Culinary Fool

Pumpkin Date Bread

11-Dec-2005

When Halloween rolls around I buy lots of pumpkins but I rarely carve them. Instead I use them for decoration just as they are. The orange orbs will grace my front porch, adding fall color and a spot of sunshine from October until the end of November. At the end of that time I’ll extend their usefulness by bringing them in, roasting them and then making all kinds of yummy treats for the holidays.

The pumpkins in these photos are Sugar Pumpkins but any type of pumpkin, or even squash, will do. To roast them you just cut them in half (or smaller pieces if the pumpkin is very large), clean out the seeds, place them on a pan and put them in the oven at 350°F or 375°F and bake until very tender. You can roast them either cut side up or down. The advantage to placing them cut side down, is that they will steam themselves a little which will loosen the skin from the flesh making them amazingly easy to peel. But even where the steam hasn’t forced its way in, all you need to do is scoop the flesh, much as you would a baked potato.

Then you will need to mash or puree the flesh to get it as smooth as possible. I use my food processor which has the added advantage of handling any stringy parts I may have missed when cleaning the pumpkin. If you mash by hand just be on the lookout and remove anything that looks too fibrous.

Once the pumpkin is pureed it can be used in baked goods, pastas, soups – its limited only by your imagination! At this time of year I most often use it to make Pumpkin Date Bread. This is a really moist and fragrant bread. It just oozes holiday happiness! Any leftover pumpkin can be frozen and used at a later date. I generally freeze 2 cup packages, as that’s the most common measurement for most of the recipes I make.

Pumpkin Date Bread

Adapted from Betty Crocker’s Christmas Cookbook

2 ½ cups sugar
⅔ cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
16 oz pumpkin
⅔ cup water
3 ⅓ cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
½ tsp baking powder
¾ cup chopped nuts
¾ cup chopped dates

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottoms only of two loaf pans, 9x5x3 inches or three loaf pans, 8x4x2.

Mix sugar, oil, eggs, pumpkin and water in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into pans.

Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 60 – 70 minutes. Cool slightly and then loosen sides of loaves from pan and cool on wire racks. Wait until completely cool to slice.

½
½

Grammy’s Carmel Corn

10-Dec-2005

This recipe has become one of my standard holiday treats. It wasn’t from my grammy but apparently someone’s made the carmel corn and passed the recipe on! And I’m glad she did. It’s easy and really good! I got the recipe from my Mom and I remember that she got it from a friend of hers but I don’t have a clue who that was, anymore.

You can make it several weeks in advance of when you need it and you can even freeze it to keep it fresh, if you’d like. I normally don’t do that but I want to make sure you know your options!

Grammy’s Carmel Corn

6 quarts popped corn

1 cup margarine or butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
½ cup corn syrup
1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Melt margarine or butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt over medium heat. When combined bring to a boil over medium high heat. Boil moderately for 5 minutes.

Remove pan from heat, add soda and vanilla. (Mixture will foam up to about double its volume.) Mix thoroughly. Pour over popped corn and stir well.

Spread in pans and bake at 200°F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately turn onto waxed or parchment paper to cool.

Notes:
I use air-popped corn but I’m sure that any popped corn will work.
I divide the popped corn between two roaster pans – the sides come in handy when you are stirring during the baking time.
Don’t worry if, when you first try to mix the corn and caramel syrup, some of the popcorn seems a bit dry. As you stir throughout the baking process the caramel will become evenly distributed.
If you forget to remove the carmel corn from the pans immediately it will stick, but you can return the pan to the oven for a few minutes and it should loosen up again.

A Tale of Two Classes

09-Dec-2005

(Warning: Extra long post!)

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, I took two classes at Sur La Table. Both were taught by local "celebrity chefs" but that is about where the similarities ended! And what makes this contrast even more amazing is that these two chefs are good friends and partners in some endeavors!

