasted artichokes and pumpkin pisto. Pisto is similar to a ratatouille, a veggie stew if you will, and this one was surprisingly delightful. The juxtaposition of fresh artichoke and hearty pumpkin was stunning, especially when dipped in a bit of the roasted garlic romesco (garlicky goodness in oil). This dish was accompanied by Palmina’s Tocai Fruilano (2008), offering crisp flavor to even out the richness of the dish.

Pisto of pumpkin, fall is here

After this course Chrystal, co-owner of Palmina, stood up and offered up her take on wine’s place at the table. My favorite thing that she said is that “wine is part of the table, it’s an extension of the plate” – I found this statement to be resoundingly true both in practicality and imagery. Throughout the course of the dinner, Palmina’s wines stayed true to this adage, not acting simply as a tag-along flavor, but actually infusing their own flavors into the meal’s nuances.

Next up, was the wild arugula salad with proscuitto and potted egg. The combination of bitter arugula, salty proscuitto, creamy egg was subtle, but rich and paired perfectly with Flatbread’s “Shaman’s Bread”, a pistachio, rosemary and flax seed flatbread used for dipping in the egg. Palmina pulled out the stops for this course, serving their Nebiolo (2005 - the only nebiolo grapes grown in California).

Eggs in pots - delicious!

And, yes, another dish followed that one, this time Whey-fed Rinconada Pork leg, slow-roasted in Flatbread’s oak-burning pizza oven and served with a fennel seed sauce, pomegranate and roasted grapes. Now, I have never thought to pair pork with grapes – prunes, plums and other stone fruit yes, but grapes?!?! And I have to tell you, the combination was exquisite, especially when punctuated with sips of Palmina Barbera (2007).

Palmina's bounty

Next up we had a cheese plate of local Rinconanda Pozo Tomme and other Chaparral Cheeses. Cheese plate accoutrements included paper-thin persimmon slices, Santa Ynez valley sage honey with black pepper and whole honey comb. Though I am a die-hard cheese lover, it was getting difficult to fit anything else in…but don’t worry, I managed a few slices of these semi-hard cheeses which were heaven when dipped in the honey with black pepper.

The cheese plate, certainly not to be missed

And not to be outdone by the other courses, dessert came out in all its goat milk resplendence. On the plate was a scoop of each chocolate and vanilla goat milk ice cream, surrounded by a moat of Cajeta sauce (a caramel made from goat’s milk) and poached figs. Though I was full, I was not so full that I didn’t lick the buttery Cajeta sauce off my plate…yes, it is that good.

Goat, goat and more goat

Though flirting with a food coma, at the end of the meal I was still conscious enough to appreciate the words of Steve Clifton, Palmina’s other owner, where he told us about the uniqueness of Italian varietals found in California wines. He claimed that producing Italian wines here is like “translating an Italian phrase into English, it will undoubtedly change in mean and context through the process.” I liked this idea of taking on age-old traditions and making them our own – though still paying homage to the foundations that make them so good, but also allowing for renaissance and revitalization.

The author and storyteller at work, flatbread oven in background

After this meal, I certainly found myself revitalized, though slightly ruined because every subsequent meal for the following few days left me unsatisfied. However, I was inspired to rethink my own kitchen and its products and to seriously ponder the farms and farmers who work to put food on my grateful table.

Banana meet Rosemary

My genius friend Heather had another of her genius ideas (or maybe she stole it from elsewhere, but who cares?!)...the random ingredient-inspired food club.

The idea is this: randomly pick out of a hat one fruit or vegetable and one spice or herb. Then, all invitees must make a dish with at least one of the selected ingredients (in my book, you get serious kudos if you manage to work in both).

Naturally, my first inclination was banana cream pie. I had all of these fanciful ideas of fresh bananas, shortbread crust and a subtle, but invigorating rosemary whipped cream. But then I thought, everyone is going to make dessert given how sweet bananas are, I should go for the extra challenge of making something savory out of bananas!

