brunosdream

This is a hectic time of year and the last thing someone needs is to be stressing over cooking, which I typically find therapeutic rather than stressful. Here’s a quick and easy appetizer recipe so you don’t have to go somewhere empty-handed if you promised to make something but ran out of time to do a more complex recipe (as I did). I got this idea from Barbara at Winos and Foodies. I just added some green (i.e., chives) to make the peppadews more Christmasy. Despite their simplicity, these little guys make a good impression and nice presentation!

Peppadew Peppers Stuffed w/ Feta, Cream Cheese and Chives

Ingredients:

6 ounces feta cheese (crumbled)

8 ounces whipped cream cheese

1/3 cup chopped fresh chives

42 peppadew peppers (I found mine at the grocery store’s olive bar)

Procedure:

Combine first 3 ingredients then stuff peppers

** I used the tip of a butter knife to stuff the peppers, however a friend who liked this recipe said they are going to use a pastry bag to insert the filling. A great idea which I will use next time because filling the peppers was the most time consuming part of this recipe.

***You will have some leftover filling which you can use as a spread on crostini or crackers, a dip for veggies, a sandwich spread, or you can buy more peppadews to fill.

Happy Holidays to all and to all a good night!!

Bruno

Hi everyone… I’m finally getting around to doing my Thanksgiving post! It’s been a very hectic couple of weeks w/ all the additional holiday activities (parties, shopping, etc…) so I’m taking advantage of this window of opportunity to get this posted before I get swamped.

My friends, Michelle and Byron, graciously invited me to their home for Thanksgiving dinner this year. Michelle did a beautiful job w/ all the food as well as taking the photos of this sumptuous feast. My only contribution to the bounty was the pumpkin gelato w/ candied pecans. Hats off to Byron and Michelle for being such wonderful hosts for my Thanksgiving 2006!! (Thanks to Kristin and Bob too for inviting me over for Thanksgiving lunch – no photos of this delicious spread because I was too busy feeding my face!)

The Feast

                Crumb Patrol

The Veggies

               Dessert Action

Immediate Gratification

                         Dessert

Recipes:

Michelle’s Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

Pastry dough (use your favorite recipe)

2 cups fresh pumpkin meat (see gelato recipe for procedure)

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup whole milk

2 large eggs

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

Pinch of ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

Special equipment: pie weights or raw rice

Procedure:

1) Make pastry dough as directed.

2) Roll out dough into a 14-inch round on a lightly floured surface and fit into a 9-inch glass pie plate (4-cup capacity). Crimp edge decoratively and prick bottom all over. Chill 30 minutes.

3) Preheat oven to 375°°F.

4) Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake in middle of oven 20 minutes. Remove weights and foil and bake shell until pale golden, 6 to 10 minutes more. Cool in pan on a rack.

5) Whisk together pumpkin, cream, milk, eggs, brown sugar, spices, and salt, then pour into shell.

6) Bake pie in middle of oven 45 to 50 minutes, or until filling is set but center still trembles slightly. (Filling will continue to set as pie cools.) Transfer to rack and cool completely.

Pumpkin Gelato w/ Candied Pecans

Ingredients:

1 cup candied pecan halves

2 cups pumpkin meat (from 1 small pie pumpkin  – 8 to 10 inches in diameter)

1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel

6 egg yolks

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 quart half + half

1 teaspoon Penzys cake spice

Procedure:

For  pumpkin:

1) Wash pumpkin, remove stems, cut in half and scrape out seeds

2) Place pumpkin halves on baking sheet, cut side down, add 1/4 cup water to the pan and bake in 350 degree F oven for 1 hour (the pumpkin should be very soft and slightly browned when done)

3) Remove from oven, turn halves over and set aside to cool

4) When cool enough to handle, scrape out meat and puree in a food processor (leave in processor in order to complete gelato mixture – see gelato procedure)

For candied pecans:

1) Roast pecans in 300 degree F oven for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring frequently, then let cool

2) Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1/8 cup water in saucepan and cook, stirring, over medium heat until sugar is dissolved

3) Boil to 333-335 degrees F, occasionally brushing sides of pan w/ water to prevent crystals from forming, remove from heat immediately then add pecans and stir until they are well coated

