Saving Fruit

“There are only 10 minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat," said Ralph Waldo Emerson. And I must have missed those precious 10 minutes with the batch that went into these financiers. I did everything they tell you to do — I stored them in a warm place outside of the refrigerator in a paper bag and I checked daily for ripeness, pressing them with my eager fingers, gently at first, near the stem, willing their flesh to give, just a little.

Two weeks passed; no joy.

And so I turned to Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Heaven, within whose pages my absolute favourite recipe for turning bum pears into baby cakes of beauty lay. Browned butter, ground almonds and mellow bits of cooked pear — what’s not to love? In the book’s picture, Ramsey’s financiers are made in cup moulds, yielding tall, cylindrical, seemingly fluffy golden cakes. When I first made them in similar moulds, however, they emerged dense and a tad heavier that I thought they should be. Several experiments later, I have concluded that they turn out best baked in shallow tins like traditional financier moulds or the barquette tins I used for this batch.

These cakes are wonderfully rustic. They are lovely and damp and need nothing more than a good cup of tea, or perhaps, when I’m feeling decadent, a dollop of vanilla or crème fraiche ice cream. They are best eaten the same day they’re made, but if you must, store them in the fridge and warm them in the oven slightly before eating.



Several days later, a pretty, fragrant pineapple appeared with my boxful of organic produce, brimming with such promise. I saved it for the weekend, bringing it to my nose every now and then to sniff its sweet perfume. When I finally skinned it and cut a small chunk out of it, alas, disappointment. It was so tart it made my eyes burn and my gums crawl. Had it not been one of those super busy weeks, I might have grated the lot and turned it into jam, and then maybe, just maybe, pineapple tarts. But as it turns out, it was one of those weeks where my cats are lucky if they get a quick hello before I drop off to sleep. So we saved the slices of pineapple for dessert the next day when we basted it with honey and grilled it till it turned a brilliant shade of gold.



Gordon Ramsey’s Pear Financiers
(adapted from Kitchen Heaven)

Serves 4

125 g unsalted butter
4 pears
165g sugar
25g plain flour
125g ground almonds
4 egg whites

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C/375 degrees F. Melt the butter in a pan over high heat until it starts to go brown and then strain through a fine sieve. Leave to cool. Peel and core the pears and chop them into 1cm dice. Put 75g of the sugar into a warmed pan and heat gently until caramelised. Add the diced pear and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until it just starts to break down. Take out of the pan and leave to cool.

Mix the flour, ground almonds and the remaining sugar in a large bowl. Slowly fold in the egg whites, then stir in the melted butter. Grease your moulds with butter and then dust with flour. Put in the fridge for 10 mins. Combine the almond mixture with the pears, then pour into the moulds. Bake at the top of the oven for 25 mins until golden brown and firm.

One Nutty Chicken

I found this phenomenal recipe while getting a pedicure a few years ago. I have always found that good chicken recipes are hard to come by, so I clipped this out of a Shape magazine while getting a pedi. There seems to be an abundance of grilled chicken recipes that have caught my eye over the past few years, but good baked chicken recipes have been few and far between. If you will be celebrating and entertaining for Rosh Hashanah, I especially recommend this recipe cause of the beautiful apple chutney. This recipe is rich in omega 3 fatty acids from walnuts and fiber from apples and contains almost no saturated fat. The walnuts and panko make a crunchy thin crust around the juicy chicken.

Walnut Crusted Chicken with Apple Chutney
serves 4

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (4 oz each)
s & p
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (also known as panko)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, cut into fine pieces
2 McIntosh apples, cored, peeled & diced
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp minced red onion
2 Tbsp raisins
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425. Coat a large baking sheet with Pam. Flatten chicken breasts with a skillet, meat mallet or a rolling pin- make sure chicken is covered with plastic wrap. Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken. Place flour in a shallow dish, add chicken, coat on both sides. Shake off excess flour. Place beaten egg whites in a shallow dish, add chicken pieces and turn to coat. In a shallow dish, combine walnuts and panko. Press chicken into nutty mix on both sides. Bake chicken for about 17 minutes on your prepared baking sheet.

While the chicken is baking, make your apple chutney by bringing apples, water, red onion, raisins, red wine vinegar and cinnamon to a boil in a sauce pan over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes , until liquid is absorbed. Don't cook too long or prepare the chutney in advance and reheat, it will get mushy.

You can bread the chicken breasts in advance and keep them in the fridge.
This entree tastes great with roasted veggie orzo and fatoush.

