The crostata I made back at home -- this one with apricot jam and fresh cherries

While we were in Italy just last month we took a cooking class from a lovely Italian woman named Sonia. If your imagination is running to a graying mamma wielding a pasta roller and a checkered apron, think again. Sonia teaches French at the Lucca high school and graduated from Amherst College. Just wanted to set the scene…correctly! I was so excited to tackle crostata, the classic Italian dolce that is part pie, part cake. Sonia called it cake, but you’ll soon see why is shares more with our American pies than any cake we’ve come to know.

The husband and I lived in Italy an unmentionable number of years ago, and this was our long-overdue return. I had also taken cooking classes back then, and had thought I’d returned home with a fool-proof recipe for Torta della Nonna, a crostata-like cake/pie made with ricotta. It never, ever worked here, either because of my poor note-taking, even poorer conversions, or most likely, because the flour here just isn’t the same as it is in Italy. I think this time I’ve managed to get a little closer to the crostata we made in Italy, but the flour still affects the final outcome. I think our flour makes a softer crust, so I’m going to keep on the lookout for imported Italian flour to see if I can really achieve the intended flavor and texture.

Italian desserts are not terribly sweet. I think that’s why I like them (I’m a savory craver, not a sweet eater). And this dessert will take away all pie fears, if you have them!

Crostata | 6 to 8 servings

Made with jam it is a jam crostata (example: crostata dei fichi, or fig jam crostata) and made with fresh fruit it’s called a torta di frutta. This one is a jam crostata, but the pastry can be pre-cooked and filled with pastry cream and fresh fruit.

The pastry for crostata, called pasta frolla, is a pie dough almost like shortbread. To keep it tender and not too “bready,” have all the ingredients refrigerator cold. I’ve even mixed the dry ingredients and stuck them in the fridge for a few minutes.

Italian baking sugar is finer than ours, so if possible, use superfine sugar, available at many grocery stores.

Scant 1/4 cup ice-cold water
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup superfine sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter, or 1 stick, refrigerator cold
1 1/2 cups good-quality, naturally sweetened jam, such as apricot, raspberry, cherry, fig

Measure the water and put it in the freezer until needed. Prepare the lemon zest and set aside. Break the egg into a small bowl, beat until combined, and store in the refrigerator until needed.

Measure the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together. Mix in the lemon zest.

Sonia is mixing the flour, sugar and lemon zest together but she's working quickly -- the kitchen was warm

Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the dry ingredients. Using fingertips and working quickly, pinch the butter into the flour mixture until it is crumbly and about the texture of steel-cut oats. A pastry blender works well, also.

The butter just came out of the fridge

Pinching and tossing very quickly

Mix in the egg, tossing quickly. Add the ice-cold water, tossing the dough as you go. Use just enough so that the dough will gather up but not be soggy. Punch the dough together until it forms a ball.

Divide the dough into a 1/3-sized ball and a 2/3-sized ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour.

This was a double recipe, so we divided the dough for two "cakes"

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Butter a 10-inch round pan or line with waxed paper. Place the larger dough ball in the center and work the dough out to the edges of the pan using your fingertips, pressing from the center out.  Work the dough up the side of pan about 1 to 1 1/2 inches. Trim the top edge of the dough if necessary.

Try to make the thickness of the dough even all over

Sonia -- using her thumbs to push the dough up the side of the pan -- and Loren, watching!

It's optional to trim the top, but it makes a more even edge

With a fork, poke holes all over the bottom of the crust.

This keeps the dough from bowing up or bubbling and distorting

Spread the dough with the jam, evenly and to the edges.

This was a fig crostata, using Sonia's homemade fig jam made from her fig tree

Flour a work surface. With the other 1/3 of the dough, shape and flatten strips to lay across the top of the crostata.

Shape "logs" and flatten them

Here I am working on the second crostata while Sonia finishes the top strips for the fig one

Fold the crust down over the top edge of the crostata. Press with the tines of a fork. Brush the dough lightly with a little milk.

