Roasted peppers with Kathleen Bellicchi

Zucchini Time!

Responding to a request from a reader, here are 2 zucchini dishes, one simple, quick, and easy.  The terrine is more involved and definitely worth the effort.  I’m convinced the terrine tastes even better with a flute of champagne (but then, doesn’t most anything?).  What do you do with a bountiful zucchini harvest?

Zucchini Time Pasta Serves 4-6

Its zucchini time again.  If you’re not trying to give them away to neighbors and friends then stick your head out your door and ask your neighbors, someone will only be too happy to share their zucchini harvest.  This dish is colorful and looks exotic, it’s easy to prepare, and you’ll be enjoying the fruits of your labor in 30 minutes or less.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 red pepper  

1 clove garlic

2 zucchini squash (about 1 pound)

one-half teaspoon chili flakes – optional

salt

1 pound linguine

chunk of parmesan cheese

Wash the zucchini, do not peel.  Grate the zucchini on the largest side of a four-sided grater or use a mandolin, you will have zucchini ribbons. 

Boil water for linguine in a large pot, the standard measure is 4 quarts of water to a pound of pasta.  When the water boils add 2 tablespoon salt, linguine and cook according to package directions.   Place your serving bowl in the sink under a colander, drain the linguine into the strainer and heat your serving bowl at the same time.  Reserve about 1 cup of the cooking water.  Return the linguine to the cooking pot,

While the water is heating and the linguine is cooking, slice the red pepper in half lengthwise, remove seeds, and slice in thin strips.  Heat a large frying pan, add olive oil, peppers and sauté 3 minutes, then add garlic and zucchini ribbons.  Add salt to taste, about one-half teaspoon, the chili flakes and cook 3 minutes longer. 

Make parmesan cheese curls with a vegetable peeler.  Place the peeler along the edge of the chunk of parmesan and pull toward you.  Make a pile that equals about 1 cup.

Toss the vegetables with the linguine, add some of the pasta water (one-half to one cup), and top with the parmesan curls.  You now have a sensational dish that tastes as good as it looks. 

Vegetable Terrine

This terrine was inspired by a dinner served at a chateau in the Loire valley.  One of our small traveling companions would announce in the morning, “We can blow through four chateaus today if we skip lunch.”  He was quickly voted down by the rest of us.

After a long day of chateau-hopping and many miles traveled, we arrived at our digs for the next two days, a family-owned and-run chateau.  It was during that wonderful season of the year in France that follows the intense heat of summer and just before the grape harvest begins.  The temperature is pleasant, the tourist crush is over, the locals are resting before the intensity of the grape harvest begins, and everything seems a bit slow and unhurried, a great time to travel in France. 

After exploring the gardens, orangery, and park, we showered, dressed for dinner and joined the other guests in the drawing room.  Our host was pouring aperitifs or champagne.  An easy choice for me.  The champagne tasted delicious – dry and bubbly, the perfect lead-in to a fabulous dinner, Vegetable terrine was the first course.

Vegetable Terrine (Heat oven to 350 F.)
3 small yellow squash (3-4 cups)
3 small zucchini (3-4 cups)
2 tablespoons butter
4 egg yolks
1 cup crème fraiche (see note below to make your own)

2 teaspoons salt & one-half teaspoon white pepper
one-fourth teaspoon nutmeg
one-half envelope gelatin (1 tablespoon) (optional)

few basil leaves for garnish

Without peeling, cut yellow squash in thin slices. Peeling the zucchini gives the finished dish a creamy white appearance; it will have green flecks if you choose to leave the skin on the zucchini – both have an appetizing appearance in the finished dish.

Heat a sauté pan over medium heat, add butter, squash and sauté for about 5
minutes, sprinkle with salt, mix well, cover, lower flame, and let cook until soft. Pour off any liquid, cool slightly, puree in a food processor.

Beat egg yolks, whisk in crème Fraiche* and squash, add nutmeg, salt, and white pepper to taste.  When the mixture looks thin and I’m concerned that it won’t set up, I add a half package of gelatin.  Follow package directions and mix it in at this point.

*Note: If you can’t find crème Fraiche, substitute 2 cups sour cream and 1 cup cream cheese. Whisk together until smooth.

