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Lamb Stew

I N G R E D I E N T S
2 lb. lamb, cubed, fat removed
Salt
Pepper
Flour
2 onions, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped (reserved in water)
1 bottle red wine (I used Zin)
1 qt. beef stock
2 tbsp. cornstarch
Water
More Salt
More Pepper
Herbes de Provence

Season the lamb well with salt and pepper, then toss with flour to lightly coat. Heat up some oil (I used a Dutch oven) and brown the lamb, then take it out and reserve. In the same pan, add a little more oil and sautee the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic until the onions are softened and translucent. Add the potatoes and lamb and stir to mix, then add the wine and the stock. Bring to a boil, then lower to medium, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Mix the cornstarch with enough water to make a slurry with no lumps. Stir it into the stew and simmer for at least 1 minute. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and Herbes de Provence. Maybe a little more garlic, if you want. Et voila. I served it with rosemary olive oil bread.

buhfly

A note: Couverture is high quality chocolate that contains extra cocoa butter but none of the wax that chocolate chips contain. Chocolate chips need to retain their shape, like in cookies, so they have a form of edible wax in them that lets them melt in place, as it were. Couverture has none of that, and with the extra cocoa butter, it melts smoothly and beautifully. You usually see it used in pastry or confectionery work. (But I will let you in on a little secret...chocolate chips can pretty much take the place of couverture in most recipes.)

Chocolate Mousse

I N G R E D I E N T S

10 oz. couverture
2 1/2 c. cream, divided (2/3 c. and the rest)
4 egg yolks

Chop the couverture into small pieces. Place 2/3 c. of the cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil.* Add the couverture and melt, stirring constantly. Cool to 95 degrees.** Beat the egg yolks until frothy. In a separate bowl, whip the remaining cream. Mix the egg yolks quickly and lightly into the couverture.*** Blend the mixture into the whipped cream.

Then you can do anything you want with it. For Crepes Lucifer, we put it in the fridge and let it set up even more, then made crepes, filled them with the mousse, and then I lit a mixture of butter, sugar, coffee liqueur, and brandy on fire before pouring it over them. You can also use it as a filling between cake layers. Use a cake pan, put the bottom layer of cake on, then spread an even layer of mousse over it. Freeze it until firm, then put another cake layer on top of that and repeat until you've filled the pan. Once it's frozen firm again, slide a knife around the side and use a torch or your stove top to heat the bottom of the pan, then flip it over and slide the cake out, et voila!

* This can actually be pretty dicey, so don't take your eyes off it. BOIL the cream, do not BURN the cream.
** Any time you're dealing with chocolate setting up (for candies or mousse or coatings), you want to be wary of the temperature. If a recipe gives you a temperature, make sure you get there. I can do a whole post on that, but the short version is that chocolate has all these different little crystals, right? Think of them as interlocking panels. Some from fat, some from other stuff, and they all set up or harden (or interlock) at different temperatures. This is why, for home cooks, the easiest method of tempering chocolate is the microwave method; built in heat fluctuation because you're doing it in short bursts and stirring between.
*** This is supposed to coddle the egg yolks and make them safe? Ish? If you're afraid of raw eggs, though, or you have less-than-fresh eggs, you might want to avoid this recipe. Don't keep the mousse for more than 2 - 3 days.

buhfly

*

ogew requested the recipe I talked about for a savory custard. Since the recipe I use is all tangled up in Thomas Keller's Caesar salad from The French Laundry**, I thought I'd do the whole thing. These salads don't actually take that much work (despite what it looks like), they look nice, and they're great for a dinner party or appetizers. Or, if you're in a restaurant, for an amuse bouche.

You can also make these savory custards in larger ramekins, just like a creme brulee. Just remember that they are intensely Parmesan-flavored and you may want to serve it with other things to cut it.

Notes: 1) If you don't have tiny molds, you can use mini muffin tins for the custards. They're kind of a bitch to unmold, but if you're patient (and run a very sharp pairing knife around the edges before you try), they should come out fine. 2) The garnish that goes with this is a balsamic glaze. Basically, you take some balsamic vinegar and boil it down to syrup consistency, then you dot the plate with it. It's unnecessary work, if you don't care about it, so I'd skip it unless you're really intent on impressing someone. If it boils down too much, though, it will solidify into glass, so be careful. 3) The dressing is a traditional one, which means the egg is uncooked and untempered. If you don't like that idea, or you're cooking for someone who shouldn't eat raw eggs, you can omit the egg yolk and it should still be okay. 4) I find a lot of Keller's recipes to have extraneous ingredients/steps in them, so please pay attention to the footnotes. It can help you save time.

