Still accepting summer potluck recipes

Read a few posts down for the details, but you can win a pretty darn nice prize. I'll accept recipes up until 5/31.

Recipe: Pop-Tarts

What the hell were they thinking?! Since when do Pop-Tart connoisseur buy the dry little pastries for their nutritional value? Never once have I said, "I wonder if I could get more fiber in my diet by eating Pop-Tarts." But this is the trend from the Kelloggs company:

Some friends gave me a box of these as a gift because I was reminiscing about how much I love Pop-Tarts. You wanna see the nutritional info on these healthy snacks:

WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN, PALM, COTTONSEED AND/OR HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL WITH TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID FOR FRESHNESS), POLYDEXTROSE, SUGAR, DEXTROSE, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, CORN SYRUP, WHOLE GRAIN BARLEY FLOUR, GLYCERIN, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF INULIN FROM CHICORY ROOT, WHEAT STARCH, SALT, DRIED STRAWBERRIES, DRIED PEARS, DRIED APPLES, CORNSTARCH, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL STRAWBERRY FLAVOR, CITRIC ACID, GELATIN, CARAMEL COLOR, SOY LECITHIN, XANTHAN GUM, MODIFIED WHEAT STARCH, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, NIACINAMIDE, RED #40, REDUCED IRON, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), YELLOW #6, RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), FOLIC ACID.

Mmm...that's nutritional goodness right there buddy boy! What I love about Pop-Tarts is the filling, the frosting and the permission to eat a cookie for breakfast. What I don't like is that there is never enough filling. And that brings me to my homemade version:

When I re-create a store bought product I have a rule that you need to get as close to the original as possible while improving on any faults. In this case, I was fine with the dough and the frosting, and the taste of the filling, but I wanted more filling.

Pop-Tart Dough
13 oz (370 g) Unsalted Butter at room temp
1/3 C. & 1 T. (110 g) Milk at room temp
1 Yolk at room temp
1 t. (6 g)Sugar
1 t. (6 g) Salt
3 1/2 C. (625 g) AP Flour
In food processor, combine butter, milk, yolk, sugar and salt and pulse until roughly blended. Add the flour and pulse until it just starts to come together. Form into a disc and wrap in saran wrap, chill at least 1 hours.  ALT (updated 3/14), In mixer, cream butter with salt and sugar.  Add yolk and then half of the flour.  Add milk and remaining flower and combine til homogenous.  Remove from mixing bowl and press on counter with the heel of your hand for 30 seconds.  Cut in half and place half on your baking silpat or parchment.  Cover with parchment and rollout to 1/8" thick.  Using a ruler, cut to size but leave on baking sheet - I normally do 4x6" and get 6 out of each sheet.  Freeze for 15 minutes.  Roll out the other half to make the tops, and cut to size.  Lightly freeze just to make handleable.  Brush bottom seams with egg whites. (now proceed with the pre-edited recipe)

Brown-Sugar Cinnamon Filling
1 Egg White at room temp
3/4 C. Powdered Sugar
1/4 C. Almond slivers or slices
1/4 C. Brown sugar
1 T. Cinnamon
In food processor, combine all ingredients and blend until well combined.

Assembly
Roll the dough into a rough square, dusting with flour, until 1/8" thick. Cut dough into 4"x6" rectangles. Pair the rectangles for tops and bottoms. Brush the edges of your bottom with a whisked egg. Place a large dollop of filling on inside the egg wash, then spread it evenly. The amount of filling is up to you, but you can see in the pic below how much I did. Place the top sheet of dough on top and press firmly but gently onto the bottom sheet. Chill your Pop-Tarts for 30 minutes.

Oven to 350F. Bake for abut 15 minutes or until just starting to brown. Let sit until room temp. Frost with a milk and powdered sugar frosting with just a bit of cinnamon added.

And here's a chocolate tart with chestnut filling and coarse salt on top

Flourless Chocolate Cakes: In Search of the Perfect Recipe

In the world of flourless chocolate cakes there are those who love the dense, cakey intense varieties. Then there is the other world of custardy, rich and creamy versions. And finally, the dry and airy cakes. I've made and eaten all of them, and the ingredients are less important than the technique.

My favorite, by far, is the custardy version which relies on minimal whipping and minimal cooking. The other two varieties leave my mouth feeling like I said something dirty and it was just washed out by a disapproving mother. So in my quest for the perfect recipe I've found a leading contender courtesy of Paul Raphael at Underbelly. His recipe is aptly titled, but slightly modified to add Kahlua:

Intense Flourless Chocolate Cake
4 oz (113 g) 75% Chocolate*
2 oz (57 g) 60% Chocolate*
4 oz (114 b) Unsalted butter, cubed
2 Whole eggs
2 Yolks
1/4 C. Kahlua
2 T. & 2 t. (32 g) Sugar
1/8 t. (.5 g) Salt

*Paul recommends Valrhona Guanaja and Manjari chocolates - which I highly recommend as well. I used El Rey and Callebaut because they were handy.