Pour mixture into a buttered baking dish or mold. Place in a Bain Marie (a pan of hot water that covers about two-thirds of your baking dish).  Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center of the terrine comes out clean. Leave in Bain Marie until ready to serve.

Sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced (1 cup)
4 to 6 plum tomatoes – blanched, peeled, seeded, and chopped (aprox. 4 cups)
a few basil leaves
2 tablespoons tomato paste (optional)
salt & white pepper

Heat a sauté pan, add olive oil, garlic, and onion and cook for a few minutes until onions are translucent.  Add tomatoes, basil leaves, salt and pepper, cover and cook ten minutes. If the sauce is thin or needs a flavor boost add tomato paste.  You can puree sauce or leave chunky.

Pool tomato sauce on a platter, invert terrine onto platter, and garnish with basil leaves.

Sausage & Peppers
This past week-end we visited with long time friends in Ridgefield. During the week I thought about what food – ingredients and prepared dishes we could bring that would be easy to get on to the table with a minimum of fuss in someone else’s kitchen. The answer: Winter pesto (published in a previous blog), Sausage and Peppers, and Chocolate Sauce (the next two blogs), and a bottle of Prosecco. (Wouldn’t you like us to visit you for a week-end?)

We had plans to be out and about Saturday during the day and other friends scheduled to come for Saturday dinner followed by a merciless session of Trival Pursuit. Who won is still in dispute…

Menu
Sausage & Peppers
Winter Pesto w/ Festonati pasta
Broccoli Rabe
Arugula Salad w/ Bosc Pears and toasted Pecans
Mango Sorbet w/ Chocolate Sauce

We arrived home late Saturday afternoon about an hour before guests were scheduled to arrive. We picked up a box of arugula, two bunches of broccoli rabe, a few Bosc pears, a couple of pints of Sorbet – Mango & Raspberry, and assorted fresh berries.

The sausage and peppers just needed to be re-heated, pasta cooked for the pesto, salad put together, and broccoli rabe sautéed w/ garlic. We were ready with plenty of time to spare.

Sausage & Peppers – serves 6
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 leeks
4 peppers – 2 yellow and 2 orange
6 plum tomatoes
2 medium size cloves of garlic (to your taste)
6 Italian sausages (about 2 pounds) 3 sweet / 3 hot (pork or chicken – your choice)
2 teaspoons crushed bouillon cube or 1 cup concentrated chicken or vegetable stock

You can practice your knife technique cutting these vegetables into bite size pieces, or use a Cuisinart to process into small pieces. Use leek from top to bottom, slice the leeks lengthwise in half and run under cool water to remove sand and clay-like soil. Slice leeks bottom to top on a slight diagonal in half-inch pieces. Slice tomatoes lengthwise in half, scoop out seeds, it’s to leave the skin on and dice. The peppers need to be hand sliced for texture and color in this dish. Halve and seed peppers, slice in lengthwise quarter-inch strips.

To process cut vegetables in pieces so they fit in the bowl of the cuisinart, pulse 5 short pulses 5 times for leeks, 4 times for tomatoes.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat for 2 minutes, add olive oil and leeks, stir or shake pan to distribute evenly, sauté about 4 minutes. add to leeks and sauté another 4 minutes, dice tomatoes, add and sauté another 4 minutes. Make a hole in the center of your pan, push the vegetables aside, add about 1 tablespoon olive oil, let it heat for a minute and add garlic sliced in thin pieces. When the garlic begins to sizzle mix it into the vegetables. Spoon the vegetables into a large bowl and set aside while you cook the sausage.

Remove the sausage from their casing, re-heat pan and drop in bite size (aprox. 2 teaspoon size) pieces of sausage, do not shake or stir. Let brown for 4 minutes, shake or use a spatula to turn the sausage pieces, add vegetables back into the pan, stir in bouillon or stock, lower flame, cover and cook 3 minutes covered.

If you want to serve immediately, cook another 2 minutes, remove cover, turn heat off and let sit 5 minutes. Transfer to a heated platter and serve. You don’t need a garnish, the peppers, tomatoes, and sausage present an attractive dish.

