Friday, November 26, 2010

Recipe Reparation

Please note, the salt measurement for the Drunken Bourbon Pumpkin tart should be 1 teaspoon salt in the filling, not 1 tablespoon. It is modified in the blog listing, but in case you've already printed it out, I wanted you to know. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thanksgiving Thoughts

A hush descends upon the 'hood,

Foreshadowing all things good,

For a Thanksgiving Day that would,

Deliver all that it should.....

Health, happiness, fellowship and deliciousness to all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Cranberry Dreams


Reflections on childhood Thanksgivings' past, as lovely as they really were, always include nightmares of those scary cranberries in a can. You remember the stuff? Gelatinous muck that comes out in the shape of a tube and sticks on the wall when you throw it. I'm sure that my brothers, sisters and the Lally kids, with whom we shared practically everything Thanksgiving, were guilty of that at least once. Sorry, Mom and Aunt Nancy.

There is really good news to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and for the entire holiday season: Cranberry Chutney. It's simple to make, delicious, infuses the house with holiday fragrance as it cooks, and, it even gets better the longer it sits. I make this delicious chutney a couple days ahead (that would be today!) of Thanksgiving. I found it in Bon Appetit magazine almost 20 years ago and make it (in a modified form) every year. It's the kind of thing people ask for, it's that good. Here's to cranberry dreams! This recipe includes apples. Use Winesap if you can find them. Happy Thanksgiving.

Cranapple Chutney
(Makes 18 servings)

1 pound fresh cranberries (4 cups)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup water
1 cup diced sweet onion
1 sweet/tart apple (recommend Winesap or McIntosh), cored, chopped
1/2 cup pecan halves

Simmer first 10 ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the berries pop (about 15 minutes). Reduce heat, stir in onion and apple, simmer uncovered until thick (about 15 minutes). Remove from heat and cool. Refrigerate in an air tight container for up to one month. Stir in pecans just before serving.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Drunken Pumpkin-Bourbon Tart

People tend to have strong opinions about pumpkin pie. They either love it or they hate it. In the South, where I live, most of my friends prefer pecan or sweet potato pies for their holiday feasts, yet nobody ever turns down my pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. In fact, I'm making two of these babies this Thursday to share with said friends.

This tart is similar to a traditional pumpkin pie, but, it's sleeker and sexier. It's not as deep and not as filling as pie, but it's plum full of fresh, roasted pumpkin flavor. Please don't substitute canned pumpkin unless nothing else is available. It literally pales in comparison in every way and it's so easy to roast pumpkin. Look for the petite pie pumpkins that are on grocer's shelves as we speak. They can be roasted off and pureed days in advance (see directions below).

In this recipe, the custard gets pumped up with bourbon and plenty of spice so that it takes on a beautiful, burnt caramel color and layers of festive flavor. It is best served cold or at room temperature served with a generous dollop of freshly whipped cream. Maybe it will become part of your holiday table's annual offerings. Happy Thanksgiving!

Drunken Pumpkin-Bourbon Tart
(Serves 8 to 10)

Equipment Needed: One round 9" X 1" round tart pan with removable bottom

For the pastry:
2 1/4 cups White Lily All Purpose Flour
1/4 cup sugar
generous pinch sea salt or kosher salt
2 sticks cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes
approximately 1/4 cup ice cold water, or enough to just hold together the pastry

1 egg wash - yolk, pinch salt, splash water, blended together

For the filling:

2 cups of roasted pumpkin flesh
3 large eggs
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons bourbon
1 tablespoon best-quality vanilla extract
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
2 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare the pastry. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a plastic blade, pulse together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the cold butter all at once. Pulse 40 - 50 times or until the flour is the size of tiny peas. Gradually, drizzle the ice water through the mouth of the food processor, while pulsing. Stop just when the pastry begins to hold together. Pour out onto a lightly floured surface and form into a disk using your hands. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (Note: This can be done several days in advance and stored in the refrigerator until baking day, which, for me, will be Thanksgiving).

Meanwhile, cut the pumpkin in half horizontally, and remove the pulp and the seeds using a stainless steel spoon. Discard the pulp and the seeds. Turn the pumpkin halves cut-sides down on a roasting sheet and cook in the pre-heated oven until the flesh is soft to the touch and beginning to implode, about 45 minutes. When the pumpkin is done, remove from the oven and cool at room temperature.

Once the pastry has rested/chilled at least 30 minutes, roll it out on a lightly floured surface, to about 1/4" thickness. Line the tart pan with the pastry, leaving enough pastry to create a slightly elevated pastry border, about 1/2" higher than the edge of the tart pan. Line the pastry with crumpled parchment paper and fill it with pie weights or dried beans, gently pressing the beans into the bottom and edges of the paper so that they're evenly distributed. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove the parchment and weights, brush down the bottom, sides and edges of the tart shell with the egg wash using a pastry brush. Return the tart pan to the oven and bake another 10 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 350F.

