This post is sponsored by La Crema Wines. All opinions here are my own. You can find the companion recipes over on the La Crema blog. 

Way back in 2013 (seems like ages ago now, doesn’t it?) I spent a lot of time in Russia. I’ve written about those trips a little bit, here and here, but never in great depth. I studied Russian throughout high school and college, so getting the chance to travel there for work was a dream. My primary destination was St. Petersburg, a glamorous, coastal city of old-world charm. I was there frequently between July – when the beauty and midnight sunsets of the white nights kept the whole city feeling celebratory – and December. And in December, it is very dark.

The dark is more shocking than the cold. In fact, at least in coastal St. Petersburg, it’s not much colder than New England. This week, for example, lows there are a balmy 29°F, while here in Boston we’re bracing ourselves for a week of -3°F nights. The dark, however, is a real challenge. For most of December, the sun rises at 10am and sets around 3:30. It never quite feels like daytime. The sun arcs low across the sky, resulting in sort of a 5 hour-long sunrise/sunset. In the context of all this darkness, it’s not hard to understand how New Year’s Eve became the bright spot of a Russian winter. It celebrates light and warmth, and requires feasting with friends long into the dark night.

For my final La Crema post of the year, I put together a celebratory menu of Russian-inspired New Year’s treats. A typical Russian New Year’s Eve spread consists of lots of small plates, salads, pickles, breads, and plenty to drink. A few years back I did a Russian-inspired end-of-year post, with recipes for rye blini, hot-smoked salmon dip, beet dip, and a pink vodka cocktail. This menu builds on those recipes. Taken all together, you could put together a pretty serious New Year’s Eve spread.

The first dish – Potato Bites with Caviar – is one of the easiest holiday appetizers I’ve ever made. All they require is boiling a pot of small potatoes, slicing them in half, scooping out a bit of the center, and dolloping each potato half with sour cream, a few pearls of caviar, and a tiny sprig of dill. That’s it – that’s the whole recipe in one sentence. And they are delicious! I was surprised by how addictive each little bite was.

The next dish is a bit strange to the American palate, but it’s super traditional. Herring Under A Fur Coat is a classic layered salad consisting of pickled herring, potatoes, carrots, onion, mayonnaise, beets, and hard-boiled eggs. I attempted to modernize it a bit, with the goal of making each layer taste good on its own. The changes I made were to cut out the mayo, add grated apple to the carrot and onion layer, and use smoked salmon in one half and pickled herring in the other. I also served them individually, for easier party-consumption. They were pretty good, although arguably still an acquired taste. Check out the recipe over on the La Crema blog if you’re feeling adventurous!

Last in the menu is a party friendly version of my favorite Russian recipe – Mushroom Pirozhki. These are a bite-sized, vegetarian version of the Rabbit and Mushroom Pie I posted a few years back. These little guys are addictive, and the perfect party food (warm, carby, easy to carry, and great with wine!). The filling for these Mushroom Pirozhki is a tasty mixture of wild mushrooms, sour cream, wine, and dill.

With all these recipes, you probably don’t need much dessert. If you must have something sweet, put out some Russian chocolates (like Alenka if you can find them!) and fresh fruit. And of course, we can’t forget the drinks. While vodka is the traditional drink at a Russian New Year’s party, there’s plenty of room for other libations. I’m definitely more of a wine girl than a vodka girl, and I opened a bottle of La Crema’s Monterey Chardonnay and one of the Monterey Pinot Noir for this menu. The potatoes and herring salad are both best with the Chardonnay. Mushrooms are deeply earthy, so the pirozhki pair well with the Pinot Noir – but if you’re only opening one bottle, the dill and sour cream in the filling also make them a good match with the Chardonnay.

Enjoy, and don’t forget to head over to the La Crema blog via the links below for all the recipes:

• Potato Bites with Caviar
• “Herring Under a Fur Coat” Salad
• Mushroom Pirozhki

The post Russian New Year’s Recipes and Celebration Menu with La Crema appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

The world may not need another blog post about strawberry-rhubarb pie, but I need to write this one. Because it’s not just about pie, it’s about a pie for my dad. My dad has the misfortune of his birthday only being a week or so before Father’s Day, so we tend to lump the two together. Also he’s quite difficult to shop for, so we tend to… not shop for him. But this year I’m going to celebrate him properly – starting with this blog post, and a strawberry-rhubarb-raspberry pie.

I become more and more grateful for my parents the older I get. Particularly this year as we prepare for our wedding, I don’t know where we would be without them. We’re getting married at their house in Maine, and my dad built us a barn, by hand, for the reception. It’s absolutely beautiful and so special to be celebrating at a place we both love. (Lest you think I’m even more spoiled than I am in reality, the barn, who’s primary purpose will be boat storage, was always in the long term house plan, just bumped up a few years). The long farm tables we’ll gather at will be my dad’s handiwork as well. Not to mention the hours of yard work and prep required to host a wedding!

The wedding is a big thing, but I’m grateful for all the little (and other not so little) things too. The emergency plumbing assistance when our pipes burst while we were in Portugal. Bringing us a piano rescued from a friary. The tax help phone call I make every year on April 14th. Driving me and a pile of my adult friends to and from our high school reunion last weekend when we did a little too much day-drinking. Teaching me how to play soccer and to sail, even though I never really fell in love with those things. Teaching me to play piano, which I do love.

My dad doesn’t like to sit still. He always has a dozen projects going on, and a “master plan” he’s ready to share with you. When we’re up in Maine, he can usually be found tractoring something or cutting down a tree – we (lovingly) call him The Onceler. He loves to be on the water, the reason we find ourselves with such a collection of boats. Some of my fondest memories of Maine are of early mornings out on the harbor, dad at Clifford’s helm, skimming the ocean’s surface while its still glassy, looking for dolphins.

I could go on, but the point is, my dad is a good guy. Some might say a Great Man. And it’s time to tell you about this the pie. My dad has always loved strawberry-rhubarb pie, but after many attempts deemed “a little too soupy” my mother refuses to make any more. Don’t get me wrong, my mom is an amazing cook, and she’s particularly good at baking pies. But strawberry-rhubarb pie is just not her thing.

So I’ve taken the baton from her and am the strawberry-rhubarb pie baker this year. Actually, I made two pies – one to take to my dad last weekend, and one to share here. I added raspberries to both, making this a strawberry-rhubarb-raspberry pie, and did my best at a lattice crust. Trevor is a bit persnickety about these things but I think even he approves of this lattice. The filling is still a little bit loose – I’m not sure there’s a way around that – but holds together well enough to slice neatly. Just make sure you don’t cut into it right away, as it needs several hours post-baking to set up properly.

Happy birthday and happy father’s day, dad! I love you and I hope my pie was up to snuff.

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie

A not-too-soupy, not-too-firm Strawberry-Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie with a lattice crust and a hint of vanilla.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Sally’s Baking Addiction.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 8-10
• Category: Dessert

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 1/2 sticks (12 TBS) salted butter, cold
• 2 eggs
• 4 TBS ice cold water
• 1 1/4 lbs rhubarb, sliced in half inch slices (about 4 cups)
• 1  lb strawberries, sliced (about 3 cups)
• 1/2 lb raspberries (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup tapioca granules
• 2 TBS whole milk, for brushing the pie crust

Instructions

1. Make the pie crust: In a large bowl, mix the flour and sea salt together. Cut the cold butter into the bowl in small pieces, aiming for about 1/2 TBS per piece. Use a pastry cutter or a fork to cut the butter into the flour until it is crumbly with pea-size pieces of butter. Whisk together the eggs and the ice cold water in a small bowl until evenly combined. Add about half of the egg mixture to the flour and use a fork to quickly mix, moistening as much of the flour as you can. Test to see if the dough will hold together when pressed. If not, continue stirring in a splash of the egg mixture at a time until the dough just barely holds together when gathered into a ball. Once the dough holds together, stop adding the liquid, form into a ball and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until thoroughly chilled, at least 30 minutes.
2. Prepare the filling: Add the sliced rhubarb, sliced strawberries, raspberries, vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, white sugar, and tapioca granules to a large bowl. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until all of the filling ingredients are fully mixed and the fruit is coated with sugar. Set the filling aside.
3. Make the pie: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a flat work surface for rolling out the dough by putting a dusting of flour on the work surface and on a rolling pin. Divide the dough into two pieces – one that uses 2/3 of the dough and the other that uses 1/3 of the dough. Roll the larger pieces out into a large circle that is about 1/4 of an inch thick and 12 inches in diameter. Carefully transfer this piece of dough into a 9-inch pie plate. Very lightly press the dough into the pie plate so that it the dough is touching all of the sides of the pan. You should have at least a half inch of overhang on all sides.
4. Spoon the filling into the prepared pie crust, taking care to fill the pie evenly and remove as many air gaps as possible by spreading the fruit around. Roll the second piece of pie dough out into a circle and cut into strips that are about 1/2 inch wide. Arrange the strips in a lattice pattern on the top of the pie. You may need to adjust pieces of the filling as you work to get the lattice strips to lay flat. Once you are happy with the lattice, gently press the lattice pieces into the edges of the lower pie crust, then trim the crust, leaving just a little bit of overhang (the crust will shrink as it bakes – press the overhang under the rim of the pie pan if you want it to stay all the way to the edge).
5. Use a pastry brush to brush all of the exposed pie crust lightly with milk. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F, then lower the temperature to 350 degrees F and bake until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly, an additional 60 minutes. Let cool completely, preferably overnight, before serving.

Notes

I have made this pie with both tapioca granules and cornstarch. Both help stabilize the filling, but neither is perfect. Feel free to use whatever you have on hand.

Letting this pie sit for several hours before slicing it will help reduce soupiness.

The post Strawberry-Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I’m glad I reread last year’s New Year’s recap before writing this one, because otherwise I think it might have ended up sounding eerily similar. There was travel. There was stress, largely related to the travel. We made progress on the house, bit by bit. I probably took on a bit too much for my own good. When I wrote last year I said I knew that 2016 was going to be another busy one, and it was. I also wrote that I wanted 2016 to be calmer, less stressful, more balanced; a little more relaxed, a little more joyful. I’m not totally sure I succeeded in that, but I want this post to focus on the positives of this year. What did I accomplish? How was it different – bigger, better – than the year before? And if you bear with me (or skip ahead), there’s a lovely recipe for Feta and Onion Phyllo Pie at the end of the post. It’s the perfect make-ahead dish for festive winter brunches.

