Finding Solace in the Kitchen

Food is a solace for me. Taking a break from a busy day and sitting down for a meal, especially a meal with people I care about, is a way to recharge - even more so, if I am preparing that meal myself. I can spend hours in the kitchen working on a dish and feel like 20 minutes have passed. I have heard people say that cooking is their meditation and while I wouldn’t go that far, the singleness of purpose I find in the kitchen is very soothing.

I first discovered these little cakes when I was in need of some solace. My life had gotten busy again and I had not written anything for Apples and Butter in weeks. I was missing the comfort of both cooking and writing about food.

I turned to my favorite magazines and some fellow food bloggers for inspiration. Without fail, these sources will light a fire under me. I always find a dish that piques my interest and gets that little voice saying, “I have to make this – right now.”



These chocolate snack cakes are from David Lebovitz, one of my favorite pastry chefs. Deb over at Smitten Kitchen posted about them which is how I came to know of them and how that little voice got switched on. It didn’t hurt that Deb used a specialty kitchen pan to make these, one that I did not own. Inspiration in the kitchen that called for a trip to Sur La Table? I was in.

Make sure you don’t overcook these. The second time I made them, I let them go just a bit too long and they were dry and not nearly as delectable as the almost under-cooked first batch. When not overcooked, they provide a perfect dose of chocolate in a little package. Not too rich and not too filling. Perfect for an afternoon snack paired with tea or coffee.

I’m sure these will work just as well in a cupcake pan if you don’t have a mini-cheesecake pan and don’t want to purchase one. Just be sure and keep an eye on them. Cooking times will vary if you’re using more batter for each cake.



Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes
Adapted from David Lebovitz via Smitten Kitchen

7 oz semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt (whole-milk is important here)
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 t vanilla bean paste (or extract)
1/2 t almond extract (I didn’t have any so I skipped it)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t coarse salt

Preheat oven to 350*
If you’re using a cupcake pan, line it with paper liners. If you’re using the mini-cheesecake pan, just spray it with cooking spray. Melt the chocolate with 1/4 cup of the oil in a double boiler. Stir until smooth and then remove from the heat. In a separate bowl, mix together the other 1/4 cup of oil with the yogurt, sugar, eggs, vanilla and almond extract if you’re using it. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the yogurt mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Add the melted chocolate and stir until smooth.

Divide the batter between your mini-cheesecake pan or cupcake pan, filling each about a 1/4 inch below the rim (you may have leftover batter). Bake for 20 – 25 minutes (remember note about not overcooking). Let cakes cool slightly before unmolding. These can be served immediately while still warm or later at room temperature.

Carrot Cake for Breakfast

My subscription to Cooking Light runs out in January each year, right around the time that I’m really craving the lighter recipes that can be found on its pages. Not that I don’t enjoy the publication year-round, but I tend to do more cooking from the magazine in January and February as new year’s resolutions take hold of me. So, each January I renew my subscription with the hope that my penchant for lighter fare will last the whole year through.



When it comes to healthier eating, weekend breakfasts always cause a bit of a problem. I love sleeping in and getting up to prepare a big, decadent breakfast and it can be really hard to find something that feels big and decadent, but not totally unhealthy. Lucky for me, this month’s Cooking Light has a great recipe for an indulgent weekend breakfast that doesn’t make you feel like you are undoing all the good you did during the week.



Carrot cake pancakes sounded like something that could be too sickly sweet for my kind of morning fare, but these are nothing of the sort. Bulked up with two cups of shredded carrots, they call for all the spices found in carrot cake, but not all of the sugar. And that delicious cream cheese frosting you’re accustomed to? A honey butter stand-in works perfectly.