This makes the nice edge -- you can also make an edge with another strip of dough

Ready for the oven!

Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or until lightly golden.

This is the one I made, but the crust was a little too thick

Here's the one I made at home, with a much better result! It has apricot jam and a handful of fresh pitted and halved cherries

Buon appetito, amici!

Kelly McCune © 2010

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

Happy Swiss cows with bells leads to amazing cheese

I’ve been away, and internet-challenged to boot! Now back from Italy and a brief stop in Switzerland — much more on Italy very soon. First I must pay homage to the cows of Lauterbrunnen, with their big, noisy bells that would blend perfectly with a yodel here and there. This was the land of artisanal cheeses, a place you could go to learn cheese-making and cow herding. The grass looked so good I thought I might even eat some.

Switzerland has two well-known national dishes — fondue and rösti. These are based on their two great edibles, cheese and potatoes. I’ve known about fondue since the 70s, when the fondue craze struck American homes like an electric shock, planting thousands of fondue pots in our avocado and goldenrod kitchens. Ours was yellow, of course. We didn’t try the fondue in Switzerland because we smelled it so continually one evening while we waited for a table at a popular restaurant that we felt like we’d actually eaten it.

No, it was rösti that I was unfamiliar with, but I now know that it is a variation on hash browns, or latkes, or other such potato dishes.

Not my picture -- but ours looked just like this!

Rösti is grated potato, and the Swiss potatoes are very good. I know this because potatoes accompany just about every meal, sometimes combined with…cheese! Season the grated potato, shape it into a very buttery pan and fry it up. Very easy, very filling. The Husband ordered his with a curry flavor, which was not a great choice. Mine had bacon and cheese, and I plowed through about half of it. It was comfort food on steroids, and I’ll be making it here very soon.

An aerial view of cows, but no matter how far away you get, you can hear those bells

Back to cows. These Swiss cows are very happy and well cared-for. They spend all summer in the spectacular foothills of the Alps, eating clover and basking in the sun. And all that goodness yields a field of dairy products that has all that flavors of pure joy. Nutty, tangy gruyeres and emmenthalers, mellow yogurt, achingly fresh milk and butter. It’s a well-protected industry there, family-owned and carefully managed.

Lauterbrunnen, in the shadow of the Eiger, the Jungfrau, and the Monch peaks

Our favorite meal in Switzerland was a hunk of bread with several local cheeses which we cut up with — what else? — a Swiss Army knife. But stay tuned for Italy.

Yodel-ay-hee-hoo

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

The perfect combination of crusty and creamy

This has to be one of my favorite ways to make potatoes. The whole family loves it, too, since it looks like pie. There is a decided pie-bias in this house — Daughter #1 requires it instead of birthday cake. This method avoids the cream and butter of mashed potatoes (not that I don’t love them, any day of the week) and it can be varied according to what’s on hand, in the garden, or in the imagination. The one I’ve made here is almost a stovetop potatoes au gratin, since I’ve used gruyere. I didn’t add cream, but one of these days I just might.

Gruyere has such a nice, mellow nutty flavor that pairs beautifully with potatoes

Typically a galette is a free-form tart made with a crust of some sort, a quick, low-skill wrap-up of crust and filling. It has come to also refer to a pile of potatoes in a pan, cooked enough to have a crust and resemble a pie. It’s a wonderful side to roasted meat or sausages, or with a fried egg on top for breakfast or brunch. Even by itself it’s a hearty dish.

Potato Galette with Gruyere | 4 to 6 servings

I like a basic Russet for the galette, since it browns nicely and gets tender and melting on the inside.

3 large baking potatoes, such as Russets
1/4 pound gruyere
1/2 white onion, minced
5 to 7 fresh sage leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Thoroughly rinse and pat dry the potatoes. With a sharp knife, thinly slice into rounds.

The trick to nice slices is a sharp knife -- put an edge on yours just before slicing, or use a mandoline slicer

Grate the gruyere. Mince the onions, and chop the sage leaves.

