Monthly Archives: September 2012

Field Trip: Dinner with Chef Wheeler Del Torro

  September 29, 2012 - 10:52 pm | ,
3 Comments
DSC_0648

I had a wonderful opportunity today to meet other Boston area bloggers. Chef Wheeler Del Torro hosted a meal that allowed local bloggers to meet and network at KitchnTable in Brighton. Not to disappoint, Chef Del Torro’s menu included the yummy ice cream from his shop 3 Scoops. Some of the bloggers I got to talk shop with were writers from Cheap Beets, Satisfied Cravings, Tri to Cook, Simply Gourmet in Southie and Blunder Construction. It was so nice to talk to these other bloggers and chat about what it’s like to blog in the Boston area. Chef Del Torro’s dinner was a pleasant backdrop to our afternoon of networking.

Here are a few pictures from the night…

The staff at 3 Scoops, the location of KitchnTable, prepares for our meal…

Our first course was waiting for us when we sat at our table. It was a salad of watermelon with gorgonzola and mint.

The second course was the most entertaining of the evening. The chef left the bruschetta unseasoned and had us experiment with the way that different salts change the flavor of food. Here are the salts:

We all had fun tasting the Bruschetta with these salts. I was not a fan of the Kala Namak, a powdered salt which tasted strongly of eggs (top right). The Hawaiian Black Sea Salt (front) was my personal favorite. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember the other salt, but it was a nice mild salt that was not at all harsh. I’ll let you know if I remember it. Here’s the Bruschetta we tasted with the salt:

The antipasto plate was probably my favorite course (except the ice cream) of the night because it combined a few of my favorite foods; figs, prosciutto and cheese.

There were other courses too, but really, the dessert was what it was all about. We had the opportunity to try our choice of any of the ice creams from the 3 scoops line-up. I asked what the most popular were and that’s what I tried; Coconut and OMFG (oh my fudgy goodness). Coconut and chocolate together – can you blame me???

While the food was plenty, what I really enjoyed was getting to know other bloggers in the area and telling them about this little blog. Not only did I get to tell them a little about the blog, but I got to show off this picture. That makes the whole night worth while, don’t ya think????

 

Sour Grape Jam

  September 20, 2012 - 4:44 pm | , , , , , ,
Leave a comment
DSC_0511

I usually don’t have time to can anything. I also usually don’t have enough of any one crop to do anything in large enough batches to warrant canning. As you may remember, gardening is not really my strongest skill. However, I am great at letting the wild vines and bushes left by previous owners run wild. That includes the grapes that grow at the edge of my driveway. In past years, I’ve noticed a few grapes that the birds ate before I had a chance to harvest; but this year we had a bumper crop. The vines are covering trees and the ground all around with large grape leaves in a very kudzu like fashion and the clusters are hanging as high up as I can see. This year I made the birds wait their turn and took my share to make jam.

I’ve never made grape jam before, lucky for me my father descends from a long line of food preservers. He is always foraging his plot for wild grapes, blackberries, black raspberries, red raspberries and even black walnuts from which he has made pies, jam, and even wine. His mother, an excellent gardener, canned everything she could get her hands on. She canned jam, pickles, and vegetables by the bushel. Thus it was pure serendipity-do-da that the grapes happened to ripen at the same time that my father came for a visit. There were so many grapes that ten minutes of picking produced a huge pile of grapes to pick over. Not all of the fruit was ripe, but there were so many of them, that we could be picky about which fruit we used for our jam. The results are spectacular. It’s fruit-forward flavor is not too sweet nor too firm in consistency. Perfect for toast and pretty much anything you can find to smear it on. Enjoy!

Sour Grape Jam – Click here for a printable version of this recipe
This is not an exact recipe. Everyone will have a different amount of fruit with different qualities, so it is written so that you can follow it with whatever fruit you have. This produces a semi-firm jam; not too jelled so that the flavors still shine through, it also doesn’t have too much sugar so that the natural flavors of the grapes still remain. When deciding to stop boiling your jam err on the side of under doing it. The longer you cook the liquid, the less like fresh fruit it will taste and the more it will taste like flavored sugar. After all if your finished product is too soft, then people will know it’s homemade.

grapes (concord or other sweet grape)
sugar
pectin

Pick over your fruit to remove unripe and spoiled bits, bugs and leaves. Washing is not necessary if the fruits have gone directly from vine to clean container unless they have been sprayed with pesticide.

Place clean fruit in a large heavy bottomed pot. Add a small amount of water (about a cup for every four pounds of fruit). Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Use a potato masher to mash grapes separating them from their skins.

Let simmer for 5 minutes, then turn off heat and let the fruit sit with the skins for 15 minutes.

Pour the fruit into a food mill and press through the mill leaving the skins and seeds behind.

