LTHForum Picnic 2009 Recipes

Starting a thread now, in preparation for requests and brags starting tomorrow.

Suggestion: If your recipe already exists on LTHForum, please provide a link to the thread.
Remember: please respect copyrights, and do not post recipes directly out of cookbooks.


The Ginger Cashew Chicken Salad I'm bringing can be found in Turn it Up by Janet Hazen.
[edit: based on Cathy2's guidelines, here's the recipe]

Step 1: Poach Chicken
4 chicken breast halves (how big? this is one of my recipe pet peeves -- give me a weight or a volume. I used 3 bone- & skin-on split chicken breasts from Costco, weighing about a pound each)
6 inches of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
about a dozen whole peppercorns (not in original recipe)
In a large pot, place chicken, ginger and pepper, cover with water.
Bring to a boil, skimming scum that arises, reduce to low and simmer for 15 minutes.
Refrigerate chicken breasts until time to assemble salad

Step 2: Other stuff and dressing
1 large bunch scallions - chop finely
1 can whole water chestnuts, cut in halves (recipe calls for 1 cup)
5 inches of fresh ginger, peeled, chopped fine
1 1/4 C mayonnaise
1/4 C lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup (plus a little more) roasted cashews -- so go easy on the salt above
Remove skin, bones and anything else you can't eat from chicken, dice into 1/2-inch pieces.
Toss with the scallions, ginger, water chestnuts, cashews, mayo, lemon. Taste and adjust seasonings.

JoelF wrote:Remember: please respect copyrights, and do not post recipes directly out of cookbooks.

Yes, of course. The ingredient lists are not copyrighted and may be copied verbatim. The instructions are copyrighted. Edit them enough to be roughly in your words, then attributed by stating, "Recipe adapted from [source book]."

Miang kam three ways

miang kam sapparod

toasted coconut flakes
toasted peanut
cubed whole lime
cubed peeled ginger
slivered shallot
cubed fresh pineapple
slivered medium thai chili
slivered yellow bell pepper
lime juice
cilantro
brown sugar
soy (no fish sauce to keep veg)
endive

miang kam of the damned

to the above plus
hot sriracha
madame jeanette pepper
bird pepper
hot thai finger chili

mediterranean miang kam*

diced bell pepper
chopped dates and raisins
gorgonzola
chopped walnuts
fresh basil
toasted pinenuts
balsamic vinegar
oregano
endive

*family recipe, first one-bite salad I ever tasted

Using as a checklist in the morning, thanks, Joel!

Pate de Campagne, adapted from this recipe

The meat part of this turned out pretty well, but I added the nuts without a guide - and overdid it. I recommend that folks eating this at the picnic pick the nuts out of their serving (can't fix it now,) and if you make it yourself, I'm not sure how much to add, but clearly 1/4 cup (my estimate of what i used) was far too much.

1 lb of liver, diced
1 Tablespoon of bourbon
1 Tablespoon of dry Madeira or sherry
1 clove garlic
2 sprays of parsley
2 shallots
1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/8 teaspoon clove
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 lb ground lean pork
1/3 cup pork fat, minced in food processor
1/4 cup slivered almonds (this obviously turned out to be waaaay too much.)

Sliced bacon - about 1/2 lb

Place first 12 ingredients in a blender, blend until it is a fine puree. Pour into a large bowl and mix with the pork and pork fat (I use my hands to make sure it's well incorporated, but it's a considerably messier job than doing it for meatloaf) Line a loaf pan with bacon, fill with mixture, and cover with bacon.

Place the loaf pan in a bain marie, and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours. Cool under a weight (I use another loaf pan filled with cans) and chill in the refrigerator for several hours.

Sticky Marmalade Roll

1 cup cake flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1/4 cup cold water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup marmalade

Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper (10"X 15") Spread a tea towel on your work surface and sift confectioner's sugar over to lightly cover.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Beat the eggs until they thicken slightly, then add the water and sugar. Fold in the dry ingredients and spread into your prepared pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the top is golden and it springs back lightly when touched.

