Here’s another delicious recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg cookbook. I now have embraced this book of 200 inventive vegetable recipes as my own best idea. Truthfully, Andrea Mohr, a foodie in Bonn, Germany who blogs as The Kitchen Lioness, inspired me and others to join The Cottage Cooking Club and cook through this book together. In the spirit of full disclosure, my colleagues and I asked nicely, then pleaded and finally begged Andrea to mastermind and administer this group. She caved. (We love her.)
Among our October recipe choices is his Pumpkin & Raisin Tea Loaf which he describes as ‘rich and sweet, but also quite light because it doesn’t contain any butter or oil.’ Call me a skeptic but I’m an always-add-more-butter girl so this was a must-bake recipe. This was also an excellent opportunity to walk you, dear readers, through my blogging process.
Have you ever wondered, “How does Mary make this happen every week?” Why, thank you for asking. Whether a success or failure, let’s make this bread together. Here we go…..
Its thick batter is ready for the oven.
For me, there are six steps in the food blogging process:
1. Choose (or, create) a recipe. Source and gather the ingredients.
2. Make it.
3. Photograph it.
4. Serve it. Share it. Eat it.
5. Compose Post.
6. Go live on Lights on Bright No Brakes.
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Choose, Source and Gather
After choosing a recipe (Pumpkin & Raisin Tea Loaf), I first gather ingredients already on hand and list those that are not. Luckily I already had eggs, lemons, ground almond meal, sea salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Before buying those additional (and, sometimes pricey) remaining items, I consider substituting ingredients and making do with what I have in my pantry/fridge. Instead of 1 cup of Muscovado sugar, an unrefined brown sugar with a strong molasses content and flavor, Google claims I can use plain brown sugar. To convert Hungarian High Altitude Flour which I use for baking, into self-rising flour, I know to add 1 1/2 ts of baking powder and 1/2 ts of salt per cup. (I live in Colorado at 8000’ altitude.) Since I was out of raisins, I substituted dried cherries. This recipe calls for finely grated raw pumpkin or squash flesh. The only item I needed to buy was a can of Libby’s pure Pumpkin Purée. Cost – 10 cents!
Make It
After the ingredients are “in house”, I carefully re-read through the entire recipe 2 or 3 times. For this tea loaf, I pulled out my electric mixer, two bowls, preheated the oven and greased the proper-sized loaf pan. There was nothing very complicated to pulling this recipe together. Since I was folding stiffly beaten egg whites into a thick batter, I needed to lighten the batter, a technique often required in baking.
After an hour in a 375 degree oven, this bread needs to cool down.
Smile for the Camera
Throughout the baking process, I look for photo ops. Not claiming to be Ansel Adams nor a threat to Annie Liebovitz, I still like to include 5 or 6 photos in each Post. Hopefully my camera skills have improved during the past three years but I’m still clearly an amateur.
Serve It. Share It. Eat It.
This has been challenging since I cook for One. Food is expensive. With hunger being a worldwide issue, who can tolerate waste? My freezer capability is limited. Luckily, except when traveling, I seldom eat in restaurants. Over time I’ve learned to successfully halve and third recipes, tinkering with ratios and proportions. When possible, my Posts are planned around social/food events. Happily, the employees here at The Gant, where I live, are skilled (and, grateful) taste-testers. I shared this Pumpkin & Raisin Tea Loaf with the off-season crew (They liked.) No food goes uneaten.
Before slicing and, only if you wish, sprinkle with powdered sugar. It’s actually rich and sweet enough without the ps.
Compose Post.
Since I’ve spent more time in the newsroom than the kitchen, writing the Post is my favorite part of this adventure. Just love to write. Besides blogging about my chosen recipe, I also weave an anecdote through the piece, highlighting an event, experience, story or thought. To my mind and because I am not a food star like most of my colleagues, entertaining my readers through words is important. It takes 6 to 8 hours to write each Post. (Yeah, it does.)
