The Best Chocolate Tiramisu

On our interview trail Scott and I ate at Bosco’s in Nashville, TN where we had the best tiramisu either of us had ever had. It was my order, and after tasting it I insisted that Scott taste it too. On doing so, he promptly left his mountain of an uber-chocolate brownie dessert untouched to team up on the tiramisu and the sumptuous sauce it rested in. If it wouldn’t have been at an interview dinner, you can bet that we would have taken turns licking that plate clean. Honest, it was that good. Scott said it was the best dessert that he had ever had. In the months that have followed, Scott has joked about ranking Nashville number one on our list just so we can go to Bosco’s and eat their tiramisu whenever we want. He’s said that if we were like the celebrities who fly across the country just to have dinner at their favorite restaurant we would be flying to Bosco’s once a week for dessert. Now, for those of you who know my husband, you know that he is prone to exaggeration so perhaps it’s been so built up in our minds that if we had it again we would be disappointed, but nevertheless it made such an impression on us I resolved to master a tiramisu recipe and my first attempt would be for our Valentine’s Day dinner.

First, I searched the internet to see if Bosco’s would perhaps have their recipe posted somewhere but sadly they don’t, so I searched for hours more comparing and contrasting different recipes. Traditional recipes have raw eggs in them, some just egg yolks, other recipes use whip cream instead of eggs and blend that with the mascarpone. Some cook the eggs as you would in a custard, and some American versions even have instant JELLO pudding and cream cheese! Would a restaurant like Bosco’s serve raw eggs? Restaurants serve beef tartar so maybe raw eggs don’t bother them either? My head spun and I didn’t know what to do so I decided to take a break and check what new recipes one of my favorite blogs had posted recently. There, on the Smitten Kitchen website I read about Chocolate soufflé cupcakes with mint cream. I loved the idea that a chocolate soufflé had the same level of chocolate intensity as a flourless chocolate cake, but wasn’t so dense, instead it was light and porous. As I thought about this new concept, I couldn’t help but think that the texture of these soufflé cupcakes might make them perfect sponges; perfect sponges for say . . . coffee and liqueur? Ding, ding, ding! Yes! Re-energized I returned to my search, settled on a recipe who’s author I trust, and added the ingredients to our grocery list. I made the chocolate soufflé recipe in an 8 by 8 inch pan and cut the cake up into strips and used these in place of the traditional ladyfingers in tiramisu.

We had our tiramisu for the dessert of our “cocky” (as Scott would say) homemade Valentine’s Day meal and it was so good. It was devoured very slowly, partly because we wanted to savor it and partly because I was in shock it turned out so well that with each bite I let the tiramisu rest on my tongue, siphoning out the flavors and textures with the different parts of my tongue to confirm once more what I already suspected from my first bite, that it was better than Bosco’s.Scott raved about it and after a few days he said, “Whitney, I’ve been waiting to say this because I wanted to be sure, but I think that if you took away that amazing sauce that Bosco’s tiramisu was served in, and had the tiramisu alone, your tiramisu would be better.” Yes! Woo hoo! If I ever figure out that sauce, watch out Bosco’s! There’s a new sheriff in town! ;)

Chocolate Tiramisu

Chocolate souffle cake: From Smitten Kitchen

6 ounces (170 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) (86 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) espresso or instant coffee powder
3 large eggs, separated
6 tablespoons (97 grams) sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray and 8x8 inch cake pan with nonstick spray. In a medium saucepan over low heat melt butter and chocolate together being careful not to burn the chocolate. (If you feel uncomfortable doing this try the double broiler method.) Whisk in the espresso powder to the chocolate mixture and remove from heat and whisk until fully melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm, stirring occasionally.

With an electric hand mixer (with clean beaters!) beat egg whites in a medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add three tablespoons sugar and all of the salt while beating until medium-firm peaks form. Set aside. With the same electric mixer beat egg yolks and the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar until mixture is quite thick and pale, about two minutes. Beat the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture and then mix in the vanilla extract. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture in 3 additions. Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for 17-20 minutes until at toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached.

Tiramisu: Adapted from David Lebovitz

Makes four large servings or six smaller ones

**This recipe uses raw eggs which is the traditional way of making tiramisu. If you have concern, be sure to use very fresh eggs. As David Lebovitz puts it "ones that you practically stuck your hand in the chicken and plucked out for yourself." As I don't have chickens I can not do this, but I've used Eggland's Best brand of eggs twice now for tiramisu and they've worked great! Also, upon making this tiramisu a second time for my inlaws, Eggland's Best eggs were sold out at my grocery store and while looking for a suitable substitute I came across pasturized eggs which can be used for any raw egg recipe with no fear of salmonella. These eggs worked well though I'm convinced it took longer to beat the egg whites into peaks.

