Who remembers this?
Sturdy Danny McGee was up his fifty-ninth tree; he said “I work as fast as I can” when he suddenly saw two scoops of raisins in a package of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran! Well he rushed to the ground ’cause ol’ Danny had found what’s important to a raisin fan, ’cause Kellogg’s puts two scoops of raisins in those nutritious flakes of bran! When he got to the truck Danny sure was in luck, he was one happy man ’cause only Kellogg’s puts two scoops of raisins in a package of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran!
This is the (completely unedited) self portrait W took as I was trying to photograph the bowl of cereal we were sharing.
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June 22 2008 | leftovers | 3 Comments »
Happy birthday Dad.
It was a potluck last night for my Dad’s birthday; ribs by his request, and potato salad, and we filled it out with corn and greens and asparagus.
To be honest, I passed on the potato salad, which my sister had thoughtfully made with fat-free Miracle Whip in consideration of my Dad’s high cholesterol, and which as a result had that unappealing translucent sheen to it. It did remind me though that I need to make roasted potato salad soon in order to illustrate my favourite cooking method for potato salad: roasting, which not only adds far more flavour and a better texture than boiling (which would you rather eat on its own?) but creates this crispy crust that doesn’t allow the potatoes to absorb as much mayo as they otherwise would, had they been boiled. If you really want to win friends and influence people, you could cook a few slices of bacon and then roll the potato chunks around in some oil and the bacon drippings before roasting them. You then of course add the crumbled bacon back to the salad along with the chopped celery, hard boiled egg, and all that.
My Mom had been to the market and bought some kettle corn, which we all picked at while preparing dinner. So it wasn’t homemade, but I do have a recipe anyway:
Kettle Corn
This is a little more caramelly than regular kettle corn, but it’s the same perfect marriage of salty, sweet and crunchy. It’s really fast and easy to make when you need a caramel corn fix.
1 bag light butter-flavored microwave popcorn, popped
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. butter
Place the popcorn in a large bowl. If you like, spray the bowl first with nonstick spray to keep it from sticking.
Combine sugar, water and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes, swirling pan occasionally but not stirring, until the sugar is deep golden. Immediately pour over the popcorn and quickly stir to coat. Tongs work great for this!
Cool and eat. (It’s usually cool enough for me by the time I get from the kitchen to the living room.)
Per serving, divided by 4: 200 calories, 3.7 g total fat (0.6 g saturated fat, 3 g monounsaturated fat, 0 g polyunsaturated fat), 2.1 g protein, 40.7 g carbohydrate, 2.6 mg cholesterol, 0 g fiber. 16% calories from fat
Chocolate Popcorn: once the sugar is deep golden, quickly stir in 2 tbsp. cocoa and pour over the popcorn, tossing to coat.
Banana Split Popcorn Mix: add 1 cup banana chips, 1/2 cup dried cherries, 1/2 cup peanuts and 1/4 cup chocolate chips to the cooled popcorn.
Dad also requested a flourless sunken chocolate cake, one he remembered having years ago that he described as “meringue-y”, which my Mom had found in a magazine that has since been packed away in preparation for their move. So she flipped through her Joy of Cooking and found another sunken chocolate cake, which was not at all meringue-y but made with a full pound of bittersweet chocolate, no flour and very little sugar, it was as my sister described: “like chocolate fudge sauce in cake form”. But not puddingy; very dense, and softly, finely crumbly, and just intense. Like the very best kind of chocolate cake (I’m not really a fan of traditional chocolate cakes), it was perfect with ice cream and berries. It very nearly didn’t happen at all after one of the grandkids (not mine) spooned a big glop of melted chocolate into her ten carefully separated egg whites just as she was about to beat them to stiff peaks (she doubled the recipe to feed 8 adults and 3 kids).
Flourless Chocolate Decadence
from the 1997 Joy of Cooking, page 960
1 lb. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
10 Tbsp. butter, cut into pieces (although I suspect you could get away with much less)
5 large eggs, separated
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 Tbsp. sugar
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and fresh berries, for serving
Preheat the oven to 325°F and grease an 8″ or 9″ round cake pan, then line the bottom with a circle of parchment or waxed paper.
Put the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl, and set it over a pot of simmering water. Stir until melted and smooth.