Go Live on Lights on Bright No Brakes.
#%&@%#
The Good News: Maintaining a food blog requires technical skills, social media expertise and staying current.
The Bad News: Maintaining a food blog requires technical skills, social media expertise and staying current.
Every time I put up a new Post, it’s a challenge. My tech expert, Zoe Zuker, who redesigned my site, has tried to make every posting step a simple task. However, her simple is not my simple. She was born knowing these things. I was not. Patience is a virtue and she has big-time patience. When Go Daddy shut down my site two weeks ago – they still have not explained themselves – it was Zoe who spent 7 hours correcting that debacle. Every time I successfully link a new Post to my social media homes – Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, it’s a miracle moment.
You’ve just caught a glimpse of my food blogging life. Knowing you dear readers as I do, I suspect your reaction to this Post is WHY? Why do I do this? I will answer that question on my French Fridays with Dorie Post this week. Incidentally, the Pumpkin & Raisin Tea Loaf was tagged delicious by my tasting crew. Interested in low-fat but tasty? Find the recipe here.
French Fridays with Dorie, an international cooking group making its way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table, has been in business since October 2010. While this week’s 4th Year Anniversary is cause for jubilation and a tip of the toque to all my colleagues, I must extend the deepest sympathy to my cookbook.
My well-worn and weary cookbook, Around My French Table.
As you can see by this forlorn picture, it’s been a rough ride. I pre-ordered my book from Amazon in 2010 and it’s been my constant sidekick since first arriving at my doorstep. Sometime between the Duck Breast with Fresh Peaches (August 9, 2013) and Tuna-packed Piquillo Peppers (Sept. 20, 2013), the spine separated from its cover. My Compote de Pommes (Nov. 8, 2013) and Sugar-crusted French Toast ( Nov. 29, 2013) pages are totally ripped out and crammed back in place. And, not to seem ungrateful, but Melissa spilled rice vinegar on several pages while making Crunchy Ginger-pickled Cucumbers ( July 6, 2012) when she stepped in to help after Michael died.
Cake Salé, Savory Cheese and Chive Bread, is my French Fridays recipe choice this week.
My book moved from Nevada to Colorado and has been on all my car trips of the past 4 years. Ironically, my odometer just rolled over the 100,000 mile marker this week. I plead guilty to the occasional chocolate stain, greasy spatter and water mark. And, I keep a treasured Christmas note from Dorie between pages 386-7. Love her chocolate eclairs. What I now understand is every recipe I’ve made has cooked up a memory journal which has turned worn and battered into a treasure.
To celebrate Year Four, this week my FFWD recipe choice is Savory Cheese and Chive Bread which the others already baked in March 2011. I missed making this savory loaf of yum. To the French it’s a Cake Salé (salé means salty or savory). “I know this looks like a good old American quick bread,” Dorie explains, “but it’s got a French soul.”
This loaf baked at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. During the last 15 minutes I sprinkled more grated cheese over the top.
Although I’ve included the recipe below, a successful Cake Salé lends itself to imagination and leftovers. Use whatever combination of hard cheeses you have on hand. Choose fresh herbs over dried. As for add-ins, plug into your creative gene. Mix in diced ham, crispy bacon bits, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, minced shallots, small pieces of cooked vegetables or jalapeño bits, for example.
My favorite way to serve this bread is lightly toasted and buttered.
This bread can be served slightly warm or when cooled completely. The French offer it with aperitifs. Cut your loaf into 8, half-inch thick slices, cutting in half again. For me, a dab of chutney is a delicious touch. It’s also perfect for brunch and really tasty with salads. Since this is not a moist bread, after a day or two it’s best when lightly toasted and buttered. Use your end crusts as croutons. Another idea? Muffins. Bake in individual paper Lotus Cups and serve with winter soups and chili.
Must Bake This. You’ll impress your family and friends. Promise.
