This is a basic pastry cream, suitable for a whole plethora of things: filling eclairs, filling my raspberry tart, serving with fruit, bribing children, licking out of navels...whatever. You can also flavor it however you like: add chocolate, Grand Marnier, etc. But for this, since there's already chocolate and hazelnut in the crust, I kept it simple. Also, this is really easy and quick.
Pastry Cream. Or Creme Patissiere.
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split -- or --
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 egg yolks from room temperature eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 pint heavy cream
Put milk in a heavy saucepan with the vanilla bean and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside.
Beat egg yolks and sugar together in a medium-sized bowl until thick and light yellow. Add flour and cornstarch and beat a bit more.
Take the vanilla beans out of the milk, scrape the insides, and put the seeds back in. If there is a skin over the milk, remove it. Now, very, very slowly add the warm milk to the eggs. The milk should not be hot to the touch. Whisk like crazy while you're adding -- you don't want the eggs to cook. 
Once it's all in there, put the whole shebang back in the milk pan and put over medium heat. While stirring, let it come to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer (which you won't notice because you're stirring, right?) and let it cook until thickened, which will be quite quick, and then cook for about two minutes more. If you're adding flavorings or chocolate, do it now. If you're using vanilla extract, use it here also.
Pour into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pressing down so the plastic wrap touches the cream. Let cool for a while, and then put in the refrigerator.
Before assembly: whip the cream and fold about half into the pastry cream.
Assemble: spoon into the tart shell and smooth. Top with raspberries. Or any fruit. Except bananas.
If you want to glaze it, you can use about a 1/4 of a cup of melted red currant jam (for red fruit) or apricot jam (for orange & yellow fruit). Glaze as close to serving as possible, though: it makes the crust soggy.
A word about this tart in general: it doesn't travel. If you're planning on bringing it to a party, you're going to have to assemble it there. Just put the cream into a container or a zip-top bag, bag up the fruit, put it all in a little cooler and hit the road. Because otherwise you will just have a tartshell full of sliding goo.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Happy (*@#$^@# Birthday : Part II
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Happy *&$%&# Birthday: Part I
So, check this out: I get a voice mail from a friend of mine last weekend, inviting me to a surprise party on the 21st for my friend Francis. And she asked if I would make a cake. Which is fine, but the 21st is MY birthday. Just to be clear: dissed by friends on birthday plus asked to bake.
Now, a better person might get angry. I, however, chose to approach it as a perfect opportunity to casually remind people at how I really felt via my favorite medium: passive aggressive behavior. That is: I said I thought it was funny, and then made sure everyone at the party heard my latest funny story. I also made this:
Raspberry Tart
Crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 stick unsalted butter, very cold and cut into 1/2 inch pieces.
1/4 tsp salt
1-2 tsp sugar*
3 tablespoons ice water
1 very good chocolate bar, chopped
*A word: This is my mom's (Mrs. Rathead) pie crust recipe, and I use it for everything, regardless of filling. If I'm making a savory filling, I leave out the sugar. In this instance, I used 2 tablespoons sugar, because I wanted it to be a bit sweeter. You can also use a butter/shortening mix if you want -- it does make a more stable crust, but don't go over 50% shortening.
Place flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a bit to mix. Scatter butter over the top and pulse a few times until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Leaving the food processor running, add the ice water in a thin stream. Keep running until the dough forms a ball. Remove, shape into a ball, flatten, wrap in waxed paper, and let rest in the fridge for an hour or so. This will keep in the fridge for three days or the freezer for three months.
Preheat the oven to 400.
Take the dough and roll out. This will fit a 10 inch tart pan. I actually used two 7 inch tart pans and it fit both of them, but barely. Anway, roll out on a floured surface and get it into your tart pans. Trim the edges and prick all over with a fork. Put back in the fridge for about fifteen minutes. (This all works better if the dough is really cold before you bake it.)
