Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

There is a food blogger that I admire very much. Tartelette, aka Helen, is a French expatriat living in Charleston, SC. She was a head pastry chef in a French restaurant and now makes her home here with her husband. She concentrates mostly on desserts. Her photography is professional, beautiful and dreamy. She recently posted a recipe for this apricot tart. I have had a rectangular tart pan in my baking drawer for a long time. I have been waiting for the right recipe to christen it. This was the one I was waiting for.

The recipe is deceptively simple. The crust that Helen used was a gluten free mixture, but she offers an easy flour based alternative. If you do not like to make your own crust, feel free to substitute a store bought crust. The filling is quickly whisked together. I added a small amount of almond and vanilla extracts. The apricots are merely sliced in half, pitted, and nestled into the almond filling. It is not an overly sweet dessert and is best served warm. The following recipe is my adaptation. You can go to Tartelette’s blog for her version. It is a truly satisfying dessert, made even more special by the memories it stirred of her Grandparents.

APRICOT AND ALMOND TART

For the Crust:
5 tablespoons softened butter
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup cold water

In a mixer, beat the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time until they are incorporated. Add the flour and salt and beat briefly to incorporate. Add enough water to make a pliable dough and mix gently in. Dump dough unto a lightly floured work surface and knead gently into a compact disc. Refrigerate at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove dough from refrigerator and roll it into a shape to fit your pan. Line the dough with parchment paper or foil and add rice or dried beans to weigh it down. Bake in oven for 10 minutes. Remove pie weights and foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Cool slightly if using immediately or you can store it in the refrigerator until you are ready to fill it.

For the filling:
1 stick butter, softened
1/3 cup honey (or 1/6 cup honey and 1/6 cup sugar)
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup ground almonds
2 eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream

8 to 10 apricots, halved and pitted

Add softened butter and honey to a large bowl. Whisk until honey is incorporated. Add the extracts, ground almonds and eggs and beat until batter is combined. Add the heavy cream and gently stir it into the batter. Pour the batter into the cooled tart pan. Nestle the halved apricots into the batter. Place the tart pan into a 350 degree F. oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle the tart with powdered sugar and/or honey. Serve warm.

Printable recipe

There are so many recipes for potato salad. The recipe I usually use is the one my Mother always made. It incorporates hard boiled eggs and pickle relish. She always used Miracle Whip as opposed to mayonnaise. You are either a mayonnaise or a salad dressing household. I always made my Son’s sandwiches with Miracle Whip until he ate a sandwich in a mayonnaise household. He came home and told me that Kathie made a much better sandwich than I did. He broke with tradition.

This potato salad recipe does not rely on Miracle Whip or jarred mayonnaise. Instead you make your own salad dressing in the food processor. The recipe appeared in a 1985 issure of Gourmet magazine. I love it for a change of pace and because it has lots of bacon in it. Because the egg is not cooked in this recipe be sure to use a pasturized egg to avoid the possiblity of salmonella.

I halved the recipe this time and it made enough for a small get together. I hope all of you are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

BACON AND POTATO SALAD

4 pounds baking potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut crosswise into 1/2 inch slices
3 cups sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 pound sliced lean bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large egg
5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon style mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil

In a kettle cover the potatoes with cold water, bring the water to a boil, and add salt to taste. Simmer the potatoes for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are just tender when pierced with a fork, and drain them. Transfer the potatoes to a serving bowl and add the celery, the scallions and the parsley. In a skillet cook the bacon over moderate heat, stirring, until it is crisp and transfer it with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Reserve 1/4 cup of the bacon fat and let it cool for 15 minutes. In a blender or food processor blend the egg, the lemon juice, the mustard, the salt, and the pepper for 5 seconds, with the motor running add the oil and the reserved bacon fat in a stream, and blend the mixture until it is emulsified. With the motor running add 1 1/2 tablespoons warm water. Pour the dressing over the potato mixture, add the bacon and toss the salad until it is combined. Sprinkle the salad with salt and pepper to taste and serve it at room temperature. The salad may be made up to 3 days in advance and kept covered and chilled. Serves 6.

