Experiments, Experiments, Experiments

So here's the thing. So many people, chefs and home cooks alike, have found new ways to make things by experimenting. Whether it is because you fell upon an ingredient you didn't know what to do with or because you've been too busy to go to the grocery and shop and you were starving and had to make do with what was in the cabinet.

I usually fall under the category of, I found a new ingredient and didn't know what to do with it.

Last week after having a great afternoon with friends in between classes, I stopped at Newhard Farm's Cornshed and picked up some corn, a cantaloupe, some fresh beets and a hubbard squash. Not sure what I planned on doing with the squash, it has been sitting on the counter for a week now waiting for some divine intervention.

This divine intervention came in the form of my friend Jaime K from "Save the Kales" whose advice was to just roast it and figure out what do with it later.

This advice put me in a little research mode...from the reading I've been doing, hubbard squashes are supposed to be these enormous squash. The best way to open them is to put them in a bag and drop them on the ground so that they break. If I would have known that, I may not have bought the one I have and would have waited to find such a behemoth because the idea of dropping it on the ground to open it kind of intrigues me.

Since I did not know this tidbit of information I bought the one in front of me, it is all of about the size of a softball. We will not be feeding the masses with this, however if it all turns out the way I want it to I will at least have a nice side dish with lunch today when my sister-in-law comes over.

The squash is currently in the oven roasting till tender, which should hopefully only take about 45 minutes since it is so tiny.

Once it comes out of the oven, the plan is to peel it, mash it and mix it with a little butter, brown sugar, chopped pineapple and mango and then top it with some walnuts to give it a little crunch. Hmm, it no longer really sounds like a side dish, so much as dessert. That's fine, one can never have too many options for dessert.

The end plan changed a bit, as some ingredients were left out, but the result was amazing!!! I will definitely be buying a large hubbard squash and possibly making this for Thanksgiving.

The final recipe:

1 hubbard squash, gutted and roasted until tender (ours yielded about 1 cup of squash)
1 heaping tsp. brown sugar (next time I will use raw honey)
1/2 of a rip mango, peeled and diced
1 tblsp. chopped walnuts

After gutting and roasting the hubbard squash, I scooped out the inside into a bowl and combined with brown sugar and mango. I mixed and mashed it together until I felt it was the right texture. I then returned the filling to one half of the hubbard squash shell (this won't work with a behemoth), topped it with the chopped walnuts and returned it to the oven to reheat, about 15 minutes.

You could easily add a little cinnamon to this (I'm allergic, so I tend to not do a lot of cinnamon) and possibly serve it with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if you wished, however in it is current state all of my new meat indifferent/restricted friends could come to dinner and pig out with me. I also think it would be good if you added a little shredded coconut to give another texture.

Either way, it was fantastic! My sister-in-law Sherri and I shared it and were really happy with it. It is her idea that we make it for Thanksgiving this year.

Come back tomorrow, I will be regaling the importance of red beets as I give into yet another craving for them while the crops are fresh.

Hugs,
dina

Back to Basics...with Some Flare

I have thought about making my own butter forever. Well, maybe not forever but at least a few years ever since I had been to the Hamilton Park Hotel in Florham Park, NJ and had their home-made whipped cream. Yes I know I said I wanted to make butter after having their whipped cream, but its because when I was attempting to make my own whipped cream for the first time I whipped it far too long and it started to curdle and since it was not what I wanted for what I was making at the time I threw it away, instead of embracing the challenge at the time, and started over. What can I say, they have amazing home made whipped cream on their buffet for every meal, every day. BTW, if you are looking for an amazing place to stay, be pampered and eat like royalty; I highly recommend this place. The Honeymoon suite is amazing!!!

Okay, back to the butter making. I went to our local dairy, Crystal Springs, and ordered two half gallons of heavy cream. You can't get much fresher ingredients for experimenting than this. Cows milked in the very early morning, heavy cream bottled late morning and you buy it in the afternoon.

This morning I got up and put one of the half gallons of cream in my 6 qt. mixing bowl of the Kitchen Aid. I've read articles where they also suggest you put cream in a well sealed jar with a marble and then give it to your kids to shake until they can't hear the marble anymore, sadly my kids are too old to convince this activity is fun, so I had to use my Kitchen Aid.