Take a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil and butter it. You want to make a butter circle about an inch wider than your tart pan. Place this, butter side down, onto your chilled crust. Make sure it's touching the sides. Put your tart shell on a baking sheet, if you want (it's easier to move around.) Fill with pie weights (I used dried peas).
Bake for 15-20 minutes, then take out and reduce the heat to 375. Let the crust sit for a minute or two while you drink the aroma of toasted pea pie. Take off the tin foil and put back in the oven for about five minutes, until golden brown.
Let cool completely.
Either in a microwave, in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over extremely low heat, or in a double boiler (or, if you're me, in a copper jello mold shaped like a fish over a saucepan of barely simmering water) melt your chocolate.
A word: If you are going to melt chocolate all by itself, I recommend using one with a lower content of cocoa. You know how all the fancy chocolate bars are all "85%" like they think they're better than you? Chocolate with that high cocoa content burns really easily. For this, I used a Valhrona bar with 61% and it melted like a dream. Also, it had hazelnuts in it, which I didn't see when I bought it, but it worked great.
Spoon or pour the melted chocolate into the pie crust and spread with the back of a spoon until the entire bottom is evenly coated. Let cool, or chuck into the fridge for a minute or two to set.
I'll do the rest of this in a separate post.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Naan Pizza
My friend Kevin, chef, chocolate maker and co-creator of the adorable Harrison, made these one weekend when we were visiting him and his partner Maura out in the Hamptons. I usually serve these as party food, but I also made them for dinner last night, because it would not stop raining and party food makes me feel better.
1 packet of naan -- the garlic and onion kind if you can find them.
1 thing of goat cheese
1 small shallot, minced
1 tomato, seeded and diced
1 red pepper, diced
Dried basil, or slivered fresh basil
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet with olive oil.
Put goat cheese into a small bowl. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the goat cheese and stir until goat cheese smooth and spreadable. Add minced scallions and basil and stir until incorporated.
Put your baking sheet into the hot oven.
Take your naan and spread with the goat cheese. Sprinkle with diced tomatoes and red pepper. Season with a bit of salt and pepper. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil over the top.
Make sure your baking sheet is hot, and then, without taking it out of the oven, place your naan on the sheet. You should hear a bit of a sizzle.
Bake for 5-7 minutes. Remove. Slice. Consume. Repeat.
Like all pizza, this is infinitely variable. I could eat a shoe baked with goat cheese, but you can use more traditional pizza flavors if you want. Or you can do pepper jack and jalapeños. Really, anything.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Fresh Squeezed Lemonade
It is around this time of year as a kid that my sister and I used to set up our lemonade stand. We lived not far from the train station and had prime real estate on the block selling our icy cold $.25 beverage to weary, thirsty commuters returning from a long, hard day of work in Manhattan. Perhaps being a little nostalgic and also wanting reprieve from the beastly heat, I whipped up some fresh squeezed lemonade.
This is a great drink since it serves double duty if you want to make lemonade popsicles.
Ingredients:
6 lemons (or enough to make about 1 ½ cup of lemon juice
1 3/4 cup white sugar
10 cups of water
1 lime
Roll lemons against countertop to get them “loosened” up. Juice them until you have about a cup and a half of liquid. Strain juice to remove seeds.
Combine sugar and 1 cup water in saucepan. Add some lemon rind pieces from the pile of cut lemons that were just juiced. Stir. Make sure sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, discard rinds and allow to sit at room temperature. Chill.
Combine water and chilled lemon/sugar mixture. Add sliced lime wedges to garnish. You may need to dilute the lemonade to taste.
Variation: Omit the lime and add a splash of grape juice instead.
Spike it with some vodka.
Make popsicles. Pour lemonade into popsicle makers, put in freezer until solid.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Spicy Fried Chicken
Because I am quite poor, quite lazy and quite addicted to fried food, sometimes it is hard for me to gather the energy and materials to really make a meal worth picking up the camera and writing about. However, drumsticks were recently on sale at the local butcher for $.79 a pound, and that means fried chicken for supper!
