Cooking in the Fruit Bowl

#PDX food highlights

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:23:14 -0400

Stumptown Coffee
Little Big Burger
Scones made by my friend Allison. ( I was so busy enjoying them I forgot to take a photo.)

#LetsLunch: Cougar Gold and Shallot Shortbread

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:34:00 -0400

It’s been a busy week. Like many other newspapers, mine is extremely short staffed. That means very busy days.

So when today — my day off — came, I wasn’t sure if I was going to pull a recipe together for Let’s Lunch, my virtual lunch date group.

But as I saw the entries for our theme — High Tea — I realize that I shouldn’t give up so easily.

So I went to the fridge. There wasn’t much in it — time for a grocery trip? — but I did find a wedge of Cougar Gold cheese.

The Making of Cougar Gold Cheese from WSU Extension Video Production on Vimeo.

OK, here’s some background. Cougar Gold is made at the Washington State University Creamery. In the 1930s, the creamery explored different ways they could store cheese. By the 1940s, they figured out that they could store the cheese in tin cans. The result was so good that they called it Cougar Gold.

Not the cheese I used today, but as it was packed in April 1998 and aged for a good 13 years, it’s sure to be delicious!

This particular wedge of cheese I had also has story. My husband is a WSU alum, having received both his bachelors in marketing and his MBA there. This particular wedge of cheese was packed in 1997 and aged for 18 months. He purchased it in 1999. We just opened it about a month ago. It was amazing. Here’s how Jerome described it:

Cracked open a 14-year-old can of Cougar Gold today. The can was dated July 19, 1997. I probably purchased it in January of 1999 during one of my visits to Ferdinand’s at WSU (he was finishing his MBA at the time) A very satisfying experience — mellow, yet still very sharp, very crumbly and somewhat creamy.

Anyway, the cheese held its own during the month it was in the fridge. And there was still a wedge left.

I browsed the rest of the kitchen. I saw the shallots. Then I remembered a cheese shortbread recipe I read in How to Cook Everything. I decided to take that recipe and modify it for the flavorings I had.

I first sauteed the shallot in a little bit of olive oil to mellow out the flavor. Then I took the all ingredients (flour, egg, cheese, salt and cayenne pepper, butter and the shallots) and blended them with a pastry blender until it was a coarse meal.

Afterwards, I rolled the dough into two inch balls and put them on parchment paper I placed on a cookie sheet. I started with bare hands, then I remembered the technique I learned from my mother-in-law — so I wore latex gloves. And as expected it worked like a charm!

After 10 minutes at 400 degrees and cooling them for another 15 minutes, I had shortbread. For something I improvised, it wasn’t bad! Some of it didn’t turn out — they were crumbly — but that was a reflection of perhaps not incorporating all the dry ingredients with the binding ones (so I better work on using that pastry blender better!).

In the end, I had a nice shortbread and with a cup of Mad Hatter tea that I purchased from the White Heather Tea Room in Victoria, B.C. and I had a perfect high tea moment in my kitchen, a nice end to what was a busy work week!

Cougar Gold and Shallot Shortbread

adopted from How to Cook Everything

1 tsp olive oil

1 shallot, minced

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

8 tbsp (1 stick) of butter, cold and cut into cubes.

1 cup of Cougar Gold cheese (any well-aged sharp white cheddar will work well)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 tbsp paprika or cumin (optional)

Heat the oven to 400.
Heat a small skillet with 1 tsp of olive oil (or to taste) over medium heat until the pan starts shining. Add the minced shallot and saute until the shallot is softened and golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes.
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a pastry blender. You can also mix the ingredients in a food processor. In both cases, don’t over mix! The mixture should look like a coarse meal. If baking later, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until you’re ready to bake.
Foam the dough into two-inch balls. Put the balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper two inches apart.
Bake until the balls puff and are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle with additional paprika (if using) and enjoy!