If you want to cool and serve later, turn off heat, remove cover and let pan sit on hot burner. This works for a gas flame. If you have an electric or radiant heat stove, it may be best to leave it half on burner and turn the pan every minute or so.) Cool to room temp and refrigerate at this point like I did this past week. You can prepare up to three days in advance. To serve heat in a large sauté pan spread out thin so it will heat quickly, or heat on a platter in a microwave.

Individual Molten Chocolate Cakes 4 servings in deep pan / 6 in a smaller pan
I wonder if there is more chocolate consumed during Valentine’s season than any other time of year. Make this chocolate dessert for a delicious ending to your Valentine’s Day dinner. It does all the perfect chocolate things; texture – gooey and crusty; taste – Valrhona 60% gives the perfect balance of intense chocolate and mild sweetness.

My brother, Chef Tim Quinn, created this recipe that allows you to prepare the batter ahead of time and bake the cakes just before serving. This dessert has been the favorite wherever my brother Tim has been the chef (Sherlock’s Old Lyme, Seaman’s Inn Mystic, and now Old Sturbridge Village)

The idea of a molten cake is to have the outside edge just baked and a little crusty; in the middle a gloriously soft indescribably delicious molten gooey center.

Bake the cakes in 4-ounce individual pans or a deep cup cake pan. Butter each cup cake pan, sprinkle with cocoa powder, then shake off excess cocoa. (Although a deep pan is ideal I’ve made them on the spur of the moment in a standard cup cake pan, take 2 minutes off the baking time)

Make the batter up to 2 hours before you plan to bake the cakes, set the batter aside in a cool place, not the refrigerator. (The eggs are cooked through when you combine them with the warm chocolate and butter mixture.) Turn the oven on when you sit down to eat. After dinner pop the cakes in the oven.

Pre-heat oven to 450 F (425F convection)
2 large whole eggs
2 large egg yolks
one-quarter cup sugar
3 tablespoons heavy cream
one stick butter
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (recommend Valhrona 60%)
2 T cake flour or finely ground ground hazelnuts, almonds, or walnuts

1 pint French vanilla ice cream (or flavor of your choice)
One-half pint fresh raspberries, strawberries, orange sections (your choice)

Nuts taste best when you toast them lightly before using. Heating the nuts pulls the oil to the surface imparting a more intense flavor. Place nuts on a cookie sheet in a cold oven, turn heat to 350F and toast for about 8 minutes. Or toast in a pan on top of the stove over the lowest heat for about 8-10 minutes, shake to turn every minute or so. Use a Cuisinart or clean coffee grinder to grind the nuts.

Use an electric mixer or a whisk (it depends on the strength in your forearm). Beat eggs until light about 1 minute, mix in sugar and cream and beat 3 minutes. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler over a medium low heat, remove mixture from the double boiler from heat and let cool slightly (3-4 minutes). Pour mixture into eggs stirring constantly so eggs don’t cook. Or you can take one-fourth cup or so of the chocolate butter mixture, stir into the eggs to equalize the temperature and then add the remaining chocolate mixture to the eggs. Fold in flour or groundnuts.

Pour into prepared cup cake pans and place in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit on a cooling rack 3-4 minutes. Use oven mitts to un-mold cakes and place cakes on individual serving plates. Place a scoop of ice cream next to each cake and strew a few berries or sliced fruit around the plate.

Kale

Kale is a hot culinary item right now. Kale is high in Vitamin K – aids blood clotting, protects the heart, and helps to build bones. It is also rich in Vitamin A, C, and Manganese – a trace mineral – helps keep bones strong and healthy.

Kale is a hearty vegetable that you can harvest throughout the winter. Years ago we lived on a farm and always planted kale in our house garden in the bed closest to the kitchen. In the fall I’d mark the rows with 5 foot sticks on either end. Snowy winter afternoons would find me shoveling a path to the garden so I could harvest the emerald green jems – spiky stems loaded with snow. The 5 foot sticks now showing about a foot and a half above the drifted snow had become beacons. Just shake off the snow and the kale is ready to cook.

Kale cooks best after it has been hit by a frost. Funny how frost kills most greens; with kale it is the opposite. Before a frost kale is chewy and can be stringy, after a frost it will melt in your mouth! (when you cook it, as my granddaughter Hailey says, Juuust Right)

Curly kale is the most common variety found in groceries and farmers markets. Lacinato, Cavolo Nero, Dinosaur Kale are three names for the same type of kale, a tall skinny pointed crinkly leafed plant. In recent years you have probably seen ornamental purple kale gracing urban window boxes, corporate office park and hotel walkways. You can cook this kale as well. You can use any type of kale in the recipes below.

