Homemade Tuaca

Oh sweet heaven. I was flipping through a local magazine and found Gilt Club's recipe for homemade tuaca. I figured a few of you would also want the recipe. Ken and I started a bottle of it tonight:

Homemade Tuaca

1 750 ml bottle brandy
2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
Zest of 2 tangerines
Zest of 1 grapefruit
1 3 inch cinnamon stick
1/2 cup simple syrup

Pour the brandy into a clean container and add vanilla beans and zests. Let sit 1 week, then add cinnamon stick and simple syrup. After 1 more week of infusing, strain out all ingredients, reserving the vanilla beans. Drop the beans into a clean bottle, then fill with the brandy. (Note: to make simple syrup, bring equal amounts sugar and water to a boil until sugar dissolves.)



Tuaca Sidecar

2 ounces homemade Tuaca
1 ounce orange liqueur (such as cointreau or grand marnier)
Juice from 1/2 orange
Juice from 1/2 lemon

Pour Tuaca, orange liqueur and juices into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass rimmed with Orange Sugar (recipe below). Makes 1 cocktail.

Orange Sugar

Grated zest of 1 small orange
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 cup sugar

Toss the orange zest with the salt. Spread out in a thin layer on a sheet pan and allow to sit overnight or until dry. Run salt through a food processor or use a wooden spoon to crush and grind salt back to original consistency. Add the orange salt to the sugar and mix well.

Pumpkin Bars

I've made three batches of these in the past week and have taken them all over town. Super easy and really good. Not heavy, really flavorful - from Penzey's Spices

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Icing
1/2 cup butter, soft (1 stick)
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350. Cream the butter. Add the brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin and vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, sift all of the dry ingredients together. Gradually add to the wet mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased 9x13 inch pan and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes (mine took about 25, toothpick will come out clean). Let cool and top with brown butter icing.

(The recipe ices the bars with a brown butter icing, but I was sick of cooking and had cream cheese in the fridge so I went with a cream cheese icing instead. Awesome):

1/2 block of cream cheese (4 oz?, can use more)
2 cups powdered sugar

Mix well and spread over cooled bars. Cut into squares.

Bacon for each year of marriage

We had a lovely anniversary. We got to sit at the bar and were less than three feet from the chef preparing our food. It was dinner and a show. Totally amazing.

For appetizers, we shared:
Truffle gnocchi with sweet corn, leeks and crawfish
Tongue bacon with pickled egg salad

Ken was more excited for the tongue, I was excited for the gnocchi. Both were excellent, but Ken preferred the delicate creaminess of the gnocchi where I ended up loving the sweet-salty-vinegar combo of the tongue bacon and eggs.

For dinner:
Ken got the duck breast that was perfectly cooked and sitting on a bed of pureed (butternut?) squash and topped with wild mushrooms and a brown butter/pancetta vinaigrette that was nutty and bacon-y in flavor. Delicious. Everything paired very well and they had parsley and a squeeze of fresh lemon to lift the wild mushrooms and give everything some life.

I got the monkfish, its first day on the menu. I watched him make it.... two big hunks of monkfish that he seasoned and placed in a very, very hot pan with a touch of oil. Then he put a giant mound of butter in the pan and used a serving spoon to ladle the "foaming hot butter over the cold protein" for 30 seconds to a minute. A lot of continuous work. Braising it in butter for flavor. Excellent. Then he finished it off in the oven and served it over a seared pork belly and roasted cipollini onions. Wow. Both dinners were excellent, perfectly seasoned and executed.

And for drinks:
We ate our dinners with a 1/2 liter of wine. They have an extensive wine list and serve around 10 by the glass, 1/2 liter, full bottle (0.75 liter) or full liter. We had them pick one that paired well with our dinners. I don't know what it was, but it was excellent. Lots of tannin, full-bodied and with legs like a rockette.

Not that we needed more food, but my bacon trilogy was not yet complete. It was time for dessert.
Ken got a Polish porter (a beer) along with the grape cheesecake served with house-made graham crackers, its first day on the menu. Ken loved the beer, the graham crackers were killer but the cheesecake was ok. Flavor was right but the texture was too soft. They said they're going to work on making it more dense. Both chefs asked Ken what he thought of it. You could tell they were still working out the kinks with the dish.

I got their honey, bacon and apricot cornbread served with maple ice cream. It was delicious. Sweet honey and salty bacon. Warm sauce and cold ice cream. Smooth cream and crunchy cornbread. An explosion of contrasts.

