Barefoot Bloggers: Smoked Salmon Spread

It’s time, once again, for the semimonthly Barefoot Bloggers event. This round, Ashley, of The Spicy Skillet, selected Smoked Salmon Spread from the Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook. While I love fresh salmon, I don’t eat smoked salmon very much, although it is a favorite of my daughter. It took me until today, actually, to find the right kind of salmon for this recipe, but luckily it is a simple and quick recipe to prepare. The salmon was soft, supple, sweet-smelling, and well-minced; the sour cream was light; the lemon was fresh from the tree; and the horseradish sauce provided a nice undertone of flavor.

We sampled the freshly-made spread on crackers with cucumbers on top, and it was very good. After the flavors have time to meld, I bet it will be even more delicious.

I plan to dip a lot of cucumbers in it tomorrow. I shared some with my neighbor, as well, so I’m looking forward to her opinion. This would be a terrific party/potluck dish. Colorful, too, with the pinkish spread surrounded by an assortment of veggies and bagel chips.

[Thursday update: Since my camera battery died mid-shoot last night, I've uploaded a few more photos. My neighbor called this morning -- she'd gone by Noah's Bagels and bought some for me. This spread is really delicious spread on a fresh, sesame-seed bagel, that's for sure!

Also, I minced the salmon the old-fashioned way -- by hand, with my chef's knife in an Iron Chef Morimoto-style fashion (ie. hack the heck out of it!).]

Take a look at the renditions from the other Barefoot Bloggers and see all the variations.

Blog Award!

Well, leave it to Caitlin to present me with another first: a blog award.

Caitlin, can I adopt you?

I am very honored that she thinks my blog has a touch of excellence about it. While I love to cook and share my efforts, however vicariously, I really enjoy the community of food bloggers and all their stories – the highs and lows, the adventures, the questions, the successes. Who’d have thought even five years ago what a phenomenon this would become.

Now, according to the Excellent Blog Award rules, I have to pass this award along to at least ten other blogs. I don’t take this task lightly, which is why it has taken me a bit of time to respond. If I had my way, I would share this with every other blog out there – you all do fantastic jobs. But, I did manage to narrow my list down to ten blogs that inspire me, so here goes, in no particular order.

Zorra (1x umrühren bitte aka kochtopf)

Mary (The Sour Dough)

Gretchen (Canela y Comino)

Ulrike (Küchenlatein)

Anna (Cookie Madness)

Stephanie (A Whisk and a Spoon)

Susan (Wild Yeast)

Rebecca (Ezra Pound Cake)

Susan (Food Blogga)

Megan (My Baking Adventures)


Thanks, again, Caitlin, for such a thoughtful award.

TWD: Cherries with a Kick

To tell the truth, I almost skipped this week’s recipe.

First, I was essentially gone all weekend. Saturday I had to drive to Los Angeles to pick up one of my daughter’s friends who was flying in from Fiji and visiting for several days. Sunday I spent the day volunteering for the County Fair. Our Fair starts on July 30^th and this past weekend was the time for everyone to bring in their entries. I worked at the Clothing and Textiles table and saw lots of wonderful creations, so I’m looking forward to the Fair where I can see everything displayed. I’m thinking of entering some baked goods actually. The entry day is July 28^th, so I have a bit of time yet. But, I digress.

Second, I really dislike rhubarb. I’ve never liked it and I can tell in an instant when it’s been included in a dish. Sorry, but I can’t think of a better way to ruin a strawberry than to mix it with rhubarb. So, I thought I’d take a pass this week, until Laurie mentioned substituting apples. That sounded appealing (no pun intended) so tonight, at the last minute, I made the cobbler.

I have to say that I liked this more than I expected, and actually more than the cobbler we made several weeks ago. I think it’s the crust that makes the difference. I love the little balls of crust, and the ginger in both the filling and the crust gives the cobbler quite a kick. I’ll probably make the berry cobbler again, but using this crust recipe. Because I waited until the last minute, I didn’t use fresh cherries from the farmers market. Instead, I used a 1-pound bag of frozen, pitted cherries from Trader Joe's. They were easy to cut in half while frozen and I only came across one pit. The advantage of this version, using frozen cherries and apples, means this cobbler can be made all year round.

So, thanks to Amanda, of Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake, for a fine choice this week. Please check out the other TWD blogs to see other interpretations of Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler.

