Starters and Nibbles

Spicy Crock-Pot Apple Butter – Serve with cheddar or brie (or any cheese that is cheddar-or-brie-like) and crackers. Can be made several days in advance. Uses the crock-pot, which frees up your stovetop and oven. Would also be a nice sauce with turkey. And a nice host(-ess) gift.

Spicy Crock-Pot Apple Butter

Chicken Liver Mousse – Quick and easy to make. Can be made several days in advance. Serve with toast squares, crackers, or sliced baguette.

Chicken Liver Mousse on a crunchy little toast square

Manchego Cheese, Quince, and Walnut Crostini – Make the quince jam (or buy it) in advance. Toast the bread in advance. Easy to assemble.

Manchego, Quince, and Walnut Crostini

First Course

Easy Golden Beet Soup with Buttery Croutons - Serve as a first course. Beets can be roasted several days in advance. Soup can be made and refrigerated 1-2 days in advance (without the croutons, of course). Swirl a bit of heavy cream or yogurt on top for an elegant little touch. When I make a large meal like Thanksgiving dinner, I serve creamy soups like this in teacups – it’s just the right amount of soup so your guests aren’t stuffed before the main course.

Golden Beet Soup with Buttery Croutons

Quick Breads

Bacon Muffins – quick and easy to bake. Can be made 1 day in advance.

Bacon Muffins

Irish Soda Bread with Brown Butter, Rosemary, and Black Pepper – Quickbread (no yeast) – takes only a few minutes to mix. Can be made 1-2 days in advance.

Irish Soda Bread with Brown Butter, Rosemary, and Black Pepper

Cheddar-Sage Biscuits – Can be made 1 day in advance and re-heated. Sage goes nicely with turkey.

Cheddar Sage Biscuits

Sides

Broccoli Raab with Pecans – can be made 1-2 day in advance and re-heated.

Broccoli Raab with Pecans

Mashed Potatoes - can be made several hours in advance. Hold in a metal bowl over simmering water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent drying. Add more cream or milk before serving if the potatoes have dried out a bit.

Mashed Potatoes

Cranberry Sauce with Bourbon – can be made up to a week in advance. Made in the oven so it frees up your stovetop. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Cranberry Sauce with Bourbon

Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower – can be made several hours in advance. Pop back in the oven for a few minutes to re-heat. Grate some Parmesan over the cauliflower for a little more richness.

Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower

Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad – believe it or not, this salad can be made several days in advance. Unlike lettuce, the kale is hearty enough to not get slimy under the weight of the vinaigrette. Flavors actually get better if made a day in advance. Can be served cold or at room temperature.

Raw lacitano kale for Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad

Dessert

Apple Pie with Boiled Cider – pie can be made one day in advance. I usually serve apple pie with this Calvados Ice Cream (it’s heaven). You can omit the boiled cider to save time. Add a bit more sugar to compensate.

Apple Pie with Boiled Cider

Bourbon Milkshakes – can’t really be made in advance, but really easy to make using store-bought ingredients. And a perfect ending to your fabulous Thanksgiving meal. Give yourself a round of (bourbon-y) applause!

Bourbon Milkshake

Spicy Crock-Pot Apple Butter

My family’s farm, Fernwood Springs, in Westampton, New Jersey, has a lovely little apple orchard. The trees go mostly untended now because it’s just my grandma and my uncle working the farm (and my grandma is 87!), but the Red Delicious apples are still…well…delicious, even without much tending. I picked a boatload the other day and decided to make apple butter with them in my shiny new-ish crockpot.

I’m filing this recipe under “Kitchen Projects” because it takes a looooong time to make. Traditionally, apple butter is cooked over an open flame for like, 4 days, but I managed to a) eliminate the open flame (not so legal in Brooklyn) and b) reduce the cooking time to about 12 hours or so. I added a couple of dried chilies to the recipe after being inspired by a friend who put up a billion jars of cayenne-spiced apple sauce this year – the chile/apple combo is a good one. It may seem a little weird to boil apple cores in a bag along with the apple/water/sugar mixture, but the cores contain a ton of pectin which will give your finished butter a nice jam-y consistency.

Ingredients:
(makes about 2 pints)

12 cups apples, chopped (I used Red Delicious, but other varieties of apples will work). Reserve 5-6 apple cores – see below
2 cups raw sugar
2 cups water
1 lemon
5-6 apple cores
2 cinnamon sticks
2 whole cloves
3-4 whole cardamom pods
2-3 small dried chilies
4-5 pods star anise
1/2 vanilla bean, split

Special Equipment: Crock-pot, cheesecloth, kitchen twine, hand blender (optional)

Procedure:

