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Cranberry Meringues

Cranberry Meringues

You can’t tell me upon seeing the title for this entry and recipe you didn’t immediately break out singing, Prince’s “Raspberry Beret”.

I don’t want to scare you away but determined as I was, it took me 3, THREE attempts to get meringue making right so you’re guaranteed to have a smooth sail making these ethereal beauties.

Here’s the inspiration for Cranberry Meringues: My newly obsessed with Nantucket friend rented a car with her sight set on visiting the island (again) for a weekend. It happened to be the weekend the Nantucket Conservation Foundation’s holds their one day, annual Cranberry Festival fund raiser.

For dinner that night I served up two salt crusted red snappers, my secret special cranberry sauce, roasted veg & a fennel & orange salad and someone brought an apple,cranberry pie & ice cream. Cleaning up after dinner I looked over at 1/2 a bowl of seasoned soft peaked egg whites and the cranberry sauce I stashed away for another meal. I could eat my cranberry sauce on softly scrambled eggs, toast, ANYTHING. That was it. I folded the left over cranberry sauce into the left over egg whites and spooned the mixture on to a baking tray. An hour later we had ourselves a tray of uneatable meringues.  I knew I’d be making cranberry meringues.

There are a number of factors to keep in mind that makes making meringues foolproof 1. The egg whites should be room temperature. 2. The sugar needs to be very fine.
3. Gradually add the sugar once you have the egg whites at a soft peak.  4. Warm the sugar in the 200° preheating oven. I did this after reading umpteen recipes one of which is Ottolenghi’s.

Adamant not to use white, castor or confectioner’s sugar I blended 1/2 cup of Florida Crystals on puree in my compact Cuisinart for about 20-30 seconds 4Xs then warmed the finely blended Florida Crystals on a baking tray with parchment in a 200° oven for about 10 minutes.  I’m not sure this is so vital – as long as the sugar is very fine and added gradually once you’ve got soft peaks.

Simple format recipe for Cranberry Meringues

Preheated 200° oven
Baking pan with parchment paper or non stick
3 room temperature EGG WHITES
1/8 t creme of tartar
3/4 cup of warm, finely ground all natural sugar
1/2 – 1 C – cranberry sauce, dried cranberries, nuts, WHAT HAVE YOU

I hand whisked the room temperature egg whites & creme of tarter. If you have a stand blender with a whisk attachment – aren’t you lucky. I went at this with furor & determination with my trusty ol’ electric hand mixer I’ve had since college and the largest bowl I have which probably isn’t optimally large enough but I still I got meringues.

Once the egg whites have come to a soft peak gradually add the sugar, incorporating it each time until the sugar fully incorporated or dissolved.  You’ll see stiffer peaks forming and the color & texture glisten.

Sprinkle or gently fold in what ever you’d like or work with the meringue as you would a blank canvas

With two spoons I dropped the meringues onto the parchment lined baking tray.
I popped that in the 200° preheated oven and kept the door ajar with a wooden spoon for 2 hours. Letting the meringues cool is also important.

The bottoms of this batch are sticking to the parchment but I think that’s because I didn’t use enough sugar. I wrote the recipe calling for 3/4 Cs of sugar. I used 1/2 C of sugar to 3 egg whites.  The more sugar, the crispier the meringues. These are looking a bit chewy and marshmallow textured. Meringues are suppose to cool on a rack. I don’t have this. Let’s hope cooling them on a plate will help them firm up and ease getting them onto a plate or into a box. These are destined for my Thanksgiving Chanukah table with friends & family.

Let me tell ya. It’s a great bowl to lick.

 

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Sweet Potato Salad RahRahSissboomba

IMG_2551 IMG_2552

I was invited to a college reunion, pot-luck dinner party, cook out with a group of about 15 friends, former roommates, their spouses, significant others – many of whom I’d not seen in decades.

During the week leading up to evening the flurry of emails began with who was bringing what. There was a Korean steak bar-b-que with various relishes in lettuce cups, a Cajun style chicken wing dish, a gorgeous cheese  & charcuterie spread from Todd English’s Food Hall in The Plaza, blistered shiso peppers, toasted breads, crackers,  a baked fish, jalapeno mojito’s, & a lavender & citrus cocktail w/crushed ice – I liked very much.

