Bourbon Bacon Pumpkin Pie

Deep dish apple pie

one of our thanksgiving pies brought to you via Cooks illustrated.

classic apple pie

Apple Pie - adapted from Gourmet
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and each cut into 10 wedges
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Pastry dough
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Put a large baking sheet in middle of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.
Whisk together flour, zest, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and 2/3 cup sugar and gently toss with apples and lemon juice.
Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining piece chilled) on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round, then fit into a 9-inch (4-cup) glass or metal pie plate. Trim edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Chill shell while rolling out dough for top crust.
Roll out remaining piece of dough on lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pin into an 11-inch round.
Spoon filling into shell, then cover with pastry round and trim with kitchen shears, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Press edges together, then crimp decoratively. Lightly brush top of pie with egg and sprinkle all over with remaining tablespoon sugar. Cut 3 steam vents in top crust with a small sharp knife.
Bake pie on hot baking sheet 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F and continue to bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, about 40 minutes more. Cool pie to warm or room temperature on a rack, 2 to 4 hours.

curry chicken jjim-ppang

Roasted Cauliflower with Capers




Roasted Cauliflower with Capers
adapted from Gourmet
1 large head cauliflower (3 to 3 1/2 punds), cut into 1-inch-wide florets (9 cups)
5-6 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup lemon juice + zest
4 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
2 heads romaine (2 pounds total), cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-wide strips
1/2 cup hazelnuts (2 1/4 ounces), or almonds, toasted , any loose skins rubbed off in a kitchen towel, and nuts coarsely chopped
3-4 tablespoons capers

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 450°F.
Toss cauliflower and garlic slices with 1/4 cup oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl. Spread in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan (1 inch deep) and roast, turning over with tongs halfway through roasting, until tender and golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes total. Cool in pan on a rack, then transfer to large bowl.
Whisk together lemon juice, zest, shallot, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl, then add remaining 5 tablespoons oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified. Add half of dressing to cauliflower and toss to coat. Add parsley, half of nuts, capers and remaining dressing to cauliflower and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with remaining nuts.

Beer-Marinated Roast Chicken w/ Peruvian Rice



Roasted Chicken

http://weight-watchers-points-recipes.blogspot.com/2009/04/peruvian-roasted-chicken-with-aji-verde.html

1 whole chicken
4 oz beer
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 lime, juice of
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chili powder
salt
paprika

Wash chicken and remove all fat. Place in a large bowl and season generously with beer, vinegar, lime juice, salt, garlic powder, cumin and oregano. Place in a large bag and marinate overnight.

Remove chicken from bag, cut chicken in half and place both halves on a large oven safe baking dish, skin side up. Discard marinade. Sprinkle chicken with paprika and a little more garlic powder and salt and bake at 425° for about 50 minutes, basting with the pan juices half way through. To test for doneness, insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken; the thermometer should read about 160°F. The chicken needs to reach an internal temperature of 165°F, but after the chicken is taken out of the oven it should rise to 165°. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before carving.

Anchovies on english muffin

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Cinnamon Raisin Bread - "5-minute" challah dough

Challah Master Dough
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
(half of original recipe - 2 loaves)

1 cups lukewarm water
3/4 T instant yeast
3/4 T kosher salt
2 lg eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (or whole wheat white flour)

In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, water, honey, melted butter, yeast and salt. Stir well with a wooden spoon. Add in the flour. Stir until you don’t see any more dry bits of flour (about a minute). Cover (not airtight) and let rise at room temp for aroujnd 2 hours. Stick it in the refrigerator overnight, or up to 4 days. The longer you let it fart around in the refrigerator (literally!), the better tasting the dough will be.

Take the dough out of the fridge and divide in half. Roll out to 1/4" thickness, approximately the width of the loaf pan. Sprinkle with sugar mixture (1/3 c brown sugar, 3 T cinnamon), walnuts, raisins. Start from the shorter end and roll. Pinch seams. Place into oiled pan tucking in the ends. Let rise at room temp around 2 hours until doubled in size.

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for around 45 minutes.