Carrot Cake Pancakes
Adapted from Cooking Light
Makes 12 pancakes; serves 4 - 6

1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
2 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t salt
1/8 t freshly ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch of ground ginger
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 T canola oil
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups finely grated carrot (from about a 1/2 pound)
Cooking spray
3 T butter, softened
2 T honey

Combine the flour with the next seven ingredients (through ground ginger) and mix lightly to combine. In a separate bowl, combine the sugar with the next four ingredients (through eggs) and mix thoroughly. Add the sugar mixture to the flour and stir just to combine. Use a spatula to fold the shredded carrots into the batter.

Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to portion out three to four mounds of batter (depending on the size of your pan). Cook for two minutes, flip over and cook for one minute more until the pancakes are golden brown and cooked through. Repeat with remaining batter.

While the pancakes are cooking, combine the honey and the butter and place in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve. Serve three pancakes per person and top with about a tablespoon of honey butter.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates

Wrap anything in bacon and I’ll try it, at least once. Wrap something sweet with salty bacon and stuff it with cheese and I am probably going to get addicted. If you haven’t been to AOC in Los Angeles, you should know that you can feed your addiction to the perfect combination of sweet, salty and cheesy with Suzanne Goin’s bacon-wrapped dates. The first time I had them I was hooked and have ordered them on every subsequent visit (and there have been many).



It’s hard to believe that such a flavorful appetizer is made up of only three ingredients, but its simplicity makes it an easy dish to recreate at home. The first time I made these I replaced the bacon with what I saw as a more sophisticated option – prosciutto. Mistake. Serious mistake. This dish is perfect as is. Don’t mess with it.



When Gourmet printed this recipe in their October 2005 issue, they allotted three dates per person. I have modestly increased that number to five per person. People will not be able to stop eating these so make sure you make plenty.



Bacon-Wrapped Dates
Adapted from Suzanne Goin
Makes 30, allow 5 per person

10 slices of bacon cut crosswise into thirds
30 dates
3 - 4 oz of Parmigiano-Reggiano, broken or cut into small pieces about the size of a date pit

Preheat oven to 450*
If the dates are not already pitted, use a paring knife to make a small slit to remove the pit. Replace the pit with a piece of parmesan and reform the date around the cheese. Wrap each date with a piece of bacon. Place on a rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until the bacon is browned (cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of your bacon). Remove from the oven and serve immediately while still warm.

Finagling Ravioli with an Egg Inside

My significant other has gotten it into his head that Italian food is some kind of a cop-out. I don’t know where it comes from, but I’m pretty sure when he hears Italian food, he thinks boil pasta, throw canned tomato sauce on top, possibly with some meat or cheese to finish the dish and you’re done. As a result and much to my chagrin, I have a very difficult time convincing him to go out for Italian food.

In order to finagle a dinner at Osteria Mozza, I had to use my birthday dinner – no input from him, all my choice. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to convince him to try the pasta tasting menu (everyone at the table has to participate) I very carefully selected one pasta dish to add to the selections for the evening – fresh ricotta and egg ravioli. It was mentioned in almost every review (both professional and in the blog and Yelp worlds) and I generally fall in love with any dish that serves up a runny egg yolk. In this case that yolk comes from boiling ravioli with a whole egg yolk inside, just barely poaching the yolk in the process.



At the time, and still to this day, Osteria Mozza is not the easiest Saturday night reservation to secure. We ended up with a table at 10pm. Not a problem for us as we like to eat on the late side, but a huge problem for the fresh ricotta and egg ravioli. They had run out. It’s a popular dish and eating on the later side of things means risking the kitchen running out of favorites.



Of course it was still an amazing meal watching Nancy Silverton at work behind the mozzarella bar and eating the tenderest pasta I have ever been served. Even the “Italian food is a cop-out” boyfriend was impressed. Though in spite of the great meal, a strange, insatiable craving was set off in me for pasta and runny egg yolks.



Thank goodness for the internet. Batali + egg yolk ravioli = exact recipe I needed to satisfy that craving at home. Of course my homemade pasta can’t rival that found at Osteria Mozza, nevertheless the ricotta filling with runny egg yolk was completely satisfying.

