EllenFork

A Shameless Tart

Again with the summer fruits. I can't help myself...this time though, we're talking apricots. Take a step outside your comfort zone, the zone where apricots are shriveled up little gnome-like fruits that hang out in bags of only sort of delicious trail mix. 

These apricots were for real. Which is why I made them into a tart. Because that's how they roll. Another recipe from the Zuni Cookbook, before I am forced to return it to the library (actually, as of this post, it is late). I love how Judy Rodgers writes these recipes as if she was in your kitchen with you, explaining this to you. The details are so specific! At one point she describes the consistency of the dough as "humid grape-nuts", which seems weird but you know exactly what she means when you see it! I can't really do it justice in my descriptions, you must buy or borrow the book to get the true experience. In the meantime, I will do my best to explain. Here goes.

Apricot Tart from Zuni Cafe

Ingredients:

Basic Tart Dough "with a little flake"

1 c all purpose flour

8 tbsp cold salted butter (1 stick)

Up to 2 tsp sugar (optional)  

Fruit Filling

1 lb firm-ripe apricots
1/3 c sugar
2 or 3 pinches of salt

First, prepare the dough as you will want to freeze it before using it. On a cool work surface or wide bowl, mix flour and sugar.

Cut the stick of butter lengthwise into about 1/4 in slices. Coat each slice with flour on both sides and squish each piece with your fingers til the slices become little shards. Now fold the sheets and shards of butter into the flour, squishing them together and breaking them into shards repeatedly. Do this until you have about 2/3 crumbs and 1/3 flakes of butter in your mixture.

Now trickle 1 tbsp of ice water evenly over this clump of strangely textured dough. Stir it all together and work it with your fingertips. Here is where you should see the "moist sawdust begin to look like humid Grape-Nuts". Mass the dough and knead it a bit. At this point, add a few more drops of water if your dough feels really dry- it will prob be sticky, so flour up those fingers. Now, on a lightly floured surface, knead this all into a smooth ball. Put the ball between sheets of plastic wrap and press into a disk about 1 in thick and smooth the surface with a rolling pin. Wrap up that dough and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the Gluten relax. The Gluten had a hard day at the office, so it really needs some quiet fridge time, preferably with a Scotch.

When the Gluten is done being a lazy SOB, roll it out and place it into a 9 1/2 in tart shell pan. Wrap with plastic wrap and freeze before filling and baking. You can do this a day or two ahead of time, but make sure its wrapped well, to prevent freezer burn. You don't want a tart crust that tastes like frozen Brussels sprouts (or DO you...?!).

OK NOW! Time for the fruit.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cut your 'cots in half, remove the pits and quarter them. Toss them with sugar and salt to taste, in a large bowl. You will want this much sugar, since cooking will bring out the acidity and tannins in the skins of the apricots. Place the fruit in neat circles in the crust, skin side down. The fruits are friends, so they should touch but don't stack or crowd them. Haven't you ever heard of PERSONAL SPACE?! Scrape the sugar sludge from the bowl over the tart. 

Bake tart until crust is golden brown and the fruit is soft and has begun to caramelize. This is usually about 50 min, but it took a bit longer for me. If at any point the crust looks burny but the fruit needs more time, quickly take the tart out and protect the crust with strips of aluminum foil. Just tear some off and gently press it over the rim, without breaking any of it.

While the description may be a bit long, this is a SUPER EASY TART!!! It really only has a handful or so of ingredients. I enjoyed it for dessert and then AGAIN for breakfast! It did not last long in my home, sadly.

Enjoy!

CSA Din Din

Well folks, the CSA was kind to me today. For those of you who don't know, CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. At the beginning of the growing season, members pay a flat fee to local farmers to receive "shares" each week during the CSA period. This allows community members to become "shareholders", receiving crops in exchange for giving farmers capital to fuel their farming endeavours. The shares are delivered to neighborhood coordinators, where shareholders pick them up. I pick mine up from an adorable house in South Arlington with a wraparound porch.

My CSA is an organic farm in Maryland, called 'Evenstar Farms. It is now Week 3 and I'm getting more and more excited for the day when I receive 4 lbs of heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers...the deal with CSA's is that you get shares of whatever they plant. I happen to know that 'Evenstar has a lotttt of heirloom tomato crops, which is why I chose them. Mmmmm 'maters!!