Caesar Salad

I N G R E D I E N T S
(for the croutons)
Baguette cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Parmesan shavings

(for the crisps)
1/2 c. finely grated Parmesan (from a MOIST piece of cheese)

(for the dressing)
1 1/2 tbsp. chopped garlic
1 1/2 tbsp. chopped shallots
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. Dijon
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 salt-packed anchovy fillets***
1 large egg yolk
1 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 c. canola oil****
Pepper

(for the custards)
2/3 c. heavy cream
2/3 c. milk
3 1/2 oz. Parmesan cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
Kosher salt
White pepper

(for the salad)
3 c. chiffonade of romaine hearts
2 tbsp. grated Parmesan
Pepper

Start with the croutons. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Place the slices of bread on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until evenly golden brown.

Then, make the crisps. Up the oven temp to 325°F. Line a baking sheet with Silpat (it doesn't have to be Silpat, but you will need some kind of nonstick mat in there). Sprinkle about 2 tsp. of Parmesan in a mound on the mat, then spread the cheese into a 1- to 1 1/2-inch circle. Repeat with the remaining cheese, leaving space between, until you have 12 circles. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes or until golden brown. Use a small spatula to transfer them to paper towels. They will stiffen as they cool. They can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days. (They're also ridiculously delicious, so be careful not to snack on them too much.)

Move on to the dressing. Puree the garlic, shallots, vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, and anchovies in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a mixer with the paddle attachment***** and beat in the egg yolk. With the machine running, slowly drizzle in the oils. Season with pepper. Cover and refrigerate. There will be more dressing than you need for this recipe, but the extra can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.

And then make the custards. Place the cream, milk, and Parmesan in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and let the flavors infuse for 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 250°F. Whisk the eggs and yolk together in a medium bowl. Reheat the cream mixture until it is hot. While whisking, strain the cream and milk onto the eggs to temper them, a little at a time. Season with salt and white pepper.

Ladle 2 tbsp. of custard mixture into each of twelve 1- to 2-ounce baking molds. Place the molds into a roasting pan and add a water bath to come halfway up the sides. Cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil and bake or 30 minutes, or until the custards are just set. The edges will be set, but the very center may not be. Remove the molds from the water bath and refrigerate the custards for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.

Make the salad. Toss the romaine with the Parmesan and just enough dressing to lightly coat the lettuce. Season with pepper.

To assemble, place a spoonful of dressing on each plate. Run a small knife around the edge of each custard, dip the molds briefly into hot water, and unmold each custard onto a crouton. Center one crouton in each pool of dressing. Lay a Parmesan crisp over each custard and top with a stack of the salad. Place shavings of cheese over the romaine and garnish with the balsamic syrup, if you wish.

* Old pic, made by someone at school. I couldn't find the pics I did when I made it for a dinner party last year.
** And that's what book this recipe is from, Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook.
*** They are supposed to be deboned and soaked in milk for 30 minutes, then patted dry. I find this step to be cumbersome and unnecessary.
**** I don't like canola oil; I don't even keep it in the house. I use just olive oil for this recipe, but it's up to you.
***** I've done this all in the blender before, but you run the risk of turning it into Caesar mayonnaise.

buhfly

Once you've made one custard (and that's what creme brulee is; it really means "burnt cream" because you traditionally burn sugar over the top), you've pretty much made them all. It's cream, milk, sugar, eggs, and whatever flavorings you want to add to it. By that tack, you could replace the coffee in this recipe with chocolate or lemon or fruit. The only caveat I will put here is, if you use citrus, you have to be careful not to curdle the custard. For instance, if doing lemon or orange or grapefruit, use the zest instead of the juice. Things like raspberries have enough acid in them to curdle it, as well, so I would use some Chambord liqueur for the custard and then just line the bottom of the ramekin with raspberries or something like that.

You can also do savory custards. I've made a parmesan custard by omitting the sugar and adding parmesan in. If anyone's interested, I can post that recipe, too.

Coffee Creme Brulee With Dark Chocolate Ganache

I N G R E D I E N T S
2 c. cream, plus 1/4 c. reserved
1 c. milk
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
1 tbsp. instant coffee crystals*
2 eggs, plus 3 egg yolks
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. dark chocolate, chopped
1 tsp. honey

Preheat your oven to 300°F and set up (8) 2" ramekins in a baking dish.