Turn out your cake onto the prepared tea towel. Roll up the warm cake with the tea towel inside and allow to cool. When cool, unroll, spread top with marmalade, and re-roll without the tea towel. Wrap the resultant tube in the tea towel and allow to rest for a few minutes. Unroll and slice into rounds.

edited to add pictures and correct an error

The Taiwanese Pineapple Cake recipe was adapted from the following:
Yahoo and Euphocafe

Pineapple Cake Recipe
2 2/3 C flour
2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
8 T shortening
2/3 C confectioner's sugar
3T coffee creamer powder
4 t green tea powder
2 eggs, beaten
3 C pineapple jam filling (I think the jam from 3 pineapples would be sufficient -- I used 4 pineapples and had leftover jam) Note: see the instructions below for making the pineapple jam.

This yielded about 30 pineapple cakes.

Procedure:

1. Cream together the butter and shortening.
2. Add confectioner's sugar, green tea powder, and egg. Mix well.
3. Mix the flour and coffee creamer together and then fold this mixture into the butter mixture.
4. Roll the pineapple jam into balls.
5. Roll the dough into small flat discs and wrap it around a pineapple jam ball. The traditional shape for Taiwanese Pineapple Cake is a cube, but this is hard to do without a special square shaped mold. Instead, I roll it into a cylindrical shape.
6. Bake the pineapple cakes on an ungreased baking sheet at 400 F for 8 minutes.
7. Reduce the heat to 350 F, flip the cakes, and bake for another 5 minutes.
8. Cool the pineapple cakes on a wire rack.

The Pineapple Jam recipe was adapted from the following:
Nibbledish and Novice-baker

Pineapple Jam recipe
4 pineapples
10 whole cloves
2 T lemon juice
1.5 C sugar (more or less depending on your pineapples)
1 t cornstarch
cinnamon

Procedure:

1. Coarsely Grate/mince the pineapples (you can use a blender, food processor, or grater.
2. Drain the pineapples for about 20 minutes.
3. Add back 1 C of pineapple juice.
4. Bring all ingredients to a boil except for cornstarch and then simmer until the jam has thickened (should be about 30 minutes). After the jam has thickened, add cornstarch.
5. Remove the cloves.

Note: it took me about 2.5 hours of simmering to dry out the jam. You might want to consider adding back less pineapple juice or simmering the pineapple at a higher temperature. The pineapple jam will become drier and harder after it has cooled down. If the pineapple jam is overcooked, it will become hard, dry, and stringy.[/list]

Warning: making pineapple cake is labor intensive. The dough was very hard to work with since it was very sticky. I had to stick my hands in ice water after making each pineapple cake. I think that it would be easier to make pineapple tart instead of pineapple cake since pineapple tart does not involve wrapping dough around pineapple jam. See the pineapple tart images at Yumsugar.

So I said I was making "pastrami a la Extramsg." It's true that his recipe is already available here. It's also true that it's for 6 or 7 briskets, not one. And as a consequence, I usually divide by 6 to 7 in my head, which is to say, I wing it a bit with his old post as a guideline. So it wouldn't be a bad thing to post my own rough recipe for a single pastrami, adapted from Extramsg's guidelines as well as from the recipe in Ruhlman's Charcuterie.

Okay, for starters, there are five special things you need:
1) Whole raw brisket, point and flat, if possible (and if you like the extra-fatty point meat as well as the leaner flat meat). There are various guidelines here on LTH about where to get a good whole brisket; I go to Excel Corned Beef. Obviously you want one that hasn't already been shot full of chemicals.
2) I assume you have a WSM, or some other smoker.
3) You need something big enough that you can brine a whole brisket in it in the fridge. A stockpot or food grade bucket can work, I went to a restaurant supply place and bought a food grade bin big enough for this kind of thing, about $20.
4) Pink salt, curing powder, Prague Powder No. 1, whatever you want to call it. Available at soon-to-be-GNR Spice House, Paulina Meat Market, etc. While you're there, pick up pickling spices.
5) A Cajun injector, that is, a big hypodermic for squirting brine into the middle of meat. Not absolutely necessary, you can just poke it full of holes and that will help it soak up the brine.

