Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Salmon in Mango Sauce

As is pretty typical of most American women, I've got an awful lot going on.  I've got this website.  I've got some other things I'm trying to start up.  I've recently become the chief administrator for a local non-profit.  I've got the house.  I've got a daughter who is turning two right about now.  I've got the dog.  I've got appointments here, and deadlines there, and so on and so forth.  I almost never get a chance to write up recipes the same day that I create them.  I'm aware of this, so I've got quite a lot of scrap paper in the kitchen.  I write notes on the scrap paper and set it aside until I get to actually write them up.  The problem with this, of course, is that paper gets lost.  It gets blown off tables in a toddler-inspired breeze.  It gets coffee spilled on it.  It gets burned.  The longer I have to put off recipe-writing the more likely it is that my notes will disappear.  In this case the dog ate it.  The dog actually ate my notes.  I am not making this up.  He ate my notes.  I screamed and yelled and despaired.  Then my husband, wonderful man that he is, found some clear tape and re-assembled the notes.

This dish was inspired by a chance discovery in my freezer.  At the beginning of baseball season... in 2010... I pureed a large quantity of mangoes to be used for daiquiris if my team were being blown out.  (This is a silly tradition of ours.  Read more about it here, if you really want to.)  I found one three-cup container of mango puree in the freezer.  It was not freezer-burned in any way.  I thought, hey, this sounds like fun.  So I defrosted it, and a couple of salmon fillets along with it.  It is a very simple dish to make, and a very flavorful dish.  I would have to insist on using pureed mango, preferably mango that you pureed yourself, and not mango nectar, mango juice, mango slushee, mango sorbet, or any other kind of commercially available mango product.  Those will all contain added sugar if not additional preservatives.  These are calories that few people living in the West need, and makes the dish far too sweet anyway.  I mean, it's up to you, they're your taste buds and you know what will please them, but for me just the mango is sweet enough.

Salmon in Mango Sauce

2 salmon fillets, cut into pieces

3 cups mango puree

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons ginger paste

2 tablespoons garlic paste

4 green chiles - I like serranos but you know your family's tolerance better than I do - diced

Equipment:

• Large wok

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the ginger paste and garlic paste.  Saute about 2 minutes.
3. Add the chiles.  Saute about 2 minutes.
4. Add the mango.  Bring to a boil and reduce for about a minute.
5. Add the salmon.  Cook until the fish is cooked through.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Baghdadi Yogurt Dip

Recipe Source: al-Baghdadi, Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. al-Karim.  A Baghdad Cookery Book.  Charles Parry, trans.  Prospect Books, Totnes 2005 p. 88.

I have two copies of A Baghdad Cookery Book.  One is translated by A. J. Arberry.  It came out, I believe, sometime in the 1930s and was later included in a much larger volume entitled Medieval Arab Cookery.  The other was published as its own volume and was cited above.  This was the first book of medieval recipes I ever owned.  It has, unfortunately, been lost somewhere in the recesses of my house for quite some time.  Recently the house decided to cough up the book.  I don't know why.  It was just suddenly on the shelf again.  This happens sometimes, I don't know why.  Anyway, I prefer to work with this translation rather than the other.  I don't feel that I'm qualified to comment on the quality or accuracy of the translations themselves, but the style of English in the Perry translation is much easier to work with.

Anyway, the book made its re-appearance in time for me to start work on our New Year's Eve celebration.  I wasn't necessarily setting out to make a medieval dish for the party, but I happened to be flipping through the book and saw the recipe and decided that it looked good. I like that about a lot of the recipes from the medieval Middle East.  I mean, medieval people had taste buds too, and food for the classes that left recipes didn't need to taste like dust.  But a lot of the medieval Middle Eastern recipes fit right in with modern tastes and preferences.  You can mix them right into a modern dinner or party and no one would ever know the difference.  Try this one at your Super Bowl party.

As is usually the case when I'm trying to re-create a medieval recipe I didn't make a lot of changes.  The original wanted mint.  My husband is allergic to mint so I left it out.  I substituted tarragon.  The two are nothing alike of course, but I really like tarragon and it at least has a similar strength to mint.