Put 2 c. cream, milk, and vanilla in a heavy-bottomed pot and bring almost to a boil. Set aside but keep warm. In a small bowl, mix the coffee crystals with a little bit of the hot cream mixture until crystals are completely dissolved. Mix the coffee mixture back into the cream.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs, yolks, and sugar until thoroughly combined. Carefully add the cream mixture to the eggs, one ladleful at a time, whisking thoroughly in between; this is to temper the eggs, so you don't scramble them. Once you've added half of the cream mixture, you can just dump the rest in and whisk it together.

Pour through a sieve into a large liquid measuring cup or something that you can easily pour from into the ramekins. Fill each ramekin until they are all equally filled. Don't go too high, because you'll top it with the ganache before you serve it.

Boil some water and carefully pour it into the baking dish until it comes to between a quarter and halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake in the oven just until set, about 30 - 35 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the water immediately after you take the dish out of the oven (be careful, that water is super hot) and place them on a cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet in the fridge until completely cooled and set. I usually give it about 3 - 4 hours, to make sure. You can even make it the day before.

Shortly before you're ready to serve, put the dark chocolate, honey, and and 3 tbsp. cream in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 30 seconds. This should be enough to stir together until the chocolate's melted, but if not, try another 10 seconds. You will end up with a thick, smooth ganache. Using a spoon, carefully dollop some on top of the creme brulee and then spread it around. Pop it back into the fridge for 3 - 5 minutes and then serve. The ganache will have just hardened into a soft fudge consistency and it takes the place of the traditional caramel top.

* Even better would be 1 - 2 tbsp. of kahlua, but we don't keep it in the house.

buhfly

This is a nice weekend dinner of comfort food. <3 Traditional mac and cheese and a simple tossed salad with a lemon vinaigrette. It's relatively easy and doesn't take long at all to make.

( Mac and cheese with a tossed salad. )

buhfly

As I said last time, I went to peteevil's for dinner on Friday and forgot my camera. Another round of Retro Camera Edition!

This recipe is from (what else?) the 50th issue of Donna Hay Magazine. I've changed up a few things because my palate is decidedly American when it comes to dessert and so I wanted more of a sweet taste. Feel free to make your risotto with water and no sugar, though, if you want something a little more reserved on the sweet.

( Lemon Risotto Custard )

buhfly

I went to peteevil's house for dinner on Friday...but I forgot my camera. Instead, I used the Retro Camera app on my phone with the Polaroid setting. :) We had a salad pizza, which is pizza...with a salad on top. You can, obviously, top your pizza with anything. And I suppose you could do a traditionally sauced pizza, too, although this one is white. You can also do a different vinaigrette, whatever. But this is what we did. (Recipe is Pete's.)

( Salad Pizza )

buhfly

This recipe is from that same 50th issue of Donna Hay Magazine. I think I'll probably try three more recipes or so before I get bored with it. (I'm supposed to try a lemon rice custard tomorrow with a friend, we'll see how that goes.)

Some notes: these recipes never have things like salt or pepper in them, so I'm assuming it's to taste, but I'll put it in the ingredients, anyway. Also, this didn't thicken too terribly much. I think in future makings, I will be thickening it before baking it with some arrowroot powder, but you can also use cornstarch or a roux. I'll add this in to the recipe. Finally, the recipe tells you to make it all in a large sauce pan; this is supposed to be a one pot meal. However, if you use a wider pan to cook the lamb, it might be easier. I did it all in my large sauce pan and it was fine, but tight for a little while. If you do use a wider pan, just transfer it back to the sauce pan after it's browned.

This is really delicious...if you like lamb. I have a friend who can't even stand the smell of it, let alone eat it, so for her I'd probably replace it with something else. Pork would work well with the mint. And the mint is nice and subtle (I had worried it would be overwhelming). The bread gets deliciously crusty on top and the pieces that are underneath turn into dumplings. It's all very good and we didn't even end up with any leftovers.

( Click. )

buhfly

(Crossposted to culinarydelight.)



I got this recipe from the 50th issue of Donna Hay Magazine, just like the chocolate cake recipe, and I have to say...this magazine is all kinds of awesome. I've liked almost everything I've made from it and, as a plus, it's a gorgeous, glossy magazine with lots of pictures. Best of everything!

As always, I've edited the recipe to reflect how I made it; this includes adding salt and pepper (which were mysteriously missing) and changing the quantity of garlic and lemon zest in the gremolata. And remember that you can use almost any vegetables you want in this, not just want are listed here.

( Click. )