Pie, Blueberry

I think I the first time I ever had blueberry pie was only last year over a thanksgiving vacation to my grandparents home in the upper peninsula of Michigan. I think my grandma had thew it together one morning before i even got out of bed, i believe she also made a pumpkin and apple pie as well. Again, all before I even had my first cup of coffee. The kitchen wouldn't even look like anything had happened in there since the night before. This is not how I cook, even making a boxed brownie mix will result in a sink of dishes I'm "letting soak" as well as streaks of chocolate brown batter on the counter, oven handle and fridge.

Back to the pie, ahhh i remember it well. I had just came in from cutting wood with a chainsaw (quit laughing Mara, this is entirely true), I passed up the pumpkin...i had had it a million times....I passed up the apple....we didn't have any ice cream...the blueberry looked just right. I cut myself a slice and topped it with a generous dollop of cool whip, yes cool whip - its delicious. The filling was firm, and kept its shape. The crust was light, flaky and slightly sweet. When it all came together in the perfect bite, i was in love. The pie was gone by the next night, and I am pretty sure I only saw one other person have any.

Here is my attempt to recreate this delicious dessert.

Blueberry Pie

Crust

2 C Flour
1/2 t Salt
1T Sugar
1 1/2 Sticks of butter
1/2 C Ice water

Pulse the flour, salt and sugar briefly int he bowl of a food processor. Add in the cold cubed butter. Pulse the mixture until the butter is in small pieces. Slowly pour the ice water into the feed tube with the processor running until the dough just comes together. Form the dough into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Filling

1/2 C Sugar
1/2 C Flour
1/2 t Cinnamon
1/8 t Nutmeg
6 C Blueberries (Frozen works great)
1 T Lemon Juice
1 t Lemon zest
1 T Butter

Mix all of the filling ingredients in a large bowl (don't forget the sugar! This is where I went wrong), stir to coat all of the berries with flour and spices. Divide your pastry into two balls and roll them out large enough to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Fit the bottom crust into the pie plate, add filling and dot the top with small pieces of butter.












To be honest, making pasty terrifies me! All this talk of pea sized pieces of butter, ice cold water, ice cold butter, then there is the rolling and the sticking and the cracking! Oh the cracking! One of the reasons I wanted to make this pie was to practice my pastry making skills. Once I insisted my mother show me how to make it. She used room temperature shortening (don't even get me started on that stuff), and water right from the tap! I was astounded! She broke every rule that those food network cooks beat into my head. Even with this, she still makes a flakier crust than me, in a quarter of the time with less flour on the floor.












Lay over your top layer of pastry and crimp the edges in a decorative fashion. Or if you are me, just do your best! My mom and grandma have different but well developed methods of pie crust crimping. I did not get this gene. Don't forget to cut a few slit on the top and sprinkle with sugar. Bake on a half sheet pan at 450 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes, juices will just begin to bubble through the slit.













Not too bad for my first time. Sadly I am better at baking then photography. If you read Mara's previous post about my pie adventure, you will know I completely forgot to add the sugar, thankfully it still tasted great without it! FYI for you carb conscious readers!

Thanks to Mara for letting me guest blog!!!

Rustic Rosemary Bread

It has come to my attention that I have an "anonymous" following of friends, acquaintances, coworkers, exes, strangers, stalkers and frenemies (just kiddin!) who read TutiFoodie. This is wonderful news! I just wish you guys would make yourselves known so I could better cater (get it?) to your every whim and craving. But seriously, I love feedback, so if you have any suggestions, flattery, complaints, or the like I would love to hear from you. If there's something you have been itching to try, or suggestions for improving my current recipes, let me know. Go on now, discus...

Those who know me at all know one thing in particular. I talk about food. A lot. Sometimes perhaps to the point of slightly annoying my coworkers (Rose, are you reading this?). I like to consider it an endearing quirk of mine and when you advertise your love of edibles as much as I do people start thinking of you whenever they have an excess in their garden. Lucky for me my coworker Sabrina recently became aware of my passion and brought me a huge bag of rosemary she harvested from her garden before the first frost. Part of me just wanted to bundle the rosemary up and strategically hang it around my office and apartment just so I could get whiffs of its sweet, earthy aroma. But the other part of me couldn't resist the immediate consumption of at least a bit of it. I have wanted to bake fresh bread for a while now, so I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try one of my favorite loaves: the rosemary loaf.

This rustic loaf is hearty, perfect for tearing and dipping in some quality olive oil, or slathering with a healthy glob of fresh goats cheese.

