Plum cake "tatin"

Oh, dear.

The plums I canned yesterday didn't seal properly. So, today I made a plum tatin. It's a variation of Ina Garten's recipe from Barefoot in Paris, which I normally use to make an impressive pear tatin.

My original post about this recipe, done the right way, appears here:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2008/12/poire-tatin.html?m=1

Today's version, in the oven now, looks like plums with cake dumplings. The dough turned out too sticky. I should have added a few tablespoons of milk to compensate for the thickness of the yogurt.

PLUMS TATIN

- 2 pints canned plum halves, pitted, in medium syrup
- 6 tablespoons butter, room temp
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 serving Chobani lemon yogurt (slighly more than 1/3 cup)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour (there's my mistake, I was helping my daughter with another task and used TWO CUPS flour, that's why my dough was so thick and sticky)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (which I never measure)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease deep dish pie pan generously with butter.

Pour one pint of plums into pie dish with syrup, add the plums from the other pint too but not the syrup. I then put the pie dish in the oven to warm them.

Cream butter, sugar, and add eggs one at a time. Add yogurt and vanilla and mix until well-combined.

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder and add slowly to other mix. Combine until moist. Spoon over plums.

Bake 30 to 40 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes. Invert unto platter.


UPDATE:
This is the UGLIEST 'tatin' I ever made. The cake tastes fine, despite the double flour mistake. The plums have a very strong flavor, a blend of sour and sweet. I think it's good but has the same mixed qualities of a good rhubarb dessert. It tasted fine.

Exotic Mac and Cheese

Why do I always have dinner parties on the hottest days of the year?

I have guests coming tonight for the mac and cheese party, but due to some confusion and some scheduling upheaval, I appear to be the only one cooking. I made about 4 quarts of mac and cheese. 2 varieties. One rather plain and French/ croque monsieur inspired. The other artery-clogging and Italian-inspired.

Neither are cheap.

The French-inspired Mac and Cheese

mixed in saucepan, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes:
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon four color organic fresh ground pepper
Once bubbly, add
- 2 tablespoons flour, still and heat until bubbly
Warm separately
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
Add to the butter base and heat to boiling.
Remove from heat and add
- 1/3 pound shredded gruyere
- 1/4 pound smoked gouda, grated or chopped
Stir and add to noodles. Bake in oven as you would with normal mac and cheese.

The Italian-inspired mac and cheese

- Two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- one teaspoon garlic powder
- about 1 teaspoon fresh oregano
- about 8 leaves fresh basil, chopped
cook until fragrant and sizzling and add
- two tablespoons flour
cook a few moments and add
- about 1 cup diced proscuitto (spelling?)
- about six pepperonis, diced
when the meat seems glossy and done, add
- 2 cups milk
slowly bring to a boil
remove from heat and add
- about 6 ounces extra sharp provolone, chopped
- about 2 ounces mozzerrella
Combine with noodles
Top with chunks of mozzerella
Add pepperonis.
Bake.

How to make basic mac and cheese, according to Betty Crocker:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/06/spinach-herb-apple-meatloaf-and-simple.html

Four Cheese Vegetarian Crôque Monsieur

Ah... finally!

Adapted from Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris:
Angel's four cheese vegetarian crôque monsieur

• 12 slices homemade wheat bread (each about half the size of store-bought bread)
• six slices Morningstar vegetarian bacon
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons unbleached white flour
• 2 cups hot heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground four color organic pepper
• pinch nutmeg
• 2 cups shredded swiss cheese (I got French Entremont)
• 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
• less than 1/4 parmesan (I ran out)
• 1 cup shredded smoked gouda

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Melt the butter over low heat and add the flour all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon for two minutes (is it supposed to end up as a lump? Because mine does.) Slowly stir in all the milk (oops I did mine fast) and whisk until sauce thickens (mine did fine, even if I neglected the subtle nature of the instructions).