1. Combine the chopped apples, sugar, 2 cups of water, and the juice of 1 lemon in a large crock pot. (Reserve the squeezed lemon.)
2. Wrap the juiced lemon, the apple cores, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom pods, chilies, star anise, and vanilla bean in cheesecloth and tie with kitchen twine. Add to the apple/sugar mixture.
3. Cook the mixture on high in the crockpot for 2 hours. If the water starts evaporating too quickly, add more, 1/4 cup at a time.
4. Reduce heat to low and cook for 10-12 hours. The mixture should turn a dark caramel brown and the apples should start to fall apart.
5. After 10-12 hours in the crockpot, check the mixture for consistency. This will depend on what variety of apple you use,  how hot your crockpot gets, and whether you added additional water to the mixture. The mixture should start looking jam-y, with little to no apple chunks in the mix.
6. If the mixture is too chunky for your liking, remove the cheesecloth bag and blend the mixture using a hand blender until the apple chunks have been incorporated. If the mixture isn’t thick enough for your liking, remove the mixture from the crockpot and add to a medium, heavy-bottomed pot. Cook over medium heat until thickened. (Keep an eye on the mixture at this point – it will splatter everywhere if left unattended. Trust me.) I both blended with a hand blender and continued to cook the mixture on top of the stove to get the consistency I wanted.
7. Once the apple butter is as thick as you’d like it, ladle into jars or another clean, glass container. Cool completely, then refrigerate. You can also can (that sounds kind of weird) the apple butter at this point, but I didn’t want to bother – the mixture will keep in the fridge for at least a couple of weeks without canning.

Bolognese Sauce with rigatoni

“Bolognese” sauce is a funny thing. The sauce is not just found in Bologna – most towns in the Italian region (Emilia-Romagna) have their own version, some quite different from one another. Even in Bologna there is little agreement on ingredients or a standardization of the recipe – the old joke is that if you asked 100 people in Bologna for their sauce recipe, you’d get 100 different versions. At its essence, Bolognese sauce is a minced- or ground-meat “sauce” (and I use that word loosely, for reasons explained below) cooked with a sofrito (onion, carrots, celery) and usually with some type of wine and some form of tomatoes. I’ve seen recipes with white wine, with red wine. With mostly ground beef, with only ground beef, with mostly ground pork, with a mixture of the two, and with beef, pork, and chicken livers. With whole tomatoes, or with tomato puree. Lots of recipes add milk during the cooking, some tell you to stir in bechamel sauce at the end instead. The only consistent aspect of any Bolognese sauce recipe is that it must, must, must be cooked for a long time – upwards of two hours or more.

“Sauce” is a word used rather loosely here, because Bolognese sauce is not what most of us outside of Italy would consider “saucy”. That is, Bolognese sauce is much “drier” than your typical pasta sauce. In general, Italians use quite a bit less sauce than we do in the U.S., and Bolognese sauce has quite a bit less liquid than other sauces. (You’ll probably just have to make it to see what I’m talking about.) In the pictures above, I’ve actually used a lot more sauce than you’d normally see on pasta in northern Italy, but even in my version the sauce isn’t glopped on top of the pasta, but rather mixed in so that it coats all of the pasta bits equally. Bolognese sauce in northern Italy is served with tagliatelle (a wider, fettuccine-like fresh egg noodle), in lasagna, with tortellini, or with dried pasta such as rigatoni (shown in the picture above) or penne. It is never, ever served with spaghetti (that is a British adaptation). If you use dried pasta, don’t rinse it after cooking. You don’t want to rinse off the starch that clings to the pasta – this is what allows the sauce to adhere to the pasta.

This recipe is a partial adaptation of a recipe I translated from a book I picked up on a recent trip to Bologna – Laura Rangoni’s La Cucina Bolognese, although I made quite a few alterations. If you are fat-phobic, this is not the recipe for you! There is a huge amount of pork fat (and other fats) in this recipe. Using pasture-raised pork and beef (and butter from grass-fed cows) helps reduce the amount of “bad” fat, but still. There is a LOT of fat in this recipe. If you want to stay true to the recipe but reduce the amount of fat in it, you can skim off the fat at the end (it will separate out from the rest of the sauce) or you can refrigerate the sauce overnight and de-fat it after the fat has solidified. Don’t remove all of the fat, though, because the fat is what really coats the pasta and creates a “saucy” feel in the mouth.

A few last words about ingredients: make sure you dice your sofrito (onion, carrot, celery) as finely as possible – you don’t want big chunks of celery or carrots in your final sauce (they’re supposed to sort of melt into the sauce after the long cooking time). This recipe calls for prosciutto cotto and pancetta. Prosciutto cotto: literally, “cooked prosciutto”,  prosciutto cotto is exactly that – prosciutto that has been cooked. It is sold like other deli meats. If you can’t find prosciutto cotto, you could substitute good-quality ham. If you can’t find pancetta (sometimes referred to as Italian bacon – but only because pancetta is made from pork belly – other than that, there is little similarity), omit it. Don’t be tempted to use American (smoked) bacon – you’ll ruin the balance of flavors in the sauce. If you find pancetta, have your deli man (or woman) slice it thinly to facilitate you chopping it into tiny, tiny bits. I used La Quercia pancetta (normally I’d never say “domestic” and “pancetta” in the same breath, but La Quercia’s pancetta is truly delicious and comes from humanely raised pigs).  And finally,  I prefer Bionaturae brand of tomato puree, but if you can’t find a good puree, you can simply open a can of high-quality whole tomatoes and puree them in your food processor or blender. Strain the seeds using a fine-mesh strainer if you like.