And so our anniversary dinner came to an end, but it won as my favorite anniversary dinner (food-wise). Le Pigeon now ranks with Park Kitchen as my favorite restaurant in Portland. Apparently others think so too, because LP was featured in a New York Times article this morning about Portland food and drink (another mentioned was Pok Pok, where we went for thai food when Chuck and Dana came to visit).

Here's the article and an exerpt on the restaurant:
DINING & WINE September 26, 2007
In Portland, a Golden Age of Dining and Drinking
By ERIC ASIMOV
Chefs flock to a city where food is the star, produce is stellar and real estate is cheap.

exerpt on LP:

Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon, a kind of new-wave bistro, learned the basics of making stocks and working the grill during two years at Paley’s after he arrived here from his hometown, Napa, Calif. He passed through a few other kitchens, then last year he was given an opportunity to take over one of his own. He transformed a little storefront restaurant into Le Pigeon, an informal, slightly manic spot with seasonally changing, nonconformist dishes like braised pork belly with creamed corn and butter-poached prawns, sweetbreads with pickled watermelon, and just about anything that can possibly involve tongue. His signature dessert is apricot cornbread with bacon, topped with maple ice cream.

“I used to think of Portland as a stepping stone, but I fell in love with the city,” said Mr. Rucker, who’s all of 26. “Rather than going somewhere with a really established food scene, I felt as a young chef that I could really have a lot of possibilities.” Like many of Portland’s top chefs, he has established firm relationships with the local farmers. “I can call and have loads of chanterelles or huckleberries delivered right to my door,” he said. “When you have people as passionate about growing a watermelon as I am to use it, it’s great.”

They even published the recipe for the cornbread dessert:
Recipe: Cornbread Cake Published: September 26, 2007
Adapted from Gabriel Rucker, Le Pigeon, Portland, Ore.
Time: 1 hour

Butter for greasing pan
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, more for dusting pan
3 slices bacon, diced small
1 1/4 cups cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 cup (about 2 ounces) thinly sliced dried apricots
Maple ice cream (see recipe).

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour an 8-inch-square baking pan; set aside. In a large skillet, fry bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towels; reserve.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Whisk to blend, then mound and make a well in the center. Pour in eggs, buttermilk and milk; stir with a fork until lightly combined.
3. Add honey, molasses, apricots and bacon bits. Mix again until evenly combined. Pour into pan and bake until it has risen and center is firm and dry when a toothpick is inserted, about 35 minutes. Allow to cool, then cut into small squares and serve with a dollop of maple ice cream on top. Yield: One 8-inch square cake (12 servings).

Maple Ice Cream
2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise and scraped
5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten.

1. Fill a large bowl with ice water; set aside. In small saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Add sugar, remove from heat and stir in syrup, vanilla bean and scrapings. Whisk about 1/4 cup cream mixture into egg yolks, then whisk yolks back into remainder of cream. Strain into clean pan.
2. Return pan to medium-low heat and stir until custard is thick enough to coat back of a wooden spoon. Pour into a heatproof bowl and set in ice water until completely cooled. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.
Yield: 2 cups.

Is it naptime yet?

We've been going, going, going for several weeks now. Lots of good stuff -- but even lots of good stuff is exhausting. In the past few weeks:

* Ken's softball tournament in Washington was the 2nd weekend of June. It poured the entire time. I mean POURED. Yuck. I went for a few of his games after I picked up 700 lbs of basalt to build a garden border. I am still in the process of building it.

* Had another Top Chef showdown. A potato battle. I wasn't in it, I just ate. Among the dishes were: scalloped potatoes with a truffle oil (my #1 dish), a red thai curry with udon noodles, a grilled skirt steak with mashed potatoes and chimichurri sauce, 3 kinds of kabobs: a potato chicken, an apricot potato chicken and a red potato/shrimp/mango, and lastly, a sweet potato phyllo dish that was excellent. It was a close competition with just one point separating the two.

* Dodgeball every monday night

* Ken's men's softball league every tuesday night

* Ken's co-ed softball league every sunday night

* Tom and Amy visited from San Francisco for the weekend of June 15/17th

* Last weekend was my 30th birthday; we went camping at Olallie Lake (south of Mt. Hood, about 10 miles north of Mt. Jefferson). We were going to go to Horseshoe Lake, but there was still snow on the ground. Yes, it is June. I made eggs benedict for breakfast on my birthday with mimosas and bloody marys. One of my best camp breakfasts, if I do say so myself. Turns out it's easier to make than one would think. I even cured and smoked my own canadian bacon. That was exciting. In all, we had a great time but camping is always exhausting.