If you can find it, do use sheep’s milk ricotta. If not, cow’s milk is a fine substitute. Definitely make your own pasta dough as you’ll need its quick cooking time to make sure your egg yolk doesn’t overcook and become hard. Two of these huge raviolis were enough per person, but if you’re hungry, maybe plan for three. They can be a bit addictive.



Uova da Raviolo (Ravioli with an Egg Inside)
Adapted from Mario Batali (adaption includes leaving out half of a truffle – making the recipe a more affordable, though slightly less luxurious at-home version)
Makes 6 large raviolis

1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated, plus more for garnishing pasta
1/2 cup fresh sheep's milk ricotta
1/2 cup spinach, blanched, drained and chopped
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
1 recipe basic pasta dough, recipe follows
6 very fresh eggs
6 tablespoons butter

Combine the parmesan, ricotta and spinach. Season to taste with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Start with a third of the pasta dough and roll it out to the thinnest setting on a pasta rolling machine. From the thin pasta sheets, cut 12 squares about six inches in length (roll out more of the dough if you need it). Set six squares on a tray dusted with flour and cover with plastic wrap. Divide the ricotta mixture evenly between the remaining six squares, placing it in mounds in the center of each square. Use the back of a spoon to create a well for the egg yolk in each mound. Carefully break an egg into a small bowl, and transfer one yolk and a bit of white into the center of each well. Don’t break the yolk! Repeat for the remaining squares. Cover each filled square of pasta with an unfilled square, and press the edges together with fingers to seal.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously. Melt the butter in a large sauté pan. Gently lower each ravioli into the boiling water to cook for two minutes. Remove from the water and place into the sauté pan with the butter. Add a generous grating of parmesan, sauté for one to two minutes and serve.

Batali’s Basic Pasta Dough
3 1/2 cups flour, with more as needed
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

Place the flour in a mound and make a large well in the center. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and olive oil together. Pour the egg mixture into the well in the flour. Slowly start incorporating the flour into the eggs without breaking the well. The mixture should start to come together when half of the flour is incorporated. When all of the flour is incorporated, start kneading the dough, adding more flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. Knead the dough for about five minutes until the surface is smooth and just the slightest bit sticky. Flatten the dough into a disc shape, wrap with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes before rolling out for the raviolis.

Chicken-Liver Toasts with Shallot Jam

If it is at all unclear how much I adore the restaurant Animal, let me reiterate it here: Animal is my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles. When I can’t make it up there for dinner, riffing on their poutine dish at home is a pretty decent substitute. When we do eat at Animal, we go for the indulgence factor. As much liver as possible please, which means starting with an order of chicken liver toast followed by at least one, if not two, foie gras dishes.

I realize this doesn’t exactly paint a picture of health, but I don’t think a restaurant with the name Animal is going after the health-conscious diner. Though some Angelenos seem slow on the uptake in this area. On a recent visit, we caught a neighboring table pleading with one of the waiters that they must have something, anything vegetarian?? I’m not sure what, exactly, was misleading about a restaurant named Animal, but this diner seemed thoroughly shocked at the lack of meatless options. I wanted to cheer the waiter on when he politely declined to make any substitutions. You just can’t make this stuff up.

As much as I love dining at Animal, I have often wished that I could expand my Animal-at-home repertoire, so I was thrilled to see them (Chefs Jon and Vinny), and some of their recipes, featured in Food & Wine's January issue. Liver aficionado that I am, chicken-liver toasts with shallot jam was the obvious choice from the three or four recipes offered up in Food & Wine. Oh, and if you know any non-liver loving friends? Try this recipe out on them, I think I may have finally converted a NLL friend of my own.