1/2–1 teaspoon salt (depending on what cheese and add-ins you’re using)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup whole milk, room temperature
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 generous cup (about 4 ounces) coarsely grated Gruyère, Comté, Emmenthal, or cheddar
2 ounces (1/2–2/ 3 cup) Gruyère, Comté, Emmenthal, or cheddar, cut into very small cubes
1/2 cup minced fresh chives or other herbs (or thinly sliced scallions)
1/3 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
Instructions
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter an 8-x-4½-x-2¾-inch loaf pan — a Pyrex pan is perfect here. If your pan is slightly larger, go ahead and use it, but your loaf will be lower and you’ll have to check it for doneness a little earlier.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, white pepper and cayenne together in a large bowl. Put the eggs in a medium bowl and whisk for about 1 minute, until they’re foamy and blended. Whisk in the milk and olive oil. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and, using a sturdy rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, gently mix until the dough comes together. There’s no need to be energetic — in fact, beating the dough toughens it — nor do you need to be very thorough: just stir until all the dry ingredients are moistened.
3. Stir in the cheese, grated and cubed, the herbs, and the walnuts. You’ll have a thick dough. Turn the dough into the buttered pan and even the top with the back of the spatula or spoon.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the bread is golden and a slender knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and wait for about 3 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the pan and turn the loaf over onto the rack; invert and cool right side up.
5. Well wrapped, the loaf will keep for about 2 days at room temperature or for up to 2 months in the freezer (thaw in the wrapper).
Fish-Free Salad Niçoise, a recipe in River Cottage Veg, written by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
This week we celebrated the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere. Folks, it’s fall. I’ve never picked a favorite season. Love them all…….Retreat (winter), Rebirth (spring), Relax (summer) and Regroup (fall). Autumn, to me, is about lists, to-dos, projects, planning and catch-ups. Simply put, it’s getting your ducks-in-a-row.
Today I’m posting three ya-gotta-try recipes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg cookbook. I’m a bit tardy because my Cottage Cooking Club colleagues chose these recipes for August and September. Missed the August deadline but in under the wire for September. Here’s a bonanza, a trifecta of delicious menu suggestions. Since these recipes are already published on the Internet, I can share them with you.
Duck eggs are larger than those laid by chickens. Their shells are various pastel colors.
I’m a fan. Just love Salad Niçoise. That’s why this salad, Fish-Free Salad Niçoise, works. No matter what’s on the menu, you can still enjoy its flavor but without the tuna and anchovies. What might be blasphemy to the French is still darn spectacular and was the perfect foil to roasted shrimp. Last week I traded Sunday supper for technical assistance from my computer guru, Zoe Zuker. One might say, shrimp, this salad, crusty herb-buttered bread and a bottle of Peachy Canyon’s Zinfandel solved all my technical glitches.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I will now admit to using duck eggs in this salad. Since discovering the gorgeous eggs at our farmers market this summer, I’ve become a fan. No, no, no, these beauties are not from your run-of-the-mill Mallards but rather from domesticated Pekin and Welsh Harlequin Ducks. I didn’t know if Zoe would be squeamish about this so I didn’t dish about the ducks. Since my computer is now humming along, I am baring my soul.
Hard-boiled Duck Eggs
Fish-Free Salad Niçoise
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 pound new potatoes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
7 ounces green beans, cut into roughly 1-inch lengths
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 or 3 Little Gem or similar lettuces
A handful of small Niçoise olives (Cailletier)
About 12 large basil leaves, torn (or use small ones whole)
Dressing:
1/2 small garlic clove, crushed with a little coarse sea salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
A pinch of sugar Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. You can cook small new potatoes whole, but cut larger ones in half or smaller so the pieces are all roughly the same size. Put the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with cold water, add salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 8 to 12 minutes until tender, adding the beans for the last 4 minutes of cooking. Drain, tip into a bowl, and leave to cool.
2. To cook the eggs, bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Add the eggs, return to a simmer, then cook for 7 minutes. Remove the eggs from the pan, lightly crack the shells, and run the eggs under cold water for a minute or two to stop the cooking. Leave to cool, then peel and quarter the eggs.