Baghdadi Yogurt Dip (serves 16; approx. $0.51/serving)

1 large leek, finely chopped

4 celery stalks, finely chopped, leaves separated

1 small bunch tarragon, finely chopped

1 large tub Greek yogurt

1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Kosher salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground mustard

Equipment:

• Large bowl

1. Combine the leek, celery stalks, celery leaves, tarragon and yogurt in the large bowl.
2. Mix well.
3. Sprinkle the salt, mustard and walnuts over the top.
4. Transfer to a serving vessel and serve.

Recipe: Chickpea and Delicata Squash Stew

Whenever we host Sunday dinners I try to have at least one vegetarian entree on offer.  I'm not a vegetarian and I have limited patience for other people's food choices, but people have different reasons for going vegetarian and not all of them are matters of personal choice.  I know a couple of people who are actually allergic to meat, and a couple of people besides myself who are allergic to certain types of meat.  A vegetarian entree offers them something, and if no vegetarians show up then we can all enjoy a healthy side dish.  After all, vegetarian food shouldn't be a penance.  If the dish acknowledges the actual, natural flavor of the ingredients without pretending that it's meat then there is no reason to feel deprived by a lack of meat.

Right.  Soapbox away.  This was not intended to be an original recipe.  When I set out to make it I had an issue of Better Homes and Gardens open in front of me.  Then I realized that the author wanted me to jump through an awful lot of hoops to make this dish.  She wanted the squash to be roasted.  She wanted the beans to be cooked a certain way, and she wanted a certain type of tomato, and so on and so forth.  All of these things took time.  I did not have time.  What I had was squash, chickpeas, hungry diners and a knitting lesson waiting for me to finish cooking.  I looked at the recipe again.  I was coming down off a nasty head cold and was in a mood, and finally I just ran out of patience.  "(Author's Name) can bite me," I said, forgetting that I had a kitchen full of hungry diners.  "Twice."  And then I went ahead with my recipe.

This amused the crowd to no end.  The dish was a satisfying and flavorful accompaniment to the main meal.  Even my daughter liked it and she's not a huge fan of chickpeas.

Chickpea and Delicata Squash Stew (serves 8; approx. $1.38/serving)

2 delicata squash, peeled, seeded and diced

2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

5 garlic cloves, chopped

1 very large jar canned whole tomatoes (a couple of 28-oz cans should do just fine)

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground mace

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon chile powder

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 large bunch dill, chopped

Equipment:

• Large deep saucepan

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the onions and garlic.  Saute until the onions are soft.
3. Add the spices and the bay leaves.  Mix well and saute until fragrant.
4. Add the squash.  Saute about 3 minutes, or until coated in the pan juices.
5. Add the chickpeas and the tomatoes.  Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer until the squash is tender.
7. Add the dill.  Cook about a minute.
8. Serve.

Recipe: Halibut Chowder

Recipe Source: King, Shirley.  Williams-Sonoma Fish.  Simon & Schuster, New York, 2002 p. 14

It's funny how some things get ground into your psyche.  I hail from upstate New York.  Geographically it's a lot more like New England than downstate, but it is still 100% New York.  The language is New York.  The sports teams are all New York - I see more Yankee hats there than I do in Manhattan - and the attitude is New York.  You would think, therefore, that it would be the Manhattan version of chowder that would be pre-eminent there.  You would be wrong.  I didn't even know that more than one type of fish chowder existed until I was well into my twenties and living in New England.  By that point the New England version of fish chowder had become canonical for me, and I can't think of the Manhattan variety without a shudder.  (I strongly suspect I would prefer it if I didn't know it was supposed to be chowder, but there you go.)  Of course, I also grew up in a Southern Italian family where the combination of dairy and fish was always kind of viewed with suspicion at best, but somehow these concerns were laid aside for Chowder.