1/2 cup espresso, room temp. (I made this using the same instant espresso powder used in the cake above)

2 tablespoons dark rum (I used 1 teaspoon of rum extract)

1 tablespoon ameretto or cognac

2 large eggs, separated, at room temperature

pinch of salt

7 tablespoons (90g) sugar, divided

1 cup (250g) mascarpone

1 recipe chocolate souffle cake

unsweetened cocoa powder, for serving

Mix together espresso, rum, and ameretto. Don't be afraid if it tastes strongly of alcohol now, it should be this way and it will tone down when combined with the other ingredients.

In a bowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they begin to get stiff. Beat in half the sugar until stiff peaks are able to form. In another bowl beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until thick and light colored, about three minutes. Beat in the mascarpone by hand with a spatula or whisk until no lumps remain. Fold in half of the egg whites into yolk mixture and then the other half until just fully incorporated.

Slice the chocolate souffle cake into 3 inch by 1 inch strips. On a serving dish, in a glass, or in the cake pan (whatever works for you!) line up the cake strips and pour the espresso mixture over the cake until the cake is soaked. Place large dollops of the mascarpone mixture over the chocolate cake and smooth into an even layer with the back of a spoon. Repeat these layers (cake, pour espresso, spread mascarpone mixture) one or two more times depending on the size of your serving vessel. This will keep in your fridge overnight just fine if need be. When serving sift cocoa powder over top. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Risotto Cakes

Oh Happy Friday! This week has been a great week for Scott and I and this weekend is going to be just as great! My parents and brother are coming down to celebrate my birthday and I am so excited to see them! I’m excitedly planning the menu for a brunch on Saturday when they get here and then for supper we’re going out to eat at my favorite restaurant in town. Then, after they leave on Sunday, Scott and I are going to my boss’s house for authentic Raclette, which I haven’t had since my first night in France (believe me, that meal set the tone for the rest of my time in France and my new found love of good cheese). Then of course, there’s the Super Bowl and the parties that go along with it which presents yet another opportunity to experiment a new recipe and make something yummy! (By the way, I recommend this recipe for a Super Bowl party--it's the best carmel corn I've ever popped into my mouth.) Yes, though it will be busy, I daresay it should be quite a good weekend and I am very much looking forward to it!

In the meantime though, I wanted to quick give you this recipe just in case you would be making a certain Aged Cheddar Cheese Risotto this weekend or maybe for Valentine’s next weekend (!), and end up with some extra left over. Trust me, if you have left over risotto, any kind of risotto, not just this cheddar cheese kind, it does not work well to simply reheat and eat. It’s just not near as good! But, it can be just as good as the original, or, gasp, better if you transform it to fried risotto cakes. They are so good! Picture this: a crisp, light crunch on the outside gives way to a warm, cheesy, soft, smooth, melty, bath for your tongue. Hello! Can you say “yum!”? Ok, enough with the dramatics, I’ll get on to the recipe.

Fried Risotto Cakes

Like I said before, this works well with any kind of risotto, even a sweet dessert kind. If you’re doing this with a savory one, that does not have cheese as a main ingredient, many people stick a cube of mozzarella (or other cheese of choice) inside the risotto ball/cake so they get that wonderful melted cheese on the inside. The making of the risotto cakes is pretty quick, easy, and straight forward which is another reason why I love it. In ten minutes you can have a delicious meal or appetizer at the ready that is sure to impress. Serve with a good tomato sauce or over a salad of mixed spring greens with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Serves 4 as an appetizer, 2 as a meal

2 cups refrigerated leftover risotto

2/3 cup flour

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup bread crumbs (I recommend Panko to get that light, crispy crunch)

Olive or canola oil for frying

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking pan with paper towels. Form the cold risotto into 2 ½ inches long and ¾ inch thick patties using wet hands. Put the four, eggs, and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls. Coat cakes first with flour, then with egg (let excess drip off), and then with the breadcrumbs. Transfer to wax paper and repeat with the remaining cakes.

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a 12-inch heavy nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté cakes in batches, turning over once, until browned, 5 to 6 minutes total. Transfer with a slotted spatula to a paper-towel-lined baking pan and keep warm in oven. Heat more oil if needed and sauté remaining cakes in same manner.

