Daily Archives: 11 May 2014

Tastes Like Marmalade

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The dessert course was the easiest to tweak. If you don’t have marmalade on-hand, give yourself 1 prep day to make before you start the cakes.

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“Tastes Like Marmalade” Pudding Cakes

FOR THE ORANGE MARMALADE
Recipe via Martha Stewart
Yields about 1 pint

INGREDIENTS
2 oranges, (1 1/2 oranges peeled, peels cut into 1/3-inch pieces, flesh seeded and coarsely chopped; 1/2 orange quartered, thinly sliced, and seeded)
1/2 lemon, quartered, thinly sliced, and seeded
1 1/8 cup cold water
Sugar

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METHOD
Bring fruit, peels, and water to a boil in a large saucepan. Cook for 5 minutes. Turn off heat, cover, and let cool. Refrigerate for 8 hours (or up to 1 day).

Freeze a plate. Uncover citrus mixture, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook until thickest peel is tender, about 20 minutes. Measure mixture, and return to pan. For each cup of mixture, add 1/4 cup sugar.

Bring mixture to a boil, stirring often. Cook until mixture registers 220 degrees to 222 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 20 minutes. To test for doneness of marmalade: Drop a spoonful on frozen plate. If marmalade has a slight film when pushed with a finger, it’s done. If it spreads out and thins immediately, continue cooking, and test again after a few minutes. Transfer marmalade to airtight containers, cover, and let cool at room temperature. Refrigerate overnight before serving. (Marmalade will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 1 month.)

FOR THE PUDDING CAKES
Recipe slightly adapted via Taste of Home
Serves 5

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoons butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar, divided
1/8 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup half and half
1/4 cup pineapple juice
*1/2 cup orange marmalade, warmed (see recipe below)

METHOD
In a small bowl, beat butter and 1/4 cup sugar until crumbly. Beat in flour and egg yolks until smooth. Gradually beat in the milk, pineapple juice, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and orange peel.

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In another small bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. Add the remaining sugar; beat until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into orange mixture.

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Evenly distribute into 5, 6-oz. custard cups thoroughly coated with cooking spray. Place the cups in 13-in. x 9-in. baking pans; add 1 in. of boiling water to pans.

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Bake at 325° for 30-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean and tops are golden brown. (Mine took 45 minutes to bake.) Run a knife around the edges; carefully invert cakes onto dessert plates.

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Combine marmalade and remaining lemon juice; drizzle over warm cakes.

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Omelet It Is!

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Bridget’s main course malady started when she tried to serve what Mark described as “congealed green gunge.” Caperberries are a bit difficult to find, although many gourmet grocers sell them.  (I saw them once at World Market.) I decided to replace the “Caperberry Gravy” with a Caper Cream Sauce (however, if you can easily find caperberries, do use them in this recipe). Capers are the flower buds from the shrub “Capparis spinosa.” The round, teeny, green flower buds are picked, sun-dried and pickled. Caperberries are capers picked after they’ve matured into flowers–fruit the size of an olive–and then later pickled. Both are extremely flavorful and give a nice salty-sour profile. For purposes of this course, I decided on making an omelet stuffed with smoked salmon (“Where the f*ck is the f*cking tuna?!”) and cream cheese, then topping it with a nice creamy caper sauce. The result is a tasty, slightly more filling, alternative.

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Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Omelet with Caper Cream Sauce
Serves 5

INGREDIENTS
10 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 tablespoons per omelet)
10 ea. eggs, room temperature
3 tablespoons, 1 teaspoon capers, drained
5 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
4 ounces thinly sliced smoked salmon, cut into small cubes (I used Echo Falls Oakwood Smoked Scottish Salmon)
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

METHOD
Gather 5 small bowls and place two eggs in each one. Whisk the eggs in each bowl with a fork, incorporating a lot of air into the eggs till they’re nice and fluffy. Season with black pepper.

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In a separate medium bowl, place the softened cream cheese and cubed smoked salmon chunks and mix with a rubber spatula.In a non-stick pan and over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter, swirling the butter so that the entire surface of the pan is coated.

 Pour the first bowl of eggs into the center of the pan and continue to scramble using a fork till the eggs begin to set, about 5 seconds. Once the egg mass begins to form, lift the pan and swirl it around until the excess liquid pours off into the pan. Using a rubber spatula, move it around the edge of the egg mixture to help shape into a round and loosen the edge. Let the omelet sit in the pan for about 10 more seconds.

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Spoon the center of the omelet with the cream cheese-smoked salmon mixture (don’t smear it on there). Using the rubber spatula, loosen the eggs from the pan, tilting the pan up so that the egg “rolls” into a French omelet.

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Guide the eggs to roll with your spatula, being careful not to tear the egg surface. Continue to roll the eggs into a plate. Repeat with the rest of the eggs.