Ingredients:
For 6-8 servings

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, very finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and very finely chopped
2 ribs of celery, very finely chopped
3 ounces pancetta, very finely chopped
4 ounces (1/4 pound) prosciutto cotto, very finely chopped
1 pound grass-fed ground beef
3/4 pound sustainably-raised ground pork
1 cup dry white wine
1 1/4 cups tomato puree
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 lb. pasta for serving
Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano for serving

Procedure:

1. In a large, heavy dutch oven, add the butter, olive oil, onions, carrots, and celery. Saute over medium heat until the vegetables have softened (but not browned – turn down the heat if they start browning), about 10 minutes.
2. Add the pancetta, and cook and stir over medium heat for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the prosciutto cotto and cook and stir over medium heat for 5 minutes more.
4. Add the ground beef and the ground pork, breaking up large chunks with a fork. Cover the pot and cook over medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes, or until all the pink is gone from the meat, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the white wine, turn the heat up to medium-high, and let cook until most of the wine has evaporated, 15 minutes or so.
6. Stir in the tomato puree.
7. Turn the heat down to medium low and simmer for 2 hours or longer, stirring occasionally. The fat will separate from the sauce at the end of cooking. If the mixture becomes too dry during cooking, add a bit of water, a few tablespoons at a time. Don’t add salt until the very end, keeping in mind that the cured pork products add quite a bit of salt to the sauce.
8. Cook your pasta of choice, drain, and toss with the sauce, stirring well to coat each piece of pasta. Top with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Note: You can cook the sauce in a crock-pot instead of on the stove – add all ingredients to the crock-pot at step 7. Cook on low heat for 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Add water if the mixture becomes too dry, as discussed in step 7.

Chicken Liver Mousse on a crunchy little toast square

There was a time not too long ago when I was intimidated at the prospect of cooking organ meats.  I have since recovered from my fear – but if you have a bit of an organ-meat-cooking phobia, an easy entree into the world of offal cookery can be had with the making of chicken liver mousse. There aren’t very many ingredients, cooking time is very limited, and even prepping the actual livers isn’t so bad. Seriously. This mousse is a fairly classic recipe that makes for an elegant pre-dinner starter with a glass of white wine, or, dare I say, a glass or two (or seven) of champagne?

This recipe is an amalgamation of recipes from my French Culinary Institute curriculum, Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and the Gourmet cookbook. It’s definitely better the next day, after the flavors have had plenty of time to meld. (And, might I add, perfect for a party? You can make it one or two days in advance, no sweat.)  Just make sure you leave the mousse out for 1-2 hours before you want to serve it to make sure it is nice and spreadable.

A word about chicken livers. It’s a bit hard to find pasture-raised chicken livers, but when I stumble upon them I get really excited. The liver functions as a detoxification organ (among other things) in lots of animals (including people), so I get a bit freaked out when I think about liver from a factory-farmed animal. Prepping a chicken liver is easier than you might think. First, trim off large chunks of fat. If the liver is large, you can separate the two lobes and pull off the fat with your fingers. Also check the livers for green spots (this is bile – not good to eat) and large blood vessels – remove with your fingers or trim with a knife. Finally, check the livers for the stringy bits that connect the lobes – remove those with your fingers or a knife as well. Rinse the livers under cold running water and pat dry.  You’re good to go.

I passed my mousse through a fine-meshed sieve because I wanted the texture to be ultra-smooth. You can skip this step – your mousse won’t be chunky, but it won’t have the fine, smooth texture you’d get forcing it through a sieve. (Forcing stuff through sieves is a very French thing to do. The easiest way to pass stuff through a sieve in a home kitchen is to dump the mixture into your fine-mesh strainer, then push it through the sieve using a rubber spatula. It doesn’t take very long if you move the spatula around kinda vigorously.)

I think this mousse is best served with crunchy little toasts or crackers.