Chicken Liver Toasts with Shallot Jam
Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook of Animal

12 T butter at room temperature, divided
1 pound chicken lives, trimmed of fat and connective tissue
1 medium red onion
4 thyme sprigs
1 long baguette
2 garlic cloves
Olive oil for brushing
Salt and pepper

Melt 2 T of butter in a large sauté pan over high heat. Season the chicken livers with salt and pepper and cook until lightly browned, about two minutes per side. Remove the livers to a plate. Melt 2 T of butter in the same pan over medium heat. Add the onion and thyme and cook until the onion is soft, about 10 minutes. Add the chicken livers to the pan and cook for an additional two minutes. Set mixture aside to cool. Once the livers have reached room temperature, discard the thyme and puree the mixture along with the remaining 6 T of butter in a food processor until smooth. Jon and Vinny strain the puree through a fine mesh sieve, but I skip this step for a slightly more rustic product. Your choice. Either way, season the puree well with salt, cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface and chill until set. Make the shallot Jam while the liver is chilling.

Shallot Jam

2 T vegetable oil
4 large shallots, sliced thin
1/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Salt

Heat the vegetable oil in a medium skillet and add the shallots. Cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the balsamic and brown sugar and simmer until reduced to a thick jam. Jon and Vinny seem to think this should only take about five minutes, but it takes me 15 to 20 minutes. Either way, cook it until thick and season with salt.

Once the liver is set, preheat an oven to 400*. Cut the baguette into thin slices and toast in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until crisp. Immediately brush the toasts with olive oil and rub with garlic cloves. Spread a healthy helping of liver mousse on top of the toasts and top with some of the shallot jam.

Healthy(er) Clam Chowder

Whoa. Is anyone else noticing that the older you get, the harder the holidays seem to hit your waistline? Or is it just my ridiculously over-indulgent eating and not something I can blame on the ever progressing hands of father time? Either way it is definitely in order to spend a bit of time with the Apples portion of this blog. After all, Apples and Butter is supposed to be about balance. I fear my tendency is to ignore the healthier side of eating, both on this blog and in my kitchen!

After three months of indulgent eating (anything post-September counts as the holidays to me), I wasn’t quite ready to switch over to carrot sticks and salads. Enter Sunset Magazine with their revamped comfort foods. This recipe for clam chowder remains creamy, but is made primarily with low-fat milk. It made for a great post-Christmas meal with my family. Warm and indulgent enough to be fully satisfying and comforting while not packing on the calories and fat content that would have come with the quart of heavy cream called for in the original recipe. Enjoy this with nothing more than a loaf of crusty bread and congratulate yourself on indulging while still managing to cut back on calories.

Healthy(er) Clam Chowder
Serves 6

1 T olive oil
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrot
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 strips bacon, cut into lardons
1/4 cup flour
3 cups low-fat (1%) milk
1 pound small red potatoes, quartered
4 cans (6.5 oz. each) chopped clams, drained
2 bottles (8 oz. each) clam juice
Salt and pepper
1 t chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/4 cup half-and-half

Preparation

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Sautee the onion, celery, carrot and garlic until starting to soften. Transfer to a plate. Add the bacon to the pan and cook until crisp. Drain the bacon on paper towels and discard all but 1 T of drippings. Add the flour to the drippings to make a roux and cook until slightly browned. Add the milk, one cup at a time, making sure each cup is fully incorporated before adding the next. Add the potatoes, clams, clam juice and reserved vegetables and season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Add the thyme and half-and-half. Before serving, sprinkle individual portions with the bacon.

Christmas Used to Last Forever

When I was a child the holidays seemed to go on for months. At the beginning of December the decorations would go up and as schedules slowed and school let out, we were left with plenty of time to sit around the tree with a cup of cider or hot cocoa and take in the season.

Today, I’m lucky if it feels like Christmas the week leading up to the 25th. Usually I get in the holiday spirit as I run around town, fighting crowds in an effort to cross off my Christmas list. While I love finding gifts for the important people in my life, I find it somewhat sad that I can’t get in the spirit until the shopping begins.



I didn’t know this was true for me until my family decided not to do Christmas gifts this year. In an effort to focus on what’s most important – time together – this year we are cooking meals with each other instead of buying gifts. Though I did just receive notification that one Thomas H. Durff has sent me a gift subscription to The Atlantic Monthly (someone’s cheating!).

