Cooking - Improvise and Eat your Mistakes! Fennel & Smoked Salmon Tartlets

My father had an expression he delivered witheringly to us children whenever we tried to outsmart ourselves - "Too clever by a half" he'd say, shaking his head. Well, Dad, I was too clever by a half last weekend.

Dear friends had just returned from their Summer in France and I wanted to celebrate their return with a special dinner. They are both great cooks and we enjoy cooking for one another. I invited another couple and then began planning the menu in my head.

Cold, it had to be cold because it's still too darn hot here; limited last minute prep because I wanted to be in on the conversation not doing a headless chicken routine, and it had to taste good and look great. Also had some new pottery oval plates and little soup bowls that I wanted to use because they are pretty!

I'm a fearless cook, old enough not to be put in my place by recipes and carefree enough to wing it when I want to improvise. I rarely follow a recipe - as a friend put it - I cook by the "what the heck" method but years of experience have honed my skills so I'm not afraid to play.
Avocados were ripe and in plentiful supply so that was my starting point. A glance through a copy of June 2008 La Cuccina Italiana showed a recipe for rotolo di pollo - a rolled, cylindrical chicken breast that was poached and chilled. Hmnn- not bad, I thought and improvised that one by placing a spear of asparagus in the center of the roll but otherwise followed directions. My garden offered up lovely eggplants so I wrote eggplant caviar in my notes. Farmers' market yielded fennel and heirloom tomatoes and I have bushels of basil outside the kitchen door.

Final menu was :

Chilled Avocado Soup with Fennel and Smoked Salmon Tartlets on Arugula

Chicken Rolls with Pesto and Eggplant Caviar on a bed of uncooked Tomato Coulis.

I knew Leo was bringing his too good to miss homemade ice cream. It's a snap I thought as I set to work.

Soup was done Friday in less than five minutes and refrigerated - chicken rolls took a bit longer , they were fiddly and squishy to work with, and the directions for wrapping and forming anything but clear. I finally had them all bundled, poached and cooling by Friday evening. I did NOT open one to check.

I hunted through cook books for something clever to do with the fennel and the only thing that took my fancy was an Italian recipe for an enclosed tartlet with a fennel filling. Good starting point.
Again I improvised but made a fatal error - instead of sticking with my tried and true pastry recipe , I followed the book recipe. Was somewhat suspicious of the "bake for 5 minutes at 400F" instruction and miserly amount of butter still, since this was my only cook with an audience item on the menu I wasn't too concerned. Stick with what you know! The pastry turned out to be rock hard, actually cracked open like an egg and took 25 minutes to bake. The filling was great and the presentation on these lovely pottery oval plates with matching soup cup was splendid. I ended up with chicken that was underseasoned and definitely on the dry side (looked pretty though) - close to inedible tarts although my guests were very kind, fantastic eggplant caviar and tomato coulis. Soup is impossible to botch and it was a good as always.

I recreated the tartlets today using my own pastry recipe and they are a winner. I'll have a go at improving on the chicken sometime when I want to play with raw meat again. Too clever by a half again today - did not check my camera for batteries so will add photos later.

Fennel and Smoked Salmon Tartlets

Makes 10 3" across tartlets. or two 9" pastry rounds for a pie.

For the pastry

• 2 1/4 cups of unbleached all purpose flour

• 8 Tbs. ice cold butter cut into 1/2 ' chunks

• 2 Tbs. chilled lard cut into 1/2" chunks

• pinch salt

• ~ 1/2 Cup ice-cold water

Put the flour and salt into bowl of food processor. Pulse a couple of times to add air and mix in salt. Drop in all the fats. Pulse about 6 times (will vary with strength of processor) . Open lid and check. Your butter should still be a little chunky and visible in the four. Add 3 Tbs. of the water. Pulse a few times. Pastry should NOT clump together unless you squeeze a little between your fingers. If it hold together at that stage tip out onto a lightly floured surface, squeeze into a ball, flatten with heel of your hand, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate. If it does NOT clump when squeezed continue to add water and pulse checking frequently until it will clump . DO NOT OVER ADD WATER. Depending on humidity and type of flour you can use up to 1/2 cup of water before getting desired results. Can be made a day ahead of time . Chill at least 45 minutes before rolling.

For the Filling

• 1/4 Cup butter
• 1 large fennel bulb, trimmed and cut into 1/4 " wide lengthwise slivers - save some of the green fronds for garnish
  

• 1 4 oz. log of herbed Boursin style soft Goats Cheese
• 4 ozs. smoked Salmon
• 1 egg, yolk and white divided
• sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste. (I don't like white pepper, some may find it more aesthetically pleasing in this preparation)

Method:

Saute the fennel in the butter until softened - about 10 minutes. Cool a little and then scrape into a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add cheese, egg yolk and salmon, pulse to blend into a chunky paste. Taste - add salt and pepper to season. Scrape into a small bowl, cover and refrigerate. Can be made a day ahead of time.