Remove from heat and add salt, pepper, nutmeg, parmesan, 1/4 cup cheddar, and 1/4 cup swiss.
Stir until melted and set aside.

Toast the bread about five minutes on each side in the oven.

On the bottom halves of the sandwiches, pile 1 tablespoon sauce, about a tablespoon shredded cheese (at this point I mix all remaining the cheeses together), one slice vegetarian bacon (folded), one more tablespoon cheese sauce, then the lid, one more tablespoon sauce, then a little pile of cheese.

Return sandwiches to the oven until bubbly and browned.

Prepare some frozen peas and cauliflower and top with leftover cheese sauce. The remaining cheese sauce can be refrigerated and used for a killer alfredo sauce, or more sandwiches, or a really decadent fondue.

Très grande tarte tatin

Went to start my tarte tatin and as usual as soon as I went to open the can of pears, our cordless electric can opener died. And we don't have a manual one. The odd thing is, as soon as it dies, it's done. When you plug it in, you have to wait about twenty minutes before you can use it plugged in.

Then I started working on the sugar syrup and I was working on this blog entry at the same time and the sauce reduced down to the point where I thought I had burned my pan. Interestingly, I think this is how it's supposed to work. The color is perfect and it's reduced by about half. And my tatins are always a tad runny so this may explain why... I am too impatient with the syrup and use it prematurely.

After an irate phone call from a friend and a facebook message from another friend experiencing some career difficulties, I can still only get the can half open...

For my syrup, I used about a half cup of the pear juice from the can of pears (I used a church key to extract it) and less than 1/4 cup sugar. I swirled and boiled this until it reduced and turned vivid amber. I poured it back in the pyrex measuring cup and it seemed to be about 1/4 cup syrup. I added another 1/4-ish cup pear juice to the hot pan and used a silicone rubber spatula to scrap the stuff from the bottom of the pan. It all turned amber about immediately though it did not reduce. I pour it into the measuring cup and stirred.

Next, while waiting for my pears:

• Cream 12 tablespoons room temp unsalted butter
• With about 1 cup granulated sugar

Lower speed and beat in one at a time:

• 5 large eggs, also room temp

Now at this point, the Ina Garten's recipe calls for 2/3 cup sour cream. I have a nice amount more than 1/3 cup but no where near 2/3. This is also when you add 1 teaspoon lemon zest and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Since sour cream is like a liquid, maybe I'll add a teaspoon of lemon juice. Yeah. I'll do that as I don't have lemons to zest. Oh, and cool... upon closer review of the fridge I found sour cream from the tacos I got via take-out last week... 2 ounces... awesome!

Sift together in separate bowl:

• 2 heaping cups unbleached white flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon iodized sea salt

At this point, I'm going to fight more with my can opener and try to get my pears... I got one 29 ounce can open but it stalled (AGAIN) 3/4 of the way through the 15 ounce can... And I think I'll need another 15 ounce can. UGGH.

Okay, so once that last can is open... (In pried open the nearly open one, like Popeye and his spinach) I can finish nicely arranging my pears, cover them with syrup, combine the dry and wet ingredients pour over the pears and bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. This project has already taken 90 minutes and normally, I would have eaten a slice of tatin by now. This is almost too frustrating to bring to International Poetry Night.

Update... 2 hrs later from when this project started and the tatin has finally made it into the oven. I had exactly the least amount of pears as I could get away with. I arranged them nicely and then poured the batter on, only to realize when I got all the batter into the pan that I forgot the syrup.

So I very carefully poured the syrup into the spouts on my Le Creuset skillet and tilted the skillet in hopes of the syrup making it to the pears on the bottom, a slow and steady process. The syrup all disappeared so I can only hope it was successful.

Now we wait for it to come out of the oven and see... fingers crossed.

Perfumed Pineapple 'Tatin'

I thought I would cross my recipe from 'C'est Prêt, Venir Dîner' for Perfumed Pineapple Crumble (a must try, if I do say) and my usual tarte tatin from 'Barefoot in Paris.' I wanted to use my new Le Creuset skillet in the oven.

