Pear, Brandy and Walnut Cranberry Sauce

I remember the first holiday my family switched over from the canned “cranberry” abomination to making our own.  It was my third year in college when I spent a lot of time watching the Food Network instead of writing papers.  Which is not to say I didn't write the papers just that I did the writing at literally the very last second before they were due, editing and printing the papers minutes before catching the bus to class.  All the while frantically praying to the goddess of procrastination,  my long time muse.  I did well in all my classes I was just much more interested my new passions born out of living alone for the first time in a big city; cooking, coffee, and beatnik poetry. 

Unfortunately my last minute writing technique was so successful that it's the only way I know how to write to this day.  Which is why I often neglect this blog unless someone in my life writes me an email that basically amounts to “blog today or else...”  So if I've been promising to write about something fabulous I fed you or told you about or a recipe you sent me to try and it isn't blogged about yet, you need to write me a kind but pressing email telling me to hurry up and write about whatever it is.  It works, promise.

Anyway somewhere along the line in the plethora of cooking shows I was watching I got the itch to make real cranberries since my brother was and still is ion love with all versions of cranberry sauce.  So I bought cranberries and enlisted my little brother to help me make them.  We just cooked the simple version off the back of the bag.  Equal parts sugar and water, the bag of cranberries and boil until the berries burst. 

We were fascinated watching the berries burst all over the pot which my mother heard from the other room and probably imagined as something much more dangerous than what was actually happening because she came to watch too.  It really is the simple pleasures in life because we had more fun making those berries than most of the rest of dinner and they were delicious, we never went back to buying the canned stuff

As the holidays went on we got creative and started adding orange zest or cinnamon and comparing them hot versus how good they were cold.  Soon my brother and I were making 3 or 4 batches of cranberries to feast on  while home for the holidays.  It became an obsession and is still a holiday tradition to make too many cranberries.  I certainly wasn't going to shun the tradition this year but since I'm making a habit of making new and interesting food I knew I would have to up the ante on the creativity of the cranberries this year.

The fella and I made these for Thanksgiving and fell in love.  They are the best cranberries ever.  With brandy, pears, and walnuts how could you possibly go wrong.  Though they take a little effort they are very much worth it and will wow everyone at the table.  My family, the fella, the chef and I made these disappear very quickly.  We ate them with dinner, then a little bit after dinner, then for dessert, then on top of dessert.  They are great alone but on top of coconut ice cream they are divine.  Dip in a gluten free Christmas cookie and you may never leave the table.  Or you may become so drunk on cranberries you end up playing hours of ridiculous card games.  Either way you will be very happy.

Funny to think my cooking obsession started with cranberries and has led me to French cooking and a food blog.  From playing with food with my little brother to my brother being old enough to drink and me cooking with these two crazy lovable guys.  From living for a year in Iowa with no kitchen to making gourmet meals every night. 

Okay enough end of the year nostalgia.  It's been an amazing journey 2009 but its time to move on to frog legs and shirataki noodles.  In other words, you  haven't seen anything yet.

Oh and will someone convince Jacob to share with the rest of the world what he did to the turkey?  It was the best turkey I've ever tasted and I wasn't around to watch his secret ninja cooking techniques to find out what he did.

Pear, Brandy and Walnut Cranberry Sauce

1/3 cup, plus 2-3 tablespoon brandy, divided use

water

2 cinnamon sticks, each broken in half

8 black peppercorns

12 ounces fresh cranberries, picked over

1/2 cup agave nectar

2 medium firm but ripe bartlett pears, peeled

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

 Pour 1/3 cup brandy into liquid measuring cup; add enough water to reach 1/2 cup liquid total. Set aside. Place broken cinnamon sticks and peppercorns in center of small piece of cheesecloth or large tea bag and tie closed using kitchen twine.

In medium saucepot, combine cranberries, agave nectar and cinnamon-pepper bundle. Using large holes on a box grater, grate pears into saucepot. Stir in brandy-water mixture.

Over high heat, bring cranberry mixture to a boil; reduce heat to medium and cook 10-12 minutes, or until cranberries have burst and the mixture has combined, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Stir in remaining 2 to 3 tablespoons brandy. Let cool. Remove and discard cinnamon bundle. Stir in 7 tablespoons toasted walnuts. Transfer mixture to small serving bowl; sprinkle with remaining walnuts.