#LetsLunch is a group of food bloggers who gather virtually every month to write around a different food theme. Check out the other delicious High Tea posts below:

Cathy’s Sweet Potato Tea Bars at ShowFood Chef

Cheryl’s Cheese and Onion Sarnie at Tiger in the Kitchen

Charissa’s Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches at Zest Bakery

Grace’s Taiwanese Tea Sandwiches at HapaMama

Emma’s Brown Sugar Shortbreads at Dreaming of Pots and Pans

Karen’s Saskatoon Berry Tartlets at Geofooding

Linda D.’s Mesquite Hemp Cocoa at Free Range Cookies

Linda S.’s Tea and Kaya Toast at Spicebox Travels

Lisa’s Little Lemon Meringue Tarts at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Patrick’s Welsh Rarebit with Onion Marmalade & Mushrooms at Patrick G. Lee

Rashda Khan’s Spiced Chickpea and Sweet Potato Tidbits at Hot Curries & Cold Beer

Rebecca’s Millionaire’s Shortbread at GrongarBlog

Steff’s High Tea for Real Life at The Kitchen Trials

If you want to join us send a tweet with the hashtag #LetsLunch. We’d love you to join us next month!

#LetsLunch: Strawberry soup

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:37:00 -0400

Okay, I’ll let you in on one of my food pet peeves.

Why do food magazines taunt me by profiling strawberries and providing strawberry recipes in March? Do they really think it’s proper for all of us to go out and make strawberry dishes for Easter?

I’m sorry, Cooking Light, there are no strawberries in the Pacific Northwest in March. Or April. And you say they peak in June? Around here, the strawberry season is just getting started!

Since cooking magazines aren’t going to change their editorial schedules for us Pacific Northwest residents, I will just grumble, clip the recipes and wait until the end of May when they start showing up at the Yakima Farmers Market.

But really, there’s little to grumble about once you get your hand on some fresh strawberries. My go-to source this summer has been Aichele Farms, a family farm in Hermiston, Ore., about two hours southeast of me. What is great about them is when you buy a half flat (six cups), they’ll throw in an extra two cups for good measure, so I end up having enough strawberries for the entire week! I’ve used them in smoothies, salads and a whole range of dishes.

I will give Cooking Light credit, despite deceiving me by having strawberry recipes way too early, I do enjoy this strawberry soup. And it’s perfect for lazy summer days as its super simple to make — the most difficult thing is the 2-hour wait in the fridge. And, of course, the champagne gives it a nice bubbly kick.

Enjoy!

Strawberry soup

from the Cooking Light Cookbook

5 cups of strawberries, quartered (or if they’re small, leave them whole)

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup champagne or sparkling wine

Mix the strawberries, sugar and salt.
Puree the mixture in a blender
Refrigerate the mixture for 2 hours (overnight is fine, too)
Mix in the champagne
Enjoy!

This post is part of this month’s #LetsLunch, where a group of food bloggers get together and post a receipe around a different theme. This month’s theme is cold entrees.

Here are some other great recipes from fellow #LetsLunch-ers:

Cheryl’s Spicy Sichuan Sesame Noodles at A Tiger in the Kitchen.

Charles’ Cold Olive Oil Poached Chicken, Potato and Watercress Salad with Buttermilk Tarragon Dressing at The Taste of Oregon.

Charissa’s Smoked Salmon BLT with Dill-Horseradish Aioli at Zest Bakery.

Danielle’s Couscous with Cilantro Pesto & Halloumi at Beyond the Plate

Eleanor’s Cold Noodles with Hoisin Pork, Spicy Shrimp and Stir-fried Vegetables at Be A Wok Star.

Emma’s Mul Naengmyun (it makes me think of this) at Dreaming of Pots and Pans.

Linda’s Gazpacho Rolls at Free Range Cookies.

Lisa’s Byron Sprout Salad with Chargrilled Chicken at Monday Morning Cooking Club.

Maria’s Croque Monsieur with Cheese Bechamel at Maria’s Good Things.

Rebecca’s Rack of Lamb with Mustard and Rosemary at GrongarBlog.

Rashda’s Gazpacho with an Indian Twist at Hot Curries & Cold Beer.

Victor’s Seafood Napoleon at The Taste of Oregon.

