Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

I woke up this morning one year older.  David is on his motorcycle trip.  What’s a girl supposed to do?  Make corn muffins for breakfast.  They make me happy.  This recipe in particular is a good one.  I love the heat of the peppers and the subtle sweetness from the brown sugar.  They are crusty on the outside and complex on the inside.  Sort of like me.

Later today I am leaving for Cary to spend my birthday with my Granddaughter and Rachel’s other Grandmother.  Mimi and Nana get to share babysitting duties while Michael and Kristen are out of town.  I am looking forward to it.

Give these muffins a try.  With the cooler weather they would be perfect with a bowl of chili or soup.

JALAPENO CORN MUFFINS ( Martha Stewart )

8 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup buttermilk (I used regular milk)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon thawed frozen corn kernels or fresh corn

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Brush the cups of the muffin tin (12 cup) with the melted butter and set aside.  Whisk together the buttermilk, eggs and sour cream in medium bowl until combined and set aside.  Whisk together the dry ingredients and the jalapenos and corn in a large bowl.

With a rubber spatula, fold buttermilk mixture into corn meal mixture until well combined.  Fold in the melted butter.  Divide the batter among the muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.  Let cool in tin 5 minutes.

Note:  My batter made 18 muffins and I cooked them for only 15 minutes.

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This recipe may be floating around the blogishere but it is the first time I have become aware of it. I received a gallon of freshly picked North Carolina blueberries from a dear friend recently and was looking for recipes to utilize my bounty. This recipe was on allrecipes.com and it got rave reviews. What makes it so special is the cinnamon streusel topping. The muffins are moist and delicious. I made a double batch because our family will be visiting for the next week. I plan on making blueberry crumble, blueberry pancakes and blueberry salad. Is there such a thing as blueberry salsa? Any suggestions would be appreciated. If you don’t see me here for a while, just know that I am having fun with the kids.

TO DIE FOR BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and beat to incorporate. Add enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full or right to the top., and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

To Make Crumb Topping; Mix together the 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with a fork or your fingers until butter is incorporated and sprinkle over muffins before baking. I had enough topping for 24 muffins.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

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Golden zucchini pancakes are a great addition to any meal. They are easy to prepare and will get finicky children to eat their vegetables. The zucchini in our garden has started producing lately. That is a good thing because the yellow squash has been languishing. I know it will come back, but it’s as if it has said “I’m resting, it’s your turn zucchini”. That is fine by me because I love zucchini.

I tried a new recipe for zucchini pancakes and I will be making them this way again. It came from the Barefoot Contessa so of course it was good. Her recipe differs from mine in that she added baking powder to the batter. This allowed the pancakes to puff slightly and have the consistancy of breakfast pancakes. The ones I normally make are crispier and flatter. They are both good, so you decide which you prefer. They can be served plain or with toppings. You can add butter, a dollop of sour cream, mango salsa or maple syrup if you like.

I added a step to the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe. After grating the zucchini, I put it in a colander with a little salt. This draws out the water in the zucchini. I then rinsed it and squeezed it dry. We will be enjoying these pancakes for both dinner and breakfast.

ZUCCHINI PANCAKES

Makes 10 (3-inch) Pancakes

2 medium zucchini
2 tablespoons grated red onion
2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
6 to 8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
unsalted butter and vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Grate the zucchini into a bowl using the large grating side of a box grater. Immediately stir in the onion and eggs. Stir in 6 tablespoons of the flour, the baking powder, salt, and pepper. (If the batter gets too thin from the liquid in the zucchini, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour.)

Heat a large (10 to 12 inch) saute pan over medium heat and melt 1/2 tablespoon butter and 1/2 tablespoon oil together in the pan. When the butter is hot but not smoking, lower the heat to medium-low and drop heaping soup spoons of batter into the pan. Cook the pancakes about 2 minutes on each side, until browned. Place the pancakes on a sheet pan and keep warm in the oven. Wipe out the pan with a dry paper towel, add more butter and oil to the pan, and contiune to fry the pancakes until all the batter is used. The pancakes can stay warm in the oven for up to 30 minutes. Serve hot.

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There is a story behind this dish and I have been wanting to make Gnafron since the first time I read about it in Peggy Knickerbocker’s book Simple Soirees; Seasonal Menus for Sensational Dinner Parties. Miss Knickerbocker was in Lyon, France with a friend on a wintry day. It was lunch time and they were hungry. At an open air market on a quay on the Rhone they asked advice from a vendor who sent them to Rue des Marronniers. She assured them that all of the restaurants there were good ones. They chose Chabert it Fils just as it was about to close. After hearing the description of Gnafron, “an andouille flan wrapped in delicate cabbage leaves, steamed to wobbly perfection, and drizzled with garlic cream” Miss Knickerbocker was smitten. It lived up to it’s description and she asked for the recipe. Unfortunately the chef had left for the day and she departed with only the taste memory and an obsession with getting the recipe. It would take more than a year. At a dinner party she ran into an old friend whose fiance’ lived just blocks from the restaurant. The fiance’ got the recipe and sent it to her scribbled on a napkin in French. Her version is in her cookbook which I highly recommend. I have posted more of her recipes Here and Here.

Give this flan a try. It is perfect for a brunch or a light supper.

