Boeuf Bourguignon or Beef Stew Times Three!

Friends Jen and Kevin spent another lovely Sunday afternoon at Bret's Table. We cooked Boeuf Bourguignon using three different recipes. Jen followed the one from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". Kevin cooked the recipe adapted by the New York Times from the book, "I Know How to Cook". I tackled the one from "Le Cordon Bleu at Home". It was a very non-scientific experiment, to the point where in the middle of cooking, we realized we should have at least used the same cut of meat and wine varietal. Jen used a top round and a Chianti and Kevin and I cubed a chuck roast and both used a burgundy.

Kevin's recipe stated that the entire time was to be on the cook-top, Jen and mine both spent the majority of the time in the oven. Kevin's had the least number of steps, 5 to be exact. Jen's recipe, as well as mine, had about the same number of steps but in slightly different order and definitely more than five. I liked the steps in my recipe the best, mainly due to the fact that I didn't have to pick out the cooked lardons before the sauce was strained.

Generally, we determined that time in the oven is best as it produces fall apart beef, whether top round or chuck roast. One doesn't have to use a Burgundy, Chianti works just fine. Any garnish that you want to include should go into the pot after the sauce is strained, not before. Kevin finished about 1/2 hour before Jen and I, as we were sauteing mushroom and pearl onions. I went on to make toasted croutons in the shape of hearts. I stopped short of dipping said croutons in the sauce, for which the recipe called, then in finely chopped parsley before arranging on the serving platter. The parsley was just sprinkled on top with a crouton alongside.

What we took away from the afternoon was that one could prepare dinner (with enough to freeze for another meal) in about 45 minutes of active time. During the 3 hours we waited for the Boeuf to cook, we shared some snacks, enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and caught up with what was happening in our lives; whether a recent biking trip in Borneo or a visit to Florida to see the parents.

We are already looking forward to our next get together, some Saturday in January. We'll be making croissants.

What's Good with Pecan Pie?

What's better than vanilla bean ice cream with pecan pie? I have to admit it's the Whiskey Butter Sauce that I recently made using PastureLand unsalted butter. This sauce is very much like a cream anglaise and would probably make a great ice cream in and of itself. However, in less that 20 minutes you'll have a decadent sauce to serve along side your pie or bread pudding, come Thanksgiving next week.

Click here to go to the recipe on the PastureLand website.

Basil, Basil, Everywhere!

This past summer an on-line magazine by the name of Spezzatino contacted my good friend David about submitting recipes and photos for their magazine. This magazine, mind you, is not like others as all their profits go to help feed the hungry in North America via a food bank.

David asked if I would be willing to come up with a few recipes and be the food stylist for them. With such a great cause, we both jumped at the chance to donate our time and get our creative juices flowing. We came up with some delicious recipes and beautiful photos highlighting the versatility of basil. They are featured on their blog in Volume 7.

A couple of the recipes you can download for free. I believe the entire Volume is only $5.99 and it supports a great cause. Check out the magazine and the blog or go to www.spezzatino.com.

Fig Flan - A delicious alternative to Figgy Pudding

My dear friend Suvir Saran was back in Minneapolis recently. He graciously offered to teach a class here at Bret's Table. I was thrilled with the prospect and a small group of us enjoyed recipes from both of his books, Indian Home Cooking and American Masala.

For dessert at our class I served his famous fig flan. This dessert came about on a cold snowy day when he and Charlie were home at their farm. Craving something sweet on a cold they they foraged in their pantry and could only come up with some dried figs and fig jam. These two delicious ingredients were the inspiration for this creamy, dense dessert.

I made this dessert two ways, once following his recipe but the second time, mixing the cream cheese and eggs and condensed milk in a stand mixer instead of using a blender for those ingredients.

