Jess Potatoes

I have made and eaten potatoes in almost every conceivable form.  Mashed, baked, boiled, riced, gnocchi, pancakes, gratineed, escalloped etc.  So you can imagine my delight when I was first presented with this incredibly easy and tasty way to prepare potatoes.

I first had these potatoes at the home of a friend named Jess.  Her family owns a large organic strawberry and vegetable farm in central North Carolina and I like to imagine this recipe comes from her mom, preparing a large pan of these for everyone after a long day of work on the farm.  They are a cross between crispy hash browns and a baked potato and are incredibly delicious.


I love how gorgeous these potatoes look on a plate.  They make you just want to dive in.  That's why we call them Jess Potatoes (because it sounds like "just potatoes" until the time you see your plate).

Q:  "What's for dinner?"

A: "Jess potatoes, beef and some spinach"

Translation:  Blue cheese-stuffed steak with creamed spinach and Jess Potatoes

Jess Potatoes
serves 4

4 medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled and washed
1/4 cup olive oil
4 Tbsp butter
sea salt, pepper and garlic powder

Pre heat oven to 375 F.

Cut potatoes in half.  With a large knife score deeply into the potato to make a grid pattern (do not cut completely through.

Line a jelly roll pan with aluminum foil and coat with olive oil.  Place potatoes face down in the oil, then turn over and season with sea salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Turn potatoes face down again.  place pats of butter around potatoes.

Bake 45 minutes until cut face of potatoes are golden brown.  Let rest 10 minutes before carefully removing potatoes from baking sheet.

Sea Salt Caramel Bread Pudding with Chocolate Chips

So last weekend we had the "fun" task of trying to use up a lot of our leftovers from the holidays.  Not that these things had been sitting around decaying and getting nasty, but my freezer space was filling up and it was time to "use or lose" a few things.  We made a delicious Jambalaya with Portuguese linguica sausage and the last container of Turkey Gumbo from Thanksgiving, and I used the frozen leftover sourdough bread and croissants from Christmas to make this really tasty bread pudding.

The original recipe came from a Williams Sonoma catalog a couple years ago.  This dessert is perfect for January, rich and sticky but not cloyingly sweet.  It is actually a fairly elegant bread pudding and is the perfect foil for a scoop of ice cream.  I particularly like to serve this with a good coffee ice cream because I love the combination of coffee and caramel.

This is a messy recipe.  It uses a lot of bowls and pots and pans, but is really worth the effort.  It is also a very exciting (if not terrifying) recipe to make.  When the hot milk is added to the molten caramel, the resulting release of steam is a lot like when a river of lava meets the ocean!  If you use proper caution and work methodically, this can be done without injury!  Make sure to cook the caramel to a very deep amber or the caramel flavor will not be detectable.

Amazingly this recipe has no booze in it!  It certainly tastes like it is loaded with good bourbon or rum, but there is none in the cooking.  I however would not be averse to pouring a little Kahlua or Baileys over this to make a perfect companion sauce.  I usually like to serve this with a good coffee ice cream because I love the combination of coffee and caramel.  If you want to make your own coffee ice cream, here is my recipe: coffee ice cream.

Sea Salt Caramel Bread Pudding with Chocolate Chips
serves 8

4- 5 cups leftover stale bread (challah, croissant, pannetone, sourdough etc) cut into 1/2 -inch cubes
1 2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp corn syrup
1/4 tsp sea salt
4 cups whole milk
8 Tbsp butter (1 stick)
5 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Place Bread cubes on a baking sheet and dry in 350 F oven for 30 minutes, tossing occasionally.  Remove from oven and cool.

 In a large glass bowl combine milk and butter and microwave on high until milk is hot and butter is melted. 

In a large heavy pot (a dutch oven is perfect), combine sugar, water and corn syrup and salt.  Place over high heat and stir just to combine.  Bring to a boil and continue to cook over high heat until sugar has caramelized and is a deep amber color.  Remove from heat.

VERY CAREFULLY add the hot milk mixture to the caramel, a little at a time.  This will VIOLENTLY  bubble and froth!  Stir continuously, adding milk a little at a time until all the milk has been added an the mixture has stopped violently boiling.  The milk solids will curdle slightly, but don't worry this is normal.  Let cool for 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and vanilla until well mixed.  Add caramel mixture to eggs, a little at a time, whisking constantly to prevent cooking the eggs, until all the caramel and eggs have been combined.  Add the dried bread cubes and toss to coat.  Allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Transfer  1/3 of the bread pudding to a well-buttered 3 quart baking dish and sprinkle with 1/2 of the chocolate chips.  Add another third of the pudding on top and sprinkle with remaining chocolate.  Cover with remaining bread mixture.

