Fruitcake. It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas.

two of the best Christmas presents I ever got, my Nutcracker and my Mom's recipes

I love my Mom's fruitcake. Rich and dark and loaded with exotic spices. The smell of it takes me right back to being a kid. Two years ago; after many years of prodding, my Mom gave me a little tin box with all her Christmas recipes. It is one of my prized possessions. In that box is everything I loved as a kid about the season. Sugar cookies in tree and star shapes, her date pinwheels, her rich and decadent chocolate lebkuechen. If you would ask me today what I would want Santa to bring me, it would always be a loaf of my Mom's fruitcake and a Lionel train around my tree and all would be right with the world. That and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite as the back-round music. My Mom; bless her, doesn't make fruitcake anymore so it falls to me.
 Did I mention it's LOADED with booze?

My Mom's Spicy Dark Fruitcake. I think this originally came out of one of her old Betty Crocker or Better Homes and Gardens books but I don't really know

Mise-en-place

3 1/2 cups mixed, diced fruits and peels, usually labeled as "fruitcake mix"
1 1/4 cup dark raisins
1 1/4 cup golden raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 cups sifted flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
(all spices ground)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1 cup shortening
2 cups dark brown sugar
4 large eggs, let these come to room temperature, it's easier that way, trust me
3/4 cup grape juice
Dark Rum. Myers's is a good brand.
cheesecloth
wax-paper
aluminum foil
loaf pans, lined with wax paper
three bowls...seriously
one large pan full of hot water but not until you put them in the oven
Since we're baking we measure out everything first and then follow the steps, right? 

The night before, mix your fruit stuff, raisins and nuts, add about 1/4 cup of the Rum, cover and set aside. The longer you let it sit, the better.

Sift together the flour, spices, baking powder and salt, SIFT DARN YOU we need to incorporate air into the dry ingredients. The easiest way to do this is to measure and mix first then sift it over wax paper, you can then pick up the paper and dump it back into the bowl.

measure out first, then sift

and just dump back

In a separate bowl cream together the shortening and brown sugar, just use your man-muscles and beat the crap out of it

Now when we say cream what we're actually doing is distributing the fat all around each grain of sugar, this will ensure a consistent product. Add one egg at a time and beat until smooth.

one.at.a.time. I mean it

 Here's the science. The eggs are one of our leveners and so we need to break it down as much as possible to combine it with the fat and sugar. 

Add about 1/4 cup of the sifted dry ingredients to the fruits. Toss to combine. 

  

  

What that does is surround the fruit with the flour which grips the residual water in the eggs and sugar and keeps it from sinking to the bottom of our batter, isn't food science neat? 

Didn't I say that you'd need three bowls for this? You should have three right in front of you. 

one two three

Pre-heat your oven to 275F. By spoonful, add your dry stuff to your wet stuff. Hey remember that grape juice? Alternate with the dry, beating to combine each time. 

You'll end up with a big bowl of goop

Dump it onto your fruit stuff and fold until completely combined. 

So you have your loaf pans covered with wax paper, right? Fill each pan with the batter. Slam them onto the counter to remove any air bubbles. Your oven should be pre-heated by now. Put a wide pan of very hot water on the bottom rack and place your loaf pans above. "Your fruitcake will have greater volume, moist texture and a shiny glaze." My Mom's own words. 

This has a really long baking time. 3 and 1/2 hours. Seriously, three and a half hours. Now I get why Mom doesn't make these anymore. Test by poking with a knife, when it comes out clean, they're done. place on a rack for 'bout an hour, remove from wax-paper carefully. 

Let them cool completely. DO NOT HANDLE THEM FOR ANY REASON UNTIL THEN. 

Wrap in cheesecloth and then sprinkle a generous amount of rum onto the loaves. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and again in foil. Let sit somewhere dark and cool for at least 2 weeks or so. 

    

 It only seems right that after making these for 40 plus years my Mom and Dad should get one from their son, namely me. Merry Christmas Mom and Dad. Thank you for the Nutcracker. Dad reading us "A Christmas Carol." The Castle-Blocks. Lights in the snow. Christmas trees with trains underneath. Midnight Mass. Roast Turkey with stuffing inside. Sunday Lasagna. Mom's Mince-Meat Pie. I really-really lucked out. God Bless us all, EVERYONE!! 

Cooking poor, eating rich

get your grub on

Ciao

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!!

p.s. I'm the guy in the back in the purple tie-die shirt

Saint Nicholas, wonder-worker. Pray for us. 