But I didn't think of how much larger this skillet is when compared to my deep-dish pie pan. I should have doubled the cake batter... but didn't... so I may end up with Pineapple with French Dumplings...

I started with my Le Creuset skillet, greased generously with unsalted butter by my five-year-old daughter. Then we sprinkled about 1/2 cup light brown sugar in the bottom. We perfumed the bowl of pineapple (one pineapple, cored) with one tablespoon vanilla, stirred well, and arranged slices in the skillet. (My pineapple coring skills have improved. They almost look like pieces from a can.)

I took the remaining pineapple juices and poured into my measuring cup, where I added water to make 1/3 cup. Now this water is to go into a small saucepan on high heat. You're supposed to add one cup sugar, but I reduced to a 1/2 and added 2 tablespoons honey. Swirl pan to mix, but don't stir. Boil until it turns amber. I always forget and stir.

When it's ready, pour it evenly over the pineapple.

Now the batter: Cream six tablespoons room temperature butter with 3/4 cup granulated sugar. (Again, I reduced to about 1/4 cup) Beat until light and fluffy. Lower speed and beat in two room temperature eggs, one at a time. (It says two extra-large, I should have used three I think. Because mine were merely large.) Then add 1/3 cup sour cream. And 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

In separate bowl, combine 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour (or if you're me, one heaping cup), 1/4 teaspoon salt, and one 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. Slowly mix with the butter mixture. Cover fruit with this batter. Bake 30-40 minutes at 350. Cool for 15 minutes and flip onto plate.

Mine was swimming in syrup when it got done, so I drained it and will use the syrup for something...

Dinner Party

I am completely exhausted and I have one hour until it's time to set the table and two hours until time to start cooking dinner.

We started our day at Wegmans. I was thrilled to find a one-gallon glass sun tea pitcher for $5.99 but distraught to find pineapples were $3.99 and that cored pineapples were $5.99. That's nuts.

I spent $48.76, which I'm counting toward the August budget even though it's July 31. I was bummed about that until I remembered I bought the sun tea pitcher.

I bought:

• 2 pounds Wegman's butter, one salted, one unsalted, $1.50 each
• one pineapple, $3.99 (grrr)
• the large bottle of coffemate vanilla chai spice creamer, $2.99
• 2 pints heavy whipping cream, $1.49 each
• 3 packages of celestial seasoning tea (blueberry, almond, and berry), $2.29 each
• 1 liter of Orangina, $2.49
• 3/4 pound sliced ham from the deli, $4.31
• shredded gruyère (domestic?), $3.60
• smoked gouda, $3.47
• the sun tea jar, $5.99
• 3 lbs bananas, $1.09
• 6 ounces raspberries, $2.50
• strawberries, $2
• ground nutmeg, $2.99

Before we left, I made the pear soup and I had set the brioche out and shaped it. When we got home, I baked it and brewed iced tea (green with berry). Then we went to the liquor store for wine. My husband came home early for lunch, so we had leftover crêpes and then I prepped the pineapple crumble and the zucchini cakes.

At 3 p.m., I'll set the table.

At 4 p.m., I'll start the crôque monsieur.

When the crôque is in the oven, I'll fry the zucchini cakes. While we eat the first courses, the pineapple crumble will bake.

Recipes:
Follow these links:

• Brioche-- from The Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells, also should be accessible via 'French,' 'bread,' and/or 'brioche.'
• Chilled Pear Soup-- Vegan, eileen bresslin
  
• Zucchini crabbiless cakes-- The Imus Ranch Cookbook, 'vegan' (Deirdre Imus calls it vegan even though she used eggs because she has her own chickens) and zucchini
• Perfumed Pineapple Crumble-- Venez Diner, C'est Prêt by Dominique Malet, follow pineapple or French or the name of the book
• Crôque Monsieur-- obviously French, it's from The Barefoot in Paris Cookbook by Ina garten
• Rye bread-- clicking on rye will show you all my experiments with rye flour

My daughter made me a lovely four-course meal:
Tomato salad (pictured)
Piled-High Sandwiches
A cheese and egg platter
Chocolate-Carrot Crumble

Croque Monsieur

I've been dying for Croque Monsieur for days... but it's not an easy thing to solve a craving like this... For one, buying the proper cheese can be very expensive. In this case, $6-plus at the Giant. For a tiny hunk of Gruyère.

