I got a call from an acquaintance named Nicole who lived in San Francisco.  I had done her best friend’s wedding at the Faye Mansion Inn the year before. I had even had danced at the wedding with her husband, who was a dead ringer for David Bowie, willowy tall, blonde, and debonair. Nicole (who was quite his opposite in being dark, exotic, aloof, and temperamental) and the faux David Bowie had decided to have a brunch to celebrate the opening of his new one-man accounting business.  The party would be in the top floor office of a converted Noe Street Victorian home on a Sunday morning (street parking would not be a problem then) and she wanted a lavish but casual, impressive brunch.  She wanted people to really feel satisfied by being able to come back as many times as they wanted for food and drink. In short, lots of everything.

Nicole was very particular, even nervous, about every single detail being in place, which was no problem for me since reassuring hostesses is one of my strong points.  It is not unusual for anyone who does not entertain very often to get the jitters when they do since it is way bigger a responsibility in reality than when you are in the planning stages.

The most compelling detail of this party was that Nicole had planned everything according to astrological projections–the day, time, even right down to when the perfunctory formal announcement lauding the opening of the business would be made to the guests.

Nicole was a professional astrologer. Unbeknownst to me and most of the world, she was working with Joan Quigley, the astrologer who gained front page notoriety when Donald Regan’s book about his experiences as the Chief of Staff in the Reagan White House was published. The fact that Nancy Reagan consulted an astrologer to co-ordinate her husband’s calendar for personal safety and to set dates for global conferences really hit a scandalous note for most of America. Joan Quigley took all of the heat and never revealed to the public that she was working in tandem with Nicole, who was doing the mathematical calculations for Joan’s thriving business.  Of course, I was reassured when I found out since Nicole was smart, technical, scientific, and very competent.  She was highly trained and did a lot of published writing on the subject, as well as having a large client base of her own.  In my opinion, the country was in good hands and I was able to put in perspective the giggly remarks I had heard in my circle of friends that Nancy Reagan had her own “kitchen cabinet.” Nicole had her computer setup and worked out of her kitchen.

The menu had to be completely prepared beforehand since there was really no kitchen in the building, just a sink and microwave installed in a narrow walk in hall linen closet.  We would cut the fruit and breads in there, along with arranging the platters.  The upstairs rooms, accessed by a steep banistered staircase, were smallish and rather dark, reminding me of my grandmother’s 1920s house in New Jersey. There was  a turn-of-the-century fireplace in the main office that was once the living room of the rental flat/master bedroom of the original family house, with double glass doors leading to adjacent rooms.

I would set the serving tables up in that L-shaped room, looking out the front window. The room, probably once a child’s bedroom or dressing room, was small enough just to allow for an even flow in from the hall and around the front of the L and then head them out to the office area. My servers could stand behind the tables, one for the food, the other for the juice, champagne, and coffee, without being in the way of the guests at all.

view from the end of the catering table to the two bonsai I borrowed from a friend's collection that added height to the table

While the menu looked deceptively simple, it created a lovely bountiful table.  You can serve a very simple array of foods, but end up with a stunning meal the way they are balanced flavor and appearance wise, then push the whole look a up a notch by having a great presentation.  Notice I don’t say elaborate here.

As long as you have real glasses for the drinks and real flatware, you can have a lovely brunch with stylish paper or plastic plates and over sized paper napkins reflecting the colors chosen by the hostess.  You can have all the same color or mix and match complementary colors.  You want whatever the guests touch to feel good to encourage the mood of satisfaction and stability; stainless forks and nice glassware achieves that.

Since the guests would be eating standing up, that meant there would be a balancing act–plate in one hand, fork or glass in the other.  All foods had to be able to be eaten with just a fork or your fingers, and not be messy at all.  I went for sturdy black plastic, dinner plate size, to avoid food dumped on the floor as guests tried to get a forkful, yet have room for generous portions of all the foods including the breads.

Auspicious Business Debut

Buffet Brunch in the Victorian Office

Noe Street

San Francisco, California

•

Sunday, January 31, 1988

Lox, Natural Cream Cheese and Miniature Bagels

capers and wedges of lemon

•

Fresh Vegetable and Cream Quiche

•

Fresh Pineapple Slices and Melon Wedges

A Variety of Homemade Nut Breads

pumpkin, poppyseed, sour cream cashew, carrot, and apricot

•

Piper-Sonoma Brut

fresh squeezed orange juice                                 cafe

Recipe and text copyright Beth Hensperger 2012

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

this will give you a perspective of how large king crab are

Crabs are the second most popular seafood after shrimp. With the fishing limits put on Dungeness crabs, there is now a glut of King crab legs available to fill the gap.

What exactly is a King crab? The delicious giant crustacean has ten legs, the front two being pincers, and can easily weigh over 10 pounds. It is cooked then flash-frozen immediately on the ship, so it retains its fabulously fresh and sweet succulent taste since crab is best within 24 hours.

Commercial fisheries have existed for them in the icy waters of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands bordering Japan, Canada, Russia, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, and Chile (when buying, check if imported or domestic, choosing a domestic Alaska crab if possible). The main species are red, blue, and golden king crabs. King crabs have “tails,” or abdomens, that are distinctive, being fan-shaped and tucked underneath the rear of the shell. They also have five pairs of legs; the first bears their claws or pincers, the right claw is usually the largest on the adults, the next three pairs are their walking legs, and the fifth pair of legs are small and normally tucked underneath the rear portion of their carapace (the shell covering their back).

Because a crab’s skeleton is its shell (made mostly of calcium), it must molt its shell in order to grow. Juveniles molt many times in their first few years, then less frequently until they reach maturity in about 5 years. Adult females must molt in order to mate but males do not. Red king crabs are the largest of these species with the record female and male weighing 10.5 and 24 pounds, respectively, measuring up to 5 feet across. These large crabs were estimated to be 20 to 30 years old.

Red and blue kings can occur from the intertidal zone to 100 fathoms or more. King crabs live mostly between 100-400 fathoms, in the deep waters. Adult red and blue king crabs exhibit near shore to offshore (or shallow to deep) and back, annual migrations. They come to shallow water in in a vertical migration in late winter and by spring the female’s embryos hatch.

Food eaten by king crabs varies by species, size, and depth inhabited. King crabs are known to eat a wide assortment of marine life including worms, clams, mussels, snails, brittle stars, sea stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, barnacles, crabs, other crustaceans, fish parts, sponges, and algae. King crabs are cannabalistic. Oh yeah.

While crabs are usually sold as a whole body or as lump meat, King crab is sold in individual leggy portions with a bit of the body still attached. King crab legs are sold pre-cooked crab and frozen legs.

Once you wash and clean the crab legs you can start their heating process if you want them warm. Or,  just thaw them out and since they are precooked, you are good to go. You can steam or oven-roast the crab legs. You can place them on a steamer and let them steam for around 5 minutes. If you have several crab legs it might take a little more time. Or you can get them heated on an oven at 400º F. Place all the king crab legs inside a rectangular baking dish and let them roast for about 5 minutes. If all the legs are heated, slowly remove them from the heat. But the easiest, is to microwave. Very quickly, of course, since you don’t want to toughen the tender meat.

For a main dish, consider one leg per person, which is an average of at least one pound, and serve with a seafood fork for removing the red-edged snowy white meat out of the thin shell. Defrost your legs on the kitchen counter for the afternoon, or more slowly in the refrigerator overnight (up to 2 days in the original wrapping). You can dip into regular tomato cocktail sauce, or my special sauce created by my mother, the King crab lover.