When I wrote to say I was going to bring my sweet potato & hericot vert salad I got two emails back, almost immediately, expressing what a perfect dish this would be to have at our fete.  The dish is so colorful, with varied textures and wonderful fresh & earthy flavors, sweet & savory, smooth & crunchy. I brought enough to fill one bowl with just the vinaigrette version and the other I folded the yogurt into. To me, the dish was the belle of the ball.

Ingredients:

3 pounds sweet potatoes, cut into 1” chunks
Salt, as needed to taste
1 T raw or coconut sugar
1 shallot, minced
½ cup golden balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons of spicy mustard
¼ cup olive oil
a handful of chiffinade basil leaves
½ pound hericot vert
Black pepper, to taste (I like a lot)
¾ cup of Greek yogurt

I started by making the vinaigrette to marinate the hericot vert in.   In a bowl, mix the shallots, vinegar, olive oil and spicy mustard together. Season with salt and pepper to taste, stir in the basil leaves, add the hericot vert which are cut into 1 inch pieces. Let stand with a kitchen or a tea towel on top to marinate.

Prepping hericot vert & shallots for the vinaigrette marinade

Prepping hericot vert & shallots for the vinaigrette marinade

Put the cubed sweet potatoes in a large pot of cold water.  Bring the water to a boil. As the water heats up add  enough salt to make the water taste almost salty then the Tablespoon of sugar. Once the water comes to a boil, turn the heat down to a simmer and cook the potatoes cook until tender, about 8 minutes.

drained boiled sweet potatoes

drained boiled sweet potatoes

When the potatoes are tender, drain them from the water and put in a large bowl. While still hot, fold in the green beans vinaigrette. The longer the potatoes marinate in the dressing – the better.

IMG_2550

warm potatoes with hericot vert vinaigrette

Before serving, fold in the yogurt and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper & paprika. IMG_2552

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Shrimp & Grits – A breakfast for champions

Mmm good!

Mmm good!

I’ve had shrimp & grits on my mind since Sarah, the home cook on Ludo Lefebvre’s team in the first season of The Taste made it for her ‘comfort food’ challenge and I noticed it on the menu at the new eating establishment in the Mama’s Food shop, Heart & Soul for $20.  This put the fire under my tail to whip a batch up for myself for way less than half of what a restaurant charge.

The first time I had shrimp & grits was at The Cotton Exchange Tavern along the Savannah river  in Savannah, GA. Probably the best place to have it – and yes it was!

After reading I wouldn’t want to tell you how many recipes for shrimp & grits, I got down to it the day before my birthday, a cold, miserable, grey, windy, & rainy day – at breakfast time.

I de-veined a half dozen shrimp meticulously I got at The Essex Street Market.  I love work like this sometimes but a friend of mine bought me  a bag of Trader Joe’s, 15 count, colossal,  uncooked Wild Blue Shrimp for my birthday since I went off on how killer the dish turned out to be. – They’re just perfect for this recipe.

Yield: 2

Here’s what I used:

For the creamy polenta: 

1 C milk to 1/4 C of polenta – soaked in water.

Smashed garlic clove, peppercorns, bay leaves

1 T tomato paste or sauce

a knob of butter

For the shrimp:

4-6 Dveined shrimp

Salt  of D Earth, RhODy blend & yellow corn meal for coating the shrimp dusting

Olive oil & Salt of D Earth

1 med. onion – diced

2 good sized garlic dents – minced

Beer

Sriracha Hot chili sauce

Juice of 1/4 of a lemon

What I did:

I start by infusing & scalding the milk w/the smashed garlic clove, peppercorns & a few bay leaves. Strain the infused milk over a bowl. This is the milk you’ll make the polenta in. Hydrate the polenta in an equal amount of water. I find this is a trick to keeping the polenta from clumping when adding it to the scaled milk.

I Dfrosted 6 colossal, 15 count shrimp in a small bowl, overnight in the refrigerator.

Coat the the thawed shrimp with yellow corn meal or flour & my Salt of D earth – I used the RhODy blend which is perfect for this dish.

Sauté the diced onion & minced garlic in enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a saute pan. Add the shrimp. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side. pour in a swig of beer & some hot sauce. Turn the heat off & cover the pan.

Reheat the milk over a medium heat. Pour in & mix the hydrated polenta. Once the polenta begins to bubble stir in a tablespoon of tomato paste or a splash of tomato sauce & then a knob of butter. Mix well.