All the good things.

It can be hard to recognize accomplishments as they happen, but when I look back, there they are – big and notable. I got promoted, and more importantly, I’m much better at my job than I was a year ago. I learned Portuguese! Enough to have a reasonable conversation with another person and to read children’s books. I went to three new countries, and three I’d been to before. We finished our first major house renovation, and we have a shiny new basement to show for it. And then there are things that are not so much accomplishments, but just… good. I have a job that I love. It’s engaging, I work with wonderful people all over the world, and I earn a good living doing it. My family lives nearby (except you, Rynie!) and I have great relationships with them. I have Trevor – we’ve been in a happy, stable relationship for almost 9 years and I still look forward to seeing him every single day. Everyone is happy and healthy. My social life is just what I want – good friends that I see frequently, with common interests and values. I no longer worry about not being fun enough or social enough; I just spend time with people that I like and don’t worry about people that I don’t. We live in a safe, warm house that I love being in, despite its quirks and flaws. And although money was more stressful this year than in past years (weddings and houses will do that), we are lucky to have the resources to live a very comfortable life, with travel and celebrations and stability. I am very fortunate, and very grateful.

Our travels, the short(ish) version.

Like the three years before it, I was on the road a lot in 2016. To be exact, I spent 113 days outside of the US. That’s more than 30% of the year. I was in six countries – Hong Kong, Japan, Costa Rica, Ireland, Portugal, and Colombia.

We started the year in Hong Kong, where it rained almost every day for a month. We loved it anyway. Hong Kong is incredible. It’s noisy and smelly and vibrant and elegant all at once. It can be overwhelming at times, but you’re never more than a short hike away from the mountains or the beach. And the food is amazing. We climbed winding jungle staircases to find golden temples at the top, we ate dumplings in subway stations and tea houses and on the street, we watched the neon lights pulse at night, and we drank ourselves silly at the race-track, placing $1 bets on the horses we liked the most. I have so much more to say about Hong Kong – I’m working on a few posts about it – but for now, suffice it to say it was awesome.

On our way home from Hong Kong, we spent a week and a half in Japan. Japan was mesmerizing, one of the best trips I’ve ever been on. I’ve written about Kyoto and Ise, but in a nutshell, we wandered through orderly temples and bamboo forests, saw the first plum blossoms unfold while Mt. Fuji stood majestically in the background, ate skewers of grilled chicken in smoky izakaya under the train tracks, and hiked past moss-covered shrines and ancient trees. I’m trying to find a way to get back there soon.

Not long after returning from Japan, we spent just a few days in Costa Rica with my family. I was stunned by the heat and the flowers and the incredible noise of so much life in one place. I mostly sat by the pool and watched the toucans swoop between the flowering trees, and the monkeys clamber noisily overhead. It was a short but beautiful rest.

In Ireland, in April, I was stunned by the vibrancy of the green. I took one extra day for myself at the end of the week, to hike the cliffs of Howth Head. It was windy and gray and the heather and gorse were blooming everywhere, with the waves crashing against the cliffs. After I was thoroughly chilled and exhilarated I ate bangers and mash and drank cider in a pub. This was my third trip to the Emerald Isle, and I fall a little bit more in love with it each time I go.

Lisbon is another city that is slowly stealing my heart, with the way the light reflects off the thousands of white cobblestones, filling the city with a permanent dusty glow. The Portuguese love food and wine perhaps more than any other culture I’ve experienced and I’ve had many long meals feasting on buttery octopus and rich sheep’s cheese and syrupy sweet port wine. We’ll be spending more time there this year, and I’m excited to get to know the country better.

Most of my trips to Colombia were of the airport to hotel to office and back variety, with one notable exception. I spent a lovely day exploring with my coworker and her family. She and her husband and her two young daughters took us to a cathedral buried in a salt mine followed by lunch at the real Andres. I love the way Latin cultures gather at the table on weekends, for long and rowdy lunches with family. To get a glimpse into that, to chat with her daughters in my basic Spanish, to play with them and teach them how to sing Miss Mary Mack while stuck in traffic – that was the beauty of that day. Oh and I became an official Colombian soccer fan with the purchase of a yellow Colombia jersey for watching the Copa Americana.

Seeing it all written out like this makes my heart full. All of that was in one year? I’m incredibly privileged to have so many amazing travel experiences as part of my job. It is hard, yes, and there is a lot of shuttling back and forth, packing and unpacking and sitting in airports. Most of my days abroad are not that dissimilar from a work day anywhere else, with a commute and lots of meetings in an office and the hope of squeezing a workout in at the gym. But then there are moments – afternoons and dinners and the occasional weekend – when I get to immerse myself in the culture of another place, to explore on my own, and those are the moments that make the whole thing worthwhile.

On stress, and why maybe it’s not such a bad thing.

When I look back at my recaps from the past two years (and all the posts in between, to be honest), there is a lot about stress. I know I’m not alone in this – stress is often described as an epidemic in our society. But I’ve thought a lot about stress this year – what causes it, how to reduce it, and how to limit its effects on my long term health. I also started to talk to some friends about it, and what we discussed is this: we didn’t necessarily like feeling stressed about work, but would we really be happy if our jobs were not causing us stress? Doesn’t the stress we feel about performing well mean that we are engaged and that we care about the results of our efforts? Then I read a book, The Upside of Stress, that echoed this exact sentiment and went on to express so much more about why, and how, we as a society should be rethinking our mindsets about stress. I enjoyed the book (especially since it really delves into the research supporting the idea that stress doesn’t have to be bad for you), but if you’re looking for the quick and dirty version, the author also did a Ted talk a few years back. After finishing this book, I’m starting 2017 with a different mindset about stress. Not embracing it, exactly, but learning to see the good with the bad, to recognize stress as an essential part of life, and of growth. To remember that without stress, I might be pretty bored. At the same time, I’ll be finding ways to take better care of myself and build up my resilience.

Hopes and intentions for 2017.

Last year I wrote down six words at the beginning of the year – genuine, generous, gratitude, decluttered, and balance. All of those still hold, but I particularly want to carry generous and gratitude forward to 2017. To these I would add: energy, health, and joyful. I will focus on bringing these things into my life this year, and on putting them back out into the world. In a less touchy-feely realm, this is also the year that Trevor and I are getting married! Now that we’re counting down in months instead of years, it’s starting to feel more real. I can’t wait; it’s going to be the most fun. There’s other big stuff coming up this year (a new kitchen?!), but that’s the main one.

And a recipe for Feta and Onion Phyllo Pie.

If you made it through all that, thanks for listening. And to those of you who skipped down here for the recipe, I’m happy to have you here too. And here it is! This Feta and Onion Phyllo Pie is a festive, brunchy recipe – like a very dense quiche where the filling is mostly cheese instead of mostly egg. Trevor’s dad and his wife are vegetarians and brought this to Christmas dinner as a main dish alternative, and it was my favorite thing on the table. It’s vaguely Scandinavian, thanks to a copious amount of dill, but the filling is primarily made of ricotta, feta, and not-quite-caramelized onions. It’s easy to make, easy to reheat, and delicious at any temperature, making it a prime candidate for festive brunches. I hope you have a chance to try it this winter. All my best wishes and good vibes to you for a 2017 that’s full of joy and energy and goodness!

Past New Years’ posts…

2015: Brown-Butter Chestnut Waffles with Poached Pears and Mascarpone
2014: Rye Blini, Smoked Salmon Dip, Russian Beet Dip, Pretty in Pink Cocktail
2013: Raspberry Sherbet Champagne Floats
2012: Butter-Roasted Cinnamon Chicken with Almonds and Pomegranates

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Feta and Onion Phyllo Pie

Adapted from Sunset Magazine via My Recipes. Serves 10-12.

• 3 sweet vidalia onions, peeled
• 1/3 cup olive oil, divided
• 1 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
• sea salt
• 3 large eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup farina (cream of wheat)
• 12 oz. fresh ricotta cheese
• 10 oz. soft feta cheese (in brine), cut into small cubes
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup minced fresh dill
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 6-8 sheets phyllo dough, thawed according to package directions

1. Cut onions in half, then slice into thin half-moon rings. Heat 2 TBS of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat and add the onion rings, caraway seeds, and a generous pinch of sea salt. Saute the onions, stirring occasionally, until they are translucent and very soft, and just beginning to take on a pale golden color. Remove from the heat.
2. Preheat onion to 400ºF. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and farina until evenly combined. Add the ricotta, feta, lemon juice, dill, and black pepper and whisk until smooth. Stir in the prepared onions.
3. Pour remaining olive oil into a small bowl. Brush the inside of an 8 or 9 inch springform pan with olive oil. Lay one sheet of thawed phyllo dough over the bottom of the pan and up one side, letting 1-2 inches of extra dough drape over the top of the pan. Brush phyllo with olive oil. Repeat with a second sheet of phyllo, this time draping over a different side of the pan. Repeat until all parts of the bottom and sides of the pan have at least 2-3 layers of phyllo dough covering them. Pour the cheese and onion mixture into the center of the pan. Fold the phyllo that is overhanging the sides of the pan on top of the tart so that it covers just 1 inch of the top, trimming any extra phyllo dough off if necessary. Place carefully in the oven.
4. Bake until filling is set and pastry is golden brown, about 50 minutes. Let cool for at least 10 minutes, then remove the outside of the springform pan. Cut into slices and server warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

The post On to 2017! // Feta and Onion Phyllo Pie appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

This year Trevor and I are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time. It’s my doing – even though our house is small and unfinished and we’ll need our guests to bring their own chairs, I really wanted to do it, to bring our families together in our home. It will probably be a little bit stressful and uncoordinated and messy, but I’m still thrilled we’re doing it.

I was thinking, on the morning of Election Day last week, how great Thanksgiving is. How it is something truly American and something to be proud of. Two days for the entire country to be with their families, a holiday with no religious element, no political element, just a time reserved for being thankful and being with family. What a nice thing! A holiday designed to celebrate gratitude! I know that sentiment can get lost amidst the planning and family squabbles and food and excitement for the start of the “holiday season,” but let’s try to bring it front and center this year, at least for a few hours next Thursday. In the midst of a busy season, let’s use Thanksgiving as the bright spot that it is – a time to rest, to take a break from our busyness, to slow down and focus on the people and things that matter most to us.