The onions and sage give the potato pie a rustic depth

Heat the olive oil in a large pan, preferably non-stick. Using a little more than a third of the potato slices, make the first layer.

Start from the center and work your way to the outer edge

When the first layer is complete, press firmly on the layer to flatten it. Distribute half the onion, cheese and sage over the first layer. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.

This helps to press the potatoes flat onto the pan, making a nice even crust on the bottom -- which becomes the top!

Distribute the onions evenly over the layer

Again, a nice even distribution

Using half of the remaining potatoes, make another layer. Press to flatten. Distribute the remaining onion, cheese and sage over the layer, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

This is the second potato layer

And this is the remaining cheese, onion and sage

Make a final potato layer and press firmly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Potatoes absorb salt, especially, like a sponge

Cover the pan and cook the potatoes over medium low heat until tender when pierced with a fork, about 30 minutes. Give the pan a firm shake to loosen the bottom crust. Invert onto a plate.

Place the plate over the pan and invert quickly and decisively!

Serve hot. And hey, it’s almost pie.

Warm layers of potato and melting gruyere

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

Grilled pork tenderloin, shown here with manaesh from my local Middle Eastern market -- it's a flat bread with zaatar (thyme, sesame, olive oil, salt) on top

Time to fire up the grill for the season. The charcoal one, that is. I use my gas grill all year round, but the charcoal grill gets a spring cleaning and makes its appearance right about now. I think it’s a daylight savings time issue — I don’t like to grill in the dark. I’d fixed up the grill, I had a lovely pork tenderloin in the fridge, and now all I needed was charcoal for my little Weber.

I headed out for some mesquite charcoal, which I buy at one of my neighborhood Middle Eastern markets. I am lucky to live so close to several of these small, family-owned markets. Well, it started with the charcoal, but then I saw freshly baked manaesh, and thought the salty thyme and sesame bread would go well with pork. That led to a trip to the deli counter, where I bought Greek feta (stuff the tenderloin, yes!) and fresh yogurt for a sauce of some sort. I decide the yogurt needed a kick, so I located the harissa — a solidly spicy chili paste from North Africa — and nearby were some lovely sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil (of course, more for the stuffing!). I felt like I was in an episode of Top Chef, creating my menu as I trolled the aisles. Next to last I grabbed a bunch of fresh cilantro for the sauce. I got in trouble at the check-out, because there was a roasted nut mix, and I had to have that, too. To go with what? A beer, I guess.

Feta and Sun-dried Tomato Stuffed Pork Tenderloin | 3 servings

Pork tenderloins range in size from about 3/4 to a little over 1 pound. Typically one will serve three people, maybe even with a little bit left over. To serve any more than three people you’ll need more tenderloin. This is easy to put together while the grill is firing up.

1 pork tenderloin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 ounces feta cheese
4 to 5 sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil
Dried thyme
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon lemon juice, about 1/4 lemon
1 teaspoon harissa, or to taste
Small pinch sugar
Small pinch salt
10 to 12 sprigs cilantro, leaves chopped, about 1 heaping tablespoon

Light a charcoal grill.

This tenderloin was exactly 1 pound, and it served three with one or two slices left over

Lay the tenderloin on a cutting board. With a small, sharp knife, cut a deep pocket into the rough side (rather than the rounded side) of the tenderloin. Take care not to cut all the way through the meat.

Start at the narrow end, working back toward the thick end

Sprinkle the inside of the tenderloin with salt and pepper.

It's almost like butterflying the tenderloin

Arrange thin slices of feta and whole sun-dried tomatoes inside the pocket. Sprinkle with dried thyme.

Arrange them close together so that every slice contains some "stuffing"

Fold the flap back over the top and secure with toothpicks.

I used three toothpicks -- they will be removed before you serve the tenderloin

Drizzle some of the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes over the tenderloin and sprinkle both sides with salt, pepper and dried thyme.

There is a nice tomato-y flavor to the oil

Contrary to earlier assumptions, salting the meat before grilling does not dry it out -- what's important is to rest the meat after cooking, covered and for a good 5 minutes

On a preheated grill, cook the tenderloin 7 to 10 minutes per side, until a meat thermometer reaches 140°F.

