The Citrus Goes On - Scallops with Blood Orange Gastrique (Gastrique!)

In the midst of my citrus kick, I plopped down on my couch on Sunday morning and flipped open an old copy of Bon Appetit (it takes me a few months to feel like I have really not missed any recipes that I NEED to try) and on the very first page I found a recipe for scallops with blood orange gastrique. The very term gastrique intimidated me and I was quite sure that gastriques were something that could only be concocted in restaurants, by professionals. I quickly moved on but, by the end of the magazine, realized that I couldn't resist it any longer and decided to make my very first gastrique!

The only problem is that, as it turns out, a gastrique is really shockingly easy to make, much less complicated than stock, so it takes away, a bit, from my triumph, but here goes anyways. I began by heating three tablespoons of granulated sugar in a sauce pot over medium heat. As instructed I stirred until it dissolved and, once dissolved, I left it alone until it turned golden (I have burnt sugar in the past and tried very hard to not do that again). Once the sugar was a deep golden color, I gradually poured in one tablespoon red wine vinegar and, as the recipe warned, the mixture hardened. It slowly melted and then I poured in 3/4 cup blood orange juice and 1/4 cup tangerine juice. From here it was easy, boil for five minutes until the mixture has reduced a bit. Then add in 1 1/2 cups chicken stock and bring it back up to a boil. Let it boil until reduced to about 1/2 cup, this took me about 20 mins and I might have even let it go a little longer. Remove from heat and set aside.

Finally, for the scallop - as the recipe instructed I rinsed the scallop, dried it thoroughly, and then seared it at high heat with out moving it around until it was ready to flip. I did it scallop by scallop just to give myself multiple attempts. My first scallop, pictured above, started to sear nicely and then, the pan began to burn, aggressively. It smelled horrible, the scallop seemed to secrete water causing the burning to spread across the pan - it was a bit of disaster. I removed the scallop and the scallop seemed to have come out okay (not great but intact), but the pan was in a bad way. Long story short, I continued to practice but I still do not have my caramelizing tactics down - I will forge on.
         All in all, the meal was a success. The scallop had a nice crispness on the outside and was creamy and tender in the middle, accompanied by the gastrique which, if I do say so myself, turned out quite nicely - a pleasant taste of acidity with a sweet finish.

Citrus "week" continues - Lemon Risotto

I am still working on perfecting my risotto, and in an effort to practice I decided to make a lemon risotto. I tried to employ a very basic method and incorporate a little lemony lightness.

I began by warming six cups of good chicken stock in a pot on the stove. In a separate, large pot, saute 2 cloves garlic and 3 large shallots in a pat of butter and a drizzle of olive oil. Saute until the shallots are translucent. Toss in a few sprigs of fresh thyme and marjoram. Add in two cups of arborio rice and 'toast' the rice for about 3 minutes, adding a little more olive oil as needed.

Once the rice is evenly toasted, deglaze the pan with 1/3 cup dry white wine. Let the alcohol burn off. Now, the fun begins -- it's time to start adding in the stock. Add a ladle-full of stock to the rice and stir over medium heat until the liquid is mostly absorbed. Repeat this until you have used up all the stock -- it will take 15-20 minutes.

It's all downhill from here: turn off the heat BEFORE the last ladle-full is completely absorbed. Apparently, and I just had this knowledge impressed upon me care of Top Chef, "proper" risotto is supposed to be creamy but a bit runny. It is not supposed to sit up in a heap. As I said, my risotto is a work in progress. To finish the risotto, stir in 1/2 cup parmesan, 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon zest and the juice of one lemon. Add salt and pepper to taste and dig in while it's hot.

I riffed on this recipe, thanks to Bon Appetit magazine.

Citrus Week - Blood Orange Polenta Cake

While much of the country has been experiencing chillingly cold temperatures and aggressive snow storms we have had an unseasonably warm week here in sunny (?!!) San Francisco. I took advantage and went down to the Ferry Market - where I can really only afford to look and get ideas - which I did! The weather felt like corn on the cob and juicy peaches but it is still citrus season so I decided to celebrate with a blood orange dessert.