Ingredients
1 packet of dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 tsp chopped rosemary leaves
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
Olive oil
1 egg beaten (for brushing)

Method
Combine yeast, water and sugar in a large mixing bowl and set aside for 5-10 minutes as it foams.
Once foamed, incorporate flour,  salt, and rosemary with a wooden mixing spoon. Mix until a loose and sticky ball of dough has formed. Set the dough on a lightly floured surface and kneed for eight minutes. Coat a bowl with olive oil, set dough into bowl, cover with saran wrap and allow to double in size for one hour.

Remove the dough from the bowl, punch and kneed out any air pockets and allow the dough to rise for an additional 45 minutes. Place slightly flattened ball of dough on a baking sheet, brush with egg and and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove when the top is golden brown. Cool and enjoy!

I ate it for dinner with some sliced tomato, radish, avocado and a boiled egg. Yum. The best thing about this meal was that it can be enjoyed equally as breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Fennel and Radish Salad with Herbed Goat's Cheese (and some things on my mind)

I feel a little ambivalent about writing this post. Not because the food wasn't delicious. It was. The ingredients were fresh from the Italian Market. Do I love that place, I can't even begin tell you all that I gleaned for a measly 5 or 6 dollars: collard greens, onions, garlic, radicchio, fennel, tomatoes and radishes. I didn't have a specific plan in mind, just some potential pairings. The marriage of fennel and radishes, check! Radicchio with garlic and balsamic, check!

I guess the thing is that I have been keeping a secret from all of you who read this but don't actually talk to me on a regular basis. Not intentionally keeping a secret, but initially I thought this blog would be about food, not me. Now I see now that this blog is both of those things and I cannot possibly discern such an integral part of my everyday life from myself.

For a long time I didn't like the idea of blogging. I wrote blogs off as self indulgent. I think more than anything though I was scared by the self expression inherent to blogging. I was afraid that by sharing my thoughts and writing in such an open venue I would be judged and criticized for bad grammar or boring posts. Once I started this blog that all changed; I realized what an incredible opportunity blogging is for those who love to think and write. I learned to appreciate other blogs as well. In fact I am overwhelmed by the myriad of fascinating, well articulated blogs I continue to cross paths with. I wish I had time to read them all religiously.

Now you may be wondering about my 'secret'. The truth is I've been a bit too preoccupied to think about food because two weeks ago I was laid off from my job in public health research. The project I work on was largely state funded and we received news of a 50% cut in our budget. Unfortunately, the public health sector is taking a hard hit by the economic downturn we've experienced this past year. It's frightening that such vital resources are being cut.

My last day will be October 30th, which gives me time to think and plan ahead. I've had a lot of conflicting thoughts and reactions to everything and I needed to let the dust settle a little before choosing my next steps. I realized that the best I can do is to see this as an opportunity rather than a setback. I really love my job, but I know it isn't the specific area of public health I want to pursue for the rest of my life. I really learned a lot about policy and program evaluation while I was there as well, and I have no doubt I will take these skills with me into my future career.

Right now I am researching WWOOF organizations, primarily in South America, and I am hoping to travel to Chile to work on an organic farm this winter. When I was a little girl I used to tell my parents that when I grew up I wanted to have a farm and feed all of the poor people, so I suppose that in some way I am realizing that dream, one which never really died. I am particularly interested the intersection between global nutrition and agriculture, and I think this is a great opportunity for me to pursue my global public health interests from a new perspective (i.e. not as a policy evaluator, or researcher, but through hands on experience in organic and sustainable agriculture). I still have a lot of research and planning to do, but I mostly feel excited for the upcoming months and the overlapping and intertwining of my interests as they come into fruition.

And, of course, here's a simple recipe:

Fennel and Radish Salad with Herbed Goat Cheese

Ingredients

1 large stock of fennel, discard greens
1/2 pound fresh radishes
3 tablespoons goat cheese (i used herb infused)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Method

With a very sharp knife slice large bottom of fennel and radishes paper thin. Crumble with goats cheese, drizzle with oil and vinegar, season to taste, mix and serve with crusty bread.

Crispy Cracker Flatbreads for Jason upon the Loss of his Blueberry Pie

My old friend Jason and I chatted today about blueberry pie, and the prospect of his guest blogging on Tutifoodie. His plan was to use the remaining blueberries he had stored in his freezer from the summer months to create a sort of fall-meets-summer kind of treat. I mean the kind of treat that pulls you out of bed in the morning when the Michigan winds wake you with their howling and you know that for the first time in half a year the hardwood floor's going to feel icy against your bare feet.