Separate the eggs, being careful not to get any yolks in the whites. Whisk the yolks into the melted chocolate. Beat the whites along with the cream of tartar with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the sugar and continue beating until the eggs are stiff but not dry.
Using a rubber spatula, fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture about a third at a time, being careful not to deflate the eggs. (Don’t worry if the mixture is still a little streaky.) The recipe instructs to put the pan into another pan and pour enough boiling water into the outer pan to come halfway up the side of the cake pan, but since it was doubled and divided among three 8″ pans, my mom didn’t have a big enough roasting pan, and dinner was ready, and so we just threw them in the oven as is and they were just fine.
Bake for “exactly 30 minutes”. The recipe further says that the top of the cake will have a thin crust and the middle will be gooey, which it was not. I don’t think I’d want it gooey though, now that I’ve had it thoroughly cooked through. It also tells us to refrigerate overnight, which we obviously didn’t do; rather, the cake was warm when we served it, and delicious.
Serve with whipping cream or vanilla ice cream and fresh berries. Serves 10-12.
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June 22 2008 | cake and snacks | 1 Comment »
Dinner was lunch today, as I ate before heading to CBC and then went more or less straight to Julliard to celebrate my brother in law’s graduation, where we had drinks and snacks and cake, not really dinner per se, so again I’m falling back on what was technically my last meal of the day. It was hot enough this afternoon to turn my baggie of chocolate covered pretzels into a bag of pretzels in chocolate sauce in the car, so there was no actual cooking. Fortunately I just came up with this new salad - a cross between pan bagnat (pan ban-YAH) - a sandwich from the south of France made with tuna, olives, tomatoes and hard boiled eggs - and a panzanella salad, which is based on torn up chunks of bread, rather than lettuce, potatoes or other vegetables or grains. The bread soaks up the dressing, and creates a more substantial base; it’s kind of like tearing up your sandwich into chunks and eating it with a fork.
If you want to drizzle the torn bread chunks with oil and toast them they will turn out more like croutons; Jamie Oliver has a similar salad onto which he sets a softly poached egg, whose yolk then dribbles over the greens and mingles with the lemony dressing. That’s definitely on my to-eat list for next week.
Pan Bagnat Panzanella (Salad)
1/2 loaf crusty bread or baguette, cut or torn into chunks
1 ripe tomato, chopped
1/2 purple onion, chopped
1 can tuna in oil, drained
1 hard-boiled egg, peeled and chopped
a handful of torn fresh basil or Italian parsley
1/2 cup Kalamata olives
Parmesano-Reggiano
a couple spoonfuls of capers, drained
Dressing:
1/2 cup canola or olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
lots of pepper
Make a salad using chunks of bread, chopped tomato, onion, flaked tuna, egg, basil or parsley and olives. Using a vegetable peeler, peel strips of Parmesano-Reggiano cheese over top, and sprinkle with capers. Toss with dressing and serve immediately.
Serves 2-4.
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June 20 2008 | one dish and salads | 1 Comment »
Yes, I know, I am an extraordinarily boring person this week. Sorry about that. Sorry too for the hideously blue bowl I decided in haste to dish my boring chili up in, not even thinking (after 170 days) that I would be required to take a photo of it. I’m particularly proud of my buttered sliced bread garnish - it reminds me of dinnertime images of the 50s when they’d put out a section of Wonder Bread slices in a serving bowl on the kitchen table. (This is not Wonder Bread. It is grocery store sliced bread, but at least it’s whole wheat. Honest. When I see Wonder Bread I can’t not think about Clarissa Dickson Wright’s reference to “slimy white slice”.) Tomorrow promises to get more interesting, as I’m cooking for my Dad’s birthday on Saturday and Ramsay Rocks on Sunday, an event I’m emceeing (and cooking for the volunteers - there will be plenty of food for everyone else though). You should come.
I do have a confession to make: I love anything tomato-saucy with buttered bread. I have been known to make a spaghetti sandwich, just to create a vehicle for the tomato sauce. Sometimes I just scoop up chunky tomato sauce leftovers with bread. W tried to mimic me tonight and made quite a mess of the patio. Lou was happy though. (I mean John Cusack.)