Top with Caper Cream Sauce (Recipe below)

Caper Cream Sauce
Recipe slightly adapted from Epicurious
Serves 5

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/3 cup capers, drained
2 ea. garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

METHOD
In a medium sauce pot over medium heat, melt the butter and then add the garlic. Allow it to saute till it turns a light golden brown, then add the capers, stir for 1 minute. Add the white wine and allow the liquid to reduce by about half, then add the whipping cream and bring to a boil, stirring to remove any clumps. Once the liquid has started to boil, reduce to medium-low and allow for the sauce to thicken till it nicely coats the back of a spoon. If the sauce is too thick, add a bit more whipping cream, stirring to incorporate. Season with black pepper.

Spoon a generous dollop atop the omelets. Serve.

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Is That Blue Soup?

Posted
Filed under Dining In

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In the first course, Bridget ties some leeks together with blue string. The string’s dye is steeped into the soup, making her otherwise leek soup a “Blue Leek Soup.” I modified the recipe by adding some celery root, creme fraiche and a few drops of homemade natural blue food coloring.

This is a pureed soup, so make sure that your soup base is slightly cooled before pureeing. You want to avoid the possible classic Bridget moment that I (unintentionally) happened to have. I guess you can say that I really was unconsciously channeling my inner Bridge: Whilst using my Power Blender (emphasis on power here) I had placed a bit too much soup into the machine and much of this very very HOT soup mixture came flying at me and all over my kitchen counter! In pure Bridget fashion, I cursed the blender and went for another glass of wine.

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Bridget’s Blue Soup
Recipe slightly adapted from Fine Cooking
Serves 5

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INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 ea. small leeks (use the white and light green parts only) trimmed, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into half-inch half-moon slices, rinsed thoroughly
1 small onion, small dice
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, additional to taste
1 pound celery root (about 1 ea. medium)
2 1/4 cup vegetable stock
2 cups water
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup creme fraiche (sour cream will work, too)
1 cup half and half
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Homemade blue food coloring (Recipe also here)

METHOD
In a large heavy-bottomed pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the leeks, onion, salt and pepper. Cook while stirring occasionally until softened and a light golden color, about 15 to 20 minutes.

While you’re cooking the leeks and onions, wash and peel the celery root with a peeler or sharp paring knife. Use a sharp chef knife to halve the peeled celery root lengthwise and cut each half into 1-inch-thick wedges and then into medium-size dice.

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Once the leeks and onions are softened, add the celery root, 2 cups water and the vegetable stock to the leek onion mixture. Cover and cook until the celery root is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes at a medium-low heat. (Be sure to check the vegetables occasionally; if all the water cooks off and the vegetables start to go brown, add another 1/4 cup of stock). Continue to cook another 20 minutes or until the celery root is tender. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Purée the soup (with a hand blender, food processor or in small batches in a stand blender) to a very smooth, creamy consistency.

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Return the pureed soup to the soup pot. Add in the half and half and the crème fraîche (or sour cream) to the soup and mix well over medium-low heat to fully incorporate. Season to taste.

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Add in a few tablespoons of your homemade blue food coloring (I used about 6) until it’s a nice blue color.

If you’re not serving the soup immediately, allow to cool completely and then store in the refrigerator at least overnight or for up to two days.

When reheating the soup (always reheat to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit) if it becomes too thick, gradually thin it out with no more than 1 cup water. Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed. Ladle the soup into small bowls.

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Silly, Bridget

Bridget and her diary

Bridget and her diary

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Me and my diary

One of my favorite films to date is Bridget Jones’s Diary. Renee Zellweger perfected the role of the cheeky, less-than-proper, but undeniably adorable Bridget Jones. With her quirky mannerisms (public unjumbling of granny panties at book launch party); NSFW IMs and see-through blouses to seduce scoundral of a boss, Daniel Cleaver; and vulgar quips (more NSFW phone convos with BFF overheard by said boss: “He’s just a big knobhead with no knob!”) make her so relatable.

Who can forget the infamous dinner party scene with Bridget (turning 33) who throws herself a small dinner party to celebrate her birthday and career win (an exclusive interview with the defendants in a worldly groundbreaking case! Hello!)! Only problem here is that Bridget is a bit challenged in the kitchen, and every course on the dinner menu goes (as Bridge would say) to shit. Enter a surprise visit from the debonaire Mark Darcy who comes and saves the day (well, sorta).

What better way to celebrate this movie than moderately modify the menu? With a few tweaks, you can have your own Bridget Jones’s Diary dinner party. Just like the movie, all recipes are scaled to serve 5 people.

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Click on the following links for full recipes

COURSE 1
Bridget’s Blue Soup

COURSE 2
Mark’s Emergency Omelet

COURSE 3
“Tastes Like Marmalade” Pudding Cakes