Assuming your brisket is in the 12-14 lb. range, adjust if substantially larger or smaller:

Put 2 gallons of water in stockpot. Add:
1-1/6 cups kosher salt (yes, I know your cup measure doesn't show sixths, wing it)
3 tablespoons pink salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1-1/2 tablespoons pickling spice
1 tablespoon whole coriander seed
1 tablespoon whole mustard seed
3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced

Heat the above, stirring, enough to dissolve the salt/sugar. Let cool completely; you don't want to put meat in hot liquid. Trim the biggest, thickest hunks of fat off the outside of the brisket; you want some fat cap but there's no real reason to cure an inch of thick white fat.

Put the brisket in the brine in your vessel. Poke it with the injector and squirt brine into its insides liberally, especially in the denser middle of the flat. Note that it will often squirt back out. This will be annoying if it hits the floor and painful if it hits your eye. Weigh it down with a plate, whatever, to get as much submerged as possible.

Stick in fridge for a week or so. Turn once if needed. Otherwise leave the hell alone.

* * *

A week later, build a fire in your WSM according to the principles in your autographed copy of Low & Slow. You're basically going to do a brisket cook, which is basically like a pulled pork cook (p. 175), except for two things: one, you test how a brisket is done differently, and two, a cured brisket will probably cook faster. (For instance, at the picnic, my cured brisket was done in about 7-1/2 hours, Steve Z's regular one, admittedly larger to begin with, took 13.)

For the outside rub, lightly toast in a frying pan about 3 TBSP each of black pepper and coriander seed, then grind in a coffee grinder. (It's pungent, so before you grind coffee in it again, clean it well and then grind some uncooked rice.) Spread this all over the outside.

Cook for 2-1/2 hours on one side, 2-1/2 on the other, repeat, and somewhere around 7 or 8 hours, you should be able to stick a fork in it and wiggle it around even in that densest portion of the flat. That, for me, is the best sign of when a pastrami is done.

You could eat it now. It would be very good, maybe a little tougher than typical deli pastrami but tasting wonderfully of the fresh smoke. Or you could refrigerate it and then, the next day, cut it in half or a third or something and steam that piece in a steaming insert in a stockpot for about 2-3 hours, until it's back to an even wigglier fork-in-the-middle texture. (The extra freezes fine, I think, since it'll be steamed again anyway.) Now it's really done up right. Carve it so your sandwiches will include both the fatty point and the leaner flat, and maybe some of the burnt ends too which will be very smoky, salty and peppery. Serve with great bread and brown mustard. Enjoy.


photo by Gleam

Fellow picklers--let's unite! I am always interested in sharing recipes!
Thanks for enjoying!

Daikon Radish Pickles

This is the marinate that the black cod is marinated in at Nobu. I make the marinade and then either use some for the fish, some for some pickles or I use some for a pickle batch and stash the rest in my fridge in a sealed glass container. It keeps long and well.

Get some nice firm daikon radishes, peel them and slice them into about 1/4 inch slices. Cover with cool marinade in a sealed container and refrigerate. They will be pickled the within 12-24 hours, but if you give them a few days--they are better. I usually rinse them off before serving but today's batch were made last night and were too mild to rinse.

Marinade:

1/2 c. Sake
3/4 c. Mirin (make sure you get the original and not the "seasoned" kind
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 c. miso

Enjoy!

Tomato tart recipe is here.