Now, I love chowder but I really have to be extremely careful about where I buy it.  Traditionally chowder is made with bacon.  Not all manufacturers make chowder with bacon, but that's the traditional recipe and omitting it kind of makes for a vastly inferior product.  Also, the tendency toward food allergies is supposed to be inherited.  (How this explains me when no on in my family has a food allergy I don't know.)  The pediatrician therefore wants us to hold off on introducing certain common allergens until she's older.  One of those common allergens is shellfish.  I've usually seen chowder as clam chowder.  Clams are shellfish.  I'm trying to avoid cooking with things that my daughter cannot eat, since she often wants to try our food.  That means I've had to hold off on making my own chowder... until now.  I finally found a chowder recipe that wasn't written for shellfish!  And it had been lurking in my library the whole time!  I just had to go with it.

I made a few changes, of course.  I used beef bacon instead of regular bacon.  This increased the cost per serving but kept me from dying so I'd call that a win.  Halibut was cheaper than cod that week so that's what I used.  I didn't have seafood stock - they didn't have it at the grocery store that week, and clam juice is expensive.  I used vegetable stock that I already had on hand.  I wound up having to freeze it and serve it at a later date but that was okay.  I knew I'd done well when I smelled it.  "Smells right," I said to myself.  When I tasted it I was beyond delighted.  It tasted exactly like I wanted it to taste.  It was also very filling - we didn't need any side dishes, not even bread.

Halibut Chowder (serves 4; approx. $6.02/serving)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 package beef bacon, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 cup half-and-half

1 1/2 cups milk

2 cups vegetable stock

1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup water

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

3/4 pound small potatoes, diced

1 lb halibut fillet

Equipment:

• Large, deep saucepan
• Slotted spoon

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the bacon.  Fry until crisp.
3. Evacuate the bacon with the slotted spoon and set aside.  If your bacon is very fatty (which, frankly, is the nature of bacon) pour off all but two tablespoons.  Mine was not terribly fatty so I skipped this step.
4. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and saute until soft.
5. Add the flour.  Cook for 30 seconds.
6. Add the half-and-half, milk and stock.  Bring slowly to a boil.
7. Reduce the heat to low.  Stir in the cornstarch mixture.
8. Mix well, then simmer 1 minute.  Season to taste.
9. Add the potatoes.  Simmer, uncovered, until nearly tender.
10. Add the fish and the bacon.  Cook until the fish is thoroughly cooked.  This shouldn't take long.
11. Serve.  Wallow in the deliciousness.  Go ahead.  You know you want to.

Recipe: Cabbage and Squash Rice

Well, I should have known better.  First I took two foods that I have never loved: winter squash and cabbage.  I figured, "Oh, I'll cook something with them.  A side dish."  I ran out of brown rice so I went to a certain very large chain of warehouse "club" stores and I got this huge, massive sack of brown rice.  I figured it would be the same as any other bulk brown rice.  Wrong.  Wrong wrong wrong.  I should have remembered the last time that I bought rice at this large warehouse chain.  I got the most incredibly glutinous rice I have ever seen.  It stuck better than glue and had about as much flavor.  I did, actually, remember it when I was shopping.  I don't remember who did the dissuading, though.  It could have been The Spouse, but it could just as easily have been me who said, "Oh, what the heck.  How bad can it be?"  I didn't think brown rice could stick this badly!  There are more disasters to come with the brown rice, don't you worry, but we can save those for another day.  Or days.  I've certainly got a large enough bin of the stuff to keep you entertained for weeks.

Anyway, for our New Year's Eve dinner I decided that I would cook up the cabbage and the squash and mix them into the rice.  This would provide a delicious, nutritious side dish to delight and amaze our acquaintance.  And to be quite honest if the guests are to be believed I'm probably the only one who didn't like this.  No one commented on the sub-par rice, at least, and people seemed to really enjoy the cabbage and squash.  I used celery seeds instead of caraway seeds because that's what I could find - I think I'm out of caraway - and maybe that had something to do with my distaste.  Anyway, I suppose this does make a decent side dish if you like cabbage, or caraway.