For about $2.50 I walked out of the butcher shop with six plump, delicious chicken legs. Enough to feed myself and one lucky soul who would adjust the lighting while I attempted to take pictures of my recipe for country style spicy fried chicken.
The ingredients could not be more basic:
chicken parts (whatever you like. I used legs because they were on sale)
1 cup flour
buttermilk
cayenne pepper
pinch or two salt
black pepper
oil for frying *
Rinse the chicken parts and pat dry. If you are more health conscious that I, you might want to remove the skin at this point. Place the chicken parts in a baking dish or bowl and cover them with buttermilk. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, three or more is ideal.
When ready to start fryin', drain the chicken from the buttermilk and cover liberally with the black and cayenne peppers. Just sprinkle all over the chicken and don't think about it.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour and a pinch of salt. In the meanwhile, fill a large pot or deep frying pan with oil. You don't need a lot, you could feasibly use just enough to cover the chicken. Heat this on medium. I am sure there is a proper temperature that this much reach, but lacking a thermometer, I just let it heat for about 15 minutes.
Now comes the fun part. Take a piece of chicken in one hand and drop it in the flour bowl. With your other hand, toss it in the flour until thoroughly covered and place it on a plate. It helps to dedicate one hand to picking up the chicken and the other for flouring. You will see.
After all the chicken pieces have been floured, take one piece and add to the hot oil. This is your "test piece" and may be submerged in oil that's not that hot yet. Gently place it in the oil and watch it carefully. If the oil is hot enough, the chicken will sink slightly to the bottom and have a rolling boil of bubbles around it:
At this point, carefully add the remaining pieces, ONE AT A TIME, with a few seconds in between each one. This helps prevent them from sticking together. Allow these to cook until the flour turns a golden brown, about 10-20 minutes depending on what sort of chicken part you use. When the chicken is done, it will begin to float in the oil.
Carefully remove the chicken and drain the oil on a plate topped with paper towels or a baking rack. If making more than one batch, you can also place these in a warm oven to keep them crisp while the other batch cooks.
I served this with a nice, inexpensive country cole slaw (cabbage, mayo, cider vinegar and shredded carrot). Amazing!
* This is up for debate. Many southern mothers and cookbooks will stand by their Victorian method of frying the chicken in animal fat, shortening, or a combination of oil and bacon fat. No doubt this all makes for a wonderfully robust frying experience, but if you don't want the lingering scent of animal fat or bacon grease in your kitchen, go with the oil. Not as decadent, but way easier on the heart and lungs.
Monday, July 2, 2007
The Naperville Rib Festival
So on Friday I was enjoying a cold, post-work Goose Island Pale Ale with my friend Josh when I happened to see something out of the corner of my eye that stopped me mid-sentence. For a split second I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. But no! I took a closer look at the free entertainment weekly on the table between us, and it was then that I saw it. The pairing of the two most magical words I have ever seen together in my life:
RIB FESTIVAL.
I immediately sent a text to CrossFood HQ in New York City to try to explain the magnitude of the situation. RIB FESTIVAL. Seconds later I received a response.
"Why didn't you tell us this weeks ago when we could have booked a flight?"
Sometimes living in the midwest has its rewards.
So on Sunday morning, armed with a smug sense of geographical superiority and a bag full of sunblock and wet wipes, the meatiest person I know and I hopped in the car and made the hour long drive to the 2007 Naperville Rib Festival.
The first thing I am going to tell you about CrossFood's experience at the RIB FESTIVAL is: this event is not cheap. $10 to park within comfortable walking distance to the festival (hey, it was hot!) and an additional $10 per person entrance fee later, we crossed through the magical gates of the rib festival, only to be greeted by what is probably the most expensive festival menu I have ever seen. I know, I know... many of you will look to the picture on the right and tell me that $20 is NOT too much for a slab of decent ribs, especially in Manhattan where everything costs an arm and a leg, and quality meats are worth it and what not and what for, but STILL. This is the midwest, and there were several vendors. Which leaves you really with one option: the 3 bone sampler.
