A Night from "Bon Appetite"

Being at the end of May, I knew it was going to be any day that I would get my new issue of “Bon Appétit” in the mail. It came on Friday, before I was scheduled to work all weekend. So I was very excited Sunday, when I ended up with a little more free time than I had planned (long story), to spend some quiet time looking through the magazine for some new inspiration. This is the summer grilling issue so I knew there would be some really great finds. Lots of the dishes sounded delicious, but in particular the Shrimp and Andouille Skewers stood out first. I made a mental note. Then, as I kept turning the pages I came across something that just sounded too scrumptious for words, Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars. No sooner than I had finished reading that title I knew I had fallen in love and that I must have this delicacy! Unfortunately, I was confined to “bed rest” under close watch by my caring yet militant husband. This menu would have to wait until tomorrow. In the meantime, I laid out my plan in detail and got the OK from the Boss that this menu was a “Go”. For anyone who knows Brandon, you know the dessert was a tough sell, HA!


So after dreaming about the cheesecake all night, Monday morning finally rolls around and I can hit the grocery store and get the last minute ingredients for my little menu with a Spanish flair. The cheesecake called for store-bought Dulce de Leche sauce. Ok, that’s fine, but I’m not messing around here. I wanted to make my own, which is really quite simple.

Dulce de Leche is a milk caramel sauce, made from caramelizing the sugars in the milk. All you need to do is take a can of sweetened condensed milk, crack two holes in the top for vents and, put it in a saucepan of simmering water. The water should leave about a ¼ in clearance from the top of the can. Let this simmer for 3 hours or so until the desired coloring is reached. You will probably have to add more water during the cooking time. Now, you’re probably thinking if the milk is in the can, how am I supposed to tell if it’s the right color? Well, yes you will have that dilemma. I let it simmer for 2 hours and found that the bottom of the can was more caramelized than the top. If you run into this situation you can pour the milk into a bowl set over a saucepan of boiling water, aka a double boiler, and slowly heat it until it does reach the desired color. You can also go this route from the very beginning and it should take about 40-50 minutes or so. A third option is to pour the sweetened condensed milk into a pie plate, cover it with foil and, place it in a 350ºF oven for about 40 minutes or until desired coloring is achieved. You may find that it’s just easier to start out with one of the other two options than play the guessing game. As a side note, the longer you cook the sauce, the more caramelized, and the thicker the consistency.

So, back to the recipe. It’s really just a standard graham cracker crust and cheesecake filling with the addition of some of the cooled dulce de leche. Once the cake has you mix some of the dulce de leche with a little cream and warm it in the microwave to a pourable consistency and pour it over the top of the cheesecake. I chose, instead of doing bars, to use a spring form pan to make more of a traditional cheesecake. Everything turned out fine, except that I had enough of all the parts left over to make some skimpier bars in a 9x9 pan. An 8x8 probably would have been a better choice, but that was too difficult to reach at the time. As a finishing touch to the cheesecakes, you sprinkle some fleur de sel on top which really sends the cake overboard delicious.

I guess I should mention that the Shrimp and Andouille skewers were also very delicious and oh so simple. You just skewer some nice big shrimp (16/20), sliced Andouille sausage, cherry tomatoes, and red onion. Then, glaze the skewers with a marinade of smoked paprika, sherry vinegar, garlic, red pepper flakes, thyme and olive oil and grill them off. Smoked paprika, or Pimentón Dulce, is very Spanish and you should be able to find it in the regular grocery store. I know Spice Islands offers it.

These skewers are so quick and easy and really perfect for a picnic or camping. I would recommend leaving enough space in between the different skewer components so that everything can cook properly. The sausage should be a kind that is already cooked so you’re really only getting some marks on it. If you are using bamboo skewers make sure to soak them in water for about 30 minutes before grilling so that they don’t just burn up on the grill. I served them with a simple side salad and some roasted potatoes sprinkled with the smoked paprika.

I would highly recommend this menu as the skewers are so light and delicious that they don’t weigh you down from what you’re really going for, the Dulce de Leche Cheesecake! And trust me, this cheesecake is so rich and filling, you don’t want anything getting in your way. It really was the perfect ending to the meal. I didn’t feel that it was too sweet, which I had worried about. It was creamy and smooth with a perfect touch of salt to round out the complete flavor. I would only recommend having one piece, however, because as bad as you want seconds, you will find it to be a bad idea. Just hold on to that will power and wait until tomorrow for another piece!

Strawberry Insanity

Ok so let’s give this blog thing another try! I’ve been wanting to blog, but ever since we found out I was pregnant (January) I haven’t been doing anything really amazing in the kitchen. That all changed yesterday when I got a burst of energy, that was supposed to be used for cleaning, and made strawberry pie and jam instead! I think my pregnancy “nesting” is going to manifest itself much more in the culinary sense than in the cleaning sense, but hey what else is new?!