Original recipe from Food 52.

Failed But Yummy Souffle

I've had a lot of fun cooking this year.  I ate a lot of things I never thought I would, cooked things I've never attempted before and learned a completely new way of eating.  There are just two cooking goals I had for myself before the year ended that I didn't get around to: mastering a soufflé and making a gelatin dessert that set properly.  So on Christmas day with the chef to egg me on I thought I would try a simple (or so I thought) soufflé so I could get that obstacle out of the way. Like so many things in life it didn't turn out the way I thought it would but it was still fun and delicious.

A lot of little things went wrong while I was trying to soufflé  I forgot to sift my flour.  The whisk wasn't perfectly dry.  My safety net disappeared to attend to a cat feeding before the snow got too bad emergency just as I was starting the part of the process I was unsure about.  I was flustered from being at an annoying job for the 6 hours before dinner.  And my family was walking in the door just as I got to the step where I couldn't walk away from my ingredients without them falling.  It wasn't an ideal situation to begin with so I wasn't too surprised when my soufflé didn't poof.  Fearing just this out come I had given the fella strict instructions on which bottle of wine to open for me in my fallen soufflé sadness and just the right tone to say “there there bunny” to me.

I pouted over the sad looking soufflé but since everything else on the table looked so fabulous I never managed to look any where near as pathetic as my fluffy obviously starving to death princess did. 

Besides I had every one I loved around a big purple table with amazing food, even a soufflé failure couldn't get me down.  And the surprising thing was that the soufflé, as unattractive as it looked tasted really great.  A creamy cheesy warm treat.  It nicely filled the gap in the dinner left by the crispy rolls or focaccia  we usually have at holiday dinners. 

So the good news was the soufflé despite its ugliness was tasty enough to warrant the effort which means I'll be motivated to try it again on a day with less stress when I can better focus.  And Julia Child has an entire section devoted to soufflés in Mastering the Art of French Cooking that I apparently need to read over a couple more times.  I will make a puffy wonderful soufflé happen.  Most people have resolutions about losing weight, I have them about cooking somewhat complicated food stuffs.  I'll let you know when I succeed.

Cheese Soufflé

1 teaspoon butter

1 tablespoon Parmesan

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons sifted rice flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

4 egg yolks

5 egg whites

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup coarsely grated swiss or Parmesan cheese

Before you start:  place your eggs on the counter so they will be room temperature when you need them, measure out all your ingredients and have them close at hand, and make sure all the bowls, whisks and mold are very clean.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Butter inside of soufflé mold and sprinkle with cheese.  Set aside for later.

In a small pot put the milk on a medium heat to begin boiling.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan.  Stir in the flour with a wooden spatula and cook over moderate heat until foamy, about 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.  When mixture is no longer bubbling pour in the boiling milk.  Beat vigorously with a whisk until well blended.  Beat in the seasonings.

Return to medium high heat and boil, stirring with the whisk for about 1 minutes.  Sauce will be very thick when you're finished.  Remove from heat and set aside while you separate eggs.

Drop the four egg yolks one at a time into the hot sauce pan, reserving the whites in a metal or ceramic bowl for later in the recipe.  With the whisk beat the yolks individually into the sauce.  Continue with each yolk until well incorporated.  Keep the mixture at a tepid temperature while preparing the egg white mixture.

Beat the five egg whites and salt with a whisk or in a stand mixer until stiff by starting at a low speed, gradually increasing it as the eggs become foamy.  Take about a minute to raise mixer speed from low to high, constantly using a spatula to push the eggs off the sides of bowl and into the beaters.  Stop when the beaters leaves slightly shiny peaks in the surface of the mixture.

Stir a big spoonful of the egg whites into the warm sauce.  Stir in all but one tablespoon of the grated cheese.  Delicately fold in the rest of the egg whites being careful not to over fold and break the fuffly consistency.

Put the incorporated soufflé mixture into the prepared mold.  It should be about 3/4 of the way full.  Tap bottom of mold on counter to smooth the surface of the soufflé  Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Set rack in middle of the oven and immediately turn heat down to 375.  Do not open the door for the next 20 minutes.  In 25 to 30 minutes the soufflé will have puffed a couple inches over the rim of the mold and the top will be nicely browned.   Serve at once.