Restaurants for Relief

We just got back from a weekend in the deep South. We had a wedding in Cullman, Alabama and it was a real experience for these Yankees!
It was Lee's first time at the Cracker Barrel, we indulged in fluffy biscuits, they were so delicious. My favorite part of the weekend was the wedding cakes. In the South, there are two cakes, a bride's cake and a groom's cake. I wouldn't mind bringing that tradition North! The groom was from New Orleans and his mother is a pastry chef, she made the groom's cake and the flowers on the bride's cake. These cakes were gorgeous and delicious.
Check out the LSU themed cake for the groom...there are tigers on it !
Unfortunately, the groom's parents lost their house & all of her pastry equipment in Katrina. The cakes, to me, symbolized rebirth. After hearing stories of the carnage of Katrina and the effects it had on the groom's friends & family this weekend, it really hit home when I got an email about a "Restaurants for Relief" event. On Tuesday, August 29th, the one year anniversary of Katrina, when you dine at certain restaurants, a % of your meal will go to "Share our Strength" to help with Katrina relief. As part of Share our Strength's mission to end childhood hunger in America, the organization is helping families in the Gulf Coast. The proceeds will go to rebuild school cafeterias, open summer meal programs and provide assistance for affected restaurant employees. Click here to check out the participating restaurants for relief. Our reservation is all set for Tabla on Tuesday night.

Razzmatazz

The recipe for these razzmatazz bars was sent to me by my friend, Talia. It originates from Nestle, clearly a recipe created to sell more Nestle white morsels....I am a victim of corporate marketing. After my friends at work sent me off to get married in May with bags full of gifts from Williams Sonoma, I felt like I needed to give them a return on their investment. I brought these bars to work on Wednesday for a National Accounts meeting and they razzled and dazzled my friends at work. Their comments may have been relative next to the cafeteria food.

Razzmatazz Bars (makes 16 bars)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

2 cups (12 oz package) of Nestle Tollhouse Premier white morsels, divided

2 large eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and sugar a 9 inch square baking pan. Melt butter in medium, microwave safe bowl on high (100%) power for 1 minute; stir. Add 1 cup of morsels, let stand and do not stir.

Beat eggs in your stand mixer until foamy. Add sugar; beat until light lemon colored, about 5 minutes. Stir in morsel-butter mixture. Add flour, salt and almond extract; mix at low speed until combined. Spread 2/3 batter into the pan.

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Remove from oven to wire rack.

Heat jam in small, microwave-safe bowl on high (100%) power for 30 seconds; stir. Spread jam over warm crust. Stir remaining morsels into remaining batter. Drop spoonfuls of batter over jam. Sprinkle with almonds.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until edges are browned. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars, take to office and make new friends at work !

These bars are very rich, full of white chocolate and the taste of raspberry jam with a slight almond infusion.

Jose and I

Yesterday evening, I walked by a liquor store in the village that triggered my memory for a main dish that I love! I wanted to enter Men In Aprons blog carnival of the grill and this is the perfect way to do it. I walked in & bought a flask of Jose Cuervo and here we are....This Barefoot Contessa recipe was shared with me by Geneve Stewart from Geneve's Kitchen in May 2005. I just realized tonight that Geneve was the genius who turned me on to this domestic goddess and it's been love ever since. This tequila lime chicken is fabulous, Ina makes it a lot on Food Network. This chicken is succulent, juicy and looks so pretty with the grill marks. It's a good secret for the nights you just can't move (you just need to know the night before that you have a busy day coming up) & for the nights when you're entertaining.

Tequila Lime Chicken- Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, serves 6
1/2 cup gold tequila
1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (5-6 limes)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (2 oranges)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon minced fresh jalapeno peppers (1 pepper seeded)
1 tablespoon minced garlic (2-3 cloves)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
3 whole or 6 split chicken breasts
If you like cilantro, add it !

My favorite part is that you whip up the marinade in 8 minutes and then you submerge the chicken overnight in the fridge. This recipe was made for the working woman!

When I came home from work today, I removed the chicken from the marinade & discarded the marinade. I put a tiny bit of olive oil on each side and grilled for 5-6 minutes on each side, which depends on the thickness of chicken.

Lee loves the recipe, it's simple and tastes beautiful.

Here's a recommended Southwestern/summer entertaining menu:

Start with guacamole, salsa and nachos
Serve tequila lime chicken with corn on the cob or a roasted corn salad
Finish with key lime pie or a berry crumble (coming soon !!)
Don't forget the margaritas (make use of Jose!)

The Best Chocolate Ice Cream

It’s been a while since I acquired my ice cream maker and I just love it to bits. I’ve made countless flavours so far, experimenting with recipes from different books—Chocolate Malt from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course, Coconut from Les Huynh's Blue Ginger,and even a Fromage Blanc flavour which I adapted from a recipe for Crème Fraiche ice cream from the very handy Frozen Desserts.

