Borders Kitchen

Don’t be misled by the title of this book. There is a lot of baking in it, and I did bake this week’s recipe, but it also has loads of yummy-looking breakfast, brunch, and even lunch, dishes to share.  I’ve never been to the Clinton St. Baking Company restaurant, but it’s apparently one of those New York City eateries that people line up for every weekend morning. Looking at the photos in the Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook, I can see why.

I was taken with the shots of their beautiful muffins and realized it’s been a very long time since a muffin pan has made an appearance in my kitchen.  I kind of wonder if muffins have gone by the wayside in the current cupcake craze, but I actually prefer their subtle flavor to all those decked out fancy cupcakes I see in quaint shop windows.  There’s nothing like a good blueberry muffin to start my day, so I made up a batch this weekend and brought the extras into the office. Even the non-sweets eater liked these crumb muffins.

Before they went in the oven.

The recipe was easy. Toss together the crumb mixture and stick it in the fridge to keep cool, get out the mixer and make the batter. I used cute little muffin cups, so I spooned in the batter and then added the crumb mixture on top. They looked pretty even before they went into the oven.

I like the fact that there is a shorter baking and cooling time as compared to quick breads, so it’s no big deal to make these fresh on a weekend morning. I used fresh blueberries because they are in season at the moment, but the recipe prefers frozen because of the way they burst during the baking process. That means you can make these year-round. Mid-winter blues can be sidetracked by these little summer treats.

I was a little surprised that none of the sweet muffin recipes in this book had any salt in the ingredients list. I checked other muffin books and found that most do. I am a recipe follower, so I didn’t add any, but what would it do to the taste if I did add a smidge? Perhaps I’ll get wild next time and make two batches to see what adding salt does to the chemical reactions. Or maybe not. The muffin had a perfect cakey texture with the blueberries making a nice contrast and I don’t have people lining up outside my kitchen every weekend, so what do I know?

My Blueberry Crumb Muffins

Here’s the recipe:

C R U M B  M I X

MAKES 1½  CUPS, ENOUGH
FOR 2 TO 3 BATCHES

1/2 CUP all-purpose flour
1/2 CUP sugar
1/4 TEASPOON cinnamon
1/2 STICK (4 TABLESPOONS) unsalted butter, cubed
You’ve heard of the icing on the cake? This is the equivalent. It’s an easy recipe with simple ingredients. Add a bit of cinnamon to it for a nice aroma and flavor. You’ll see that the crumb bakes on top and works its way inside as well.

1 Mix the dry ingredients with the butter by hand until the mixture is pea-sized.

2 Keep the Crumb Mix in a cool place until you are ready to use it. The mix can be stored in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

note This Crumb Mix has several uses. Try it as a topping for crumb cake, pie, coffee cake, or as a streusel topping. Pulse in a food processor to get the correct consistency. Larger lumps in the crumb mix are okay. You’ll just get larger pieces of crumb.

 
BLUEBERRY Crumb Muffins

Every American bakery seems to have a blueberry muffin. This one’s our top seller and one of our personal favorites.

MAKES 10 STANDARD-SIZED MUFFINS

1/2 STICK (4 TABLESPOONS) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 CUP sugar
1/2 TEASPOON vanilla extract
1 CUP all-purpose flour
1/2 TEASPOON baking powder
1/4 TEASPOON baking soda
1 large egg
1/2 CUP sour cream
1 CUP frozen or fresh blueberries
10 TABLESPOONS Crumb Mix

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease muffin tins or use paper muffin cups.

2 In an electric mixer on medium-high speed, with the paddle attachment cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla.

3 Sift the remaining dry ingredients together into a bowl.

4 Add the egg to the butter mixture and blend until combined.

5 Add cup of the sour cream to the butter mixture, then half of the dry ingredients, mixing and repeating with the remaining sour cream and then the remaining dry ingredients until the batter is combined. Be sure to end with the dry ingredients.

6 Fold in the blueberries until evenly mixed.

7 Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, leaving room on the top for the Crumb Mix. Top each muffin with 1 tablespoon of the Crumb Mix. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

8 Cool for at least 10 minutes for best release of the muffins from their tins (if not using paper liners).

Their's, beautifully photographed by Michael Harlan Turkell

If you are like millions of other people in the world right now, you await with great anticipation the release of the final installment in the Harry Potter films, due on July 15th. I’m pretty psyched because I have seen them all in order, though I didn’t read any of the books. Shame on me, I know. I have loved the movies and understand the appeal of these characters for everyone who has watched them grow up over the years whether in book or movie form. The Harry Potter era really is a thing worth celebrating.