Oven to 400 F with rack on bottom rung. Butter and dust with cocoa a 6" springform pan, line the bottom with parchment paper and butter. Set the pan on a large double sheet of foil and pull the foil around the sides of the pan and make sure that the whole pan is well wrapped up the sides.

Make double boiler and melt chocolate over gentle heat. Once melted, remove from heat, add butter little by little, stirring gently until melted. Let chocolate cool a bit.

In mixing bowl whisk eggs and yolks just until combined. Remember, you don't want to overwhip this version of cake. Add the sugar and salt and continue whipping. Finally, add the Kahlua. Now, whisk until the sugar dissolves and a light froth forms. Do not create volume!

Gently stir the egg mixture into the chocolate - not the other way around! Once combined pour the batter into the springform filling only to about half way. Put springform into large roasting pan, and pour water to go half way up the side of the springform. Bake about 20 minutes or until there is a slight jiggle left in the center of the cake. If there's no jiggle, you went too far and you just made a dry dense cake. Cool to room temp and plate.

Summer Pot Luck Contest: Shrimp

I had my first pot luck on Saturday and took our first submission, courtesy of RAHiggins from Vini Vidi Vino:

2 lb large shrimp with heads on
1/2 cup olive oil (Taste of Crete)
1/2 cup or 1 stick butter, sweet, unsalted
2 tsp garlic minced
one onion minced (green onion is mo better)
2 lemons halved, juiced
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 cup bbq rub (I used smoked Spanish paprika, palm sugar, szechuan)
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp Worchester (I used Bourbon Barrel Foods Sorghum worchester)
1/4 tsp cayenne
Louisiana Original hot sauce

Combine all ingredients except shrimps and put in the broiler until it almost burns. (throw those squeezed lemons in there too!) Add shrimps and stir around a bit.
Put pan back in oven and let cook 5 minutes, remove, stir, and put back in oven.
Take shrimps out when done, place contents in a nice serving bowl on a platter.

I'll save my comments for the end of the contest, but this one was fast and easy. The question about whether this is appropriate for a pot luck is fair. As long as you can serve these fast enough to keep them fresh, then I say yes. If they will have to set for a long time, then pass on this one.

Review: The Complete Robuchon

Walk into any chef’s kitchen, and dig around long enough, and you’ll find a buried treasure of recipes. Mine is a humble stack of tattered, splattered papers sitting on a shelf in unruly fashion. A more experienced chef will have a file cabinet, a binder with sheets neatly tucked into plastic protectors, or laminated sheets clipped on a wall. The Complete Robuchon is that treasure chest for Joël Robuchon and his army of cooks.

Read the rest of the review at the Gastronomer's Bookshelf HERE

Win a Free Espresso Maker: Summer Pot Luck Recipes

Summer is almost here. Time to have those late dinners on the veranda sipping grappa and enjoying a hot espresso. You've just finished off your dolmas, mini quiches and caprese salad, and now you're looking for the perfect finish. Being the owner of the Curious Kumquat has its privileges. One of them being free stuff to share with others.

Running the entire month of May, we'll be seeking your favorite summer pot luck recipes. It can be an appetizer, a bbq, drink...your choice, but it should be appropriate for pot lucks and summer. If you have a blog and already have a post about your favorite recipe, just send me the link, otherwise email the recipe to rob at connoley dot com and I'll bring them all together in sporadic posts.

What do you get for your time? The chance to win a brand new Bialetti Easy Caffè 6-cup electric espresso maker. It was about time they made one of these! You'll see them listed at just under $100 so this is a pretty nice blog prize. Winners have to be from North America to receive the espresso maker, although if you're off-continent and submit a recipe, and it wins, we'll do an Amazon certificate worth $100US. If you're in a country where the US dollar is essentially worthless, you can use it to buy yourself a cup of espresso instead.

Rules? Only a few. First, the recipe should be yours either new or modified. New recipes are rare, but don't lift it from someone else's site and claim it as your own at least add "Add parsley and serve" to make it your own. Second, Tyler and I, and our summer potluck guests will be the judges. No whining about us having bad tastes, that could be true, but... And finally, the last entry opportunity will be May 31st at midnight MST. Questions? Let's see what you've got!

