June 9 Bouquet--First Harvest of Garlic

Can you believe how pink this is?

Bread Salad with Cherries, Arugula, and Goat Cheese

This is one of those recipes that must be served only in its season and since the cherry season is so short, I relish the salad all the more. There is something about knowing I won't be able to eat it again until next summer that makes it taste even better. If you aren't a die-hard fan of arugula, supplement it with some lettuce, although the contrast of the sweet and bitter is remarkable.

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Bread Salad with Cherries, Arugula, and Goat Cheese

Adapted from A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg
serves 4 as a side or 2 as a light meal

The amounts of the ingredients are flexible. 

6 ounces rustic bread, preferably day-old
Olive oil
1/2 pound cherries, halved and pitted
1/8 teas pressed or crushed garlic
Balsamic vinegar
Salt
Arugula
Fresh goat cheese
Black pepper

Remove the crusts from the bread and tear the bread into bite-size pieces. You should have about 4 cups. Drizzle the bread with olive oil and toss. Toast the bread either in the oven at 400F for 8-10 minutes or in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Chop about 1/3 of the cherries and smash them a bit with a fork and set aside.

When the bread is toasted turn it into a large bowl and while hot add the garlic and toss well. Allow it to cool a few minutes then add the cherries, the chopped and the halved. Toss. Add 2 teas balsamic vinegar and toss again. Add 1 T olive oil and toss once more. Taste and add more vinegar or oil if needed and add salt and pepper to taste. Add about 2 handfuls of arugula and toss one last time. Place salad on plates and top generously with crumbed goat cheese.

Note from Colette:

You can prepare the toast a few hours ahead up to the point of adding the garlic. Add the vinegar and oil and cherries just before serving.

Fast Curried Turkey with Rice

I discovered this recipe in the newspaper sometime late in my family cooking years. I believe it was in The Washington Post, although it doesn't turn up when I search their recipe archive. I suppose it doesn't matter. More importantly, it became one of our staples during those years of hurried meal prep. It uses an Indian spice mix but I bet the recipe isn't in any way authentic. Nonetheless, it is tasty and everyone in the family enthusiastically ate it.

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Fast Curried Turkey with Rice

2 T butter
2 teas garam masala (Indian spice mix found in some grocery stores or Indian or Middle Eastern markets)
2 c diced onion
1 pound turkey breast tenderloins, diced 1/2-1 inch (you can substitute chicken breast)
1 apple, peeled and diced
1/2 c golden raisins
1 1/2 c basmati rice
3 c chicken broth (I use a mix of 1 can broth plus water to equal 3 c)
1 c frozen peas

Melt butter, heat garam masala for 1-2 minutes. Add onion and saute until soft and golden. Add turkey, apple, and raisins. Cook for 5 minutes. Add rice and stir. Add chicken stock, bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer about 20 minutes until moisture is absorbed. Add peas, stir and take to table. Peas will be heated by the time you serve.

Almost No-Knead Bread

Or beer bread, as we often refer to it. It's a crusty, chewy bread that I thought was only available from bakeries. See the wikipedia entry for a brief history of no-knead bread. The Cook's Illustrated version adds vinegar and beer, which provides a lovely yeasty taste. (CI says that a mild non-alcoholic lager works, too.) I use an enameled cast iron Dutch oven and an All-Clad Dutch oven for baking--something similar is necessary for the bread's texture and crust. I can't bear to make only one loaf. It's gone too fast otherwise! 

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Almost No-Knead Bread

Source: Cook's Illustrated

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface
1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (7 ounces), at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces)
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.

Lay 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.

Adjust oven rack to lowest position. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, ½-inch-deep slit along top of dough. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Once oven has reached 425 degrees, bake bread for 30 minutes.

Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.

Strawberry Shortcakes

My mother always made strawberry shortcake with Hot Milk Cake and served it at my wedding reception. I have a sentimental attachment to that strawberry dessert. I believe it was Tom who told me about this recipe some years ago and I've found I prefer it. Many of us Americans have become accustomed to sponge cakes for our strawberry shortcake but I believe this biscuit style has been around longer. It may not be a quick and easy dessert, at least compared to a sponge cake picked up in the grocery store, but it is relatively quick as home baked desserts go. One of the reasons I like this better is that it is less sweet. Another reason is the contrast in texture provided by the crisp top of the shortcake. It really is pretty wonderful.