Serve with a green salad and some fresh crusty rolls, such as from La Brea Bakery, or hoagie rolls, which will taste good dipped in the sauce as well.

Overview

Cookware: 10-to 12-inch Pyrex pie plate or platter

Microwave Wattage: 1,100 to 1,300

Cook Time: 3 minutes

Standing Time: 5 minutes

Serves 2 to 4

Ingredients

• Not Your Mother’s Cocktail Sauce

• 1 cup mayonnaise, regular, fat-free, or Veganaise soy mayonnaise

• 6 tablespoons ketchup

• 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons Grand Marnier orange liqueur

• 4 frozen King crab legs (about 4 pounds), thawed and rinsed

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, ketchup, and Grand Marnier. Cover and refrigerate until serving time.

2. With a chef’s knife on a cutting board, cut each thawed crab leg into 4 to 6 chunks or bend the crab leg at the knees into a V shape and place on a 10- to 12-inch Pyrex pie plate or platter (I do on directly on the 12-inch diameter glass turntable) in a spoke pattern, shell side up. Partially cover with plastic wrap.

3. Microcook on HIGH for 3 minutes, until flesh is opaque. Let stand 5 minutes. Divide the cocktail sauce equally between small shallow dishes for dipping and place on the dinner plate. Divide the crab legs between the plates and let diners shell and pick out the meat. Serve immediately with some large soft paper napkins and maybe a bowl for the shells.

the claw

Excerpted from Not Your Mother’s Microwave Cooking, by Beth Hensperger. (c) 2010, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

Text copyright Beth Hensperger 2012

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

On July 4, s’mores typically are served when the sparklers come out after dark. At family picnics, the s’mores are the last thing to hit the dying embers of the hot BBQ. A sleepover? Lets make s’mores.When summer is over, is s’more time over too? No way. S’mores can be made lickity split in the microwave, all year round. S’mores in the dead of winter. Oh yeah.

stylized elegant s'more dessert plate at Masa's in San Francisco

S’mores have remained a tried-and-true camp treat and used to be the only place you could get the exclusively collective dessert. A few years ago, s’mores went upscale when restaurants started featuring them on dessert menus, offering them with house-made graham crackers, marshmallows, and expensive bittersweet chocolate, even bringing a small grill with the order to allow diners to toast their marshmallows table side. The s’more has never looked back.

The gooey childhood delights composed of melted marshmallows and chocolate bars sandwiched between two graham cracker squares are one of the newest members of the creative home kitchen.

The Girl Scouts are credited with being the first to actually write down the recipe for the treat. The combination of graham cracker, Hershey milk chocolate bar, and toasted marshmallow first appeared as a recipe for ”Some Mores” in a 1927 publication, Tramping and Trailing With the Girl Scouts. Over the years, the name was shortened to s’mores. Now there are even whole books devoted to the infinite variety of s’mores since they translate the childhood delight just as perfectly on an outdoor gas grill, indoor broiler, conventional oven, or microwave.

The elements remain constant: graham crackers to hold the sandwich together, a chocolate bar of any persuasion, and a nice large marshmallow. Collect different brands chocolate bars to find your favorite. Non-purists vary with thin cookies, such as ginger, waffle cookies, or chocolate chippers, but I am a hardcore graham cracker folk. The marshmallow won’t be roasted, but you won’t miss it a bit.

Gourmet grocery stores carry handmade, hand cut marshmallows and I heartily

house made marshmallows cut into cubes

recommend this addition. Kraft now offers its Jet-Puffed in a variety of flavors, including strawberry, chocolate, chocolate-vanilla swirl, and caramel-vanilla swirl, as well as toasted coconut, making it easy to get creative with s’more recipes. Not all are available year round, though. For those with a big appetite, Campfire brand came out with Giant Roasters — extra large marshmallows that can be used for making a double-wide s’more using a whole candy bar and two unbroken graham crackers.

Some people go so far as to make homemade graham crackers and marshmallows, but I drew the line here since the entire lure of a s’more is satisfying that spontaneous need. I didn’t want to wait that long. If you are gluten intolerant, no need to skip the s’mores–a GF graham cracker without wheat is available in health food stores, or can be homemade.

Be sure to pay attention to the recipe timing directions in the microwave—it calls for SECONDS, not minutes.

Overview

Cookware:  Microwave-proof plate

Microwave Wattage: 1,100 to 1,300

Total Cook Time:  About 15 seconds

Standing Time:  None

Makes 1 s’more

Ingredients

• 2 graham cracker squares (1 whole graham cracker, broken in half)

• 1/2 of a 1.55-ounce chocolate bar, broken if necessary (milk, dark, semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate)

• 1 large marshmallow

Instructions

1. On a plate, place 1 cracker square. Top with the piece of chocolate. Microcook on HIGH for 8 seconds, to melt the chocolate slightly.

2. Immediately place the marshmallow on top of the partially melted chocolate and microcook on HIGH 7 to 10 seconds longer, just until the marshallow puffs. It will be soft, not crispy. Do not cook longer than 10 seconds or it will turn rubbery.

3. Remove from oven and immediately cover with other cracker. Gently press together and eat like a sandwich out of hand. Might be messy.

Easy Variations For Those Who Must Experiment and Want That Little Bit More Flavor:

PEANUTTY S’MORES: Spread thin layer of creamy or crunchy peanut butter on one or both of the graham crackers.

RASPBERRY OR ORANGE S’MORES: Spread a thin layer of seedless red raspberry preserves or orange marmalade on one or both of the graham crackers.

CHOCOLATE BANANA S’MORES: Place banana slices in a single layer on top of chocolate bar before microwaving with the marshmallow.

CHOCO-STRAWBERRY S’MORES: Place fresh strawberry slices in a single layer on top of chocolate bar before microwaving with the marshallow.

the archetypical s'more-quest for fire and sugar-tabletop version

Beth Bytes

When it comes to s’mores, you can stick with the American classic, or try out one of these pushing-the-bar combinations.

Baklava: Cinnamon graham crackers, toasted marshmallow, drizzled with honey and topped with chopped walnuts.

Banana split: Graham crackers spread with strawberry jam, banana slices, milk chocolate bar and toasted marshmallow.

Berry delicious: Graham crackers spread with strawberry jam and toasted strawberry marshmallow.

Black and white: One chocolate graham cracker, one honey graham, half white chocolate, half milk chocolate and toasted chocolate-vanilla swirl marshmallow.

Buckeye: Chocolate cookies spread with peanut butter, milk chocolate bar and toasted marshmallow.

Caramel apple: Cinnamon graham crackers, spread with caramel dip and peanut butter, slices of Granny Smith apple and toasted marshmallow.

Chantilly cream: Graham crackers spread with raspberry jam or preserves, white chocolate bar and toasted marshmallow.

Chipper: Chocolate chip cookies, semisweet morsels, toasted marshmallow and chopped walnuts.

Choc-o-holic: Chocolate cookies or chocolate graham crackers, dark chocolate bar and toasted chocolate marshmallow.

Coconut almond: Chocolate graham crackers or cookies, milk chocolate bar with almonds and toasted-coconut-covered toasted marshmallow.

Cookies and cream: Chocolate cookies or chocolate graham crackers, cookies and cream candy bar and toasted marshmallow.

Dulce de leche: Graham crackers spread with caramel dip, white chocolate bar and caramel-vanilla swirl toasted marshmallow.

The Elvis: Cinnamon graham crackers spread with peanut butter, banana slices and toasted marshmallow.