Hello! How are you all faring this winter? Last week Scott and I finished our interviews for his residency and our whirlwind travels around the country are now done! I can now cook (yay!) and buy a gallon of milk without wondering if I should have bought a half-gallon or if the expiration date is far enough out that it will still be good when we came home from wherever his interview was that week. It was actually a good experience though, and on this last trip to Denver, Seattle, and Portland, we managed to squeeze in some fun, despite Scott naming the trip on our Expedia itinerary “The Trip of the Century” (all three cities in one week and five different hotels, yikes!).

We went skiing in Colorado and I did my best to teach Scott how to ski. I tried to take it slow and easy with him showing him the “pizza wedge” and other tricks to slow down, but he thought he knew better. Perhaps he got a little over-confident when he successfully made it off the chairlift, because he took off, shooting right by me, on our first run down the mountain. Well, he lasted about twenty feet before he went tumbling head over heals for another twenty losing both skies and a pole! Poor guy, I could not stop laughing at him and how utterly predictable it all was, as I skied down to him gathering his skies and pole along the way to help him “reassemble” himself. The day included many other falls for Scott, like one when he got stuck in the trees,

or the one when he bent his pole in half, and the one where he was going so uncontrollably fast that when he fell he slid down the hill 60 feet from where his ski had come off and received a compliment from the guy who retrieved his ski saying that his fall looked “awesome, like an atom bomb went off.” Thankfully Scott did not receive any injuries (though he was terribly sore during his interview the next day), and by the end of the day his skiing was much improved, not falling once on our last two runs down the mountain.

The rest of the trip managed to be fun as well despite it being a "business" trip with Scott’s interviews and my meeting with realtors. Near Pike’s Place market in Seattle we found a spice shop that had hundreds of different exotic spice blends and pure spices from all around the world. I purchased some pink peppercorns, dried edible roses, a tandoori spice mix, and gomasio.

Scott and I also ate at a restaurant (the picture above is the view from our table) where a scene from Sleepless in Seattle was filmed, attended our first wine tasting, had an excellent supper at Delancy (the restaurant of one my favorite bloggers, Molly Wizenburg of Orangette), and I hiked through the rainforest outside of Portland to some gorgeous waterfalls.

But it is so nice to be home now! Despite the freezing cold and blizzards, I do like it. There is something peaceful about sparkling bright white, piercingly cold days. For me they have a calm quietness to them that I appreciate. It is on days like these, that I just want to be a hermit inside our house and crave something homey, comfy, and totally delicious. One of the first things I made upon returning was Aged Cheddar Risotto. I posted a picture it last spring on this blog and promised to tell you about it later when I “had more time.” Well, now is the perfect time! It is a warm, flavorful, wonderfully cheesy, risotto and it is so good. In my opinion, macaroni and cheese has nothing on this. The risotto’s texture is just so smooth and creamy! Combine that texture with an aged cheddar cheese and you’ve reached a whole new level of goodness.

*There are more pictures of our trip posted below the recipe.

Aged Cheddar Cheese Risotto

This recipe has been adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Cheddar Risotto. I have found that using an aged cheddar cheese, with its extra sharpness and depth, gives a lot fuller flavor than an ordinary cheddar. I’ve also omitted the chives per Scott’s request and replaced them with peas and added a sautéed chicken breast as well. By all means, make this how you would best like it; chives or no chives, with or without chicken, it is your choice. This is not meant to be a fussy recipe that must be exactly constructed. You must simply pick a worthy cheddar cheese (I’ve tried this with gruyere and it was not as good), keep it very simple with very few add-ins (lest your dish becomes clumsy and the cheddar flavor muddled by the crowd), and add plenty of chicken/vegetable stock so the risotto can avoid clumpiness and be properly smooth and creamy. Follow these tips and you’ll be golden.

Serves 4

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp canola oil

2 baby leeks or one large leek or 2 fat scallions, finely sliced (I have substituted ¼ of an onion or 1 shallot for this and it seemed to work fine)

1 ½ cups risotto rice (Arborio to be exact, but I find this short grain rice painfully expensive so I cheat and use medium grain white rice and this works fine. Do not use medium grain brown rice! I tried and it’s a no go.)

½ cup white wine

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

5 cups hot chicken or vegetable broth

1 cup chopped aged cheddar cheese (I use Kerrygold Reserve Cheddar Cheese)

½ cup peas, thawed if frozen optional

2 Tbsp chopped chives optional

4 chicken breasts optional

Melt the butter and oil together in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the baby leeks (or whatever substitution you have) until softened. (Or until turning golden brown in the case of the onions.) Heat stock in a smaller saucepan to have at the ready.