3.To make the dressing, put the garlic, oil, vinegar, mustard, and sugar into a screw-top jar, season with salt and pepper, and shake until emulsified.
4. Halve, quarter, or thickly slice the cooked potatoes. Put them back with the beans, add some of the dressing, and toss together gently.
5. Separate the lettuce leaves and gently toss in a bowl with a little of the dressing. Arrange the lettuce, potatoes, and beans on a serving platter and distribute the olives and eggs over the salad. Scatter with the torn basil, trickle over the remaining dressing, and grind over some pepper. Serve.
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Pasta with Fennel, Arugula and Lemon
If you delight in the faint flavoring of licorice, you’ll love Hugh’s unique Pasta with Fennel, Arugula and Lemon. Quickly thrown together, it’s easily made and even more easily enjoyed.
This ribboned pasta was glorious. Buy the best-quality pasta you can find.
Mix together the sliced fennel and sliced garlic and sauté for ten minutes.
Pasta with Fennel, Arugula and Lemon
Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 large fennel bulb
1 tablespoon canola or olive oil
1 garlic clove, slivered
5 ounces pappardelle, or other pasta
2 or 3 good handfuls of arugula
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons crème fraîche
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan, hard goat cheese, or other well-flavored hard cheese.
1. Put a large saucepan of well-salted water on to boil so that you’re ready to cook the pasta while the sauce is coming together.
2. Trim the fennel, removing the tougher outer layer or two, then slice thinly. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and fennel and sauté gently for about 10 minutes, until the fennel is tender.When the fennel is almost cooked, add the pasta to the pan of boiling water and cook until al dente.
Add the arugula to the fennel and stir until wilted, then add the lemon zest and crème fraîche. Stir well until the crème fraîche coats all the vegetables, then add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Drain the pasta well, toss with the fennel mixture, and serve right away, with grated cheese.
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White Beans with Artichokes
What is best about my last recipe, White Beans with Artichokes, is that I always have these ingredients on hand. This could be lunch, a side for dinner, a filling and nutritious snack or a tasty addition to a buffet table or potluck gathering. Link to the recipe here.
Mise En Place – Here’s what you need for this recipe.
Heating the garlic, artichokes and, eventually, the beans.
The Country Cottage Club is am international group which is cooking it’s way through Hugh Fearnlet-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg cookbook. To see more of Hugh’s recipes, link to his Pinterest page here. If you are interested in joining our adventure, go here.
Pear and Almond Cream Tart, my French Fridays recipe choice this week.
In early June, while shopping at our local Farmers Market, I spotted my friend, Judy Wrigley, walking towards me. Following the Hi’s, How are yous, she got down to business. “Mary,” she asked, “can you help me bake a paté sucrée? Show me how to do it right?”
Just to be clear, Judy is no slouch in the kitchen. Last December, at a holiday dinner party I attended, she served a Bûche de Noël with Marzipan Mushrooms as a finale to her spectacular homemade meal. However, being of sweet tooth rather than sound mind, I agreed. Whether a caveat or just hedging my bets, I suggested it be a collaboration. We decided to wait until Fall and cooler weather for our pastry project.
As a reminder, a Paté Sucrée Tutorial: “Leave it to the French to create a pastry dough specifically for tarts,” explains Renee Schettler Rossi, editor of Leite’sCulinaria. “Although it isn’t nearly as ridiculous as it may sound when you consider that pastry for a tart must be sufficiently sturdy to support itself—and whatever luscious filling you’ve decided to heap upon it—after the tin has been removed. It took quite a lot of egg yolks and sugar to create a solution, but the result, known as pâté sucrée, was worth it. It’s more tender and chewy than flaky and crispy,”
It’s all about the sweet pastry dough which is easily made in a food processor.
First on the schedule, Judy makes paté sucrée.