Fluffer-nutter: Graham crackers spread with peanut butter, drizzled with honey and topped with toasted marshmallow.

The Moon Pie: Chocolate-covered graham cracker cookies and toasted marshmallow.

PBJ: Graham crackers spread with grape jelly and peanut butter and toasted marshmallow.

Pina colada: Graham crackers, white chocolate bar, pineapple ring and toasted-coconut-covered toasted marshmallow.

Raspberry truffle: Chocolate cookies or graham crackers spread with raspberry jam, dark chocolate bar and toasted strawberry marshmallow.

Turtle: Graham crackers spread with caramel dip, milk chocolate bar, toasted marshmallow and chopped pecans.

s'more as techno art

Recipe and text copyright Beth Hensperger 2012

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

photo courtesy of food gal carolyn jung

One of the great members of the bar cookie world is the lemon bar. You can say there was BLB (before lemon bar) and ALB (after lemon bar) in my life. Certainly there is no other bar cookie that is as unique and vibrant as the lemon bar. And next to slice-and-bake, bars are the easiest cookie to concoct. They are the perfect extra-special winter cookie when all the citrus is in its glory.

I met the lemon bar at a small catering job. My sister Meg came to help me set up the table. We had alot of extra time on our hands while the guests grazed, so we were hanging out in the kitchen. The hostess had made lemon bars for dessert. There they sat on a plate right in front of us on the counter. Both Meg and I had never seen them before, so of course, we each decided to have one. I mean, what else was there to do and certainly you would do so as well in the same situation.

Well, its one of those culinary discovery moments you remember. We both looked at each other and then went that special crazy that goes with putting food in your mouth with the brain registering that it is going to be addictive it is so good. Need I say we both couldn’t stop eating and both of us ended up with a headache from too much lemon bar 45 minutes later. But the deed was done and the recipe had to be procured. Our hostess gave me her recipe, which I used for years, until I came across the lemon squares from Emily Luchetti which were in her first book, Stars Desserts. My book is permanently damaged at the Lemon Squares page, where it falls open naturally now from the broken binding.

Lemon bars have a nice crust, similar to a buttery flaky pie dough, but easier since you pat it into the bottom only of the pan. The crust is baked, the filling whisked together, poured on top (how easy is that says Ina), then baked on top of the crust. If you didn’t prebake the crust, it would never firm up and get that crumbly dry texture that is the counterpoint to the soft filling. That gives the lemon custard, that is more akin to lemon curd, a nice foundation so you can cut and eat it with a fork or your hands, whichever comes first.

The best lemons are the nice tart Eurekas for this recipe. If you use the sweeter Meyer, do cut back on the sugar; you don’t want to mask or overpower the wonderful lemon flavor at all. I cut back on the sugar slightly anyway and add zest since I like my bars tart tart tart. There is also a nice lime bars variation that goes well with Mexican menus, and I suspect grapefruit, tangerine, or orange with a splash of lemon would work as well since citrus is citrus. Remember to adjust the sugar ratio though for sweeter citrus.

Makes 24 squares

Ingredients

• For crust:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

• 6 ounces (12 tablespoons) cold unsalted, butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

• For lemon custard filling:

• 6 large eggs

• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• For finishing:

• About 3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

To make the crust: Preheat oven to 325º. Combine flour and confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on low speed until mixed. Add butter and continue to mix until butter is the size of small peas, about 30 seconds. The mixture will be very dry. Gently press mixture evenly onto the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan (if you use a dark metal pan instead of a Pyrex, decrease the temp to 300º).

Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Place on a rack or top of the stove. Let cool to room temperature (so the filling won’t soak in and make for soggy). Reduce oven temperature to 300º.

To make filling: In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and granulated sugar until smooth. Stir in zest and lemon juice, then the flour. Pour filling on top of the room temperature crust. Immediately place in the oven.

photo courtesy of food gal carolyn jung

Bake until lemon filling is set, about 40 minutes. Let cool to room temperature and then put in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or keep at room temperature for 3 hours before cutting (these need to set up).

Cut into squares or rectangular bars measuring about 2 1/4 inches (bigger is not better here) and dust the tops with confectioners’ sugar pushed through a mesh strainer.

Planning Ahead: The squares may be made a day in advance, covered, and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature and dust the tops before serving. I don’t freeze lemon bars.

From “Stars Desserts”. Amen.

Text copyright Beth Hensperger 2012

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

Beth Bytes: The Sweet Family of Cookies

Cookies are defined by how they are shaped, then by ingredients.

Drop cookies are made from a soft dough that is dropped by spoonfuls onto the baking sheet. During baking, the mounds of dough spread and flatten. Chocolate chip cookies (Toll House cookies), oatmeal cookies, coconut macaroons (snowballs), fudge lumpies, chocolate wafers, meringues, and Florentines are popular examples of drop cookies.

Bar cookies consist of a variety of batters or crumbly streusel that is pressed into a square or rectangular pan. A fresh or pureed fruit, custard, or nut layer is added. They are cut into pieces in the pan after baking and cooling. Lemon Bars, Naiamo bars, pecan bars, classic shortbread, and date bars are examples.

Refrigerator cookies (also known as icebox cookies) are made from a stiff dough that is shape into a cylinder that is refrigerated to become even stiffer. They are sliced before baking. Many flavors such as lemon, chocolate chip, vanilla, coconut, and ribbon cookies are examples. Logs of refrigerator cookies can be stored raw in the freezer, sliced and baked frozen.

Molded or hand-shaped cookies are made from a refrigerated stiff dough that is shaped by hand into balls or pressed into cookie shapes before baking. Peanut butter, gingersnaps, biscotti, Mandelbrot, snickerdoodles, bourbon balls, kifli crescents, and Mexican wedding cakes are examples of molded cookies.

Rolled cookies are made from a stiff dough that is rolled out with a rolling pin and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter. Gingerbread men, windowpane cookies, pinwheels, butter cookies, and sugar cookies are an example.

Pressed cookies are made from a soft dough that is extruded from a cookie press into various shapes before baking. Butter spritz and springerle are an example of a pressed cookie. Another type of pressed cookie needs a decorative mold that is cooked stove top like a waffle, such as pizzelles and krumkakes.

Sandwich cookies are rolled or pressed cookies that are assembled as a sandwich with a sweet filling. Fillings may be with marshmallow, jam, or icing. Whoopie pies, Nutter Butters, Linzer Filled Cookies, and Oreos are two examples.

Filled cookies are shaped and filled with dried fruit, jam, or poppyseed fillings, such as cream cheese envelopes, fruit turnovers, fig bars, and thumbprints.

Piped cookies, needing a piping bag, include the wildly popular French macaroons with filling and Amarettis.

the loaf can be shaped into a round or long loaves

I took a bread baking class at a virtually unknown cooking school in Saratoga, California, tucked away in a small mall, long gone and forgotten now, with my mother in the 1980s. We learned this Italian whole wheat bread. It is called a traditional pane integrale. Italian breads were becoming very popular with foodies with the publication of Carol Field’s Italian Baker and the Williams-Sonoma backed Il Fornaio bakery, with bakers trained in Italy working here in San Francisco.

We both went home and immediately made it. We had never used the food processor, which was just coming into its own, for bread dough. Bread was made by hand or in the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I have never seen this recipe any place. It has a short starter sponge, which makes for great texture and flavor.

baguette frame for 2 loaves-even if you can't shape yet, the loaf will be great

My mom and I still comment on this bread; it is that good. Even the most timid bread baker can make this. If you want to make the jump to using whole grain flour, try this recipe. It is a great transition loaf with lots of technique. It is one of the best breads I make and it is sooo fast with minimal mess and clean up.