Thanksgiving is YAMtastic.

  Here's how this all started. My cousin Marc and his wife Shayna decided that it is long overdue that our generation take over the family's Thanksgiving Feast. They sent out evites ('cus, hello, 21st Century) everyone is supposed to check off something they will make and bring. Like most American families we are an eclectic mix of ethnicities. Mostly Italian but with notable members of Latino, Portuguese, and Korean. On our Thanksgiving table it's not unusual to find Tamales, Civeche, Antipasto, Sardines, Rolled Anchovies, Olives and of course all the usual American stuff. God help me but I love stuffing wrapped in turkey skin with cranberry jelly.

 Also my Dad's Old-Fashioned's. It's a Cocktail friends, look it up.







 And sweet-potatoes. Yams are a tuber, Sweet Potatoes are a rhizome. If you say "rhizome" a whole bunch of times it sounds really funny. One is New World, one is Old World. The confusion comes from where you live. You might call a Yam a Sweet Potato, you might call it a Yam. In the stores they are both labeled as Sweet Potato. To add to the confusion canned sweet potato is usually labeled as "yam"
 One is red and one is white.

See? 

Someone always makes the Southern-American mess with marshmallows and brown-sugar. Fine. No problem really. More of a dessert than a side-dish at that point. It's not my favorite thing, more of a chore to eat. One dimensional and doesn't really show off the flavor of the main ingredient. Sorry Mom.

 Yes, I'm show-boating. Deal. I wanted to make something special that reflected more of an Italian style.

 My family deserves my best efforts, I don't cook for them enough but I really wish I did.
Here goes nothing.

Chef Nick does Sweet-Potato Lasagna. Shhh they think I'm doing a side-dish.

Mise-en-place

3 large but regularly shaped red ones
1 large white ones...ya know, or not
2 eggs
pinch of cinnamon
4 shallots
Lasagna Noodles, 1 pound, cooked just under al dente
Ricotta Cheese
some frozen Spinach
2 whole eggs
fresh Parsley
fresh Sage
and Rosemary
and Thyme chopped roughly (it's just like that song isn't it?)

Béchamel Sauce (For all you professionals, we're doing a Mornay)

Goat Cheese (about 3 TB)
flour
butter
Whole Milk (1 qt)
1 egg
pinch of ground Nutmeg
pinch of Chili Powder
1 large clove of Garlic, smooshed

For the top
Some Bread-Crumbs
Butter
Asiago Cheese, shredded

and of course, Kosher Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper

I'm going to break this down into steps.

Peel the Shallots and slice across to make sticks. Melt some butter in a pan and cook the Shallots until nice deep brown.

deeper brown than this

Peel your YAMS and cut into large pieces, try for uniformity. Cover with water, add a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar and any herb stems you might have left.

Bring to a boil until soft. Drain and TIP put them back in the pot over low heat until dry. Remove to bowl.

Add half your chopped Herbs, good pinch of Salt and Pepper and a scant pinch of Cinnamon. Add the eggs. Mix well and add the Shallots. Set aside.

Cook your noodles. Because we're going to finish by baking we don't need them perfectly done, just a little under. Once done remove from cooking water and deposit them into ice water, remove and put on a plate for later.

ice ice baby

Thaw out the spinach. Place between two dry and clean towels TWIST and SQUEEZE. We need to remove as much water as possible. Combine with Ricotta, some of the Herbs, pinch of Nutmeg and a healthy pinch of Salt and Pepper. Set aside.

And now we make our Béchamel.
I've made it before on this Blog but there seems to be a curse. Every single time, none of my pictures come out so keep your fingers crossed.

Basic stuff
whisk one whole egg in a bowl, set aside
Warm up the Whole Milk. This is why we have microwave ovens. Not boiling for God's sake, just hot. This prevents lumps from forming.
Melt about 2 TB butter over high heat
before it burns, lower heat and
add an equal amount of white flour
Add the pinch of Nutmeg and Chili Powder

stir around until it stops smelling starchy, use your nose, trust me that you'll know


 Continue over low heat and add the milk, keep whisking  You think it won't matter, yes it does. Raise heat to medium. You'll notice a gradual thickening.

Take off heat and with a ladle, add a bit to your beaten egg and stir around until combined. This is called tempering. It allows you to raise the temperature of the egg without cooking it. You'll need the egg's protein to add body and sheen but we do not want scrambled eggs in our sauce.

tempering

Add your egg mixture back to the pot, off heat and whisk. Put back on medium heat and keep whisking. It will thicken beautifully. Remove from heat. The "carry-over" heat will work for us. Add remaining Herbs.