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Strawberry Shortcakes

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Magazine
serves 6-8

For the strawberry sauce:

3 pints total fresh strawberries, hulled:  with a potato masher or fork crush 1 pint and quarter the remaining 2 pints 
6 T granulated sugar

For the shortcakes:

2 cups flour, plus more for work surface and biscuit cutter
1/2 teas table salt
1 T baking powder
3 T granulated sugar
2 T granulated sugar for sprinkling
1 stick unsalted butter (8 T), frozen
1 egg, beaten
1/2 c half-and-half
1 egg white, lightly beaten


For the whipped cream (use the real stuff, so much better):

1 c heavy cream, chilled
1 T granulated sugar
1 teas vanilla extract

Mix crushed and quartered berries with sugar in medium bowl; set aside while preparing biscuits (or up to 2 hours).
 Place your oven rack to lower middle position; heat oven to 425 degrees. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, and 3 T sugar in medium bowl. Using large holes of box grater, grate butter into dry ingredients. Toss butter with flour to coat. Use pastry cutter to finish cutting butter into flour. Or quickly rub butter into dry ingredients with fingertips until most of butter pieces are size of split peas.

Mix beaten egg with half-and-half; pour into flour mixture. Toss with fork until large clumps form. Turn mixture onto floured work surface and lightly knead until it comes together.

Pat dough into 9- by 6-inch rectangle, 3/4 inch thick. Flour 2 3/4-inch biscuit cutter; cut 6 dough rounds. Place 1 inch apart on small baking sheet; brush dough tops with egg white and sprinkle with remaining sugar. (The dough can be covered and refrigerated up to 2 hours before baking.) Bake until golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes. Place baking sheet on wire rack; cool cakes until warm, about 10 minutes. Or you can eat them several hours later.

Chill nonreactive, deep, 1- to 1 1/2-quart bowl and beaters for a handheld mixer in freezer for at least 20 minutes. Add cream, sugar, and vanilla to chilled bowl; beat on low speed until small bubbles form, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium; continue beating until beaters leave a trail, about 30 seconds more. Increase speed to high; continue beating until cream is smooth, thick, and nearly doubled in volume, about 20 seconds for soft peaks or about 30 seconds for stiff peaks. If necessary, finish beating by hand to adjust consistency. (CI states that cream can be transferred to fine sieve or strainer set over measuring cup and refrigerated up to 8 hours. However, I've never tried this.)

Split each cake crosswise. Spoon a portion of berries and then a dollop of whipped cream over each cake bottom. Cap with shortcake top; serve immediately.

Note from Colette:

If you can't use 8 shortcakes, they freeze well in an airtight container. I recommend storing in the freezer even for a day or so. The sugar will melt and you'll lose the crisp top if you leave on the counter.  Prepare fewer strawberries and less cream if you are serving fewer shortcakes. I rarely measure either berries or cream these days and just use what I come up with. This recipe works well with many fruits, although I have another for a peach shortcake with ginger which I'll publish in time for peach season.

Tom's Dutch Baby

This is a doubled recipe. The single recipe is thinner and has more ridges and valleys as it bakes.

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Tom's Dutch Baby

Preheat oven and cast iron skillet to 450F.

Whisk together:

3 eggs
2/3 c milk
Pinch salt
1 t vanilla (or any other flavored liquor or extract)

Whisk in 2/3 C flour.

Add 1/2 stick butter to hot skillet to melt.

Then you dump it in the skillet and cook for 15 minutes until puffy and browned on top.

Top with cajeta, fruit, nuts, etc. and serve.

Note from Colette:

I think the best size skillet for this is a 10 inch. If you want to double this, use a 12 to 14 inch skillet.

Aunt Marnae's Chicken Salad

This recipe comes from my Aunt Marnae, my dad's sister. Every spring as the weather warms up I start craving this salad. The kids enjoy the DIY aspect of the meal. And I always enjoy the leftover dressing on other salads for another week or so after I make it.

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Aunt Marnae's Chicken Salad

For the chicken, grill or saute approximately 1/2 chicken breast per person. If sauteing, consider cooking with minced garlic and ginger. Cut into bite sized pieces.

For the dressing, mix together until smooth:

1 1/2 T white wine vinegar
2 T pineapple juice
1 T lemon juice
1 1/4 teas soy sauce
1 T brown sugar
1/2 T curry powder
1/3 teas onion powder
1 garlic clove, minced
1 c mayonnaise

For the salad, pass the following for layered individual salads:

Lettuce
Chicken
Celery, chopped
Cilantro, chopped
Snow peas
Water chestnuts
Sliced almonds
Chow mein noodles
Golden raisins
Cucumbers, chopped