This recipe was totally made up on the fly Friday evening, when I ran home from work and started throwing stuff in a pot. Fortunately, I remember the ratios I ended up using (the following is divided by four, which should result in a more manageable amount of food):

Pav Bhaji

Makes 6 hearty portions, or 12 little snacky ones

3 potatoes, boiled, skinned & roughly chopped
1 head cauliflower, boiled & roughly chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped (optional - if skipped, add another 1/2 cup of canned purée)
1/2 can (3 ounces) tomato paste
2 cups canned tomato purée
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 stick butter, chopped up
1 TB garlic, finely minced
1 tsp ginger, finely minced
1 serrano pepper, finely minced (seeds & all)
Pav bhaji masala to taste (I used about 2 TB of Badshah brand...MDH brand is good too)
Chile powder to taste (I used about 1 tsp)
Salt to taste (I used about 1 TB of kosher salt)

In a decent-sized pot (I used a big stock pot), saute the serrano, garlic & ginger in a bit of oil, then add the chopped tomato. Add the frozen peas, and roughly mash them up after they thaw in the pan (I mashed up about 2/3, and left 1/3 mostly whole). Add in the potato, roughly mash it up (I like a few small potato chunks to remain, but some folks mash until it's smooth). Stir in half of the tomato purée. Add the cauliflower, mash it up. Stir in the other half of the tomato purée and the tomato paste, which should give it the signature red color. Add butter, stir it in once it melts. Stir in pav bhaji masala, salt & chile powder until it tastes good to you & suits your spice tolerance. The final consistency should be like mashed potatoes...if it's too thick, add a little water.

Serve topped with diced onion, cilantro & a squeeze of lemon, with a roll griddled up with ample butter...at the picnic we used teleras, cut into thirds, from El Nopal Bakery at 1626 S. Blue Island in Pilsen (we also had teleras from Bom Bon Café on Ashland, but I didn't care for those as much...they seemed too hamburger bun-like to me, while the El Nopal ones had a nice crust).

Leftover pav bhaji refrigerates & freezes well, and can be reheated in the microwave or in a pan or griddle with a bit of butter.

thanks for sharing the tomato tart recipe--did you also make the pear one?

The tomato and corn pie recipe is here:

Notes: Just after I put it in the oven, I realized that I forgot the mayo. The solution? Make another pie, of course. And make it right. I actually read through what was then 220 or so comments trying to scheme a way to save the bottom crust from being soggy. I dried the tomatoes in 3 layers of paper towel for 45 minutes to try to remove excess moisture. It didn't work. Other options I considered to keep everything crispy: blind-baking the bottom crust for about 10 minutes, salting the tomatoes before toweling dry, and adding breadcrumbs to the mix. If people replicate the recipe, let me know if any of these things change the outcome. The biscuit crust was actually very easy to work with - I would definitely use it again.

The broccoli saw recipe (really more of a method) is here.

Notes: I've made this a number of times in the last year and it's been very good each time. I added kohlrabi for yesterday's batch which I had sitting around, although I think that other crisp vegetables wuold make fine additions (jicama, radishes, carrots and the like). This recipe is a good one to practice your knifework on, but for this volume, I used a Benriner-style mandoline. I had some problems getting the seasoning right on this very large batch. I think the salad improves after sitting a day and the garlic and onion perfume the whole thing. However, yesterday's batch was a bit milder in this regard as I found the slaw soaked up some of that flavor after resting overnight - this was probably just due to the massive quantity of veggies. I think this is a great alternative to traditional cole slaw that you can make in colder months when broccoli starts going strong.

nancy wrote:thanks for sharing the tomato tart recipe--did you also make the pear one?

I made the pear tart and the plum-saffrom tart (on the dessert table) as well. I will post back later tonight with those recipes, which were a little more slapdash (crust recipe from here, filling from somewhere else). Glad you enjoyed them!

Mike G wrote:1-1/6 cups kosher salt (yes, I know your cup measure doesn't show sixths, wing it)

Wing it? C'mon -- a cup is 8 oz, which is 16 Tbs, which is 48 Tsp.
Which means you call for 1 cup + 2 Tbs + 2 Tsp of salt.