This recipe can be shaped into a round or can also be shaped into two long thin loaves and baked in a baguette frame for 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve this exceptional bread with Marinated Goat Cheese (recipe follows), a recipe that is too good to miss. Make the goat cheese a few days ahead and let them feast on bread and cheese.

dough shaped into 2 baguette long loaves

Makes 1 round loaf or 2 baguettes

Ingredients

• Sponge

• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast or 2 teaspoons instant yeast (SAF)

• 2/3 cup warm water (90º to 100º)

• 1 cup cool water (80º)

• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

• Dough

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 2 teaspoons salt

• Yellow cornmeal, for sprinkling

Instructions

1.  In a 4-quart container, whisk together the yeast and warm water.  When the yeast is dissolved, add the cold water and flours.  Whisk until smooth.  Cover loosely and let stand at room temperature 4 hours to overnight to bubble and ferment.

mixing the dough ball in the food processor

2.  In the work bowl of the food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the sponge, 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour, sugar, and salt; process 15 seconds.  After the dough forms a soft, elastic ball and clears the sides of the bowl, process 60 seconds more to knead.  If the dough is too sticky, add flour by the tablespoonful; if too dry, add water by the teaspoonful.

3. Using a plastic dough scraper, transfer the dough ball to a work surface; give a few kneads by hand to “feel” and even out dough consistency.  Place into a lightly greased container, turn once to grease top, and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rest at room temperature 30 minutes.

4.  Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface; shape into a tight round.   Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise again at room temperature until almost triple in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Alternately, place the dough rectangle and shape into a long thin loaf, seam side down into a cornmeal dusted baguette pan. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450º, placing a baking stone on the lower third shelf.

folding over the dough to create surface tension

5.  Using a sharp knife, slash the surface once down the center, no deeper than 1/2 inch.  With the quick action of the wrist, slide the loaf onto the baking stone, or place the baking sheet directly on the stone. The baguette pan can go right on the rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 425º.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown and the top sounds hollow when tapped.  The loaf will not be very dark brown due to the wheat flour and small amount of sugar.

Cool on a rack at least 20 minutes before slicing and serving spread with hot goat cheese, dipping slices into the warm olive oil.

pinching the bottom seam

Baked Marinated Goat Cheese

This is one of those amazing little recipes. Once you are turned onto those logs of soft, snowy white French goat cheese, you will want to know this recipe. This is the perfect hors d’oeuvre to tote along. Just add a cute spreading knife and you’ve got a crowd-pleasing hors d’oeuvre in just a few minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

• 1 teaspoon dried savory leaves

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

• 11 ounces French Montrachet or domestic chabis log

• 1/2 cup good Italian olive oil

Ingredients

1.  Mix the herbs and pepper together and press into the surface of the cheese log, covering the entire surface.  Place in a plastic container and pour the olive oil over the cheese.  Cover tightly and refrigerate 5 days to 1 week to meld flavors.

2.  To serve, Remove the log from the oil and slice into 6 equal pieces.  Place in a small  shallow gratin dish.  Cover with the oil.  Bake in a preheated 400º oven for 5 to 8 minutes, or until just hot.  Serve immediately out of the baking dish.

Recipe and text copyright Beth Hensperger 2012

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

kimchi has a characteristic red color from the chili powder

Sauerkraut and its relative kimchi have become popular again with the back-to-the-kitchen movement of fermented homemade foods that are so healthy. Last week kimchi was an ethnic every day food that no one outside Korea had heard of, and today it is EVERYWHERE, even in Mexican food like quesadillas and being demonstrated at the food stall at my local farmer’s market.

Kimchi is a Korean dish of marinated vegetables, most commonly thought of as a pickle condiment, but it is far more versatile a food than our deli dill pickles. This is due to the natural anti-viral properties from the lactic acid microorganisms developed by the brining, specifically one now called Lactobacillus kimchii. Health magazine named kimchi one of the the top five World’s Healthiest Foods for its rich vitamin content. To get the benefits of the fermentation process that is responsible for many of kimchi’s health-giving qualities, it is ideal to let it sit for a couple of days before eating, the essential technique necessary to create a souring. But it’s not necessary to do that, as it is still a mighty tasty salad when eaten immediately after making. Any time your energy is low, or you think you might be fighting off a cold, pour out some of the kimchi juice that collects in the bottom of the jar and drink it; it’s a wonderful tonic.

Napa cabbage kimchi is the most common style and consumed at virtually every meal. It is salty, sour, and crunchy all at the same time. You can make with just cabbage or a combination of seasonal vegetables, such as daikon radishes, cucumbers, and carrots. Kimchi always includes ground hot pepper, which gives it a characteristic red color. There are infinite varieties (it is delicious made with baby bok choy), for the pickle is a culinary household standard and served as as a banchan, or side dish, or topping for hot rice.

Kimchi can be traced back to the ancient kitchens of 3,000 years ago, when the vegetables needed to be pre-fermented to prevent spoilage. In Korea, they put the kimchi in large earthenware jars that are buried about a foot underground to ferment (known as kimchi fields), where there is a constant temperature of 55ºF. This is the ancient equivalent of refrigeration. Enough kimchi would be made in summer to last all winter. Considered a national culinary obsession, there is a kimchi museum and even special refrigerators designed for kimchi storage. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) developed space kimchi to accompany the first Korean astronaut to the Russian-manned space ship Soyuz, so it could be said it is a celestial food and food of the future.

traditional kimchi crocks-enough for the whole village

The following is a recipe made in the style of a winter kimchi with the most popular kimchi vegetable, baechu (Napa cabbage) from my friend and veteran kimchi maker, Haripriya Saxon. It is a great food for vegetarians and vegans. Haripriya uses paprika in combination with the traditional Korean chili powder, which retains some of the peppery flavor and the traditional redness without blasting your mouth with fire. Korean chili powder (gochu garu) is easily available in Asian markets and is made from thin red peppers that are sun-dried. There is no substitute as the chili powder contributes to the unique flavor. Please do not use an iodized table salt as it will kill the bacteria.

Ceramic fermentation crocks have a uniquely designed, specially grooved rim that you fill with water. The lid fits snugly into the water to seal the crock, only permitting the fermentation gases to escape. This prevents unwanted airborne bacteria and pests from entering.

Haripriya’s Winter Kimchi

Makes 3 to 4 quarts

Ingredients

• 1 large or 2 medium heads Chinese (Napa) cabbage

• 2 handfuls (6 to 8 tablespoons) Korean coarse sea salt (kulgum sogum-available in Asian groceries) or coarse sea salt, to taste

• 2 cups distilled or filtered water

• 2 to 3 tablespoons Korean chili powder (gochu garu)

• 2 to 3 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika

• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar

• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

Instructions

1. Half the cabbage, wash and drain. Put half of the cabbage on the cutting board, flat side down. Then, at the base of the cabbage, cut a V-shaped notch around the stem, and remove it. (Some cooks leave in the heart of the cabbage and chop small.) Then cut the cabbage lengthwise again to make 4 quarters. Chop into 2-inch pieces.

the right sized pieces of cabbage

2. Layer the cabbage in a in a large deep glass, stainless steel, or ceramic bowl. Sprinkle each layer with salt, then pour in the 2 cups of water.

