The ingredients that made me look twice at this recipe were the butternut squash, the leek, white wine, and the Gruyere. Surely those four ingredients could produce something tasty.
The squash gets baked
the leek gets steamed
and the wine becomes the beginning of a creamy sauce
You are given the option of using evaporated skim milk (which is what I used) or whole milk. I wasn't impressed with the evaporated milk. I suggest you use whole or 2% milk.
Instead of the bread crumb/cheese mixture typical for a gratin, this recipe called for toasted slices of a baguette.
All of the ingredients waiting to be layered. I could tell there was no way these ingredients were going to fit in the shallow traditional au gratin dish so I used an 8 cup casserole.
Start with half of the squash
Half the sauce
Half the toasted baguette slices
then the Gruyere
Repeat the layers, top with the Parmesan and bake.
Winter Squash and Gruyere Gratin
Adapted from Food and Wine October 1988
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
2 medium butternut squash (1-1/2 pounds each)
3/4 tsp salt, divided
3/4 tsp freshly ground pepper, divided
1 medium leek
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp water
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
1 cup whole or 2% milk
1/2 tsp sugar
8 - 10 thin slices of a baguette
4 ounces Gruyere cheese
2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
8 basil leaves, shredded (optional)
Mise en place
- Slice squash in half lengthwise; remove seeds
- clean leek and chop the white part only
- measure olive oil into a medium saucepan
- slice baguette and toast in oven until brown on both sides
- measure seasonings, wine, chicken stock, milk, and sugar
- grate cheeses
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 400°F. Place halves, cut side up, in a baking dish. Season with 1/2 tsp each of the salt and pepper and cover tightly with foil. Bake until the squash are tender but not mushy, about 1 hour. Set aside to cool slightly. With a large spoon, scoop meat of the squash in pieces into a bowl and set aside.
While squash are baking, combine the leek, olive oil and 2 tsp water in a medium saucepan. Cover and cook over moderately low heat until the leek is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir in the wine. Increase the heat to high and boil until the liquid is reduced to approximately 3 Tbsp, about 3 minutes. Stir in the stock, milk, sugar and remaining 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.
To assemble the gratin, preheat the oven to 400°F. Re-heat the leek mixture until hot but not so hot that the mixture separates. Spoon half of the squash into a 6 to 8 cup ovenproof casserole. Ladle half of the leek mixture over the top and cover with half of the toasted baguettes and half of the Gruyere. Repeat the layers with the remaining squash, leek mixture, baguettes and Gruyere. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top.
Bake the gratin for 30 minutes, or until the top is browned and bubbly. Garnish with the basil and serve (optional)
An aromatic spice blend used in many Indian dishes, it's said that there are as many recipes for Garam Masala as there are dishes that it goes in.
It's pot luck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs and I'm taking an easy path by preparing a small batch of this popular spice blend.
This simple recipe is by Madhur Jaffrey. Her recipe makes about 3 Tablespoons, which is a nice small amount to keep on hand. Its name translates literally as "warm spice mix."
I didn't have cardamom seeds on hand so I had to crack the pods I had in the spice drawer. If you can't buy the seeds then buy cardamom pods and shell them yourself. A bit tedious but by fingers smelled great afterwards.
I keep a small coffee grinder dedicated for spices alone.
Garam Masala
A recipe by Madhur Jaffrey
Yields approximately 3 Tbsp.
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp cardamom seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp black cumin seeds (you can use regular cumin seeds if black aren't available)
1 tsp whole cloves
1/3 of a whole nutmeg (you can break a whole nutmeg by placing it on a cloth and bashing it with a meat mallet or rolling pin)
a medium sick of cinnamon, about 2 - 3 inches, broken up into 3/4 pieces.
Method:
Put all the ingredients in a clean coffee grinder or other spice grinder and grind as finely as possible.
Store in a tightly lidded jar, away from heat and sunlight and use as needed.
I'm sharing this recipe at IHCC
Happy New Year !!!!! I wish for all of you a prosperous and blessed year to come!
New Year's day in our household always means black-eyed peas and ham to bring luck through the upcoming year. Here is my basic, go-to recipe.
I start with dried black-eyed peas, cover with water and soak them overnight.
In a large Dutch oven fry two to three slices of thick bacon that have been diced. I find that bacon is much easier to chop or dice if it has been placed in the freezer for awhile. Fry until crisp and remove the bacon from the pot and drain on paper towels. You can add the bacon back to the pot later but I usually snack on them and eat them all.
Sauté chopped onion and garlic for a couple of minutes.
Add water, black-eyed peas (that have been drained and rinsed), the bay leaf and ham hock.
