Archive for October 28, 2008

28 Oct 2008
Cookery • Desserts • Fruit recipe • Recipes

Pineapple Upside Down Cake for 150

pineapple upside down cake

Note: Recipe has been updated on February 11, 2009 to clarify some instructions and correct a typo.

When we moved to the country, we decided to join the local Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company. It took us a while to actually do it, but both Keith & I became members early this year. My role is strictly support and fund raising. For instance, I build our web site, I help with putting together flyers, brochures, with setting up fund-raiser dinners, breakfast, bake sales etc. Those activities are more critical than ever this year, as we are buying a much needed new fire tanker. Joining a volunteer fire company is a sure way to become more engaged in a new community and it allows you to give your time and your skills to your local community in a way that makes a difference: we help neighbors in emergencies.

This past week-end, WVFR offered an-all you can eat ham & oyster dinner as part of its continued efforts to raise money for our new tanker fund. I was working that night, cooking a 5-course dinner for 11 on a lovely hilltop house, I would not be able to participate. So I said I would bake one of my specialties: a pineapple upside-down cake.

I have a soft spot for upside-down cakes (something easily verifiable by looking at the list of cake recipes I posted so far); I love pineapple, one of the fruit growing at my childhood home; and I love the uncomplicated unsophisticated sheer goodness of a good pineapple upside down cake. Don’t get me wrong, I have eaten my share of unpalatable ones – generally too dry. But this cake is moist and flavorful.

I have found that it’s a popular cake at gathering (I rarely have any left over to take home); people of a certain age (over 40) reminiscence fondly about it (how their mom used to make one for their birthdays for example), and yet – not many people make it today. You can be pretty sure to see multiple plates of brownies at a pot-luck, but I have never seen another pineapple upside-down cake (as a matter of fact, a young 18-year old at that dinner had never seen one). It does take a little time to make, but really, not that much. Is this the butter in it that people are afraid of? Is this that there were too many poor versions that were made? For me, it’s one of those ideal, comforting, utterly delicious and homey cake that can be made in advance and is good at any time of the day, like a real homemade pound cake, as a matter of fact. And it’s so good for breakfast with a cup of strong coffee made stove-top in the percolator. Read more

sylvie | 11 comments | Tags: , , , ,
20 Oct 2008
Cookery • Kitchen Garden • locavore log • vegetable

Sweet Banana

Frost last night blackened part of the garden. Bad enough to burn the brillantsia, the sweet potato leaves, and a good part of the basil. Not hard enough for the tomatoes, peppers, dahlias nor strawberries for that matter.

I spent most of yesterday’s afternoon picking up the remaining ripe tomatoes (mostly cherries and ‘Princepe Borghese’), the large green ones that I can fry, greens beans, strawberries and lots of peppers. Which reminds me to talk about one of my favorite pepper sweet pepper: ‘Sweet Banana’.

Sweet Banana peppersAs you can guess from the name, it’s yellow (a pale yellow maturing orangey/red) and it’s elongated, up to 6 or 7 inches long. According to Burpee, Sweet Banana was an AAS (All American Selection) Bronze Medal winner for 1941. I can certainly understand why it still is popular: in the garden, it’s handsome, easy, vigorous and fruitful, that’s why. It ripens early, remains productive throughout the season – until killed by frost, really. While the plant is fairly small, as peppers go, it is vigorous and erect, holding its fruit well so they don’t trail on the ground.

In the kitchen, its sweet mildness lends itself to a variety of preparations. Slowly fried, roasted or grilled, they are wonderful as side dish to meat, but also on sandwiches or tossed with pasta. They make tasty pickles, either cut into rings (the easier to pack the jar) or even whole. Sautéed they bring a nice taste to turkey cutlets, to fajitas or to a quick vegetable stew. They stir fry well. Of course, you don’t have to do anything to them, and you can just munch on them AS-IS.

If you buy the plant or the fruit, make sure you are buying the sweet pepper ‘Sweet Banana’, not the hot yellow banana also know as Hungarian wax. The surprise would be quite painful!

sylvie | 4 comments | Tags: , ,
15 Oct 2008
Cookery • Dairy recipe • Desserts • egg recipe • locavore log • Recipes

When You Have Eggs, Make Custard… or Flan

I love a good baked custard – or flan as we call in France (which is not the same as a Spanish flan – maybe a post for another day). And although the last few days have been warm, the down spiraling leaves are letting us know – in no uncertain terms – that cooler times are coming. As a matter of fact, they are supposed to sweep through the area Saturday with near freezing temperature. The next two days are going to be spent in a frenzy of tasks that should have been accomplished weeks ago: digging up the banana trees, moving into the greenhouse all the tender plants I want to keep over the winter, pick up the last of the tomatoes (and up-root the now unsightly plants), harvest all the remaining basil and turn it into pesto… Fat chance of being able to even accomplish half of it!

Maple Vanilla Baked Custard

But at least, on Saturday, as the evening gets really chilly, I can console myself with a nice little flan. Easy to make, it only requires a few ingredients, so it makes sense to get the best ingredients you can: whole local organic milk from pastured cows, fresh fat farm eggs from free-range chicken allowed to roam in the pasture to forage for at least part of their food – and real vanilla bean.

Do you know that this orchid (yes, vanilla beans are the fruit of an orchid) originates from Mexico? When it was exported to other countries in the hope of producing vanilla and break the Spanish monopoly – in the 18th century – growers were very disappointed that they could not get the orchid flower to fruit (it’s because the orchid needs a specialized pollinator endemic to Mexico). It was not until a slave figured how to manually fertilize vanilla in the early 19th century on French Bourbon Island in the Indian Ocean (now Reunion) that the culture of vanilla took off in so many different places around the world. Bourbon Vanilla now comes from Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius and I believe some of the Comoros Islands. Growers on Reunion are trying to establish international recognition for their vanilla – for cultural, historical, agricultural and culinary reasons.