Again, chili isn’t even particularly summery. But it is cowboyish, and Stampede is coming up faster than I care to acknowledge. When I was 12, I won the Calgary Stampede Chili Cook-off. (The adult one, not a special cook-off for kids; let me tell you, there were some mighty unhappy contestants who took their chili very seriously and were not at all pleased to be whupped by a 12 year old girl who sort of threw a bit of this and that in the pot and then didn’t even particularly remember her recipe.) This year, I’m hosting the second annual kids’ chili cook-off at the Stampede on Kids’ Day. We don’t have enough contestants yet, so if you have kids under 14 who are interested in entering their chili - the winner then gets to make their recipe on the ATCO cooking stage and be on TV, if they want to - email me!
I have never used a recipe for chili. There is no reason to. I cook up some lean ground beef or bison with a chopped onion, maybe a red pepper, in a drizzle of canola oil, then add a couple cans of beans, drained to get rid of the salty bean sludge (I like things beany - red kidney beans for sure, sometimes baked beans in tomato sauce, sometimes white kidney or black beans) a big can or two of diced tomatoes (whole is fine too), and about a cup of salsa if I have some. A good heaping tablespoon or so of chili powder - which is really high in fiber, being simply ground up dried chiles - and sometimes a small spoonful of cocoa and/or instant coffee or espresso, just to give it some depth and colour. Coffee is the cowboy way, after all. Decaf works just as well. Simmer it all for about an hour to break down the tomatoes. That’s pretty much it. If you want to add a can of tomato paste, that’s always a good idea - tomato paste is such a great source of lypocene - much higher than fresh tomatoes, as they have been cooked down and condensed. Tomato paste is also great as pizza sauce. It’s nice and thick, and quite sweet tasting, being just pure tomatoes. Kids love it.
The biggest flavour factor when it comes to chili is time - I always let it sit in the fridge for a day or two before we eat it. It’s edible of course the day you make it, but always better after a day or so. It also freezes very well.
For some reason, yesterday’s spaghetti and today’s chili tasted fantastic. No thanks to any particularly stellar culinary skills, but more likely due to the fact that I spent a good 4 hours completely secluded from anything edible in the CBC newsroom beforehand. They are really onto something with this concept of bon appetit.
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June 19 2008 | beans and bison and freezable and one dish | 6 Comments »
Sorry. I know, spaghetti ranks right up there with Cheerios when it comes to interesting dinners. It’s what Mike suggests when we’re tired and can’t think of anything else to eat: as in, “why don’t we just have spaghetti?” But it’s so boring! I always whine. I’m not sure why - I do like the stuff. And clearly it’s not something we eat five nights a week.
I’m working afternoons today until Friday, filling in for Jenny Howe doing the afternoon traffic on the Homestretch on CBC Radio One. Today we had a baby moose on Springbank Road, a fleet of chicks trying to cross Deerfoot, a deer, a fire, and I don’t know how many collisions. It was insane to keep on top of. So Mike made dinner. Spaghetti with the plainest of sauces; sauteed onion, red pepper, and about half a pound of ground bison, which I know I’ve mentioned before has less than half the fat of ground beef, and is leaner even than skinless chicken, turkey or even halibut. The problem with bison is that it typically gets treated like beef, thus overcooked and dried out, and then people think they don’t like it. It’s not at all gamey; if you’re hesitant to give it a try, ground bison in spaghetti sauce or chili is a safe first step. Half the cooked up onion-pepper-bison combo went into a jar of President’s Choice Extra Garlic tomato sauce (our current favorite, and superb as a pizza sauce) for the spaghetti, and the rest got turned into chili with the rest of the can of black beans from yesterday. (Chili is always better after a day or two in the fridge, so tomorrow night is already taken care of.)
Apparently the pasta got overcooked when he had a bit of a crisis, realizing the movie (the new Bob Dylan one with Cate Blanchett - very excellent if not a little cryptic, except that I fell asleep halfway through) was due back like right now and the pasta was on the stove, and he had to gather up the dog and kid and make a run for it. But when I got home hungry and all trafficked out there was a pot of spaghetti on the stove, it was absolutely delicious.
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June 19 2008 | bison and pasta | 1 Comment »
I’ll tell you straight up, the soup is green, and refreshing in a way that only pure green things are, but I likely wouldn’t make it again. It’s like a pea smoothie; I can’t get past the cold grassiness of it. I’m thinking of throwing the rest on the stovetop tomorrow. Others may enjoy it, though. At least it’s healthy - besides being so green, peas are a crazy high source of fiber.
