FoodD

I read so many recipes for cranberry sauce leading up to Thanksgiving this year before settling on one that I’ve now perfected as my newest SpecialD, it was inevitable that I would eventually bake it into a brie because rarely did a cranberry sauce recipe come up without a recipe for baked brie They became synonymous in my mind and especially remembering the first time I dug into one I knew this was going to become my holiday specialD. I was a NYC freshman, meaning I had just moved here after college graduation. I was invited to a high school friend’s holiday cocktail party in her prewar apartment in the Columbia University neighborhood. My world was very different than the world I walked into.  I was thrashing around in the slums of the E. Village with barely a table to eat on, never mind various rooms to host a party in yet that taste and sense memory of my first baked brie I’m sure which was made with a raspberry jam, which is pretty traditional preparation has stayed with me for decades now.

Because I’m going to keep my cranberry sauce recipe a secret I decided I would simply illustrate this recipe because it’s so simple to make a bake a brie with cranberry sauce, jam, nuts or just about anything you can think of.  Other concoctions I’m going to try in a baked brie are stewed prune w/orange and apricot marmalade and a savory one with tomato paste, olives & basil pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, it’s endless the ingredients that can be baked into a Brie. I love its versatility and the fact that I can pick up half a wheel of Brie at E. Village Cheese for such a reasonable price I’m keep’n myself busy as the temperature drops. I served this with a rosemary flat bread which was really not great. I think it’s best to serve this with grapes, sliced apple or baguette.

This is also my first illustrated recipe I’m thrilled to share w/you

 

I noticed Shepherd’s Pie on a menu one blustery night at a cozy neighborhood restaurant and wished there was a dish as warm and filling I could enjoy. Brandade is a good substitute for Shepard’s Pie as far as I’m concerned but clearly prepping and dealing with salt cod aint no recipe for survival in my book.

Contemplating Mother Nature and the impending Hurricane SanDy baring down on us and long days ahead stuck in our cribs, thoughts of recipes 4 survival to share were running rampant in my mind.

My ultimate vision is a baked loaf of a layer of fluffy scrambled eggs, onions & rice, a layer of fava bean puree  & asparagus tips, topped with a layer of pomme puree dusted with paprika & a sprinkle of scallions.

What I created was close to my vision described above except I used edamame which are a staple item for me rather than the fava bean puree.

Here’s what I did and the ingredients used:

4 eggs, blanched asparagus tips, mashed potatoes/pomme puree, steamed edamame & rice

First I sweated a small diced onion in olive oil & salt of D Earth, added the rice and scrambled eggs and whipped with a whisk over a medium flame.

 

Stirring eggs with sweated onions, rice & scrambled eggs

The whipped egg, rice and onion became the base of the Goddess Pie.

The next layer was the steamed edamame & asparagus  tips, which I topped with the pomme puree/mashed potatoes, dusted with paprika & scattered scallions.

A trick to making the creamiest mashed potatoes is to rice them, mix with some bur/butter & cream or milk.  I don’t use butter or milk, I use olive oil and  my mashed potatoes are just Dlicious.

Here’s to a light, vegetarian version of a shepherd’s pie. What do you think about the title of this dish, Goddess Pie, bold?

Dt took no time at all to pull this together and boy was it well worth it.

Warm & cozy, filling and cOMforting. Dig IN!

After my shopping spree Monday afternoon w/my Arkansas transplant neighbor Kimberly who’s gone through a tornado or two yet was scared shitless about the impending hurricane, I like an idiot ate most of the food that could be eaten in case of a black out that afternoon: crackers, sardines & an apple & peanut butter.  The lights went out Monday at 8:50PM. Tuesday morning I made a pot of tea and had some granola and the end of a quart of plain yogurt & blueberry syrup.