Over mesquite charcoal, which gets hotter than briquets, the pork cooks quickly -- mine took only 7 minutes per side

Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. In a bowl, mix together the yogurt, lemon juice, harissa, sugar, salt and cilantro. Set aside until needed.

Taste as you go to determine how much harissa is enough

Cover the meat loosely with foil and allow it to rest for 5 minutes. Remove the toothpicks and slice into 3/4-inch rounds. Serve with a dollop of sauce and have the extra sauce on the table.

And since it’s light outside, have that beer and those nuts. Hey, nuts are good for you!

Kelly McCune © 2010

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

One of Anne's most recent cookbook

Back in the wayback I had every intention of going to culinary school. I was graduating from college, and all I could think about was food and cooking and using my hands and food again. In the middle of my senior year I had taken an inspiring pastry class at Madeleine Kamman’s nearby restaurant/cooking school, The Modern Gourmet, and I was ready to jump from essay to entrée without looking back.

With French pastry terms rolling around in my head I started researching schools, so naturally I looked only in France. There was the estimable Cordon Bleu in Paris, of course, but I also considered Madeleine Kamman’s short summer course. Too short, not rigorous enough.  I didn’t exactly speak French (as in not at all) so I found myself very drawn to Anne Willan’s highly regarded school in Burgundy, Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne. Anne is English, though she and her husband, economist Mark Cherniavsky, had already spent years commuting back and forth between Washington, D.C. and France. I was certain to be able to understand the Queen’s English. But I didn’t meet Anne then, regrettably.

My first encounter with Anne was last week at a lecture of the Zamorano Club — Los Angeles’s “oldest organization of bibliophiles and manuscript collectors.” She was speaking about her rare cookbook collection and the forthcoming book she is writing on the subject for University of California Press. Her husband has been the principle bloodhound of the family in his hunt for rare editions of early, early cookbooks, and they have some amazing volumes. I actually got to thumb (carefully!) through a 1596 edition of a beautifully illustrated book by an Italian cook (Anne notes that the word “chef” had not yet come into use in the 1500s) named Bartolomeo Scappi. He has drawn careful pictures of his entire batterie de cuisine, and even shows how knives were stabbed into a hanging hay bale for storage (think knife block).

The knives Scappi has drawn look like some that I have in my collection, and on the right are various casseroles and steamers

This picture is from my second Anne sighting, only two days later. She was speaking at the Los Angeles Public Library for the Culinary Historians of Southern California, a group I am (now!) a member of. For this lecture she took a different angle, talking about the history of the recipe rather than the books themselves.

Anne fell in love with cooking right after college, as well. She took a class at Cordon Bleu in London and was hooked. Though she had come from a well-to-do family who may have expected more from her Master’s at Cambridge, Anne relocated to Paris, where she earned the distinguished Grand Diplome from Cordon Bleu. Her experiences after that included cooking at the Chateau de Versailles for a parade of distinguished guests. She met Mark there and they began their long love affair — with each other and with France. Anne and Mark bought a beautiful chateau in Burgundy where she expanded her Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne. Anne has always written about food, and her La Varenne Pratique is a classic among books on French cuisine. After 25 years in France, though, they’ve relocated right here in Santa Monica and will soon (I hope!) open the doors to more students.

Because I’d like to be a student, after all these years. As I mentioned, I had every intention of enrolling in culinary school. What stopped me was a brief stint helping an acquaintance open a restaurant in San Francisco. I don’t remember exactly how long I worked there, but it was in dog years — each moment times seven. And my ambitious boss nearly keeled over on the J Church from the stress. This was an English restaurant with English food, and in cuisine-crazy San Francisco it was a serious mistake. No one wanted steak and kidney pie (have they ever?).

Noooot good

I drew this little drawing when I was in the midst of this very crazy — and I mean crazy — period.