Cabbage and Squash Rice (serves 8; approx. $0.54/serving)

2 cups long-grain brown rice

4 cups water

1 head Savoy cabbage, shredded

1/2 butternut squash, diced

1 cup vegetable broth

2 tablespoons celery seeds

Equipment:

• Medium saucepan with lid
• Large wok with lid

1. Combine the rice and the water in the saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to low and let simmer until the liquid has been completely absorbed by the rice.  I prefer to judge this by appearance rather than time - different pans and even different rices cook differently.  For that reason I usually use a glass lid when cooking rice.  Use whatever works for you, though.  I'd guess it generally takes about 40 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, bring the broth to a boil in the wok.
4. Add the squash.  Reduce heat to low, cover and let steam about 10 minutes.
5. Add the cabbage.  Cook with the lid off until the cabbage is tender.
6. When the rice is ready, transfer the contents of both pots to the serving vessel.  Mix well and serve.

Recipe: Oat and Currant Scones

Recipe Source: King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.  The Countryman Press, Woodstock, 2006 pp. 85 - 6.

We've got a group of friends we generally term "the Allston crowd."  Not all of them live in Allston, but we mostly see them there.  Some of them are people we knew from our college days who just fell in love with the traditional student neighborhood and never left and I guess that you could say that's how we know them.  Others have kind of come to us through that core group of Allstonians.  They throw a few parties a year at one of two homes in Allston and we always have a fantastic time there.  I really appreciate their willingness to host and I hate to show up empty-handed, but I have a kind of mental conflict.  I hate showing up empty handed but I'm always more than a little reluctant to share the results of my kitchen experiments.  Many of the folks in that circle know each other from cooking school, you see, and at least one of them is still working as a professional pastry chef.  I'm always a little ashamed of my efforts, particularly where dessert is concerned.

I decided to bring these whole-wheat oat and currant scones to their most recent party.  Not only do I prefer whole wheat to white flour these days, but I know that most of them don't really use whole wheat flour for sweet dishes so it's something they probably wouldn't already have on the table.  Scones are also not supposed to be terribly pretty, which eliminates my concern about making food that isn't as pretty as theirs.  I did make a few changes, although not as many changes as I might have wanted.  I used all whole-wheat flour instead of mixing whole-wheat and white flours as the original required.  I just preferred to use 100% whole wheat.  To counter the relative dryness of the whole-wheat flour I increased the buttermilk by 1/4 cup.  I also used raw sugar for the sugar required in the recipe.  This may seem like a minor change to you but I assure you the flavor is different.

The results were well-received.  I enjoyed them, my husband delighted in them and people at the party seemed to get into them.

Oat and Current Scones (makes 24 scones; approx. $0.09/serving)

12 1/4 ounces whole wheat flour

3 1/4 ounces oat flour

3 1/2 ounces raw sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

2 1/2  ounces currants

2 1/4 ounces old-fashioned rolled oats

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Milk or cream for brushing the tops

Coarse sugar for sprinkling

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Baking sheets
• Floured surface

1. Preheat your oven to 375°.
2. Grease a baking sheet.  I prefer to use cooking spray here but do what works for you.
3. Combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in the bowl of the stand mixer.
4. Add the butter.  Mix gently until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
5. Add the currants and oats.  Barely mix them.
6. Combine the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla.  Add to the stand mixer all at once.  Mix lightly and quickly until evenly moistened and no more.
7. Divide the dough into two equal heaps and turn out onto the floured surface.
8. Knead a few times.  Divide the dough heaps again in half.
9. Pat the heaps into circles about 1/2" thick.
10. Transfer two circles to each baking sheet.  Cut each circle into 6 triangles and separate barely.
11. Brush the tops with milk or cream and sprinkle coarse sugar over the tops.
12. Bake 22 minutes.
13. Serve warm.

Recipe: Pureed Root Vegetables

Our lifestyle is... well, it's ours.  That's all there is to it.  I've tried to change aspects of it over the years but it never seems to work and we inevitably seem to fall back into our typical ways.  On the surface there are quite a lot of reasons for this, but at the end of the day there are really only two: priorities and health.  I'm sure anyone living in the greater Boston area is aware of the latest Horrible Creeping Crud that's been going around - I'd say it's probably about half allergies, given the mild weather and the people who seem hardest struck by it.  At any rate, when I'm sick I don't feel like cooking.  While I might make every effort to make food ahead of time so I don't have to cook it when I'm pressed for time or not in a culinary mindset there are only so many hours.  Inevitably some of those dishes fall by the wayside.  The other issue is priorities.  We have friends.  We enjoy their company.  Often we enjoy their company while dining out.  Sure, we could probably invite them over more often, but then we'd have to plan ahead.  There's no way to plan ahead for a phone call that consists of, "I just got a cancer diagnosis, can we get together?"  You want to get together and be supportive and if you don't have meals on hand that match the dietary restrictions of your guests that means going out.  Our lifestyle therefore requires a great deal of flexibility, which means that sometimes certain dishes don't get made.  (If it's any consolation to the moralizers out there, I really do plan for us to dine at home every night.  It just doesn't actually happen.)

