Real Creamed Spinach. Really!

I can't say I ever ate creamed spinach as a kid. Or really as an adult. It just always seemed somehow...creepy...to me. I love spinach-in salads and sauteed with garlic-but creamed? Blech! When I began my cooking job at the ranch, the freezer was stocked with quite a few boxes of Green Giant Creamed Spinach. I used them and bought more and now it is common to have it on the table there-especially at Thanksgiving. I tried it once and it wasn't terrible (not quite an endorsement, huh?), but I still preferred spinach sauteed with garlic. Until now. My garden is full of spinach and I've been looking for different ways to use it. Last week a recipe showed up by email and after some fiddling around it has become my very favorite use of spinach. So much so that we've eaten it twice in 2 days and the recipe that supposedly serves 4, leaves Scott and I wanting more. Here's how I make it:

Pick 12 cups of spinach (about 12 ounces)-or buy a 12 ounce bag of spinach-and remove the stems. I used all spinach the first time I made it, but today I used a mixture of spinach and chard.

Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat and add the greens. You can dump them in all at once if your skillet will hold them or wilt them in 2 batches.

Cook just until wilted and then transfer to a colander placed in the sink to drain.

Take 2 large peeled shallots and slice them thin.

Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter in the skillet and saute the shallots over medium heat until they are soft.

Add a 1/4 teaspoon of salt and then pour in 1/3 cup of white wine. I use a St. Gen Sauvignon Blanc-Texas made, inexpensive and a perfectly good cooking wine.

Increase the heat to medium high and cook until the wine is all but evaporated. This only takes a minute or two. There will be a thin sheen of liquid in the pan, but not enough to puddle.

Lower heat to medium again and add 1/3 cup of heavy cream. Stir until the cream thickens a bit, another minute or so.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 or 3 grinds of pepper and some freshly grated nutmeg.

Throw the drained spinach back into the skillet and toss it around to mix thoroughly with the cream mixture.

Sprinkle with 2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan or Emmenthaler cheese and serve!

Here's the recipe (adapted from a recipe from Fine Cooking):

Creamed Spinach with Shallots

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
12 oz. spinach (about 12 loosely packed cups)
2 medium shallots thinly sliced
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup heavy cream
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
2 Tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan or Emmenthaler cheese

Melt 1 Tbs. of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the spinach and cook just until wilted, about 2 minutes (you can do this in 2 batches if your skillet won't hold it all). Transfer to a colander in the sink.
Melt the remaining tablespoon butter over medium heat and then add the shallots. Cook until softened but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add the wine, raise the heat to medium high, and cook until almost evaporated, about 2 minutes. Lower heat back to medium and add the cream. Simmer until it’s thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Season with 1/2 tsp. salt, 3 grinds of pepper, and the nutmeg. Stir in the spinach and toss it around to mix thoroughly with the cream mixture. Top with the cheese and serve!  
Makes 2 generous servings

Homemade Almond Paste and The Garden Revisited

I love almonds. And I love anything made with them. Almond cake, almond cookies, almond paste. I make quite a few recipes that use almond paste and there have been times when our local grocery was out, as was my pantry. And really, a 7 ounce tube runs close to $6 and something in me (the cheapskate) cringed everytime I bought one. I've been making a new recipe that I so love. I think it is one of the best desserts I've ever eaten. It is called a Pithivier (pronounced P-T-V-A) and it is an almond dessert extraordinnaire! I saw it in Paris called a Galette des Rois,(click on this link for the most beautiful Pithivier I've ever seen. It was made by Tamami, a friend and fellow baker in London) but I believe at different times of the year, it is called different names (gotta' love the Parisians). The dessert consists of a puff pastry top and bottom filled with the most exquisite almond filling. An entire tube of almond paste goes into the filling. I've made a few of them and they are not inexpensive to make-especially because of the $6 tube of almond paste in the filling (we won't talk about the massive amounts of butter). So I went on a search for a better source for almond paste than my local grocery. I got the price down to about $4.85 for 7 ounces. But that still seemed crazy, I mean it is almonds and sugar, more or less. Well MORE I found out, but totally manageable to make at home with pretty simple ingredients. I made almost 4 pounds of almond paste from scratch this morning in less than 30 minutes. And it's good-I mean it's "cut off slices and snack on them all day" kinda' good. The ingredients:

