Roasted Sunchoke and Mushroom Bisque

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for gnarly, knobby vegetables. As much as I love a gorgeously tapered rainbow carrot, or a voluptuously round tomato, my heart is full of enough vegetable love to look past appearances and see the hidden beauty in hairy, lumpy celeriac and bulbous tubers like these sunchokes.

I was tickled, then, to be writing about sunchokes for my fall Seasonal Cooking column in Edible Finger Lakes Magazine. I think sunchokes are misunderstood and underappreciated — most people think they’re either (a) a type of artichoke (that misconception stems from their other moniker “Jersusalem Artichoke”), (b) oddly-shaped fresh ginger root, or (c) some weird variety of potato that frankly, can’t hold a candle to beautiful Yukon Golds and Adirondack Blues in the looks department.

But potato and artichoke they’re not, though they do resemble potatoes in their crunchy raw state:

They’re actually tubers, in the sunflower family — we started growing some this year on the land that we’re building a house on, and they bloomed at the end of the summer into beautiful yellow blossoms. The variety of sunflower is native to North America, but settlers brought the tubers back to Europe for cultivation. The story goes that they got their “Jerusalem Artichoke” alter-ego from the Italian word girasole, which means “sunflower” but along the way was somehow misinterpreted as “Jerusalem.”

I love their nutty, earthy taste, which I think is somewhat of a cross between potato and mushroom with a slight hint of artichoke. They’re great pan-fried in a little butter and tossed with herbs, thin-sliced into a gratin, as a hearty component to a winter salad, or simply roasted. If you go the roasted route, this soup is a wonderful treat to prepare with the browned, caramelized tubers.

I found the inspiration for this soup in one of my favorite cookbooks, Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen. The roasted sunchoke soup is featured in the “Roasted Vegetable Soups for Fall” chapter, and they’re combined with roasted potatoes to form the base of this simple bisque.

I thought that some meaty brown mushrooms would be a lovely complement to the earthy, nutty flavor of the sunchokes in this soup. So, after cooking a good handful of chopped mushrooms over high heat so that they were nicely browned (take a look through Ruhlman’s recent entry on hitting that “sweet spot” when cooking mushrooms), I folded them into the pureed soup….

…and finished it with a little cream and fresh chopped sage. Fresh thyme would be equally delicious.

This might be my new favorite fall soup. It’s warm and earthy and nutty without being really heavy, and perfect to wrap your hands around on a chilly November day.

And, it’s a lovely way to show a little love to the homely sunchoke…because not all vegetables need to be beauty queens.

[If you live in the Finger Lakes area, be sure to check out the Fall issue of Edible Finger Lakes magazine for more sunchoke information and recipes in my Seasonal Cooking column, as well as many more great articles about our local farms and food producers. Kudos to my editors for putting such a terrific issue together!]

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Adapted from Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen, a wonderful book if you like cooking soups with the seasons!

No need to peel the sunchokes before roasting them for this soup; just a good scrubbing will do. Fresh thyme would be an equally good herb to use in place of the sage, if you’re so inclined.

view printable recipe

Ingredients
2 pounds sunchokes, scrubbed and cut into 1/3-inch slices
1 large potato, preferably Yukon Gold, scrubbed and cut into wedges
6 large garlic cloves
olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion or 2 leeks, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, plus more for the mushrooms
8 ounces mushrooms, thickly sliced
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh chopped sage or thyme leaves

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, toss the sunchoke slices, potato wedges, and whole garlic cloves with olive oil and a few pinches of sea salt. Transfer them to a sheet pan (use two if they’re too crowded on one pan) and roast until the tubers are browned in some places, about 45 minutes.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter in a large, heavy soup pot. Add the onion and cook over medium heat for several minutes, stirring occasionally. Add all of the roasted vegetables along with 1 teaspoon of sea salt and 1 cup of water. Cook over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add another 9 cups of water and any brown juices that remain on the sheet pan(s). Simmer soup, covered, for about 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

In the meantime, heat a saute pan over high heat with a little olive oil or canola oil, until it’s very hot. Add the sliced mushrooms along with a good pinch of salt, and cook until they’re nicely seared and brown. Season with a little freshly ground black pepper and set aside (you can reserve a small portion to use for garnishing the bowls.)

