Sole Meunière

New: November 2015

Fish:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 lb sole fillets
Coarse kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or canola oil
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter

Optional Sauce:
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick)  unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (or white wine)
Lemon wedges

For fish:
Place flour in pie dish. Rinse fish; pat with paper towels. Sprinkle both sides of fish with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. Dredge fish on both sides with flour; shake off excess. Place on platter.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until oil is hot and shimmers. Add butter; quickly swirl skillet to coat. When foam subsides, add fish and cook until golden on bottom, 2 to 3 minutes. Carefully turn fish over and cook until opaque in center and golden on bottom, 1 to 2 minutes. Divide fish between 2 warmed plates; tent with foil.

For sauce:
Add extra butter to skillet; cook until golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in parsley and lemon juice (sauce may sputter). Spoon sauce over fish. Serve with lemon wedges.

Do not use Granny Smith

New: November 2015

Ingredients:

1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled (tails left on) and deveined

1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon paprika

1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup panko crumbs
~1 quart vegetable oil for frying

Directions
Place the shrimp in a bowl and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. In a small bowl, stir together the flour and paprika. Place eggs and panko crumbs into separate bowls.
Heat the oil in a deep-fryer or deep skillet to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Dip each shrimp into the flour mixture, then into the egg, and finally into the panko crumbs to coat. Fry a few at a time until golden brown. This should take no longer than 3 minutes per batch. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels before serving.


Original Full Recipe:
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled (tails left on) and deveined

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon paprika

2 eggs, beaten
1 cup panko crumbs
1 quart vegetable oil for frying

INGREDIENTS
⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup  honey
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup pumpkin purée
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling on top
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice or cloves
1 cup whole wheat flour
¾ cup white flour
⅓ cup old-fashioned oats, plus more for sprinkling on top

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Celsius). If necessary, grease ten cups of your muffin tin with butter or non-stick cooking spray (my pan is non-stick and didn’t require any grease).
In a large bowl, beat the oil and maple syrup or honey together with a whisk. Add eggs, and beat well. Mix in the pumpkin purée and milk, followed by the baking soda, vanilla extract, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice or cloves.

Add the flour and oats to the bowl and mix with a large spoon, just until combined. If you’d like to add any additional mix-ins, like nuts, chocolate or dried fruit, fold them in now.

Divide the batter evenly between the ten muffin cups. For these muffins, it’s ok to fill the cups a little higher than you normally would. Drizzle maple syrup on tops of muffins. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a small amount of oats, followed by a sprinkle of cinnamon. Bake muffins for 23 to 26 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack. These muffins are delicate until they cool down (you have been warned!), so it’s best to wait until they have cooled down to remove them from the tin. You might need to run a butter knife along the outer edge of the muffins to loosen them from the pan. Enjoy muffins as is or with a spread of nut butter or regular butter.

http://cookieandkate.com/2014/healthy-maple-pumpkin-muffins/

New: November 2015

Ingredients
5 cloves
2 dried guajillo chiles (if you can't find these, then use 2 chiles de arbol, and more paprika for color)
2 green cardamom, husks discarded, seeds retained
1 black cardamom, husk discarded, seeds retained
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 cup whole fat plain yogurt
1/4 cup peanut or canola oil
2 tablespoons malt vinegar or lime juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
Pinch cayenne pepper
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 -inch thumb ginger, peeled and minced
1 packet boneless skinless chicken thighs (1 1/2 pounds usually)
1 teaspoon honey
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Couple of extra limes, for garnish

Directions
To make the marinade, toast the cloves, whole chiles, both types of cardamom seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and fenugreek seeds in a cast-iron skillet until fragrant, 3 minutes or so, shaking the pan. Then, pour the spices into a spice grinder and grind them until you get a fine powder.

In large bowl, whisk together the spice mixture you just made with the yogurt, oil, malt vinegar, salt, ground cinnamon, paprika, turmeric, cayenne pepper, garlic and ginger until well combined. It should smell amazing! Taste and adjust with more salt if it needs it.

Reserve 1/3 cup of the marinade and set aside; you're going to make a sauce out of this reserved marinade.

Prick the chicken thighs with a fork. Add the thighs to the rest of the marinade, and toss to coat. Marinate at least 1 hour in the fridge, and at most overnight.

When you're ready to cook, line a baking sheet with foil, and turn your broiler on. Place each chicken thigh on the baking sheet, making sure each one is coated with the marinade, but isn't swimming in it. Cook the chicken thighs under the broiler until starting to blacken, about 5 minutes. Then turn the oven to 350, and cook until a meat thermometer inserted in the meatiest part of the thigh registers 160 degrees F, another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven.