After whizzing the half and half mixture in the blender, I folded in the cream cheese mixture and proceeded according to the recipe. Using the blender for all the ingredients gives the flan a lighter, fluffier texture. Mixing some of the ingredients and blending the other gives the batter a more dense texture. Either way both are delicious.

from American Masala by Suvir Saran with Raquel Pelzel

4 dried figs (about 3 ounces), finely chopped

4 large eggs

1 ½ cups half-and-half

8 ounces cream cheese

¼ cup dark rum

2 tablespoons fig jam

1 (14-ounces) can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup sugar

¼ cup water

1-inch piece cinnamon stick

1. Set an oven rack to the lowest position and preheat your oven to 350°F.

2. Place figs, half-and-half, and rum in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover the pan, and steep the figs for 10 minutes.

3. Place the condensed milk, eggs, cream cheese, and fig jam in a blender and blend until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the half-and-half, figs and rum and blend until they are completely incorporated.

4. Bring sugar, water and cinnamon stick to a simmer in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan and remove the pan from the heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup is clear. Return the saucepan to the heat and bring the liquid to a boil, swirling the pan every now and then, until the syrup caramelizes to a deep brown, 4-5 more minutes.

5. Immediately pour the caramel into a 2 ½ quart metal charlotte mold or a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Carefully remove the cinnamon stick with a spoon or tongs. Tip the mold or pan to coat the bottom and sides with the caramel. Let it cool for a few minutes and then pour the custard mixture into it.

6. Line an 8-inch square baking pan (or a larger rectangular baking pan, if using a loaf pan) with a doubled kitchen towel. Put the mold in the baking pan on top of the towel and then place the pan into the oven. Use a cup to add hot water to the baking pan, adding enough water to reach the middle of the mold or loaf pan, adding enough water to reach the middle of the mold or loaf pan.

7. Bake the flan until the custard is set but still jiggles when shaken and a skewer stuck into the flan about 1 inch from the pan edges comes out clean, about 1 hour and 25 minutes.

8. Carefully lift the mold out of the pan. Turn off the oven and let the water in the baking disk cool a little before removing it. Refrigerate the flan until it is completely chilled.

9. To serve, set the mold over direct heat until the bottom gets hot, about 1 minute. (This is to melt the bottom layer of caramel so that the flan will slip out of the mold.) Run a knife around the edge of the flan to loosen it from the mold. Place a serving platter over the mold and then invert the mold onto the platter. Lift off the mold. Cut the flan into wedges or slices and serve.

Apple Pies, Apple Butter and Apple Syrup

One does one do with 3 1/2 bushels of Minnesota grown apples, consisting of a combination of Harrelsons, Cortlands and Regents? What you do is invite a group of good friends over to spend the day making pies, apple butter and syrup, throwing in a lot of laughter along the way. We did just that recently at Bret's Table. The apples came Minnesota Harvest, an orchard in Jordan, Minnesota.

Everyone arrived about 11:00am on a recent Saturday morning. After a couple of cups of freshly brewed coffee and some freshly baked biscuits we all got down to work, peeling what seemed like a couple of hundred apples. We used a combination of all three varieties to make the pies and butter. Also, so as not to waste anything, the cores and peels were simmered with some water and cooked down with spices and honey to make Apple Syrup.

Our friend Julie, brought her grandmother's pie dough recipe. It is one that has been replicated via oral tradition as much as anything else. Sure there's an ingredient list, but having Julie demonstrate how she learned to make the dough from her own Mom was a tremendous advantage.

The method goes against everything I've learned about making pie dough. In her recipe the lard is room temperature, not cold. The sugar and salt are dissolved in cold tap water (not ice water) along with a beaten egg and a little apple cider vinegar. I learned after the second batch that my hands were just too warm to mix the ingredients by hand, so I resorted to a pastry cutter to blend the lard with the flour and used a fork to mix the wet ingredients into the dry. Still being a somewhat wet dough, a generous amount of flour is used to roll the dough out to the appropriate pie pan size. My suggestion would be to use your favorite pie dough recipe.

For the filling we used 2 pounds of apples, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves, 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Depending on the size of your pie pan, this was enough to fill two pies.

Apple pies freeze beautifully prior to being cooked. Therefore, if you're going to make one, go ahead and make a second the pop one in the freezer to be baked off later. Better yet, invite a couple of friends over and have a pie making party.