Yet, for some reason, I’ve put off making chocolate ice cream for the longest time. I love chocolate ice cream—the richer the better. I love Haagen Daaz chocolate flavours, from Double Chocolate Chip to Belgian Chocolate. They are dense, smooth, super chocolatey and very, very fattening. Those were some of my most guilty pleasures. And I guess I’ve been afraid that I might screw up when it came to making my own chocolate ice cream and put myself off it forever. Yes, I know I’m being a drama queen.

Anyways, I finally got it together and turned to a book that I’ve come to love and depend on for some of the best chocolate recipes: Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet. Her recipe for Bittersweet Chocolate Ice Cream didn’t disappoint. In fact, I knew it was going to be better than good once I had put the ingredients together to form its custard base. It probably helped that I used a fabulous bar of chocolate (99%) that Prestat (who recently opened an outlet at Raffles City) had sent me a few weeks ago.



It was the most voluptuous chocolate ice cream I had ever tasted. Yes, even better than my once-favourite Haagen Daz. It was gorgeous eaten soft, straight out of the ice cream maker and just as delicious firm out of the freezer. In fact it was so good that we very nearly finished it all before I could take a few shots of it for this post…which would explain why you see a quickly melting scoop of ice cream in these pictures—there was just none left to top up as the ice cream quickly melted in the tropical heat.

MMMexican

When I was teaching myself to cook on my semester abroad in Sydney in 2000, I started adding salsa to all my stirfries. Somehow my chicken stirfry became more like chicken fajitas. Over the past few years, I have stepped it up, added some killer guac and we have a very nice bi-monthly healthy Mexican night. My favorite part is the guacamole, the cumin and tabasco really kick it up! I even started to make it with a molcajete, a mortar and pestle that Mexicans use to make their guac.

The guacamole recipe can be found here at www.epicurious.com.
I add tomatoes, a tiny pinch of Tabasco and season with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Sometimes, I skip the jalapeno and the cilantro. IT will still taste fabulous, don't worry! You can also substitute the onion with red onion.

Sherri's Chicken Fajitas (serves 2 people)

1 boneless chicken breast (enough for 2 people, 12 oz)
1 red onion
1 red pepper
1 tomato
1 garlic clove
a pinch of Goya Adobo (This is sold in all NY grocery stores, may be tougher to find in areas with less multicultural populations, so omit ! This is a shout out to my old roommate and close friend, Penny, who put Adobo on everything, even Chinese food and Lean Cuisines.)
1/2 cup of salsa

Heat a 10 inch skillet on medium heat with 1/2 Tbsp olive oil. Add chicken until it loses the pink color. Add in cut vegetables & garlic. Season with salt, pepper and Adobo. At the end, add in the salsa. Don't overcook, keep the chicken juicy!

Serve with warm tortillas, sour cream, shredded cheese and guacamole.

This meal is a household favorite, let me know how you enjoy it in yours!

Philippe & Le Clafouti

This summer, more than any other summer, every single food magazine is blessing their covers with gorgeous fruity pies, cobblers and grunts. I have clipped a good 10 recipes that I want to try, but being mindful of my waist line, I have to take it easy :) As I flipped through Bon Appetit in June, I saw a beautiful picture of a cherry almond clafouti. Not only had I never tasted a clafouti before, I had no clue what it was. Last summer when we were in Paris & Nice, I was more focused on creme brulee and tarte aux pommes, oh yeah and gateaux de chocolat...you get the picture.
I asked my French trainer, Philippe, if he ever ate clafouti....I got a mouthful about his mother making it when he was a child and how good it was....Apparently, clafouti is what the real French eat at home and doesn't find its place on many dessert menus at restaurants. So, I invited him for dinner and decided to make clafouti, not knowing what I was really making.

Clafouti is a french dessert that, as Bon Appetit promises, tastes like a "cross between a pancake and a custard". Cherries are the most traditional fruit to use, but it was my first time eating cherries and I have to say I think I like berries better...so next time, I will be making strawberry clafouti. A famous French food blogger, Clotilde Desouliers, of "Chocolate and Zucchini", has a strawberry recipe, it will be my next conquest. Cherries are a pain to pit and their red juice runs onto everything! This dessert reminds me of eating slightly undercooked pancakes, it has the consistency of a doughy cookie. You should try it on a night you are eating rustic French food!

Philippe ate more than 1/2 of the clafouti and I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. Ironic that he always tells me to eat fish, but when I invite him to dinner, he tells me: "no fish for dinner, I get hungry." Yeah, you and ME both! So, I made him chicken after being told beef is too hefty for night....and he ate 3 servings of chicken, asparagus, sweet potatoes and 1/2 the clafouti.

One happy trainer ...and one LUCKY BASTARD ! I don't know many women who could devour half a pie and 3 chicken breasts for dinner and still look good!

