Tuesdays with Dorie Are Back! Burnt Sugar Ice Cream.

Imagine, if you will, caramel just this side of burnt. Sweet, a slight hint of bitterness--you know that toasty flavor you get from browning something, right? Toasty, caramel...vanilla..Now imagine all the burnt sugary goodness blended into just the right about of cream and frozen.

Ah, there is the beauty of Dorie Greenspan's Burnt Sugar Ice Cream. 

First the sugar. Melt it:

Let it start to turn golden...








Then let it start to turn just a little bit MORE golden (yes, as I was taking this picture, I was hearing: sugar goes from caramel to BURNT in seconds. And we are not talking the good burnt. We are talking the black, charcoal-tasting, burnt as dust burnt).

After that, add cream and milk...stir, stir, stir, heat, heat heat...that caramel that seized into a ball turns smooth as silk.

Next, work some magic with egg yolks. Slowly heat--DON'T STOP STIRRING! Heat it until it coats the back of a spoon without running (the finger test)..Chill. Freeze.

Who needs store bought anything? We have Dorie. We have burnt sugar ice cream. We have all the versions of the same over at Tuesdays with Dorie(Find the recipe here; Project Domestication got to pick the recipe; she gets to reprint it (with Dorie's permission, of course...)

Monday: 5 Things I ate over the Weekend

 

Korma Sauce from Scratch...Pretty, Right?

1. Bojangles biscuit. Well, what can I say? The woman who arranged the Derby Party for our building thought: Mint Juleps and Kentucky Fried Chicken, but KFC was not right across the street, and Bojangles was. I didn't try the chicken, but I DID try that biscuit, and I have to admit: not bad. Okay, more than that: quite good. And they go great with mint juleps, especially when there's nothing else around.

2. Roasted Indian Spiced Cauliflower. This is on regular rotation. I've roasted cauliflower (and just about every other vegetable under the sun) for years, but Monica Bhide's Modern Spice has a recipe with the addition of a mixed spice rub. We all love it. It shows up a couple of times a month at least: SIMPLE.

3. Another go to for us? Chicken Korma using a store-bought Korma sauce. Patak's makes one, as does, I believe Tasty Kitchen. It's a lovely mild blend of curry flavors, tomato, cream, ground nuts, a hint of coconut and more. I've made it from scratch and it was easy, but this? This is easier.


4. Mint Juleps. Technically not something I ate, but it was important enough to blog here, so I have to list it here.


5. Homemade creamed spinach. Gary is often (kind of) on Atkins. He loves steak and creamed spinach, and I've found myself too often reaching for the creamed spinach in the freezer of the grocery store. It actually tastes kind of plastic to me. So I hauled out Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and it couldn't be simpler. Briefly saute/wilt the spinach in a bit of butter. Dust with flour then add cream or broth. I went whole hog for the cream and, since Gary asked, I made it cheesed. Gratineed, as Julia would say. Me? I think maybe that was gilding the lily, although is was awfully good. It won me over, although I am ashamed to admit G prefers the plastic frozen version. But I'm not giving up. I'll work on improving it...I will add some finely chopped shallot or onion and a bit of garlic to the butter before I saute the spinach, for sure..And I should have chopped the spinach, but that seemed like...oh, I don't know: effort. But still, creamed spinach is definitely worth making for yourself.

Stone Crab House: Endangered?

With the sad news of the spreading oil spill, I cannot help but think about my visit to the Gulf Coast in November 2008, when I got to eat stone crabs on the dock of this crab house--this is where the fishermen brought their crabs to be sorted, steamed, chilled and weighed. The owner brought handfuls of stone crab claws out to the dock and cracked them open with a fisherman's hook--we just enjoyed his company, the crab, the scenery. The night I spent alone on a houseboat, waking with every creak and splash I could hear in the water.

You can see the resulting video over at VisitFlorida.com.

We should all worry that something this special is so endangered with all the offshore drilling--and the accidents that can happen. So far, the spill is focusing on the wetlands nearest New Orleans. But it is spreading--keep the fishermen and women in your thoughts.

Bourbon and the Ponies: It's Derby Day!

Have I ever told you I spent 11 years in Louisville, KY, falling in love with the place, the people and ....okay, and the bourbon.

I never would have pegged myself as a bourbon drinker. Oh, let's be honest, I never would have pegged myself as a Kentuckian. When the possibility of moving there with Gary's job first came up, I pretty much said, "Um. No. I don't do the South."

But apparently, I do. I like bluegrass. I like Bourbon. I like the Kentucky Derby. I like Churchill Downs, where we (all parents) pretty freely encouraged our sweet little children to pick a horse. I like the friends I met, heck, I even liked the food scene.


Honestly, if I could move back? I would in a heartbeat. Not to say I don't love my new hometown of Charlotte--I do, very much. In fact right now I describe it as "very much like Louisville...without my friends." (Okay, so I'm a little lonely. There. Now you know.)

But I digress. The real purpose of my post today? The mint julep (cue the hallelujah chorus, please). You either love this or you hate it, but I love it and I make it well. And on the first Saturday of every May, you can find me mixing up a batch, eager to find someone who is actually at Churchill to place a bet for me (yes, I know I can do it online, but where's the fun in that?)--just don't bet with me. The one year I talked friends into putting money down, the horse finished last. The year I should have bet Barbaro in honor of my own name? I didn't...

