Cherry-Apple Pie

Over the recent holiday weekend, I decided it was time to bake a pie again.    I decided to stick with the tried-and-true Cook's Illustrated vodka pie crust recipe, but to experiment some with the filling.   The local stores have been having good cherries for awhile now, so I decided to do a cherry pie, but I wanted it to be different from the last cherry pie I made.  I decided to grate a couple apples in a box grater to make a Cherry-Apple Pie.  I also decided it was time to try my hand at topping a pie with a lattice crust.

Things went together great.  The pie looked great, and more importantly, it tasted great.   I was a bit worried about how the filling would turn out, because I didn't realize until the pie was half-baked that I'd forgotten to add a thickener, but I needn't have worried too much.   The filling was just a tiny bit juicy, but not to a degree that was really problematic.  Still, I corrected that oversight in the recipe below.  

There's really not a lot else to say about this one.  It turned out well, and I've had enough pie successes now that I think I'm ready to try my hand at a more traditional pie crust next time, instead of sticking with the tried-and-true Cook's Illustrated standard.

Cherry-Apple PieCook's Illustrated's Famous Foolproof Pie Dough
2 1/2      cups unbleached all-purpose flour + more for work
                 surface
2            tablespoons granulated sugar
1            teaspoon table salt
12          tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into thin slices
1/2         cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 8 small pieces
1/4         cup cold water
1/4         cup vodka, chilled

Filling
4            cups fresh, pitted sweet cherries
2            sweet apples (I used Pink Lady), peeled and grated
                on the large holes of a box grater
1/2         cup granulated sugar + more to sprinkle
1            tablespoon instant tapioca, ground
1            tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/2         teaspoon ground cinnamon + more to sprinkle
1/8         teaspoon freshly-grated nutmeg
1/8         teaspoon table salt

Assembly
1            large egg yolk
2            tablespoons half-and-half


Making the Dough:
Process 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar and salt in food processor until combined, then add butter and shortening.   Process until dough just starts to collect in clumps, about 15 seconds (the dough will resemble cottage cheese curds).  Scrape down bowl with a rubber spatula and distribute it evenly around the processor blade.  Add remaining cup flour and pulse until the mixture is evenly distributed around the bowl and the dough mass has broken up.   Empty mixture into medium bowl.

Sprinkle vodka and water over dough.  Use rubber spatula to fold and press the dough until the liquid is absorbed and the dough is tacky and sticks together.  Divide dough into two balls and flatten each into a disk.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. 

Prepare for Baking:
Lightly spray a pie plate with nonstick cooking spray.

Remove one disk of dough from refrigerator.  Unwrap and place the dough on a generously-floured sheet of waxed paper.  Roll the dough out to a 12-inch circle.  Lift waxed paper and flip the dough circle into the pie plate, leaving at least 1 inch of overhang on the sides.  Ease the dough into the plate gently with fingers.  Refrigerate until the dough is firm, about 40 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to lowest position.  Place a baking sheet on the oven rack and heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Making the Filling:
Add the pitted cherries, grated apple, 1/2 cup sugar, tapioca, lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg and salt to a medium bowl.  Gently stir to combine. 

Assembling the Pie:
Roll out the second disk of dough from the refrigerator and roll out, using same method as with the first disk.  Slice the dough into inch-wide strips. 

Transfer cherry mixture into the dough-lined pie plate.   Over pie filling, lay one half of the dough strips parallel to each other, leaving a gap between them.  Weave remaining dough strips to cross the first batch of strips.  Trim ends even with bottom crust, then fold the bottom crust over the lattice strips and crimp the crusts together.  

Whisk together egg yolk and half-and-half.    Brush the egg mixture on the crust lattice and the edges of the crust.  Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and sugar.

Baking the Pie:
Place the pie on the preheated baking sheet and bake 30 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue to bake until the crust is a deep golden brown and the filling bubbles around the edges of the lattice, about 30 minutes.

Transfer pie to a wire cooling rack.  Let the pie cool to room temperature, about 3 hours.  Cut into wedges and serve.

Spaghetti al Vino Blanco

Back when I joined the Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country websites, I signed up to do recipe testing, as part of the "Friends of CI" program.   A few days ago, we finally recieved an invitation to take part in the program, and to taste-test a recipe that may show up in a future issue of Cook's Illustrated.   The recipe was for Spaghetti al Vino Blanco.

As you might guess from the title, the dish is, essentially, spaghetti cooked in white wine.  The dish also includes Swiss chard and a fairly large amount of Parmesan cheese, plus some pine nuts and seasonings.  CI's stated goal for this recipe is "A simple yet unusual pasta dish that is flavorful and easy to prepare."  

