Paper Chef: August

Bloggersville is just filled with all kinds of cooking and baking groups. I like that. With many choices you can pick a group that is perfect for you or you can start your own. Which is what Temperance and I did for Recipes to Rival. While I love our group, Paper Chef offers a unique experience than a lot of the other baking groups. Basically, you just stop by for any given month, see what the ingredients are for that month and create a dish with those ingredients. You can participate as little or as much as you like.

I haven't done Paper Chef in quite some time. I was glad to see this months pick- couscous, chilies, peaches and rosemary. Good choice Javaholic. I am very pleased with how this dish came out. Very tastey and I actually would make it again.

Rosemary Scented Toasted Israeli Cous Cous Timbales with Chili Peach Sauce
Lori's Lipsmacking Goodness

1/2 pound Israeli Cous Cous
2 cups chicken broth
2 sprigs rosemary
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
s and p
3 ounces Empire Jack cheese or some other nice melting cheese, grated
1 egg
1/2 cup parsley
1/2 cup sliced green onion
1 cup cooked broccoli, chopped small

Sauce:
1/2 heavy cream
1 cup peach puree
1/2 of an anaheim chili
s and p

In a saucepan melt butter and let brown, add cous cous and rosemary and cook in butter until the cous cous is toasted. Meanwhile, heat the chicken broth. Add the chicken broth and salt and pepper when the cous cous has become a little toasted. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes, until the cous cous becomes tender. Drain. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk egg a little- add cheese, parsley and green onion. Mix in couscous and broccoli. Pour into sprayed muffin tins or ramekins. Bake at 350F for about fifteen to twenty minutes, depending on the size of your pan. You want to see it pulling away from the sides a little. Remove and let cool.

While the cous cous timbales are baking make the sauce. In a heavy bottomed sauce pan heat cream with a chunk of chili until it is just about to boil. Remove from heat, cover and let cool. Remove the chile after the mixture has cooled. In a blender, puree about two or three peaches. Add the heavy cream.

Scones

I was thinking the other day that so many people here in NY love going to Florida for the winter. No offense, cause Florida is nice, but I am more of a Cape Cod kinda girl. It doesn't matter whether its bathing suit or sweater weather, it's my kind of place.

I think it's the Cape Cod in the title that made me want to try these scones. Or maybe it was the copious amount of heavy cream. In either case, so glad I did because these really are great scones. I ended up tweaking the recipe a bit. I have made them three times. I added a little vanilla and a little more cream. I found the batter was a little too dry with 1 1/4 cups so I went with 1 1/2. I have been having them for breakfast. The kids love them. And forget what you heard about scones being dry- these are not. These are moist and delicious. The key is to not overbake. The recipe says 15 to 17 minutes. Go for the fifteen. Even if it is a little doughy in the center it will be very moist.

Cape Cod Scones
Original recipe can be found here, at Serious Eats

2 cups all-purpose flour, measured after sifting
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees with the rack in center position. The scones will bake on a ungreased heavy-duty baking sheet.

In a medium-size mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Use a table fork to mix well. Dribble the cream over the dry ingredients while mixing with the fork. Continue mixing gently just until the mixture forms a rough, sticky ball of dough.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, sprinkle lightly with flour, knead 10 times by pushing the half closer to you down and away from you with the heel of your hand and fold it back over itself, giving it a quarter turn each time.

Pat the dough into a 9-inch disk. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Cut into wedges after cooling for about five or ten minutes.

Serve warm with curd or jamhmmmmmmmm.

Yum cherries

Does this ever happen to you? You see all these great recipes for let's say, goat cheese and then you get the goat cheese and your like where are all those recipes that I was going to make with goat cheese. So then you do a search, internet and or cookbooks and you still can not find a recipe that appeals to you, using goat cheese.
Hate that.

Cherries here have been horrible this year. There was so much rain that they were about ready to burst off the vine. Cherry explosions around the orchard. And because there was so much rain and little sun there was not much flavor or sweetness to the cherries. Enter the Washington cherry. Rainier. Thank goodness. We ate so many. I canned them and I baked with them. Here's a little yum for yah!

Cherry Brown Butter Tart
Smitten Kitchen
and the original from Epicurious can be found here.

Crust:
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
Pinch of salt

Filling:
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced
1 pound sweet cherries, which will yield 12 ounces of pitted cherries, which yielded some leftovers, perfect for snacking (alternately, you can use 12 ounces of the berry of your choice)

Make crust: Preheat oven to 375°F.

Using rubber spatula or fork, mix melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl. Add flour and salt and stir until incorporated. Transfer dough to a tart pan, and use your fingertips to press the dough evenly across the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust until golden, about 18 minutes. Transfer crust to rack and cool in pan. Maintain oven temperature.

