Squash Fries

You are surprised to see a squash post. So am I. This is perhaps the only way, outside of pie, that I have ever enjoyed squash. I had a similar dish with my friends Meredith and Curtis a month or so ago. Meredith liked it so much I tried to reproduce it for her bridal shower. It went over spectacularly, and what's more, I thought it was a pretty decent way to get the squash to go down! I will not make it again, however, until I have a good knife. I cut myself twice and spent forever reducing the squash to steak-fry-shaped pieces.

Squash Fries with Chili Cumin Salt and Maple Sour Cream

2 lbs butternut squash, halved, seeded, and peeled
2 T olive oil
1/2 c sour cream
2 T maple syrup
salt
cumin
chili
2 limes, wedged

Preheat oven to 425. Cut squash to half-inch wide fries. Coat with olive oil. Spread in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. Roast until tender and crispy at the edges. I even like them quite brown at the edges, about 35 or 40 minutes. Meanwhile, stir some maple syrup into sour cream to make a dipping sauce, and mix the salt with the spices. Sprinkle some of the spiced salt over the squash fries and squeeze some lime juice over them, pretty liberally.

Plum and Ginger Crumble

I still had plums, so I turned to the same source: The New York Times. This recipe is actually described as a modification of the Plum Torte I made a few days ago. This is clearly phylogenetically correct-- if Marion Burros says it is, whose recipes they are, we see that it is-- but I think that we, as consumers, ought to think of it as more of a riff on the original recipe than a variation. Anyway, I really really liked this. The black-blue plums took on a gorgeous red color when baked in this crumble, and the topping became like delicious cookie. This dessert has really complete and vivid flavor. I served it with little scoops of vanilla ice cream. Yurm.

Plum and Ginger Crumble

12 Italian prune plums, halved and pitted
2 T brown sugar (it says light, I used dark)
1 1/2 T plus 1 c AP flour
3/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground ginger
2 heaping T finely chopped candied ginger (yep, I really heaped them)
3/4 c sugar
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 large egg, well-beaten
1 stick butter, melted
Vanilla ice cream, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place plums in bowl. Mix brown sugar, 1 1/2 T flour, 1/4 t cinnamon, ground ginger, and candied ginger together and mix with plums. Arrange plums, skin side up, in ungreased 9 inch pie plate.
3. Combine white sugar, baking powder, remaining flour, and remaining cinnamon and salt and mix well. Stir in egg. Rub together with fingertips to combine ingredients and make a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle over plums. Drizzle butter evenly over top.
4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Serve warm, plain or with vanilla ice cream.

Plum Torte

On Saturday I went out into the glory that is Western New York in the fall. My friend Heidi and I went up to Lake Erie and then turned generally westward into ruralness. We found a roadside stand with much fresh produce and I bought a pumpkin, a yellow-fleshed watermelon, and a bag of prune plums. Well, I don't actually like plums. But they looked so darn enticing on that roadside stand, so Williams Carlos Williamsy. I chose to make with them the very famous "plum torte" that was published for 15 consecutive years in the New York Times-- their #1 most requested recipe. Turns out the cake was lovely. Memorable? I am not so sure that it was memorable. It was also not as beautiful when baked as it was before it was baked. It is rather plain. But among all this I suppose we find its virtues-- versatility and simplicity, perfection of proportions rather than presentation. Other virtues, and what virtues they are, are its ease of preparation and how lovely the batter looks and feels when you spread it into the pan! Like fluffy silk.

Plum Torte

1/2 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar, plus more for topping
1 c AP flour, sifted
1 t baking powder
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
12 Italian prune plums, halved and pitted
1 t ground cinnamon, or more to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream butter and sugar. Whisk together dries; add to creamed mixture. Add eggs, beat well.

3. Spoon batter into an 8,9, or 10-inch springform pan (I used a lightly greased pie plate). Place plum halves skin side up on top of the batter. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, depending on the sweetness of the fruit. Sprinkle with 1 t cinnamon, or to taste. (I used a couple of tablespoons of sugar mixed with the cinnamon for even distribution.)

4. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes (40 was enough in my oven). Remove and cool to lukewarm, remove sides of pan, and serve.

Creamy Tomato Soup

I do not like tomato soup. I love grilled cheese, but even grilled cheese cannot redeem tomato soup. And yet tomato soup was the second soup I decided to hazard in my vegetable soup-making quest. For one thing, the picture of "Italian Tomato Soup" in Ms. Forster's Soups book didn't look like Campbell's. It looked redder, and chunkier. And spicy! So I made the soup-- and it didn't look red, or chunky, or spicy. It looked like Campbell's. But it actually tasted heavenly! Especially when I added bottled artichokes the next day.