Add the risotto rice and stir for about three minutes until the rice turns transparent around the edges. Then add the wine and mustard, stirring until the wine is absorbed.

Spoon in two ladlefuls of the hot stock and stir the rice until stock is completely absorbed. After a few minutes that stock will be absorbed and you can add your next two ladlefuls. Continue stirring and let stock absorb again. Keep repeating this process for about 25 minutes until rice is tender.

After you last stock addition, before all the stock is absorbed, add the cheese and stir vigorously until the cheese melts. Not only does this melt the cheese, but it also releases starch from the rice that will give the risotto that wonderful creaminess. Check the consistency, if you think it looks like the perfect consistency add more stock to thin it out because it will thicken by the time you get it on your plate and are ready to eat. The risotto should be able to flow and should not hold its shape. Stir in the peas if using, spoon out onto plates, top with the sautéed chicken breast and chives (if using), and dig in!

Please fit Pillow, you have to! I can't sleep without you!
It's in! Barely. Thank goodness!

Scott, master skier, King of the mountain.

Myself, I managed not to fall once the whole day! It helps when you stick to the greens ;)

This Seattle icon was a block away from our hotel so we did our duty took a picture of it.

Walking along the Puget Sound on our way to the market.

Umm, the sign basically says it all.

Eye-catching produce at Pike Place market.
Watch out! This fish will "jump" out at you if someone behind the fish counter sees you standing close by and thinks you could use a good startling.

Hooray for crêpes! Especially for giant ones :) at a crêperie in the hip Nob Hill neighborhood of Portland.

A delicious, guilt-free "Carrot Cake" Bread

A few months ago a coworker brought a carrot cake to work from a local, organic foods store that has quite a good bakery. This cake was beyond rich, with a full inch of cream cheese frosting on top and a half-inch down the sides and in between the cake layers. I liked cake, but the fact that the baker seemed to have no qualms in putting 2 pounds of cream cheese on six inch round cake gave me an uneasy feeling about what else lurked inside the cake, it was the same feeling you might get eating Mystery Meatloaf at your school cafeteria. My conscious wouldn’t allow me to continue eating the cake and I was left unsatisfied. This experience taunted me for the next week. It had awakened a craving in me for carrot cake that could not be quenched until I had another, more trustworthy cake. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that what I like about carrot cake has little to do with what makes it decidedly unhealthy. I love the flavor that the warm spices bring and the mixed texture of the walnuts, the moist cake, and the sweet, and sugary bursts from the raisons. I do like the contrast of the cool tang of the cream cheese against the cake so that had to stay in some form, just maybe not in such egregious amounts. Knowing all of these flavors could be accomplished in a much healthier form, I set out to construct my own, feel-good, carrot cake. In the end however, instead of making an elaborate, time-consuming layer cake, I decided to make a simple quick bread that could be dressed up as breakfast cake if spread with a (sane) layer of cream cheese frosting or simply sliced as bread and spread with maple-walnut cream cheese. Yum!

Since I decided not to make a dessert cake, I reduced the amount of sugar by two-thirds and added ½ cup unsweetened applesauce to give it a little natural sweetness and to make up for the moisture that would be lost by taking the sugar out. I also reduced the amount of oil/butter as the carrots themselves contribute much of the moistness that I love about carrot cake. I felt I had the right, since I was making a bread, to sub-out the majority of all-purpose flour for whole-wheat flour. The end result completely satisfied my craving, and when a few slices were brought to work for a taste test, my coworkers heartily agreed that I had fulfilled my mission of creating a healthy carrot cake bread that tasted just as good as the cake, if not better.

"Carrot Cake" Bread

¾ cup whole-wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

¼ cup canola oil

¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

½ cup natural applesauce

1 Tbsp. real maple syrup (optional)

1 Tbsp. plain yogurt (optional)

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots (about 2 medium carrots)

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

1/4 cup raisons, plumped by soaking them in hot water for five minutes (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray bread pan with nonstick spray.

Toast walnuts in a sauté pan over medium heat or on a cookie sheet in the 350 degrees oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Careful not to burn!

Sift together the first 8 ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the oil, brown sugar and eggs until well combined. Whisk in the applesauce, yogurt, maple syrup (if using), vanilla and carrots. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in 1/4 cup of the chopped walnuts.

Pour batter in to pan and, if you are not frosting the top of the bread, sprinkle the remaining two tablespoons of walnuts on top of the batter. Bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on rack and enjoy! Maple walnut cream cheese goes great!