Transfer baking dish to a large baking pan with high sides and pour hot water around baking dish until it reaches half-way up the sides.  Bake, uncovered at 350F for one hour or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.   Serve hot or warm with fresh fruit, or ice cream (I love coffee ice cream with this).

Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup

Happy New Year!  We had a wonderful holiday here, lots of friends, family, food and fun!  I received a lot of really amazing food gifts for Christmas including fig balsamic vinegar, porcini olive oil, artisinal chocolates,a grown your own oyster mushroom kit, spice infused sea salt and beautiful handmade Portuguese chorizo and linguica sausage from Chave's market in Fall River, Massachusetts.

When we moved Emma to Fall River in the fall, I took some time to peak in Chave's, the local Portuguese market around the corner from Emma's apartment.  What an amazing store!  An incredible selection of fresh and frozen seafood, an entire aisle dedicated to Port, and a meat counter that made me weak in the knees.  All the aisle signs are in both English and Portuguese.  I begged Emma to bring me either some of their hand-made chourico or linguica, and for Christmas Emma surprised me with both!

So today I decided to make something with the chorizo.  Since Fall River is the hometown of chef Emeril Lagasse, I decided to make his Kale and Andouille soup.  In the prologue to this recipe, Emeril waxes poetically over the portuguese chorizo from Fall River and how this soup was his favorite childhood food.

Beautiful local organic kale and Chave's Portuguese chourico from Fall River, Massachusetts!

I have made a few minor modifications, but here it is, the ultimate January food.  Simple and earthy and rustic.  The chorizo makes a beautifully red-hued broth which looks incredible with the deep green kale and, and chunks of pale potato.  We sopped this delicious soup up with bug chunks of crusty sourdough bread for a satisfying winter meal.

My Portuguese friend Maria, who lives in Asheville, NC tells me that she orders excellent Portuguese chourico from Gaspar's, a Portuguese online market in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, just up the road from Fall River!  Thanks Maria!

OMG look at this AMAZING chorizo!

Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup
serves 8

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 lbs portuguese chorizo, skin removed and cut in 1/2 inch slices (or andouille)
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
2 large potatoes, scrubbed, unpeeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
12 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade)
3 large bunches kale, rinsed, stemmed and leaves hand-torn into pieces
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh-cracked black pepper
6 Tbsp chopped fresh mint.

In a large pot, heat olive oil over high heat.  Add chorizo and onions and saute for 5 minutes until onions are tender and chorizo sweats.  Add garlic, parsley and potatoes and toss with onion mixture.  Cook for 3 minutes, tossing occasionaly.

Add stock, bay leaves, thyme, red pepper flakes, black pepper and salt.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Add kale and stir into hot broth to wilt kale.  Return to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low, cover pot and simmer until potatoes are extremely tender and falling apart, about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Serve hot, garnished with minced mint in large soup bowls with chunks of crusty bread.

Chocolate Ganache Tart with Raspberries

                                                                                         Photography by Rachel Horesovsky

This year at Christmas I didn't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen slaving over a complicated dessert, but I still wanted something special for the holidays.  This tart is the answer to the dilemma.  It is very simple to prepare, it must be made in advance (so there is zero last minute preparation) and it is incredibly dramatic in both presentation and in flavor.

This can be made with any kind of fruit you desire.  I have made this with strawberries, cherries, kiwi and blackberries, and of course raspberries.  Its perfect for a large gathering of people or for a small intimate gathering.  

Chocolate Ganache Tart with Raspberries

serves 8

Crust:

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp sugar

7 Tbsp ice cold butter, cut into small cubes

4 Tbsp ice water

Combine flour salt and sugar and mix well in the bowl of a food processor.  Add cold butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add ice water and pulse until the mixture just barely comes together.  STOP.  Over processing will make a tough inedible crust!

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate one hour.  Do not skip this step.  Refrigerating the dough helps relax the gluten in the dough and results in a tender pastry.

Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until 1/8-inch thick .  Press dough into a tart pan with a removable bottom, trimming overhanging dough scraps.  Pierce dough with a fork.  Return the tart pan with dough to the refrigerator for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 375F.

Fill the chilled tart crust with pie weights or dried beans.  Bake 30 minutes until lightly golden.  Remove from oven and cool completely before removing pie weights.