But you should be weighing it (I just did) -- it's pretty much spot-on 10 oz or 283.5 gm, using Morton Kosher Salt.
Other brands and kinds of salt (don't use table salt, you don't want the flavor of iodine in your pastrami) will have different densities, but will have the same salinity per weight (with small variations due to moisture content, but I know I can't afford fleur de sel for curing).

JoelF wrote: (don't use table salt, you don't want the flavor of iodine in your pastrami)

For the record, you can purchase uniodized table salt - preferred if you neti

I'd weigh it if it was going in a dish, but a brine I don't have a problem being a little one way or the other. The meat will absorb it at its own rate, one pastrami will suck in more than the next... if my methods are insufficiently precise, feel free to make yours moreso, but there are plenty of other variables that will make one a little different from the next (not to mention personal taste).

I'm inspired by Mike G and MHays...pastrami and pate are in my near cooking future!

leek wrote:

JoelF wrote: (don't use table salt, you don't want the flavor of iodine in your pastrami)

For the record, you can purchase uniodized table salt - preferred if you neti

... but definitely weigh out table salt if you're using it for this purpose -- you'll get a lot more salt in table salt by volume, because of the flaky crystalline nature of kosher versus the fine grains of table. That was really my point.

I made the chai marshmallows and jasmine green tea marshmallows from Thomas Keller's recipe, which I found here. I simply replaced the 1/2 cup cold water with 1/2 cup strongly brewed (but not burnt with the green tea) iced tea to soak the gelatin. For the chai version, I mixed into the powdered sugar in which I dredged the final marshmallows a few dashes of cinnamon. This recipe is very forgiving (and I would know, having made the marshmallows for the picnic very sleepily at 2am). I let the mixer do all of the work, and I scraped down the sides of the bowl just once.

I was inspired to make the marshmallows while re-organizing my tea collection. For the chai, I simply used Good Earth 7-Spice Chai, just one bag steeped in the 1/2 cup hot water for about 3 minutes. For the jasmine green tea marshmallows, I used Mariage Frères' really exquisite Jasmin Mandarin, which I think I picked up at Porte Rouge, steeped also for about 3 minutes in less-than-boiling water.

I actually planned to make a few more varieties of tea marshmallows but ran out of time. I think my Taylors of Harrogate Earl Grey is worth experimenting with (rich bergamot), and I'm also very eager to make marshmallows with two other Mariage Frères varieties I have, the Nil Rouge (red tea with citrus and marigolds) and the Pleine Lune (very floral and almond-y black tea). I'm also curious to try making marshmallows with some kind of licorice root tea, like Yogi Tea's Egyptian Licorice Mint, which I drink almost daily, and some kind of chocolate tea, perhaps Todd & Holland's Rooibos Black Forest or the chocolate mint tea I recently picked up at Fox & Obel from a San Francisco company whose name I can't remember.

I posted the recipe for the bacon apple pie last fall here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=21370

I stuck fairly closely to that recipe, but I mixed the bacon crumbles with the apples instead of putting them on the bottom and I added some minced caramelized onions. (Chop onion, cook over medium-high heat with a bit of butter, stirring frequently, until brown all over, about 20-30 min. I make a big batch of this occasionally and freeze. It's a great thing to have handy.)

Here's a couple requests:

Buddyroadhouse's Corn Casserole. We're wondering how many sticks of butter per pound of corn was in that, if nothing else
Borborigmy's Phyllo Feta Torte -- very nice presentation, almost a definite for our next party

[thanks to MHays for posting the who-made-what list on Page 11 of the Picnic thread]

Spreadsheet info is back up, Joel - I took down the spreadsheet on the off chance that Flickr objects. It's in order of offering type.

eli wrote:I posted the recipe for the bacon apple pie last fall here: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=21370

I stuck fairly closely to that recipe, but I mixed the bacon crumbles with the apples instead of putting them on the bottom and I added some minced caramelized onions. (Chop onion, cook over medium-high heat with a bit of butter, stirring frequently, until brown all over, about 20-30 min. I make a big batch of this occasionally and freeze. It's a great thing to have handy.)