Blanched almond flour, sugar, honey and almond extract. I forgot to put the sugar in the photograph. I found the almond flour online through a company called Honeyville. If you sign up for emails from then, you receive discount emails. Mostly 10% off. I bought 5 pounds of blanched almond flour for just over $30 including shipping. This is enough to make over 20 tubes (7 ounces each) of almond paste. Here's my recipe:

ALMOND PASTE

1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons sugar (250 grams)

1/4 cup honey

7 Tablespoons (a scant half cup) water

3 cups plus 3 Tablespoons blanched almond flour (500 grams)

1 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

about 2 teaspoons soft butter

Place the sugar, honey and water in a saucepan, mix well with a whisk and bring to a hard boil. Place the almond flour in the food processor. Remove the boiling sugar water mixture from the heat and, with the food processor running, slowly pour over the almond flour. Blend until smooth. Add the almond extract and blend again for another minute. You may have to scrape down the sides and push the paste around as it is quite stiff. Dump out onto your counter and grease your hands with the butter. Remember the almond paste will be fairly hot! Knead the almond paste until smooth and cooler-about 5 minutes.
Divide into ounces needed and wrap and store in the freezer. Makes 4-7 ounce "tubes" plus about 3-4 ounces more.

I know these measurements seem odd, but in my kitchen I weigh out ingredients, and usually in grams. My kitchen scale gets used most every day.

I noticed on the label of commercial almond paste there is no almond extract listed. Upon further research I discovered that a particular type of almond is used for almond paste-similar to bitter almonds. Very strong almond taste. I just added almond extract (also made from a variety of bitter almonds) to make up for using regular old almonds. So now my freezer is full of individual packages of homemade almond paste. I see Pithiviers in my future...

I read on Wunderground (weather underground...you mean you don't have a few different weather sites you check each day...really?) that rainfall amounts in Central Texas from December 2011 through February 2012 were in the top 10 since the late 1800's. I measured 12 full inches (my neighbor disputes this, but I think I get a bit extra each time it rains just 'cuz I'm a weather geek). My garden could feed a small country. Look at these pics compared to last month...

Native hollyhocks on the right, poppies and cilantro on the left.

Artichokes in the background, lettuces and chard in front.

Two different sugar molds with lettuces.I have started picking the outer leaves.

Mustard in bloom. The bees have been loving these tiny yellow flowers.
 Lily and I have been taking forays into the woods looking for morels. Even though we didn't have much cold this winter it was quite wet, so I'm hoping we'll have a small crop.
Nothing yet, but it is a few weeks early. It's just been so nice and warm, I thought they might pop out of the ground in response. We'll start hunting in earnest in a week or so, but for now it is nice to take walks with her. 
Enjoy these last few weeks of winter!

Texas Gardening-Expect the Unexpected!

For all my years of gardening in Texas, I've maintained that the garden looks picture perfect for about 15 minutes sometime in early April. Well, this year it looks like it may be early February or maybe the 15 minutes will stretch into a few months! After last years weather -blistering hot temps day after day for months and no rain at all- this year has been a gift. Over 5 inches of rain in December, 2.5 in January and here we are the first week in February and I've already registered just under 2 inches. Amazing and nothing short of magnificent as far as the garden is concerned! I can't keep up with all the greens: 5 kinds of lettuce, mustard spinach, regular spinach, 2 kinds of kale, chard, broccoli raab, beet greens, cilantro and arugula. The cauliflower and broccoli are putting out nice fat heads along with scrumptious leaves. The sugar snap peas that just pushed out of the ground a week and a half ago are growing at record speed. Flowers that haven't been in the garden for years -poppies, larkspur, native hollyhocks- have shown up and are growing like they're on steroids. It's all incredibly encouraging. And a good life lesson for me...sometimes things just need to sit in the soil and wait for the perfect opportunity to burst forth. As good as our intentions may be, if the conditions aren't right, our seeds (and dreams) will not come to fruition. Patience, patience, patience. Not my strong point.

A native hollyhock flanked by cilantro and oregano.