Today I received some interesting fare. Some French heirloom Chantenay carrots, arugula, new potatoes, incredible looking blackberries, cherry tomatoes, a Cherokee purple heirloom tomato, some tomatillos, yellow squash and an herb mix for some salad dressing included in the CSA's cookbook (they give all their members their own cookbook with recipes specific to their crops).

These carrots looked good enough for Bugs Bunny.

So for dinner, I had to use some of these incredible items. The most beautiful, the blackberries, are awaiting breakfast, but I did manage to use arugula, carrots, potatoes, cherry tomatoes and oregano, thyme, rosemary and basil from my balcony garden. Oh, and some frozen chicken from Trader Joe's...

Here is what I made:

Parmesan Carrots

Grated Parmean
Chantenay Carrots
Olive Oil
Fresh Thyme
French Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the tops off the carrots and scrub them clean. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, parmesan and fresh thyme. Roast on a shallow pan (like a cookie sheet) until they are tender inside and crispish outside. This should be about 20 or so minutes, depending on the size of your carrots.

Roasted Potatoes

On the same cookie sheet, I roasted 'taters. I very thinly sliced (about 1/5 inch) about four new potatoes, tossed with oil, salt, pepper and rosemary and spread them in a single layer. After the first 15 minutes i used tongs to flip them over, so they became crispy and browned.

Arugula Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Red Wine Basil Vinaigrette

Red Wine Basil Vinaigrette

This is adapted from The New Basics Cookbook, one of my faves.

2 tblsp dijon mustard
2 cloves crushed garlic
freshly ground black pepper
5 tblsp red wine vinegar
Olive Oil
Fresh Basil, slivered

In a small bowl, whisk together mustard, garlic, pepper and vinegar. Slowly whisk in olive oil. When emulsified, fold in Basil.This recipe is one spicy meatball, all told.

Add this to a bowl full of halved cherry tomatoes and fresh washed arugula. Toss.

Additionally, I chopped up oregano and thyme to season the chicken, with olive oil, french sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and then grilled it.

When everything was ready, I poured some red wine. And then, I ate everything in front of me. If you can swing it, I hope you'll do the same!

Huevos Rancheros de Mi Familia

Saturday mornings are interesting. Depending on how your week/Friday night went, you could be full of vim and vigor, or you could be facing dire straits.Or you could be in Brooklyn at your sister and bro-in-law's apartment, with your parents in town and low blood sugar on the horizon.

That's where I was this past Saturday. My delightful parents made the trek from Tennessee up to NYC, so I obliging made the trek from DC for an ultimate reunion in Brooklyn. Got all that? But anyway, what matters the most about the situation was our need to feed. Mom and I stumbled zombie-like through the corner store, abandoning our original plan to make Eggs Benedict Salad (which is something I've made before and worth a post of its own) in favor of huevos rancheros. Every corner store should have the ingreds for huevos rancheros, and if it doesn't you should just burn it straight to the ground. Or just go to a different one.

Anyway, we scooped up the ingredients and swiftly assembled a delicious brunch for six. Here's how!

Huevos Rancheros de la Casa Shearon

Ingredients:

3 cans unseasoned black beans (and about half of their juices)
ground cumin, to taste
chili powder, to taste
cayenne pepper, to taste
12 eggs
unsalted butter
salt
pepper
6 tortillas
bunch green onions, chopped
monterey jack cheese, grated
cilantro
olive oil
prepared fresh salsa
prepared fresh guacamole
sour cream

This recipe is not exact, and it relies heavily on your ability to taste things. If you're reading this blog, I assume you can, and will taste this to make sure it is flavorful and to your liking because I don't know the measurements.

Open each can of beans and drain about half the juices. Pour beans into 1 quart saucepan over medium-low heat. Add cumin, cayenne, salt, chili pepper, a handful of chopped green onions and a couple spoonfuls of prepared salsa and stir. Allow beans to simmer and reduce while you prepare the rest of the dish.

In a small skillet, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil. Fry tortillas individually until they are somewhat crisp, then set them aside.

In a larger skillet, heat 1/4 tablespoon or so of butter with a dash of olive oil (to keep butter from getting too hot). Fry eggs to your liking, sprinkling with some salt and pep.