I love the gritty crunch of cornmeal in my cakes and luckily I located this recipe for blood orange polenta cake in Bon Appetit. To begin you combine 3/4 cup plus three tablespoons flour, 3 heaping tablespoons corn meal (I put in extra), and 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder in a bowl. Set aside.
Now this is the part where I, to put it nicely, diverged from the recipe. I, sadly, do not have a cast iron skillet (sniff sniff), nor do I have any sort of pan that can bake in the oven (notice the black plastic handle), so I made the caramel sauce in a pan and was prepared to transfer it to a cake/pie pan. Begin by putting 6 tablespoons granulated sugar and 3 tablespoons water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Increase the heat, bring to a boil and don't stir. Let it cook until the sugar mixture turns a light caramel color but BEFORE it turns dark and burns.

Here's the part where I may or may not have screwed up - remove from the heat, quickly add in 2 tablespoons butter and then hurriedly dump it into the cake tin before it hardens and becomes unmanageable (I may or may not have been on the phone while doing this and at the same time been trying to take photos and then I may or may not have forgotten to add in the butter . . . it all worked out). Thinly slice two blood oranges and arrange them neatly on top of the caramel mixture. Set aside.

Batter time - Beat 3/4 cup sugar, 6 tablespoons butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a bowl. Once combined and fluffy, beat in two egg yolks (reserving the whites) one at a time. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the addition of 6 tablespoons of whole milk (start and finish with the dry!).
Once all that is combined, beat your egg whites until they form soft peaks, throw in 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, and beat until the whites form stiff peaks. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter, then fold in the remaining whites.

Spoon the batter on top of the blood oranges. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. It recommends serving it with whipped creme fraiche. I bought the creme fraiche but then, in my excitement/exhaustion, I completely forgot about it, though I managed to still thoroughly enjoy the cake sans creme.

A guilty snack - chocolate barks

I don't know if this really counts as cooking, but I made two different kinds of barks, and I was so happy to eat them I thought I would share.

For the pretzel bark - In a double boiler melt down 12 ounces of dark chocolate (maybe Scharffenberger bittersweet 70% cacao . . .?) until it is smooth and creamy (but not burnt). In a sheet pan lined with parchment paper pour out the melted chocolate and spread it around evenly with a spatula. Crumble 1 cup of thin salted pretzels and sprinkle them across the chocolate. For the final step sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt. Refrigerate for 3 hours. Once hardened, break the bark into pieces and devour.
For the peanut butter bark - melt 16 ounces of milk chocolate in a double boiler. Pour the chocolate in another lined sheet pan. Spread evenly. Warm 1 1/2 cups of peanut butter in the double boiler. Pour the peanut butter in with the chocolate. Swirl a knife through the peanut butter to make it all pretty. Place the bark in the fridge for some hours. Check to make sure it is set and then put the point of a knife into it to break it into pieces.

Not for the Meat-Faint-of-Heart: Winter Oxtail Stew

Even though it appears that spring is making a guest appearance here in San Francisco (a 70 degree day in January!), I am doing an ode to winter with my mom's oxtail stew. She made this for New Year's Eve this year and it was divine - hearty and velvety. Mmmm...

Begin by browning 2-3 lbs of seasoned (w/ salt and pepper) oxtails in a large, well-loved pot with some olive oil. Remove the oxtails and place them aside. Throw in 4-5 chopped celery stalks and 4 chopped carrots. Cook for 5-10 minutes.
Replace the oxtails in the pot. Add in a head of garlic cloves, 2 cups good quality beef stock and 2 cups of red wine. Also add a couple bay leafs, 5 sprigs of fresh thyme and 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a simmer then reduce heat to low and cover. Cook for 3 hours.

While the stew is cooking, oven roast some root veggies. Roughly chop 3 carrots and a couple of parsnips and turnips, maybe even some potatoes. Toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread them out in a roasting pan and throw in a 350 degree oven for about an hour or until tender and nicely caramelized.

Skim the fat off the top of the stew. Add in the roasted vegetables and cook on low for another 1/2 hour. Then dish up and sprinkle with some fresh parsley. Enjoy thoroughly.

This recipe was adapted from the original which you can find here.

Chocolate Frustration Cake

This weekend I had a lovely lazy Sunday. My favorite time to cook is on a grey day when I have loads of lazy time and can leisurely meander my way through a dish. So this last Sunday provided me with the perfect cooking opportunity but I couldn't decide what I wanted to make. I was going to do a main course or a soup, but then I just wasn't in the mood. Next, I decided I would make this pie that I have been wanting to make for a while, but after I looked at the recipe (a small novel), I ditched that option. Then, I found an easy pie that sounded great, but it called for pecans. I didn't have any and I had JUST come from the market. Frustration was mounting and I decided to regroup. So, I sat back and thought about what I was in the mood for - I decided upon a chocolaty cake with crunchy chocolate chips laced throughout it and thus, a cake was born.