We’re still tinkering with our menu for next week, but last weekend we did a sort of test run, putting together a Latin-inspired Thanksgiving menu. It’s the latest in our series of globally-inspired dinner menus we’ve been creating in partnership with La Crema Wines – the others include October’s autumnal Korean dinner, the summer’s Italian seafood feast, and a Greek-American cookout for Labor Day. I have unexpectedly fallen in love with the Latin culture over the past two years of travel, and a big part of that is due to the food. There’s so much more to Latin cuisine than I realized before I started traveling there. So this Thanksgiving menu is laced with chiles and rich sauces that remind me of dinners in Colombia and Chile.

As a main dish, we created a Mole Roasted Chicken (or turkey, if you’re feeding more than two people!) with a very-simplified mole sauce, that uses the basic techniques of a traditional mole but takes a few shortcuts. We also made a Cornbread, Chorizo, and Poblano Stuffing – I could have eaten an entire tray of it on my own and I think it’s one we’ll repeat next week for the real thing. As a side dish, Chipotle Sweet Potato Pommes Anna, a super simple dish that’s easy to make but has tons of flavor and a lovely presentation. And for dessert, a showstopper of a pie, a far cry from your traditional apple and pumpkin pies but still equally deserving of a spot on your Thanksgiving table: Chocolate Mousse and Passion Fruit Pie.

One of the foods I fell in love with in Latin America, particularly in Colombia, was passion fruit. If you’ve never had the chance to try one, seek it out – it’s sweet and citrusy and tangy and unlike any other flavor I know. Chocolate and passion fruit has become one of my favorite combos, and it’s now my standard order at any gelato place that offers passion fruit as one of the flavors. I first experienced the pure deliciousness of chocolate and passion fruit at a restaurant in Chile that served me an enormous bowl of incredibly rich and decadent chocolate mousse with a passion fruit caramel on top – I think it was the best dessert of my life. I may have to take some more time to think about that statement, but off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything that surpasses it. That dessert was the primary inspiration for this pie, which combines a passion fruit curd with a light chocolate mousse and a buttery chocolate cookie crust.

It was shockingly hard to find passion fruit near me in Boston, and when I did, they were pretty pricey – $1.99 a piece and I needed 5 to scrape together 2/3 of a cup of pulp. But as soon as I cut into one and that beautiful, tangy smell filled the air I knew it was worth it. Turning the fruit into a curd stretches the flavor and also gives you a filling with a beautiful, silky texture. The passion fruit curd together with the chocolate mousse made the pie pretty much everything I imagined it would be.

The recipe for the pie is below, and you can find the recipes for the Mole Roasted Chicken, the Cornbread, Chorizo, and Poblano Stuffing, and the Chipotle Sweet Potato Pommes Anna on the La Crema blog. All three dishes were designed to pair equally well with La Crema’s Sonoma Coast Chardonnay or their Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. Since a “help yourself” policy is usually best when it comes to wine and big holidays, it makes sense to choose a few versatile bottles that will be good at any point during the meal and will also give guests the flexibility to choose for themselves. These two La Crema bottles fit the bill perfectly.

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by La Crema. All opinions are honest and my own.

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Chocolate Mousse and Passion Fruit Pie

Serves 8. Passion fruit curd recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson. Chocolate mousse pie adapted from Chowhound.

For the passion fruit curd:

• 2/3 c. passion fruit pulp (from 6-7 ripe passion fruit)
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 stick butter

For the chocolate mousse and pie crust:

• 6 oz. chocolate cookies
• 4 TBS salted butter
• 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 2 TBS sugar
• 2 egg whites

1. To make the passion fruit curd: place the passion fruit pulp in a food processor and pulse several times to loosen the juice from the seeds. Strain the juice through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl. Add about half of the seeds and pulp to the juice, and discard the other half (or eat it!). Add the sugar, eggs, and egg yolk to the passion fruit juice and whisk to combine very thoroughly. Set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. Add the passion fruit mixture to the melted butter, whisking vigorously as soon as you add it to the pan to prevent the eggs in the mixture from scrambling. Cook over low heat, whisking continuously, until the curd has thickened to a spoonable consistency. Remove from the heat, pour into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill until set, at least 3 hours.
3. To make the pie crust: preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the chocolate cookies in a food processor and pulse until they are small crumbs of even size. Melt the 4 TBS butter in the microwave and stir into the cookie crumbs. Press the cookie crumbs around the bottom and sides of a 9-inch tart pan. Bake in preheated oven for 12 minutes, then remove and set aside to cool.
4. To make the chocolate mousse: roughly chop the chocolate and place pieces in a metal bowl. Add ¼ cup of the heavy cream to the bowl with the chocolate. Bring a small saucepan half full of water to a boil. Place the metal bowl over the boiling water and whisk chocolate until evenly melted. Set aside and let cool slightly. Beat the remaining heavy cream together with the sugar until the whipped cream holds a firm peak. Fold half of the whipped cream into the warm chocolate mixture, taking care not to overmix. After incorporating the first half of the cream, gently fold in the second half of the whipped cream, leaving some streaks of white and chocolate. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the mousse.
5. To assemble the pie: spoon the chilled passion fruit curd evenly over the bottom of the cookie crust. Use a spatula to spread the chocolate mousse over the top of the curd, leaving some of the curd visible around the edges of the pie. Dome the mousse in the center of the pie. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until set, at least 3 hours. You can also freeze the pie for 1-2 hours for a firmer set.

The post Latin Thanksgiving: Chocolate Mousse and Passion Fruit Pie appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I have been craving a really good slice of key lime pie since January. It’s clearly not a particularly intense craving, or I would have found a way to get some pie long ago, but it’s there, in the background, every time I think about dessert (which is relatively often). The craving started when we unexpectedly got stuck in Miami during the first blizzard of this epic winter. I had a really incredible slice of key lime pie at a whole in the wall BBQ place during a work trip to Miami about a year ago, and now when I think of Miami, I think of that pie. A two day layover in Miami should have meant that getting some good pie was pretty easy, but it just didn’t happen (I did have a great Medianoche, though, so there’s that).

So, what better time to make something just for yourself than your birthday? I originally meant to make this the day before my birthday, as I was taking the day off to pamper myself, but I ended up spending most of the day out with my mom, and after a late lunch, making pie didn’t feel like the right choice. Saturday, after spending the morning at our house inspection (if that doesn’t make you feel old, I’m not sure what will), Trevor threw me a great birthday party – he did a really delicious BBQ pulled pork in the smoker, accompanied by mac’n’cheese, grilled sweet potatoes, and a towering homemade angel food cake with blueberry jam. Greatest boyfriend in the world, end of story. Sunday, somewhere between recovering from the night before (primarily by eating leftover mac’n’cheese for every meal) and beginning to worry about my trip to Colombia the next day, I decided that it was time for my birthday pie. So I whipped it up, and it was everything I wanted it to be. In the end, it’s probably good that I only had the chance to eat two slices before leaving.

Key lime pie is incredibly simple to make. The only thing it requires is the patience to squeeze 2 dozen tiny key limes by hand (or access to good quality fresh key lime juice). After that, all you do is mix up sweetened condensed milk with a few egg yolks (conveniently left over from the 24 egg whites required for the angel food cake your boyfriend makes for your birthday), stir in the lime juice, pour into a basic graham cracker crust, and bake. The condensed milk does most of the work of making key lime pie, well, key lime pie. I made a slight twist to the recipe by reserving some of the filling and mixing it with Meyer lemon juice, then using a few drops of food coloring to color the lime mixture green and the lemon part yellow, then swirling the two together. The result is mostly aesthetic, but if you don’t mind the extra step, I think it gives the pie a fun ’50s look.

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Key Lime and Meyer Lemon Swirl Pie

Key lime pie recipe adapted from Epicurious. Serves 8-10.

• 9 graham crackers
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 5 TBS butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 9 TBS key lime juice, freshly squeezed (from about 20 key limes)
• 3 TBS Meyer lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
• yellow and green food coloring
• 1 c. heavy cream or whipping cream

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F, Place the graham crackers in a food processor or blender and process until finely crushed. Mix the crumbs with the sugar, melted butter, and sea salt, then press into a 9-inch round pie pan. Press the crust firmly into the bottom and up the sides using your fingertips. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the sweetened condensed milk and the egg yolks until fully combined. Scoop half a cup of the mixture into a separate bowl and set aside. Mix the lime juice with the batter in the first bowl (the larger amount) until evenly combined. Mix the lemon juice with the batter in the second bowl (the smaller amount) until evenly combined. Stir 2 drops of green food coloring into the lime batter and 4 drops of yellow food coloring into the lemon batter.
3. Pour the lime batter into the pre-baked pie crust. Carefully spoon the lemon batter into concentric circles on top of the lime batter. Use a knife to cut swirling patterns into the batter by running the knife from the center of the pie to the edge and back in again. Bake the pie for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool completely. Chill for at least 2 hours.
4. Before serving the pie, whip the cream into soft peaks. Decorate the pie with the whipped cream or spread a thick layer on top. Serve chilled.

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Finding the time for these Sunday Dinner posts is harder than I would like it to be. Perhaps part of the problem is that I tend to choose rather elaborate menus that take all afternoon to prepare and shoot, but that’s also part of the fun. When we finally did another Sunday Dinner a few weeks back, its origins were mixed – it grew partly out of the feeling that it had been far too long, partly out of the need to use up the huge stacks of garden produce in our fridge, and partly out of a desire to celebrate that same summer produce at its very peak.

This Sunday Dinner is the first we’ve done that is entirely vegetarian, but with gorgeous stacks of Eggplant Napoleon as a centerpiece to the meal, meat was not missed in the slightest. I’ve been eyeing this particular eggplant recipe since early spring, when I reviewed Olives, Lemons, and Za’atar. Back in March, the bright stacks of fried eggplant layered with baba ghanoush and pesto seemed impossibly summery, products of a season that felt like it might never come. But come it has, and now the sun-soaked afternoons and baskets of tomatoes are too quickly fading into cool breezy evenings and the first ripe pumpkins. We do still have plenty of nice weeks ahead of us – it won’t do to get nostalgic prematurely – and we’re still cooking up a storm with the weekly haul from the garden. Our homegrown eggplant was the star of the show in this meal, and we rounded things out with piles of maple-roasted cherry tomatoes on ricotta-slathered crostini and a gorgeous pie made with the last of our blackberries.