Kale does not need to be cooked for 25 minutes; it is ready to eat in 10-12 minutes. Kale leaves cook much quicker than the stems. Pull the leaves off the stems, cook separately, use stems for stock, compost, or discard.

Here are 3 kale recipes. Kale served on its own as a vegetable, the soup vegetables and beans without stock is a delicious vegetable dish, and the soup served with sausage and grated cheese.

Kale serves 2-4
1 bunch kale (approximately one-half pound)
2 tablespoons olive oil
One-half teaspoon kosher salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar (rice, balsamic, red wine – each give a different accent)

Wash kale, pull leaves off stem, tear into large bite size pieces as you would do with lettuce for salad, discard stem. * Boil one-half inch water in a saucepan, add olive oil, salt, kale, cover and return to a boil. Lower flame and simmer 5 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook another 5-7 minutes. Remove kale from pan and serve immediately sprinkled with lemon juice or spread on a platter to cool.

The kale will keep its bright green color if you spread it out in one layer to cool. If you don’t serve the kale right away let it cool before sprinkling with lemon juice or vinegar. If you leave the kale in the pan it will turn army green and look very unappetizing when you serve it at table.

* Some days you may need more than one-half inch water to cook the kale. Growing up whenever the water would boil out of a pot, or vegetables burn, my mother would say, “Oh, it’s going to rain”. It is true more water or steam vapor is absorbed by the air when the barometric pressure is low. It usually does herald rain. I set a timer for 4 minutes (otherwise I might completely forget to check the kale until I got a whiff of that unmistakable smell… burning food), if the water is disappearing, add an extra cup.

Kale, Cannellini Bean, and Sausage – Side or Soup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek
1 bulb fennel
3 plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon minced fresh sage leaves
1 (18 oz.)can Cannellini beans
one-half teaspoon kosher salt (or to taste)
one-half teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (or to taste)
stock or water and bouillon
1 bunch kale
2 – 8 inch fresh sausages (your choice – chicken, pork, other)
Parmesan cheese – grated optional
fennel fronds garnish – pull fronds off the stems

Slice leek in half lengthwise and rinse in cool water to remove dirt and sand. Slice leek halves bottom to top on a slight diagonal in quarter inch pieces, use the whole leek. Cut fennel stem off about 2 inches above the bulb. Slice bulb in half lengthwise, slice each half into 3 pieces top to bottom then across in 5-6 pieces. You will have bite size pieces perfect for soup. Remove core from tomatoes, slice in half lengthwise, slice lengthwise again in 8-10 slices, then across in a small dice.

Heat a soup pot over a medium heat for 2 minutes; add olive oil, then leeks. They will sizzle as soon as they hit the oil, stir, reduce heat slightly and sauté 3 minutes. Add fennel and then tomatoes at 3 minute intervals. Add sage, salt, pepper, and the canned beans along with their liquid, stir into vegetables, increase heat to medium high, and let this mixture come to a simmer. Let the beans and vegetables simmer for 15 minutes longer and serve this as a tasty side dish. Prepare sausage as directed below and toss with beans and vegetables as you place them in a serving dish or prepare individual servings on plates.

To prepare soup, add stock or water and bouillon, tip cover on pot, turn heat to medium low and simmer 20 minutes.

Pull kale off stalks and tear or cut into small pieces (think one-inch square). After simmering the soup for 20 minutes, take cover off pot, drop kale on top of soup, do not stir kale into soup, cover pot and let cook 5 minutes. Uncover the pot; the kale will be a brilliant green color, turn heat to medium low, simmer another 5 minutes then remove from stove. The kale will hold this bright emerald green color when you leave it sit on top of the soup.

