Big Apple Pancake

I can't believe that it's August 31st already. Where did the summer go? It seems like it just stopped raining and started to warm up in Washington and pretty soon, I'll be putting away my once-worn-this-summer white pants and purses.

Summer in the Sassy household means an abundance of visitors...our teacher and graduate student friends who are on summer break, both of our moms who are enjoying a lighter workload, and those friends who just want to head south and make a stop in our nation's capitol.
A weekend visitor means brunch on Sunday. This Sunday, teacher friend and bridesmaid, D, was in town. We were all anxious to get going for the day so I searched for a quick but tasty recipe. Oh man, does this pancake hit the spot. It's not exactly a pancake since it has such a small flour to egg ratio - 1/2 cup flour to 5 eggs. Its texture is light and fluffy, rather than eggy as you would expect. The caramelized brown sugar and apples create lovely crevices for the maple syrup to hide and each bite is soft and sweet. This couldn't have been a more perfect breakfast and we gobbled it up quickly!
Note: This pancake is best made in a cast iron or oven safe pan so that it can go right from the stove top into the oven.
Big Apple Pancake
Adapted from Gourmet, November 2004

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch-wide wedges
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
5 large eggs
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
Confectioners sugar for dusting

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 450°F.

Melt butter in skillet over moderate heat, then transfer 1 tablespoon to a mixing bowl. Add apple wedges and brown sugar to skillet and cook, turning over once, until they soften, 3 to 5 minutes.

While apples are cooking, whisk milk, flour, eggs, granulated sugar, vanilla, salt, and butter and blend until smooth.

Pour batter over apples and transfer skillet to oven. Bake until pancake is puffed and golden, about 15 minutes. Dust with confectioners sugar and serve immediately.

Israeli Couscous and Roasted Tomato Salad

Tonight I'm hosting a dinner party for 9. There will be 6 carnivores and 3 vegetarians. I will be making my signature Lemon Chicken with Capers and searched around for a side dish suitable for vegetarians. It's not that I typically put meat in my side dishes but as things like chicken stock are off the table, I had to do a bit more searching than usual.

Yesterday afternoon I headed over to my favorite Farmer's Market in Penn Quarter (on 8th Street between D & E). The market itself isn't anything fabulous, but it's never crowded or pretentious, like a Sunday morning at the Dupont Circle market can be.
After picking up a delicious pint of multi-colored cherry tomatoes (I love the purple ones!), I thought a roasted tomato salad might be nice. I did a quick search on Epicurious and lo and behold, this recipe popped up. Just a few substitutions are needed here as NAK won't touch olives with a ten foot pole and I still have mounds of basil that I want to use up. The results are a wonderfully fresh and filling side dish that I'll be making again soon.
Israeli Couscous and Roasted Tomato Salad
Adapted from Gourmet, September 2002 via www.epicurious.com

For roasted tomatoes and dressing
2 pints grape or cherry tomatoes (1 1/2 pound)
3 large garlic cloves, left unpeeled
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

For couscous
2 3/4 cups chicken broth or water
2 1/4 cups pearl (Israeli) couscous
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted and chopped (optional- I left them out)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Roast tomatoes and make dressing:
Preheat oven to 400°F.

Halve tomatoes through stem ends and arrange, cut sides up, in 1 layer in a large shallow (1-inch-deep) baking pan. Add garlic to pan and roast in middle of oven until tomatoes are slightly shriveled around edges, about 25 minutes Cool in pan on a rack 30 minutes.

Peel garlic and purée with oil, water, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and in a blender until dressing is very smooth.

Make couscous:
Bring broth to a boil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan and stir in couscous, then simmer, uncovered, 6 minutes. Cover pan and remove from heat. Let stand 10 minutes then fluff with a fork and let cool.

Transfer couscous to a bowl and stir in remaining ingredients, dressing, roasted tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste.

This week in the Sassy Kitchen

It was a busy Sunday in the Sassy kitchen and I'm just now posting my plan for the week.

This week's menu:

Sunday: Fresh Pesto. Made a quick batch and served it on top of cubed mozzarella and diced tomatoes that NAK and I enjoyed for lunch today. Delicious.
Monday: Tomato and Mozzarella Tart. Possibly my most favorite summer meal.

