The Perfect Fall Cake

When I think of cake, the first thing that comes to mind is the cavity inducing concoctions baked, frosted and served up by most supermarkets by the sheetload. As a child I was the first in line begging for a precious colored rose. But, I was recently horrified to learn that the “buttercream” frosting was nothing more than colored, artificially flavored Crisco!!! I guess it makes sense, it IS pure white, shelf stable and holds its shape well, but still gross. Even the “whipped cream” frosting is nothing more than a NON-DAIRY corn syrup product that whips up like cream. The deceit! The sudden need to want to gag! But I digress…

As an adult, I have come to appreciate subtle sweetness as a backdrop to other flavors and textures. Instead of the sugar rush of my youth, I now crave just a sweet palate cleanser at the end of a meal or as a mid-day pick-me-up. Like all things, though, we need to mind the season if we want our food to be as tasty as possible. And, few things are as unavoidable this time of year as pumpkins, apples, pears & gingerbread (even if it is 80 degrees here in LA).

When I stumbled upon this recipe in the Feb. 2002 issue of Gourmet magazine, combining 2 very tasty seasonal delights, I knew I had to try it. Half tarte tartin, half classic upside-down pineapple cake, and all yummy. First, a caramel is made on the bottom of the pan, onto which pears are added and lightly cooked. Gingerbread cake batter is poured on top, and the whole thing is baked in the oven. Once cooked, and slightly cooled, you unmold the cake. The caramelized pears end up on top, with some of the warm caramel dripping down the sides of spiced gingerbread. This cake needs to be served with nothing more than a cup of hot cider or tea to be complete, but a scoop of vanilla ice cream wouldn’t hurt either. Since I’m still making (and now writing about) it 5 years later, means it is that good!

UPSIDE-DOWN PEAR GINGERBREAD CAKE

For topping:

2 1/2 firm pears (preferably Bosc)

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

For cake:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup molasses (preferably mild)

1 cup boiling water

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Special equipment: a well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet or a 12-inch deep nonstick skillet (handle wrapped with a double layer of foil if not ovenproof)

Make topping: Peel and core pears and cut each into 8 wedges. Melt butter in skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides. Reduce heat to low, then sprinkle brown sugar over bottom of skillet and cook, undisturbed, 3 minutes (not all sugar will be melted). Arrange pears decoratively over sugar and cook, undisturbed, 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Make cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together molasses and boiling water in a small bowl. Beat together butter, brown sugar, and egg in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes, then alternately mix in flour mixture and molasses in 3 batches at low speed until smooth.

Pour batter over topping in skillet, spreading evenly and being careful not to disturb pears, and bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes.

Cool cake in skillet on a rack 5 minutes. Run a thin knife around edge of skillet, then invert a large plate with a lip over skillet and, using pot holders to hold skillet and plate tightly together, invert cake onto plate. Replace any pears that stick to skillet. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Winter Salad

Salad is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of summer foods. The light, cool, crisp lettuce is the perfect refresher for a hot summer day. As the weather changes, we all crave heavier, warmer comfort food to ward off the fall chill (even in LA!). There are, however, a number of salads that benefit from autumn’s bounty, making them more weather appropriate, while providing a much needed contrast to the season’s rich dishes.

The salad I’m highlighting here has caramelized apples, blue cheese and nuts. The nice thing about this salad is that you have a lot of flexibility. If you don’t like apples, try pears. If you don’t like blue cheese (even though it marries well with the fruit), try goat cheese. If plain nuts are a too much of a bore for you, try candied nuts. I haven’t even started with the lettuce varieties, but I think you get my drift.

I like to serve a salad like this one as a starter (American style) for a stew or braised dish. Since most of those dishes are saucy (and served with starch), a soup starter just seems to be more of the same. Salads on the other hand, provide a nice change in texture and are an easy way to get in some green veggies.

The vinaigrette is from David Lieberman’s cookbook, Young & Hungry. The honey in the dressing is a subtle complement to the apples, cheese and nuts. I like his method of throwing all the ingredients into a Tupperware and shaking to combine, instead of the classic whisking technique. This is how I made whipped cream back in college, in my NYC shoebox sized kitchen. What can I say? It works!

Salad with Caramelized Apple, Gorgonzola & Walnuts with Honey Sherry Vinaigrette
Serves 8

For the dressing:
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large shallot, minced
2 teaspoons honey
¼ cup sherry vinegar
2 teaspoon whole-grain mustard
A few pinches of salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste

For the salad:
½ pound lettuce (I used ½ arugula and ½ mixed greens)
2 apples (I used Fuji)
3 tablespoons butter
1 heaping tablespoon sugar
A wedge of gorgonzola, cut into slices or chunks
1 cup of walnuts (I used a mix of plain & candied walnuts & pecans)

To make the dressing: Mix all the ingredients in a sealable container. Shake and let stand until ready to use.