While all of this is happening, hopefully one of your minions (or your sister) will grate the cheese and chop the rest of the onions. 

To assemble all ingredients:

Layer tortilla, black beans, 2 eggs, sprinkle of cheese, dollop of sour cream and salsa and green onions. Garnish with a healthy blob of guac on the side (or on top of the whole shebang if you please). Add a slice of lime on the side to squeeze. Voilá! Easy, Americany Eggs of the Ranch.

 

And if your mother is hanging around, she could make a fruit salad with cherries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries and watermelon, with a squeeze of lime. 

Enjoy!

Summer Fruit Fantasia

Summer fruit, you're making me CRAZY! For the past few weeks I've been on a fruit binge. I'm not proud of it, but I try to be honest with you, my loyal readers. I've been gorging on cherries, strawberries, blueberries, plums, apricots and more... It's just all that luscious juicy fruit in season right now... glistening, jewel-like in the produce aisles, beckoning to me with sweet, sun-ripened deliciousness...

Ahem. Anyway, oddly I only finding myself really wanting to bake during the summertime, as baked goods incorporating fruit are my absolute favorite hot weather treats. Another summertime treat is going to the library. Yep, the library. I loooove wandering about in the library for hours, poking through random shelves and accumulating a pile that I know will never be returned in three weeks. This is how I happened upon the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. In the world of food blogging, the Zuni Cafe Cookbook is highly revered. I've come across soooo many delicious recipes that are punctuated with rants and borderline worship of this cookbook. So when I happened upon it in a search for another Alice Waters tome, I went for it.

The book is very nice, I must say, and there is a wide assortment of dishes that are both tempting and doable. My first foray was Polenta with Fresh Corn, which was delicious the first night; the next night I fried it with olive oil, rosemary and sage...SO GOOD. My second Zuni Cafe foray was a dessert. A very, very delicious dessert that was not very much trouble to make at all. Let me tell you about it.

Shortcake with Summer Fruit  (from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers)

 Serves 6

There are two preparations for this dish: fruit and shortcakes (and whipped cream).

First, prepare the fruit so that it can lurk, macerate and become the juicy soup that you desire.

Fruit Topping
Ingredients:
3/4 cup light dry white wine, chilled (I used dry riesling)
6 tablespoons sugar (or more if you like things sweeeet)
4 small or 2 large ripe peaches or nectarines (I used two medium peaches)
3 cups mixed ripe berries (I used strawberries, but blackberries, blueberries, raspberries or mulberries would all be delicious...the author suggests olallieberries, loganberries, boysenberries or tayberries... WHAT ARE THOSE?!!?!)

Stir together the wine and sugar in a wide bowl. It should be wide so that all the fruities can bathe equally in this wine/sugar bath. Add more sugar if your sweet tooth is actin' up.

Now here things get interesting. Judy would have you layer the fruit in a specific sequence, going peaches then nectarines then strawbs, then all other berries. There is no explanation for this, but I naturally did not read the instructions thoroughly and threw the strawbs in first, then the peaches. Nothing seemed to go wrong, so do what you want. Just make sure that when you stir them together you do not bruise or break apart the fruit. Be gentle!!!

Tip for peeling peaches: This is pure genius. Judy says to lower the peaches into simmering water, removing after 10 to 15 seconds when the skin has loosened. Slide into cold water and cool, easily peeling off the skin. Amazing!

Tips for chopping strawberries:
Get a SLAP CHOP!!! My boyfriend gave me one for my birthday (along with some other delightful things including dinner at a Spanish restaurant and a Basque cooking class for two!!!) as a joke based on this video, but the hilarious part is...this gadget works! I slapped those strawberries into bits in no time...and cleanup was a snap!

Ok, once the excitement of slap chopping is over...cut peeled peaches in wedges and add them to the bowl. If you don't have a SC, hull and coarsley slice strawberries and add to the bowl.

Remember to gently swirl the fruit into the wine. Cover loosely and leave to macerate for an hour or more at room temp, gently turning the fruit after about 30 min. Use a rubber spatula.  Add more wine or sugar to sweeten or de-sweeten.

Ok, so now that you've gotten your fruit drunk on white wine, it's time to really get your hands dirrrty on some shortcakes.