This recipe achieves that goal, and then some.

I can't include the recipe here, since it isn't mine to share, but I can talk about the ingredients and the preparation, show you some pictures and share our thoughts about the recipe.

The first thing you do in preparing this recipe is to saute some chopped Swiss chard in olive oil.  After transferring the cooked chard to a plate, you cook some garlic and red pepper flakes in more oil, then add 1 1/2 cups of white wine and cook to reduce the wine to a half-cup.  

Meanwhile, you boil some water and start to cook a pound of spaghetti, but before it is done you transfer it into the skillet with the wine reduction, add more wine a bit at a time and cook, tossing the pasta more or less constantly, until the spaghetti is done. 

You then return the chard to the skillet, stir in some Parmesan and a bit of butter, then top with toasted pine nuts and more Parmesan before serving. 

The recipe instructions were clear and concise, and the dish was quite easy to make.   As to unusual... well, I don't know about you, but I've never made a Pasta dish that required an entire bottle of wine as an essential ingredient!

I used a sauvignon blanc for this dish, and as usual I used real Parmigiano-Reggiano instead of domestic Parmesan or the stuff from the green can.  These, along with the pine nuts, imparted the dish with a rich flavor, one unlike any other pasta dish I've ever had.

We had never cooked anything with Swiss chard before making this recipe, and we found out right away that Juli doesn't like Swiss Chard very much.   She loved the other aspects of the dish, and after picking out the chard and tossing the pasta with some fresh-chopped tomatoes, she had a very satisfying dinner.  I liked the chard just fine, and quite enjoyed the dish.

Not being vegetarians, we both found the Spaghetti al Vino Blanco to be a bit lacking as a meal in and of itself.  Despite lots of flavor and the presence of good portions of cheese and some pine nuts, we would have found it a lot more satisfying had it been served along with a pork or lamb chop, chicken, or perhaps shrimp or fish.   That says more about our eating habits than it does the recipe, though.  On its own terms, the recipe is quite good.

I'm not sure how much revision (if any) this recipe will go through before it's published in CI, but I think it's pretty good as is.   I might make Spaghetti al Vino Blanco again as written, but more likely I'll use some aspects of the cooking technique (such as finishing cooking the pasta in wine) along with some other ingredients.  Meanwhile, I'll look forward to hopefully testing out some more future CI recipes.

Raspberry-Apple Turnovers

As we've noted in other posts, we're getting lots and lots of raspberries right now.  We've used lots of them to make cookies, and I've been putting some on cereal every morning, but that isn't keeping up with them now that we're picking more than a pint of berries a day.   I was looking through some of my old cooking magazines for some ideas what to do with them when I found a good option:  Turnovers.

The August/September 2010 issue of Fine Cooking featured a recipe for Blackberry-Apple Turnovers.  That looked pretty good, so I decided I'd make a few changes to that recipe - using raspberries in place of blackberries, of course, but also changing the seasonings a bit - to make my own Raspberry-Apple Turnovers.

It turned out to be a bit more of a hassle than I'd hoped would be the case.   Partly that was inherent in the recipe, but I didn't do myself any favors with one of my own choices, either.

The dough is made by processing flour, sugar and salt with cold butter, cream cheese and cream.   I know why they specify that the butter and cream cheese be cold - processing the dough that way results in little bits of the cream cheese and butter being spread through the dough, which makes for a nice, flaky pastry as the butter and cream cheese melt while the dough bakes in the oven - but it's also a chore for the food processor.  Partway through the first step - processing the butter and cream cheese into the ingredients other than the cream - my food processor jammed up.  The blade literally would not move. 

I rearranged the ingredients, tried again, and the same thing happened.  I ended up having to process the dough ingredient in two batches, but even that way, by the time it was done, my food processor had overheated and shut down.  I was worried I might have burnt out the motor, but it thankfully worked again after I let it cool down for an hour or so.   Even so, I consider that something of a problem.   I've had some problems processing larger batches of dough in the past - especially pizza dough - and I've been considering purchasing a larger-capacity food processor for the big-batch stuff, but I didn't want to kill off the one I have in the process. 

The other major problem I had was my own fault, as I changed the order of a couple of steps.  The Fine Cooking recipe specified getting the dough ready to fill before making the filling, but I reversed the steps.  Doing it that way, then taking the time necessary to roll out and cut the chilled dough, resulted in the fruit in the filling having released a lot of its juices (not surprising, since the filling included a bit of salt, which tends to draw out moisture).  That resulted in the filling being pretty soupy, and in it being a bit of a soggy mess to assemble the turnovers. 

