Put a Kabocha in Your Crack Pipe

I'm not kidding here. Kabocha squash (or pumpkin) is like crack.  You can prepare it steamed, in Thai curries, in soups or just roasted in some coconut oil in the oven with a bit of salt and pepper.  It's crack-like qualities are more magnified in its cold, refrigerated, leftover stage.  I swear I could pick at it all day.

So when my cooking club did a soup and grilled cheese Fall Feast themed cooking night past weekend, I was glad when the Roasted Kabocha Soup with Sage ended up coming my way.  Everyone else was eager to work on the clam chowder or pumpkin black bean soup.  But like Cinderella, Kabocha squash only needed a bit of dressing up and she became the star of the evening.  I know I keep repeating myself here, but sage and squash--one of the absolute best flavor combos out there.

Photos are much more intriguing than blah, blah, blah, so I'll let the photo menu tell the story.  Cooking groups sure are swell.

Proscuitto wrapped asparagus for starters...

Fig and Gouda grilled cheese with balsamic drizzle; apple, bacon and cheddar grilled cheese...

New England Clam Chowdah...

 Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup...

Roasted Kabocha Soup with Sage and Bacon...

NY Times Lentil soup with fresh Cilantro...

Apple Custard Tart...

 Roasted Kabocha Squash Soup with Pancetta and Sage

Adapted from Gourmet October 2000

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr
Yield: Makes 8 servings (about 11 cups)
1 (4-lb) kabocha squash, halved and seeded
3-4 tbsp olive oil
20 whole fresh sage leaves plus 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
1/4 lb sliced pancetta, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
3 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
Roast squash:
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Roast squash, cut sides down, in an oiled roasting pan in middle of oven until tender, about 1 hour. When cool enough to handle, scrape flesh from skin.


Fry sage leaves while squash roasts:
Heat olive oil in small pan until sage leaf dropped in sizzles upon contact. Fry sage leaves in 3 batches until crisp, 3 to 5 seconds. Transfer leaves with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.
Cook bacon and make soup:
Cook bacon in a 4-quart heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring, until browned. Transfer bacon with slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.

Add olive oil to bacon fat remaining in pot, then cook onion, stirring, until softened. Stir in garlic and chopped sage and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add squash, broth, and water and simmer 20 minutes to blend flavors.

Purée soupusing immersion blender.   If necessary, thin to desired consistency with water.

Stir in vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.
Serve sprinkled with pancetta and fried sage leaves.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte

Occasionally you find that recipe that you think you must make someday, but the somewhat dangerous ingredient list keeps putting you off.  Dorie Greenspan has a recipe for a Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte in her cookbook Baking from My Home to Yours that I've been longing to try but with an ingredient list that included cream cheese, PB and heavy cream, this was definitely a "wait for a special occasion" type recipe.  I earmarked it for Dad's b-day and then recipe sat on the back burner for a good 6 months.   Dad's b-day finally arrived--about time.  People need chocolate peanut butter tortes.

As you know, I take no issue with substituting ingredients and mixing recipes up a bit.  But Dorie, bless her heart, threw me for a loop when she specifically called out that the PB could not be natural.  I seriously considered giving natural PB a go since it was all I had at home, but in the end, I figured if she called it out for a reason, I should probably listen.  I envisioned peanut oil separating in the torte and headed out to the store.

Here's a bit of a secret confession about peanut butter....I so prefer the super sugary, mass produced Jif to natural PB any day.  I'll even take the confession a step further here--throw in some white bread and raspberry jelly and I have some happy comfort food.  PB&J is the one sandwich in my mind that requires that super soft white sandwich bread.  And cut the crusts right off please. I'm in 5 year old heaven all over again.  Not sure why I made a torte when I really could have just made PB&Js apparently.

Back to the torte.  Not going to lie to you here--the torte prep is a bit scary at times.  Like when you mix the cream cheese and PB.  Will this glob ever be a light fluffy torte?

Or those moments when you are carefully folding in the whipped cream.  I'm always convinced I will overstir at this point and deflate all of the cream.