So, then, are you in the mood to host a Potter-themed party? Feel like trying out some funky dishes based on fun facts from the series? Then this week’s Cookbook of the Week is for you. I decided to bake from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook not for a party, but to see if it was any good, to be honest. It’s full of references to the various Harry Potter books and the food suggested in them. Essentially, however, it’s a good book about British cooking. In it are recipes for the old standbys like The Roast Beef of Old England and Yorkshire Pudding, as well as more whimsical recipes like various Honeydukes Treats such as Nougat, Sugar Mice, and Peppermint Creams.

It’s rhubarb time at my house, so I was pleased to see a recipe for Rhubarb Crumble with Custard Sauce. (According to this cookbook, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry’s favorite cook makes this spectacular dessert.) The crumble portion was a cinch to make, but timing was a consideration since it should be served warm with the hot custard. It’s not one you can make ahead. I have never made custard before, but the directions were clear and things reacted as they should. I am used to crumbles with a more cake-like appearance, but this one retained a true crumble texture. The rhubarb bubbled up around the rim of the pie plate making for a very pretty presentation. And, once served with the hot custard, it made for a very delicious dessert. If you like your rhubarb on the tart side, I would omit the baking soda as the author suggests. As it was, the flavors all melded in such an amazing way it was hard to distinguish the rhubarb. It was like magic.

Here’s the recipe:

Rhubarb Crumble with Custard Sauce

Serves 8

Rhubarb Filling

1 pound frozen rhubarb
½ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon baking soda

Crumble Topping

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
½ cup pecans, chopped
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ stick (4 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into chunks

Custard Sauce
¼ cup granulated sugar
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup whole milk and ½ cup heavy cream or 1½ cups milk
3 large egg yolks
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Toss the rhubarb, sugar, lemon zest, and baking soda in a 9-inch pie pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

While the rhubarb is baking, make the Crumble Topping. Combine the flour, brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles wet sand.

Remove the rhubarb from the oven, toss the rhubarb mixture one more time, and pour the topping into the center, spreading it to the edges with your fingers. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 50 minutes, or until the rhubarb bubbles over the edges.

For the custard, combine the sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan. Stir in the milk and cream and continue stirring until the cornstarch dissolves. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is hot but not bubbling. Reduce the heat to low and temper the egg yolks by slowly pouring 1/2 cup of the hot mixture into the yolks while whisking the yolks constantly. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan while stirring gently. Turn up the heat to medium and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and bubbling. Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour the custard through a sieve. Add the vanilla and stir to combine. Serve the rhubarb custard warm with the hot custard.

OMG. So, you know. Summer is finally here. And while I’m happy to eat ice cream year-round despite the winter temps here in Michigan, it never tastes better than it does on a warm summer evening. It’s OMG because, well, I was making one of the recipes from this Jeni gal’s new book, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, and I thought to myself, “Why do all this when I can go to her shop in Ohio and buy it already made?” Why? Because OMG. 

photo credit Stacy Newgent

It’s like the difference between asparagus pulled straight from the ground in my backyard and asparagus that’s traveled across country and hung out in the market before it hits my roasting pan. They are not the same animal. For one thing, Ohio may be close, but not let’s-go-get-ice cream close. For another, I say “do all this” as though it was a real pain when, in fact, it wasn’t hard. It did seem to take a lot of mixing bowls, but that’s all forgotten as soon as the spoon glides the most delicious ice cream you will ever taste onto your tongue. OMG. (I don’t believe I can sound like a Valley Girl at this stage of my life, but I’m willing to sound like one right now.) This stuff is that good.

Now, maybe it was my choice of ice cream flavors, but I have a feeling that they will all be amazing. It will depend on your mood and your willingness to experiment, as Jeni doesn’t do the flavors you can find in most supermarkets. I’m a huge fan of coffee ice cream. I used to buy Starbuck’s in the supermarket (Sorry, Jeni, I did mention you’re a bit of a drive, right?) because it was top-notch and probably the best coffee ice cream around. But I haven’t seen it stocked lately. Now, I will make my own.