Savory Nutmeg

This month I finally had some time to make a dish to enter in the Think Spice event. Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen chose nutmeg, one of my favorite spices. The catch, though, was that the dish needed to be a vegetarian one. I cook vegetarian dishes at home as well as meat-based ones, so that was not difficult. However, I wanted to do a savory dish rather than a dessert, so that was more challenging.

I consulted my heirloom cookbook collection and found a recipe that sounded delicious – Creamy Mushroom Pasta Sauce. The key spice was nutmeg. Now, I thought I would make this all for myself, since my daughter was working that evening, but she came home early and was hungry, so I had to share this with her. That was unexpected. And, I have to say, it was so delicious, that we fought over the last bit in the pan. She won. I definitely will make this again.

So I offer this mushroom pasta sauce for July’s edition of Think Spice, Think Nutmeg. Thanks to Aparna for hosting and thanks to Sunita for creating this event.

Creamy Mushroom Sauce for Pasta

6 tablespoons butter

4 medium onions, thinly sliced

2 pounds fresh mushrooms, sliced (I used cremini mushrooms)

salt and pepper to taste

¼ to 1/3 teaspoon nutmeg (to taste)

1 to 1 ½ cups heavy cream

Grated Parmesan cheese

Pasta

Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy skillet. Over medium heat, add onions to pan and cook until golden. Lower heat, and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, or until the onions are very soft. Stir occasionally. Melt the remaining butter in another skillet. Cook mushrooms until tender; season with salt and pepper. Stir in nutmeg. Add mushrooms to onions; mix well. Keep sauce hot while pasta is cooking. Five minutes before serving time, add the cream and heat thoroughly, but do not boil. Toss the pasta and sauce together. Serve immediately with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Makes enough for one pound of pasta.

(I cooked the onions first, then transferred them to a dish and kept them warm while I sauteed the mushrooms in the same pan. Then I added the onions back into the pan. By doing this, I had one less dirty pan.)

Weekend Cookbook Challenge 30: Farmers Markets

In this part of south-central California, we are blessed with an abundance of farmers markets and a few CSAs. My city, in particular, has two farmers markets. The Wednesday one meets at the local shopping mall; the Saturday one meets downtown. Everything looks delicious or beautiful and because there is so much variety, sometimes it’s difficult to make a selection.

One of my favorite fruits is the peach.

Not the grocery-store-hard-as-a-rock-and-rots-before-it-ripens variety, but the picked-fresh-from-the-tree variety. The kind that smells really fragrant and is so wonderfully juicy. Every year, I wait with great anticipation for July, when Jack sets up his stand at the local farmers market. I’ve been buying fresh peaches from Jack for several years now, and, unless I go early in the morning, there is always a long line in front of his stand. Tells you something. Jack comes from the Visalia area, in the central valley part of California, so it’s quite a trek to come over here to the coast every week, especially with the gas prices so high. But, I’m thankful that Jack does, because his peaches are worth every cent.

So, this month, along with eating a bunch of fresh peaches, I also transformed them into different desserts.

The first batch of peaches became peach ice cream. I used the recipe from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop.

1 1/3 pounds (600 g) ripe peaches, blanched and peeled

½ cup (125 ml) water

¾ cup (150 g) sugar

½ cup (120 g) sour cream

1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

a few drops freshly squeezed lemon juice

Slice peaches in half, remove the pits, and cut them into chunks. Cook them in the water, covered, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat, stir in the sugar, then cool to room temperature.

Purée the cooked peaches and any liquid with the sour cream, heavy cream, vanilla, and lemon juice until the mixture is almost smooth, but still a bit chunky. You can use a blender, food processor, or stick blender.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker.

Makes about 1 quart (1 liter)

The second batch of peaches became Peach Pies with Toffee Streusel, adapted from Small-Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos. The recipe makes 2 servings, but there is enough filling and topping for 3 or 4 servings, so I put the excess into a greased ramekin; no crust, just filling and topping.

Either version is delicious.

Two individual partially baked tart shells (4” x 1 3/8” or jumbo muffin-size)

Filling:

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

3 medium-sized fresh peaches, peeled, pitted, and diced (or 1 ½ cups frozen sliced peaches, thawed and diced)

1 ½ tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons quick-cooking tapioca

Topping:

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 ½ tablespoons packed light brown sugar

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

3 tablespoons English toffee bits or almond toffee bits

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place tart pans onto baking sheet.