Bring to a boil then turn down heat to a simmer. After about 20 minutes add the cubed ham. Continue simmering until beans are tender. Remove ham hock, allow to cool, remove meat from bone and add back to beans.
Black-eyed Peas and Ham
Yields 6-8 Servings
Ingredients:
1 package (one pound) dried black-eyed peas
2-3 slices thick smoked bacon
1 yellow onion
1 clove garlic
8 cups water divided
smoked ham hock
1 bay leaf
1/2" thick slice of ham (approx. 3/4 lb)
2 cubes Knorr beef bouillon
Mise en place:
- place beans in a large mixing bowl and cover with water and soak 4 hours or overnight
- chop bacon
- chop onion
- mince garlic
- cube ham
Method:
In a large Dutch oven fry bacon pieces until crisp. Remove bacon bits to drain on paper towel. Remove all but 2 Tbsp. of the bacon fat. Sauté onion and garlic in bacon fat for several minutes. Add 1 cup water and bring to brisk boil. Boil for a minute or two and scrape up fond from the bacon. Add rest of the water.
Drain and rinse black-eyed peas and add to pot. Add ham hock and bay leaf. Bring to boil, scraping off any foam that may appear. Lower heat and simmer. After 20 minutes add cubed ham and bouillon cubes. Continue simmering until beans are tender but not mushy; about 20 minutes more.
Remove bay leaf and ham hock. Remove meat from hock and return to pot. Serve with corn bread.
I love going to estate sales. I head straight for the kitchen to see what treasures I can find.
At a recent sale I was so excited when these were discovered on a table in a little room off the kitchen.
These are small cast iron molds of Christmas shapes. I adore cast iron. I don't know why; maybe the heaviness of it, the feel of it, I don't know....I just love it.
This one has a snowflake, a stocking, a star and a gingerbread man
This mold has a drummer boy, a trumpet (my favorite), a gingerbread house, and a dancing bear.
When I was in high school mom taught me how to make suckers by boiling sugar and water to the hard candy stage. We simply laid a lollipop stick on a buttered cookie sheet and poured a little round circle of the sugar mixture over the stick. So, these brought back Christmas memories; only these are fancier and 3 dimensional.
The molds came with a flyer telling the History of these candies. It states that in Christmases past children would set out a dinner plate before going to bed. When they woke up the next morning they would find the plates filled with fruit, nuts and molded hard candy they called "clear toys".
The John Wright Company has reproduced the antique molds, modernizing them with a non-stick surface. Information on the box of the set I found indicates this set was made exclusively for Williams-Sonoma around the mid-nineties.
The molds are held together with a short, heavy-duty rubber band.
Being a little skeptical about leaks, I set them on an old jelly roll pan.
Over medium heat you will heat the sugar, cream of tarter, water mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Then you'll let it boil until it reaches the hard crack stage at 300°F.
After bringing the candy mixture to right temperature you carefully pour the liquid into each mold. Insert the lollipop sticks; this kit came with 4-1/2" sticks
Let the candy cool. The instruction leaflet said that cooling would take 4 to 8 minutes.
Hmmm.....don't think so. I found that you need to go by the feel of the mold (temperature) and test every once in a while to gently pry them apart to see if they are going to come apart easily and release the candies from one side of the mold. I used a screw driver tip to slip in between the molds.
I began with the 8 minutes to cool then tried every 5 minutes to check the ease of the molds separating.
Lift out of the molds by gently grabbing the lollipop stick right at the base of the candies and pulling up. This is a snowflake.
I added a couple drops of green food coloring and natural peppermint flavoring right after pulling the pan off the stove, prior to pouring the candy in the molds.
You can still enjoy this clear candy, even if you don't have 3 dimensional molds. Simply butter 2 large baking sheets. Quickly drop liquid from a large spoon onto the baking sheets making the drops round. Press a lollipop stick into the edge of each lollipop before it hardens.
Clear Toy Candy
Yields 8 individual clear toys
Ingredients:
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
Heaping 1/4 tsp. Cream of Tartar
3 ounces water
Optional: 1 tsp. of natural flavoring and/or food coloring
8 (4-1/2") lollipop sticks
Mise en place:
- assemble molds and stand upright on baking sheet with sides
- have lollipop sticks ready to insert
- if using flavoring and/or coloring, have those standing by
- measure sugar, cream of tartar and water into a heavy saucepan
- have a candy thermometer ready to attach to side of saucepan
Method:
Heat the sugar, cream of tartar and water mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is completely dissolved. Cover and let cook 2 - 3 minutes to dissolve the sugar crystals on the sides of the pan. Remove the lid. Cook without stirring until temperature reads 300°F on a candy thermometer. Total cooking time is approximately 25 minutes. Add a few drops of coloring and the flavoring quickly after removing from heat.