If you would like to frost the top of the bread try this frosting:

4 ounces 1/3 fat cream cheese (recommended: Neufchatel)

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

With an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and lemon zest until smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled bread and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts. Store in the refrigerator.

Balsamic Feta and Walnut Vinaigrette

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Amazingly, Scott and I made it home to our parents’ for Christmas just in time to miss the “worst winter storm in ten years” after whirlwind trips all across the country for residency interviews. As an example of how “whirlwind” these trips have been, the three days before coming home for Christmas consisted of a 36 hour trip (of which 18 were driving) to Nashville, Tennessee to interview at Vanderbilt, getting home at 2:00AM Tuesday morning, working the morning and leaving work early to avoid the storm on our six hour drive to our parents. We were at my parents’ house for three whole days (the longest we had stayed anywhere in awhile) and we were only there that long because the storm snowed us in and we couldn’t make it to Scott’s parents! Despite all this craziness, we’ve had a joyful Christmas with our family celebrating the day the Word became flesh and dwelt among us to show us the way, declare the truth, and give us life.

My little bother during the championship round of our family ping pong tournament in our newly finished basement. He lost to Scott over three very close games and received second place.

What I’m here to tell you about though is a dressing for a holiday salad, or just any old salad that you want to taste really good! The creation of this dressing came out of necessity. I was in charge of the food for a women’s Christmas event for our church and women were signing up to make all of the recipes I had picked out; all of them except the bruschetta. For some reason no one signed up to make any bruschetta. I felt that we needed it though; it was a nice contrast from the other savory items. Thus, I resolved to make it myself, 200+ servings of it! (Yikes!) I sent Scott out to the grocery store with a grocery list of 140 Roma tomatoes, eight boxes of feta cheese, and three triangles of Parmesan cheese. Scott came home successful in his mission and actually managed to find some decent tomatoes considering it’s December!

I set to work immediately seasoning and roasting the tomatoes in batches, imagining I was Robert Irvine on Dinner: Impossible, pumping myself up as I roasted, peeled, and chopped batch after batch of tomatoes. Finally, at 11:00pm I finished. However, I had grossly overestimated the amount of feta I needed and had five 8oz boxes left!

In an effort to begin to use up all this feta, Scott suggested that I bring a salad with pear and feta to our friends’ Christmas party. I knew the dressing that would go perfect with the salad was a bottle of Balsamic Walnut and Blue Cheese Vinaigrette that we had gotten in an Amish town. However, there was only about one teaspoon of dressing left in the bottle. Being my stubborn self and not willing to compromise, I decided to try to recreate this dressing myself except with feta instead of blue cheese. I started by measuring a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil into a blender. I added another tablespoon of canola oil because I thought that if I added another tablespoon of olive oil it might get too heavy and olive oil-y tasting. A spoonful of chopped, toasted walnuts was added to the blender along with a spoonful of feta, and the mixture was pulsed until the dressing was smooth and almost creamy looking (thanks to the feta). Hopeful, I tasted it, only to purse my lips together in a very sour looking face, “Hello vinegar!” was my first thought. To fix this, I added a little more of every other ingredient, besides the vinegar, and a solid spoonful of sugar. With these additions, a taste test by Scott, and a few more tweaks, I was very satisfied with the dressing and rather surprised and pleased with myself! I tossed romaine lettuce with the dressing, and topped the salad with more feta and toasted walnuts, and slices of juicy d’Anjou pears. The salad proved to be a big hit at the party, with many people asking for the dressing recipe, which, to our dismay, I had no idea what it was since I didn’t bother to measure or keep track of the amounts I was adding. Now however, I’ve gone back and recreated it, taking notes and paying close attention to the amounts of my additions.

Balsamic Feta and Walnut Viniagrette

Makes 2 meal-size servings or four side servings

1 Tbsp. good quality balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp. canola oil (or vegetable oil)

2 Tbsp. crumbled feta

1 ½ Tbsp. toasted walnuts, chopped

1 tsp. sugar

Place all ingredients in a blender and puree until dressing has a creamy look to it and no lumps of feta or walnut remain. Taste and, if needed, add more of desired ingredient.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!
I am so excited for Thanksgiving! Mostly because Scott and I will be able to go home and spend some sweet and treasured time with our families. I’ll be able to see my dad’s new hybrid car, “ooh and aww” over the newly finished basement that my dad and brother worked so hard on together, and tease my little brother about asking an older girl to the high school winter formal. I will proceed to grill him on how he asked her (so far he’s refused to tell my mom), if she’s a nice girl, whether or not he likes her in a romantic way, if I would like her, and finally remind him that dirty dancing is not good and I expect him not to do it. I know, I am a tough older sister, but I feel like it’s my duty and my right. With the new basement came a new ping pong table, and I’m sure with my competitive family we’ll be having ping pong tournaments. The problem is multifold: 1) I’m not very good at ping pong, 2) I played collegiate varsity tennis and somehow people relate tennis and ping pong and expect me to be good, and 3) my brother plays all the time with friends and my mom, I’ve heard stories of my mom winning tournaments when she was younger, and my husband is naturally good at just about everything. Thus, I hope I can at least beat my dad, but even that is not guaranteed!

