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Nov. 8 food diary-- Bon Appetit fail

11/23/2015

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​Nov. 8
Breakfast: leftover corn with sesame, leftover rice, leftover palak paneer.

Lunch: bulgogi fried rice from the restaurant.  Shared some of it with my daughter, who was hungry when she came home from tennis class.

As an aside, I must mention: last year, perhaps at Christmas, somebody appears to have purchased me a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine.  However, everyone I can think of denies having done so.  I have no idea why Bon Appetit just started showing up one day in my mailbox.  It's glitzy, contains recipes that often don't appeal to me, and seems to assume that I throw a lot of parties and barbecue regularly in the summer.  However, in each issue there are usually a couple of recipes that I do want to try.  I've made some fabulous salads, for instance, and a lovely frozen dessert with black sesame seeds.  

This late afternoon, I made the Blueberry/Pecan Galette from the July issue (I'm behind on more things than blogging).  However, something was way off about this recipe.  If I'd toasted the pecans as long as instructed, they would have been black; the ratios of flour, butter and water in the dough were completely wrong.  Even adding only 2/3 of the water that the recipe called for resulted in a dough that was almost dripping wet, like clay for a potter's wheel.  I added some extra flour to make it work.  While the galette baked up edible, the proportion of butter to actual solids in the crust resulted in massive blueberry leakage all over the baking tray and hence a significant loss in dessert volume.  This was, incidentally, the recipe featured on the cover of the magazine.  Where are your recipe testers, Bon Appetit??

Dinner: Madhur Jaffrey's "Red-Cooked" Daikon,  white rice, stirfried tofu along the approximate lines of her Ginger-Garlic Bean Curd, kale cooked with onions.  I forgot to add the sesame oil to the daikon (this has suddenly become an issue with me, as with some otherwise delicious muffins to which I forgot to add the salt and spices, resulting in the need to sprinkle salt on each muffin before consuming)-- but the daikon ended up tasting so greasy anyway that I can't imagine wanting to add more oil.  There was something about this recipe I found cloying.  Galette for dessert.

Snacks: 4 cups of coffee, 2 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half. 2 dried figs. 1 Red Hook beer.
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Non-pienary

11/23/2015

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An original recipe mash-up, with inspirations from Marie Carter, Driscoll's, and Keri Russell.

My husband and I recently watched the movie Waitress, a charming Adrienne Shelly film featuring a lot of mouthwatering pies, plus Keri Russell looking adorable in a diner waitress uniform.  Every man's fantasy: hot waitress bakes you pie regularly.  Also, it's a shame what happened to Adrienne Shelly.  But I digress.

​As I mentioned previously, I am baking my husband a pie-of-the-month this year (though my waitressing uniform is not nearly as hot as Keri Russell's).  Watching pies unfold onscreen, smooth chocolate and fillings poured lusciously into crusts, often over perfect fruit, made me desperate to reproduce some of them (and John desperate to eat them).  In particular, the Lonely Chicago Pie attracted me.  I wasn't really satisfied, though, with the recipes that other people, similarly inspired, had invented and posted on the internet, so I went looking for something that combined a blend of mixed berries with really dark chocolate (not a pudding or a mousse).  Actually, to be honest, the recipe I just linked is much closer to what I was looking for than anything I was able to find that day, and if I'd found it then I might have tried it.

I ended up torn between a fairly dense chocolate-and-berry pie from Marie Carter, and this more pudding-y pie from Driscoll's that had the advantage of a whipped cream topping.  I love whipped cream and it seemed desirable for balancing the rich chocolate.  Ultimately I decided to combine the two, and this dessert was born.
Picture
Photo credit: Julie Lin
Now, the chocolate layer of this dessert is really very solid, more like something I would call a torte than a pie.  However, there are a lot of berries, both inside and on top, and a thick layer of cream that fairly shouts "French Silk Pie," and of course it is pie-shaped, because it is baked in a pie pan.  My daughter announced that it was neither cake nor pie, but shared aspects of both; she, continually alert for connections to gender and sexuality politics, delightedly declared it a "non-binary dessert."

The apple pie I posted before: totally heteronormative.

Feeling "non-binary dessert" was a bit clunky, I suggested "non-pienary," and she, being fourteen, thought that was brilliant.  This recipe is so named henceforth.

**
Non-pienary

1 1/2 c. chocolate graham crackers
1/2 c. + 1/3 c. butter
1 c. dark (preferably bittersweet) chocolate chips
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar, plus a spoon or two more
2 T. powdered sugar
2. eggs
1/2 c. flour
1 1/2-2 t. vanilla
about 2 small packages raspberries
about 1 small package blueberries
2 c. heavy cream
 
Crust: Crush 1 1/2 c. chocolate graham crackers or cookies (I used teddy grahams) and mix with 1/3 c. melted butter.  Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.

Filling: Melt together the other stick of butter and 1 c.  good-quality dark chocolate chips.  Remove from heat, cool slightly,  and gradually stir in 1/2 c. brown sugar, 1/2 c. white sugar, and 2 beaten eggs, a little at a time.  Add 1/2 c. flour, 1 t. vanilla, and about 3/4 c. of raspberries and 1/2 c. blueberries, give or take.  Mash the berries a little before using.  Pour it all in the crust and bake 45 minutes.  Chill until entirely cooled, if possible, before topping.

Topping: Puree one small package of raspberries in the blender, then strain through a sieve to remove seedy parts.  Add a spoonful or two of sugar.  Whip 2 c., of heavy cream with 2 T. of powdered sugar and a little bit of vanilla (1/2-1 t.).  Mound the pie with the cream.  Spoon little dollops of raspberry puree onto the cream and use toothpick to swirl.  Top pie with plenty of extra berries.  Serve with dashes of extra raspberry puree on the plate.