Ganache
1 cup heavy cream
12 oz. 60% cacao chocolate, chopped (or 60% cacao chocolate chips)
2 Tbsp orange liqueur

In a small saucepan bring the cream just to a boil over high heat.  Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until smooth and glossy.  Stir in orange liqueur.

Assembly
fruit preserve (raspberry, apricot, cherry, apple... your choice)

While ganache is hot, pour into prepared tart crust.  Allow to rest at room temperature for several hours until ganache begins to set.  Place fruit on top of ganache, then refrigerate Tart for several hours until completely set.  Glaze fruit with hot fruit preserves (heated in microwave for 20 seconds or until liquid).

Spitzbuben (German Jam Cookies)

This is my favorite childhood cookie.  Spiztbuben translates to "little rascals".  My mom always had to make a triple batch of these cookies so that my brother and I wouldn't be fighting over them.  Yeah, they're THAT good.

My mom would start baking the day after Thanksgiving, and would make 12- 15 different kinds of cookies every year, and usually a double or triple batch of each.  This resulted in us having quite literally thousands of cookies in the house.  We had spitzbuben, and buttery hazelnut crescents dipped in chocolate, coffee-flavored hazel nut meringues perched atop thin buttery sables, lebkuchen, almond paste crescents and peanut butter kisses. The variety was seemingly endless.  Not that we ate them all ourselves, my mom would give them out as gifts every year, and they were always very welcomed.  My mother was an exceptional baker and I miss her dearly, especially at Christmas.

In fact this recipe is my mother's recipe. She would give me "the thrashing of my life" if she knew I was posting it on the internet, since her recipes were family secrets she never shared.  But times have changed, and so here we are.  I think life is always made richer by sharing.

My mom is the one who taught me that vegetable shortening is evil, especially in cookies.  There were always at least 3 pounds of butter in the refrigerator at my mom's house around the holidays.  I try to keep that practice alive, and I've got the waistline to prove it!  Na Zdravi!

We always used homemade raspberry jam in these cookies at home because we had a raspberry farm for several years, and hence we always had a freezer full of homemade raspberry jam.  I am posting a simple recipe for making your own raspberry jam using frozen berries and port wine.  I also like to make these with apricot amaretto jam.

Traditionally these cookies are cut with a fluted flower shaped cookie cutter and dusted with powdered sugar.  I sometimes  like to only dust half the cookie with powdered sugar.  I think it makes a more elegant presentation.  But follow your own aesthetic sensibilities...make these your own.  Who knows, maybe some day your son or daughter will wax nostalgically on the internet fondly remembering your cookies!

One last note, these cookies are best if left to "ripen" in a sealed container at room temperature for at least one week.  They become soft and cakey and the flavors begin to blend... if you can keep away from them for that long!

Spitzbuben (German Jam Cookies)
makes 4 dozen sandwich cookies

1 cup slivered almonds
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
3 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp grated fresh lemon peel

raspberry preserves (recipe follows)
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Place almonds in a shallow pie pan and toast for 20 minutes until light brown.  Turn off oven and cool almonds completely, then grind until very fine.

Im a large bowl combine flour and baking powder and salt, whisk to combine.  In the bowl of a mixer combine butter and cream cheese and sugar.  Cream until very light and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.  Add egg and cream until well incorporated.  Add ground almonds, lemon peel and dry ingredients.  Mix on low speed until just combined.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

cut dough into 4 pieces.  Roll each piece out on a lightly floured surface until 1/8 inch thick.  Cut cookies with cookie cutter, punching a large hole in the center of half of them (I find a large decorating tip works well for this).  Transfer cookies to a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes until cookies are just slightly browned.  Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.

Spread a solid bottom cookie with raspberry preserves, then place a perforated cookie on top.  Dust with powdered sugar.

Raspberry Port Preserves
1 1/2 lbs frozen raspberries.
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup port wine (or water)

In a heavy medium saucepan combine sugar and port (or water) and bring to a boil.  Add raspberries in three batches and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat.  Pour berries into a fine metal sieve placed atop a large bowl.  With a large spoon press the berries through the sieve, collecting the pulp and juice in the underlying bowl.  Continue until only seeds and a little pulp remains.  Discard seeds.

Transfer berry juice and pulp back to saucepan and heat to a boil over medium high heat.  Continue to cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly until reduced to about 1 1/2 ups and mixture is very thick and jam-like.  Transfer to a plastic storage tub, seal and cool to room temperature.