When soup is done cooking, use an immersion blender (or a regular blender, or food processor — if you use these methods, you’ll need to work in batches) to puree the mixture. I like to leave a little bit of texture in my soup, and flecks of brown from the sunchoke skins. Stir in the cream, mushrooms, and chopped sage (or thyme.) Taste for salt and adjust to your liking; add freshly ground black pepper.

Serve, optionally garnished with a little mound of browned mushrooms and more chopped herbs.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Pumpkin and Brown Sugar Crème Brûlées

I think I’ve mentioned here before that B and I are in the process of building a house. And we’re doing a good chunk of it ourselves, which means that the past, oh, 8 months or so have been very, very packed. My dear husband amazes me — the things he just knows how to do (though, of course, there’s been a lot of things to learn along the way, too!) And since he’s been building things and helping his Dad with projects since he was very young, he had a vocabulary around tools and construction techniques that, frankly, was Greek to me. Let’s just say it’s been, and continues to be, a huge learning experience for both of us! All very positive — we’re thrilled with how the house is coming along, it’s been an incredibly rewarding process so far, and we just can’t wait to move in (probably later in the spring.)

One of the steep learning curves I’ve had is what all these construction tools are and what they’re used for. For instance, one of the tools we’ve acquired in the process of building a house is a miter saw, which B tells me is really useful for quickly making angled cuts. Apparently it is much more efficient than using a table saw for the same purpose. I do love finding out about well-designed tools of any kind, those that perform their function really well, so I was kind of tickled about this miter saw acquisition.

And cooking, of course, has these types of situations too, right? For instance, take crème brûlée. Making these pumpkin and brown sugar crème brûlées — which are utterly fantastic; like smooth, creamy, custardy pumpkin pie but better (in my opinion) because of the dairy and silky smooth texture — made me realize that there’s one tool that would really, really make my life easier, at least when it comes to crème brûlées: a kitchen torch. I usually use the broiler, but you know what? It just doesn’t do the trick — it burns the sugar in spots, doesn’t melt the sugar in other spots, and just generally falls short of creating that perfect thin, shattering sugar crust.

So if you have a kitchen blow torch, I’m envious! I hope to add it to my “toolbox” sometime soon. These crème brûlées are going to be making many more appearances in our kitchen this winter, maybe even this Saturday night for Halloween! Their lovely orange hue and pumpkin flavoring make a sophisticated, festive dessert. Blowtorch or not.

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Pumpkin Spice Crème Brûlées

adapted from Bon Appetit

view printable recipe

Ingredients

half of one 15-ounce can pure pumpkin (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons raw sugar or golden brown sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, sugars, egg yolks, spices and salt.

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream just to a boil, then slowly whisk it into the pumpkin/egg yolk mixture to temper the egg yolks. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a separate bowl (I used a large liquid measuring cup with a pouring spout.)

Divide the mixture among four 5×1 inch ramekins.* Place the ramekins in a large roasting pan or sheet pan, and fill the pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until the custards are just set in the center, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove from the hot water bath, and let the ramekins cool slightly. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator until cold, about 6 hours.

To serve, sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar over the top of each ramekin. Place the ramekins under the broiler to melt the sugar, or use a kitchen torch to melt the sugar. Chill for 15 minutes before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

*you can also use 3-inch diameter ramekins with 1 1/4 inch sides; increase baking time to about 50 minutes.

Homemade Vanilla Extract Update

Hi there. Remember waaaaaay back in May, when I posted about the DIY vanilla extract project I was embarking on? And then never mentioned it again? Oops.

Well, better late than never, I’m here to tell you that it is unequivocally fabulous. I’ve been using it for months. That photo above was taken back in July, and I still have the beans in the extract — it’s even darker now, with a heady vanilla aroma that envelopes me as soon as I open the jar.

I had meant to post this update earlier, but you know what? It’s never too late. If you’re thinking of making this for Christmas gifts (I know I’ll be giving some away!) you could start it in the next few weeks and still give it for Christmas — I found the extract was excellent for baking after about 3 months, and only gets better with a little more time. Just tell your gift recipients to let it “age” a little while.

Whole Wheat Apple Crepes with Cider Butter Sauce

Being the oldest child in my family, I have always been somewhat of a rule-follower. Being responsible, following-the-rules, and achieving were things I prided myself on growing up. And while that’s probably not so surprising — from what I’ve known of my friends who are also first-borns in their families, we all seem to have shared those experiences to some degree — I have enjoyed shaking myself free of some of those self-imposed expectations as I’ve grown older. It’s quite liberating.