3. Let the cabbage soak, uncovered, on the counter at room temperature for 5 to 6 hours. Turn the pieces upside and soak another 2 hours. The cabbage should be soft enough to bend. As the salt interacts with the cabbage, it draws out its natural juices and begins to break down the cell walls so that the chili powder can penetrate. Water will collect on the bottom.

the cabbage after 6 hours

4. Pour the cabbage into a large colander. Rinse the cabbage well many times to remove all the salt and drain well.

5. Return the cabbage to the empty bowl. Add the chili powder, paprika, sugar, and ginger. Mix well with plastic gloves to protect your hands. Add salt to taste. Pack into a clean wide-mouth gallon size jar or 3 to 4 quart glass jars. The kimchi is ready to eat right now before it ferments (*see recipe following).

use a Ball Mason jar with plastic screw lid

6. Let the kimchi stand in the jars, tightly covered, for 24 hours at room temperature. The exact time will depend on the season (1 to 2 days), as winter in a cold kitchen will take a few hours longer. The kimchi will ferment and sour naturally, bubbling slightly. This is the sign you are making good kimchi. Refrigerate when the kimchi tastes how you like it. Store the kimchi in the refrigerator, where it will keep for months. Some people like their kimchi fresh and eat it within a week. Kimchi will become more tender and saturated with the sour juice with time.

Note: The kimchi will be good enough to eat straight for up to about 3 weeks. After that, once the kimchi gets too fermented to eat by itself, use it to make hot pots, in vegetable soups, dal, soybean sprout and rice flour pancakes (kongnamul jeon), as a sandwich or quesadilla filling, topping a baked potato, or just added to plain fried rice. Saute with some vegetables and tofu and serve over noodles or rice.

these screw top lids for Ball canning jars are the bomb! Fantastic. You dont have to use the two-part metal lid for storage.

What to Do With Your Kimchi

ma petite chou-my dear little cabbage (a term of endearment in French)/haripriya with her second son @1996

Kimchi can be used as a dressing or instead of sauce, salsa, or ketchup; served as an appetizer; and used as an ingredient in cooking. Kimchi soup, kimchi with steamed or fried rice, kimchi ramen, and kimchi pancakes are popular dishes. Kimchi can be tossed with diced tofu and heated or eaten cold for a fast breakfast or lunch. Scramble tofu or eggs with kimchi and diced tomatoes for a spicy breakfast entree, or for a sandwich or wrap filling. Kimchi perks up cold green, rice, and pasta salads; steamed or grilled vegetables; and cooked pasta, barley, quinoa, spelt, and rice. It can be added to bean or vegetable soups or to casseroles. It can also be used instead of sauce on grilled or baked seitan or tempeh, vegetable brochettes, and baked potatoes.

*Haripriya’s Fresh Kimchi Salad

Remove desired amount of fresh unfermented kimchi the day you make it into serving bowls. Mix with roasted ground sesame seed, and drizzle with some toasted sesame oil and soy sauce (Korean soy sauce kahn jang). Eat immediately with big smile.

Recipe and text copyright Beth Hensperger 2012

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

My mother attended a holiday potluck and on the table was a delicate, buttery, flakey pastry wrapped salmon stuffed with spinach and mushrooms; there was a warm red pepper sauce on the side for drizzling.  It was a smash hit and since my mother was giving a buffet the next week, she wanted to make it as the star of her gathering. The gentleman who brought the salmon never came through with the recipe, but my mother, the consummate cook, was easily able to recreate the recipe.

While puff pastry assures you a dish that creates some high drama on the buffet table, wrapped savory pastries is a type of preparation that goes in and out of style.  But for entertaining, puff pastry is like a culinary secret weapon for making knockout dishes. Once in the realm of only the most dedicated cooks, frozen pastry is not only easily found in just about every supermarket frozen section, but it is easy to manipulate, versatile, and the flavor is comparable to the rarely made at home version. Here are a few tips:

•Work only with well chilled pastry, as it is easy to cut and shape while cold. Room temperature pastry will stretch and tear. Puff pastry can be kept in the refrigerator for 3 days before shaping with no loss of texture.

•Defrost the puff pastry overnight in the refrigerator or unwrap a frozen sheet and let stand on a lightly floured work surface for about 30 minutes, until pliable.

•Be prepared to chill the pastry before and after shaping. You will need to clear part of a shelf in the refrigerator for the baking sheet.

•Do not drag a knife or pinch the cut edges since that will interfere with the rising. Use a metal spatula to transfer the filled pastry, as your fingers will warm the dough.

•When coating with egg wash, don’t let it drip down the sides; it will glue together the layers and also interfere with the rising.

•Preheat the oven to hot before placing the pastry in the oven, otherwise it will not rise properly. Bake the pastry the same day it is to be eaten for the crisp texture.

Serves 16 (makes 2 pastries)

Overview

Preparation Timeline: Both the stuffed pastry and sauce can be made 1 day ahead

Serving Equipment: Long, flat platter, nice cutting board, or 15-inch rectangular slab of marble, sharp knife and serving spatula (you want the guests to be able to cut easily.)

Onsite/Reheat: Optional

Onsite/Refrigerator: No

Temperature at Serving: Warm or room temperature

Ingredients

• Mushroom Duxelle (recipe following)

• Spinach and Garlic (recipe following)

• One 2- to 2 1/2 pound tail-end salmon filet, skin removed

• Salt and freshly ground black or white pepper

• 1 1- or 1 1/4-pound package puff pastry, such as Pepperidge Farm, defrosted  overnight in the refrigerator

• 1 egg with 2 teaspoons water for egg wash

• Creamy Red Pepper Sauce, for serving (recipe following)

• Mushroom Duxelle

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

• 1 1/2 pounds fresh mushrooms, coarsely chopped (I use the food processor)

• 3 large shallots, chopped

• Salt and freshly ground black or white pepper

• Spinach and Garlic

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 10-ounce packages frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

• Salt

Instructions

Prepare the Mushroom Duxelle: In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Sauté the mushrooms and shallots until well cooked and all the liquid has evaporated. Season to taste. Scrape onto a plate or into a plastic container, cover, and refrigerate until completely cold, up to overnight.

Prepare the Spinach and Garlic: In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Sauté the garlic until soft, but not browned. Add the spinach and stir until hot. Season to taste. Scrape onto a plate or into a plastic container, cover, and refrigerate until completely cold, up to overnight.

Prepare the Salmon in the Pastry: Line a large baking sheet with parchment (this is important, as the parchment will absorb the excess butter in the pastry while baking.). Set aside. With a sharp knife, carefully cut the salmon filet in half lengthwise into two equal long portions. Set the mushroom mixture and the spinach to the side; if there is any accumulated liquid, drain off. In a small bowl, combine the egg and water for the egg wash and beat with a fork until foamy.

Lay one of the sheets of the chilled puff pastry on a clean work surface with the longer edge facing you (there are two sheets per box.); you do not need to roll anything out. Mentally make a note of the middle of the pastry; you will be working in the bottom half (the top half will be folded over.).

Working quickly, spread half of the spinach mixture on the dough in the middle of the bottom half of the pastry, leaving one inch space all around. Spread half of the mushroom mixture over the top of the spinach and then lay the salmon filet on top. Season with some salt and pepper (some people like to sprinkle with a bit of dill weed as well).

With a pastry brush or your fingers, moisten the edges all the way around with the egg wash. Fold in half lengthwise, the top portion over to enclose the salmon, having the two edges line up perfectly. Press edges firmly in from the edge on the three sides, then crimp with the tines of a fork.