This morning we talked about no heat dinners on CBC, and so I made it for the occasion. I wasn’t surprised to come home with the whole batch. (Why is it said that something not so great is “nothing to sneeze at”? Is there any occasion that calls for sneezing at something that is particulaly good?)
Minted Pea Soup
Adapted from Real Simple magazine.
4 cups fresh or frozen peas, thawed
a big handful fresh mint, torn into pieces
a small handful fresh chives, torn into pieces
3 cups chicken or veg stock
1 tsp. each salt and sugar
Whiz everything in the food processor or blender until smooth. Makes about 1 1/2 L.
The shrimp fajitas, on the other hand, are great. I made them about a year ago when trying to come up with a way to incorporate guacamole into our dinner, on account of an overabundance of perfectly ripe ones in our fruit bowl. This time it was planned for the aforementioned show. You could throw the cooked shrimp right in there - frozen, even, if you want to keep the fajita innards cool en route to a picnic or bring it in your lunch - but I decided to give them a quick minute in a hot pan with a tiny dab of butter and shake of chili powder, just to fajita things up a bit. Either way.
Shrimp & Black Bean Fajitas
All these measurements are approximate; just wing it.
1 ripe avocado
1 clove garlic, finely pressed
2 Tbsp. lime juice (or to taste)
pinch salt
about 20 cooked, peeled shrimp, thawed (or not, if you want to keep it cool en route to a picnic)
1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2-1 cup crumbled feta
1/4 cup salsa
4 whole wheat flour tortillas
In a small bowl, mash the avocado, garlic, lime juice and salt until smooth. Spread a quarter of it into the middle of each tortilla. Divide the shrimp, beans, feta and salsa among them, and wrap like a burrito.
Serves 4.
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June 17 2008 | sandwiches and seafood and soup and vegetarian | 2 Comments »
I had promised Mike spaghetti carbonara for fathers’ day, and since the seed had been planted I knew he wouldn’t be able to shake the craving until he had some.
Spaghetti carbonara is what Mike orders whenever we go out for pasta; not the healthiest choice, which is why he doesn’t eat it very often, and why I rarely make it. The only reason I’m somewhat skilled at the art of spaghetti carbonara is because it’s what they had me make at my audition for It’s Just Food, as well as at several subsequent auditions at which they paired me with various co-hosts to test our chemistry (no pressure). So I have made many a pot.
Now, most people, including Mike, are under the impression that spaghetti carbonara is loaded with butter and cream; not so. That’s fettuccine Alfredo you’re thinking of. S.C. is made with bacon, eggs and grated Parmesan cheese, and is truly one of the fastest pastas you can make; one that takes only as much time as boiling the spaghetti. Which made it a good choice tonight, when the 6 o’clock news came on and I still had no idea what was for dinner.
The idea is that the egg cook and the cheese melt with the heat of the pasta if you toss them together as soon as you drain it; it’s a good idea to set aside some of the starchy pasta water before you do, so that you can add some back if you want a saucier S.C. (Some like theirs dry, I like mine a little saucy.) Some recipes call for just the egg yolks; I add the entire egg (why not?) and tonight, as I stood impatiently poking at the spaghetti, trying to get it to boil faster, I spontaneously sliced the leftover half of a purple onion and sauteed it in the leftover bacon drippings, scraping up all the crispy bits from the bottom of the pan. It turned out to be a very good idea. I’ve done this with mushrooms in the past with huge success; I’m not sure why I never thought of onions. There are not many better combinations out there than eggs, bacon, onions and cheese.
Not very summery, but quick and tasty, and doable when it looks like there’s nothing to make for dinner.
Spaghetti Carbonara
1 lb. (ish) spaghetti
4-8 slices bacon, chopped
canola oil (optional)
a chunk of onion or handful of mushrooms, sliced (optional)
3 large eggs
1/2-1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
freshly ground black pepper - lots
In a large pot, boil the spaghetti in lots of water until done to your liking. Before you drain it, set aside about a cup of the cooking liquid.
Meanwhile, cook the bacon until crisp; set aside. If you like, discard the drippings and add some canola oil to the pan instead to saute your onion or mushrooms, if you’re adding them. In a small bowl, stir the eggs together with a fork.