Another reason I am excited for Thanksgiving is because, for the first time, I will be bringing a dish to set next to all the others on the buffet table. My debut dish! I will join the ranks of the adults-who-bring-side-dishes. Though I was promoted from the “kids’ table” to the big, nicely decorated, “adult table” a few years back, I feel that what really signals that you are truly an “adult” is when you start to bring side dishes for the meal. Then you have “arrived” and are no longer in “transition.” What I’m going to bring for my debut dish is not your typical casserole (It is prettier than that!), instead it is a butternut squash and caramelized onion galette. What makes this dish particularly special to me is that it is with this dish that I learned to like butternut squash. Turns out that it is actually quite good and the dish as a whole is totally delicious! Since I learned to like butternut squash with this dish, I strongly believe that I can convert others as well and hope to do so on Thursday. So wish me luck as I try convince members of my non-squash eating family to give it a try!

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette
Adapted from a Smitten Kitchen recipe

The squash is presented in a wonderful, flaky pastry dough, surrounded with sweet, caramelized onions and salty, melted parmesan cheese, and sage (a holiday favorite) grounds the dish and gives relief to the palate from all the other rich flavors. I also like that the squash is cubed and roasted in the oven first, which is by far my favorite way to prepare and eat vegetables. To me they usually achieve their peak flavor using this method and the chances of me liking the vegetable increase greatly.

Serves 2 as a meal, 4 to 6 as a side
For the dough:
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3-5 tbsp. ice water

For the Filling:
1 small butternut squash, about 1 to 1 ½ lbs.
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1 large yellow onion
Pinch of sugar
Generous ¾ cup grated Parmesan, Fontina, or Feta depending on your preference and availability. I usually do parmesan because I always have it around.
1 ½ tsp. chopped fresh sage or a generous ½ tsp. dried

Assemble Pastry dough:
Place cubed butter in the freezer for ½ hour to get nice and cold. Place flour and salt in food processor bowl or a medium sized mixing bowl if you do not have a food processor. Place this bowl in the freezer too so it can be chilled. I have skipped putting the bowl with the flour in the freezer and used cubes of butter that I had frozen hours before and this turned out fine. The most important thing is to have the butter and water cold.
After a ½ an hour, add the butter to the flour and cut in with a pastry blender or a food processor until the butter is no larger than the size of small peas. Add lemon juice and 1 Tbsp. of ice water and mix. Continue to add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing in between additions until the dough just starts to come together and “clump.” At this point you should stop adding water and transfer dough to a sheet of plastic wrap and pack into a disk, wrapping the plastic wrap around it as you go. Place disk into the refrigerator for 1 hour. Can be done a few days ahead of time.

Prepare filling:
Preheat oven to 375F. Peel butternut squash (I do this first with a serrated peeler to get the outer peeling off and then again for the second time with the peeler or a knife to remove the layer with the green “veins”) and cut in half widthwise so you have the bottom bulb half and the top narrow half. Cut both sections in half again, only lengthwise this time, and scoop the seeds out of the bottom halves. Cut squash into ½ inch dice and place on baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle with about 2 Tbsp. olive oil, and toss cubes together to evenly coat the cubes in the olive oil. Roast squash for about 30 minutes or until cubes are tender.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium low heat. Slice the onion and add to the warm skillet. Sprinkle with ½ tsp. of salt and a pinch of sugar. Let onions cook slowly, stirring occasionally, until caramelized, about 20 minutes. (On my stovetop I have to do medium heat, otherwise I’ll caramelize for an hour!)

