Current Currants

St Patrick's day got me thinking about Irish cooking, and while I didn't prepare anything special for the occasion, I did pull out my Irish Food and Cooking cook book. As I was flipping through it I noticed, as I had often before, the beautiful black currant fool. The step by step pictures show a beautiful deep purple pink puree being folded into satin white whipped cream, the effect a beautiful striking swirl of color and cream. I look to the ingredients ready to buy a little batch of beauty for my self and am then deeply puzzled. Black currants... huh. Never seen those before.
Or had I? Looking through my seed catalog, passed the yesterdays news novelty plants, after the blueberries and raspberries and just before the fruit trees I find them. Sort of. Red currants. That wont create the heavenly swirl. It would be like pink sauce. Cant have that. Gooseberries, just under them, are almost translucent, so those wont work. either. Then I look to the curious variety 'Jostaberry'. Its darker, but not a black currant. Its a mix between black currants and gooseberries, but where, pray tell, is the other parent?

I then proceed to comb the net. None of my usual nurseries have them. I find some in the UK. Big breakthrough. I'm then combing the US importation website and lists of banned plants. Maybe its illegal to import it, who knows.

Now the real breakthrough is when I come across the Currant Company's website. They have a history of the Black Currant in the United States. The title of the article? "Forbidden" U.S. History of the Black Currant. Turns out its been banned for somewhere around 100 years due to its connection to white pine rust disease. Black currants pass along the disease, along with red currants, native currants and several varieties of gooseberries. The list goes on, but only Black Currants were banned.

Well, no longer. In New York then ban was recently appealed, and so started the Currant Company. They've been selling both currant juice and whole currants for a while, but their goods are not widely available, usually shipped, and they tend to be expensive as well. The lucky part? They've started selling plants too. Mail order. In this one site I hit the mother load.

A long and boring story made shorter, I ordered two for about $40 with shipping (the two day shipping is over half of that). Now I must wait for them to come. They dont ship for a while yet bare root. After that, I must find a place to plant them, prune them, and wait for berries that might not come till next year.
Till then... there should at least be some good tomatoes to eat.

Unicorn of Trial

I baked a cake. That is not the important part however. The cake was just a mix. Two cake mixes, to be quite exact. The important thing here was the goo that went on top. Now don't jump to conclusions. I took the lazier still rout, and used store bought frosting too. It was specifically the goo on top of that that is of note. Yes, I made fondant.


It isn't a true fondant, being made primarily of marshmallows and powdered sugar. The marshmallow fondant, or MMF, is much easier to make than regular fondant and more user friendly. It requires 3 cheap and easy to find ingredients likely in the pantry already. I got the recipe, and tons of helpful hints from Peggy Weaver, at WhatsCookingAmerica.net .

So what did I accomplish? Just about the coolest unicorn cake the world has ever seen.

Happy birthday Alex!

The assembly of the two cake mixes. I used my ample winging-it skills, an 8" cake, a 9" cake, and a 9" by 13" cake. I realized sometime after I had removed all the cakes from the pan that I had nothing large enough to encompass them all. Except my marble work slab!
Thanks Grandma!

The most worrisome aspect of working with cake mixes would be their texture. They are so incredibly fragile and fluffy. All of my experiences frosting cakes from a box have been less than pleasant. I'm applying a crumb coat, which rolls up into a crumb lump which then snowballs into the entire cake, picking up frosting crumbs and denting the whole shebang. This time it worked. Don't ask me how. I believe in miracles.

I was unsuccesful in commanding the fondant. I couldn't get a big enough solid piece to cover without seems. So after crumpling my failed attempt into a ball slamming on the table and shouting and hopping around in fit of incandescent rage and frustration, I reassessed. I had been working on wax paper. That went away. That alone I now believe might have made it work, but I also decided to work in sections. It was actually really fun to work with. The way it sat almost perfectly, and its pretty plasticine surface as I tucked it under the edge really pleased me. Ignore the fit. It was fun... seriously. After I tossed the wax paper.

And then it got REALLY fun. Sure my hands are now a grayish blue tie-dye from making all those colors of fondant. That hardly matters. The hair is what made the unicorn... other than the horn. That too made the unicorn... but look at that hair!

Over all... once maybe twice a year will I do this. Started at noon today and worked till right about 6. My feet hate me, it tasted like cake mix cake and sugar, and I definitely liked the Pecan Pie birthday better... but darn it, I made a pretty cake!

