Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

Sunday afternoons will usually find me in the kitchen trying new recipes and taking my time with my cooking.  This puts me in mind of the Slow Food Movement.  Part of their philosophy is to take your time and savor your food, know where it comes from, and keep it as authentic as possible.

This Sunday I made this beautiful Swiss chard tart from a recipe from Laura Calder, the host of French Food at Home on the new Cooking Channel. I love her show. I love her quiet and serene approach to everything she cooks. The episode in which she made the tart had to do with Grandmothers’ recipes; those tried and true recipes that are handed down through the generations on yellowed and dog-eared pages in old notebooks.
 

The tart was made in a springform pan instead of a pie pan so it had a very rustic appearance with high crusty sides and a deep filling.  It appealed to me on so many levels.  I loved the vibrant color of the rainbow chard stems and leaves, the custardy filling and the sprinkling of dried cranberries and almonds.

The one thing Laura Calder did not give on the program was a recipe for a pie crust, so I had to come up with that on my own.  I made an all butter pastry and increased the preportions by one half to fill the springform pan.  It would have been easier to mix the pastry in the food processor but I don’t always like the results.  I think the blade action heats the butter too much and the whole point to making good pastry is to keep the butter cold.  So I slowly worked my butter into my flour by cutting it in with a knife.  This was a satisfying task for a lazy Sunday afternoon.  According to the Slow Food Manifesto,  “A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life”.  I choose to slow down and enjoy what I am doing, especially when the end results are so satisfying.

SAVORY RAINBOW CHARD TART

For the Pastry:
1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
11 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup ice water  (a little more if needed)

Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.  Cut the butter into small cubes.  Add to the flour mixture and with a pastry blender or knife, cut the butter into the flour until it is in small crumbs.  Add the ice water and stir in with a fork until pastry comes together.  If dry, add a little more water.  Bring pastry together with your hands and form into a flattened disc.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Flour a work surface, and remove pastry from the plastic and roll it out into a 14″ circle.  Put pastry into a 9″ springform pan.  Return to refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour to firm up butter.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line pastry with parchment paper and fill the springform pan with dried beans.  Put springform pan on a sheet pan and blind bake the pastry for approximately 15 minutes. The butter in the pastry will leak from the springform pan a little so it is a good idea to have it on a sheet pan so as not to drip in your oven.  Carefully remove beans and parchment paper and continue to bake pastry shell for 10 more minutes or until lightly browned.  Set aside while you make the filling.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon oil
2 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
4 slices thick bacon, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 pounds Swiss Chard, preferably Rainbow Chard
3 eggs
1 cup creme fraiche or heavy cream and sour cream combined
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated
Handful of dried cranberries
Handful of toasted almonds or pine nuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Heat the oil in a saute pan and fry the shallots until soft and translucent.  Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.  Remove to a plate.  In the same pan, fry the bacon until the fat has rendered and the bacon is crisp.  Remove to the plate with the shallots.  Divide the chard leaves from the ribs; chop the ribs quite small and shred the leaves.  First, fry the ribs in the bacon fat until tender. (Cook’s Note:  You may want to cover the pan for a few minutes to speed up the process.)  Add the chard leaves to the pan, cover and wilt, about 3 minutes.

Beat the eggs together with the creme fraiche, and season with salt, and pepper.

In a large bowl, toss the shallots, bacon, chard stems and leaves, cheese, cranberries, and nuts, to combine evenly.  Fill the tart shell with the vegetable mixture with a slotted spoon so that any liquid will be left behind.  Pour over the cream mixture.  Bake tart on a sheet pan until the tart has set, about 30 minutes.

I am linking this post to the Two for Tuesdays blog hop.  You will find many blogs there with recipes and thoughts on cooking with authentic ingredients.

Once a month one of our local restaurants, Larkins on the Lake, hosts a wine tasting dinner.  We always attend.  The prices are reasonable ( $25.00 a person ), the sommelier is knowledgable, and the food is excellent.  If there is a wine that we are particularily fond of they are generous with the pours and we have never left feeling deprived of a good meal.  One of the food selections this month was Braised Beef in Polenta Cups with Plum Chipotle Sauce.  The chef has offered to share recipes with me, but I have been so busy that I have not asked him.  But I could not get this dish out of my mind.  I can just imagine it as an interesting appetizer at any get together.  It would also be adaptable to so many fillings.  If you were pressed for time you could get some barbecue from your local smokehouse or you could make it vegetarian with a black bean salsa.  The combinations are endless.  So I decided to experiment.

First I made polenta by following the directions on the package.  Once it was thick, I poured it on to a wax paper lined sheet pan with high sides.  I refrigerated it overnight.  Once it was cold, it was easy to cut out into 2 inch rounds.  Then using a 1/2 teaspoon measure or other spoon, you scoop out some of the center.  These will hold in the refrigerator until you are ready to warm and fill them.

Once heated you can fill them with anything that appeals to you.  Since I had a busy day yesterday shopping with my blogging buddy Penny of The Comforts of Home ( go to her website to see where we went),  I put a chuck roast in the crockpot with a little Barbecue sauce and beef broth and left it all day.  It was fork tender by the time I heated the polenta cups.

I shredded the beef and placed spoonfuls into the polenta cups and then topped them with a sauce that I made from plum jam, a little barbecue sauce and a bit of chipotle powder.