So, Chicken in Banana Curry here I came. I found the preliminary recipe on Food & Wine's website and then seriously doctored it up, adding coconut milk and some extra veggies for color and crunch (see recipe below).















The result was surprisingly tasty and unique. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was my favorite curry, but it was good. I don't know that I would have liked the recipe as it read out of the magazine however, as I think the coconut milk was key for creaminess.

If you're looking for something exotic, with Caribbean flavors and you want to make your guests say "banana, really?!?!" then this is certainly a recipe you should try.

RECIPE

Caribbean-style Banana Curry

2-3 medium-ripe bananas, cut into pieces
1 can coconut milk
1.5 Tbsp curry powder
2 tsp ground coriander
zest of 2 limes
2 Tbsp lime juice
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 chicken breasts cut into bit-sized pieces (can use whole breasts if desired)
1 medium onion, sliced
2 cups of green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, diced

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Place bananas, half the can coconut milk, curry powder, coriander, lime zest, lime juice, salt & pepper into a blender (or food processor) and blend until pureed. Place the chicken into a roasting pan with onion, green beans and bell pepper. Cover with the curry sauce. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Stir the remaining half of the can of coconut milk into the sauce (remove the chicken from the pan if using whole breasts). Serve over rice and garnish with cilantro.

Enjoy! And stay tuned for next month's challenge - Sweet Potato and Cumin

Culinary Canoeing

Every couple of years we do an amazing canoe trip on the Trinity river at the very upper most edge of California. It is a week of sublime wilderness, adventurous rapids and frolicking with such wildlife as black bears, steelhead trout and crayfish the size of my fist. Pure bliss.

In the past food was rustic at best...farm mac (mac n cheese with hot dogs), pasta with pre-made sauce, etc. But this year, to my delight, we brought along a group of real foodies and together we made this the most gourmet trip down the Trinity in recorded history.

Though it is possible to pull out and hike to nearby towns to replenish supplies, our first-time canoeing companions took no risk of not finding what they'd like to eat. Large coolers were stuffed to the gills with tri-tip, butcher-made italian sausages, eggs, hash browns, gourmet espresso, and this list goes on and on. Oh, but I can't forget about the SIX pounds of bacon (meaning there was a pound per person to consume on the trip)!!!

Priorities

Breakfasts consisted of standard eggs, bacon, and so on, which kept us well fueled for the day's rapids. It was dinners, however, that were the real masterpiece, making dishes so good it was hard to believe we were on a river, in the middle of nowhere.

Breakfast of Champions (champion canoers that is)

The first night we cooked up the tri-tip and made the requisite garlic bread and baked beans to accompany it. I had also brought along some of my freshly made oven-dried tomatoes and homemade pesto, so we whipped together a nice pasta salad. Basically, you get the gist - we ate like kings and queens.

The second night we grilled and shredded some chicken breasts and mixed them in with refried beans and pepper jack cheese. We also made some fresh guacamole with the avocados that Kevin and Amy had just picked at home. Wrap all this up in a corn tortilla and it was so good, my mouth is watering now.

Though I could keep describing meals from this trip in great detail, there are two dishes that hold a special place in my heart. One was the birthday brownies we made for Thomas' birthday using my awesome Outback Oven (yes, an oven that you can use on your camp stove and can bake scone, breads, pizza, etc - sooooo great). They were perfectly done and gooey - not burnt on the bottom at all like I feared they might be.

The second is a nice little hors d'oeuvre we made from the fresh trout that Coop caught. It was amazing. We had a little assembly line going where the fish came out of the water, got cleaned, thrown on the pan and fried and finally composed into a very tasty morsel consisting of a wheat thin, a dollop of homemade pesto and a nice little chunk of freshly caught and fried trout.










This is a bite that I would definitely replicate in my own kitchen!

The beautiful (and tasty) bounty!