Tuesday: Tilapia, Roasted Cherry Tomato Salad
Wednesday: Pasta with Spinach and Blue Cheese
Thursday: Mom in town...plan not yet undetermined
Friday: Dinner party for 9. A mix of vegetarians and carnivores. Appetizers: Red Pepper Dip, Fig and Onion Jam. Dessert: Peach Pie. Now I just need the middle of the meal!
Saturday: Ratatouille (a recipe from Julia Child that I haven't tried before)
Pesto
The 15 Minute Gourmet: Vegetarian (the first cookbook I ever owned and one of my most reliable)

2 cups packed basil leaves

2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil

Combine all the ingredients together in a food processor. Makes 2-3 servings. Recipe can be easily doubled or tripled. Note: if freezing pesto, add the cheese freshly grated after the pesto is thawed rather than freezing the cheese.

This tart is so good that we ate half of it as soon as it came out of the oven.

Tomato Mozzarella Tart
The New York Times (my grandmother, Mimi, clipped this recipe out of the Times in the mid-90's. There is no date on the recipe and despite searching for it, I couldn't find it online)

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
8 ounces grated mozzarella cheese
2-3 medium tomatoes
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried, crumbled
Chopped fresh basil

Position rack in center of oven and pre-heat to 375. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet, and roll out puff pastry. Shape into a large rectangle. Crimp edges and prick dough with a fork. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Prick every few minutes with a fork to deflate the dough if necessary. Sprinkle with mozzarella and set aside. (Can be prepared 4 hours in advance, let stand at room temperature).

Increase oven temperature to 425. Slice tomatoes and place on a paper towl, pat dry. Arrange tomatoes on crust in slightly overlapping rows, covering completely. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with Parmesan, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and thyme. Bake tart until tomatoes are heated through and cheeses melt, about 10 minutes. Cut tart into large squares.

Double Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

Saturday was a pretty yucky here in DC - rainy and humid. The kind of day when you have to blast the AC and stay indoors. After spending much of the day organizing our bedroom closet (I have 4 bags of clothes to donate to charity!), I decided a little baking was in order. I wanted to make something that would make the entire apartment smell as though I had been baking all day - when the scent of fresh baked goods hits you as walk in the door and then stays on your nose. Chocolate!
Baking would be perfect if it weren't for the calories, fat, and carbs...basically, everything that makes baking so tasty and fun. So when I bake, I try and cut out fat and calories when I can and also sub out white flour for whole wheat flour. (Do not hold me to this philosophy when I make a peach pie later this week for my dinner party on Friday night.) Biscotti are crunchy and snappy (biscotti means "twice baked"), so a heartier whole wheat flour doesn't make a difference in the cookie's texture as it might in a softer cookie.
These biscotti were a hit. We ate a whole bunch of them on the spot, and the rest have been packed up in NAK's suitcase and are on their way to New York for our friend R's birthday, which is tomorrow. I hope he will enjoy them as much as we have.

Double Chocolate Walnut Biscotti
Adapted from Gourmet, 1994

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until combined well. Stir in flour mixture to form a stiff dough. Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips.

On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, form dough into two slightly flattened logs. The logs spread, so leave ample space between them. Bake logs 35 minutes, or until slightly firm to the touch. Cool biscotti on baking sheet 5 minutes.

On a cutting board cut biscotti diagonally into 1/2 inch slices using a serrated knife. Arrange biscotti, cut sides down, on baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 10 minutes. Cool biscotti on a rack. They will keep in airtight containers 1 week and frozen for 1 month.

Strawberry Buttermilk Cake

Word on the street is that it's hot outside. I won't take up any more time and space to complain about it. In light of this fact, I'm not quite sure what possessed me to turn my oven on and bake a cake. I guess I had a moment of motivation. We'll just leave it at that.

I tend to cook sweet treats on the weekends. Often times on weeknights, I'm too impatient to wait for the cake or cookies to finish baking in the oven and then cool. That's why this cake is a great weeknight cake - it can be made quickly and can be cut into pieces and eaten throughout the week. This cake is simple: a few reliable, always available ingredients that never fail.
lf l ate all the baked goods that are made in the Sassy kitchen, I'd probably weigh 300 lbs. Running helps (NAK and I are training for a half marathon next month) but I do like to limit my sugar intake. Most of my baked goods end up coming to the office with me or are given away to friends. Heads up: there will be Strawberry Buttermilk Cake on my desk in the morning. Get it while it's hot!

Strawberry Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from Good Housekeeping (yes I read GH, they actually have some good recipes)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp lemon zest

1 stick butter or margarine, softened

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk (I had buttermilk left over from the pancakes I made on Sunday but you can make your own by combining 1 cup of milk and 1 tbs lemon juice or vinegar. Let stand for 10 minutes)

1 pint strawberries, sliced thinly. This cake would also be delicious with blueberries (as featured in the original recipe), raspberries or peaches.