Grilled squid with white beans and Jalapeno salsa

Mini Chocolate Peanut Caramel Tarts

Favorite Roast Chicken

I roasted this chicken last night using a variety of cooking/roasting techniques I accumulated over the years. I think this is my favorite. Mostly because it's the simplest without sacrificing flavor or juiciness.

After salting the bird overnight, I used whatever vegetables I had in the fridge to roast along with it. In this case, carrots, onions and butternut squash. the overnight salting is key and though a lot of recipes call for either rubbing the skin with oil or butter, i don't think that's at all necessary as there's enough fat from the skin. I guess it doesn't brown to picture-perfection, but you still get a super crisp, almost paper thin skin. A lot of the fat from the chicken dripped onto the veggies but only the bottoms really caramelized and browned. No matter since it cooked through and weren't mushy. In any case, not the most appealing looking veggies but delicious nonetheless.

Not sure if it's because of the salting, but the skin was almost suspended off the flesh and had a gossamer like quality. You can kind of see it here.

31/2 - 4 lb. chicken
11/2 - 2 T salt
1 L onion, sliced into 8ths
2-3 carrots chopped into large wedges
1 lemon, halved
butternut squash or other root vegetables

- salt chicken all over 1-2 days before ready to roast.
- take the chicken out around 1 hour before roasting. preheat oven 400.
- scatter the vegetables on a roasting pan. sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- dry the chicken with paper towels. sprinkle with pepper. put lemon into cavity. tie legs.
- place chicken over veggies.
- roast for 1 hour or until juices run clear.

Butternut squash caramelized onion gratin

Pichet Ong's Kabocha Squash Cheesecake

I've beeing wanting to make this cheesecake for years. it's been in the NY times as well as in his cookbook, Sweet Spot. well finally came around to it. the grahm cracker-walnut crust is crisp, strumptious (though maybe more butter than called for to firm and crisp up). the custard is sweet, creamy and not-too-leaden as most cheesecakes tend to be. (afterall it calls for just one package of cream cheese as opposed to most other recipes which average around 3 packages!

the recipe calls for steaming the squash as opposed to roasting (or using canned pumpkin) as typically suggested. i found Kabocha to be denser than butternut so this worked well but not sure if it would with less denser species.

after our rich and extended portguese dinner, the family didn't seem too enthused about this one. but i'm willing to bet it was more about timing and state of stomach than the actual results and am willing to make (after some tweaks) this one more often. (perhaps in the form of mini cheesecakes.

Spinach mushroom mini quiches

This is one of my first recipes from "The Sweet Side of Amy's Bread," fast becoming one of my most trusted and useful cookbooks. the cust is a butter/cream cheese, whole wheat flour concoction which ends up being more short than flakey which isn't to say i minded that. i loved using my mini tart pans as these yielded perfectly portioned meals; great for storing in the freezer and ready on command (after a brief whirl in the microwave) on those desperate nights with nothing but celery in the fridge.

spinach and mushrooms sauteed in butter...3 eggs and 1 cup half and half (or my adaptation: 2/3 skim milk, 1/3 heavy cream) the perfect "filler" for baked tarts/quiches.

Olive, Rosemary No-Knead Bread

PB Fudge Brownies

I made these for a potluck this weekend. It's from a Dorie Greenspan recipe found here.

What's not to love, right? We're talking salted peanuts in a fudgy brownie, topped by a crunch pb frosting with an added coat of chocolate ganache. If this sounds overly decadent and rich, it definitely is which explains the necessity to cut them into small portions.

perfect for parties and make ahead.

Vietnamese Style Noodle Sald

Strawberry shortcake birthday cake

further to my preference for asian-style desserts, i made this strawberry shortcake for dad's 70th birthday. i used a sponge cake recipe from America's Test Kitchen and for the frosting i whipped 2 cups of heavy cream with 2 T of sugar. i tried using some soften gelatin to stabilize the frosting since i had to make this a day before (too much to do for dad's big day). the gelatin didn't quite combine completely with the cream creating some unappealing web-like clumps. turns out the whipped cream held up pretty well (for at least 2 days) on the cake so i don't think it's necessary for future whipped-cream frostings.

in any case, this is my favorite kind of dessert: light, fresh, not-too-sweet. i'll definitely beef up the strawberry middle layer (the sponge cake can take the load as i've learned) and continue to experiment to perfect this.