4) Pour onto baking sheet lined w/ parchment paper and quickly separate pecan halves w/ 2 forks (I began using my fingers because using the forks was too slow to separate the pecans before the sugar hardened)

For gelato:

1) In medium saucepan heat half + half and cake spice gently to a simmer, then turn off heat

 2) In medium size mixing bowl combine egg yolks and sugar and beat together until pale yellow

3) Beat 2 tablespoons of the warm half + half into the egg mixture (do this slowly to avoid curdling the eggs), then beat in the remaining half + half little by little

4) Place bowl over a pot of simmering water and cook over a gentle heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (do not let temperature exceed 170 degrees F or mixture will start to curdle)  

5) Cool in an ice bath

6) Add grated orange peel to pureed pumpkin, blend in 1 1/2 cups gelato mixture to pumpkin to thin puree, then stir puree into the remaining gelato mixture, blending well, and chill for at least 4 hours in fridge

7) Roughly chop the candied pecans (set aside a few whole pieces for garnishing and munching on while your plating dessert because they’re addictive and damn good!)

8) Churn in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions, adding the chopped pecans halfway through the churning process

9) Transfer gelato to a 2 quart plastic container, cover top w/ parchment paper cut to size (this will reduce air exposure and prevent ice crystals from forming on the surface of gelato), and freeze until firm

Yield: Approx. 1 ½ quarts

Bonus recipe…

Cranberry Chutney

Ingredients:

1 bag fresh cranberries

2 mangoes – peeled and cubed

1 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon maple syrup

Procedure:

Simmer in a pot to a sauce consistency

 

That’s all folks! Until next time…

Bruno

Buche de Noel w/ Expresso Buttercream Icing   

   

 

Ingredients 

For cake:

6 eggs

1 ¼ cups sugar

¾ cup flour

¾ cup cornstarch

 

For icing:

2 ¼ cups sugar

1 ½ cups expresso
coffee

4 egg yolks

3 ½ sticks butter

 

Icing is made by beating egg yolks until light yellow in
color. Next, cook sugar and coffee
together over medium high heat to a temperature of 234 degrees. Then very
slowly add sugar/coffee mixture to the yolks while beating at low speed until
mixture is cold (if you go too fast, the yolks will curdle). Butter is softened
at room temperature before it is cut into pieces and beaten into the cold
egg/syrup mixture. Continue beating at low speed until mixture is very firm.
Set aside in a cool spot.

 

Cake batter is made by adding sugar to beaten whole eggs
then continue beating mixture over very low heat until it doubles in size
(approx. 15 minutes). The flour and cornstarch are sifted together and gently
folded into the mixture. The mixture is then poured into a well buttered half
sheet pan and baked at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan while
still warm and roll it up in a kitchen towel that has been sprinkled w/ sugar.
Set aside to cool (a warm cake will melt the icing).

 

When cool, unroll the cake and spread ¼ inch layer of icing
on the inside. Reroll the cake then cut off ends diagonally, each piece being
about 1 by 3 inches. Place the cake roll on a cutting board wrapped in foil
(the foiled cutting board was my serving platter, but feel free to use the
platter of your choice) then spread a ¼ inch layer of icing on the exterior of
the cake roll. The diagonal pieces are then placed on the top of the roll and
spread w/ icing to resemble stubs of cut-off branches. Tines of a fork are
drawn through the icing to simulate the texture of bark; the ends are marked w/
circles to resemble tree growth rings. Place the cake in a cool spot or
refrigerate until it’s time to serve. One hour prior to service, remove cake
from fridge and decorate cutting board w/ holly branches.

 

Chef’s notes:

 

The recipe from the magazine article was not very
specific regarding certain aspects of the preparation so I’m adding some info
for your benefit. For example, when making the icing, it is important to beat
the mixture until very firm, otherwise it will not be properly emulsified and will “break”. Also, when beating the cake
batter over heat I used a double boiler to prevent sticking and burning.
 