To make the salad: Wash and dry the lettuce. I highly recommend a salad spinner. There is nothing worse than soggy lettuce, or lettuce that has been crushed by the blotting paper towel.

Quarter the apple, core, and cut each wedge into 3 pieces. I like to leave the skin on, since it adds nutrients. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter. Once the butter has melted, add the apples, cut side down. Let it cook for a few minutes, then sprinkle the sugar over the apples. Once the bottoms brown, swirl the pan, to distribute the light caramel (sugar + butter). Flip the apples over, and let brown on the other side. Once both sides are brown, toss the apples in the caramel, to coat each one in the “sauce”. Remove the apples from the pan and onto a plate to cool.

Toss the lettuce with a few tablespoons of the (just shaken) dressing, adding a little bit more at a time as needed. (You may have quite a bit left over.) Divide between the salad plates. Garnish the plates with the caramelized apples, gorgonzola and nuts. I topped mine with some edible flowers I found at the farmers market. Drizzle a little dressing around the plates for those who like more sauce, and serve. But whatever you do, don’t forget the love!

‘Tis the season…to braise!

(I know he picture is a little blah, but what can I say, it's stew!)

For most people it is the season to roast, but braising is equally seasonal and sadly underappreciated. For those of you who don’t know, braising is when you gently simmer a meat in liquid, either on the stove top or in the oven. This is often done to tough (read: cheap & flavorful) cuts of meat to break down their overworked muscles and connective tissue, resulting in meltingly tender meat with a flavorful sauce. The tougher the meat, the longer you simmer. The lengthy cooking time warms up the house, while eating the saucy comfort food warms up the soul (as Nigella Lawson would say). And everyone is happy.

I usually opt for braising short ribs or veal shanks (osso buco), but this year I thought I’d kick off the season with a more basic dish, beef stew. But like most things, my idea of basic or simple is not the same standard the rest of the country uses. I found a beef stew recipe in the new Silver Palate Cookbook, which calls for cumin, one of my new favorite spices. Cumin is a relatively new spice to my cooking repertoire. It has a mildly exotic flavor, like a Mediterranean version of an Indian spice. For those of you new to Indian food, this may be a good starting point.

Like most beef stew, you can put almost any kind of vegetable inside, and eat it with almost any absorbent starch (ie - bread, egg noodles, rice). I added extra veggies and liquid to the Silver Palate version, and paired it with Davie Leiberman’s Easy Rice Pilaf (from Young & Hungry). His pilaf recipe is anything but basic because it also has veggies and tumeric. Tumeric gives the dish a bright yellow color - a nice contrast to the drab colored stew- and another subtle Indian flavor.

BEEF STEW WITH CUMIN

1 cups unbleached all-purpose flour1 tsp. salt, plus additional to taste
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper, plus additional to taste
3 pounds beef stew meat(I like to use 7-blade chuck steak, and cut into pieces myself. This is a very tasty cut of meat, and a safer bet than the market’s random meat mix)
¼ cup olive oil
1½ cups dry red wine
2 cups beef stock, or low sodium beef broth
1½ cups canned crushed tomatoes
2 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chili powder (quantity can vary by taste)
1 bay leaf
1 sprig thyme
8-12 white pearl onions, or 6 cippolini onion cut in half through the root
3 large carrots, cut into 1½” pieces on the diagonal
6 red new potatoes, halved
6 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
½ cup chopped fresh Italian fIat-Ieaf parsley, plus additional for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Stir the flour, the 1 tsp. salt and the ½ tsp. pepper together in a shallow bowl. Turn the cubes of stew meat in the flour to coat well, shake off the excess, and transfer to a plate.

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the beef cubes, a few at a time, and brown them well on all sides. As they are browned, transfer them to paper towels to drain.

When all the meat is browned, discard any excess oil but do not wash the pot. Add the wine, beef stock, and crushed tomatoes, and set the pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring and scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

Return the beef to the pot, add the cumin, chili powder, bay leaf and thyme, and season with salt and pepper. Cover the pot and set it on the center rack of the oven. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally and regulating the oven temperature to maintain the stew at a steady simmer.

Meanwhile, soak the pearl onions in hot tap water to facilitate peeling. Peel the onions.

After the stew has been in the oven for about 45 minutes, stir in the onions, carrots and potatoes. Continue to cook the stew. After another 30 minutes, stir in the garlic and the ½ cup parsley. Continue to cook, uncovered, until the stew is reduced and thickened to your liking and the beef is tender, another 15 to 30 minutes. Serve with Easy Rice Pilaf (recipe below) sprinkled with parsley.