But alas, success.  And the result?  Wow, was this rich.  As in, take a tiny sliver rich. The flavors were as wonderful as chocolate and pb are, but you could really be done after only 3 bites.  But then an interesting thing happened.  Because it was so rich and we all ate such small pieces, I had some left over which I carelessly threw into the freezer.  Magic really.  Straight from the freezer, this becomes seemingly less rich and more like ice cream cake.  Makes sense really since you have the same basic ingredients of ice cream here.  And chocolate pb ice cream cake is not to shabby at all.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte
from Baking from My House to Yours by Dorie Greenspan


Ingredients:
For the crust:
32 Oreo cookies, finely processed into crumbs
5 1/3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Small pinch of salt


For the crunch:
1 1/4 cups salted peanuts, finely chopped, divided (for the filling, crunch and topping)
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. espresso powder
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
Dash of ground nutmeg

For the filling:
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
12 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (not natural)
2 tbsp. whole milk

For the topping:
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Directions:
To make the crust, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and place it on a baking sheet. Combine the Oreo crumbs, melted butter and salt in a small bowl. Toss with a fork to moisten all of the crumbs. Press into a thin layer covering the bottom and sides of the springform pan. Freeze the crust for 10 minutes. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before filling.

To make the crunch, in another small bowl combine 1/2 cup of the chopped peanuts, mini chocolate chips, sugar, espresso powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Toss with a fork to mix and set aside.

To prepare the filling, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip 2 cups of the cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in 1/4 cup of confectioners’ sugar and whip until the cream holds medium-firm peaks. Scrape the cream into a separate bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Wipe out (do not wash) the mixer bowl, replace the whisk with the paddle attachment, and beat the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until the cream cheese is satiny smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, whole milk, and 1/4 cup of the chopped peanuts until well combined.

Using a large rubber spatula, gently stir in about 1/4 of the whipped cream just to lighten the mousse. Still working with the spatula, stir in the crunchy peanut mixture, then gingerly fold in the remaining whipped cream. Scrape the mousse into the crust, mounding and smoothing the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight; cover with plastic wrap as soon as the mousse firms.

To finish the torte, put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave the bowl over the water just until the chocolate softens and starts to melt, about 3 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan. Bring the 1/2 cup of cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and, working with a rubber spatula, very gently stir together until the ganache is completely blended and smooth.

Pour the ganache over the torte, smoothing with a metal icing spatula. Scatter the remaining peanuts over the top and chill to set the topping, at least 20 minutes. When the ganache is firm, remove the sides of the springform pan. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Soy Chorizo and Goat Cheese Quiche

I think I once confessed my fascination with ingredients.  I think that so often the parts are more important than the sum of the parts when it comes to cooking in this kitchen.  Backwards I know, but each food store feels like a treasure hunt.

Still riding the Trader Joe's grocery high, I gave Soy Chorizo a chance.  Looks intriguing enough...

 

But pulled out of it's casing, it did not bode well. It kind of looks just like sausage yes?  Probably the entire point of the product--duh Mary.

In fact, brown it up, and it looks remarkably indistinguishable from sausage. This is probably great news if you eat soy "sausage" for personal reasons.  If however, you are put off by the very texture and meatiness of sausage, soy chorizo may not be the answer.  This seemed so truly meaty, I swear I saw a fully intact lymph node.  But I fully acknowledge that I have a lymph node paranoia.

 

Cheese however, is safe and absolutely divine.  Cotija is no exception.  Throw in Goat Cheese and fontina and how bad could this be?

Not bad at all.  In fact pretty great.  Bobby is a genius, and Throwdown is just spectacular TV, but that's a given.  There were a few bites where I had to mentally convince myself I wasn't eating real chorizo. That's probably a compliment to this product-kind of creepy to me.  But all in all, the flavors were spicy and the cheeses were tangy and gooey.  Then again, I'd probably say that Bobby pours cereal in such a culinary fascinating way, it could never be replicated.  Such is the life of a Food Network groupie.

Note:  The recipe on Food Network's site calls for making your own crust.  There are so many things I will do in the kitchen, making my own pie crust is never one of them.  I haven't made one from scratch since 1995 and I surely wasn't going to make one from scratch at 6am on a Sunday morning. Especially with Team Canine and Team Feline trying to decide if they could possibly like each other or eat each other right at my feet. So this crust is of course Pilsbury--pulled from the fridge, unrolled directly into the tart pan, docked and pre-baked with weights at 375 for 10 mins.