Measure the amount of juice and pulp you have. Return the juice and pulp to the pot and add one cup of sugar for every two cups of juice and pulp. You may need one tablespoon of pectin for every two cups of juice and pulp. Try none or little at first and add only if you need it. Mix the pectin slowly with water until you have a smooth mixture about the thickness of cream. Whisk the pectin into the juice and sugar and return to a boil over medium heat. Continue to boil the mixture for 15 minutes. To test the jam, pour a small spoonful of the jam into a small bowl and allow to cool. If it jells to just under the consistency you want, then your jam is done (it will jell slightly more as it continues to cool). If it is not jelled enough, continue to cook, testing every ten minutes until you reach the desired consistency.

Pour the boiling jam into clean, sanitized canning jars and seal following the directions that come with your canning materials.

 

 

Happy New Year (Apple Oatmeal Scones with Honey)

  September 16, 2012 - 9:44 am | , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment
apple scones

As someone who loves holidays and special occasions, I’ve figured out the secret to happiness. Marry someone of another faith so that you have twice as many holidays to celebrate. That’s what I did.

One of the things that I love so much about most holidays is that each has its own specific food theme. Thanksgiving has turkey, Fourth of July has barbecue, Christmas has cookies, Easter and Passover share eggs, and Rosh Hashanah has apples and honey. Sunset tonight marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

At Rosh Hashanah apples and honey are supposed to bring sweetness to the new year. Regardless of your faith or which holidays you choose to support, apples and honey together is a flavor combination anyone can get behind. While certainly not a traditional Rosh Hashanah food, these scones embrace the flavors of the holiday. The sweetness of the apples and honey make this a treat that everyone will enjoy. Even with lots of calories, they are healthier than an average scone thanks to a generous dose of hearty oats, whole wheat, and apples. This recipe is loosely based on a recipe from Martha Stewart which can be found here. Enjoy!

Apple Oatmeal Scones with Honey – Click here for a printable version of this recipe
makes 12 scones
Because of the honey, the dough feels sticky and a little tricky to work with. Heavily dusting the work surface and your hands with flour helps.

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks cold butter, cut into 1/2” pieces
2 tart firm apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4” pieces (such as Granny Smith)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix honey and buttermilk together and set aside. Mix flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl.

Cut butter into mixture using a pastry cutter or food processor until the pieces of butter are the size of peas.

If using a food processor, transfer to a mixing bowl. Toss apples and oats into mixture making sure to coat all the apple pieces with the flour mixture.

Pour buttermilk and honey mixture into dry mix and fold in until just combined.

Dump dough out onto a floured surface. The dough will be very sticky. Flour your hands and form the dough into a long rectangle about 15 inches long and 4 inches wide. Cut into 3 5-inch sections then cut each of those in half. Cut each half in half again on the diagonal to form 12 triangles.

Using a spatula, move the triangles to a baking pan lined with a baking mat or parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes until the scones are golden brown and fragrant. Let them cool on the pan before removing. You may need to cut between any scones that touch each other.

 

Blueberry Graham Frozen Yogurt

  September 12, 2012 - 7:00 am | , , , ,
1 Comment
DSC_0240


Do not ever freeze your frozen yogurt in a glass jar!
I used one only to show the finished product.

A certain high-end Vermont-made ice cream producer has a new line of frozen Greek yogurt out. It’s good–really good! It’s similar in style to those bank-breaking tart frozen yogurts you get in the malls these days, and it’s almost as expensive too.

Not many of us were making frozen yogurt at home because we didn’t want it to be tart like normal yogurt. Now, all of a sudden, tart is in. So why the heck aren’t we making it at home? How hard can it be to throw sweetened yogurt in the ice cream machine and get tart frozen yogurt? The answer is obvious: not hard, not hard at all!

The Vermont super premium frozen Greek yogurt that I fell in love with is Blueberry Graham. I’ve been on a graham cracker kick lately, and I had a few extra graham crackers on hand, so I decided to give this a try. What I like about the store-bought version is that the blueberry is a mix-in, not the overall flavor of the ice cream. Mainly because I like stuff mixed into my ice cream. So, I wanted a simple blueberry sauce to fold into the yogurt at the same time I folded in the graham crackers, but I wanted the sauce to taste of fresh blueberries. In my first attempt the sauce was too thick, and the large chunks of blueberry and skin were off-putting. By adding a small amount of corn syrup and sugar to the sauce and simmering for a few minutes then pureeing the sauce solved the texture problem. As for the graham crackers I first tried pulsing graham crackers to get crumbs like you would use for a pie crust, but the small crumbs simply disappeared into the frozen yogurt giving the finished product a strange almost gritty consistency. By breaking the crackers up into small pieces, not crumbs, the finished texture was much better and the taste more discernible. The finished product is even better than the store-bought version; and cheaper by far than the tart soft-serve frozen yogurts. Enjoy!