GNAFRON

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 carrot, diced

1/2 pound andouille sausage or other distinctively flavored, spicy sausage, finely chopped

1 medium onion, minced

2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves or 1 teapoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Splash of white wine

1 Napa cabbage, separated, tough parts of the core removed (16 to 20 leaves)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter for greasing the ramekins

4 large eggs

1/4 cup heavy cream

For the Garlic Cream:

3 cloves garlic

Pinch of sugar

Pinch of salt

Splash of white wine

1/2 cup heavy cream

In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter in the olive oil. Add the carrot, sausage, onion, thyme, and bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer slowly for 15 minutes. When the mixture becomes slightly dry, add the wine and stir well.

When the ingredients have become soft and aromatic, another 5 to 10 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, bring 4 cups of salted water to a simmer over high heat. Blanch the cabbage leaves (tender parts only), a few at a time. Remove with tongs and allow them to drain on clean kitchen towels or paper towels.

Grease 6 small ramekins or souffle dishes with butter. Line the dishes with the cabbage leaves, allowing them to overlap so that when the sausage mixture is spooned onto them, they can be folded over to make a little package.

In a medium-sized bowl, beat the eggs with the cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir the sausage mixture into the egg mixture and mix well. Divide the mixture among the lined ramekins and fold the overlapping leaves over the top. Don’t worry if the mixture leaks out around the leaves.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the ramekins in a deep baking pan large enough to hold them all. Pour warm water around them so that it comes 3/4 of the way up the sides. Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 1 hour, or until the Gnafron has set and the top is firm to the touch. If the tops begin to brown or get too dark, place a sheet of foil over the tops. It’s okay if the tops get golden brown.

To Make the Garlic Cream:

While the Gnafron bakes, make the garlic cream. In a small heavy pot, combine the garlic, sugar, salt and a splash of water; cook over medium-low heat for about 2 minutes. Add a splash of white wine, allow it to cook down for 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, add the cream, and warm it for about 3 minutes. Turn the heat off and allow the garlic to steep in the cream until the Gnafron comes out of the oven. Reheat the garlic cream over low heat, the cream will be slightly thin. Remove and discard the garlic.

To serve, run a knife around the sides of the ramekins to loosen the mixture. Turn out onto a platter or individual plates or serve in the ramekins. Serve with a little garlic cream drizzled over or around the Gnafron. Sprinkle with a little reserved andouille if desired.

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I have had a passion for chocolate croissants ever since I saw the movie It’s Complicated. In the blogging community there has been much talk about this movie. The design bloggers are thrilled with the house because it is another beautiful set design by Nancy Meyers and her group of professionals. These are the same people who brought you the beautiful Hamptons house in Something’s Got to Give. I am also a fan of the design aesthetic and find myself looking at the details of interiors of houses in my favorite movies. What is so great about It’s Complicated is that there is so much eye candy that pleases both cooks and designers. Just take a look at Meryl Streep’s kitchen in the movie. She is planning on having her architect, played by Steve Martin, redesign it.

Would you trash this kitchen? I wouldn’t. It is charming and quirky and suits her family well. There is even a dent in the refrigerator door that you can see when you watch the movie. The story behind that is that when the refrigerator was deliverd to the set, they discovered the dent and wanted to send it back, but brilliant minds intervened and said “Why shouldn’t she have a dent in her refrigerator? She raised three kids. Real people have dents.”

But to get to the heart of this post, I have to tell you that my favorite scene in the movie was when Meryl Streep took Steve Martin to her bakery after hours and fixed him chocolate croissants.

Here they are eating Croque Monsieurs. I do not have a picture of the chocolate croissants, but the scene was evocative. It was late at night and they were hungry. They were “really” hungry. She offered him anything on her bakery menu and he chose chocolate croissants. The scene of her cutting and stuffing the croissants with chocolate was nirvana. Their enjoyment was even better. I became obsessed. But I haven’t had time to make croissants from scratch until now.

Life has been “complicated” and with the trip back to Lake Lure there have been other priorities. But yesterday morning I decided that it was time to tackle them. The recipe that I used was in From Julia Child’s Kitchen. It is a lenghthy recipe that goes on for pages and I don’t want to repeat it all here. There is a very similar recipe on the web at All Recipes which will get you the same results. To make them chocolate croissants just add 1/2 ounce of shaved chocolate to each one before rolling up.

Croissants are nothing more than a yeast dough that incorporates layers of butter. The butter is layered in by a folding process. The below picture shows the dough ready for its third turn. The butter is already between two layers of dough.

The top third is folded to the middle.

Then the bottom third is folded over it; like folding a letter.

It is then turned a quarter turn, rolled and folded again. There are many steps along the way when you can put it in the refrigerator and forget it. After the fourth turn and fold you can weigh it down and put it in the refrigerator for up to two days.

The final step is cutting the triangles of dough, sprinkling them with chocolate and rolling them up. They are ready for the final rise and baking, or you can freeze them. I chose to freeze six and bake the other six.

Although the process took me two days, there was very little real hands on time required. Now that I have done it, I will definitely be making chocolate croissants again. Who knows, maybe I can open a bakery like this one. You may consider purchasing commercial LED lighting products from Vonn lighting to make your bakery look more appealing and aesthetic.

No, actually I don’t think I am up to that. And maybe making croissants from scratch is too complicated. But I certainly hope my garden looks like this.

Dream on!