I'll Pecan YOUR Pie!

Your average pecan pie uses about two cups of pecans. Your average pecan pie usually has a sort of gelatinous corn syrup infused filling with a touch of bourbon. Most have only a bottom pie crust, and an open top.

This edition. from Martha Stewart, is not the average pecan pie.

• It contains a whopping 4 cups pecans. I wince every time I measure them out. SO many of my precious pecans going into one food...
• It is filled with a rich caramel, no corn syrup.
• Its baked in a skillet. Starting on the stove while make the caramel, the pie is topped with the pie crust and sent to the oven. One dish preparation.
• To present, you invert it.

I think next time I make it I'll cut back on the pecans a half cup to a whole cup. Not only is my pan a bit smaller than the recommended, but after the first couple slices, I'm sorry to say it, but I almost start picking through the pecans to get to the crust. Its pretty intense anyway, and I think it could carry itself with a reduction on the filling. Besides, if you have good butter, the crust is just about the best part!

And on that last picture, of the whole pie, I don't think its supposed to be that dark. Whoops...

All together, its about 1 1/4 cups of butter, almost two cups of sugar, and thats ignoring the 4 cups of nuts and cream. Pretty rich. Worth it.

Upside-down Pecan Pie

• 1 unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 4 cups pecan halves, (about 1 pound)
• 3/4 cup cream
• one pie crust
  

1. In a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat, combine butter, honey, and sugars. Bring to a boil; let boil for 4 minutes. Add pecans and heavy cream, and boil 3 minutes more. Remove from heat, and set aside. Let stand about 30 minutes to cool. Using a wooden spoon, gently mound pecans and caramel slightly in center of skillet, leaving a gap between pecans and edge of skillet.
2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.with rack in the top third. On a clean, lightly floured work surface, roll out one disk of prepared chilled pastry to approximately a 7/8-inch-thick, 13-inch-diameter circle. Place the pastry over the skillet, carefully tucking the dough down against the edge of the skillet and around the edges of the mound of pecans. Trim the excess dough.
3. Place two rimmed baking sheets, one on top of the other, underneath the skillet to catch any drips while the pie bakes and to provide insulation for the caramel. Place skillet in the oven, and bake pie until the dough is just turning golden brown, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, and continue baking until the pastry is cooked through and the caramel is bubbling up around the edges of the skillet, about 30 minutes more.
4. Remove the pie from the oven, and let cool about 20 minutes. Carefully invert the pie onto a parchment-lined tray or baking sheet (the pie is easy to transfer to serving plate once it has been inverted). Be careful inverting pie; the caramel is very hot. If the pie does not release easily from skillet, heat the skillet over medium heat for about 30 seconds. Serve warm.

Best Butter Ever

This stuff is fabulous. I first found out about it at a pie baking class at down town Portland's Sur La Table. The butter they used was fantastic. It gave the crusts a incredible, almost cream cheese like, zing to it. Suddenly I found myself drudging through the pecans and caramel so I could get to the sweet sweet buttery crust. The biggest problem, it's not widely available as it comes from a small dairy in Clackamas. I have found it sold at two stores in Portland. Now that I'm back kicking it up in Baker, I've been managing my small hoard with a miserly iron fist. Stached triple bagged in my freezer, I'm cracking some out for my mother's birthday pie tomorrow. The best part about this butter? A nice high fat European style butter, it tastes as good as the $8lb imported danish butter or the $5 something-ish a half pound Kerrygold, and its only about $4 a pound.

Soda Pop

Never been a fan of fruit soda's. Grape, orange, strawberry, what have you. They just don't taste right. Its just an excuse to drink sugar fizz. Its grape flavor! That makes it all better!
Straight carbonated water has never been dear to me either. Its dry bubbles just highlight the sodium content making it taste somewhat salty, which in this case I find unappetizing. I'm working on it, but I've yet to be able to develop a taste for it.

The fix for both, Izze, naturally flavored blends of fruit juice with sparkling water. Each bottle counts for one full serving of fruit, and with no added sugar or artificial flavorings they show up your average grape and orange soda. They have a very fine fizz. Combining it with the zip of the fruit juice, its a very bright compliment. The fine misty smoke as you open a cool bottle, and the zing each time I take a sip... And I do sip it. Takes me about a day to drink one if I take my time, leaving it in the fridge between tastes. My reacurring favorite is their Clementine flavor. Carbonated orange juice that tastes like orange juice. Eureka! Pictured here is their pomegranate flavor.