Bakin' Up the Shortcakes

Ingredients for six biscuits:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons salted butter, cut into 1/4 inch slabs and chilled
1 cup plus up to 1 tablespoon cold heavy cream
water to brush the tops

Whipped Cream:
1 to 1 1/4 cold heavy cream
sugar to taste

While your fruit is macerating (hahaaaaa), preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Cut and smash the cold butter into the four mixture, until the butter is reduced to flakes the size of cornflakes. This cornflakes size comparison comes from Judy herself, but I never saw cornflakes, but it was clear to me when the butter was smashed enough and the dough became coarse.

Pour in 1 cup of the cream, distributing over all of the flour. Work it in quickly. It will be kind of funky and sticky- if there are really dry spots pour on a bit more cream to bind the flour, but don't worry if it is ragged in some places. It IS biscuit dough after all.

Flour a cool surface (such as a marble countertop) and gently flatten your dough into a roughly rectangular form. Dust it and use your fancy french rolling pin that your mother gave you to roll the dough 1 inch thick. If it's sticking to surfaces, add more flour. Use a sharp(!) knife to cute the dough into six squares. Brush the tops lightly with water.

Place on baking sheet at least 2 inches apart so the biscuits don't steam each other as they bake. Bake until golden brown, about 20-25 min. It's important not to let them underbake or they will become heavyyyy. Cool on a wire rack.

NOW, whip the cream and whip it good. You could do this with a mixer, or by hand with a whisk if you're feeling old school. Add sugar to taste.

Split the biscuit and top the bottom with tasty fruit and wine syrup. Add a healthy dollop of your whipped cream and perch the browned top part on top.

Consume with the fury of a thousand suns. 

Enjoy!

I'm a hot little pepper...

First, an apology....

Hey guys. What can I say? Have you ever had a 4 week + span in which you have been bombarded with work and life and not really been able to update your blog to the standards you'd like?

Well, that's pretty much what's been going on. I moved, went on vacation and then got bodyslammed by work, and then went to NYC and turned old (yay birthdays!). You know it's bad when your dear mother emails you with "Where has Ellenfork gone?? I miss her..."

Guilt trip to the max. But it's not because I don't still love each and every one of you like the food lusting children I don't have. Let's just make up and move on, ok y'all?

Now the fun part...

Before this marathon of packing, moving, unpacking, working and traveling ensued, I prepared. I prepared for the day when it would be my good fortune to snack again. You saw the Preserved Lemons, now please let me introduce you to Pickled Jalapeños.

For some reason, I've been obsessing over the idea of pickling, canning and preserving. Perhaps this is because as summer progresses, so does the possibility of an overflow of vegetables from my CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture- wherein I receive boxes of fresh vegetables from a local organic farm, all summer long!!!). My thoughts have turned to canned tomatoes and pickled veggies of kinds. As you may have learned by now, my tastes strongly lean towards  tangy, savory and acidic foodstuffs, and pickles and other brine-saturated items are at the top of my snack list. Pickled beets, cucumbers, onions, cauliflower, okra, carrots, green beans...give me one of each, please!

This delightful and simple recipe came from David Lebovitz, by way of Michael Symon's Live to Cook.

Pickled Jalapeños

1 pound  fresh jalapeno peppers, washed
2 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons coarse salt, such as kosher
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons black peppercorns

1. Pierce the flesh of the peppers three or so times and place them in a glass jar. I used a delightful jar called "Slom" from Ikea.

2. In a non-reactive saucepan, bring the other ingredients to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes.

3. Remove from heat and let cool for five minutes, then pour the brine over the peppers. Place the lid on the jar and let cool. Once cool, refrigerate for at least a week before using, but more is better. They should last up to six months in the fridge.

David says "Serve whole, with Mexican dishes, or remove the seeds then chop and use to season any recipe that is improved by a little bit of sweet heat."

So far I've chopped these up and added them to napa cabbage slaw, marinated steaks with them and added them to fish tacos for some spicy crunch. Seriously, these babies are amazing!! AND, I can't wait to use them more often, as the Rick Bayless cookbook my mother gave me for my birthday calls for Pickled J's a lot.

Tell me, how would YOU use these little guys?