Jason departed Philly just about two years ago in pursuit of his one true love: the diatom. Apparently, if you are in the business of diatoms, Michigan is the place to be, not Philly which is better equipped with jobs in social welfare or the study of cocaine addiction. Jason loves science and was the kind of friend who would teach you all about trees and ferns on camping trips, or point out the scientific names and origins of nifty looking insects. 

He was also the type of friend that would drink a bottle of red wine at the byob indian buffet and then insist on passing out on your couch after purging himself of said wine and indian food on the street outside of your house. But he was always up for brunch the next morning, and always ordered a bagel with lox and cream cheese, capers, and tomato, his personal favorite. Jason was a good friend indeed and I was saddened when I received the following email labeled "disaster" from him this evening:

"So i was two cups short of blueberries, so i go to the store its like 4 bucks a pint for em now, get home, preheating oven, catches fire from something i cooked last week, get ready to put it in the oven, its lookin nice, realize i forgot to add sugar.  lordy lordy"

It's okay Jason, I hadn't mentioned this but I had a similar mishap just last night. I had some crispy red apples I was planning to toss in brown sugar and butter, sprinkle with oats and bake in a nice warm oven. It went terribly amiss which is funny because for a long time apple crisp was the only thing I baked, the only thing I could bake. Now it seems that my mind is so full of fancy french words for dough, that I am forgetting the simple stuff. Oh forgive me, I promise to re-perfect my apple crisp for you. There are still many cold months that lay in wait. Until then I'll leave you with a really nice and simple recipe for crispy cracker flatbreads that I recently baked for a party. They are great to snack on with cheese and bean dip, or crumbled into a steaming bowl of soup. Enjoy!

Two Kinds of Crispy Cracker Flatbreads: Sesame and Herb

Recipe derived from Crisp Rosemary Flatbread by Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

Makes 3 10 inch flat breads

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tbs chopped herbs (rosemary, oregano, thyme, etc) or toasted sesame seeds plus extra to sprinkle on top 

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup cold water

1/3 cup olive oil plus extra to brush dough with

Flakey Maldon salt, or other quality sea salts

Method

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, herbs or seeds, baking powder and salt. Create a well in the mixture and pour in the water and olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon until a ball forms. Gently kneed the dough ball on a sheet of parchment paper (about 4-5 times). Then divide the dough into thirds. 

Roll each ball out onto a baking sheet or piece of foil until it is about 10 inches in diameter, and don't worry the shape can be as rustic  looking as you like. Brush each disc with olive oil, sprinkle with sesame seeds or more herbs as desired and a pinch of sea salt. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and crispy. 

Apples, sugar, butter, flour. And a confession.

I realize that the last time I made a dessert for you was maybe a month or so ago, I am not exactly sure, but I recall a reference to my humid august kitchen. Well, for better or for worse, my kitchen is no longer humid, and with only a hint of regret I admit that it is no longer August. These days my kitchen is sort of cool, and when you open the window a gentle breeze wafts through the screen. Really though, it's the ideal baking kitchen, my late September kitchen is.

Apples are all around. A few weeks ago all of the fresh blueberries, plums, raspberries, and the last of the summer's harvest, bit by bit disappeared from the market stalls, making room for shiny apples of all shapes, sizes, colors and textures. I haven't had a chance to pick my own apples this year, but the season is still new and I'm sure there will be plenty of that to come.

Okay, so far I've only mentioned the apples. You're probably wondering now about the sugar, butter, flour, and of course, my confession. Well it started with apples. I wanted to make something with apples, something about apples and little else besides some subtle compliments.

I researched a bit online when I came across a Simple Apple Tart on Smitten Kitchen's website. It's a recipe Deb borrowed from Alice Waters, who borrowed it from Jaques Peppin. And now I will borrow it too. I decided to bake it in advance for a dinner party tomorrow night with a new friend. Of course, a new friend, I must impress, and everybody loves a tart. More so, I've noticed that when you make a tart, people feel that you really love them, I mean really care because you must have slaved for hours to bring such a divine creation into existence."Homemade pate brisee! Heavens, that must have taken so long! You must be so tired. Your knuckles must be bleeding. Oh no, let me make you some tea. Here, have a seat..."

I don't mean to diminish the work involved in preparing a tart, or the pate brisee. Surely, it's close to an act of godliness. An act of precision, no doubt. But this tart was really pretty simple, both in execution and result. Simple in the best way possible. The trouble was that as soon as I took it out of the oven, in all of its golden brown glory, there was no way that tart was going to last until tomorrow at 8:00 PM. I mean NO WAY.