Gluten free version of recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Wild Rice Stuffing and Kale Chips

 This year was my first hosting Christmas dinner and trying to do it gluten free in a way that everyone would still make everyone happy.  Which was exciting and nerve wracking all by itself.  The problem was I had to work for 6 hours Christmas afternoon which left me no time to actually cook much of the meal itself.  Luckily I have two very talented men on hand in my kitchen.  The fella and the chef were kind enough to do most of the cooking and did a fabulous job. 

There were a couple moments while I was stuck at my desk taking relay calls listening to other people talk about their meals and wondering what was going on in my kitchen.  It was torture to be at work, on Christmas nonetheless, while the chef and the fella handled everything back home.  I wanted to play food, not eavesdrop on other people's phone calls, darn it.  And it was driving me crazy wondering what exactly would happen to the recipes I had handed off to the men that morning.  Would I come home to alien brain frittered stuffing or a bacon wrapped smoked turkey with an octopus stuffed in it?  The anxiety was for naught, the boys did amazing.  The only food that didn't quite turn out were the things I cooked oddly enough, but that's a story for another day.

It was lovely having my family over.  I think they even enjoyed the not so traditional food and the lack of gluten.  My parents even surprised us by bringing their adorable little present opening food hound who laid under the table to whole meal totally offended that no one was dropping any food on her and that she wasn't the center of attention.  You can see how neglected and abused she is cuddled up amongst the various feet that aren't currently petting her.

The dogs weren't the only ones giving me cute sad eyes though.  I probably nearly broke the chef by forcing him to use a recipe and one that didn't call for any fun ingredients even.  He obviously isn't too torn up over the stifled creativity however as I witnessed him stuffing cannelloni beans and chicken thighs in tiny pots last night so he's recovered. 

And after having the mushroom wild rice stuffing from a recipe in Bon Appetit I can safely say it would have been improved by a little creativity or perhaps just some nuts to give it a little texture.  It was tasty stuffing and the mushroom with wild rice combination really works, it just needed a little something extra to make it pop.  The cranberry wild rice stuffing with toasted hazelnuts I made for Thanksgiving was much more exciting and will probably be what I make for stuffing related situations in the future.

One of my brief contributions to the meal was to make a couple different varieties of kale chips to snack on while waiting for the meal to finish.  My mother sent me the idea for kale chips during the summer when I was lamenting yet another CSA box full of greens. Now I wanted to make them for her to see what they were like. 

Kale chips are super easy and tasty way to use up left over kale or any other hearty green you aren't usually a fan of.  All you need is salt, pepper and the seasoning of your choice and you have a healthy simple snack.  These always disappear right away at my parties.  It isn't until afterwards I let people know they just willingly devoured leafy green veggies.  They have the same taste and texture of regular chips but are so much better for you.  I can't recommend them  enough.  Just don't get into an in depth conversation about cephalopods while making them and manage to salt the tray of kale 3 or 4 times because that's just too much salt and even your supportive mother will not eat many of the chips at that level of sodium.  Not that this has ever happened to me or course,  totally hypothetical. 

Kale Chips

1 bunch kale
oil, for drizzling
salt and pepper, to taste
1 pinch, cayenne pepper
seasoning of your choice, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Rip the kale leaves into bite sized pieces, making sure to remove all the hard stems.  Run the pieces of kale through a salad spinner until dry or wash them thoroughly and then pat dry.  Place the kale across a large cookie sheet without overcrowding it. 

Spray or drizzle kale with oil, then toss until just oiled on all sides, using an oil sprayer makes this process super easy if you have one.  Sprinkle the kale with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with a pinch of cayenne pepper and the seasoning of your choice--Montreal steak seasoning or 5 spice powder work really well—or extra cayenne is delicious if you want something really basic. 

Arrange the kale pieces evenly over the pan so that they don't over lap much, do several batches if you have to.  Place in oven for about 10 minutes then check on them.  The kale should be crispy but not brittle or blackened.  If it is still moist in places, agitate the kale and place back in the oven for about 5 minutes, watching it closely so that it doesn't burn.

Wait for kale chips to cool.  Remove from pan with spatula and serve.