Mix squash, onions, cheese, and sage together in a bowl. Turn up the oven to 400F and take the pastry dough out of the fridge. On a floured surface roll out the dough keeping everything well floured to prevent sticking. Once the dough is about ¼ to 1/8 of an inch thick stop rolling and measure a 12 inch circle for the galette and cut off any excess dough. Save the excess dough wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in a zip lock bag in the freezer for another galette or quiche. It will be good to use for at least a month. Transfer dough circle to an ungreased cookie sheet and spread filling over the dough leaving a 1 ½ inch border. Fold the border over the filling, pleating the edge to turn “corners.” The center will be open. Bake until golden brown 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, let stand for five minutes, and then slide it onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges with a pizza cutter. This even tastes good at room temperature, so don’t fret if it cools off before your guests get to it.

Une Tarte Tatin

At last!!! I finally have an evening where I can write for my blog. It feels so good! I could talk about how overwhelmingly busy both Scott and I have been, but I am sick of thinking about it. In fact, right now I can easily think of several other things I maybe should be doing tonight, but I really don’t want to, which is why I’m going to stop that train of thought now.

It’s fall! This year I seem to love and appreciate fall more than ever. The trees with their vibrant rainbow of colors illuminated by the sun against a crisp, cool blue backdrop have given me much pleasure and induced prayers of praise and thanks. Sure, there was a time in early September when the first chill was felt in the morning air that I thought “Oh no, I am not ready for this! Soon I’ll be scrapping ice and freezing outside our garage door as I try to will it to unfreeze and open with exasperated yells and banging.” However, I soon realized how beautiful fall is, changed my attitude to appreciate the crisp air, and told myself not to worry about things I couldn’t control, like temperatures that make your snot freeze.

One thing that is starting to become a tradition for Scott and I is multiple trips to our local apple orchard, Wilson’s. The trips start already in August when the first apples ripen, with the Pristine variety leading the way, and they finish in late October with Winesaps. As we might not he here next year due to Scott starting residency, this post is for Wilson’s Apple Orchard, with all the memories it has given us these past four years it has become an essential part of our Autumn.

With the superfluity of apples pouring out of the fruit drawer of our fridge, you can imagine that there are many deliciously “homey” things that are made, such as apple crisp, applesauce, pork chops with apples, apple jelly, and apple pie. Each one brings a different flavor of fall that I relish. What I’m going to tell you about on this post however, is not what I would describe as “homey” or “comfort food,” unless of course, you are from France. Don’t worry though, just because it might not recall any memories of years past, or make you feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder, doesn’t mean it can’t warm your soul like comfort food and be drop-dead delish! It is Tarte Tatin and it is fabulous! A Tarte Tatin is an upside-down apple tart where the apples are caramelized in butter and sugar before the tart is baked. I had Tarte Tatin when I lived in Paris,* but I must say I think the Tarte Tatin that I made was considerably better! I know, saying that is practically sacrilegious because I am not a French pastry chef, nor do I presume myself to be one, and yes, I do believe French pastries are the best in the world. But, plain and simple, the Tarte Tatin I made was better than the one I had in Paris. Perhaps it was the use of salted butter that composed the addictive sweet-salty caramel. Or maybe it’s cooking the caramel to a darker color that brings a full-bodied richness to the tart verses a lighter caramel that’s just too sweet. Whatever the reason, I think you too will love this Tarte Tatin.

Now, some people assume that because it’s French it’s fancy and thus difficult to make—it isn’t. The key to this recipe is to not be afraid. It may seem dicey at first to boil a stick of butter and a cup of sugar on high heat for 17 odd minutes, it did to me, and I thought for sure the caramel would bubble out of control, or burn, or at least not cook evenly, but it was fine. In fact, I found for most of the 17 minutes you don’t even need to pay attention to it. You will be just fine making this recipe, channel Julia Child and be fearless! Enjoy the process and you will most assuredly enjoy the result.

Interestingly, Scott and I found that the tart got even better a few days after baking it. I’m not sure if this was because it had time to sit longer or if it was because it was repeatedly re-heated in our oven each successive night we ate it and it became further caramelized. So, if you want to make this a few days out from when you will serve it, by all means do! Store it in your fridge and warm it in a 200F oven about 15 minutes before serving.

Tarte Tatin
I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and they cite Joy of Cooking for the recipe, however it is not in my edition, therefore I am citing both Smitten Kitchen and Joy of Cooking.

For the dough
½ cup (1 stick) of salted butter cut into cubes and chilled in the freezer (I was naughty here and used a butter blend with canola oil to be “healthier” because it’s asking a lot of me to put two sticks of butter into a recipe that you could argue only has 8 servings. This substitution worked fine so feel free.)**
1½ cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
3 to 6 tablespoons ice water

For the apples
7 flavorful, crisp, and juicy apples such as Fuji, Gala, Jonathon, McIntosh
½ cup salted butter (1 stick)**
1 cup sugar

Special equipment: A skillet that is 7-8 inches across the bottom and 10-11 inches across the top.