Heat a frying pan over medium heat for 2 minutes, slit sausage casing, snip sausage meat with kitchen scissors into bite size pieces (about 1-inch chunks) and drop into frying pan. (If you use chicken sausage, start with a teaspoon of olive oil in the frying pan before adding the sausage so it won’t stick to the bottom of the pan.) Let sausage meat cook without touching until browned on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Shake the pan to turn the sausages or use a spatula, individually turn pieces that didn’t flip, cook another 3 minutes without touching. Turn off heat, let sausages sit in the pan 3 minutes then remove the sausage pieces to a plate covered w/ a paper towel or paper bag to absorb excess oil. The sausage pieces will be just cooked through. The less you touch and turn, the lighter and less greasy the sausages will be when you eat them.

Ladle soup into bowls; add a few pieces of sausage, sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and a few fennel fronds. Serve with a hot crusty loaf of bread, good butter or olive oil, and arugula salad perked up with pomegranate seeds, julienne Bosc pears, pecans, and gorgonzola and you have an unsurpassable winter feast.

On top of the soup you can use any hard or soft cheese you enjoy; a few of my faves are Monterrey Jack – plain or w/ jalapenos, Gruyere, Robusto, or Taleggio.

This week I’m preparing for a Friday evening fiesta – Summer in January. What I call my White Bean Chili is really more of a soup. You could use less stock and make the chili thicker if you wish. The dumplings explode with the flavors of cilantro and Monterrey Jack cheese.

Just posting Saturday afternoon… The White Bean Chili was a hit on a frosty cold Boston winter evening. The fire was roaring in the fireplace and our living room and dining room were packed with friends crunching on corn chips with salsa and guacamole, eating rice and beans, tequila marinated grilled chicken, tacos and soft tortillas with all the fixings.

White Bean Chili Preparation time 30 minutes. Cooking time 30 minutes
(Serves 4-6 as a first course)
Chili can be prepared earlier in the day or even a day ahead of time, in fact some say it tastes better the second day. It is very light for chili, yet as delicious as heartier recipes.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion – diced
1 leek – diced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 can Cannellini beans (you can use any type of bean you like)
4 cups chicken stock / bouillon

Garnish

1 cup sour cream
1 lime
1 bunch cilantro
one-fourth cup pickled Jalapenos – minced

Heat a soup pot over medium heat; add olive oil, garlic, onion and sauté until onion turns translucent 3 – 4 minutes. Add cumin, chili, (cooking the spices intensifies their flavor), turn heat to low and continue to cook, about 5 minutes. Add beans, stock, and simmer over medium low heat for about 20 minutes, then add meatballs.

Dumplings

1 beaten egg
1 pound ground chicken
one-half teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
one-half cup minced cilantro + minced cilantro for garnish
one-half cup Panko crumbs (any breadcrumbs will work)
1 cup grated Monterrey Jack cheese

Beat egg; add remaining ingredients and mix well to combine ingredients. Form into bite size balls and drop into simmering soup. They are cooked when they float to the top, about 3 minutes. Turn off heat, cover pot and leave undisturbed for 20 minutes. If the dumplings simmer too long the cheese will melt out of them. Re-heat quickly before serving.

Garnish chili with a dollop of sour cream, freshly squeezed lime juice, cilantro and, sliced pickled jalapeno peppers (optional).

Leek Tart Pre-heat to 375F.
This Leek Tart would make a beautiful and tasty centerpiece for a New Years buffet or brunch.
I perfected the recipe after returning from a trip to the Loire Valley.

My favorite Chateau of all was Villandry. There are acres of vegetable and flower beds laid out in clever and unusual patterns. Diagonal red flowering kale plants lined up perfectly encircled by leeks planted three deep around the edge of the bed. You see beds of cauliflower, Swiss chard, collard greens, squash, broccoli. Whether you love or shun eating vegetables the display of vegetable beauty in the Villandry gardens will have you yearning for a bountiful vegetable dish.

We were served a Leek Tart in the café at Villandry. No one in France will tell you how they make a dish let alone give out their recipe. I remembered the taste and texture and worked on the recipe when I came home. The secret ingredient is crème Fraiche added to sautéed leeks baked in puff pastry.

Enjoy eating the baked tart with a glass of chilled Loire valley Sancerre or Pouilly-fume; you can easily imagine yourself sitting at a quay side table at a café in St. Honore.