* For said camping trip, I was looking for a breakfast idea that I could make ahead... something like a coffee cake (so I could sleep in a bit and not feel guilty about the hungry early risers). I ended up finding my favorite recipe for coffee cake yet. A nice change from the cinnamon varieties that are everywhere. I made it Thursday night and it was awesome (and demolished) when we cut into it on Saturday:

Cherry Almond Coffee Cake
White Rose Inn, Emporia, KS; Bon Appétit, November
1995; Serves 12

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream

1/2 21-ounce can cherry pie filling (I used some cherry jam with whole cherries)
1/2 cup thinly sliced almonds (about 2 ounces) (didn't add due to friend's allergies)

Streusel topping: 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup flour. Mix together and crumble on top.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 10-inch-diameter springform pan. Beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light. Add eggs, vanilla extract and almond extract and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Mix half of dry ingredients into butter mixture. Mix in sour cream, then remaining dry ingredients. Pour 2/3 of batter (about 2 cups) into prepared pan. Drop pie filling by tablespoons evenly over batter. Drop remaining batter by spoonfuls over pie filling. Using back of spoon, carefully spread batter over filling. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 5 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover with foil and store at room temperature.) Cut around sides of pan. Remove pan.

* We ordered and received new siding for the garage (we have yet to install it; Ken took off the old stuff last night. The old usable stuff will be donated to the Rebuilding Center.)

* We are struggling to hold everything together in our lives. They're putting up the fence between our house and the lot next door this weekend. That means we have to install the siding pronto. We also are building 7 ft high tomato cages since that's how big our tomatoes got last year before they toppled over the measly old 4' cages. Only we've been swamped and have only finished 5 of 15. The tomatoes continue to grow. It will be a photo finish to see if we can get the cages in the ground in time before the plants get too big.

* Karl arrives tonight from Tucson.

* Driving to Seattle tomorrow for the potlatch tournament (ultimate frisbee). We'll be camping on the fields -- along with the 1000 or so other people that will be attending. Taryn organized the team. Chuck and Dana are meeting us all there (although I got a call this morning saying they may not make it because rain cancelled most flights out of NYC. They slept in the airport last night - yuck. The first "guarateed" flight leaves July 1. They were on standby as of this morning and if they didn't get it, they were bailing on their trip. I don't blame them. I haven't heard from them since.... does that mean that they are in the air?).

* June 20th was Ken's mom's birthday. Yesterday was my parents' 37th anniversary. And Taryn's 31st birthday. Tomorrow is my mom's birthday. Congratulations to all.

* Also congratulations to Rob and Jana -- I just heard that they are expecting their second child.


I think that's about it. At least I hope that's it. I can hardly keep track of everything. My only saving grace is that Ken is feeling the same way. It's nice that even though we're stretched so thin, we are still on the same page. That's a great feeling. Hope you're all doing well. Lots of love, Lisa

Cheese Crack

Dearest friends and family,

I weed out the weak recipes and only pass along the ones that make my eyes roll back in my head. This is that recipe. A friend made it last night as an appetizer dip. It was demolished and everyone asked for the recipe. The name of it looks strange and will probably make you not want to make it, but I assure you it is well worth it. The people that will probably love this the most are: Kristen, Kyle, Marsha and Sara (since this would go over amazingly well at any of her sunday dinners).

Please do not hesitate to make this. Kathy served it on a dinner plate -- bottom was smeared with a thin layer of the cream cheese mixture and then topped with the sugary goodness. We're talking sweet, savory and spicy in one awesome bite. If you like that combination (actually, Brian this has you written all over it, too), then this is your recipe.

Like I said before, it was demolished. I would eat this on a bagel. I would eat this on a plane. I would eat this in a train. I would eat it over there. I would eat it in my underwear. I would eat this on a bike. I would feed this to little tikes. It is that good. Drooooool.

xoxo,
Lisa

GOAT CHEESE WITH CHILE MORITA AND PILONCILLO SAUCE

For cheese spread
6 ounces soft mild goat cheese, at room temperature
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature (she used low-fat cream cheese)
1 small garlic clove, minced and mashed to a paste with 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chile morita paste or minced canned chiles chipoltes in adobo sauce (kathy used chipotles)

For sauce
1 tablespoon chile morita paste or minced canned chiles chipoltes in adobo sauce
8 ounces piloncillo (Mexican unrefined sugar); I'm sure you can get by with using brown sugar in a pinch.
1 cup heavy cream (she used fat-free half and half, which also worked well)

Accompaniment:
grilled bread, corn chips or crackers (she served corn chips)

Make cheese spread:
In a bowl with an electric mixer beat together cheeses, garlic paste, and chile morita paste or minced chipolte chiles. Transfer mixture to a small serving bowl and chill, covered, at least 4 hours or overnight.