The recipe I chose called for Kona coffee, which I couldn’t find, so I used the dark roast I had in the house. The recipe also called for very dark Stout, so I splurged and got some Old Rasputin Dark Imperial Stout, which has an edge of bitter aftertaste that made it’s way into the ice cream. You may want to try a sweeter stout if you don’t care for that bitterness. I plan on having shortbread cookies to dip in my next bowl to soften the edge without taking away that rockin’ flavor. Say it: “OMG.”

Here’s the recipe:

Kona Stout Ice Cream
Makes about 1 quart

2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons dark-roast Kona coffee beans, coarsely ground
1/2 cup Barley’s Russian Imperial Stout or other very dark stout

Prep Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry.
Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth.
Fill a large bowl with ice and water.

Cook Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the coffee, and let steep for 5 minutes.
Strain the milk mixture through a sieve lined with a layer of cheesecloth. Squeeze the coffee in the cheesecloth to extract as much liquid as possible, then discard the grounds.
Return the cream mixture to the saucepan and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

Chill Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Add the stout and blend well. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.

Freeze Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy.Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

I have never been to Spain. My experience with spanish food is limited, though I’ve gone to a couple of great restaurants over the years. So, why did I pick up the new book from Claudia Roden called The Food of Spain? For one thing, because it’s huge and beautifully photographed. For another, I wanted to cook something new and interesting.

The Food of Spain is an armchair adventure. Even if you never get to Spain, spending time with Claudia Roden as she travels its many regions and cuisines will make you feel as though you were there and ate extremely well. As usual, I wanted to prepare something simple. But, I was also looking for something elegant. I found a recipe for artichokes with green sauce and it appeared to fit my requirements. I also loved the literary background to the recipe itself, as explained by Roden here:

This recipe was inspired by one in Tía Victoria’s Spanish Kitchen by Victoria Serra, translated by Elizabeth Gili. It was lent to me by Elizabeth, a beautiful blue-eyed lady in her nineties. Her husband, Joan Gili, a Catalan, had come to London in 1933. He ran a Hispanic bookshop in Cecil Court off St. Martin’s Lane and translated several of García Lorca’s books with Stephen Spender. He also started the Anglo-Catalan Society. Nostalgic for his family cooking, he wrote to his mother for recipes and eventually encouraged her to write a book that was published in Spain as Sapores by his father, the publisher Luis Gili.

If that doesn’t make you want to go back and read my favorite spanish novel, The Shadow of the Wind, again, then you haven’t read it yet and I recommend that you do. That aside aside, I really chose the recipe because I was in the mood for artichokes, which I think are under used by all. I love them on pizza, but it’s a rare pizza joint that has them on the menu. The recipe called for frozen artichoke bottoms, which I could not find. I found canned and they worked perfectly. Look for them in the same place as jarred artichoke hearts in your market.

The green sauce is really a kind of pesto with flat-leaf parsley and olive oil. I had a little trouble with my food processor because I halved the recipe and so there were not quite enough ingredients for the machine to blend well. Still, once I assembled the dish, which was remarkably easy to prepare, the combination was absolutely delicious. I enjoyed them with a glass of vinho verde, a light, low-alcohol and slightly bubbly white wine from Portugal.

The artichokes were tender and light and the pesto added a bit of pop with its garlic thing going on. I would recommend this as an appetizer or as a light dish.  I will definitely add artichoke bottoms to my pantry staples so that I can make these at a moment’s notice.

Here’s the recipe:
Artichokes with Green Sauce
{ alcachofas con salsa verde–catalonia }

SERVES 4

8 fresh artichoke hearts or bottoms(see page 129) or frozen ones, defrosted

½ slice white bread, crusts removed

1 to 2 large garlic cloves

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

½  to ¾ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt
Cook the artichokes in boiling salted water until just ten¬der. Drain and let cool.
Fry the bread and garlic cloves in olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat, turning to brown them lightly all over. Drain on paper towels.
Pour the vinegar over the fried bread, then blend with the garlic in the food processor. Add the parsley, extra vir¬gin olive oil, and some salt and blend to a creamy sauce.
Serve the artichokes at room temperature, spreading a little of the sauce over each one.

Do you find comfort in the kitchen? I do. Whether it’s watching someone else pull together a nourishing meal, a group of friends gathering around the cook, or just me quietly baking something special, many of my favorite small moments happen in the kitchen.