Make the filling: Cook butter in heavy small saucepan (a lighter-colored one will make it easier to see the color changing, which happens quickly) over medium heat until deep nutty brown (do not burn), stirring often and watching carefully, about six minutes. Immediately pour browned butter into glass measuring cup to cool slightly.

Whisk sugar, eggs, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add flour and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Gradually whisk browned butter into sugar-egg mixture; whisk until well blended.

Arrange pitted cherries, or the berries of your choice, in bottom of cooled crust. Carefully pour browned butter mixture evenly over the fruit. Bake tart until filling is puffed and golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool tart completely in pan on rack.

Do ahead: Can be made at least a day ahead, and stored at room temperature. Any longer, keep them cool in the fridge.

* Next time, because my cherries were so big, I think I would have cut them in half. Or I could make this when raspberries are in season, yum.

* If you are wondering why mine are bars, I simply cut the tart into bars because we ended up taking it over some friends house.

Japanese Slaw with Daikon Radish

I love cabbage. I am very Polish in this sense. Love dill. Love potatoes. Love beets. Love poppy seeds. All kinda Polish-y things. My very Italian husband, not so much. I tell him, babe, cabbage is like medicine. It's so good for you. He didn't have too much trouble wolfing down this one. Me neither. Honestly, I could have just a bowl full of this on a hot day and that would do it for me.

Okay, so I have to bring it up. I have been wanting to say something for a while. Some of you won't even know what I am talking about but some of you will. I miss Maryann of Finding La Dolce Vita! I miss her blog, I miss her writing, her food. I wanted to email her but I can't even find that. So Maryann, if your out there and reading this blog, I miss you!

Update: I found this entry from Italyville on Maryann.
2nd Update: I have renamed the title of this post, Japanese Slaw, based on all your feedback.

Crunchy Cabbage and Daikon Salad
based on a recipe from Martha Stewart's Healthy Quick Cook
*I made a huge batch of this stuff and tightly wrapped it. I pulled out some as needed and put my dressing on about 15 minutes before the meal. Lunch, dinner, or snack.

2 cup shredded purple cabbage
2 cup shredded green cabbage
1 cup shredded daikon
2 cups shredded carrot
Sesame Vinaigrette ( I won't tell you how much to add because that's a personal thing- to douse or not to douse)

I used a funky shredder that makes thin, sinewy slices. I use it all the time. So as far as gadgets go this is one that is pretty helpful. Mix all in a large bowl.

Sesame Vinaigrette
based on a recipe from Martha Stewart's Healthy Quick Cook

1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup sesame oil
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon water
*okay this is bad but I added a Oriental Ramen Noodle flavor packet. Why, because I use half packets to season the noodles. So I end up with tons of flavor packets laying around.

Place all ingredients in a bottle and shake it up. A little exercise for yah! This is a superb dressing. I was suppose to add a tablespoon of peanut oil but I just added an extra tablespoon of canola.

Blueberry Fields Forever

Annual Blueberry Day is a favorite in our household. Every year for about four years we have picked blueberries at an eight acre blueberry farm. We have added activities on as we go. Each year our event gets a little better. It's a family thing. My husband takes the day off from work and my parents go as well. We have had friends join us some years as well.

The day starts out pretty early before the sun gets too hot. This year we picked around twenty pounds of blueberries. My parents picked the same (ah, yeah, we helped them quite a bit). Yup, its a lot but I freeze them and can them and of course we eat a bunch of them as well.


It had rained the day before so by the time I was done picking my whole right side was completely wet. Kept me nice and cool.
Down the road from the blueberry farm is this great park by Lake Ontario. The kids have a blast! There's a playground and this water playground. We have our little picnic and enjoy it all.

After that there is a place right nearby where they have kiddie rides for 25 cents a piece. How can a kid and a parent go wrong at those prices!

After all that we end the day with an ice cream cone. Now tell me, does it get any better when you are a kid. And for me, it was a magical day because I could watch my kids totally enjoying themselves and I was surrounded by people I love.

After we get home, I freeze blueberries. The next day I make jam. What a jam it was. Since some of the blueberries were slightly underripe there was quite a bit of pectin in them. The jam set up right while I was cooking. The recipe said it would yield 64 ounces, I got 78, yup, you read that correctly. It didn't have to boil down as much.
Vanilla Blueberry Preserves

1 vanilla pod, split and scraped
9 cups blueberries, mashed
6 cups sugar

Combine all in a large pot and cook until it thickens. Watch carefully and stir often when it thickens up. It will burn real easy. When it thickens, remove the vanilla pod and discard (it should be pretty used up at this point).