If you want to join us send us a message with the #LetsLunch hashtag on Twitter.

Beautiful food amid sadness

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:00:26 -0400

Beautiful food amid sadness :

When Jennifer Perillo asked food bloggers to make a peanut butter pie in honor the life of her husband Mikey, who died suddenly, the support was amazing. This link shows all the food bloggers who made the pie.

I think the coolest part is all the variations. It goes to show that food isn’t only part of life, it can make life a whole lot better.

An explaination for what you're seeing.

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 16:03:50 -0400

An explaination for what you're seeing.

#LetsLunch: Three Recipe Lemon Meringue (or Afro Meringue Pie)

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:07:00 -0400

I have no shame that I helped bake a lemon meringue pie for this month’s #LetsLunch.

My #LetsLunch friends came up with interesting takes on savory and sweet pies (see the bottom of the entry).

But alas, I have my reason for going for the classic today.

***

When I married Jerome nearly two years ago, I gained a mother-in-law who was a great baker.

We had my rehearsal dinner in a Chinese restaurant where the owner allowed my mother-in-law to offer a mini-dessert buffet. Why? Because she taught the owner, who is Chinese, how to bake the most amazing cheesecake ever. (That’s another blog, I suppose).

In the four years Jerome and I have been together, I’ve seen her bake for my SPJ bake sales, various church functions, family birthday parties and, of course, just for me.

So when pies came up as the theme for this month, the very first thing I thought was of her lemon meringue pie.

I’ve talked about the pie in passing online:

So can you blame me that I wanted to find out how to make the pie?

Anyway, my mother-in-law graciously agreed for me to come to her house and learn how to make the pie.

Turns out that her recipe was the tweaking and merging of three different meringue pie recipes. The recipes were from cookbooks that came out in 1968, 1969 and 1978, respectively. As someone who loves curating social media posts into something completely new, I love that she took the time to do a food curation of her own.

I learned the secret to my mother-in-law’s pie was a lot of attention to detail and precision. Here are a few cool pie making hacks:

Wear snug fit rubber gloves while you’re forming the dough. It creates a barrier between your hands and the dough to keep the heat from your hands from altering the dough. The snug fit allows you control of the dough formation.

When rolling out the dough don’t go up and down. Rather roll out from the center of the dough to the edge in different directional — north, south, northwest, southwest, north east, south east.

My mother-in-law made this circle out of vinyl (you can buy it at any fabric store). Put the vinyl on top of the rolled out dough, cut around the edges and volia! perfect pie circle.

No need to buy expensive pie weights — my mother-in-law has been using the same beans to weigh down pie crust for about 20 years. Of course, you shouldn’t plan on eating them!

While the traditional cream of tartar gives you the stiffest meringue peaks, a mixture of cornstarch, sugar and water will keep those peaks up longer. Make sure you get it nice and cool before adding to the other ingredients.

When applying meringue, take the meringue and hook it all the way to the edge of the crust. This ensures there’s no gap between the meringue and the crust during baking.

Here’s me taking a iPhone photo of the finished result! Looks yummy yes?

Including prep, the pie from start to finish took about 2.5 to 2.75 hours. Obviously not a quick fix, but easily doable if you can commit a night or afternoon to pie baking.

Now I can’t wait to make my own.

***

Triple Recipe Lemon Meringue

For the crust (based on a double-crust pie recipe from “Better Homes & Gardens’ All Time Favorite Pies,” circa 1978; Obviously you’ll have enough for two crusts, take the second one and form it into a pie plate and freeze it, you’ll have some pie crust ready to go for your next pie!).