I ended up at a desk job, working in publishing and then on to cookbook writing. I took lots of cooking classes in San Francisco, and spent hours poring over and experimenting from cookbooks, among them one of my favorites, Anne’s French Regional Cooking. I later admired her books and series for PBS called “Look and Cook.”

The other drawing, the one that followed the crazy one, was this:

Chatting with boyfriend rather than firing the dishwasher, then the waiter -- I was the restaurant hatchet man!

I didn’t go to La Varenne France, it’s true, but I will gladly march myself right back over to Anne’s kitchen when she calls me.

Yes, she's beautiful -- and she speaks English!

Kelly McCune © 2010

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

The whole meal in one lovely little packet

I had lost track of this cooking method for some years until a couple of weeks ago. Melissa Clark wrote about cooking asparagus in parchment in the New York Times, and it was like running into an old friend. I had gone through a period of heavy experimentation with cooking en papillote — in a parchment pouch — but I’d filed it in the deep drawer, so to speak. Cooking this way can be so satisfying. It is limited only by your tastebuds, it’s easy to clean up, can be low fat, and it absolutely complements fresh ingredients by heightening rather than hiding their flavor.

Parchment paper used to be somewhat difficult to get your hands on, usually requiring a trip to the cookware store. That may be why I experimented heavily some years back (when I worked in a cookware store) and why it fell by the wayside (when I didn’t). Reynolds now makes parchment paper rolls, widely available in most grocery stores.

Classic en papillote cooking is done in a very hot oven (400°F) for a very short time (10 minutes). The well folded edges keep in the air, which works like a pressure cooker inside the packet. Here I’ve used low heat (200°F) for a long period (1 hour), which I think is lovely and keeps things tender and juicy. I plan on getting back into experimentation, though, so I’ll be writing more about it. I want to try sweet things, and I also remember making packets that were individual servings, which guests got to break open at the table. I’ll definitely be returning with more on this subject!

I started out with a whole chicken breast — a rather large one — that needed to be split into two half breasts and then further cut down. I will continue to carp about overly large chicken breasts until producers do something about it. The flavor and texture just aren’t quite as good, even if it is organic or free-range. Anyway, I wanted to combine my chicken with what I had on hand, and that leaned toward Asian flavors since I had fresh ginger, shitake mushrooms and asparagus. I made rice to go with it, but nearly the entire meal is contained in the packet.

Many, many combinations will work

Chicken Breasts Cooked in Parchment | 4 servings

2 large or 4 small chicken breasts halves, boneless and skinless
3 large shitake mushrooms
2 or 3 green onions
12 asparagus spears
3 carrots
1 slice prosciutto
1 large garlic clove
1/2-inch piece of fresh ginger
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
Salt
8 sprigs fresh cilantro, plus some for garnish

Preheat the oven to 200°F. Beginning on the thick end of the half breast and holding the knife blade parallel to the board, cut the breast into two equal pieces.

Give your knife a good sharp edge before splitting the breasts this way

Slice the shitake mushrooms. Trim and chop the white part of the green onions and several inches of the green. Trim the bottom of the asparagus spears and with a vegetable peeler, peel the bottom third of each spear. Trim, peel and slice the carrots lengthwise into sticks. Chop the prosciutto. Peel and smash the garlic. Peel and thinly slice the ginger into matchstick pieces.

Have everything all ready before putting it all together on the paper

Tear off a piece of parchment twice as long as a baking sheet. Lay the chicken in a single layer down the length of the parchment. On top of the chicken place the asparagus, carrots, mushrooms, prosciutto, garlic, and ginger.

This will be a long, narrow packet, so leave plenty of room on the sides to bring the paper up together to fold

Drizzle the olive oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame over the top. Toss with your hands to coat.

Olive oil may seem wrong with Asian flavors but I like its depth

You don't really have to measure...

Coat the vegetables and chicken well and then pile the vegetables back on top

Sprinkle with salt. Distribute the chopped green onions evenly and place the cilantro sprigs on top.

This dish is fun to make

The cilantro won't be pretty when it's cooked but it adds wonderful flavor

Bring the long sides of the paper together and crease and fold over on each other. Then crease and fold again and staple.