And so it is that I wanted to bake my father’s favorite cookies this week. Apparently, his mother used to bake Hermit Cookies all the time. I had forgotten about them until I was in my father’s pantry recently and found an old bin that I’d given him almost 20 years ago. It’s used for sugar now, but was once filled with Hermit Cookies as a Father’s Day offering.

If you don’t know about Hermit Cookies, I’m not surprised. In my vast collection of cookbooks, I couldn’t find a single recipe. I had mislaid the one that was passed down from my grandmother. Hermits are a spice cookie and are sometimes frosted, though we prefer them without. The nuts and dried fruit can vary. The recipe I found on the internet used walnuts and dried currants, which worked really well with the spice combination of cinnamon, clove, and allspice. They are delicious with coffee or tea.

As I made these on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I thought about why my dad always loved these cookies. His mother made them for him, so they came to signify her love long after she was gone. It’s the reason I wanted to make them as we near Father’s Day. Although it’s a small thing, a simple batch of cookies, they represent a piece of my father, a piece of his childhood that has been handed down to me. My father passed away a few weeks ago, so these small things will keep him alive in my mind and in my heart.  These small things give comfort.

I don’t eat enough seafood. Let’s get that right out there. Yes, yes, I know it’s good for me. But, I rarely think about preparing it at home. Of course, when I order it in a restaurant, I order it covered with the most delicious wine and butter sauce known to man, so I doubt it’s really doing me much good.

I do eat a lot of salads. I prefer salads made by other people. Have you noticed that phenomenon?  A salad made by someone else usually tastes way better than one you make for yourself? My mom makes a killer salad, but she finds them lacking. Will someone out there tell me why this is?

For those of you who feel the same way about seafood and salads but are making an effort, I’ve got a recipe for you from Patricia Wells’ new book, Salad as a Meal. (It’s also a great recipe for those who eat seafood like it’s going out of style and think they make the best salad in the world.)  We’ve been cooking out of her books for a very long time and each one has had at least one ”keeper,” a recipe that goes into the canon of go-to dishes. I do believe Wells’ Penne with Tuna and Spicy Mustard has earned a keeper rating. As has her Spring Salad: Asparagus, Peas, Beans and Fennel (page 100) with the Creamy Lemon-Chive Dressing (page 256) with its winning combination of spring veggies and light, flavorful dressing.

Salad as a Meal has lots of things to offer when you are looking to make a substantial salad.  While the Penne dish is really a pasta dish in my mind, I suppose it’s a salad when you eat it at room temperature. What I liked about this recipe from the get-go was that I already had all the ingredients at home. It calls for canned tuna in oil and some mustard. That’s it besides the pasta. Brilliantly simple. This pairing of flavors has more depth than one would expect. I used the german mustard I had in the fridge, which was grainy and spicy enough to be compelling, though I’m sure it’s even better with the fancy french stuff she calls for here. The finished dish made for a lovely little meal and was almost as good cold the next day.

Here’s the recipe:

PENNE SALAD WITH TUNA AND SPICY MUSTARD
 
4 SERVINGS
EQUIPMENT: A 10-QUART PASTA POT FITTED WITH A COLANDER; A STRAINER;
4 WARMED SHALLOW SOUP BOWLS.
1/4 cup coarse sea salt
1 pound Italian penne pasta
Two 6 1/2-ounce jars best-quality tuna in oil
1 tablespoon French Espelette pepper mustard (or other coarse-grain mustard)

1. Fill the pasta pot with 8 quarts of water and bring it to a rolling boil over high heat. Add the salt and the pasta, stirring to prevent the pasta from sticking. Cook until tender but still firm to the bite, about 11 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, set the strainer over a medium bowl. Pour the tuna into the strainer, reserving the tuna and the oil separately. Break up the tuna pieces. Transfer the oil to a large skillet, and add the mustard to it.
3. Gently warm the oil and mustard.
4. When the pasta is cooked, remove the pot from the heat. Remove the colander and drain the pasta over the sink, shaking the colander to remove the excess water. Immediately transfer the drained pasta to the skillet containing the oil and mustard. Toss to evenly coat the pasta. Add the tuna and toss once more. Taste for seasoning. Serve in shallow soup bowls. This dish can be served at room temperature if desired.