Make sauce:
In a small saucepan combine chile morita paste or minced chiles chipoltes, piloncillo, and cream and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up sugar, until piloncillo is melted and sauce is smooth, about 20 minutes. Transfer sauce to a small serving bowl and chill, covered, for at least 4 hours or up to overnight. (can thicken it up with a bit of cornstarch if desired, but not necessary).

Spread cheese on grilled bread, corn chips or crackers and lightly drizzle with sauce.

Makes about 2 cups cheese spread and about 1 1/4 cups sauce, serving 10 to 12.

Gourmet
You Asked For It; Liberty Bar, San Antonio TX
April 1996

Help! Calling all cooks

I need a dinner for Friday night. 6 people -- 4 arriving on time, 2 late. So it will be something that can hold over well.

Dinner will be after a 4 hour drive down, so we'll be arriving around 5-6. Something either make ahead or easy to cook once there. Preferably something hearty that will fill us up for the night of drinking and the long day of skiing to follow. No dietary restrictions to speak of, although no shellfish or cashews.

Ideas?

Ken, the cook

We had Sunday dinner for the dodgeball team again. People were coming at 6; I got home from the store at 3 and hadn't started anything yet. I knew I was making Chuck's Pad Thai noodles, which are great, so that left an appetizer and a dessert to make. I asked Ken what he wanted -- cake. I flipped through my recipe/idea binder and saw carrot cake with cream cheese frosting that Linda used to make at Janos. I pulled out the recipe and handed it to Ken.

"Want to make this for me?"
"Um...."
"Please?"
"OK" (insert hesitation but commitment)

Ken is a great cook; he just doesn't do it very often. He gets nervous when he hasn't made the thing before, so carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for a dinner party in 3 hours was that scenario. But he did it and it turned out awesome. Very moist, two tiered cake with an awesome icing. Everybody ate all of theirs and raved about it, which made Ken very happy. The recipe's at home, else I'd post it.

The appetizer was a play on crab dip with ritz crackers. I didn't have any crab but had some calamari left from the squid disaster. So I made a calamari dip which got demolished. I thought it tasted very much like a clam dip:

Calamari Dip
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cup calamari (cleaned squid, cut into 1/2" pieces)
1 block cream cheese
1/2 T Sriracha or other hot sauce.

Cut up onion and garlic and saute in a bit of fat until almost soft. (Fat can be oil/butter/bacon grease, I used 1/2 T of the latter that I keep in the freezer). Add cleaned and drained squid and cook about 2 min, until squid are cooked but not tough. Transfer onion/squid mixture to a food processor and pulse until squid are in small pieces. Add cream cheese and mix well. Put into an oven proof bowl and bake at 375 for 10 min. Serve hot with crackers.

The pad thai also worked out well, although cooking pad thai for 10+ people was too much. Even with a 6 quart saucepan, it was hard to turn the noodles and get the ingredients well mixed. We had to move it to two pans, which just isn't the same to me. I think I'll just make smaller groups next time.

Also made some irish coffees, like my dad does, for fun. They turned out well, but just not the same as his. He is the master at them.

A Week Already? Sheesh

Time flies. Here's what's been going on:

Ken's Health
Ken is feeling better although he's definitely not 100%. He has intermittent pressure and pain which subsides ~90% of the time if he rinses out his sinuses. (Note: the sinus rinse tends to dislodge blood clots. You can hear him moan a sigh of relief when one comes out, which seems to be followed by him showing me what came out of his face. Marriage is awesome.)

Relaxing and Pancetta
This weekend was very low key. We stayed in Friday and Saturday nights and relaxed. I rolled and hung my cured pancetta in the basement to dry on Friday night. I got a rope burn on my finger in the process from trying to get the kitchen twine tight around the rolled meat. Retarded. I am very excited yet concerned that I have raw meat just hanging down there. I know it's fine and they used to do that all the time 'back then', but still.