Soy Chorizo and Goat Cheese Quiche

Adapted from Throwdown with Bobby Flay

One pre-baked pie/tart crust--still slightly warm.
1/2 package soy chorizo, casing removed
1/4 cups grated fontina cheese
1/4 cup finely grated Cotija cheese
1/4 cup red onion finely sliced
5 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 ounces soft goat cheese, frozen for 10 minutes and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
couple of dashes of hot sauce because mo hotta is mo betta (optional)

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Heat  a large saute pan over med high heat. Add the chorizo and cook until golden brown-about 3-5 mins. Let cool slightly.
3. Scatter the fontina, Cotija, chorizo and thyme over the warm tart shell. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Add the milk and hot sauce and whisk until smooth. Pour into the shell and evenly and distribute the goat cheese and sliced onions over the top.
4. Bake until the crust is deep golden brown and the center is almost set (still slightly jiggles) but the sides are set, about 25 to 35 minutes. Let sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before serving. Cut into wedges for serving.

Fresh Fig and Goat Cheese Flatbread Pizza

With a house full of Trader Joe's groceries, it was definitely time to get back into the kitchen.  Front and center were some beautiful figs I'd picked up. 

Figs are funny.  I used to adore them and then I read Under the Tuscan Sun.  I'll leave it at that for those that love figs.   I however, went on a fig hiatus after the book.  And then I read yet another piece on how commercially cultivated figs are not necessarily the same as wild figs.  I can't keep up with the stories and am back to eating figs when they are in season and stunningly beautiful.  Trader Joe's were exactly that.

Also coming home with me from Santa Fe were some chevre and lavash.  Figs, chevre and lavash--I suspect that I was subconciously envisioning this pizza when I placed the ingredients in my cart.  Add some fresh spinach, red onion and fresh basil and you have a pizza ready to go in 15 minutes.

This pizza is the perfect example of how culinary opposites compliment each other.  The crisp lavash is perfectly contrasted with the soft figs and spinach.  The sweet figs are balanced by tangy chevre and the bite of the red onion.  Balsamic vinegar becomes very sweet when reduced and is perfectly balanced by the sea salt.  How I love Trader Joe's.

Visions of Santa Fe

Whoever thought of sticking a three day weekend onto the beginning of summer and again at the end of the summer was a genius.  Period. And what is it about having just that one extra day off that makes everyone want to take a mini vaca?  The traffic heading north on I-25 yesterday tells me I am not alone in this.  If you kick off summer in the desert with Memorial Day in Vegas, then you might as well end it in the desert as well. And while Vegas is the desert, it hardly seems like it with it's artificial landscaping and imported palm trees.  Santa Fe on the other hand--it's all southwestern desert.

Santa Fe's Farmer's market is touted as one of the top 10 Farmer's Market in the nation. That is enough to bring a girl tears of joy. 

Finding out it's only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays is enough to bring tears of sorrow. What's that about anyway? We settled for all of the artisan markets and that legendary Santa Fe Art. Santa Fe is definitely an art lover's mecca.  Take a drive up Canyon Road and you pass gallery, after gallery, after gallery. 

A long day in the hot New Mexico sun calls for a stop at a local shop for some frozen refreshments. 

Mock me for spoiling this puppy if you will, but just try and deny how cool this yogurt is. Puppies need acidophilus too and it's best served up blueberry and vanilla bean style.

And while it wasn't an art mecca for me necessarily, it was a pilgrimage of another sort.....

The hour spent within this store could quite possibly have been the happiest hour in a long time.  Sad, but true.  I have a TJs receipt total that surpasses all of the expeneses of the entire trip that testifies to the joy found within. And I was the good one.

 "Why, oh why can't we have a Trader Joes in Colorado?!?!?!" whined the crazy woman who buys her dog frozen yogurt.

Road trips are just plain exhausting.  It's good to be home.

Hope everyone had a phenomenal and safe Labor Day Weekend!

Thai Tea Ice Cream

I was in the mood to give the thai tea cupcakes another try when the temp soared into the 90s. Definitely not baking weather. So instead, I opted for a cooler version of a thai tea treat and gave ice cream a shot. While the cupcakes need another round of experimentation, the ice cream was a hit from the start. We finished off the entire batch without blinking. I take a certain consolation in saying we finished rather than I finished. Without company, I would have finished off the ice cream myself. Unlike the cupcakes which had a mild tea flavor, the ice cream was like eating a frozen version of the drink--yummy.

Thai Tea Ice Cream

2 cups whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup thai tea leaves

2 egg yolks

Heat milk in a saucepan until it simmers; remove from heat and add thai tea leaves. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes. Strain milk and tea mixture through a mesh strainer and again through a yogurt strainer to filter the fine pieces out. Pour back into saucepan and add cream, sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks. Whisk. Return to med heat and cook for 5 mins stirring constantly. Chill in refrigerator until cold and process according to ice cream maker instructions.