Ingredients:
(Makes about 1 cup mousse)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium shallot, very finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
3/4 pound pastured chicken livers, trimmed, washed, and patted dry (see note above)
1/4 cup brandy
Pinch ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3-4 tablespoons whipping cream

Special Equipment: food processor, fine-mesh sieve (optional)

Procedure:

1. In a 12-inch, heavy bottomed saute pan, heat the butter over medium heat until just foaming.
2. Add the chopped shallot and garlic and cook and stir until the shallot is soft, 5-6 minutes. (Turn the heat down a bit if the butter or shallots start to brown.)
3. Salt and pepper the trimmed chicken livers and add to the pan. Cook the livers, stirring gently from time to time, until they are cooked but still a bit pink in the center, about 5 minutes (cooking time will depend on the size of your livers).
4. Add the brandy. Turn the heat up to medium-high and cook until most of the brandy has evaporated, another 3-4 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool for a few minutes.
6. Add the slightly-cooled mixture to the bowl of the food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Add the allspice, nutmeg, a few grindings of pepper, a pinch of salt, and the whipping cream.
7. Process until you have a very smooth mixture. Add more cream if you want your mousse a bit looser.
8. If you want a super smooth mixture, force the mousse through a fine mesh strainer (optional – see above).
9. Pack the mousse into a large ramekin or other container and let cool. Once cool, cover surface of the mousse with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours, preferably longer. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Summer Vegetable Frittata

Wow, that was quite a long blogging break I took. I felt guilty every day for not blogging. (I was on vacation in North Carolina with my family. It was fun. I was too busy boogie-boarding to blog.)   I know a frittata isn’t the most super exciting foodstuff I could trot out after a bit of time away, but they are quite easy to make once you’ve got the technique down, and they are quite useful in using up extra summer vegetables. They keep well and can be served hot, at room temperature, or cold, so they make great next-day leftovers. (Frittata sandwiches are good.) Frittatas are just open-faced omelettes – or maybe I should say that omelettes are just folded frittatas? (Although I went to a French culinary school, I tend to side with the Italians on most food-related historical matters.) Like omelettes, frittatas are lovely because you can put all sorts of things in them – stuff you have on hand, interesting stuff you find at the farmer’s market, leftover stuff. In this recipe, I use beet tops – don’t throw them away! They are delicious! (You can cook them like spinach or swiss chard, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and a few drops of red wine vinegar, and eat hot or at room temperature.)

A (long) note about frying pans: I have my own method of making frittatas that may or may not be Italian-approved. I use a non-stick frying pan – I realize that a lot of people are wary of using non-stick because of the chemicals involved in making the pans, so if you’re one of those people, you can use a non-non-stick frying pan. Just note that you’ll have to use extra oil or cooking spray to keep the frittata from sticking to the bottom of your pan. (I have it in my mind that as long as I don’t cook food in non-stick pans over super-high heat or in a super-high oven, I’ll be OK. This may or may not be scientifically accurate, but it’s what I tell myself.)  You also must make sure that you pan is oven-proof – that is, that the handles are metal with no plastic whatsoever. Otherwise you’ll destroy both your pan and your oven, probably. And the smell of burning plastic is not yummy, not at all. You don’t need a special $90 frittata pan with hinges, or any other special equipment. In fact, I don’t even turn my frittatas, but you can if you like. (This will all become clear in a moment.) I prefer a thinner frittata, but if you like your frittatas a bit thicker, you can use a smaller-sized frying pan. You’ll have to cook your frittata a bit longer.

Last little note. Get yourself some good eggs. See in the picture how yellow the frittata is? That’s not photoshopped, my friends! It’s just the fine quality of the eggs, which I bought from a New Jersey farmer at my local farmer’s market. You will notice a huge difference in taste, color, and texture. I swear. Also – you don’t have to use the vegetables I did. Use whatever you want – spinach or chard instead of beet greens, heirloom tomatoes instead of cherry, any herb mix that tickles your fancy, peas…pretty much anything in season is good in a frittata. I used baby patty-pan squash that I sauteed first with a bit of oil and Thai chili-garlic sauce – I’ve shared the method with you below. Zucchini or yellow squash would be an excellent substitute.

Ingredients:
(For one 10-inch diameter frittata – serves 4 for breakfast, lunch, or dinner)

For the sauteed patty-pan squash:
1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
2-3 baby patty-pan squash, sliced thinly
1 teaspoon (or more) Thai chili-garlic sauce (you can use smooth Sriracha, but I prefer the thicker chili-garlic sauce) or other hot sauce with 1/2 clove of finely chopped garlic

For the frittata:
6 fresh eggs
1 tablespoon milk (skim milk is OK)
3-4 large beet green leaves, tough stems discarded, washed and chopped
3/4 cup cherry or grape tomatoes
1-2 tablespoons mixed chopped herbs – I used a combination of basil, mint, parsley, and chives
Sauteed patty-pan squash (see above)
Other vegetables or greens, as desired (I threw in some arugula flowers from my garden) (optional)
1 tablespoon Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (optional)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (or more, see note above about pans)
Kosher salt and freshly-ground pepper

Special Equipment: 10-inch diameter non-stick oven-proof frying pan (see note about pans above), a rubber spatula

Procedure:

For the sauteed patty-pan squash:

1. Heat the oil in a small, heavy sauté pan over very high heat until hot, but not smoking.
2. Add the patty-pan squash and sauté over high heat until the squash is browned in spots, but still a bit firm – 1-2 minutes.
3. Turn the heat down to medium and stir in the chili-garlic sauce (or add the garlic clove and the hot sauce), stir for 30 seconds, then immediately remove from heat.
4. Cool before adding to the frittata “batter”.