Creamy Tomato Soup

1 T olive oil
2 T butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
6 tomatoes (2 lbs?), coarsely chopped
3 c chicken stock
1/2 c nonalcoholic white cooking wine
2 T tomato paste
1 T shreeded fresh basil
1 c heavy cream
salt
pepper

Heat oil and butter in pan until foaming. Add onion and saute 5 minutes, until softened but not brown. Stir in tomatoes and garlic, then add the stock, cooking wine, and tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, lower heat, half-cover pan, and simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring now and then so that the tomatoes won't stick. Use an immersion blender to blend the soup somewhat. Add the heavy cream and heat through, stirring. Do not allow the soup to near a boil ever again. Adjust the seasoning and the consistency with stock, if desired.

Corn Soup

I made this soup a month or so ago to inaugurate my effort to learn to make vegetable soups. I had intended to make vegetarian soups, but I ended up using chicken stock in this and decided that vegetable soups would do. Back when I made this corn soup, fresh corn was abundant in the markets and very sweet and juicy and yummy. I really loved this soup. I hope to incorporate it into my repertoire in that hypothetical future where I have a repertoire. This is my adaptation of a recipe from a cookbook titled Soups, editted by Felicity Forster.

Corn Soup

2 T olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
6 earsworth of fresh corn kernels
3 c Chicken Stock
1 c heavy cream
salt
black pepper
1/2 red pepper, seeded and finely diced, to garnish

1. Heat oil in frying pan. Saute onion and pepper for about 5 minutes or until soft. Add the corn and saute for 2 minutes.

2. Use an immersion blender to blend somewhat the soup. Stir in the stock. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Gently stir in the cream. Serve the soup with diced red bell pepper sprinkled over. Do not allow the soup to boil ever again.

Slow-cooked Shredded Meat

Today we present a formula, a strategy, and it's a most useful one at that. Cooking meat a long, long time with plenty of moisture is an excellent way to ensure a tasty, proteinaceous, and tender meal out of whatever hunk of meat you have. This is a very versatile approach: adding more tomato sauce, a touch of sugar, and spices morphs the deal into sloppy joes (not my favorite dish by any means, but a good one to know); mosasses, mustard, and spices (or a bottled sauce) produces barbecue; and oregano, chiles, cumin, and other appropriate spices turns up a great concoction for tacos, burritos... or tamales? Many thanks to Ford for this recipe!

Basic Slow-Cooked Shredded Meat

2 lbs cheap, fatty pork or beef

1 large onion, finely chopped

4 medium-to-large cloves garlic, minced

2 8-oz cans tomato sauce, or 1 15 oz can broth

In a hot pan, brown the meat will on all sides (it can be one or two big hunks of meat or, for faster cooking but more difficult trimming, cut into cubes). Throw it in the crockpot. Dump the onion and garlic on top, then add the tomato sauce or broth.

Set the crockpot on medium (or, for faster cooking, high) and put on the lid. Cook it with the lid on for 2-3 hours. Then remove the lid and cook uncovered for another hour or two, so that the juices reduce to a nice sauce.

When the meat is cooked, remove it from the crockpot to a broad, shallow dish or platter. Pull off and discard any big fatty chunks that you don't want to eat. Shred the meat with forks, return it to the pot, stir it all up and serve it on buns or over noodles or whatever.

You can also cook this in the oven, in a casserole dish with a lid, at moderate heat (perhaps 250 degrees).

Shrove Tuesday! -- Semla Buns

Back at home, my family celebrated the day-before-Lent as Shrove Tuesday. Also known as "Pancake Day," this provides a way for families to use up indulgent ingredients like cream, eggs, and butter. I hope to make some of these later this week (during Lent-- oops!). This recipe is from Favorite Swedish Recipes, edited by Selma Wifstrand.

Semlor-- Shrove Tuesday Buns

3 c flour
1/2 c lukewarm cream
1/2 c lukewarm water
1/2 c butter
1 yeast cake
4 T sugar
salt
cardamom
beaten egg

Filling:
1/2 c blanched almonds, ground
2-3 blanched bitter almonds, ground
3/4 c powdered sugar
1 egg white
1 c cream, whipped

Make dough: dissolve yeast cakes in 1/2 c milk. Mix remaining milk, sugar, salt, butter, and cardamom seeds and small amount of flour, beat smooth. Add yeast and remaining flour, beating with wooden spoon until smooth and firm. Sprinkle dough with small amount of flour, cover with clean towel and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours. Turn onto lightly floured baking board and knead until smooth.

Shape dough into 12 balls. Arrange side by side on well-buttered baking sheet, cover with towel, and allow to rise. Brush with beaten egg and bake at 425 F until brown. Cool on towel.

Mix ground almonds, sugar, egg white, and a little water; work until smooth. Cut tops off buns, spread with paste, and add a tablespoon of whipped cream. Replace tops. Dust with powdered sugar.

Serve as dessert in individual dishes with hot milk, sugar, and cinnamon.