I started the mixer on low and then increased speed slowly until the cream started to thicken and no longer posed a risk of painting the walls of the kitchen white. Eventually, I wish I would have timed this, the cream will be whipped cream. You could add a little sugar and whip some more and be done at this point and have the most amazing whipped cream of your life or you can keep going and let it whip till it starts to look a little over whipped. I think at this stage it is much like a clotted cream, perfect for scones and strawberries.

Don't stop now...keep whipping. The whipped cream will start to break down and curdle. You will know when to start lowering the speed of the beater because you will suddenly feel the buttermilk that is separating from the butter sprinkling you. At first I was like, what is that?? Then I realized that the cream was now liquids and solids and the buttermilk was about to spray all over the place. So I turned the mixer down and left it continue beating for a few more minutes. I did all this by feel, no timing, planning or stressing.

I then lined a fine mesh sieve with some cheesecloth and strained the butter milk from the solids.


We are almost done. Now we need to wash the butter and make sure all the buttermilk is out of it or the butter will spoil and become rancid. Simple process really, just pour cold water over the milk and knead it for a few minutes, drain and repeat until the liquid is no longer cloudy/discolored. It took me three rinsings until I was satisfied.

Once the butter was rinsed, I weighed it and put it back into my mixer. I added 1 tsp. of salt (1/4 tsp. per 4 oz. is recommended), we had just about 29 oz. of butter. Since I am not tolerant of high salt anything, I only added 1 tsp. of salt opposed to the almost 2 tsp. that should have been there. I just figured it was going to be easier to add salt than take it away.

Now this is where it gets fun!!! I am so excited! Every summer we grow a few herbs in the garden. Basil, rosemary and sage. Soooo, I decided that we of course could not just have plain butter. If I am going to go to all this trouble to make my own butter, then it needs to be as flavorful and as special as possible.

Its such an amazing taste sensation to mix freshly picked, chopped and diced herbs into the butter. I created 4 different flavor-filled butters. Cracked Black Pepper and Fresh Sage, Fresh Rosemary Garlic, Fresh Basil Parmesan and Raw Honey Butter from a local apiary, Stagecoach Orchard Apiary in Lehighton, PA.

To add herbs to the butter, I started with about 6 oz. of butter and 1-2 tsp. of each fresh herb, 1 clove of garlic, 2 tblsp. grated Parmesan, 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. freshly cracked pepper and about 1 tblsp. honey. But please feel free to use additional or less amounts according to your audience and personal tastes.

After you have thoroughly mixed each of your flavor combinations, lay the mixed butter onto a piece of plastic wrap and wrap tightly. Refrigerate or freeze until you are ready to use.

I am really looking forward to using the basil Parmesan on some corn on the cob. I think the Rosemary garlic would be delicious on a lamb chop, while the cracked black pepper sage would be amazing on some fresh gnocchi and the honey butter...well I've already had some of that on some toast, but a cinnamon raisin bagel is what I'm really dreaming about.

Oh, hey don't forget about the buttermilk that you got from this experiment. There was actually 3 1/2 cups of buttermilk for future fun. Since I don't have time to use it today, I portioned it out into 8 oz. containers and popped them in the freezer. Buttermilk pancakes may be whats for breakfast on Saturday morning after the Blues Fest in Neffs, PA Friday night and before the Zoo in Paradise Concert at the Lehigh Valley Zoo Saturday night.

So let's recap...from one 1/2 gallon container of cream, we got about 29 oz. of fresh creamy delicious butter that we added some flare to with some fresh from the garden herbs and about 3 1/2 cups of fresh buttermilk. At a cost of $.13/oz. for fresh from the farm cream and an hour of your time it sure makes sense to make your own when you could easily pay double that for pre-processed store bought butter that will never be as delicious, but if like me, you bake about 5 days a week it would never be cost effective based on the time element to keep up with demand. Although I sure wish it was feasible. This is where I become selfish and figure at least my family will get to enjoy some simple deliciousness.

What a great day! I had so much fun making this butter. The next project? Espresso salted Caramels. After all I bought a whole gallon of heavy cream from the dairy...need to use it while its still fresh and delicious.

Hope you have as much foodie fun today as I am!

Hugs!
dina

Long Time Big Changes

Well my friends, it has been 13 months since my last post. I do not know where the time has gone, nor do I really know why I stopped blogging. We've all had some challenges, but as always we rose to the occasions, conquered them and have moved on to the next opportunity of success. Life Has Been Good.