For the frittata:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the milk and a generous pinch of salt until the eggs are uniform (i.e., you can’t distinguish between the yolks and the whites).
3. Stir in the beet greens, tomatoes, herbs, cooled squash, any other vegetable your heart desires, and the optional cheese. Add a few grindings of black pepper. Stir gently to combine evenly. (Some of the heavier vege like the tomatoes will sink to the bottom. This is OK.)
4. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in your skillet. When hot (but not smoking – never smoking) add the egg mixture.
5. Stir the mixture with a rubber spatula until the mixture starts to set, taking care to distribute the vegetables evenly if they’ve migrated to one side of the pan or another. Stop stirring when you see the edges of the eggs start to set. This will take a varying amount of time depending on your pan and your heat source.
6. When the eggs have set 3-4 inches in from the edge of the pan (i.e., the eggs are set around the outside, but there is still a round jiggly bit in the middle), remove from the stovetop and stick in the oven. At this point, if you’re using a smaller pan, you might want to consider flipping the frittata. (I never do because it’s a pain and the egg mixture sets up just fine without flipping, but it’s up to you.)
7. Cook the frittata in the oven until the center is set. This will also take a varying amount of time – start checking after 5 minutes. When you shake the pan, you should see absolutely no jiggle action in the center of the egg mixture.
8. Carefully remove the pan from the oven (remember the handle will be super hot) and immediately slide the frittata from the pan onto a cutting board or plate. (This is where using a non-stick pan is useful.) If not using non-stick, you may need to loosen the edges of the frittata with your rubber spatula.
9. Cut the frittata into wedges and serve hot or at room temperature. Extra hot sauce on the side is nice.

Honey Caramels

Honey Caramels come to you in honor of NYC’s Pollinator Week (this week!), which is coordinated by Just Food. Beekeeping is currently illegal in New York City (sign a petition to make it legal here), although there are quite a few rogue beekeepers in Brooklyn and in the rest of New York City. Read more about urban beekeeping here.

I found this recipe in the Puerto Rican Cookbook by Elizabeth B.K. Dooley, an antique cookbook that is part of my growing collection of ye olde cookbooks. It dates from the mid-40s, and is a fascinating collection of Puerto Rican food from the era of American colonization (i.e, prior to Puerto Rico becoming a Commonwealth). It’s got an entire chapter dedicated to recipes made with honey; pretty interesting coming from an island that grew a heck of a lot of sugar cane.

If you’re a novice candy maker, it really, really helps to have a candy thermometer on hand. The various stages of candy making (soft ball, firm ball, hard ball, etc.) tend to happen really, really quickly – you can take your candy from firm ball to hard ball in just seconds and then be totally screwed (mind out of the gutter, people). Without a proper candy thermometer, you will have to drop a bit of your candy into ice water to determine its stage in the candy making process. Don’t be intimidated – it’s really not that difficult, you just have to pay close attention to what’s going on in your pot.  Also – hot sugar is one of the hottest, most dangerous things you’ll come across in the kitchen. I kid you not. If you get hot caramel on your skin, it just keeps on burning and burning. (Speaking from experience here.) So be careful, OK?

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup honey (mild honey works best here)
1 cup raw sugar (or granulated sugar)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Fleur de sel or other sea salt for topping

Special Equipment: 8×8 pan, candy thermometer (optional)

Procedure:

1. Line an 8×8 pan with aluminum foil, letting the edges of the foil hang over the side of the pan, and spray with cooking spray, or butter generously.
2. Melt the butter over medium heat in a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan.
3. Add the honey, sugar, and heavy cream. Stir over medium heat until the sugar has mostly dissolved.
4. Turn the heat to medium low. Clip your candy thermometer onto the side of the pan….carefully.
5. Cook the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches firm ball stage, which you can determine in one of two ways: a. the mixture reaches 248ºF (give or take a degree or two) on a candy thermometer (it will be marked with “FB” or “firm ball”) or b. Drop a bit of the mixture into a small bowl filled with ice water. It should immediately form a ball that you can squeeze together with your fingers without it dissipating.
6. Immediately remove from the heat, quickly stir in the vanilla (it will bubble slightly) and pour the mixture into your greased pan. Sprinkle with fleur de sel or other sea salt.
7. Let cool, lift out of the pan using the foil, then cut into squares and wrap in squares of parchment paper or cellophane.

Note: If you happen to accidentally take your caramels past the firm ball stage (i.e., if the caramel mixture gets a little too hard after it has cooled), remelt the candy over low heat with 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Stir until the mixture is totally combined, then do the ice water test to check the consistency of the mixture (dropping the mixture into cold water is a reliable indicator of what the texture/consistency of the caramels will be when cool). Immediately pour into a newly-foil lined and greased pan, and cool completely.