That's the origin of this dish.  I found myself for whatever reason with some leftover root vegetables.  We were having a Sunday dinner and so I decided that would be a good opportunity to use some of them up.  We had half of one of those massive Macomber turnips, the kind that could probably feed an entire Ethiopian village for a week.  We had a celery root - I'd intended to do something else with it but I wound up skipping it.  We had some carrots my daughter insisted we needed, lest the world come to an end.  I decided that they would go quite well as a puree.  I'm not usually a big fan of purees, but in this case it seemed like a good thing to do.  I decided to steam the vegetables rather than boil them since steaming retains more of the nutrients in the vegetables.  I'm all about the nutrients.  This might not have been the best idea.  Some of the vegetable chunks got tender but some of them did not, and I'd gotten to a point where I feared for my steamer and for my pot.  I decided to just go with it.  This necessitated adding an extra half-cup of half-and-half, giving fat that we probably didn't actually need.  Oh well.  The dish went over well with everyone but me, even my daughter liked it.  I think my distaste had more to do with frustration at the steaming failure than anything else.  Try this on a chilly winter's evening.

Pureed Root Vegetables (serves 8; approx. $1.10/serving)

1/2 Macomber turnip (about 2 normal), peeled and chopped

1 celery root, peeled and chopped

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 1/2 cups half-and-half

Equipment:

• Steamer
• Bowl
• Immersion blender

1. Prepare your steamer for steaming.  I prefer a basket-style steamer with multiple baskets, but there are quite a few other options out there.
2. Steam the vegetables until mostly tender.  This seemed to take about a thousand years for me, but I could be exaggerating.
3. Transfer the vegetables to the bowl.  Add the nutmeg and the half and half.
4. Use the immersion blender to puree the vegetables.
5. Serve hot.

Recipe: Rocky Road Cake

Recipe Source: Desaulniers, Marcel.  Death by Chocolate Cakes.  HarperCollins Publishers, 2000 pp. 139 - 41

I usually try to keep things relatively simple, especially when it comes to baking.  I'm not much of a baker.  I don't have the artistic talent, or the scientific brain.  I also don't have the time or space to get really elaborate.  If you've seen my house you're probably thinking, "What does she mean, she doesn't have the space?  You could keep a fighter jet in her kitchen!"  Yes, it is a large kitchen.  Unfortunately, my every step is accompanied by a toddler and a dog.  Both are blond.  Both are hoping that I will drop some food on the floor.  Either way, my kitchen is very, very crowded when I'm in it.  Sometimes, though, I get ahead of myself and think something looks like a good idea even when it is plainly stupid.  This was one of those times.

The thing is, it didn't seem like all that much trouble when I was doing this.  I broke the process up into manageable steps and kind of went about my business and there was this cake at the end.  Looking back, though, I can't help but think, "Oh my, what a hassle!  Who has time to do all that?" when I read the recipe.  So I guess that it wasn't that bad, it just looks that way.  It certainly tasted like it was worth the effort.  I'm not usually a huge fan of sweets but this was definitely a treat.

I made some changes, as I usually do.  Unfortunately the scrap of paper with my notes on it has disappeared, so you're going to have to hope that my memory holds.  I know that I definitely did this with whole wheat flour.  The original called for half all-purpose flour and half cake flour, but my cake flour was mysteriously missing so I just used whole wheat flour for the whole of it.  I used dark chocolate for the semisweet chocolate because that's what I prefer.  The pecans became almonds because I love the combination of chocolate and almonds.

I served this at a Sunday dinner.  The only complaint that people had was that my portion size was excessive.  It was very much like eating a giant chunk of fudge, and the sugar could get to you after a while.  That's why I'm listing this as "serves 16" instead of "serves 8."