So, you economize where you can.

I based my croque monsieur on Ina Garten's recipe in Barefoot in Paris, but where she uses two cheeses, I used four. Sounds fancy, but really, it was an attempt to keep the gruyère from making my daughter turn up her nose, and an attempt to cheapen the overall cost of the sandwich.

Step one:

I sliced 12 slices of homemade cheesy bread that I had thawed from the freezer. I arranged them on a very large cookie sheet. In an oven preheated to 400, I toasted each side of the bread for five minutes.

Ingredients for the sauce: 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon flour, 1/2 cup light cream, 1/2 cup soy milk, 1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground coarse sea salt (from Aldi), 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground four-color pepper, pinch nutmeg, 1/8 cup grated asiago (also from Aldi), 1/8 cup grated parmesan (Aldi), 1/8 cup grated gruyère, and 1/8 cup grated smoked gouda.

Melt butter over low heat, stir in flour and stir with wooden spoon for two minutes. Heat milk and add, slowly, whisking constantly until sauce thickens. Remove pan from heat and add other ingredients. Set aside.

Step two:

Take toasted bread and if desired, spread dijon mustard on one side. I skipped this as my husband hates mustard.

Ingredients for the middle: ham slices (I used tavern ham, one long slice per sandwich. It used more than 1/4 a pound but not 1/2 pound), a slice of smoked gouda for each sandwich, and slightly more than 1/4 cup grated gruyère. Go crazy with the cheese if you wish, but I can't afford it.

Method: On one side of the bread, fold a slice of ham, then add the gouda. I then added a thin layer of sauce and put the second side of the bread on. Smother the top of the sandwich with sauce, I used close to two tablespoons for each of my little sandwiches. Then sprinkle the gruyère on top.

Bake five minutes in the oven. Then, turn on the broiler and broil three to five minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

Banana Pear Vouvray tarte tartine

As everyone knows, I have no issue straying from a recipe. I have made Tart tartine before for this blog, a couple times actually, so if you need the recipe, I suggest clicking Barefoot in Paris (the cookbook it came from) or French or Dessert.

This morning, I greased the dish, laid out my pears and added banana, because normally my tart seems not fruity enough. I also tried to make it prettier than usual. For my syrup, I replaced the sugar/water syrup with the juice from the pears, a couple tablespoons of sugar and Vouvray.

Other than that, I stuck to the recipe and it's in the oven now. I also have a double batch of French bread rising.

Apple Tarte Tartin

I made an Apple Tarte Tartin this morning... I started with Ina Garten's Plum Tartin recipe, and whereas I normally use pears instead today I used fresh apples. I added a bit of honey, probably about a teaspoon, to the sugar syrup as I boiled it. Then in place of confectioner's sugar I sprinkled a dust of cinnamon sugar on top. Yum!

For dinner last night we made spinach dip with carrots, and served homemade bread. Then today for lunch we had leftover black bean and ham hock soup, which we added cheddar cheese and garlic pepper to. 

On French cookbooks and grocery budgets

My poire tarte tatin was a resounding success yesterday. The original recipe, as I mentioned in my post, came from Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris. (In the photo, on the left.) Most of my French recipes come from this book or The Paris Cookbook by Patricia Wells. Everything else comes from random hits on the Internet. The Paris Cookbook has my brioche recipe, which is an all-day process. Garten has a brioche loaf that takes less time and is tasty, but brioche in a loaf is less fun.

