Chef Patti Anastasia
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Serving Southern New Hampshire &
the Merrimack Valley since 2003
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Great meals & the time to enjoy them!
Chef Patti Anastasia Serving Southern New Hampshire & |
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Table Talk » January 2008 Archives« December 2007 | Table Talk Home | April 2008 » January 23, 2008Note to Self: Always Engage Brain Before BakingLast weekend, a member of the Cooking Light Great Food bulletin board posted a Blueberry Yogurt Coffee Cake from the Washington Post. Right away I knew that I wanted to make it for Tom. The recipe appeals to me because it doesn't have a lot of sugar and it uses a mixture of all-purpose and whole wheat flour. Tom loves blueberries and I wanted to make him something different for breakfast. I got home from work and pulled out all the baking stuff. What I didn't pull out was my brain. After I got all the ingredients mixed together, I realized that something was very wrong, the batter was much too dry. So I reread the recipe. Oh, it has 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. Not 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, which is what I had used. Now what do I do? Baking is not my strong suit. I don't know the science of baking and that means that baking is not something that I feel comfortable improvising with. But I wanted to rescue this cake. It needed moisture, so I stirred in yogurt until I got a batter consistency. Since the cake had an extra cup of whole wheat flour and a cup or more of yogurt, I was concerned that it didn't have enough leavening to rise. I didn't want to bake a brick. The recipe calls for equal amounts of baking powder and baking soda, so I added in about a 1/2 teaspoon of each. I poured the batter into the pan, popped it into the oven, and crossed my fingers. I knew it would take longer to bake, but it took a lot longer than I thought it would. After the time specified in the recipe, the outside of the cake was set, but the center was still very liquid. It went back in the oven for 10 minutes. I tested it with a skewer every 5 minutes after that Finally after an additional 35 minutes, the tester came out clean. I let it cool for a little while, then tipped it out of the pan onto a rack. After it was completely cooled, I tried a sliver of it. My verdict is that the cake survived my mistake. It is quite dense, but also moist. Slightly sweet, with a crunchy granola topping. My mistake cake is not the best cake I've ever made, but it is not the worst. Tom will have it for breakfast tomorrow. We'll see what he has to say.
January 19, 2008The Tenth MuseIf you love food and cookbooks, The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food The Tenth Muse is a memoir that tells the stories of how she discovered such gems as The Diary of Anne Frank and Julia Child. Along the way, we learn about her relationships and work with her husband Evan, James Beard, Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffrey, Irene Kuo, Lidia Bastianich, Edna Lewis, Marion Cunningham, and many others. I know of the work of many of these great cooks, but I don't own any of their books. Although I grew up watching and adoring Julia Child, I've never owned any of her cookbooks. But reading about the process of creating books such as Mastering the Art of French Cooking made me want to read Julia' Child's books. I'm not sure that I want to cook from them, but I do want to read them. The Tenth Muse is a journey through Judith Jones' life. The writing is captivating and I felt like I was there on the journey with her. The book is sprinkled with photographs from her life: Judith with her family, Judith with Evan, Judith working with Julia Child, Judith with Edna Lewis, Judith's and Evan's home and life in Vermont. Here is one of my favorite passages from the book. When I attended Madrid Fusion, the food conference held is Spain in 2006, I couldn't help but think that there was a disturbing amount of manipulation of food going on these days on the part of the new, highly applauded star chefs. Obviously their goal in the interest of high art is to heighten the flavor of food so that its natural attributes are enhanced--not to distort its flavor. Nevertheless, as I watched some of the demonstrations, I felt as though I were looking at an operating table, the chef with the skill of a surgeon wielding injectors and dehydrators and bandaging the product in Cryovac. There was no smell of cooking filling the air, and when the poor, overworked piece of flesh was finally arranged on a plate, it was surrounded by three different foams. I thought a foam was a foam, but evidently you can steam it and bake it, too, if you want to. I admit to having an aversion to foam, particularly when it is pale green. It reminds me all too vividly of what happens when one's dog has deliberately eaten a large dose of grass to purge himself. Judith Jones has devoted her life to making the recipes of great cooks accessible to home cooks. I had no idea how much influence she had on modern cookbook publishing until I read her memoir. Every word of it was delicious.