Right now in San Diego we have some really wonderful strawberries available and they are on sale so how could I resist? I knew I wanted to do something delicious with my insane amount of strawberries and during my morning internet perusal came across an Epicurious article, “How to Make the Perfect Pie”. In the article was a recipe for a really delicious sounding mixed berry pie with a streusel topping. Ok, done!

I’m not a fan of a double crusted pie, I just don’t like crust that much, even when sprinkled with sugar and all that jazz, so the streusel topping really works for me. This streusel had almonds in it, giving it a nice crunch. In my head I’m already thinking, “Almonds and strawberries, what a healthy pie!” Yeah, I can justify anything food related.

I did decide to tweak the filling recipe because for some strange reason Brandon doesn’t care much for raspberries, blackberries or blueberries. Weird guy, I know, but I love him anyway. I decided to just go full on with strawberries, so I checked out a few other recipes to make sure I wouldn’t have a super liquid-y filling. I do not like the gel-like strawberry pies I’ve seen in restaurants like Coco’s. There’s something unnatural about that, I think. I wanted a nice natural looking filling that really let my delicious strawberries shine. Taking bits from some other recipes, I finally settled on the following:

• 6 cups of quartered strawberries

• Scant ¼ c brown sugar-more or less depending on the sweetness of the berries

• ¼ c corn starch

• 2 splashes of Grand Marnier

• 1 tsp (about) ground cinnamon

Let me just say, I hit this pretty right on, and it wasn’t just my I’m-pregnant-give-me-pie emotions getting the better of me. Brandon thought the pie was pretty incredible too. The strawberries tasted like strawberries. It wasn’t too sugary at all. The shortening-butter combination crust was nice and flakey and the streusel topping had a satisfying crunch. I served it with a big scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and it was just blissful. (Again, we hit quite a few food groups here; fruit, nuts, dairy and starches. What a healthy dessert!)

What to do with all those left over strawberries? Make some jam, of course! My mother-in-law has been making strawberry jam for years which my husband and I covet every time we have it. I keep forgetting to ask for the recipe so I just did another Epicurious search and found one. This recipe doesn’t use gelatin, just strawberries, lemon juice and sugar, and not even an insane amount of sugar at that. (12 c quartered strawberries, 1 c sugar, ½ lemon juiced) I did reduce my recipe since it would have made an absolutely insane amount of jam, and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out without the gelatin. I had to boil it down for a while to get gel-like but I think it turned out pretty good, again, nothing to interfere with the delicious tasting strawberries. One cup of sugar for 12 cups of strawberries is pretty minimal.

All in all I had a pretty productive day. I even got some cleaning up done, of course it was mostly just from my strawberry mess, but hey, it’s something!

NYE Dinner

Happy New Year everyone! New Year's Eve is always such a big ordeal trying to figure out how to ring in the New Year. After looking at a bunch of overpriced parties that promise unlimited drinks, no lines, and food (and very subpar food at that), we thought maybe going to a nice restaurant for a 4 course meal would be nice. We looked through a bunch of different menus and still couldn't decide. Then we had an AHHHHHH moment...I can make a fabulous 4 course dinner for 2 for about 1/3 of what we could spend at a restaurant...AND we don't have to deal with drunk annoying people. So I consulted my new wonderful Flying Pans cookbook from Chefs Bernard and Ron at the Marine Room for something special. Here is the menu I came up with:

Appetizer

Risotto Cakes with Pulled Pork

Salad

Mixed Greens with Figs, Gorgonzola and Vanilla Fig Vinaigrette

Intermezzo

Lemon Ginger Sorbet

Entree

Pistachio Crusted Rack of Lamb with Roasted Vegetables

Dessert

Individual Chocolate Heart Cakes

Of course, we didn't take pictures because we were too excited to eat...but I can assure you it looked delicious. Risotto cakes are soooo good and a great way to use up left over risotto. You can top them with anything and I decided on the Pulled Pork because I had that left over as well. I have found that if you spread the risotto out in an even layer on a sheet pan in the fridge overnight, the next day you can use a round cutter to get perfect little cakes. This helps the cakes stay together a little better than packing the risotto into balls and flattening them. Once you have the cakes formed just pan-fry them in some veg oil. They turn out so nice and crispy and golden brown.

The sorbet was just a ginger simple syrup lemon zest and juice.

I pretty much followed the recipe in Flying Pans for the lamb except in the sauce I used dried figs instead of sun dried huckleberries. I have no clue where you would find the huckleberries. In any event the figs worked out just fine.

For the chocolate cakes I made chocolate cake and then used a heart shaped cuter and cut each (2) heart in half horizontally. Then mixed a little raspberry jam with some Chambord and spread on the cut sides of each heart. Then you make a chocolate mousse and spread it on top of the jam on the bottom hearts and then the top jam side down. As if that wasn't enough the whole cake is then enrobed in a chai tea infused chocolate ganache!

So that was it! It was really a great meal and not difficult at all...and I used up leftovers! Talk about fabulously delicious fine dining right in your own home! The best part was it was all really easy too! This was also a really great idea because it got me to actually stay awake until midnight! Happy eatings to you all in the New Year!