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 8 x 8 inch square cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes, then beat in vanilla and zest. Add eggs and beat well.

Lower the speed, then mix in flour in batches, alternating with buttermilk. Mix until just combined, being careful not to overmix. Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top with a small spatula. Sprinkle strawberries on the top, pressing them slightly into the batter.

Bake until cake is golden and a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool.

Tomato Basil Soup and Caesar Salad

There is an air of disappointment in the Sassy kitchen this evening. I left work right on time and came home excited to play in the kitchen. Tonight was my “free” weeknight (well, except for two conference calls but I can cook and conference of course!) and I was hoping for Tomato Basil Soup and Spinach and Feta Crustless Quiche for dinner.

No such luck. After roasting the tomatoes for the soup, I just couldn’t take the oven heat anymore and opted for a Caesar Salad to go alongside the soup. Quiche will be on the menu hopefully for another day this week.
NAK loves tomato soup and will order it just about anywhere. I keep quiet and shudder privately about the high sodium and fat content in the soup. I talk a good game but never quite getting around to making him tomato soup.

Tonight he got his way! The soup was spectacular. Light and creamy, sweet but with a slight kick. Just perfect. And a Caesar Salad on the side was just the way to go.
Note about the Caesar Salad: I created this dressing recipe for the way I like Caesar Salad –a lot of garlic and dressing that isn’t too thick. You can adjust to suit your own taste either by reducing the garlic and/or increasing the mayonnaise.

Tomato Basil Soup
Adapted from Ina Garten

3 large ripe tomatoes, cut in half
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbs butter
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 28 oz. can plum tomatoes, with juice
3 cups basil
3 cups chicken stock
2 tbs half and half

Toss the tomatoes with 1 tbs olive oil and salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and roast the tomatoes in a 400°F oven for 30 minutes.

About 10 minutes before the tomatoes finish, saute onions and garlic with 1 tbs olive oil and 1 tbs butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook until translucent (about 6-8 minutes) and then add red pepper flakes, canned tomatoes, basil and stock. Add the tomatoes from the oven with their liquids. Bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes. Puree in a food process or blender (be careful as the liquid is very hot) and then return to the pot. Add half and half and stir until combined.

Serves 4-6. Can be served hot or cold.

Caesar Salad

2 tbs mayonnaise
1 1/2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
2 small garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 anchovy fillet, finely chopped or 1 tsp anchovy paste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Let the garlic marinate in the olive oil for a little while (even 10 minutes will do the trick). Whisk all the ingredients together until smooth, season with salt and pepper. Toss with romaine lettuce and grate fresh Parmesan on top. Toss in croutons if desired. This dressing will make quite a bit so you can refrigerate the leftovers and then bring to room temperature and remix before using.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

NAK and I are training for a half marathon next month so we try and get in a long run every Sunday. Today we went out at about 8:00am and it was already a typical Washington summer day with high heat and humidity. After about 5 miles, we called it quits.

There is nothing I like more on a Sunday morning than a long run followed by a lazy brunch. I will usually whip up something tasty for brunch every Sunday but between summer weddings, visits from out of town guests and a trip to see my family in Philly, it's been a while since we've had brunch together at home.

Today I tackled blueberry pancakes. I cook quite a bit but have yet to master the art of the pancake. Sometimes they are too dense, sometimes too runny, or they don't flip well and end up looking like a mess.But today I had success!

Whole Wheat Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
Adapted from Better Homes and Garden New Cookbook - a must have in your kitchen!

2 cups whole wheat flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbs brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups buttermilk
3 tbs unsalted butter, melted
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1 1/2 cups blueberries

Preheat an electric griddle to 350°F. I love my griddle pan but if you don't have one, a cast iron pan or regular frying pan over medium heat will work just fine. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, lemon zest and melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together gently. Don't over mix, that will make the pancakes too dense. Mix ingredients until all combined but small to medium lumps remain.
Spray griddle with cooking spray and ladle about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake leaving an inch between each pancake. Press blueberries into batter. I like this technique rather than mixing the blueberries into the batter because it just makes the entire cooking process less messy as the blueberries only touch the hot cooking surface once.When small bubbles form, the pancakes are ready to be flipped. Cook on the reverse side for about 2 minutes. There really is no science to it, I will just lift up the corner of the pancake and take a peek to see if it's done.