The first night the instructor was Tom Douglas, recently of Iron Chef fame, but most well known for his four local restaurants, line of rubs and marinades and two cookbooks. Tom is a self-made chef, who came by his training by starting early, working in kitchens, watching, listening and experimenting. Tom’s style is as loose and casual as his looks would imply!

The second night the instructor was Thierry Rautureau of Rover’s fame. Thierry has recently released his first cookbook. If you live in the Seattle area you may know him as "the chef in the hat", his trademark. Thierry was born and raised in France, is classically trained and worked his way through many French restaurant kitchens prior to moving to Seattle. His style is much more formal and controlled, as might be expected.

Where the two men come together is in their creative and focused use of fresh, premium, mostly local ingredients, ever changing menus based on the season, and their attention to detail and quality. And they are both big believers in participating in community. Their generosity in supporting causes and benefits; contributing time, labor and ingredients is outstanding. I know that Tom has been involved with Taste the Nation since the beginning and I believe Thierry has been for many years, if not from the beginning. Thierry played judge for our "Iron Chef" competition back in April. (You can see me feeding him in one photo!) I first sampled both men’s culinary delights at various benefits around town. I have much respect for both men for their craft, their recognition of the staff members who help make them successful and their contributions to the community in general.

So, as you can probably imagine, the classes while having common elements (beautiful ingredients, focus on quality), were as different as night and day!

Tom’s class was loose and free flowing. He had brought us copies of his cookbook and instead of handing out copies of the recipes he referred us to the chapter in the book where the recipes would be found. We made the dinner titled, "Christmas with the Dows", from "Tom’s Big Dinners". Sur la Table has quit serving wine at their classes but Tom represents Columbia Crest Winery, and had brought several varieties of their wine to serve along with various courses.

We started with Penn Cove Oysters on the Half Shell. After a shucking lesson, Tom topped them with a dollop of creme fraiche and a generous spoonful of American caviar. Then, as some of the courses took some time to prepare, Tom jumped ahead to what really should have been a later course – Fig Brioche with Cheese – he wanted to make sure we didn’t get too hungry while waiting for the "proper" course. I loved the brioche! Next up a winter salad of Apple, Radicchio and Maple Molasses Pecans. Those pecans were very tasty.

The next course served would usually be the appetizer. Tom joked that it was the only recipe in the cookbook without a photo as there’s just no way to really make Oeufs en Meurette on Rustic Bread look pretty! The eggs are poached in red wine and, although very tasty, sort of resemble raw liver! The entrée was a plate of Roast Duck with Riesling, Black Pepper and Thyme; King Boletus Stuffing; and Brown Butter Kale. The stuffing was cooked in a casserole in a shallow layer so that the top gets crusty and crispy while the interior stays soft and moist. I loved the crispy top layer!

Throughout the meal Tom joked, cooked from memory and often strayed from the published recipe, generally catching himself and joking that he should have read the recipe before starting to cook. The class and meal stretched about 30 minutes past the scheduled time but no one minded. After class, Tom signed all the cookbooks and took a few minutes to talk with everyone. You can tell he likes what he does and a big part of that is the interaction with his customers.

On Thursday I was on a bit of a schedule and I was going to have to leave class about 30 minutes prior to the official end time. I hoped that would give me enough time to get through most of the recipes and get a good dose of Thierry Rautureau’s style of cooking and presentation.

From the beginning of the class we were on a different journey than on the night before. Upon check in we received a packet of recipes, which is the more normal way of these classes. All recipes can be found in his new cookbook, "Rover’s, Recipes from Seattle’s Chef in the Hat". This cookbook was quite a process, as normally Thierry does not use recipes. He and his co-writer, Cynthia Nims, spent many sessions creating and documenting so that the essence of his style could be captured in his book.

Thierry was anxious to get started, although the class coordinator had him wait for a few minutes as traffic had delayed several students. Once he was given the green light he was off and running. Thierry also has a great sense of humor and joked throughout the class. However, he is much more contained than Tom is. His movements are efficient, studied, resulting in perfect results. Thierry’s cuisine, while heavily influenced by the local Northwest abundance, relies on classic French techniques. So at the beginning of class we started on stock, and sauces and reductions that would be used throughout the meal.