Transfer to the baking sheet with a metal spatula (if your baking sheet is large, you can fit both pastries on one, otherwise, use two baking sheets and bake one at a time). Repeat procedure with the second piece of puff pastry, using the rest of the spinach, mushrooms, and salmon.

With the tip of a knife, create a steam hole in the top of each pastry and cut in a few places along the edge (this helps seal the pastry and looks nice). Brush tops with the egg glaze (will make a shiny golden surface after baking.) and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator and chill 1 hour up to overnight before baking.

To bake, preheat the oven to 450º. Bake on the center rack of the oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350º and bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and puffed. Remove from the oven and let rest at least 30 minutes before cutting. Cover with foil to transport.

Transportation Notes: No special requirements, but the baking sheet needs to be tightly covered and placed on the floor of the car or in the trunk, secured so it does not slide around or tip over.  Bring sauce in a covered container or a thermos.

Onsite/Preparation: None if fully baked. You can place in a 300º oven to warm for 10 minutes if you like, but this is excellent room temperature. Transfer from the baking sheet to the serving platter or marble. Pre-portion, if desired, or let guests slice their own. Reheat the sauce in a saucepan or in the microwave, then place in the serving bowl to serve alongside the stuffed pastry.

Creamy Red Pepper Sauce

Red Pepper Sauce is an attractive contrast to the layered puff pastry. Keep a few jars of roasted red peppers in your cupboard. Look for large jars at bulk foods stores. You can whip up this delicious, colorful sauce in minutes in the food processor.

Ingredients

• 2 15- or 16-ounce jars roasted red peppers, drained

• 1 pint heavy cream
• Salt

Instructions

Place the peppers in a food processor and pulse a few times until a purée is formed. Pour into a covered container and whisk in the cream. Taste for salt (a pinch or two). Refrigerate until serving. Reheat over low heat on the stove top or in the microwave. Makes about 5 cups.

Recipe and text copyright Beth Hensperger 2011

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

Fruitcakes usually call for lots of butter to be creamed with the sugar and flour.  Imagine my delight to find that just as good a fruitcake can be made without any added fat other than the nuts.  In place of sugary candied fruits, use a combination of dried fruits to create a colorful mosaic of texture and flavor.  This less-heavy and less-sweet golden fruitcake is just as delicious thinly sliced as soon as it has cooled as it is aged in the refrigerator for a week, with coffee, eggnog, or hot fruit punch.

Makes 6 small loaves, about 10 thin slices per loaf

Ingredients

• One 8-ounce package dried mango, chopped

• One 6-ounce package dried apricots, chopped

• One 6-ounce package dried cranberries

• 1 cup golden raisins

• 4 slices dried pineapple, chopped

• 7/8 cup hot apple juice

• 2 tablespoons orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup (4 ounces) coarse walnut pieces

• 1 cup (4 ounces) slivered blanched almonds

• 1/2 cup pine nuts

• 4 large eggs

• 1/2 cup hot apple juice mixed with 1/4 cup orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier, for soaking

• Apple Jelly Glaze, recipe following (optional)

Instructions

Combine the dried fruit in a bowl and add the hot apple juice, vanilla, and spices.  Let stand at room temperature 1 hour to macerate and soften the fruit.  Spray the sides and bottoms of six 5 3/4-by 3-inch disposable aluminum loaf pans with Baker’s Joy cooking spray.  Preheat the oven to 300º.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, 3/4 cup of the sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add the nuts and toss to distribute.

With an electric mixer, beat the eggs and remaining 1/4 cup sugar until thick, foamy, and at least double in volume, about 3 minutes.  Pour into the fruit mixture, then sprinkle the flour mixture over the top.  Stir with a large spatula until thoroughly mixed and all the fruit and nuts are evenly coated with the batter.  Pack the mixture into the prepared pans; press down gently to fill the pans and smooth the tops.

Arrange the pans on a baking sheet to avoid tipping and place in the center of the preheated oven.  Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until firm and lightly browned.  A bamboo skewer inserted into the centers will come out clean.  Drizzle each warm loaf with 2 tablespoons of the hot soaking liquid.  Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto a rack to cool completely.   Store wrapped in foil in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or else freeze up to 4 months.

If glazing, remove from the refrigerator and let stand 1 hour.  Make the glaze and brush while very hot over the top and sides of the cake.  Let stand 10 minutes and apply another layer.  You can decorate the top with nut halves if you like; they will stick when the glaze sets.  Brush the cake once, decorate, then glaze a second time over the nuts.  After decorating, let stand 2 hours before serving. Cakes are easiest to slice when chilled.

Apple Jelly Glaze

While glazing is a purely optional touch, it gives a beautiful gloss which is especially nice if the cake is to be displayed on a buffet.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups apple jelly

• 1 tablespoon water

• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Instructions

Combine the jelly and water in a saucepan or a microwave proof bowl.  Heat to liquify the jelly.  Bring to a boil and remove from the heat.  Stir in the lemon juice and use immediately while very hot.  Reheat as necessary if glaze cools while brushing on the cakes.  Glaze can be stored in the refrigerator and reheated.

Recipe and text copyright Beth Hensperger 2011

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

Butter cookies are good for company, for Christmas Eve, after mass, after dinner.  They are a gloriously simple rolled cookie. And this recipe is the one perfect recipe to have in your stash of Christmas cookies for giving and sharing, or just eating alone.

This is an opportunity to rummage through my stash of cookie cutters; I especially like stars and half-moons.  Take care to add only the amount of flour called for in the recipe; too much flour in the dough will make it a lot easier to roll out, but inedible when baked for being so hard. So with a light hand and light heart, work carefully and with patience.

Then, before baking, decorate each by topping each cookie with a maraschino cherry half (I get a jar and pour out the liquid, replacing it with Amaretto, keeping it in the refrigerator indefinitely); a perfect pecan, almond or walnut half; a fan of sliced almonds; or sprinkle with colored decorator sugar. This type of decoration always reminds me of when I was young and my grandmother Nanny Smith used to have a cookie tray on the sideboard during the entire Christmas season. Talk about temptation for a young soul. I ate a lot of cookies and she, compassionately, let me have my fill.

a vision of the winter holidays

They are a great gift accompanied by some cookie cutters and the recipe.  To vary the flavor, I sometimes add the grated zest of 2 to 3 large oranges to the dough.  This recipe comes from my friend and former baking teacher, Barbara Hiken, who found this cookie at a buffet and immediately asked for the recipe after tasting it. She cuts them out into a bevy of hearts in varying sizes. This makes a large batch, so you can make it once and have plenty on hand for the holidays.

Makes about 4 1/2 dozen 3-inch cookies

Ingredients

• 1 pound (4 sticks) butter, room temperature

• 3 cups powdered sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• 5 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoons each baking soda and cream of tartar

Instructions

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth with an electric mixer;  beat in the eggs and vanilla.  Stir together the flour, salt, soda, and cream of tartar and mix into the creamed mixture until blended.  Divide into 3 portions and wrap in plastic; refrigerate 2 hours to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350º.  Line baking sheets with parchment or silpat.  Divide the dough into quarters.  With a rolling pin, roll out each portion of dough, 1/4 inch thick, on a lightly floured surface.  Using a 3-inch heart-shaped, star, or other shaped cutter, cut out as many cookies as possible, dipping the cutter into flour only if the dough sticks.  Place 1 inch apart on the baking sheets.  Refrigerate the filled baking sheets while one is baking.