Serves 6


Easy Rice Pilaf

8 medium white mushrooms (about 6 ounces)
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium shallot, finely diced (about 1 Tbsp.)
Salt
2 cups long-grain rice
1½ tsp. turmeric
One 14½ ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup frozen peas (baby peas are nice)

¼ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

Wipe the mushrooms clean with a damp kitchen towel or paper towel. (Washing them under running water makes them soggy.) Pull off the mushroom stems and then cut the mushrooms through the caps into 8 wedges.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. When it starts to foam, add the shallot and cook until the butter starts to brown. Add the mushrooms, season lightly with salt, and give them a big stir. The mushrooms will soak up all the butter and then start to give off water. Let them cook, stirring often, until they stop giving off water and start to sizzle in the butter and brown, about 8 minutes.

Stir in the rice and cook until it absorbs the butter. Stir in the turmeric and cook until the rice turns bright yellow. Pour in the chicken broth, refill the can with water, and pour that into the pot. Bring the liquid to a boil. Add 1 tsp. of salt and taste. The liquid should be a little salty because the extra salt will season the rice. Add more salt if you think the broth needs it. Bring the broth to a boil and then turn the heat very low so the broth is barely simmering. (It needs to be very low or the rice may burn at the bottom.) Cover the pot and cook until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Scatter the peas and parsley over the top of the rice, cover the pot, and let stand 5 minutes. The heat from the rice is all you need to cook the peas. Stir the peas and parsley into the rice with a fork, fluffing thee rice as you go.

Serves 6

Girls Gone Wild!

...on Tomato Day, of course!!! Come on, what did you really expect.

I have friends and family who have been carrying on the tradition of jarring tomatoes for years. They wait until tomatoes are at the peak of ripeness & flavor, in late August - early September. It seems silly to think of preserving your own tomatoes now, when we have supermarket shelves stocked with countless varieties of canned ones and jarred sauce. But there was a time when the only way you could insure having tomatoes in the winter was to jar them yourself in the summer. Although it is not necessary to do it in this day and age, there is something truely satisfying about being self sufficient, and NOT needing to rely on factories or someone else, much like whipping cream by hand. Aside from being self sufficient & "connecting with the land" aspect of it all, the thing I enjoy most about food in general is creating memories.

So, when my friend Amy approached me about jarring her grandmother's sauce (the same sauce grandma - aka "Nana" - herself has been jarring for decades), I thought this would be a nice way for Amy to connect with Nana, for me to connect with my Italian heritage, and for all of us girls involved to create a memory and tradition of our own. A memory, I might add, that we will recall every time we open a jar of Nana's sauce.

I've been intrigued by jarring/canning for some time now. I won't lie to you, though, my biggest fear is botulism. No, not the Botox "beauty product" injected into wrinkles and frown lines, but the lethal result of improperly sealed jars. I've always been tempted to jar my own strawberry jam or peaches in syrup, but properly sealing the jar seemed too daunting a task for me to even try. Thanks to Amy, her Nana's step-by-step instructions and little research, the process was surprisingly straightforward.

From what I've read, there are 2 ways to jar. You can either boil the contents for 20 minutes before filling the jars (called "cold canning"), or boil the filled and sealed jars for 20 minutes (called "pressure canning"), before cooling to create the vacuum. We opted for the former. The jars went into a water-bleach solution for sterilization, then kept them warm in a 180 degree oven. The sauce was simmering for hours before we jarred it. Just before we were ready to fill the jars, we boiled the lids to soften the "rubbers." Yes, that's what the 1942 version of the Joy of Cooking called the rubber ring inside the lid. That alone kept us laughing all day, as did the note to always use new "rubbers." If I've said it once...




Our assembly line would have made Ford proud. I filled the clean jars with sauce leaving 1/2" of space from the top, Amy wiped the tops clean, Sarah topped the jars with the (now boiled) rubbered disk part of the lid, and Kirsten screwed on the outer part of the lid. As the jars cooled we heard the "popping" of the lids as the air constricted inside the jars, creating the vacuum. Not all the jars "popped" though. We quickly remedied that, by putting them in a hot water bath, and baking them for 45 min. at 325 degrees. That seemed to do the trick.
















I'm not sure if we made enough jars for the winter, but we did make enough jars to last the year.

One Sunday night, not long after Tomato Day, Reno & I cracked open a jar of sauce to top some frozen ravioli for an easy supper. For me it brought back memories of the girls' day spent making the jars, and for Reno it brought back memories of eating jarred sauce growing up. Either way, we were more connected than we would be to a jar of Prego.

I didn't include Nana's recipe here, because we still need to work out a few kinks. However, I think you should make a sauce to your liking (or asking someone who does), and jar that. It may be a little late in the season for tomatoes this year, but I highly encourage you to jar something (jam or preserves perhaps?). You won't regret it!

And a special thanks goes out to Sarah (the one in the green tee), who actually took the pictures, and who had to send them to me 3 times for me to save them properly...you're the best!