Feeding the Masses: Tour of the Gila bike race

I'm a bit rested from this past week, and I made the mistake of stopping by the store today to finish up my cleaning, and I was swarmed by bikers asking for more pasta for one last meal...nice compliment, but no thanks, I'm off.

First, let's see what this was all about. We're a small little town that is very remote, but has a lot of culture and events. You can't just stumble across Silver City, you have to make it a part of a trip or the trip itself. So when guys like this show up

for our big race it has a bit of an impact. Our busiest restaurant on its busiest night might serve 75-100 guests. My cafè, which mostly does lunch will have about 40 covers on a good day. So when officials say that these guys are most likely showing up

but "we're keeping it quiet so things don't get out of control, but we need you to be prepared," well, I take notice. And with all of the speculation of whether he would come or not, and last minute wrangling between the international biking community and the national biking leaders, we were told to "be ready." But how the heck can you be ready for something like this?

I cook on a regular ceramic top residential range with a single oven. My response is, as always, pose the question to eGullet and see what you can glean. And after weeks of you all sharing your advice, and me watching Homeland Security set up its base camp, and me strategizing with my food reps, and finally a big ass black RV parking out in front of my store (the pics above are from my store's front door), it finally came down to this

The race was off and the black and white jerseys were blurring by with some famous dude that people came to see - I think I mentioned that hotels were booked as far as Las Cruces which is 2 hours away. And then there were 39 more moments like these

as they did their laps in our historic downtown district. It was truly surreal. I had never seen paparazzi in my town, let alone my neighbors acting like the Backstreet Boys were preparing to do a concert. Surreal. You can read about the race with a mention to our store in the New York Times.

But I missed all but a few minutes of the race because I was back in the hot kitchen wondering how much more I should prep to be ready for a rush, or would it be a slam, or would it be a slaughter?!

And that finally takes us to the food.

Some of the important info that I learned from my eG friends:
1. Keep costs to even amounts - I did everything in either $5 or $1 amounts (tax included)...and yes, it was appreciated.
2. Carbs, carbs, carbs...except on sprint day when it was all sugar of any sort
3. Smoothies were okay but not the most popular - too much sugar I guess
4. I didn't make them, but yes, pancakes were a popular request, oatmeal was second
5. Pie never happened, nor was it requested, but my lighter desserts sold best
6. Coffee, but only good coffee...thanks Peets!
7. Serve early, serve often. They want to eat about 1 hour after the end of the race and continue through the night.

One unanticipated issue came as I unintentionally became focused on the bikers moreso than the spectators. I guess I created it, but I was trying to serve two masters. I set up "Racer Specials" which were very low cost, racer focused foods. I can't tell you how many thanks and very grateful comments I received from the 95% of the riders who don't have food allowance from their sponsors. I like this niche as I don't really need to be a millionaire from this event, while others were jacking up their prices to capitalize.

Dinner Output:
Day one - 55 pounds of pasta
Day two - 75 pounds
Day three - 85 pounds
Last day - 100 pounds

I figured the last day, based on register receipts, to be 125 dinners. By this time we had things down really well so it felt slow to us. We turned away maybe 15 riders. I then put my kitchen capacity for this type of food at 150, but who knows. One big boost was when I thought, "okay dumbshit! why haven't you put your sauce in the soup warmer and crock pots instead of on the stove in a stock pot." Duh. That freed up a burner for two pots of pasta at a time. And, I bought pasta based on fastest cooking time - with the caveat that I refused to do spaghetti because I think its boring.

Recipes - nothing was fancy, but they all got great reviews even from the non-riders (meaning, you don't have to be famished to like the recipes) - all downsized for your pleasure
Pasta Sauce
One medium onion, diced
2 carrots, small diced
Sweat onion with carrot until just turning transluscent. Add thyme, salt and pepper to taste - for me, about 1 T thyme, 1/2 t. salt and pepper. Cook 5 minutes. 1/2 C. white wine and cook until almost evaporated. Two large cans of crushed tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook for about an hour. Taste, adjust and cook until the mobs come to eat. That simple.

Salad Dressing - fast, tasty and totally ripped from Peterson's Sauces book.
1 T. Dijon
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 C. Rice wine vinegar
Whisk together
1 C. Cream
Whisk
1/4 C. Olive oil
Whisk. Done.

Fruit salad topping - this received more raves than anything else
1 C. Yogurt - drained in mesh filter for at least one hour, preferably overnight
1 T. Pistachio compound...you could probably use pistachio pudding mix for a similar effect
Pinch of cardamom ground
I put this over whatever fruits we could throw in a bowl quickly - mostly frozen blueberries, fresh apples, bananas, oranges. Topped with some pistachio nuts.