But, following the rules is something that occasionally still trips me up. For instance, what would you do if you desperately wanted to eat crêpes, but had no crêpe pan?

The answer may be obvious: either (a) buy a crêpe pan, or (b) use a nonstick skillet, silly. But, unfortunately for me and my crêpe-eating urges, I wasn’t crazy about buying a one-use-only pan, and had thrown out the few nonstick skillets I had years ago when I heard that the Teflon could leach out chemicals over high heat.

However, the door to crêpes opened again recently for me. With anodized skillets (i.e. not using Teflon) now available, I felt like I could safely add this kind of pan back into my arsenal, and a recent birthday gift from my parents made me the proud owner of a 9-inch beauty.

And one weekend recently, it hit me: why did I need a special crêpe pan to make crêpes? I know their sides are lower, making for easier access to the crêpe when it’s time to flip. But there was no reason I couldn’t do the same thing in my anodized skillet — so I boldly set out to break that crêpe pan rule.

The pan worked beautifully! Just a little loosening around the edges with a spatula was required before I got the hang of flipping the crêpes midway through baking. Et voilà! A stack of thin, pliant crêpes ready to be filled.

We’ve been getting loads of apples and apple cider in our weekly CSA share this fall, much to our delight. And even though we love eating them straight out of hand — especially the Honeycrisps! — there are always a few left at the end of the week that I use for baking. For these crêpes, I sauteed two Golden Delicious with some butter, sugar, cinnamon and apple cider. The Golden Delicious is a nice variety to use because it retains it’s shape after cooking.

To spoon into the crêpes, I also made an apple cider-butter sauce that was delicious. Actually, the original recipe called for Calvados in place of non-alcoholic cider, but considering my pregnant state and the fact that I have good old plain cider in abundance, I broke that rule, too. So there!

The resulting crêpes were absolutely, positively fantastic. Probably one of my favorite breakfasts that I’ve eaten in a long while! A little cider butter moistening the crêpes, the soft crêpes folded up and topped generously with cinnamon-and-cider-spiked apples…well worth a little crêpe pan improv!*

*My pride in crêpe rule-breaking is largely tongue-in-cheek, I hope you know. Years ago when I was just learning to cook, I used to feel so completely bound by a recipe, and it was fairly stifling. But, as many of you can probably relate, the more you cook, the more you become confident in what changes and improvisations you can make, and how they’ll affect — or not affect — the final dish. And that is a liberating discovery indeed!

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Whole Wheat Apple Crêpes with Cider Butter Sauce

Adapted from a few recipes on Epicurious

You can make each component of these crepes ahead, then just reheat and assemble at serving time. Since making the crepes is kind of a time-consuming process, I definitely suggest the do-ahead option!

view printable recipe

Ingredients

For the crêpes:

1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Scant 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup apple cider
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white whole wheat flour

For the apples:

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
2 medium-size Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons apple cider

For the cider butter sauce:

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
3 tablespoons Calvados or other apple brandy

Directions

Make the crepes (can be made ahead and stored in the fridge, stacked between squares of parchment and covered with plastic wrap):

Blend the milk and eggs in a blender on medium high speed until foamy, about 10 seconds. Switch to low speed and remove the feed top; with the blender running on low, add the sugar and salt. Put the feed top back on and blend on high for a few seconds, then turn it back down to low. Again, remove the feed top and add the melted butter, cider, and vanilla, then replace the feed top and blend for several seconds again. Turn off the blender, add the flour all at once, and blend just until combined.

Place crêpe pan (or a 9 or 10-inch nonstick skillet) over moderately high heat. You can spread a tiny amount of butter in the pan, but I found I didn’t need to do this. When the pan is quite hot, pour 1/4 to 1/3 cup batter into it and quickly tilt the pan in all directions to spread a thin layer of the batter across the bottom. You should use just enough batter to cover the pan – I found 1/3 cup worked for the size pan I was using.

Cook the crêpe over moderately high heat until bubbles just begin to form on the exposed surface, about one to two minutes. Lift up the edge to check the cooking process — it should be golden brown on the opposite side (you can adjust the heat accordingly if it’s burning or not browning quickly enough.) Loosen around the edges with a flexible spatula, then use your hands to flip the crêpe.