Bake the cookies until light golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Recipe and text copyright Beth Hensperger 2011

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

great gift with a tin of fresh baked cookies

White clam chowder remains one of the classic American soups, once regional, now transcontinental. There are Santa Cruz boardwalk clam chowders, Miami clam chowder, Nantucket clam chowder, Fire Island clam chowder, Chicago clam chowder, and of course, a New York clam chowder and  Boston clam chowder.

I read an article in the New York Times restaurant reviews about the opening of a new uptown posh Japanese restaurant. In the review was described the white clam chowder which was made with soy milk instead of cream. That was all it took and this version of the American classic was born for the microwave, so it might be the fastest clam chowder ever. Don’t skip the instant potato flakes; that is the thickener instead of flour.

Overview

Equipment: 2-quart Pyrex or ceramic casserole or 2-quart batter bowl (my new favorite)

Microwave Wattage: 1,100 to 1,300

Cook Time: 10 to 12 minutes

Standing Time: 3 minutes

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter

• 1/4 large white onion, finely chopped

• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery

• 1 medium white new potato, peeled if desired, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

• 1 (14-ounce) can chicken broth

• 1 1/4 cups plain soy milk

• 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

• 3 tablespoons instant potato flakes

• 1 (6 1/2-ounce) can chopped clams, undrained

• 1 1/2 tablespoons miso (I use white miso)

Instructions

1. In a 2-quart casserole, place the butter and microcook 30 seconds to melt. Stir in the onion, celery, and potato. Partially cover with plastic wrap or the lid. Microwave on HIGH for 5 minutes, until the potato is tender.

2. Add the broth, soy milk, parsley, and potato flakes. Cover with waxed paper and microcook on HIGH for 5 to 7 minutes, until bubbly. Stir once halfway through cooking. Imediately add the clams and their juice, and miso paste; stir to dissolve in the very hot soup. Cover and let stand 3 minutes. Serve immediately divided between 2 soup bowls.

Excerpted from Not Your Mother’s Microwave Cooking, by Beth Hensperger. (c) 2010, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

This is a recipe created by my friend Bunny Dimmel for the day after Thanksgiving main meal with her family. “We had it for supper on Friday,” she wrote on a Thanksgiving weekend. “And it was the best ever.  We all liked it better than the Thanksgiving dinner itself.”

She makes it first thing on Friday, the morning after, baking it right before dinner. “I do not use any extra seasonings because everything has already been seasoned. I make my own breads in the bread machine for the stuffing, using loaves that have been stored in the freezer. I make my own gravy from scratch. I freeze my own fresh corn cut off the cob and shelled fresh peas from the summer bounty that I get from a local produce stand.  These fresh-frozen vegetables make the casserole special. This has to be one of the best left-over dishes ever invented. Enjoy!”

Overview

Serves 8

Equipment: A 3-quart oval or 9-by-13-inch baking dish, serving spoon

Temperature at Serving: Hot or warm

Ingredients

• Country Crust

• 4 1/2 cups white pastry flour (Bunny uses Mellow Cream from King Arthur), or all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup of sugar

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening, such as Crisco or Spectrum Organic

• 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

• 3 to 4 tablespoons cold water

• About 4 cups cold leftover stuffing

• About 4 cups cutup/shredded leftover cooked light and/or dark turkey meat, as desired

• 4 cups combination of raw mixed vegetables (peas, corn, and diced carrots), thawed only if frozen

• About 4 cups leftover turkey gravy, warmed

Instructions

Make the crust. Place the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor; pulse to combine.  Add all of the shortening and 1 stick of the butter; pulse till you get small balls. Add the rest of the butter, pulse, and add water till it comes together into a ball. Divide the dough ball into two uneven pieces (the larger will be the bottom crust, the smaller ball, the top crust.).

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the larger ball of dough to fit on the bottom and almost up the sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish (Bunny uses Pyrex; if you use a 3-quart ceramic dish, remember to increase the baking temperature to 375º). Prick it with a fork all over, and bake in the center of the preheated oven until it just starts to get golden.  Remove from oven and let cool on the counter while you assemble the rest of the components.

First make a layer of half of the stuffing; Bunny uses forkfuls of it here and there dotting over the bottom. Then add an even layer of half the turkey meat, then cover with half the vegetables. Then layer again stuffing, here and there, more turkey, and finish with the vegetables. Pour the warm gravy all over the dish, quite liberally, and roll out the top crust just to the size of the baking dish.  Bunny does not make a crust with crimped edges, just make the size of the top and lay it across it. You can make the top crust any way you like.

Cover with foil and refrigerate for up to a day ahead, or bake immediately, uncovered, in a preheated 350º oven 40 to 45 minutes, till it is bubbly. If it bubbles but is still not quite brown on top, turn on the broiler for a couple minutes to brown the top to your liking.  To partially bake, bake only 30 minutes.  Cool, cover, then leave at room temperature up to 1 hour before transporting.

food and family

A pot pie casserole is one of the great potluck dishes for a family supper. Potluck Preparation:  This casserole is best fully or partially baked and then transported. To reheat, preheat the oven to 350º and bake for about 20 minutes, until hot and a bit crusty. Serve immediately hot or warm.

Recipe and text copyright Beth Hensperger 2011

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

Bunny canoeing the glacial waters of upper NY state Beaver Lake in Onondaga County Park on Thanksgiving weekend

This rolled and stuffed turkey breast is a wonderful alternative to the whole stuffed bird at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is easier to prep and takes up lots less room in the fridge. I have made this umpteen times for catering. I learned the original recipe from Charlotte Coombe, cooking teacher and caterer in the Napa Valley who studied decades ago as the first student with Jacques Pepin.  She showed how to bone out a whole turkey, but I have made it beginner-easy with a ready-to-cook boned, rolled roast easily available at your butcher’s.  Be sure you have kitchen twine when making this recipe. The canned vacum-packed whole plain chestnuts (do not confuse with the sweet maron glace pieces or the spread) are quite moist and will meld into the stuffing nicely. I use Clement Faugier brand, which is imported from France and common in well stocked supermarkets.

Serves 6

Ingredients

• Stuffing

• 6 ounces dried cherries

• 1/2 cup Madeira wine

• 3/4 loaf day old French or country bread, torn in hunks

• 1/3 cup chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley

• 2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped

• 1/3 cup (3/4 stick) butter

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 1 cup chopped celery

• 1 tart apple, peeled, cored, and chopped

• 1 loose cup chopped vacum-packed chestnuts

• One 6-pound boneless, rolled turkey breast (a whole breast)

• Salt and ground black pepper

• 4 tablespoons butter, room temperature

• Gravy

• One 1-ounce package turkey gravy mix

• 1 cup water

• 1/3 cup Madiera wine

Instructions

1.  In a small bowl, combine the cherries and Madeira.  Macerate 6 hours to overnight at room temperature.

2.  In a skillet, melt the butter.  Add the onion and celery;  cook until soft and translucent.  Add the apple, cooking for a few minutes.  Cool to room temperature.

3.  Place the bread in the food processor and process to make 3 1/2 cups soft breadcrumbs.  Add the parsley and the sage and process to chop together.  Place in a large bowl.  Add the onion mixture, chestnuts, and the soaked cherries to the breadcrumbs.  Thoroughly mix.

4.  Preheat the oven to 425º.  Cut the ties and lay the boneless turkey breast out flat, skin side down, and season with salt and pepper.  Pack the stuffing on the turkey in an even layer.  Reroll and tie in 4 places with kitchen twine.  Place in a roasting pan and smear with butter.  Lower the temperature to 350º.  Roast for 2 hours, until an instant-read thermometer reads 160º.  Let rest, covered with foil, for 20 minutes before carving.  Remove the string.

