Short Ribs with Red Wine

Last Christmas, I got the Good Meat cookbook, which has proved to be a great addition to my cookbook library. Last night we had short ribs, which were based on one of the recipes in the book. Instead of making a pasta sauce, as in the original recipe, I left the short ribs whole and served them with mashed potatoes. The recipe is like many others I do; it starts with sauteed chopped onion, carrot, leeks, celery, and garlic. The meat is browned, the pan deglazed, nad red wine, stock, and tomato (diced, pureed, or paste) added, along with bay leaf and thyme. This time I also added two cinnamon sticks, as the recipe instructed, and the slight cinnamon taste was a welcome addition. This is winter food at its best!

Lisa’s Carrot Cake

I have been experimenting with non-wheat cakes and breads, since my cousin Kathy has a wheat allergy and some of my friends are avoiding gluten. Yesterday, I baked an old favorite carrot cake, using the non-wheat flour blend I got from the New York Times last fall, for Kathy's birthday. I made only half the recipe, since I wasn't sure how it would turn out, and there were only three cake eaters. It was terrific--as good as the original, I think. For the frosting, since Kathy also is allergic to dairy, I changed the frosting as well. Here's the basic recipe:

1¼ cups oil
1½ cups sugar or 1 cup honey (I used sugar)
3 eggs (for half the recipe, I used 2 eggs)
2 cups flour (if substituting non-wheat flour, add about 1/2 tsp. of Xanthum gum)
2 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla
2—2½ cups grated carrots
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
½ cup currants or raisins
(Optional: ½ cups dates, instead of raisins; 1 mashed banana; ½ cup coconut)

Combine sugar, oil and eggs. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon and then add to sugar mixture. Stir in vanilla, carrots, walnuts and raisins. Bake in two (three?) greased cake pans for 45-50 minutes at 325

Icing: Combine 1 stick of butter and 8 oz. cream cheese (both softened) and add one package of powdered sugar and 2 tsp. vanilla. Frost cake when cool.

I made my frosting recipe with about 1 cup of powdered sugar, 4 Tb. Nucoa margarine, about 2 Tb. soy yoghurt, and 1/2 tsp. of vanilla. A bit of lemon juice would have been good, too.

Choucroute Garnie

Well, once again, it's been quite awhile. I did't manage to take any food pictures for Laura and Weston's CA celebration, but it was our last "summer" dinner, with cocktails outside. Since then, I've been cooking winter fare, including a wonderful Branigan turkey at Thanksgiving and an amazing standing rib roast from the Meat Lab at Christmas.

I got a new ipad for Christmas, and as soon as I can figure it out, I will try posting from that. Shortly before Christmas we had friends over for a traditional charcroute garnie, and I even managed to take a photo. I pretty much followed Julia Child's recipe for the cabbage, though I didn't cook it for quite as long as she recommends. I used duck legs, browned first and then added to the cabbage for about an hour at the end, along with two types of sausages (which I should have poked, as some of them split)and some red new potatoes. The results were delicious!

Absense

Nearly 3 months have passed since my last post, and lots has been going on to prevent the posts (not all good!). Our trip to NY was great until the last night, when we hit a deer outside of Ely, Nevada, on the lonliest highway in America (it was). Thanks to Onstar, we finally got some help, but it was a pretty grim 24-hours, which included a trip in a 14-foot U-haul over the remainder of the lonliest highway (7 summits along the way!). We came home to find that my Mom's house had burned down (we got the news in about Ohio), then she had a stroke, and then I broke my arm.

Things improved in late September when we headed east again for Laura's wedding--really wonderful (see her blog, thelittlehouseinthecity.blogspot.com). Now we're looking forward to hosting Laura and Weston for the west coast celebration, along with about 2 dozen family members and close friends. I will get some posts up about the celebration--I promise.

Road Trip!

We're headed east for nearly a month, passing through Wilson, WY, to visit friends, Cleveland Ohio, for a family reunion of Tim's family, and Fort Greene, where we will be staying in Anne's new apartment. I'll try to report any good food we find along the way. We will also visit friends and attend a wedding in Connecticut.

Summer Dinner

Our good friends Diana and Walt Altorfer were in town this weekend, and we enjoyed some relaxed summer meals with them--breakfast, lunch and dinner. One night we had grilled lamb shoulder (from Mr. Bledsoe) with summer squash from the garden, farro pilaf and green salad (with lots of cherry tomatoes from our vines). The next night my mom, brother and friend joined us for tri-tip from the meat lab, more squash (along with some eggplant), new potatoes and a greek salad (tossed). Diana took this picture.

A Very Good Cake Recipe with Fruit

One of my all-time favorite easy dessert recipes was given to me by Darrell Lund, Darien’s superintendent of schools, when I was serving on the school board. “A Very Good Cake Recipe with Fruit” is one of the easiest cake recipes imaginable. The most time-consuming part is pushing the fruit into the batter. This makes a quick and easy dessert for guests, and the cake is delicious. These are Darrell’s instructions:

Here is a simple but very good cake recipe in which you can use virtually any kind or combination of fresh fruit.
3/4 cup sugar
8 tbsp. butter or substitute
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs or equivalent (eggbeaters, etc.)
1/4 cup mixed sugar and cinnamon (I use a crystallized brown sugar for added texture)

1. Butter a 9" spring form pan
2. Cream butter and sugar
3. Add flour, baking powder, salt and eggs and process thoroughly
4. Spread dough in spring form pan
5. Add fruit
6. Sprinkle with mixture of sugar and cinnamon
7. Bake in 350 degree oven for 60 minutes (I place cake in lower shelf of oven)

Be very generous in your use of fruit. Press them into dough (which is quite soft). Fresh raspberries are particularly good, as are blueberries. You really can use virtually any fruit, including those from cans or jars when not available fresh. It tastes lightest and best when eaten about 30-45 minutes out of the oven.

Lemon Verbena Ice Cream
I have lots of lemon verbena right now, so I decided it would be good in ice cream, paired with the cake. It was unusual, delicious, and the perfect accompaniment for Darrell’s cake.

Ingredients
1 cup loosely-packed fresh lemon verbena leaves, rinsed & dried
1/2 cup milk
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
6 large egg yolks
optional: a dried leaf of lemon verbana, to crumble in the just-churned ice cream, or a very-finely chopped fresh leaf

1. In a saucepan, warm the lemon verbena leaves with the milk, cream, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Once warm, remove from heat, cover, and let steep for one hour.

2. Use a strainer or slotted spoon to skim the lemon verbena from the cream & milk mixture and squeeze the leaves to extract as much liquid as possible back into the saucepan.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs together in a small bowl and slowly pour in the warm cream mix, whisking constantly. Pour the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan and cook, stirring continuously with a heatproof spatula, until the custard leaves a trail on the spatula when you drag your finger across it. Immediately strain the custard into a bowl. Stir until cool.

4. Chill thoroughly, and then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When done, crumble a dried verbena leaf in the ice cream, or finely-chop a fresh leaf and stir that in.