As soon as the pasta is done, drain it and return it to the warm pot. Pour the eggs overtop, and add the cheese, bacon, drippings if you like, and sauteed veg if you made some. Toss with tongs, adding a little reserved pasta water if you like, until the eggs are cooked (they will be after a minute as long as the pasta is still steaming) and the sauce is as saucy as you like it. Season with pepper (the cheese is probably salty enough).
Serve immediately. Serves 4.
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June 16 2008 | pasta | 6 Comments »
Again, today I am playing the brunch card, because it was far more interesting (from a recipe perspective, anyway) than dinner.
Let me take that back. Dinner was great, but my sister made it and I can’t take credit. Besides, I think everyone who eats should be able to make a puffed apple pancake; one of the simplest things you can make and also the most impressive if that’s your goal. People rave about these. Restaurants become famous for them. They take about 3 minutes to stir together and 15 to bake. Besides apples, you could fill the hollow with sautéed pears or bananas, or roasted plums, or fresh berries and whipped cream; absolutely anything you can dream up.
I made this, of course, because Father’s Day had to be recognized in some way beyond my getting up early to go wait in the extra-long Father’s Day Line at Tim Horton’s. Puffed apple pancake was Mike’s favorite eons ago, back when I figured out I could wow him with food, but I haven’t made it in years. I think we had puffed apple pancake overkill, but we’re over it now.
A puffed pancake is really just a popover or giant Yorkshire pudding (I just realized the irony in posting a recipe for essentially a large Yorkshire pudding alongside a roast beef, when the two have absolutely nothing to do with each other), which is made from a mixture of egg, flour and milk. It’s leavened by eggs without having to beat the whites, and bakes up all light and crunchy in a hot oven. Seriously easy peasy, as a certain UK chef might say.
Puffed Apple Pancake
Sturdier fruits can be sautéed first and baked right into the pancake or set aside to be served on top. Fragile fruits like berries or bananas are better served in the hollow of the finished pancake, which rises even more dramatically when the batter is baked alone.
2 apples or pears (my current favorites are Jonagold and Cripps Pink)
1-2 Tbsp. canola oil
1-2 Tbsp. butter
1-2 Tbsp. sugar or honey
Pinch cinnamon
3 large eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
Maple syrup or vanilla yogurt for serving (optional)
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Peel (if you want), core and slice the apples. In a large skillet (if you have an ovenproof one, use it), sauté the apples in the oil and butter over medium heat for a minute or two. Sprinkle them with the sugar and cinnamon and cook until they start to turn golden. Remove them from the heat.
Whisk together the eggs, flour, and milk. Don’t worry about getting all the lumps out. Now you can proceed one of two ways:
1) Pour the batter over the apples in the skillet and put it in the oven. (If you don’t have an ovenproof skillet, pour the sautéed apples into a pie plate and pour the batter over them.) The apples will bake straight into the pancake, but it won’t rise quite as high with the fruit inside; or
2) Remove the apples and set them aside to serve on top, then pour the batter into the hot pan. This way the pancake will rise even higher and look more dramatic.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the pancake is puffed and golden. Cut it into wedges and serve warm with the fruit and a drizzle of maple syrup or dollop of vanilla yogurt. Serves 4.
Puffed Berry Pancake: Omit the apples altogether. Drizzle the ovenproof skillet with a little oil or spray it with nonstick spray, and pop it in the oven for a few minutes to heat up. Pour the batter into the hot skillet and bake as directed. Fill the puffed pancake with fresh berries or other sliced fruit, and serve with syrup or vanilla yogurt for breakfast or for dessert with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
OK, I’ll post a roast beef recipe too, since technically that was dinner. I very rarely make roast beef, and it may not happen again this year. The problem with most roast recipes is that the roasting time is based on weight, when shape usually has more to do with it. A very thick roast will take longer to cook than a thin one, since the distance from the outside to the interior is further. So a basic rule of thumb is: the greater the surface area, the faster the cooking time. It makes sense that a round roast will take longer to cook than a long thin one, even if they weigh the same. Oven thermometers have made our lives easier when it comes to roasting meat, but if you don’t have one you can still get by just fine.