The sad news is that without the many shopping trips in search of the perfect gift, I found myself totally lacking in Christmas spirit. Determined to redefine Christmas traditions so I can get in the holiday mood without racking up a huge credit card bill, I turned to the kitchen.



I wanted to make something in bulk so I could use the resulting product as gifts, but I didn’t want to make cookies. Decorated cookies may look festive, but I don’t really care for the way they taste. Then I stumbled on an article about homemade truffles in one of the Martha Stewart publications. I knew I could get creative with flavored ganache fillings and really how difficult could they be? Note to self: If I ever think, ‘really how difficult could they be,’ again, I will clear my calendar for the weekend and prepare to make seven trips to the store for more toppings, chocolate and gift boxes. When you’re doing something for the first time and not really using a set recipe, look out, things are going to get ugly.

While Martha’s ganache truffles seemed to stay perfectly firm with no coating, mine melted on contact with any finger that was near room temperature. And while all the articles I could find on coating truffles with chocolate seemed to think it wasn’t really necessary to temper the chocolate, my coating turned into a clumpy glob when I did not. I’m still attempting to make up with the boyfriend who was the recipient of, “get the f*$% out of the kitchen,” when the coating wasn’t going on smoothly.



So, did I fail miserably at getting myself into the Christmas spirit? Not entirely. First, the crazed trips to the store seemed to bring back that sense of holiday urgency that had been missing from my December. Second, by the time I got through the fifteenth bag of chocolate and had the kinks worked out, I was left with some decent looking truffles and the feeling that I would be able to spread a little chocolaty holiday cheer after all.

If you have time left in your holiday schedule and want to try these at home, I’ve included the basic ratio of cream to chocolate for the ganache filling as well as the four variations I created to add more flavor. If you don’t want the truffles melting on contact, coat them with chocolate that has been tempered. You can read about how to temper your chocolate here. It’s not that difficult and worth the time.



Ganache Truffle Filling
Makes about 40 truffles

16 oz chocolate (dark, semi-sweet or milk – your choice)
1 2/3 cups heavy cream

To use these variations, add the flavoring to the cream right as it comes to a simmer, but before you turn off the heat:

Chile truffles – 3/4 t cayenne pepper
Peanut butter truffles – 3/4 to about 1 cup of creamy peanut butter
Mint truffles – replace 12 oz of the chocolate with mint flavored chocolate
Earl Grey truffles – place 12 bags of Earl Grey in the cream, turn off the heat and let steep for 20 minutes. Remove the tea bags and reheat the cream slightly before adding to the chocolate.

Place 16 ounces of the chocolate of your choice in a heatproof bowl. Place the cream in a small saucepan and bring just to a simmer. Keep a close watch as simmering cream will very quickly boil over. Add any of the flavorings included above to the cream or create your own variations. Pour the warm cream over the chocolate and whisk until fully incorporated. Allow the mixture to cool slightly and then let it set in the refrigerator overnight.

Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper and use a small ice cream scoop or melon baller to portion out the ganache into small spheres, about 1-inch in diameter. Roll the ganache pieces between your hands to make a smoother circle. It’s not necessary, but I highly recommend using disposable, protective gloves for this part. It’s more sanitary if you’re giving the truffles as gifts and you’ll be washing your hands every five minutes if you don’t. Allow the ganache pieces to chill in the refrigerator again while you prepare the chocolate coating.

Select your chocolate coating (again, your choice of dark, semi-sweet, milk, etc.). I found that it took about 24 ounces to coat 80 truffles. Temper the chocolate according to the directions found here and use a dipping tool or toothpicks to submerge the ganache in coating. I read everything I could find on the best way to dip, but trial and error seemed to be the most helpful. Just submerge the ganache in the coating and try to get the excess off before setting it back on the cookie sheet to harden. If you’re topping the chocolate coating in anything (chopped nuts, sea salt, candy cane pieces, etc.) do this right away before the chocolate begins to harden. Place the coated truffles in the refrigerator overnight or for at least four hours, if you’re in a hurry, to fully harden.