With 15 different vendors serving BBQ and several more selling other festival favorites, and a modest budget at best, we had to be choosy on what we sampled. We skipped Sgt. Oink's despite it's awesome name based on the tremendous amount of military propaganda at their booth. We also bypassed two local vendors that we could get anytime and went straight for Texas Outlaws BBQ, based out of Elizabethtown, KY.
I will gloss over the obvious issues with calling yourself a "Texas Outlaw" while operating out of Kentucky and just say that the ribs were the moist, fall-off-the-bone, fatty sort of goodness that dreams are made of. Tender and moist, with a smoky-sweet sauce and just enough hints of honey to make you lick your fingers, these delicious ribs whet our appetite and left us thinking the rest of the afternoon would be wonderful.
After walking through the dusty field considering each vendor's menu, Stop #2 was at Butch's Smack Your Lips BBQ. I actually chose this vendor, mainly because they are from New Jersey and I have a soft spot for my old home state. My friend agreed as soon as he saw their sign: "Cook it low, cook it slow. Serve no swine before its time."
Butch's Smack Your Lips BBQ had a long line, a whole buffet of sauces off to the side, and what could quite possibly be the coolest trophy I have ever seen:
Not a good choice.
The ribs were tough, dry and full of gristle. The three they handed us looked more like something out of the microwave than something that had been carefully smoked over hot coals all afternoon. The albeit somewhat attractive college student who handed them to us saw our obvious disapproval at the serving and pointed to the sauce buffet, advising us to "pick whichever one we like". Thanks, buddy.
We took our sad paper dish of scrawny bones to the sauce station and opted for the medium bbq sauce. My friend, being a guy, took the first bite and immediately frowned. "I could do better than this and I don't own a grill," he declared. He tossed the half eaten rib into the dish and pushed them toward me for me to try. I tried to pull a section of what appeared to be fatty goodness off the bone and gave up in about 45 seconds when I realized it was futile. After a long discussion about rib joints and the whole concept of cooking with sauce on vs. adding your own after the fact, we tossed Butch's ribs and decided to try one more. We cleansed our palettes with root beer floats and got back in line.
Stop #3 was Pigfoot BBQ Company out of Cedar Rapids. Again, heavy on sauce over technique, but delicious all the same. Pigfoot has been "ribbing" at this festival for 13 years, and longer in other regions, and it shows. No frills, basic and classic, it was deliciously tender and moist with just enough meat to where the sampler seemed enough.
As a side note, we saw numerous people walking around with Pigfoot sandwiches all afternoon - possibly noting that their pulled pork was better than their ribs. We didn't get back in line to find out since by this point the combination of sun, country music, screaming children and bees was enough to send us back to the safe confines of the city.
So about $100 in the hole, sunstroked and queasy from the root beer float/bbq combination, we left the festival. However, I still think the words "rib festival" are two of the most glorious words in the English language.
Pecans of Dissent
If the current climate of corruption leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, try these. They'll help. A little.
Sugared Pecans
1 egg white
splash of water
capful of vanilla
2 cups pecans
scant 1/2 cup of white sugar, plus brown sugar to make up for it.
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cayenne
a bit less than a tsp. salt (I used four pinches of salt.)
(Taste this. It can take a lot of salt.)
Preheat oven to 200 F.
Put sugars, cinnamon, and cayenne together in a bowl. Whisk until evenly blended.
Combine egg white, water and vanilla in a bowl. Beat until frothy.
Drop pecans into egg white mixture. Mix until all nuts are thoroughly coated. Transfer to bowl with sugar mix and, again, stir until the nuts are all sugared up. Scoop out onto greased baking sheet and try to get an even layer. Bake in oven for about an hour, stirring every fifteen or twenty minutes.
Cool completely, serve, and look forward to 2008.