Pour onto two plates. Top with the shrimp & sauce from the pan. Garnish with sliced scallions, diced tomato or maybe avocado & a squeeze of lemon juice and have yourself a breakfast of champions.

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No Brainer Dssert

apricotsIt was a rainy Saturday morning before Memorial Day weekend that I sat with my mom flipping through a Martha Stewart Living magazine at The Sage Cafe,  a new family owned cafe, creperie in Riverside/East Providence when I came upon a stunning picture of glowing yellow pitted orbs of apricots with a few star anise & specks of other spices floating in or on a luscious shiny looking liquid with a circular piece of parchment paper ajar in (probably) a Le Creuset

Once I saw the title of the Dessert – Poached apricots in Lillet  I got it. There’s a no brainer for ya but because Ms. Stewart’s recipes are so great, I did read through it. Of course I knew I’d make it my own and have.

Reducing the liquid is also such a treat. The aroma of the wine & spices reducing filled my kitchen even with the windows opened.

I’ve served the poached apricots with dollops of semi warmed vanilla ice cream but really want to serve them with a dollop of honey infused mascarpone drizzled with the Lillet, spice infused reduction ‘sauce’.

Ms. Stewart’s recipe calls for poaching the apricots in a full bottle of the Lillet. I thought bullocks to this. So this is what I did to make this Dlectable, quick & easy D.ssert:

Half (8) apricots, vertically. Save the pits. I used them in the poaching liquid.

Make the poaching liquid by:

I brought about 1/3 of a bottle of the Lillet, (MStewart calls for a whole bottle)  a cup of orange juice, (not called for in the MS recipe) a splash of cold water,(MS calls for 3 Cups to her bottle of Lillet) I did 2 Ts of coconut sugar, (MS calls for 1/4 C of sugar),  1 split vanilla bean, (1 time I had a vanilla bean, other times I’ve used a splash of vanilla extract), a few star anise, I used a pinch of multicolored pepper-corns, a lemon wedge, a cinnamon stick and I tossed in the apricot stones/pits – to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolved then I added the apricots.

I almost couldn’t believe it myself but I did follow MStewart’s direction to place a parchment paper round over the simmering apricots because a friend explained how this helps to keep the apricots in place and they will cook more evenly. It’s important that the apricots simmer and don’t come to a boil. One time they came to a boil & the apricots simply fell apart. They take close to 5-6 mins to poach in the simmering liquid w/the parchment round on top.

Transfer the apricot halves with a slotted spoon to a serving dish.

Begin the reduction process by bringing the poaching liquid to a boil. IMG_1599 It could take nearly 45 minutes until the poaching liquid has reduced by at least half.  I poured the reduction/sauce into a small creamer and let everything chill in the refrigerator before serving it with, as I said, a dollop of semi warmed vanilla ice cream.

My mouth is watering as I write this. I wanna make this right now but serve it with the honey infused mascarpone. It’s Dlicious!

I hope you enjoy this with friends too.

 

 

 

 

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Spring cleaning – BreakFeast

Seasonal change break feast

On a Thursday morning in late April my bestie called to say she rented a car because she needed to breath salt air – we’d be en-route to Newport, RI by noon. We’ve done this before but this was the first trip this year and the weather was just beginning to break from the frigid monotony 90+ days of sustained 30 degree weather. This was also a perfect excuse to bring my Bronx rescue pup, Little RhODy, to visit his name sake for the first time.

We’d be staying at my friend’s 5 bedroom, open door to all friend’s home, just off of the Ten Mile Ocean Drive where the cupboards, refrigerator and bread baskets are chock-a-block filled with the highest quality ingredients & groceries, a few good knives in a knife block, draws of utensils, equipment & a mother load of mixing bowls, platters, pots & pans, flat, & tableware galore.

The first thing I did was to sort out the bread basket where there was an opened bag of English muffins already going stale & a few packages of some kind of low calorie sandwich pita wrap, an orange or two & a perfectly ripe avocado. Amongst all this I found about half a bag of cipolini onions rolling around on the bottom of the basket, stray from their opened net bag. In a flash I was filling a sauce pot with water, tossing in a good pinch of course sea salt and the onions – as is, skins on to blanch them over a medium high heat with the intention of turning them into creamed onions, which would be the Pièce_de_résistance of this break feast.