Filling: place the sugar and tapioca in a small bowl and stir to mix. Add the peaches, sprinkle with the lemon juice, and mix thoroughly. Spoon the peach filling into the tart shells and refrigerate while preparing the topping.

Topping: Place the flour, brown sugar, and salt in a small bowl, and cut in the butter until topping is blended and crumbly. Stir in the toffee bits. Spoon evenly over the peach filling.

Bake until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbly, about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Transfer the tarts to a wire rack and let cool for at least 20 minutes, then remove the tarts from the pans.

Serves 2, generously. Serve with ice cream, if desired.

Besides being very delicious and needing no excuses to prepare either one, the ice cream and pielets are my contributions to this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge. Michelle, of Je Mange la Ville, is the host for July, and she chose the great theme of Farmers Markets.

Thanks to Michelle for hosting, and thanks to Sara, of i like to cook, for creating such an inspiring event.

TWD: Chocolate Pudding, Oh My!

My daughter and I are big fans of homemade pudding, so when Melissa of It’s Melissa’s Kitchen chose Dorie’s chocolate pudding as this week’s TWD selection, we were ready to give it a try. I’ve been making homemade pudding for years. Call me a purist, but nothing beats the flavor of homemade, plus there are no additives or colorings. Just the pure flavors.

So I didn’t give this recipe a second thought until someone mentioned the word food processor. What? Food processor? For pudding? I decided to read the recipe (always a smart move), and sure enough, the instructions had you dirtying a bunch of pans and a food processor. Good grief, why? Pudding is not that complicated, and certainly doesn’t require a food pro. So, excuse me this time, I did not follow the rules.

First, I took out my most favorite pan in the world – my saucier. It’s just the thing for any sauce-like concoction for there are no corners! If I had to rescue one pan in an emergency, it would be this one.

Next, I prepared my mise en place. All dry ingredients measured out; all wet ingredients whisked together; butter cut into small cubes; bittersweet chocolate finely shaved. (Aw, don’t you just hate hairy chocolate?) Oh, and the cocoa I used was extra dark. This pudding was going to be chocolate-y.

So, all the dry ingredients were poured into the saucier and whisked together. Then, the wet ingredients were blended in. The burner was turned to medium and I proceeded to whisk gently. You can tell when the mixture is just about to thicken – that foamy surface suddenly changes texture and starts to disappear. At that point, you need to pay close attention. As soon as the pudding had reached that stage, I turned off the heat and began whisking in the softened butter cubes, the shaved chocolate, and finally, the vanilla. End result? Perfectly smooth, luscious chocolate pudding with only one dirty pan.

My daughter said the pudding was good, but not as good or rich as my normal recipe. (Note to self: try to remember which one is my ‘normal’ recipe.) I thought it was delicious, and that it tasted even better the next day, but it could be that I just like chocolate pudding, no matter what. ; )

So, thanks to Melissa for a great choice. I’m looking forward to seeing how the other TWD bakers fared.

Nothing left.

Go Take A Leek

and make some delicious soup.

This week’s vegetable selection focused on the onion family: onions, leeks, and shallots. At this time of year, with hot weather all around us (in the northern hemisphere), there’s one great concoction that will cool you off. I’m referring to potato leek soup, or vichyssoise. This is a fantastically delicious recipe:

Julia Child’s Potato Leek Soup

It’s great hot, warm, or cold; sipped from a bowl or a cup. And easy to make. It can be strictly vegetarian or fortified with chicken stock. So, here is my contribution to this edition of Vindicate the Vegetable.

Julia Child's Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients
3-4 cups of diced peeled potatoes (1 lb.)
3 cups thinly sliced leeks, including the tender greens

2 quarts water (I used 6 ½ cups)
1 Tablespoon salt
6 tablespoons heavy cream or 3 tablespoons softened butter (I used 1/3 cup sour cream and 1/3 cup heavy cream, or thereabouts)
3 tablespoons minced chives or parsley

Procedure
Simmer vegetables, salt, and water together, partially covered for 40-50 minutes in a 3-4 quart saucepan.

Mash the vegetables into the soup with a fork or pass through a food mill. (I used a stick blender, in the pan, to puree the mixture.) Adjust salt and pepper. You can stop at this point. When ready to serve, bring soup back to simmering. Then turn off the heat, stir in the cream, sour cream, or butter (or some of each one) and top with chopped chives or parsley. It does not get much better than that! Makes 2 quarts of soup for 6-8 servings.

Thanks to hosts, Nina and Jen.