Cook another minute or less, until other side is browned. Remove from pan and keep warm in the oven, loosely covered with foil (or, if you’re making them ahead, stack them on a plate separated by squares of parchment paper.)

Make the apple filling (can be made ahead and stored, covered, in the fridge):

Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add diced apples, then sprinkle with sugar, coarse salt, and cinnamon. Sauté until apples are tender, about 3 minutes. Add cider and cook until most of liquid evaporates, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Make the cider butter sauce (you can make this ahead and store it, covered, in the fridge):

Using electric mixer, beat butter in medium bowl until well blended. Add sugar and coarse salt; beat until fluffy. Gradually beat in apple cider just until incorporated.

For serving:

Heat the cider butter sauce over low heat in a skillet until it’s melted, stirring occasionally. Heat up the apples until they’re warm, or serve at room temperature if you’d rather.

The crepes can be warmed in the oven before serving. To do this, place the stack on a baking sheet and cover the whole sheet pan with foil; warm at 300 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes, depending on how cold the crepes were when they went into the oven.

To plate, spread 2 teaspoons of the cider butter sauce over a crepe, then fold crepe into quarters. Repeat with remaining crepes, for a total of three crepes per plate. Divide apple mixture over the top of each plate, and spoon any additional cider butter sauce over the tops.

Serves 4 generously.

Spiced Pumpkin Hot Cocoa with Maple Whipped Cream

We had our first snow here overnight Thursday. Friday morning, we awoke to trees (many with their fall leaves still hanging on) and grass coated with about an inch of white, fluffy powder.

And while Ithaca definitely isn’t considered a tropical clime, this storm set a record for the earliest snowfall of an inch or more. Maybe that’s Mother Nature’s way of telling us we’re in for a cold winter?

Waking up and feeling like I was suddenly in winter(!) meant only one thing: I had to make hot cocoa that afternoon. It was all I could think about all day. And my hot cocoa urge, coupled with my desire to consume anything made with pumpkin lately (more on that to come), resulted in this delicious cup of spicy, warm goodness: Spiced Pumpkin Hot Cocoa.

Think all the spices of pumpkin pie mixed into a rich cocoa drink, with pumpkin puree whisked into the hot milk. The pumpkin flavor isn’t overpowering, but it’s subtly there under the chocolate flavor — and mixed with the spices, it’s a wonderful cup. I whipped up some heavy cream, flavored with a little maple syrup, to top the mugs (and as you can see, the cocoa was pretty steaming hot when I spooned the cream on — hence the melted, soft cream topping. Well, it was still delicious!)

I know not everyone loves the combination of pumpkin and chocolate together, but it is one of my favorites and this hot cocoa will be my standby for the next few months (besides, the pumpkin adds fiber! and Vitamin A! What’s not to love??)

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Spiced Pumpkin Hot Cocoa

an Eggs on Sunday original

view printable recipe

Makes 2 servings (if you halve the recipe, just use a little pinch of the nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.)

Ingredients
For the hot cocoa:
3 cups milk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin or pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons maple syrup

For the maple whipped cream:
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons maple syrup

any of the following for dusting on top: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, raw sugar

Directions
In a saucepan, whisk together the milk, pumpkin puree, cocoa, spices and syrup. Heat until steaming, and divide among two mugs.

Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or by hand using a wire whisk, whip the heavy cream with the maple syrup until it forms soft peaks.

Top the mugs of cocoa with spoonfuls of the whipped cream. Sprinkle on a little cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and/or raw sugar if you like.

Spicy Kale, Chorizo and Squash Soup

It’s getting cold here. They’re predicting snow flurries tonight!

And I’m not complaining. A lot of people bemoan the return of cold weather, but honestly, I don’t know why you’d choose to live in upstate New York if you didn’t like at least some measure of cold, frosty weather — it’s hard to escape it here. I relish it: I love the cold snap to the air in the mornings when I go out to take a walk, the shock of the chill searing through my nose as I take my first deep breath. I love the smell of a wood-burning stove wafting through the chill, mixed with the pungent, sweet aroma of fallen leaves. I love donning a scarf and maybe a light hat to go outside, and replacing the brighter colors of my summer wardrobe with the jewel tones of my fall clothes — deep turquoise, eggplant, chocolate, rust, emerald. I love sleeping under layers upon layers of puffy blankets, ensconced in my warm cocoon as my nose chills in the cooler air of the house overnight. I love wrapping my hands around a steaming mug of hot chocolate, or tea, or coffee…or, equally so, a big bowl of steaming hot soup.