RECIPE

Easy-Peasy Pesto

3 cups basil
1/2 cup parmasan
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the basil, parmasan and pine nuts in the food processor. Drizzle in the olive oil while processor is running. Add salt and pepper to taste - and you're done! I like to put individual servings of pesto into little sandwich bags and freeze them.

My favorite thing about it is that you can get creative and switch out ingredients to make more imaginative and adventurous flavors. You can replace the basil with arugula, spinach or cilantro and you can replace the pine nuts with pecans or walnuts.

The Great Wedding Cake Experiment - The Final Hour

After three trial runs and several changes made it was time to pack up my 4 jars of Trader Joe's Cherry Preserves and large baking pans and hit the road...or the air and fly to the East Coast.

I can only imagine what the the TSA officials thought when they scanned my bag but I'm imagining it went something a little like this: "She's either a terrorist or has some REALLY strange fetishes." Nonetheless, we made it to the cabin in Lake Chateauguay (what, you've never heard of it?!?! I would have thought for sure you would know one of the 50 people who live there!). The only casualty was one of the jars of preserves had unleashed its wrath in my suitcase.

Luckily, nearby town of Plattburg has a Sam's Club (very similar to a Costco) and I was able to purchase many of the necessities in bulk. Given that I was going to be making 8 batches of cake batter and about 10 pounds of cream cheese frosting - almost everything needed to be bought in these quantities.

The bride had graceously set aside a specific cabin for baking purposes and I set up shop the day before the wedding to get all of the cake layers done. She also shleped up her aunt's kitchenaid mixer (THANK YOU!) so I didn't have to hand mix everything, let me tell you now that this was a blessing.

Because I only had one cake pan for each layer size, this was going to be a slow process. I started out with the 15" layers, which take up a whole oven anyway. When the first layer came out it was plainly evident that the house was not level and, hence, neither was the oven. Each layer came out slightly thicker on one side. Luckily, because there were three layers, I was confident that we could arrange them to be level.

7 hours and 6 layers baked later the bottom fell out. I had been doubling the batter recipe for efficiency and took stock of my ingredients as I was about to begin the 9" layer. I asked myself "hmmm why do I have so much butter leftover?" and then I realize, I hadn't doubled the butter. OH MY GOD!!!!!!

Luckily, one of the 12" layers was a little taller than the rest, so I shaved off a bit and tasted it. It was surprisingly fluffy and not too dry. It seemed that using less butter actually solved the desity problem that made the cake resemble pound cake. yay!

The cake was a tad bit dry for my liking so the next morning I pricked each layer full of holes and made a butter and cherry syrup to brush over each layer, this seemed to moisten it nicely.

Next came the frosting. If you've ever been to Costco, you may be familiar with the 3 pound bricks of cream cheese they sell there. Well, I used three of these in the frosting! I love the addition of a touch of almond extract to this, it complimented the tanginess of the cream cheese nicely.















Putting the layers together...


Putting the layers together was another challenge. After spreading the marzipan and cherry preserves on top of each layer, it was time to stack. We stacked the 15" layers and then frosted it thoroughly. Next came the 12" layer and we tried to get it as centered as possible, then it got frosted. By the time we came to the 9" layer, the gravitational forces of the house were at work again - not only was the oven slanted, but so was the table: the 15" layer began collapsing on the slanted side due to the weight of the other layers. AAAAHHHH!

Luckily we were able to right it and all was well and we also had 4 custom cut dowels waiting to secure the layers together once they were all in place. The funny thing about the dowels that I definitely had not thought about beforehand was that the bottom layers were so weighed down by the layers they were supporting that little dowel nubbins stuck out. No problem though! I happened to have a mess of fresh cherries for just such an occasion that we made a nice little pile of right on top of the peaking dowel heads.

Next we dropped rose petals over the whole thing and used locally picked ferns (picked by thomas) to decorate the bottom. It turned out lovely and the petals even matched the reception napkins!