Poppies are everywhere...in the beds, in the paths and between cracks in boards. What a riot of color the garden will be in another month!

A bed of mixed greens: broccoli raab, arugula, romaine

Sugar snap peas ready to climb the lampshade frames. I've used this technique the last two years and it worked great. No sense reinventing the wheel...

I have a few of these old Mexican sugar molds (ever seen piloncillo -Mexican cone sugar-at the grocery store? It used to be formed in molds like these-maybe still is...). I used them to hold up the ends of a bed. This year, I filled them with soil and seeded them with just a few seeds of various kinds of lettuce. I've thinned them down to one or two seedlings per hole. Since lettuce have a fairly small root system, I think each hole will hold one head of lettuce. These pics were taken a week ago. The lettuce is doing real well so far. I'm hoping the storm due this evening doesn't bring hail!

This is a cardoon. It is an interesting Mediterranean vegetable. You pick the leaves -they get very large- and strip off the leafy part so all that remains is the stalk. You then cook and eat the stalk. Very tasty. However, it looks VERY much like an artichoke (below)...they are related, but different.

You can see small differences in the two...slightly more rounded ends on the leaves of the artichoke and the area surrounding the stalk is also wider. But I put them far apart in the garden so I wouldn't get them mixed up. Artichokes are perennials and you'll have them in the garden for many years if you (and the weather) treat them right. My last batch of artichoke plants bit the dust last year when I struggled to keep ANYTHING alive in the garden. I planted 3 new plants this year.

A bed of mixed lettuces, although mostly Romaine. My aversion to neat rows -or maybe just orderliness in general- is apparent here, but it works for me. I scatter seed and as they come up I pick whole plants for salads to create more room. As they get  bigger, I leave the plant in the soil and just snip off outer leaves to eat.

And of course, cauliflower and broccoli. The weather has been warmer than they like, so some worm is nibbling the cauliflower. But their appetites (or stomachs) are small, so they leave pretty good sized heads for us. The leaves are great shredded and sauteed in olive oil with lots of garlic or added to soups.
I am ever hopeful that this wet winter we've been experiencing will result in some morel mushrooms. It would help if it was a bit colder, but I can't help but think the moisture will result in a crop this year.
Happy Gardening in 2012!

Wine Poached Mussels

Scott left this morning to run errands in the city and Lily and Dawn took off to do some Christmas shopping, so I was blissfully alone to bake, bake, bake. Farmers Market is in the morning and bread was on my agenda. Scott came in around 5 and I knew he'd be hungry, so I made these Wine Poached Mussels. In 15 minutes, we were seated at the table with three big bowls in front of us...two empty ones for us to fill and another for the mussel shells. Farmed Mussels are a sustainable seafood and considered eco friendly. They are also incredibly cheap-our local grocery has them for $1.83 for a one pound frozen package. This is how I make them  (I wish I had pictures but these are so easy, there is no need...besides I forgot to take any). Set a fairly deep skillet (I use a French skillet) on the stove and set heat to medium. Pour about 1 1/2 to 2 cups white wine into the skillet. Add the juice of 1/2 a lemon and about 2 Tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces. Crush up about 3/4 teaspoon saffron into the mixture and let it come to a simmer. Open the bag of frozen mussels (you always cook these from their frozen state-don't thaw them) and pour into the skillet. I used 2 pounds (2 bags) because we are gluttons really like mussels. Cover the pan and nudge the heat a bit higher-medium high-and let the mussels cook for about 15 minutes. After about 8 minutes, take the lid off the pan and scoop the mussels so the ones on top go to the bottom. Cover the pan and continue to cook. They are done when you take off the lid and most all the mussels are open. While they are cooking, slice some good bread (usually in abundance at our house) REALLY thin and place on a cookie sheet. Pop in the oven at about 400 degrees. When the mussels are done, the bread should be crisp. I cut the bread diagonally and we put a slice or two in our bowls, scoop a bunch of mussels out of their shells onto the bread and then ladle lots of the cooking liquid over the bread and mussels. Heavenly. I will admit that after dinner I poured the remaining "broth" into a cup and drank it. It took us longer to eat this dinner than it took to make it. When I am busy, this is my kind of cooking.