Printable recipe

It is Barefoot Blogger Thursday once again and this is a special one for me because it was my turn to pick the recipe from one of Ina Garten’s wonderful cookbooks. It did not take me long to make my selection. With the Memorial Day holiday just around the corner, it seemed appropriate to pick a grilling recipe. Grilled herb shrimp is just perfect. It can be found in Barefoot Contessa Parties! If you are planning on cooking burgers or steaks on the grill, the shrimp would make a great appetizer to cook before the rest of the meat goes on the barbie. Just add fewer shrimp per skewer. But it also makes a great meal on it’s own. It is easy and quick. The shrimp have a citrusy flavor from the lemon juice and the mustard and herbs add alot of flavor. Served with the mango salsa it is even better. The salsa has a sweet undertone with just a hint of a kick from the jalapeno pepper. I can think of no better way to celebrate the beginning of summer. Check out what the other Barefoot Bloggers did with this recipe. This is one of Ina’s “What’s not to love about that.” recipes.

GRILLED HERB SHRIMP

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium yellow onion, small-diced
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/4 cup minced fresh basil
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup good olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
2 pounds jumbo shrimp (16 to 20 per pound), peeled (tails left on) and deveined

Mango Salsa (recipe follows)

Combine the garlic, onion, parsley, basil, mustards, salt, pepper, olive oil, and lemon juice. Add the shrimp and allow them to marinate for 1 hour at room temperature or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Prepare a charcoal grill with hot coals, brush the grilling rack with oil to prevent the shrimp from sticking. Skewer the shrimp. (I soaked the skewers in cold water for a few hours.) Ina used 5 to 6 shrimp on a 12-inch skewer for a dinner serving. Grill the shrimp for 1 1/2 minutes on each side. Serve with the Mango Salsa. This can also be done on a gas grill.

MANGO SALSA

2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 cups diced yellow onion (2 onions)
2 teaspoons peeled, minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 ripe mangos, peeled, seeded, and small-diced
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 teaspoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 teaspoons minced fresh jalapeno pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons minced fresh mint leaves

Saute the olive oil, onions, and ginger in a large saute pan over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the onions are transluscent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the mangos; reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 more minutes. Add the orange juice, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, and jalapenos; cook for 10 more minutes, or until the orange juice is reduced, stirring occasionally.

Remove from the heat and add the mint. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

Here is a brief garden update. My first tomato looks wonderful. I can hardly wait for the tomato bounty.

As fast as squash grows, I expect to be making a squash casserole by next week.

I love summer!

Printable recipe Grilled Herb Shrimp

Printable recipe Mango Salsa

One of the skills we are trying to master this summer is great pizza on the grill. Pizza dough is not hard to make. It is basically flour, yeast, water and oil. If you have a bread machine it is even easier. But I have not been happy with the standard recipe. The dough is too elastic and forming it into a large disc is like fighting a recalcitrant child. Even after you have fought it into shape, transferring it to the grill takes agility. I have been receiving the King Arthur Flour catalogs in the mail and was intrigued by their Perfect Pizza Flour Blend and Pizza Dough Flavor. I ordered them a few weeks ago and couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

The flour blend has an all natural dough conditioner in it that allows for better rollability. It was easy to roll out and move around. It slid easily off of the pizza paddle onto the grill. It also has a touch of baking powder in the mix that creates those great bubbles in the dough as it cooks. We popped the bubbles to create crevices. The dough was thin and crisp; just what we were trying to achieve. I especially loved the addition of the pizza dough flavor. The mixture of dried cheese, garlic and herbs gave the crust a great punch of flavor. I am not being paid by King Arthur Flour but if you are interested in ordering any of their products on line go here.

You can add any toppings you want to your pizza after it has cooked on one side. For a detailed description on how to grill a pizza go to one of my previous posts here.