Next I’d tackle the fridge.  In addition to the standard fare anyone would expect to find in a well stocked refrigerator there were two bags of radishes, bags of salad greens, snow peas, cucumbers, various tomatoes, broccoli & cauliflower flowerettes in a bag.

With the onion boiling and a bowl for shocking them prepped I next got into making the Mediterranean, shepherd salad – cucumbers, tomatoes, course sea salt & olive oil. I threw a couple of left over black & green olives in also.

Then I made the snow pea & radish salad with a Mirin dressing. Simple as 1,2, 3 – especially if you like slicing. Then I blanched the asparagus, toasted sliced baguette, prepped & cleaned the cipollini onions for their veloute – made with the water they were blanched off in. I also cooked the broccoli & cauliflower in this salted onion water, thinly sliced half an avocado, rubbed the toasted baguette pieces with a fresh garlic clove and some tomato. I hand mashed the broccoli & cauliflower with a fork & a drizzle of olive oil & pinch of course sea salt & a grind or two of black pepper. 

Last but not least I fried up an over easy egg and OH, steeped a screaming hot cup of English Breakfast tea and plated my beautiful break feast.

 

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East Village Good Karma HapPY Baked Beans

After reading Tamar Adler‘s piece in The Best Food Writing of 2012 from her book The Everlasting Meal I was inspired to put up a pot of beans. I’m not sure where I got the idea  to make baked beans, I’d never made them, and Ms. Adler goes off on having beans w/eggs, rice, vegis on toast and then into making a Minestrone. I followed her directions to cooking beans short of adding salt to the cooking water. I soaked 1/2 a bag of navy beans overnight in the -frige in a bowl with at least 2″ of water above the beans.  Rinsed them, got them into a heavy bottomed pot and tossed in 2 bay leafs, a few peppercorns, 2 dents of garlic, a sprig of rosemary and some oil into the cold water that was about an inch or more over the beans. Standard, brought the pot to a rolling boil, then lowered the heat, had the top ajar, went to the dog park while the beans simmered. When I got back I turned off the heat and left the beans to saturate themselves sufficiently soaking up their cooking liquids . An hour+ later I drained the beans, reserved some of the cooking liquid  stored them in the fridge and started my day.

The next day I pulled the ‘sauce ingredients together. While rummaging through the fridge for the sauce ingredients, the ketchup I used is from nicked & swiped packets stored away in a bag in my veg crisper I came upon a few small carrots, cut them up, steamed them and joyfully got them in to the mix here. All I needed was the molasses. It’s such a fun & easy dish to make and let me tell you,  Grandma’s Molasses – an absolute staple for me now.  I can see going off with this magic ingredient.

So here’s the question – cooking time: if you count the time the beans are soaking, boiling & simmering  & then baking ‘cooking time’ then I’d have to say plan an additonal 2 – 3 + hours. I consider ‘cooking time’ the time I’m at the stove and for this dish, that was less than 20 minutes prepping the beans for cooking, peeling, slicing & steaming the carrots & pulling the ‘sauce’. IN ANY CASE – these baked beans w/carrots are DLICIOUS!  MAKE ‘EM. I’ve been adding them to cooked off pasta. Reheats easily at work in a paper cup.

WHAT I USED:

3 Cs of cooked navy beans
2 small steamed carrots – pencil cut
1/2 of a medium – large onion – diced

FOR THE SAUCE
Scant 1/4 C Ketchup – 10 packets of take-out Ketchup
1 good sized T Tomato Paste
1/3 C Coconut Sugar
1/4 C Grandma’s Molasses
2 t tarragon mustard
Good pinch of Salt of D Earth – RhODy blend
Splash of Red Jacket Summer Blend apple juice
T/splash of Worcestershire Sauce

WHAT I DID:

Preheat oven to 325•

In a casserole or Pyrex oven proof baking dish mix the diced onion & steamed carrots into the cooked beans.

In a sauce pan over a med flame combine the ketchup, tomato paste, coconut sugar, Grandma’s (killer) Molasses, mustard, Salt of D Earth, and good splashes of apple juice, & Worcestershire Sauce. Mix until sugar dissolves.

Pour warm sauce over the beans, onion & carrots. Mix carefully. Cover the baking dish w/foil, sit back & write and you’ll be enjoying yourself with a Dlectible dish you won’t get enough praise for.