To prepare the filling, scoop two cups of the roasted pumpkin flesh out of the pumpkin halves and place in a large bowl. (Note - any left-overs can be stored in the freezer or refrigerator and later turned into a lovely savory soup or puree!) Using a hand-held mixer, blend together the pumpkin for 2 minutes on medium and blend into a smooth consistency. Add the eggs and light brown sugar, and blend together on medium for another minute, or until fully incorporated. Add the remaining ingredients and blend to combine on medium until fluffy, aerated, and fully incorporated. Gently ladle or pour the custard into the prepared tart shell, leaving a 1/4"-deep tart border. Place on a baking sheet and bake on the center rack of the oven. After 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 325F and continue baking until the custard has just set and quivers slightly to the touch, about 45 minutes total. Cool completely before slicing, or refrigerate for several hours or overnight before serving.

Bring on the whipped cream!

Recipe from Tart Love - Sassy, Savory, Sweet and Southern by Holly Herrick (Gibbs Smith, Fall, 2011. Photo taken and generously shared by Helene DuJardin, www.mytartelette.com)

Friday, November 19, 2010

Husk Remembers When


Time changes everything. Or, maybe not. A friend of mine remembers working with Sean Brock a decade ago when he was still a Johnson and Wales student working double-time as a cook at Sweet Grass Cafe, a humble southern comfort food joint. She called the 2010 James Beard winner "fried chicken boy" because he loved Southern Culture on the Skids and enjoyed throwing it around at their concerts. She remembers how "excited" he was when he left to start a new job at the celebrated Peninsula Grill. Kind of makes you smile, doesn't it?

As a restaurant critic and long-time observer of Charleston's ever evolving and increasingly delicious restaurant scene, I remember when Sean Brock first stepped up to the chef plate at McCrady's, in the wake of much lauded local chef, Michael Kramer's departure. Just in his 20's at the time, it had to be a significant challenge, but Brock pulled it off. Still flexing his southern muscles, the West Virginia native worked a lot of foams, froths and sous vide technique into his work at a time when no one else in Charleston was doing it. His culinary identity was a little jumbled, but never his food. McCrady's, to this day, remains one of Charleston's very best restaurants. Brock's exploration and evolution and talent are three of the biggest reasons why that is so.

Yet, at the just-opened Husk Restaurant, Brock's newest baby, all fried chicken boy's passions and experimentation pay off in a 100% perfect and pure southern way. At Husk, Brock's come home to the heart of southern cuisine and is breaking ground in ways that could safely be called revolutionary, if not super human. Brock's mantra and his mission is to create a new Husk menu daily using only ingredients produced and raised in the South. On the side, he grows his own heirloom plants from seeds he's rescued, tended and loved to ensure precious crops and southern traditions are not plowed under the deadly tills of mass farm production. Let's not forget the heirloom pigs he feeds, slaughters and cures, and the fact that he has a wife he adores and a life, to boot. Yet, when he was beaming down at his smoked bacon cornbread at the soft opening I attended a few weeks ago, he looked like a little boy that had just gotten first prize at the school fair. So excited, and ebullient and jubilant was he. Kind of makes you smile, doesn't it?

Brock's passion oozes from every lovely pore of Husk. Situated in a lovingly and painstakingly restored single house on sleepy Queen Street, its decor is polished with exceptionally tasteful southern love. Just like the food, there is nothing cliche in the decor. No gingham, no chintz, no frills. Hard pine floors, muted, earthy tones, and gorgeous ceiling to floor draperies dress the setting. Dried okra pods in a vase full of stone-ground grits are the organic, lovely center-pieces while cloth, grit-fragrant, grit bags house some of the most decadent salt and benne studded Parker House rolls you could ever hope to eat.

An adorable, miniature brick kitchen house is the sleek and sophisticated-yet-still country bar. Brock pays homage to all of his well-vetted artisinal suppliers on his ambitious daily menu. A huge blackboard at the front of the restaurant repeats the theme. I'm happy to see that Brock and his team have scaled back a bit on things since the soft-opening. The man, as hard as it seems to believe at times, is a human and there are only 24 hours in a day. Gone are the "snack" options - small matter because similar options are available at the bar. It frees up time for attention to the food - and that is what outshines everything at HUSK. Above all, it is the reason to go.