In fact, soup is probably one of my very, very favorite parts of this time of year. I’ve been in a soup-making frenzy lately, making extra big batches so that I can freeze a little extra in our (shiny! new!) chest freezer in preparation for those sleep-deprived days coming in December and January, when our lives will revolve around our little newborn. We’ve had multiple batches of chili, roasted squash & fennel soup, lentil soup with greens, minestrone, pinto & black bean stew…and most recently, this spicy kale, chorizo and squash soup.

It was actually a great way to use a number of ingredients we’d recently received in our CSA share — red kuri squash, onions, and garlic — along with dinosaur kale that I’d picked up at the Farmer’s Market and chorizo from The Piggery. The soup is a variation on the Portuguese soup caldo verde, which is traditionally made with potatoes, kale, onions and chorizo. I substituted the winter squash for the potatoes, adding a mildly sweet note to counteract the spiciness of the chorizo. It’s a warming bowl, inside and out.

Since I’m in soup-making mode and trying to stockpile a bunch before December, I’d love to know — what’s your favorite soup recipe (and would you care to share a link?)

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Adapted from Bon Appetit

view printable recipe

This soup is fantastic served with some crusty bread alongside.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
2 large or 3 small garlic cloves, finely chopped
8 ounces chorizo sausage, casing removed (if you’re using fully cooked chorizo, dice it before adding it to the soup)
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 1/2 pounds winter squash, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (Butternut, Red Kuri or Buttercup are good varieties to use)
8 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 pounds kale, stemmed, torn and chopped into small pieces or ribbons (about 2 small to medium bunches)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large, heavy pot. Add the chopped onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook an additional minute. Add the chorizo and the smoked paprika; cook until the chorizo is no longer pink (if using raw chorizo – if using fully cooked chorizo, just cook 1-2 minutes until the paprika is toasted.)

Add the cubes of winter squash, the chicken broth, and the kale. Stir until the kale wilts down a little into the soup, and bring the soup to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer, covered with the lid slightly ajar, for about 30 minutes, until the squash and kale is tender. Taste and add salt and pepper according to your taste.

Serves 6.

For a birthday, World Peace…Cookies.

Hi there. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a new post up. Where did September go? Our life for the past month or so has been so focused on house-building events, baby-expecting activities, and family visits that all of a sudden, I find it’s the end of September and whoosh! We’re into fall. And I’ve been cooking — many things for the great work crew and volunteers we have helping us build the house, other things for B and I — but the issue lately has been that I get so darn tired by the time evening rolls around (that’s what the third trimester does to you, I hear!) that I can’t squeak out enough coherent thoughts to write much of a post. I do have some good things to tell you about, and thought I’d start with a cookie very close to my heart…Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies.

These cookies have made the rounds on the blogosphere, and you may have seen them before. They fall into the sable category of cookie: a traditional French kind of butter cookie, crumbly and soft and delicate and very, very easy to make (just slice and bake.) Actually, I wouldn’t say this version is particularly crumbly — the intense chocolate flavor, chunks of chocolate strewn throughout, and brown sugar make them rich and with a very slight chew in the middle. Oh, and they have a little fleur de sel in the dough…I adore them.

Besides how mind-blowingly good these cookies are to eat, another reason I love them is that I can make a double batch, roll the portions into logs, wrap them tightly and store them in the freezer, where they remain ready to slice and bake whenever I get a craving (actually, I’ve found it’s easier to let the logs defrost in the fridge before slicing them — slicing them frozen causes a bit too many crumbles.)

Oh, and one more plus: I can eat the raw dough. I normally throw caution to the wind and sneak a bit of raw cookie dough anyway, but now that I’m pregnant I know I shouldn’t because of the raw eggs…but this dough? No eggs! So I tell myself “go ahead, Amy, indulge.” And baby seems to agree.

The story Dorie tells about these cookies in BFMHTY involves how she developed them with Pierre Herme and called them ‘Korova Cookies,’ but her neighbor loved them so much he told her that he was “convinced that a daily dose of the cookies is all that’s needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness.” Right on!

And world peace does sound like a nice thing to aspire to, especially through cookies. (If only!) Peacemaking abilities aside, they remain one of my favorite cookies, and ones that I’ll be enjoying this afternoon with a cup of (decaf) coffee because…it’s my birthday! World Peace for Everyone!