 Add the Goat Cheese and Garlic. Whisk until smooth, set aside. The remaining warmth will release all the love from your herbs.

Layering.
Simple.
Coat the bottom of an open baking pan with cold Butter. Yes Mom I used your old baking pan, what else?
Lay down a thin layer of the sauce

Put down one layer of the noodles and carefully cover with half the YAM mixture

Cover with another layer of noodles and half of your Ricotta and Spinach mixture. Dump half of your Béchamel on top, press down deep.

Cover with another layer of noodles. Got it? SAUCE-NOODLE-YAM-NOODLE-RICOTTA-NOODLE-SAUCE-NOODLE-YAM-NOODLE-SAUCE-TOPPING

Here's the top.
One layer of the cheese.
Mix together by hand 2 TB of cold butter with 1/2 cup of Bread-Crumbs (or so) sprinkle across top.
Cover with shreds of the cheese.

In a 375F oven, bake covered with aluminum foil for 45 Minutes.
Remove foil and bake uncovered for another 20 minutes until it browns lightly.

Remove from oven and let it rest for 20 minutes or so.

 I'm thankful that I still have my Mom and Dad. I'm thankful for my brother Pat and his family. I'm thankful for my Aunts and Uncles and cousins. I'm also very thankful that so many of you are still reading this blog, I couldn't do it without you. Happy Thanksgiving one and all.

 I'm thankful that I am, as always

cooking poor, eating rich

Get your grub on

Ciao

Celebrating Autumn. Split Pea Soup.

Even here in my Sonoran Desert the temperatures have dropped. OK sure we aren't expecting snow or anything. It's 65F today with puffy white clouds, crystal blue sky and a nice breeze. Mom would make soup on days like this. One of my all-time favorites is Split-Pea. Creamy without cream. Hearty without a bunch of meat. Slightly sweet and earthy with flavors of vegetables and fresh herbs. Easy Peasy...HAH see what I did there? Grab a bottle of dry sherry, let's do this.
















Mise-en-Place

I used about 2 pounds dried split-peas. I'm making a grip of soup but if you don't need to, divide in half.
1 large Onion
2-3 Carrots, peeled
2-3 stalks Celery
1 clove of Garlic, smooshed
Salt Pork. As much or as little you want. Chop it up fine. Hey look, if you're a vegetarian then just use some Olive Oil for the first step.
8 cups either Chicken or Vegetable Stock
1 bottle dry sherry
Pinch of ground Nutmeg
Pinch or so or Chili Powder
2 dried Bay Leaves
Fresh Herbs. Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, Mint. Yes, I said Mint, a much under-used herb, brilliant with peas.
and of course. Kosher Salt and fresh ground Black Pepper
In case ya'll didn't know, Peas are in fact Legumes but you won't need to soak them overnight or anything. The British do but I have no idea why.


Dump all the Peas in a Colander and rinse under cold water. Remove any little pebbles or anything that looks wacky.

Grab your vegetables and small dice.

mince up all the Herbs

and small dice up your Salt Pork.


I bet you can see where this is going. Peas as legumes contain a bunch of Starch that will render out and give us that wonderful creamy mouth feel.

Heat up your deep pot and throw in the salt pork.

Toss that around for a bit and add the vegetables with a big pinch of Kosher Salt and Pepper also the pinch of Nutmeg and Chili Powder. Stir that around a bit, we're just sweating. Add all the herbs.

Add all Peas, toss it

 dump in half the bottle of Sherry and all Stock. Bring to a simmer, cover and relax.

 Let it go until everything is soft. Stir once in a while, you'll notice that the Peas will just dissolve.  You can stop there if you want but if you have a Thunder-Stick (hand blender) use that to puree a little, not a lot. Leave some whole, adds to the texture and character.

 I have always believed in that old adage that soups are always better the next day. I'm hungry NOW so I'm not waiting. Once you have it in your bowl, sprinkle a little bit of Sherry on top.

 That wasn't so hard was it? Allowing for prep-time the whole thing takes about an hour and thirty. I remember my Mom would give us bowls of this with piles of Saltines and we would just go nuts.
I made some of my Sausage and Cheese bread because soup without bread is sad. I'll happily share the recipe if you ask.

To all of you I wish a cozy and snuggly Autumn. 

Cooking poor, eating rich

get your grub on

 Ciao