Hawkins' Dinner and Jana's Dessert
We had Sunday dinner for our dodgeball team again. I like cooking on Sundays. Hawkins always used to do it for us when we were in grad school and it made me so happy to go into the week that way. It was so relaxing. This time I made baked potato soup (with goose stock, but that's another story), grilled cheese sandwiches with carmelized onions, and a salad. But the part that I was most excited for was the Baked Alaska I made for dessert. Jana always told me it was easy but I've never tried to make it. I didn't have enough time to make a big one, so I decided to make individual ones:

Individual Baked Alaskas

Angel Food cake
Ice cream (used vanilla, but can be anything according to jana)
meringue (make 2 batches; egg whites, cream of tartar, sugar)

Cut angel food cake into 1/2 inch slices and lay flat on a cookie sheet covered in foil. Put a scoop of ice cream on top of each piece of cake. Slice remaining cake into 1/8-1/4" thick slivers. Use this cake to cover the ice cream. Push into the ice cream, if necessary. Put in freezer until hard (1 hr+). Cover each with meringue, ~3/4" thick, being careful to cover all the way to the bottom. Put in freezer another hour (or overnight). When ready, bake at 500 degrees for 5 minutes.

I tried on Sunday to use a blowtorch instead, but that was just a mess (took too long, burned the top and didn't cook the meringue to get it crunchy). The 500 degree over is WAAAYY easier and looks/tastes better.

Portland Snow
We got around 2-3 inches, which effectively shut down the town. Busses were all over the roads and work called me on Tuesday to tell me not to come in. I played in the snow with Kinley and took him to the park. He LOVES to sniff the snow like cocaine. It gives him a similar euphoria, too. I find it hilarious. Wednesday brought no new snow, so I biked to/from work yesterday. It was a mess. Things are back to normal today and the snow is just slushy. It should be all cleared up by the weekend. I am giving a talk next week and have a fellowship application due in three weeks, so I'm going to be a bit busy coming up. I don't know if I'm excited or nervous that tomorrow's Friday.

What's for dinner: Spaghetti Carbonara

With all the bacon in the house right now (see posts below), it is understandable that we made bacon and eggs for breakfast yesterday. We had about a piece and 3/4 left over, which Ken crumbled into a bowl and saved in the fridge. (Note: I later found out that he was saving it to, ahem, feed to the dog. Are you kidding me? I spend days making bacon and you're planning on feeding it to the dog? He's just like Rachel's mom who used to grate fresh parmesan on the family dog's food when he got older. Only Kinley is 1. And Ken is a sucker.)

Once his guilt set in that there is no way in fiery hell that I was allowing him to feed my vittles to the dog, I got to decide what I wanted to make for dinner. I had 1/8 of a cup of crumbled bacon. And then I remember Ruth Reichl's version of Spaghetti Carbonara.

RUTH REICHL’S SPAGHETTI CARBONARA
1 pound spaghetti
¼ to ½ pound thickly sliced good-quality bacon
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 large eggs
Freshly ground black pepper
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for the table

Boil a pot of salted water. Throw in the spaghetti. Cut the bacon cross-wise into pieces. Cook in a skillet for two minutes, until the fat begins to render. Add whole cloves of garlic and cook another five minutes, until the edges of the bacon just begin to get crisp. Do not overcook, or it won’t meld with the pasta. Meanwhile, break the eggs into the bowl youwill serve the pasta in, beat them with a fork. Add pepper. Remove the garlic from the bacon pan. If it looks like too much fat to you, discard some, but you’re going to toss the bacon with most of its fat into the pasta. When the pasta is done, drain it and immediately throw it into the beaten eggs. Mix thoroughly. The heat of the spaghetti will cook the eggs and turn them into a sauce. Add the bacon and its fat, add cheese and serve.

So that's the recipe, but I'm lazy and neither of us wanted to eat a lot of fat. So here's my altered version:

Fill pot with salted water and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, throw 6 unpeeled garlic cloves in the toaster oven at 350 and start chopping an onion. Melt a little bit of fat in a pan (used leftover bacon grease but butter or oil would also work). Add the chopped onion and saute until soft. Add pasta to the boiling water and pull out garlic cloves, which have steamed a bit. The skins will easily slide off. Mince finely and add to the onions, cook on low. Beat two eggs in a bowl. Drain cooked pasta and return to pot (with heat off). Dump the eggs over and mix well. Add the onion/garlic mixture, remaining bacon and as much/little parmesan cheese as you want. I used about 1/4-1/2 cup. Add pepper and serve hot.

Wow. It turned out amazing. The eggs make such a creamy and rich sauce without any added cream and not a lot of fat. The above recipe made dinner and lunch for both of us. Not bad for a 79 cent pack of spaghetti and two eggs. The 1/8 cup of bacon was enough for flavor but not overpowering. Plus, it made me realize that this recipe is easily adapatable to whatever you have on hand. Mushrooms. Artichoke hearts. Smoked salmon. Not that I have those things on hand very often, but I sure like eating them. What is more likely is turkey carbonara... especially given the SEVEN 2-cup-bags of pulled turkey that are currently in the freezer.