To prepare the dough:
Use a food processor if you have one, it really is your best friend for all pastry dough. If you don’t have one, mix ingredients as directed and cut in butter and water by hand. Mix flour and sugar (and salt if you’re using unsalted butter) in the food processor fitted with blade attachment. Then, detach the bowl from the food processor and put it, blade and all, in the freezer. Finally, put 1/3 cup ice water in the refrigerator. Chill everything for 20 minutes. This will ensure everything is nice and cold for perfect pastry dough. While everything is chilling I recommend peeling, coring, and quartering the apples.

Once everything is cold add the cubes of butter to the dry ingredients and pulse until mixture resembles a coarse meal with small, pea-sized pebbles of butter. Add the ice water one tablespoon at a time, pulsing in between additions. When the dough starts to come together in a hunk, stop adding water. Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and form the dough into a ball with your hands. Try not to handle too much as the warmth of your hands could melt the butter. Flour the top of the dough and roll out into a 10 to 11 inch circle depending how big the top of your pan is. As you roll it out, constantly turn the dough to make sure it’s not sticking to the counter and always roll away from you. Add more flour underneath the dough if necessary. Once the dough is to the desired size, roll half of the dough up on the rolling pin, lift and transfer to a floured baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.

For the apples: Preheat oven to 375˚F
Peel, core, and quarter the apples.
Over low heat in a heavy, ovenproof skillet (I just used my normal nonstick and it did fine) measuring 7-8 inches across the bottom and 10 to 11 across the top, melt the butter. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. With the butter/sugar mixture distributed evenly over the bottom of the pan arrange the apple quarters in the pan. First make a circle around the edge of the pan placing the apples on their sides with one quarter cupping the next fitting as many in as possible. Then fill in the middle as best you can. The apples will shrink when cooking so make sure you’ve got them in tight. Keep at least one extra apple quarter on hand in case you need to fill a gap once the apples have shrunk. While the added apple won’t be quite as caramelized, don’t worry, the added apple will cook through during the baking process and no one will notice.

Put the pan back on the stove on high heat and let ‘r rip! 10 to 12 minutes later you should have nicely cooked apples enrobed in a beautiful caramel that has just changed in color from golden to dark amber. Oh yummy! There is no need to stir or mix during this time, if one area of the pan is developing a dark caramel a lot faster than the other side, slide the dark caramel half of the pan off of the heat holding the pan so the lighter half remains on the heat until it catches up in color. Remove from heat. One-by-one with the tip of a sharp knife, poke the apples in the “back” and turn them over keeping them in their original places. Add an extra apple quarter now if necessary. Return the skillet to high heat once more and let cook for another five minutes. (If caramel starts to smoke take it off of the heat.) Remove the pan from the heat and place the crust on top of the pan carefully tucking the edges under. In order to not burn your fingers I recommend using the handle end of a spatula or spoon.

Bake the tart in to oven until the top of the crust is golden brown, about 25 to 35 minutes.*** Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack for 30 minutes. Once cooled, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the crust. Place a large plate or a serving platter upside-down on top of the pan. Pump yourself up a bit for this next part; rehearse in your mind what you need to do. (Now, if you know are not terribly coordinated I suggest getting a more coordinated person to do this next step for you.) Place one hand on the plate and grab the handle of the pan with your other hand and flip the pan upside-down holding the plate tight to the pan. The plate should now be right-side-up. Wear oven mitts for this part, the pan could still be quite hot! Hopefully you’ll hear a soft “thud” from the tart releasing itself from the pan and falling on the plate. If not, knock on the bottom of the pan to loosen it. Slowly lift up the pan to reveal your beautiful tart! If there are any apple pieces left behind in the pan just put them back where they are supposed to be, no harm done. I recommend serving this with vanilla ice cream, it is oh so good!

* Goodness that sounds posh! I was really only in Paris for four months, France for five; does that count as living there???
**If you are using unsalted butter add ¼ tsp salt for every stick of butter.*** So I did a risky thing here, but it worked. I was concerned that I had cooked the apples too much because it took me longer to get the amber caramel color (I was timid about using high heat) and was worried that if I baked the tart for 25 minutes my apples would turn to mush. Thus, I baked the tart for 20 minutes and then turned on the broiler, leaving the tart on the middle rack of the oven, to “bake” the top of the crust. If you’re worried about your apples you can be the judge on whether or not you wan