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World Peace Cookies (Korova Cookies)

from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

view printable recipe

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups AP flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I prefer Dutch cocoa powder)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Directions

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and cocoa.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until it’s soft and creamy. Add the sugars, salt and vanilla extract and beat for an additional 2 minutes.

Turn off the mixer, add the dry ingredients, and pulse the mixer on low speed to mix the dry ingredients in. Start by pulsing about 5 times, a second or two each time, and then check to see if there’s still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough. If so, pulse a few more times. Continuing at low speed, mix for 30 more seconds, just until the flour disappears into the dough. Try to work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t worry if it looks crumbly. Toss in the chocolate chunks and mix just to incorporate.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide in two. Shape each half into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (you can refrigerate the dough for up to 3 days at this point, or freeze for up to 2 months. If you do freeze them, I find it easiest to defrost them in the fridge prior to slicing and baking – I found the dough cracked and crumbled too much when I sliced it frozen.)

When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Use a sharp knife to slice the logs into 1/2-inch rounds; if they crack a little when you slice them, just press them back together. Place the rounds on the baking sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart.

Bake one sheet at a time for 12 minutes. They won’t look done, or be totally firm, but that’s okay. Let the cookies cool on the sheet pan, and remove them to a cooling rack when they’re just warm.

Makes about 36 cookies.

CSA Share, and a new use for kale: Sausage, Caramelized Fennel, and Kale Pesto Pizza

Oh, summer. You’ve slipped by and for the past few weeks, we’ve been so busy with house-building activities that we’ve picked up our share late in the evening, way past when your sunlight fades — leaving me ravenous and ready to just eat already rather than set up my lights to take photos of the CSA vegetables. Last week, however, we took a day off on our pick-up day and I did squeak in some pictures before the hunger monster in my belly roared. And what a bounty it was: tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, carrots, celery, cucumbers, Japanese eggplant, bok choy, field greens, kale and beets! Yum!!

And our fruit share is really shaping up to be wonderful (as you can tell, the past lean weeks of a single bunch of rhubarb is long gone): gorgeous drippingly-ripe peaches, Bartlett pears, Italian prune plums (my favorite kind!), and luscious grapes that were a real treat – they had almost a floral note, especially the red ones.

I think September (around here at least) actually boasts the best produce of the season…gorgeous summer vegetables, lots of luscious ripe fruit.

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you probably know that we’re big fans of kale in this house, and I’m always looking for new ways to cook it besides the standard saute-with-garlic-and-olive-oil. We make this salad a lot (it’s one of our favorites!) and I’ve tried kale chips, which are quite good (especially since my current pregnancy cravings seem to center around salty things. Tortilla chips, come to mama: after all, you’re a whole grain, right? And don’t even let me near a bag of “Baked, Lightly Salted” Kettle Chips — it takes all my strength not to devour the whole thing. And the funny thing is, I wasn’t even a huge potato chip fan before getting pregnant…)

Recently, on one of our Friday night pizza nights, I decided to blanch some kale leaves and use them in place of basil for a pesto to spread on the pizza crust — and it was fabulous! (And, a nice heartier pizza to take you into these cooler evenings of early fall.)

The kale pesto was delicious on its own, nice and garlicky, but also tasted wonderful with some Piggery hot Italian sausage and fennel from the previous week’s CSA which I’d caramelized a bit beforehand. Fennel goes naturally with pork, and kale is a great pairing with sausage, so I had hopes that the pizza would be one for the rotation. And oh, it was: sweet, salty, garlicky and so good.

The pesto is also delicious spread on bruschetta, or folded into an omelet with ricotta cheese – I can attest to both.

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Sausage, Caramelized Fennel, and Kale Pesto Pizza

view printable recipe

Ingredients
1 pound pizza dough (your favorite recipe or mine)

1/2 pound hot Italian sausage, cooked and crumbled
2 small or 1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced and sauteed with olive oil, a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar over low heat until soft and caramelized
kale pesto (recipe below)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 500 degrees, preferably with a baking stone on the bottom rack.

Roll out the pizza dough into a round on a cornmeal-dusted pizza peel (or, alternately, you can roll it out on a piece of parchment and place the parchment on the peel – the pizza can bake on the parchment, directly placed on the stone, if you like.) Top the dough with kale pesto (you may have some left over), shredded mozzarella and cheddar, caramelized fennel and sausage.