The goal is for a tight seal

Melissa Clark is to thank for the stapler idea

Crease and fold up the ends of the paper several times. Staple the ends.

The package is now ready for, if not the US mail, then the oven

Place the packet on a baking sheet and cook for 1 hour in the preheated oven.

The paper has barely colored in such a low oven

Just before serving, tear open the paper and remove the cilantro. Serve over rice with the accumulated juices.

Spoon the juices right over the top

Even better than those care packages you used to get at camp.

Kelly McCune © 2010

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

Straight out of the oven at full "puff"

There are certain recipes that catch your eye when have you have children in the house. That is how a certain “Huffy Puffy” entered our kitchen lexicon, with its ability to conjure little pigs and a wolf who might want a…bite. But it has remained a favorite, especially for breakfast, long since anyone around here was little enough to care about the name.

The Huffy Puffy is exactly like a Dutch Baby — a pancake that bears more resemblance to a popover or Yorkshire pudding than a griddlecake. It is thought that the Dutch baby is derived from the German pancake called an apfelpfannkuchen, and that a Seattle restaurant coined the name Dutch baby in the 1920s. It is a simple mixture of eggs, milk, flour and a dash of salt, cooked in a very hot oven. A heavy, ovenproof skillet is useful, especially a cast-iron one. It puffs up into a beautiful, golden cloud that stays puffed for a few minutes but begins to sink as it cools. Serve it immediately for the most crowd-pleasing effect.

Simple ingredients, likely to be on hand

I’ve added cooked bacon to the batter of this huffy puffy (don’t tell the little pigs), which makes it savory and something that can be served in wedges with dinner, even. There are all kinds of ways to vary it. Traditionally, the Dutch baby is served sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice just as it comes out of the oven. We’ve eaten it with syrup, jam, and honey. I’ve also sautéed apples first, and then poured in the batter. The center can be filled with a concoction of vegetables with or without meat, and served as a one-dish meal.

Huffy Puffy with Bacon | makes one

If your eggs are on the small side, cut back slightly on the amount of flour.

5 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cup unbleached flour
2 slices bacon
1 1/2 tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 475°F.

Whisk the eggs in a bowl with the salt. Whisk in the milk and then beat in the flour until the lumps are gone.

Whisk in the milk...

...and then whisk in the flour until smooth

Cook the bacon slices in heavy, ovenproof skillet. Remove, drain and chop.

Make the pieces any size -- I like them somewhat large

Add the bacon to the batter.

I considered adding a little chopped fresh rosemary here, too, right into the batter

Reheat the skillet over medium heat and add the butter to whatever bacon fat is in the pan. When the butter foams up, pour in the batter.

The butter should foam up but not burn

The butter and bacon fat help create a delicious crust on the outside of the huffy puffy

Place immediately into the hot oven and cook, without opening the oven door, for 18 to 20 minutes. The huffy puffy will be deep golden brown and puffy. Serve immediately.

Oh, and please don’t tell the wolf.

Hot from the oven is when it's best

Kelly McCune © 2010

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

Left to right: Cod with a garlic and breadcrumb top, halibut with butter and sautéed leeks, and whitefish with bacon and rosemary

The constant, looming problem with cooking fish is turning it. When fish is perfectly cooked it is also falling apart (most varieties, anyway), so to turn it midway through this process is to risk some destruction. This isn’t helped by the fact that most spatulas are shaped to accommodate the chop, the egg or the patty — not a long, ungainly thing like fish.

It was the husband who stumbled upon the solution to this problem some decades back. He pre-heated the heck out of a heavy black baking sheet we have, prepped the fish on a piece of foil, and when the pan was nearly molten under the broiler he slid the whole piece of foil, with fish, onto the hot surface. We immediately heard the wonderful sizzle of cooking fish coming from the underside. Then the top side broiled beautifully and quickly. In under 5 minutes or so the fish was perfectly cooked to tender (not dry!) in the middle, with a nice broiled top and browned on the pan side.