Eggplant can be a little labor intensive to prepare well, and this recipe was no exception. A lengthy process of salting, drying, marinating, breading, and frying may feel a little like overkill, but results in an incredibly flavorful and tender eggplant. There are a number of other components to the recipe as well – the pesto marinade, the baba ghanoush, and a tomato and pesto salad that gets served on top of the final dish. The recipe calls for about seven lemons – we felt that using three was sufficient – and the acidity of the final dish is powerful, but works nicely with the savory crunch of the eggplant slices and the smokiness of the baba ghanoush. I’ve written the recipe here with a few shortcuts to save time and effort, but the end result should be equally flavorful and elegant as the original.

On the other end of the labor intensive spectrum are the super easy crostini we had as an appetizer. We make a big batch of maple-roasted cherry tomaotes pretty much every week during August and September, roasting them the day they’re picked then using them on top of pastas and meats and eggs throughout the week. Once the oven is on, I sometimes throw another vegetable or two in to avoid heating up the house more than once – the week I made these crostini, that other vegetable was a few heads of our freshly harvested garlic, roasted into a sweet paste. The roasted garlic got mixed into some good thick ricotta, slathered on hot baguette, and topped with the candy-sweet tomatoes. It was so good and so easy.

The final element of our dinner was a big slice of mixed berry and maple syrup pie, which I wrote about in detail a week or so ago. It was a pie that I had been dreaming about since the first blackberries ripened, and it exceeded all my expectations for it. A big slice of the juicy pie, supported with a flaky buttery crust and topped off with a melting scoop of vanilla bean ice cream was the perfect close to our late summer dinner feast.

The Menu

Roasted Garlic, Ricotta, and Maple-Roasted Cherry Tomato Crostini – see recipe below
Eggplant and Pesto Napoleons – see recipe below (adapted from Olives, Lemons & Za’atar)
Maple Mixed-Berry Pie

Past Sunday Dinners:

May 26, 2013: Coffee-and-Chile Rubbed Strip Steaks with Chimichurri Sauce; Charred and Smoky Belgian Endives; Oven-Roasted Potatoes; Strawberry-Sour Cream Ice Cream

July 1, 2013: Strawberry-Lime Agua Fresca; Smashed Pea, Dill, and Feta Crostini; Chilled Asparagus Soup with Meyer Lemon Yogurt; Mustard Spaetzle with Mushrooms; Ricotta Bavarese with Red-Wine Poached Rhubarb

October 28, 2013: Braised Lamb Shanks with Gremolata; Creamy Polenta with Fresh Corn and Blue Cheese; Roasted Brussels Sprouts; Classic Apple Pie

March 31, 2014: Fried Halloumi with Spring Veggies and Strawberry-Basil Gastrique; French Gnocchi with Watercress Sauce; Strawberry-Rhubarb Meringue Pots

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Roasted Garlic, Ricotta, and Maple-Roasted Cherry Tomato Crostini

Serves 6-8 as an appetizer.

• 1 recipe of maple-roasted cherry tomatoes
• 3 heads of garlic
• 1 c. of ricotta
• 1 baguette
• olive oil
• sea salt and pepper

1. Prepare the maple-roasted cherry tomatoes. While they are roasting, roast the garlic as well: slice the tops off the garlic heads so the cloves are partially exposed. Place the heads in a piece of tinfoil and drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with sea salt. Close the foil into a pouch, and roast until soft, about 45-55 minutes at 350°F.
2. Remove the garlic from the oven, and let cool until comfortable to handle. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the papery shells into a bowl, and mash with a fork. Mix the roasted garlic with the ricotta, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Preheat the broiler. Slice the baguette into thin rounds, then place on a baking sheet. Brush the tops and bottoms lightly with olive oil. Broil the toasts until golden brown, about 5 minutes total, flipping once halfway through. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature. To serve, spread the ricotta mixture onto the toasts and top with a spoonful of roasted cherry tomatoes.

Eggplant Napoleon

Recipe adapted from Olives, Lemons, and Za’atar. Serves 4-6.

Note: This version of the recipe is slightly simplified. The full original recipe is available on Epicurious.

For the baba ghanoush:

• 2 medium eggplants (2 lbs total)
• 1/2 c. tahini paste
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 2 TBS pomegranate molasses
• 3 TBS olive oil

For the fried eggplant:

• 2 medium eggplant, cut into rounds
• sea salt to taste
• 1/4 c. basil pesto
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• juice from 2 lemons
• 1/2 c. flour
• 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 2 c. panko
• 2 TBS grated parmesan cheese
• 2 TBS dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• vegetable oil for frying

For the tomato salad:

• 4 plum tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
• 1/4 c. of finely chopped red onion
• 1/2 c. basil pesto
• juice from 1 lemon
• 3 TBS olive oil
• sea salt to taste

1. Prepare the baba ghanoush: Preheat the oven to 450°F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Pierce the eggplants all over with a fork and place on the baking sheet. Roast until skin is blackened all over, turning the eggplants with tongs every 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, slice in half lengthwise, and scoop the soft eggplant flesh out into a large strainer. Let drain for 20 minutes, then transfer to a bowl. Mash the eggplant with a fork, then stir in the tahini, garlic, lemon, pomegranate molasses, and olive oil. Adjust seasoning to your taste.
2. Prepare the fried eggplant: Place the eggplant rounds on two large baking sheets and salt liberally. Set aside for 30 minutes, then pat the slices dry with a paper towel. In a large bowl, whisk together the pesto, olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice. Add the eggplant slices to the bowl, toss to coat, and let marinate for 1-2 hours at room temperature.
3. To bread the eggplant, prepare your workspace: place the flour on a large plate, whisk the egg whites together with 1 cup of water in a shallow bowl, and mix the panko, grated parmesan, dried parsley, and black pepper together on a large plate. Set a piece of waxed paper to the side of your workspace. Working with one slice of eggplant at a time, dredge the marinated eggplant slices in the flour, gently shake off the excess, dip it in the egg mixture, then dredge in the panko on both sides. Set on the waxed paper and repeat with all of the eggplant slices.
4. Heat a large frying pan filled with 1/4 inch of vegetable oil over medium heat. Fry the eggplant slices in batches, frying 2-3 minutes per side or until golden brown all over. Remove to a paper towel lined platter and repeat until all eggplant is fried.
5. To prepare the tomato salad: mix together the chopped plum tomatoes, chopped red onion, pesto, lemon, and olive oil in a large bowl. Season to taste with salt.
6. To serve, place one slice of the fried eggplant on a plate, then spread with a few tablespoons of baba ghanoush. Repeat twice more, building a layered stack of eggplant, then top with a few large spoonfuls of the tomato salad. Serve immediately.

The post Sunday Dinner // Ricotta and Cherry Tomato Crostini, Eggplant and Pesto Napoleons, and Blackberry Pie appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Picking blackberries is not for the impatient or easily deterred. Our blackberry patch has grown into a monstrous tangle of canes, 10 foot stalks that shoot up then topple to the ground in early summer, heavy with juicy black fruit. This year in particular, the berries are gorgeous – fat and sweet from just the right combination of rain and sun. The berries on the edges of the patch are easy to get to – as long as you refrain from grabbing the canes you can pick plenty of berries scratch-free. But the berries that beckon from the center of the patch are too numerous to waste, so we go after them despite the maze of thorns between us and them. As we cut paths into the center of the bramble and carefully weave our way in, our focus increases, and I find myself thinking only two things. Get the berries. Don’t touch the thorns. At the peak of the season, it can take the two of us over an hour to fully pick the patch, but there’s something I love about the concentration and straightforwardness of the task, moving slowly and precisely through the canes. And the reward – buckets of delicious berries – is always worth the inevitable scrapes and mosquito bites.

Our patch is generous: so far this year we’ve picked 11 pounds of fruit, and I have a feeling we’ll have a last, small batch to pick tomorrow. Like cherries, my favorite way to consume blackberries is fresh, preferably just-picked, when they’re still firm and warm from the sun. But when you have 11 pounds of berries, there’s plenty of room to experiment with recipes and still be able to eat your fill of fresh fruit. This summer I’ve made blackberry clafoutis, blackberry crumble, and a big batch of blackberry jam, all of which were good, but my favorite by a mile was this pie, an intense mix of blackberries, wild Maine blueberries, cherries, and maple syrup.

I love pie – in my book, it’s far superior to cake – and I have a particular weakness for berry pies. Juicy and summery, the berries break down to completely fill the space between the crusts, with no gaps like apple pies tend to have. And because I like berry pie so much, I have high standards for it, so I thought long and hard about exactly how to achieve the pie I was envisioning. I started with blackberry-maple, but thought the blackberries needed extra dimension, so cherries and blueberries got added to the mix. The ratio of cornstarch to fruit is just enough to have the pie hold it’s shape, but not so much that it loses its juiciness. And the crust utilizes a little extra butter and my new favorite pastry method, frozen butter grating, for extra flakiness. To top it all off (quite literally), I used a cute little leaf cookie cutter to decorate the top and make it all foresty and picturesque. Basically, I love this pie. I love it so much that I ate five slices in three days, bookending my Monday and Tuesday with pie: a slice with my morning latte, and a slice after dinner with ice cream. It’s probably good that there’s only a short window during which we get enough berries to make pie. Otherwise, I would be doing a lot more running.

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Maple Mixed Berry Pie

Serves 8-12.