To Assemble:

Roll out pastry on a floured board to a little less than 1/4" thickness. Use a 3" wide wine glass or other circular cutter to cut out 20 circles. Place ten of the circles on eather a non stick or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Put a tablespoon of filling on each of 10 pastry circles. Brush edges with cold water of the bottom and top pastry rounds. Top each bottom with a round of pastry, crimp edges to seal. Brush with lightly beaten egg white. If not baking right away, refrigerate. Do NOT let them get warm.

Pre-heat oven to 425F. Pop cold tarts into hot oven. Bake for 5 minutes and reduce temperature to 400F. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Check to see if tarts are browned . Might take a few more minutes - depends on ovens.

Serve hot . With a cup of iced avocado soup and a slice of smoked salmon on arugula it makes a light lunch or perfect starter course for a special dinner.

Cooking - Pork Tenderloin with Fruit Sauce

Our search engine optimization and all round web guru team of Peltier Effects sent us this recipe recently. I made it twice - always the skeptic!- and am giving you Jeffrey and Heidi's original recipe with a couple of side notes of my own. For the record, it was enthusiastically received at family diner here two nights in a row.




First time around I used dry sherry (when I finally found the Calvados in the back of a cupboard I couldn't get the top off it had been stashed for so long) - consensus here is that it has more "zip" with Calvados. Round one I used the exact amounts of fruit and pine nuts specified in the recipe. Second iteration I cut back fruit to 1.5 cups and pine nuts to 1/4 cup. The verdict: - second sauce was better - maybe it was the Calvados! Each night I served it with wilted spinach (my favorite way to cook spinach - scroll to bottom for recipe) and creamed yams - my family are very tolerant. First night I used two pork tenderloins and served five . Second night I used three tenderloins and served seven with lots of leftovers. When I increased the amount of meat I still had sauce left over - yummy as a chutney on the cold pork.
I cooked the pork on the Evo gas grill with the lid on. I think you can easily BBQ this cut without drying it out.

For 4-6 you will need

• 2 or more trimmed pork tenderloins ~ 1llb each
• a little olive oil
• sea salt and coarse ground black pepper

• Prep the pork by rinsing it, patting it dry, rolling in a little olive oil and sprinkling with salt and pepper.
• Pre- heat an oven to 375F or pre-heat BBQ

• Roast for uncovered for about 30 minutes - check skinny looking tenderloins at at 25 minutes. You want the meat to be pale blush pink at the thickest part.

While the meat is roasting prep and cook the sauce.
You will need

• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 Cups or less dried mixed fruit - pears, apricots, plums aka prunes, apples, figs, dried cherries
  
• 4 oz (1/2 Cup) or less pine nuts
• 5 cloves crushed garlic
• zest and juice from one each orange and lime
• 1/2 Cup Calvados
• 1 Cup chicken stock

• Warm the oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic, nuts and fruit. Cook until nuts and fruit begin to brown. Add the citrus juice, zest and Calvados. Cook down until syrupy. Add chicken stock and cook at high heat until reduced to a thick sauce.
  

Let the pork rest while you finish up the sauce. Cut into 1" thick slices, top with sauce. Cold sauce and leftover pork great for next day!

Wilted Spinach

• A very large handful of baby spinach for each serving.
• splash of olive oil
• either juice of half a lemon or 1TBS of diced preserved lemon

Over medium heat warm the oil in a large, shallow pan with tight fitting lid. Rinse the spinach under cold running water, shake off excess water but do NOT dry. Drop into the pan, squeeze in lemon juice or add the preserved lemon, sprinkle with a little sea salt (NO salt if you use the preserved lemon) and coarse ground black pepper. Put the lid on the pan- turn heat to low. After three minutes open and stir - spinach should be wilting. Put the lid back on and turn off heat. leave about three more minutes on cooling burner.