They were every bit as good as the polenta cups we had at the restaurant.  The recommended wine with this appetizer was a Southern Belle Shiraz, Australia, 2008.

BRAISED BEEF IN POLENTA CUPS WITH PLUM CHIPOTLE SAUCE

For the Polenta: (Adapted from the Food Channel)
8 cups chicken stock
2 cups polenta
3 tablespoons butter

Note:  I halved the recipe for just the two of us and used a smaller sheet pan.  I got about 24 2-inch polenta rounds.

Bring chicken stock to a simmer and whisk in polenta.  Cook according to package directions until polenta is thick.  Add butter.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with wax paper.  Pour polenta onto tray and spread evely to 1-inch thickness.  Cool to room temperature and place in refrigerator, covered until ready to use.  (At least two hours).

When polenta is chilled and firm, remove it from the refrigerator and cut it into 2-inch rounds with a biscuit or cookie cutter.  Scoop out the centers with a 1/2 inch measuring spoon or any small spoon, being careful not to make a hole in the bottom.  These can be prepared a day or two in advance.  When you are ready to fill them you can warm them in a 250 degree oven until they are hot.

For the Beef:
3 to 4 pound Chuck roast
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1 cup beef broth

Brown the beef on both sides in a little olive oil.  Place in crockpot and add the barbecue sauce and the beef broth.  Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.  Remove from crockpot and shred with two forks.

For the Plum Sauce:
1/2 to 3/4 cups plum jam or preserves
1 to 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
1/8 tsp. chipotle powder of chili powder

Heat the three ingredients together in a small saucepan until the jam is like a glaze.

Assemble:
Top the warmed polenta cups with the shredded beef.  Spoon the jam sauce on top and sprinkle with parsley.

I hope this has inspired you to get creative with this recipe.  I would love to hear some of your ideas.

Printable recipe

A few months ago I was lamenting the fact that I could not find a Chicken Casserole that I liked.  I have finally put the issue to rest with this delectable dish.  Think grown up macaroni and cheese; full of succulent chicken, nutty Gruyere cheese and Parmesan cheese with a crispy bread crumb and cheese topping.  One of the reasons that I have been looking for a good chicken casserole recipe is that it nice to have a dish that you can just pop in the oven when you are having company.  You can make a simple salad and the meal is complete.  We will be having a lot of family here over the Labor Day weekend so I have been experimenting with easy dishes.  What is great about this casserole is that it will appeal to both the grown ups and the kids alike.  And if you are in a pinch for time you can use rotisserie chicken and boxed chicken broth.

PASTA WITH CHICKEN AND GRUYERE

1 3 to 4 pound whole chicken
5 cups of water
1 celery stick, roughly chopped
1 carrot rought chopped
1 onion, quartered with 1 whole clove inserted in one section
2 smashed garlic cloves
2 sprig of thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauce and Pasta:
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
dash of cayenne pepper
1/2 lb Gruyere cheese, coarsely grated (3 cups), divided
2/3 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/2  pound penne pasta
3 cups dried bread crumbs

Butter a 9 X 13 casserole.  Place chicken in large stock pot.  Add water and vegetables and seasonings.  Bring put to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook Chicken until it is tender.  Remove chicken from stock and set aside to cool.  Strain stock through a fine mesh strainer.

Make cheese sauce:  Heat butter in a heavy pot over moderate heat until foam subside, then whisk in flour.  Cook for 1 minute while whisking.  Add 2 cups of the chicken stock (freeze the rest for future use) in a slow stream while whisking, then bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, whisking occasionally, until sauce is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in sour cream, milk, salt, pepper, cayenne, 1 cup Gruyere and 1/3 cup Parmesan.

Cook pasta in boiling salted water until not quite al dente, 8 to 10 minutes.  Drain.  Return pasta to pot, then add chicken and sauce, tossing to coat.  Turn mixture into buttered casserole.

Toss bread crumbs with remaining 1 cup Gruyere and 1/3 cup Parmesan, then sprinkle evenly over pasta mixture.  Bake casserole in a 400 degree oven until crumbs are browned and sauce is bubbling, 20 to 30 minutes.

Printable recipe

Each small accomplishment while renovating a house is a moment to be savored.  I have been making do with a makeshift workstation for the last two years.

My computer has been set up wherever I could find a spot and although it worked OK for me,  I now know what it is like to have my own space again.

Add to that the joy of seeing all of my cookbooks and I am in heaven.  Actually this is not all of my cookbooks.  We went to our storage building early in the morning to avoid the heat and rescued as many of them as we could find.  Unfortunately over the years all of our boxes have become jumbled and there was no way we could fight our way to the back to find them all.  But my shelves are full and when we finally do get them all, I am going to have to do some serious editing.

As you can see from the above picture, we have work yet to do on the house.  There is no trim around the doors and no baseboards, but isn’t my kitchen alcove great?  I have been enjoying getting up very early in the morning, making a pot of coffee and sitting here with just my small lamp lit and catching up on all of your blogs and writing my own.

We lost our power last night right before it was time to start dinner.  A storm had rolled through and typical of our area,that meant that a tree would fall and disrupt electricity.  It happens all summer long.  Fortunately I have a gas oven and we warmed the leftover flank steak and some corn tortillas.  I made some chunky guacamole, opened a jar of roasted red peppers and dolloped sour cream on top of our tacos. It was a good supper.  Now I want to delve into my Authentic Mexican cookbook by Rick Bayless.  It is inspiring to see it again.