• 2 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 TBS sugar
• 12 TBS salted butter, frozen
• 6-8 TBS ice water
• 1 1/2 c. wild Maine blueberries
• 2 c. blackberries
• 2 c. pitted sweet cherries, torn in half
• 3/4 c. maple syrup
• 4 TBS cornstarch
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 TBS lemon juice

1. Whisk together flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Remove butter from the freezer and grate over the large holes on a box grater, working quickly to keep the butter from melting. Add the cold grated butter to the flour and toss with your fingers to coat the butter with flour. Add ice water to the mixture 1 TBS at a time, using a fork to swirl the ice water through the flour after each addition. Add ice water until the dough just comes together when pressed with your fingers. Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
2. Mix the blueberries, blackberries, and cherries together in a large bowl. Pour half of the fruit into a large saucepan, and add the maple syrup to the saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until berries have broken down and released their juices, and liquid has reduced by about half. Remove from heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and cinnamon. Whisk the lemon juice into the cornstarch. If it is still very thick, add a few tablespoons of the juices from the room temperature berries, whisking until you have a pourable mixture. At this stage, scrape the cornstarch mixture into the bowl with the chilled fruit and stir to combine, then add the cooked fruit and stir until thoroughly mixed. Set the filling aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Divide the pie dough into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other. On a lightly floured surface, roll the larger piece of dough out into a circle about 12 inches in diameter. Carefully lift and place into a pie plate, pressing dough gently down onto bottom. Trim the edges, leaving about 1/4 inch of overhang. Poke the bottom of the crust with a fork to allow air to vent, then bake the crust for 10 minutes in the oven, until just golden. Remove from the oven and add the prepared filling, then return the pie to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, roll out the remaining piece of dough and use a cookie cutter to cut out a number of small shapes. After the pie has baked for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and cover the surface of the pie with overlapping pieces of the dough shapes (I used small leaves). Return the pie to the oven and bake until the filling is bubbly and the top crust is golden brown, another 25-35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool before cutting. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

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The Book: If you’re looking to update your go-to dessert recipes to something more elegant, modern, and seasonal, you are going to want to pick up a copy of Jenny McCoy’s Desserts for Every Season. There’s nothing run of the mill here – the recipes are unique and impressive but still uncomplicated. I love the emphasis on produce and seasonality – every recipe is firmly anchored to a time of year, which is something I’m glad to see, given that there seems to have been less emphasis on this in pastry than in main courses during the whole farm-to-table/seasonal/local movement. Although, I will say that Jenny’s “spring” recipes are definitely more like late July recipes for New England, given the inclusion of blueberries and lavender. As far as design goes, the whole book has a classy, subdued aesthetic that I very much like, with muted tones, botanical prints, and sedate, full-page pictures for most recipes. This will definitely be a book that I turn to for every future dinner party I plan.

The Food: The fact that some of the pages are already stuck together with sugar spills is a good sign, right? I tested this book out by making two pumpkin desserts  to celebrate October – a Pumpkin-Maple Ice Cream, and this Pumpkin Pie with a Gingersnap Crust and Milk Chocolate Ganache. I actually haven’t tried the ice cream yet (I made it right before I left on this trip and stuck it straight in the freezer as a treat for when I get back), but the base tasted delicious. This pie, however, I did taste, and it’s quite good. The pumpkin custard is a fairly typical pumpkin pie filling, although I love that it’s made with fresh pumpkin puree. But the two twists – a spicy, buttery gingersnap crust and a rich chocolate ganache – make this pie something special. If my mom gives up her pie-making rights, maybe I’ll bring it to Thanksgiving this year.

Recipe Shortlist: Honey-Roasted Pear Sorbet; Chestnut-Chocolate Layer Cake; Butterscotch Budino with Creme Fraiche; Cocoa-Lavender Cream Puffs; Peach and Sweet Corn Ice Cream Cake; Plum-Poppy Seed Kolache

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Jenny McCoy’s Desserts for Every Season free of charge from Rizzoli, but was not otherwise compensated for writing this review.

Pumpkin Milk Chocolate Pie with a Gingersnap Crust

Recipe from Jenny McCoy’s Desserts for Every Season. Serves 8-10.

• nonstick cooking spray
• 1 1/2 c. (about 6 oz.) gingersnap cookie crumbs
• 2 TBS plus 1/2 cup light brown sugar, divided
• 3/4 tsp fine sea salt, divided
• 5 TBS unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 c. Roasted Sugar Pumpkin and Kabocha Squash (recipe below)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 3/4 c. plus 3 TBS heavy cream, divided
• 1 TBS molasses
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 c. (3 oz.) milk chocolate chips
• 1 TBS light corn syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9-inch pie plate with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. Stir together the gingersnap crumbs, 2 TBS of the brown sugar, 1/4 tsp of the sea salt, and the melted butter. (If you are using whole gingersnaps, you can crush them and combine with the other ingredients by blending everything in a food processor.) Stir until the mixture has the consistency of wet sand, then pour into the pie plate and pack very firmly and evenly against the bottom and sides of the pan. Bake for about 8 minutes, or until the crust is slightly puffed and a bit darker in color. Let cool at room temperature for 5 minutes, then freeze until ready to use.
3. Change the oven temperature to 325°F. In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/2 c. brown sugar, the remaining 1/2 tsp salt, the roasted pumpkin, the whole eggs, the egg yolk, 3/4 c. of the heavy cream, molasses, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until completely smooth. Pour the custard into the pre-baked pie crust. Carefully transfer to oven, and bake until custard is set in the center when the pie is slightly jiggled, about 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to set.
4. About 25 minutes before you are ready to serve the pie, prepare the milk chocolate ganache. Place the chocolate chips in a large heatproof bowl and set aside. Place the remaining 3 TBS of heavy cream and the corn syrup in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour over the chocolate, let stand for 2 minutes, then gently whisk the ganache until smooth. Spread the ganache over the center of the pie, leaving a slight gap between the crust and the chocolate. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to set the ganache. Serve chilled, with whipped cream.

Roasted Sugar Pumpkin and Kabocha Squash

Recipe from Jenny McCoy’s Desserts for Every Season. Makes 8 cups of puree.

• One 4-lb sugar pumpkin
• One 4-lb kabocha squash

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut the pumpkin and squash into eighths, then remove and discard the seeds. Place the pumpkin and squash pieces in a large baking dish, fill with about 1/4 inch of water, and cover with aluminum foil. Roast for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the flesh is fork tender.
2. When the pumpkin and squash pieces are cool enough to handle, use a large spoon to scrape the flesh out of the skins, discarding the skins. Puree the pumpkin and squash flesh in a food processor or blender until totally smooth (don’t skip this! It makes a big difference in the consistency of your baked goods). Let cool to room temperature before using in a recipe. You can freeze any leftover puree for up to 3 months.

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At some point I do plan to share some general travel tips for St. Petersburg – I’ve eaten at dozens of restaurants, stayed in four hotels, and made it to a good number of the biggest attractions, and I feel like I can’t let all that experience go to waste! I still have to get my act together and assemble that info, but I do have a really delicious Russian recipe for you right now. So far, my favorite place to eat in Russia is a popular chain called Shtolle (штолле), that serves sweet and savory pies. Russian pie dough is much more like a dinner roll than an American pie crust – it is a yeasted dough with sour cream and butter worked in, making it rich and airy at the same time. To get the good pies at Shtolle you have to go earlier in the day, as they’re often out of the best ones by dinnertime. I’ve tried the cabbage pie, meat pie, green onion and egg pie, and apricot pie, but my favorite by far is the mushroom and rabbit pie. I talked it up so much to Trevor that I knew we’d have to recreate it – so recreate it we did, and pretty successfully as well.

I fully expected to struggle to find a good dough recipe, but I quickly found this recipe and it sounded like just what I was looking for. In fact, the hardest part of this whole process was finding reasonably priced rabbit in Boston. It’s around $13 a pound at Savenor’s, which feels like a lot, and we found one semi-local farm that sells whole rabbits for $6 a pound, but they weren’t going to have any available for the next few weeks. We had almost caved and bought the pricey Savenor’s rabbit, when we found it by chance for $7 a pound at Market Basket in Andover. We stocked up of course, so now we have plenty of rabbit for experimentation. As for the rest of the filling, I made it up based on memory – I knew it should have shredded braised rabbit, finely chopped mushrooms and onion, lots of dill, and a mild, light white sauce, which most likely was made from sour cream. Memory served me well, and the pie came out just like I remembered. I’m happy that I was able to leave Trevor a little taste of Russia while I’m away.

Russian Mushroom and Rabbit Pie

Inspired by Shtolle. Serves 6-8. This recipe makes extra filling, which can be frozen for later use.

• One 2.5 pound rabbit, broken into pieces
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 TBS canola oil
• 1 1/2 c. chicken stock, divided (1 c. rabbit, 1/2 c. for filling)
• 2 TBS butter
• 1 large white onion, finely chopped
• 12 oz. wild mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1/2 c. fresh dill fronds, finely chopped
• 1/2 c. white wine
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1 recipe kulebyaka dough (below)
• 1 egg yolk mixed with 2 TBS water

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Break the rabbit down into pieces (see tutorial here), removing the organs (to be discarded or cooked otherwise – we dredged the livers in flour and fried them up and they were surprisingly tasty). Season the rabbit pieces with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the canola oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the rabbit pieces and brown on all sides. Place the browned rabbit pieces in a 9×13 casserole dish. Add 1 cup of the chicken stock to the bottom of the dish. Bake for 90 minutes, basting with the roasting liquid every 30 minutes.
3. Remove the rabbit from the oven and let cool until it is comfortable to handle. Shred the rabbit meat into pieces using your fingers or two forks. Set aside in a large bowl.
4. Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and saute until soft and translucent, about 5-8 minutes. Add the chopped mushroom and saute until soft, another 5-8 minutes. Add the rabbit pieces and the dill, and cook to warm the rabbit through, about 3 minutes. Add the white wine and let simmer for 5 minutes, until reduced by half. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Roll out the kulebyaka dough into two large rectangles, about 8 by 12 inches. Place one rectangle on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Pile the rabbit filling into the center of the dough, leaving about one inch of space around all four edges. Pile the filling about 2 inches thick, using about half the rabbit filling – freeze the rest for a later use. Drape the second piece of dough on top of the filling and pinch the edges closed with your fingers. Trim any excess dough with a knife and use to make designs on the top of your pie. Increase the oven temperature to 375°F and let the pie sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Before putting in the oven, brush the top and sides of the pie with the egg yolk wash and slice a few slits in the top crust to allow steam to vent. Bake the pie for 25 minutes, until dough is golden brown. Let pie cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Kulebyaka Dough

Recipe from It’s Sooo Good. Makes 1 large pie

• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 TBS warm water
• 2 c. AP flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 TBS butter, cut into 1 cm cubes
• 3/4 c. sour cream
• 1 whole egg

1. In a small bowl, stir together the yeast, sugar, and warm water. Let sit for 10 minutes for yeast to proof – it should get frothy on top.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and the salt. Add the butter cubes, and use your fingers to crumble them into the flour until there are no large chunks of butter remaining. Stir in the yeast mixture, the sour cream, and the egg until you have an even, soft dough. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 and up to 12 hours.
3. Bring the dough out and let come to room temperature. On a floured work surface, knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, taking care not to add too much additional flour. This may take from 5-20 minutes, depending on your dough. Once the dough is smooth, place in a greased bowl, cover with a clean dishtowel, and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size. At this point, proceed with the recipe above to roll out and fill the dough.