There are two methods of roasting: fast or slow, and the method you choose depends on the type and cut of beef you have and how you want it to turn out. When roasting is done quickly at a higher heat – 450°F or so – it caramelizes the exterior of foods while slowly cooking the interior. The outside, having been exposed to high heat for a much longer time, will be considerably more well-done than the inside. On the other hand, slow roasting won’t produce a crusty exterior, but the roast will be more evenly cooked throughout. Slow roasts are also very tender, since the longer cooking time enables any tough connective tissues break down. The good news is, you can have the best of both worlds: start the roast at a high heat to produce a flavorful crust, and then drop the temperature down and cook it until it’s done to your liking, or do it the other way around. (Contrary to popular belief, searing the exterior of the meat at high heat does not “seal” the juices in, but rather creates flavor by caramelizing the exterior.) If you have an oven thermometer, stick it in at a 45° angle so that the end is right in the middle of the roast.
To do a slow roast beef, start with an 8-14 lb. boneless rolled roast. When it’s time to turn the oven down, turn it to the lowest possible setting and leave it for 8 hours. Make sure you don’t open the oven door during those 8 hours. (Tape it closed to so you don’t forget.) After 8 hours have passed, turn the oven up to 350°F for 20 minutes to heat the roast through. Pull it apart with two forks, and if you like, douse it in barbecue sauce and serve on soft buns.
Roast Beef
3-4 lb. (1.5-2 kg) boneless sirloin or eye of round roast (top and bottom round are good choices too)
Salt and pepper
Let the meat stand at room temperature for half an hour before you cook it. Preheat the oven to 450°F, making sure the rack is in the lower-middle position.
Put the roast on a rack in a roasting pan – leave the string on and put the fat side up, if there is a fattier side. Pat the meat dry with a paper towel and season well with salt and pepper. Add about 1/4-inch of water to the bottom of the pan, put it in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 350°F.
Cook the roast until a meat thermometer inserted in the center registers 120°F for rare, 125°F for medium-rare or 130°F for medium. The cooking time will vary from 10 to 20 minutes per pound, depending on the size and shape of your roast.
Remove the roast from the oven and transfer it to a chopping board or serving platter. Tent it with foil and let it rest for 15-20 minutes before slicing. The resting period is important – it allows the meat to relax (it tenses up as it cooks) and the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. (If you were to cut into the roast right away, a lot of the juices would still be moving around and would pour out onto the plate, leaving your roast dry.) Serves 6-8.
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June 15 2008 | beef and breakfast | 4 Comments »
No wonder I don’t feel well.
I was emceeing the Gallery Calorie event for the Artemis Charitable Foundation this afternoon/evening - a fantastic and fun event that included restaurant and gallery hopping followed by live music, mini pies from Simple Simon, bacon wrapped scallops from Ceili’s, mini cupcakes from Buttercream Bakeshoppe, martinis and a silent auction (a bad combination for me - although I’m sure that’s the idea).
Mike picked me up from the fundraiser and we headed straight over to C & J’s to celebrate C’s 40th birthday. Since we weren’t supposed to bring gifts, I made a batch of butter tarts - one of his favorites - which Mike forgot to bring when he came to pick me up. Or rather, I forgot to tell him to grab off the countertop. So when we got home at the end of the night they were still there. Perhaps I’ll drop off the slightly smaller batch tomorrow.
I offer below two recipes - one for classic butter tarts made with my Grandma’s “Quick-mix, Never-Fail” pastry, and another lightened version made using phyllo pastry. There is a misconception that phyllo pastry is high in fat, when it’s the melted butter people slather on so liberally that makes it so. It’s easy to get away with using far less than you may be used to, and you don’t notice the difference, I promise. The lower fat phyllo version is my Mom’s favorite, and essential at our Christmas parties, with their crispy bottoms and pointy tops. I always add raisins or currants and chopped pecans, but C & J like them naked - just the goo, if you please. This is the only reason they have any hope of getting the remainder of the batch tomorrow. (To explain the photo - I made some regular-sized and some in mini muffin tins.)
Butter Tarts
Pastry for a single crust pie
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
a handful of raisins, currants, and/or chopped pecans (optional)
Preheat oven to 400°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out 1/4″ thick. Cut out circles using a 4″ cookie cutter or empty can, and press into ungreased muffin cups.