Transfer the pizza onto the baking stone and bake until the crust is golden and cheese is bubbly, about 8 minutes.

Kale Pesto

Ingredients
2 cups (packed) kale, blanched for 2 minutes first in boiling salted water
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic
good pinch salt
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions
Combine the blanched kale, cheese, garlic, and salt in the bowl of a blender or food processor. Puree until fairly smooth, then while the motor is running, drizzle in the olive oil until a smooth, loose paste forms (you can add more olive oil if you like, but I found 1/4 cup to give me the consistency I was looking for.) Taste and add more salt or pepper if needed.

Lamb Burgers with Sweet Pepper Relish

Can you believe Labor Day is already upon us? I feel like this summer has flown by the fastest of any I can remember…it might be because we’ve been so busy thinking about and preparing for some major “life stuff” — baby to come, building a house — or it might be because our June was such a wash (literally) of cool, rainy weather.

Honestly, though, I can’t wait for fall. It’s my favorite season! And as if on cue, as soon as the calendar flipped to 9/1, the weather cooled back down to 70 degrees, sunny, crisp and dry.  The nights are chilly and brisk and just smell like fall is knocking on the door. LOVE it.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Labor Day cometh. Which means one last “official” weekend of grilling (even though I don’t really see any reason to stop grilling, even in the dead of winter – barring a blizzard, of course!) This summer we’ve been wild about these lamb burgers with sweet pepper relish, and I figured I should probably share them with you (finally!) before summer sings its sweet swan song.

Two years ago, B and I vacationed out in Colorado, spending time in Boulder and Rocky Mountain National Park. On the top of my list of restaurants to visit in Boulder was The Kitchen, a casual bistro serving seasonal, locally sourced, delicious food (they also are quite environmentally conscious, powering their whole restaurant with wind and recycling or reusing almost 100% of their discards.) If you read Jen’s blog Use Real Butter, you’ve no doubt seen some of her posts about “Community Night” at the The Kitchen, full of delicious food served family-style, which always make me wish I didn’t live halfway across the country.

Anyhow, when B and I were in Boulder we had lunch at The Kitchen, and he ordered a lamb burger that was made with locally-raised lamb, served on a homemade brioche-style bun with a pepper relish. Unbelievably, that was my first time ever tasting a lamb burger — I had always harbored this somewhat unfounded attitude that I wasn’t a fan of lamb, probably because the one time I’d previously tried it was in a really bad version of lamb vindaloo at a bad Indian restaurant in college — but this burger was like a revelation to me. The lamb was so much more flavorful than a beef burger, and the sweet and tangy pepper relish was a perfect accompaniment to the stronger flavor of lamb.

So this summer, bolstered by my newfound love of making homemade hamburger buns, I set out to recreate a version of that burger. I found a few recipes on epicurious to use as inspiration, flavoring the lamb burgers with mint, garlic, shallot, paprika and cumin (sooo delicious.) Equally delicious is the sweet pepper relish I make to accompany them: colored bell peppers are cooked down in cider vinegar with sugar, mustard seeds, an apple and some raisins. The resulting relish is sweet, tart, tangy, and worth doubling — the relish is great on grilled sausages, too!

I didn’t show it in this picture, but I love to top these burgers with soft crumbles of feta. There’s a farm near Ithaca – Side Hill Acres — that makes delicious goat’s milk feta, with a consistency closer to fresh, soft chevre than dry, crumbly sheep’s milk feta. I love it.

But feta or not, these burgers bring back memories for us, and they’ll continue to stay on our grilling rotation for years to come.

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Adapted from Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines

view printable recipe

Ingredients
For the burgers:
1 large shallot, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 3/4 pounds ground lamb

For the relish:
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
2 orange or red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/3 cup raisins
1 apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon salt

For serving:
burger buns (whatever you like, or you can go whole hog and make your own!)
feta cheese, crumbled (optional – and if you do use this, I like a softer, creamy kind of feta if you can find it.)

Directions

Make the burgers:
Stir shallot, mint, garlic, salt, black pepper, paprika, and cumin in large bowl to blend. Add lamb and mix gently to combine. Shape mixture into four 1/2-inch-thick patties. (You can make these ahead and chill them.)