Garten includes a variety of essays that talk about her experiences cooking and gathering recipes in France, all of which are very enjoyable. I lust after the cookware she mentions from E. Dehillerin (which does have a web presence).

After my class yesterday, I met with the professor and we had a conversation that I thought deserved to be recorded here. I had sparked the conversation with discussion of how my French exchange student considered everything in the U.S. "big" and I thought it an apt description of American culture. He's French, and he mentioned that Americans have no sense of aesthetics. He directly associated this with food.

"Have you ever noticed," he said, "when you go to someone's house to eat... It's never 'Did you eat well?' or 'How did it taste?'"

And I cackled, because I sensed his upcoming question.

"It's always, 'Did you have enough?'" I finished.

And he nodded.

"It doesn't matter what it looks like, or how it tastes, just how much there is," he said.

Something to think about. Supersize that.

I have no meal plan for today, yet. My husband took off of work today because I have to go to the office around the same time the furnace maintenance is scheduled. I have cash because I used my credit card to buy a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law that my father-in-law paid for. I'm hoping to spend about $50 at Aldi and round out some missing supplies. Then, I can take the other $50 bill and head to Wegmans for some specialty items. (Whole wheat flour, soy milk, Wegmans Mac N cheese in the box, and imported chocolate for a business meeting, but that's another post.) That left $38 for an office Christmas dinner my husband has to attend Tuesday. Isn't budgeting fun... The $66.67 I spent on groceries thus far this month represents 4.5 percent of our projected income for December. And I did stop at CVS yesterday and spent $12 on some bathroom items that normally would have fallen in with the groceries, except I needed them ASAP.

Poire Tatin

Before I went to bed last night, I had the plan worked out in my head. In the morning, the morning of my last French class, which has filled a void in my life that desperately needed plugging, I will construct a poire tatin and get it in the oven before I drive my husband to work. My hope, though it is not practical, is that it might still be warm when I get to class at 10 a.m. Hardly likely, in this winter weather. 

I got the permission of the professor to make this lovely "cake." I'm adapting the recipe, because I'm such a slave to recipes using them so exactly, from the Barefoot in Paris Cookbook by Ina Garten. First off, the recipe is a plum tatin. But I do pears. Because the last time I visited my former college roommate, she took me to a little French restaurant in historic Ellicott City where we had desser

t. I ordered the poire tatin. And I nearly died. In my brief time in Paris, I survived on bread and pastry... but this... this exploded on my tastebuds and melted in my mouth.

Here's an approximation of my adaption of Ina Garten's Plum Cake "Tatin." She says it serves six, and I'm a glutton, but I think it's so rich and buttery it should serve more than that.

Poire Tatin

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus some for greasing the pan;

One large can or two normal cans sliced pears in juice (or fresh equivalent);

1/3 cup granulated sugar, another 3/4 cup sugar;

1/3 cup juice reserved from the can of pears;

3 medium eggs (room temperature, if possible);

1/3 sour cream (now, I can't  remember if I substitute this--I don't usually have sour cream, so do I use half-and-half with a few drops of apple cider vinegar? That's what I used today. It's too early in the morning for this); 

1/2 teaspoon vanilla;

1 cup plus two tablespoons flour;

1/2 teaspoon baking powder;

1/2 teaspoon salt;

Preheat oven to 350. Generously butter a deep-dish pie pan, and arrange the pears artfully in the bottom.  In a small pan, combine the water/pear juice and 1 cup sugar. Heat over high until it turns "warm amber" (or pretty brown). Swirl pan to keep from burning. DO NOT STIR. (But honestly, I forgot and stirred once). Pour evenly over fruit.

Cream butter and remaining sugar until light and fluffy. Lower beater speed and add eggs one at a time. Add sour cream and vanilla. Mix until combined. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. With mixer on low, add to butter. Mix only until combined.

Pour batter evenly over fruit and bake 30-40 until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes, then invert on flat serving plate. Cake should pop out. Juice may ooze. Serve warm or at room temperature.