After all the effort, and the problems noted above, the results were still pretty darn good.  The crust was nice and flaky, while the filling was tart and sweet and just plain delicious.   Some of the filling leaked out the sides of the turnovers, but that was the case even in the picture that accompanied the recipe in the magazine, and it didn't detract at all from the flavor.   I'm not sure they were good enough to risk killing off my food processor, but by the next time I make this recipe, I'll have a larger-capacity food processor for the big jobs... and I'll remember to make the filling right before it's needed, which will reduce the hassle and mess by quite a bit.   But with those cautions in mind, I'm pretty sure I'll be making these again.  I recommend this recipe, and with some minor adjustments, I think it would serve well with a variety of different sorts of berries, including strawberries and blueberries.

Raspberry-Apple Turnovers

yield = 12 turnovers

Dough:
2 1/2            cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2                  tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2               teaspoon kosher salt
6                  ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
6                  ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 12 pieces
1/2               cup heavy cream

Filling:
1 1/4            cups fresh raspberries
1                  large, sweet apple (I used Pink Lady), peeled,
                      cored and diced fine
1/2               cup light brown sugar
2                  tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2               teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4               teaspoon kosher salt
1/8               teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Assembly
1                  large egg yolk
                    turbinado or coarse white sugar

Make the Dough:
Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor.  Add the pieces of butter and cream cheese and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8-10 pulses.  Add the cream and pulse, pausing to scrape the bowl once or twice, until the dough starts to come together.  Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface, push it together and pat it into a rectangle.  Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
     NOTE:  If you have a smaller-capacity food processor, you may need to make the dough in batches, each using 1/2 of the ingredients.  

Preparing to Bake:
Position oven racks at top- and bottom-third positions. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

Assembling the Turnovers:
Roll out the dough on a lightly-floured surface to make a 13x18-inch rectangle.  Make sure to loosen and turn the dough several times to prevent sticking.  Trim the edges to form a 12x16-inch rectangle and slice the dough into twelve 4x4-inch squares.  Arrange six squares on each baking sheet.

In a medium bowl, lightly toss the raspberries, apple, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg until combined.

Beat the egg white with 1 teaspoon water.  Brush the outer edges of each dough square with the egg wash.  Spoon a scant two tablespoons of the fruit mixture into the center of each square.  Fold the dough over to make a triangular shape and press to seal the edges.  Brush the top of each turnover with egg wash and sprinkle with a bit of turbinado or coarse white sugar.  Use the tip of a paring knife to cut a small slit on top of each turnover.

Baking and Serving: 
Put the baking sheets in the oven, one on the lower and one on the upper oven rack.  Bake 15 minutes, then turn and switch the positions of the baking sheets and bake another 12 minutes.  The turnovers should be nicely browned and the filling bubbling.

Transfer the baking sheets to cooling racks.  Allow to cool 5 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer the turnovers to the cooling rack.  Allow to cool completely, then serve.

Big John's BBQ in Knoxville

We tried out a new BBQ place this weekend, and we're sure glad we did.

We've been having some home improvements done - repairs to our front porch, plus new front and back stairs - and we found out about Big John's BBQ from the fellow who was doing the work for us. 

Big John's opened around 3 months ago, but somehow we'd failed to notice it up until now.  It serves up New Orleans- and southern-style favorites such as ribs, pulled pork, crawdads, dirty rice and baked beans.  It is open only on the weekends - 11 am to 9 pm Friday and Saturday - but offers catering all through the week.

Big John's is pretty no-frills as restaurants go.  There's not much in the way of decor, and the tables are a bit crowded.  That said, it's clean, and the air conditioning worked well, which was a big plus on a very warm summer evening.

Big John's serves up a rotating selection of main dishes and sides, so the menu differs from night to night.  When we visited, you could choose from  pork spare ribs, pulled pork sandwiches and a crawdad boil as the main feature, and dirty rice, baked beans, fries and a tossed salad as the side choices.  The only dessert offering this time around was strawberry shortcake.

Juli got a half-order of pulled pork (one sandwich), while I got the ribs.   Several other customers ordered the crawdad boil.  In each case, the portions were more than generous.   The pulled pork was piled high on the sandwiches, my plate was stacked high with ribs, and the crawdad boil was served up as a big pile of large, bright red crawdads, plus two half-ears of corn and some boiled potatoes.  Even the sides were ample.  Juli got a tossed salad, and for the cost of a side, she got a plate of salad that most restaurants would price as a meal.  The prices are more than reasonable, and when one factors in the portions, Big John's prices are a bargain. 

Everything we had was excellent.  The ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender, and served up with really good BBQ sauce, not too sweet and with a bit of heat.   The pulled pork was also excellent, as were the baked beans.   People who ordered the crawdad boil seemed very pleased, but as far as we're concerned, the dirty rice stole the show.  Full of spicy ground sausage and bits of hot peppers, the dirty rice was as good as any I've ever had, and better than the vast majority.