LEEK TART Pre-heat oven to 375 F.
You can make your own or buy puff pastry. Heat oven to temperature specified on the puff pastry package. Pepperidge Farm puff pastry package contains 2 sheets and weighs 1.1 pounds. The Whole Foods puff pastry (the stores in my area), contain two sheets and weighs 14 ounces. You can use any puff pastry product; adjust the amount of leek filling.

4 tablespoons butter
3 to 4 leeks – washed, cleaned, sliced on a diagonal in pieces one-fourth inch wide
1 teaspoon kosher salt (to your taste)
one cup crème Fraiche
one-fourth teaspoon ground black pepper (to your taste)
one-fourth teaspoon grated nutmeg
parchment paper
2 sheets puff pastry, defrosted 40 minutes
one-eighth cup cream

Heat a sauté pan over medium heat, melt butter until it begins to sizzle, add leeks and sauté 3-4 minutes. Season with salt, reduce heat to medium low and sweat until leeks are soft, about 15 minutes, season with pepper, and nutmeg. Remove from stove and cool for 10 minutes, then mix in crème Fraiche. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Defrost pastry according to directions on the package (30-40 minutes). Place a piece of parchment paper that is slightly larger than the puff pastry on a cookie sheet, lay puff pastry on top of parchment paper, and heap cooled leek filling onto pastry leaving one-and-one half inches of dough clear around the edges. Cover filling with the second sheet of pastry and trim one-half inch off around the edge (you now have one inch of excess dough around the edge of the tart). Roll the edge of the dough inward and press down to form a tight dough seal; crimp the edge all the way around with your fingers or the tines of a fork. Use the extra pieces of dough to make decorative ropes, leaves, a tree, initials, or anything you choose. It may look as though the decorations are too thick. Don’t worry, the dough puffs as it bakes due to the many layers of butter in the dough. I made a tart last week and used the excess dough to make a wreath, holly leaves and berries. It was festive and beautiful to look at sitting on a large wooden board on a Holiday buffet.

Use your fingers or a pastry brush to brush the surface of the crust with cream or milk, this produces a shiny crust. Pierce the top crust with a knife to make a few air holes for steam to escape, cut around the edges of decorations, or cut a design into the top crust.

The finished product looks delectable and very professional. Your family or guests may ask where you bought the tasty looking tart!

If the dough feels sticky after building the tart, chill 30 minutes in the refrigerator before baking. Bake 45-50 minutes. You can freeze the tart at this point. Place frozen tart in a 400 F. oven for 20 minutes, lower heat to 350 F. for 20-25 minutes.

Slide baked tart onto a cooling rack as soon as it comes out of the oven to prevent the bottom crust from becoming soggy. Cool at least 15 minutes before serving or you can serve the tart at room temperature.

Almond Crescents
Now a favorite Holiday cookie I first tasted these tasty cookies in Seattle visiting with my brother – Sea Captain Dan Quinn, his wife Maho, and son, Sterling, who is also a past Washington State Yo-yo Champion. Maho is a great cook and served these cookies along with tall frosty glasses of lemonade on a summer afternoon as we sat on their shaded deck overlooking Lake Washington enjoying a refreshing breeze. A delicious treat year round they are perfect for those who are sensitive to wheat; an excellent cookie to add to your Holiday repertoire.

Almond Crescents Heat oven to 350 F.
1 tube (7 ounces) almond paste (not marzipan)
one-third cup sugar
1 unbeaten egg white
1 teaspoon almond extract
one-eighth teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of Canola or other light oil (use on your hands to form cookies)
one cup toasted almond slices or one cup toasted crushed almonds
red & green sprinkles for Christmas cookies (optional)

You can buy sliced almonds in any grocery store. I prefer whole crushed almonds they have more almond flavor. Place one cup of almonds in a food processor and pulse quickly just to crush, probably about 6-8 pulses.

Nuts always taste best when they have been lightly toasted. Toasting nuts heats the oil in the nut and releases their fragrance and flavor. Place nuts in cold oven, turn to 350 F. (325 F. convection oven) and toast crushed or sliced nuts for 8 minutes.

Cream almond paste and sugar until light, about 3 minutes, using an electric mixer. Add egg white, almond extract, and salt, mix another minute.