I could go on and on about all the things I sampled last night when I was there - such as the sublime Cornmeal Dusted Triggerfish (pictured) on a Potato Puree that flirted with butter and fennel in the most delicious way, but there is no point. Today's menu will be altogether different. I predict that's all that's ever going to change at HUSK. Brock's brought the South home, to where it's always been best, rooted closely to the earth and heritage cooking. HUSK's only going to get better from here. Reserve your seat today. The wait's only going to get longer.

Husk Restaurant
76 Queen Street, downtown Charleston
(843) 577-2500
www.huskrestaurant.com

Saturday, November 6, 2010

A (Temporary) Farewell to Tarts


It's been five long months in the coming. Nights of creative tart thoughts turned into mornings of new tart recipe creations, followed by afternoons of buttery aromas wafting through the house, followed by yet another evening of tart possibility dreams.

It was an exciting time. Despite the tarts' relentless creativity call, it was a welcome opportunity after nearly a year on the road promoting Charleston Chef's Table (Three Forks, Dec., 2009) and Southern Farmers Market Cookbook (Gibbs Smith, June 2009). Being in the kitchen, is, after all, what I love best. So, to be there, snuggled in the warm aromas of baking tarts and tartlets, with the loving shadows of my dog Tann Mann and cat Chutney within flour-dusted arms reach, was pure delight.

We developed a cadence, the three of us. First stop, coffee and breakfast for me, food and walks for them. Next stop, the meditative process of making pastry, sometimes three batches at a time for the late morning and early afternoon recipe testings. Once the tarts were out of the oven, the next step was to deliver them to neighbors and, on some days, the construction crew that was building the house across the street. It was nurturing and peaceful and fluid. And, even when the taste-testing news was not always perfect, it always felt like a good days work.

Well, now the house across the street is complete, and so is the recipe testing stage of "Tart Love" - Sassy, Sweet, Savory and Southern. The simultaneous timing of the end of the house building and tart creations seems ironic and emotional, somehow. The next step, starting tomorrow, is to complete the writing of the book, which will be released next fall (Gibbs Smith). Saying goodbye to the tart-making step of the process feels a little bit like sending a young child off to school. I can bid goodbye, only knowing they'll be back later that afternoon (or later this holiday season) to warm my heart and my belly. For now, the final writing and editing stages begin and I'll have to bid a temporary farewell to my beloved tarts until they come back to me in book form sometime next year.

I can't thank my wonderful photographer Helene DuJardin enough for her tireless efforts and beautiful photography. My neighbors and pets always get thanks, just for being them. The photo above is of the final tartlet tested for the book, and it's not by Helene (just so you know!), but by me. They are Pimento Cheeseburger Tartlets, savory, final odes to a wonderful journey I will not soon forget.

Look for recipes from the nascent book in the several months prior to its eventual release in fall 2011. Happy cooking!

Culinary Cost-Cutting 101

Coupon Crazy

When I was a little girl, I marveled while watching my Great Aunt Frances sitting at her linoleum-topped kitchen table, cutting coupons from the daily newspaper in the tiny Kansas town she lived in until she was nearly 100 years old.

It seemed like such a waste of energy in order to save a few pennies on, what I thought, were probably things she wouldn't normally buy anyway. But, I was naive. She, a thrifty survivor of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, had her coupon system down pat and it's probably one of the reasons she made it through a long life of hard times, many of them spent alone.

The latest bout of monetary unpleasantness, however, has created a market for New Age couponing systems. The internet now has a number of hot coupon sites (I like couponmom.com) which provide free, brand-name coupons and more if you select to register as a member. They're just a click, a printer, and five minutes away. In addition, many grocery stores' websites offer lists of daily specials. And, here's the kicker. Many provide selections from the kind of items you usually purchase, anyway. That was it for me. The last straw supporting my long-standing anti-coupon mindset finally broke its resistant back.

Harris Teeter's online specials shopping list became this list-hater's new best friend. I dipped into it with reckless abandon. With a little practice and increasing knowledge, I'm slowly forming my own semi-profitable coupon system. By combining the free manufacturer's coupons from sites like couponmom.com with a daily special shopping list constructed from Harris Teeter's web site (harristeeter.com) , my handy VIC card, and an extra dose of concentration at the grocery store, I have scored some serious savings.

The best yet happened last week. Granted, it was a big sales day at the downtown Teeter. The store was offering buy one get one, two or even three, all over the place on big ticket items like beef, coffee and wine. Since I'm expecting company in a couple weeks, I decided to stock up on these and other staples. The net result was a whopping $67 total savings. In essence, I bought three weeks-worth of groceries for less than I usually spend in one week!

My heart raced with anticipation as I watched the basket cave with the weight of my cache and the numbers creeping slowly higher on the cash register. Then, as the cashier started calculating in the selected coupons, the numbers amazingly started going down. It was like getting on the scale after a week of gorging Haagen-Dazs only to find you'd lost five pounds. I was beaming. She was beaming and said, "You did good today!"