Pack into sterilized jars (boiled) and wipe rims clean. Process for ten minutes.

Recipes to Rival: Limoncello and Bruschetta

This Recipes to Rival challenge finally gave me the boost I needed to make the limoncello. Thank you to our lovely hostess, Lauren of Fried Pickles and Ice Cream for choosing an easy peasy recipe for a busy, hot July. It was perfect. I have been wanting to make Limoncello for quite some time. Yeah! I have not tasted it yet as it is not ready but I am looking forward to doing that real soon.
The bruschetta is light and scrumptious. I changed things up just a bit. I made some bruschetta canned tomatoes (recipe below)last season and I wanted to use it on the bread. Then I placed a bit of Fontina on top because I am in love with Fontina (shhhh, don't tell my husband).

Bruschetta
(4 servings)

4 slices Rustic Bread
2 cups chopped Roma Tomatoes
1 clove Garlic
4 to 8 leaves Basil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea salt

-Heat grill or grill pan to medium high heat
-Slice THICK pieces of bread
-Place bread on grill until each side has a nice golden color

-Rub garlic on top side of each bread piece
-Pile tomatoes on
-sprinkle one big pinch of salt per piece on top of the tomatoes
-generously drizzle oilve oil on top of tomatoes (about 2 to 3 tablespoons per piece)
-add basil to the top

Limoncello

1 liter grain alcohol (I used Vodka)
5 1/2 cups water
5 large lemons (or 10 small lemons)
2 1/2 cups sugar

-Gently wash lemons in cool water to remove any dirt
-Peel away zest from lemon leaving the pith (the white stuff) behind.
-Put peels in a large sealed jar or container.
-Pour alcohol over peels and place container in a cool place.
-Leave the mixture for 7 days ( or longer as I will do).
-Every day give the container a little swirl (this is not totally necessary but go ahead if you can help yourself).
-After 7 days (or later), strain the alcohol by using a coffee filter.
-Prepare the simple syrup. Bring the water to a boil and add the sugar to dissolve.
-Mix the syrup with the alcohol. DO NOT DO THIS NEAR A FLAME.
-Pour the limoncello into bottles or containers. Let cool completely. Store in the freezer until ready to serve!

* I will be leaving my vodka with the rinds for a bit longer. I think the flavors will come out a bit more if I leave them.

Bruschetta in a Jar
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (have I mentioned that this book has become my right hand?)

5 cloves of garlic
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp dried basil
2 Tbsp dried oregano
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
9 cups chopped cored peeled plum tomatoes (about 4 lb or 12 medium)

Directions:
1.) PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
2.) COMBINE garlic, wine, wine vinegar, water, sugar, basil, oregano and balsamic vinegar. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes or until garlic is heated through. Remove from heat.
3.) PACK tomatoes into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Ladle hot vinegar mixture over tomatoes leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
4.) PROCESS filled jars in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

Homemade Maraschino Cherries

I wanted to make some homemade maraschino cherries. After scouring the internet I finally found one that was to my liking. A lot of the recipes are made with maraschino cherry liquor. Not that it's a bad thing- by no means- it's not. But after purchasing some liquor recently the last thing I wanted to do was go and drop some more of my cash at the liquor store. So I went with these.

My only regret is that I did half of a recipe and really these were fabulous- would make them again but with the full recipe. They are not as sweet as the store bought kind but they do have a lot of flavor. If you like them real sweet just add more sugar than is called for.

Maraschino cherries can be made with any kind of a sweet cherry. Generally it is made from Rainier, Royal and Gold varieties. It is a bit of a misnomer though because they all began with the Marasca Cherry in Italy. You can read more about the Marasca Cherry and the liquor here at Wikipedia.

Homemade Maraschino Cherries
recipe found here at Recipezaar

4 1/2 lbs pitted red cherries
4 1/2 lbs white sugar
3 cups water
juice of 1 lemon
1 ounce almond extract
1 ounce red food coloring
brine:
2 quarts water
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon alum

Soak pitted cherries overnight in heated brine. The next morning, drain cherries. Rinse them in cold water. Combine cherries, water, sugar, lemon juice, and red food coloring. Heat to the boiling point.Let stand about 24 hours.

Again, boil juices, pour over cherries and let stand 24 hours.

Bring to boil again. Add almond extract and cherries. Pack in hot sterilized jars and seal. The Ball Blue book says boil this in a water bath-pints-20 minutes, quarts-25 minutes.

*If you are the daring sort you could use the cherry pits to flavor them rather than the almond extract, which is the same thing anyway. Just take them out before canning.