At several points throughout the class, he made the comment that his recipes were simple but not necessarily easy, meaning that although they would take some time, the actual methods can be handled by many. And he talked about how, if you follow a recipe step by step from beginning to end, they could take hours – to make stocks, etc. But if you make stock as you have the chance, then freeze it for later use and then pull it out when you need it the actual time to create his recipes would be much less. Still, some planning is required! He also talked about how you could easily eliminate certain parts of a dish and still have a perfectly fine offering. For instance, the dessert for the night could easily be limited to just the panna cotta or just the sorbet. He would put them together into one magnificent presentation (my words not his) but it’s not necessary to do so.

The menu for the evening was Martini of Spot Prawns with Cucumber, Caviar and Vodka; Roasted Pheasant with Brussels Sprouts and Roasted Garlic Sauce; Orange Panna Cotta with Pomegranate Sorbet and Tuile Cookie.

Thierry started with the parts of the meal that took longest, much as you would do for a meal in your own home, and then worked his way forward. So I got to see him make the dessert; prepare, truss and roast the pheasant; and prepare the garnishes for the dishes. I did not, however, get to actually eat any of it. I was so disappointed! When we took our mid-class break I realized that by the time we’d get back from break that I’d have to be leaving for another commitment. That is why you will not see any pictures of the food, or get any description of it, except that I saw how it was all prepared and I had been drooling the entire time! But with Thierry’s style each part of a meal is a coordinated piece of the whole and he would have been plating each course as we were enjoying the previous. Each course would arrive just a few moment after you finished the one prior leaving just enough time to enjoy the experience – just the way it’s done at Rover’s. And I had really wanted to try the pheasant as it’s been years since I’ve had it. Dang it!

Oh well, as I told him as I was leaving he’s given me the tools and knowledge to make it all on my own. Somehow it just won’t be the same though. You know?

Thanks to My Great Friends!!

07-Dec-2005

I just need to tell you that I am one of the luckiest people in the world! I have really wonderful friends who not only celebrate with me but really come through in the bad times. The furnace repair that I alluded to in a recent post turned out to be much more of a hassle than I thought it was going to be. It turned out that the earliest they could get a new part here was going to be more like early January – that’s a long time! Especially since a bunch of my family is arriving here on the 16th for our Christmas celebration. (We always get together as a family the weekend before Christmas so that we avoid conflicts with in-laws and allow each of my siblings’ families to have their own celebrations at home.)

I put out a call for help and so many people came through that it really made me happy and proud and thankful! I can’t tell you how much it means to me. I just love these people! And this just reminds me again to make sure I never take them for granted.

And then this morning I got more good news; my furnace guy was able to come up with another solution and it looks like I’ll have heat again next Tuesday! Woo hoo! Keep your fingers crossed!

Star Cookies

06-Dec-2005

Yesterday I baked up a batch of one of my favorite cookies recipes – Star Cookies. This recipe is one of my Grandmother’s. I always remember them as being made with walnuts but my Dad said originally the recipe was made with peanuts. However, my grandparents had a couple of huge walnut trees and eventually walnuts were incorporated into the recipe.

The cookies are crispy and chewy. They are great with a cup of tea or coffee or a hot buttered rum. I’m always amazed at how my Grandmother made these in the past. There are 7 cups of finely chopped walnuts – with a food processor that’s a breeze, chopping them by hand would have been a different story!

I actually talked about these cookies, last year, too so here’s the post and recipe for these cookies.

Fruitcake!

05-Dec-2005

I’m on a mission – a mission to clear fruitcake’s bad name! Not all fruitcake is bad but so many people have been exposed to the seedy side of fruitcakes that they now lump all types into the undesirable category. All I’m asking is give good fruitcake a chance!