Bourbon Milkshake

Brooklyn Farmhouse has had a sweet tooth lately, but I couldn’t resist sharing yet another dessert recipe with you – albeit a rather more grownup dessert. I totally stole this idea from a restaurant in Portland, Maine called Fore Street; after having my first bourbon milkshake there, I wondered why this idea had never crossed my mind before. It’s so deliciously simple and so deliciously boozy. I made my own vanilla ice cream using milk and cream from the fantastic Milk Thistle Farm in Columbia County, NY – seriously, seriously some of the best milk, cream, and yogurt I’ve ever tasted. Ice cream made from their products is undeniably a step above even super-premium commercial ice creams. (Another benefit to making your own ice cream at home: many commercial ice creams have air whipped into them to increase the volume of the product, so you’re sometimes paying as much for air as for ice cream. Very little air is incorporated into homemade ice cream.) If you can find local milk, cream, and eggs in your area, try to use in your ice cream – you’ll notice a big difference in richness, texture, and taste.

I know my dad is a big fan of good bourbon – dare I say that Bourbon Milkshakes would make a fun ending to a Father’s Day dinner? With possibly a bottle of bourbon as an accompanying present? If my dad didn’t live all the way in Washington State, I’d make these for him for Father’s Day.

If you don’t have time (or an ice cream maker) to make your own ice cream, get yourself some good vanilla ice cream and add a half-teaspoon of high-quality vanilla extract to it when you’re blending in the blender, just to kick the flavor up a notch.

Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Ice Cream:
(Makes 1 quart)

2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split
1 cup raw sugar or granulated sugar, divided
6 egg yolks
1 tablespoon liquor of choice (I used Liquor 43, a vanilla-flavored liquor; rum or bourbon would be nice) (optional)

For the Bourbon Milkshakes:
(Makes 4-5 small milkshakes)

3 ounces of bourbon (3 shots)
1 quart vanilla ice cream
1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract (if using store-bought vanilla ice cream)
Splash of milk (optional)

Special Equipment: ice cream maker, blender

Procedure:

For the Vanilla Ice Cream:

1. Combine the cream and milk in a medium heavy saucepot. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the pot and add the bean. Add half of the sugar (1/2 cup) to the pot and stir briefly to combine.
2. Turn the heat to medium and bring the milk-cream mixture to a boil. Remove from heat and let steep for 20 minutes.
3. Return the milk-cream mixture to a simmer over medium-low heat.
4. Ready an ice bath: add a generous amount of ice to a large bowl. Add cold water to the ice, and place another large bowl on top of the ice bath. Have a fine-mesh strainer ready to go.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and the egg yolks until the sugar starts to dissolve and the mixture lightens in color.
6. Temper the egg mixture by adding a small ladleful of the hot milk-cream mixture to the egg mixture, whisking quickly to combine. Add more of the hot milk-cream mixture to the egg mixture, a ladleful at a time, whisking constantly, until you’ve used about 1/3 of the milk-cream mixture.
7. Add the egg mixture to the remaining milk-cream mixture in your saucepot. Heat the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a wooden spoon. (Do not boil!)
8. Immediately pour the mixture through your waiting fine-mesh strainer into the bowl over the ice bath. Stir the mixture to cool it down. Cool the mixture completely. (Discard the vanilla bean, or rinse thoroughly and use for vanilla sugar.)
9. Stir in the optional tablespoon of liquor.
10. Freeze the mixture according to your ice cream-maker’s instructions, then freeze completely until very firm.

For the Bourbon Milkshakes:

1. Combine the bourbon and ice cream in a blender. Blend until smooth. If mixture is too thick, add a splash of milk.
2. Serve in small old-fashioned (lowball) glasses or wine glasses.

Buttermilk Shortcakes with Strawberry Sorbet and Vanilla Creme Fraiche Sauce

Whoa – two strawberry posts in a row! I should’ve planned this whole blogging thing out a little bit better. Because strawberries are so delightful and so in-season right now, I guess I don’t really care that I have two strawberry posts in a row. Really, I don’t.

This is Thomas Keller’s recipe from the French Laundry Cookbook, with some minor modifications. I find that some celebrity chefs’ cookbooks are not as fool-proof as I’d want them to be (I won’t name names), but the French Laundry Cookbook is amazing. If you don’t want to go all-out and make the shortcakes and the crème fraîche sauce, at least make the strawberry sorbet. It is truly the essence of strawberry – so delicious and such a good way to use up lots of strawberries that you may have on hand from obsessively going to the farmer’s market and buying strawberries from at least 4 different vendors. There is no way that this sorbet will be good with regular-old conventional store-bought strawberries. They simply do not have the strawberry flavor that locally-grown berries do. So really, don’t waste your time because it’s a big pain to hull 2 1/2 pounds of strawberries. I’m just sayin’.