Make the relish:
Bring vinegar and sugar to a boil in a 2-quart nonreactive heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then boil, uncovered, 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients and simmer briskly, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until peppers and apple are tender, about 25 minutes.

To serve:
Grill burgers (or pan-fry them, whatever you like.) Serve each burger on a bun topped with the sweet pepper relish and a crumbling of feta cheese.

Apricot Ice Cream & Oatmeal Cookie Sandwiches

My cravings lately have been focusing on a new object of affection (obsession)…ice cream sandwiches. And I’m not talking the soggy-chocolate-cookie-bars-enclosing-weirdly-fluffy-”vanilla”-ice-cream kind. I’m talking full-out homemade cookies and homemade ice cream…my growing belly seems to whispering to me “Amy…I MUST have an ice cream sandwich…FEED me!” And really, who am I to deny these cravings? Perhaps baby will be an ice cream lover (judging from B and I, there’s a good chance that gene was passed along.)

My first attempt was salted butter caramel ice cream sandwiched between chocolate cookies, courtesy of (who else?) David Lebovitz. I could taste how good this combination would be before I even started making them. And so it pains me to tell you that my adventure with this combination was…ah…less than successful. Way less than successful. My mind was distracted (seems to be happening a lot more lately), I don’t think I cooked my ice cream custard long enough, I overbaked my cookies, and this was the result:

epic FAIL

You know you’ve done something wrong when your ice cream melts into a puddle 15 seconds after filling the cookies (I haven’t yet figured out on what step in the recipe I went astray, but I have a few hunches.) Oh, the ice cream tasted amazingly good — intense caramel flavor — and the cookies would have been good had I checked the oven sooner and not overbaked them by probably about 5-10 minutes. But still – these were a no go.

Anyway, let’s move on to happier topics, because I want to tell you about my second attempt (also coming from Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop) which was a definite success. Fresh apricot ice cream, sandwiched between spicy oatmeal cookies…ding ding ding! We have a winner!

The apricot ice cream was super easy to make; apricots are cooked until soft, then pureed and combined with cream before being churned in your ice cream machine. The oatmeal cookies are spicy and the perfect size to sandwich a good smear of ice cream between. I found it easiest to assemble the sandwiches when the ice cream had been churned and firmed up for just an hour or so; longer and it might be a little hard to scoop (or, you’d just have to leave it out for a few minutes at room temperature to soften slightly.)

The best part is that I can keep these individually-wrapped sandwiches in the freezer, ready and waiting to devour when the craving strikes. And that is very handy, indeed.

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Fresh Apricot Ice Cream

From The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

view printable recipe

Note: if apricots are no longer in season around you, you can also make this with a pound of fresh plums (yum!) If you do so, use 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/3 cup water instead of the amounts listed below, and substitute 1/2 teaspoon kirsch for the almond extract. The remaining ingredients and methods are the same.

Ingredients

1 pound squishy-ripe fresh apricots (10-16, depending on size)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
3 drops almond extract
a few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions

Slice the apricots open and remove the pits, then chop them into six wedges each. Cook them with the water in a covered medium saucepan over medium heat until they’re tender, about 8 minutes. Turn off the heat, then stir in the sugar until dissolved. Cool this mixture to room temperature.

Puree the apricots (and any liquid in the saucepan) in a blender or food processor until smooth. If there are little fibers left (I didn’t find this to be a problem in the blender, but it might be if you use a food processor), you can strain the mixture through a sieve. Stir in the cream, almond extract, and lemon juice.

Chill thoroughly, then process in your ice cream maker.

Oatmeal Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies

From The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Makes 16 cookies, for 8 sandwiches

view printable recipe

Ingredients
2/3 cup flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup unflavored vegetable oil
3 tablespoons whole milk
1 large egg

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line several sheet pans with parchment or silicone baking mats.

Whisk together the flour through the salt, breaking up any lumps of brown sugar. Stir in the raisins and oats.

Make a well in the center and pour in the oil and milk; stir until you get a smooth batter.

Drop 6 heaping tablespoons at a time onto each baking sheet, spacing them evenly apart. Spread each tablespoon of batter into a 3-inch circle with the back of a spoon.

Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes (I think I slightly overbaked mine at 20 minutes, so you might want to start checking around 15 minutes), rotating the sheet pans midway through the baking time.

Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet. Once completely cool, sandwich the ice cream between 2 cookies, then wrap each sandwich in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.