HAPPY HOLIDAZE!

RAIN! And Browned Butter Snickerdoodles...

Mild weather in the Texas Hill Country...at least for the time being. Misty, moisty mornings and breezy, wet afternoons. Received almost an inch of precipitation overnight...a slow, soaking, drizzly rain. Temps have remained very comfortable with the days in the 60's, but that is coming to a screeching halt starting tomorrow night with a cold front moving in. It's about time! Monday and Tuesday may reach the 40's in the daytime, but will plummet to the 20's at night. Winter weather!!!

Rain keeps me inside and that, combined with the Holiday Season, means lots of baking. Indeed, I sometimes wake at 4 a.m. thinking about things to bake. I know...obsessed...what can I say?

And my major obsession lately has been Browned Butter or rather, baking with it. It is a delight from beginning to end. Yeah, it's an extra step, but you can brown lots ahead of time and then use it as you need it. I browned 1 1/2 pounds of butter yesterday and used every last bit of it this morning in one recipe. Granted, I am making LOTS of cookie dough, but I just as easily could have weighed out the 8 ounces I needed and put the rest in the fridge. It smells heavenly as it is browning (and to me this is the ultimate way to know when it is adequately browned) and elevates everything it comes in contact with. And not just baked goods...try it on fresh steamed green beans, brussels sprouts, asparagus or delicate fish-think tilapia!

But for now I have cookies on my brain, so the entire batch of browned butter went into a jumbo recipe of Snickerdoodles. Laurice Heath is responsible for the original Snickerdoodle recipe I've used for years. I used to make them for every rug hooking retreat I catered for her...and the retreats numbered well over a hundred. Over the years I have changed it ever so slightly to include toffee bits and now to make them with browned butter. A really good Holiday recipe, because the dough can be made in advance, rolled in balls and refrigerated or frozen. When you are ready to make cookies, simply bring the balls to room temp, roll in cinnamon-sugar and bake!

My last post included a description of how to brown butter, but I thought pictures may help. Remember to go low and slow and use your eyes and nose as a guide when you are reaching the end.

Start with melting unsalted butter in a heavy, light colored skillet (the light color allows you to see the progress of the browning).

The butter will foam and bubble.

You'll begin to notice brown bits on the bottom of the pan (under the foamy stuff), but the butter will be golden, not yet brown. Keep the heat low and swirl the pan a bit if you are bored.

You may start detecting a nutty smell. You'll want the solids (the browned bits on the bottom of the pan) pretty dark and the liquid on top to be amber colored. When it is ready the nutty smell is strong and the solids need to be scraped off the bottom of the pan. Don't neglect the solids...I think they carry lots of the flavor and a nice color to the finished product. Although I've seen recipes where the butter is strained so it is nice and clear, to me this is the white bread of browned butter...all the good stuff left behind.

It might be easier to distinguish the colors in this pic where the butter is poured into a white bowl.

At this point just let the butter cool and then store in the fridge or freezer.When it cools it solidifys to the texture of shortening. Try the browned butter in a recipe you already make and see what a subtle, but delicious change it makes.

Here is the Snickerdoodle recipe for you. You can make it with regular unsalted butter-not browned-and you won't be dissappointed. You can also make it with or without toffee bits...good each way. It is really just a great recipe however you decide to dress it up or down. Thanks, Laurice!!

Laurice's Snickerdoodles

2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, room temp (brown it or not-your choice)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 2/3 cups unbleached flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup toffee bits (optional)

cinnamon-sugar

Cream butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix again. Add flour, soda, cream of tartar, salt and toffee bits, if using and mix to blend. Roll into balls and then roll in cinnamon-sugar. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Cookies will be soft to touch. Cool on rack. About 3 dozen cookies. You can roll these into balls and then freeze or refrigerate them. When you need cookies (and sometimes we just NEED cookies, don't we?), bring however many cookie balls you need to room temp, roll in cinnamon-sugar and bake. If the dough is still cold, flatten them a bit before baking.