Blueberry Graham Cracker Frozen Yogurt - Click here to see a printer-friendly version of this recipe
Makes about 6 cups

The brand of Greek yogurt you buy is very important; some have additives to make them thicker. Those brands do not freeze as well as others. I prefer Cabot and Fage brands.

Don’t by whole milk yogurt or you might as well just eat ice cream. However, a low-fat (2%) makes very nice creamy finished product.

1-32 oz container plain or vanilla 2% Greek-style yogurt
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons lemon zest (from about one lemon)
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 cups small graham crackers pieces (about 8 crackers)

In a medium bowl, combine yogurt, 2/3 cup white sugar, vanilla and lemon zest. Stir until evenly blended and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Combine blueberries, corn syrup, and two tablespoons sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Using a fork or potato masher, mash the blueberries until all berries burst.

Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer until slightly thicker and dark in color, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a small bowl to cool. When cool, cover and refrigerate until cold.

Once both yogurt and blueberry sauce are cold, transfer yogurt mixture to the bowl of an ice cream maker. Follow the directions for your ice cream maker until yogurt is ready for the freezer.

Transfer from the ice cream maker back into the yogurt mixture bowl. Pour cold blueberry sauce over frozen yogurt, then sprinkle with graham cracker pieces.

Lightly fold ingredients without thoroughly mixing together. Transfer to a freezer safe container cover and freeze for at least an hour before serving. It’s best to let the yogurt set out for a few minutes before serving to allow it to soften slightly.

Small Batch Ketchup

  September 5, 2012 - 8:00 am | , , , ,
1 Comment
DSC_0411

Every summer its the same thing–we wait, with baited breath, as we watch our green tomatoes for signs of ripening. Then one day we see a blush on them, and we salivate, remembering the taste of ripe summer tomatoes drizzled with a little olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. Finally that beautiful day comes; the first ripe tomato of the summer. It’s a great day; we take a bite, our eyes roll back in our head, and we are grateful and happy that summer has come again to bless us with ripe juicy tomatoes. Just a week later we start our daily harvest of mounds of tomatoes, and we can’t waste even one. Maybe I start with a batch of tomato sauce, then another. Lunches are sliced tomatoes, dinners are tomatoes and our omelets have tomatoes. Why must they all come at once? They start to pile up; our freezers are full and our bellies say no more. That’s when we start scouring the internet for ways to use up the precious fruit.

However, not all of us really want to go to the effort of canning. Not all of us have bushels of tomatoes that need processing. Some of us just want a recipe we can make that produces something tasty and useful that we can use up and enjoy without having to can, freeze or make ten gallons of it. Everywhere you go you see recipes for tomato sauce, but there is another useful sauce made from tomatoes that is overlooked: ketchup. Everyone uses it. Why not make your own?

My old 1800′s cookbooks all started with a full bushel of tomatoes, and ended with canning enough to last a very large ketchup-loving family through a long winter. Even most of the more modern recipes for ketchup still produce enough to require long-term preservation. Instead, I just wanted to make a few cups to enjoy. Of course, if you want to make a large batch of this ketchup to can or freeze, this recipe will simply scale up. However, if you just want to use up some of your sad over-ripe fruit to prevent summer’s excess from rotting on the vine, this recipe is perfect.

The finished ketchup is thick and rich. The flavor is all ketchup. It’s better than store bought, and it’s also fun to make, not hard, but not fast. Most of the time it takes is just letting it simmer on a back burner. So, grab those tomatoes off the vine, and try this ketchup. Enjoy!

 

Small Batch Ketchup - Click here for a printer friendly version of this recipe
makes about 2 cups
If your tomatoes are at the peak of ripeness and are very sweet, use the full cup of vinegar. If your tomatoes are not really sweet start with 3/4 cup. You can add a little more after the first cooking if needed.

3 pounds tomatoes, about 10 medium
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 onion, chopped
between 3/4 – 1 cup cider vinegar (depending on ripeness of tomatoes)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 clove garlic
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt

Add all ingredients to a large heavy-bottomed non-reactive pot.

Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, and simmer until the mixture falls apart and is very soft, about 2 hours.

Press mixture through a food mill or force through a fine sieve.

You will have a very small pile of skins and seeds that will not go through the mill/sieve; maybe a 1/2 cup.

Discard those seeds and skins and return the rest of the pulp and juice to the pot.

Bring back to a very slow simmer and cook until mixture thickens and darkens slightly. This will take another few hours. It is very important during this reduction time to stir the pot frequently to prevent the ketchup from scorching or sticking to the bottom of the pan. Test by dropping a spoon of the ketchup onto a plate. If it is not ready, liquid will seep around the edges. When it is ready, no liquid will seep from the edges. When the ketchup is finally ready, cool and refrigerate. It will last several weeks in the refrigerator.

Ketchup that is not ready has a liquid outer ring

Ketchup that is ready is thick and the liquid does not form an outer ring

 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...