Fortunately our water was running tho it was not getting hot and we still had gas in the lines so the stove was working. After a walk around our neighborhood Tuesday morning to survey the aftermath of SanDy I steamed off the two ears of  corn I bought from a farmer in Bristol RI that explained it would be the the most Dlicious corn I’d have all year because it had gone through the first early season frost.  I served this with tarragon & garlic butter I had in the freezer, another tin of Brisling sardines in olive oil topped with my Salt of D Earth which Kimberly thinks is just THE BEST, those killer 34 Degrees Rosemary Crisps and Kimberly brought up a hard boiled egg which I whipped into egg salad.  We finished off a good Cabernet barely said good bye to each other as she went off down stairs. We both retreated to our warm comfy beds and nice music. Because we ate this meal so fast I appropriated these visuals but I hope to draw & watercolor these items for this post in the near future.

PS: I slept soundly after this meal, lulled to sleep by the wind & wine until we ventured out again into the pitch blackness around 9P. I finally caught a signal on my cell and learned that life was as usual above 36th Street and I’d be needed at work the next day.  We went and drank whiskey at 2A.

 

A friend  or mine, who happens to be one of my favorite chefs worked on the Bon Appetit, Clam & Swiss Chard Skillet Pizza shoot a couple of months ago and could not stop raving about it. The recipe definitely works except that I felt I needed to work w/the  dough again. My first try, the dough was too thick for my liking. Not a fault of the recipe – just technique and know how would certainly have me perfecting skillet pizza. SO, it’s been knocking ’round in the back of my head for some time now to make it again. You should know by now that I  use recipes as an inspirational spring board only.

I bought, of course, all organic pizza dough, 2 balls in the freezer case at Whole Foods, (for less than $2.) because the recipe explains a brilliant technique for Dfrosting and then working with the pizza dough

If you’re using fresh or alreaDy Dfrosted dough – give me a minute here and let me describe this fabulous Dfrosting technique: Bring at least 6 Cs of water to a boil. Fill a bowl that can take boiling liquids, put a cookie tray on top of the steaming bowl of water, sprinkled the cookie sheet with flour, place the frozen dough on it and cover/tent the dough w/plastic wrap. 10 minutes on each side.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.

While the dough is Dfrosting prepare your pizza toppings. The pizza I made was sautéed leeks, corn, & basil infused mascarpone.

Once you make a skillet pizza I’d bet anyone $4 that you can make it in just about a half hour.

I prepped the leeks the traditional way, by cutting the leek in half length wise, then thinly slicing across and washing them well in cold water.
Drain the well washed leeks and add to heating olive oil, Salt (of D Earth), & garlic slices in a heavy skillet. Add the corn and cook until just tender. Trader Joe’s, all organic frozen corn is really Dlish.

With your toppings cooked, prepared or sorted out and the dough defrosted and ready to work with you’re going to roll it out.
Pizza dough is not like working pie crust dough which I find difficult to work with. Pizza dough on the other hand is ‘resilient’ if you will, really easy to roll out and work with. You just need some ‘bench flour’ to roll the dough out – into a circular shape that will then fit into your skillet.

Here’s a big trick.  After preparing whatever topping you want, you’re going to use this pan to cook the pizza in. The pan must be perfectly dry w/no oil residue. Get the pan very hot and sprinkle corn flour over the bottom of the pan.  Place the rolled out dough into the pan.
Brush or coat the dough with olive oil – however you like.  Another reason I’m so into skillet pizza is because its SO hands on.

The first time I tried the recipe I used one whole ball of rolled out dough and fit that in the pan it was just to thick for me.  The toppings I used were sliced steamed carrot, sunchokes & sautéed clams.
This time the pizza – the crust was much thinner, more to my liking and much more organic in shape. It worked perfectly.

Ya wanna keep the bottom from sticking – working with a wooden spatula keep lifting the dough up and shaking the pan a bit.
Ya wanna work fast.
Top your skillet pizza. I laid out the corn and leeks, salt of D Earth, and topped that with dollops of the basil infused mascarpone.

Put the pizza skillet into the 500 degree oven and let it cook another 6-8 minutes.

The pan & the pizza are screaming hot.
Let them cool.
The pizza will come right out of the pan, cut & serve.

Red, white, beer, juice for kids whatever…
It’s my newest specialD.

Share w/me some toppings you use.

ENJOY!!

FoodD
D@recipes4survival.com