Thankfully, my friends kicked me off the cake transporatation committee, alleviating me of the stress that would involve. It took 4 people to move it (it was heavy!), but one it sat on the table...it actually looked like a wedding cake and tasted even better!

The finished product!

RECIPE

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

2 cups cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar plus more if needed
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

In a standing mixer* with the paddle attachment on, beat together all of the ingredients until thoroughly mixed and of a whipped consistency. If frosting is too soft, add more powdered sugar.

*If you don't have a standing mixer, you can use a hand mixer

Mission accomplished - what's the next challenge?!?!

The Great Wedding Cake Experiment - Practice Makes Perfect

My hand, as compared to a 15" cake layer

I have always loved a challenge. So, when my old college friends Jared and Sara phoned me up and said they were getting married a little alarm went off in my head...maybe I could make their cake?!?! Could I do it? Would it be a success?

Before I knew what I was doing, I had volunteered and was spouting out potential flavor choices. The poor bride and groom had no choice at this point but to accept my offer and we went forward from there.

Originially, I had anticipated on making two three tiered cakes each a different flavor. Fortuitously, the party guests weren't quite as many as anticipated and I was spared this insane undertaking, and only ended up making on cake with three tiers in only one flavor.

Once the mission was undertaken, it sunk in that I actually had NO idea how to bake a wedding cake, so good ole google to the rescue. I spent an afternoon looking at online wedding cake recipes just to get an idea of ingredient proportions and then actually just made one of my favorites - the vanilla layer cake from The Best Recipe.

I then started practicing, because practice makes perfect right? At least I hoped so because I started focusing on how perfect all of the wedding cakes at all of the weddings I'd been to had looked.

My first practice run was just a flavor trial. I was attempting vanilla cake with cherry preserves and homemade marzipan in between the layers and wasn't quite sure what kind of frosting yet, but it had to be something that withstood the dreadfully hot upstate New York heat.

The cake flavors turned out delicious and I decided that I needed to do a frosting with cream cheese for extra thickness and ability to withstand the heat.

The next trial run involved comparing cake flour to regular flour. The recipe calls for cake flour...but I wanted to see for myself what the real difference was. Turns out the cake flour actually made the cake kind of "pancake-y", so I got to stick to the regular unbleached all-purpose which is both more readily available AND cheaper - a cherry on top.

The last trial cake was to figure out how many batches it would take to make a 15 inch tier, a 12 inch tier and a 9 inch tier, each with three layers. My cake testers this time around (mom and boyfriend) both agreed that the cake too closely resembled pound cake. But, alas, we departed for the East Coast in a mere two days and I wasn't going to start messing with the cake at this point.

RECIPE

Marzipan

2 cups blanched almonds
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp almond extract
3 - 8 tbsp water

In a food processor, pulse the almonds until finely ground. Add in the powdered sugar and almond extract. With the food processor running add one tbsp of water at a time until you have a thick, pliable paste. Be careful not to add too much water or your marzipan will be too gooey. If this happens add more almonds (already ground!) and powdered sugar.

*This is the recipe I used for in between the cake layers, but the marzipan was too thick the way this recipe is written. To make the marzipan more spreadable, I slowly drizzled in some half and half with the food processor on until I had reached my desired consistency.

Healthy Pie #1: results are in!

So, the first healthy pie met its slicey finish and was not, altogether, a failure. In fact I think that a few tweaks would make it rather good indeed.

The crust was a little on the salty side, but was otherwise very tasty. I am definitely a fan of the whole wheat crust and I think it would add a tremendous amount to a savory crust-needing dish like quiche or pot pie.

I think that the whole experience was a little tarnished by the fact that I simply not a big fan of apple pie, which this one was. Next time I will definitely try with berries (my favorite pie filling) and report back.

Here's a thought for the day: If pie were healthy, would people still eat it?