Caramelized Pear Cake

Based on a recipe from Epicurious.

Ingredients

• 3 largeish bosc pears, peeled.  One grated, the other two sliced thinly.
• 6tbsp butter
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1 1/3c flour
• 2/3 c granulated sugar
• 1 1/2tsp cinnamon
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1/2tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/2c neutral oil
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• zest of one orange

Preheat oven to 350.  In an oven-safe skillet, melt the butter.  When the butter is melted, take it off the heat and add the brown sugar, stirring around.  Then lay the two sliced pears on the skillet in a radial pattern (or however you like).

Meanwhile, combine everything else (including the grated pear) in a separate bowl and stir to combine.  It makes a fairly thick batter.  Pour the batter over the pears in the skillet and throw the whole thing in the oven for 40 minutes.  Take it out when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Thoughts: Fantastic.  Really good.  And fairly easy, although there were a lot of ingredients.  I would say our one complaint was that it's got so much sugar, although I wouldn't say it's too sweet.  It just makes me feel wrong for eating it.  It's really good, though.  I would definitely make this again exactly the same way.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Muscadine Jam

Wow, we're WAY behind.  We've both been so busy lately.  Hopefully we'll start to catch up soon.

Ingredients

• A quart of muscadine grapes
• about 1-2c sugar
• water

First, separate all of the grape skins from the grapes.  This is actually pretty easy - put a slit down the side and pry the skin off.  It comes away pretty easily.  Chop all the skins and set to simmer in a small sauce pan.  In another small sauce pan, start the insides of the grapes simmering.  If you managed to remove all the seeds already, great, otherwise you'll have to strain them later and it's a PAIN.  Anyway, simmer the insides until they're pretty completely broken down and soft, adding water as needed so they don't stick (same goes for the skins).  Now remove the seeds if you haven't already and cook the skin and the insides together with the sugar for another 5 minutes, or at least until the water is mostly cooked off, then put in a food processor and blend until smooth.  Put in a sterile jar and place directly into the fridge.

Thoughts: Although this grape jam was fantastic, Claire and I agree that the distinct muscadine flavor isn't quite there when you boil them for a while.  That said, it's still delicious jam - very clean flavor, probably because there isn't all that HFCS and so forth.  But it was a little disappointing insofar as it didn't have the muscadine flavor.  Probably wouldn't make it again since it was a lot of trouble.

Disaster Index: 3/10

Double Celery Potato Soup

Not for those who are allergic to celery, as this has DOUBLE celery.

Ingredients

• 3tbsp olive oil
• about 2 entire leeks, chopped (we used the green parts of about 4 leeks)
• 1 large onion or 2 small, chopped
• 2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and chopped to rough 1" chunks
• 2 medium celery roots, peeled and chopped to rough 1" chunks
• heaping 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 8c chicken/vegetable stock
• 5 celery stalks, chopped
• (optional) bacon, crisped to top (you can also cook vegetables in the bacon fat / skip the olive oil completely)
• (optional) cream or whole milk - between 1/4 and 1 c, depending on how you feel (we used 1/4 whole)
• black pepper

In a pot, add the leeks and onion and the oil (or bacon fat, if using).  Cook until tender over medium to medium-low heat, about 10 minutes.  Then add the potatoes, celery root, thyme, bay leaf, and stock.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes.  Add the celery stalks and simmer for another 15 minutes.  Now take the soup off the heat and, using an immersion blender (or equivalent?), blend the hell out of the soup until it's mostly smooth.  Add a ton of finely ground black pepper, milk (if using).  Serve and top with optional bacon, if desired.

Thoughts: The flavor of this is really INTERESTING - different from any soup I've had.  In retrospect, this recipe is another variation on the traditional leek and potato soup (see Vichyssoise 2 or our ever popular Vichyssoise with Chilies), but the celery flavor is slightly sweet.  It doesn't taste strongly like celery, but it has a unique... unexpected flavor.  Not totally unlike pea soup.  Kind of "warm" is the best way to put it.  It pairs very well with pepper.  I think this soup would be better had in winter.  But it was a good way to use up a lot of ingredients we had... and it was an excuse to try celeriac for the first time ever.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Madeleines

We more or less followed the recipe given on the 101 cookbooks blog. It took us a while to find a recipe that called for the (traditional) browned butter.
Ingredients

• 1.5 sticks butter
• 3/4c flour plus a little
• 4 eggs
• pinch of salt
• 2/3c sugar
• zest of one lemon
• 1tsp vanilla
• madeleine pan

Preheat the oven to 350. In a sauce pan, melt the butter over low heat. Keep it over low heat and the butter will start to foam. The foam will subside and then you will start to get some browning of the milk solids. Take it off the heat at this point and continue stirring for a little while, then pour through a mesh strainer lined with a paper towel. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat together the eggs and salt with an electric egg beater. Slowly add the sugar, and continue to beat until doubled or tripled in volume and the mixture is ribbony - 2 minutes or so. Now gently whisk in everything else.

Prepare the madeleine pans with PAM and a light dusting of flour (we put white flour in a mesh sieve and tapped it over the molds). Fill the molds about 3/4 full, and bake for 12-14 minutes, until the edges of the madeleines are just barely browned. Remove from the oven and turn out to cool. Dust with powdered sugar to serve.

Thoughts: Claire felt that they were a LITTLE on the dry side, though the flavor was good. She mainly questioned the texture. Maybe cook them a couple minutes less next time? I thought they were just great. Maybe I'd use orange zest instead of lemon? I'm not entirely sure. Possibly I'd consider adding a pinch of baking powder (or is that cheating?)...

