Plum Cake Tatin

I noticed that my mom had bought some prune plums last week that were ready to be eaten. I’ve seen Ina Garten make this Plum Cake Tatin on her show Barefoot Contessa many times (you know how Food Network likes it’s reruns), so I thought it would be the perfect thing to bring when we our neighbors invited us over for dinner.

The recipe is kind of like a Tarte Tatin, which is an upside-down tart typically made with caramelized apples. The plums gave it an interesting twist, and the tarte was replaced with a lemony cake batter.

The recipe starts by pitting and slicing the plums in half and then arranging them split-side down in a buttered glass pie dish. I couldn’t find the glass pie dish, so I used a cast iron skillet instead:


Next, I made the caramel out of sugar and water and poured evenly over the plums. My last few attempts at making caramel have been kind of a disaster; I usually manage to get it right after the second try, but it clumps together and hardens on the first try. I always Google the issue when it happens and I found out that this is called crystallizing the caramel. Supposedly, you can prevent this from happening by not stirring the mixture while it’s cooking and making sure the pot is totally clean. I used a new pot for the second batch and, again, tried really hard to resist the urge to stir and…sure enough, it worked. I’m still a little baffled, but I guess practice makes perfect?


Finally, I poured the cake batter over the plums and caramel. The batter was really simple and consisted of eggs, sour cream, lemon zest, vanilla, flour, baking powder, and salt.


After putting the cake in the oven in 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, the cake was lightly golden on top:


The final step is to flip it over so that the plums and caramel are on top. I first let it cool for 10 minutes, then put a plate over the skillet, flipped (carefully!), and then transferred to the serving platter. The cake is really moist, so it may have been easier to just flip directly onto the platter. I dusted the top of the cake with some confectioners’ sugar and served with whipped cream. It was a huge hit!

Key Lime Pie

I’m home in Boston this week and you know what that means – lots of cooking! My parents and I are not huge dessert people, but when we do make dessert, we usually make key lime pie (my mom’s favorite) or pecan pie (my dad’s favorite). My mom is from Florida and has always made her mom’s key lime pie recipe. It eventually won me over as my favorite of the two pies, so that’s what we made for dessert the other night when we had a couple of friends over.

We have made a few modifications to my grandmother’s recipe over the years. We omitted the meringue topping it called for and added some lime zest in the filling for a little extra tart flavor. She also always made the pie in a standard pie crust, but we like to either make or buy a graham cracker crust. We made the crust this time and I think it really is much better than store bought, but store bought will work if you’re in a hurry. Finally, my mom couldn’t find the 9 inch pie plate we usually use for this, so we experimented and made it in a 10 ½ inch tart plate. It worked just as well and was a huge hit with our guests!

Graham Cracker Crust
1 ½ c. graham cracker crumbs
½ tsp. cinnamon
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. melted butter

Filling
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ c. key lime juice (I think this can be found at most grocery stores. We found it at Whole Foods)
Zest of 1 lime
3 egg yolks

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon, brown sugar, and melted butter in a food processor. Press into a pie plate and bake in a 375 degree oven for 6-8 minutes until it’s lightly brown. (It’s okay if the crust is a little rustic looking. Mine was!)

Whisk together the sweetened condensed milk, key lime juice, lime zest, and egg yolks. Pour into the pre-baked crust and bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Serve cold or at room temperature with some fresh whipped cream and raspberries.

Dinner with Mom

With my parents living in Boston and me living in Chicago, I don’t get home as often as I would like. I grew up watching my parents’ love of food and cooking, so there’s nothing I like more then spending time with them in the kitchen. When I do get home, we always make at least one nice meal together to celebrate. Last Friday, my mom and I had a relaxing night in with some cocktails, wine, and (of course) delicious food.

Let’s start with the pre-dinner cocktail…

Around the same time last year, my mom and I separately tried an Ice Wine martini for the first time. I had never heard of Ice Wine* before, but was feeling adventurous one night at Cru (which has since closed, sadly, but I’m sure that is in no way related to their martini-making skills). Not only did it sound really cool, it was absolutely delicious. When my mom tried it for the first time, she and her friends asked the bartender how to make it.

*Ice Wine can be expensive because it’s apparently very labor-intensive to produce, but my mom found a reasonably priced bottle made from Riesling grapes at Trader Joe’s.

Ice Wine Martini

Ingredients
One part vodka
One part Ice Wine
Frozen grape for garnish

Directions
Shake the vodka and Ice Wine with ice, strain, and drop in a frozen grape.