I found a recipe of Nigella Lawson's that seemed good, but it involved making a chocolate syrup that I decided from the outset I wasn't going to do. I went ahead and started to assemble my ingredients, only to realize that I didn't have cocoa powder, which led me to my version of Chocolate Frustration cake.



To begin, combine a heaping 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, 1 1/2 sticks butter (softened), 2 eggs, 1/3 cup sour cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp baking soda, a dash of salt, AND swirl in 1/2 - 2/3 cup chocolate syrup (mmmm). Stir in 1/3 cup boiling water. Finally, fold in 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into one large, well-greased loaf pan. Lick bowl clean. Pop your cake into a 325 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour. I enjoyed my loaf with a large glass of milk.

Quick Bite - Arizmendi

Happy Holiday Weekend! We took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather (67 degrees in San Francisco - sounds like bathing suit weather!) and went for a bike ride yesterday over to Irving Street. We worked up quite an appetite biking those relatively level 3.4 miles and eagerly headed into the neighborhood cooperative bakery, Arizmendi. We got a slice of focaccia with goat cheese and marinated artichokes to tide ourselves over while waiting for our pizza. Arizmendi makes one type of pizza each day and the selection changes daily. The focaccia was good but the pizza was spectacular - parsley, button mushrooms, housemade tomato sauce and cheese all united on a glorious piece of crust. mmm. . .

Lemon Pudding Cake

After a marathon weekend of eating and drinking I received a request for a light dessert. I immediately thought of the delicious sounding lemon recipe that I had torn out of a magazine. Of course I couldn't remember the name of the dish nor could I locate the recipe (although I'm sure it was in my way for the last three weeks, but now that I want it . . .). Anyway, I made the best of my absent-mindedness and found a simple recipe (six ingredients!) for a Lemon Pudding Cake.
To start combine 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 tsp salt and a heaping 1/2 cup of sugar in a large bowl.
In a separate small bowl combine 3 egg yolks, 1 1/3 cup whole milk, and the juice and zest of two lemons.

Add the wet mixture into the dry and stir to combine.
For the following step, the "official recipe" instructs you to beat the three egg whites with your electric mixer. . . some of us don't have one of those. In that case, bear down and hope that your upper body strength is better than mine and get to beating those eggs by hand.

Frothy . . .

Once the egg whites form soft peaks gradually add in 1/4 cup sugar.

Soft peaks. . .

Beat until the whites form

STIFF PEAKS!

Add in 1/4 of egg whites to your other mixture and stir to combine. Then gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Pour into a buttered baking dish (I, for example, used a pie pan) and pop into a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.

Eat up!

For the original recipe from Gourmet magazine click here.

after a brief holiday hiatus . . . I'm back . . . with Quinoa!

Happy New Year!

Starting the year on the right foot - I am attempting to explore some healthy recipes (I don't want to get ahead of myself - I will still be enjoying my butter-y baked goods and cheesy mashed potatoes). We had a nice crab dinner accompanied by mushroom quinoa.
I bought some model-esque oyster mushrooms, they were so pretty I felt a bit bad cutting them up . . .but I did it anyways. I chopped the mushrooms and chopped up a few cloves of garlic.
I threw the garlic into a large saute pan with a little bit of butter. After a minute add in your mushrooms (try not to crowd the pan, do as I say not as I do) and let them cook. I add salt at the end because I wanted the mushrooms to get that dry, nutty flavor instead of drawing out the liquid.
While the mushrooms were cooking I measured out 1.5 cups of quinoa and put it in a sauce pan with 3 cups chicken stock. Once it was boiling I reduced it to a low simmer, covered it and let it cook away for about 15 minutes (until tender).
To finish the quinoa dish, I chopped some cilantro and tossed the sauteed mushrooms and the cilantro in with the cooked quinoa. Salt to taste.
One of the beautiful dungeness crabbies
To fill the veggie quota I made a little 'salad' of fresh watercress, cumquats and a little salt and nice olive oil (very little).
Et voila, our healthy holiday-y meal.