%$#$%(*&_# mouth for food input, not for talking, hays! )*^$%*^*&

eli wrote:I posted the recipe for the bacon apple pie last fall here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=21370

I stuck fairly closely to that recipe, but I mixed the bacon crumbles with the apples instead of putting them on the bottom and I added some minced caramelized onions.

eli,

When I arrived at the picnic, I was ravenous. I saw the apple pie, and not thinking back at all to the list of people's contributions and not seeing a label, I just piled a gigantic slice on my plate. I have to say that it is just about the best...surprise...ever to think that I was eating just a really tasty apple pie and then to discover by the end of my first bite that it contained bacon and caramelized onions.

Mike G wrote:3) You need something big enough that you can brine a whole brisket in it in the fridge. A stockpot or food grade bucket can work, I went to a restaurant supply place and bought a food grade bin big enough for this kind of thing, about $20.

Mike,

Killer pastrami - I snatched up a nice pile of crunchy end bits and enjoyed them thoroughly.

In my own pastrami endeavors, I've found that vacuum seal bags (good ol' FoodSaver) work really well instead of a tub. I just slide the pastrami in, pour in the brine, then suck out as much air as I can and seal it up. Like this, it takes up a lot less space in the fridge (it can go on a short shelf) and requires a lot less brine.

-Dan

Is it big enough? Maybe a flat alone is.

I do my bacon in the 2-1/2 gallon Hefty bags, but I don't think a 14-lb brisket would fit.

Anyway, thanks all for the compliments. Guess I know what I'm making next year.

JoelF wrote:Here's a couple requests:

Buddyroadhouse's Corn Casserole. We're wondering how many sticks of butter per pound of corn was in that, if nothing else.

The recipe for macque choux (pronounced "mock chew"), otherwise known as Cajun corn, will be forthcoming as soon as I get time to sit down and type it in. As for the butter content, my punchline of the day yesterday (with apologies to those who already suffered through it) was, "There's enough butter in there to carve a life sized statue of Michael Jackson at the Iowa State Fair."

Buddy

I'm looking for the recipe for the World's Greatest Cookie. That 1 was a revelation, choc, chili, & pignoli, oh my!

I also would love the recipe for the carmel top-crusted apple pie & the shortbread.

Boiled Peanuts aren't really a recipe

5lbs of Raw or Green Peanuts in Shell
2.5 c of salt (to taste, remember you can always let them soak in the brine later if you want a saltier peanut, getting the salt out is difficult)

1.Rinse peanuts in clean cool water. Drain.
2.Place in stock pot w/ salt & covered w/ fresh cool water.
3.Place on medium high & wait.

Peanuts are done when they have the texture of firm beans.

It's just like cooking dried beans-- it can take forever, but it's always worth it.

Enjoy,

nancy wrote:thanks for sharing the tomato tart recipe--did you also make the pear one?

Pear, Bacon, Goat Cheese & Honey Tart

Prepare Rosemary-Scented Tart Crust (adapted from The New Spanish Table)

In a food processor, pulse 6-7 times until combined:
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. confectioner's sugar
1 t. minced fresh rosemary

Add and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal:
8 T. chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Add 6 T. ice water and pulse until the dough comes together.*

Turn out dough onto lightly floured board, pat into a disk. Put in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (The dough can be prepared up to 2 days ahead.)

*As a matter of practice, I always add the maximum amount of water recommended. If the dough is a little wet, put it on a lightly floured surface and dust the top with flour. The dough will soak up just enough extra flour it needs. This cuts down on needless additional pulsing in the food processor. But practices vary; do what you normally do.

Pre-bake Tart Shell:

Preheat oven to 400°.