Admittedly, a follow-up trip to replenish the fresh vegetable drawer just one week later only yielded $10 in savings, but next time I'll do better. I'm on a coupon-crazed mission. Intelligent use of coupons and smart shopping add up to saving a lot more than pennies. And, I'm not in Kansas anymore.

One Plucky Chicken, Four Marvelous Meals

With grocery costs rocketing to the stratosphere, it’s imperative to save wherever you can at the supermarket without eliminating taste. In addition to reaching for reduced daily specials, what you buy and how you put it to use in your kitchen can happily translate to huge savings with bodacious bite.

In this era of grocery gouging, chicken can become your new best friend for just pennies per four ounce serving when paired with practical pantry staples like pasta and veggies. Low in fat, high in protein and exceptionally versatile, chicken marries equally well with the exotic (think truffles or saffron) to the humble (think roasted potatoes and rosemary).

For these reasons, it’s a regular menu guest at my house, where I pride myself on transforming a single, four pound chicken (preferably organic and purchased at a reduced rate) into four fabulous feasts for a group of four. That’s sixteen meals, folks! A four pound chicken runs anywhere from $6-$10 (depending on where and how you shop), throw in a little change for ingredients to flesh it out into a meal (4X), and you’re looking at less than $20. A night out for a family of four at any fast food favorite will set you back the same amount or more faster than you can say “heart attack”.

Gotcha? Let me tell you how it’s done!

Meal #1: This is the launching pad for the meal plan event(s) – a whole roasted chicken. Since it’s going to be transformed several times, keep the seasoning simple – ground pepper, a nice crust of coarse salt and a rub down with olive oil. Roast at 425 until done (about 20 minutes per pound) and top it with a few love pats of butter to sink deeply into the bird. Allow the roasted chicken to rest and re-absorb its juices. Cut the both legs and thighs away from the chicken (reserving warm). Cut the breasts away from the rib cage, cool and store in your refrigerator for later use. Serve both legs and both thighs with steamed vegetables and roasted potatoes for a satisfying, nutritional meal. Go ahead and prepare a pan gravy with a little roux, white wine, chicken stock, Dijon mustard and fresh tarragon to dress things up, but hold on to the carcass!

Meal #2: Start this after the roast chicken dinner to prepare for tomorrow’s old-fashioned and DELICIOUS chicken noodle soup. With a sturdy chef’s knife, cut up the reserved carcass remnants – the rib cage and spine – into four or five coarse chunks and put them in a two quart soup pot with a quartered onion, carrot, celery stalk and a clove or two of garlic to make an impromptu stock. Add a few peppercorns, a bay leaf and fresh thyme for added flavor. Bring it up to a boil, reduce to a slow simmer over low heat and forget about it for three to four hours. Allow to cool and refrigerate, covered, overnight.
About thirty minutes before you’re slotted to serve dinner, skim off any accumulated fat off the top of the stock, strain it, discarding all solids except any bits of chicken flesh. Finely chop an onion, carrot and celery stalk and sauté them in the same pot with a tablespoon of olive oil until softened. Season, return the strained stock to the pan and bring up to a boil. Add reserved chicken and about ¼ pound of dried pasta (flat noodles, spaghetti, linguini – your choice) and cook until tender. Serve with a drizzle of fresh herbs (parsley, tarragon, or thyme will do) and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. A small, fresh salad and warm baguette make this a meal.

Meal #3: Chicken Salad Deluxe! This is where you can really have fun with chicken’s flavor/texture marriage versatility. Cut one of the reserved breasts into chunky, ½” cubes and toss in a bowl with coarsely chopped dried cranberries (or another dried fruit like figs or currants), coarsely chopped roasted almonds, fresh herbs, a dollop of Dijon, a dash of mayo and vinegar, salt and pepper and you’ve got a meal in minutes over a bed of greens. Other flavors that work in tandem with chicken include curry, paprika, cinnamon and almost any fresh herb imaginable. Make this your own!

Meal #4: Chicken Sandwiches Supreme! Again, versatility and imagination set the stage for show-stopping chicken sandwiches prepared with freshly roasted chicken breast. Go for the best quality bread you can find, from baguette to whole grain, and fill it with thinly cut slices of the remaining breast and toppings. One sliced breast will handily complete four sandwiches. Zip up mayo with fresh basil and Dijon mustard for a fresh, personalized sauce, top with a slice of red onion and crisp romaine. Go whole hog and add a few pieces of browned bacon and a slice of avocado if the mood moves.

Chicken never tasted so good for so little.