Cover a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper, lightly oiled aluminum foil, or a Silpat. Lightly oil your hands, divide dough into 16 equal size balls, then roll dough between your hands to make cylinders about 2 inches long. Roll each cylinder in sprinkles (if you choose), almond slices, or crushed almonds, and bend into a crescent shape as you place them on the cookie sheet. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Place in pre-heated oven 15-16 minutes, until they are a light golden brown. Let cool slightly 4-5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. It’s always the cook’s prerogative to eat a few right out of the oven.

Variations
Use crushed macadamia nuts in place of almonds; use vanilla extract and mix one-eight teaspoon grated nutmeg in the dough
Use crushed almonds and mix 1 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds or rosemary sprigs in the dough.

Bouillabaisse Serves 6-8

Bouillabaisse is a participatory event, roll up your sleeves and dig in!

This is a great meal to prepare over the Holidays. It is our traditional New Year’s Eve feast when we stay at home and entertain friends.

You can prepare the soup base up to 1 month ahead of time. Once the soup base is prepared it takes less than 30 minutes to serve hot fragrant bowls of Bouillabaisse.

Bouillabaisse has a certain mystique about it. Legend has it that the goddess Venus prepared this dish for her husband, Vulcan, with a goal of inducing sleep so she could have her way with him! Saffron was thought to induce sleep. Another food writer credits an abbess in Marseilles who had this meatless one pot meal prepared every Friday as a staple in her convent. Yet another writer touts bouillabaisse as a delicious way to mask using cheap, plentiful, yet fresh fish. You choose, they’re all good stories to begin great dinner table conversation.

A great meal for a crowd, easy to prepare, Bouillabaisse is elegant and delicious. You can vary the type of fish you use. I love to use tiny clams called cockles when I can find them, and mussels. However, one of my best friends is allergic to shellfish and another avoids shellfish for religious reasons. It does not take away from the dish to omit shellfish. The saffron flavor is distinctive and matches very well with fish and I think the leeks give the broth a velvety quality. Fish such as monk, halibut, haddock, and Mako shark, readily absorb the soup flavors and will not flake apart. I always buy the freshest fish rather than go by the recipe. As long as you have the approximate amount of fish for your diners, your Bouillabaisse will be perfect. You can also add a lobster to the pot (or one for each diner), adjust the remaining fish accordingly. The secret ingredient in Bouillabaisse is saffron. It gives the broth a rich yellow hue and imparts a unique flavor to the dish. Buy powdered saffron or threads; follow directions on package. (Information about Saffron and how to use in cooking is a Blog in itself. I’ll save it for another day.)

You can prepare the soup base ahead of time and even freeze it. Prepared this way you can have a spectacular dinner on the table for 6-8 people within thirty minutes. Round out your meal with hot crusty French bread and a generous green salad. If you’re cooking for two or four, prepare the base as directed below, freeze what you don’t use and adjust quantities of fish. You can easily double the recipe as well.

Base
1 large sweet onion
2 leeks
2 bulbs fennel
3-4 large cloves garlic (to your taste)
one-third cup olive oil
1 – 28 ounce can Pastene whole peeled tomatoes
2 cups water
Saffron (one-eighth teaspoon powder or one-half teaspoon threads)
2 teaspoons salt – or to taste
pepper to taste
1 bay leaf

one pound monkfish
one pound halibut or codfish
one pound mussels
one pound cherrystone clams
one-half pound scallops
one-half pound large uncooked shrimp

Prepare leeks. Slice off the root end and slice in half lengthwise about four inched into the white part. Pull leaves apart at the neck where the green and white merge, rinse under cool running water to remove any sand or dirt. Shake off excess water and slice in one-half inch pieces. Peel onion and slice in half, then lengthwise in thin pieces. Slice fennel bulbs in small bite size pieces; keep some of the willowy fronds from the fennel tops for garnish. Heat your soup pot over a medium heat and add half of the olive oil. Sauté onions and leeks until soft but not brown about five minutes. Peel and slice garlic in thin pieces and sauté another minute. Crush canned tomatoes and the juice with your hands, add to soup pot, and stir well. Add water, salt, pepper, bay leaf and simmer 10 minutes. Add saffron and turn off heat. At this point you can cool the base to room temperature and refrigerate or freeze up to 1 month.