As many of you might know my obsession with cooking has taken a turn and has become an actual business. Sometime around September of 2010 we took "My Passionate Kisses" and turned it into "Passionate Kisses Cakes and Catering."

Who knew that a couple of cupcakes sporting some alcohol in the frosting (go figure, me and booze, who would have made that connection...lol) could turn into taking a Wilton cake decorating class could turn into becoming a Wilton Method Instructor could turn into baking and catering and sharing my yummy experiments with people who want to pay for my talents? Certainly not me! But it is so exciting. The journey is hard, but doesn't feel like work. In fact, for the first time in my life I am working very hard and getting very tired all the while feeling like I'm cheating the system by LOVING what I do. Weird isn't it?!?! I am truly blessed.

While I intend to start cooking and sharing some fun recipes again, I wanted to share one that I've been making since spring and just love! I got my original idea from a sandwich that I had for lunch for the first time about 5 years ago. It was made by the lovely people at Wegman's in Bethlehem, PA and has been my favorite sandwich ever since. It is also the perfect time of year to start making this.

The cool thing about this sandwich is that it can vary depending on the vegetables that are available at the moment. While I've never tried it with root vegetables like carrots (not that I would, to me carrots should be raw and never cooked), potatoes and parsnips etc. I'm sure if those are your favorites they could work well too.

My favorite mix of veggies for this are yellow squash, zucchini, onions, eggplant, roasted peppers and mushrooms. You can make a pan of these on Sunday afternoon and then have them for the whole week to use in all sorts of delicious things. But right now...we are heading into sandwich land. :O) So let's go!

Here's what you need:

1 loaf of your favorite crunchy crusted bread, sliced in 1/2" slices
(check out your local farmer's markets, artisan breads are rocking the country right now) or check out this book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg , Zoe Francois for some amazing do it yourself options.

Vegetables: eggplant, onions, zucchini, yellow squash, red peppers, mushrooms (your favorites)

1 or 2 packages of Zesty Italian powdered salad dressing
3 tblsps. olive oil (depends on how much veg you have), divided
1 tblsp. Mayonnaise
1 tsp. basil pesto (I always have a jar on hand)
1-2 cloves garlic, cleaned


Preheat oven to 350°.

Cut vegetables in 1/2 inch slices, mushrooms in half if small. Portobello mushroom slices would be amazing, but I usually use baby bellas. Place vegetables into a baking dish, drizzle with about 2 tblsps. of olive oil, sprinkle with seasoning and toss, making sure that all the vegetables are coated nicely.

Place uncovered into the oven and bake approximately 40 minutes or until fork tender. Please check after 20 minutes to make sure you aren't making veggie mush, its just not the same, trust me.

When vegetables are done, allow them to cool, drain and then store in a well sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a week. (the drippings could make a great base for soup, pop them in the freezer till you need them)

To make my favorite sandwich:
Place two slices of bread on a cookie sheet and drizzle with a tsp. of olive oil (good olive oil is best in this application, I'm using a bottle that my amazing friend Stephanie brought me from Italy, I use it sparingly because I want it to last forever...lol).

Put the bread slices into the oven and bake for about 8 minutes or until bread is lightly golden brown. Remove from oven and rub garlic cloves over bread slices.

Reheat enough vegetables to fit on your sandwich either in the oven while your bread toasts or for about 40 seconds in a heat proof dish in the microwave. You just want to warm them, not re-cook them.

While bread is baking, mix mayo and pesto in a small bowl and set aside.

Sandwich assembly:
Place one slice of bread on your favorite pretty plate (yes pretty plate, be good to yourself), slather that yummy pesto mayo on the bread, top with all those amazing veggies and close it up with the other piece of bread. Eat it whole or cut diagonally (yes diagonally, all good sandwiches are cut on the diagonal, just ask my mom if you don't believe me!) and enjoy. This could be a great light evening meal served with a dessert of grilled peaches and a glass of your favorite Riesling or hard cider.


Alternative options:

• Make it an open face sandwich and and serve as an appetizer
  
• Top it with a poached egg, the yolk of the egg oozes and makes the most delicious sauce ever...
• Boil up a pound of your favorite linguine and toss it all together, add some Parmesan cheese, serve the garlic toast on the side and voila, dinner for 4...
• For those of us that like to eat meat with our meals, you could replace the toasted bread with a nice New York Strip or even a Porterhouse if your feeling wealthy ;O).

Until the next great recipe comes along, Cin Cin,
dina