We finished our huge Thanksgiving gig last Sunday and this year, I took some pics. Not of the meals, or the techniques of creating the meals, but-strangely enough-of the table settings. I've always marveled how my life has turned out, that my profession is a cook, because I've joked that the only thing domestic about me is that I was born in this country. But still, my true joy happens in the kitchen. When I began the job of feeding the masses at Thanksgiving, I found cabinet after cabinet filled with different patterns of dishes, glasses, napkins and placemats. It was, truth be told, a bit overwhelming for me. Now, after 8 years, it is a really fun part of my job. Weird, huh? So I thought I would share some of the tables I set during the week. I'm not sure what this says about me, but here it is.

Thank Goodness It's November and a recipe for Banana Oatmeal Cake with Browned Butter Icing

It has been a very busy Autumn...October went by in a blur. As soon as I returned from my week in Germany on the last day of September, it was a marathon that ended on November's doorstep. I am thrilled to have survived.

My sister, Dawn, moved down to Texas from Connecticut the same day Scott left on a week long motorcycle trip with his brother. The day after Scott returned from his trip, he did a 2 day stint at Garrison's Bros. -of Bourbon fame- in Hye, Texas. His brother volunteered with him the first day and I went the second. The very next day we left on a L-O-N-G train trip to New Orleans for Marta's wedding. That was a weekend for the memory book...fabulous food (I didn't expect any less), a very cool hotel, an amazing wedding and reception (I danced in very high heels for 3 hours) and then back home on the train...all six of us-Scott and I, Dawn, Skip (my ex), Lily and sweet Natalie. Nat loved the train of course-it was all a huge adventure for her. I taught her to do Sudoku and she went on to teach Dawn and GooGoo (Skip). She completely amazes me on a regular basis.

After returning from New Orleans, we didn't even stop to catch our breath before Dawn and I baked almost 900 cookies for the Harvest Classic. It was another successful benefit and an altogether fun weekend.
A selection of miscellaneous photos follow the recipe.

Having my sister here has been great. We spent the first two days talking about our childhood. After getting THAT out of the way, we could start moving forward. She is a happy gal and it is fun hanging out with her.

So now I am preparing for our huge Thanksgiving gig in Camp Verde. Did my first day of shopping today and tomorrow I will start working in earnest.

I wanted to post a recipe I developed last year that went over real well. It goes together pretty quickly and is more than the sum of its parts. Not much more than a simple snack cake, it is elevated by the addition of oatmeal to the cake batter and browning the butter in the icing.

BANANA OATMEAL CAKE WITH BROWNED BUTTER ICING

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup plain yogurt

2 Tablespoons buttermilk

2 eggs

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 over ripe bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats-not quick oats

1 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

ICING:

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 1/2 cup sifted confectioners sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (350 degrees if using a glass baking dish). Grease a 9x9 square baking pan. In a mixer, cream together brown sugar, yogurt, buttermilk, eggs and butter until smooth. Add mashed bananas and vanilla and mix well. Add remaining ingredients and mix until combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the cake has pulled ever so slightly from the sides of the pan. Cool on a rack.

To make the icing, place the butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Do not use a cast iron skillet as you want to be able to gauge the color of the butter and a dark skillet will prevent you from doing this. Let the butter melt and then foam a bit. The top will show bubbles and then a thin layer of "foam". The butter will begin to color a bit and dark specks will form on the bottom of the pan. You want the butter to be darker than golden, but not dark brown. I usually wait for it to get golden then take it off the heat and let it finish on the counter. The residual heat from the pan keeps it cooking...one reason a heavy bottomed pan is essential. The butter will have a delicious, nutty smell. Mix the browned butter with the sifted confectioners sugar. It will be lumpy. Add the heavy cream and vanilla and beat until smooth. You can add a teaspoon or two more of heavy cream if needed to make a smooth icing. Spread over the cooled cake.

A few pics from last month:

Bottles filling with some very fine Bourbon at Garrison Bros.

The view from above of some very happy (and busy) volunteers

Scott doing some quality control

I wish I could say I took the excellent photos above, but they were all taken by the very talented photographer, Gregg Burger. He has so many more of the bottling process at Garrisons on his website: http://www.burgersphoto.com/  Check them out!

Lily, me and Dawn at the Harvest Classic.

Natalie

Natalie and I

Scott and I with Marta

GooGoo with his girls

Just Married!!

Congratulations Marta and James!