Cherry Almond Clafouti (Bon Appetit June 2006)
6 servings

1/2 cup whole almonds (about 2 oz)
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 tbsp plus 1/2 cup sugar
8 oz dark sweet cherries, pitted & halved (about 2 cups)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp almond extract
pinch of salt
1/4 cup all purpose flour
powdered sugar

Blend almonds in processor until ground, but not pasty. Transfer to a small saucepan; add milk and bring to simmer. Remove from heat; let steep 30 minutes. Pour through fine strainer, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids in strainers.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter 10 inch diameter pie dish, sprinkle with 1 tbsp of sugar. Scatter cherries evenly over bottom of dish.

Using an electric mixer, beat eggs, almond extracts, salt and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in medium bowl until well blended. Add strained almond milk & beat to blend. Sift flour into egg mixture and beat until smooth. Pour mixture over cherries. Bake until set and knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

This can be made 6 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

Lightly dust clafouti with powdered sugar & serve.

Bon Appetit!

Veggie Galore

It's been a very busy week and before I knew it, I was faced with more organic vegetables than I knew what to do with or had the time for. So with Thursday (the day a new box of organic produce arrives at my door) rolling around once again, it was time to clear out last week's veggies to make way for the new stuff. The trouble with being a greedy hoarder is that there is always more food in my pantry than I can consume for a year. Over here a can of cannelini beans, over there a few rashers of bacon; tucked away in the corner of the cupboard a nearly forgotten can of tomatoes... In order to use it all up together with the organic zucchini, carrots, onions and broccoli, I chopped up the lot and turned it into my own version of minestrone soup.

Taking my cue from a sidebar on soup in Damien Pignolet's awesome book French, I sweated the chopped onions in olive oil together with the minced bacon. Then in goes the chopped canned tomatoes, some chicken stock and the rest of the chopped vegetables. An hour and some seasoning later, a hearty soup that needed little else but a drizzle of pesto and good, crusty bread.

Also begging to be used was a giant head of gorgeous red cabbage. I don't think I've ever used red cabbage in anything I've cooked before; in fact, I think the last time I ate any red cabbage was in some steak house's salad bar where the vegetable was sliced into little slivers and thrown into the mix, presumably for some added colour. And like I said in my last post, if you want a recipe for coloureds, you go to Nigella Lawson. True to form, I found one for Viennese-style red cabbage, or in Nigella-speak, "Red Cabbage in the Viennese Fashion".



In this dish, the cabbage is braised atop a stove with sliced apples, beef stock, cider vinegar and an onion. It is a sumptuously rich dish, especially since the cabbage and onion are first cooked in a half cup(!!) of butter or beef dripping. I should have trusted my better judgement and halved the amount of butter since I was serving this with a slab of roasted pork belly. Nevertheless it was wonderfully tasty, with the tang of the cider vinegar (the recipe called for just 3 tablespoons; I ended up using something like half a cup) providing a brilliant counterpoint to all that butter and beef stock. The roasted pork was simple—I just threw it in the oven covered with sea salt, skin scored and baked for 160 degrees Celcius for three hours. Yes, we did consume far more fat than was safe that night, but what happy bellies we went to bed with. The cholesterol we can deal with later. So much for healthy organic food!

Fatoush will not give you a FAT TUSH

I am back from Atlanta and I am exhausted....the muffins saved me from breakfasts of gluttony. One note: after 2 days, freeze these muffins, the blueberries will taste rancid if you don't :)

Before I left on my trip, I made one of my staple side dishes. It is so fresh tasting with tons of fresh herbs like mint, parsley and cilantro. This is a super healthy side dish that would taste phenomenal with hummus, chicken kebabs and falafel.

Fatoush (serves 6-8) from Sur La Table

Ingredients
2 large stale pita breads, torn into 1 inch pieces (or toast them!)
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
kosher salt
1 lb ripe tomatoes (3 tomatoes), seeded and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
6 scallions, 1/4 inch slices
1 green pepper, 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
1/3 cup coarsely chopped mint
3 tbsp coarsely chopped cilantro
2 large cloves of garlic
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground pepper

1. Heat oven to 375. Spread torn pita on baking sheet and bake 10-15 minutes. Let cool.
2. Spread cucumber pieces on a paper towel & sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 20 minutes so the salt can extract the bitter juices. Put the cucumbers in a strainer and rinse with cold water. Pat dry. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cucs & tomatoes, scallions, green pepper, parsley, mint & cilantro.
3. Whisk together the garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. Season with s&p. Toss dressing with veggies and toss in bread.

My favorite part of this salad is how the pita absorbs the olive oil, lemon juice and tomato juices. The mint is fabulous.