Rocky Road Cake (serves 16; approx. $1.19/serving)

1/2 pound butter, cut into pieces

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup raw sugar

2 eggs

2 egg whites

8 ounces dark chocolate chips, melted

2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped and melted

1 cup sour cream

1 cup dark chocolate mini-chips

1 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped

-------

6 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

8 ounces cream cheese, cut into pieces

1/2 pound butter, cut into pieces

6 tablespoons raw sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon almond extract

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

1/2 cup dark chocolate mini-chips

1/2 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped

-------

1 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped

3 ounces dark chocolate chips

1 cup miniature marshmallows

Equipment:

• 3 cake pans
• Cooking spray
• Stand mixer
• Rubber spatula
• Paper
• Sifter

1. Preheat your oven to 325°.
2. Prepare your cake pans with cooking spray.  Lots and lots of cooking spray.
3. Combine the flour, baking powder and soda in the sifter.  Sift onto a piece of paper or flexible vessel.
4. Put the first 1/2 pound of butter in the stand mixer with the paddle attachment.  Add the first cup of raw sugar and mix on low speed for about a minute.
5. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 2 minutes.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and the paddle.
6. Beat another 2 minutes.  Scrape again.
7. Add the eggs and egg whites one at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition.  Scrape when the eggs are all incorporated.
8. Add the melted dark and unsweetened chocolates.  Beat until combined, then scrape.
9. Keep the mixer running on low speed while adding the dry ingredients you sifted earlier.  Mix until incorporated.
10. Add the sour cream and mix to combine.
11. Add 1 cup mini-chips and  1 cup of almond bits.  Mix by hand - this is actually important - until combined.
12. Divide the batter between the pans.  Spread it evenly.
13. Bake 32 minutes or until a tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.   Rotating the pans halfway through is a good idea, although not strictly necessary.
14. Cool in the pans 15 minutes.
15. Invert onto cooling racks or refrigerate.
16. Clean your sifter and bowl.
17. Sift 3 cups of the confectioners' sugar and 1/2 cup of the cocoa powder onto a piece of paper.
18. Repeat for the remaining sugar and cocoa powder, but onto a different piece of paper.
19. Put the cream cheese, second 1/2 pound of butter and the 6 tablespoons raw sugar in the bowl of the electric mixer.
20. Using the paddle attachment mix on low speed for about a minute.
21. Increase heat to medium-high and beat 2 minutes.
22. Scrape.
23. Beat another 2 minutes.  Scrape again.
24. Add the first sugar-cocoa powder mixture.  Beat on low speed to combine.
25. Add the milk and almond extract.  Beat about 15 seconds on low speed.
26. Add the remaining sugar-cocoa powder mixture.  Beat until combined on low speed, then increase speed to medium and beat 15 seconds.
27. Use the rubber spatula to fold in the mini-marshmallows, mini-chips and almonds.
28. Combine the remaining three ingredients.
29. Level your cake pieces.  Find something entertaining to do with the scraps.
30. Choose a layer to be your bottom layer.  Scoop some of the frosting you made onto that layer and spread evenly over the top.
31. Choose a layer to be your middle layer.  Put it on top of the bottom layer.  Scoop some of the frosting you made onto that layer and spread evenly over the top.
32. The last layer is your top layer.  Scrape all of the remaining frosting onto the cake and spread over the whole cake.  Start in the center of the top and work your way out over the top, then down the sides and down.
33. Sprinkle the garnish on top and serve.

Recipe: Pasta with Mushrooms and Sausage

A good while ago - maybe the end of November, maybe early December - I found myself needing to cook.  I didn't want to.  If I remember correctly I was feeling very poorly, and I had a lot to do and less time to do it in, and I was in a truly foul mood, and I didn't want to dirty the kitchen, and so on and so forth.  This happens from time to time and that's okay, I think everyone feels that way sometimes.  For whatever reason - I think that by the time we got done discussing going out to eat all the local restaurants were closed - I found myself forced to cook despite my inclinations.  I grabbed some ingredients - whatever I had on hand - and threw some pasta on the stove.  I literally just threw it together in a very angry fashion.  I didn't even take a picture of it, because I had no intention of posting it.