Pastry Overload. We made and refrigerated six sweet pastry dough disks
Remembering I had missed the French Fridays week when my colleagues made a Poached Pear and Almond Tart, this would be a perfect make-up opportunity. Judy’s request became reality last Wednesday at 9am when I drove over to her house in Mountain Valley. Earlier in the week we worked out our schedule, timing, necessary ingredients and equipment list.
Because paté sucrée needs to be refrigerated at least 1 or 2 hours, the day before I made three different versions of the sweet pastry dough using recipes from Dorie, Leite’s Culinaria and Bon Appetit. (You can link to each recipe.) I also mixed together Dorie’s knock-em-dead Almond Pastry Cream. (If all else failed, we could take 2 spoons and just devour Dorie’s divine bowl of cream.)
Judy wanted to make a strawberry tart with mascarpone pastry cream. Shortly after I arrived she put together her pastry dough and stuck it in the freezer. Together we had six paté sucrée disks (and, enough pans) for our play day. For fillings we wanted to try almond and mascarpone pastry creams, lemon curd and various jams, all topped with fresh fruit.
After filling the unbaked tart shell with almond cream, I placed sliced canned pears on top.
Carefully.
Strawberry-topped Tart with cooked Mascarpone Cream
We were most satisfied with our beautiful and delicious Pear and Almond Tart. While freshly poached pears are more desirable for this tart, Dorie admits French cooks often use canned.pear halves. Although I tried all three pastry recipes, what worked best for me, the most manageable, was Leite’s Culinaria. Judy preferred the Bon Appetit recipe. Most of my colleagues swear by Dorie’s sweet tart pastry.
So many pans. So much dough.
Some tips from our baking day:
1) Be organized and prepared for disappointments or disasters. We practiced rolling out the dough, over and over, tossing two attempts.
2) For the pear tart, use canned pears. Dorie’s correct, there is little
difference.
3) I would not cook the mascarpone pastry cream as we chose to do. Just fill a pre-baked tart with Dorie’s no-fail Cream Cheese Pastry Cream (or, your favorite mascarpone pastry cream) and top with any fresh fruit.
Dorie’s Cream Cheese Pastry Cream
For the filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
⅓ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup cold heavy cream
Put the room temperature cream cheese in a large bowl and sift the powdered sugar over it. With a sturdy rubber spatula or sturdy whisk, stir everything together. Add the vanilla and continue to stir. In a separate large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream until it holds firm peaks. Stir about a quarter of the whipped cream into the cream cheese ( You don’t have to be toooo gentle. This is more about getting the textures of the cream cheese and whipped cream similar to each other.) Gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream in 2 or 3 additions (This time, be ginger, as not to deflate the whipped cream.)
Our favorite. The star of the show.
Although every week I cook virtually with my French Fridays colleagues, this was tartful reality and a successful learning adventure. Why not take your cooking show on the road, sharing your skills, friendship and flour.
The question is….. should I kick off this post with The End? Or, do I stir things up and toss the lentilles du Puy in the pot. Better yet, chicken joke, anyone?
Q:What did the bad chicken lay? A:A deviled egg
C’mon, follow me, let’s see where my words need to wander?
French Lentils, this week’s French Friday’s recipe choice. Dorie finally spills the beans on her delish adaptions.
I’m hooked on a Barbara Kingsolver quote from Animal Dreams: “The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.”
For two years, since Michael died, my hope has been to find that roof of contentment and mindfulness and hang out under it. I needed to enjoy being Me again, making every day an adventure. Thankfully, I’d already built a structure, a framework for my future. I only questioned if I could close the sale.
Celebrating Summer’s End at Betsy’s Last Night for Whites pre-Labor Day dinner party. Carl Schiller Photo
Joyfully, it’s been a wildly successful summer for me. The same cannot be said for our World. I’ve consciously decided this blog will not deal with the world’s injustices. Those problems cannot be solved here. I’ll continue to tell stories, make you laugh (admit it, my posts are smilers). I’ll try to inspire you with ideas, suggestions and hopes. Then, there’s the food. Almost 200 posts later, is my cooking improving?