After the dough has chilled, roll it out to about an 11-12" circle. Place in a 9" tart pan with a removable bottom. Fold down any overhang and, with your fingers, pat down the crust so it's evenly distributed in the pan. Place foil over the crust and put in the freezer for 20 minutes while the oven preheats.

When the dough is done freezing, dump beans or pie weights onto the aluminum foil. Prebake crust for 20 minutes. Remove foil and pie weights; discard. Prick the bottom of the crust numerous times with fork. Put back into oven for about another 15 minutes. (You want the tart shell to be completely baked to a tan color.)

Let shell cool competely before filling.

Make the pear filling:

Ingredients:
About 5 Asian pears (about 4" in diameter, but you can use bigger pears)
1 large yellow onion (about 12 ounces)
About 1/4-1/2 c. goat cheese (I strongly recommend Capriole Mont St. Francis, available at Pastoral)
5 thin slices bacon
Honey (I prefer the wildflower honey from Kress Apiary, available at the Daley Center Market, which has a strong, lingering taste)

Preheat oven to 375°.

Caramelize the onion in about 3 T. olive oil with a couple pinches of salt until it is evenly browned; about 20-25 minutes. Remove to a bowl to cool. In the same pan, fry bacon in a pan until it has rendered its fat until it is not quite crisp. Preferably using a mandoline (or knife), slice the pears into about 1/16th diameter slices. When bacon is done frying, cut into 1/2" slices crosswise and toss in a bowl with about 1 T. rendered bacon fat.

Evenly layer the onions in the tart shell. Top with bacon/pear mixture. Shred about 1/4 c. goat cheese over top. Give this top layer a light sprinkling of salt and a generous amount of pepper ground fresh from the mill. Bake for 30 minutes. When done, drizzle semi-generously with honey.

*A note about the pears: If the pears seem firm (it's the beginning of pear season; so mine, while ripe, were a little firmer than I'd like), sauté for a few minutes in the rendered bacon fat after you've finished cooking the bacon. Omit the 1 T. bacon fat used to toss the pears with the bacon.

happy_stomach wrote:When I arrived at the picnic, I was ravenous. I saw the apple pie, and not thinking back at all to the list of people's contributions and not seeing a label, I just piled a gigantic slice on my plate. I have to say that it is just about the best...surprise...ever to think that I was eating just a really tasty apple pie and then to discover by the end of my first bite that it contained bacon and caramelized onions.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Also, looking back at my recipe from last year I see that I used a pre-made crust then. This year I used the cream cheese crust from the Pie and Pastry Bible. I can't say enough good things about that recipe.

Here is the recipe for the Maque Choux, as interpreted from James McNair's Corn Cookbook. Bear in mind that the recipe in the book serves six people. I nearly tripled the recipe, so some measurements of ingredients were an approximation based on my personal tastes and whims.

Also, the original recipe for six can, and should be prepared in a skillet. When tripling everything, once I got past the sauteing of the corn (three batches) and the onion (two batches), I was forced to finish the process in a large pot. This caused the evaporation times to increase significantly.

Finally, as I like dishes of this nature to be really thick, I reserved enough chicken stock, and added some flour so as to make a thickener to be added after all the other ingredients had come together and had cooked down in the final step. This also enhanced the rich, glossy appearance of the dish.

Maque Choux (Smothered Cajun Corn)

12 ears Fresh corn
-or-
6 cups drained canned or thawed frozen corn
6 Tbsp. Unsalted butter
1 cup Finely diced onion
2 Tbsp. Granulated sugar
½ tsp. Salt, or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Ground cayenne or other dried hot chile
1½ cups peeled, seeded, and chopped ripe or drained canned tomatoes
1½ cups Homemade chicken stock or canned chicken broth
½ cup Heavy cream or evaporated milk

If you’re using fresh corn, strip the kernels from the cob and set aside. If you’re using frozen corn, as I did, you can pre-sauté it with a little butter, salt and sugar to taste. Don’t over cook, just warm it up. If you’re using canned corn, just drain it and set aside.