Anyway, BACK to the julep. It's easy, it's delicious, just be warned. They go down smoothly.


Kentucky Derby Mint Julep

2 cups sugar
4 cups water
2 bunches fresh mint, rinsed and chopped (stems and all)
Shaved or crushed ice
Bourbon
Fresh mint for garnish
1.Make the simple syrup. Mix sugar with water and mint. Bring to a boil and stir just until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, cool completely and strain out mint.
2. For each julep, fill 8 ounce cup (find julep cups if you like: tres chic) with shaved or crushed ice. Add 2 ounces bourbon to the cup. Top off with mint syrup. Garnish with mint and serve. (Adjust bourbon more or less to suit your own tastes.)

Who are you betting?

And ladies, please: hats required.

Bar Dining and Good New Friends

I've never expounded on my love of bar dining here, have I? Now, I'm not a huge fan of eating alone at a restaurant, but if I've got no one to go with me, I'm heading out alone if there's a place I want to go. But if that place serves up the full menu at the bar, I am one happy camper, and I am very much happily dining alone. Very much.

First off, it's not at all unusual to sit alone at a bar (well, not for me, at any rate). I typically find the bartenders friendly, your next door neighbors friendly enough--they will either welcome chat or not, but they are never unfriendly.

Friday night, I felt like I had it all--good seat at the bar, great bartender, friendly bar mates. I felt as though I'd met new friends, although I may well never hear from any of them again (although I do hope they stop in to check out the blog, which we did talk about at length)--I talked technology and business and food with one other diner. Then dished about fabulous Apalachicola and Apalachicola oysters (and tupelo honey and St. George Island) with another couple.

Where was I? Wow, how could I get this far and not say: Blue Hill NYC at 75 Washington Place, where the motto is Know Thy Farmer™.

Oh, Blue Hill knows thy farmer, all right. Straight from the restaurant's website:

Blue Hill's menu showcases local food and a wine list with producers who respect artisanal techniques. Ingredients come from nearby farms, including Blue Hill Farm in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, a forty-five minute drive from New York City. Guests can choose from the regular menu or opt for the "Farmer's Feast," a five-course tasting inspired by the week's harvest.

Do you want to guess what I had? That's right, the Farmer's Feast. I couldn't say what I loved best, but the simple palate cleanser of fresh cheese sorbet with a rhubarb thyme "soup" (a clear broth/sauce) was so full of clean flavor. Then the poached egg with pork belly

(or was it lamb belly?I regret not asking for the menu then and there) with a bit of salad made me so happy--some of my favorite ingredients. There was fish, there were fiddlehead ferns, there was guinea hen...for me, there wasn't an off note.

Start to finish, the meal was superb--foodie friends had been there the night before and the restaurant found out one of them was also a food writer (they Googled her resie!!) and cooked off the menu. While I could say I regret not having been at that dinner, that would have meant missing out on one of the most memorable dining out experiences I've had in a long time had I not taken myself out to the bar last Friday night.

So to the friends I made at Blue Hill bar last Friday night, cheers--you made my night! And to my readers who haven't sometime just taken themselves out, alone or not, for a dinner at the bar? Go on, try it. And may your evening be as wonderful as mine was.

My final treat? Walking back to my midtown hotel--I got this fabulous shot on one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, the Empire State Building.

The Great Mocha Almond Angel Food Cake Off/ December 3, 2007

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I am hosting an out-of-town rerun post for the next few days...Here's a post I love that went up long before I had any readers at all.
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So, one of my very favorite sites is WineLoversPage.com, (the Forum Kitchen, to be precise)hosted by good friend, great wine guy and wonderful cook and creative mind, Robin Garr. Recently, forum moderator Jenise asked about Williams-Sonoma’s Mocha Almond Angel food cake with almond buttercream and toasted almonds on the outside.

For $59.

Now, we all agree that plenty of people cannot bake and would buy that in a heartbeat. Because really? It looks great.

But the Forum Kitchen is, of course, loaded with people who cook. And who love a challenge. So a few of us have taken up the challenge and determined that we could recreate the cake. I took on the challenge, although I’m no baker.

I liked Rose Levy Birnbaum’s Cake Bible recipes. Someone steered us to the chocolate angel food cake in her book...Then I looked up her Neoclassic Buttercream, too, which she claimed was forgiving, especially when adding flavors.

So I used her recipes combined with techniques from Cook’s Illustrated, which has you not whip the whites to quite a stiff peak.

I added my own espresso and a bit of almond extract to the buttercream. And for not really liking buttercream? I LOVED this.

Then the cake was easy enough...I added half the recommended vanilla and then some almond extract again.

Fold, fold, fold. Bake bake bake. Frost...decorate with toasted almonds.

Mmmm. See the pictures. Taste the cake. Visit WineLoversPage.com Great Mocha Bake Off Thread, too, to see how everyone ELSE’S cakes turned out!

Green Onions

Sometimes simple is simply lovely.