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No-nonsense Apple Pie

11/23/2015

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Picture
It's fine.
​
No Nonsense Apple Pie
  • 2 cups + 1 1/2 T. all-purpose flour
  • 1 t. + 1/4 t. salt
  • 2/3 c. shortening
  • 6 medium apples
  • 1/2 c. turbinado sugar (or any kind of sugar), + 3 T. turbinado sugar for topping (optional)
  • 1/4 t. cinnamon and 1/4 t. pumpkin pie spice, or any combination of apple-y spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves) to taste
  • 1 egg for brushing (optional)
 
PictureRaggedy is OK.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix 2 c. all-purpose flour with 1 t. salt.  Rub in 2/3 c. shortening with your fingertips until the mixture becomes a fine meal with lumps no larger than peas.  Add 6 T. icy cold water and mix gently.  Probably the dough will still be too dry to push all together into one lump.  If so, add more water, 1 T. at a time, until you can get the dough to hang together.  Be gentle, don't knead.  It's okay if it's a little dry and has cracks in it; that's better than sticky.

Cut the dough in half with a knife and refrigerate one half while you are rolling out the other.  Flour a board and your rolling pin, and roll out dough until it is slightly larger around than the rim of your pie pan.  Fold in half gently, lift, place in pie pan, and center.
​


Picture



Picture
Now make the filling.  Peel and slice about 6 medium apples, or whatever looks right to heap in your pan.  Toss with 1/2 c. turbinado sugar, 1 1/2 T. flour, 1/4 t. salt, 1/4 t. cinnamon, and 1/4 t. pumpkin pie spice.  Dump in the pie pan and spread evenly.
Remove the other half of the pie dough from the refrigerator.  Roll out as before.  Fold, lift, and center on top of the pie.  Crimp the edges of the bottom and top crusts together, remembering that it is OK if the pie looks a little messy and imperfect-- this is how we know we did not buy a frozen crust.  It will taste much better than frozen.  Take a knife and cut a couple of slits in the top-- this is not just decorative, but ensures the pie will not explode while baking.

Okay, at the very end I did engage in one bit of nonsense.  Beat one egg with just a little bit of water, then brush the top of the pie with it.  Sprinkle with about 3 T. more of turbinado sugar.

Place your pie pan on a cookie sheet to catch drips.  You're welcome.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes until browned, then turn heat down to 350 degrees and bake another 45 minutes.  Look at it every so often to make sure it is not burning (you can cover the edges with foil if this is a problem, and/or turn down the temperature).  When done, apples should be visibly bubbling and the bottom of the pie crust (if you have a glass pie pan) should be golden.
​
You must serve this with vanilla ice cream.
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Nov. 7 food diary-- pie-of-the-month

11/17/2015

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PictureSpicy corn with sesame seeds and tomatoes, Palak Paneer, rice.
Finally, I have a day off to get back to writing and work on the site.  There is still a certain chance that I will be called in to work, as my manager is sick with the flu and may end up having to go home.  But, as things stand now, this is the first day to myself that I've had in about 3 weeks.

Breakfast: Last leftover pear/hazelnut/chocolate chip muffin from Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen recipe, piece of toast with pizza sauce and provolone cheese.  Except for a single pear last night, I have hardly had any fruits or vegetables in the past couple of days.  This is probably not good for me.  I already feel a bit digestively upset.  As always, when I stop restricting food choices according to some "diet" (Clean diet, Perfect Health Diet, etc.), I return to eating excessive carbs and particularly wheat flour.  I don't think this is about my personal choices so much as the ubiquity of these foods in our national cuisine (though I shudder to use the word "cuisine" about the American diet).  If you are not actively avoiding wheat flour and sugar, you are almost certainly overindulging instead.

Lunch: White cheddar cranberry cheese (it wasn't as good as it sounded), Whole Foods house-made flour tortilla chips (also not so great) with Whole Foods house-made artichoke-spinach dip (why are so many Whole Foods products not as amazing as they sound or look?), spoonful of leftover pistachio paste (yum).

Shopping at the coop:  Talenti vanilla ice cream, organic lactose-free milk, cage-free eggs, organic black mission figs, organic ground cinnamon, organic pepper, $22.
 
Dinner: Madhur Jaffrey's corn with sesame seeds and tomatoes, Palak Paneer, basmati rice and chapathi from our local Indian restaurant, salad of lettuce and CSA arugula and dried figs.  Apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

The corn recipe was really very delicious.  It has a lot of ingredients (most of which are seasonings), but it is not difficult.  I wasn't sure the sesame seeds added much, besides nutritional value.  

For my husband's and my wedding anniversary this year (our fourth), I gave him a gift: a fruit pie every month, of his choice, made by me and made only for him.  He only has to share as much as he wants to; it is fully his.  (He always shares a bit.)  The apple pie was actually a belated pie for October, which got overwhelmingly busy near the end.  That means he'll have to come up with a second pie request, for November.  I am willing to interpret "fruit" very loosely.  Pecans can be a fruit.  Pumpkins are a fruit.
​
Snacks: 4 cups of coffee with heavy cream or half and half, 2 regular, 2 decaf. 1/2 a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale (the other half sat on the table undrank.  Undrunk.  Undrunken.)

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    Whodunit

    The author is a waitress, home cook, and foodie who has trouble sticking to a subject.  She currently resides and works in the Maryland suburbs of D.C..

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