In a medium bowl, stir together the brown sugar, corn syrup, eggs and vanilla. Stir in the raisins and pecans, if you’re using them. Fill the tart shells about 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes, until bubbly and golden. Take them out of the pan using a thin knife to coax them out while they are still warm, otherwise any goo that has bubbled over will stick to the pan as it cools. If it does, pop them back in the oven for a minute to soften it again. Cool on a wire rack.
Makes about 18 butter tarts.
Grandma Woodall’s “Never-fail” Pastry
This will give you enough pastry to line a 9” pie plate; double it to make enough for two pies or a double crust. Some pie bakers swear by a teaspoon of vinegar added to their water to discourage the formation of gluten and make a tender crust, but it’s not necessary. Using all shortening instead of a combination of shortening and butter is OK too.
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1/4 cup shortening, chilled and cut into pieces
2-4 Tbsp. ice-cold water
1 tsp. vinegar (optional, stir it into the water)
In a large bowl or the bowl of a food processor, stir together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter and shortening and use a fork, pastry blender, wire whisk or the “pulse” motion of the food processor to blend the mixture until it resembles coarse meal, with lumps of fat no bigger than a pea.
Drizzle the minimum amount of water over the mixture and stir until the dough comes together, adding a little more a bit at a time if you need it. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a disc, wrap it in plastic and chill it for at least half an hour. If you are making a double crust pie, divide the dough in half, making one half slightly larger than the other. (Your pastry can be prepared up to this point and frozen for up to 4 months; let it thaw on the countertop when you need it.
Better Butter Tarts
Butter tarts made with phyllo pastry are undeniably festive, without the low-fat stigma. By brushing sparingly with butter, these contain only 4 grams of fat each, and rival my Grandma’s.
Filling:
3 large egg whites or 2 large eggs
1/3 cup corn syrup, honey or maple syrup
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp. butter
3/4 cup raisins or currants
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
Pastry:
8 sheets frozen phyllo pastry, thawed
2-4 Tbsp. melted butter, or half butter and half canola oil
Preheat oven to 450°F.
In a medium bowl, stir together the egg whites, corn syrup, brown sugar, butter, raisins and pecans.
On a clean, dry work surface, place two sheets of phyllo pastry, keeping the rest covered with a tea towel. Brush the pastry sparingly with melted butter and top with two more sheets. If you like, brush the top sheet again very lightly with butter.
Cut the stack of phyllo into quarters, lengthwise, and then across into 5 squares, making 20 total. Press one stacked square of phyllo into each of 10 muffin tins, pressing the pastry to the sides of the tins wherever they naturally fold. Press the remaining squares on top, putting them at a 45 degree angle so that each cup has 8 points of phyllo. Don’t worry about making them perfectly neat.
Fill the shells about half full (using about a tablespoon of filling for each) and bake for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350° F and bake for another 15 minutes, until pastry is golden and filling is just barely set. If the tips of phyllo are browning too quickly, cover the pan loosely with a sheet of foil.
Remove from the pan while still warm and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining phyllo and filling.
Makes about 20 butter tarts.
Per tart: 125 calories, 3.1 g fat (1.2 g saturated fat, 1.2 g monounsaturated fat, 0.6 g polyunsaturated fat), 24 g carbohydrates, 4.7 mg cholesterol, 0.5 g fiber. 21% calories from fat.
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June 15 2008 | dessert and sweet stuff | No Comments »
Again, no idea what’s for dinner at 5:47 PM. Fortunately, last time I was at Spolumbos I picked up a bunch of extra chicken-apple and turkey-cranberry sausages for emergencies such as these. A few frozen-solid sausages thaw fairly quickly in a bowl of warm water and take about 10 minutes on the barbecue. I know these are a little more well-done than they should be - I like them that way, but I skinned them a bit for W.
I had mixed up a batch of bean salad earlier in the week when feeling a little vegetable-depleted. A can of green beans, one of yellow, one of kidney beans, one of chick peas. A chunk of leftover purple onion and red pepper. The dressing: equal parts sugar and vinegar, simmered in a small pot on the stove until the sugar dissolves, and then the same amount of canola oil stirred in along with a squirt of mustard and a shake of celery seed.
This will keep well in the fridge for at least a week.
Oh how my Friday nights have changed over the past few years…
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June 13 2008 | beans and on the grill | 2 Comments »
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