I set it on the tables and admired it for a few moments. I grabbed my camera for a photo shoot. "Oh, well I'd like to photograph just a slice as well" I thought, and "how am I going to bike all the way to her house with that thing staying so pretty, anyway?" It didn't take too long before I convinced myself that my roommate and I could each sample a slice. I'd simply have to slice it up and put it in Tupperware tomorrow anyway. We each had a small piece and it was so good. The apples were soft, and slightly sweet. The crust flakey and just so buttery. Please don't tell my new friend, but it was so good. And she'll get to try it tomorrow.

Apple Tart

Pate Brisee

1 cup unbleached flour

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

3 1/2 tbs chilled water

6 tbs unsalted butter cut into 1/2 bits

Filling

5 tart apples. i used Macintosh, my go to baking apple.

4 tbs sugar

2 tbs unsalted butter (melted)

Combine flour, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Incorporate half of the chopped butter and begin gently tossing mixture with a fork until you have a crumbly mixture. Work the remaining butter into the mixture with the form until it begins to form a ball. Slowly add water and very delicately mix with your finger tips until a textured ball has formed. Cover with plastic wrap and set in to chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile peel and core apples. Slice apples into thin pieces. I recommend keeping the apples in their shape. This way when you put them into the tart, you can fan them out like dominos and they'll look really elegant in their shell. Set apples aside.

Remove pate brisee from the fridge and roll out the dough over a 9 inch tart pan bottom, leaving an excess of two inches around the edges. Place the tart pan and dough in the frame, draping dough over the edge while you fill the shell with apples. Gently place apples in the shell, allowing them to fan atop each other. Fold the excess dough over the outer ring of apples. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar before setting in the oven for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Rotate at 15 minute intervals to ensure even baking. Remove and serve warm with vanilla ice cream or fresh yogurt.

Garlicky Lemon Broiled Flounder

Truth be told, I didn't eat garlicky-lemon broiled flounder for dinner tonight. In fact, I didn't even eat it last night, or the night before that. I decided to make it, sort of on the fly, last friday for four friends. And not just any four friends, four very special, ladies : Thea, Ellen, Emily and Melissa. I think it's about time that I mention them, because there wouldn't be much point in my cooking half of this stuff if I didn't have them to enjoy it with.

They fill my little house with sparkling energy and witty conversation, eat their fill, dazzle my cooking with compliments, and sometimes even offer to do the dishes. Well, Ellen always offers to do the dishes. Actually, she doesn't even offer, she marches straight to the sink, whisky in hand, and gets down to business. Of course, only one of the many reasons I love the woman, but it is so nice to wake up the next morning (without a headache because Ellen was also kind enough to bring Makers Mark rather than Jim Beam) and not have to do any dishes. 

Really though, Friday's dinner came together more perfectly than I had imagined. It was almost like a choreographed dance. Everyone seemed to know their part in advance and the big night went by without a hitch. For instance, Emily, the most punctual of my friends,  quite naturally opted to bring an appetizer. Aged goat cheese, olives, a rustic loaf of rosemary bread and green olive tapenade, just enough sustenance to preface the cocktail hour provided by Ellen who arrived shortly thereafter, Makers Mark, ginger ale and red wine in tow.

We caught up while I put my little souse chefs to work,  laughed a lot, hungrily tore off hunks of rosemary bread, nibbled at olives and washed it all down with sips of whisky and ginger. Eventually Melissa arrived, running a bit late because she had to wait for the chocolate-honey cupcakes to finish baking. And then Thea with the fixings for the salad, and a meticulously timed  bottle of white wine--the perfect accompaniment for the golden brown flounder filets, that were incidentally being pulled from the broiler as she entered.  I served the flounder aside the baked mac and cheese with leeks and some salad. We finished the meal off with Melissa's Chocolate Honey cupcakes, which I will have to get the recipe for!

I love fish, particularly light, flakey, white fish such as halibut.  I'm not sure I'd ever eaten flounder before Friday, let alone prepared it, but when I saw it available for the same price as the tilapia at the market I decided to give it a whirl. The filets were very thin, so I thought it best to keep the dish simple. I dressed them up with some garlic and lemon zest along with a bit of olive oil and butter and popped them in the broiler for just a few minutes before they began to sizzle. A garnish of chopped parsley and they were ready to go in no time!

Garlicky Lemon Broiled Flounder Filets

Ingredients

4 fresh flounder filets

1 lemon

1 tbs butter

1 good extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

a handful of fresh parsley chopped 

In a small saucepan melt the butter over low heat. Once the butter liquifies remove from heat, add olive oil and 1 tsp of lemon zest. Place filets side by side in a baking dish, brush with lemon-butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cut the lemon into thin silver dollar slices and lay atop the fish. Broil for about 3-5 minutes and eat immediately.