Since then I’ve experimented with different ways to prep the fish for the broiler, and while most anything works nicely, some things will burn if not pre-cooked a little. So garlic, mushrooms, leeks, breadcrumbs and the like should be sautéed beforehand and added 2 or 3 minutes into cooking so they brown but not burn.

The black baking sheet in question

My baking sheet is describe here under the Tools tab. It is really a great pan, but any heavy baking sheet or large oven-proof pan will work fine.

Broiled Cod with Breadcrumbs, Broiled Halibut with Sautéed Leeks, and Broiled Whitefish with Bacon and Rosemary

Here are three ideas for broiling fish. This technique works with almost any variety — I’ve even tried it with shrimp and it’s wonderful.

Cod fillet
Halibut fillet
Whitefish fillet
Olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and thinly sliced
Red pepper flakes
1 slice bacon, chopped
4-inch sprig fresh rosemary, chopped
Butter
1 leek, white part, trimmed, cleaned and thinly sliced
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Set the oven rack on the rail closest to the broiler element and turn the broiler to high. Preheat the baking sheet under the broiler for at least 10 minutes.

Sometimes these pans will warp under all that heat, but it doesn't hurt the fish

Rub the dull side of a piece of foil (one the size of your pan) with a little olive oil and place the fish fillets, skin side down if applicable, on the foil.

The whitefish has skin, the other two do not, but the cod has an obvious "skin-side"

For the cod, heat about 2 tablespoons of olive over low and gently cook the garlic slices and red pepper flakes until lightly golden, about 10 minutes.

Cook the garlic gently to keep it from over-browning -- that makes it bitter

For the whitefish, gently sauté the chopped bacon and rosemary in a drizzle of olive oil.

No need to cook until crisp since it do that under the broiler

For the halibut, sauté the sliced leeks in a drizzle of olive oil until wilting, about 5 minutes. Set aside until needed.

The onion-garlic flavor of leeks go nicely with halibut

Spoon some of the garlic and oil onto the cod. Pour the remaining oil and garlic over the breadcrumbs and toss well to coat. Dot the halibut with butter, and spread the oil, bacon and rosemary evenly over the whitefish. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper.

The fish ready for the broiler

Pull the pan out of the broiler and carefully lift or slide the foil onto the hot pan. Place immediately back in the broiler.

After about 3 minutes, sprinkle the cod with the oiled breadcrumbs and return to the oven.

The fish is nearly done at this point, but the breadcrumbs need to cook

Fish is done when its flakes or layers can be easily separated with a fork. It should not be pink between the flakes but a moist, pearly white. When the halibut is cooked, spoon the leeks over the top and run under the broiler for a few more seconds, enough to just brown the top.

The leeks need only half a minute to brown under the broiler

Remove the cooked fish from the oven and allow it to sit for one minute. Loosen from the foil and serve.

This is so quick to make there’s hardly enough time to make a salad — or open a nice bottle of vino.

Kelly McCune © 2010

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

It's said that it was Coco Chanel who made this little number a wardrobe requirement

Most every woman has heard that to have a complete closet, a fully equipped wardrobe, one must have a little black dress. This is the item one dresses up or dresses down, depending on need, but it is the rock solid center of a clothing collection, at least since Coco Chanel popularized it in 1926 and Vogue pronounced it the Ford of clothing and a uniform for all women of taste.

In the kitchen I have my little black dress. It’s my black baking pan, and though it has been through a lot, like the best black dress it doesn’t show its wear. It’s heavy and solid, so much more than a baking sheet, which is its size. But it is French, which I’m sure would please Coco.

I bought my French baking sheet years ago when I worked in a cookware store in Boston. Now they are a bit hard to come by, but the best available is Matfer Bourgeat.  Norpro and Lincoln Foodservice Products (also called Lincoln-Wearever) have commercial gauge baking pans though not black. Nonstick pans won’t give food the browned crust that is really the point of one of these pans, so avoid them.