Every year, at this time of year, I find myself trying to justify my choice of baking and (horrors!) giving fruitcake as part of cookie baskets that I make for my family. I feel like some sort of loony bin – how could I possibly think that anyone would want that stuff?!?!?

Now, I understand the aversion to what many people think of when fruitcake comes to mind – that overwhelming sense of disgusting, fluorescent "fruit". I hate those red and green cherries and pineapple! Whose idea were those things, anyway? But that is not what my fruitcake (or many others) are all about. As in so many things, it’s the ingredients that make all the difference. Any you won’t find anything but yummy dried fruits and lovely pecans going into my batter. Yum!

So to try to get you to give it another try, I thought I’d share my recipe with you. Go ahead – take a chance! :-)

Old Fashioned Fruitcake
Adapted from a recipe in Betty Crocker’s Christmas Cookbook

3 cups flour
1⅓ cups sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup orange juice
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
¼ cup dark molasses

15 oz golden raisins (or a combination of raisins and dried cranberries)
4 oz pitted dates, cut in half
4 oz dried apricots, cut in half
5 oz dried sour cherries
5 oz dried pineapple (See Note 1)
8 oz pecans

Heat oven to 275°F. Line 2 loaf pans, 9x5x3 inches with aluminum foil; grease. (See Note 2)

Beat all ingredients except fruits and nuts in large mixing bowl on low speed, scraping bowl constantly for 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, for 3 minutes. Stir in fruits and nuts. Spread in pans.

Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 2½ to 3 hours. You may need to cover cakes at some point to prevent excessive browning.

Remove from pans; cool on wire racks. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and/or aluminum foil; store in refrigerator for 3 to 4 weeks or freeze.

Note 1: Feel free to browse the dried fruit aisle at your local grocery and substitute any fruits that appeal to you.

Note 2: As you can see in the photos I’ve actually used a combination of pans, in this case a couple of small springform pans and a smaller bread pan. With my newer pans I don’t bother with the foil but I do use it in older bread pans to ensure the fruitcakes can be easily removed. If using smaller pans, adjust your baking time. Using these smaller pans my baking time was about 90 minutes.

The Season of Giving

04-Dec-2005

I had been planning on writing a post this weekend reminding everyone to think about organizations in their communities who help the less fortunate. Especially at this time of year it’s nice to help put food on the table of someone who might not have enough for daily sustenance, let alone a special holiday meal.

I had been thinking about this whole "giving" idea quite a lot lately as I’d been hearing a lot about donor "fatigue". You may have heard about it in your community, too. It’s what they are calling the drop in donations to local causes and organizations. They believe it’s because there have been so many catastrophes this year and many people have been donating right and left to tsunami victims, earthquake victims, hurricane victims and all this on top of rising prices, especially anything impacted by fuel costs. Donors are just worn out financially and, probably emotionally, from caring about so much, so often. Yet the daily need in each community doesn’t go away just because catastrophes strike.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve also been talking to some folks about a work party at one of our local agencies, Northwest Harvest. I try to organize work groups for them now and then but I haven’t organized a group for quite some time and was starting to float the idea with people. Last Wednesday, at my friend T’s birthday gathering, I started talking about it in earnest with a few people I met that night and decided I’d better get on it as, in the past, it’s always taken me two to three months to get a weekend spot at the Northwest Harvest warehouse. Especially around holiday time. When I called the volunteer coordinator on Thursday and asked for a Saturday slot after the first of the year I was fully expecting that the earliest available dates would be late February or early March. I was amazed to be offered January 7th or 14th! And I could have had the Sundays, too. And I had my choice of either the morning or afternoon spots!

Has donor fatigue drifted into the volunteering efforts, too? I don’t know, but I can see how it might happen. And maybe this is just some little fluke but it made me incredibly sad to think that such a good agency might be suffering in many ways due to people just running out of funds and energy or at least feeling like they have.