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Every new situation in life comes with potential pitfalls to your health habits. Going away to college? Erratic sleep schedules and frequent hangover binges. Summer vacation with the family? Your dad handing you a margarita every night at 5 on the dot. Breakup with your boyfriend?  Pity pints of Ben & Jerry’s and many bottles of Merlot. First job? That dratted chocolate box, free “bonding” dinners, and sitting in one spot all day.

The result? Pounds creep on. Crash diets are picked up, then dropped. We try to make sweeping changes to our lifestyles and it’s hard, even unrealistic. Changing a bunch of habits at once is a real mental challenge, which is why I’m trying something new. Smaller. Make one resolution each week and write it down – a specific, easy to follow resolution with no loopholes or room to argue with yourself. Stick to it all week. The next week, if you were successful, add one more resolution, and try to keep the old one, too. If you were unsuccessful, try the first one again. And try not to worry about everything else! If you said “no chocolate” this week, don’t eat chocolate, but don’t also try to give up everything sweet or indulgent – it’ll be so much easier to defeat yourself if you try for too much all at once! Taking small steps towards forming the best habits will eventually add up.

I started this out last week with the most troubling problem in my health-at-work life – the chocolate box. Now, I’m not ever going to give up chocolate. But the constantly full chocolate box located approximately 5 feet from my desk is a real self-control issue for me. I hear everyone open and close the box, unwrap their chocolate, and it’s like a little bomb goes off in my brain, exclaiming “chocolate time!” And once I’ve had the first piece, I go back maybe 4, 5, 6 times before stopping. Something about the combination of there being an unlimited supply and being constantly reminded that it’s there by everyone else really does a number on my willpower. And 6 pieces of chocolate a day is no laughing matter!

So week one’s resolution was “no chocolate from the chocolate box at work.” And I was successful! Wednesday afternoon was hard, but I managed to power through and stick it out for the whole week. I’m going to try and stick with it this week, and add a resolution for week two – walking the extra mile to the red line at least once per day. To recap:

1. Week one: No chocolate from the chocolate box at work – Success!
2. Week two: Walk to or from Park St. to work at least once each day

Anyone want to join me and make a small resolution for this week? The more the merrier! And, if you get through the whole week without lapsing, you should then join me in a little homemade celebratory indulgence – like this cranberry-pear crisp. The not-too-sweet cranberry filling and crispy sugary crust made a pretty good reward for going all week without chocolate. It might also be the perfect dessert for Thanksgiving, if you’re looking for alternatives to the classics – festive and bright, palate-cleansing and not too heavy, any Thanksgiving table would benefit from the addition of this crisp!

Cranberry-Pear Crisp

Adapted from The Preservation Kitchen. Serves 4-6. If you’re making for a crowd, double the recipe and the pan size!

• 2 pears, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 1/2 c. cranberries, washed and picked over
• 3/4 c. plus 1/3 c. sugar, divided
• 3/4 c. flour
• 6 TBS cold salted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Layer half of the pear slices on the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan. Cover with the cranberries, and sprinkle 1/3 c. sugar over the berries. Layer the remaining pear slices on top of the cranberries.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, the remaining 3/4 c. sugar, and the ground ginger. Use a pastry cutter or a fork to cut the cold butter into the flour, until a crumbly mixture with chunks no larger than a pea is formed. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top of the fruit.
3. Place the pie pan on a baking sheet to catch any drips, and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until the top of the crisp is golden brown and the fruit is bubbly. Serve warm or at room temperature, topped with fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

The post Monday Morning Resolutions & A Cranberry-Pear Crisp appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

As the official end of summer is upon us, it’s high time I post an update on my summer bucket list from June.  While in my mind summer’s not over until tomatoes leave the farmer’s market and the water’s too cold to go swimming, it is true that the number of nice days left in the season is quickly shortening, and I better make the most of what’s left!

1. Go to the Cape.  While I haven’t done this yet, I haven’t given up on it, either.  Shoulder season on the Cape might even be nicer than the height of summer, who knows?
2. Pick berries.  Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, even a few straggler strawberries on my landlord’s tiny plants – berries have been picked.  Sadly, the backyard raspberry patch season was ended early by raspberry fruitworms – I will get you next year, worms.
3. Learn to grill.  I did light the grill one or two times… and even flip things over on it… but I still haven’t done it myself, so I’m not checking it off yet.  What are some recipes that will entice me to grill?
4. Make Cassis.  Success!  After much searching, Trevor secured enough black currants to make a batch of homemade creme de cassis and it came out perfectly.  I’m so glad I have enough to last me through several evenings of Kirs.
5. Visit the Harbor Islands.  Ditto the Cape.  We actually tried to go to the Harbor Islands – as in, we went all the way to the dock, waited in line for tickets, only to find that tickets were mostly sold out for that day.  Thankfully, the ferry keeps running on weekends until October 8th, so perhaps an early fall picnic is in order.
6. Ride my bike.  You would think this was an easy one, right?  Wrong.  Apparently I have some sort of anxious relationship with my bike – I own a bike, but have managed to draw out the process of getting ready to ride it for over a year.  First the lock, then the helmet, then finding a pump to put air in the tires – easy things, took me forever.  Anyway, as of today it’s all set to go – I haven’t actually gotten on it yet, but I’m for sure doing it this week, so I’m crossing it off anyway.
7. Train for a half marathon.  I’m 100% surprised that this is one of the things I actually managed to accomplish this summer.  When my friend Steph suggested that Trevor and I join her and her boyfriend in Chicago for a half, I said yes and registered without too much thinking ahead, only to realize immediately after that I had only 6 weeks to whip my butt into shape.  But with Saturday’s 10-mile run under my belt, I’m feeling almost ready to hit the pavement – next weekend!  If that one’s a bust though, I’ve a bit longer to keep training for the Newburyport half with my mom – which isn’t until the beginning of November.
8. Do a producer interview.  Still an idea I like, just haven’t gotten around to it!
9. Plan a trip.  Fail, Katie.  We are going to Chicago, but that’s not exactly the trip I had in mind.  I’ll keep you posted.
10. Make at least 3 kinds of ice cream.  Well this one was super easy – making and consuming ice cream has never been much of a challenge for me.  I started the summer off with cherry-chocolate ice cream, proceeded to Bailey’s fudge ripple ice cream, and most recently popped a batch of super-easy and surprisingly healthy plum sorbet in the freezer.  Now that pumpkin beer has started to show up in stores, I’ve had a custardy pumpkin ice cream on my mind – ice cream has no season!

So 5 for 10.  Not too terrible, not too great.  It’s still possible I’ll finish all of them before the end of September, but if not, it was fun to do the things I did.  And as for the tart you’re seeing here, it’s included because the arrival of figs at the market is a sure sign that summer is slowly shifting into fall.  Figs aren’t my favorite fruit, but even I liked this custardy almond tart with caramelized figs and almond brittle enough to have a big slice.  After that, I handed it over to Trevor to finish off our first dinner in his new house.

Fig and Almond Custard Tart

Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques.  Serves 8.

For the pate sucree (crust):

• 2 TBS cold heavy cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 3 TBS sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 stick cold butter
• 2 TBS ice cold water

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.  Cut butter into 1/2 inch chunks and add to flour mixture.  Use a pastry cutter to cut butter into flour until dough resembles coarse meal, with even pieces about the size of a pea.  In a small bowl, beat together egg yolk and cream until even in color.  Slowly drizzle egg mixture into dough while stirring with a wooden spoon.  Then add ice water 1 TBS at a time, stirring at the same time.  At this point, dough should hold together loosely when pressed.
2. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 10 mintues.  Remove from fridge and turn out onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll out into a 10 inch circle about 1/4 inch thick, then carefully lift over top of tart pan.  Press crust into edges of tart pan, and chill crust in pan for 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Prick the bottom of the chilled crust 4-5 times with a fork.  Line chilled tart crust with parchment paper, then fill with pie weights.  Bake for 15 minutes, then remove parchment paper and pie weights, and bake for another 15 minutes, until golden brown.  Set aside to cool for at least 20 minutes.

For the filling:

• 18 black mission figs, de-stemmed and quartered
• 3 TBS butter, divided
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 10 TBS sugar, divided
• 1/2 c whole blanched almonds
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 TBS cognac

1. Caramelize the figs: add 2 TBS butter to a large frying pan and heat over medium heat.  When butter begins to foam, add 3 TBS sugar, then swirl/stir until sugar has dissolved.  Add quartered figs, and cook, stirring, until figs have released their juices and are coated in sugar.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.  Set half of the fig mixture aside.  Spread the other half over the bottom of the pre-baked tart pan.
2. Wipe out the pan used to caramelize the figs and add remaining 1 TBS of butter and 3 TBS of sugar and stir to dissolve.  Add almonds, and caramelize, stirring frequently, until almonds are a toasty golden brown and sugar has begun to caramelize on them.  Remove from pan onto wax paper and let cool, then break almond brittle into bite sized pieces.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, remaining 4 TBS of sugar, cream, almond extract, and cognac until evenly combined.  Pour custard over fig mixture in tart shell, then bake for 30 minutes (still at 400°F), until custard is set and slightly puffed.  Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then top with remaining fig mixture and almond brittle.  Serve warm or after chilling in the fridge.

The post Summer Bucket List Update and a Fig and Almond Tart appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Trev and I had a little BBQ at my place this weekend – just a few good friends who all happened to be in town at the same time.  One is starting up at Harvard Law, another passing through between summer camp in Maine and hut-keeping on the AMC.  My roommate joined in as a study break, and a good friend from work stopped by as well.  It was the sort of crowd that caused minimal stress, and the sort of messy, hand-held food you should only eat with people you’re not trying to impress – ribs slathered in tangy sauce, Mexican-style grilled corn rolled in mayo and chili-flecked parmesan cheese, chocolate-stout cupcakes with a mess of espresso frosting, and this galette, sliced and served like pizza.