Okay, not so sexy but one you'll use almost every day

My pan is blue-black steel, 19 x 13 inches, and weighs in at just over 4 pounds. It’s a workhorse, but it requires a little special care. It rusts easily if I don’t dry it immediately, and can’t be put in the dishwasher. The idea is to get a pan that is heavy enough to withstand some high heat, with a thickness that will hold enough heat to actually promote cooking and browning. I rarely use mine for cookies, since it browns the bottom so well it’s almost too well. It is perfect for breads and pizzas, when you do want a well-browned crust.

Also in action, this time for focaccia

It is also the pan I turn to when I want to roast vegetables. The pan gets hot enough to do the bottom side browning, and food almost never sticks. If I’m roasting chicken pieces or fish, I do use foil or parchment, but it isn’t necessary. It just makes clean-up a little easier.

One of my favorite uses for the black pan is broiled fish. The pan gets super-heated under the broiler, and I just slide the fish (on foil) onto the hot pan and never have to turn it (more about that in the next post).

The pan in action getting preheated for perfect broiled fish

This is certainly one of my most-used kitchen tools, and my batterie de cuisine just wouldn’t be complete without it.

(And I’m sure Coco would be pleased with my French — encore.)

Kelly McCune © 2010

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.

Put this classic, moist cake in your arsenal

I have one dessert that I turn to when I need something that isn’t cookies. By that I mean something that demonstrates a little more effort put forth. Or is a little showier, perhaps, or that I can take to someone’s house and not seem like I stopped at Albertson’s. Hello, gingerbread. Humble, classic, dresses up beautifully. I’ve made this gingerbread for just eatin’, and I’ve frosted it for a birthday cake. My favorite version, my company version, is sprinkled lightly with powdered sugar using a stencil I got years ago in a Martha Stewart Living Magazine ad mailer. That was one great free-gift-inside.

Glad I didn't throw away the subscription solicitation

This gingerbread and I have been through all kinds of war stories. Like the time the oven was accidentally shut off for a full half hour in the middle of baking, turned back on, with a result that was as moist and delicious as ever. The birthday party after an emergency hand injury. This cake is the friend you call in a crisis, the back-up squad car, the smart bomb. Add it to your arsenal and I promise you’ll be ready for any battle.

Gingerbread

My recipe comes from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 13th edition, edited by Marion Cunningham. I’ve really not changed it much at all, except that I cook mine in a round pan rather than a square one. No need to mess with a good thing. If your ginger has been hanging around in the cupboard for more than a year, indulge in a new jar. The fresher the ground ginger, the more intense the ginger flavor will be.

1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup boiling water
2 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
Powdered sugar
Whipping cream
Dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and lightly flour a 9-inch round (or 8-inch square) cake pan.

Do this carefully and the cake will come out perfectly every time

Cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat together until light.

I don't even get out my big Kitchenaid for this quick cake

Add the eggs and beat well. Add the molasses, then the boiling water and blend.

Molasses, the syrupy byproduct of refining sugar and once the primary sweetener in America, adds the earthy, deep notes to gingerbread

Use the molasses measuring cup for the hot water to capture any molasses that clings to the cup

Add the flour, soda, salt, and ginger to the batter and blend until combined.

I don't even bother to combine them first in a separate bowl

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

The dark color comes from the molasses

Bake at 350°F for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

The skewer will come out moist but not batter-coated

Invert onto a cake rack.

You may want to run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the gingerbread before inverting it onto the rack

Cool another few minutes before sprinkling with sugar. Begin with a light coating of powdered sugar, sprinkled through a fine-mesh sieve.

Just a very light first coating

Place a stencil over the cake and sprinkle heavily through the cuts.

Cut a stencil out of parchment paper or thin cardboard, or simply sprinkle the cake with sugar

Add a little more sugar if you want

Serve warm with lightly sweetened and softly whipped heavy cream, and grate a little dark chocolate on top.

I’d go up against almost any dessert with this baby in my holster.

Kelly McCune © 2010

©2010 Kitchenelly. All Rights Reserved.