Package as desired and spread your own version of chocolaty holiday cheer.

Poutine, Freezing and Stewing

It is freezing and I am stewing.

As already established on this blog, I am aware that freezing is a relative term so please, don’t all you Midwesterners jump on me at once. It has dropped into the 40s at night this week and for Los Angeles, by definition, that is freezing. Not to mention that I just returned from Wisconsin where it was, ahem, in the low 40s at night.

As far as the stewing is concerned, it mainly centers on meat, not my emotional state of mind – a much more delicious alternative. I just can’t help myself; I don’t want to turn my oven off in this cold weather. Already there have been soups and stews; braises and bread baking; even pastries on one choice afternoon.

The most celebrated winter dish, new to my kitchen this year, is poutine. It’s only been celebrated by one person so far, but he has done enough on his own to earn it that designation. Poutine sounds pedestrian in theory – fries, covered with melted cheese curds, covered with gravy – but the right gravy can elevate the dish to something else entirely.

I originally created a poutine recipe of my own to avoid the $120 dinners at Animal that were threatening to turn into a weekly occurrence. My boyfriend had it bad for poutine and unlike the Canadian creators of the dish, we seemed hard-pressed to find it on many menus. As we would start planning for our weekend and the inevitable question of where to eat came up, I could see his eyes start to glaze over as he thought about the dish and subsequently pleaded with me to go to Animal, just one more time.

Not that I have a problem eating at Animal every weekend. It is by far my favorite restaurant in L.A. at the moment, but my pocketbook and my arteries started begging for mercy. So, into the kitchen I went determined to save our health and our finances and according to the boyfriend, I succeeded. He even thinks my poutine is better than Animal’s. I’m not certain about that but it is good enough to satisfy his craving and easy enough that I think you’ll enjoy making it at home.

Use this recipe only as a guide. I have varied it each time I’ve made it according to what I already had on hand and it is still delicious, even with modifications. Make sure you use real deal cheese curds - Trader Joes sells them if you have trouble locating them - and feel free to make your own fries, I just like to make the process slightly easier by using the frozen variety. I make my gravy with oxtails because that’s what Animal uses, but if you have a favorite recipe, by all means have at it. And finally, apologies in advance if this is your first introduction to poutine. I take no responsibility for resulting addictions.

Poutine
Serves 2

Gravy:
1 – 1 1/2 pounds oxtail (4 – 6 meaty pieces)
1 quart chicken (or beef) stock, preferably homemade
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 pieces celery, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
2-3 sprigs thyme
2 T olive oil
Salt and pepper

To Serve:
French Fries (I use one bag of frozen fries from Trader Joes)
1/2 cup cheese curds

Preheat oven to 375*
Sprinkle the oxtails with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat and brown the oxtails on all sides. Remove to a plate. Add more oil if the pan is dry and sauté the onions, celery and carrots for five minutes, until just starting to soften. Return the oxtails to the pan and add the stock, bay leaf and thyme. If the stock doesn’t almost cover the oxtails, add water until the tops of the oxtails are just peaking out of the stock (but no more than two cups of water). Cover and place in the oven. Cook for three to four hours until the meat is tender and falling off the bone.

When the meat is finished, turn off the oven, remove the oxtails to a plate and set the pan over medium high heat. While the remaining stock is reducing (it should already be significantly reduced after four hours in the oven) pick all of the oxtail meat off the bone. When the stock is looking thick and gravy-like, add the meat to the gravy to warm through.

If you haven’t already, and you should have already, make your French fries. Transfer the French fries to an oven-safe serving dish and sprinkle with cheese curds. Place in your cooling oven for five – 10 minutes until the cheese is melted. Top the fries with gravy and serve while piping hot.