Disaster Index: 1.5/10

Vichyssoise 2

Easier and better than our original recipe.  Thanks Julia Child.
Ingredients

• 6 leeks, white parts chopped and rinsed of grit, green parts discarded (or saved for something else)
• 5 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped (the idea is to have about 6 cups of leeks and 6 cups of potatoes)
• 12c chicken or vegetable stock
• 1-2c cream

Note: This recipe makes a LOT of soup.  I made this for a group of 12 and had leftovers.

This recipe is embarrassingly easy.  Throw the vegetables in a big pot with the stock.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 40 to 50 minutes.  Blend in batches, then stir in the cream.  Chill.

Thoughts: I thought that this was really delicious - better than any vichyssoise we'd made in the past.  Must be the cream.  Claire really liked it, too, except that she likes it better with chili peppers in it, and she prefers it served warm.  Anyway, good show.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Arugula Spinach Ravioli

Probably pretty good for you.
Ingredients

• Pasta Dough
• 2c white flour
• ~1-2tbsp olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 3 eggs
• Filling
• ~6oz arugula
• 10oz frozen spinach
• 1/2c ricotta cheese
• 1/2c mozzarella cheese
• 2tbsp butter
• 4 cloves garlic
• lemon juice or white wine - something acidic
• 3/4tsp salt
• 3/4tsp black pepper

In a bowl, combine the dough ingredients. and stir to combine.  Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and, using a little extra flour as you go, knead out the dough until it's fully mixed and has a smooth texture - about 8 minutes.  Wrap the dough in plastic and set it aside for an hour to rest.

Now start a big pot of water boiling.  While that heats, (in a separate pot) combine the butter and garlic in a pot and cook until fragrant - about a minute.  Add the greens (thawed completely in the microwave) and the acidic liquid (white wine / lemon juice) and cover to wilt everything down.  After it's all hot, put everything in a fine mesh strainer and press out any excess liquid - there will be quite a lot.  Then put the greens on a cutting board and chop finely.  Mix with the rest of the filling ingredients in a big bowl.
Now, roll out the dough to an appropriate thinness.  We used a pasta roller we inherited and put the past through on successively smaller gauge pasta sizes.  Eventually, we put the pasta sheet on a (lightly oiled) ravioli press.  We then added the filling, topped with another sheet of pasta, and pressed out the ravioli.  Now, if you don't have all this fancy equipment, you can theoretically do it by hand... you can figure it out.  This pasta dough is actually fairly forgiving.

Anyway, when you've pressed out the ravioli, you drop them in the boiling water (keeping the pot covered after you get them in).  Cook for about 3-6 minutes, depending on the thickness of the ravioli in question.  Then toss with whatever sauce you made (I made a kind of white wine / sage sauce that was OK) and serve.

Thoughts: The pasta dough we used here was nigh perfect.  We've had trouble with pasta doughs being too dry in the past, or too brittle, too glutenous, etc.  but this one was very malleable, incredibly stretchy, and very VERY forgiving.  If I were interested in making pasta in the future, this is the recipe I would use.  As far as the ravioli goes, I think it would have been better with goat cheese filling (the original recipe MAY have called for goat cheese).  Next time, Claire and I have decided, we will put the filling in a food processor rather than using a cutting board (weird).  And a higher cheese to other stuff ratio would also be good.  Also it took us a while to get the pasta thickness right.  But I'm going to go ahead and give this recipe a 1 because it was our first ever time making ravioli with this press we registered for AND it went so well once we figured out what we were doing.  Very rewarding.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Gulab Jamun

Ingredients

• For the Syrup
• 6c water
• 3c sugar
• 2tbsp rosewater
• 1tbsp ground cardamom
• For the Doughnuts
• 3c powdered milk
• 1c all-purpose flour
• 1.5tsp baking powder
• 6tbsp butter, melted
• milk (any type) - just enough to make a soft dough - about 1/4c
• Oil for frying

In a saucepan, add the water and sugar.  Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  When it reaches a boil, turn the heat off and add the rosewater and cardamom.  Set aside.  Meanwhile, combine the dry ingredients for the doughnuts.  Add the butter, melted, and then enough skim milk to make a thick dough that you can roll with your hands.  If you add too much milk, you can always correct with a little more flour.  Roll the dough into balls about 3/4" in diameter.  In a saucepan, add some oil and heat to deep fry the dough.  You want it hot enough that the dough takes about 30 seconds to start to get brown.  If you have the oil too hot, the dough will brown (and burn) too quickly and the inside won't cook.  So you kind of want to cook them more slowly.  Make sure to stir them so they cook evenly.  When they're done, briefly drain on paper towels, then add directly to the syrup.  Let them sit in the syrup for at least 2 hours.  We put our syrup in a slow-cooker set to "warm" so they stay warm until we're ready to eat them.

Thoughts: These are awesome, and the slow-cooker worked perfectly.  I will say that the insides of SOME of the jamun were a little... dry?  It seemed like they didn't cook very well if they were too big, and since the dough was dry, you got these little pockets of milk powder sometimes.  It wasn't bad, but in the future I'd consider trying either (a) a slightly wetter dough or (b) smaller sized jamuns.  This recipe is enough to feed an army (we fed about 18 people desert) so scale back as needed.  On the other hand, I think they would keep well in the fridge.  So.  We served with rose flavored ice cream, but you could serve them plain, with whipped cream, or with many other flavors of ice cream.

Disaster Index: 1/10