Molasses Crinkles

It's December and yesterday I began my Christmas baking.  At our house it wouldn't be Christmas without these molasses crinkles.  They seem to be one of everyone's favorites.  Chewy, buttery, crispy, spicy molasses cookies with crunchy sugar. I love these cookies with a glass of good bourbon on the rocks, or with a cold glass of egg nog, and of course they are amazing with a tumbler of ice cold milk.  This cookie is the taste of childhood.

Most recipes for molasses crinkles I have read call for shortening.  Why?  Why why why?  Shortening has no flavor, why on earth would one use a flavorless glop of fat in a cookie?  Stop the madness I say!  I use butter.  In fact I have found that the better the quality of the butter, the better these cookies are (Plugra is exceptional).  I am starting a revolution against the use of shortening.  You wouldn't spread shortening on your toast, why use it in your baking?  Just trust me on this.  There isn't anything in the world you can make with shortening that isn't a million times better when made with butter.

I also much prefer using a coarse granulated white sugar on top of these cookies.  They can be made with ordinary table sugar, but coarse sugar makes the cookies sparkle and the crunch is pure magic in your mouth.  Coarse white sugar can be difficult to find, but Wilton makes a good product (they call it white sparkling sugar) that can be found at most craft stores in the cake decorating aisle.  For me it is worth the torture of going to the craft store, enduring the visual assault of horrific glittery blue poinsetta wreaths (really? blue silk poinsettas with glitter? REALLY?) just to get this sugar.  You should make the same sacrifice because it makes a huge difference in these cookies (and that glass of bourbon will help calm your nerves afterwards).

Yes, it IS worth going to the dreaded craft store, just to get this sugar.

One more word.  I store these cookies in an airtight container, separated by layers of wax paper, with a single slice of bread.  I really don't know why, but the slice of bread keeps the cookies tender and soft.  Leave the bread out and the cookies become hard.  Christmas magic!

Molasses Crinkles
(makes about 7 dozen small cookies)

1 1/2 cups best quality butter, softened at room temperature
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs, room temperature
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I prefer White Lilly)
4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
coarse granulated white sugar (about one cup)
1/4 cup water
1 slice bread

Butter and eggs MUST be at room temperature.

In the bowl of a mixer combine room temperature butter and brown sugar.  Cream better and sugar until light and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl occasionally (about 5 minutes).  Add molasses and cream for an additional minute.  Add room temerature eggs and cream for 3 more minutes until very light.

In a separate large bowl combine all dry ingredients except coarse granulated sugar, and whisk until well-combined.  Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix on low speed until. all dry ingredients are just incorporated.  Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Roll cookie dough into 1-inch balls, dip in water and then coarse granulated sugar.  Place on a greased baking sheet, sugar side up.  Bake 9-11 minutes until cookies are puffed and slightly cracked on top.  Remove from oven and let cookies "deflate" for 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

 Cookie balls covered in coarse sugar before baking...

 ...and after!

Cool cookies completely before transferring them to an airtight storage container, separated with layers of waxed paper.  Place a slice of bread on top and seal.

Roast Brussels Sprouts with Red Grapes and Walnuts

                                                                                     Photographs by Rachel Horesovsky

I saw this dish on the cover of a Martha Stewart publication at a hotel we stayed at a few weeks ago when we were moving Emma to Massachusetts.  I didn't read the recipe, but somehow the image from the cover of the magazine was permanently seared into my memory and I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks .

This is probably because I LOVE Brussels sprouts.  When I was a kid, my mother would boil them until they were mush and I hated them more than anything on earth.  But in college I had a properly cooked sprout, and it was an epiphany.  These little cabbages weren't mushy and bitter like the ones from my childhood.  No, if cooked properly, they were nutty and sweet and earthy and crunchy and buttery.  Mmmmmmmmm.  I was hooked.

Since then I have loved Brussels sprouts.  The trick is to not overcook them.  Doug and I have been making a balsamic roasted brussels sprout dish for thanksgiving for a few years now, and I decided to add some red grapes and walnuts to the mix (thanks for the inspiration Martha!).  These were great!  The red grapes enhanced the sweetness, but were still tangy, the walnuts gave just the right crunch.  Next year I may even throw in a little bacon!


Roast Brussels Sprouts with Red Grapes and Walnuts
(serves 8)

1 lb. brussels sprouts, bottoms trimmed and cut in half.
1 1/2 cup whole red seedless grapes
3/4 cup chopped walnut halves
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl combine brussels sprouts, grapes and walnuts.  In a separate bowl, combine remainng ingredients and whisk together like a salad dressing.  Pour dressing over sprouts mixture, toss to coat, and roast on a parchment lined baking sheet for 30 minutes, tossing occasionally.  Serve hot.