Pour the syrup into molds slowly. Fill each mold halfway on first pass and do a second pass, filling to the top. If you fill too quickly the mold will overflow.
Insert lollipop sticks immediately and let cool. After approximately 8 minutes start testing the molds to see if they will separate completely from the other half of the mold. If sticks lean after insertion, straighten as liquid hardens. Denser shapes take a little longer to harden. If you have difficulty in separating the molds, use a knife point or a flat screw driver to gently pry open.
Once molds are cooled and the two halves of mold separate cleanly remove candy from mold by slowly lifting the stick. If you remove the candy before it has cooled, shape may droop. If you wait too long candy may break. Wrap each candy toy in a lollipop wrapper and store in a cool, dry place.
This is another cookie that I tried for the first time this year and it will definitely become a Christmas regular.
Prior to making the dough for the cookies a filling is made with dates, orange juice and orange rind. I'm so thankful that dates can be purchased already chopped. I have a not-so-fond childhood memory of being required, every Christmas season, to sit at the kitchen table and chop up those sticky whole dates
Process with the knife blade. You will want the date mixture very smooth.
The cookie has three layers so the dough will be divided. If you have a kitchen scale, separate the dough and weigh into 3 equal pieces.
Line a 9" x 5" loaf pan with foil allowing the sides to hang over.
Knead half of the pecans into 1 portion of dough. Press into the bottom of the loaf pan taking care that the layer is even and firmly tucked into the corners.
For the middle layer, knead the date orange mixture into a portion of the dough. When well incorporated press onto the top of the bottom pecan layer. Use enough pressure to try to keep any air pockets from forming. The more even and neat you make your layers the nicer your cookies will look.
Knead the reminder of the toasted pecans into the last portion of dough. Press this onto the top of the orange date layer. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours. Mine stayed in over night.
When you are ready to slice your cookies preheat the oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Turn the firm, molded dough out onto a cutting board. Remove and discard the foil. This is what your dough looks like from the side.
Slice the dough lengthwise into 4 sections
My loaf pan sloped a tad on the ends so I trimmed off the end to make it even.
Now you can start your cutting with a straight edge.
Slice each cookie about 1/4" thick and place them 1" apart on the prepared cookie sheet.
Bake for 9 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly on baking sheets, remove to wire racks to cool completely.
I baked one batch until they were quite brown and they crisped up; almost like a thin biscotti. The norm should be a little softer. Lovey liked the over done batch to have with his coffee so all turned out well. However, remember what makes this cookie fine in NOT being over baked. Soft and chewy is what you want.
In addition to the fact that these cookies taste great, here are some other reasons they can be your friend during the holiday:
~ The recipe yields a large quantity, making it a good selection to make for a holiday cookie swap
~ Being a "slice and bake" type of cookie, they're great for keeping a batch of the dough in the refrigerator during the holidays. You'll be able to slice off a few and stick them in the oven when someone stops by for a visit.
Orange Date Nut Cookies
Adapted from Christmas Cookies published by Oxmoor House
Yield 8 dozen
Ingredients:
1 (10 ounce) package chopped dates
grated orange rind from 1 medium orange
1 Tbsp. orange juice
1 cup butter softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup pecan pieces
Mise en place:
- set out butter to soften
- line a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with aluminum foil, allowing foil to extend over edges of pan. Set aside
- cover cookie sheets with parchment paper
- toast the pecans for 8-10 minutes or until browned and aromatic; cool
- grate rind from orange
- juice the orange
- measure out sugar & vanilla
- measure out flour, baking powder and salt
- finely chop pecans and divide in half
Method:
Position knife blade in food processor bowl and add the dates, orange rind and orange juice. Process 45 seconds or until dates are finely chopped.
Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy duty electric stand mixer until blended. Gradually add sugar, beating until blended. Add egg and vanilla, beat well.
In a small mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended.
Divide dough into 3 equal portions. Knead 1/2 of the pecans into 1 portion of dough; press into prepared pan. Knead date mixture into 1 portion of dough; press in pan over pecan dough. Knead remaining pecans into remaining dough; press into pan over date dough. Cover and chill at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Invert loaf pan onto a cutting board, remove and discard aluminum foil. Cut dough lengthwise into 4 sections. Cut each section of dough crosswise into 1/4-inch slices. Place slices 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 9 - 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly on baking sheets,; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