The service was also excellent.  Our iced tea was refilled frequently, and the waitresses were attentive and friendly without being intrusive. 

We're sort of sorry we didn't hear about Big John's BBQ earlier.  If we had, we could have been eating here for awhile now.   Now that we do know about it, we will definitely be eating at Big John's again, and should you happen to be in Knoxville, we'd recommend you give it a try.

Big John's BBQ is located at 625 West Pleasant Street in Knoxville, Iowa.  The phone number is (641) 318-1202.

Berries and Grapes and Broccoli, O MY! (A Garden Update)

 It seems like every morning, we pick a bigger bowl of raspberries!  I know they won't be producing forever, but it's wonderful while it lasts! 



This morning's haul

Here's what the bushes are looking like:

 And more!

The grapes are starting to get bigger!  For awhile there I thought we were going to have teeny-weeny gooseberry-sized grapes.  I think these are a Concord grape, but I can't remember what we planted.  I guess if they turn purple, I'll know- the only choices at the nursery last year were a green grape and a Concord grape.  I remember smelling Concord grapes from when I was just a kid.  They grew in one of the alleys I took on my way home from school, and when the purple grapes were ripe, their scent was intoxicatingly intense.   I want to make grape jelly and/or jam.

Another view, note the old metal fence our backdoor neighbor is graciously allowing us to use:

Here's the broccoli.  I was beginning to think we'd have to eat the leaves and stems if we wanted any broccoli at all, but you can see that a little head has *finally* started to grow in the center of the enormously abundant leaves.

Jeffrey's breakfast this morning:  I think there's more fruit than cereal here!  But doesn't it look great?

The Best Wurst

My friend Lisa is my kind of cook, easy-going and not too particular about quantities or even specific ingredients.  Witness her original recipe here, which calls for "chunks" of most of the ingredients, and a vague "white" cheese for her wonderful Wurst Salade.  I probably haven't ever made this recipe the same way twice, and it STILL tastes great every time!

Lisa's hand-written recipe.

Don't worry about trying to read the recipe card above, I'll type the recipe out again.  You'll be starting with a sausage ring.  I like beef sausage, but you can use any kind you like.  I'd never tried ring sausage before Lisa and I made this salad together one hot summer day in Iowa City.  It just wasn't on my Mom's list of things she liked to cook.  I thought it looked suspiciously fatty, but one bite made me change my mind.  This is good stuff!

You'll also need a pound of "white cheeze, chunked" (Lisa is often a gleefully ironic speller), which can be anything from farmer cheese to provolone to mozzarella.  I used farmer cheese, but if you can't find any, select the white cheese of your choice- probably any kind except Swiss would be fine.

 

You'll also need 6 tomatoes, so this is a great summer dish to use your homegrown tomatoes.  Our CSA, Foxfire Acres, has a high tunnel for tomatoes, so we've been getting homegrowns practically since the first week of June.  Although the recipe calls for rings of raw onion, I left them out this time.  I don't usually eat them in the finished dish, but they do add a nice flavor.

I decided to use fresh herbs, and cut two large sprigs of basil and oregano.  We didn't grow fresh marjoram, and were out of the dried, so I had to skip that part.  I think I could have doubled the fresh herbs, and the recipe is so fool-proof it was good even without the marjoram.  You'll want to cut the herbs into little shreds if you're using fresh.  Pick the nicest smaller leaves and cut into shreds with either scissors or use a sharp knife and rock it across the leaves you've set on your cutting board. 

 



Ready to serve!



Here is how I adapted Lisa's recipe:

Lisa's Wurst Salade

1 ring beef sausage

1 pound farmer cheese, cubed

6 tomatoes, cut into bite-size chunks

1 onion, cut into rings- optional

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon dried basil OR 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

1 tablespoon dried oregano OR 2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped

1 tablespoon dried marjoram OR 2 tablespoons fresh marjoram, chopped

1.  Fry up the sausage in a non-stick frypan.  Cool and cut into bite-size chunks;  place in a large serving bowl.

2.  Add cheese, tomatoes and (optionally) onions. 

3.  Mix vinegar and oil together. Whisk in herbs.  Pour vinegar/oil dressing over salad ingredients.

Note:  Jeffrey thought that there was too much dressing for the amount of salad, but the amount specified marinates the salad ingredients and keeps the dish from being too dry.  This salad tastes even better after soaking in the dressing overnight (if you can wait that long!).  Fast and easy to prepare, this is a winner for potlucks and summer picnics.