Then I had something sort of odd happen. My furnace has been in need of a little repair and on Saturday when the repairman came to fix it he discovered it was much more serious than we first thought. My heat exchanger is cracked which means I can’t run my furnace at all since that can cause carbon monoxide problems. Tomorrow they will place an order for the part and (hopefully) it will be here later this week but by the time it’s all repaired and I have heat again it will be a week or more since I’ve been able to use my furnace. I had one space heater and bought another so I can keep a couple of rooms warm but the rest of the house is very cold!

So for the last two days I’ve been in this really weird mood. I know that in a week or so I’ll have heat again but it kind of feels like I’ll never be totally warm again. And in reality it’s not all that bad but I want to lock myself in one room and curl up and conserve my energy. And it’s causing me to feel a little depressed – I mean it’s the holidays and I can’t really do the things I want to do because most of the house is cold. And then I started thinking about all the people who everyday must choose between food and heat because they don’t have funds for both.

If I feel this way knowing that it will be fixed soon and that I have tons of other alternatives – friends I can stay with, the ability to buy a space heater at a moment’s notice; a warm car I can drive around in; I can work from anywhere with wireless access; I have two fireplaces and lot of wood – how must those people feel who don’t know when their situation will end and who don’t have other alternatives? We sometimes wonder why people don’t do more to pull themselves up and out of bad situations. But it’s those very situations that can have such a deep impact that many people feel powerless to do anything except work on surviving. And that can take a lot of energy.

So I encourage you to dig just a little deeper with either your time or your dollars to help a local cause in your area. Many companies sponsor food drives this time of year – take a look in your pantry and I’ll bet you’ll find a few things to donate. Some have giving trees – select a name and buy a little gift for that person. Check with your church or a local food bank to see if they can use some help serving or distributing meals. Talk to your friends to get a group together to contribute in some way. If each of us does some little bit it will really add up.

It’s the season of giving. Let’s all do our part.

Holiday Baking is in Full Swing!

04-Dec-2005

Each year it seems I start my baking later and later. I’m not sure if it feels that way or if it’s actually true. I guess I should look back at past years’ journal entries and figure that out! I had made a couple small things earlier this year but feel like I really started yesterday.

The first batch I made were Tennessee Sugar Cookies. I have started with these cookies for years! They are easy to throw together and make a fairly large batch so I always feel like I’ve accomplished something right away. I got this recipe from one of my cousins years ago when she brought the cookies to one of our annual family picnics. The original recipe just specifies to roll the cookies in sugar but at this time of year I mix red and green sugar sprinkles in with the granulated sugar for a more festive look.

Next on my agenda were two batches of Spritz. Again, these cookies come together very easily, they don’t need to be chilled and you can pop several dozen out in a matter of an hour or so.

The first batch I made were "regular" Almond Spritz. This is the most traditional flavoring but these cookies are very versatile and can be flavored a number of ways. In past years I’ve made them with everything from black walnut to butter rum to rosewater. This year I decided to make a batch of green trees and flavored them with mint, since I wanted the flavor to match the color! Don’t you hate it when your eyes tell you one thing about food and then the taste doesn’t match what you’re expecting?

Total number of cookies baked yesterday: Just over 20 dozen. That’s a good start!

I’m working on my plan for today – stay tuned for more baking information!

Tennessee Sugar Cookies

¾ cup margarine
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 cups flour

Cream margarine, vegetable oil and sugars until light.

Add vanilla and eggs.

Sift together all dry ingredients and then add a little at a time to mixture until entirely incorporated.

Refrigerate at least three hours.

Shape into 1” balls, roll in sugar (or a mixture of sugar and colored sprinkles), place on baking sheets and then press down lightly with a fork.

Bake at 375° for 10 – 12 minutes.

Makes 6 – 7 dozen.

St. Nicholas Weekend in Woodinville Wine Country

03-Dec-2005

This weekend marks the annual St Nicholas Wine Weekend. The wineries in Woodinville offer special events and many of the smaller wineries that normally do not have public tastings are open for this wine celebration. Many events are free and some wineries may charge a small fee.