My flour of choice for biscuits, White Lily, has sadly been bought by Smuckers and the mill shut down. I found an excellent alternative from King Arthur Flour called “Mellow Pastry Blend“, which (gasp!) I liked better than White Lily – it is unbleached and made the most delicious, tender shortcakes. Exciting!

A fun little kitchen project aside: Instead of wasting the seeds and pulp that remain from the straining process (when making the sorbet), you can make fruit leather with the remains: oil a small baking sheet with cooking spray, very thinly spread the leftover strawberry pulp onto the baking sheet using an offset spatula, and bake in a 150°F oven for about 30 minutes, or until the leather is still pliable but no longer super sticky. If you can’t get your oven as low as 150°F, set to 200°F and prop open the door a bit. Keep an eye on the temperature because you don’t want your strawberry leather to caramelize.

Ingredients:

For the Strawberry Sorbet:
(Makes 1 quart)

2 1/2 pounds fresh strawberries
1/4 cup honey
1 cup raw sugar (as fine as you can find it) or superfine sugar
1 tablespoon rum

For the Shortcakes:
(Makes 8 two-inch shortcakes)

1 1/2 cups King Arthur Mellow Pastry Blend flour or all-purpose flour, plus additional for kneading and rolling
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons raw sugar or granulated sugar
4 tablespoons butter, very cold and cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken, plus extra for brushing
1 tablespoon demerara sugar, for topping

For the Vanilla Bean Crème Fraîche Sauce:
(Makes 3/4 cup)

3/4 cup crème fraîche
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 vanilla bean, split

To Assemble:
(for 8 servings)
1 cup diced fresh, ripe strawberries

Special Equipment: blender, fine-mesh strainer, ice cream maker, 8-or 9-inch round cake pan, 2-inch biscuit cutter

Procedure:
For the Strawberry Sorbet:

1. Wash and hull the strawberries. Place strawberries in a blender and blend until smooth (you may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender). Add the honey and the sugar and blend briefly.
2. Force the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl. Stir in rum.
3. Freeze sorbet according to your ice cream maker’s instructions, then transfer to the freezer to freeze completely.

For the Shortcakes:

1. Lightly grease an 8-or 9-inch round cake pan or a small baking sheet. Preheat oven to 500°F.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
3. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, work quickly to cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs interspersed with small pea-size lumps of butter.
4. Stir in the buttermilk with a fork until a shaggy dough forms. If the dough seems too dry, add more buttermilk. If too wet, add just a touch of flour. (Remember: you can always add more but you can’t take it away.)
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead 2-3 times until the dough comes together. Roll out to 3/4-inch thickness and stamp out 2-inch rounds with a biscuit cutter. Take care not to twist the cutter as you stamp out the biscuits (um, I mean shortcakes).
6. Transfer shortcakes to the cake pan or baking sheet, with sides touching.
7. Brush with 1 teaspoon additional buttermilk and sprinkle with demerara sugar and bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.
8. Cool on a wire rack.

For the Vanilla Bean Crème Fraîche Sauce:

1. Combine the crème fraîche and the sugar in a small saucepan. Scrape the contents of the vanilla bean into the pan.
2. Whisk over medium-low heat until the mixture just barely simmers and the sugar has dissolved.
3. Keep warm if using immediately, otherwise cool and refrigerate.

To Assemble:

1. Briefly rewarm the crème fraîche sauce and shortcakes, if necessary. Spoon a bit of the sauce onto a plate. Split a shortcake horizontally and place the bottom half on the sauce.
2. Top the shortcake bottom with chopped strawberries, a small scoop of the strawberry sorbet, and the top of the shortcake. Eat immediately.

Pink Peppercorn-Yogurt Panna Cotta with Strawberries

Pink peppercorns are fruity and floral – not at all spicy like black (or even white) peppercorns. That’s because they are actually a kind of rosehip (i.e., fruit from a type of rose bush). I’ve made this pink peppercorn ice cream a few times (it’s amazing with chocolate cake), but I thought that the delicate pink peppercorn flavor would pair well with a delicate fruit like strawberries. It does.

“Panna cotta” literally means “cooked cream” in Italian, and you’ll be happy to know that there is very little work to do in the kitchen for panna cotta except to heat up a bit of cream and pour it into ramekins. And seriously, I have no idea why I haven’t thought to make panna cotta for every single dinner party I’ve ever had. It is a) unbelievably easy to make and b) you can make it way ahead of time. Perfect party food.

A few things about ingredients. Try to find grass-fed cream and yogurt. It’s good. Seriously, trust me. Plus, supporting small dairy farmers is something to think about. I had a hard time finding organic gelatin, though. In fact, I couldn’t find any in person anywhere, but have since found a source online here. I’ve also been experimenting with different kinds of sugar, like sugar in the raw and demarara after stupidly discovering that the food co-op that I’ve belonged to for years carries all sorts of fair trade sugars in bulk. Demerara sugar is especially delicious with strawberries.

