A quick and easy recipe for Kale Salad with Dried Cherries and Pistachio Nuts I have never been a huge fan of Kale. I’ll eat it. Sometimes I will even choose a Kale salad off the menu. But I don’t usually buy it. It always seems like a lot of work: stripping off the leaves and massaging them to a squishy mess. It never felt compelling enough to me. Then my daughter asked if she could have one of my raised beds in which to plant some seeds. Of course I said yes. Now, thanks to her, I have mustard greens and kale (and even watermelon!). Lately I have been harvesting the Kale every ...
A GARDEN DINNER: ZUCCHINI FRITTERS WITH BURRATA, BASIL AND TOMATOES, AND SQUASH BLOSSOM QUESADILLAS
I bet you all are just waiting for tomatoes to come in so you can stop hearing about zucchini. But zucchini doesn’t care. Zucchini is the gift that keeps on giving. Last week I decided to really go after my plant and make a dinner based on zucchini. I started with Zucchini Fritters with Burrata, Basil and Tomatoes followed by some Squash Blossom Quesadillas and a Kale Salad. Zucchini Fritters Using the coarse shred side of a grater, shred the zucchini and toss it in a little salt. Then place it in a sieve to drain for ten minutes. You want the zucchini to be as dry as possible so ...
WITH THE BEST OF INTENTIONS: OLIVE OIL, LEMON AND GINGER ZUCCHINI BREAD
I started this week with the best of intentions. I thought that everyone must certainly be tired of Quarantine Baking so I planned to write a blog about something meaty, maybe something on the grill, something far removed from bowls and ovens and flour. Then I went out the garden and found the zucchini had decided this was the time to begin. Even then, my intention was not to start with zucchini bread just yet. I thought I would collect a number of recipes and then do baker’s choice for you all. But that was before I tasted this zucchini bread. This zucchini bread is moist, super ...
PASTA WITH FRESH PEA SAUCE
Garden peas and fresh herbs are quickly combined to make a fresh and versatile sauce for pasta or fish. Many years ago we lived outside of London in a lovely house with a large walled garden. It was a rental and in order to ensure the garden was well maintained the owners required us to use their gardener, the eponymously named Mr. Green. Much of what I do now I learned from him. The quarter acre was lush with fruit trees, wild flowers and a small rose garden which he lovingly tended. In addition to this, Mr. Green kept us well supplied with home grown vegetables. An early lesson for ...
AN ENGLISH CREAM TEA
When you think of tea and the English do you think of a large Manor House with immaculately groomed lawns, ladies in long dresses and hats and gentlemen standing behind them? The High Tea of Downton Abbey! I think of a roadside sign on a back road leading to a charming cottage with a few tables set out on a rose flanked patio. The sign simply reads “Cream Tea”. Cream Tea is a summer institution in the United Kingdom. Cream Teas can be found at the best restaurants and in small tea shops. They are available in cities and in the countryside. They are most common in Devonshire and ...
HIGH TEA: VICTORIA SANDWICH CAKE
It’s time for the finale of my Great British Baking Show Competition and I am knee deep in flour, butter, sugar and eggs. I have one day to prepare three different elements of a classic British High Tea: Victorian Sandwich Cake, French Tarte Au Citron and Scones. Up to now I have not worried about the time requirement of each challenge but since I know how to make each of these items already I thought it would be interesting to try making them in the same time allotted to the contestants: five hours. Pastry dough for the tarts is made and resting in the fridge and I turn next to ...
DONUT JOY: MAPLE GLAZED WITH BACON OR CHOCOLATE GLAZED WITH NUTS?
Sweet and Salty Maple Glazed Donuts with Bacon Bits or Satisfyingly Rich Dark Chocolate Ganache Glazed Donuts with Crunchy Pecans, there is something for everyone here! In the beginning, donuts came in three varieties: filled with strawberry jam, coated in powdered sugar or sparkling with bright crystals of cane sugar. My favorite was, and still is, the jelly donut. Its soft pillowy exterior hides a blob of sticky red jam making each bite an adventure. Sugar donuts are also a favorite. When I was a child, my mother would cut the centers out of Pillsbury Poppin Fresh Biscuits, fry them and ...
ECLAIRS
Crisp and airy pate a choux shells are filled with vanilla or raspberry cream then covered with luscious chocolate ganache for two takes on the Classic Eclair. This is the year that time slowed down. Spring creeps ever so slowly across the landscape. Warm days are followed by cold and frost and my winter clothes have not yet rested safely in the back of my closet. Day follows day with extraordinary sameness broken only by the question of what the Great British Baking Show will ask me to make next. Truthfully, it seems like that show will never come to an end either! But it is coming ...
SORRY KUGELHOPF, I’M MAKING GREEN CHICKEN CHILI
This is the sad tale of three Kugelhopfs and knowing when to stop and make Green Chicken Chili instead. The story starts 39 years ago when I traveled to the French city of Strasbourg in the Alsace-Lorraine region near the German border. Students of history will know that this area of France has been hotly fought over and traded back and forth between Germany and France giving it a unique culture and cuisine. We visited the cathedral, walked along the river and explored the narrow cobblestone streets and, of course we stopped in a bakery. I had heard of the traditional cake of the ...
ALMOND PEAR PIES
Have you ever been in a bakery and been awed by the beautiful displays of breads, cakes and pastries? Of course you have. You should be. The baker has spent years perfecting his craft because presentation is a big part of the delight we get from a fancy dessert. This week’s technical challenge from the Great British Baking Show was to turn a simple Pear Pie into a pear sculpture. Like this: But having made it, I would never do it again. There is an easier way which results in a delicious handheld pie: crisp, flaky puff pastry, delicate poached pear and a luscious ...