The galette was a bit of a last minute decision.  Initially I had planned to make a much fancier puff-pastry based tart, but the frozen puff pastry at Wholefoods was $10 a package.  Ten dollars!  I might as well just buy a pie for that price.  Anyway, with a bag of plums and a carton of blackberries I picked in Andover last week both languishing in the fridge, I went simple and rustic and it was just right for a casual Saturday afternoon.  A drizzle of creme de cassis in the filling added some depth.  I managed to snag a few pictures before I got distracted by good company and cold Blue Moon beer, so I thought I’d share it with you.

Anyway, just a quick hello.  Hope everyone’s week got off to a good start, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with a delicious frozen treat that’s also healthy enough to be featured on Greatist.

Plum, Blackberry, and Cassis Galette

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original.  Serves 6.

• 1 1/4 c. flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 stick very cold butter
• 6-8 TBS ice cold water
• 1 1/2 lb ripe plums, pitted and thickly sliced
• 1 c. fresh blackberries
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 TBS cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/3 c. creme de cassis

1. Make the pie crust: whisk together the flour and the salt in a medium bowl.  Cut in the cold butter, and blend with a pastry cutter until the mixture is coarse with lumps no larger than a pea.  Add the water 1 TBS at a time, stirring with a fork between additions, until the dough comes loosely together.  Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and wrap tightly.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 425°F.  In a large bowl, mix the plums, blackberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and creme de cassis.  Let sit 5 minutes.  Roll out the dough into a large oval on a well-floured surface, then transfer to a baking sheet.  Pile the plum filling into the middle of the galette, leaving at least an inch around the edges on all sides.  Fold the edges of the dough over the filling and press down.  Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 350°F and continue baking for 25-30 minutes longer, until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown.  Don’t worry if the filling bubbles out somewhat – it’s that kind of dessert!

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Three years ago, I didn’t know what currants were.  I guess this isn’t really that surprising, given that I also didn’t eat broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, or other cruciferous vegetables, didn’t know how to pit an avocado, and certainly couldn’t tell you the difference between a lemon and a meyer lemon.  (Don’t totally write my three-years-ago-self off though – I did know how to prepare couscous in a dorm room without getting any dishes dirty, which I consider a feat up there with being able to completely change your clothes – underwear included – in the locker room without ever flashing anything).

Besides the fact that I didn’t really know much about food in 2009, currants haven’t really been a thing here for a long time.  You still don’t see them in grocery stores, and even at farmer’s markets, I hear a lot of people ask what they are.  Their lack of popularity is not because they’re an unlikeable fruit, although their tart-tart flavor can be off-putting at first, but rather because they’ve been banned as a crop in many parts of New England since the early 1900s due to the fact that they can carry White Pine Blister Rust.  Recently, bans have been lifted town by town as demand for the berries has begun to rise, and now, for a brief few weeks in July, you can actually get red currants, white currants, and gooseberries fairly consistently at Boston farmer’s markets.  Black currants are still a no-go, although rumor has it that there are wild bushes still around – if you know of any locations, I’ll trade you a pie for the deets.

Back to 2009.  That fall was the semester I spent in Prague, where I learned a lot of things, among them, how to cook for myself on a daily basis.  This is where I started to learn about foods I thought I didn’t like, like cabbage (a Czech staple), and goulash (which I would love a good bowl of right now).  Grocery stores were an adventure, and there were definitely recipes I made where I didn’t know what the ingredients were even after the dish was complete.  I also made a lot of pie and quiche in Prague, and have vivid memories of sitting at the kitchen table, slicing up frozen butter for a pie crust and being perfectly content.  But this is not about Prague, it’s about currants.  And Czech people eat quite a few of them.  I didn’t really actively notice them, as they’re usually mixed with other berries, but frozen fruit mixes contained them, cheesecakes were topped with them, and I liked them.  It wasn’t until I got back to the U.S. and went to buy some at the store that I learned you can’t get them here – which clearly set me on a mission to find them.  Long story short, 2 1/2 years later and I got my hands on some, which I quickly turned into two things – red currant and meringue pie, and red currant chutney.

I really enjoyed both these recipes.  The pie, well, it’s different, in the best sort of way.  Not what I typically think of when I hear “fruit pie,” the sweet, airy meringue is punctuated by bursts of tart red currant, with a buttery crust to ground the flavors.  It’s ethereal, surprising, and totally delicious.  It would be the perfect sort of thing to serve at a picnic, when you need something light to finish off the meal, or for a pretty, feminine treat at a bridal or baby shower.  Or for dinner on a Monday night, if that’s more your speed (hint: it’s definitely more mine).  I promised Trevor I would save him some for when he gets home from his business trip Friday, but given that I’ve already had three big slices, I’m not sure how good the chances of that are.

The chutney is also a real treat – with a flavor vaguely reminiscent of sweet and sour sauce and a smooth, jammy texture, it’s delicious on toast, as a condiment, or straight out of the jar.  The currant gets mellowed out a lot during the cooking process, so it’s less of a standout flavor, and the seeds are strained out as well.  Whereas when I’m eating the pie I’m thinking “currant! meringue! currant!” with every bite, with the chutney it’s just “mmm, chutney.”  I had the chutney spooned over toasted sourdough and melty fontina cheese alongside a cold glass of raspberry lambic for dinner on both Friday and Saturday nights last weekend – lazy summer cooking at it’s best.  (Can I take a moment to express how amazing raspberry lambic is?!  It’s like someone distilled raspberries – not sugary-sweet raspberry syrup, but fresh, sun-ripe, forest floor raspberries – into a bottle and then gave it the added bonus of giving you a buzz.  If it weren’t $10 a bottle, I’d be drinking a lot of it.  Tangent over.)  Since currants are newer to the American palate than many fruits, many people seem mystified by what to do with them beyond toss them into a berry mix.  If you happen to find yourself with some (maybe you bought a box at the market because they’re just so pretty and now can’t figure out how to use them) – I highly recommend both these recipes.

Red Currant Meringue Pie

Adapted slightly from Heather Homemade.  Serves 8.

• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 c. butter, very soft
• 1 c. white sugar, divided
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 2 eggs, separated
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• pinch cream of tartar
• 1 c. white and red currants, washed and stemmed

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder.  Stir in butter, 1/2 c. of white sugar, lemon extract, and the 2 egg yolks until evenly moistened.   Knead with your hands several times to bring dough together, form into a smooth ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1/2 an hour.
2. Preheat oven to 325°F.  Press chilled dough into a 9 inch tart pan, forming a crust a little less than an inch thick that also wraps up the sides of the pan.  Bake the crust for 25 minutes, until golden, then remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes.  Increase oven temp to 400°F.
3. Whisk 2 egg whites until frothy, then sprinkle cream of tartar over, and whisk vigorously until egg whites are stiff.  Whisk in cornstarch, then gradually add remaining 1/2 c. of sugar to egg whites, whisking vigorously between additions.  Whisk until whites are stiff and shiny, then gently fold in currants.  Smooth currant filling out on top of the pre-baked pie crust, then bake for 12-18 minutes, until most of the meringue top is golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool/set.  Serve at room temperature on same day.  Refrigerate leftovers (although this will make the meringue begin to “weep”).

Red Currant Chutney

Adapted slightly from Fresh Juice.  Makes about 1 1/2 c.

• 2 c. red currants, washed and stemmed
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 3 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 c. water
• 1 TBS vegetable oil
• 1 TBS whole mustard seeds
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• 10 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 large onion, chopped into small pieces
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, depending on your heat tolerance

1. In a small saucepan, bring currants, sugar, vinegar, and water to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until currants begin to fall apart, about 10-15 minutes.  Careful, this is a recipe that’s likely to boil over (and make a mess!), so leave your lid somewhat ajar or give it a stir frequently
2. Strain red currant mixture through a fine sieve, catching the juice in a bowl.  Press down on the currant solids to extract as much juice as possible.  Discard the solids, reserve the juice.
3. Rinse out the saucepan and return to stove.  Heat vegetable oil in saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add mustard seeds, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon stick, ginger, and salt, and fry until mustard seeds begin to pop, about one minute.  Warning, the hot mustard seeds can pop quite forcefully and splatter oil, so work quickly and carefully, removing pot from heat if need be.
4. Add the onion to the spices, and cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally until onions are golden brown, about 10 minutes.  Add currant juice and cayenne pepper to pot, and stir.  Bring to a simmer, and simmer, uncovered, for about 15 minutes, until the sauce has reduced and thickened.  Let cool and refrigerate for up to two weeks.

Note: This wasn’t written as a canning recipe, so I’m not sure if it has enough sugar/acid/other preserving elements to work, but if that’s your thing and you can figure out the safe ratios, I think it could work really well!  If not, I’m sure you’ll be able to use this up pretty quickly.

The post Red Currants, Two Ways appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I feel like a “Maine is awesome and relaxing and beautiful and look there are wild blueberries!” post is acceptable, possibly even required, at least once a year.  Especially since this is probably the last summer for a while that I’ll have as much free time as I’ve had to just hang out there.  (Although, to counteract that negative point, there’s the fact that it’s also the first time that I’ll ever be able to go up for long weekends in the fall and spring.)  Plus, not coming up with blueberry recipes when you have free access to a full-sized ex-commercial blueberry field seems a little bit like a crime.  So, here goes:

Maine is awesome!  It has nature!  And mountains!  And lakes!  And blueberries!  Yay yay yay yay yay!  But seriously, even the rainiest, darkest, most boring day in Maine is significantly better than the same day would be anywhere else.  Commitments feel less pressing, time slows down, and days run easily together into a long summery memory.  On sunny days, we wake up early and refreshed and drink our tea on the back porch, watching the lake come to life and letting the sun slowly warm us out of sleep.  We float in the just-warm-enough lake, or read on the dock, stopping occasionally to watch the loons shake out their wings, or traipse through the blueberry barrens popping sun-sweetened berries into our mouths with every step, or zip across the harbor for an island picnic.   On rainy days, we all sit around the woodstove and read, or play cards, drinking hot chocolate and munching on cookies.  Every night, rain or shine, we sit down around the long wooden table for a hot meal together.  So yes, I’m condensing the experience into the best parts – we still have to do things like get groceries and clean the house and we still irritate each other as families are wont to do – but the average Maine day is better just because of the opportunity to do more than we might otherwise.  To step outside and find something new.  To gather the family for a quick boat trip.  Being in Maine is more spontaneous than being elsewhere, and much of it still feels wild and untouched, and I love it.