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Next, we put together a simple Bresaola Platter with arugula, parmigiano-reggiano, and truffle oil. My aunt always puts out a platter of this on Christmas and it gets devoured everytime. The plating of it is similar to how a beef carpaccio is sometimes served: thin layer of beef topped with shavings of parmigiano-reggiano, drizzled with olive oil, and served with arugula. For this appetizer, the only differences are the use of bresaola (a lean, cured beef) instead of raw beef and truffle oil instead of olive oil. I also tossed the arugula in a little bit of lemon juice and olive oil and served it all with sliced baguette.

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Time for the main course: Seared Scallops with Pappardelle and Saffron Sauce

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have an obsession with saffron. I blame this on eating my dad’s ridiculously-delicious Paella growing up. I’d put saffron in everything if I could, but I try to use it sparingly (you know, with it being the most expensive spice in the world and all). But hey, we already broke out the truffle oil – why not add some saffron?

I came up with this sauce awhile ago to put on some lobster ravioli and I think it pairs really well with shellfish, in general. This time, I made it with seared scallops and pappardelle. There’s an incredible fish market right down the street from my parents’ house called the New Deal that sells THE BEST dry sea scallops. When you buy sea scallops, it’s very important that you get *dry* scallops if you want to sear them. Otherwise, you will probably end up with a scallop that’s “plumped up” with water but will shrink and be rubbery when you cook it. Some markets will actually sell these soaked scallops as dry scallops, so you really have to talk to the fish monger and make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for. Believe me – it’s well worth it. Now I just have to find a fish store like New Deal in Chicago…

One more note on this recipe: I usually throw some chopped chives on top of this kind of dish for some color, but I recently had a similar sauce over ravioli at a restaurant and it was topped with some variety of microgreen. It made the dish look beautiful and the greens cut through the richness of the sauce really nicely. I thought it was a brilliant idea, so I stole it :). I’m not sure how difficult microgreens are to find because I had never actually looked for them before last weekend, but I found a pretty big selection of them at the small Whole Foods on Prospect St. in Cambridge. I went with the micro-arugula because it looked the freshest, but I think most varieties would work well.

Ingredients
1 medium-sized shallot, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, whole
2 tbsp. butter, room temperature
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. brandy
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 ½ c. seafood stock
¾ c. mascarpone cheese
Pinch of saffron
1 lb. dry sea scallops
½ lb. pappardelle
Micro-arugula
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Heat ½ tbsp. each of the butter and the olive oil in saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the whole clove of garlic and sauté for a few minutes, but don’t let it burn. Remove the garlic clove so you’re left with a garlicky butter/oil mixture but with no visible garlic.
2. Turn up the heat to medium to medium-high and sauté the shallot until soft.
3. Add the brandy to the saucepan and let it cook for 30 seconds or so.
4. Add the tomato paste, the seafood stock, the saffron, and some salt and pepper (to taste). Let this mixture cook down for about 15 minutes until reduced a little bit.
5. Add the mascarpone cheese to thicken the sauce and make it creamy. I ended up using about ¾ c., but you can adjust the amount depending on how rich you want the sauce to be.
6. Cook the pappardelle according to package directions until al-dente and toss with the sauce.
7. Pat down the scallops with paper towels until they are as dry as you can get them. Season with a little bit of salt and pepper.
8. Heat a cast iron skillet to medium-high heat and add the remaining ½ tbsp. of olive oil and 1 ½ tbsp. of butter. Add the scallops and sear for about one minute on each side. They should be golden brown on the outside, and cooked to about medium on the inside.
9. To plate, I arranged the scallops around the edges of the pasta and put a small handful of the micro-arugula in the middle.

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My mom and I aren’t huge dessert people, but we do like to have a small taste of something sweet at the end of a nice meal. Since we had some strawberries that needed using, I used them to top some vanilla frozen yogurt and made a sweet balsamic-basil syrup to drizzle on top. I’ve seen strawberry-basil desserts at restaurants a lot lately and I’ve seen people make balsamic dessert syrups on tv before, so I combined the two ideas into a simple but elegant dessert. My mom was skeptical about having vinegar in her dessert, but I talked her into trying it and she was very pleasantly surprised.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Strawberries and Balsamic-Basil Syrup

Ingredients
Vanilla ice cream (or frozen yogurt)
½ c. sugar
1 c. balsamic vinegar
5-10 fresh basil leaves
Sliced strawberries

Directions
1. Combine the vinegar and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. When the sugar has dissolved, add 5-10 basil leaves (depending on how strong you want the syrup to be).
3. Reduce the syrup by about half, strain, and cool.


4. Drizzle the syrup over the strawberries and ice cream. Garnish with a basil leaf.

Enjoy!!