No matter the origin of your vanilla bean, ensure it’s plump for maximum flavor.

For my custard, especially at this time of the year, I like to add a touch of maple syrup (from not too far Pennsylvania), and so that gives us Maple Vanilla Bean Baked Custard.

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09 Oct 2008
Appetizer • Cookery • fruit • Fruit recipe • Kitchen Garden • locavore log • Soups • Vegetable recipe

Of Apples and Apple Soup

Gala, Crispin (or Mutsu), Fuji, Honeycrisp, Rhode Island Greening, York, McIntosh, Jonathan & Jonagold, Stayman Winesap, even Golden Delicious (one of MY favorites), Red Delicious & Granny Smith: those are just a few of the cultivars of apples available for pick up at our local orchards. As the season continues, the late apples will come in, such as the Black Arkansas and the Lady apple, a small perfumed apple that will keep well into February.

Trio of applesThe names dance in a litany of languages – there are more than 7,500 cultivars of orchard apple, Malus domestica. Some were bred purposefully, such as Jonagold, a cross between Jonathan and Golden Delicious developed in 1943 in New York. Others were chance seedlings judged good enough to be propagated, such as Golden Delicious discovered on the farm of Anderson Mullins in Clay County, West Virginia in 1912, and the official apple of the State of West Virginia since 1955. The Rhode Island Greening is an old, historic American apple variety that originated in 1650 in Newport, Rhodes Island: it’s – surprise! – the official apple of Rhode Island. The Spitzenberg that originated in Esopus, New York, in the mid 18th century was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson: it’s still grown at Monticello, and is sometime available at farmstands in Virginia.

But while we think of apples as “American”, the fruit was brought to the new world by settling Europeans whose ancestors had received it hundreds or thousands of years before. Apples originated in the central mountainous provinces of Eurasia (where they still grow wild in an incredible array of shapes, forms, colors and tastes) and were spread over 10,000 years ago, by nomadic population of hunters/gatherers who “settled down” as they started to cultivate crops. The apple made its way to China, India, the Middle-East and Europe thousands of years ago. Remains of apples were found in excavation of Jericho and dated to about 6,500 BC. Dried apples sliced were placed in royal tombs of modern Southern Iraq around 2500 BC to be found by modern archeologists. Homer mentions apples in the Odyssey. The Romans cultivated apples extensively (the Lady apple is thought to come straight from that ancient time when it was known as Api apple – it’s still called Api in French today, the “pomme d’Api”). The Romans disseminated the apples to the far corners of their empire including the British isles where only crab apples (different species altogether) where known until then. And the British brought it to their American colonies.

When one picks up an apple, one picks up more than just a fruit: one picks up a piece of our human story that dates back to before records were written and a piece of our common heritage.

Now you want a recipe? Oh… Ok, but there is no picture – yet.

How about apple & carrot soup, linking two important fresh produce of fall? It’s one of the recipes I taught on my recent “Cooking with Apples” workshop. Read more

sylvie | 3 comments | Tags: , , , ,
06 Oct 2008
Cookery • locavore log • Main Dish • Meat/poultry Recipe • Soups • Vegetable recipe

Roast Chicken on Sunday = Tex-Mex Chowder on Day 4

Continuing our series of Roast Chicken on Sunday means easy tasty meals for the week… This is day 4 and we are using the remaining Day 2’s Chicken Tomatillo Soup of which we made a big batch. With the help of onions, potatoes and corn, we are going to transform it into a robust, flavorful, unusual and mostly meatless chowder that’s perfect for a cool fall night. Yes folks, there is still some late corn out there – if you can’t find it, just use frozen corn.

A bowl of tomatillo corn chowder

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01 Oct 2008
Cookery • locavore log • Main Dish • Meat/poultry Recipe • Recipes • Vegetable recipe

Chicken on Sunday = Fall Rainbow Stir-fry on Day 3

Continuing our series of Roast Chicken on Sunday means easy tasty meals for the week… This is day 3 and we are using one cooked breast from our Roast Chicken. You can still make this stir-fry using an an uncooked chicken breast. You just need to stir fry it longer to ensure it’s cooked through, before adding back the vegetable.

The idea behind stir-fry is to use what you have. Pick 3 or 4 vegetable with contrasting colors, that remain firm when cooked (not tomatoes), that cook quickly (not potatoes) and that do not “bleed” (not beetroot). I picked yellow beans, broccoli florets and red Italian peppers (in addition to onion), because they made a pretty colorful plate, and I had all of them on hand. Other choice at this time of the year might be: corn, green beans and orange bell peppers. Or green bell pepper, shredded cabbage and julienned carrots… you get the idea.

When making stir-fry, it’s important to have all the ingredients trimmed and cut to size, i.e. ready to go into the pot – that, by the way is called “Mise en place” in restaurant lingo - because each ingredients cooks fast. It’s also important to cut/slice/dice each ingredient into the same size to ensure even cooking. Finally, while a wok is nice, it’s not necessary: a cast iron skillet (which is what I use) works just as well. However, do not overcrowd the pan, or the result will be steamed ingredients, not stir-fried. Much better to cook in small batches! Each ingredient is first cooked separately, and set aside. Finally everything is added back to the pan with the seasoning liquid and cooked for a couple of minutes.

A plate of Fall Rainbow Stir-Fry

Fall Rainbow Stir Fry Read more

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