Ingredients:
For the Panna Cotta:
One 1/4 ounce envelope of gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup yogurt (I used low-fat)
2 1/2 tablespoons raw sugar (granulated sugar is OK, too)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons pink peppercorns, lightly crushed

For the Strawberries:
1 pint very fresh, local strawberries, hulled and sliced
1-2 tablespoons demerara sugar (granulated sugar is OK, too)
Splash of orange juice, rum, Grand Marnier, or other liqueur (I used Liquor 43, a Spanish vanilla-flavored liqueur)

Special Equipment: Four 3-ounce ramekins

Procedure:
For the Panna Cotta:

1. Lightly oil ramekins or spray with cooking spray.
2. Add the cold water to a medium bowl. Sprinkle gelatin on top and let stand to soften.
3. In a medium, heavy saucepan, combine the heavy cream, yogurt, sugar, and pink peppercorns.
4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove pot from heat and let steep for 20-30 minutes.
5. Return cream mixture to a boil. Using a fine-meshed strainer, quickly strain the mixture into a medium bowl.
6. Add 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture to the gelatin and whisk until gelatin is fully incorporated.
7. Add the gelatin-cream mixture to the remaining cream mixture. Stir in vanilla.
8. Divide the mixture among four ramekins. Let cool for 20-30 minutes, then refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, until set (this will take 2-3 hours).

For the Strawberries:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Using a potato masher or large spoon, very lightly crush the strawberries.
2. Let sit (at room temperature or refrigerated) until ready to serve.

To Serve:

1. To unmold panna cotta: very carefully, run a thin, flexible knife around the edge of the ramekin. Dip ramekins (one at a time) into a bowl of hot water. Invert ramekin onto the center of a serving plate and unmold. (You can also give both plate and ramekin one firm shake, holding both at an angle in front of your body. Did that make sense?)
2. Top panna cotta with strawberries and a bit of the strawberry juices.

Lamb Burgers with Cheddar and Spicy Onion Marmalade

Lamb and cheddar and kale and mint and onion and spiciness! I feel like I don’t even have to write an introduction to this recipe. Except to say that I may like lamb burgers better than beef burgers. And that the lamb burgers would be good with a dollop of Greek yogurt instead of the onion marmalade (or maybe both?). Or with homemade ketchup.

One more thing: I want to talk to you about cooking the onions for the Spicy Onion Marmalade. You don’t want to brown them. Nope. What you want to do is to coax out their natural sugars and caramelize those sugars until you get a reduced, soft, marmalade-y texture. It takes a long time, so be patient.

Oh, and one last thing. If you’re not familiar with harissa, go out and get yourself some, stat. It’s a spicy North African paste made from chiles and spices. Sometimes I make my own, but more often than not I use DEA brand, in the yellow tube.

Ingredients:

For the Spicy Onion Marmalade:
2 large red onions, peeled and thinly sliced into half moons
2 large yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced into half moons
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon thyme leaves, chopped
3 whole dried chiles (I used chile de arbol, but you can use any small, hot, dried chile) or 1 teaspoon dried chile flakes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon honey

For the Lamb Burgers:
1 pound pasture-raised ground lamb
1 tablespoon harissa
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 clove garlic, very finely chopped (or pressed in a garlic press)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
15-20 fresh mint leaves, washed and dried, torn if large
1/2 cup baby kale leaves
White cheddar, to taste
Whole wheat rolls or hamburger buns

Special Equipment: Grill pan or grill (optional)

Procedure:

For the Spicy Onion Marmalade:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy saute pan over medium heat until hot. Add the onion slices and stir to coat. Add the thyme, chiles, salt, and a few grindings of black pepper. Turn the heat down to low.
2. Cook the onion mixture, stirring occationally, until the onions have cooked down and have caramelized (see note, above), about 45 minutes. Add a tablespoon of water if you notice the onions sticking to the bottom of the pan.
3. Stir in the honey and the balsamic vinegar to taste. Taste and correct for salt.
4. Remove any remnants of the whole chiles (if using) before serving.

For the Lamb Burgers:

1. Preheat the grill pan or the grill. If not using a grill pan or grill, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large saute pan.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the lamb, the harissa, the cumin, the coriander, the garlic, and the salt. Mix gently with your hands (do not over mix or your burgers will be tough). Form into 4 even balls, then flatten the balls slightly.
3. Place the lamb patties on the grill pan, on the grill, or in the saute pan. Cook until grill marks appear, 3-4 minutes. Flip patties over and cook on the other side for another 3-4 minutes for medium rare. (Cook longer for a more well-done burger.)
4. Toss the mint leaves and baby kale leaves together. Place each burger on a warmed roll or bun, top with cheddar cheese, a dollop of the spicy onion marmalade, and the kale and mint mixture. Serve hot with additional harissa, if desired.

Makes 4 small burgers.