I made this pie the other night because I was actually tired of having so many blueberries sitting around in the fridge, and I wanted to use them up.  I briefly considered blogging about it, but by the time it came out of the oven it was too dark for pictures, and I knew it wouldn’t make it to the morning with 8 people in the house, so I just served it up and abandoned the blog prospect.  But then, it was just so good that I knew I had to make it again to share with you all.  It didn’t hurt that the recipe left me with extra crust dough and extra topping, so making another one was a breeze.  My mom had sort of wrinkled her nose when I told her there was coconut in my blueberry pie, and both my brother and my cousin almost refused to have any on the grounds that they didn’t like coconut, but all were converted after the first bite.  It’s melt-in-your-mouth delicious, with the hint of lemon and coconut bringing out the sweetness of the blueberries and giving it an almost tropical feeling, even though it’s from a book of Italian desserts.  It’s not particularly easy or quick, and with all that butter it’s not exactly healthy, but despite all that, I have a feeling it will become a regular during blueberry season.  It’s too good not to have.

Blueberry and Coconut Pie

Adapted from Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen.  Serves 8-12.

A note about this recipe: the sweet tart crust recipe makes enough dough for two full 9-inch pie crusts, with a little room for error.  I decided not to halve the recipe here due to the awkwardness of trying to use half an egg yolk and the prevalence of measurements that are in thirds.  Once you have rolled out the dough and transferred it to the pan, cut the extra off with a knife, roll the scraps back into a ball, and double wrap it in plastic to be stored in the freezer.  Then, the next time you want a pie, it will take half as much time!

For the sweet tart crust:

• 2 1/3 c. flour
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• zest of 1 lemon
• 3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) butter, cut into small cubes, then chilled well
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 c. heavy cream
• a few drops ice water, if necessary

For the filling and topping:

• 6 TBS salted butter, divided
• 1/3 c. flour
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 c. unsweetened shredded coconut, divided
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 c. confectioner’s sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp. lemon extract or zest of 1 lemon
• 3 c. blueberries
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 TBS cornstarch

For the crust:

1. In a food processor, pulse flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and lemon zest until combined.  Add cold, cubed butter and pulse until mixture has a sandy texture, with pieces of butter no bigger than a pea.  In a small bowl, whisk together egg, egg yolk, heavy cream, and vanilla.  Add wet ingredients and pulse just until dough comes together when you pinch it.  Remove dough from bowl and work into a ball.  If mixture is still too dry/crumbly, add a few drops of ice cold water as necessary.  Knead the dough just until it is even in consistency and moisture.  Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for at least half an hour before using.

For the topping and filling:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Melt 2 TBS of the butter and cool slightly.  Add 1/2 tsp vanilla to melted butter.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the 1/3 c. flour, 1/4 c. sugar, and 1/4 c. of the coconut.  Add the melted butter mixture and combine well.  Transfer mixture to freezer for half an hour to set.
2. Soften the remaining 4 TBS of butter, and mix with the confectioner’s sugar until smooth and creamy.  Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, until incorporated, and then add the lemon extract and remaining 3/4 c. of coconut.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, toss blueberries, lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch, and let sit 5 minutes.
3. While berries are macerating, roll out chilled dough on a floured counter into a 10-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick.  Roll the dough loosely over the rolling pin to transfer to the 9-inch pie tin, and drape over the tin.  Press the crust into the bottom and edges of the pan, then use a knife to cut the excess from the rim.  Roll together the scraps and freeze for a later pie.
4. Spread the coconut filling evenly across the bottom of the pie.  Top with the blueberries and their juices.  Remove the topping from the freezer and use a fork to break it into small pieces.  Scatter these pieces over the top of the pie.  Bake the pie for 40-45 minutes, until crust and topping is golden-brown and berries are bubbling.

The post Good ol’ Blueberry-and-Coconut Pie appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

The other night I was talking to my best friend on the phone, when I mentioned something I’d been working on for this blog.  “You blog?”  she asked.  “Oh, is it that food one?”  Audible sigh.  So I informed her that since I’d been working on this blog for 8 months, she needed to look at it, even though it was about something as unappealing/un-intellectually stimulating as food.  I sent her the link, and proceeded to listen to her laugh maniacally.  “Is this real?  This is hysterical.  You really write this stuff?  I have to send this to my other friends who are weird about food.”

Now, many people would construe this sort of response as hurtful and un-supportive.  But I find it both highly entertaining and priceless, mainly because it perfectly demonstrates the fact that Steph and I are complete opposites.  She gets paid to blog about feminism; I don’t get paid to blog about domesticity.  She eats mainly lettuce and is infamous for only wanting half of something scrumptious; I eat mainly everything and am known for eating my own portion as well as the half Steph didn’t want.  She is in firm control of all her emotions; I generally like to savor and prolong emotional extremes.  When we prioritize the importance of gaining money, prestige, family, love, and friendship in our lives, our lists come out as mirror images – both have friendship in the middle.  Oh, and the boys we like could not be more different.  Except for the time I was secretly dating Andrew.  Which was now.

And yet, we find all the same things extremely hilarious – Mr. Godine used to call us “chuckles” and “giggles” because that was our main form of communication, although it’s still unclear who was who in that scenario.  We like and dislike the same people, and despite being completely different, we understand each other.  Also I hang out with her because I like her dad.  (He once brought me a cookie at school when Steph told him I was having a bad day and since then I have been his most devoted fan.  It’s startlingly easy to win my love.  On the other hand, someone once ate my cookie on a date at Starbucks and I still haven’t really forgiven them, so just proceed with caution on the cookie front.)

So in honor of Steph gracing this blog with her presence, I’m making something that she would definitely refuse to eat more than 2 spoonfuls of – a blueberry and dark chocolate galette with homemade cinnamon ice cream.  Also she would almost certainly end up with some if it in her hair, because that is something that frequently happens to her when eating.  I think her hair has special attractive chemical properties.  It can sometimes be a fun game to not tell her that she has cake in her hair and let her continue telling a story while the cake bobs wildly back and forth next to her face.  Just kidding, Steph, I would never do that.  I would also like to take this opportunity to mention that I think you’re incredibly smart and talented and I think you will probably get a great job.

The galette is my entry to this month’s Have the Cake baking challenge, and it’s using up the last of the wild Maine blueberries.  The dark chocolate is included because it’s good for emotional people, such as myself.  The ice cream is because I’ve been drooling over all of the homemade ice cream recipes that have been going up all over the web since May, (seriously, you guys are the worst), and have been saving my pennies in an empty cocoa tub hoping to one day purchase an ice cream maker.  Actually, that’s a lie, Trevor and I used those pennies to buy chili cheese fries at the drive-in on the Fourth, but I like the idea of saving my pennies for an ice cream maker, so maybe I’ll start.  Anyway, now I am living with my parents and their ice cream maker, so I can whip up frozen custards to my heart’s delight and rub them in non-ice-cream-machine-owner’s faces for another two weeks until I rejoin their sad ranks.

Or so I thought.  But then my much anticipated use of the cuisinart automatic ice cream machine turned out to be a complete failure on the cuisinart’s part, so I resorted to sticking my melty custard in the freezer and stirring it once an hour.  And shockingly enough, it came out incredible.  Actually both the galette and the ice cream came out incredible.  The ice cream was sophisticated and subtle, the dark chocolate-blueberry combo was complex and not too sweet, and all together it was really good.  Not to brag.  But it was really good.  I think even Steph may have indulged in this one.  Let me know what you think if you give either recipe a try!

Dark Chocolate and Blueberry Galette

Inspired by Shared Sugar, serves 10

• 1 stick butter, cold
• 4-10 TBS very cold water
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/3 c. heavy cream
• 3 c. fresh blueberries
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/3 c. sugar

1. Prepare the pie crust: cut butter into small pieces.  Return to fridge/freezer for 5 minutes or until needed.  Mix flour, salt, and 1 tsp. sugar together in a medium bowl.  Add cold butter and combine with a pastry cutter or fork until the whole mixture is crumbly with pea sized chunks of butter.  Add cold water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing with a fork in between additions.  Add just enough water so that the crust comes together in a loose ball of dough.  Turn out onto plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour.
2. Prepare the ganache: place chopped chocolate in a small heat proof bowl.  In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring cream just to a boil.  Pour hot cream over chocolate and stir with a whisk until smooth.  Allow to cool for 5 to ten minutes.
3. Prepare the filling:  mix blueberries, 1/3 c. sugar, lemon juice, and corn starch together gently.  Allow to stand for 10-15 minutes, until blueberries begin to juice.
4. Bake galette: preheat oven to 425°F.  On a lightly floured surface, roll chilled pastry dough out into a circle about 1/4 inch thick and 12-14 inches in diameter.  Transfer to a large baking sheet with sides.  Spread a layer of ganache over the crust, leaving 2 inches at the edge.  Pour blueberries over ganache layer, and fold the sides of the crust up over the filling, sealing any broken edges by pressing together.  Bake for 20 minutes, then lower heat to 350°F and bake for another 25 minutes, until crust is light golden brown and filling is bubbly.  Serve warm with Roasted Cinnamon Ice Cream.

Roasted Cinnamon Ice Cream

Adapted slightly from Regan Daley’s In the Sweet Kitchen

• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 cups of heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 3-inch pieces of cinnamon stick
• 6 egg yolks
• 3/4 c. sugar

1. In a dry, non-stick pan over medium heat, toast ground cinnamon for 2-3 minutes, until fragrant.  Stir to keep from burning.
2. Combine the whole milk, 1 cup of the heavy cream, and the cinnamon sticks in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to keep from scorching.  Remove from heat when it reaches a boil and allow to infuse for 5 minutes.
3. While waiting for the cream to infuse, whisk the egg yolks together in a medium bowl.  Slowly add the sugar, whisking just enough for the mixture to turn slightly paler.  Pour the hot cinnamon cream slowly over the eggs, whisking vigorously to keep eggs from scrambling.
4. When all of the hot cream has been incorporated into the eggs, return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for 10 to 12 minutes, until the custard has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Have a clean bowl with a strainer placed over it ready on the side.  When the custard is the desired thickness, immediately strain into the bowl.
5. Add 3 tablespoons of the remaining cup of heavy cream to the pan with the ground cinnamon, stirring with a spatula until the cream and cinnamon comes together into a runny paste.  Add this paste to the strained custard, stirring to incorporate.
6. Press plastic wrap against the surface of the custard and cover bowl.  Refrigerate custard for at least 4 hours, or overnight.  Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

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