Their lite versions use a 90:10 split carbonated water to juice ration in place of the 70:30 in regular. They're very similar to straight carbonated water, but with just a hint of flavor and sweetness to nock out that salty aftertaste.

Cheers!

Pea Soup and Crap Chowder

Soups have been slipping one by one into my kitchen. They have done this a total of twice. No big feat... but I share.


I was bedazzled by a bag of green split peas in the grocery store. As I was admiring their uniform green plasticine sheen, I realized I had never partaken of split pea soup. Much like lentil soup, pea soup gets a pretty bad wrap for its appearance. As Jordan describes his family's version "It looks just like cartoon vomit." Sounds appetizing of course, but both lentils and peas are so healthy, packing a ton of fiber and protein with no fat and hardly any carbohydrates. And both are relatively cheap... And I had to try it some day.

I set about searching for a recipe with vanity in mind. I searched images of pea soup. The most hideous looking (though still delicious sounding) recipes contained cubes of ham and carrots and various bits and chunks. The prettiest of all were made with fresh peas looking wonderfully vibrant, and an interesting cold soup using frozen peas. Of the prettiest dried versions the most fashionable had little besides peas and onions. A pretty greep puree with a dollop of cream (mentally added) puddled in a shallow bowl caught my eye. Turns out it's Emril Lagasse's recipe.

Under the surprisingly eager eyes of both my little siblings, I prepared the soup mostly by the recipe. I cautioned them that pea soup was not very popular. Though it was a wonderfully healty and even delicious soup, people were mean to it because it doesn't look very pretty. They were caught by the drama, and as a result ask me its status every 5 minutes through the process. They both enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. My parents did as well. A definite success. Sadly we forgot about the leftovers and they perished. A moment of silence...

Moving on, the latest soup has no photo's, but was tasty. A combination of bacon, clams potatoes, and cream along with some other integeral ingredients comprised a wonderful clam chowder. Though dubbed far before its completion "Crap Chowder" by my eagerly sarcastic brother, the children did try some. It had a lot of clams, so I don't begrudge them their ample leftovers. They did praise its flavor however. Which I thought a total plus.

Another Strike Of Pie Day

I have taken it into my head, as is oft my want, to practice my art of cookery in my ample spare time. Being returned to my native kitchen, I am much obliged to begin said practice. I started small. A batch of oatmeal nut cookies with a small amount of chocolate and no raisins. A day later, I followed with another batch of cookies, to replenish the first, and a batch of 6 loaves of bread. It was a take on an AllRecipes for so called Fabulous Homemade Bread. I replaced half the bread flour with whole wheat flour for that extra fiber, I mean, texture boost.


At anyrate, the bread was pretty fine. I baked two loaves and froze the rest in the form of two more loaves and a batch of rolls. They should be good later. Other than the shape laking a bit of height, the bread was perfect. Very light and tasty.


But I digress. We are not here for the bread. We are here for pie. I took a class on it a while back, and have been meaning to work on my skills for a while now. So I made a couple batches of crust. To practice see. All of a sudded I had a fridge with 4 pie crusts resting within! Whats a girl to do? Bake some pie, of course, but what variety? Going with what had on hand I grabbed a bag of frozen blueberries. As life usually goes the berries were all shriveled and yucky, so I had to go to the store anyway. And so with some wingin-it skills, and two bags of berries I came up with this.


Two-Berry Pie
1lb- Frozen Blueberries
1lb- Frozen Raspberries
1 double pie crust batch
1/2 C sugar or so
1-2T corn startch
I rolled out the crust in the pie dish brushed it with a beaten and left it in the fridge.
While I mixed the sugar and corn starch and tossed it with the berries.
I poured the dusted berries into the crust, dabbed some butter about it, and topped it with the other crust. I formed it up, then brushed it with more of the beaten egg, sprinkled granulated and turbinado sugar on it and popped it into a 400 degree oven for 15 or 20 minutes till it started to brown, then I dropped it down to 350 and cooked it for about 40 minutes or so till it was hot and the crusts looked done, covering it halway through with tinfoil so it wouldn't burn.

Did I stress the wingin-it bit?

It turned out wonderfully. Eating the whole thing amongst the 5 of us within 3 hours, the pie claimed an average of 2 slices per person (two children included here). And I'm telling you we aren't big on the baked fruit thing. Or even the pie thing... But it was good.

Soo goood.