5.  Prepare the gravy mix by combining the mix, water, and Madeira in a saucepan.  Pour off the fat in the roasting pan and pour any juices into the saucepan.  Blend with a whisk and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, bringing to a boil.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook 2 minutes, until thickened.  Makes 1 1/3 cups.  Serve immediately with the slices of turkey.
Adapted from The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook, by Beth Hensperger. (c) 2000, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

Text copyright Beth Hensperger 2011

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

While I was catering, over the decades, I worked for some really wonderful people who owned businesses and needed to have catered affairs as part of their PR. One of these was the now-defunct Sunbird Fine Art Gallery in Los Altos, California, a small but affluent town at the foothills of the Coast Range in the San Francisco Bay Area. Often there would be a job for one of the artists, or just an open house for a new show with members of like the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor. These were some of my favorite catering jobs, passed hors d’oeuvres or an impressively designed cheese table, as I was able to play with the theme of the art reflected in my food. It brought out the natural artist in me and made the challenge of the job extra fun.

Back in the early fall of 1988, there was a one-man show at the Gallery for Southwest artist, the-late R.C. Gorman. Gorman himself flew in as the guest of honor. It was pretty exciting. In a room decorated with his larger-than-life portraits of full-fleshed earthy Navajo women, Gorman devotees from around the Bay Area came to meet the energetic artist; the place was packed. It is one thing to like reproductions and hang posters on your walls, but to be around real fine art in its original form, well, it is really an experience and helped me to understand why people get so addicted to collecting wall paintings and litho prints. They have vibes that affect your senses. Gorman, a Navajo Native American, was known for being the most visible representative in his medium of the Southwest indigenous Indian culture. He brought the reclusive native culture into Technicolor, isolating the simple daily tasks, some of which had not changed in generations.

The food for the event quite clearly had to live up to Gorman’s extraordinary art. Style, color, texture, and taste are the basic ingredients in my medium of planning the food for a catered event. Gorman had a

moon river

reputation for being a passionate connoisseur when it came to good food, bordering on the spiritual. His impromptu Taos gallery soirees were legendary, as were his dinner parties. Food would even be flown in from both coasts to supplement the local artisan products and regional specialties.  Over the years, many celebrity dinners had been prepared in his honor. He also published a little known cookbook, Nudes and Foods: Gorman Goes Gourmet, punctuating his favorite recipes and collected recipes from friends, with a collection of his early nude sketches and watercolors.

So I planned the afternoon gathering with simple, yet wholesome, elegant finger food—the kind that is easy to eat with one hand while you are holding a glass in another and talking all the while. Of course the food reflected the occasion, taking into account the physical as well as the emotional mood of the art. It is important with an hors d’oeuvre party to know who the guests are, the time of day it is held, and how much time they have, which will set the tempo of a fast- or slow-moving consumption of food. This one was going to be two hours, which is fast and there would be a coming and going of guests constantly over that period of time.

But how to present my food? I wanted to get away from the conventional look of silver trays and experiment with natural looks and items, which is a look that is a lot more in vogue now than back in 1988. So I mixed woven and brass platters accented with desert-style flowers wrapped with silver twine, sort of my quasi cowboy touch that echoed the their little bowties. I couldn’t believe the great flowers I found; just like I picked them myself on the desert. I then counterpointed by embellishing with the warm hues of the Southwest architecture in the napkins: burnt orange, brick red, turquoise, and terra cotta. It really worked and was so stunning I couldn’t stop admiring the effect myself.

The trays were lined with leaves and the flower bundles were set on the side. The only problem we had was that the guests thought the food pretty spectacularly presented as well and were stealing the flower bouquets off the trays, to the chagrin of the wait staff. The bar was almost all Gorman’s favorite drink, champagne, plus sparkling water. So everyone was drinking out of flutes.

a combination of desert flowers in various earth tones/photo courtesy of design*sponge

The menu was really easy to assemble and is simple for you to reproduce as well. We had no kitchen and the only water was from a small bathroom. The prep area was a narrow back storage room piled high with boxes, books, and miscellaneous art stuff-two steps one way, eight steps the other. It was right inside the back door, so unloading was easy and out of the way of the guests in the front gallery. We had to push aside lots of papers to make room for the prep on two old wooden desks that I covered with thick cotton tablecloths. Other than my coolers, there was no refrigeration except for a minute bar fridge. (People don’t realize how many times a caterer is stashed in a closet, or even bathroom, prepping the food for lack of a kitchenette.)

To this day, it had to be one of my most successful, and memorable, events. It went so smooth and the food was so appreciated; there was virtually nothing left over. I invited quite a few of my personal friends who were Gorman lovers to the reception, and lucky for me, one of them chased me out of the back room prep area for a photo with the maestro himself in front of one of his paintings to commemorate the now long ago job.

RC and me...circa 1989

Menu for R.C. In The Gallery

sushi

Maguro Tuna Sushi (from my local favorite Japanese restaurant-sushi was the new chic rage finger food at the time)

Samosa Phyllo Triangles with curried potatoes and petit pois peas (assembled the day before, refrigerated on baking sheets, and baked the morning of the party-served room temperature)

Zucchini and Parmesan Madeleines (made a week before and frozen)

Bite-sized smoked turkey and pecan tea sandwiches (one of my trademarks–made the day before and refrigerated in big square Tupperware containers)

Mozzarella Fresca Skewers with red peppers and green grapes (assembled on site-fresh mozzarella was also new at the time)

skewers

Silver Dollar Sized Buckwheat Blini with crème fraiche and bay shrimp (the blini pancakes made in the morning from Aunt Jemima’s Buckwheat Pancake Mix and assembled on site)

Chardonnay Chicken Liver Pate on Apple Slices with Zinfandel Jelly and Cornichons (the pate made a few days before (or a thick slice bought at a good deli) and assembled on site–I got this idea from a girlfriend who went to a party and raved about the combination)

Recipes

Samosa Phyllo Triangles

Zucchini and Parmesan Madeleines

Smoked Turkey and Pecan Tea Sandwiches

Recipe and text copyright Beth Hensperger 2011

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.

desert blossoms with baby roses

Makes 3 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds (3 to 4) zucchini squash, shredded

• 1/3 cup olive oil

• 3 medium shallots, minced

• 5 large eggs

• 2 tablespoons milk or plain yogurt

• 1 1/4 cups (about 4 ounces) grated Parmesan cheese

• 2 packed tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil leaves

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

Instructions

1.  Place the shredded zucchini on layers of paper towels and let drain 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, place the olive oil in a skillet and sauté the shallots until limp over medium heat, about 5 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 400º.  Grease the madeleine pan with cooking spray and set aside.

2.  Using a balloon whisk or electric mixer, combine the eggs, milk or yogurt, cheese, and basil.  Add the flour and baking powder.  Fold in the zucchini and shallots with all the oil until just evenly blended.  Do not overmix.

3.  Spoon the batter into the prepared molds two-thirds full, about 1 heaping tablespoon.  Bake in the center of the preheated oven 15 to 18 minutes, or until puffy and very lightly browned.  Invert onto a rack.  I bake two pans at once, flip out the baked ones, re-grease and refill until all the batter is used up.  Serve hot or room temperature.  Store in plastic bags in the refrigerator overnight or freeze up to 2 months.

Excerpted from The Best Quick Breads, by Beth Hensperger. (c) 2000, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.

Text copyright Beth Hensperger 2011

Please enjoy the recipe and make it your own. If you copy the recipe and text for internet use, please include my byline and link to my site.