January 11, 2008Have you ever spatchcocked a chicken?Or maybe you call it butterflying a chicken. Either way, if you haven't done it, you'll be amazed at how easy it is to do and how quickly and evenly your chicken will cook. When you spatchcock (or butterfly) a chicken, you are removing the backbone and keel bone of the chicken so that it lays flat. Once spatchcocked, the chicken is perfect for quickly roasting or grilling. Here's a video that shows you how to spatchcock a chicken. It's really easy. All you need is a pair of kitchen shears and your fingers. I use Chicago Cutlery Insignia Kitchen Shears. Here's my spatchcocked chicken. I rubbed Herbes de Provence under and over the skin. You'll notice that my cutting board is sitting in a rimmed baking sheet. This is a trick that I use to contain the juices from chicken when I cut it. I do the same thing once the chicken is ready to carve.
Forty five minutes later, we had a beautiful and succulent chicken.
January 8, 2008A Kitchen with a ViewOne of the perks of my job is that I get to gaze out of many different kitchen windows while I work. This afternoon I looked up from my work and saw a flock of wild turkeys (all hens) pecking their way around my client's horse paddock. Wild turkeys are a common sight around here, but I always stop to watch them. Today I was rewarded by seeing something that I've never seen before: wild turkeys taking flight! I've seen them hop from the ground to our fence then walk along the fence before disappearing over the other side, I've seen one run around our yard in a frenzy when I've let my cat out without noticing that there is a turkey in the yard. But I've never seen one fly. Until today. There were eight hens in the flock and they took off one by one. Each took an awkward run of a few steps, then gracefully lifted into the air and flew off to roost in the trees. The contrast between the awkward run and the graceful flight was amazing. January 6, 2008Grains of Paradise and Autumn Blend LentilsI'm on a mission to try some of the interesting new ingredients that I've bought, but haven't made time to use. This lentil soup uses two items that have been sitting on my new ingredient shelf for a while: Grains of Paradise and an Autumn lentil blend. I bought the Grains of Paradise at A Market Natural Foods, a local natural foods store. The Autumn lentil blend came from Sid Wainer & Sons, a purveyor of specialty produce and speciality foods located in New Bedford, MA. Grains of Paradise have a peppery taste, with a fruity flavor like coriander and an aroma that reminds me of cardamom. I'm going to add some to my pepper mill the next time I fill it. The Autumn lentil blend was a rainbow of autumn colors. It would have been wiser to use them in dish that wasn't blended, but they've been on my shelf for a while, so in the pot they went. My lentil soup recipe is a slight modification of a recipe from Alton Brown. Of course I had to make a few modifications. I didn't have any celery, so I added some extra onion and carrots, and 1/2 teaspoon of ground celery seed. Soup needs garlic, in goes three cloves of minced garlic. Tomatoes are dreadful at this time of year, so I knew that I'd be using canned diced tomatoes. When I opened the cabinet to get the tomatoes, a can of fire-roasted tomatoes said "pick me". Oh, and I didn't bother finely chopping the vegetables because the soup gets blended with an immersion blender before serving.
Continue reading "Grains of Paradise and Autumn Blend Lentils" » January 5, 2008Mini Pie Revolution RoundupBe sure to check out the results of the Mini Pie Revolution blog event. My mini lemon meringue pie is shown in the center of the mini pie revolution collage of entries. The roundup includes a brief description of each submission and an announcement of the winner. All of the pies look delicious. It's fun to participate in events like this. I love seeing what other participants do. I've made only sweet mini pies, but entries like this cornmeal crusted tomato tarts inspire me to try some savory mini pies. January 1, 2008French Twist French ToastOnce French Twist French Toast was mentioned, it was a given that we had to try it. Tom is a huge fan of French Toast and made it two mornings in a row. As we expected, it was delicious. This is the start of a secondary French Twist tradition.
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by Judith Jones is a must-read. Who is Judith Jones? She is a legendary editor at Alfred A. Knopf who introduced us to, among many others, The Diary of Anne Frank and Julia Child. Judith Jones helped shape modern cookbook publishing. 