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Taco Salad - Our family favorite

I don’t know where this salad originated, just glad that it did. Over the years I have made adjustments to it that seems to suit my family. The beauty of this recipe is that you can take whatever liberties you want, add away I say! The key is in the marinating so make sure you have enough Catalina dressing. Serves 4-6 hungry people

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
1 head of iceberg lettuce
1 large bottle (Family size) of Catalina dressing
1 bag of Tostitos
½ purple onion – diced
1 bunch of green onions – chopped
2 large or 3 medium size tomatoes – diced (I like to use a package of grape tomatoes)
1 can of black olives – chopped
1 can of garbanzo beans (chick peas) – drained
1 can of dark red kidney beans - drained
1 package of shredded cheddar cheese
large serving bowl

Instructions:

In a 13 x 9 dish stir in the onions (both purple and green), tomatoes, black olives, garbanzo beans, kidney beans and ½ the package of shredded cheddar cheese. Pour in the entire bottle of Catalina dressing. Cover with saran wrap and marinate in refrigerator for 4 - 24 hours, the longer the better.

½ hour before serving fry the ground beef into small crumbly bites. Allow to cool.
Wash the iceberg lettuce and pat dry. Get the large serving bowl and tear up your lettuce into bite size pieces and put into bowl. Add ground beef and the marinated veggies. Stir. Open Tostitos and take out handfuls crumbling them over top (this is to taste). Stir them in. Sprinkle remaining shredded cheddar cheese. Serve immediately!

Cooking - Artisanal Bread Made at Home

Sundried Tomato and Olive Tapenade Bread

It's all the rage - this artisanal bread. Loaves lovingly handcrafted by the baker and sold for around $5.95 (ouch) each. That's what I paid at Whole Foods in Chicago last week for a loaf that was, admittedly good but the price...!

Up here at the cabin it's more often about make do than follow a recipe - with the closest supermarket a good 35 mile round trip away, I find myself scrambling to improvise. Today was a good example. No bread, some wonderful cheeses demanding bread and, the possibility of drop ins for lunch.

I've made a sun dried tomato loaf in the past and that was the plan today - but when she got there, the cupboard was bare! All the tomatoes I put up a few weeks ago save for two lounging in olive oil in the back of the fridge had gone the way of pizza toppings. Improvisation time. The resulting Sundried Tomato and Olive Bread is dense, rich, flecked with the tomatoes and olives, crunchy and, just screams "bring on the cheese"!




My two precious oil drenched tomatoes were coarsely chopped along with eight Greek olives to make a tapenade - you can substitute a store bought tapenade. Use about two tablespoons. If you are rich in sun dried tomatoes use half a dozen of them. Chop coarsly before incorporating into the dough.

• 1 packet dry yeast
• 1/4 cup water - warm to the touch but not "ouch" hot
• big pinch of sugar

Put the water in a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast on top followed by the sugar. Do not stir. Leave for about 15 minutes or until a kind of crusty film has formrd on the surface and there are active bubbles.


Put in the bowl of a food processor

• 2.5 Cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup coarse grind yellow cornmeal
• 1 TBS. olive oil
• 1 tsp. Maldon sea salt

Pulse 6 or more times to blend. Add the yeast mixture, pulse 3 or 4 times. Next step is the ONLY tricky one in this process. Add ~ 1/3 cup of warm water to the yeast bowl , swirl around to get all the clinging bits and pour into the processor. Put another 1/3cup warm water next to the processsor. Pulse in short bursts until the dough starts to clump. Add additional water a few drops at a time. Pulse in between adding. You want to get your dough to form a soft log or ball in the processor. As soon as all the dough is sticking together stop adding water and process until you have a shiny ball of dough - usually about 30 seconds.

ADD the tapanade. Pulse until roughly incorporated into the dough.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead using your fists dor about 5 minutes (it's a good work out! You want a smooth, shiny ball of dough.

Drizzle a tsp. or so of olive oil into a proofing bowl, Pop your dough into the bowl, turning it to coat with the oil , cover with a clean cloth and let stand in a draught free place until double in size. At least an hour. This is a dense dough, not a light and fluffy one so don't expect it to ooze over the side of the bowl as it rises.

When doubled in size, tip out onto a floured surface, punch down and knead about 5 minutes. Form the dough into a ball by sccoping fingers of one hand under the dough and use the heel of your other hand to rotate the ball. Dust a pizza paddle or cutting board with a good sprinkle of cornmeal and flour, set the dough on it and let rise again, covered, until double.
Note: I use a Frieling Round Brotform 1-Pound Bread Rising Basket available from Amazon ~ $30. I've had mine 10 plus years now.


Place a bread or pizza stone on the middle shelf of your oven. Pre-heat oven to 425F. Before it comes to temperature sprinkle coarse corn meal on the stone to prevent the loaf from sticking and to give it a crunchy bottom.

When the oven is ready, grab a couple of ice cubes and have them close by. Either tip the dough gently from the basket onto the stone or slide it from the paddle. Toss the two uice cubes onto the bottom of the oven. Bake for 10 minutes. reduce heat to 400F bake an additional 20 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds hollow when you "knock" on the bottom.




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