Chicken, Peppers, Onions and Peas are tossed together in a spicy curry seasoning. Note the yellow coloring of the sliced chicken pieces. To my thinking, the spicier, the tastier.
Let’s first talk about Curried Chicken, Peppers, and Peas en Papillote. (Here’s the recipe.) Whether a newbie or pro, this is dinner party fare. En Papillote means in paper. That’s how you cook this spicy chicken and veggie medley, in a pouch of foil or parchment. This takes 10 minutes to assemble and 20 minutes to bake before being whisked to the table for its Voila! moment. Each guest opens his own poultry pouch. I suggest you crank up the spice by doubling the curry powder or adding Aleppo Pepper or Cayenne.
Four poultry pouches, ready for the oven.
Freed from its pouch of foil, this curried chicken with peppers, sliced onions and peas looks good enough to eat.
I served French Lentils, this week’s recipe choice, with the curried chicken. All lentils are not born alike. Brown lentils are soft, turn mushy and best for soups. Use the more colorful lentils in purees and Indian cooking. For this recipe you want dark green lentilles du Puy.
Be sure to buy the beautiful and special lentilles du Puy
These babies remain firm when cooked, are nutty in flavor, taste delicious as a side dish (serve warm) or salad (room temperature). Your local grocery store probably carries them. Don’t settle for less. Here’s the recipe. If serving lentils hot from the pot, drizzle olive, hazelnut or walnut oil and a splash of lemon juice on top. Or, if you have a favorite vinaigrette, use that instead. Always dress lentils while hot so they can absorb the seasoning.
Our end-of-summer hike last week-end to Lake Hope, an alpine lake in the San Juan Mountain Range near Telluride. Tag Liebel Photo
Last year an exasperated friend suggested to me that Life cannot be perfect. Although he’s right, of course, there’s nothing in my DNA that allows that thinking. This summer I finally managed to complete My Version of Perfect. (Long may it last!). I believe anyone can flourish in the landscape where they’re planted just by dovetailing their passions into the Life they’ve been dealt. That combo makes magic.
One of our majestic resident moose at the just-as-majestic Maroon Bells. USFS Photo
Although every day has been memorable, with adventures I’ve often shared in this blog, here are two more moments:
Most Bizarre Memory – When I’m not doing a Ranger patrol, I often hike up Smuggler Mountain, a short, in-town “bit of a huff” and good exercise. One morning I was hiking down, closely followed by a fifties-something couple. During those 30-minutes, oblivious to my presence, they had a serious (and, loud) conversation, discussing where to buy Weed (Pot) locally, the various choices available, price comparisons and preferences of friends. (I knew those friends.) Not good hiking form, that’s for sure, but very entertaining.
2) Funny & Heartwarming Memories – On a recent Saturday, I rangered the Crater Lake Trail at Maroon Bells. During my patrol I encountered 451 hikers (we carry counters), answering many questions. These were two:
“Ranger, hey, do you carry Nitroglycerin?” a hiker yells, as he approaches me.
Be still my heart.
Further up the mountain, I spot his friend, slumped on a rock, holding his head in his hands. I’m now thinking that even if that guy doesn’t have a heart attack, I might! In the end, after TLC and water, the hiker survived without needing the Nitroglycerin tablet that I did not have.
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Later, as I was hiking down from Crater Lake, I spotted two boys, with their Dad, hiking toward me. The first young man, about 10, totally stopped in the middle of the trail. I couldn’t pass him.
“You ever hike those?” he asked seriously, pointing with his thumb to the mountains behind me.
“What?” I asked.
“The Bells,” he replied.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. (Egads, the peaks of the Bells are over 14,000’.)
He thought about this for a few seconds. “Too dangerous, huh?”
I nodded in agreement. Too dangerous. He hiked on, followed closely by his brother. As his Dad walked by, I muttered, “Your son has made my day, just by thinking I could.”