While the chicken is cooking, pour the reserved marinade into a small saucepan, along with 1/2 cup water and the honey. Bring to a gentle boil over medium-low heat, whisking all the time. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and pour into a small bowl or gravy boat for serving.

Serve the chicken thighs on a platter with a fresh squeeze of lime and a drizzle of the sauce.

Recipe courtesy of Aarti Sequeira

For the crust:

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 large egg yolks, beaten to blend

Mix first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add yolks; mix with fork until dough begins to clump together. Shape dough into 6 balls for Walnut Tartlets, 2 balls for Apple Galette or 1 ball for Apricot Tart. Flatten ball(s) into disk(s); wrap in plastic. Chill 30 minutes. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Let dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.)


For the filling
400g shelled walnuts, halved
1 tbsp walnut oil
250g caster sugar
125ml water
6tbsp thick honey
4 tbsp crème fraiche, plus extra to serve
(Can use less of everything except the walnuts as always have leftover syrup)

Put the sugar and water in a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat to dissolve the sugar, then increase the heat and allow the sugar syrup to caramelise until amber coloured.
Remove from the heat, and add the honey and crème fraiche. Mix well with a wooden spoon and stir in the nuts. They should be evenly coated. If the syrup starts to set, just place the pan back over the heat and stir.
Spread the walnut filling in the pastry case and allow to cool at room temperature.

From Epicurious

New: April 2015

Tarte Aux Fraises
Fresh Strawberry Tart
Recipe by Julia Child
Source: Mastering the Art of French Cooking; Volume I
(& http://sugarandspice-celeste.blogspot.com/2009/06/fresh-strawberry-tart-from-julia-child.html)

Ingredients:
A 10-inch fully baked pastry shell (see "Sugar Crust" recipe below)
1 quart large, ripe, handsome strawberries
1 cup red currant jelly (apricot jelly can be substituted if you have trouble finding red currant)
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
2 tbsp. kirsch or cognac (I used Frangelico hazelnut liqueur)
1 1/2 to 2 cups chilled creme patissiere (custard filling...recipe below)

Directions:
Hull the strawberries. If necessary to wash them, do so very quickly, and drain them on a rack.

Boil the currant jelly, sugar, and liqueur in a small saucepan until last drops from spoon are sticky. Paint the interior of the shell with a thin coating of the glaze and allow to set for 5 minutes. This will give the shell a light waterproofing. Reserve the rest of the glaze for the strawberries. Warm it briefly if it has hardened.
Spread a 1/2-inch layer of creme patissiere in the bottom of the pastry shell.

Arrange a design of strawberries over the cream. Put the largest strawberry in the center, and graduate down in size, placing the berries closely together, their stem ends in the cream. Spoon or paint over them a thin coating of the glaze, and the tart is ready to serve. Because of the glazed waterproofing in the bottom of the shell, the filled tart may wait an hour or so.

Sugar Crust
"Pate Sablee"
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups flour
3 to 7 tbsp. granulated sugar
1/8 tsp. double-action baking powder
7 tbsp. fat: 5 tbsp chilled butter and 2 tbsp. chilled vegetable shortening
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Place the flour, sugar, butter, vegetable shortening, and baking powder in the mixing bowl. Rub the fat and dry ingredients together rapidly with the tips of your fingers until the fat is broken into bits the size of small oatmeal flakes. Blend in the egg and vanilla, and knead the dough rapidly into a ball. Place on a pastry board and with the heel of your head, not the palm, rapidly press the pastry by two-spoonful bits down on the board and away from you in a firm, quick smear of about 6 inches. The dough will be quite sticky if you have used the full amount of sugar. Form again into a ball, wrap in waxed paper, and chill for several hours until firm.

roll out, put in 10" tarte pan, Bake in preheated 375 degree ovenfor 8-10 minutes, or until lightly golden

Creme Patissiere
(Custard Filling)
Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup flour
2 cups boiling milk
1 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Gradually beat the sugar into the egg yolks and continue beating for 2 to 3 minutes until the mixture is pale yellow and forms "the ribbon".

Beat in the flour.

Beating the yolk mixture, gradually pour on the boiling milk in a thin stream of droplets.

Pour into saucepan and set over moderately high heat. Stir with a wire whip, reaching all over bottom of the pan. As sauce comes to a boil it will get lumpy, but will smooth out as you beat it. When boil is reached, beat over moderately low heat for 2 to 3 minutes to cook the flour. Be careful custard does not scorch in bottom of pan.

Remove from heat and beat in the butter, then vanilla extract. If the custard is not used immediately, clean it off the sides of the pan, and dot top of custard with softened butter to prevent a skin from forming over the surface. Creme Patissiere will keep for a week under refrigeration, or may be frozen.