Prepare the fish. Wash mussels and clams, remove beards and soak in cool water with one tablespoon flour or corn meal for 30 minutes. The shellfish will exchange the sand for the flour or meal. Rinse under running water for one minute and drain in a colander. Cut other fish into large bite size chunks. Heat the soup base to boiling, add shell fish except shrimp, cover, lower flame to medium low and let simmer 10 minutes or until the shells open. (If you’re using one lobster per person, let them simmer in the base 10 minutes before adding other shellfish.) Add the remaining fish, olive oil, stir gently, cover pot, turn off heat and let sit 5 minutes, add shrimp, poke raw shrimp so it is submerged in the broth, let sit another 10 minutes. The fish will cook to perfection in the hot soup. Do not stir, ladle gently into soup plates making sure that each person has a taste of each kind of seafood.

Gremolata – Garnish (optional)
One-half cup minced fennel fronds
One lemon – rasp rind
Toss together lightly and strew over filled bowls of Bouillabaisse as you serve.

Serve with hot crusty bread and serve a green salad as a separate course following the bouillabaisse. Traditionally bouillabaisse is eaten with the clams and mussels as spoons to scoop up the fish and broth

Hot Crusty Bread
Pre-heat oven to 400. Place un-sliced bread on wire rack in middle of oven for five minutes. Use an oven mitt to hold loaf while you cut it in thick slices.

Great Greens Salad
4 cups arugula
4 cups torn romaine lettuce
1 Bosc pear, or a pomegranate, or orange (your choice)
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
one-half teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Fresh ground pepper, optional
1 teaspoon rasped lemon rind
Optional additions to salad – one-third cup toasted walnut pieces, bite size pieces double crème soft blue cheese(to taste)

Rub salad bowl with split garlic clove, add lettuce and arugula, cover with a damp towel and refrigerate. In a mortar or blender place garlic, mustard and salt. Mash with pestle or blend to pulverize garlic. Stir in lemon juice, thread in olive oil while you continue mixing or blending. Toss dressing with salad just before serving, strew fruit on top, rasp lemon rind over salad and give the salad a few grinds of fresh black pepper.

Sticky Buns (makes 24 2-inch Sticky Buns)

If you have a house full of people, a hungry family, have been asked to bring a dish to a brunch, or just want a scrumptious leisurely morning treat, Sticky Buns are for you.

When we were young Ella’s bakery in Mystic CT made wonderful cinnamon buns. They were rolled with cinnamon, studded with raisins between each layer, and frosted with a sweet white glaze that covered the top and dribbled over the sides. We’d stop on our way home from church and come home with a dozen sweet buns. I grew up with 8 brothers and sisters plus my parents, and a dozen was just enough. After a fire Ella’s was not re-built and my mother began working on her own cinnamon bun recipe.

These are a simpler version and just as mouth watering and delicious. You use frozen bread dough, let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight, dip bite size pieces into melted butter, cinnamon and sugar, let them rise 30-60 minutes, and bake for half an hour. You won’t even miss the glaze.

1 9-inch round glass pie plate, or other similar size pan

1 loaf frozen bread dough
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (to your taste)
splash of allspice, nutmeg or other spice you enjoy
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans and/or raisins

Place frozen dough in a plastic bag and leave in refrigerator overnight. The dough will be thawed in the morning. Remove from fridge, take out of plastic bag and put on a plate out of drafts for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. The dough will be soft and begin to rise.

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Melt butter in a small saucepan. in a separate small bowl mix sugar and cinnamon.

Divide dough in 4 equal size pieces. Divide each quarter of dough in half. Divide each piece in thirds (you will have 24 pieces, roughly the same size).

If you are adding nuts and/or raisins strew them on the bottom of your baking pan. Dip each piece of dough in butter, then dip into cinnamon mixture, place in baking pan in concentric circles in one layer nestled together. Repeat process with remaining pieces of dough. Sprinkle leftover sugar on top and drizzle any extra butter over the top as well.

Cover sticky buns with a clean dry cotton towel and let sit in a warm place until dough has risen to about even with the top of the pan, about 30-45 minutes (depending on drafts and time of year). Place in the middle of pre-heated 350 F. oven and bake 30 minutes.

Invert Sticky Buns onto serving platter as soon as they come out of the oven. Be very careful not to get burned by the hot sugar when you invert the pan, use oven