When removing the cake from the sheet pan be particularly
careful to unstick it from the pan so it doesn’t get broken. (I cracked the
cake at this stage and it made the remaining steps much more challenging!!).
Make sure your kitchen towel is generously sprinkled w/ sugar and gently roll
up the warm cake. I applied a little too much pressure while rolling which
caused the cake to stick to the towel and crack even more when unrolled!
Believe me, you don’t want your cake cracked because icing it, then rerolling
will be a pain in the a_ _!! Fortunately, through the miracles of icing, I was
able to cover up all my mistakes!
 

For a first effort, I think the final product turned out
fairly nice. I wish my mom and dad were around to sample it. I did have a group
of friends over for cake and champagne, and by the looks of it, they seemed
pretty satisfied!

Bruno wanted this posted during
the holidays but scheduling
prevented  it.
“D”

My mom died 2 years ago December 13th and my dad on April 25th, 1998. I miss them both very much, especially during the holidays. In their honor, here is a special blog entry.

My mom was like a Swiss Julia Child/Martha Stewart combo! She was a great chef(she trained in her home country of Switzerland and in Paris, France) and would decorate the house so nicely for the holidays w/ beautiful touches that made it festive. I know my dad loved this about her in addition to her excellent cooking skills. Two desserts that stand out in my mind around Christmas are leckerli and Buche de Noel. The leckerli were sent by my Swiss relatives. They are a popular Swiss cookie and there are 2 versions - one is made w/ honey, the other w/ ground almonds. Both are chewy and delicious.

 

My mom would make a Buche de Noel to celebrate Christmas. In her honor I will attempt to recreate the dessert from her recipe and eat it in my dad's honor. The chef notes and recipe will be in an upcoming entry, but in the mean time here are some photos of my mom's creation (the photos from a Dec. 24th, 1961 article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch of my mom preparing the Buche de Noel).

Happy Holidays,

Bruno "The Mayor"

A laid back dinner with friends doesn’t have to be a bland affair,
when my friends get together.We decide that simple was the
word for the day: with that being said you know simple
will not mean boring.
The menu was to be a beef stew, lasagna and a salad.
Bruno aka “The Mayor” was in charge of the stew and with
all the flair that you would expect from the Flying Chef
he created the Heavenly Stew…
sirloin tip, butternut squash, garlic, mulato chiles, morel and crimini mushrooms, corn, cipollini onions, carrots, celery, tomato, Swiss chard, leek, bouquet garni for veggie stock and “red roux”.Byron made his world famous 10 layer Lasagna. Would it betoo much to call it bliss in a pan?Hand made pasta so thin that you would think it’s parchment, the finest cheeses and his ownspecial meat sauce.The D.E.W. created a Salad withan artistic flairspinach,mixed field greens,artichoke hearts,black olives,portabello mushroom,eggs androma tomatoesWine & Sprits of the NightWines-Schug 2004 Pinot Noir-St. Supery 2000 Cabernet Sauvigon-Terra Romana 2002 Cuvee Charlotte-Bearitage-Lot#12 California Claret-Silver Oak 2000 Napa Valley Cabernet SauvigonSpirits*The Macallan 15/yo Fine OakHighland Single Malt*Aberlour 15/yo Sherry Wood FinishHighland-Speyside Single Malt* Glen Garioch 15/yoHighland Single Malt*Montelle FramboiseRasberry Port*DOM B&B

 
Review & Photos by "D"

This should be the start of a new yearly tradition; meeting  for wine and  Thanksgiving  food stories while others dash about in a shopping frenzy… Remy’s was the natural choice, it being “the mayors” 2nd home and my 3rd.

Jay playing bartender for the night
(we also shared “family” pictures. Jay’s dog
Jenny is the mother to my son and a few
other lucky groovy people)

The Nights Wine & Spirit List…

Steele Cabernet Franc ’02 Clear Lake
very quaffable w/ burnt sugar and
mocha explorations

Qupe Syrah  ’03 Central Coast
crushed blackberry, lavender
w/ velvety tannins

Gravity Hills “Base Camp” Syrah ’02
Paso Robles
cornucopia of red fruit and spices

Magnificent Wine Co. “House Wine” ’03
California
58% Cabernet-32% Merlot-9%Syrah-1% Cabernet Franc

Doamine de Barillon Bas 
21/yo Armagnac

                Dessert Trio 

Warm Apple Bread Pudding, Tiramisu
& Chocolate Mousse