Repeat with the remaining batter. Keep pancakes warm in a 200°F oven until ready to serve. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve immediately.

Pasta with Tuna

It's 6:30am and I am at the stove. Yes, that's right. It's my punishment for not making a meal plan for the week. After a weekend out of town, a late class on Monday night, and a 9pm meeting last night, I woke up early and picked through the pantry for ingredients to make some food for the rest of the week. The findings: Italian canned tuna, capers, diced tomatoes, anchovies. Combine with fresh parsley from the fridge...Pantry Pasta!

Truth is, I've made this recipe even when I'm not low on fresh ingredients. I love using canned Italian tuna, it's much better than the American brands and I'm sad to say that I used up my last can that I bought at Zabars the last time I visited New York.

A note about this recipe: don't skip the lemon zest. It adds a delicious brightness and enhances all of the other salty flavors in the pasta.

Time to get ready for work!

Pasta with Tuna
Adapted from Cucina Ebraica

1/2 lb whole wheat spaghetti (use 1 inch of pasta per person)
3 tbs olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped (about 2 cups)
1 can anchovies, drained and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tbs chopped fresh parsley
1 can olive-oil packed tuna
3 tbs capers, rinsed
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
zest of 1 lemon
freshly ground black pepper

Boil a large pot of salted water and cook pasta until al dente.


In a large skillet, add the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until tender and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add anchovies, tuna, capers, tomatoes, and lemon zest. Season with black pepper.

Cook until warm, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh parsley.

*Note that you don't need to add any salt because the anchovies and capers add plenty of salt to the pasta.

Green Bean and Tomato Salad

This week I expected a smaller grocery bill. Instead of shopping for Sunday-Sunday, I was shopping for Sunday-Friday since NAK and I are heading to Philadelphia for the weekend. A quick trip to visit the fam, then back to DC on Monday morning.

The grocery bill, however, was higher than usual! I just couldn't resist picking up extra produce for snacking throughout the week, confident that we'd finish everything by Friday. No such luck. With Thursday night upon us, I had a pile of produce leftover and threw together this quick Green Bean and Tomato Salad. Now what to do with the leftover 2 pints of blue berries...thoughts?

Green Bean and Tomato Salad

1 1/2 lb green beans, trimmed
2 medium sized tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt and pepper

Boil salted water in a medium pot and steam beans for just three minutes until they are tender but still have a crunch.

Dice the tomato into small pieces and place in a colander to let the juices drain.



Toast almonds in a dry skillet, keeping an eye of them so they don't burn. They toast quickly!


Combine the lemon juice, olive oil and crushed garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Let the garlic marinate in the oil for a few minutes then remove before dressing the salad. Toss green beans and tomatoes with dressing and top with almonds.

Serve immediately so the acid in the lemon juice doesn't turn the green beans brown.

Cherry Cobbler

It's official. I'm in a post vacation rut. That's the problem with scheduling vacations mid-summer. From the moment Memorial Day weekend came around, I started counting down the days until my mini birthday vacation getaway in Niagara-on-the-Lake. NAK and I had a wonderful time and now we are back in DC and I've fallen into a rut...no more vacations on the horizon to look forward to, though I'm hopeful we can do a weekend in the Shenandoah the end of August. We shall see...any recommendations for a quick weekend trip in the Mid-Atlantic??

So for now, the recipes I created after our trip will have to do. I picked up a few pounds of locally grown cherries on the drive back from Canada. The cherries are so cheap these days that sometimes I find myself eating huge handfuls of them at a time but these beauties I kept specifically for a cherry cobbler. While it can be tedious to pit the cherries, this dessert is well worth it!

 
















Cherry Cobbler- adapted from Emeril Lagasse

Cherry Filling
3 cups pitted cherries
1/2 cup sugar
(I used Splenda for Baking)
1/4 cup water
2 tsp cornstarch

Cobbler Topping
1/2 cup flour or 1/2 cup oats (not the instant kind) plus 2 tbs flour (flour will give you a more cake-like topping, oats a more crumbly topping)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons softened butter
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium saucepan combine filling ingredients. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for one minute. Stir until bubbling and thickened. Pour into a shallow baking dish. Combine flour, sugars, baking powder, and cinnamon. Mix in butter with fingertips until it is crumbly. Mix together egg and milk in a separate bowl. Add to flour mixture and stir with a fork just until combined. Drop topping gently onto filling. Bake for 25 minutes until browned and bubbly.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, frozen yogurt or fresh whipped cream. Serves four.