Events run both Saturday and Sunday and the official hours are noon to 4:00 pm but each winery offering may vary. The following wineries will be open: Austin Robaire Vintners • Château Ste. Michelle • Columbia Winery • Covington Cellars • DeLille Cellars • Distefano Wines • Domaine Ste. Michelle • Facelli Winery • Januik Winery • JM Cellars • Mark Ryan Winery • Matthews Cellars • Novelty Hill Winery • Page Cellars • Silver Lake Winery • Stevens Winery • Woodhouse Family Cellars • Woodinville Wine Cellars

According to one source, Arlington Road Cellars, Baer Winery and Betz Family Winery do not have enough wine this time of year and will be closed. However, it would be good to check with any specific winery you are interested in visiting.

Coqktail Club: Black Bottle

02-Dec-2005

(Why Cocktail is spelled Coqktail.)

On the Monday prior to Thanksgiving, the Cocktail Club met for our last gathering of the year. We selected a fairly new place; one that had been written up in the Seattlest a few months ago. The place is the Black Bottle, located at the North end of Belltown.

When we arrived at 7:00 the place was packed! The earliest arrivals from our group had managed to grab a small table in the front window but as others arrived it was evident we just were not going to fit – even with squeezing in on the windowsills! A very nice group of women seated at a larger table next to us offered to change places with us. It was such a great thing for them to do! We really appreciated it.

The place was on the dark side, but lit with a candle on every table. The tables and chairs were all simple wooden pieces. Everything about the place was filled with a welcoming warmth; it’s a place you want to sit and stay awhile.

Soon drinks arrived and we began our tasting. R ordered a Martini (Bombay Gin) and pronounced it "fine". It must have been okay since she ordered the same thing for the second round. :-) M2 was taking it a bit easy (she’s been working her behind off lately!) and started with a Vodka Tonic and was rewarded with a good textbook drink. JB, always testing the bartenders, ordered a Blueberry Tea. Our server wasn’t familiar with it, but told us that "the bartender knows every drink in the world". Okay, then! This shouldn’t pose any problem, and indeed it didn’t. JB pronounced his cocktail, "Delightful!" I started with a Lemon Drop after asking, as I always do, if they made theirs on the sweet or tart side. The server said she’d just tell the bartender I preferred something on the tart side and that’s what I got. It actually may have been just a bit too tart… next time I’ll just order and see what I get by default.

We also decided to start with a little bite to eat and JB ordered the Smoked Chicken and Sun-Dried Cherry Flatbread. When it arrived it was a bit of a surprise – not really what I would have called a flatbread, more like a foccacia or even just a savory tart of some sort. That didn’t really matter though – it was divine! The smoky chicken with the sweet-tart cherries was delicious! They offer several other flatbreads and I plan to try them all at sometime in the near future.

At some point as we were inhaling the flatbread, K, N and JH arrived. In no time they had placed food and drink orders and soon a Stoli Razberi with Soda, some odd Manhattan type drink, a plate of Seven Spice Shrimp and another of Skirt Steak with Daikon appeared at our table. Oh, and somewhere in there a couple of coffee drinks – one Spanish and one Irish – arrived, too.

All of the drinks were good – even though the Manhattan seemed odd to me, N said it was better than he could make on his own – and I have to admit that the bartender did seem to know how to concoct most anything we threw at him! The food was especially good, though. The shrimp were spicy and even the crispy heads were good! The steak was tender, juicy and filled with the flavor of satisfying goodness. All of the plates are set up to be shared, although one could make a meal out of one or two of them. And, what I think is rather nice, is that all menu items are a flat $8 – very reasonable, easy to track and split among a group.

As we were preparing to leave I took a last look at the menu and there are many things I’d still like to sample, starting with the rest of the flatbreads! Yum! In fact, I liked this place so much that I’ll be back there next Monday with a few other friends!

Black Bottle
2600 1st Avenue (at Vine)
Belltown
Seattle
206.441.1500