I loved it.  I loved it so much I wanted to make it again.  Again and again and again.  It was an incredibly simple dish to make, but it was so delicious that it actually cured my mood.  Well, the next time I had mushrooms on hand I did make it again.  And it was just as good as it was the first time.

Soujouk is a kind of dried sausage made from beef.  It is commonly found in Islamic countries, or in Middle Eastern (or Turkish) markets here.  The nearest common American equivalent would probably be pepperoni.  If you cannot find soujouk and you are able/willing to eat pork pepperoni is probably an adequate substitute, although the seasonings will be different.

Pasta with Mushrooms and Sausage (serves 4; approx. $2.96/serving)

1 box whole grain pasta, cooked according to package instructions

1/3 soujouk, sliced very thin

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ounce grated pecorino pepato

2 1/2 10-oz containers mixed mushrooms - I used a mix of cremini and white button mushrooms - chopped

Equipment:

• Pasta pot
• Slotted spoon or spatula
• Colander
• Frying pan

1. While the pasta is cooking, heat the frying pan over medium heat.  A non-stick skillet is probably your safest bet here.
2. Add the soujouk pieces and fry until crisp.  They will release a small amount of fat.  This is fine.
3. Use the slotted spatula to evacuate the pieces of soujouk to the serving vessel and try not to snack on it while you proceed with the rest of the recipe.
4. Add the olive oil to the frying pan.  Use more or less depending on how much fat the soujouk has given up.
5. Add the mushrooms.  Reduce the heat a bit and cook until the mushrooms are tender.
6. Transfer them to the serving vessel.
7. By this point the pasta should be done but still hot.  Drain it, put it into the serving vessel and add the cheese.
8. Toss well and serve.

Recipe: Medieval Quince "Pie"

Recipe Source: Welserin, Sabina.  Das Kuchbuch der Sabina Welserin.  Germany, 16th Century.  Find the original here.

So you already know that I've been playing with quinces a lot lately.  I truly love them, and I get a bushel of them in the fall and just go to town.  I try to find new and different uses for them, although my quince and rosemary jelly is a perennial favorite with my friends.  I love quinces in savory recipes.  In my head they're mostly a Greek or Middle Eastern fruit, although I'm not sure why I should think that.  They certainly grow in cooler climates such as New England.  I decided to force myself to move outside my usual sources and find a non-Middle Eastern recipe calling for quince.  I also wanted to make a medieval recipe for one of our Sunday dinners, so this one seemed to make sense.  After all, I thought, I've made other recipes from this cookbook and I've been delighted with the results.

I was differently enthusiastic about this one, and by "differently enthusiastic" I mean "frustrated and angered by."  I used my traditional family crust but in a whole-wheat version - I'd made several ahead of time for some other reason, so I had them just sitting in the fridge waiting to be used up.  Otherwise I just kind of went to town.  Unfortunately the crust failed miserably.  I did wind up serving it, but scooped onto plates and treated like poached fruit.  I think that the liquid in the filling was just too much for the poor little crust to handle.

My guests loved this.  If I stopped trying to think of it as a pie I loved it too.

Medieval Quince "Pie" (serves 8; approx. cost per serving not available)

1 single-crust pie crust - store bought is fine

4 nice quinces, peeled, halved and cored

1/2 cup currants

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Beef fat - however much you can get, rendered from a package of beef bacon should be sufficient

1/2 cup dessert wine

1/2 cup raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Equipment:

• Pie plate
• Bowl
• Large deep skillet

1. Preheat your oven to 425°.
2. Render out your beef fat to the best of your ability.
3. Fry the quince halves in the fat until they are fragrant.
4. Line your pie plate with your pie crust.
5. Arrange your quince halves in the pie plate.
6. Combine the currants, first 1/4 cup raw sugar, first 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.  Stuff the quince cavities with this mixture.
7. In the skillet, combine the remaining ingredients.  Cook until the sugar is dissolved, then add to the pie plate.
8. Bake until the quinces are tender, about 40 minutes.
9. Serve.