Next, in a skillet, melt 2 Tbsp. of the butter on medium high heat and add the onion. Sauté until the onion is soft, but not browned.

Add the corn, sugar, salt, and peppers to taste and sauté until the corn starts to stick to the skillet; should take about 10 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes and sauté until most of the liquid evaporates; about 5-10 minutes.

Pour in the chicken stock and bring it all to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook, with frequent stirring, until most of the liquid is absorbed. This should take about 15 minutes.

Finally, add the remaining butter and cream (or evaporated milk). Continue to cook on low heat until most of the liquid is absorbed, about another 5 minutes.

Garnish with green onion , parsley, or cilantro. The green is there mostly for color, rather than flavor. I chose the green onion for the picnic.

That's it. Cajun comfort food at its best. Have fun!

Buddy

Plum-Saffron Tart

Prepare Rosemary-Scented Tart Crust (adapted from The New Spanish Table)

In a food processor, pulse 6-7 times until combined:
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. confectioner's sugar
1 t. minced fresh rosemary

Add and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal:
8 T. chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Add 6 T. ice water and pulse until the dough comes together.*

Turn out dough onto lightly floured board, pat into a disk. Put in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (The dough can be prepared up to 2 days ahead.)

*As a matter of practice, I always add the maximum amount of water recommended. If the dough is a little wet, put it on a lightly floured surface and dust the top with flour. The dough will soak up just enough extra flour it needs. This cuts down on needless additional pulsing in the food processor. But practices vary; do what you normally do.

Pre-bake Tart Shell:

Preheat oven to 400°.

After the dough has chilled, roll it out to about an 11-12" circle. Place in a 9" tart pan with a removable bottom. Fold down any overhang and, with your fingers, pat down the crust so it's evenly distributed in the pan. Place foil over the crust and put in the freezer for 20 minutes while the oven preheats.

When the dough is done freezing, dump beans or pie weights onto the aluminum foil. Prebake crust for 20 minutes. Remove foil and pie weights; discard. Prick the bottom of the crust numerous times with fork. Put back into oven for about another 15 minutes. (You want the tart shell to be completely baked to a tan color.)

Let shell cool competely before filling.

Make the Saffron Pastry Cream: (adapted from The New Spanish Table)

Ingredients:
3 large egg yolks
2/3 c. sugar
1 medium pinch saffron, pulverized in a mortar and steeped in 2 T. very hot water
3 T. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. half-and-half

Whip the yolks, 1/3 c. sugar and saffron mixture in a bowl until thick and pale yellow in a medium bowl. Whisk in the flour.

In a heavy saucepan, bring the half-and-half to a simmer over medium-low heat. Gradually whisk (temper) about 1/2 c. of the warmed half-and-half into the yolk mixture, whisking vigorously to make sure the yolks do not scramble. Add the yolk mixture into the saucepan with the remaining half-and-half mixture, whisking vigorously to combine. Turn up the heat to medium, whisking constantly until thickened, about 3-5 minutes.

Put pastry cream in a small bowl and cover with a piece of plastic wrap, pressing the plastic directly onto the cream. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Prepare the plum tart: (loosely adapted from this Gourmet recipe)

Preheat the oven to 375°.

With a paring knife, halve about 1 lb. plums (Stanley, Italian or "prune plums), removing the pits. Place in a bowl and toss with about 1 T. cornstarch, about 3 T. sugar and 1 T. lemon juice. Taste for sweetness; add more sugar if desired. Let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Take the pastry cream out of the refrigerator and fill the pre-baked tart shell with the pastry cream, being careful not to overfill. Arrange the plums carefully on top of the cream in a rosette fashion, skin side down. Dump any remaining juices from the bowl over the plums. Bake for 35-45 minutes until pastry cream is set and plums are tender.