2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening or lard (we used a mixture of both)
6 to 7 tbsps of cold water (easiest way to keep it cold is put it in a mug with a few ice cubes of ice. Feel free to use as much water as necessary. We ended up putting in about 8 tablespoons.)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
In a medium mixture bowl, stir together the flour and salt.
Cut in shortening or lard in the dry mixtures with a pastry blender until the pieces are the sizes of small peas.
Add water a tablespoon at a time and toss with a fork. Add water until its moistened, but not too sticky.
Wearing rubber gloves, take the dough and form it into a a ball. Take a knife and cut into two even-sized pieces. (You can also do all this in a food processor but pay close attention that the crumbs don’t get too small.)
Take one of the pieces and form it into a small disc.
Place a pastry cloth on the counter and cover it with flour. Roll the dough from the center into different directions until the circle is about 14 inches in diameter. (The original recipe says 12, but trust me, you’ll appreciate the extra dough when you’re forming the edge of the pie crust.)
Fold the circle into quarters and unfold in the pie plate. Lift the the dough into the the pie plate to ease it. At the edge, fold hanging dough under. Using a floured thumb and forefinger, take your thumb at an angle and create an imprint on the dough, putting extra pressure with your forefinger. Repeat. Use your hands and press on the edge of the crust to make it even.
Take another pie plate and mold a piece of foil in it. Take the foil and put it on top of the crust. Use beans or a pie weights in the foil.
Bake for 5 minutes. Take out the pie and remove the foil and weights.
Bake for an additional 5-7 minutes until golden.

For the Meringue (based on a recipe from “Pillsbury’s Bake off Desert Cookbook,” circa 1968)

2 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of cornstarch
1/2 cup of water
4 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup sugar

For the filling (based on a recipe from “Betty Crocker’s Cookbook,” circa 1969)

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 cups water
4 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2/3 cup lemon peel
2/3 cup lemon juice
3 drops of yellow food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a small saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch and water. Cook over medium-high heat, stiring constantly until the mixture is thick and clear. Set aside and cool.
Start making the filling. Mix sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Gradually add water. Mix until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir for 1 minute.
Put the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Blend half of the cornstarch mixture into the eggs.
Add the egg mixture back in the saucepan. Boil and stir for two minutes.
Remove from heat and add butter and food coloring (if using).
Back to the meringue. In an electric mixer bowl, combine egg whites, salt and vanilla. Beat at a high speed until foamy. Add sugar gradually and continue to beat the mixture.
Take the cooled cornstarch mixture and add gradually beating after each time. Whip the mixture until the meringue stands in stiff peaks.
Pour the lemon filling into the prepared pie shell. Take the meringue and top with meringue, having it touch the pie edge. Using a large serving spoon decorate peaks and circles in the meringue as desired.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the meringue is golden brown.
Cool in refrigerator for several hours (or overnight)
Slice the pie with a knife warmed with hot water.
Enjoy!

***

#LetsLunch is a group of food bloggers who gather virtually every month to write about a different food theme. Check out the other posts below:

Anastasia’s Strawberry Pie in Jars at Can it You Nit!

Caitlin‘s Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Lemon-Lime Ice-Cream at Caitlin Shetterly

Cathy’s Nutella Hand Pie’s at ShowFood Chef

Cheryl’s Japanese Curry Pot Pie at Tiger in the Kitchen.

Charissa‘s Lime-Custard & Curd Pie at Zest Bakery

Danielle‘s Chicken Pot Pie at Beyond The Plate

Denise’s Summer Chicken Pot Pie at Chez Us

Emma‘s Chinese Sausage & Roasted Sweet Potato Hand Pies at Dreaming of Pots and Pans

Linda‘s Dirt Pie with Compost Cookie Crust at Free Range Cookies

Lisa‘s Pilaf Pie with Chicken, Sultanas & Sweet Spices at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Rebecca’s sweet and savory submissions, Spanakopita and Rhubarb Crisp, at GrongarBlog

Rashda’s twist on Pecan Pie at Hot Curries & Cold Beer

Steff‘s Berry-Lemonade Icebox Pie at The Kitchen Trials

If you’re interested in joining us, go on Twitter and search for #LetsLunch and send us a message!

And I’m excited to mention that I will get to meet Cheryl, who is one of the founders of this group, in Seattle today! If you’re in the area, consider checking out her reading for “Tiger in the Kitchen” at Elliott Bay Book Co. or the post-reading reception organized by the Asian American Journalists Association’s Seattle chapter. (Full disclosure: I’m the chapter treasurer.) Yay for meeting virtual lunch friends in real life!